THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, brethren. We are going to be reading together Deuteronomy chapter 26, and if you just move and cross a few pages there, you will see that we are getting to the end of this book, 34 chapters, and we are going to be reading now chapter 26.

And as we are going to be reading chapter 26 and 27, we're approaching to the end of the section in which Moses is given all of these instructions of the covenant, all of these commandments, all of these statutes related to the covenant given to the people of Israel as they are about to enter into the promised land. We're getting very close to the end of all the list of all those instructions. In chapter 26 and chapter 27, we will have three, if you want, ceremonies. that the people of Israel were expected to complete once they make it into the promised land. Let's call them ceremonies that they were supposed to perform once they make it into the promised land.

And here in chapter 26, we're gonna have two of those ceremonies that they are to perform, to do once they make it into the promised land. The first one of those ceremonies is the first fruits that they were supposed to offer once they make it into the promised land. And the second ceremony is starting, I think, in your ESV from verse 12, is going to be the tithes. Tithes, that's how you pronounce that word. The tithes that they were supposed to be given on the third year after they have made it into the promised land.

Two ceremonies as the book approaches to the curses, the fearful curses of this covenant, and the blessings of obedience. So as we're going to be reading together, beloved brethren, chapter 26, we're going to find here those two ceremonies. The first fruits, they were supposed to give that in the presence of the Lord once they make it into the promised land. And the second ceremony was the tithes that they were supposed to give to the needy, to the poor on the third year after they make it into the promised land. I think I'm going to change that word for offerings so that you will understand what I mean.

Very good. Chapter 26, dear brother and sister, let us read together, paying much attention to these 19 verses by faith in the spirit of Christ. Chapter 26, this is the word of the Lord. When you come into the land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God has given you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell there. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.

Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall make a response before the Lord your God. This is the response. A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number.

And there he became a nation, great and mighty and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers. And the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a stretched arm.

with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and your house.

you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you. Second Ceremony, verse 12. When you have finished paying all the five of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, given it to you, the Levite, the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion out of my house. And moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commended me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.

I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation from heaven and bless your people Israel on the ground that you have given us. And you swore to our fathers a land flowing with milk and honey.

This day, the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in His ways, and keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His rules, and will obey His voice. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for His treasured possession, as He has promised you, and that you are to keep all His commandments, and that He will set you in praise, and in fame, and in honor, high above all nations that He has made, and that you shall be a people Amen. That is the word of the Lord.

Now, brethren, the Scriptures that you hold in your hands, the many times you have read by God's grace, the Scriptures, the book that you hold in your hands, through which you have spent, I hope, time in communion with the Lord, and trying to know the Lord, and trying to discern and understand His ways, the things that He has done, the things that He does, and the things that He will do. The book that we hold in our hands, dear brethren, is filled with promises. From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, we find promises that the Lord has given to his people, the people of Israel, and also to us, the old covenant people and the new covenant people, promises that in time The promises that in time of need nourish our souls and empower us to keep walking even when we do not desire to keep walking ahead are the promises of the Lord that are rich and majestic according to the Apostle Peter, the one that gives us the light when we are walking in darkness and when our soul is afflicted. promises about the future, like Paul in Philippians chapter one, verse six, a very popular promise that he said that the work that he has begun in us he will bring to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thousands and hundreds and perhaps millions of saints throughout the ages have derived only from that verse much comfort to their souls in knowing that the Lord has started a work and that he promises that work to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Same promises are given not only through the mouth of the Apostle Paul, but also through the mouth of the Apostle Peter, when he says that we will obtain the outcome of our faith, which is the salvation of our souls, in his first letter, in the first chapter in verse nine. of our faith, and that is the salvation of our soul. Once again, many saints, through many tribulations, would have derived, and as we do, derived peace and satisfaction from all of those promises given about the future. We even, in the mouth and in the writing of the Apostle John, in Revelation chapter 21, we have the glorious promise that in the new Jerusalem, God will come down to dwell with us, to dwell with his people, And we will be His people, and He will be our God. He will wipe away our tears, and sin and death will be no more.

Sorrow will be no more, because He's abiding with His people, and all things have passed away. Glorious promises about the future. into the person of Jesus Christ can hold to and apprehend by faith and know by the authority of the scriptures that those promises apply to their, his or her soul. In the same way that the scripture gives us these powerful promises about the future, the Bible and the scriptures also gives us promises about the present. and perhaps one of the most popular and one of the most known, if you want, promises that we have about the present life of the believer, or about the present life of the church, of the living God, is found in the book of Philippians chapter four, verse seven, in which we are told that the peace All understanding will guard our mind and heart through Jesus Christ.

Think about that, beloved brother. I promise that is given for the saints in the present life, and we are told that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our mind and heart through the person of Jesus Christ. Now think about that, mind and heart. Our feeble mind, our weak heart can experience peace, and not only peace, the peace of God, that's the basis of all understanding. Our feeble mind that many times can so easily taken and confused by any other piece of data or information that is away from the scriptures.

Our feeble heart that because our mind has been exposed to confusing things can at many times experience despair and sorrow or depression or whatever that is contrary to peace. We are told in the scriptures that we can experience in our mind and in our heart the peace of God that surpasses all of understanding. that our mind and our heart can be guarded, can be kept, not only kept safe, but through the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is truth and love. In the Lord Jesus Christ, our mind can abide in the peace of God, in truth for our minds and in love for our hearts. And that is a promise given to the saints.

But of course, as every single promise is given in the Scriptures and in the New Testament, that promise is not given without a context. Because just before verse seven in Philippians chapter four is of course verse six that says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, may you request none to God. Beloved brethren, I am the peace that surpasses all understanding. Will guard your mind and your heart through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a glorious promise, abiding in the eternal peace, not of men, but the peace of God, who is a rope, and who does not change.

He's a stone. He's a safe refuge. That is a promise given to the saint when they are anxious about nothing, but of our life, through much prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we make a request known to this God. Beloved brethren, what that promise says to us is that we are not to be concerned about anything, but actually in every single aspect of our life, the endeavor in which we engage in every single aspect of our life, we are to come before the presence of the Lord in prayer and supplication and thanksgiving. And when we approach the Lord in that way, with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, then we receive the peace of God as a pastoral understanding.

That is a glorious promise given to the saints And the important thing that I want to call your attention to is thanks given. The promise given by Paul there in Philippians chapter four, verse six and seven is that we are to come to the presence of the Lord with much prayer and supplication with thanks given. When you approach the Lord in times of difficulty, you show to the world and you show to yourself that there is absolutely no other place where you want to go, and this is the place where your soul needs to be. And in that moment, when you come with much prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, you acknowledge that He is the giver, and that His character is faithful, and that His character is good, and that He is love, and that He takes us through the valley. He is the one that keeps us, and He is the one that provides for everything that we need.

Gratitude in the heart, dear brother and sister, is contrary to our pride and any spirit of self-entitlement. Gratitude and thanksgiving in our hearts is that which puts us in a humble position before the Lord, saying, you are the one who gives and I will receive. You are the one who has said that will provide, and I trust in what you said. When I could be going to every single place to obtain this which I think that I need, I have decided by your grace to come before you, acknowledging how small and needy I am and in prayer and in supplication and give thanks for what you have given me and you continue to provide. And the Lord is delighted in the heart of faith that like a child comes before the father with thanksgiving because of what they have received.

The heart that is expected in the Saint of Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7 is the heart that the Lord expected in the people of Israel once they were going to make it into the promised land. Once you enter into the promised land, he said to them, go to the place that I have chosen. Ultimately, that would have been Jerusalem, but initially that would have been Shiloh. as we will see as we go through the book of Joshua. Go to the place that I have chosen.

And from the first fruit of the ground, bring your offering to the Lord. Present yourself in the presence of the Lord. And as you give that to the priest, we are told there in the chapter that we have just read, open your mouth to confess. that by virtue of the promise that he gave to your forefathers, he'll rescue you from the bondage that you have in the land of Egypt. And now this land that you enjoy and the peace that you have and the conquering of this land is because he is the giver and you are the one who receives.

So come before the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving in your heart. recognizing that he is the one who has kept the promise. And if he has kept this promise, he will keep all the promises. And then when the third year arrive, come and take of all of your possessions. And instead of taking it to the temple or to the tabernacle or to the priest, give it to the needy as the result of my commandment.

And this will be a reminder to you that I am the only, I am the one who does not only give you the land that you need, but also gives you the provision that you need for every one of the years, give it to the needy. Love it, brethren. A heart that is filled with thanksgiving. A heart that is filled with gratitude. It's a heart that is empowered to move him or herself out of prideful ways.

It's a heart that is able to move by the grace of God through or out of selfish ways in which I say, I can do it. It's a spirit of self-entitlement. I deserve those things. I work for those things. Who is this God who did those things?

Natural to our soul and natural to our minds. That's why in verse 16 of the chapter that we have in front of us, the author of this portion of the scripture says, this day, the Lord, your God, commands you to do this as taxes and rule. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. Where is the person going to drive the strength and the mind to do all of these commandments? With the mind and with the soul, with all the strength.

How is a feeble, unrighteous, wicked, sinful person going to be able to keep all the commandments that the Lord had given to the people of Israel and to the church? There's nowhere we can drive from ourselves. There's no strength within us that will empower us or allow us or enable us to fulfill those commandments. But it's only when the heart of the person is genuinely confronted with the grace of God, acknowledging that He is the giver and that we are the ones that receive, even when we've done deserve to receive that by virtue of His love and His grace, our heart is filled with genuine gratitude and thanksgiving that moves us to offer the sacrifices of righteousness, putting our trust in the Lord. If that was the expectation of the people of Israel, who were supposed to do this from the liberation or because of the liberation that they had from the land of Egypt, Dear brother, dear brother, sister, how much more the saint of the new covenant, who has been rescued from darkness into light, from death into life, and not only with mighty words and signs, but by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the begotten of the Father, the beloved of the Father.

This is the greatest condescension of God. not that He came down to visit the people of Israel when they were captive in Egypt, but that He sent His Son to dwell among us and to be like one of us, taking the wrath of God that we deserve upon Himself, so that when we see the cross, that when we think about the Gospel, when we think about the love of God manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, we are filled with thanksgiving and gratitude. And we are empowered indeed not to be anxious for anything, but in everything, coming before the presence of the Lord with prayer and supplication, with a heart that is filled with this encounter with the gospel of Christ, with this grace of Christ, with this rescuing of Christ, with this love of Christ, filled with gratitude and tender kindness in our heart, not produced by our own strength or ability, I'm rather amazed at the amazing sovereign grace of God that rescued us from death and now has brought us this far. And now we can join the saints throughout the ages and say, he has begun a good work in me and he will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can join then the saints in the secret place on our knees to say, why am I going to be anxious about what is taking place around me?

He is the one that keeps me. He is the one that sustains me. comes upon us, peace of God that surpasses all understanding, a peace that is solid, a peace that is rope, a peace that does not move, the peace of God that does not belong to us, belongs to Him, and in Him we can say, A mighty fortress is my God. A mighty fortress is my Lord, a refuge. I love you, O Lord, because you are the one that keeps me and the one that sustains me.

And then when we look back to the saints coming out of Israel, we say, praise you, O Lord.