The book of Deuteronomy is comprised of three sermons delivered by Moses in the last month of his life. Just before he died, he delivered laws of love to govern the Israelites. The glory of the gospel is on every page and the cross is demanded in every chapter. God requires perfect obedience, holiness, and justice, which are only found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is provided as our substitute. Jesus Christ, who kept every law, imputed His obedience to unworthy sinners.

A broad range of issues are covered in the book of Deuteronomy. You will find lessons in leadership in chapter 1:9–18, responsibility for community in chapter 3:12–33, education by parents in chapter 4:9–10, poverty, homelessness, debt, drug abuse, honesty in business, management of money, welfare, personal hygiene, marriage, sexuality, conservation, care of the elderly, human rights, child abuse, injustice, dangers of the occult, and the safety of your house.

Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the way that you call us to love you with all of our hearts in every possible situation, with everything you've given to us. And I pray, oh Lord, that you would give us wisdom and understanding, this treasure that you've given to us in Deuteronomy. Amen.

Well, this book of the Bible has been thought to be totally irrelevant to the modern church. Here's the deal. Jesus didn't think it was irrelevant at all. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book. There are over 80 references in the New Testament to Deuteronomy.

The New Testament writers didn't think it was irrelevant. Paul didn't think it was irrelevant. Jesus didn't think it was irrelevant. The truth is, Jesus loved this book. It was the book that Jesus loved.

And people read Deuteronomy, it makes them feel uncomfortable. We'll talk about why that is later. But we should relate to Deuteronomy the way that Jesus did. Jesus loved to quote the book of Deuteronomy. The theme is heartfelt obedience to the law of God.

Emphasis on heartfelt. The heart of the matter runs through the whole book. It's about heartfelt obedience to the word of God. Now, so we're coming now to the last book of the Pentateuch. Genesis, it's a testimony of beginnings.

Exodus, It's a testimony of deliverance. Leviticus, it's a testimony of holiness. Numbers, it's a testimony of wandering. And when you get to Deuteronomy, it's a testimony of the blessings of heartfelt obedience. You know, it has a strange title, Deuteronomy 2 Laws or 2nd Law.

It's a duplicate or a copy of God's law. It's God's law stated again. You know, it's stated in Exodus 20, it's stated in Deuteronomy a second time by Moses. It's interesting that if you go to Deuteronomy 17, 18, you find that the king is commanded by God to copy the book of Deuteronomy, to make another copy of it, and to continue to copy it, so that he has the book of Deuteronomy in his own handwriting. It's pretty powerful to write out scripture.

I don't know if your parents have ever made you do that. I made my children do it a little bit. If I had to turn the clock back, I would have had us all write out the Bible, all of it, you know, during my child-raising years when my kids were there. It's really powerful to sit down and write it. But anyway, God required kings to write it out.

The setting of Deuteronomy, as you'll see in the third item in your outline. The setting is critical. It's the last month of Moses's life. Imagine being Moses in Deuteronomy. He has one month to live and he writes the book of Deuteronomy.

In the first five verses we learned the date of the sermon. It was on the Sabbath day. We know exactly where it was preached. It was preached on the plain of Moab and it was given you know before they entered the Promised Land. So there you have it in verse 1.

These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness in the plain opposite Suph. And then it gives more detail about that. The content and the structure are pretty simple. Deuteronomy consists of three sermons, three of Moses' last sermons. They're given, as I said before, before they crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land.

They are given to a community that's in transition. They're transitioning from being wilderness wanderers to occupiers of the Promised Land. And God is giving them instruction, their final instructions before they actually go into the land. They're going into a pagan land. They need to learn how to act, how to think, how to live in the midst of a pagan land.

That's one of the great values of Deuteronomy because it assumes that God's holy people are going to go into a land of paganism. And the people there in that land don't think like the people of God. And so he's emphasizing that you learn how to live God's way as a result of the instruction there. So there are three sermons given in the last month of Moses' life. He's 120 years old at this point in his life.

And the theology of salvation is here, point number four in your outline. The grace of God is implied on every single page of Deuteronomy. People think so wrongly about the law, you know, that if you break a law of God, all is lost. This whole theology of salvation is presented in a number of ways. In the first four chapters, it's clear that the people of God were chosen not for their righteousness' sake, but for God's electing grace.

That's the ground of salvation. It wasn't because of their size, it wasn't because of their power, It was only because God loved them. It's the grace of God that you'll find on every page of Deuteronomy that all is of grace. That we're wretched and naked and poor and blind without Christ, without His righteousness. All of your obedience can get you nowhere.

Salvation comes to those whose hearts are circumcised, and that's an act of the grace of God. A comment about people's perception of Deuteronomy. The people who claim that Deuteronomy is about rules, or the Old Testament is about rules, and the New Testament is about relationship, are really misrepresenting Deuteronomy. Because Deuteronomy really speaks of the heart turned toward God, not just the rules. There are rules.

God has given instructions. But that's not the only thing. And that's why I think We should think of Deuteronomy as just breathing of the doctrine of heartfelt obedience. Obedience is from the heart. You know, no one was ever able to keep the law.

And so God looks upon the heart. That doesn't make obedience irrelevant, but it makes the only valuable obedience as obedience that comes from the heart. That's why Deuteronomy 5 29 is so critical. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments that it may be well with them and with their children forever. Oh, that they had such a heart within them.

That's the key factor. That's the heart of Christianity. Christianity is not about keeping a bunch of rules. It's not about doing everything right and boasting about it. It's about a heart that turns toward God that causes you desire to keep his commandments.

That's why when the Apostle Paul was talking to the Thessalonians, he talked about their works of faith, their labors of love. The labor came out of the love. That's why Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. The love of God is the most important thing. And every person should ask, do I love God?

Am I doing what I'm doing because I love God? Or am I just doing what I'm doing to make myself look good because my parents want me to, because I won't get thrown in jail? You know, I mean, those are good reasons to do good things, but the only thing that really matters is that it is done from the heart. God looks on the heart, he cares about the heart. And again, that's not to say he doesn't care about obedience, right, because both are true.

He cares about the heart and he cares about obedience. Obedience without the heart though is just legalism. So there are a broad range of issues covered. You'll see this heading in the fifth category of your outline. There are lessons on leadership, responsibility for the community, education, poverty, debt, honesty in business.

There are just so many issues that are dealt with in Deuteronomy. It's staggering the really practical everyday life issues that are dealt with in Deuteronomy. There's a lot to learn about a lot of stuff in Deuteronomy. The people you'll meet, you're gonna meet Miriam and Aaron, you're gonna meet Moses and Joshua, you're gonna meet the children of Israel, that term shows up all over the place. We were talking about the first generation and the second generation in the book of Numbers.

You'll find that same theme here. You're going to meet the giants, the Anakim and the Zamzumim. There you go. You know The giants are mentioned in the Bible. You know, there's some really fascinating things about Deuteronomy, but you'll meet the giants.

You're going to meet King Sihon, and you're going to meet one of my favorite people in the whole book of Deuteronomy. Og, Ogabation. He had a 13-foot-long bed. He had the biggest bed in the world. He was a giant.

How tall was he? Really tall. He probably was around 11 feet tall, something like that. But he had a giant bed. You're gonna meet all those people.

Key verse, Deuteronomy 5 29. I already quoted it, I wanna quote it again. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they might fear me and keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. This is Moses' tender appeal. It's both an appeal and it's an acknowledgement.

He was acknowledging that the people were obeying God with their hearts, but it's also an appeal. And the focus is really the heart. The fearing God and the keeping the commandments, those two things. You know, the question is, do you do what you do because you fear God? You know, Do you work with all your heart because you fear God?

When you are with people, are you living your life out of the fear of God that you would want to please Him in all respects? There's no better way to live. There's no happier way to live than that. Let's talk about some key words. You're going to bump into words over and over again.

How about the word heart? It appears over 40 times. The word obey over 20 times. Observe, which is very much like obedience. It occurs 29 times, almost always.

The word observe appears right next to the word carefully. Observe carefully. Abomination 14 times. Christ loved the book of Deuteronomy. It was the book that Jesus loved.

In this ninth category in your outline, I just want to give you a number of the evidences of Christ's use of Deuteronomy. When the devil tempted Christ for 40 days in Matthew chapter 4, 1-11, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy. He quotes, man shall not live by bread alone. In doing so, he quotes Deuteronomy 8-3. He quotes Deuteronomy 6-16, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

He quotes Deuteronomy 6-13, where he says, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him. I mean, four times in the temptation of Christ, Christ quotes Deuteronomy. When Jesus is teaching about family life, He quotes Deuteronomy 5 16. He quotes, honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you that your days may be long that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God has given you. He quoted that in Matthew 15 verse 4.

When Jesus is teaching about oaths in Matthew 5-33, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 23 verse 22. When Jesus is teaching about how hard it is for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, in Matthew 19, 18-20, He quotes Deuteronomy 5, 16-20. When Jesus is teaching about genuine love for God in Mark 12, 28 to 34, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6-4. When Jesus is teaching about the resurrection in Matthew 22, 23 through 33, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 25, five through 12. You know, I could go on and on and on.

There's so many places that Jesus quotes Deuteronomy. And I have a sermon about it somewhere and when I preach through Deuteronomy. Let's talk about disturbing sections. When I preached through Deuteronomy people were disturbed. Every once in a while somebody got kind of angry.

God's not like that. I'm not like that. Therefore God's not like that. There are matters of capital punishment of murderers, capital punishment of idolaters, witches, capital punishment of rebellious sons. If you read Deuteronomy, it'll make you feel uncomfortable.

But, it didn't make Jesus Christ uncomfortable. That should tell us something. Jesus didn't recoil at the uncomfortable text in Deuteronomy. And When you read Deuteronomy and something makes you feel uncomfortable, what should you do? You should recognize that you are so corrupt, you are so unsanctified, that you would actually think that a law of God was wrong.

The problem is with us, not with Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy reveals how corrupt our thinking is, that we don't think like God. Now we may read something and not understand it, that's different, and we might have to work our way through it, but the reason we're uncomfortable with anything in the Bible is because our minds have not been renewed like they ought to be. And this is a reality of human beings. We grow up thinking wrong thoughts.

Our value system is messed up. Our sense of mercy is messed up. Our sense of justice is all scrambled up. Here's the problem. Our sense of mercy and justice has been built as a result of our love for ourselves.

And as a result of that we don't think right. So when we were going through Deuteronomy, I kept saying, if this law bothers you, remember, the problem is not with God. The problem is with us. God does desire to offend our sense of justice and righteousness and love and truth and mercy because he wants us to have an upgrade. He wants us to think like he does.

If you don't like a law of God, just think about what that means. You are condemning God. So there are some really uncomfortable things that you're going to run into about Deuteronomy. But Jesus loved the book of Deuteronomy, and He exalted the things that were there. Okay, so the next item in your outline after this matter of disturbing sections is the Gospel in Deuteronomy.

The glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is on every page of Deuteronomy. There are shadows of Christ everywhere in Deuteronomy. But here's the heart of the matter. With every command in Deuteronomy, there is the requirement for perfect obedience. Imperfect obedience to the law of God condemns you.

If you ever break the law of God, you are condemned. And so the laws of God are given to drive you to Christ. As you read through Deuteronomy, make sure you remember this one thing, and that is that with every command, with every law, the cross is demanded. Because no one has ever been able to keep the law of God. And so the cross was always required.

Even in Deuteronomy, A heart of obedience was always required. With every law, perfect obedience is demanded. With every law, perfect holiness to that standard is required. Perfect justice is demanded in every commandment of God. And that is how you have to see every law, that it demands a sacrifice.

It demands a perfect law keeper. It demands Christ. Christ kept every law. Everything that Christ ever did was with perfect justice. Everything that he ever said was a word of love.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect keeper of the law. You and I are not the perfect keepers of the law. When Moses talked to the children of Israel, they did not keep the law perfectly. There was required a substitutionary sacrifice. So every law implies a substitute to take the punishment for the lack of ability to keep the whole law.

That's why in Deuteronomy if you don't keep the law you die. That's a picture of the gospel. Because what does it take to cast you into hell? The breaking of any law, any individual law. And so we're hopeless without Christ.

And that's why the law is designed to drive us to Christ, to show us that we can't keep the law perfectly, that we are absolutely condemned, that the righteous wrath of God somehow must be satisfied because you can't keep the law. How can the righteous wrath of God be satisfied? Through Jesus Christ. Now in the Old Covenant, as we learned in the book of Leviticus, the righteous requirement of the law was pictured in the blood sacrifice of bulls and goats. It was pictured.

Now, no one was ever forgiven because of the blood of bulls and goats, except in the place, in the case in which the blood of bulls and goats actually was a representation of a repentant heart. When a person turns to the Lord they recognize that they have no hope to keep the law of God and that they need a substitute and that substitute dies because if you break the law you must die so the substitute dies the guilt is transferred from the sinner to the substitute. The substitute dies and the wrath of God is satisfied. That takes us back to that word that we discussed in Leviticus, propitiation, that the righteous wrath of God is satisfied by the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christ is your lawkeeper.

He kept the law and therefore he became your sacrifice. So the cross is demanded on every page. Here are several other elements of the gospel. I'm going to listen for you. The first element of the gospel is judgment.

You know, people are put to death for sin. The judgment of God is real. And secondly, mercy. There are illustrations of mercy all over the book of Deuteronomy. The cities of refuge are there.

The debts canceled. The dealing with the poor. Dealing with slavery and setting slaves free after seven years. The gleaning. God here says that he's showing mercy to thousands.

He's, while there's a perfect account of every infraction, infractions are forgiven as a result of the sacrifice. The third thing that you see is redemption. The whole matter of redemption is seen in here. The types of redemption are everywhere in Deuteronomy. Here's what J.C.

Ryle said about the types in the Old Testament, and they fit with the types that are in Deuteronomy. He said, what they saw by candlelight, we see in noonday. The candlelight of the goat that's killed is pictured in Christ. The candlelight of slavery and the slave being set free after seven years is fulfilled in redemption and the slave being bought off the slave market by a benefactor and set free. The types and the shadows are fulfilled, you'll see them fulfilled in the New Testament.

Then there's the element of the heart. Deuteronomy 6, 4, Deuteronomy 5, 29, Deuteronomy 32, 46. 32, 46 says, set your hearts on all the words. In Deuteronomy 28 verse 27, the judgment comes, quote, because you did not serve him with joy and gladness of heart. That's it, the heart.

And then love. There are illustrations and types of love. You know, there's clothing that doesn't wear out. There are unjust weights. You know, there are cities of refuge.

There's the land, which is a type of heaven. There are the feasts, there are the curses of chapter 28. There's Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Look really carefully about Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It really tells the whole story of life.

Two mountains, the mountain of blessing and the mountain of cursing. You go up to the mountain of sin, you're destroyed. Go walk up that mountain, or walk up the mountain of blessing. Mount Ebal, that's the mountain of Cursing, and Mount Gerizim. The circumcision of the heart, all kinds of things, the bread, the water from the rock, all those things are there.

So The gospel is in Deuteronomy. Every single commandment requires a perfect law keeper, and that is Jesus Christ. Okay, so I want to walk through the outline of this book, and I'd just like to walk through and just mention some of the things that are there. It's such a beautiful and remarkable book. It's outlined as you can see the first speech of Moses is in chapter one through four.

The second speech is the long one. It goes from chapter 5 to chapter 26. We'll spend most of our time just walking through that section. Now, Moses explains each of the commandments systematically. He gives the commandments in chapter five and then from chapter six all the way to chapter 26, he explains the commandments.

And here's what Moses does. He gives illustrations of how those commandments work. Jesus Christ does the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, you've heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. He says, yeah, but adultery's more than just hopping in the sack with somebody who's not your wife.

He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And he basically says, you know, murder isn't just about stabbing someone. Murder is bigger than that. Jesus explains the application of the law in the Sermon on the Mount. Moses does the exact same thing.

He does sort of exposition of each law and gives lots of illustrations of each law. Now, you may not understand exactly how that law correlates with the application that Moses is dealing with, but know this, He's doing exposition on the Law. He's doing exposition on the Ten Commandments. You should know the Ten Commandments. You should know how to apply the Ten Commandments.

Moses is going to teach you how to do that. In the first five chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses says, teach these things to your children and your grandchildren. He meant teach the 10 commandments to your children and your grandchildren. That means that your life should be doing exposition, helping your children and your grandchildren understand what all these different laws mean. Like the law of coveting, help your children understand the whole doctrine of covetousness So that they understand what it means.

So they understand what it means in real life in the 21st century. But Deuteronomy is an exposition of the Ten Commandments. So if you see here, the first speech is in chapters one through four, Then there's the second speech. The third speech is in chapter 27, verse 31 and following. And then you have the final days of Moses' life that are communicated after that.

But What I'd like to do is, I'd like to walk through these sections here, and let's begin with the first speech that Moses gives. It's really an appeal to revel in the love of God, to soak in it, to meditate on it, to ponder the goodness of God. Because the first speech, he just talked about how good God was. Here's one of the great illustrations. Don't ever forget this illustration.

He says that when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, He says, it was then I carried you like a father carries a son. Now you've heard me do that probably several times in my preaching. I can't get it out of my mind. It's a picture of the love of God. How God carries his children through the wilderness of their life.

In chapters one through three, there's the covenant of God. God makes a covenant. He rescues his people. And Moses is telling the story of how God did that. We're also introduced to Moses' desire to go to the Promised Land.

This comes up over and over again. Moses wants to go into the Promised Land. God doesn't let him do it. And it's a really interesting situation. In chapter 4 there's a call to obedience.

Moses identifies the requirements for being a wise and a holy people. Chapter 4 verse 2 is really critical. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you." This is the whole thing of adding or subtracting from the word of God. It's really the essence of the whole Christian life, is to take God at his word. And in chapter four, verses six through eight, there's the result of that.

He says, therefore be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near? What he's saying is if you obey these laws, you'll be like nobody else in the world. You will be different. You'll think different, you'll live different, and you'll be blessed for it.

God will prosper you. Obey the word of God, you'll be a very different kind people we should be like Moses he did not fear the face of man he only feared God And then the second speech begins in chapter 5 and that begins with the recitation of the Ten Commandments and then the exposition of the Ten Commandments. There are just dozens and dozens of issues that are dealt with here as Moses is doing exposition on the Ten Commandments. Let's just kind of jump through these sections between now and the end. The first commandment is explained in Deuteronomy 6 through 11.

The first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. And then in these chapters, Moses says, Here's what it looks like not to have any other gods Before him interestingly. What does he start with he starts with a father? Here's what it looks like in a father's life He teaches his children and he sits in his house when he walks by the way when he lies down when he rises up You know how do you tell when a man doesn't love God? He doesn't care a thing about teaching his children.

It just exists in his brain. It's an impractical thing. He doesn't see it as important so he doesn't teach his children. You learn that in chapter six. In chapter eight, you know, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

How do you know if you love God? You hunger for the word of God. You realize that you don't live by bread alone. In chapter nine, you learn more about loving God. There's this command to cross over the Jordan.

You learn that you love God even when you're threatened. That's what the love of God looks like. In chapter 10, there's this language of circumcising the foreskin of your heart and to not be stiff-necked any longer. What does it mean to love God? It means that your neck is not stiff toward God.

And your heart is circumcised. There are these promises of blessings in chapter 11. The first place that the phrase blessing and cursing appears in Deuteronomy is in chapter 11 verse 26. He says, Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today, and a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, and turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you have not known." What does it mean to love God? To obey Him.

You know you love God when you know you want to obey Him. If you hate to obey Him, then recognize you probably don't love God, okay? But that's this section, the first commandment from chapters six through 11. And then the second commandment is exposed in chapter 12 1 through chapter 13 18 and the second commandment is you shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. And here, There's the whole way of worship.

Like in chapter 12, verse five, you worship where God chooses. You worship the place God chooses. You bring offerings in verse six. You observe a meal in verse seven. You rejoice with your household in verse seven.

You bring it God's way, not man's way. You don't make up your worship. You worship God the way that he's ordained you to worship. That's why we don't think you can just make up any way of worshiping in the church. We've got to look to God and say, how should we worship God?

And we worship God the way that God prescribes us to worship Him. That's why we sing, that's why we preach, that's why we pray, it's why we have the Lord's Supper. We do that stuff because God told us to do that. But the second commandment is about worship. You know, you offer what you're vowed.

You rejoice as a family and with the Levites. In other words, you worship God with those who are appointed to lead the worship of God. Being aware of the inventions of man. In chapter 10, verse 29, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow after those who worship in other ways. In chapter 13, there's this remarkable testimony of the dreamer of dreams.

If someone arises among you and they give you a sign and a wonder and it comes to pass, be careful. Just because a sign and a wonder comes to pass doesn't mean it's from God. People in the name of Satan claim to perform miracles. Just because they perform a miracle doesn't mean they're from God. And then in the third commandment, chapter 14, 1 through 15, 23, the third commandment is, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Now, Taking the name of the Lord your God in vain, it might include cussing, but probably most of the time it doesn't. It's living in such a way that profanes God's name. That's taking his name in vain. And in this section, the way you mourn, the way you eat, the way you handle your money, that's how you show whether you take the name of the Lord your God in vain. It's how you live, it's not whether you say a cuss word.

But it might include using a cuss word. These are ceremonial laws. You're gonna run into ceremonial laws. They're not binding today. Read the Baptist's confession on the ceremonial law and you'll see it.

The tithes are there, the Levitical tithe, the festival tithe, the poor tithe. The ceremonial laws are all there in that section. It talks about dealing with the poor and debt and lending in that section. How do you deal with the poor among you? The way you deal with the poor will either be a curse or a blessing in your life.

And then there's the fourth commandment, Deuteronomy 16, 1-17, Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The whole matter of the laws of the Sabbath really come down to a couple of things. First of all, that God wants to control your time. He wants your schedule. He wants to control your week.

God does want to control your time, and he says, rest one day and work six days. And the second thing is that you would understand what a blessing it is to have a day where you're just focused without any work on his blessings, to learn how to have a day of delight. And the family is designed to make that happen. That's the fourth commandment. The fifth commandment is to honor your father and mother as the Lord your God has commanded you.

That is detailed in chapter 16, verse 18 through 1822. And Moses here in this section is explaining your relationship with authority. Because honor your father and mother is not just about your mom and dad. It's about all authorities. You have fathers and mothers in the civil realm.

You have a father in your boss. You have fathers in church leaders. When God says honor your father and mother, he's saying honor your mom and dad, honor the civil government, honor your church leaders, honor those who are in authority over you. And this section shows you what it means to be under authority. God puts everyone under authority.

He talks about appointing judges. What kind of people do you vote for? That's really implied here. What kind of king should you have? That's in that section.

There's also about preserving godly worship and not worshiping in your own way. That has to do with honoring God and honoring those that honor God. Then in the sixth commandment, Deuteronomy 19, verse one through Deuteronomy 22, verse eight. This is you shall not murder. There's a lot in here about murder.

Now remember, Jesus talked about murder in the Sermon on the Mount. This is a God who provides cities of refuge for murderers. That's interesting. That's a picture of the gospel, by the way. God provides refuge for murderers, for those who actually kill people, and also for those who hate their brother from their heart.

Jesus Christ atones for the sins of murderers. Deuteronomy 19 shows different ways that God protects mankind. He protects the life of those who commit unintentional sins. He protects property in chapter 19. He protects your reputation in 19 by the law of witnesses.

Like, just any old individual can't just go and say anything they want. There have to be witnesses, and God protects your reputation through the law of witnesses. Now, some witnesses lie. God's in control of that too. But protection against those who murder.

And there's also unintentional killing that's dealt with in Deuteronomy. All these are shadows of the gospel. The gospel is always at your right hand in Deuteronomy because there's a law there and there is the impossibility of keeping a law but there is a law keeper and that law keeper is Jesus Christ. It's amazing when you read through the cities of refuge. Jesus Christ is your city of refuge.

You run to him for refuge while the avenger of blood is chasing you down, trying to get to the city of refuge. You'll be interested to read about how the big deal is make it to the city of refuge before the offended party catches you. It's a picture of the gospel. There's the whole matter of a woman wearing a man's clothing in Deuteronomy chapter 22. It's an abomination for a man to wear a woman's clothing.

That's about killing manhood and womanhood. It's in this section about murder. You can kill manhood and womanhood. You build a house and somebody falls off the roof and dies because you didn't build safety into your dwelling, you're liable. It's about murder.

You can be liable for someone else's death if you don't provide safety. Let's see, then we get to the next commandment. The seventh commandment Deuteronomy 29, 9 through 23, 1 you shall not commit adultery. There's a lot in here about the protection of marriage you run into the laws about fabrics and seeds that's a hard one to understand I think it fits into the matter of adultery. You know, he says don't just throw every kind of seed into your plot.

Don't just put a bunch of different kind of fabrics, you know, some will rot. He's saying it's crazy to do that. It's crazy to just throw 50 different kinds of seed in one plot of ground. I think he's saying adultery is insane. It brings so much trouble down upon your head.

It's as stupid as the person who throws every kind of seed on a plot of ground. It's the stupidest thing you can do. If you've seen the effects of adultery, you know, it's stupid. A person gets infatuated with somebody that's not his wife. It absolutely destroys his whole life.

It's the stupidest thing he did. He traded away his whole life for nothing, and it was foolish. And I think that's what the fabric, the mixing of fabrics and the seeds is all about. I might be wrong about that. You can listen to the sermon on it if you want to.

But it's keeping things separate that should be separate. And then there is The next commandment that he deals with here is the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal. Deuteronomy 23 19 through 25 1. There's the sin of uncleanness, there is controlling morality and sanitation, There's a way that you steal good things by the way that you live. Stealing isn't just taking something from somebody.

You can steal cleanliness. There are all kinds of ways of stealing. There's the matter of stealing a slave in this section. You know, stealing from a family. There's the exclusion of harlots and perverts in this thing.

It has to do with the preservation of love in the family, not stealing from the family by allowing harlotry to go on. 23. 17. There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel or a perverted person, which is a Sodomite in Israel. This is stealing.

Taking sex from the wrong person is stealing from them. Stealing from your neighbor, charging interest to your brothers, all kinds of ways of holding your greed back. Stealing from God by not fulfilling your vows to the Lord. There are a lot of different ways that you can steal. There's the law of newlyweds.

You know when a man finds a new wife God says don't go out to war but stay home for a year. Why? To bring happiness to your wife. I think that law is about stealing happiness from your wife in the first year of marriage. You work, work, work, work, work.

You leave her, you've stolen from her when you do that. Then there's the ninth commandment, which is 25, 13 to the next chapter. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. This is about longevity and honesty and business. The differing weights and measures are in this section that's bearing false witness.

The tenth commandment, this is from chapter 26 verse 1 verse 15. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant. This is really all about the love of God and these laws are really about promoting love between people. It rescues us from taking advantage of other people and teaching us what covetousness looks like. And then in the third speech, chapter 27 through chapter 31 verse 13, there's a renewal of the covenant.

You know, Moses concludes this section with various laws. The blessings and the cursings are in this section, this third speech. Deuteronomy 28 and Deuteronomy 32 are quoted many times in Isaiah. And Then Moses' last day of his life is recorded here in chapter 31, 14-33. In 31 God commands Moses to write a song.

He writes the song and teaches the children of Israel the song on the same day. I don't know if you ever wrote a song but Moses wrote the song in the morning and taught it to the children of Israel that day. It's the song of Moses. It's beautiful. It's such a beautiful song.

You know Moses wanted to go into the Promised Land, but God forbade him to go into the Promised Land. Why? Because he got angry at the children of Israel. His anger took him over. And God told him to speak to the rock, and he struck the rock.

But if you read the context, he was so angry at the people of God, he struck the rock. And when he did that, God forbade him to go into the Promised Land. But Moses brings this up, I think he brings, I can't remember, I think he brings it up three times. And God says no. And he brings it up again on the last day of his life and God says no.

Think about something you want to do so badly. That's what this was and God was not allowing him to do it. It was a lawful blessing and God was withholding it from him. God often does this. In his own wisdom he withholds some lawful blessing from us.

It may be related to our sin or not but God is wise. But what happens is that God tells Moses to go up onto the top of Mount Pisgah, and at the top of Mount Pisgah, you can see the Promised Land. Was God torturing Moses? He takes him up and he's looking at the Promised Land and God takes him to the real Promised Land, not the shadow. God took him to heaven!

He took him straight to the promised land, and I don't know of God's humor or something. He tells him, you cannot go into the land. And then he takes him directly to heaven. God takes Moses right there at that place. Moses wanted to go to the Promised Land and God would not allow him.

Here's the principle. When God deprives you of something that you think is so great, God always has something greater. God loved Moses. God said that Moses was the humblest man that ever lived. He was the meekest man who ever lived.

He did want God to kill him because of the anger that he had toward the children of Israel because they wouldn't obey the law of God. You know Moses was an instrument in God's hand. But he understood the mercy of God. He understood that God was a rewarder of those who seek Him. He understood that you're blessed if you keep the law of God and you're cursed if you don't.

He understood that there were blessings in loving God. And that's why Jesus loved the book of Deuteronomy. That's why he quoted from it all the time. It was a testimony of the love of God. I loved preaching through it.

I was astonished every week at how the Gospel was on every single page. So there it is, the Book of Deuteronomy.