THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, dear brethren. As I said, we are going to be addressing together chapter 27 of this book of Deuteronomy.

And as you know, we are approaching to the end of this book. It's only 34 chapters now, and the end of the book is very close, in a few weeks. But we're not only approaching to the end of the book, we're also approaching to the end of the exhortations or to the list of instructions and commandments. And all of these instructions that Moses was given to the people of Israel. And one of the things that I said yesterday to prepare a reading for chapter 27, Last week, better, one thing that I said last week is that as the people of Israel are about to enter into the promised land, Moses is going to give them, if you want, three ceremonies that the people of Israel are to conduct, to perform once they make it into the promised land.

The people of Israel were supposed to obey all the commandments, all the instructions, all the statutes that were given from the Lord through Moses, But also, once they make it into the promised land, they are to conduct three ceremonies, if you want. The first two are found in chapter 26 that we mentioned last week. The first one, which is the first fruit, once they make it into the promised land, they were supposed to gather the first fruit of the ground and offer before the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving because of the promise that the Lord had fulfilled, namely, taking them into the promised land. And the second of those ceremonies in chapter 26 was the tithes that they were supposed on the third year to collect the offerings. And instead of giving those offerings to the Lord, they were going to give those offerings to the needy.

Those were the two ceremonies that we studied or that we meditated upon in chapter 26 last week. And now in chapter 27, we have another ceremony. Here, Moses is going to request the people of Israel that once they make it into the promised land, they are supposed to conduct this ceremony of testimony, if you want, of this ceremony of confirmation, if you want, which is related to the word of the Lord. Basically, what Moses is going to tell the people in chapter 27 is that once you make it into the promised land, you're going to gather into yourself the stones, and you're going to plaster those stones with plaster, and you're going to write all the words of the covenant that I have given you. Those stones, you're gonna take them to a particular place, Mount Ebal, and then there you're going to build an altar, and you're going to offer sacrifices.

Those stones in which you have written the words of the Lord are going to be a testimony that the Lord has fulfilled his promise and that also that the Lord has given you the covenant through Moses. Something very interesting in that ceremony will take place as we are about to read. The tribes of Israel are divided in two groups. One goes to one place, one goes to another place, and there the Levites are going to utter and are going to proclaim the curses of this covenant. These stones that are gathered and collected together with the words of God written in them are a testimony to the people of Israel that have now made it into the promised land, and now they hear the proclamation of the curses of these covenants if they do not fulfill the requirements of all the law that has been written in those stones that they have collected and gathered together.

And it is fearful, beloved brethren, because it says, curse is the person who disobeys. And there is a list of different things there. And the congregation is supposed to acknowledge the testimony of the words of the Lord and the proclamation of the Levites by saying, amen. That is what we're going to read now in chapter 27. So by grace and through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, let us pay attention to the details of what I have just mentioned now.

And let us read together, dear brethren, chapter 27. This is the word of the Lord. Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people saying, keep the whole commandment that I commend you today. And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God has given you, you shall set up larger stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of this law.

When you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God has given you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up the stones concerning which I commend you today on Mount Baal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them. You shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut stones and the Lord your God, to the Lord your God.

And you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly. Then Moses and the Levitical priest said to all Israel, keep silence and hear, O Israel. These days you have become the people of the Lord your God.

You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I commend you today. That day Moses charged the people, saying, When you have crossed over the Jordan, thee shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, who? Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And thee shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse, who? Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

And the Levi shall declare to all men of Israel in a loud voice. Curse be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman and sets it up in secret, and all the people shall answer and say, Amen. Curse be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. Curse be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark, and all the people shall say, Amen. Curse anyone who misleads a blind man on the road, and all the people shall say amen.

Curse be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and all the people shall say amen. Curse be anyone who lies with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's nakedness, and all the people shall say amen. Curse be anyone who lies with any kind of animal, and all the people shall say, Amen. Curse be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen. Curse be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law, and all the people shall say amen.

Curse be anyone who strikes down his neighboring secret, and all the people shall say amen. Curse be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood, and all the people shall say amen. And curse be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, and all the people shall say amen. Amen. And that is the reading of God's Word.

My dear brother, my dear sister, my dear soul within the sound of my voice, there is absolutely no greatest privilege that a person can receive than that of belonging to the family of God. There is absolutely no greatest privilege or blessing that a human being can receive him or her, but not on belonging to the household of God, to the people of God. By virtue of the accomplishments of Christ, he's dead upon the cross. That is the excelsior, greatest blessing that a person can receive. Throughout the generations of history and humankind, there's been all types of peoples, kings and rulers and judges and presidents and prime ministers, entrepreneurs and famous people, all of them with great minds and power and money and accolades and many names have been given to them.

But none of those things accomplished in the flesh and in humanity in and of themselves compare with the greatest blessing that a human can receive, which is that of belonging to the family of God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the accomplishments of the cross. And it follows, my dear soul, that if the greatest blessing that a person has is that of belonging to the household of God by virtue of the accomplishments of Christ, then the greatest comfort or the greatest blessing for the person in his or her practical life is to serve. this Lord. If he gave his life for us, then those who belong to the household of God, those that belong to the house of the people of God are to give their lives as servants of God, give their lives in complete reverence and give their time, their efforts and everything that is in them for the service of the Lord. And as we go through the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see many examples of great servants of the Lord, that counted all rubbish in the world for the sake of the excellency of the knowledge of God, that gave everything for the sake of pursuing the God, the God of Israel and the God of the church, the God of this universe, servants of the Lord.

And Moses was perhaps one of the greatest example of a servant of God that belongs to the household of the Lord. Even in Hebrews chapter three, we are told that this Moses is a faithful servant in the house of the Lord. This Moses was given this glorious ministry of taking the people of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. And not only that, he was going to be the mediator of the covenant of God with the people of Israel. Through Moses, the word of the Lord was given to the people of Israel.

Through Moses, the people of Israel knew about this God of Israel. And it was through Moses that they understood the ways of the Lord. Moses is about to die as we are reading these chapters here. And one would be perhaps tempted to think that Moses would have considered that his ministry and his service to the Lord was a complete failure. because he's not only not going to be able to make it into the promised land, but he knows that all of these rules, all of these instructions, all of these commandments that Moses has given to these people are going to be broken.

All of these rules, instructions, and feasts, and festivals that the people of Israel will receive to remember the God who saved them out of Egypt are going to be broken. And not only in the way of written instructions or festivals, but even here in chapter 27 and the fulfillment in Joshua, we see that the people of Israel are even commanded to build unto themselves altars and temples and tabernacles that will remind them of the work of the Lord in liberating them from the land of Egypt and fulfilling and keeping his promise. Had Moses not known that his ministry was not the ultimate goal, but rather that his ministry was the means that were pointing to a greater man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he could have easily been frustrated and even depressed for the lack of success in his ministry and his service to the Lord. He's not going to make it into the promised land, and he knows that these people are going to fail. Had he not known by the revelation of God that was telling him that there is a prophet that is coming, live unto Moses, one that the people will hear.

Had he not known those things, he would have been tempted to believe that all of his service would be completely a failure. Had he not known that what he was doing and saying, and even the instructions that we have in chapter 27, that those instructions were pointing to a better covenant. a covenant that was not established upon the obedience of the people, but a better covenant established on better promises, a covenant established on the person of Jesus Christ, and more than on the person of Jesus Christ, on the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, a better ministry according to the words of the Apostle Paul, in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, a ministry that is not of the written letter, but a ministry that is of life and power and eternal power in Him, the ministry of the new covenant. Had Moses not known that all of his efforts, that all of the time that he spent with the people of Israel were with the purpose of pointing the people of Israel and in the world to the coming Messiah, he would have been tempted to believe that his efforts and his work in the Lord was in vain. But my dear brethren, this new covenant of ours, in this glorious person who is Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, says something very important for the service of the member of the new covenant.

Namely, that if by grace, through faith, you have been genuinely baptized by the Spirit into the body of Jesus Christ, this glorious new covenant says this. You are not a letter that has been written on tablets of stone, but rather you are a letter of Christ that has been written with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, or no, stones that have been plastered with plaster, but that has been written in Christ. the heart. Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 3 says that every single Christian, if by grace through faith, my dear brother, sister, you are in him, that your heart is a testimony of God's word has been written, not with stones, not with something that is man made, but with the power of the Holy Spirit. You have been given this testimony of Christ in your heart.

And this is a testimony that by virtue of the grace and the sufficiency of Christ will never come to an end and will never fail. And that's the promise that we have received from the Holy Spirit, that if the people in the Old Covenant failed and perished in the wilderness, and because of their disobedience were taken captive in exile, Those who, by grace through faith in union with Christ, are united to Him are not only partakers of the testimony of Christ, but also of the promise that they will endure until the end, because the covenant that they have received is not written by human hands. But it's written by the Spirit of God Himself. These are the glories of the New Covenant. This is the smelling aroma of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that for those who believe, is the power of God unto salvation.

But for those who reject it and do not believe, His death wrath and wrath unto wrath for the day of judgment. My dear brethren, what a glorious message we have in the person of Jesus Christ. That is not only that this glorious covenant is written with the holy finger of God in our hearts, but that every time that the genuine believer professes and proclaims the gospel, we are proclaiming a testimony that has the power not only to get into the ears of people, but a message that has the power to get into the heart of those to buy grace through faith, open their heart to repent of their sins and come in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the church is light to the world. That's why the church is salt into the world.

And that's why the solution for the unrighteousness of the world is not a powerful government. It is not a powerful prime minister. He's not even a righteous politician or king or ruler. The solution for this world is a the power of the gospel, which is the power of God into salvation for everyone who believes. And when that message enters and penetrates the heart of the sinful person, that person has now been taken from darkness into light and the kingdom of God has established in that person and whatever that person is.

May the Lord Jesus Christ empower us to fulfill the great commission and to serve him always with the hope that there is someone that is coming, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, and the one that is coming to judge the living and the dead, he's on our side and he's our Lord. Amen.