The Book of Deuteronomy (Part 2)

0:23 I mean, to read it over and over again, because the only other choice you have is to just believe what people tell you or believe what you think. and and i can promise you god is not who people say that he is and god is not who you think he is this is why we read the bible to see okay who does he say that he is and to realize gosh a lot of my thinking is off man i i've spent some time this week just it's just repenting telling god you know what, I am sorry because there are certain things I have not said to people. I've been teaching the Bible for over 30 years and there's certain things I haven't taught. And I realize some of it is a fear of rejection because God is so different. The way he describes himself is so different from what the world teaches that there are times when I think to myself, Well, I can't say that. They're not ready to hear that. The world is so off from this.

1:36 So I'll just move them over a little bit. And by doing that, I'm really painting an inaccurate picture of him. And it's out of a fear of being rejected or labeled or losing numbers or sometimes even for fear of physical attack. and so if you are a person who just listens to someone's teaching if you just listen to my teaching I promise you my teaching is tainted I bring all of my faults and insecurities into my teaching I try not to that's not what I want to but even as I read the scripture this week I'm going man I've been off and you also can't go on just believing whatever you think because you're thinking and your heart is so shaped by this culture. You have to understand we are living in a time when people value their own thoughts and feelings so much.

2:43 We live in a time that we don't dare invalidate what someone feels in their heart or has been thinking about. And yet that's not what we see in Scripture. In fact, this week, reading the end of Deuteronomy 29, he says in verse 28 or verse 18, Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who when he hears the words of the sworn covenant blesses himself in his heart saying, I shall be safe though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man and the curses written in this book will settle upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven and the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity.

3:46 in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. God says, hey, be careful because there will be people who will rise among you and despite what the word of God says, they're going to bless themselves in their heart and go, you know what, I'm going to be safe. I'll be okay. Gosh, I remember these exact words coming from people's mouths. You know, when I say, hey, no, what you're doing is absolutely against the word of God. You can't leave your husband for that guy. And I remember a woman looking at me and just saying, I'll be okay. Don't worry about my friends. I'll be okay. I know this. I know it. I'm sure. And I just didn't say anything. It's almost like she talked me into it. Like, wow, maybe she's right.

4:39 Maybe I'm off. No. the bible says when when someone knows the word of god and says look i'm going against it this time but it's gonna be okay it's like you can't let that happen but that's the way we think there's this kind of there's no term for it but it's like a heart theology that gosh i've got to just look within and what's really in me what do i feel what do i think what if i i've got to be true to myself and that goes against everything the Bible says. It says, no, you've got to be true to his word. And he goes, and if there's any hint of this type of thing going on, he's like, back away from those types of people. But this is in all of us. We care about what we think, what we feel way too much. And so when I'm reading through the end of Deuteronomy, the stuff that we're reading this week, I'm going, man, you have to read this because people aren't going to preach it.

5:47 Who's going to teach Deuteronomy 28? Unless you read it for yourself, you're never going to hear it. Let me just read some of it, you know, unless you're on this podcast. But Deuteronomy 28, just listen to this. How often have you heard this taught? Revelation 28, 53. Let me just read for a while.

6:37 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears because lacking everything, she will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God. Then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting and sicknesses grievous and lasting.

7:44 And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid and they shall cling to you, every sickness also, and every affliction that is not recorded in this book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed. Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you, and you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. And there you shall serve gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations, you shall find no respite.

8:43 And there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot. But the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of life. When's the last time you heard that taut? God's judgment, God's punishment for disobedience.

9:18 Don't you understand we live in a time where people are saying, well, God's not going to judge. How could a loving God judge? That's people saying that. Read what the Word of God says. I was thinking, God, could you have said anything more extreme I try to think of something more extreme than God saying oh you could find the most delicate woman you know who who doesn't even want to put her foot on the ground she doesn't want to smash the dirt like delicate and she's going to just turn in this animal where she's eating the flesh of her own kids and not sharing that she's eating your own afterbirth like God was making this as gross as possible saying you don't disobey me you don't walk away from my commands and then he goes and you know all the diseases you see written in this book it's all going to be put on you and then he goes and even the ones that aren't in this book yet i'm gonna put those i mean these are words about the wrath of god where god is saying look this is this is who i am and you see even Moses at the end of his life look you know you think okay at the end of his life there's the song of Moses the song of Moses what do you think the song of Moses see when we think songs they're beautiful they're always oh God you're beautiful I just want to see you I want to touch you.

10:58 Your grace. Okay. Please, please understand. I am not mocking. I'm not belittling that. That is what I love to sing. I just want to say that that's not all that we're supposed to sing. And yet, I'm reading the song of Moses. And I'm going, I can't picture ever singing this. where chapter 32 verse 5 they have dealt corruptly with him they are no longer his children because they are blemished they're a crooked and twisted generation i mean remember i'll get into more of it but but he tells him in chapter 30 31 verse 19 write this song teach it to the people of israel put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the people of israel and in verse 21 and when many evils and troubles have come upon them this this song shall confront them as a witness for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring you see there's something about songs right i you know every once in a while i'll turn on the radio and and listen to an oldie station and and i'll listen to these songs from the 70s the 80s and I'll know like every word. It's embarrassing, but there's just something about music that brings you back that gives you this memory. And so God says, hey, teach this song. Get this song in their heads because I don't want the kids to forget because we memorize stuff and forget it. We've all gone to school, taken tests, memorized it, and you have no clue what you just studied. But with songs, it's different. You sing it, you remember it, you sing it over and over, and pretty soon you will never, like literally never forget it, because it's in there. And that's what God says, I want this song to be one of those songs. You know, where he's, there's beautiful things. Verse 4,

13:06 the rock, his work is perfect, all his ways are justice, the God of faithfulness, So that iniquity just and upright is he. So there's these, and two verses later, Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your Father who created you, who made you and established you? Remember the days of old. And so he talks about, hey, don't repay him for disobedience. And verse 21, They've made me jealous with what is no God. They've provoked me to anger with their idols. so I will make them jealous with those who are no people. I provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, for fire is kindled in my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol. It devours the earth in its increase. It sets on fire the foundations of the mountain. I will heap disasters upon them.

14:00 I will spend my arrows on them. They will be wasted with hunger, devoured by plague, poison is bad. Like, on and on. I just thought, is there even one song? One Christian song? One? I'm not saying we even have to go half and half. I'm just saying, one.

14:25 Is there anyone willing to write a song like this? About the judgment of God? is there just one sermon on on on god's wrath and yet you look like even when he was taking them into the land remember what he said in uh deuteronomy um 27 and 28 what he does is he says here's what i want to do i want i want like half of you on mount ebal and half of you on mount Gerizim. And from Mount Ebal, I want the people, you read about it in chapter 27, I want you guys on Mount Ebal to just start quoting all the curses. And then in Mount Gerizim, I want you guys to shout all the blessings. Are you picturing that? Let's split the people in half. You go on that mountain, you go on that mountain, you read the curses, you read the blessings. And so everyone on Mount Ebal is just going cursed. You know, cursed be the man, you know, chapter 27, verse 15, who makes a carved metal image. Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father. Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbors. Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man. Cursed be the one who perverts justice. Cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed through the whole chapter.

15:49 He goes, okay, now, you guys, on Mount Gerizim, now you start saying the blessings. Like, if you look in Scripture, there's a preaching on God's blessing and there's a declaration of God's curses as well. And this is not just Old Testament. What does Jesus do when he starts teaching the Beatitudes? In Luke 6, now Jesus is teaching and what does he do? The exact same thing. In Luke 6, 20 verses 20 to 23, he says, blessed are the, blessed are the, blessed are the. But then in verses 24 to 26, but woe to you, woe to you, if woe to the... We are so off that this is bizarre to us. That there'd be so much that God says about, I didn't even get into earlier when he says, hey, destroys people.

16:52 I don't even want any pity on them. take no pity on them, take no pity on them over and over and over again this is God your eyes shall not pity them your eyes shall not pity them just destroy this is God see these are words we're so unfamiliar with I'm not even saying give equal time although I look in scripture and I believe if anything it seems like he speaks more to the cursing and yet we don't talk about it.

17:26 And you get to the book of Revelation, you get to the end. Look, this is not Old Testament versus new. This is Jesus. This is about the book of Revelation. Is there more cursing or blessing in Revelation? I mean, it is intense. That's why I'm saying, please keep reading. Read for yourself. and I know it's going to be so far off from some of the things that you have been taught and especially from the things that are being said on this earth and even against what you feel in your heart. But this is why we read because we want to know who God really is and we want to worship him for all that he is. For his mercy and for his...