I know what you're thinking about starting the book of Deuteronomy. Apprehensive. All those laws, laws about food and laws about firstborn and laws about feasts, laws about hygiene and warfare and property. And does this even apply to us today under the new covenant? How does that all work? Well, I think we're going to find high theology and practical teaching, and we're going to find rich typology in the book of Deuteronomy that points to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And did you know that many scholars believe that in respect to His humanity, the book of Deuteronomy was probably Christ's favorite book? He quoted from it so very often, I think in our own book, in the book of Luke, how he was 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness without food, without water, battling Satan himself with the Word of God. And what book did he quote, do you think? He quoted three times the book of Deuteronomy. Other biblical writers consider Deuteronomy to be very important as well. One scholar named Gordon Fee says this, quotes, Deuteronomy has perhaps had more influence on the rest of the biblical story, both Old and New Testaments, than any other book of the Bible, end quotes. The scholar Wright says, quotes, the book of Deuteronomy lies close to the very heartbeat of the scriptures. As to the Old Testament, something like the book of Romans is to the New Testament, end quotes. Deuteronomy is quoted, we could play, we could do a quiz show and take a guess. Deuteronomy is quoted 80 times. in the New Testament writings. Now, the book of Deuteronomy, just to get our bearings, is the last of the Pentateuch, the last book of the first five books of the Old Testament, completing what is called the five books of Moses. And the title, Deuteronomy, means literally the second law. the second law. And that title became very popular in the English world because it was from a Greek translation of Deuteronomy 17 and verse 18. And that title became popular about AD 405 when the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible came out. And that title is not inspired. And I think it's an okay title, but I think it's a little bit confusing because this book, the book of Deuteronomy, is not a second law. It's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers all brought together and reiterated and reapplied and preached to a people on the edge of the promised land about to take possession. So, there's another title of this book, the book Deuteronomy, the Hebrew title that is taken from the very first words in Hebrew in this book, Hadebarim, the words. And that's the Jewish title, that's the Hebrew title, and that title gets us to the very heartbeat of the message of the book of Deuteronomy. As does another title coined in church history about the book of Deuteronomy, and that is this, the book of remembrance. So take your Bibles, if you haven't already, and turn to the book of Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Find Deuteronomy and go to that first verse. And today our goal will be to exposit, to explain the first five verses of this book, which is really a prologue for the book of Deuteronomy, and in so doing provide an overview of the book of Deuteronomy. That's our goal today. So, let's read our passage this morning. Verse 1, here we go, follow along as I read. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them. After he had defeated Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashteroth and Edri. Across the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying, and then he begins, the Lord our God spoke. He has spoken. So, take a look at your bulletin insert, please. Pull it out, share with your neighbor. I've printed out the first five verses, and notice that I have some words bolded in those first five verses. The very first verse in the Hebrew Bible, the very first two words are emphatic, these words. And then in verse five, Moses speaks and he wants to expound these words, this law. And then verse one, verse five, and then you guessed it, right in the middle, Right in the middle, in verse 3, the text says, had commanded. At the beginning, at the end, at the middle, Moses speaks the very Word of God. And this structure is intentional, and this structure helps us to capture the point of the first five verses, and I would argue the point, the very heart of the point of the whole book of Deuteronomy. You see, in Deuteronomy, The focus of the ministry of Moses was preaching the Word of God. Let me say that again. In the book of Deuteronomy, the focus of the ministry of Moses is preaching the Word of God. And so this morning, what we're going to do is we are going to answer five questions. regarding the preaching emphasis in the book of Deuteronomy that we unpack from verses 1 through 5, and so give an overview of the book. So, number one, who was the preacher in this book? Answer? It's not hard. Moses. Moses was the preacher of these sermons to the people of Israel on the edge of the land of promise. Really, there are three sermons, I would argue, in the book of Deuteronomy. Really, most of the book is Moses preaching, and there are three sermons, and there's a few editorial comments in between, and really the only full editorial comment is the last chapter when the baton is handed off to Joshua as they try to go into the promised land. So, it's three sermons, and the preacher is Moses. In fact, there's only a direct quote from God where the divine voice speaks only five times in the book of Deuteronomy. And so we have here then the preacher Moses, the prophet Moses, the divine spokesman for God. Now, take your Bible and turn one page back to the book of Numbers. Look at verse 13. And I want you to know that the books of the Bible are stitched together, that it's one story. And so if you look at verse 13 at the end of Numbers, look at what it says. These are the commandments and ordinances which the Lord commanded to the sons of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho." These words, this book, this is God speaking to His people through Moses the preacher, through Moses the prophet who then recorded those things and it became Right? The very Word of God, the inerrant God-breed text that is authoritative and inspired and profitable for us today. Moses preached the very Word of God. Or did he? Or did he? Did you know that the authorship of Moses in this book is questioned by, I dare say, are you ready, most biblical scholars today. In other words, many, and I would have to say it, liberal biblical scholars say Moses didn't preach these sermons. Moses didn't write this book. Even though the text of Deuteronomy says that Moses is speaking and Moses is preaching and God is speaking through Moses, the doctrine of divine inspiration. Now I have to ask you a question right at the beginning. Deuteronomy claims that the sermons preached to the Israelites here were spoken by Moses and that the words were what God told him to speak. God spoke through him and if that claim in itself is inaccurate, then it's really not Moses when the text says it's Moses. Then how can we say that the book of Deuteronomy is trustworthy teaching? How can we say that this is the very Word of God? And how can we even bother with this for our lives today? No, who is the preacher? It's Moses. Now I don't want to get too technical here, but I can tell you that critics have vigorously attacked Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy, and those arguments fall short. Here's what they say, liberal scholars argue that this book was written anonymously. We don't know who wrote it. It was written around the time of King Josiah, when the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom were divided. And Israel was in ruins. And someone wrote this book trying to reform the kingdom and bring the kingdom back together. And it was written, they say, in about 621 B.C. But the Old Testament attributes Deuteronomy and the rest of the first five books of the Bible to Moses, time and time again. Christ quotes Deuteronomy as God's Word and Christ says that Moses wrote it. Is he a liar? Was he mistaken? Was he confused? And the quotes by, listen to this, 17 of 27 New Testament books quote Deuteronomy. And they support Mosaic authorship. And Jewish tradition points to Moses as the author. And Deuteronomy itself says 40 times that Moses spoke these words, that Moses preached this sermon. And the whole structure of the text of the book of Deuteronomy only fits the time when when it assumes that that generation of Israel would have experienced and would have felt the wanderings in the wilderness and would have heard the law and had first-hand insight of the exodus from Egypt. There's no indication at all of the divided kingdom here. Further, many have said that this book of Deuteronomy takes the structure of an ancient Near Eastern Hittite covenant document. And I agree, and I'm not going to unpack that now, and I may never. But the point is this, those ancient Hittite documents were at the time of Moses. And so the early date with Moses as the author is the correct view. So this book was written probably a thousand years before the liberal scholars say it was, around 1405 B.C. God spoke these words through Moses. Brothers and sisters, Deuteronomy is God's Word. We can trust the Word of God. This is not some anonymous fraud at the time of Josiah. This is Moses. We've got to shake off the attacks upon the Word of God. Shake them off. This culture, the scholars, the biblical scholars, most of them, do not believe that this is God-breathed and inerrant, authoritative and sufficient for our lives. They do not shake it off. If we're going to stand firm amidst the pushback from the culture of this day, a culture that is wise in its own eyes, a culture that calls evil good and good evil. We have to believe that we hold in our hand the very Word of God. And so, it's no small thing to answer our first question, is it? Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy. And know this first of all, as Peter wrote, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Moses moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. May we listen to him. Second question then, to whom did Moses preach? Take a look at verse 1. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel. So Moses spoke to the children of Israel. And when was this written to the children of Israel? Well, let's look at verse 2. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Now, let me just get you oriented. If you have the map, we need to put that map up right now. I'll just leave it up the whole sermon. Leave it up the whole sermon. They won't be distracted much. Okay, so take a look at your map. That's Egypt across the Red Sea, okay, and they came down. And from Horeb, Mount Sinai, right here, all the way to Kadesh Barnea, right here, they were supposed to enter the promised land from the south. That's where they sent the spies out, from Kadesh Barnea. And that distance from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea, horrible wilderness, was only 11 days' journey. So keep that in mind that the word Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai. Now, what happened? Well, remember that God had promised to Abraham of old, way back in Genesis chapter 12, that he would become the father of a great nation. And that nation would dwell in a land that's flowing with milk and honey. And even prophesied in Genesis 15 that they would be enslaved in Egypt or in a land for 400 years until the iniquity of the Amorites was full. But God would deliver them with a mighty hand. It was all prophesied in the book of Genesis. And so it happened. The people of Israel, right, because of the famine were brought into Egypt. For 400 years they languished as slaves. There was a man named Moses who was raised up. Let my people go. And God did mighty works and sent the plagues. And the final Passover plague happened. And the people were let go. And they exited. And they parted the Red Sea. And then they traveled down. And they met with God with fire and lightning on Mount Sinai. And the law was downloaded. And we can read all about all of those laws in Exodus chapter 19 through 24. And then they were supposed to go to that land and they were supposed to, they received the law, they were there for a couple of months. We got 11 days of hard walking and you will take the land of promise right then and there. 11 days later they were supposed to take the land. However, look at the shocking nature of verse 3. It's 11 days journey, but you know what I'm writing to you? Verse 3, in the 40th year. On the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel. They should have entered the land after 11 days, but here they are 40 years later. Why? Because the first generation of Israel heard the report of the spies, and they despised the word of the Lord, and they rebelled, and they were filled with fear, and they were filled with underbelief. And they said, God hates us. That's why he sent us out into this wilderness. And God chastised him because they were his son, and for 38 years they wandered in that wilderness. And that map, that little loop, is 38 years of wandering around in that wilderness. And so what happened was, is they would wander until that generation that disbelieved Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies, that generation would die off in the wilderness. But their children who saw it all, they would inherit the promise of God. And now the next generation of Israelites is poised, is poised to take the land. And Moses sets out to preach. to preach to this people that they might take the land. And so, to whom is he writing? To Israelites, yes, but to the next generation of Israelites is the one to whom Moses preaches, reminding them of these events and preparing them to be faithful to the covenant when they cross the Jordan and receive the inheritance connected to the Abrahamic covenant fulfillment. So that is the when, it's 38 years later, and where are they at this point? Well, look at verse 1, and we'll find out where they are. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel, here it is, across the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Arabah. The cities, I'm not going to take the time to show you because there's a lot of controversy where those specific cities there are located, but look at verse 5. Where are they? Look at verse five. Across the Jordan in the land of Moab. If you're not certain, look back into the last verse of Numbers. Where are they? He spoke these to the sons of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho. So here's where they are. Okay, take a look at your map. Instead of entering from the south into the promised land, they went around through Moab, okay, into Ammon, and they went up and they were sitting right here. There's the Jordan. There's Jericho. They're going to enter the promised land from this side, crossing the Jordan River, and they're poised right here. right here where Moses preaches these sermons. They're entering from a different location than the south, 40 years later. And the Arabah, by the way, what is the Arabah? Arabah extends from right here all the way to the Sea of Galilee up here. The Arabah is just the lowlands right around the water. And that's where they traveled a lot. And so they were in the Arabah when they were here, they were in the Arabah here, and they're going to be in the Arabah when they're up north. The whole area is that great river valley, that rift valley of the Dead Sea Gulf extending all the way north to the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan River. Okay, so that's where they are. So to whom was the book of Deuteronomy written? To Israelites, the second generation who had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and were poised to enter into the land, into Jericho, east of the Jordan in northern Moab. camped in the Arabah, near the water, poised to take the promised land." And maybe you're saying right now, wait, this is written to the Israelites, that's why this is difficult for me and I don't even think it was written to me or applies to me. Write these references down. 1 Corinthians 10, 9. nor let us try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them, speaking of Israel in the past. These things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Or Romans 15 verse 4, Romans 15 verse 4, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures, Paul writes, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for some good works. No, no, equipped for every good work. good work. And the Scripture that Paul writes to Timothy about is the Old Testament Scripture. The book of Deuteronomy is profitable to us today. And while we are not under the Mosaic law today, there are timeless moral teaching principles that will apply to us under the new covenant. There is deep theology of God that will change the way we live and shape the way we think. And there are shadows of the sacrificial system that point to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is theology, there is teaching, there is typology, and it is found in every verse all over the place so that I would be remiss to get this done in ten years. and have it be profitable to the church. But I won't do that to you. So in this sense, it is written to the second generation of Israel and it is also written to us, the people of God. Third, why did Moses preach? Why did Moses preach? The answer is one word. Are you ready? Write this word down. Here's why he preached, and here's why Pastor Dan preaches. Here's why I preach. Anybody who preaches, one word. Remember. Brothers and sisters, this is what we do every week. Remember. Remember God. Fifteen times this Hebrew word translated remember is used. Here's one example in chapter 4 verse 9 where Moses preaches, only give heed to yourselves and keep your soul diligently so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen. Why does he preach? He preaches that they may remember. Now why do I preach that you may be remembered? What? What do you remember? Two things. What are the things? Two things. Number one, and I want you to see it, it's in our text, in verses one through five. First, it is 11 days journey from Horeb, verse two, by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Verse three, in the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke. And the people writing that are reminded by that clue, do you realize it's an 11-day journey? And you could have had the promised land. And now I'm preaching 40 years later. Remember. And all good preaching, the preaching of Moses and all true biblical preaching always is a reminder, a warning about disobedience. And I'll tell you brothers and sisters, sin makes you real stupid and there's always a cost. when you play with disobedience to the Lord. And he, in setting 11 days and 40 years right in the same phrase, is highlighting the first reason that he preaches. There's always warning of the consequences of disobedience. And we must learn from our past sins and our past mistakes. And one scholar says Moses is preaching that, quotes, they should not squander the opportunity this time, end quotes. Good preaching always have components of warnings to the people of God and the consequences of disobedience. We must learn. We must remember our past mistakes. Right, Pastor Dan? That's church history. Half of it is a reminder of our past mistakes. that we would forsake the consequences and the sins of the past. This is the value of preaching. And so Moses preaches first that we remember and expound the danger of disobedience, but that is not all. Praise God, that is not all that good preaching is. It's a reminder of something even greater, a reminder of a grace that is greater than all of our sin. For Moses, right in this text, gives us a hint. of why he preaches. Take a look at it in verse 4. Okay, so let's pick it up in verse 3. In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give them. Watch this, verse 4, I love that word, look at it, after. Verse 4, are you there? I want you to see it for yourself. after he had defeated Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashteroth and Edri. Take a look at the map. You need the map up. Take a look at the map. All right. So here they are. They're coming up. All right. Problem. Problem. We got a king in Heshbon. His name's Og. Is that right? His name is Og. No, his name is Sihon, the king of the Amorites. He lives in Heshbon. You think that's gonna be a problem if you're going right through there? Oh, and he's gonna be helped by his buddy up north, Og, in Edri, right up north of the Ammonites. These two massive kings are gonna oppose Israel in entering the promised land. And Moses writes, He writes, reminding of past failure, but he writes, after God has come through, fulfilling His promises and annihilating two impossible kings, and on the heels of victory, on the heels of God fulfilling His promise and showing Himself powerful in His grace and His power, He preaches, remember not only your past mistakes, but remember the power of God, the victory of God, that He is a faithful God and He will fulfill His promises. He did it. He destroyed these two kings. Take the land. Cross the Jordan. So, you can see the clues in the text. The good preaching is remembering not only the consequences for disobedience, but the More importantly, remembering the victory of their God, the covenant-keeping faithfulness of our God, and that God is the one whose presence is real, whose power is real, and they must move forward with both negative motivation and positive motivation to prepare the people of God and encourage the people of God to take the land. Moses the preacher, an old man, 120 years old. I hope I don't preach when I'm 120. MacArthur Might, among the people, an old man delivering his last three sermons, preaching as a dying man to dying men. poised, the second generation, poised on the edge of promise, pleading with them to remember, warning them about the consequences of disobedience, and then reminding them of the power of God to keep His promises, preaching to stir up faith in the Word of God and the God of the Word, just like we do today under the New Covenant. That leads us to our fourth question, and it gets even better. Number four, how did Moses preach? This is glorious. It's found in verse 5. There are two words I want to unpack in verse 5 about how Moses preached. Look at it. across the Jordan in the land of Moab," okay, that's where they're at, Moses undertook to expound this law saying. I want to highlight two words. First, undertook. This is a strange word, very strong, very Always in a Greek tense of emphasis. Very hard to translate. Let me try. This is pretty good. I like undertook is pretty good. Maybe determined or Moses set his heart on it. Moses was willing and pleased and determined from his heart to preach the word. This is the heartbeat of every true preacher of the word. They've set their heart like Ezra of old to expound the word of God. This is the heart of Paul to young Timothy, who says in the book of 2 Timothy, at the very end, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge, the living and the dead, and by his appearing and by his kingdom. Timothy, he says, preach the word. This is the heart of Moses, the preacher. Preach the word. This is the first word of determination. That's the first how. That's his heart. But what's his method? What's his method? Picking a topic and giving you his own opinion that he proof texts from? No, no. That's not his method. Second word, expound the word. Look at it. It's right in the text. Moses undertook to expound this law, that is to give the sense of it, to explain what it means, to unpack it, to apply it in power through the Spirit to the people. Now, what that word means, again, very emphatic verb tense in the Hebrew, it means, and this is great, it means to make the word of God distinct, to make it plain, to make it understood. This specific word is used only twice in the whole book of Deuteronomy. It is also used in Deuteronomy chapter 27. This is so fun, isn't it? Turn to Deuteronomy 27. Deuteronomy 27. Keep your finger back in our passage, but look at Deuteronomy chapter 27 and find verse 8. Pastor Dan's going to like this word. We'll have a conversation about this later. Flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 27 and verse 8. In this context, Moses is giving instructions as to what the people would do when God allows them to cross that Jordan River heading to Jericho. When they get to the other side and he parts that water like he did the Red Sea, they would put up a memorial, a monument. They would set up these big stones. And they were write very clearly all the words of the law. The point was is to write them clearly so people would understand it. Look at verse 8. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law, watch this, very distinctly so that it could be understood. This is the same word of how Moses preaches. Moses is not going to write a second law. That's why I don't like that title. It's not a second law. It's a preaching of the law. It's an explanation of the law. Apparently you didn't get it the first time. Let me preach. Let me explain it to you. Let me make it crystal clear to you and distinct the very word of God. Not my opinion, Moses said. but the Word of God, that is preaching. Preaching is a passionate determination to speak the Word of God and a passionate determination to preach God's Word and make it clear to the people so they might, what, get their heads full of knowledge and beat each other in trivia games? No, that they might take the land, that they might move forward in faith, that they might put into practice all that God has spoken. So this is how Moses preached. Number one, from his heart determined to make the Word of God plain. That's exposition. That's why we do an exposition of the text from beginning to end. We want to hear from God and make it plain what He has said in His Word. Fifth, final question. give you a break to recover. What did He preach? I think you know, but let's make it clear from the text. Well, the first two words in the Hebrew text in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 1 are these two words, these words. these words. So, that's what Moses preached, these words. And you ask, what are these words? Look at verse 3. Let's find out. In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, here it is, according to all that the Lord had commanded Him to give them. These words are God's words and how many of them is Moses to expound? His favorites? All the words. Not some, all of the word. Now what is that word called? Look at verse five. What are these words? They're these words, they're according to all that the Lord commanded him to give him. Verse five is more clear. Across the Jordan and the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound, here it is, this law, this Torah. Now, so what is Torah then? If we're gonna understand the what, what is Torah? Torah means instruction. Moses is the teacher of Israel. Moses is the preacher of Israel. This is for people's learning. This is exhortation and instruction. When you hear law here, here's what you hear, all the do's and the don'ts. And what you are to hear when you hear the word Torah is all of it. Here's what I mean. Here's what Torah is. Torah is authoritative instruction from Moses. It could be specific laws and commands. Torah could be historical reminiscing. Torah could be historical review by way of illustration. Torah could be divine speech by God. Torah could be promises of blessing. It could be warning against defection from God. Torah could be reciting the Ten Commandments. Torah could be fathers catechizing their kids and how to do that. Torah could be a call to go into the presence of God. Torah could be instruction on diets, worship, sacrifice. Torah could be instruction on how in the world we're to lead the people of God and therefore the church today. Instructions on administration and church leadership. That's all Torah. All of it. Sexual morality, agriculture, marriage, the benediction at the end, the song of Moses singing his song to the people of Israel. It's all Torah. All of it. So don't be thinking that this book is about all kinds of do's and don'ts. It's the whole sermon is Torah. It's the Word of God. Okay, I think it's very important to understand that. Now, so, as we approach then this book, and we talk more specifically about what he preached, we see that there's these words, God's words that spoke through Moses, divine inspiration, the words that he commanded all of them, and they're called Torah. Now, from a big possible picture then, let me help us about about this. Take a look at your outline in your bulletin and let me give you a little bit more of the what did he preach. Okay, so Moses is going to preach three sermons and I love it. The first sermon, and you have your outline, fill it in, first sermon is remember the past love. chapters 1 through 4. Remember the past love. Second sermon, remember the present obligations in chapters 5 through 26. And then finally, remember the future hope. Remember the future hope. Three sermons, I love it, past reminders of God's, of your sin and God's grace. Future hope and all of the past and all of the future combined to fuel our motivation of a big God who keeps His promises in the present. And that is the outline of the preaching of this book, and this is what he does. And then he sings a song, Moses does, and then he signs off and passes the baton to Joshua of old, who takes the land. And whenever you're preaching through a book of the Bible, you want to read the book over and over again, looking for repeated words, ideas, and concepts to determine the overarching main theme. And so when you come to the book, To this book you are going to see so many different wonderful themes like parenting and leadership and the doctrine of sovereign election and idolatry and worship and purity and unity and community responsibility and the consequences of sin. And listen to this, and strangely a five or six fold repetition, lament by Moses. who said, I will not set foot into the promised land after all I have done for 40 years with the stubborn people. Because of my own sin, I will not step into the promised land. But all of those are sub-themes. When you determine the theme of a book, you want to look for main repeated ideas and words. The call to listen is over 50 times. To hear, to listen, 50 times. There's a call to remember, 15 times. There's repeated words of do or keep or observe, 177 times. And we're going to find that disobedience flows out of our love for God over 20 times in the book. He connects the motivation for obedience to the love for God. And the source of our love for God over and over and over again in the book of Deuteronomy is God's love for us. His covenant-keeping love for us, the electing love of God for us, chapter 4, chapter 7, chapter 10, chapter 23, all over the place. And there's the presence of God. And there's an emphasis on the heart and the circumcision of the heart. And there is grace. There is no ritual and religion without relationship here in the book of Deuteronomy. None whatsoever. Let me give you a feel for this. Take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 10. Look at verse 12. Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God and to walk in all His ways and love Him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens and the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples as it is this day. So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer, for the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords and 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, and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you are 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. He has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen, and so on and so forth. And if you put all of those repeated words, ideas into one theme, you would have close to what the scholar Wright came up with. And I modified his theme, and we'll use it as our own, but give him credit for how he worded this for the most part. Fill in the blanks. Here is the theme that will guide our exposition of the book of Deuteronomy. Listen to God's word so that you remember his past love. preparing you to live for His will in loving obedience into the future. Listen to God's word so that you remember His past love, preparing you to live for His will in loving obedience into the future. Listen to His word. This is a book about preaching. In Deuteronomy, the focus of the ministry of Moses was the preaching of the Word of God. And brothers and sisters, I have in some ways in your lives, I'm sure you have crisis moments in your lives when you try to decide what is it that I'm doing with my life. And I've come to the place in this church and for all true churches today, we must preach the word. We must preach the word. I'm telling you, Moses says at the end of the book, take to heart all these words for it is not an idle word for you. Indeed, it is your life. And so I would say to you, brothers and sisters, in a Canaanite culture like our day, with huge temptation, with huge amount of pushback against the people of God, what do we need? We need the Word of God. We need the determined exposition of the Word of God, for Moses was right then and he is now. It is not an idle word for us. It is our very life. But we must choose to obey. We must choose to obey this Word as it's preached. And what will we be reminded of again and again as we prepare right now for the Lord's table? We're gonna be reminded again and again in the book of Deuteronomy of our failure to love the Lord our God as we ought. And we're gonna be reminded again and again of, in spite of our failure, the covenant-keeping love and commitment of God to his promises. And we will find that as hopeless as our own hearts are We will find that there's a day coming of which Moses preaches a future hope when God Himself will take up our hearts and change our hearts and put His Spirit within us. And the heart of His people will be changed to love Him. And we will find that that changed heart is through a certain individual, a certain one an ultimate substitute sacrifice. We're going to find that that changes through the prophet. par excellence, who, like Moses, continues to speak today, and we will find that there is a king of our heart, a king that leads our heart today, who has never multiplied horses for himself, whose heart never turned away, but observed the words of the law and the statues perfectly all the days of his life, and we will see in Deuteronomy the prophet, the priest, the king, who fulfilled the law in our place, who fulfilled the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Davidic and is in his own body the fulfillment of the new covenant and we will see the glories of Christ in him and that the promises of this book are yes and amen in our Lord Jesus Christ. We will see the greater Moses, but we will see the Moses, we will see the Moses who like the first Moses died outside the gate. not allowed to enter, was forsaken by his father, not for his own sin, no, no, but for the sins of his people.