Congregation, this morning to book number five, we're in Deuteronomy. Remembering that the Lord used Moses to pen these words of the first five books, we have the privilege of seeing these things, we'll consider God's great mercy and grace in the life of his people as It is displayed here in the book of Deuteronomy, and consider our call, our response and reaction to what God blesses us with in his word. So you'll find the readings there printed in the bulletin. We'll try to move through those. I want to say rapidly, though that sometimes is a bad connotation, follow along. Let's read together in Deuteronomy, beginning in chapter one, one through three. These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan, that is, in the Erebah, opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. It takes 11 days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir Road. In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them. To chapter four, 32 through 40. Chapter four, beginning at verse 32. Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth. Ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened? Or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire as you have and lived? Has any God ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God. Besides him, there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his presence and his great strength to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you, and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance as it is today. Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time. And then to chapter six, these familiar words, beginning at verse four. Deuteronomy six, beginning at verse four and through verse nine. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. Next we'll go on to chapter 10, beginning at verse one. Chapter 10 and one through five. At that time, the Lord said to me, chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden chest. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the chest. So I made the arc of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones. And I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the 10 commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now. Chapter 11. 26 to 32, chapter 11. Beginning at verse 26 to the end of that chapter. See I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. The curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods which you have not known. When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings and on Mount Ebal the curses. As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Morah in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today. To chapter 20, beginning at verse one. Notice the balance that the Lord gives to his people in the word, beloved, as we have it now in chapter 20. the first four verses. When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priests shall come forward and address the army. He shall say, hear O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint hearted or afraid. Do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. Well then beloved to the last chapter 34, Chapter 34, probably penned by Joshua. Listen, chapter 34. Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh. all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the city of Palms as far as Zohar. Then the Lord said to him, this is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor. But to this day, no one knows where his grave is. Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses. Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. I'm gonna turn back for our text, beloved, chapter 29. I was gonna have us read through chapter 30, verse 10. We've already read that section, so we'll begin in chapter 29 at verse one. Now listen to what God is saying to his covenant people as they're about to enter the land. These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them, your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. During the 40 years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God. When you reach this place, Sihon, king of Heshban, and Og, king of Bashan, came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Carefully follow the terms of this covenant so that you may prosper in everything you do. All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God, your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the aliens living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water. You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath. to confirm you this day as his people, so that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am making this covenant with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here today. You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, I will be safe even though I persist in going my own way. This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The Lord will never be willing to forgive him. His wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. The Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask, why has the Lord done this to the land? Why this fierce burning anger? And the answer will be, it is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshipped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore, the Lord's anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath, the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. And the last, if you obey, verse 10, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this book of the law, and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Let's follow your congregation, God's glorious word. Let's ask his help as we continue this morning. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you. For the four books that we have already had before us, we've perhaps been able to read them through the past weeks, and now Deuteronomy, perhaps we were able ourselves to read it in preparation for this time, but Lord, we thank you that you give to us in the Bible everything we need so that we are convinced we need the book of Deuteronomy. Oh Lord, this morning show us how. Bless us under the preached word that we may grow in godliness, and that your name might be manifest through us to our friends and neighbors and to the world. Help us then this morning by your spirit. We ask humbly, but with confidence, because we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the covenant people, it is time. They have wandered, but the time of wandering is at its end. They were disciplined for the sin of disbelief, but that discipline has accomplished God's purpose. God has now instructed their minds and softened their hearts, and yes, he does that to us too, doesn't he? He softens our hearts that he might instruct our minds. You've experienced something of that, haven't you? Maybe in the past months, maybe in the past years, you can look at your life and you can reflect and you can come to the conclusion that God has been at work in my life. I've grown. My perspective of him has been heightened. My love for him has been deepened. And as something that we say about ourselves and something in one way or another, Israel must have been considering as they stand on the edge. There's another lesson they're gonna need to learn, and it is about the coming accomplishments, which will happen almost in their midst. Do we say something about our accomplishments that go like this? My successes, my, quote, victories, they are all God's doing. They are His work. God has used his word in my life such that I've overcome this. I've been faithful in that. I have been growing in these things. This is something Israel is about to learn. They didn't really learn it much in their wilderness wanderings, but the battles, they are right before them. When Israel marches around Jericho in the next book, and the walls come tumbling down, It is going to be that way in part because of what God has already been preparing them since Abraham's day to understand, that he is their deliverer, that he is their God. And so Deuteronomy, last lessons, last blessings and curses, promises and warnings before they enter the land, it is time. The Lord calls his people to remember his mercies as they enter the promised land. The Lord calls his people to remember his mercies as they enter the promised land. Well, then first of all, Deuteronomy in its context, we just read that the covenant people are on year number 40. past the deliverance out of Egypt, chapter one, verse three. In fact, God reminds his people in Deuteronomy five times that 40 years have come and gone. He impresses upon them that all the fighting men from the numbering, remember the book of Numbers, all those fighting men of the grand army of the covenant are now dead and gone, save two, Caleb and Joshua. Now the nation is situated in the region that later Elimelech will bring his wife Naomi and their two sons, the land of Moab. They're on the eastern edge across the Jordan from Jericho. There is rich grace displayed in Deuteronomy, particularly, again, the patience of our God. Our God is incredibly patient, isn't he? Can I ask you again, is that something that you have experienced? Could you catalog such patience that God has shown to you if you were asked to write it down on a piece of paper? This is what God has done for me. These are the ways he has been bearing up with my struggles. He has longed suffering. Could you say God is patient? Now, I would suggest we could each easily say that and write it down. But you can already glean from the readings that we had this morning, and we're going to deal with more of that in a moment, you can also glean that God isn't just patient, He is also strict. Can we use such words? Can you speak that way? Will the world in 2025, as we go towards 2026, will our young people, the millenniums and all the rest of them, will they be able to say with a straight face, my God is strict? Or do we find those two truths of God off-putting, separating each other? God is patient, can he also be strict? What is he saying to his people? How much need will there be for the sacrifices that God has shown already in the books that we've been studying for a people that respond in the ways that we respond to the strictness of God. You see, beloved, He's been forming them. He's been shaping them. He's been arranging the people's hearts and minds. I think about this when I think of the instruction of God to his prophets when they have to put wood on the altar. I've mentioned this to you before, but it occurs in several places in the Old Testament. And often when we read it, we just fly right back, right past it, because the text says, when you put the wood on the altar, arrange it. And we say, oh, well, arrange the wood. You see, beloved, he says such things because he wants us to understand 1 Corinthians 14, 40, that everything must be done decently and in good order. And so he has been ordering, arranging the hearts and minds of his people. This is Deuteronomy. This is God saying, look, I have put you in the right position and in the right situation. This is now the instruction book of God's law as you enter into the land. God's law book. Some Christians really bite and grind about words like that. Deuteronomy is God's law book. In fact, we have a whole contingent of a broader Christian church who will say about themselves, listen, I'm a New Testament believer. And if you go to one of their churches on Sunday, you'll hear preaching such as it is, only always from the New Testament, never wanting to consider that maybe God has something to say to his people from the Old Testament. Well, beloved, do we affirm, can we say something like this? Deuteronomy is God's law book and the people need it. Or do we think on the other hand, do we think that lawlessness would work? Lawlessness? Let me put this challenge in front of you. How would it be in your neighborhood, where you live right now, if there was never any police response to any event that ever happened, and everybody quickly came to understand that the police will never come, no matter what I do to somebody else, there will never be a reckoning, would you be comfortable living in a lawless neighborhood? Laws are designed by God to keep us in line, yes, and such is a great mercy. It is right to say in this context, and Deuteronomy makes much of this, that the law of God is a particular grace in the right sense of that word. Think about when that lawful grace began. We've already covered four of the books, but when did that lawful grace begin? It began in the Garden of Eden. And I can give you a specific example of that. What did God do after Adam and Eve fell as he is extracting them out of the garden? Did he just leave the garden as an open opportunity for them to return to? No, he placed the angel with the fiery sword to guard the way to the tree of life so that they wouldn't take from that fruit and eat it. It was a restriction. It was a no, don't. And from God do you see, beloved, his no, don't is always a gracious don't do that. You won't like the results. And so he says to his people as they're about to enter the land, I need you to understand my gracious restrictions. Why? Because the land is full of devils. For 40 years, they've been out in the wilds, wandering in relative safety. Do we think about that? Not even their sandals wore out. What's the oldest pair of shoes you've got in your closet? Maybe I shouldn't ask that question. You have in your closet. And so there's that level of safety that God preserved them this 40 years. But as they cross the Jordan, as they go into the land, it will be battle after battle. It will be conflict after conflict. There are devils there waiting for them of all vile, wretched kinds. They need both God's law and the fulfillment of those laws found in God's law keeper. Moses as the stand in wrote the law on stone. Jesus Christ writes it on our hearts. Well, let's notice him. Secondly, Deuteronomy and it's Christ centered focus. If we were to go back and read again, I don't necessarily say we have to, but if we were to go back and read chapter four, verses 32 to 40 again, we would see here something of a clear Old Testament Christ-centered focus. Moses, filled with the Holy Spirit, tells Israel to remember the great blessings that they experienced. Verse 33, chapter four. While they alone on earth were God's people, they alone on earth were the people to experience hearing from God in the fire. And what? They didn't die. What's the reason? There's only one. Now here's where we begin to understand our biblical theology. Here's where we begin to understand how significant it is to say that Christ is found full in the Old Testament. Because the only singular reason that the people did not die when they saw something of God or heard from him in the fire was because of the intermediary work of the only intercessor of all God's people who is Jesus Christ alone, the only mediator between God and men. Because weren't they sinners? Because isn't God holy? And isn't there a huge problem that is confronting the connection between the sinfulness of humans and the holiness of God? Isn't that an irreversible dilemma? It is irreversible except for in the great mercy that is found in Jesus Christ. Oh beloved, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your family members, Jesus Christ is found in the book of Deuteronomy. Is there another way to hear from God without dying? And then think about chapter six, you parents especially. Think about chapter six, we read it, verses four through nine, the commands, the call, the responsibility that is given to the parent to raise their children and to speak about God's law all around them. Does any Christian parent who understands the Bible say to their children, now listen, by writing these laws on the door frames of your houses, by putting up pictures of Bible verses on your walls, you are safe. Or you're a Christian because you do these things. No Christian parent says that, but in Deuteronomy 6, when we are instructing our children, we are saying, look at the law that God is writing on your heart. Because as a Christian, you want to walk in these ways. What we have here is the Holy Spirit poured out power to God's people to live by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. God writing his word on our hearts, which privilege, beloved, only heightens the significance of the calling, of the duty, of the responsibility How can we go any other direction than along the highway of holiness, knowing the grace that we have received in Jesus Christ? So in chapter 10, he says, his law is going to be written clearly. And as we just said, it is written clearly on our hearts. When they enter the entirety of the land, they will do so not in their own strength, chapter 11, not by their own might, chapter 20, verses 1 through 4, but by the power of God. They will have the one whom Joshua meets as he comes to explore the walls of Jericho, Joshua meeting the captain of the hosts of the armies of the Lord, Jesus Christ, fighting for his people. Now, I've been asking you rhetorical questions so far this morning, asking at various points along the way, and do you know this? Have you experienced that? Well, here's another place I want you to consider that kind of questioning this morning. Do you know God's power in your life? Do you know his preserving and his sanctifying work? Now, We probably don't think about that in terms of the earthly, like the old covenant people needed to as they're about to enter the land, the land with devils filled and the battles in front of them. We don't necessarily think about those battles in that way that they had to, but beloved, does that mean we have no battles? Does that mean there are no devils coming after us? That Satan and his demons, they're not interested in us? Or the rest of the Bible is kind of just to be taken with a grain of salt in terms of the spiritual warfare we are engaged in? Do you know something of God's power in your life? His delivering work over the temptations that sin brings. The allurements the world offers to us. Now there's another way to consider that question, and so let me ask it to us this way. Do we know any other gods before him? Do we have any practical ways, idols in our lives? You know, we can read Deuteronomy, and we can say, oh, that's the book of God's law, and I understand the law, and the law was for those people, and they were not to do this, and they were not to do that, but beloved, do we understand the significance and the weight of that to our own situation? I can't imagine another culture, another society, another time having easier temptation than we have right now. Do we have any gods before him? Is there a practical allowance that we have made in our lives for disobedience to God such that we become comfortable with saying, well, God is love and he's gonna forgive me? What does the Lord Jesus Christ say when he comes? Does he ignore the law of God? Have we read Matthew chapters five, six, and seven? where he expounds, and as it were, fills out, and as it were, magnifies the law of God and its implication in our lives. Jesus Christ is the entire holy one, perfectly righteous one, and he calls his people to live in a way that reflects the grace that we have received and to live out of the grace that God daily gives to us in a life of consecrated righteousness. Or can I ask you that in another way? Do we today need the Lord Jesus Christ less than they? Do we need him less? Notice the mercy of God for his people in the grace that he gives to them. But notice also, as I said a moment ago, the strictness of God. Moses pleaded with God to allow Moses, to allow him to enter the promised land after God had said, you're not gonna enter because you struck the rock to bring water rather than speaking to it like I commanded you. And Moses, after pleading with God, heard God say, enough of this. And Moses died not entering the land. Oh beloved, is our land not like in Deuteronomy 29, 23? Is not our land like Deuteronomy 29, 23, Sodom and Gomorrah? How much do we need the grace of Christ? Can we survive apart from the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ? Can we take one step All that needs to come before our attention as we're thinking of Israel and mass there, camping laid out in a huge body of people on the eastern shores of the Jordan River with God calling them, get ready. And God calling us, get ready. It's Sunday but Monday's coming. Well let's look at that thirdly. Deuteronomy and it's Covenant applications. So chapter 29, as you're about to enter the land, Jericho and Ai is before you. Remember and obey. There's a comfort that God gives to his people at that moment. He says to them, listen, rejoice in the grace of God. Rejoice in what I have already done for my covenant people. See how I have rescued Israel to bring them to this location. You're in Moab, the area there on the eastern shore of the Jordan. Remember my powerful grace of bringing you out of Egypt and the powerful conquering already of two, quote, small nations, Sihon and Og. Remember, because you're about to go in and do battle. Can we think in Heidelberg Catechism terminology how great my sins and misery are? How God delivered me from all my sin and misery? How I am then to be thankful for such deliverance? And we're at the place of remembering. Look at what God has done for us. In a sense, we can say, I can live my life and be thankful for what God has done for me, but then we get this warning that comes in chapter 29. And it's a pretty solemn warning. And it's one that applies to people who know Heidelberg Catechism terminology. Listen to it at verse 19. I find this particularly poignant and important. Deuteronomy 29, 19, when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore he thinks I will be safe even though I persist in going my own way. Oh beloved, never think that way. Never sit back and in the process of remembering all God has done for you, then say, well, I can make a choice that is out of agreement with the Word of God and He will still bless me. That will lead only to defeat. Israel will see that. I'm not going to give anything away because you already know what happens to AI after Jericho is such a resounding success because Israel said we can do it our own way now. They experienced with immediacy the warning that God gives here. But beloved, if we only think of this in terms of history, we endanger our own souls. Can God be against us? Yes, he can. If what we say, rationalizing, well, I can do this because it doesn't bother God, or I can do this because I will find forgiveness in Jesus Christ, God will show himself against you. There is only destruction and delusion and disaster that follows. And there are plenty of opportunities to think that way. Satan has raised up all kinds of, quote, gods of this world, as we find in the book of Deuteronomy, warned about, to deceive God's people. Where do we find success and peace and joy and blessing? We find that in following our covenant God through Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy, Moses, has this last word for the covenant people before he dies in 1406 BC, and they enter the land. This last word of Moses is an agreement with, but also falls far short of the fullness of what we have in Jesus Christ. Moses who had led them, what happens in chapter 34? The leader, the stand-in, the mediator, He dies and is buried and the people go on without him. But Jesus Christ, do you know what I'm about to say? Jesus Christ has promised to never leave us, to never forsake you. And he has enabled us by grace through his spirit enabled us to be promise keepers, covenant children. I don't have to tell you again. You'll notice it in chapter 29. We read the whole chapter. What we have is covenant renewal here of God saying, I am making again you to be my people because I'm going to send you in for success and victory into the land. And beloved, that is for us in Christ, the promise and the joy of the Christian life. We want to be Mount Gerizim people, the people of the blessing, not Mount Ebal people, people of the curses. We want to be in Christ, to find Him continually faithful. For that to happen, we have to realize, as we have been stressing this morning, that we are both called holy in Christ and called to be holy in Christ. And the God of all grace supplies us richly, the holy in Christ to be holy in Christ in this life. You must live obediently, beloved, and righteous, beloved, and dependent on our God, dear church, amen. Our Father in heaven, how thankful we are for the richness of your word. We have seen now again that your commandments are not to be trifled with. You're not making divine suggestions. But in your law, we find only one perfect law keeper, who is Jesus Christ, who enables us to be covenant keepers, promise keepers. Give us strength, oh Lord, our God. For those things, for this day and beyond, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in response, beloved, we have a song printed for us on a sheet in our bulletin from the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. The tune is familiar. You will know it. We'll stand to sing.