All right, let's start with a word of prayer, shall we? Father, you love us so much and you've done so much for us and extended grace to us in such a wonderful way. We're grateful for that. We're grateful for your written word that we can study it. and learn and glean from it, Lord. And tonight as we have a lot of just reminders from your word, Lord, help us just to find application when we see it and find ways that we can improve our walk with you. And so we thank you for this opportunity. Bless our time and pray now in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so continuing on in Deuteronomy, starting in chapter nine tonight, we're just reminding, this is Moses reminding the next generation, okay, we're about to go into the land, which happens in Joshua, but we're down to kind of the last month of Moses' life, and he's just doing a lot of reminding to this second generation. Now, these people, were all 20 years old or younger when they came out of Egypt, okay? And that's who he's talking to. But it's for our instruction as well, all right? We'll look at a verse about that later, but. So, Deuteronomy chapter nine, okay? Chapters 8-11 are all lessons from the past. So starting in verse 1-3, it just tells us about how the Israelites will drive out the sons of Anakim, people great and tall who lived in fortified cities. and make them perish quickly. And so the Lord is going to go before them to do this. This is really who they were afraid of the first time. They said there was giants in the land. This is the remnants of the Nephilim, however that happened. We don't know. The sons of Anak. One of the guys' beds was, you know, what, 11 feet tall or something. He had an iron bed. It was, I can't remember how big it was. It was really large. So that's what he's talking about, just those first three verses. But then we get to the section where, starting in four, there's three times where the people are warned about attributing success to their own righteousness, okay? And the Lord is warning them about doing that, okay? So starting in verse four, Do not say in your heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out, this would be the Canaanites, before you, it is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land, whereas, and here's the real reason, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you, okay? And If you remember back in Genesis 15, the Lord tells Abraham this, that he says, you know, the fullness of the Amorites has not come in and he lets them have another 400 years. And in that 400 years, the people of Israel go down and they're in Egypt. And of course they go down favorably, but end up being slaves to Egypt. And after 400 years, they come out and that's where we find ourselves now. And the fullness of the Amorites has come in. They're very wicked people, those Canaanite people. Okay. There's multiple groups of people and they're very wicked, okay? And so it's not your righteousness, but it's because of their wickedness that I'm driving them out, okay? Verse five, he's gonna repeat this. Not because of your righteousness or your uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. He made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he's gonna give them this land. But he's waiting until the time was right, and now the time is right. Verse six, know therefore that the Lord your God, here's the third time, is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Boy, that's just saying it like it is. This is Moses telling them, you are a stubborn people. What does the Lord say about me? Ever think about that? Not very pleasant, necessarily, but am I stubborn? Or am I prideful, or maybe arrogant, or self-centered, or self-righteous, or boastful? And we could just keep on going, could we not? Anyway, it's good to take account of ourselves sometimes. It's easy to look at others, don't do that. Look at yourself, take some stock. What does the Lord say about me? Romans 12.3 says this, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. And when we see these things in our lives, we really need to try and make adjustments. Seek the Lord on those things. Isaiah 64 says, all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Okay, which is a kind way of putting those words. And Ephesians 5, 26 says, but we need to be cleansed by the washing with the water through the Word. You know, clean those rags up, so to speak, with the Word of God. It can wash those. Okay, essentially. So it's just a call to be in the Word. We need to be in the Word of God. The Word of God points these things out to us, our stubbornness, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And we need to take those things to heart when we do see them, when we see pictures of them as we can see going through the Pentateuch here. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 10. Let's spend a little time there. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1, where we got Paul speaking, of course, to the Corinthians, and he's hearkening back. He's reminding them of some things about Moses. He says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. So now he's talking about coming out of Egypt under the cloud and then going through the Red Sea. And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they were identified with Moses. They all ate from the same spiritual food, which was something new to them, the manna, which came from the Lord. They all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ. I'm in 1 Corinthians 10.5 now. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness." So these are the same people who were warned about thinking they were righteous, okay? What advantage do we have that they didn't have? Look at the Holy Spirit, don't we? Probably very few of them did. I would assume the leadership did. I brought this up once before, Mark pointed out that there was a couple of guys to build the special things that were given the Holy Spirit to enable them to build, but largely they don't. So now, what's my excuse? You know, I have the Holy Spirit helping me with these things. That should really put me a whole different level, does it? Okay, something to think about. Verse six, now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We saw that with the golden calf. We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. Remember, Phineas stopped that with the Midianite women. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, when they were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happen to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the age has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. which is really comforting words there, okay? Verse 13, Deuteronomy 9, 13, let's go back there. More reminders from the past from Moses. Furthermore, the Lord said to me, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stubborn people. So the Lord kind of doubles down on this stubbornness, okay? Moses cites as examples the people's behavior at Mount Horeb, okay, in I think what, 8 to 21? At Tabra, where the people complained about their hardships. At Massa, where the people complained about no water. And then at Kibra, where Israel complained about the manna, okay? So he's talking about all the different places where they complained. Then he says in verse 17, 9-17, so I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. He's saying, you know, you've broken all the Ten Commandments. Then I lay prostate before the Lord as before 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all the sin that you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to revoke him to anger. So I lay, now I'm down to 25. So I lay prostate before the Lord these 40 days and 40 nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you. There we see a leader praying for his people, and he's interceding. Okay. Let's turn over to Romans 8, 26. I never saw this before in the same chapter, but I guess, I don't know why. Romans 8, in verse, starting 26, Likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know how to pray or what to pray For as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning is too deep for words Here's a picture. You know, the Holy Spirit is interceding for us Then and then in the same chapter drop down to 34 Who is to condemn Christ Jesus is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised and who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Here again, the same chapter is both called out, you know, our leadership, if you will, interceding for us, praying for us. Moses was doing that 40 days and 40 nights, because the Lord wanted to destroy him. Moses prayed that they wouldn't be destroyed. He was gonna make Moses the man, and that's what he says, or said. Good to see that intercession by a leader. Chapter 10, new tablets of stone. At that time the Lord said to me, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. That was chapter 10, verse one, back in Deuteronomy. I moved us back, and now I'm going to take us down to, 10-12. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Interesting question. What does He require of us? But to fear the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and the statutes of the Lord, which I'm commanding you today for your good. What does the Lord require of you? It's kind of interesting, because that reminded me, I don't know if you remember this song. out of Micah 6, 8. Micah 6, 8 says this, and there's a nice little chorus that goes along with this. He has told you, old man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? Same little words there, require of you. But to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Anyone remember that chorus? We used to sing it in Calvary quite a bit. Anyway, what does the Lord require of you? Fear him, walk in his ways, love him, serve him, keep his commandments, do justice, love kindness, walk humbly. All right, Deuteronomy 10, 16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. Okay. This theme would be repeated later in the prophets. Jeremiah 4.4, circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your hearts. To fulfill God's law, it takes more than being given a command. It takes an inner transformation, a transformation only God can bring us. This minor surgery was merely a symbol of the real work of cutting away the flesh that God desired to remove. It is the work of taking our hearts inclined after the flesh and giving us hearts inclined after the spirit. Chapter 11, love and serve the Lord. Moses is still on that theme. Verse one, you shall love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His rules, and His commandments always. And we express our love through Him by trusting and obeying Him, okay? Which has kind of been the theme of Deuteronomy. Verse two, consider today, since I am not speaking to your children, he says, I'm not speaking to the third generation, I'm talking to the second generation, okay? Which we explained earlier. Consider today, since I'm not speaking to your children, who have not known or seen, okay? They didn't see all these things that the Lord did with Pharaoh and bring him to the Red Sea and all those miracles. He says, I'm not talking to the third generation, I'm talking to you. Consider the discipline of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm. " In verses 3 to 6, Moses is going to tell what God did with Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea and in the wilderness. Now He opened the earth to swallow up the rebellious. Now down to verse 7, he says, "'For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that He did. And you shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land." There we see it again. This gets brought up many times in this. They did not take possession of the land, and they spent 40 years in the wilderness. And now Moses is going to tell them over and over again, you're going to take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. So at a young age, they had witnessed God's work, you know, the under 20 group. And now he's saying, go possess the land. You know that what God can do. You saw his works when you were young. Go possess the land. He's gonna go before you. Okay, chapter 12, worship and rejoice. Starting in verse five, But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose." Now, that verbiage there, the Lord your God will choose, is at least six times, okay, in Deuteronomy. It's three times in this chapter, in verses 5, 14, and 21. But he's going to repeat this over and over again, that he's going to choose where they're going to worship, okay? So verse 5, "...but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name and make His habitation there. There you shall go." Now He's talking about Jerusalem. And you think about Jerusalem, the cup of trembling, as Zachariah puts it, right? The center of the world in some senses, you know, especially today, this was the Lord's choosing. This is going to be the place. It's going to be one place where they're going to worship, okay? and where their law's gonna be, and it's the Lord's mind to have it be Jerusalem. Now, they don't know that yet, but he wants them to have just one place to worship, and that gets repeated over and over. Verse six, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your contribution that you present, and your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. The seven feasts of Israel are very solemn assemblies, and yet they're also a time of rejoicing in the Lord, and that's gonna come up over and again as well. This this rejoicing. So there's a real sincerity, but there's a real rejoicing and they are I Hope you see him, but they do get excited about stuff when all those Live prisoners came home. I mean they were dancing and my Lori our first night in Israel I crashed And she wakes up, she can't sleep. And we're like on the ninth floor or something of this hotel in Tiberias, which is right on the Sea of Galilee. And she's looking out and she sees all these guys, you know, in their black hats. These are the real Orthodox Jews coming out of this building. And pretty soon, they're all in a circle doing this dancing thing. You know how they do? They put their hands on their shoulders in a big circle, and they're all dancing around. And she's watching this whole thing go on and on. She never wakes me up and tells me any of this great cultural stuff going on. In the morning, she tells me all this stuff. Anyway, they did this for quite a while, and some buses showed up. And this is late at night. And some buses show up, and they all got on the buses and drove away. I don't know, they had some powwow down there. But she's there in the parking lot doing all this right below our room. Anyway, they do rejoice. They are gratuitous. What's the word? When you show. Demonstrative that's where I wanted in their actions on that kind of stuff 1212 and you shall rejoice again before the Lord your God you and your sons and your daughters and your male servants and your female servants and The Levite that was within your towns since he has no portion or inheritance with you take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see and But at the place that the Lord will choose," here he says again, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do all that I am commanding you. Now McGee says this, he says, eventually the designated place was Jerusalem. But even before that, Israel was to worship in only one place, in one place only. And let me just, so they end up worshiping quite a few places, okay? First, in Gilgal, after they cross over, there's Jericho, here's Gilgal. Gilgal ends up being a center, when you read through Joshua, that's where they center out of Gilgal for quite a while in their early attacks, attacking Jericho first, and then Ai, and then other places. And they worship in Gilgal, just to start with. And then Shechem, which is up Right here, between Mount Ebel and Mount Gerizim is Shechem. Remember, all kinds of stuff happened at Shechem. We kind of talked about that before. Just Jacob's well is there. The woman at the well was there. She was at Jacob's well, I think, from John, what, 4? Just a whole bunch of things happening. And then the next place is Shiloh, which is down just a little farther south, and then Bethel. And then a place right under the word Giba here, not much, but Mizpeth, there was also a bit of center worship there for a while. And this is probably moving the tabernacle around, the portable, you know, the tent, okay? That's until they came to Jerusalem, okay? So, but there was always a central place of worship, even though it moved a little bit until it settled down in Jerusalem. All right, Magee still, there is to be one place for their burnt offering, sacrifices, tithes and vows. The tithes of food which they brought before the Lord had to be eaten in this one place. Now, speaking of the Canaanites, the people they were driving out worshipped everywhere. Deuteronomy, and backing up to Deuteronomy 12 too, you shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you are disposing served their gods. It's actually dispossess, okay? Served their gods on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree, okay? So the pagans worshiped anywhere and really anything, okay? And that is the appeal of a false doctrine. Anything goes, essentially. Anything that feeds the worldly or the fleshly desire goes. And Satan's happy with that because If it keeps you from the Lord, that's okay. Keep it up. You're doing good in His mind, okay? So anywhere, any place where the Lord is very specific, no, this is a place where I want you to worship. Now, this goes away under the new covenant, but this is a place for Israel to worship, and it's going to wind up being Jerusalem. Not like the pagans. First John 2.15 says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world, like pagan worship. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Eve was essentially caught up in this, the first sin of a human, okay, was to see that, you know, it was desires for her eyes and pride and the flesh all involved there. All right, chapter 13, purge the evil from your midst. Okay, verse 1, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and gives you a sign or a wonder, keep on that, and the sign of that or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Look out for these people who do these signs and wonders. Now, Matthew 24, 24, this is all the discourse talking about the last days. Jesus says this, for false Christs and false prophets will rise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Okay, so that's really important for us in our time that In the last days, there will be deceivers. We're living in a time where there's more deception now than there's ever been. And it's so possible to deceive. With AI, they're doing just crazy things. People called up and, oh, it's my daughter. She's in trouble. I'll quick send her Western Union 500 bucks. Well, AI has mimicked your daughter's voice. lied to you. Of course, AI can, you know, we used to software, uh, Photoshop. Yeah. I think that's old stuff now with AI. Anyway, we were just living in a time of deception. We need to know God's truth. And there are those that could come along and perform great signs and wonders that actually happened. Okay. and lead us astray, if possible, even the elect. That would be us if we're saved, if we're born again, we're the elect. And we can be led astray. We have to guard against that. And again, we're just gonna come back and say, we need to know the word of God. We need to know God's truth so we can be discerning what is true and what is false. And it's difficult in this day. So it's a real warning that's really appropriate for us. All right, Deuteronomy 13, six. If your brother, the son of your mother, or the son of your daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly saying, let us go and serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods are the peoples who are around you, whether near or far from you. I want to say that far from you. I think of, remember the Beatles all ran over to India and got some guru? That's what it makes me think of. Anyway, I don't know how well that went for him. Probably not well. Far from you are one from the end of the earth. That's the end of the earth, India. Okay. Verse eight. You shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him, but you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterward the hand of all the people. The Lord is just saying, we got to stay pure here. We can't be going off after other gods. He's very serious about this. Phineas stood up and intervened when the Midianites were involved with them. And you can read about that in Numbers 25 and also Psalm 106 praises Phineas. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 5.9. Psalm 106.30 speaks of Phineas intervening, but it's also in Numbers 25. 1 Corinthians 5.9. Paul speaking, he says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and the swindlers or the idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. We are going to bump up against these kinds of people in our lives, okay? we're in the world, but we should not be of the world. We've heard that said, okay? Verse 11, but now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother. Okay, so what he's saying is if someone's calling themselves a Christian, especially if, you know, they're in your church or whatever, they're part of you, and they're doing these things, they're sexually immoral, okay, or greedy or swindlers or idolaters, you know, we shouldn't have anything to do with them. I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name brother, who is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an adulterer, a reveler, a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Paul's asking this, for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside, He says, purge the evil person from among you, okay? If we were to see that type of thing with a church member, someone who's, you know, or let's say just someone who just says, I'm a brother in the Lord, say, you're wrong, I think you should confront him with this, and then you should not associate with him. Now, the goal is always to bring them back into the flock. They should repent and turn from their ways. But we're not to associate with people that would be doing these things as listed here and call themselves a brother. Now, your neighbor may be doing some of these, but he's an unbeliever and you're going to rub shoulders with him. And it's not for us to confront him on those things. What he needs to know is that he needs a savior. And yes, those are sins, and that might come up in the conversation. Well, I wouldn't hammer him with it to start with. I would just say, You know, here's the gospel truth. And let him understand that, oh, those things are wrong. You know, I'm doing wrong here, I need to repent and turn. Okay, does that make sense? Purge the evil person from among you. Okay, chapter 14, clean and unclean food. Deuteronomy 14, back there. But first, before I get to the, it's labeled clean and unclean in probably all your Bibles, but we're gonna talk about a few things first, okay? Starting in verse one, you are the sons of the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. Now, if you remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal, I'll just read this from 1 Kings 18, 28, and they cried aloud the prophets of Baal, and they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. Pretty gruesome. Wiseman says this, the practice of self-inflicted wounds to arouse a deity's pity or response is attested by Ugarit when men bathed in their own blood like an ecstatic prophet. Okay, now I got a little for you here, nothing big, but if you see right off the tip of Cyprus, the island out there, you see it says Ugrit. Let me tell you a little bit about that. The Ugarit text, discovered by French archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, which is modern-day Ladakida, Syria. The Ugarit language is attested in texts from the 14th through the early 12th century BC. Moses died around 1405. That's about where we are right now, it's 1405 in what we're reading. Okay, so this had been going on, according to the Ugarit text, from the start of the 14th century. Moses is going to be at the end of the 14th century, right? Countdown. Anyway, point being that they found all these texts, and in these texts, they find that this was a common practice, this cutting, okay? And so, it fits with what Elijah says, because, you know, Elijah, now, you know, he's not that far away from these guys. Well, just a little below Damascus, where it says Damascus on the coast, is where Mount, where Elijah is with all the cutting. It's along the coast. Mount Carmel, it's actually a mountain range. It kind of runs at a 45 degree angle like that. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's right in the same region this cutting was a popular thing. And of course, the prophets of Baal were doing that. Lord says, don't be doing that stuff. This morning, so we're going through a series in the men's Bible study by Mike Faberis on angels and demons. And he mentioned, in this series he did, I want to say five or 10 years ago. But he mentioned this morning that cutting has gotten very popular. Now, I don't know if it still is. I remember reading about it in the news some time back. I haven't heard anything about it for quite a while. Maybe it's still popular. I don't know. But young kids cutting themselves. Kind of fits right in with this kind of stuff. It's just kind of a pagan kind of thing. Anyway, but yeah, he brought that up this morning. I thought that was kind of interesting because of the study here tonight. Okay, don't do that. Okay. Verse 2, Deuteronomy 14, 2. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be people for his treasured possession. And out of all the peoples are on the face of the earth. Okay. Speaking specifically to Israel here, but out of Ephesians 1, 4, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons to Jesus Christ according to the purposes of the will. So here he says, you are a chosen people, okay? And in Ephesians he says, I chose you. His method of operation is he's in charge. All right, now we get down to verse four of 14. The animals you're not supposed to eat, I'm not gonna read them all off, but from 14 to I think 11, it's just a whole list of animals that you're not supposed to eat. You get down to 12, but these are ones that you shall not eat. Anyway, dietary laws for the Jews is what this is about, okay, and he's got a whole list of things. But I want us to remember Peter up on the roof when he was in Joppa. And he was staying with Simon the Tanner, and this is Acts 10, 15, and a voice came to him again a second time. He says, what God has made clean, do not call common. Okay, remember the Lord had let down this kind of a big blanket type of thing, and there's all these animals that would all be in this list of do not eat. And he says, Peter, take and eat, you know. Oh, Lord, no, I would never do that. I'm a kosher Jew. And the Lord says, hey, you know, don't call it common. I'm saying it's okay. Let me read to you, but out of Acts 10.15, Acts. 10, 15, I'm just gonna read one verse, then move on to another verse. Then a voice came to him a second time, what God has made clean, do not call common. Okay, and then where I wanted to go from there was to Mark 7. Mark 7, 14. Mark 7, 14, and he called the people to him again, and he said to them, hear me, all of you, and understand, there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of that person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, and he said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled. Thus he declared all things, or all foods, clean. So the Lord had set up all these rules for them, but then when we get to the New Testament, Jesus says, that's not what makes you unclean, it's what's in your heart that shows what you really are. And so then we get to Peter later on, and after the resurrection and all, and the Lord's telling Peter, hey, take and eat this stuff, it's okay. And they remember, now when Mark is written, Mark is written well after the resurrection and everything, probably 20 years after the resurrection, you know, he's writing it down, he says, oh, well, this is what he meant by that, you know, we can eat these things. So is it okay for a Messianic Jew to eat bacon, is the question. Messianic Jew being a believer in Christ. I actually did a little reading this afternoon on that. And boy, this one guy was just emphatic, absolutely not, which I thought was interesting as a Jewish guy. But he left out the Mark 7 passage in his argument, which I thought was interesting. I couldn't find it in his argument at all. I thought, well. But a lot of Messianic Jews do not eat bacon. And here's probably why. This is good for us. Romans 14, 21. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. And so if a Messianic Jew wants to win another Jew, eating bacon would probably be a big stumbling block. What's his name? Ben Shapiro. He's a kosher Jew. Sabbath that kind of stuff He wouldn't eat. He wouldn't touch bacon. He would not be impressed by a messianic Jew eating bacon. Okay, so Causing a brother to stumble, you know when we read this typically in Romans 14 We always think of meat given to idols and stuff like that. No, that doesn't really pertain to us today. But if you're a Jew, it makes total sense to you today. Because as a Jewish Christian, it could be a huge stumbling block. Then it says, or drink wine. Okay. And that can be more of a, with us, that could be more of an issue. The point just being that We don't want to do anything that would cause a brother to stumble. Meat's probably not going to mess him up because we don't have choices of meat at the market that have been served up to demons or idols or whatever. That's not an issue. But if you're a Jew, it'd be an issue. And alcohol can be a real issue. A lot of people have had their lives destroyed with alcohol. Best keep it to yourself. Best keep it to yourself. We don't want to cause anyone to stumble. All right, tithes. 1422, okay? Tithe just means to give a tenth, to give or take a tenth, depends on which end of the tithe you're on. In the New Testament, we have what we call freewill giving, and we give with a cheerful heart, or we ought to, okay? Deuteronomy 1422, and ye shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. and before the Lord your God, and in the place where he will choose again, okay? To make his name dwell there, and you shall eat the tithe of your grain, and of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." You know, do all these things to learn to fear God, okay? Bible knowledge commentary says this, the experience was designed to teach them to revere, literally fear, the Lord their God always. As they ate this meal before Him with priestly instruction, they would be acknowledging that their food, and thus their very lives, depended not on their agricultural skills, but on the Lord's blessing. So they would learn to fear Him, for only by obeying Him would they continue to eat and live in prosperity. Now listen to these two verses, okay? This first one comes out of Joel 2.23. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given the early rain for your vindication, and He poured down for you abundant rain. the early and the latter rain as before, okay? So your crops would grow the early rain to get it kicked off and going, and the latter rain to push it on through to the harvest, okay? But then in Amos 4, 70 says, I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest. This is a critical time, okay? I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city. One field would have rain, and the field on which I did not rain would wither." Okay. So we see, you know, the Lord is really in control of our blessings, you know, and is to learn to fear him because he can do that. And if he wants to bless us, if he wants to curse us, he can just withhold the rain, you know. The farmer, Or the ruralite, we could say, has a better understanding than city folk of just how dependent or a fear of the Lord we are on God's blessings or curses. The ruralite is surrounded by God's creation. The city dweller is surrounded by man's creation. about that you know so you don't see God as well in the city you don't see the stars in the city you know you don't realize a lot of things that's not to put city people down okay but living off the land where you're planting and harvesting and that kind of stuff, you see the look. When you take an animal apart and you see how he's made, this is God's creation. It didn't just come in a package at Safeway. It's just a lot of things that the ruralite sees that the city dweller doesn't see. Al Mohler makes a point of talking about cities, colleges, and coasts. They're all liberal, okay? Cities, colleges, and coasts, the East Coast and the West Coast, they're all much more liberal than the heartland, okay? Just kind of true. All right, chapter 15, the sabbatical year. At the end of every seven years, you're to grant a release. And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it on his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. And dropping down to 12. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years. And in the seventh year, you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress, as the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. Here we just see, we're to extend grace to others in the same way that the Lord has extended grace to us. And again, we can look back at this warnings message, you know, He chose us. He extended grace to us. I don't know why He didn't have to, but He did. And we need to extend grace to those who don't know the Lord, okay, in the same kind of way that He extended grace to us. Chapter 16, the Passover, verse 1. Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover of the Lord your God. For in the month of Abib, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night, and you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or from the herd at the place that the Lord will choose, again, to make his name dwell there. Verse six, he's gonna say this again. But at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at sunset and at the time that you come out of Egypt. So just the point that that's very specific about this place that's going to be Jerusalem. Then we get to the Feast of Weeks, verse nine. We call it Pentecost sometimes. It's associated with the joy of the harvest, You shall count seven weeks, begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put into the standing grain. Of course, a very agrarian society. Verse 11, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God and you and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and the Levite who is within your towns and the sojourner and the fatherless and the widow. I don't think you can name any other people, okay? It's everyone who are among you at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make His name dwell there. So everyone is to rejoice in this Passover. Then we come to the Feast of Booths in 1613, or sometimes called Tabernacles, celebrated at the end of the harvest, okay? Verse 13, you should keep the Feast of Booths seven days, and when you have gathered in the produce from the threshing floor and your winepress." Verse 14, verse 14 just has all the people listed again. Verse 15, at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And I think, and we'll end with this, but we'll go a little bit farther. This is speaking about the importance of corporate worship. He wants them at one place, and He wants them all to corporately worship. He's actually, you know, there's seven feasts, but there's three that you're required to, the men are required to go to, they should go clear to Jerusalem to worship, okay? I just think of corporate worship in our day. Let's turn over to Hebrews 10, 24. We just need to see this. You know this verse, but often the last end of it is left off, or verse 25 is left off. End of 25. Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 is where we're going. Speaking about corporate worship and just the importance of it, it says, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. We should be encouraging each other to do love and good works, especially within the family of God. Verse 25, not neglecting to meet together, there's our corporate worship, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and then he says, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. And to me that just, I think we see the day drawing near. I'm not a prophet, I don't have the date written down. A lot of people had the date written down this year. I don't know if you saw that. What was it, September 23rd this year? It was the Feast of Trumpets, which a lot of people want to use that and say that that's when the Lord's coming back and every year they're disappointed. But this year, on that date, the UN was gonna meet about something to do with Israel and try and have a peace agreement with Israel. And so people were putting this all together. This is the peace agreement of Revelation chapter four, second, third verse. And anyway, it was all over the internet. It just kept coming up on, probably depends on what your algorithm is. Well, this year it was, yeah, it was September, I think, 21st or 23rd. The feast is actually two days long, and that's how they were getting around, no one knows the day or the hour, because it could be this day or it could be that day. It's kind of like, yeah, I don't know about that. Anyway, I think something is going to happen on that day in the future, but I think it's going to have to do with the Jews, not to the church. It's a Jewish feast. It's the fifth feast, I believe. The first four were all fulfilled already right on time by Jesus, okay? But I don't know what. I just think something's going to happen that day someday, just because the first four were all fulfilled perfectly. But people want to take that Jewishness and put it on the church. I don't think it belongs there at all. Needed as a mere Sephardi, if that's of any consequence. Okay, a couple more, we'll just finish out 16. Justice, chapter 16, verse 18. You shall appoint judges and officers in your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and you shall judge the people with righteous judgment. So after Joshua dies, Judges 2.10, 1618, you shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God has given you according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. After Joshua dies, in Judges 2.10 we read this, and all that generation also Joshua's generation, were gathered to their fathers, they died, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord and the work that He had done for Israel." Okay? And then by the end of Judges, the last verse of the book of Judges, In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And so, we see this, they never really set up the judges in a way that really worked well for them in those early years, okay? Until we see David come along and start putting that together. Now, the Lord did appoint judges, and when we get to judges, we'll see all those judges. He appointed judges, but the people didn't follow through with a good system of judging. All right, let's close in prayer. Lord, we thank you for all the reminders that you give us of things to look at, to consider, and we just want to remember them and help to apply them to our own lives. Lord, we do not want to be stubborn people. Lord, help us to evaluate our lives in light of that. Lord, we don't want in any way to cause a brother to stumble. Help us to consider that in how we live. And let us just continue to love each other and to worship corporately in a way that encourages each other and spurs one another on, Lord. And we would say that, Lord, especially as we see your nearness as it appears to us to be. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your word and how it speaks to us. Bless us this week, I pray now in Jesus' name, amen.