All right, have a seat, and let's turn to Deuteronomy, chapter 6. Deuteronomy comes from two words: deuteros, which means number two or the second; and nomos, which means the law. It is the second law. Not that Moses is making up his own law to add to God's law, but he is recapping what God has already said. He is highlighting the most important elements. And he is following an important teaching practice; and that is, knowing the tendency that we have to forget, even important stuff, there is the necessity to make repetition, to highlight, to go over it, and over it, and over it again.

Jesus practiced this. There were times where he would teach a lesson, and other times he would say sort of the same words, but sort of made for that particular occasion. And, perhaps, there was the thought in the mind of Peter or James or John: "I've already heard that before, Jesus. You already covered that over in Galilee. Why bring it up again? I've heard you use that illustration before, Lord." But there are things that are vital that we need constant remembrances of, and that's really where Deuteronomy comes in. It is the second law. It is causing this new generation to remember, to recall some very, very important truths.

It was Peter who in his epistle spoke of the importance of going back and remembering important truths. He said, "I will not be negligent, therefore, brethren to remind you always of these things, though you know them, and are already established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to be reminding you or to stir you by reminding you." And that's what Moses does, he reminds them. He tells them what God has done in the past. He tells them what their responsibility is in the present. He tells them what they can expect God to do for them in the future.

When I was a kid I did a lot of dumb things. And there was one particular dumb thing that I did that I guess my dad just figured, "He needs to remember that dumb thing." Now, I don't know what kind of wisdom it really was in keeping this as a memorial. But I really got angry. I got so angry one day that I put my foot through my bedroom door and left a sizable hole--well, the size of my foot. And I'd come home in the subsequent days and look at that hole. And you know, after your temper cools down, you look at it and you're embarrassed. You want to cover it up.

You want to, in fact, get a new door. In fact, I said, "Dad, listen. You know, that was bad, but you ought to replace the door. I mean, it's going to be my money, of course, but you ought to put a new door." He said, "No. That old door is fine," and left the hole there. In fact, he put a little piece of white cardboard over that hole on the door, so you could as you walked in turn left and you could see that hole. You could see that it was there, and it was a constant reminder of my failures. He did that, left it there for, I think, two years, at least a year, and it was embarrassing to me.

Now, I don't think God takes the past and does quite that, but he does tell the children of Israel to remember what he has done for them, the good stuff, remembrances of the past. And so, in Deuteronomy, chapter 6, he says, "The laws that I have given you shall be in your heart. And you shall bind them on your hand, you shall bind them on your head, you shall put them on the doorposts of your house, so that wherever you are, you look and you will remember what I have done. You'll remember what I have said. You'll remember the covenant that I have made with you and with your forefathers."

One of the things I like about the Jewish calendar is the remembrances. The whole year in Judaism has special watershed marks of memory. There's a month of Nisan, that's the first month in the calendar. And that was special because it was the month of Passover. It was during that month, especially during a period of about eight days, where they would remember God's delivering them from Egypt. The next month was the month of Sivan which was the time when Pentecost was celebrated, and they would thank God for another year of harvest.

Then there was the month of Tishri, the seventh month, when they would gather and live in little booths outside. And as they would live in that booth their son or their daughter would say, "Dad, what are we doing outside anyway? Why are we living out here for a whole week? We should be inside. Why did you build this goofy little booth with palm branches and sticks?" "Because, son, this is to remind us that our forefathers wandered through the desert for forty years and just out under the stars God took care of them. God sent them manna, God brought them water from the rock, and this is a reminder of that."

So, all of these months with their special festivals, to bring the constant reminder of God's love and God's faithfulness. And, really, that is one of the themes of Deuteronomy. And you're going to read over and over again where God says, "Remember . . .," "Remember . . .", "Don't forget." "And by the way, remember this." He says that a lot. You'll read a lot about it tonight. We are in the second speech that Moses gave to the children of Israel. We have said that Deuteronomy has four speeches. The first speech is the first four chapters where he goes over their past history.

"Remember the past," he would say. "Remember your history. Think about where you've come from." Now, that's good to do as a Christian. We call it a testimony, however. Your testimony is how God saved you. And you ought to have that fresh and probably even somewhat rehearsed in your heart, so that at a moment's notice you can pull it out and use it. Because, no doubt, you're going to run into somebody who hasn't seen you in the interim since you've been a believer. And they're going to say, "Hey, man, what have you been up to the last five years?"

You say, "Let me tell you what God's been up to in my life the last five years. This is what's happened to me." Others will notice the change and they'll simply ask, "What happened to you? You seem different." Rehearse the past history. Go over the testimony. It says in Revelation, "And they overcame the beast by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death." So first four chapters he gathers the new generation: "This is what God has done, remember the past, remember your history."

I found a quote by former president Woodrow Wilson who said, "A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about." I think that's good medicine for our nation. I think that if you would good back and trace how the government of this nation in its primary stages looked to God--and it doesn't matter what you think if Thomas Jefferson or certain founding fathers were this or believed in that.

There was a pervasive trusting in the Lord among many of the government agencies and leaders when this country was founded. That's where we came from. Now, if we forget that, we lost our bearings for the present and for the future. And it seems like we've done exactly that. We don't know what we're about, we forgot the heritage of your forefathers, the beautiful feasts like Thanksgiving, and so forth. Now, note: whenever you give your testimony, take a cue from the children of Israel. Whenever the children of Israel rehearsed their past; you know how they did it? They always emphasized God.

Now I hear a lot of testimonies, and I hear a lot of the emphasis of man and past failures: "You know, when I was an unbeliever . . ." And it's almost as if they're glorying in their sin. It's like when guys get together after fishing and they see who can tell the biggest fish story, and it seems to grow every time. You know, they catch a six-inch trout and pretty soon, "That thing was this big!" And I've heard testimonies, and after hearing them several times, if it's the same person, I think, "Well, he change that from the first time I heard it. It's a little more dramatic this time around.

"You know, before he just inhaled once, now he's saying that he was a drug smuggler from Argentina to America. I mean, that thing has really grown." [laughter] Because probably in telling the testimony that person has noticed that whenever he tells a dramatic part in the story, people go, "Wow!" He gets a little lift from it. It's not honest, and the emphasis is on how bad I was, rather than how good God is. In Israel whenever they rehearsed their history, their testimony, it's, "This is what God has done for us."

Basically, the history of Israel was this: "We were creeps, we were unworthy, we failed, and God was faithful. God chose us. God moved us from Egypt into this new land." Now, in chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, and on, Moses after the first speech is now charging them with their present responsibility: your past history and now your present responsibility. You know, one always follows the other; doesn't it? This is what God has done, therefore, this is what you ought to do. And that's really what chapter 6, how it starts: "This is the commandment," "These are the statutes."

If you were to sum these chapters up, it would be: you have seen what God has done, now therefore this is what you must do. Did you know that that's how Paul taught as well? That was Paul's method. Mark it well in Romans, for eleven chapters he says this is all that God has done in history among the Jews, among the Gentiles, among you. And then we get to chapter 12, "Therefore, brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you would present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, holy, and acceptable, which is your reasonable service." This is what God has done, therefore this is what you should do.

He does the same thing in the book of Ephesians. He says, this is how wealthy you are as a child of God. God has given you every blessing in heavenly places. God has seated you with Christ in heavenly places. God has saved you by an act of God's grace through faith. "Therefore, as the prisoner of the Lord, I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called." And that's Moses' style of teaching: this is what God has done in the past; This is your present responsibility now. He does so by--and I'm giving an outline of the entire book and kind of going through it.

In chapter 5 he's laying down the Law in the literal sense, the Ten Commandments. They're brief, but they cover everything. You know what I like about God? A brief is a brief. You know, I've talked to a lot of lawyers, and I see lawyers carrying these huge things. I say, "What is that big stack of papers?" He says, "It's a brief." That? Two thousand pages you call a brief? Boy, I hate to see what you call something comprehensive, if that's a brief." [laughter] God lays down ten brief principles that cover absolutely every general area of life that is sacred to God. He lays it down. He makes it simple, but pervasive.

Then after talking about the Ten Commandments, in chapter 6 he says pass it on, pass it on. "This is what I've said, now pass it on to others." Then in chapter 7 he's going to say conquer the land or possess the land. And then in chapter 8, to remember. So, if we have enough opportunity tonight, we might skip some sections of these verses, chapters 6, 7, and 8, God through Moses is basically saying this: "Children of Israel, allow me to remind you to pass it on. Allow me to remind you to possess the land. Allow me to remind you to ponder God's work."

That's chapter 6, 7, and 8 in the second round of speeches that Moses gives to the children of Israel. Chapter 6 is pass it on, you need, first of all, a viable relationship with God in your own heart, and then you need to have a visible reminder, as we have already read in these verses. "You shall bind them," verse 8, "as a sign on your hand, they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." And that's sort of where we left it last week. Now, I want to just back you up a couple verses, because something that is a highlight in the book of Deuteronomy is the idea that parents ought to teach their kids.

Moses will go over that a lot this book. You know why? Because this is a new generation, the old generation is dead. And, you know, Moses wants to make sure that they don't make the same mistakes their forefathers did, and that they don't, you know, that they don't neglect to teach their children these lessons. Pass it on to your kids. And so he says, "The words that I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up."

Proverbs 22, we're all familiar with it, right, verse 6? "Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old"--what?--"he will not depart." Interesting, the word that is used for "train up a child" is a Hebrew word that speaks of the sucking of a child. In fact, the Arabs used to use a word that is similar to this, where they would put date honey on their finger and put it inside the mouth of an infant to stimulate the sucking reflex of the infant. "Put something sweet, draw out the taste, stimulate their taste for what is true, for what is right."

There's nothing better than to stimulate somebody's taste for the Word of God and for godly living than an example of a godly life. So, it's gotta be in you, and when you live, when you walk, when you sit. All of these elements of your life are used to train others, to give them stimulus, to put the taste in their mouth, to love God, to follow his commands. That's really the idea of training and of teaching. Now, verse 10, all of this is to protect them from the possibility of pride.

"It shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant--when you have eaten and are full--then beware." When you are living in abundance, look out. When you prosper and have everything you need, be on your guard. Why? "Lest you forget"--see, the whole idea of remembrance.

"Lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve him, and shall take oaths in his name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you." Prosperity is probably more dangerous than adversity. I think it's a greater trial. Paul said, "I've learned in whatever state I am in, whether I am in a state of need or a state of abundance, to be content. I know how to abase, I know how to abound." Some of us think the worst trial on earth is to be without.

I think the worst trial is to have a lot, because you start depending on the abundance of your resources. "Hey, if I'm ever in a jam, I've got enough money to bail out," rather than waiting and trusting on God. Joseph was sold as a slave to Egypt and was in the pit and then in the prison, and he weathered that fine. And then he went from the pit and the prison to the palace, and that was a whole other set of temptations. But his heart remained humble before the Lord. So God says beware when you're in that state of abundance, "Lest you forget the Lord your God," and then he says that you shall fear him.

Verse 15, "[Because or] (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you)," we've already covered that concept, "Lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth." That's a good reason, right? Don't forget the Lord is your God. You don't want to kick the bucket and be wiped out from all the face of all the earth. "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Massah." Now verse 15 is something that happened, not one time, not twice, but I think over and over and over and over and over again. Right? Isn't that the theme of the book of Judges? Right?

There's a sin cycle, we call it. This is basically how it goes. Here's a summary of the whole episode of the period of the judges later on. They did exactly what God wanted them not to do. They started forgetting the Lord their God. And basically it goes something like this: "And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. And they forsook the Lord their God and followed the gods of the nations all around them. And as they forsook the Lord their God and followed the Baals and the Ashtoreths, then God sent them plunderers and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, so that they could not stand before their enemies.

Then they cried out in oppression to the Lord God and God raised up a judge, a deliverer who would deliver them, after they cried out to God, from the hand of their plunderers. And then the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and started following--and that cycle goes over and over again. They are brought to a place of deliverance, prosperity. They go, "Oh, God? Let's rule God out of national life." So God sells them, is his term, into the hands of their enemies. Now, when they're in the hands of their enemies and they're oppressed and the economy is down, "Oh, God, please, we're sorry."

So God is faithful to forgive them, send up a judge, a deliverer who wipes out the Philistines or the Midianites. And then once again following and serving God as a nation. And then after a few years they forget God and this cycle happens over and over and over again, till finally in 722 BC something drastic happens. The kingdom is now split. The Assyrians come down, take a large number of people who live in the northern kingdom captive to Assyria, leaving the poor to stay as the population base in Samaria, and the children of Israel are taken captive.

God spares the southern kingdom of Judah for a little while, but in 586 BC the Babylonians come, steal the children of Israel away who were in Judah, take them into Babylon for seventy years. But God always bring them back, right? But that's sort of the cycle and it's all warned here in the book of Deuteronomy. Now, beginning in verse 16, God gives the remedy to that possibility. That is what could happen, so to remedy that possibility there's a few things you need. You can remedy it, first of all, by diligence. Verse 17, "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, his testimonies, his statutes which he has commanded you."

Secondly, you can remedy it by obedience: "And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you." Thirdly, verse 20, by remembrance: "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded you?' Then you shall say to your son: 'We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.' " Retell the story. Inevitably the kids are going to ask. Inevitably the new generation is going to question the parents' devotion to God.

"Dad, what's up with these weird commandments that we keep? Why do we keep these commandments? Why do we take every Saturday off, keep the Sabbath? Why do we have this special meal? Why do we have these seemingly strange festivals of cutting a lamb and taking blood? What is that? And maybe I'm not into it, Dad." Now, that happens in every generation. If you're parents, it's going to happen with you. One day your kids are going to question, challenge your relationship with God. God says have an answer for them. Not, "Hey, Dad, why do we do this?" "Uh, I don't know? Just--I've always done it, okay? Don't ask me why, just do it."

Have a good answer, and the answer should be one of an example. These commandments shall be in your heart and they're transmitted by example. We need to have good answers because our kids have great questions. They're not dumb questions, they're very good questions, I have found. In fact, sometimes kids have very deep, philosophical questions that require some thoughtful, carefully crafted answers. "I don't know, go ask the church." It's not the best answer. It's best when it comes from you. "Study to show yourself approved." Study how to answer those kinds of questions. Go over the history. Talk about how God delivered you from Egypt.

And verse 24, " 'The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he commanded us.' " So, first of all, pass it on he says, pass it on. Here's your responsibility, pass it to a new generation. Who are you passing it on to? Who are you passing your faith on to? Who are you leaving with the legacy of belief and trust in Jesus Christ? Your family, children, friends, coworkers, people in the neighborhood? How are you passing it on?

You know what? One good thing that I have seen as effective is to keep a journal, one of the parents or both to keep a journal, and write down those things that God has done in their lives. Tell you what, when you pass from the scene, it will be invaluable to your children to read that. "Here's my present's legacy. This is how they prayed. This is what they prayed for. This is how they trusted in the Lord." Passing it on to the children, of course, the best is by example. That's why there's so much in the Bible about receiving and responding, hearing and doing.

"Don't be a hearer of the word, but a doer, lest you deceive yourself," the Bible says. You can deceive yourself by listening to Bible studies, but not doing them. You know, in the Bible there's always a careful relation between the ear and the heart. Right? The ear is the outward organ, the vehicle that conveys truths to the heart, or the sight is what you see God doing. It comes into the heart and then you have to deal with it. Solomon in Proverbs 4 says, "If you receive my sayings," and if you "keep them diligently." There's a big difference between receiving and responding.

Going to church for some people is sort of like watching television. There are some of you who will turn on a television show that is not filled with good content. You'll see some violent act, and you know, vicariously, you know, you're kind of enjoying the good guy beating up the bad guy, just thrashing him. And you're just relaxing. You wouldn't do what you see. You know, you'd be hard-pressed to go out there and just--"You know, I'm gonna do that." But you enjoy what you see, sort of a vicarious enjoyment. Now, there's people who come to church like that. It's really entertainment to them.

They like the stories they hear. They like the music. It's entertaining to them. They like what they hear in the Bible. It challenges them. But, like watching television, they would never do those things that they read about, but they're good entertainment. Now, if that is your posture, a warning to you: church can be the most dangerous place on planet earth. It can be. You say, "Dangerous?" Yes. I'll tell you how dangerous it can be: if you listen to truth long enough, if you expose yourself to the Word of God, to his precepts, his principles without ever putting them into practice, you dull your heart. You harden. You callous.

The sensitivity goes down. You become so used to rationalizing what you hear and not doing it, that pretty soon it doesn't affect you like it first did. So, what you hear, you must do. That's why Samuel, that young kid who heard God's voice, finally the prophet said, "Now next time God--you hear that voice in the middle of the night, Samuel, you're supposed to say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant hears.' " The word "hears" is your servant is attentive, ready to act, "I'm listening; what do you want me to do?" Not just, "Hey, great study, Lord. Great word. That was powerful, God"; but "Lord, I'm ready to put it into action."

And so that is a theme throughout this book as well: remember what you've heard that you might respond in the present by doing it. So pass that on. And then in chapter 7, possess the land. This is all part of, again, his second speech, possess the land that God is giving. "When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites, the" termites--no, that's not there, [laughter] "the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you."

Again, who's giving the land? God. The land was a gift. They didn't earn it. They weren't some mighty army, they were a bunch of tent-carrying vagabonds. They were Bedouins. They were travelers. They were on foot. They had no weapons. God gave them the land. God was driving out the Canaanites from the land to give the children of Israel the possession. But even though it's a free gift, they had to possess it. They had to set their foot, they had to walk by faith, right, when they came to Jericho? They just didn't kick back a mile from Jericho and watch the walls fall down.

They had to march around it and lay claim to it and blow the trumpets. They had to possess their possessions. Salvation for you is a free gift. You didn't earn it. Ephesians 2:8, "For you have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God." So God has given you a gift of salvation like he gave to the children of Israel a land. They didn't build the houses, they didn't dig the wells, but they moved in. It's a free gift. It's an insult to anybody who gives a gift to try to earn a gift; wouldn't you say?

If you gave something out of the goodness of your heart to somebody, you just saw something in the store and you think, "You' know, I know that he'd love that. I'm going to give it to him." What if you gave the gift and he pulled out a wallet and said, "I'll pay you back." What if your kids did that at Christmas? You bought them a new little toy and they say, "Mom, Dad, I'll save up every week my allowance and I'll pay you back." You'd say, "You don't have to pay me back. It's a gift. I love you, that's why I'm--it's free." In fact, you'd be sort of offended if a friend tried to pay you back for a gift. I hope you'd be offended. [laughter]

Now, don't you think God is offended then--if salvation is a free gift, not of yourselves, not of works--for you to try to earn God's favor, for you to try to remind God, "Well, God, I have done this this week and that. And here is the reasons why you should bless me." Then you'd negate grace. Grace is undeserved favor. You don't deserve it. You don't merit it. It's the free gift. Now, though salvation is a free gift, though God's rich inheritance and all the blessings God gives he gives freely with him--Paul said in Romans 8, "Will he not freely with him give us all things?"--not all Christians possess, walk in, use, enjoy all that God has given.

Just as God gave to the children of Israel the land of Canaan, but they didn't possess it all, there were tribes who refused to believe God's promise and apprehend what God had given to them. In fact, we've said many times before that God originally promised a plot of land that was 300,000 square miles from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates. At their zenith, under David and Solomon, Israel only possessed 30,000, a tenth of what God promised they used. And I think that's an analogy of many believers today. You know, they're saved, but you look at their lives and it's like, man, they're barely saved.

And I know that's not good theology. If you're saved, you're saved by grace, but you just look at the way they live and it's like, yeah, they're saved, but they're not enjoying it. They're not walking and appropriating all that God has given. I sometimes hear Christians pray, "O God, give me more power. O God, give me more grace. O God, give me more." And I think to myself, "Lord, you don't need to give them any more than they already have, just help them understand what they have already." You know, that was Paul's whole prayer in Ephesians, chapter 1.

"That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you might know what is the hope of your calling, and the richness of his inheritance in the saints." "If you'd only see. God open their eyes that they might see what is theirs." Possess what God has given you. Find out the promises and say, "You know what? I'm going to try that this week. I'm going to see if it works. I'm going the live in obedience to this and read the bankbook," so to speak, "and see how rich in Christ I am." The rich inheritance as a believer.

You've heard the story probably of William Randolph Hearst. He was a connoisseur of every lovely item, piece of art, and statue in the world. If you've ever visited San Simeon his castle in Southern, mid-Southern California, this guy was opulent. He had it all. And he was quite a collector of art works. And one day in reading the description of a certain rare painting, he said, "I've gotta have it." And so he sent his men out to scour the earth to find out where this painting was so that he might buy it and have it. They came back about two months later and said, "Mr. Hearst, we have located the painting you've desired. It's been in your basement for five years." [laughter]

He already had it and he didn't know it. Here's a guy looking for something he already had. There's lot of Christians looking for stuff that's already theirs. They just never found out what they have. So God is saying, "The land is a free gift. I've given it to you. I'm going to cast out the Girgashites, the Hivites, all the other "-ites," and you are going to be in the Land. You gotta possess it." That's sort of the theme of this chapter--enjoy it. "And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

"You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son." Now, verse 2 sounds pretty, well, hard to handle. And we could, you know, just for the sake of providing you are a nice little study, we could just sort of go over it and go on to the next verse. But God says, "You shall utterly destroy them," as you go into the land. Now, we have a problem, seemingly. God has already stated in the Ten Commandments--what's the sixth commandment? "You shall not kill."

God says, "You shall not kill," and here he says destroy them. Is he schizophrenic? No. "You shall not kill," literally, "You shall not murder," and whenever God said, "You shall not kill," the idea is personal vengeance, not societal execution or capital punishment. God did separate them. In fact, God institutes capital punishment before he instituted the Mosaic law. Genesis, chapter 9, "Whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed." That is a law that predates even the law of Moses. And God reiterates it in the law of Moses. And there's capital punishment for witchcraft, for idolatry, for child abuse, and on and on and on.

"You shall not kill," the idea is personal vengeance. When God says "utterly destroy them," the literal word is to devote. It's the same word for devotion, personal devotion. "You shall utterly destroy them," do away with them as if you were devoting them to the Lord. It sounds, again, harsh, but, again, it is a commandment of God. But whenever capital punishment was administered, say in the case of murder or child molesting, they never saw it as murder, neither did God. God said, "You shall not kill," but you shall execute capital punishment. One was personal vengeance, the other was righteously administered execution for the sake of deterring the crime in the criminal.

That's how God spun it, two different ideas. By the way, we find later on that there's wars. On one hand, again, God says "you shall not kill," that is, murder, personal vengeance out of anger where you take the law into your own hands; but then you come to David, Joshua, God commands and orchestrates them to go to war with other nations. So God obviously is not a pacifist. There is a just war that he allowed and commanded his children to take up arms for. John the Baptist, remember when John the Baptist meets some of the Roman soldiers and they say, "What should we do? You know, we've made this change, we've made this commitment. What should we do?"

And he says, "Well if you've--now he tells if you have been unjust in the way you have treated those who"--I can't remember the exact Scripture. It comes to mind and then it leaves. Anyway, he talks to the soldiers, tells them the plan of action. But he didn't say, "Okay, now, I want you to quit the army." Or when Jesus meets the centurion, the soldier of Rome. What does he say to him? He says, "I haven't found so great a faith in all of Israel." He didn't say, "Now I want you to go AWOL, by the way. I paid you that compliment, so you could quit the army now." He just says, "You're a man of great faith."

This centurion who was protecting with arms, with vengeance, if need be, the Roman government. And then there's Paul the apostle in Romans, chapter 13, he says obey the laws of the land, and that God has raised up rulers "to execute his wrath on evildoers." The Greek word infers capital punishment. So that's sort of the balance of it, and when God says, "You shall utterly destroy them," the reason for it is verse 3 and 4. Verse 4, "For they will turn your sons away from following me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly."

It is a well-known fact that the Canaanites as a population were filled with venereal disease at the time that the children of Israel entered the land. "Don't make a covenant with them, destroy them, don't marry them, or you will be destroyed as a race." There were germs they didn't even know about. God knew about them, so God says don't marry them. Also, they weren't even to marry them because, well, you know what happened a couple books ago when the children of Israel intermingle with some of the pagan women, and eventually they start worshiping at the altars of the false gods of these pagan families.

So, you know, your hearts can be turned away from God. And, you know, in the New Testament we're told to not have an unequal yoke with an unbeliever: "Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." There is sort of a term that I've heard Christians say, it's like missionary dating. Well, she's not a believer, he's not a believer, but, "We really like each other, and we really love each other. And I really respect him and he respects me. And, by the way, I think my dating relationship with him will enable him to become a Christian." Sounds good--doesn't work.

What usually happens is rather than--and let's just for the sake of an example use him as the unbeliever and she as the believer. What usually happens, rather than raising him up to the level of belief in Jesus Christ, she gets lowered in her compromise, in her commitment to Jesus Christ. So, when you seek for a wife or a husband, wives--and I'm not taking a show of hands--but you're looking for a husband, you'd like to have a husband, find a man that's godlier than you are, who loves Jesus Christ more than you do, who will be the prophet, priest, and king of your home.

And if he's after you for any other reason, "Oh, listen, I love you," and wants to get cuddly-cuddly too soon, dump him. [laughter] Make sure he loves God. If he doesn't love God, there are others who do. Wait on the Lord and you'll send a strong message to him as well, and vice versa, that "I'm not interested in you unless you love God." And hopefully it will raise his standard and show him: "Wow, all the good godly women are taken by the godly men." So, back to our context. "You shall not make marriages with them," that unbelieving group in Canaan.

"You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. They will turn your sons away from following me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, break down their sacred pillars, cut down their wooden images, burn their carved images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth." Isn't this the heart of God?

God says, "You are so special to me. You are such a treasure to me. I love you so much." Verse 7 describes God's love, because, you know, that kind of a compliment, you can start thinking, "Well, I'm pretty awesome. I'm a special treasure to God. I'm a special kid." And then, unless that statement is qualified, in your pride you can start thinking, "Well, God must have seen the marvelous qualities that I'm exhibiting and looking over the face of the earth he was awestruck when he came to me. [laughter] And he said, "You know, I just can't pass that person up." There are people who think that way.

There are people in ministry who think, "If my ministry doesn't go on, the ministry won't go on." Huh, God has thousands who have not bowed the knee to Baal. There's lots of people--" God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise." So God qualifies it. Notice what he says, "The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the land of Pharaoh the king of Egypt."

In verse 7 he uses a different word for love than he does in verse 8. In verse 7 it's the Hebrew word chashaq, which means a deep, emotional attachment. God says, "I have a love, but I did not set my deep emotional attachment." In fact, if you were to translate that into modern English, you would use the term "falling in love." God is saying, "I didn't fall in love with you because you were a mighty, numerous, powerful people." In fact, he says, "You were the least of all peoples." So just when they could have the temptation to think, "Well, God just said I'm pretty special, I'm pretty awesome."

"Yeah, but you're, like, the lowest. I didn't fall in love with you because you're awesome, in fact, you're the lowest." And now he uses a different word in verse 8, "But because the Lord loves you," it's the word aheb/ahab. It means commitment in a relationship because of a covenant. It's unconditional love based on a choice, not an emotion. "I have a deep emotional attachment to you, not because you've earned it, but because I have made a commitment to you based on the covenant I made with you. I made this decision. I have set my love on you."

So God is saying, "I didn't love you because you're awesome, I love because I love you. I love you because I chose to love you. I made that commitment to you." "The oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, and from the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt." God loves you unconditionally. God loves you without a reason. Now, I hope that doesn't deflate you and make you a little bit--"I thought there was something really good in me that God chose, and that's why he thought I was awesome." There isn't. There isn't.

And that should really set you at ease. Because if God loved you because you had some element, some quality of your personality that earned it, you'd have to maintain that. If it's because you're so committed; what about the days you're not? If it's because you've led three or four people to Christ this week; what about the weeks when you don't? That means that God's love would fluctuate based on your performance. God has set his love upon you. He's made a commitment. That's how husbands and wives are to marry each other. They stand at the altar and they say, "Till death do us part."

Do you know what that means? It means there's going to be days when I don't feel like it. There's going to be days where I'm going to look at you and go, "What did I do?" [laughter] That's just reality. You're not always going to have that same amorous emotion that you began with. That's why you make a lifelong commitment until death, not until debt do us part, until feelings do us part, until the butterflies leave, but it's a commitment. God says, "I made that kind of a commitment to you. It's an unconditional love." That's great.

"Therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments; and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him; he will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, the judgments which I command you this day, and to observe them." Then he talks about if they keep his commandments how they'll be blessed, how they'll be multiplied, how they will prosper, how they will be delivered from sickness, how they'll be delivered from destruction.

He's telling them the advantages of following him. Now this is something God is going to expand on later on in Deuteronomy 28. And, so, since it's in expanded form, I want to sort of dispense with a few of these verses until later when they're really given detail. But look at verse 17, "If you should say in your heart." You know, God reads and is concerned about your thoughts and your motives, not just what you say publicly or do publicly. God is a God who is concerned about the inner person. He says now, "If you say, even in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'--you shall not be afraid of them, you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt."

They could be tempted to lose faith. You know, all of a sudden they're in the land, they go, "Yeah, that was a great message, Moe, thanks." There they are in the land that there's giants before them, and cities before them. And all of a sudden the thought strikes them: "What if it doesn't work? What if the walls don't fall down? What if the people aren't dispossessed? What if I really don't get to live here?" If that thought seizes you, at that point remember what God has done. Look to your past, remember the past, and now respond in the present and go for it. So, you need faith for a future.

And the best thing to have faith for the future is to remember the past. How important is this? Remember Kadesh Barnea? Their forefathers stood there that walked and saw the land, came back and said, "There's giants in the land, forget it," even though they had the same promises. The writer of Hebrews said the reason they didn't enter the land is that they didn't mix God's promises with faith. It says they had the same gospel preached to them, the same good news of the inheritance, but they didn't mix the promises with faith.

So you can hear God's promises, and they're useless until you mix them with faith and say, "I'm going to make that mine." And when that thought seizes you, "Oh, man, what if it doesn't work out for me? What if my future isn't taken care of by God?" Oh, wait a minute. Stop. Stop right there. Think of God's track record in your own history. What has God done for you so far? How has God provided for you so far? "Well, he's done a pretty good job." You'll make it by faith. Mix the promises of God with that faith.

So, "You shall not be afraid, you shall remember what the Lord God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt: the great trials when your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand, the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you." I like that description of God. God's awesome. That's sort of modern vernacular: "Awesome, dude!"

But I love that description. It fits God so much. God is awesome. It's his own description. He was hep. "The Lord will drive out those nations little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you." Please mark verse 22 in your heart, those of you who think that holiness is an instant thing. God has promised you the land, God has promised you his promises, the rich inheritance in Christ, but it's a process. Growing in Christ is not a light switch. It's like, bing, "Oh, I'm mature now." [laughter]

Little by little you learn and you walk and you grow and you understand. That's why Jesus said you have to be born again. You're a baby at first. You don't put a sword in a baby's hand and a shield and say fight. The child crawls, the child sits, the child learns how to stand, and eventually the child walks and runs later on. And so, it's a process, little by little those enemies, those strongholds, those temptations that you face are driven out. Some of you are so frustrated with yourselves. "Why haven't I conquered that? I'm a Christian now; how come I'm still tempted in that area?" Little by little, not all at once.

"But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And he will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name under heaven; no one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. And you shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is abomination to the Lord your God. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it.

"You shall utterly detest it, utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing." Pass it on, possess the land, and chapter 8 is summed up by "ponder God's works." Now, this is what Moses does in chapter 8--we got plenty of time. We got seven minutes. [laughter] Moses goes back to the theme of remember, and he just sort of camps his--pitches his oratorical tent right there. He's just going to say remember, remember, remember. And he goes through a whole litany of what to remember, what God has done, and where they are going. He's saying ponder, look back, remember all the works of God for you in the wilderness.

"Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not." Remember, it literally means here to mark or to chart. Mark, chart, think back, and mark them well the trials God led you through, the wilderness, the tough times, and pick apart each episode carefully.

"Remember when you were boxed in, in the Red Sea, and there was wilderness and mountains on either side and Egypt behind you, and the sea in front of you? Remember? And remember how you guys gripped and complained that there were no graves in Egypt? Remember? And remember you thought, "We're sunk! We're dead!" and remember how the sea opened? And remember what it felt like to put that foot on dry ground and to come over on the other side? Remember what God has done. Mark and chart well your history. Why did he do it? Verse 2, "To humble you and to test you."

Now think about that next time you're going through a trial. It's God's vote of confidence that you're going to make it through. "He tested you to humble you, to see what is in your heart, to see if you would keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years." Now that to me is an amazing concept.

Imagine having a wardrobe for forty years and it's still new. I think that some of us would get pretty frustrated at this, having a garment that would last that long. I'm sure there would be some gals who would go to their husbands and say, "Honey, I need a new dress." "Oh, no, it's brand-new looking, as good as it looked forty years ago." [laughter] The shoes didn't wear out, God preserved the garments, and it says, "your foot didn't swell." Missionary doctors who are in the orient tell us that in cultures where there's the sameness of diet, there's not a lot of variety in the diet, that a person is prone to beriberi.

A disease that is manifested--one of the symptoms is the swelling of the foot because there's not enough vitamins in the food. What God is saying is, "Though you had the same stuff every single day, manna, I put all the necessary vitamins, all of the nutrients. All the stuff you needed was there. Even though you complained and griped, I took care of you." So that "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

"Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and fear him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, fountains, springs, that flow out of the valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; and a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you."

It's because of that verse that many Jewish people today pray a prayer after the meal, not before. "When you are full," when you are satisfied, "then you shall bless the Lord." So, hey, don't get locked into the tradition, "You haven't prayed before we ate." Okay, you can pray before you eat. Jesus did. It's a good pattern, but you can also pray after you eat. It's not like God is going to curse your meal or something and you're going to gag a poisonous death be you didn't pray. [laughter] So the idea is: "Man, that was a great meal. I've enjoyed the benefit. I've enjoyed the taste. Thank you, Lord. Bless you, Lord, for your provision."

So thank God, remember what God has done, remember his provision. And then, again, verse 11, "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by keeping his commandments, his judgments, his statutes which I command you this day." And God says, you know, he goes over their history again, you know. Look back to what God has done, look ahead to where you're going. And verse 18, also the same thing, "You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day."

So God did it, you're going to walk in the land, and recall God's work often in your life. Pass it on, possess what God has given you, and then, finally, ponder the works of God. Who are you passing on what you know to? Do you share your faith? You know, if you don't tell them, who will? You know the truth, pass it on, disciple other Christians. Look up the promises of God, make them your own, possess them. And then ponder the works of God, look in your own history, look at what God has brought you through, even all the nasty trials.

"No, I'm trying to block them out of my memory." No. Go over them. And God's provision, God has given you everything you need. "Yeah, but not everything I want." [laughter] Hey, God promised to provide for your needs, not your greeds. And here you are tonight remembering. You've made it. You say, "Yeah, but it's been tough." But you made it. God has brought you this far.