THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Deuteronomy chapter 29 from verse 1. These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.

And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have not worn off your feet. You have not eaten bread and you have not drunk wine or strong drink that you may know that I am the Lord, your God.

And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of the Manassites. Therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God. the heads of your tribes, the elders, or your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people and that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.

It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God and with whoever is not here with us today. You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. Beware, lest there be among you a man or a woman or a clan or a tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware, lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of the sworn covenant, blesses himself in the heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in stubbornness of heart.

This will lead to the sweeping away of the moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against the man and the curses written in this book will settle 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 calamity in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in the book or this book of the law. and the next generation, your children, who rise up after you. And the foreigner who comes from a far land will say when they see the afflictions of the land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick, the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout.

and overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord threw or overthrew in His anger and wrath. All the nations will say, why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger? And the people say, it is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He has made with them. when he brought them out of the land of Egypt and went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.

Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath and cast them into another land as they are to this day. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Lord. This is the word of the Lord our Savior himself said, heaven and earth will pass away, but not a word of his own will pass away.

Let's come before our Lord in prayer and commit the time we have together to him. It's open Bibles, oh Lord. with hearts of faith, we come before you this afternoon and we ask, feed us, presence yourself among us. Your word teaches us that this, that your word is food for our soul. So we come before you, Lord, asking that you by the power of your Holy Spirit would bring the truths of this word And Lord, I pray that you would make them go beyond our minds, press them deep into our souls.

For the desire of your people, the desire of those who are found in Christ is to be more like the beloved Savior. Edify us, purge us, and purify us. Even now, O Lord, give me the words to speak. May only that which is consistent and corresponds to truth be spoken. And Lord, I pray that you will be pleased and glorified and honored in Christ's name and be exalted above all things.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, we're in the 29th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. We've been working our way through this book for many, many weeks now. And we know the context.

The Lord is continuing to speak to this people, this second generation people who had been rescued from the land of Egypt and now are sitting there before Moses in the land or in the plains of Moab. God is speaking to this people through His prophet. Moses. Now, they're only on the brink. They're only several weeks away from receiving the land that God had promised their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, over 400 years earlier.

That land flowing with milk and honey is only weeks away, literally, and they're about to receive them. And here we have the God of the universe, Yahweh, the God who has decided to covenant with these people, speaking to them through his prophet, Moses. Now the book Deuteronomy, the title itself is suggestive of what this is. It's the law spoken to these people once again, remembering that they've been in the wilderness for some 40 years now. 40 years in the wilderness.

And God had spoken to their forefathers or their parents earlier, some almost 40 years earlier, and now he's reiterating that law to these people here on the plains of Moab. In fact, if we look at the whole book from chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 28, which finds its culmination in the curses and in the blessings that our brother took us through last week. If you remember, the law was exposited through those 28 chapters and then in the end we find this is the consequence to obedience and these are the consequences or the judgment for disobedience. It is before you, O people of Israel, you can choose to be blessed. or you can choose to be cursed.

28 chapters of exposition of what this covenant is, of its stipulations, and now at the culmination we have those two consequences. You either take the path of life or you take the path of death. Half of death. In fact, I would say 28 chapters and a verse, because the first verse here in chapter 29 really belongs in the last verse of the eighth chapter. There you have 68 chapters, should be 69.

In fact, in the Hebrew, it does find itself there in chapter 28 as the last verse there. Why do I say this? Because what you find is you have these two book ends. One that begins in the first verse of the first chapter of Deuteronomy, and one that brings it to a completion in the last verse of the 28th chapter, or in the first verse of the 29th chapter, as we have it before us here. Listen to what the first verse of this book reads.

It tells us these are the words that Moses spoke to all the people beyond the Jordan in the wilderness. It goes on to say about their journeys and the battles they've achieved or the victories they've achieved by the strength of Yahweh. And then in verse 5 of the first chapter we read, beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, That's how the book begins. Moses began to explain the law to the second generation people of Israel and he opens his mouth and he begins to exposit and expound on the law of God that was given at Sinai. And here we find, in the first verse of the 29th chapter, we find these words.

These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. It seems to me that he's looking back and saying, these are the words. In chapter 1, verse 1, he's saying, these are the words of the Lord. They're going to be expanded by my prophet over the next 28 chapters. And now, looking back, these are the words that I've given you.

Some have suggested that this is a brand new covenant, that this covenant is a new covenant that goes alongside of the old covenant. But I would like to think, or believe at least, that this covenant is a covenant, or at least the words that we have in the book of Deuteronomy are words and stipulations that go alongside or side by side with the Sinaitic covenant. Rather, it's an expounding. The newness is not so much that a brand new covenant is given to the people of Israel, but rather the explanation of the covenant, the expounding of the covenant, the administration of the covenant, and how it will be enforced with covenant blessings and covenant curses. There is a newness.

And what is going on here in the book of Deuteronomy in the last 28 chapters that we've read and we've expounded for you in very brief detail. There is a newness, but it goes hand in hand with a covenant that God has already made with his people at the base at Sinai. It goes hand in hand. The book of Hebrews tells us. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

You remember that first covenant? You remember that covenant that was made at the base of Sinai? If you remember when the Lord spoke the words, the rumblings from the mountain, the thunder, and the people were terrified. And then later on there in verse or chapter 24 in the book of Exodus, we're told that Moses sacrificed an ox. And he took half the blood and he scattered half the blood on the altar and the other half.

You remember what he did with the other half? He sprinkled it upon the people. That covenant was inaugurated. It was ratified in blood. There is no ratification taking place here, which leads me to believe that this, the book of Deuteronomy, is an explanation.

It's an expounding. It's building upon a greater understanding of what God has already given to His people. But these people that are before Moses now are not necessarily the ones who were standing there when God gave the covenant at Sinai. This is a brand new generation. Now, we remember in Numbers chapter 14, when the people began to grumble and mumble, when the spies had come back, they said, Don, we're not going to go and take this land.

And they disbelieved the Lord. You remember the judgment that came upon the people. That judgment was, you will not enter into the promised land. Anyone who's over the age of 20, who's listed in the census, will not make it into the promised land because of unbelief. So what we have here is the parents of these people have scattered across the wilderness over 40 years.

And who we have here is those who are under the age of 20 when the Lord gave out that wrathful judgment. So many, many, many may have been there, but they were young. Now it's time for everyone, whether they were there, whether they were born in the wilderness, to embrace the covenant that God has made with his people. It's time to own the covenant. It's time to swear an oath before the Lord and say, Lord, we are with you.

You are our God and we are your people. We embrace all that you have given us. We will obey you. We have eyes for you only. We have love for you only.

We choose to obey you only. The last 28 chapters is an exposition of the covenant given to the people at the base of Sinai. Now, what do we have before us here in chapter 29? Broadly speaking, we can cut or divide this chapter into three parts. You've got from verse 2 through 9, then from 10 through 15, And then from 16 through to 29, and we'll look at these parts very briefly this afternoon.

So let's have a look at verses 2 through 9 to begin with. If I was going to give it a title, and I don't normally do this because I'm just not that creative guy, you all know that. But I'll attempt to give it a title. I will title this section, Look Back. Look back and acknowledge and recognize the faithfulness of Yahweh.

That's what you see in the words that are before us. These people who are there on the plains of Moabite have been encouraged to actually turn their eyes and to look back. Look back from where the Lord your God has brought you. Look back to know that you came from Egypt after four centuries of being under bondage under the slave master, Pharaoh and his men. Look back at what God has rescued you from.

You saw with your eyes, you heard with your ears of what was going on in Egypt. And I rescued that from you, or you from them. As I said earlier, some of these people would not have been there to witness the crossing of the Red Sea or the supernatural hand of God in the way of punishment and plagues upon the people of Egypt in order for Pharaoh to let them go. Maybe, maybe that is true. The fact of the matter is they already, if they look back, they can see the hand of God among them.

They can see the supernatural hand of Yahweh with them. Looking back should encourage their heart to trust in Yahweh. Even now, every day in the wilderness, how did He manifest Himself among them? Did they not follow Him and Him lead them in the pillar of cloud through the day and the pillar of fire through the night? That's how He manifested His glory and His presence among them.

They didn't have to look back too far. What about their sandals, we're told? What about their clothing? Moses says, they didn't wear out. You've been in the wilderness for 40 years, and the shoes that you're wearing are still the same, and the clothing you're wearing.

Like, which one of us can point their hand up and say, I've had a pair of shoes that last me 40 years? No! This is a supernatural work of Yahweh. And then he gets them to look back also, and he says to them, what about the battles that you've experienced? What are Sihon and Og, those two kings of Heshbon and Bashan respectively?

The victory that I gave you over them These formidable people with formidable armies. Bashan was a land of giants. You Israel, you are not a formidable people. You don't have centuries worth of military power, trained or seasoned military. You didn't have that, but you have Yahweh on your side.

And that victory came because Yahweh was with you, even now. Even now, your brothers, Reuben, the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, that land that was once Sihon's and Og's is now theirs. The Lord God who promised Abraham an inheritance in the land has already given a portion. You look at your brothers. They've achieved the land, they've received the land.

They're gonna come with you over the Jordan to fight with you, because the Lord has said that's what they are to do. And they're not gonna come back until you've all received the land. But just as I've given them the land, I'm giving it to you. Look back, grow in confidence. Grow in your courage, grow in your trust, because Yahweh is faithful from 10 to 15.

I think we can look at that section and call it the recipients of the covenant. who are the recipients of this covenant. And then what we see there is the essence or the heart of the covenant. Without going into too much detail for the sake of time, the recipients of this covenant is basically everyone that is before them, right? He says, the young and the old, it doesn't matter what position you are, whether you're head of a tribe or whether you're the water girl or the lad who cuts the wood, it matters not.

The Lord shows no partiality. The covenant is given to all of you, to all of you. No partiality. And not just those who are before you, those who are before us, but also he's saying those who are not here, really speaking to the children and the children's children, those who are still here in your loins. This covenant is a perpetual covenant I'm giving to the people of Israel.

That means once your generation is gone, your children will be covenanted with me. And their children, and their children, you are just to obey. Just like you were covenanted when I covenanted with your fathers and mothers in Sinai, and you are recipients of the covenant, so too are your children and their grandchildren and their grandchildren also. But what about the essence of the covenant? What about the heart of the covenant that's found in these verses from 10 to 15?

Where is that found? I think it's found in verse 13. There we read that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God as He promised you and He swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Beloved, the stipulations of the covenant have been given. 28 chapters, these people have been given what the law of God entails and what is expected of them in obedience, perfect obedience, obey all that the Lord has commanded.

They've been given the covenant curses for those who disobey and the blessings for those who do obey. And these people, as I said earlier, will choose which path they will take with it. It's the path of life, obedience, or the path of death, disobedience. But can I tell you, can I tell you, the side that these people will fall on is not simply by what they say with their mouths. It's not a matter of their wills either.

How hard they try to obey, it's not that at all. But if they try hard enough that they will find themselves in the blessings of God, it's not that. It is a matter of the heart. And that's why I say the essence and the heart of the covenant is found in these verses. Because unless these people who are standing there listening to Moses who speaks the word of God, unless their heart is fully captivated by Yahweh, Unless they love him with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their mind.

Unless the greatest privilege for them in their minds and in their hearts is this. That he is to be our God and we are to be his people. Unless that is the reality of the heart, beloved, then they will always fall in the path of curse. Obedience doesn't come because you try hard. Obedience comes because of the state of your heart.

But it all begins in the heart. It's rooted in the heart. And what manifests the fruit of your heart is either obedience or disobedience. Do you love Yahweh? Has He captivated your heart?

Are you fully devoted to Him? Is He the joy of your life? Is the most important thing that you know of and the greatest privilege to know Him and to love Him and for Him to be your God and you to be His people? But the Lord knows. The Lord sees.

The Lord hears. Everything is revealed before the Lord. He knows what is yet to come. And he knows it's a matter of the heart. And he knows that the greatest threat to this covenant being broken, remember, is a covenant that begins if you, if you obey all that I have spoken.

The greatest threat to this covenant being broken is if the heart is given over to another. If the heart is no longer in love with God, if the heart now seeks to find pleasure in another, If security or rest or comfort or safety, which belong only in God, which should be only derived by God to the people of God, if one then allows the heart to receive, or at least to try to receive from anyone else or anything else, then that, biblically speaking, is In a covenantal relationship, it is the adulteration of the heart. We know what adultery is. Unfaithfulness between a husband and a wife. This is a covenant.

This is a covenant like the covenant between husband and wife. And when you are ought to find your heart fully captivated in Yahweh, and then you give captivation and worship, or you receive safety or security or rest from another, then you are prostituting your heart to another. And that is idolatry. It's adultery and it's idolatry because these people have already seen with their eyes of what has taken place in the pagan nations already, and I'll see a lot more. What we have before us is Moses instructing on behalf of Yahweh and saying, don't do it.

Don't do it. Don't allow that to be the state of your heart. They've come out of Egypt, those who are old enough, And they've seen the pagan worship, the filth, the ugliness, the detestability, the abomination that is in God's eyes. They've seen it. And they're saying, don't be like them.

They've already seen in their wanderings in the wilderness for 40 years. They've come across pagan nations. And they've seen their type of worship. Don't do it. And as I said earlier, as they go into the promised land, they're going to be in the conquest battling against these pagan kings and people.

And they're going to be apprised to seeing how they worship. Seeing the filth, seeing that they bow their knee to objects made from wood and stone and silver and gold. And Yahweh is saying through Moses, don't do it. They're dead. There's nothing there.

There is no substance. There's no reality. Don't do it. And it begins, I said, in the heart. Remember, I said that it begins in the heart.

That's what we find in these words. But be careful, he says. In verse... It says in verse 18, partway through. One who, when he hears the word of the sworn covenant, blesses himself in the heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of heart.

A bit of poison that comes among you when a heart is not captivated by God, but rather a heart that's turning to the false idols and the false gods of this world, which is detestable to God. We're warned of this in Hebrews chapter 12. It's a heart of presumption. It's a heart that says, I'm OK. I'm okay.

God, he knows us. I'm part of his people. Everyone around me is okay. God's promises to his people. I'm part of his people.

I will be okay. I'm mixing with the right crowd. I'm sure the judgment of God won't come my way. But really secretly in the heart, the heart is being lured by the things of this world. The heart is being captivated and taken by the creaturely aspects of the world rather than the creator himself.

We're told here, you'll be found out. They're pretty scary words. You'll be found out. God sees all. God knows all.

He will find you out. If there's presumption in the heart, He will find you out. You can call out, but God, we are your people. You've covenanted with us. You're our God and we are your people.

You've given us this land. You've given us this temple where you manifest your glory, oh God. Jerusalem is the holy city. You've given us the law. He knows the heart.

On that last day, they will say, Lord, Lord. It's a scary reality. Surely at this point, the people who are standing before Moses hearing these words, after hearing the curses and the blessings in the last chapter, I think that they probably had weak knees, terrified. I don't know about you, but when the brother was reading those 68 verses last week, I felt very uncomfortable. And I've read them many, many, many times, but I felt very uncomfortable.

Surely these people are thinking, oh Moses, no, we don't want to be that people. We don't want to be the people who are the recipients of the wrath of God. Give us the blessings. We don't want to be under the wrath of God. We don't want to be spoiled by the nations.

We don't want our land to be given over. We don't want our children to be taken, for us to be taken to slavery and to exile. We don't want to get to the point of desperation where there is plague upon land and there's famine upon the land that we get so desperate. that we begin to eat even our own offspring. We don't want to go there, Moses.

We don't want to be that. We don't want to be that. And then we get this final verse. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever. that we may do all the words of this law.

Now previous to this, we've been told that if the people of Israel disobey, then God will take it all away and bring curses upon them and they'll be ridiculed in the shame of everyone. The nations would look in and they would say, what went on? Why is this land not fruitful? Why is there seems to be like a plague that's gone through? What happened to these people that were once so flourishing and blessed and prosperous?

And I shall say to them, they broke covenant with their God. And then you get this verse, and brothers and sisters, when I came across this chapter, my intention actually through early in the week was pretty much only to preach on this verse, but I decided not to, and I'm actually not going to make any comments on this verse. Maybe I'll add some next week when we go through verse or chapter 30. But really what I want us to see, and this is how I want to close because I have gone over, all I want us to see is to continue reading. You might say, but that's the last verse of the Bible, or the last verse of the 29th chapter.

You are right, but in the original, you know that there are no chapter breaks. What comes next? Verse 1 of chapter 30. And when all these things come upon you, and when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, Beloved brothers and sisters, Moses speaking here in the book of Deuteronomy is not only speaking instructionally, he's speaking prophetically. And now you have these people who may have had in their hearts the terror I don't want those curses, give me those blessings.

And in the very next words of the prophet of God, he says, and these things will come upon you, the blessing and the curse, the blessing, God has made a promise to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, that he'll give them a land flowing with milk and honey and the land flowing with milk and honey, he shall give them because he's faithful. But the curses that we just read about, Those nations looking in and saying, what happened here? They're going to come also. They're going to come also because of the idolatry of the heart. Because of their inability to obey, because of their inability to keep the words of God.

And I said, in essence, because their inability to love God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. The same hand of Yahweh, the mighty hand of Yahweh that rescued them from the land of Egypt, is the same hand that will turn against His covenant people, because they broke covenant with Him. And they will experience the wrath of God, the righteous indignation of a thrice holy God that will feel the brunt of that. He's on their side now, but one day they will feel the brunt of the wrath of God upon them. Is there no hope?

Are they to despair? Are they just to walk away saying, since that's the case, what can we do? So be it. Is that what they can do? No, I think there is hope.

I think it's found here in verse 3. You might have come across, you might have seen it as we read verse 3, but let me just take you there very quickly. I think that's where that holds the key. They're told their great trials and the great trials that your eyes saw, that's in Egypt, the signs and the great wonders, but to this day, so they were present, their eyes saw these things, but he says, first of all, but to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. The reason why these people are spiritually dull yet, the reason why they and their future generations cannot and will not perfectly obey the law of God is because their heart is damaged.

It's a hard stone. And God needs to move. You realize that? He says here, to this day, He says the reason why you don't see these things, you don't see, He says, because to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart. The Lord has not given you a heart.

The Lord God, Yahweh, He needs to move. sitting back and listening to these words or not for them to think that we need to gird up our loins and just try harder. We need to strengthen the product of our own will. We need to just tie our hands and put boundaries around ourselves simply like that because, brothers and sisters, sin begins in the heart. It's rooted in the heart always.

Whenever you want to deal with sin, never go practical, go to the cause. And the cause is always the heart. And the heart of man is damaged because we're all born in sin. Every man has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We deprave by nature, sinful by nature, and therefore we are sinners.

And the Bible tells us, if you've sinned once, you're worthy of death. The soul that sins shall die. The wages of sin is death. So no, as the people listen, as we listen, we're not to think, oh, I need to try harder. That's not it at all.

The reason why the law was given, the Mosaic law, the code of holiness that God requires in its absolute perfection is not to save people. but rather to point them to the absolute righteous standard that is only acceptable by God and to make them realize that no one can obey that way. None of them can. None of you can. None of us can.

This law is too high, it's too holy, it's too good. None of us can. So what do we do when, what should they do when they hear this dim and dire end? I'll tell you what you do. You find out or you stop relying on self and your own self-righteousness and your own strength and you embrace God in faith.

And you say, Lord, I have no strength. Lord, I have no ability. Lord, I have no righteousness. I'm going to simply come to you in faith and embrace you because if there's any hope for my life, it's going to be in you and in you alone. Oh, beloved.

Oh, beloved, that is the truth of the gospel. Because as it was true for them, it is true for us also. The difference is these people looked forward and said, we don't know how you provide the atonement, but we're going to believe. We're going to believe. We're going to believe.

We're going to embrace you by faith. And we're going to believe in you. We're going to cultivate a love for your Lord. We don't know how. And the difference is the new covenant believer looks back and sees how it is that the Lord provides that heart that is required.

More on that next week because that is the topic of next week. But let me tell you this. We look back. And we look back and we see that that old covenant was broken by the Israelites. And it was observed by one man only.

The righteous requirements of God was observed and was obeyed and fully obeyed faultlessly by one man only. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He's the one who lived that perfect life in absolute righteousness, obeying God the Father in every one of His decrees, in every one of His laws. Born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. And then He fulfilled the righteous demands of the law like no one could.

Because other than that, everyone is destined to hell, the judgment of God. Sin once and you're deserving of the judgment. And upon that cross you have that double imputation where Christ said, upon that cross, Father, I bear the wrath of my people. Bring down that judgment that is deserving of my people upon me. I will bear that.

I will carry their sin upon my shoulders. At the same time, when they come to me in faith, the righteousness of Christ covers his people. And the righteousness of God is a covering. It's accounted for those who come. Yes, we are still worthy of judgment.

But He isn't. And when God looks upon us, He doesn't see us as filthy sinners worthy of judgment. He sees us as children of the living God because we include in the righteousness of the Son. Because the beautiful blood, the precious blood of Jesus, that blood of the covenant, not the blood of oxen of the old covenant which ratified the old covenant, but rather the blood of the Son of God is what ratifies the new covenant, the better covenant. And based on those better promises, when we embrace Him by faith, Say, Lord, we belong to you.

Not by anything that I have done, not by my word, not by my righteousness, but by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Let's pray.