Deuteronomy 10:12–12:32

to Wednesday night service here at Calvary Chapel. I hope everyone's having a great week so far. I know I am. I hope everyone's awesome. Why don't you just praise God with us?

And isn't it amazing? I've been reading in Ephesians about us being chosen and just the song. All the times I've been unfaithful, all the times I haven't followed God like I should, and God still continues to seek after me, to use me, to bless me. And I think he'd not think, I know he does that with everybody. And oftentimes those times that I walk away, he uses difficulties to bring us back. And out of that crushing comes something amazing, this

this new relationship with him. And it's something amazing that I'm God's been showing me lately. Lord, I thank you for this day. And I thank you for giving us so much more than we deserve, Lord. And I pray that I can empty myself so that we can fit more of you in, Lord. As Pastor Ryan comes forward, I ask that you bless the word as it goes out. I pray all this

in your heavenly name. Amen. Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy. We left off last week in verse 12, as we are working our way through the book of Deuteronomy and Moses, again, with what I consider to be a heartfelt sermon to the people, as he is reiterating to them what God expects of them as they come into the land. We've seen him rehearse

the law, those 10 commandments. We saw him rehearse the heart of the law, which is that they would love the Lord, their God, with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. We saw him talk about God's gracious, blessings to the nation of Israel and how he had cared for them as they were in the wilderness, cared for them by giving them water, by giving them food, by making sure that their clothes didn't wear out for 40 years. But then he also rehearsed a little bit for them how they had been rebellious towards God. He reminded them where they came from so that when they came into the

land, they wouldn't think it was because it was how great they were, how good they were, how holy they were, but that it was simply because he had chosen them, because he was a God of love, and he chose them to be his own special people, and that's why he was giving them the land. But as he reminded them where they had come from, he once again returns to a place where he'll return to multiple times as he talks to them about what God expects, and he comes back once again to the heart of the law. This is kind of where we wrapped up last week. So let's pick up in verse 12 for a little bit of context sake. Verse 12 of chapter 10. It said,

Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his way, and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them. He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples as it is this day.

Circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow. He shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in

the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cling to him. You shall swear by his name. He is your praise. He is your God who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons in all. Now the Lord, your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. And so as again, I'll

reiterate a little bit of what we covered at the very end of last week, as he begins to speak of this heart of the law, because that's really what this first little section that we cover is. Uh, he, first of all, talks to them about what the Lord requires and it's five things. He says to fear him. We talked about last week, what the mature fear of the Lord is. It's that reverence,

but more than anything, it's that desire not to hurt the heart of God. It's that desire that in the things that I do, I don't damage my relationship with him with the distinct understanding that the one reason why I was created to is to know God. And the one thing that will separate me from that reason for my creation, that purpose for my existence is sin. Therefore I act upon the mature fear of the Lord where now my fear is that I will damage the heart of the God who loves me so much. And then I will damage the

relationship that I have with him. He says, fear the Lord, your God. And then the second thing he says is to walk with him. That word walk simply means to order your path of life. According to the things of God, to live out your life, the way that God would want you to live out your life, to literally walk with him. Let this path of life be something that you can walk with him. And so

that you walk next to your savior. And then he goes on to say, and that you would serve him number three. And then number four, that you would love him. And I'm reminded of what we're told in the book of Colossians, that we were created by God and we were created for God, meaning that that's our purpose, our purpose in life, our purpose in creation was simply to serve and to love God.

And then of course, the last thing he tells them as far as what God requires of them is to keep his commandments. As a matter of fact, while this may seem like a very old Testament statement for God to make, we know that as we jump into the new Testament with both feet into the gospel of John, he says, if you love me, Jesus speaking to his disciples, you will keep my commandments and my commandments are not burdensome, right? That's what he tells his disciples. And we're reminded here by Moses as he tells them to keep the commandments in verse 13, he says, keep the Lord's commandments and his statutes, which I am commanding you today.

Or you're good. He says, keep these commandments, not just because God needs you to keep the commandments, because after all, God doesn't need anything from us. We keep the commandments because it's actually the best thing that we can do in our lives. It's the most good that we can do in our lives. And it's the most beneficial thing that we can do. This is what God requires

of them. But then after he talks about what God requires of them, he goes on to talk about responding to God. Did you take notice of what he said in verse 14? He said, behold, to the Lord, your God belong heaven and the highest heavens and the earth and all that is in it. That verse is such a powerful verse to me because as I was reading it, I was pondering the

fact that, uh, that ultimately man had sold slavery, sold the world into slavery to sin and to the devil. And yet the earth still belongs to the Lord because Satan is only ruling under the authority of God here on earth. In other words, he can only go so far, because ultimately the earth belongs to the Lord. And we know that Jesus purchased the earth back to himself when he died on the cross. And now we're just waiting for Jesus

to come back and complete the purchase by taking it for his very own. He says, the earth belongs to the Lord. And, and, and we see that powerful God. And he says, yet on your father's verse 15, did the Lord set his affection to love them? He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples as it is this day. In other words, the entire earth belongs to the Lord. And he says, yet on your father's verse 15,

the earth belongs to the Lord, but he chose you. He could have had anything that he wanted, but he chose you. And I love that truth because it's reiterated to us in the book of Ephesians as actually that Mason referenced, uh, uh, while he was up here leading worship, he says, God says that you were chosen in him before the foundations of the earth. God could have had anything in the world that he wanted, but he chose you. And so since he chose you,

this is how we now respond that the God who is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the God of all of the heavens and the earth decided to choose you. Therefore, in response to him, circumcise your heart, verse 16 and stiffen your neck no longer. What does he mean? Well, of course they had been given the right of circumcision back in the days of Abraham. And

while it was a physical act that the children of Israel performed, there was actually a spiritual component to it because the physical act simply pointed out something spiritual that was supposed to take place in their lives. It was the cutting away of the flesh, of the heart. It was a cutting away of the heart of the things that only care about the temporal things of this earth. In other words, cut away from yourself, all of those things that desire the things of the earth. And may I say this cutting away of the flesh is not just a once done

act. It's something we have to do every day to decide that all of the things of the earth that my heart would want to find itself drawn towards. I cut them off in the new Testament. We use language like this, uh, that we, that we would crucify our flesh, that we would deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus. But after he tells them to circumcise the flesh of their heart, did you notice the next

thing he said? He said, and stiffen your neck no longer. I was kind of pondering this word today or this phrase today, stiffen your neck no longer. And I thought, I wonder what that would look like in like real world terms. And you know what I started thinking about? You ever try to put clothes on a toddler that does not want clothes put on them, right? And it turns into this wrestling match and what they do with their body. They stiffen up their

body. They start arching their back or you try to change a baby's diaper when they're completely content to be naked. Right? And so you start changing them. They're flopping all over the place and they're stiff. And you're like, how can it be this hard? How can it, that child is much smaller than me. I should be able to clothe them with no problem whatsoever. And yet they have

stiffened their neck so much that I can't put this little t-shirt over their little head to clothe them. Well, you know what? That's what we do as believers in Jesus Christ sometimes, right? That's what the children do. That's what the children do. That's what the children do. That's what the children of Israel were so guilty of doing. As God was not trying to put clothes on a toddler,

but trying to teach them the statutes that they were to follow. They were being just like that toddler that did not want to submit his own way to his parents and going, no, I don't want to do that. And flopping all over the wilderness for 40 years. And so he says, listen, the creator of the heavens and the earth, he chose you. So cut out all the things that are fleshly, the things

that are going to keep you from knowing God. And stop stiffening your will against the Lord. Simply follow him. He goes on to remind them. He says, for the Lord, your God is the God of gods, the Lord and Lord, the Lord of Lords, the great mighty and awesome God who does not show partiality or take a, take a bribe. And he executes justice for everyone, including the aliens. So show your love for the alien, for your aliens in the land

of Egypt. And then he begins to remind them about being delivered from the land of Egypt. He says, you shall fear the Lord, your God, and serve him and cling to him and shall swear by his name. He's your praise. He's your God who has done these great and awesome things. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 people, and now they're numerous. And this will actually springboard into the next

chapter of him reiterating what God had done for them in the land of Egypt. As we continue to cover this idea of their response to God, notice what it says. You shall therefore love the Lord, your God for chapter 11, verse one, and always keep your love for the Lord, your God, and always keep your His charge, his statutes, his ordinances, his commandments. Know this day, I'm not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord, your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, his signs, his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt and to all his land. And what he did to Egypt's armies,

to its horses, its chariots, which he made the, which he made the water of the Red Sea to engulf them while they were pursuing you. And the Lord completely destroyed them. And what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place, what he did to Dathan and Abiram and the sons of Eliab and the sons of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and everything that followed them amongst all Israel, your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord, which he did. You therefore shall keep every commandment, which I am commanding you today so that you may be strong.

And go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess. He reminds them about everything that he had done for them, not only in delivering them from the land of Egypt, but even in the wilderness. And then after he reminds them of everything that he had done for them, he then goes back to reiterating, therefore you shall love the Lord, your God, keep his commandments, keep his decrees and all of the things which I'm commanding you today. It reminds me of a principle that we've brought up multiple times, as we've gone through the Old Testament, and that's that our obedience is not so that we will earn God's favor, but it's in response to everything that God has done for us. Our continual obedience

to the Lord is in response to just how much he has saved us from, to just how much work he has done in our lives. And I cannot tell you enough that one of the best things you can do is keep track of all of the wonderful things that God has done for us. And I cannot tell you enough that one of the best things you can do is keep track of all of the wonderful things that God has done for us. things that God has done in your life. To remind yourself of the times of brokenness that God has

healed you from. The times of sin that God has delivered you from. The death that you used to live in that you're no longer living in now because of what Jesus has done in your life. And the reason why we do that is because it allows us to continue to live in response. Living in response to what God has done, because here's what can happen to us. After a while, we start walking with the Lord

thinking, I have to earn God's love. I have to earn my position in him. And then I remember, but I can't. I couldn't earn where I am now. I can't keep where I am now. He was the one that did all of the work. All I have to do is respond to him. Trust me, this is a cycle I go through a lot in my life still, of reminding myself that I don't have to earn my position in God's family.

It's already been guaranteed to me. And so now I live in obedience based on the position I'm already in, in God's family. And that was what God desired of the nation of Israel, that they would live in obedience to what God had already done for them. Well, he goes on from there to talk about the blessings of obedience in the life of the people. As a matter of fact, that's what this

next section I titled, the blessings of obedience. It says, verse eight, you shall therefore keep every commandment, which I'm commanding you to do. I'm commanding you to do every commandment, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, so that you may prolong your days on the land, which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land into which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. But the land into which you

a land of hills and valleys drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning, even to the end of the year. It shall come about if you listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul, that he will give the rain for your land and its season, the early and the late rain that you may gather in your land and in your season. And I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God to serve him with all your heart and all your soul. That he will give the rain for your land and its

grain and your new wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for cattle and you will eat and be satisfied. He says, you're about to come into a land and this land isn't like anything that you've seen before. In Egypt, there was blessing there, but the blessing came about because of your work. There was success there, but the success came about because of your work.

Did you notice how he said it? You had to sow seed. You had to work the land. Did you hear how they had to water it? They had to water it with their foot. It's a really odd statement, right? You probably found yourself going, how'd they water it with their foot? Well, if you know anything about the land of Egypt, you know that there's only one place where things grow in the land of

Egypt and that's along the Nile river. Everything else is just abject desert. And so the Egyptians being the crafty people that they were determined ways that they could irrigate the land. And part of the way that they would do that is they had systems for doing so that they would actually use their feet to push down on a machine that would spread water further.

Into the land. That's how they would irrigate things. That's why he says, listen, you don't have to work anymore. And isn't it kind of interesting? What were we trying to do for our righteousness when we were living in the world, Egypt? What were we trying to do to try to earn righteousness while we were there? We were working so hard. Lord, I've got to work a

little bit harder because I feel bad about myself today. He says, listen, you're coming into a land where you don't have to work like that anymore. You don't have to try to strive to earn things anymore because I'm going to provide it for you. He said, this is this land. What you're coming into is a land that I keep my eye on and I'm going to water it. And I'm

going to make sure that as I water it, you'll have everything that you need. He said, but here's the deal. If you obey me and if you keep my commandments, if you continue to follow me with all of your heart, then I'll continue to do that very thing. I will give you rain for the land and its season, the early rains and the latter rains. My understanding is that the early rains came in the spring, uh, to help water in the season and the latter

rains came in the fall to soften up the earth for the ability to bring forth their, uh, their harvest. Those two times of year is when the rain would come. God said, I'll always provide for that for you. And you'll always have. And I appreciate this. It says, and he will give grass in your fields as a lawn man. That's a promise that speaks to my heart, right? Like that's always

going to be something green and beautiful out there. He said, I'll always provide the rain for you. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? When we go through prolonged periods of drought and you kind of start going, huh? I wonder, I wonder what that's about. I'm not saying it's necessarily God's judgment. I'm also not saying it's not. You do have to kind of ask yourself that question, right? Like why, why is that happening? But he said,

I'll always provide everything that you need as long as you continue to follow me and obey me. And listen, brothers and sisters, I'm not saying that when bad things happen in your life and as new Testament believers, it means that you're necessarily living in sin. Although the first thing you should do is to follow me and obey me. And I'm not saying that when bad things happen in your life and as new Testament believers, it means that you're necessarily living in sin. But

the good question about yourself is, Lord, is there an area of sin in my life that you're trying to reveal through this trial? Is there, is there an area of sin in my life that you're trying to show me because of the things that are going on? But once that heart search is done and you like Job can say, I can cleanly say there is no active sin in my life, then that just means that God is testing you, that God is teaching you and he is growing you. But even in the midst of that, it's amazing how in the midst of what would appear to be a trial, God can still bring blessing to you. And so I'm going to ask you, Lord, is there an area of sin in my life that you're

into your life if you continue to live that life of obedience to him? Because I've been young and now I'm getting older and I've never seen God's kids begging for bread. May not be the bread they want, but I've never seen God's kids begging for bread. Then he goes on to say, beware, verse 16, that your hearts are not deceived and that you do not turn away to serve other gods and worship them.

Or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you. He then, of course, goes on to give that warning. Again, we could be running out of ink by this point in time in our pens if every time he gave a warning against idolatry, we would underline that because of the sheer number of times just in the first few chapters of the book of Deuteronomy.

He's warned against idolatry, but I appreciate the way he worded it this time because did you notice a word that perhaps stuck out to you like it did to me? Beware that you are not deceived. Because what are we told that sin is? Sin is deceptive. What are we told that our flesh is? Our flesh is deceptive. Therefore, we know that Satan, who is the deceiver of the brethren,

all of those things seem to work together, don't they? The world, the flesh, and the devil. They're all very deceptive, meaning that we can have a tendency, even as believers in Jesus Christ, to be deceived if we aren't always keeping our eyes open to the idolatry that is around us. I won't belabor the point just yet because we'll get into it as we continue to go, but he says, beware that you're not deceived because if you're deceived and you fall into the idolatry of the land into which I bring you, then all those blessings that I've promised will actually turn into cursings in your life, will actually turn into areas in your life where you go, where have I gone wrong? And listen,

sometimes God does use difficult things in our lives to get our attention so that we will stop and ask that question, Lord, is there an active sin in my life? Is there an active sin in our land that we need to be confessing to you before we just go, trials don't mean anything? No, sometimes trials mean something. We should question, Lord, what are you trying to reveal to me in my life right now? Well, he goes on there from there to say,

do not be deceived. Verse 18, you shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land, which the Lord swore to your fathers.

Give them as long as the heavens remain above the earth. For if, well, we'll get into that blessing in just a minute. Isn't it interesting? He repeats himself again. I appreciate this about Moses because Moses repeats himself all the time. He just really keeps saying the exact same thing over and over again. Have you noticed that? He really does. I appreciate what he does here,

but he reminds us, he says, so if you don't want to be deceived, then you shall therefore, and I love the verbiage that he uses here, you shall impress these things upon your heart. I love that something. For instance, if you were to do a pressing into metal or into leather or any of those kinds of things, what has to be true of those two things? Well, number one, the thing you're pressing it into has to be soft. Number two, it takes time. That tells me if I'm to impress

God's word into my heart, my heart needs to be soft to the things of God. And if I'm to impress the things of God into my heart, then it's going to take time. I don't know how many times over the past few months, God has continued to impress upon me. Ryan, just stick around a little bit longer. Just meditate in a little bit longer because whatever you're busy doing is not

really as important as you taking time to impress the truth of the word into your heart. Every article I read says it. And every time I get ready to get it from my devotional time, it's almost back, you know? And maybe you're feeling that in your life too. And it's because the things of this world, the land that we're living in is so full of idolatry right now. It's so full of things that

God is opposed to right now that if his word is not impressed deeply into my heart, then it'll never take the effect that God wants for it to have. I was listening to Chuck Smith about this yesterday. It's great. He said, we, we have a man in our church who, uh, who builds a church called pacemakers. That's he, he helped develop basically a pacemaker that he was installing in

people, uh, to, to keep their heart moving like it was supposed to. So it's a little piece of machinery that gets actually installed in the heart. And he said, this guy's a believer. And you know what he does? He inscribes a little verse on every single pacemaker that he puts into the heart of people. John 3 16. He'd put that on there. He said, so whether I do it by

teaching them what God's word has to say, or whether I do it by actually putting it on their heart, I'm impressing God's word on their heart. And wouldn't that be amazing? If we could do that, if we could put just like a little thing, just like, right. Just put that little thing in there to where God's word is on my heart. But you see, it's not that easy. It takes time to impress God's word in our heart, which is why he says,

you should also be teaching these things to your kids, because I'm a firm believer that the best way that you can learn it for yourself is to try to teach it to somebody else. If you ever tried to teach somebody else, something that you know, and they're like, well, what about this? And you're going, huh? Hadn't thought about that. Okay. So this is how I do it. Right. And you have to teach them what you already know. And it makes

you think about it even more clearly. Do the same thing with the word of God, because as Albert Einstein once said, if you can't explain it to a five-year-old, you don't understand it yourself. Right? Like that's a really good principle for us to live by. Can I take the truth of the word of God and teach it to somebody who is at the absolute lowest level? Yesterday, I went and spoke to the

kindergarten class at Ark City Christian Academy to talk to them about what it means to be a pastor. And I don't always talk to kids that little. Especially not anymore that I don't have any of my own. And so I get ready to start talking and I'm like, okay, what words are they going to understand? Right? And so you realize that you start off like talking up here and then you move to talking down here. And pretty soon they're all

two-letter single-syllable words. Right? Because you're like, that's like, well, do you kids understand what I'm saying? And the kids are just so honest. They're like, uh-uh. Well, do you know what this is? Nope. No clue. The other night we're having a conversation and I'm like, I don't know what this is. I'm having devotions and I share a verse with my daughters and my wife is so adept at looking at

them and going, they didn't understand anything you said. And so she looked at my oldest daughter who, she's decently sharp usually. And she goes, did you understand what daddy just said? And she goes, I was like, okay, let's try this again. Talk about it to your kids. Talk about it to the younger generation. Because not only is it going to impress it on their little hearts, but it's

going to continue to impress it upon your own. He says, as a matter of fact, put it on the doorposts of your house. Put it everywhere that you can in your house. And then you know what else you should do? You should talk about it all the time. Just talk about it with your family. Talk about it with your kids. Your kids have so many questions. Your grandkids have so many questions. The young people around you have

so many questions. All of the why questions, all of the what questions, all of the where questions, all of the how on earth did you ever come up with that question? And some of them are a little bit ridiculous. Like did Adam and Eve have a belly button, right? I don't know, but talk about it. As I've shared with you before, same thing I shared with the little kids the other day. When we were talking about these things, I said, okay, you tell me

what you're learning in Bible class. And a couple of them raised their hands and told me what they were learning in Bible class. I said, do you know what's really neat? So in the Bible, it says every time that God writes it down in a little book. Of course, we had to discuss how big that book probably was by now, but they thought it was pretty neat that God wrote that down every time

that they talked about it. He says, spend time talking about it with your family. He goes on from there to say, for if, verse 22, you're careful to keep all this commandment, which I'm commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and hold fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all the nations from before you. He says, if you're careful to keep all this commandment, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, every place which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your border will be from the wilderness of Lebanon and from the

river, the river Euphrates, as far as the Western Sea. No man will be able to stand before you. The Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set your foot as he has spoken to you. He says, if you do that, if you will impress those things upon your heart, talk about them, write them on the doorposts, and then go on and obey them, he said, you will never have an issue when you come into the land. I will drive everyone out.

You will conquer everything that I have set out for you. You will take everything that I have laid out for you because I'm going to be the one that's fighting your battle. The blessing will be yours as you pour into your obedience to me. He goes on from there to basically tell them the choice is theirs, though. Look what he says. Verse 26, see, I am setting

before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today by following other gods which you have not known. It shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it. You shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

And are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? For you're about to cross the Jordan to go and to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it. And you shall be careful to do all the statutes and judgments which I am setting before you today. I love this because God says, but now the choice is yours. This is the knowledge

obedience. And unfortunately, there's consequences that go with disobedience. And so now you'll have to make a choice because I'm setting before you the choice of blessing and cursing. Blessing if you obey, cursing if you don't obey. And brothers and sisters, that same choice sits on us every single day. Every day I wake up and I have a choice. The choice that I have is what am I going

to do with my life today? I can't do anything about what I did yesterday. I can't do anything about what I'm going to do tomorrow, but I can have something to do about what I do tomorrow. I can have something to do with God's word today. Because every day I wake up and that same blessing and cursing sits before me. There is a blessing if I obey God, and there are consequences

if I disobey God. And every day, brothers and sisters, I think you should make a commitment. A commitment to the Lord that today I will obey God. Today I'm going to obey him with the things that I think about. I'm going to obey him with the things that I look at. I'm going to obey him with the words that come out of my mouth. I'm going to obey him with the things that

my hands do, the places where my feet go, and all of the thoughts that I entertain on a daily basis. I'm going to obey God today and make that commitment today and trust that the Holy Spirit is indwelling me, giving me everything that I need to obey. But if I should fail in my commitment, then I will fall on the same grace that first brought me to Jesus. Because there is a blessing, and a cursing that sits before me. There's a choice that sits before me every day. And he says,

when you go into the land, here's what I want you to do. There's two mountains, Mount Gerizim, Mount Ebal. You're going to sit opposite of each other, and one of them is going to be the Mount of Blessing. The other is going to be the Mount of Cursing. And one's going to call out the blessings, and one's going to call out the cursing, so that you can see that there's a

distinct choice. There's no middle ground. There's only those two choices. I love that this is the imagery that he gives us. And as a matter of fact, at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, he'll tell us what they're to call out from these two mountains. And then in the book of Joshua, you see that they fulfill this, and they go on those two mountains, and they call these things

out. But God makes sure, or Moses makes sure, that this choice is incredibly distinct. Because too many of us think that there's a gray valley somewhere, where we're like, yeah, but that's not really blessing or cursing. That's just sort of a gray area. And God's like, but it's not. Because there's really distinct choices that we make in life. And they're very clear,

and God makes them very clear, based on what his word has to say, and based on the things that are opposed to what his word has to say. He says, that's the choice that sits before you today. So be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you. As we move into chapter 12, he begins to give us instructions on worship. Starts off just like

every other chapter seems to have started off. These are the statutes and the judgments, which you shall carefully observe in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, as long as you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods. On the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars,

smash their sacred pillars, burn their asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods, and obliterate their name from that place. You shall not act like this towards the Lord your God. Really the first about half, maybe a little more than half of this chapter is what I would refer to as principles for worship. And so there's four principles for worship that I want to pull out of here that I think that we should pay attention to. The first principle for worship, if we are to be the worshipers that God calls us

is exactly what these guys needed to know if they were to be the worshipers that God wanted for them to be when they came into the land. Number one, you have to destroy the idolatry. It continues to come up, right? Like we can't help it. We can't help that Moses has to continue to tell them over and over again, destroy the idols of the land. You know what the unfortunate truth about the nation

of Israel is? They didn't do it. It's a sad verse that we'll get to further on into our study in the next chapter. It says, if you want to truly be a worshiper of the Lord, the first thing that you have to do is destroy everything that will keep you from being a worshiper of the Lord. And I think that we should take this really seriously as believers in Jesus Christ, because too many of

us, sometimes myself included, I don't want to act like I'm some holier than thou guy who never struggles with things because I do. I live a very real life where I face real issues and real temptations. And sometimes the temptation is to live a syncretic sort of life. In other words, to try to do both at the same time. I want to worship God, but I also want to do what I want to do. And God says, that's a problem.

Because if you're going to worship me, the first thing that you have to do is tear down the idols. You have to get rid of the idolatry, all of the things that are the very opposite of me. Do you know what the hardest thing about tearing down idolatry is? We like it. That's why he has to say it so many times. That's why it was such a struggle for them, because our flesh,

craves it. Therefore, we have to be told over and over again, tear down the idolatry. Because until I tear down the things that are keeping me from God, I can never really focus on God. And so much of our culture today is so idolatrous in nature, sometimes even in our worship in churches, that God says, but first tear all that down. Tear down the graven images. Tear down the

imagery. Tear down the places. Tear down the strongholds. Jesus used very similar language in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's almost the exact same verbiage, right? Tear it down. I think one of the best things that we can do, especially right now in the culture we're living in right now, where idolatry is so prevalent, is we need to pray and say, Lord, show me the idols in my life.

Again, this won't happen in a brief 30-second prayer right before you go to work. This is something that's going to take a little bit of meditation. This is going to take a little bit of meditation. This is going to take a little bit of meditation. It's going to take a little bit of time in the Word and a little bit of examination of our hearts. Because when God begins to reveal the idols, you know what the first thing we'll say

is? Not that one, right? Because that's our nature. Oh, but Lord, that one's going to be hard. Gosh, I've kind of grown accustomed to that one. I've given it a name. That's Earl. He lives in the corner and I like him, right? That's kind of how we feel about these things. And God says, no, but that's the one I want. Because that's the thing that's occupying a portion of your heart that's

keeping you from worshiping me. And then we'll have to make the hard decision. But in the process of us making the hard decision, brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is always there to empower us. So number one, we have to destroy idolatry. He goes on from there to say, verse five, but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes

to establish his name there for his dwelling. And there you shall come. Second principle for worship, we have to worship according to God's will. Did you notice that they could only worship in the place where God told them that they were supposed to worship? In the old Testament, that meant that they had to come to, first of all, the tabernacle. And then once the temple was established, they had to come to the temple.

They weren't supposed to offer their sacrifices just willy nilly wherever they wanted to. They couldn't just go out in their backyard and offer sacrifices there. As a matter of fact, throughout the books of the Kings, you may have noticed, that sometimes a good King would come along and they would say they tore down all of the idols and they did so good and they followed the Lord. But then there's an except.

Have you ever noticed that? If you've read through the books of the Kings and Chronicles, except for one thing, they didn't tear down the high places. But I don't understand. It says they tore down all of the places of idols. Yeah, they did all of that, but people still worshiped where they wanted to. People were still worshiping the way they saw fit instead of worshiping the way

that God saw fit. Now for us today, we don't have to go to one particular central location. We don't have to go to one city that God has set aside to worship. But listen, we do have to worship according to his will. That means we do have to follow the biblical principles that are laid out in the New Testament for worshiping. Worship has to be decent and in order. Worship

has to have the proper focus. Worship can't draw attention to me. It has to always be about the Lord. We have to worship according to God's will and the way that he has called for us to worship. Then we come to the third thing. Notice what he says next. He says, then you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices. This is verse six of chapter 12, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your free will offerings,

the firstborn of your herd and your flock. They're also you and your household. You shall eat before the Lord, your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings, which the Lord, your God has blessed you. The third principle that I've taken note of for worship is that worship is sacrifice. I think I've always kind of worded that wrong. In the past, anytime I've taught on this, I've always said worship involves sacrifice. But the more that

I study scripture, the more that I realize worship doesn't just involve sacrifice. Worship is sacrifice. If you've been listening to bot radio at all, listen to David Jeremiah. He's been doing a thing on worship this week. It's been, or maybe it's last week. It's been really good. And one of the things he pointed out that I thought was really interesting. He says, do you know, in all of my

study of God's word about worship, never once has it been what the worshiper got out of it. Never once has anything in God's word said that the worshiper received something out of it. It's all about what the worshiper brings to God because worship is a sacrifice. And yet, what do we all say in our culture right now? Well, I just don't get very much out of that.

I didn't like those songs because I didn't get very much out of that. I didn't like that study because I didn't get very much out of that. I don't like that book because I don't get very much out of that. I don't go and serve in that way because I don't really get very much out of that. It's almost like that's not really what it's about. It's actually what we bring to God.

It's the sacrifice that we make to God. And sometimes the sacrifice, is that I pour out my heart even when I don't feel like it. I pour out my heart even when I don't like the song. I pour out my heart even when I don't appreciate the style. I pour out my heart even when the Bible teacher's a little bit boring. My bad. I pour out my heart in worship because, believe it or not,

studying God's Word is still worship. Praise is the part where we sing. It's a part of worship. Well, I don't give because I just don't really feel good when I give. Nope, that's part of worship. But it's a sacrifice that I make to the Lord. And in our culture, we've made it so much about me. We've made it so much about what I like and what I want and whether or not it fits my idea

that we've forgotten what worship was always intended to be, a sacrifice unto the Lord. And when we make that sacrifice unto the Lord, you know what it always tells us in Scripture? That it's that sweet-smelling aroma unto Him. Well, we come to the fourth principle about worship. And I actually read through that verse because it was a part of the last one that I read, verse 6.

It says, Then you shall bring your offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hands, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, the firstborn of your herd and your flock. There also you and your household shall eat before the Lord your God and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you. There should be a spirit of joy and rejoicing in every part of our worship. Rejoice in the Lord always, as it says in the New Testament.

Again, I'll tell you, rejoice. Ryan, you don't know the week I had. I can't really rejoice. Well, that's your decision. Because the Bible says rejoice in the Lord always. That is a word I looked up in the Greek. I'm not joking about that. It's true. You know what the word always means? You're going to be... Mind blown. Same thing that all means. It means always.

In all things. You don't necessarily rejoice for all things. Because there are things that happen to me sometimes and I don't rejoice for what happened. I rejoice in all things. Because in all things that have taken place, nothing about God changed. And I always know that he's working it out for my good. And I always know that he's with me. Because of that.

No matter what's going on, I can rejoice in the Lord. I think sometimes, too many times as Christians, we're too sad. Too many bad things going on in my life. Yep, always going to be bad things going on in my life. Brothers and sisters, it ain't getting any easier. Old Vlad said he's going to nuke us all, right? This morning. Old Vlad's like, I nuke you all.

No nachos. Right? Like, that's what's going to happen. And you go, life is so hard and so sad. Yeah, it is. It is. All who live righteous and godly in this world will suffer persecution. We should just get used to it. And then just rejoice in the Lord. Because even in the midst of all of those things, nothing about God has changed. We still rejoice in who he is.

Because remember, who's worship all about? It's not about me. Who's it about? It's about God. It's about who he is. Right? So he lays out these principles for worship. He goes on from there and says, Verse 8. You shall not do at all what we're doing here today. Every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. For you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.

When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit. He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security. It shall come about at the place in which the Lord your God will choose for his name to dwell. There you shall bring all that I command you. Your burdens. Your burnt offerings. Your sacrifices.

Your tithes. The contribution of your hand. And all your choice votive offerings which you shall vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. You and your sons and your daughters. Your male and your female servants. The Levite who's within your gate. Since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Be careful that you do not offer burnt offerings in every cultic place you see.

But in the place which the Lord your God chooses. In one of your tribes. There you shall offer your burnt offerings. And there you shall do all that I command you. Again he just reiterates all those principles once again because we need to hear it twice. We do it nice because we hear it twice. However, verse 15. You may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates.

Whatever you desire according to the blessing of the Lord your God. Which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it. As of the gazelle and the deer. Only you shall not eat the blood. You're to pour it out on the ground like water. You're not allowed. You're not allowed to eat within your gates. The tithe of your grain or your new wine or oil.

Firstborn of your herd or your flock. Or any votive offering which you shall vow. Or your free will offerings. Or the contribution of your hand. But you shall eat them before the Lord your God. In the place which the Lord your God will choose. You and your son and your daughter. Your male and your female servant. And the Levite who's within your gates. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all your undertakings.

Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite. As long as you do not forsake the Levite. As long as you live in your land. So the next thing he tells them is, hey, you can have a barbecue anytime you want to. Right? I love this because God's a big fan of barbecues. He's like, you can eat meat anytime you want to. Wherever you want to. As long as it's not an offering.

Because as they were in the wilderness, they had to preserve the livestock that they had. So the only time that they were to barbecue an animal in the wilderness was when they brought it to the tabernacle. He goes, but hey, once you go into the land, fire up the charbroil. Anytime you want to. As long as it's not an offering. As long as it's not an offering.

As long as it's not an offering. As long as it's not an offering. As long as it's not an offering. Make sure you do those only in the place where you're supposed to. Other than that, fire it up. Have a steak. So he goes on from there to say, when the Lord your God, verse 20, extends your border as he has promised you, and you say, I will eat meat. Because you desire to eat meat.

That's a good idea. Then you may eat meat, whatever you desire. At the place which the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you. You may slaughter of your herd and flock, which the Lord has given you as I have commanded you. And you may eat within your gates, whatever you desire, just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten. So you will eat. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it.

Only be sure not to eat of the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the ground. He goes on there to talk a little bit more about that. Verse 26, Only your holy things which you may have, and your votive offerings you shall take, and go to the place which the Lord your God,

God chooses and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the flesh. He of course reminds them over and over again through this, the importance of not eating the blood, not only because the blood had toxins in it, but it represented life. And of course it ultimately represents the life that we would receive through Christ.

Now as he wraps up this chapter on worship, he says he gives them once again, a reminder about obedience. He says, be careful. Verse 28 to listen to all these words, which I command you so that it may be well with you and your sons after you forever for you will be doing what is good and right in the side of the Lord your God. When the Lord your God cuts off before you, the nations which are going in to dispossess and you dispossess them and dwell in their land.

Beware that you're not ensnared to follow them after they're destroyed before you. And that you do not inquire after their God saying, how do these nations serve their gods that I may do likewise? You shall not behave thus toward the Lord, your God for every abominable act, which the Lord hates they have done for their gods for they even burn their sons and their daughters fire to their gods. He says, whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do.

You shall not add to nor take away from it. He once again reminds them, Hey, beware of being ensnared. Beware of being ensnared by the things that are going on around you. Don't start thinking to yourself, Hey, I wonder how they do it so that maybe I can partake in the exact same thing. There can be a danger in us learning more about the things of the world.

There was a philosophy that went around in ministry at one point in time, especially youth ministry. You should learn all of the things that your kids are exposed to all the time. You should learn as much as you can about the music and the movies that they're watching all the time. So that you're aware. And you know what they started finding among youth leaders?

They started falling. Why? Because they were exposing themselves to all of the things of the world. They were exposing themselves to the idolatry of the land that is around them. Listen, if the world's putting it out, I can rest assured of one thing. It ain't good, right? I don't need to go explore it to figure that out. I don't need to go, gosh, I wonder how not good it is.

It's not good. Okay. Just know as bad as you think it is, it's worse. You don't need to go explore it for yourself, right? It's not good. It's not good. It's not good. It's not good. It's not good. That's the world that we live in. He says, don't do that. Why? Because you'll become ensnared by it. That's why we're told in the New Testament, listen, if you see a brother sinning a sin,

you who are spiritual, go and restore such a one, but watch out for yourself that you don't fall into the same thing. Why? Because we get ensnared so easily, right? We can fall down so easily. He says, beware of those kinds of things and then obey. And I love, and we'll close up with, verse 32 here. He says, whatever I command you, be careful to do. You shall not add to it,

nor take away from it. Brothers and sisters, I can't think of a better way to end this little section by saying this. Be careful to obey. Don't add to it. We as Christians are so good at adding to what God's word has to say and say, you know what? If that's good, I'll show you what's even better. We create legalistic things that we can't keep, and neither can anybody else,

and you know who else was really good at that? The nation of Israel was really good at that. He says, don't add to it. Don't make it harder than it has to be. Don't make following the Lord harder than it has to be. Just love him. Then he also says, but don't take away from it. Me and my friends in college, when we'd come across a verse that we didn't like, we would jokingly say,

let's use our black highlighter on that one. Because I don't like what that one says. Because I don't like what that one says. Because usually it was something, it was like a struggle in our lives. Like, oh, let's use the black highlighter on that one, because I don't really like what that one says. It sounds funny when it's a joke. It's a whole other thing when we live according to it.

Because too many of us take the black highlighter to the word of God in our lives and go, eh, I don't think he really meant that. He didn't know anything about our culture today. And so I don't think he meant that. That's not for 2022. That was for, you know, way back in the day. It's not like our culture today. Nope. He says, don't add to it. Don't take away from it.

Just simply follow it. Amen. Lord, we come before you. And I thank you for your word. It's always so good to our hearts. It's always so good to our souls. And Lord, I just ask that you would use it to imprint it upon our hearts. Father, as I know that you have been calling me, I pray that you would continue to call each one of us, Lord, to just hang out a little bit longer in your word.

To just spend a little bit more time with you. To come away. Come away from the things of the world. Come away from the busyness. To come away from the distractions. To come away from the idolatry. To come away from the things that will keep us from knowing you. And linger just a little bit longer on those truths of your word. To think on them just a little bit longer.

To meditate on them just a little bit longer. To marinate in them. A little bit longer, Lord. So that the things of your word become so a part of us that they're not only imprinted upon us, but that we smell just like them. And they come out of every aspect of who we are. Lord, we thank you. And we praise you. And we pray for that strength in our lives. And Lord, we do lift up our nation.

Lord, that has so turned against you. Lord, that has so turned against the principles of your word. And we ask, God, that you would bring revival. Lord, I lift up our world that is in such turmoil and chaos right now. And we pray for revival. We lift up the believers that are living in Russia. Lord, that are now facing difficulties that we can't imagine. Lord, the believers living in Ukraine that are facing difficulties that we can't even imagine.

And Lord, we pray for your strength in their lives. Lord, help us not to forget. But Lord, that we would pray as if we are imprisoned with them. Lord, we just thank you. We thank you for who you are. And thank you that we have that gift. And so, Lord, do your work in our hearts and in our world. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.