those wonderful praise kind of questions, you know, that's being asked in verse 11. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness? awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders. And then look at verse 13. Again, this is, I should have said, pardon me, this is the song of Moses, of the song after the Israelites cross the Red Sea by God's great power and redeeming love. Okay, verse 13. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. And then verses 17 and 18, you will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain. The place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established, the Lord will reign forever and ever. Again, I want to focus your attention on a few things that we've learned about. Verse 18 reminds us that the Lord Yahweh is king. He's particularly covenantal king. King is a very important part of the Old Testament. Number two, notice verse 13, you have led in your steadfast love. That's a particular kind of covenantal love. It was covenantal love that caused the Lord Yahweh to redeem his people. And so the second thing we want to remember is covenant. And the third is his tabernacle. And when we think of tabernacle, we may also think of temple, which will later be built, but tabernacle, temple, or God's dwelling place. God's dwelling place. It's that Emmanuel principle that God promises to dwell with his people. And he does this first in the Mosaic period in the tabernacle. And so the third thing we want to remember is his tabernacle or his dwelling place. And notice how that's highlighted in 13b. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. which is speaking of the tabernacle. Verse 17, you will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain. Now, I want you to note the mountain there. The mountain is going to be synonymously with the place where you made for your abode. Okay? So, mountain. is being further spoken of and taught there in verse 17 as also a place of his abode. That's important. And then, furthermore, the sanctuary which your hands have established. So we have three things that, with regard to the tabernacle, that we want to take note of. It's his abode, it's a mountain place, and it's called a sanctuary. Alright? So the three things that the Old Testament speak of that we want to keep in mind are king, Covenant and tabernacle or God's dwelling place and that you all you have all of those three things in Exodus 15 now if you will Turn then to 1st Corinthians 10, which is significant for our study of numbers Particularly our study for numbers no study of numbers would be complete without reading a few verses from 1st Corinthians 10 in 1st Corinthians 10 Paul is speaking for predominantly Gentile audience and Gentiles who have come to saving faith in Christ. That's recorded for us in Acts 18. Apollos was one of the first pastors there. You can imagine what kind of congregation that was. Apollos, with all his redemptive historical brilliance, bringing that down for the people every Lord's Day. So 1 Corinthians 10.1. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. And that's what we just read a portion of is the song at the sea. And the emphasis cloud is on his presence. Verse two, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. All right, so a very sad story, and that's all we have to look at today. I get the privilege of preaching on that this Lord's Day, but just to point out that Christ was in the wilderness with the Israelites. And the book of Numbers is about the wilderness experience of God's people, and particularly how Christ was that presence of God with them. All right? Very important that we always read the The Old Testament with our New Testament's open, understanding that the Old Testament is a time of promise and the New Testament's a time of fulfillment. And to remember that our Lord Jesus, starting with Moses and the prophets and the writings, showed how all of the Old Testament taught about him. So let's pray and then we'll get formally started, all right? All right, let's pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank you that you are the majestic God. You are the holy, holy, holy God. And we submit our hearts to you. We bow our hearts before you now. We thank you that you're the living God, the self-existent one, the eternal God, the infinite God, the all-knowing God, the all-seeing God, the everywhere present God. We thank you that you're a God who is transcendent, high and lifted up, but also one who is close to and pleased to be close to those who are contrite and lowly in heart. We thank you that you exalt the lowly and you bring down the proud. We thank you that you oppose the proud, but exalt those who are humble. We are grateful, Lord, as we come to you through your mediator, through the Lord Jesus. We're thankful for this opportunity to to come and serve you this day. We're thankful for the opportunity to live and move and have our being in you by your power, by your providential grace. We thank you that our lives are all patterned after your great wisdom and everything that works out in our life is for your glory and our good. We think there's no accidents in our lives, there's no chance, there's no impersonal fortune, that everything that happens to us is ultimately from your hand and because of your decree. And we know from your revealed will that all things are working out for the good of all those who are called according to your purpose. And so we can take great comfort in that. Fill us with your spirit now, help your servant as he teaches, help him to decrease that Christ may increase. And let us be reminded from you and through you and to you are all things to you be the glory forever and ever. Amen. And all the church said, Amen. All right, well, so here's what we'll do today. I'd like to do a review very briefly. All right. Take the first 10 minutes or so to review. Then I'd like to look at Numbers and Deuteronomy together, to look at the outline of the two books, the main theme of the books, those kind of things together. And then the last part of the class, I'd like to look at the book of Deuteronomy as a treaty document, as a treaty document, a covenantal treaty document. If you would, Grab your handouts on the tabernacle, both the one that gives us the tabernacle from the outside and the one that is open to look on the inside. If you forget to bring them, I placed some more at the back of the sanctuary that you can grab and follow along with me. Now, as I said last class, I want to review that. When we're thinking of the Old Testament, we want to think in of three primary things, king, covenant, and tabernacle, and tabernacle being the abode of God. So the tabernacle, the temple, God dwelling with man in a paradisiacal kind of way, in a way that is like a return to paradise. When we're dealing with Torah, we want to remember, we can remember three primary Ts, I think, that are helpful. We remember Toledot, We remember tabernacle, and today we'll look at treaty. Treaty, focusing in on the book of Deuteronomy. So still, if I could, looking at Tabernacle together first. I want to say a few things about that and why that's so central to the Torah or the books of Moses, the five books of Moses. And so today we're going to look at Tabernacle and treaty. And what I'd like you to see is that both of these, tabernacle and treaty, helps us to understand the ultimate purpose of God's redemption is for the worship and service of his people. The worship and service of people, and it's also to grant a righteousness. And so we have, if you will, right up front in focusing on the Pentateuch, we have worship and forgiveness as what we would call in theology a sanctification. That is, living a righteous life, living the forgiven life, living the repentant life. Okay, that's what we call sanctification. Both tabernacle and treaty give us that. They give us the way to sanctification. The righteousness that's revealed is our justification that's found in Christ alone. And so we'll talk more about that. But for now, let me just remind you of a few things with regard to the tabernacle. If you'll look on the outside, the handout of the tabernacle that shows you the outside, the tabernacle is central to the Torah. You think about it in this way. If you think of Genesis with this is the tabernacle as the tabernacle or the abode of God being central to the Torah. Think about it like this, okay, and I'm a man who likes alliteration. It helps my memory. If you have in Genesis the promise of a people and a place, okay, a people and a place, you have then in Exodus the revelation of that place and the priesthood. So these will all be with peas. I think that's helpful. So Genesis gives us promises of people and place, particularly to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus shows us the place. Much of Exodus, chapters 25 through 40, are about the tabernacle, the place where God's people will worship and serve him, the place where God will be served, where God will forgive the sins of the people. It's a place of sacrifice. It's a place of God's special presence. Leviticus then would be propitiation in the tabernacle. So how one's sins can be wiped out, taken away, how a believer in Israel could be forgiven was demonstrated all through Leviticus, all through the book of Leviticus as propitiation. Especially the central point of the book of Leviticus being chapter 16 with the Day of Atonement. So propitiation. Numbers is about placement of tribes. You know, that's the reason for the book of Numbers, is that it teaches about the placement of the tribes around the tabernacle. And guess who's in the center of Israel? Yahweh. And so it's a partial fulfillment that God will dwell with His people, all right, because of His great grace and redeeming love. Deuteronomy then would have our pact. or treaty. I'm just trying to stay consistent with the peas, but Deuteronomy would be a whole pact or covenantal pact or treaty that God has made with his people and deposits it where? In the tabernacle. So, since we're going to look at today at the the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, I think it'd be helpful to remind ourselves of a few things with regard to the tabernacle and why it would be so central. Well, the easy answer is that God dwells there. That's why. And God has promised that he will return his people to paradise, to a place greater than paradise, where God will be They're God, and the people will be His people. So God will be a God to His people, and He will show them favor and grace. Well, if you look at the tabernacle, notice a few things. We looked at this last time, so I want to do this very quickly. But as a review, look at the picture of the tabernacle that gives you the inside. Notice that it begins with the bronze altar, which is the place saying that as you approach God, you approach him with a sacrifice, with blood. And so right away, there's a humiliation or a humbling of believers that they must know that they can only approach God as they come through this altar. Then there's a place called the sea or the place of the water, the labor that is for cleansing and purification. So it is God that's going to cleanse and purify his people. And then as you walk into the holy place, this is the outer court, beloved. This is the outer court right here where the bronze altar and the labor are. And then when you walk in, you go into the holy place, you see On the right side, or the north, you see the bread of the presence, which reminds us of our God's provision for all that we need. It reminds us of Christ being the bread of life. To the left, or to the south, you will see the menorah, as we call it, or the lampstand right there. that is symbolic of oil and fire, a symbolism of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the light and illumination of the Holy Spirit. Everything that we need to know about Christ is here. With that, that lampstand is also a tree of life. It's to remind us that there's a tree of life that'll bring us back into God's presence, into paradise. And then there's an altar of incense. And it, if you will, forms a kind of, if you will, mystical curtain of prayer between the holy place and the most holy place. And that curtain is to remind us that it's only through the prayers or submission of God's people that they will ultimately enter in to the most holy place. And then the most holy place is entered by a priest as a mediator on our behalf once a year on the day of atonement to offer blood on the ark or the mercy seat, the top of the ark, that is a picture of God's throne. And so the people of God would then be blessed. The high priest would come out and bless all the people saying that the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. You could see the face of the Lord shining upon the people through the tabernacle. through the the lampstand That he would lift up his countenance upon you And the reason why that was is because God had provided a way to be approached. And so the Ark of the Covenant here is a throne It's a throne where God's majesty and kingship is known throughout Israel it is the intersection between heaven and earth. It's the place to meet God. And God comes down to meet and he accepts the blood on behalf of the people. And so here is the outer court. OK, and in the outer court, you have the bronze labor that reminds the people that they come humbly. You have the labor that washes and cleanses them from sin. You have the bread of the presence that reminds them of God's faithfulness. And there's 12 loaves to remind the people that God is faithful to all of his people all of the time. Then you've got the menorah that reminds the people of the tree of life and the anointing of the spirit that teaches the people about God being the light of the world. And then you have this altar of incense, and it's a place that the high priest must go through, but then he must go through this curtain to bring the sacrifice and offer it at the throne of God. And so there's an approach to God that he makes through the tapernacle that's central to the teaching of Moses that we want to understand. A large portion of the Torah is about the Tabernacle Temple. When the Song of the Sea is sung, it speaks about the place or the abode of God. In Exodus chapters 25 to 40, 15 chapters are spent on the place that will be built and the priesthood that will serve. Then Leviticus is primarily about purification. It's primarily about how to be made clean by God. It's about propitiation through blood. And then Numbers is about the placement of the tribes and how when the ark or the throne of God is lifted up and moves by the Spirit, then the people are to move in step with the Spirit. They're to keep in step with the Spirit. They're to walk and talk with God. And when the throne of God rests, they're to rest. And when the throne of God is picked up, they're to march to the heavenly paradise He's taking them to. There's placement and then pact or treaty. What I want you to note here is that there are three degrees of approaching God. There's the outer court, one. There's the holy place, two. And there's three, the most holy place, which is the most holy place, the place where God dwells. And there we must always have a mediator to approach God, and we must be through blood. and intercession. And Beloved, I just want to say that what we want to understand at this point is how much Christ is revealed. If you've read through the Gospel of John, you understand that in the beginning it tells us that was the Word. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. And the Word that is became flesh and tabernacled. Tabernacled in our midst. The same word for tabernacle. Eschenade. He tabernacled, and the point being is that that tabernacle would point to Christ, our tabernacle. And so you go back and you look at this, you see Christ's body being laid down on the cross, Christ's blood bringing purification, and then being able to approach in here to know him as the bread of life. to know him as the one who is the tree of life, the one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure for his people, and the one who is the light of the world. All of the tabernacle language is used of Jesus Christ, that in his ministry he ever lives to pray and intercede for his people, and that he has gone, not in a tabernacle made with hands, but he's gone into heaven itself to appear on behalf as mediator, as high priest. on behalf of all who believe. And so he's in that throne room. In fact, he's at God's right hand in the throne room, not made with hands, full of the Holy Spirit for whatever we need. That's why the tabernacle is central to not only the Torah, but to the Old Testament and to the coming of Jesus Christ. So this is what you want to understand is from the point of view for the believers, the believers in Israel, and remember, beloved, not everybody who was in Israel was Israel. Not everybody in Israel were truly believers. Some only saw an outward form that if they took this blood offering, that it was through the blood offering that they would merit something before God. And so it was a works-based religion. like that is the default of all mankind. But true Israel, true believing Israel always saw through these things to the promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In other words, they saw through these things to the promise of Jesus Christ. And so while they didn't know as much as we did, they knew that this was in their place and they believed it by faith. though it would not be fully revealed until Christ came. That's how in 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul, as we read earlier, can say that Christ was in the wilderness. All right. So let's look at this now with numbers. I put down as numbers as the placement. And I think most of you know what I'm talking about. If not, let me try to explain. The 12 tribes were placed around the tabernacle. Those are the placement of the tribes, guys. I'm sorry that's not a little bit better. And the one right at the doorway of the tabernacle. This is north, right? This is north, this is east, this is south, this is west. When mankind fell from paradise, what direction was he sent in? He was sent east of Eden. So what direction does mankind go now in the tabernacle to get back to God and a place like paradise? He goes west. He goes west, young man. And so, west is here. And who, what tribe of the twelve who are surrounding the tabernacle to remind them that their whole lives should be theocentric, God-centered. Their whole lives should be determined by the worship and service of God and by the atoning mercies and grace of God. Everything was of grace. They were redeemed by grace in order to enjoy, by faith alone, justification. righteousness that was not their own, that was imputed to them, that these sacrifices symbolized that pointed forward to Jesus Christ. They were to walk in a holy manner, walk and talk with God by His Holy Spirit. His Spirit dwelled in this place. And what tribe is up front at the doorway? It's Judah. The sun always shone on the doorway first. on the tribe of Judah and on the doorway of the temple. To say that when the sun would rise, there was writing on the doorway, this way, this way. So every son of the Lord Jesus Christ would ultimately be the one from the tribe of Judah who would come and do two things, at least, lots of things, right? But one, he would lay down his own life for sinners on the mercy seat not made with hands. That's Hebrews 9 through 10, or actually Hebrews 8 through 10. And there's a contrast in Hebrews 8 through 10, chapters 8 through 10, about the tabernacle made with hands, all right, and the reality that was in heaven. And Jesus Christ would, one, lay down his own life, and two, what would he do? Somebody tell me, if the ark is symbolic of the throne of God, what then was the throne pointing forward to? The heavenly reality of what particularly with the throne? his ascension, that he would sit down at the right hand of the throne on high. And that's what's so glorious about Pentecost is we're told over and over on the day of Pentecost that Jesus sat down, received the Spirit without measure, and then poured it out on his church to make a new tabernacle, a place where God's presence would dwell with his people. And so, there's so much more we could say about this to try to show you through the Bible. Maybe one other thing that I'd like to show to you would be in these degrees of 1, 2, 3 that are given here, It's fascinating that that's revealed throughout redemptive histories, revealed throughout the Old Testament and fulfilled in Christ. And I want us to consider this. This is fascinating, I think. Well, as you go from out the outer court into the holy place, to the most holy place, you remember the materials are made of more precious, so as you get closer to God, the materials that make up the building are more precious. So you have bronze out here, but then in here you have something, you have the beautiful tapestry on the inside of the curtains, okay, and the beautiful colors and dyes that were used, and then in here you have nothing but gold. you have gold. So even you're being, God is teaching his people that he must be approached in a certain way. And what we can note here is throughout the Bible, this is shown to us. In the prophets, Eden is called God's holy mountain. And so in Eden even, there was, if you will, typified a one, two, three, a place, three being the place where God would dwell with man, There was a 1, 2, 3. In Eden, what that 3 place was, was called paradise, beloved, paradise. And what 2 was, was the earth. And 1 was the seas. And we see this 1, 2, 3 even in Noah's ark. where we have one in the seas, two in the land, and three in the sky or the heavens. Again, pointing forward, there'll be this rainbow, this beautiful rainbow that reminds us that three is about looking upward to the sky, to the heavens. Unbelievable stuff, right? Then, on Mount Moriah, You have, if you will, the top of Mount Moriah is the place where Abraham is tested with his son. You have on Mount Sinai, the people are redeemed from Sinai, and there's three degrees on the mountain. There are those, the people can come close to the bottom of the mountain, but they cannot touch it. and then they can come closer, the priests can come up to some degree, the elders can come to some degree with Moses, but only Moses can come up to paradise and receive the instructions for the tabernacle. And then what's cool is, as they leave the tabernacle, or as they leave the Sinai, it's basically that he tells them how to build a mountain. The mountain is just, the tabernacle is just a laid down mountain. It's a horizontal mountain. So he lays it down and he tells them how to build a tabernacle that will be one, two, three, and paradise will be there. The place where Moses met will be there. And it's amazing. So you go further through the Bible and you see the Lord Jesus coming and you see the top of the mountain for the transfiguration. And then at the end of time, there's this great mountain where the final battle will take place. In the Hebrew, it's called Har Megiddon. And we call it Armageddon. So at the end of time, there's a mountain here where God's finale will take place before the consummation. And then what happens? But the new Jerusalem will come down and heaven and earth will be reunited forever and ever. Amen. So there'll be no one, two, three. It'll all be together and united. It's fascinating. So there's so much more to say about that, but it's just to say that throughout the Bible there's this approach and that as paradise is a mountain, so paradise is returned to in a super way after the battle of Har-Megadon. Har is the word for mountain in the Bible, mount. And so Armageddon, as we know it, will then bring in paradise. And God will dwell with man. And it's from above that he brings down, through the Lord Jesus, his mediation, he brings down the new Jerusalem. So it's very fascinating how that's all revealed very clearly in the Bible. And I want you to think about that. You'll find other things, but that's one very important thing. Well, let's look at Numbers together and Deuteronomy. We're going to look at Numbers very briefly. But if you go away and you say, what was the main two points that Pastor Biggs wanted us to remember about Numbers? I'd say, remember the placement of the tribes, because that's significant with regard to the tabernacle. In other words, the very placement geographically, spatially, was to teach the people their lives were to be oriented toward God in the middle. that they were to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbors themselves. And they were to know that the righteousness they needed was found in God alone. And that forgiveness was offered in the tabernacle where God dwelled. So it's a forgiveness from God. And when God marched, the people would march with him in the spirit. And that's why you have throughout the book of Numbers the cloud by day and the fire by night. All right. So Book of Numbers, beloved, let's do some interaction now. The Book of Numbers, how would you summarize the Book of Numbers thematically or as a main summary sentence or two? How would you summarize that book? Right. Anybody have, you can raise your hand. Yes, sir. Very good. Excellent. Excellent. Wilderness wanderings. That's on my top five. If it's not the top. Excellent. Wilderness wanderings. Very important. Yes, sir. OK. God's people described. Good. All right. Okay, God progressing his plan despite his people. All right, very good. They don't make a lot of progress in numbers, right? It's a book where the Israelites don't make a lot of progress. Yeah, it's heightened, isn't it, in a way that should cause us to pause, that God's right in the center, that he's built his whole world, if you will. He's made himself known. He's tabernacled in their midst. He's with them. He's Emmanuel. And yet, it's still so easy for them to forget who they are as God's redeemed people. It's still so easy for them to take for granted God's special presence, to forget the past of His faithfulness, right? And to live the way that they want to live. I put down this, a story of wilderness wandering and the grumbling unfaithfulness of Israel. Okay? A story of wilderness wandering and the grumbling unfaithfulness of Israel. One of the things that we're reminded throughout the scriptures is the...we're reminded of the grumbling of Israel, even though God was in their midst. And that's something to really think about, beloved, as the people of God who don't just have God dwelling in our midst, but who have God dwelling in us. You know, we're his tabernacle now. If he didn't make that connection, think about the fact that we're his holy temple. We're the place where his spirit dwells now. All right. So for an outline for numbers, it'd be something like this. Numbers 1 through 10 would be focused at Sinai. Numbers 13 through 19 would be at Kadesh. And then numbers 22 to 36 would be Moab, or the plains of Moab, where they're right about to go in to take the promised land. OK? One of the themes I put down was Pilgrims East of Eden Pursuing the Promised Land. Pilgrims East of Eden Pursuing the Promised Land. And if you haven't made this connection yet, I encourage you to do so. That the Most Holy Place was really, in typological symbolic form, a further revelation of the land. The land's purpose was to show that God would dwell with his people and rule over them, right? But the most holy place is that microcosm of the land. And so it was never the land as an end that the people were putting their hope in. It was never the most holy place ultimately here on earth that the people were putting their hope in. The land and the most holy place pointed to the heavenly inheritance that was found in God, in God. The Lord was to be their possession and their inheritance, ultimately. So keep that in mind. They're pilgrims east of Eden pursuing the promised land. So when you think of them going west to the Most Holy Place through a mediator, they're pursuing the promised land. Now, you say to me, they're going to be in the promised land. Yes, but they're pursuing that which the promised land points upward and forward to. So the thematic outline, these are four things I would have you remember about the book of Numbers, okay? Wilderness, wandering, or pilgrimage. Wilderness, wandering, or pilgrimage. Wilderness, wandering, or pilgrimage. Two, testing or trials. Testing and trials. Three, God with us. And God with us particularly, you ready? In the fire, in the cloud. not only in the tabernacle, but reinforcing that in the cloud, in the fire in the cloud. Some Bible teachers have called the fire in the cloud the very image of the Holy Spirit. And I think that's a good way to describe the fire in the cloud. Because what did the fire do but give them illumination, light, warmth, as the Holy Spirit does? And what does the cloud do but give them comfort during the day in an arid desert land? So, so he's the comforter. So he's picturing, he's giving them, he's giving, he's accommodating to their weakness by building their faith by showing them more than just giving them the tabernacle. He's saying, I'll show you the Holy Spirit in image that you can get by faith and understand. So God's very, very gracious. So it's God with us, not only in the tabernacle, but in the fire and the cloud. That's his presence. And number four, rebellion and disobedience. You know, rebellion and disobedience. Because of time, I need to move quickly to Deuteronomy. Number four was rebellion and disobedience of God. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Wilderness, wandering, and pilgrimage, or wilderness, wandering, or pilgrimage. Number two, testing trials. Number three, God with us, not only in Tabernacle, but firing cloud. And then four, rebellion, disobedience. Okay? What I'd like you to see from 1 Corinthians and from what we've talked about, the tabernacle, so let's give us the main two scriptures from the New Testament, John 1.14 and 1 Corinthians 10, 1 through 11. Let's remember that it's Christ who is in the tabernacle. Christ is revealed in the tabernacle and Christ is in the wilderness. I want to say this as carefully as I can, but I want us to get this. When Christ is present, it is a pre-incarnate Christ, because until the fullness of the time and until the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary and Mary conceives, that's when Jesus Christ is conceived and united to the Son of God in permanent hypostatic union. So there is, that's an important language to talk about pre-incarnate Christ or Christ before the incarnation. At the same time, it's important to stress that what Christ would accomplish is spiritually present really and truly for the Old Testament saints, just as much as for us today. So these were not just signs, naked signs. when people looked at him by the Holy Spirit, if they were true believers and regenerated, they could truly see through those signs and cry and the ministry that the Spirit would minister to them. He would he would grow them. He would sanctify them. So we never want to say that these Old Testament types are just just though it takes place in the time before the incarnation, they're not bare signs. There's truly a spiritual power and efficacy for believers. To put it in a different way, They're sacraments. They're sacraments. And so Christ is really and truly present. Absolutely not. Absolutely perverted. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. The law was to always point forward to the life that we were to live at creation. that perfect life and that heavenly life in loving God with all our hearts so my strength our neighbors herself everything before said what the law was powerless to do was it couldn't change simple hearts once the fall occurred and so as the pharisee sought the contrast that's often made right between the new testament being so much better than the old is not uh... it's not to take away the good revelation that happened in the old testament but it is to say that it's much better in this sense Often there was an abuse of the understanding of the law, like a works principle, that was not present in the Old Covenant for true believers. Never. And so when the New Testament, like Paul, is contrasting grace and law, he's not putting them in this tension as if they were supposed to be two different things. You see, that they have become two different things is the truth because of sin and because men have perverted the purpose of the law. I'll just right now while answering the question, the law has three purposes that we always want to keep in mind. The law of God has three purposes, and I'm going to say more about this in Deuteronomy in just a moment. The law has three purposes. Number one, it reveals sin. You know, so when you look at the law, God showed very clearly what he hates. At the same time, it restrains sin because when people are told what they shouldn't do, at least in a cultural, social way, it tends to be very helpful, especially the common grace of the Spirit helping people to be more lawful, even if it is merely external. It has a point of restraining men's sins. If it says, don't murder, men are less likely to murder. And number three, it's to reveal righteousness or the way that mankind was created to live. That's the third purpose of the law. The third use of the law is how the reformers mentioned it. The three uses of the law were that the law was always to reveal sin, restrain sin, and then to make known righteousness, that is, a true righteousness that's found in Christ alone. So what I'm saying here, to be as clear as possible, that the tabernacle was a kind of symbol of gospel grace, right? that man could see that the righteousness they needed could not be found by the works of the law. It was found by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ as he was foreshadowed at this particular time. And the righteousness that's given in the law was the righteousness that believers were enabled to live, not perfectly, but sincerely in walking and talking with God. That's it. Always... We always want to remember that ultimately the law is like that picture of the enchanted mirror. That at the first glance, when you look in the law, you see the face of a thrice holy God. You see the majesty of God. You see the goodness of God, the power of God. At the second glance into that enchanted mirror, you see yourself and your need. And that humbles you before that God in his majesty to beg for only mercy. As you have humbled yourself by His grace and learned to live, then you still, every day, you look into the law and you say, I see my majestic King. I see His Christ. I see my Savior. And I humble myself before you, King, and ask that by your Holy Spirit, you'd help me to live a godly life today in accordance with your law. That's how you use the law. The law is to give us a guidance for how to live in Christ, ultimately. All right. And true believers found that in the Old Testament. We have to move on, all right? But I'm tempted to say it. I'm having a conversation with Mr. Elliot James about this that's been helpful. And one of the things we want to say is that the Judaism of Jesus's time was a false religion. It still is today. It was not the Old Testament religion. And I can't say more than that right now. I know that's provocative, but it's very true. The Judaism of Saul was not the Christianity of Paul. The Christianity of Paul was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The Judaism of Saul was a murderous, bloody, man-centered mess. And it still is today. I got to smile? I'm smiling. Let's just move on, all right? We've got to move on. But that's just to say that even though they use Old Testament language and Old Testament scripture, it does not mean that it didn't become, over time, a system of unbelief. It did, all right? For some, for some. You remember the time of Elijah? Elijah wondered, is he the only one who's really preaching the gospel and really believing? You remember? The church was in a desperate time, in desperate straits many times throughout the old covenant. And in Jesus' time, there were some who were awaiting the coming, Simeon and Anna and Mary and Joseph, but not a lot, especially when Jesus started telling them that he was God in the flesh. I didn't sell a lot of...anyway. All right, we've got to start with Deuteronomy now. So what I would say about Deuteronomy that you want to see is the triune God's revealed. I'm sorry. What I want you to see about the revelation of God in Numbers is that the triune God is revealed. The Father, you know, meets the people at the throne. The blood symbolizes Jesus Christ. And for that matter, the whole tabernacle symbolizes Jesus Christ and his work. And the Spirit is present with the fire and the cloud. So that's the book of Numbers. Let's move to Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, we want to look primarily at the treaty or the pact. And before we look at Deuteronomy, let me say a few things, if I may, about the book is that Deuteronomy in its form as a biblical book is in a treaty form. And that law was deposited, if you remember here, the law that is revealed in the Torah of Moses is deposited in the ark. And so it's under the throne of God. And it's to show that if anyone is to have that perfect righteousness that the law reveals, it's going to be through humble submission to the majestic God who wants to give grace. and thus the blood that's laid down on the top of the tabernacle. So you see, you have the coming together of grace and law right here in the tabernacle. It's not one or the other. It is the law was to bring them to grace and grace was to teach them the law. OK, so law was to bring them to the realization of God's grace, and then that grace was to bring them to the realization they were to live the law. So the law was there, remember? And so the law says, only you can provide a righteousness, Lord. I've seen what you demand of me. Oh, majestic, holy one, offer mercy. Here in my place is blood. Here in my place is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in my place, through a mediator, you've provided a way for me to fellowship with you. Now grant me the strength to live for you. All right, so let's call the book of Deuteronomy the covenantal or the constitutional covenant of Israel. The Constitutional Covenant of Israel. And you know, I can tell by the time I'm going to have to bleed this over, we're going to have to do a little bit today and then continue next time. All right. We're on track. We're on track. No problem here. All right. We'll get through May and we'll be... And now turning to Joshua. You know, I did have an old test professor. He was outstanding. He told us so many wonderful things about Genesis 1 through 3, but it was supposed to be Genesis through Joshua, right? And at the end of the class, we got a lot out of Genesis 1 through 3. And we told him that, and he said, it happens every year. There's just so much there. So, we're going to try to keep moving. Let's do that, all right? I'm getting in my moving mode. You ready? Let me say, I want to say three things about Deuteronomy. That would be a good way to do it, and then anything left over we'll do next time. Can everybody handle that? You ready? All right. Let's buckle in. First thing is an outline of Deuteronomy as a covenant document. And the third thing I'll say is about Deuteronomy as a covenant document in its form, all right? So, right now we're looking at the content. Alright, so in four points, in four points, the outline of Deuteronomy would be something like this. You ready? It's number one. Let's call this a thematic outline. That's what I want to do. Let's call this a thematic outline for Deuteronomy. Number one is that it's a covenant document. So covenant document is number one. Covenant document. Number two, it reveals the covenant commandments or law of God. Number two is it reveals the covenant commandments or the law of God. Number three, it's basically a collection of a covenant mediator's sermons. Because who's the covenant mediator at this time? Moses. And basically it's a collection of sermons, right, to the people before they go into the promised land. All right? So it's a covenant mediator sermons. And number four, it contains covenant blessings and curses. All right? So covenant document, covenant commandments, law of God, covenant mediator sermons, and covenant blessings and curses. All right? All right. The Book of Deuteronomy is the theological core of the entire Old Testament. It's one of the most cited Old Testament books, along with three others, Genesis, Isaiah, and the Psalms. Deuteronomy is very, very, very much quoted. And one of the things that, the second thing I want you to remember, I'm running out of room over here, good. The second thing I want you to remember is not only that thematic outline, but this is so important for the study of Deuteronomy. Imagine Deuteronomy. as the son of Revelation. At this point in the Old Testament, it's the son. And the books that will orbit around Deuteronomy are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and this will end, of course, the story with Chronicles in the Jewish arrangement. Deuteronomy is referred to constantly through Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles. In fact, it's impossible to understand the historical books or the former and latter prophets without Deuteronomy. Just very quickly, I'll say more about this, but just think about it for a moment, that when there's a time for a king, how do they know what a king's supposed to look like? It's found in Deuteronomy 17, for instance. When the prophets are talking about Israel breaking the covenant, what do they refer to but the teaching of Moses? And especially the sermons that Moses preached in Deuteronomy. So the second most important thing about Deuteronomy that I want you to know, the thematic is number one. Number two is Deuteronomy is the sun around which the former and latter prophets will will orbit or do orbit. And I think when you know that, it really helps you to understand, to look for certain things. When Moses is used in shorthand, when the people are talking about Moses, I'll give you an example of this very quickly in Malachi 4. Right at the end of our Protestant canon, Some of the last words in our Protestant canon, listen to this, you ready? Chapter 4, verse 4, this is an example of what I mean about orbiting. All the prophets do this, by the way, but here's one very clear example. Remember the law of my servant Moses. The statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. In other words, you better know your Deuteronomy before the coming of Messiah. There's a Messiah is laid out, and we find out that there's a king coming. Oh, we found out a prophet greater than Moses. We find out there's a priesthood. There's a prophet, priest, and king coming. And everything we need to know about him has been told us in Moses. We need to be prepared to read our Bibles. So that's number two. And then number three, oh, you know earlier where we talked about the three purposes of the law, three uses? Maybe another alliteration that might be helpful, straight from my notes, I'm going back there just for a second, is to reveal, I said, reveal sin and restrain sin. The third R would be revealing the will of God. Revealing the will of God. I think I said that, but there's another R for you. The righteousness of the revelation of God and his will. All right. Now, third point, very important, Deuteronomy as a constitutional covenant. Deuteronomy is a constitutional covenant. So if we looked at Deuteronomy in its content a second ago with the themes, we're going to look at its form now. Now, in the ancient Near East, studies have found that there were these things called suzerain vassal treaties. And I don't have a lot of time to go into the history of that. But it was simply this, that these suzerain vassals, a king, would conquer a people. And if the king wanted to show mercy or grace to his vassals, to his new people, he would make a covenant with them. And his covenant would have a certain form. And this was found among the Hittites and others in the ancient Near East. And so what's interesting about this, and maybe all I can say about it, is that when we see Deuteronomy as a constitutional covenant, we should remind ourselves that our God is, of course, the originator of the covenant. But he's also one who accommodates to us wherever we are in history. He uses forms that, of course, he's ultimately the author of. But he uses forms that Israel would have been familiar with. And so the whole of the book of Deuteronomy is a covenant document. How so? All right. Let's look at this. And this is we'll close in just a moment. But let's do it. Six parts. Ready? Six parts of the covenant document. No, no, no. Very quickly, very quickly. As a constitutional covenant, these are the six parts that the ancient Susrene vassal treaties also had. So the king would say, I've conquered you, but I want to show you mercy. I won't kill you. But in order to live, hear the language, in order to live in my presence with the privileges, all right, and benefits and blessings of my rule and reign, these are the things I require of you. Is that cool? That's what we hear in Deuteronomy, right? That's what we hear in the Bible. So number one is a preamble. Number one is a preamble. This is where the sovereign king is introduced and his leadership is declared. All right? So a preamble is number one. Where do we find that? In Deuteronomy 5 with the giving of the law. And it's also in Exodus 20, the giving of the law. So the Ten Commandments, how does it begin? I am Yahweh who has redeemed you, right? What did you say? Yes, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, who's redeemed you. Amen. All right, number two, there's a historical prologue. And again, this is in the way of Deuteronomy. There's a historical prologue which summarizes the relationship between the sovereign king and the mercies that he's shown already to the people. All right, so a historical prologue. This is found in Deuteronomy 4, verses 32 to 38. Deuteronomy 4, 32 to 38. Also in Exodus 20, verse 2, what Margaret just had mentioned, that I'm the God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. That's the historical prologue. Isn't that cool? That's a form. Here's the preamble. Here's the historical prologue that I'm the God who has shown you mercy. Number three are stipulations. Now stipulations are just, it's just a big word for responsibilities or obligations. And the stipulations are basically, I want your loyalty. Because I've shown you mercy, I want your full heart. Because I have been kind to you and not given you what you deserve, but given you grace, I want your hearts, your wholehearted devotion and loyalty to me. So Deuteronomy is a completely gospel-centered, oriented book. And that's found in Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 6, the stipulations. And they're found in other places as well, but I'm just mentioning a few here. Of course, also you have in these stipulations in Exodus, chapter 20, where God gives us the first table of the law and how we're to love him and serve him with our whole hearts. All right? Number four, there's the act of depositing of the covenant in the sanctuary. This is cool right here. I think this is very cool. This is where the covenant document is deposited in the sanctuary. And the reason why the ancient kings and God himself as king would do that is for periodic reading. So the mediator or the leaders or the family heads would read over the document. That's why you've got to ask yourself in Judges, in Judges, why are the people doing what's right in their own eyes? Why aren't they reading the covenant document? And why is it that later on in Josiah's reform, he finds the treaty? He says, oh, let's read this. And everybody weeps and cries, I haven't heard this before. What? What did you do all this time? You see, the whole point was that the pact, the treaty, had been broken and had not been read. And so inside the tabernacle under the throne, where the blood was shed, was the copy. God gave him a copy. And go in. Oh, yeah, that's right. Number three, got to remember to honor God's name. God's character. There it is, right there. Better tell people that. The king was to make a copy of the law himself, Deuteronomy 17. The king who would be over Israel was to make a copy of the law himself and read it to the people regularly. Now, I encourage you, this is a great application that I got from a mentor that I try to do as well, is when you're doing your devotions, right, or doing your scripture memory or meditation, write it down. Write it out. Memorize it like that. Write it out a lot so that you can remind yourself. So the depositing of the covenant, number five, there were witnesses. Oh, I didn't give you the scriptures for that. Depositing of the covenant is Deuteronomy 17, verses 13 through 20. Deuteronomy 17, verses 13 through 20. And then witnesses to the covenant. That's number five, witnesses. Now, have you ever, come on, have you ever been reading the prophets? And the prophets, by the way, it's really cool. When we get to the prophets, I'll tell you more about this, but they're covenant prosecutors. You ever thought about that? They're covenant prosecutors. They have their copy of the law and they're going, oh, Israel, you have failed to do what Moses said. You are guilty. And they'll say, I call heaven and earth as my witness. Why is he calling witnesses about? What's this witness thing? All right, because all creation, all creation was witnessing. this covenant that God made, the true God made with his people. And so you can see even Moses calls out and witnesses before the creation in Deuteronomy 30 verses 19 through 20. And so the witnesses of covenant are summoning witnesses to come around and say, tell Israel what they did. I'm calling. I'm calling at this time creation to come up to the to the to the dock, come up, come up to the stand and testify against Israel. Because I'm prosecuting them against not loving God with all their heart, soul and mind and strength and making the law an idol, making a religion of an idol out of religion. Not really loving God, honoring him with their mouth, but their hearts are far from them. Come, let creation come and testify. That's what the covenant prophets are doing. That's what the prophets are doing. So witnesses to the covenant, number six. Oh, I think I just lost a couple of pounds. I was really good. I've been trying to, you know, I ate a lot of cake. So over Christmas, so it's really nice. Okay, number six, curses and blessings of the covenant. Curses and blessings of the covenant. And so this is where it's laid out very clearly that there are curses for covenant disobedience, and there are blessings for obedience. And this is found in Deuteronomy 28 and 29, and it's also found in Leviticus. Now, why don't we do this? I have quite a few notes that I'd be happy to send out to you again. Anything that we don't cover, you can read more fully on Deuteronomy, okay? And I would even offer you, if you want it, a one-page little overview that I wrote on Deuteronomy. So I'll provide that for you this week, so you'll have, I think, more to focus in on. But there's something I want to say, and I don't have the time today, so I'd like to begin next week. What's often confusing about covenant is understanding whether it's conditional or unconditional, right? And so I'll just leave you with that question. My quick answer for that is that it's both, purposely. That throughout the scriptures, there's this unconditionality that's revealed of the covenant and a conditionality that's revealed. And there's a real tension that's only relieved in Christ Jesus. And of course, you could probably guess how he relieves it, but I will have you meditate on that until next time. He relieves it in a way that shows us that God can offer an unconditional covenant that really has unconditionality, and it also has conditions. All right? Kind of paradoxical, but it's really just Christ-centered. The only thing I need to fill in here is because I'm a completist, is that foreshadowing the incarnation, we talked about that, right? And a revelation of the triune God, right? So that was our numbers part. So when we think of the pact or the treaty that's placed in there, beloved, You think about what it does. Let's go back as we close to the great promise of the covenant document of Deuteronomy. Ready? There was a king coming. He'd be greater than Moses. He'd be from the line of Judah. And there'd be this wonderful prophet, greater than Moses, who would speak God's final word to his people, a word of grace. And he would reveal sin and he would give reveal the will of God in righteousness, both in his... And how he would fulfill the tabernacle and the treaty is that he would offer us a true righteousness that's not our own in his life, in his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and then he would give us his Holy Spirit in place, and that we could worship God in forgiveness and in repentance. Okay? So ultimately all of the Bible is about Jesus Christ, isn't it? All right, so shall we close?