Good morning, church family.
So the Bible reading for this session is Deuteronomy chapter 12,
and we're going to be reading from verses 1 to 18.
So that's Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses 1 to 18.
These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord,
the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.
You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods,
on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their ashram with fire.
You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.
You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way,
but you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes
to put his name and make his habitation there.
There you shall go and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,
your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings
and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.
And there you shall eat before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice,
you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today,
everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes.
For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.
But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit,
and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around so that you live in safety,
then to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there,
there you shall bring all that I command you,
your burnt offerings and your sacrifices,
your tithes and the contribution that you present,
and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord.
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God,
you and your sons and your daughters,
your male servants and your female servants,
and the Levite that is within your towns,
since he has no portion or inheritance with you.
Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see,
but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes.
There you shall offer your burnt offerings,
and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns as much as you desire,
according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.
The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer.
Only you shall not eat the blood, you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain,
or of your wine or of your oil,
or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock,
or any of your vow offerings that you vow,
or your freewill offerings,
or the contribution that you present.
But you shall eat them before the Lord your God,
in the place that the Lord your God will choose,
you and your son and your daughter,
your male servant and your female servant,
and the Levite who is within your towns.
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God,
in all that you undertake.
weisem & Grodus
Thank you.
We had four chapters in the first talk.
We had seven in the second talk.
And we have 14 in this talk.
But don't despair because we're not going to run through 14 chapters at all.
We're going to just pick and choose.
I don't know if you've heard the story before of the police cadets who are doing an exam.
And the question says, you're driving down the road, you, young policeman, policewoman,
and you come across a huge accident where cars have all crashed into one another.
One of them has hit a fire hydrant.
Water is pouring into the air.
There's a large dog that has just bitten a small boy.
A young man has just grabbed the handbag of a lady and is running off.
People have begun looting some of the shops that have been hit.
And in the distance you see a fire has broken out on the third floor of a nearby building.
What is your first course of action?
And one of the police students wrote, carefully remove uniform and mingle with crowds.
And there are those times where you think, let me out of here.
Don't despair as we come to our third session.
It's going to be manageable.
And what I've tried to do, if you're new and this is your first time,
is we've tried to look through the book of Deuteronomy, which is 34 chapters,
and we've tried to walk through it quite quickly.
Because as I was saying to somebody over morning tea,
we either take a couple of little bits and you say, yeah, well, that's great.
What's the big book about?
Or we attempt to do what we're doing, which is to walk through it.
So if you're here for the first time, let me tell you that Deuteronomy is set out like
a treaty between God and his people as they are about to go into the promised land.
And the first four chapters are basically Moses recapping the trip so far.
The next chapters 5 to 11 are talking about the relationship that God has with his people,
full of privilege and also responsibility.
Not that the responsibility will create the security.
God will create the security.
But there needs to be a response.
Now we're going to come to what is really the unpacking of the Ten Commandments.
And so if you are reading chapters 12 to 26,
you would notice that the chapters correspond fairly closely with the Ten Commandments.
Let me show you what I mean.
Deuteronomy 12, which we just had read for us,
has to do with worshipping God, commandment 1.
Deuteronomy 13 has to do with idolatry, commandment 2.
Deuteronomy 14 has to do with who you are, commandment 3.
Deuteronomy 15 to 16 has to do with feasts, or we might say Sabbath, commandment 4.
Deuteronomy 17, 18 has to do with authority figures, judges, priests, prophets, kings.
We might call that the parental, commandment 5.
Deuteronomy 19 to 21 has to do with fighting and war.
We might call that commandment 6.
And Deuteronomy 22 to 24 has to do with marriage.
We might call that commandment 7.
And Deuteronomy 25, 26 is a range of thoughts on the subject of honesty and greed, etc.
So some people say, no, no, this is too clever.
It's not really the unpacking of the commandments.
But many people think it is, and I think it is.
And so if somebody said, well, commandment number 1, worship God, what does that look like?
Deuteronomy 12 spells it out in very practical details for the people of Israel.
Can I remind you that Israel, picture the million people.
That's a nation.
They need laws to do with taxes and land rights and armies.
But they're also a church.
And so they need rules to do with ceremony and sacrifice and forgiveness and thanksgiving to God.
They're a nation and they're a church.
And therefore, when we read Deuteronomy 12 to 26, although a lot of what is there is not relevant to us.
Animals you can eat, animals you can't eat.
But it's still instructive.
It's still informative.
Because it tells us what God was doing with his people.
And the principles are useful for us today.
So that's why Jesus can say that it's all written about him.
Because in the end, it's all bringing us to him.
Interesting that the popular religions today, think of your friends who would say they were Buddhists,
have got, you'll notice, no authority over them.
So convenient, isn't it?
Nobody tells me what to do.
But God is an authority.
And his authority is a loving, safekeeping authority.
Now, I thought that I would pick a few bits of the commandments from this section.
And so you'll see on your outline that I've tried to pick commandment 1, 3, 6 and 7.
And we'll just look at those quite quickly.
Okay?
Are you with me?
Did any of that make sense?
I'm going to pretend it did.
Commandment 1, Deuteronomy 12.
You remember how the chapter begins?
And I'll just remind you of the first couple of verses.
Where Moses says, these are the statues and judgments in the land which the Lord your God's giving you.
First thing, destroy the idols.
Then verse 9, 5.
Verse 5.
Seek the place where the Lord your God chooses.
Those of you who remember the great John Chapman may remember him telling a story where somebody comes up to him in the break and brings him a cup of tea with three sugars and white milk.
And Chapo says, well, that's very kind of you.
I actually drink black coffee, no sugar.
And the simple point is that the person wanted to be helpful but didn't listen to what actually he was looking for.
And it's typical John Chapman illustration.
So simple.
But there are so many people who think, I'll give God what I think he wants.
But we need to listen very carefully to what he says he wants.
And it's here in Deuteronomy chapter 12.
First thing is you enter the promised land, get rid of the idols.
Destroy them, break them down, smash them, get rid of them.
Because, verse 3, you're not to worship God like this, Yahweh like this.
This is a big issue for believers when they come from animist religions.
And they have to somehow get rid of the infection and the infiltration and the contamination of their old faith.
God is not to be fitted in to something else.
Everything is to be fitted into what he asks.
And as I mentioned, the idols of Canaan were very attractive.
And so getting rid of them was a costly thing to do but infinitely worthwhile.
And then, says the Lord, verse 5, seek the place the Lord chooses.
Bring the appropriate sacrifices, verse 6, verse 7, because I want you to rejoice.
How interesting.
God says, worship where I say and worship how I say because I want you to be happy.
Now, the place, of course, eventually would be Jerusalem.
But, obviously, Moses in Deuteronomy is not talking about a specific place like Jerusalem.
He just says, when God says this is the place to worship him, that's the place to worship him.
Eventually, it will be Jerusalem.
And you're to bring the sacrifices that God asks for.
So, chapter 12, verse 8, don't do as you see fit.
But go to his place with his sacrifices and the joy will follow.
Well, the worship of God, you see, is like chopping a log.
If you chop with the grain, the axe moves much more carefully.
If you try to chop against the grain, it's much more difficult.
And this section of worshipping God as he calls us to reminds us how Jesus in John 4 said that we should worship him in spirit and truth.
It's not enough just to be sincere.
It's possible to be sincere but wrong.
I'm always disappointed with people in churches who say, I don't read my Bible but I do pray.
And I think I hate those relationships.
When nobody ever listens, they just talk.
And we must treat God as somebody who not only will listen to us but who speaks to us.
We must hear him and we must speak to him.
And, of course, when we hear him, we'll speak to him more wisely, more carefully.
And then, of course, the place where we meet God today is not a building.
We may hear the gospel in a building but the place we meet him is Jesus.
That's why Jesus described himself as the temple where we will meet God.
And the sacrifice that we need to relate to God is Jesus.
And the joy that comes from this is Jesus' joy.
So this chapter 12 is a very wonderful call to take seriously the God of the first commandment.
The devil, of course, comes along and offers us all sorts of alternatives.
But you'll discover down those roads that he's fooled you.
We're slow learners.
We keep going down dopey roads.
But eventually, in the goodness of God, we come back and humbly agree that he's right.
So that's commandment number one.
Commandment number two.
Sorry, commandment number three, which relates to Deuteronomy 14,
seems to be the commandment about being God's special people.
Now, how do you identify as God's people in the world today?
You could wear the cross around your neck.
You could get a great tattoo indicating you're a believer.
But in the end, the way that you're going to show yourself to be the people of Jesus
is going to have a lot more to do with what comes up from the heart.
Now, when we get to the end of this session, there's going to be a Q&A.
And I forgot to say how helpful it would be if you think of some good questions.
Because there's nothing worse in a Q&A when there's dead quiet.
And then finally, somebody says,
Do you think there's life on Jupiter?
And I say, I don't.
And then we hang around for another five minutes waiting for somebody to say,
Have you ever eaten a shark?
And I say, no.
Those Q&As are terrible.
Try to think of some good questions that emerge from Deuteronomy
or from your Christian life.
And that will make everything buzz along.
And if I don't know the answer,
I'll just call on many of the great pastors who are in this room to help us out.
But the Q&A can be great if you make it great.
So dive in with your questions.
Let's go to Commandment 3, Deuteronomy 14.
We didn't read this chapter.
It seems to be about being the people of God.
And verses 1 to 2 are very interesting.
And I will read them to you.
And then I'll tell you a little more.
First of all, Chapter 14, 1 and 2.
Imagine this is the unpacking of Commandment 3.
You're the children of the Lord your God.
You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.
For you're a holy people to the Lord your God.
And the Lord has chosen you to a people for himself,
a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
The rest of the chapter has to do with clean and unclean animals.
And the last bit has to do with tithing.
So what does this have to do with being a believer today?
Can you imagine studying this in your own small group or your youth group
or trying to preach this to your congregation?
And you think, well, what will I do with this?
But let me ask you this.
If you lived in the peoples of the land
and you were not the people of Yahweh
and one of your relatives died,
tragically,
why might you cut yourself?
Why might you shave your head in a strange and distraught way?
Why might you do that?
Any thoughts?
I've got two possibilities.
To show your grief, your distress.
Yes.
Yeah.
The other possibility?
To?
Oh, to buy something.
A bargaining.
Yes, I hadn't thought about that.
Yeah.
Is this a way of appeasing the gods
and getting some reprieve?
I've got another possibility
and it relates to 1 Kings 19.
Manipulation is a good word for it.
It's the prophets of Baal
trying to get the attention of Baal
by slashing themselves.
So can you imagine a pagan faced with death
and they start cutting themselves,
the family?
What are they doing?
They could be grieving.
This is so distressing.
They could be saying,
I'm doing this to make sure that I can buy favour
or it could be that they're saying,
oh God, gods, gods, gods up there
or whoever you are,
please take notice.
Step in and do something.
Come on, help us out.
And you can see how terrible and distressing that is
and you can see why Moses says to the people of Israel,
don't do that.
You're not going to do that.
When it comes to death,
you're not going to do that
because in the end,
the people of Israel have got some clues
that death is not the end.
There are little hints, aren't there,
in the Old Testament,
shadowy ideas that death is not the end.
Can you think of any from the Old Testament?
I'll give you an example.
Psalm 23,
Another example from the Old Testament?
Enoch walking with God.
Yeah, there's an unusual situation.
Elijah disappearing.
Yeah, David, when his son died,
he said he will not come back to me
but I'll go to be with him.
Paul?
That's too clever an answer.
I just wanted a simple answer
from the ordinary people,
from the plebs,
not the clergy kids.
That's terrific.
I'm thinking of things like Job.
I know that my Redeemer lives,
chapter 19.
And even if this body perishes,
yet in my flesh will I see God.
What an amazing diamond
to come up from the book of Job.
Psalm 23,
Enoch,
Elijah,
Psalm 16,
treasures at your right hand.
There's a whole lot of little shadowy things.
Daniel chapter 12,
the dead will rise from the dust.
Pictures of the resurrection
in the Old Testament.
But if you were to ask
the people of Israel,
what's your clue for the future?
They can't quote Psalm 23.
It hasn't happened yet.
They can't quote Psalm 16.
They can't possibly quote the book of Job.
But Jesus would say to them
exactly what Paul just said.
God is the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
Do you remember when Jesus
was being challenged by the Sadducees
and they mocked him
for the whole idea of a future?
And they made up that story
of the lady who died
after having been married seven times
and whose wife will she be?
And laugh, laugh, laugh,
mock, mock, mock.
You know, there's no future.
And Jesus said,
God is the God
of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
It's not he was the God
of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
He is the God
of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
Because when you come
into a covenant with God,
how could that break?
How could that break?
And we know from the New Testament
that death cannot break the covenant
because of Christ taking death for us.
And so Deuteronomy 14
is previewing the importance
of the people of God,
even in the Old Testament,
having a confidence in Yahweh
in the face of death.
And no wonder Paul takes up
the whole principle
in 1 Thessalonians 4
where he says,
we're to grieve,
but not as those without hope.
And so you'll know
if you go to the funeral
of a pagan,
I mean, imagine the funeral
that's coming up
for Shane Warne.
It will be full of grief
and it will be full of memories.
But unless I'm mistaken,
there'll be no hope.
There'll be no gospel.
There'll be no future.
There'll be no glory.
It will just be grief
and memories.
It'll just be looking backwards.
And the mark of the Christian funeral
is that we're able
to look back and look forward.
We're able to grieve
and we're able to hope.
And we don't have to just do one
and not the other.
And that's why the funeral
of the believer
is better than just
25 helium balloons
going up into the air.
And what is said
at a Christian funeral
may be very feeble,
but what's said
on the other side of the river,
welcome,
is very precious.
For the pagan,
what's said on this side
of the river
may be very grand,
the MCG,
the SCG,
filled with people,
but what's said
on the other side
of the river,
that's more significant,
isn't it?
The terrible thought
of coming to the other side
of the river
and for the Lord Jesus
to say,
I don't know you.
Depart.
It's a really big issue.
And Deuteronomy 14
in these strange
first two verses
is raising this fantastic issue
that the believers
are to live in the world
with a past
and a future.
And the world
is only marked
so much by the past.
I read a book recently
called Mortals,
written by two psychologists
in the eastern suburbs
of Sydney,
and their argument
is basically
that you've got to just learn
to live with the fact
that you're mortal,
so make the most of your life
because there's nothing
to come.
And the book then argues
that all religions
are basically games
that people play
to invent
some kind of future.
And I wrote to them
and I said,
look,
I don't think
you've done justice
to the fact
of the person of Christ
who genuinely lived
and genuinely died
and if you look
at the evidence,
genuinely rose.
And I don't see
how you can dismiss
the sensible faith
of two billion people
in the resurrection.
So that's the context
of the world we live in,
isn't it?
No wonder Deuteronomy 14
is a great challenge
to the people of Yahweh
to live differently
in the world.
Now the second bit
in Deuteronomy 14
has to do with the food laws
and I didn't get anybody
to read these
because they're so funny
and we would find ourselves
sort of laughing.
You know,
you can eat the ox,
the sheep,
the goat,
the deer,
the gazelle,
the rose deer,
the wild goat,
the mountain goat,
the antelope.
But you can't eat
the swine.
I can't see
how the rest of it
all fits together.
You shall not eat
the eagle,
the vulture,
the buzzard,
the red kite,
the falcon,
the kite,
raven,
ostrich,
short-eared owl,
seagull,
hawk.
What is going on?
You can imagine
the unbeliever
who sort of comes
across this chapter
says this is a fantastic
chapter to whip
the people of God with
because why aren't
they doing this?
And which of you
have gone to the
supermarket this week
and carefully avoided
the red kite?
Now what's going on
in these verses?
The answer is that
these are not
unhygienic animals.
We know that
because there came a time
where Jesus said
you can eat
whatever you want to.
It's not a hygiene issue.
It's not even a
this is what the pagans
in the promised land
eat now
so don't eat them.
This is sheer sovereignty
of God.
This is just the absolute
decision-making power
of God.
This is in,
this is out.
This is clean,
this is unclean.
Watch carefully.
And so the people of God
every time they went
to the shops
they would be remembering
that there was a clean
and an unclean.
And every time
they sat at breakfast
and every time
they sat at their lunch table
and every time
they sat at their dinner table
they would remember
that there was a clean
and an unclean.
And God had made them clean.
Why?
Deuteronomy 7
because he loved them.
That's all.
And there's an unclean
amongst whom they live
to whom they have a mission.
So all of this teaching
on the animals to be eaten
and the animals not to be eaten
are to teach the people of God
every day
that God is a God
who has his own people
to reach the lost.
The food laws of course
were abolished
in the New Testament
by Jesus
because he paid the price
of our failures
but he also
has brought in
a cleanness
which has got nothing
to do with rule keeping
and animals
but has got to do
with forgiveness
and a new heart.
And so
we're not the sort of people
who are interested
so much in external
ritual
as internal change.
Well how do we show
our distinctiveness?
We show it mostly
by asking the Lord
to fill and rule our heart
so that when we walk
into the day
he might help us
to think, say
and do the things
that would mark us
as his people.
And a huge part
of witness today
is not cleverness
it's just faithfulness.
And as I said last night
it's sometimes
being asked a question
and giving an honest answer.
A small, short, honest answer.
Do you remember
Colson
the right hand man
of the President Nixon
who was so tough
they said he would
sacrifice his grandmother
if the decision
required it.
And he was deeply
impressed by a man
called Tom Phillips
who in the midst
of the White House
was just such a nice man.
And eventually
Colson went round
to see him
this tough, tough Colson
and Tom Phillips
opened up
mere Christianity
and read to him
from C.S. Lewis
and the whole subject
of pride.
And Colson went back
to his car
and he sat at the wheel
of his car
and the evening
was pouring with rain
he said there was
more water in the car
than there was
outside the car
because he was
so convicted
you know
tears rolling down
his face.
And it came through
the example
of a guy
just living
like a believer
and that's the sort
of thing
that you can do.
And the way
you live
amongst your people
just asking
the Lord
to help you
to be distinctive
is so important
and you've no idea
where it will lead.
The last words
in chapter 14
have to do
with tithing
and basically
it's just teaching
the community
that they're not
just to be grasping
people
but giving people.
And
that's of course
what the gospel does
doesn't it?
It changes you
from being just
a taker
and there's
nothing so satisfying
as seeing the gospel
change somebody's
heart so that
they become
spontaneously generous.
I'm working
in a little church
in the eastern suburbs
I've just been there
for a year
it's a building
that holds 600 people
there's about 40
who come
and it's
kind of shocked
me to realise
that probably
35 of them
are not believers
and the giving
is kind of nothing.
People are literally
getting out two coins
and putting it
in the offertory bag
because their heart
has not been changed
but when the heart
gets changed
everything is opened
and freed
and generosity
flows.
I just want to point out
to you one unusual
verse 1421
which has always
intrigued me
and I've now worked
out what it is
and so I'm going
to tell you
and this will be
a groundbreaking
moment for all of you
it's a small joke
1421
you shall not eat
anything
what does he say
at the end
of verse 21
you shall not
boil a young goat
in its mother's milk
you shall not
boil a young goat
in its mother's milk
and believe it or not
commentators have
agonised
over what this
was all about
and I think
it's a proverb
I think
it represents
a saying
which is something
like this
don't take
what is meant
to
be good
for you
and turn it
into something
which
kills you
don't turn
perhaps the law
of God
which is meant
to bless you
and make it
something
which will
destroy you
don't take
the milk
of a mother
which is meant
to feed a baby
and cook
that baby
in the milk
the baby kid
I think
that's what
it's about
I think
at the end
of the chapter
that Moses
is saying
don't mix
up the categories
of God
and end up
destroying yourself
with what should
help you
so that's the
second command
we're looking at
the third one
chapter 20
which I've
called
commandment
6
and it's
got to do
with going
to war
and it's just
worth looking at
especially in the
light of what's
happening in the
north of the
world at the
moment
because some
people may
say and
think well
this is the
sort of thing
that God
does
I preached
on Deuteronomy
20 in my
church and a
couple left
the church
after the
sermon
forever
because they
were offended
by the chapter
and they said
we don't believe
God could do
this
in Deuteronomy
19
we're told
there are to
be safe
cities
where you
can run
to if
you commit
manslaughter
before you
get tried
in chapter 21
there's
instruction about
what to do
if you find
a body
in a field
but in
chapter 20
there is
the will
of God
for the
taking of
the promised
land
and as I
mentioned to
you before
this taking
of the promised
land is a
one-off
never to be
repeated
invasion
it just
doesn't come
up again
and again
in the
Bible
it's just
a one-off
and we
need to
remember
when we
think about
God
taking the
promised
land
remember
there are
a lot
of people
in the
promised
land
we need
to remember
first that
God
owned the
promised
land
as I
said to
you last
night
he waited
four centuries
for the
people to
turn to
him
but they
didn't
he
communicated
to the
whole of
the land
because you
remember
Rahab the
prostitute
said we've
all heard
about
Yahweh
we've
heard about
the
exodus
we've
heard about
the crossing
of the
Red Sea
this is a
God of
justice
it's time
for justice
there's a
time for
justice
but he's
also merciful
because he
says you're
to go to
the towns
around and
still offer
them
mercy
but of
course God
is a God
who keeps
his promises
and he's
promised in
the end
that he
will bring
his
judgment
can't
escape
that
he's a
judge
he's a
good judge
and he
obviously
is providing
for his
people a
promised land
as he
said he
would
and this
is also a
preview of
the glory
to come
so Deuteronomy
20 is the
most amazing
procedure for
an invasion
look at
chapter 20
verse 1
Moses says
don't be afraid
God is with
you
can you
imagine
world war
one chaplains
going up to
the troops
or world war
two chaplains
or Afghani
chaplains
going up
and saying
to the
troops
let's
remember
that God
is with
us
you wouldn't
dare to
do that
what you
could do
is say
let's pray
that God
would be
with us
but this
is God's
war
and so
the priest
is to say
God is
with you
then he
says in
verses 2
to 4
you're going
to be
victorious
so don't
let your
heart faint
don't be
afraid
don't tremble
don't be
terrified
the Lord
your God
is with
you
to fight
for you
against
your enemies
to save
you
he's going
to win
this war
it's a
winning
war
third he
says go
home if
you've got
a new
house
and you'd
like to
work on
the house
go home
if you've
got a new
vineyard
and you'd
like to
pick some
grapes
go home
if you've
got a
new
fiance
go home
if you
feel
frightened
kind of
gives you
plenty of
escape
doesn't
it
in other
words
God is
not
dependent
on the
numbers
for the
battle
if he's
left with
ten people
he'll do
it with
ten
if he's
got
ten thousand
he'll do
it with
ten thousand
and then
verse ten
of chapter
twenty
offer peace
to the
cities
nearby
but there'll
be no
peace for
the cities
in the
midst of
the
promised
land
and
this
battle
that is
to take
place
is a
really
serious
sobering
battle
but it's
not as
serious
as the
battle
that's
described
in
revelation
which is
a massive
global
battle
a
judgment
of very
great
proportions
remember
that the
Bible
is descriptive
of invasion
not
prescriptive
does that
make sense
the Bible
describes
this
invasion
it does
not
prescribe
an
invasion
the
Quran
prescribes
an
invasion
the
Bible
does
not
and at
the very
end of
Deuteronomy
20
we're told
that they
are to
look after
the fruit
trees
of the
land
don't
attack
the fruit
trees
of the
land
what a
funny
thing
to say
why does
Moses say
don't attack
the fruit
trees
of the
land
well
because
you're
going to
be living
there
and
therefore
if you
need
wood
don't
cut
down
the
fruit
trees
cut
down
the
other
trees
but
don't
cut
down
the
fruit
trees
because
you're
going to
be
living
there
and
the
fruit
trees
of
the
Bible
are
such
a
beautiful
theme
in
the
Bible
you've
got
fruit
trees
in
Genesis
and
then
you've
got
fruit
trees
in
the
promised
land
and
then
at
the
end
of
the
Bible
chapter
is
if
you
were
to
preach
it
I
think
it
would
be
very
important
to
explain
to
people
that
this
was
a
one-off
that
it
was
a
piece
of
justice
following
a
great
deal
of
mercy
and
that
in
the
end
the
Lord
Jesus
has
won
a
much
bigger
victory
which
we
can
take
part
in
and
escape
justice
and
receive
mercy
and
then
the
last
command
I
was
thinking
of
looking
at
is
command
number
seven
which
is
chapters
21
to
24
and
I'll
just
say
very
quickly
that
when
you
read
these
chapters
that
have
to
do
with
taking
of
slaves
or
taking
captive
people
who've
been
conquered
in
battle
it
all
looks
terrible
to
us
but
actually
it
was
revolutionary
in
the
warfare
if
you
were
a
pagan
and
you
conquered
another
country
you
did
whatever
you
wanted
with
those
people
and
I
mean
whatever
you
wanted
but
God
says
no
when
you
find
people
who
are
the
victims
of
war
you're
to
look
after
them
you're
not
to
abuse
them
you're
to
care
for
them
you're
to
dress
them
you're
to
treat
them
with
dignity
they're
not
your
property
a
wife
is
not
to
be
just
grabbed
or
humiliated
and
if
you
do
take
her
for
a
wife
and
there
is
a
divorce
to
follow
she's
not
your
property
you've
got
to
look
after
her
it's
quite
revolutionary
I
think
that's
probably
enough
I
think
that's
probably
enough
there
are
the
little
tastes
of
the
commandments
being
unpacked
in
Deuteronomy
looking
at
the
practical
details
of
living
for
him
okay
it's
12
o'clock
on the
dot
what time
was I
meant
to
finish
okay
I'll
pray a
short
prayer
and then
I'll
just
see
if
you've
got
any
questions
that
you
would
like
to
ask
about
any
of
this
or
whether
anybody
lives
on
Jupiter
okay
let's
pray
heavenly
father
we thank
you
for the
very
wise
and
wonderful
words
that
you
gave
to
your
people
about
living
for
you
in
the
promised
land
we
thank
you
that
you
give
to
us
not
just
instructions
but
you
give
to
us
transformation
through
the
Lord
Jesus
and
we
pray
that
you
would
work
in
our
hearts
that
we
might
be
inwardly
not
just
new
people
but
in
your
goodness
faithful
and
even
fruitful
we
ask
it
in
Jesus
name
amen
okay
any
quick
thoughts
okay
so
the
first
one
there's
eight
questions
here
so
we'll
maybe
not
how
much
time
do
we
have
all
right
somebody
keep
a time
for me
then
okay
so
I've
got
names
but I
won't
mention
the
names
so
if
you
can
just
go
back
to
chapter
five
verse
two
to
start
with
and
while
you're
doing
that
I'll
read
one
question
here
but
I'm
going
to
break
the
rule
so
the
first
question
is
have
you
ever
eaten
a
shark
now
I
was
going
to
leave
these
anonymous
but
Elise
Smith
can
you
stand
up
please
stand
up
so
Simon
can
see
you
so
he
will
deal
with
you
be it
ever
so
severely
and
we
will
encourage
him
to
think
more
justice
than
mercy
at
this
point
okay
so
all
right
first
question
I'm
going
to
read
it
out
so
people
can
get
a
gist
of
it
and
give
you
30
seconds
to
think
in
the
analogy
with
children
being
secured
in
a
trip
being
salvation
without
obedience
still
resulting
in
eternal
life
isn't
this
contradictory
with
where
it
says
that
if
you
disobey
the
cursing
will
fall
on
the
Israelites
from
the
Old
Testament
alternatively
in the
Bible
where it
warns about
falling
away
just
interested
to hear
your
opinion
on the
bounds
of
scripture
with
this
topic
that is
a great
question
I'm so
glad you
raised
it
in
Deuteronomy
you've
got the
promise of
blessing
and you've
got the
warning of
cursing
and in
the book
of
Hebrews
you've
got some
tremendous
promises
and some
very serious
warnings
I think
my question
is how
do we
consider these
promises and
warnings within
the covenant
people of
God
we can't
say that the
blessings will
make you
in a higher
position with
God than
Jesus has
given you
already
and we
can't say
that the
cursing
will put
you in a
lower position
or remove
you from
the people
of God
and we
desperately
need
promises
and warnings
they both
come from
a loving
God
my point
is simply
that we
have to
see both
of these
as coming
to the
family
on which
your
position
doesn't
hang
but the
way God
deals with
you in
assurance or
discipline
could follow
so it's a
very loaded
question and
I completely
agree the
person who
says I'm
going to be
disobedient
let's say
in the area
of greed
I'm going to
pursue greed
forever
well the
apostle Paul
would say
you've just
taken a road
that leads
you away
from the
kingdom
but I
wouldn't want
to fall
into the
trap of
saying you've
now just
lost your
salvation
because you
went on a
detour
I think I
would want to
say to the
person you've
gone on a
detour if you
keep that up it
looks like you're
not a believer
but somehow in
the providence of
God he may bring
you back so
we're always
walking a
careful twosome
promises and
warnings and I
don't want to
give the impression
to the people of
God that
their security
hangs on their
performance I
want them to
know it hangs
on the
performance of
Jesus but I
do want them to
know that how
God will treat
them as a
father has got
a lot to do
with the fact of
whether they want
to walk with
him or walk
against him and
I think we would
say that to our
children wouldn't
we I mean if we
want to say to
our children we
love you whatever
happens sometimes
our love will look
like this sometimes
our love will look
like this I think
that's what I'm
trying to grapple
with come back if
that's not clear
I did want to
say a lot more
on eating shark
but I'll just
leave that for
another time
okay so I got
the questions out
of order there
again but now
go back to
chapter 5 verse
2 or verse 3
sorry because the
question is around
that verse and the
question reads like
this if I heard
Simon correctly this
morning reading
from Deuteronomy
5 3 he said
the Lord did not
make this covenant
just with our
fathers but with
us even us all
of us here
alive today and
then commented
that this clearly
indicated the
covenant was very
long-standing so
then it goes on
to say my
Bible in fact all
the Bibles I
have in phone
don't have the
word just the
insertion of just
completely changes
the meaning was
the covenant made
with the fathers
if so why do so
many Bibles leave
out just I don't
have the Hebrew
text in front of
me but I think
the word just is
the meaning of the
verse even if it's
not the language of
the verse so are
we meant to assume
that the Lord didn't
make the covenant
with the fathers I
don't see that we
can do that I
think we have to
say that at Mount
Sinai he was making
a covenant with his
people it was like a
marriage ceremony
but Moses is simply
making the point I
think in 5 3 that
this covenant is not
only with them but
with us in other
words we mustn't
imagine that what
took place in the
past has been lost
it's for us we must
take it seriously
and in the next
section that we'll
look at he actually
asks them to enter
into the covenant
which I don't
think means become
believers or become
the people of God I
think it means he
wants them to ink it
in or he wants them
to sign their names
in so it's a it's a
again it's it's a
great question and
it's a delicate
balance I think the
point of the verse is
that it's the past
people and the present
people and of course
as you know the
covenant unfolds like
an opening door so
you've got a covenant
with creation and
then you've got a
covenant that takes
place pretty well with
Adam and Eve and
then you've got a
covenant with Abraham
and then you've got a
covenant with Moses and
the people at Sinai and
then you've got a
covenant with David for
a kingdom and then
you've got in Jeremiah a
new covenant which will
reach the heart and
then you come to Jesus
sitting around the table
at the last supper and
he says this is the new
covenant in my blood it's
that's the security of the
covenant so it's an
unfolding covenant
so sorry are you
saying then that the
difference in this
verse is a differentiation
of the audience so it
wasn't it wasn't Abraham
Isaac and Jacob listening
to it it was the people
there around them it was
one covenant
differentiated is that
what you
I think I'm saying that
the people who Moses was
speaking to were God's
people being told that
this unfolding covenant
which had come to their
fathers at Mount Sinai was
very much for them but I'd
be glad to if somebody
wants to come back at it
please do because I I have
lots to learn and if
somebody thinks that it
wasn't to the forefathers
but it is only to Moses
people I'd be interested to
hear your thoughts on that
but I'm myself persuaded
Yes
Thank you
No, no, the Abraham covenant was that he would bless the earth.
And then the Sinai covenant was that he would be the distinctive people of the earth.
And then, of course, the David covenant was that there would be a kingdom.
And then Jeremiah that it would be inward.
And then Jesus that it would be sealed in blood.
So I think that's how it unfolds.
It's a developing, wonderful covenant.
Okay, I hope that didn't confuse.
And I'll be glad to hear more if you've got thoughts.
Okay, next question then is, how do you see the world addressed to you, Simon?
How do you see the world and the church still attempting to manipulate God today?
And that's referenced in Deuteronomy 14, 1 and 2.
Well, as we know, the world is polarizing.
So there is a great movement away from God.
And there is a very religious world.
And they're both intensifying.
It isn't one without the other.
And I presume in the Western world, with this sort of rise of sophisticated atheism,
that God is treated as non-existent or irrelevant until everything goes wrong.
And so the Western world thinks of itself as being on the QE2 and can manage everything.
Whereas the Bible says we're on the Titanic and we need quick help.
And the church follows quite quickly and is not always very good at tackling the opposition of the world.
And so I would say the world which is scoffing at God is dangerously causing the church in the present to be apologetic, defensive, reactionary,
and at worst, changing the mission to make sure that nobody scoffs at us.
And whenever God has done a great work in the church, it's to raise up people who just speak the truth with confidence
and look at the position of the world as desperate.
I think I've told you that I worked for a guy in the UK called Dick Lucas who's about to turn 97.
And he's one of those people the Lord raises up every now and again who's just incredibly convicted.
And it was no wonder people were glad to be with him because he was so sure of his faith.
And I think a lot of it came from being on his knees with God and seeing carefully what was important.
And when I went to work with him, I left Bondi Beach in Sydney and I went over as a 28-year-old dope
and went into his office, which was above his house, which was in the middle of London, very near the Bank of England,
surrounded by all the business houses, Lloyds of London.
Everybody was running around on the street.
I was looking down on the second level and they were all running around with their pinstripe suits
and they had their bowler hats and their umbrellas.
And I said to my new boss, who I'd just met for one minute, I said,
do you feel a bit irrelevant?
And he said, lemmings.
Lemmings.
The little animals that just run over a cliff.
And he looked on the world around him as in desperate need.
And he looked on his ministry as being desperately important.
And that is a great perspective.
And that's what we need to recover again.
The next question is also on chapter 14, verse 1.
Do you think that Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 1 might also suggest the concept of soul sleep is wrong?
You shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.
I'm not really sure what to say.
It looks to me like this is a drastic action against your body.
Would somebody like to unpack the question?
Yeah.
I'll ask the question.
Well, I'm thinking if the deaths that they've all put together is so bad by it.
Obviously, the struggle is going to be different.
At this point, you don't have the same attitude.
Okay.
So, John is raising the question whether this reaction is for people who are committed to a soul sleep idea.
Well, not just that, but the struggle is included.
Okay.
So, behind this, this could be people who believe in soul sleep and respond with cutting and shaving of head?
Yes.
They're depressed.
Okay.
They die.
They don't think they're all in their tablets.
They're jacking them away.
Yeah.
Okay.
They don't think they're all in their tablets.
My difficulty with the question, John, is it looks as though you're saying these people have a hope called soul sleep.
But it looks as though this reaction is hopeless.
Yeah.
So, I don't think we know exactly, but it looks as though this is a reaction of despair.
And I think in the face of that, the people of God are called to something different.
But there's a PhD waiting to be done on this verse.
In your retirement.
Thank you.
Okay.
Now we're going to go to chapter 12, verse 16.
In that chapter, it deals with the instructions for worship and framework around that.
And the verse says, only you shall not eat the blood.
So, it's in the context of what they can eat and what they can't eat.
But don't eat the blood.
You may not eat the blood, but you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
Question.
Is there any significance or symbolism in pouring the animal's blood out on the ground?
The blood, as you know, is the symbol for the life.
And therefore, I think the Lord taught them not to despise the life.
And in some of the more earthy verses of Leviticus, there's a fair discussion of sort of bodily fluids
that have got a lot to do with life as well.
And they are all to be treated very sort of reverently and respectfully, not sort of flippantly or carelessly.
And so, pouring the blood onto the ground, I think, was a way of saying,
the life is gone from this animal.
But we are able to take the flesh for food.
But we're not going to play with or muck around with the actual life which only God can give.
Something like that.
I think that was the gist of it.
Okay.
Next question.
Why such an extensive list of things to keep in the law if it is designed to highlight sin
and our inability to keep the law?
Surely even a single command would highlight this.
Does the extent of the law actually diminish its ability to point out our sin,
i.e. more excuse because it's so hard to keep up?
Do you want to read that again?
No, no.
I think that's helpful.
I think when it comes to the animals and birds and fish that could be eaten and couldn't be eaten,
that was all pretty manageable.
You just had to go down your shopping list and make sure you didn't take this, but you did take this.
But the moral law is much more penetrating.
So when you're dealing with the actual commandments, as Jesus said,
if you think through the anger law to its end point, you will be convicted.
And that's why, of course, the New Testament tells us the moral law is meant to lead us to Christ.
It doesn't, of course, pick us up and take us to Christ.
It's helpless.
But it tells us that we need a saviour.
So the law in the Bible acts like an x-ray machine which doesn't solve anything except tell us we have a problem.
And into that problem comes the surgeon who is Christ, who fixes.
So I think the law that is in, say, Deuteronomy 14 is a manageable list, not too difficult.
Pick and choose.
But the moral law was meant to be much more convicting and in God's goodness converting.
Okay, so I think there must be one person out there getting a little bit tired of questions.
The other question is, are there sharks on Jupiter?
Jupiter?
And you may well.
I just have to work this out because somebody hasn't sent me a message before because their name doesn't come up on my screen.
But I will work it out.
No, just press call.
Somebody just fell off their chest.
They've had time to put it on silent.
No, while I...
Yeah, all right.
Oh, no.
Okay.
All right, we'll stop this.
It's your what?
No.
No, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be her.
Okay, where are we up to then?
Right, back to here then.
Okay.
So this is chapter 14, commandment 2.
Don't give credence to pagan practices.
How does this impact upon pagan introduced practices such as formal communion, hot cross bands, sun god celebration, stuff like that?
Don't we, in reference to communion, don't we malpractice this as a directive was to reflect every time we eat or have communion, every time we gather to eat and drink, so each meal.
So let's...
Did that make it...
I didn't read that very well.
No, no, that's good.
That's a very thoughtful question.
I hope this isn't getting too heavy, everybody.
These are great questions.
I think the question that's just been asked is a little bit like Christmas and Santa.
I don't know what your views are, but it seems to me that the believer has the opportunity of getting the best of both worlds in the best sense, and that we can have the hot cross bun, but we're looking for an opportunity to say the top of this bun is more significant than you realise.
I mean, are we not able to despoil the Egyptians and have the treasures?
But the important thing is that we don't mentally settle for the temporary, but that we're experiencing and enjoying the temporary and even using it to help people appreciate the eternal.
I was about to get into the Santa question, but I realised that this is a reformed church, and I thought that might be too scary.
But I think I'll just tell you that from our point of view, we would say to our children, Santa is not real, but there will be some presence at the end of your bed, and Jesus is more wonderful than Santa.
So that was kind of, we grabbed what we could and we offered what we couldn't.
Santa's not real?
Santa's not real, Santa and ma'amma's real?
Santa's not real?
when we read the Bible, is we're looking at the text,
we're then asking ourselves, where does this fit in the context?
Ah, it's about a battle, invading a promised land.
But this is a one-off.
And therefore we might ask the question,
how has Jesus changed everything?
Well, a much bigger victory, a much bigger battle,
a much bigger success.
What's the message for today?
Be thankful for what God did for his people,
keeping his promises,
be especially thankful for what the Lord Jesus has done for us
and take refuge in him.
So we're looking carefully, reading our Bible with our brains
to make sure that we have either seen something
which is just for a particular period and learned from it
or whether we've seen something which is forever
and tried to be obedient to it.
But there needs to be some sense as we read our Bible.
Next question.
You emphasized Israel's response of obedience to the law
as following Israel's salvation, i.e. God's grace came first.
And the question is,
how do you square that with the conditional nature of the law
which Paul contrasts with the gospel in Galatians 3?
Doesn't Deuteronomy emphasize that for Israel,
life and blessing were conditional on their obedience?
I want to say again,
and we'll see this in the session after lunch,
that when Moses says,
if you disobey,
the curses of God will come down on you
and you'll be sent out of the land
and you'll be in exile,
all of that took place.
My question is,
when God is speaking to his people,
who he knows are his forever people,
we know that he's also going to cause them
to be repentant
and to be restored
and to receive mercy.
And so all the time,
we're dealing with this covenant faithfulness of God,
not wanting to give the impression
that behavior is a tightrope that you must walk,
which is really precarious,
but teaching that the people of God
are very much secure on the rock.
But of course,
if we drift,
we may go a long way.
We may go into a great deal of harm.
And the Bible won't play the game of saying,
doesn't matter what you do,
because it's always dealing with promises
and warnings at the same time.
So you cannot get assurance
built into a bumper sticker,
because God won't say to a person,
do what you like.
He'll say,
you're my people
and I'm going to give you eternal life.
But if you turn away
and walk a long way away,
does that begin to show
that you were never a person with life?
Because we need the promises
and we need the warnings.
And if we remove the promises,
we'll be desperate.
If we remove the warnings,
we'll be stupid.
And so he very carefully shepherds us
with the two of them.
I don't know if I've explained that very well.
I think it was R.C. Sproul
who said,
if you have eternal life,
you never lose eternal life.
If you lose eternal life,
you never had eternal life.
And that's the careful,
systematic theology
of assurance, I think.
Yeah.
I probably confused you there,
but I didn't mean to.
There's a number of other questions
that have come in,
but I think we'll make this
the last one at 1227.
So this question is,
you spoke about showing our lives
as being followers of Christ
in simple honesty and witness.
As teachers of children and youth,
how do you recommend we develop that
in our children and youth?
Great question.
And without a doubt,
you want your youth and children
to keep hearing how wonderful Jesus is.
It's a big mistake in the ministry
with youth and children,
whether you're parents or teachers
or youth leaders or Sunday school teachers,
to keep moralising your children
to the point where they just feel
as though the whole thing is impossible.
We want people at the end of a talk
to go away saying,
Jesus is wonderful.
We want people at the end of a youth night
to go home saying,
Jesus is wonderful.
We want people at the end
of a Sunday school class
to go home saying,
Jesus is wonderful.
You know,
if you're teaching on Jonah and the whale,
you don't want to say to a little kid
at a class
or as you're tucking them into bed,
Jonah ran away
and a whale ate him.
If you ever run away,
I will pray for a whale to eat you.
Now sleep well
and I'll see you in the morning.
You don't want to do that.
You want to say something like this,
how wonderful is God?
He cared about those people
nobody cared about.
He even changed his servant
who didn't care either
and he made sure
that they were all hearing the good news
and we have somebody like that
called Jesus
and he cares about us
and he's made it possible
for us to be safe.
That's what you want to say.
David and Goliath.
David was very brave.
He got a rock
and killed a giant.
When you get to school tomorrow
and you see that bully,
find a sling,
get a rock,
be a brave boy.
Now sleep well
and I'll see you in the morning.
No.
How great is God
raises up somebody
so the enemy is defeated
and all God's people
are safe.
How blessed are we?
God raises up somebody,
Jesus,
who wins a victory
and we belong to him.
That's what we need to be doing.
That's how we need to be helping
children, youth and adults
to be thankful
and thankfulness will be a huge part
of staying close.
Okay?
I'm very tempted
to do one more.
Are David's sandals
vintage Israelite
the magic kind
that I've never worn out?
Thank you for that.
So I'm going to hand it back
to Andrew
but can I just say
one comment
on all these questions?
When we come to camps
and things like this,
our minds just fill
with questions.
We spend a bit of time
studying the scripture
and there's just
questions arise
and those are good things
but here's the problem for us.
We go away from camp
and then we just fall
into slumber again.
We need to,
the scriptures are
just rich treasures for us.
God speaks with a clear
single message.
He doesn't speak
with a forked tongue.
His idea is not to confuse us.
We have the resources we need.
We've got brains,
we've got the spirit
working within us,
we've got the word,
we've got cross-reference,
we've got hundreds of years
worth of scholarly literature
that's been accumulated
for us by God's grace
and we can answer
a lot of our own questions
with some serious-minded
study of scripture.
So can I encourage you
to pursue your own questions,
pursue them deeply
in the word,
ask somebody
if you get stuck,
cross-reference,
but for goodness sake,
let's take some responsibility
and learn, study,
dive into God's word
and we will find riches
and maturity
waiting for us
in doing that.
So, Ryland,
while it's good
to have a speaker
to answer our questions,
it's not necessary.
He's not a cultic figure.
I don't mean that
with any disrespect.
We don't have cultic figures.
We have the word
that's immediate
and will give life
and vitality to us
if we will dig into it
and live in it.
Andrew.