In the sermon 'Listen and Observe - That You May Live,' Scott Brown emphasizes the critical importance of adhering to the statutes and commandments set forth in the book of Deuteronomy. The sermon explores how Deuteronomy serves as both a historical guide for the Israelites entering the Promised Land and a spiritual guide for believers today. Brown highlights the recurring themes of wisdom, understanding, and the proximity of God to His people. He underscores the necessity of teaching these statutes to future generations, portraying Deuteronomy as a cornerstone for establishing a culture that honors God in every aspect of life, including the heart, family, community, and government. The sermon also addresses the antinomian spirit, which dismisses the law's relevance, and stresses the law's role alongside grace. Brown articulates that Deuteronomy exposes human depravity and our desperate need for the Gospel, which is interwoven throughout the text. The sermon concludes with a call to see the superiority of God's ways, to love what Jesus loved, and to embrace the law not as a means of salvation, but as a guide to living a life pleasing to God. Through detailed exposition of the Ten Commandments, Brown provides practical applications for modern believers, encouraging a life of heartfelt obedience and highlighting the ultimate fulfillment of God's promises beyond earthly desires.

Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God your fathers has given you. 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. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-Pior, for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Pior. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them and the land which you go to possess.

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 to it as the Lord God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all the law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Father, we just thank you for your word.

We thank you father for your truth. Father I pray that you would just be with all of us right now. Give us open hearts. Give us open ears. Father we thank you that your Holy Spirit is here with us.

Father we thank you for Scott and his diligent work reading your word and being open to you and your holiness in his life, Lord. Father, I pray that you would just bless the words that he speaks today and help us to be open. We praise your mighty name, Jesus. Amen. The name of The book of Deuteronomy will be a very highly targeted message on the gospel in Deuteronomy.

Dan Horne is going to bring that message in two weeks. So this morning I want to try to remind us of the sweet of what we've been covering over the last two years. And remember that Deuteronomy was written to teach the children of Israel how to live in a pagan land. Because God desires a certain culture wherever his people dwell. And the culture begins with the culture of your heart.

And Deuteronomy speaks of the heart over and over again. There's a culture of the heart that God desires to establish. And then there is the culture in the family that God desires to establish and that's spoken of in Deuteronomy as well. And then there is the culture of life in the community. How do you deal with your brethren?

How do you deal with those who are unbelievers in your way? How do you deal with the civil government? How do you live in the land that God has sent you in to possess? And the summary of it all is this, is that God desires to have authority everywhere in the world, in the heart, in the family, in the community, and even in the civil government, because we've seen that Deuteronomy speaks much about the way that people relate with the civil government and the government relates with them and how they work actually in concert in order to establish the culture that God has established. One of the things that's become very apparent to all of us, I know, particularly those who have been here the whole time, is that there have been enormous changes in people's lives as a result of reading the book of Deuteronomy.

Our thinking has changed on many, many issues And that thinking has done its work, it's gone into our hearts, and then it's made changes in the way that we actually walk. You know, if it goes into your mind, that's stage one. When it goes into your heart, then it moves you, and then it moves you to action. And what we've seen is that there have there have been people who've made made changes as a result of hearing the Word of God. I just want us to pause and thank the Lord for that.

That there have there has God has given hearts desiring to respond and to actually do something about what God has said. And that's a blessing when people do that. You know, it was last year, right about this, I think it was the same week that there there was a gigantic earthquake in Chile it was 8.8 on the Richter scale and this this this earthquake actually moved the city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west of the capital of Santiago, and about 11 inches west and southwest of that city. And there was this gigantic shift in the earth, in the city. And that's the way that God desires for us to respond to Him.

That we move, that we change, that we don't just think about it, but that it goes deep in our hearts and we love it in our hearts so much that our feet can't say still, our mouths can't be stopped, but that God has His expression in the world as a result of what he has said of his eternal and sufficient and inerrant word and So we've seen how God has has given given some actually mega shifts in their schedule and all kinds of things like that. This is the glory of God. Now, before we begin to walk through the book of Deuteronomy, I want to give you six elements that really are the heart and soul of Deuteronomy. And the first is this, is that it covers all of life. When Moses says, it is your life, it means much to us.

And there are so many words in Deuteronomy that trip us to understand what God has desired. The term heart is in this book 40 times. Obey over 20 times, observe 29 times, be careful over 20 times, abomination 14 times. And what Deuteronomy breathes is that the Word of God is meant to be applied in every single area of life, that nothing is left untouched, that there are no secret places that God has not penetrated. Thankfully, God is kind as he penetrates one area after another in order to sanctify us, in order to set us aright.

And this theme that's here just breathes of the blessings of heartfelt obedience in every possible area of life. The second is that it confronts over and over again what I'm just going to call an antinomian spirit. It argues hard against the proposition that the only law for me today is the law in my heart. That my heart is sufficient. And so What we find here is in Deuteronomy, the thoughts and the meditations of men's hearts are not always right.

We develop them over time, often in a self-serving way, to please ourselves rather than to please God. And so we end up with all kinds of propositions in our hearts that are the wrong way. It's a wrong roadmap. And we find ourselves going in the wrong direction. And So here we find principles and commands for work, for family life, for government, for really everything.

And to say that commands are for the Old Testament and grace is for the New Testament is ridiculous. There are over 1, 050 commands in the New Testament. It's an insane proposition. But Deuteronomy just brings that to bear. Proverbs 28 says, those who forsake the law praise the wicked.

It says, one who turns his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. And so Deuteronomy confronts the antinomian spirit inside of us that says, I'm OK. I'm fine. Because we're actually not fine. And then thirdly, it reveals our depravity.

We think of ourselves as slightly depraved, slightly idolatrous. However, Scripture gives a different picture. We are radically depraved. Some call it total depravity. And Deuteronomy shows that, that there are corners of life that we hadn't even thought about that really we find that God thinks differently about those areas than we have thought about it.

The fourth thing that really just runs all through the book of Deuteronomy is this. The glory of the gospel is on every single page of the book of Deuteronomy, And we found that. The shadows of the Gospel appear everywhere. You can't accurately and faithfully engage this book or preach it without hyperlinking to the Gospel on almost every paragraph. And that's what we found by going through this book.

The cross is demanded on every page, because God demands perfect obedience, He demands perfect holiness, He demands perfect justice. And unfortunately, we don't have that. We've never been able to keep even one of the laws and so we find ourselves in this radical deficit. We are We are in such need of perfect obedience, of perfect holiness, of perfect justice. And it's only found in one place, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was, he was obedient in every one of the laws.

He was holy. He was perfectly just. And as our substitute, he has substituted for this terrible, terrible depravity that we have. And so Deuteronomy shows us that the gospel is demanded on every page and that the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is required for any hope. And so, you know, Deuteronomy preaches the gospel, you know, over and over again.

Fifthly, it proclaims the superiority of God in his ways. And, you know, God in the book of Deuteronomy, he calls us with lots of different sort of genres of literature in a way and voices. And in all of those different ways as you move through the book, God is presenting himself as superior to everything. God's ways are superior. And in the first section of the book, which is historical, God is proclaiming that he is a sufficient Savior.

In the longest section of the book where Moses is doing exposition on the Ten Commandments, it's a didactic section. And in that section, he's saying that his ways are superior. And when you go through this book, you see that God is always laying two things aside one another. Your ways and His ways. And his ways are wonderful.

You know, what I had hoped every year that I had little children in my house, and I still hope for it and pray for it for my children as now three of them have left our home. I prayed one prayer that my children would get at least, if they only got one thing, if they forgot everything but only got one thing, My urgent crying to God was that they would get it, that God is good. That every single word of God is good. And if there's anything that rises up in their hearts, if there's anything that rises up in any area of their life for the rest of their life, they would know that God's Word was good and true, that it was a blessing, that every word of God is pure, That God, as Moses says, He loves His people. He rides on the heavens to help you in His excellency in the clouds.

He loves you. He's good. He's only giving you good laws. If it contradicts what's in you, then it's evil in you, and He is good and good alone. And to me, it's absolutely the most important and fundamental principle of everything, not just child raising.

But this principle was what caused me to fall on my face before God when I was raising my children so that they would see that God was good. When we would get together and pray in the mornings when we would read Scripture, my prayer was, Oh Lord, help us to see wondrous things from your law. Because it is wondrous. And, and, and we, we are well when we love his law. So, it proclaims the superiority of God in all of His ways.

And then, it also, the book of Deuteronomy also causes us to love what Jesus loved. And we began this series by saying that Deuteronomy was the book that Jesus loved. And I think it's appropriate to say it again. And the Lord Jesus took the book of Deuteronomy. He quoted Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book.

And he took Deuteronomy and he applied it to the matters that were raising themselves before him in his earthly ministry. And so when considering matters of divorce, he consults and quotes Deuteronomy. When considering matters of marriage, he quotes Deuteronomy. The people who say that Deuteronomy only applies to the children of Israel have forgotten that Jesus used Deuteronomy to apply in his day. And this, and Jesus gives us examples of how you use the law lawfully.

There's an unlawful use of the law. The primary unlawful use of the law is to say that the law somehow makes you acceptable to God, and it will save you. That is absolutely untrue, and Deuteronomy proves that over and over again. But Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy to prove that human traditions wage war against God's commands. He uses it to teach on the family.

He uses it to speak about riches and how hard it is for a rich man to enter into heaven. He uses it to teach about temptation, and he quotes, he actually quotes Deuteronomy three times when he is in his own temptation by the devil at the beginning of his ministry. And so, while the Old Testament, while Deuteronomy has often made us feel uncomfortable, it didn't make Christ uncomfortable. Christ was completely comfortable with Deuteronomy, and he quoted it over and over and over again. If you're not comfortable with Deuteronomy, let me just say two things.

That's a good thing because it shows you who you really are. You're a bankrupt sinner, so deprived of holiness that you do not understand the heart of God. And so it's a blessing to know that so that it places you in the very best position you could ever be in, on your knees, repentant before God, crying out for His mercy. But if it makes you uncomfortable and you're not repentant, then you need to ask yourself, have you received the Spirit of Jesus Christ? The Spirit of Jesus Christ will love this law.

That's why Jesus said, do not think that I came to destroy this law. Don't you think that? I didn't. I came to fulfill it. And not one jot or tittle will pass away until all is fulfilled.

So those are just some general statements about Deuteronomy. Now Let's begin working our way through the book. First of all, we find the summary of the law, the Ten Commandments, in this first speech. There are three speeches in the Book of Deuteronomy, and we'll take them one by one and then find ourselves at the end. If you have an outline in front of you, this is the basic structure of the book of Deuteronomy and what I'll do this morning is try to make some comments about each of these.

Last night I was loathe to report to one of our dear deacons that I had 47 or almost 50 pages. I had 47 pages of notes last night that had to go down to 18 pages, and I'm not happy to report that 47 pages have gone to 50. But I'm going to finish in an hour. Okay, I just want you to know that. So Moses' first speech, lessons from the will.

I dare you. I will finish in an hour. I know exactly what you're thinking, and you're thinking we will. That will need to be cut out of the tape, guys. Sorry.

Dan is wagering an hour and ten minutes. That's what he just said. So we'll see. 1035, or I mean 1135 is when I'm going to stop. So Moses' first speech, Lessons from Wilderness Wanderings.

Here in Moses' first speech, which is given on November 1st, 1410 BC. You learn that from verse 3 in chapter 1. We want to unveil that. But what this first speech of Moses does is that it's really a revelation of the gospel. And it's really a call to revel in the gospel, to soak in it, to ponder it, to meditate on it, to see how God works with his people.

Really, you know, and you can see it in this first speech, the first three elements of the gospel are the kindness of God. The second element is the sinfulness of sin and a call for obedience. Here in these first three chapters, that's what you see, that God rescues His people. God makes a covenant, He rescues His people, and then He shows them how to govern themselves. That's what you see right there.

And His love is explained. He says, in the wilderness you saw that the Lord carried you as a father carries a son. That's the summary of the first speech. That he carries you as a father carries his son. That is a wonderful summary of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He sends his angels out to minister to you in your unconverted state. He cares for you. He brings you to a point of dependence upon Him. And you cry out to him and he rescues you and he and you find out that he's been carrying you and he'll carry you to heaven and so a summary of the gospel is here. Chapter 4 issues a call to obedience which is another aspect of the gospel.

Salvation without obedience is not such true salvation. And this first speech illustrates that very, very, very vividly. And that's why Moses says, you shall not add to the word which I command or take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today." And the result of this is that you become a wise and understanding people. In chapter 4, verses 6 through 8, We read this this morning, surely this nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it?

So in this first speech is sort of an exposure of a God who saves his people. He calls them to obey and he makes them a wise and understanding people, not like the rest of the people in the world. He makes them different. And the difference is that they are wise and understanding because God is near them. God is near them.

In other words, they're in their hearts. They're hearkening unto God. Their days are filled with prayer. They're calling out to God. They're calibrating against God and His commands.

They're desiring to do His will. When they look into someone's eyes, They're at the same time crying out and saying, oh, God, help me to represent you. When they're doing their work, they do the same thing. When they're in worship, they do the same thing. Because God is near to them in their hearts.

That's true Christianity. And then in the second speech, which is the longest speech in the book of Deuteronomy, is a statement of the law in chapter five, and then there's a very careful and logical exposition of the law, where Moses gives practical applications to the Ten Commandments. And again, Moses is preparing the children of Israel to live in a pagan land. And what is here is designed to help us to live in our pagan land as well. And the land of the Canaanites was a land of idolatry.

It was a land of designer gods, it was a land of licentiousness and immorality and murder of different kinds, because there's not just one kind of murder in the eyes of God. And The inclination of the people's hearts will be to make a God in their own image, to comply, to morph themselves to the people that they live around, to become like them. And so in this first speech, Moses is arguing with the people to throw away the fake gods and to serve the living God alone. And it would be their responsibility to tear down the idols in that land. And their only peace, their only hope is to know that God is true, that God is good.

You know, the Israelites are just like we are, and that is that we want a God that thinks like us. We want a God that looks at the world like we look at the world. We don't want a God messing in our business. We don't want him messing with our relationships. And we certainly do not want God to mess with our church.

We want it to run quite smoothly. Thank you very much. But God's not content for that. And so he gives laws in order to govern us, to keep us in the way that pleases him, not in the way that pleases man. And what we find here is that, in this whole section, is that the people in the civil government are working together for the glory of God.

How different is that? How strangely odd that seems in our culture where you have many Christians say no, you know, The Christians have nothing to say about the government. In fact, if you have a nonprofit organization, we'll actually fine you if you say anything about the government. That's the world that we live in today. We have to shake that.

Moses' method here is to bring application to the Ten Commandments. And he applies the Ten Commandments in ways that just are sort of counterintuitive. I mean, he applies them to things that we just wouldn't think of normally. We want to think about murder as stabbing someone. But Moses doesn't do that, and neither does Jesus.

And so, as we interpret the Old Testament law, we're always asking ourselves questions of it. You know, what is condemned and what is required? Are there any punishments associated with the breaking of this law? Who is responsible for enforcing it? Who's given the jurisdiction to carry this out?

That really matters. Does the family have authority in this area or does the government have authority in this area? Who is the one who brings the judgment for the sin here? Is it moral? Is it ceremonial?

Is it judicial law? How has Christ foreshadowed the commandment? Has it been abrogated in the New Covenant? Because there are many things in Deuteronomy that have clearly been abrogated by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And so we have to ask ourselves, what is the application in the New Testament era?

We always have to ask ourselves, how is this an exposition of love? Because every law of God is a law of love. There's love in every single law. And so, Moses gives in summary form the ten commandments and then from there to the end of chapter 26 he explains the commandments in detail. So the first, let's start with the first commandment which runs from 6 through 11, chapters 6 through 11.

The first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. And so this is, this is an attack against the gods that overtake the heart of man. And chapter 6 begins in its application of this law with the Shema, which was recited by godly Jews morning and evening. And the Shema begins with loving the Lord your God with all your heart. You love the Lord your God with all your heart.

And what's the first thing you do after you love the Lord your God, how do you apply your love for God? You teach your children diligently when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. The first commandment is meant to be applied in everyday life, And that's one of the most critical areas of application of this first commandment. You teach them to your children. And then in chapter 7, we also learn that you apply the first commandment by making no covenant with the pagans, by having no marriages with the pagans, by having no toleration of their gods, and he says you shall conquer them, you shall utterly destroy them, you shall have no mercy on them.

In other words, you put away their ways. We do not make friends with the enemies of God, in that sense. That doesn't mean that we're not friendly with unbelievers, but it does mean that When there is paganism, when it comes, when it raises its head, that we know our relationship with that paganism. We become the enemy of that paganism. In chapter 8, Moses says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

If you want to apply the first commandment to love the Lord your God, then make the Word of God your bread, your life. It is your life. And in chapter 9 is sort of a description of really a threat of failure to keep the commands that they are obligated to keep in the land. And there's this warning that your God is a consuming fire. So you do not play games with God.

Nobody survives the breaking of the first commandment because God is a consuming fire. And in chapter 11, Moses says In verse 8, therefore you shall keep every commandment, which I command you today, that you may be strong. And then he says, therefore you shall love the Lord your God. You shall keep every commandment, and you shall lay these words up in your heart. So how do you keep the first commandment?

There are a number of different ways that you do it in everyday life. It's not just anything that happens in your brain. It's something that you actually carry out in life. And then, and That is, you shall have no other gods before me. Why?

That it may be well with you and with your children forever. And then we go to the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself a carved image. Moses does exposition on the second commandment from 12.1 to chapter 13 verse 18. And this commandment is applied in various ways.

The way that you worship God. In chapter 12 verse 1, You worship where God chooses for you to worship. You bring certain offerings. You observe a meal. You rejoice with your household, verse 7.

You bring it God's way, not man's way, verses 8 and 9. And in verse 8, he says, you shall not at all do as you, as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. Worship of God is not meant to do man's way, but God's way. Man always wants to worship God in his own, he wants to do what's right in his own eyes. He wants to make up some cool hip thing that is smarter, better, and happier than God.

And what Moses is saying, no, there is a way to do it. You offer what you vow. You rejoice with your family in the Levites. You offer holy things. You are regulated by scripture alone.

And you need to be aware of the terrible dangers that there are in violating this. And you see this in verses 29 through 31. It's applied when there are those who, prophets and dreamers of dreams, who would lure you away to entice you to to incite you to love something other than God what do you do this inducing is so the word for labor pains with someone who's trying to induce you to veer off from what God has said. And there are very, very severe consequences for that. And why?

That it may be well with you and with your children forever. Moses said, oh, that they have such a heart in them that it might be well with them and their children forever. And then there's the third commandment, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord your God will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Here we learn that taking the Lord's name in vain is not isolated to cussing. It's far deeper and broader than that.

In chapter 14 we learn that you take the Lord's name in vain the way you mourn. You can mourn like the pagans and take His name in vain. The way you eat, you can eat like the pagans and take His name in vain. And here in this section is the ceremonial laws, the ceremonial food laws. God commanded His people to eat in a different way so that they would be a holy people and not take His name in vain.

We learn in the New Testament era that those things were not uncleaned in and of themselves. It was just set by God for His people to establish that they were a holy people. And you mourn differently, you eat differently, you do different things with your money. That's the next section we'll get to in a minute. But there's a way that you take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

And that is by mourning like the pagans, and eating like the pagans, and then handling your money like the pagans. And these were ceremonial laws that were abrogated at the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we learn that particularly from Acts chapter 10, where we understand how these things should be handled in the New Covenant. Why? That it may be well with you and with your children forever.

You know, God desires his people not to be fake, but to have genuine worship toward God. And they take his name in vain when they worship in a way that's inconsistent with his ways. And then the fourth commandment, Remember the Sabbath day or observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day to the Lord your God. What we learn here as we pass through this section is that God wants to control your time.

He wants to control your schedule. He wants to control your week. He wants to control a certain day. He wants to tell you what to do on a certain day. Not your words, His words.

Not your ways, his ways. He wants to have a day where he pours out his blessing upon you, where you so saturate yourself in the goodness of God, that you thrill yourself in every aspect of his goodness and his glory, that you would set that aside so that you would have that in your hearts. Voltaire said if you if you want to destroy the Christian religion, destroy the Christian Sabbath. And of course there are many influences out there that would destroy the Christian Sabbath. We learn here that the actual keeping of the Sabbath is the function of the family.

That a father and a mother are the ones who are charged by God to ensure that everybody in their household, their children, any other servants or employees, anyone connected to their household has a day of rest. That's a responsibility of a father and a mother to ensure that children have that day where the glory of God is considered all day long. And it's a whole day. And there's this, and it's of course, it teaches us about something far greater, something greater than just the keeping of the Sabbath is here. Because there's eternal rest.

Hebrews 4.10 says, for there remains a promise of entering his rest. And the Sabbath is a picture of the rest that God will finally give his children when he takes them into his own glory. So he would have them contemplate his glory here on Earth, and then he would take them to glory. And so there's much that we could say about this. But there are principles in here for how to prepare for the Sabbath, how not to profane it, how not to curse your family through its neglect.

And it also has implications of the culture in the church that you go to. There's much that he says about the Sabbath regarding tithing, the various, the three kinds of tithes, the festival tithe, the Levitical tithe, and the poor tithe, you know, 33.3% of your income, you know, given for these things. And in the New Testament we find that they gathered on the first day of the week and they gathered funds in. It's a reflection of what we see in Deuteronomy very, very clearly. And this section brings us right to the footsteps of the poor and shows us another shadow of Christ's fulfillment.

But it's just more and more commentary on this commandment. Even dealings with debt and lending are in here because that's implied in your bringing of your offerings to God, you know, on the Sabbath day. There are principles about debt. Many people had their sort of world flipped over on debt, because God actually regulates debt. He doesn't ban it.

And so there are a number of things that are here. He speaks of conditions that happen when the people of God are faithful. And get this. He says, you know, when there are no more poor among you, hey that can happen. That can happen when the people of God are faithful and who do not pervert justice to the poor.

We live in a day where we're perverting justice to the poor the way that we deal with them. But God reveals his ways of dealing with the poor here, and it's a blessing to them. And why? Why? That it may be well with you and with your children forever.

And then the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long. Now here in this section on the fifth commandment that runs from 1618 to 1822, Moses explains many different issues of authority. You know, authority starts with father and mother, but it doesn't just stop there. It has to do with all of your relationships with authority. And here Moses speaks of the establishment of governors as authorities.

And how you're supposed to, what principles do you use to appoint governors, the ones that will be in authority over you. They shall judge the people with just judgment. You shall not pervert justice." You know, the civil magistrate is supposed to be headed by a man who writes out the law of God and keeps it and he holds it near to his heart and he governs that way. That's the kind of governor we should pray for in our land. And the whole matter of civil government and judging and all kinds of issues.

You know, What happens when difficult matters come up? You might not think that honor your father and mother relates to this, but if you run into a difficult matter, it has to be decided, and you can't work it out. You go to the priest and whatever the priest says, you have to abide by. That's authority. So God is saying that there's a way that he's governed the world by authority and there is honor toward the authority in the family and there's honor toward the authority in the civil government and God teaches us how we should relate to the civil government and how you honor authority.

Often the problems that people have go right down to this issue of authority. And it begins in the family. And let me just say this very pointedly, brothers and sisters, you as parents, if you do not teach your children the principle of godly authority, you have destroyed their lives, because it won't go well with them. If you're not using the rod on your children with the consistency and the severity that God has commanded you to do, you're destroying your children's lives. You may be saving your own feelings and cultivating and nursing those, but you're destroying your children if you don't discipline them.

Because this relationship to authority begins in the home. And if they don't get it in the home, then they're going to bang their head against a bunch of walls and a bunch of hard rocks. And here God is giving laws to help His people live under authority. And then in the sixth commandment, you shall not murder. We find this explained in chapter 19, verse 1, all the way to 22, verse 8.

And here we find provisions and principles for several different kind of situations with murder and how you deal with it. This section was so startling to us when we went through it. The whole cities of refuge thing that God has established, how God is displaying in this section his passion to equip sinners, his passion to equip murderers, And he goes to great lengths to deal with the sins of hearts and hands in this whole section of you shall not commit murder. And There's more here than we can discuss. But here is the protection of the life of those who commit unintentional sins, and the protection of property, the protection of reputation.

The shadows of the Gospel are here. There are crimes that should put us to death, but God has provided a city of refuge. And that refuge is Christ. We have a strong consolation, and we fled to His refuge, as the writer of Hebrews says. And God provides these cities of refuge for the person who kills someone with a wooden instrument or by pushing or by the hand.

All these different issues of murder are brought to the surface here. But they're all to show us that there's an orderly way that you deal with these things, but that at the same time, God, the avenger of blood, has provided a sacrifice of his son, and he has brought us into his city of refuge. Why? Why? That it may be well with you and with your children forever.

We learn from Jesus that murder is far beyond just killing someone. It's hating your brother in your heart. And then we find the next commandment, the seventh commandment, which runs from chapter 22.9 to 23.18, you shall not commit adultery. So after Moses finishes expounding on you shall not murder, he uses the same principles in the seventh commandment and he gives these three laws from the world of nature about mixing things and mixing animals and mixing threads and all this kind of thing. It seems very confusing, but he's taking three things from nature that show the tendency of man to overthrow the natural use of things.

Nobody would just scatter all kinds of seed out into the field. That's stupid. Nobody would put, you know, two dissimilar kind of animals in a yoke. That doesn't work. You know, he's saying adultery doesn't work.

It messes everything up. That's what he's saying. And each one of them is an illustration that explains the importance of purity and equal yoking in marriage. And so This issue of the second commandment is applied far broader than just this physical act of adultery, that there's much more to the story. You keep separate things separate.

And It's just a remarkable section. It's a section that speaks of how you deal with premarital sexual sin and the things that happened before marriage. The impure relationship of a married woman or someone who's been betrothed or with a family member or a broken marriage. All these things are dealt with. The man who's detesting his wife, that's dealt with as well.

So Moses deals with all kinds of different issues that you wouldn't normally think that are implied in this commandment. Why? Because the law is spiritual. The law is meant to be applied in every area of life. It goes deeper than you ever thought.

And it condemns more than you ever thought. And Nobody ever encounters the law without their righteousness being killed. And it's true here in this section, especially on the matter of committing adultery. We also learn about a father's responsibility for the virginity of his daughter here. That God holds fathers responsible for that.

And they must know it and that they are held accountable before God for it. And so it speaks of the protection of daughters and a number of things. It speaks of illegitimate birth and the temptations of other nations like the Ammonites and the Moabites who tempted the people of God. And why? Why?

Why? Because so that it may be well with you and with your children forever. That's why. Because God's ways are wonderful and they so far outperform man's ways. And then the eighth commandment, Deuteronomy 23, 19 through 25, verse 12, you shall not steal.

And there are a number of, again, surprising ways that Moses applies this commandment. And here, there's just the controlling of various forms of theft that we might find, including How do you steal from a young couple who just got married? Well, you hear Moses says that you should give them a year where they don't have military responsibilities and that a husband should give his first year of marriage to make his wife happy. Wow, we have some newly married couples here. What a great time you're in.

You're still within the first year of marriage, some of you. And milk it for all it's worth. Make her happy. Spend this year. Scripture is sufficient for your first year of marriage and but you can steal from your wife, men, by not setting aside that year for particular purposes.

So Moses is applying these things in areas that are just very very surprising Charging interest to your brothers, you know greed is suppressed This is violated by by by not keeping your promises not fulfilling your vows is stealing from God. You're stealing from the poor by not providing what you ought to according to the way that God governs the care of the poor. And so there are just a number of ways in this section. And then the ninth commandment, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And here we find that God is promising longevity and favor for those who have honest business dealings and do not bear false witness.

And he gives various applications for how you would be involved in bearing false witness. Why? Why? So that it might be well with you. Bearing false witness is really a bad idea for a lot of different reasons.

And Moses outlines those reasons. And then the 10th commandment, you shall not covet. Here we find the character of God's love, that his commandments here display his love. And the Lord Jesus dealt with this in Matthew chapter 22, where there was someone who came to him who was coveting an inheritance, and the Lord gives some answers about that. But there are a number of ways to put a drain plug on covetousness, by giving, by celebrating by giving, by celebrating of your first fruits, by protecting us from fruitless activities with our money.

And it just speaks of a number of issues here. The secret sins that corrode the inward soul. This one is a secret sin. It certainly does come out, but it is something that one holds in the heart covetousness. And he's really casting a vision for contentment in all things that we would not covet, our neighbor's wife or anything else that is our neighbor's.

Why? So that it may be well with you and with your children forever. All of God's laws are wonderful. And then the third speech has its focus in promises of life and death and a call to renew the covenant, a call to come and perform an act here in chapter 27 that demonstrates the gospel and the importance of keeping the law of God. And he concludes this speech by giving a number of rituals that they're to perform once they go into the land of promise.

And in this section are the blessings and the curses. When we went through the blessings and the curses, we tried to do it very proportionally and systematically. And I think we were all terrified at the terrible judgments that there are and the calamities and the downfalls and the heartbreaking things that happen when we when we push aside God's laws and And then God's affirming that he has made a covenant with his people. Here in this section of the curses and the blessings, again, I think what's there so sums up the heartbeat of this whole book, that God's way, that you will be blessed in the city, you'll be blessed in the country. Your basket, your kneading bowl, your coming in, your going out, God blesses those who obey Him.

And He curses those who reject Him. And so many of the curses that are upon our nation and our own families and upon us individually, you can trace them right to sin. You can trace them to the ways that we've thrown off what God has called us to do. And so this was just a very, very difficult and terrifying thing to come face to face with, how severe God is in His judgments. And then In Moses' last day of his life, he's called to come at the door of the tabernacle with Joshua.

And while at that door, God comes in the form that he has been coming for 40 years in the wilderness in a pillar of cloud and he's hovering over the tabernacle and God commands Moses to write a song and Moses writes that song that same day and they sing it the same day. This is the last day of Moses life that we find here and the song of Moses again we spent quite a bit of time in the Song of Moses. And we hear in the Song of Moses that there's this appeal again to hearken to the perfections and the goodnesses of the law of God. And he says, it's not a futile thing for you, because it is your life. And by this word, you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.

And then in the final chapter, in chapter 34, there is a transfer of leadership to Joshua, and Moses makes a 4, 000 foot trek up to Mount Pisgah, And God takes him there. And what we find here in this last chapter, I think it's so iconic to the message of this whole book. What you find in the book of Deuteronomy, in the midst of these laws, Moses is crying out to God that he could experience this blessed land, the land of milk and honey. And the issue comes up several times. Right at the beginning, Moses is pleading with God to let him go into the land.

He wants that good land. He wants to see the laws of God played out. He wants to see how it works. He wants to see the goodness of God in the land. It's a land flowing with milk and honey.

He desires it with all of his heart. And God is telling Moses, don't ask me again. And then it comes up again and again. And then here, in this last chapter, God mentions it again, just before his death. God takes Moses up to the top of Mount Pisgah.

And there he is, and he says, see the land, and God has been saying to Moses over and over again, you will see the land. And now Moses is standing there, and he says, see the land, and Moses is looking at it, and it seems obvious from the text that it's a bittersweet thing for Moses. He's longed for the good things. He's the most humble man that ever lived. He was a godly man.

He loved things that were good, and he hated things that were evil. He wanted the good. He wanted every part of it. He wanted to apply it. He wanted it in his heart, and there he was in the top, and he wanted that land.

He wanted that land. And what did God do? He snapped him to the real land. He takes him from the shadow and he puts him immediately in the land. And I think what happens in the very last verses of Deuteronomy show us the message of Deuteronomy.

And that's this message. You have longings for things, but let me tell you, there is something that God will give all of His children that is so much better than what they think. You like the shadow, God has something greater. He is so good. And what happens with Moses is though he finds the frustration of living in this land and longing to see this beautiful land that God has promised him.

God so far exceeds his promises and gives him the real land in the twinkling of an eye. Wow. What a story. And What a blessing it's been. Let me just close with this one last principle here.

There are many things that you wish for and have longings for in this life. And sometimes you sin because of the longings that you have. And you wish that God would give you certain things here, and He has not given them to you. You've longed for this thing and that thing, and He has not given them to you in this place. Let me just make a guarantee.

He will give you far, far more than your heart is even capable of desiring. And that's why, that's why the Apostle Paul said, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly, beyond all we ask or think, and that's exactly what happened with Moses, And that's exactly what's going to happen to God's children who love his laws and keep his commandments. Would you pray with me? Oh, Lord, we thank you for this remarkable, helpful book that you've given to us, that it may be well with us and with our children forever. Oh God, I pray that you would work in us as a congregation to see the goodness of your laws in your ways and to care nothing for the shadows of this world, but to fear You and to keep all of Your commandments.

Now Lord, I pray that You would descend upon these people, and that You would send them out in might Your might, In spirit, your spirit, and in word, with your word. Amen.