The God of Israel
Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 6
What is Spiritual Maturity? If we had one word to describe Spiritual Maturity that word would be "assurance".
This assurance comes by just believing everything God has to say!
1Pe 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1Pe 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
1Pe 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1Pe 2:1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1Pe 2:3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Even when we think we know all there is to know about our Savior, there is still much more to learn and we will not know all about Him until we meet Him in the clouds.
As long as we are in this body of flesh, we will feel the need to get closer to God and we had better pay attention to that need!
Israel had lived in the presence of God for some time now.
He walked with them, and He talked with them, and God does this same thing with each and every believer today.
He provided all their needs as He does for each believer.
Remember a believer is someone who believes "all" the Word of God not just bits and pieces.
We cannot select what we believe and what we do not believe.
He kept them safe from danger in ways they could not understand.
As Christians we have angels watching over us.
God gave them laws to set them aside from all other nations.
Those laws are still good laws to help us in this life!
God was faithful to this tiny nation of Israel.
God is faithful to every true believer!
The first thing we need to clearly understand about our God is that there is no other God in this universe.
Oh, there are many so-called little gods who are only figments of the imagination.
There is only the One God, Jehovah and it does not matter what the world has to say about it or what the world believes!
We have a Living God who has given to us His Living Word!
*****Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
We always forget what God says here. If we love Him in this manner, then we will certainly believe Him.
The Hebrew word "Elohim" is used to say that Jehovah is One God in three persons.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit which Israel still has not understood.
1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
That word "Hear" means to hear "with the intent of believing what God says is true", and this is to be applied to all the Word of God!
Moses was God's "messenger: just as every true man "called of God".
1Co_1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1Th_2:12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.
1Pe_2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1Pe_5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
1Jn_3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
God has made a covenant with humanity and this covenant began with the Ten Commandments, which are now hated by the world because they teach us things not to do and the world refuses to be obedient to God.
We must understand that it is hatred not love, that guides this world today!
Have you noticed that even the "judges" of today look upon crime with a soft touch and none of us can understand it. Where did this come from?
It is a complete lack of observing the covenant with God! The Ten Commandments.
Most judges of today are not about laws but only their own interpretation of the laws which they should always avoid!
The Ten Commandments must be followed even today, and we need the Ten Commandments because we refuse to love one another!
There is no true brotherly love in America today.
Every group of people are trying to get what they want off the backs of all other groups of people!
God made this covenant with the Israelites who believed, after He freed them from the tyranny of Egypt!
Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
We should not miss the fact that God demands obedience!
God had saved and delivered them, and He expected them to follow His laws.
We see God expects the same for all those He saves!
God made this covenant!
This covenant was not something dreamed up by humanity!
There is no excuse for any child of God to be confused about the Word of God!
With those things that we do not understand, we are to just accept them for what they say!
We are to just accept the Word of God and be obedient to it!
It is all those who pervert the Gospel who instill confusion in the many believers.
Moses became a type of Christ as the Mediator of these commandments.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
When we are obedient to our Almighty God, then we become His personal possession, but:
He will treat us a king.
He will treat us as priests.
He will treat us as holy, sanctified, pure, righteous, the consecrated people of God!
These are all things that show us just how much God loves us if we love Him!
*****Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
You see, it is our Holy God who produced those Ten Commandments and not some man or some group of men.
God will never change these commandments, nor will we ever find them useless as long as we are in these bodies of flesh.
These commandments work because they come from God!
Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Jehovah is the source of all things good and proper!
God simply says, "I Am That I Am", our self-existing God!
He is the source of all life because He is the source of all beings, and the source of all His creation!
Remember God created using nothing but His will!
This is why there are no true creators today, because they only use the things that God has already created for their creations
He created us.
He loves us.
He will save us.
He will deliver us.
He will redeem us if we love Him!
Isa 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
We must understand the Word of God as God's Divine Revelation of His Creation and of Himself.
We must have the proper view of the Word of God, to experience the enormous truth that God has given to us!
Though much of the world ignores the Word of God, for we who love Him, we do not know what it would be like to not know the truth of our creation!
Once you know the truth of God then it is easy to see the lies of this world!
Our God is not far off in outer space, unreachable or unapproachable, He is very near to those who love Him, even residing within us!
Deu 5:29 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!
My God hears me even when I whisper to Him!
Jehovah is direct!
He Himself saved the children of Israel, He did not need help from some other source.
The Lord Jesus Christ gets personally involved with those who love Him!
When we study the Word of God, we can see that the Mosaic Covenant is a continuation of the covenant with Abraham.
The Church is a continuation of the covenant with Abraham!
The entire world had rejected God and God chose one man Abram to forsake the world and follow our Creator.
God is still fulfilling the promises He made to Abraham and his descendants!
There is still a "promised land" to the people of God, but it is not of this earth.
Abraham is a picture of salvation!
Moses is a picture of walking with the Lord according to His Word after salvation!
Today we have the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New Testament (Covenant).
The Lord Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant, all by the hand of Jehovah God, the One God.
Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new "with you" in my Father's kingdom.
It does not end with us, because we are to pass this information on throughout our families and our friends.
*****Deu 6:7 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 risest up.
Deu 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Deu 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Notice God makes it our duty to instruct our own children.
***We must first place the Word of God in our own hearts.
The commandments of God must be real to us.
We are to cherish the Word of God as the actual "Words of God" because they are!
We must be committed to obeying what God has revealed to us!
God insists upon this, not because He is some tyrant, but because by being obedient to the Word of God we will live a better life also full of joy.
Our own hearts are wicked!
Jer_17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
When we carry the Word of God within our hearts, it will replace that wickedness with the love of God.
God will look into our heart to see if His words are there.
Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
***We must next teach the Word of God to our children.
Some of the Word of God was at one time taught to our children until we allowed certain foolish people to rewrite certain laws to suit themselves.
Our Founding Fathers approved the Word of God.
The original Constitution of these United States is mostly ignored by a certain group of politicians as they seek their own failed glory.
We all understand that educating children is a necessity but indoctrinating our children is a crime!
Today we battle those who are perverted who try to teach even three- and four-year-old their own perverted sexual opinions.
America has surely become the new Sodom and Gomorrah.
We must stand up against these things no matter what names we are called!
Obeying the Word of God does not make us bigots or racist. In fact it is just the opposite!
Teaching is taking the truth of God and then living the truth of God, so our children will understand why.
We must be examples of what the Word of God teaches!
This is the greatest of all teaching methods and we must take the world out of the focus of our children, and place the Word of God in clear focus.
We need to take back control of our school systems and rid those systems of the entrenched perverted minds of immorality.
This may have to begin with school boards. Rid these boards of perverted people and replace them with Christians.
Our children need to know what God has to say, not what the world has to say.
We need to think upon the Word of God as we walk, as we work, when we are laid down, when we get up and when we are around our children and grandchildren.
We are to live by the commandments of God!
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
***We are to use the Word of God as our strong witness while we are in the eyes of the public.
What has happened is there is so much evil in the world, that some of the things taught in schools now seem minor but they are not.
When the children of Israel were out in public, they were bind the commandments of God on their hands and their head.
It is important that we look more like Jesus Christ every day!
In fact, we cannot be Christians unless we begin to look like Him in our everyday walk in this world.
This is called repenting from our old life. Now people just want to cling to their sin yet receive the benefits of God and He is their JUDGE, and He has already JUDGED them!
Jesus said "ye must be Born Again"!
We should not call ourselves Christians.
It is our enemies who should notice that we are trying to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Orthodox Jews practice these things.
We must understand that the home is to be the center for our testimony of the truth of God and His Son!
1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
1Pe 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
Psa 66:16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
God's blessings come to those who love Him and who are trying to be like Him!
*****Deu 6:10 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,
Deu 6:11 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;
Deu 6:12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
It is the simple thing of obedience where we fail the most in our relationship with our Heavenly Father!
No matter what we think, God owns all of His Creation and can do with it as He pleases!
He does not need our permission to take our land and give it to someone else!
Remember God had told Abraham that everywhere his feet would touch would belong to His children.
It is the residents of Canaan Land who were the trespassers!
What worldly gifts did God offer these people?
1) God gave them the land promised to Abraham.
2) God gave them cities that were prosperous.
3) God gave them houses already stocked with good things.
4) God gave them wells that were full of water.
5) God gave them plenty of food.
What do we learn from these things knowing that God will not do for one that He will not do for others?
The believer who is obedient to God will be blessed by God!
Greatly blessed in this life and even greater blessing in that eternal life to come.
Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Moses also taught these who would receive all these blessings, that there was a downside to so many blessings.
Owning so many treasures of this world can lead to the danger of forsaking God, and this is where the Church stands today.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
We have this tendency to get so relaxed after receiving such blessings, that we forget that they came from our Savior and begin to put ourselves before God which is a great sin.
Sudden prosperity can be fatal to Christians!
A Christian can not only forget his salvation, but they can in fact forget God after He has blessed us so much.
As Christians we are to openly declare the Lord our Savior.
Prosperity can put us in a position of compromise!
Again, this is a sign of today's Church who have compromised with the world and allowed what God has called an abomination into the pulpits of the Church.
When we begin to think too highly of ourselves, we begin to forsake God!
We may even think that we are so high on God's list that we will never chastise us.
No one can get too high for God not to act against them!
Remember God loves those He chastises!
We may drift too far from God and feel nothing, and we must certainly never test God nor test the love of God!
We are to never give back the control of our lives to this world!
We must be incredibly careful if it seems we are making demands of God!
The fear of God from the heart is the most powerful principle of obedience!
Pro 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
Pro 30:9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
We must always remember our righteousness comes by our faith.
No one can keep all those old laws, and no one can keep the law perfectly.
It is by Jesus Christ that we are accepted by our Heavenly Father.
BUT once we have been accepted by Him we must seek to be obedient to Him and fulfill the commandments of God which is based upon our relationship with Him and with each other.
Mat 22:37 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.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
And these things will never change!
Amen
