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Love Series

LOVE OF GOD # 8

Love of God in The Law and Psalms

Fred Coulter – October 21, 1995

This one we’re going to entitle “The Love of God in The Law and Psalms.” And what we’re going to do is compile all the different sermons that we’ve done on the love of God, Old Testament/New Testament, and so forth and put it into a complete series. And we’re going to learn in this that the love of God in the Old Testament, though the foundation is there, is not as powerful and as direct as with the New Covenant.

Let’s begin by going to Matthew 22:37. Now the reason I’m starting here is because this is quoted from the book of Deuteronomy, but it also tells us something very important concerning the Law and the Prophets. Verse 37: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Well this is what we see that God desires from every one of us. But as we will also see, that in the covenant with Israel, they did not have the heart spiritually, not having the Holy Spirit, to follow through as they should. Nor had Christ come in the flesh that they could relate to God Who had become a human being. And there’s a vast difference in that kind of relationship when you understand what Christ has done. And we can relate to Jesus Christ as God Who became a human being and suffered everything that we did, because in the covenant with Israel we are on the earth as people and God is in heaven up here and He’s unreachable. And that was the attitude that they had toward God, as we will see. But nevertheless God desired their wholeheartedness in it. Verse 39: “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37- 40, KJV). Everything that God did was based upon His love.

Now let’s go back to the book of Deuteronomy, and I think it’s very interesting that there is more about the love of God in the book of Deuteronomy than any other book in the Old Testament. Now the book of Deuteronomy means the second giving of the law. Deutero is two. Nomos, or nomi is law. Second giving of the law. This was a reiteration of the law by Moses to all the children of Israel before they went into the Promised Land.

So let’s come here to Deuteronomy 4:29. Now we’re also going to see a pattern that is through the entire Bible. Here God gave them the warning and then He said, “Now if you’re out there in captivity”: “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God…” Now notice that you have to seek God. That’s the important thing – we must seek God. “…Thou shalt find Him...” Now can anybody think of a New Testament Scripture which ties into that? “Knock and it shall be opened, seek and you shall find, ask and it shall be given.” All of it’s right here, the same thing. “…If thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”

Now hold your place here and let’s go to Psalm 78:32. This is another history of what the children of Israel did in the wilderness. Now let’s pick it up here in verse 32 after God had to correct them very severely: “For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works. Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.” Thirty-eight and a half years wandering in the desert. I can’t think of anything more vain and anything more troublesome, can you? “When He slew them, then they sought Him…” So you see, it’s a whole different kind of situation here. “…And they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they stedfast in His covenant.” So they dealt in an insincere human way.

But notice verse 38: “But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 78:32-41, KJV). And that’s what happens when people really do not take God to their heart. If they take Him because He’s going fight for them; if they take Him because they’re going to be blessed from Him; if they take Him because “we’re the descendents and He’s got to give it to us,” well then there’s no heart involved in it, and that was the difficulty with the children of Israel.

Now let’s come back here to Deuteronomy 4:30: “When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days…” So this is also a prophecy for our time today. And you can apply this to modern Israel just as well. You can apply that to our nation here in the past year with all of the tragedies, the different bombings, the different storms, the different floods and everything that has gone on. And they returned to God what? With flatteries. They lied to God how? With their lips. And they said, “Oh God, save us, spare us.” So God removed it, saved them, spared them. But they didn’t learn. So I think this is the first time in the history that two hurricanes have hit one right after another in the same place down there in the gulf. And the rain afterwards was just almost unmerciful. One place in southern Florida had twenty inches of rain in one day, and alligators floating around and water moccasins and other snakes. You know you wake up in the morning on your air mattress and here’s a alligator looking at you – “Hello, there’s breakfast.” The way you get out of that is stuff a pillow quickly down his throat and then you can escape. So we’re having our trouble and difficulties here now.

“…Even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto His voice…” Now just put in your margin there Revelation 7, the 144,000 from Israel. That’s going to fit in there. “Be obedient to His voice,” also make note of that. That is the first and the primary requirement from God – “Obey My voice indeed.” And that’s what has gotten everyone in trouble through the history of the Bible. They didn’t believe God, they didn’t obey His voice. And what we have here is the written Word of God which was once spoken so these are the Words of God. If He were here He would tell us the same thing.

Now let’s continue on. Verse 31: “…(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” Now as we’re going through here I want you to contrast that with, “Has there ever been such a thing heard that God became flesh and dwelt among His own and wasn’t received of them?” So just kind of draw these parallels in your mind as we’re reading along here. I think you’ll find it very important.

“Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” Never such a thing in all history. “Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD He is God; there is none else beside Him. Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee…” You read in the New Testament how Jesus came and was in the flesh and sat down and taught them. “…And upon earth He shewed thee His great fire; and thou heardest His words out of the midst of the fire. And because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in His sight with His mighty power out of Egypt…” (Deut. 4:29-37, KJV). All because of the love of God. But it’s interesting to note that in the Old Testament there is not the phrase: God is love. Only in the New Testament. That’s to show us that the relationship that we have with God in the New Testament is far more profound than we could have under the covenant with Israel.

Now let’s come to Chapter 5. Chapter 5 is after the giving of the Ten Commandments. But let’s read something here beginning in verse 7 concerning the first and second commandment. Now I want you to make special note of this: When there are people who say that God did not have love in the Old Testament, and God does not extend His love – yes, He does. Let’s begin: “Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.” And brethren, that is the very first commandment that everyone breaks. And everyone breaks that because that’s tied back to the tenth commandment – you shall not covet. When you get coveting and you get doing right in your own eyes then you’re going to break the first commandment because you’re going to see that the way that these other religions are, are just really very lovely. Pleasant to the sight. Desirous, tastes good. “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

“Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me…” Notice, “hate Me.” That might be another study: What does it mean to hate God?

Verse 10: “…And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me [notice “love me”] and keep My commandments.” So intrinsically, in keeping the commandments there is a love toward God. But if you would calculate, how long is a thousand generations? Well if it’s twenty-five years then that’s 2500 years. If it’s forty-two years then that’s 4200 years. If it’s sixty-five years then that’s 6500 years. Either way we pretty well cover our time, don’t we? Why are we here? Because of Abraham, is that not true? Yes. Is God’s love still extending to all of us, those who are in the church, those who are in the world around us because of one man who kept God’s commandments, obeyed His voice, kept His charge, His statutes and judgments? Yes. So it’s true. God’s Word is true.

Let’s come over here to verse 27. After they got all afraid and heard the noise and everything they told Moses: “Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto Me; and the LORD said unto Me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.” They are well intentioned. But you see the carnal mind must have a little space. And this is what we are dealing with. They had to have a space, and they also had to have someone else they could accuse so they said, “Moses, you go do it.”

Verse 29: “O that there were such an heart in them…” See, because the carnal mind is enmity against God and not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, even standing in His very presence hearing His very voice. You see, in the New Testament our hearts are to be different. We’ll see that in a little bit. “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.”

Verse 32: “Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” Now that’s both Old Testament and New Testament doctrine. What did Jesus say when He came? “Think not that I’ve come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. And verily I say to you, not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17-18, paraphrased). So we have the same thing today. We’re not to turn to the right hand or to the left hand. Anything that Christ has made so that we can do it in a spiritual way has not obliterated the principle for which He made the original commandment to Israel in the first place. It has only enhanced it.

Verse 33: “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live…” Got wants us to live. You know this is the same thing with our own children, isn’t it? We try and tell them, “Look, you do this or you do that, you do the other thing. We want you to live.” Well most kids think, “Well why are you telling me to do this?” And then we have a school which says, “Well your parents have no rights over you. You exercise your own and do just as you ought.” And of course the month of October, this month is the NEA – National Education Association, where all the teachers, teachers union, they’ve declared this “Gay and Lesbian Month.” And so they are having special lectures given by the unsavory of the community in the classrooms about their filthy lifestyles. So you see, when you have that, that’s why this is here. How many times did God say, “Don’t go to the right, don’t go to the left, don’t go after other gods?” Verse 33: “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you…” (Deut. 5:7-10, 27-30, 32-33, KJV). Yet in all of this they want to live, don’t they? But God is greater than they are and He’s going to cut them off in the midst of their days. Has that been done? Yes, it has.

Now let’s come down here to Chapter 6:3: “Hear therefore, O Israel…” Now that’s another study. I’ve never done a study on “hear, listen, hearken.” That would be quite a study. I know Jesus said in one place, “Let these words sink deep into your ears.” That’s all the way down into your brain cells.

“Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee [notice how many times that it says “that it be well with you, that you may live”], and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD [That means “one in essence” not “one” singularly in number.]: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Even though they didn’t have the heart to do it, he still says you should.

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart…” Now when we come to the New Testament we find in Hebrews 10 that God says that He’s going to write them on the tablets of our heart and inscribe them upon our minds, that not only are we aware of them when we go to bed, when we get up and so forth, that we think on them, we live by them. This is how we make our judgments. This is how our lives are operated, you see. We don’t say, “God is over here on the seventh day, but boy all the six are mine.” You see, if we belong to God we are wholly His. That doesn’t make every day holy. When we are “wholly” His – completely His.

So he says verse 7: “…And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou rise up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.” Now the Jews have one way of doing this. They have actually a little leather thing that they put on their right hand and they strap it up their arm. And if you see any documentaries of the wailing wall with the Jews praying there, you will see this. And they roll up whatever it is in a little scroll and put it here. And then they have a little hat that they wear and they put it right up on their forehead. And they are literally fulfilling this.

Now then, what is far more important is what we covered here just a couple of weeks ago – that the true worshippers of God will worship God in spirit and in truth. And the words which Jesus spoke, they are spirit and they are life. So with the Spirit of God, if you have them here in your mind and here in your heart then you are going to be more right with God than if you have them on your right hand here on the outside and then a little leather scroll on the outside of your forehead up here, but God is not in your mind and your heart. But nevertheless He was telling them what they should do. And I remember when I was visiting in west Los Angeles, I’d go into the Jewish section and there was a section that was half Jewish and half Catholic. Well at the Jewish households they had the little thing with the Ten Commandments written on it right on the side of their house. And on the Catholic household they had a cross and a statue of Mary. So I guess they were trying to let everyone know who they were.

Let’s continue on: “And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deut. 6:3-8, 10-2, KJV). And of course we’re going to see several parallels of that in the New Testament about being where that when we get full (what happened to one church we remember), “You are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and know not that you are naked and miserable and poor and blind”? Yes. So it happens spiritually too.

Let’s come to Chapter 7, and let’s pick it up in verse 6. Also as we go through here I want you to see the parallels in relationship to the church, because some of these are also not only instructions to them but they are also prophetic types of the church. Especially right in this section we will see that the apostle Peter in I Peter 2 drew quite heavily on this. Verse 6: “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” What would the world have been like if Israel had not sinned? Can you imagine that? It would be a far, far different place, wouldn’t it?

Verse 7: “The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people…” Same way with our calling. I Corinthians 1:26, “You see your calling, brethren, not many wise, not many noble,” etc., etc., fewest in number. “…For ye were the fewest of all people: but because the LORD loved you…” Again, God’s love must be activated first in our lives to deal with us. Same way that He did with Israel. “…Because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers…” And I want you to notice how much this is based upon the fathers. All the way through – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the fathers. Everything here is a fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. That’s what it is.

“…Hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations [and God will and God does]; and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them…” And that’s still active today. Yes, He does. “He will not be slack to Him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if…” There’s this conditional word again. Bob Huth counted them one time. There are 1522 “if” clauses in the whole Bible. So here’s one of them. The “if” is always contingent upon us. Why is that? Because God never varies. There is no shadow, no variableness, nor turning. We are the “if.” So he says: “…If ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He sware unto thy fathers: and He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee.” My, that’s sure repeated over and over again, “your fathers, your fathers,” isn’t it?

“Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee” (Deut. 7:6-15, KJV). And what is one of the biggest all-consuming costs that they have today? Health costs. Just think, as I mentioned during the Feast of Tabernacles, how much money we waste on crime, on sin, keeping the prisons going, on medicine, on medical care, on taxes to support all this. And if any of you are economists, see if you can do this: What is the real expendable amount of money that people have today after you deduct everything for the military, for crime, for corrupt government and so forth, for medical costs; just deduct out of all of that, I think we would be down to maybe 15%, would you guess? Closer to 10%? Just think of that, only 10%. That would be something. Well just think how it’s going to be in the Kingdom of God when everything is multiplied with blessings and it goes the other way. That’s going to be something.

Ok, let’s continue on here. Let’s go to Chapter 8. Here’s an important lesson for us. This is something that we need to learn. Verse 1: “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply…” This is almost like a broken record, isn’t it? My, that’s something. “…And go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness…” Now what follows next is what’s going to happen to everyone of us: “...to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart…” That’s what God wants to know – what’s really in your heart down deep inside. “…Whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered [allowed] thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know…” Even though they ate it every day they didn’t understand it. And think how merciful God was – every six days of the week He would send manna. They would go out and get it day by day. Doesn’t that sound like something we are to pray about? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Yes. They’d go out on the sixth day, they would gather twice as much. But even through all their rebellion and everything that they went through there was manna every single day. Now they didn’t know what it was like even though later they were told it was like angels food cake with coriander seed oil in it. I don’t know what that tastes like. But they ate it plain, they boiled it, they kneaded it. One place says they deep fried it, so come and have a manna donut and all that sort of thing. And then after a while the people weren’t thankful. See, they didn’t understand. If they would have gotten on their knees and said, “Oh God, we’re here in the middle of this desert and we know you can provide anything. Now we love this manna, we thank you for it, but it would be really nice if we could just have just a little bit of meat with it.” God would say, “Oh that’s wonderful. I’m going to send you some quail.” No, they had to rebel. So God sent the quail, and they ran out there in their lust to get it, and while it was yet in their mouths raw they came down with a plague. He says, “You want flesh to eat, I’ll give you flesh to eat.” psheu – drops a whole great host of quail upon them and they run out there in their lust. Bad news.

Anyway, back here to Deuteronomy 8:3. Now here’s the reason He did it: “…that He might make thee know [an everlasting lesson for us] that man doth not live by bread only [this is quoted in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 as well], but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” Now you can tie that together with what Jesus said. Jesus said, “If you love Me keep My commandments. If you love Me keep My words.” Same thing.

Now they had an extra special blessing which would be something: “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.” Can you imagine that? Forty years in the wilderness and the clothes didn’t get old, the shoes didn’t get old. You know, pass on a new pair of shoes for forty years. That’s something. “Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him” (Deut. 8:1-6, KJV). Over and over and over again.

Now let’s come on over here to Chapter 10. I’ll leave out Chapter 9, but you go read Chapter 9. It talks about how rebellious they were. Over and over again He says, “You’re a rebellious and stiff-necked people.” But Chapter 10 is really a command but it is also a prophecy. It’s a command that they should do, if they could, but is also a prophecy of the New Covenant because it gives a requirement that only God could do.

Verse 12: “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” That’s why God gave them. “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut. 10:12-16, KJV).

Now hold your place here and let’s go to Colossians 2, because this is talking about something that can only occur when you are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit of God. Now this is why God looks upon someone who is tenderhearted to Him with very special favor and grace. And that’s the whole point of what we’re doing brethren. I hope you understand that. The whole point of why God has called us is so that we can be loving to Him and tenderhearted to Him, you see. That’s what God wants. In order to do that then we have to have also the right kind of relationship with God, the right kind of relationship with elders and teachers and brethren and so forth, because in the past if you’ve had a tender heart toward God and you run smack into the authority, it’s leveraged to their own benefit and that should not be.

Now I want you to notice the parallels: God’s Spirit for inspiring is the same – yesterday, today, and forever. So he says beginning in verse 2, that those who hadn’t seen Him: “…That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love…” We don’t find any kind of language like that in the covenant with Israel. This is in the New Covenant. “…And unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” So here’s a tremendous blessing that is given out by the apostle Paul, giving us hope and pointing us toward Christ. “And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words [to get you to go to the right hand or to the left hand].” So we have the same principle here, don’t we? “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him…” Which also implies neither to the right hand or to the left hand, doesn’t it? If you’re going to walk the straight and narrow way, that’s what it says. “…Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” So there again is the warning. Terrific warning for us today.

“For in Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead [which really should be translated “deity.” The full understanding of the deity of God. That’s what it really means] bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: in Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ…”, which then we see in verse 12: “…buried with Him in baptism…” (Col. 2:2-12, KJV). And that’s how then you are circumcised spiritually in the mind – by baptism, receiving of the Holy Spirit of God, and that’s to take away the hardness of the heart.

Now that’s so important that back here in Romans 2 (let’s turn there for just a minute and then we’ll go back to Deuteronomy 10), and as we turn here I want us also to understand something that is very important: anyone who is a physical Israelite or Jew has no special standing with God in the church until they’re baptized, because all have to repent and all have to be baptized and all have to receive the Holy Spirit and become part of spiritual Israel. While it’s important for understanding certain prophecies of physical Israel, that does not give anyone an inside track to God because look what God did to Israel when they sinned. That’s not the inside track. Well it is, going to the outside.

So when Paul is talking to the Jews here he’s hitting them pretty hard. Notice verse 17: “Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.” So what we are given back here in the law is just the form, just the basis, just the beginning of which the Gospel is built upon that and amplified.

“Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” Now put a star by that and understand something that’s very important. As I mentioned before that Christ says it’s sufficient that the disciple become as a teacher, which is absolutely true, but as we teach we should also teach ourselves. And as we teach others, hopefully with the right kind of attitude and spirit and lift them up to know more of God’s way, then God will teach us more that we in turn can teach more. So it is kind of a real ever fulfilling uplifting thing that God wants us to have. And the Jews weren’t doing that. They weren’t teaching themselves.

So Paul says: “…thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision [of the flesh] verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.” I don’t think we really grasp the fighting words that those really are when Paul, a Jew talking to other Jews that they are uncircumcised if they break the law. And that’s what God is saying back here in Deuteronomy 10.

“Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee…” Now think on that. Think on that – that is a powerful statement. If you would go up to a Jew and say, “The Gentile is going to judge you,” you’ve got a fight on your hands. Paul really was making a point. “…Who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Rom. 2:17-29, KJV). And so this is what God is actually prophesying yet pleading about here in Deuteronomy 10. Let’s go back there and read that again.

Deuteronomy 10:17: “For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords…” Now that’s a prophecy then of what – Revelation 19:20, is it not? Yes. “…A great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward…” You’re not going to bribe God. He is no respecter of persons. “…He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:12-19, KJV).

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