THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Deuteronomy chapter 28 we continue with our corporate reading of the scriptures. This is what we always do We read a chapter of the scriptures together and then we give a brief Christological overview of what is in this chapter and then in this case our brother is going to be bringing the sermon after we pray and we intercede for ourselves and also for the saints of the world So during chapter 28 your only chapter 28 in your Bible's I'm going to be reading from the English the standard version of the Bible and as we are going to be reading together brethren these 68 verses I'm going to invite you to please join me in prayer To ask the Lord to help us to guide us to point us to Christ to give us a Jesus spirit To read by faith to understand by faith to preach by faith to receive the word Absolutely no point in doing this in the flesh, brethren.

Absolutely no point in doing things in the flesh. It is not the labor of men. It's not a church organization. It's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit. So brethren, let us come before our Lord, our Savior, and ask that He will be with us as we read these words.

Let us pray together. Father, we're coming before you in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, and O Lord, we come before you to ask you that indeed you may give us the Spirit, that you may give us the light, that you may give us the power that is necessary to hear your words, to read your words, to see Jesus Christ, Lord, that we may die to self, that our eyes may be pointed to Christ alone, that the cross may be so clearly in our hearts that we will desire to take up our cross and to follow you, Lord. Help us, please, I pray, that you may give us a double portion of your Holy Spirit, that we may be able to comprehend, to understand, to preach by faith, to receive the words by faith, that as we read through this chapter, Lord, that we may not be doing this in the flesh, but rather that by the health and empowerment of your Holy Spirit, we will take those words line upon line and precept upon precept and treasure them up in our hearts that we may not sin against you, O Lord. Help us, O Lord, to do all of these things by the power of your Holy Spirit, bearing fruits of righteousness in Jesus Christ, for the glory of the Father. So as we come before you, we acknowledge our neediness, and how feeble we are, and how weak we are, and how dependent we are.

Protect us from religion. Protect us from prideful ways that are hidden in the heart. Protect us, Lord, from hypocrisy. Protect us, Lord, from doing things just to tick a box of religion. Very good brethren Germany chapter 28 you have in front of you a 68 verses that we're going to be reading together.

And my desire, my desire, brethren, my desire, brethren, is to share with you about the purpose of the law, the purpose of the law. And when I say the law, I'm talking about the Mosha'i covenant. of the covenant that was given to the people of Israel through Moses, the set of instructions and commandments that were given to the people of Israel through Moses, that as we're going to read here, as we're going to read here, we have blessings that are the result of obeying that covenant, and also curses that are the result of disobeying the instructions that Moses, of better regard, gave to the people of Israel through Moses. Now, as we know, brethren, this covenant of the law was given to the people of Israel, to the nation of Israel. And you will see that very clear as we read in verse 1, that this covenant of the law was given to the people of Israel as a nation.

And even though the church is not under the law, there are many things that we learn from the law that was given to the people of Israel. And as we are going to be reading this through this chapter with many brethren, I want us to see not only the character of God in demanding obedience from His people, but also the fearfulness of the disobedient heart, not only of the Israelites, but of every single human being. What we're going to be reading here, brethren, is not only the requirements of God and obedience for His people, but also the fearfulness of the heart of a disobedient soul when that soul has not partaken of the grace of the Lord, keeping that soul from disobedience and breaking the commandments of the Lord. And how prideful would we be if we think that this is just only the condition of the Israelites and not the condition of our hearts. But as I said, I hope that by God's grace we will be able to speak about the purpose of the law from these 68 verses that we have in front of us.

So my dear brethren, brothers, sisters, and friends, let us read together these 68 verses in Deuteronomy chapter 28 to meditate upon the purpose of the law. This is the word of the Lord. And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I commend you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds, and the young of your flock.

Blessed shall be your basket, and your kneeling bowl. Blessed shall be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God has given you.

The Lord will establish you as a people, holy to Himself, as He has sworn you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. And you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I commend you today, being careful to do them. And if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I commend you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods or to serve them. But if you will not obey, the voice of the Lord your God, for be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I commend you today, and all these courses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cur shall you be in the city, and cur shall you be in the field.

Cur shall be your basket and your kneeling bowl. Cur shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground. and the increase of your hurts and the young of your flock. Curse shall you be when you come in and curse shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send in you curses, confusion and frustration in all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perished quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.

The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you of the land that you are entering to take possession of it, the Lord will strike you with wasting disease. and with fever, inflammation, and fiery heat, and with drought, and with blight, and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish, and the heavens over your head shall be broken, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven that shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the earth and for the beasts of the earth. And there shall be no one to frighten them away.

The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt. and with tumors and scabs and itch of which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

You shall be thrown away, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be diseased before your face, but shall not be restored to you.

Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be hopeless. A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and all of your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see. The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils, of which you can now be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. The Lord will bring you on and your king whom you sent over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known.

And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, and you shall become a hoarder, a probber, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in a little, but the locker shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the vine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not annoy yourself with the oil, for your olive shall drop off. You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.

The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you and you shall not lend to him. You shall be the head and you shall be the tail. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

keep His commandments and His statutes that He commanded you, they shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever, because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things. Therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like an eagle, like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand. a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

He shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed. He also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock until they have cost you to perish. They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns, throughout all your lands, which the Lord your God has given you. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you.

The man who is the most tender and refined among you will be brought food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you with all your talents. The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will be grudged to the husband she embraces, to her son, and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from her, between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything, she will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you in your towns. If you're not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And He will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also, and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven.

you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying your soul, the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be cut off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

And among these nations, you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the soul of your food. But the Lord will give you there. by trembling heart and failing eyes and languishing soul, your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, if only it were evening, and in the evening you shall say, if only it were morning, because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see, and the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I have promised that you should never make again.

And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, that there will be no fire. Amen. That is the reading of God's word. Brethren, that is the reading of the word of our Lord, who takes delight in saving and here takes delight in bringing destruction upon his people. What a holy, righteous, loving, but yet fearful God, the one we serve.

Approaching Him with much care only in the person of Jesus Christ. Apart from Him. Brethren, all of these curses, all of these realities of the heart are ours. This is the condemnation that we deserve apart from the person of Jesus Christ. The description of the heart that we have just right here is yours and mine.

And how prideful you would be and I would be to think that with morality and with religious principles, we are able not to be like the people who disobey the Lord and are described here, my dear brethren. This book that we have in our hands, the scriptures of our Lord, contain absolutely everything that we need for life and for godliness. Everything that your soul requires is contained in these scriptures. And in these scriptures, we hear and we read powerful and beautiful things that the Lord our God has given us and has promised the things that he has done on behalf of his people, the things that he's doing on behalf of his people and the things that he will do. Beautiful, glorious promises, hundreds and thousands of them.

But in the same way as we find glorious and beautiful promises contained here in the scriptures, we also find my dear brethren, brother, sister, my dear friend, Fearful promises of this Lord who is sovereign above all fearful promises not only found here in this book in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy but also a fearful promise that Paul gave to Timothy in the second letter in chapter 4 if you give me your minds and your hearts and your attention dear brethren Fearful promise given to Paul, or given to Timothy better, by Paul, in the second letter of chapter 4. The apostle, knowing the need of the church for the word of God, says that Timothy is to preach the word in season and out of season. to exhort, to reproof all of those people who were receiving the word that was preached. And then in the following verse, he asks the reason why he is to preach the word in season and out of season. He says, for there will come a time, fearful promise from the mouth of God, there will come a time in which people will not be able to endure sound teaching or sound doctrine, promise for the church.

There will come a time in which they will not be able to endure sound teaching or sound doctrine, but rather they will accumulate unto themselves teachers according to their own passions, that teach according to their teaching ears. Brethren, fearful promise, there will be a time in which people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will accumulate unto themselves false teachers, of these false teachers, the same apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, that they desire to be teachers of the law, not knowing what they say, not the things which they affirm. False teachers in the context of the church that take the law of the Lord, not knowing what they say, nor the things which they affirm in relation to the law of the Old Testament, that is the one that we have in front of us. And perhaps, brethren, many of those false teachers who people have accumulated unto themselves are teaching according to their own passions and their teaching ears of their audience, taking the law of the Lord and either putting burdens on the shoulders and the soul of people that they are not able to carry the flesh or applying blessings that do not pertain to them. And perhaps, I don't know if this is what happens in the Western church, but at least it happens in South America where I come from, that chapter 28 of the book of Jerome is one of those chapters that people use to take verses completely out of context, and either to give promises to people that do not pertain to them, I will be the head, and I will be the tail, some say in South America, or that Curses of this law applied to their shoulders and then being unable to have lives of freedom Before the Lord what I want to do with your soul my dear brother and sister is very quick and it's very important I want to speak to you about the purpose of the law as it was given in the old covenant for the saints of the new covenant so that when we see the blessings and the curses of the old covenant we will understand the purpose for our hearts and And if we were going to summarize the purpose of the law given to Moses to the people of Israel, the first word that we need to have in our minds is prophetic.

The law given to Moses is prophetic. Yes, the law commands, and yes, the law gives statutes and instructions, but the purpose of the law for the church is a purpose that is prophetic in nature. And when I say prophetic, I don't mean that these are just the words of the Lord, but rather that the law given to Israel through Moses has a purpose to speak to the future. It has a prophetic purpose. And of course, I have to show you that from the Scriptures.

So very quickly, please, come with me to Matthew chapter 11. And there in one verse, we will see the prophetic purpose of the law, as we have in Deuteronomy chapter 28. So very quickly, please, come to Matthew chapter 11. And we are not going to read the whole passage or the context of this verse, only going to get the truth that is contained there in Matthew chapter 11, verse 13. Matthew chapter 11 verse 13 now brethren.

This is very important The purpose of the law is prophetic in nature dice that speaks to the future and it says in verse 13 of Matthew chapter 11 I think I said verse 13 for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John Matthew does not say that the prophets prophesied only, but he says that the prophets and the law prophesied until John. One understands that the prophets prophesied until, or that there are prophecies, because that is a role. But here we are told that the role of the law is not only to command, or to give instructions, or to give the statutes as we have in the Old Testament, but also prophesies, and it speaks to the future. It testifies about something that is coming. It witnesses about something that is coming.

The law and the prophets. The question that will follow in the minds of the Christian is, what does the law testify, or witnesses, or prophesies about? And the Scriptures, of course, gives us the answer. If you come with me to Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul will clearly give us the answer of that which the law and the prophets prophesied or witnessed or testified about. And that is found in Romans chapter three.

And here is very important, brethren, because this will be my main point in Romans chapter three. What does the prophets and what does the law given to Israel through Moses prophesy or testify or witness about? The answer is the righteousness of God. The prophets and the law is speak in the future for the town for the future prophesied about the future of it Righteousness of God and that is found in verse 21 read with me only that verse Don't be tempted to continue to read as I'm going to be speaking only verse 21, please It says but now Their righteousness and you have to pay attention to your brethren and read by faith that the Lord will help us to understand this but now The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although, and you see that perhaps if you have the ASV, the law is with small letters, I think you call them in English, apart from the law, although the law, with a capital L, the law and the prophets bear witness to it, namely the righteousness of God. Mighty words.

Mighty words of God in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant, but powerful words, the one that we have here, brethren. The law and the prophets testify, prophesy, and speak of the righteousness of God. That is that when we are reading the Old Testament and the Old Covenant, and all the instructions that the people of Israel are receiving from God through Moses, when we read, it's not only instructions or commandments given to them for obedience, but also those words are prophesying and bearing witness of the righteousness of God. The question that follows is, what is that righteousness, and for whom is that righteousness that is prophesied, that is manifest and is bear witness? The next verse says, and your souls ought to be tender in the Spirit to receive these words, brethren.

Verse 22. the righteousness of God that is prophesied by the law and the prophets the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for who who are the ones that receive the revelation of the righteousness of God in the law and the prophets who are who are the object the purpose of this manifestation of the righteousness of God that is revealed that is prophesied that is spoken of by the law and the prophets it says all who believe, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the same apostle who said in chapter 1 verse 16, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. How from faith to faith as it is written, they just shall live by faith. My dear brother, this book that has been written with all of these commandments given with the purpose in the old covenant, initially for the people of Israel to tell them that they were to obey, that they were to be instructed, that they would have to follow to the line. Each one of the commandments was not only given for the obedience and for the judgments of the Lord, but also Testify to those who will believe that the righteousness of God can be manifested in them.

Let me confirm this with words of the apostle in Romans chapter 10. If you come please to Romans chapter 10 in verse 4. This is a powerful verse and we will conclude with this, brethren. Romans chapter 10. Let us also take only that verse there and let me speak about it.

It says Romans chapter 10 verse 4. It says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Now, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. The object of this promise is only one, those who believe. There you have the words in your language, in English, that is the end.

that could be sometimes tricky to understand what the Apostle is saying. You have there, for Christ is the end of the law. And perhaps your mind tends to just to think that it's the conclusion of the finish line, as you would write the end of something. And even though it contains all of that, this word is the same word that the Apostle Peter uses in 1 Peter 1 verse 9 when he says that the end of your faith is the salvation of your soul. Or in other words, that the outcome of your faith that you presently have is the future salvation of your soul.

Or in other words, that the final destination of your faith, that the goal, the purpose, the outcome of your faith is the salvation of your soul. And that is exactly what the puzzle says here. It said that for those who believe, those who by grace have received the faith that has inserted them into life, for those people, the person of Jesus Christ is the outcome of the law. So that is that, yes, the law of the Old Commandment or the Old Testament points us to our guilt, as Paul would say very clearly in Romans chapter two and in Galatians chapter three and four. Yes, the commandment points us to our guilt, but the Lord has never ever left us with a heart that is pierced with guilt, he always points us to the hope, and the hope that is found in Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, it was disobedience, judgment, condemnation, and hope. That was the message of the prophets. When you come to the New Testament, that hope is a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. So that is that. By grace, brethren, by grace, when you experience faith, you have an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, And that encounter with the person of Jesus Christ is everything that the Lord has been pointing you to.

Your guilt, your conviction, your condemnation, your sense of, I'm going to hell, when you receive the power of the Gospel that reveals the righteousness of God, gives you a personal encounter with Christ, and in Him, in Him alone, the righteousness of God is fully revealed. not only when we first believe the brethren, but every time that the law is bringing condemnation and conviction of our sin in our life, Jesus Christ is the outcome that the Lord is using to point us to. He's the goal. He's the outcome of this glorious law and the prophets, so that every time that we read a word, or every time that we have a meditation of this book, the outcome of that is the person of God. Jesus Christ he says for those who believe the Pharisees had all the scriptures of the religious people had all the scriptures They had the testimony of the prophets and the law, but they were blind.

They had eyes to see they couldn't see They could not see the objects the goal, the point of destination of the Law and the Prophets, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord help us to see Him in every single place. Amen? Let us pray.