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Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!
This morning we journey to the fifth book of the Old Testament, the last book of the Pentateuch, Pentateuch meaning five books, and study the book of Deuteronomy. It is the last. It is a book of law. It is a book that contains the fierceness of God's Word. It breathes with a strong intensity the fiery fierceness again and again of the continued edict that is the theme and the badge of its consistency the words the Lord said, or thou shalt, or and God said. Again and again, the fierce intensity of God's harsh word and severe law binding the people to the truth that they might be free through knowing it is the theme of the book of Deuteronomy. The high priests of higher criticism have through the recent years began to question and criticize, mockingly, the validity of the five books of the Pentateuch in their authorship in Moses. Many of them say that in reality Ezra wrote much of the Pentateuch and that all of the books of Ezra should be ascribed to another and that Ezra wrote the book of Deuteronomy. They go a step further in their idiocy and declare that Moses didn't really write anything and that none of the books of the Old Testament that are attributed to his authorship are actually authored by Moses. I point them to the words of our Lord Jesus himself. Matthew 5, 45. If you had known the truth, you would have known that this word speaks of me, says Jesus, quote, for he wrote of me. Jesus said Moses wrote of him prophetically. And I prefer to believe Jesus rather than all of the liberal modern theologians. Jesus attributes the work and the word of Deuteronomy there and elsewhere quoting from it more than any other Old Testament book of the Pentateuch to the authorship of Moses. Now obviously the last few verses that tell of Moses' death and burial were not written by him but were probably written by Joshua. The book of Deuteronomy is without question, scholars agree, one of the seven or eight great Old Testament books. And yet it is unanimously the least read, least understood book in the whole Bible. It would embarrass us that have been Christians for 30 and 40 years to have to come to the platform and tell everything that we know about the book of Deuteronomy. The word Deuteronomy means second law or repeated law. It is the law stated again. The rabbis call the book of Deuteronomy the book of reprieve because it contains so many fierce admonitions. And again, thus saith the Lord, and thou shalt is the mark of the fierce legality of the book of Deuteronomy. The occasion for the repeating of the law is an interesting one. You will recall that God gave the decalogue, the word of God and the commandment, the expectation of God, the command of God, the instruction of God in the tabernacle, to the children of God two generations prior in the wilderness. There were three people alive among all of the Jewish people at this time over age 58. Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. These three men were alive because they were the only ones that believed God to the extent that God could use them to guide another. God has always placed men of great vision and great faith in places of great leadership. God had led the city of Israel in a period of two brief years from Egyptian bondage down in the land of Goshen, yonder to the very precipice, in the desert Quran, to the oasis of the Tirdus Barnea, to the jumping -off place, the precipice, yonder on the threshold of the promised land. After 430 years of embondagement, after two years of wandering, they were now on the shores of the promised land. They were ready to go in. Twelve spies were sent. They returned. Two of them had faith and said, Let's go. We can conquer it in the name of the Lord. Several of them, however, refused to go. Ten of them said it cannot be done. And so, back into the wilderness. Because of this, only Joshua and Caleb, who believed that it could be done, and Moses, remained. The rest of them had gone back in the wilderness and had been killed off. But God had to wait 40 years until a generation that disbelieved Him was dead and on the shelf and buried and unused. And another generation of young men and women grew up, now age 20, that believed God, and they were the ones that God was going to need to capture the wonderful promised land of Canaan. And so they were ready to go. Because of this, Moses, before his death, having disobeyed God and smiting the rock twice, rather than sticking to it once, as God had said, was himself, God not playing favorites, going to be disallowed the privilege of entering into the promised land. So, Moses, because he would not go, and because he had come a long way, and learned the importance of obeying God himself, and because he knew the promises that were there, and the problems, as this nomadic people became a people of settlers, and were going to live, and were going to live in the midst of an idol worshiping people, because he knew what they were up against, Moses wanted to make dead sure that this generation that was born and raised in the wilderness, that had not been exposed to the law, that they had a good comprehension of what God wanted them to know, before he would turn them loose under Joshua to possess the promised land. Hence, the repeated law, the Deuteronomy code, the repeated law, the second law, a second stating thereof. The book of Deuteronomy is legislating, but its primary purpose is not to legislate. It is a narrative, but it is primarily, in purpose, not intended to narrate. The purpose is to exhort the people who know the law of God to do it. James says something like that in the New Testament, when he warns people of stopping short of doings, and literally worshiping at the shrine of Bible knowledge. He says, be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. There are people in this world that are almost guilty of the sin of bibliology. It is knowledge for knowledge's sake. They worship the truth of the Bible, but to go beyond it into missions, and social action, and love, and evangelism, and doing something in their world, besides knowing what they are to do, is an entirely different story. And the book of Deuteronomy is written to exhort these young Jews who had not been exposed to the law to primarily know the word of God, and then to do it. The divisions in Deuteronomy are as follows. Chapters 1 through 4, Moses recounts the history of God's blessings and dealings with his people in the past. He reminds them of every good thing God has done, how he has led them and their ancestors from Abraham on down to Joshua, all through their history, and interprets for them the meaning of God's intervention in the lives of the Jewish people in the past. Verses 43, or 39 and 40 of chapter 4, at its close, are a pivotal point, and bear eye reading this morning. Turn with me, if you will please, to Deuteronomy, chapter 4, verses 39 and 40. This is the heart of the purpose. The transition is made now from the reading of the history to the past to declaring the words of God in the past to make sure that the people understand the purpose for the reading of this word. Know therefore, Deuteronomy 4, verse 39, Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord, he is God, in heaven above and upon the earth beneath. There is none else. Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes. Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may be well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee forever. I think it would be well for us to read those two verses together. The heart of what he is saying to the people of God. Let's read together. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord, he is God, in heaven above and upon the earth beneath there is none else thou shalt keep therefore his faculties and his commandments which i command thee this day that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth which the lord thy god giveth thee forever moses had indeed come a long way since he had first been drawn from that water by pharaoh's daughter and raised in the house of the egyptian king he says i want to be dead sure that this generation knows the law and word of god because if you do not know and are not in respondent to the education to keep and do the law of god you will not find life going well with thee now chapters 5 through 28 are a recounting and a restating of the ceremonial and judicial law of god chapters 29 and 30 are again a repeated exhortation to the people not only to know but to do god's will and god's word chapter 31 is the selection and blessing passed on from from moses to jesua his successor chapter 31 or 32 deals with the poem or the song so to speak of moses chapter 33 his farewell address and prayers chapter 34 records his burial on mount nebo after his death and so the book ends now what is the purpose of the deuteronomy code why would god in building the foundation of the word of god take of the entire first five chapters the law the word the plan the responsibility the instruction of god and make 40 percent of it two books one leviticus the law and again not deuteronomy the repeated law what is the importance of the law of god over the life of his people it must indeed have an important place in the mind of god for his people to give 40 percent of the oil penetrate the foundation of all of god's will and words for saving the law and repeating the law first of all it is the purpose of the law to free us the law frees us now think about that for a moment most people would hear a statement like that and say i don't believe that when you hear the word law the first thing we think of is slavery and bonding and discipline and being thwarted and controlled and constrained but the purpose of the law in reality is never to control the purpose of the law is not to restrain the purpose of the law is to release the law is not to bring death it is to bring life the law is not to give slavery the law gives freedom the law doesn't give out happiness the law gives the only true happiness jesus christ himself said i come to be thy rule o god thy law david believed in the law he said in the law do i meditate day and night i bind his precepts upon my heart thy words are a path under my feet but one day david who was handsome who was intelligent who was respected who was a great leader a great speaker a great king who had been adopted to a place of leadership that because he had obeyed god's laws he had played by the rules he had followed the one -way street of god that led the success in life decided to break the law and in a moment he kicked over the cases of the law he committed adultery he lied he committed the sin of covetousness he committed the sin of murder and from that day on david was never the same man he had become a slave to the past because he tried to break the law and had in reality only broken himself up on the law when we leave this auditorium today if you walk down through the streets of houston you'll see drunks alcoholics you'll see dope addicts winers men and women who have given themselves in opposition to the confining constraint of the word of god and attempting to become free they have become slaves but we had in our youth departments this morning 350 teenagers they were there they are bubbling they're effervescent they're sparkling they're alive they're happy they're free they're free to go where they will they're free to enjoy life why because they have found that a willing enslavement to the laws and rules of discipline and life and the Word of God give true freedom. While supposed freedom to do what you want in breaking yourselves on the laws of God gives slavery. I was at the television station the other day. We were taping higher ground. And a man out there, or not one of the employees, was taping to me, and we were talking about drinking. And he was asking whether Jesus turned the water into real alcoholic wine. I said, of course not. They said, well, they said they saved the best of the last. But I will never believe that Jesus turned the water into alcoholic wine. You know why? Because the Old Testament strictly forbids drinking. The Bible says, do not look upon the wine while it is red. Now when it's grape juice, it's purple. But when it is wine, when it's alcoholic, it has become, it's turned red. And Jesus never broke an Old Testament law. He's not going to do something in opposition to what the Spirit of God had inspired in the Old Testament. The Bible definitely forbids that men would drink. And when men break the laws of God, that man that may become an alcoholic is a slave to that battle because he didn't obey the law. Had he obeyed the law of God, he would be free. He wouldn't have sclerosis of the liver. The man that smirked. The Bible forbids smirk. The Bible forbids taking days. The Bible says your body is the temple of the holy day. The fire, not the body. The body. Your body is a tapernacle. That's what God lives. Keep it clean. Keep it pure. Keep things that are harmful and wrong out of the body. And when a man obeys that law, he's free. He's got a good job. He's got a home. He makes money. He's got a car in the garage. He's got an income. He can take a trip around the world and buy a new TV. He gets along with his neighbors. He's got his self -respect. He's got a job. He's got money in the bank. He's free. But the man who breaks the law of God, that man becomes a slave. Now he's smoked all of his life. He's got cancer of the lungs. He's pained his shape. He has a nicotine fit. He can't wait to get out of shape because his blood pressure is about to explode. You know, I think if God wanted us to smoke, he would have put a smoke stack right on the top of our head. I really do. But the man can't taste his food. He's safe. He's a slave. You see, he is a slave to that very thing that he thought was good and making free. Young people, listen to me. The law is not given to enslave you. The law is given to free you. And when you obey the law of God, man, you'll be free. But if you vote the law of God, you'll be a slave to what you did. That is the law of God. We have laws in this city. It says, don't go over 35 here. Don't go over 50 here. Stop at this red light. Go one way up the street. Now you say, I'm going to be free. Nobody will tell me what to do. And so I'll go up this way against the light. I'll run the red light. I'll go naughty in the 35. I'll go the wrong way in one way street. Man, you're not free. You're a fool. You'll kill yourself. You're not even free to get home unless you obey the law. They are given for your freedom. To move us, to get us where we want to go safely. And when you disobey the law, you become a slave to your own ignorance. And a slave to death and possible confinement in a hospital or a burial in a cemetery somewhere. You're not free, though. Not free at all. I heard about a fellow one time walking through a graveyard. He was, he didn't know that it had been raining. And there were some open graves out there. A man had come along earlier, and he slipped and he fell in. But the sides were wet and muddy and he couldn't get out. And he tried to get out and he kept falling back. And for four hours, he did his best to crawl out the side of that slippery grave. And he just kept falling back in. Well, he gave up and crawled over one point and went to sleep. It was a waste of daylight. About two in the morning, this old boy came walking through the graveyard. And he, too, slipped in. And he woke up about four o 'clock and he heard that. And he was just trying to get out of there. And the other old boy woke up about four and he heard him trying to get out. He said to the Sunday night, man, you can't get out of here. But he did. So you see, he re -braked the laws of God. When we disobey the law, we become a slave. And all some of you are going to get for breaking the laws of God is a jail cell somewhere, an empty life, or a hospital bed, or a divorce, or a wrecked life, or a dissipated body, or a funeral. But man, if you obey the law of God, you'll be free. You'll really live. I repeat, it is the purpose of the law to free us. Secondly, it is the purpose of the law to enliquen us. How do we know what God wants? How do we know what we're supposed to do? You know, they talk about a generation's death, and young people in rebellion. I believe that society will tell us. I believe that history will declare that one day historians will affirm, as we now do in looking back at the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, what caused the destruction of that civilization. I believe one day historians will affirm that one of the greatest blunders in the history of the world, society, were the day that the Supreme Court and the United States of America are blog, Bible reading, and prayers in the spirit. You see, these kids in rebellion against God and authority, now how do they know what they're supposed to do? They don't get discipline. They don't get instruction. They do not get enlightenment. They're not exposed to the word of God. In far too many cases, it is not loud and revered like Aesop's table. It is a bunch of fairy stories and mythology and storybooks and fairy tales. It is not loud and revered. You do know that, don't you? In over 75 % of the prophets today, McCall's magazine said in a survey that the virgin birth, the death literally of Christ for our sins, the bodily resurrection, the literal return of Christ, heaven and hell, the deity of Jesus, are not believed. They're not preached. They're not declared. The Bible is a book of myth. The Old Testament is never read. And I am saying simply to you that if we have a generation in the wilderness today, it is because they have not been exposed to the word of God. They do not know what the law says. And we've got a generation of young people in the Jesus movement that are being turned on to Jesus. And in its beginning, it is a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit of God. But in its ending, it is going to end up in a bunch of cults and sects and problems unless these kids that love and understand Jesus and comprehend the love of God get exposed through the church to the teaching of the law of God. You see, that's where we get instructed. That's where we learn what's right and wrong. And you can't live in a commune and make up your own rules. You need to be in church and guide past and know what's left, the word of God. And I say to you, and I hope that all of the city of Houston hear that if I had my children in a church that did not believe and preach the Bible, the word of God, whether I'd cut off my right arm before I'd use it to drive a car to take that kid to a church where the law of God, the word of God, is not held up and preach and believe. Some of you are dooming and damning the souls of your kids by not having them in Sunday school under the word of God. You must have the law of God. You must have the word of God. Or young people are going to grow up in the wilderness. And we ain't seen nothing yet. The law of God frees us. The law of God enlightens us. And the law of God matures us. The law of God fulfills us. It completes us. It grows us up. It turns us up. It turns us in. It makes men out of boys. It makes strong, neat Christians out of milk, toast, babies. The word of God and his law is to complete, to fulfill us with what the Old Testament only began. Now, understand clearly. Jesus Christ never destroyed one dot or tittle of the law. He never broke the law. He never destroyed the law. He never delittled the law. He said, I come to fulfill the law. The purpose of the law was to keep, was to declare a need. The purpose of Jesus Christ was to be the fulfilling provision of that need which the law only created. The law was a yoke of bondage which Paul said our fathers were not able to bear. And going through all of the ceremonial law without the intent of the heart reflected by the law never atone for one's hand. One could not merely place his head upon the Passover land and have his guilt taken away if his heart was not right with God. That was a picture, a picture, a figure, a symbol, a visualization of what must happen in the human heart. And when it happens, man is matured. He is grown up. He is brought to fulfillment, to perfection, to maturity in Jesus Christ. Perfection not meaning sinlessness, but being full grown up. When a little boy, a little Roman child was taken to school, he was led by a slave. The slave would take the little child and turn him over to the teacher in the very same way. It is the purpose of the law to be a school master, says Paul in Galatians. An instructor, a trainer, a teacher, to bring us, to lead us to Christ, to turn us over to him who fulfills us and completes what the law could not do in us. The Bible says in the book of Galatians again, oh you foolish Galatians, having been made, having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? It is impossible for the law. It is impossible for the striving of the flesh. To complete man, man's law was disappointing to Christ. That's where the Jews missed it. It was not to be the completion of man, but showing man's need by whom and by which he might be completed. Now understand this. A mirror does not take away my dirt. It shows that I have dirt on my face. It reveals my need, but it does not satisfy my need. I must then turn to water to be claimed. The law was twofold. It was ceremonial law and it was judicial law. The judicial law was a mirror. It was a schoolmaster bringing me to my need, revealing me my need, growing me up to see my need. Then the ceremonial law pointed me to the love of God, the provision of that need, the water of life that could wash the dirt out of my life. The law couldn't do that, the judicial law. It like a mirror revealed my need and pointed me to Christ, the water of life that contains me, thank God, from my need. That's why the law, in its completion in Jesus, grows me up, matures me, brings me to the one that is the satisfaction of the law, Jesus Christ, in whom I am accepted in perfection, my sin through his perfection. That's what the law does for. It points us to Christ, the embodiment of the law, that is its provision and satisfaction. I point your attention to the book of Hebrews. We shall read there together in closing. Will you turn over quickly, all of us together, all of the people of God, reading from the dear of the Lord's Holy Word, yonder in Hebrews. Now I want to remind you as we begin in Hebrews 7, verse 14, that this law declared our need. It was a bondage that could not give us the freedom that we desired. That had to come through Jesus Christ. The letter of the law, killeth, but the spirit, makeeth alive. And so Jesus is referred to as the more excellent way, the better way. The law was a way, but the fruition, the completion of the law in Christ was a better way. Let's read it. It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, the tribe of Judah, and that was one of the things he had to do to be the Messiah. Of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And yet it is far more evident, for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth an other priest. Now you will remember that Melchizedek was not like the priest in the tribe of Levi. They had to go in and make intercession every year, over and over and over again. But the nature of Jesus, the fulfillment of the law, the more excellent way, the better way, was not a constant repetition of doing. It was a once and for all sacrifice. It was in the physical and the eternal. Now remember Melchizedek disappeared one day. We have no record of his birth. We have no record of his death. The priest after the order of Melchizedek was actually the order of eternality. He was different. We found him in the book of Genesis. We have one like Melchizedek, who is made not after the law of a kind of commandment, but after the power of an endless or eternal life. For he testifies, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannuling of a commandment going before, for the weakness and imperturbleness thereof. So the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. And the word perfect doesn't mean sinless. It means complete, grown up, full, mature. The law could not do that, but the bringing of a better hope could. Who was that better hope? Jesus Christ. And insomuch as not without an oath he was made priest. For those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. There was no eternality, no irrevocable oath about the nature of those Old Testament priests. They were a foreshadow of our high priests, like Melchizedek, eternal and endless Jesus Christ. Now look in the next chapter, verse 6. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry. You see, the emphasis is on Jesus not doing away with the law. We're not above the law, or we are not beyond the law, or beneath the law, or beyond the law. We're above the law. In Jesus Christ. The emphasis is on Jesus is in maturity, the fruition, the excellence, the completion, the better way. Verse 11, chapter 9. Christ being come, and high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify to the curing of the flesh, curifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offer himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead work to serve the living God. Verse 24. Christ is not entered into the holy place, made with hands, not the tabernacle and the wilderness, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not yet, but he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. You see, ladies and gentlemen, if Jesus would have been the kind of priest that the Levites were, ever since the world began, he would have been having to die regularly from the foundation of the world, a repeated sacrifice. For then he must have suffered since the foundation of the world. But no, no, that's not the way it is. Now, once, say that word with me, once, say it with me everybody, once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die after that to judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, praise God, there's the second time he, without sin and the salvation. So Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law. And when you have Jesus Christ, he is the high priest, he is the altar, and he is the sacrifice. And in Jesus, you have everything you need. The law frees us. The law teaches and enlightens us as to the will of God. And you must have its proof to live a good life. And the law matures us. It takes us up to the heavenly, where we see Christ, the fulfillment, the fruition, the provision, the completion of the law, its incarnation, and its satisfaction, who from the foundation of the world, was God's provision for man. And when you have Jesus, you have it all. Praise God. Praise God. Let's stand and pray together. Our Father, we thank you for this book that is about Jesus. We pray today that that law, which showed us a need, and pointed us to Christ, the provision of that need, which fulfilled us, which taught us, which raised us, which made good godly Christians men and women of us, shall always be honored, and revered, and taught, and believed, and hollered in this sacred place. Help us to work, to get out the word of God. Help our teachers to do an even better job of teaching this eternal preacher. And Lord continually make its fruit from Genesis to Revelation. Point us to the one who is its incarnation, its fulfillment, its provision, and its satisfaction, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain, woe for all, for the sins of man. Thank you for this Old Testament, and its type, its preview of the new, and Christ its Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.