In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of obedience to God and the blessings that come from it. He encourages the listeners to remember how God has led them in the past, even in difficult and challenging situations. Moses, in his old age, reminds the people not to be afraid as they prepare to enter the Promised Land, assuring them that God will be with them and will destroy their enemies. The key message is to focus on God's power rather than the circumstances and to trust in His guidance.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit and His love Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to the Word for Today. Broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible. And on today's edition of the Word for Today, we'll be continuing our look at the blessings of obedience as we pick up in Deuteronomy 7, verse 19. And now, with today's lesson, here is Pastor Chuck Smith. Now the Lord said, if you get worried and think, man, they're bigger than we are and they're stronger than we are, how can we dispossess them? All you have to do is remember what God did to Egypt. Just remember how He wiped out the Egyptians and then you'll know that your God is big enough to do the job and He's big enough to wipe them out for you. The great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand, the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out, so shall the Lord your God do all to the people of whom you're afraid. You're afraid of these people, but God's going to wipe them out. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left who hide themselves from you are destroyed. So God will use even nature to fight for you. The guys are holed up in there. You wonder how you're going to get them out. God will send a bunch of hornets in there, start singing them and the guys will, you know, start running. You'll catch them. There's a song that used to be sung years ago, especially down in the southern part, how that He does not compel you to go, He does not compel you to go, He does not compel you to go against your will, but He just makes you willing to go. And in that song, there is a verse concerning the Canaanites who were dwelling in the land and how God sent the hornets in and they began to sting the people as they were hiding out. And it says, He did not compel them to go. He just made them willing to go. And so nature will be fighting for you, the hornets among them. You're not to be terrified of them. For the Lord your God, the great and awesome God is among you. God is with you. In the New Testament, Paul said, and if God is for us, who can be against us? You're not to fear them. When you go in, the great and awesome God is with you. He's among you. So don't be afraid. God said in the time of Isaiah, fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God, and I will help you and I will strengthen you. Yea, I will uphold you with my right hand of righteousness. And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little, one at a time. God will drive out those nations before you. You will be unable to destroy them all at once, lest the beasts of the field multiply and be too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and you will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them, and you shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire. You will not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, because it's an abomination to the Lord your God. Now, here's Moses, the old man. He's talking to the people. He's saying, hey, you're going to go in. Now don't be afraid. Just because they're bigger nations, don't be afraid. God's going to be among you. God's going to destroy them before you. God's going to wipe them out. And these words of encouragement and exhortation, as they are getting ready to go into the land. They failed once before. Why? Because they got fearful. They started looking at the odds. They started looking at the situation. And looking at the enemy, fear gripped their heart, and they failed to go in. Now what is Moses trying to do? He's preparing their hearts. Don't look at the enemy, look at your God. Don't look at the power of your enemy, look at the power of your God. And what good advice this is. Because you see, we are so prone to get our eyes upon the problem. And it's so big. It's too big for me. I don't know how I'm going to handle it. Get your eyes off your problem and get your eyes on God. That's the secret of success every time. That's the secret of victory. Your eyes on the Lord, not on the situation. Your heart will just collapse within you if you look at the situation. I'm not strong enough. I'm not great enough. They're too mighty for me. No way I can do it. You get in that mood, and man, without even fighting, you go under. You don't even make it to the battle line. You collapse before you even get there. But if you keep your eyes on God, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If God is for me, who can be against me? And the glorious thing to know is that God is for you. He's for you 100%. He will not let you go. He will not let you fall. He will help you. He will sustain you. He will strengthen you. Keep your eyes on Him. He is the secret of our victory, for He goes before us and wipes out the enemies before us. Keep your eyes on God. And that's basically what Moses keeps telling them. Look, get your eyes on God now. Look to God. Keep your eyes on God. It's God that's going to deliver you. It's God that's going to bring them into your hands and all. Keep your eyes on Him. You're not to bring an abomination into your house, that is, any of their idols or little gods that they made, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. But you shall utterly detest it, utterly abhor it, for it's an accursed thing. Now, every commandment, Moses said, which I command you today, you must be careful to observe. That's, again, the secret. The obedience to God, loving God. And then God will guide you and He will be for you and He will help you. You must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the lamb which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember. Remember what? First of all, that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. Remember how God has led you. He led you with a pillar of fire in the cloud. For 40 years, God has led you all the way in the wilderness. Now, they were led into some pretty spooky places. They were led to the bitter waters of Marah. They were led to the barren wilderness where there was no water. They were led to the desert where there was no food. God led them into these places in order that they might come into a fuller understanding of God and the purposes of God. God led them to the bitter waters in order that they might discover that by the tree thrown into the waters, those bitter waters could be made sweet. And the Lord leads us to bitter experiences in our lives. But God is able to bring the sweetness out of those bitter experiences. And it is in those experiences where we learn to trust God and where we learn to grow and where we see the power of God and the love of God manifested. It's there where we really come into a deeper relationship with God as we learn to trust Him. Remember, God led you all the way. And if God has led you this far, He's not going to let you down now. He's not going to let you go now. I often, in looking at the world scene, and see how far God has brought things along, how far God has progressed in the whole prophetic picture. I see how things are lining up in the world today just according to the prophecies that relate to the return of Jesus Christ. And it's ridiculous to think that God would come all the way along in the prophetic picture and then just say, oh, well, let's just dump it. Let's forget it. No, He has brought it along this far, and you can be sure that He's going to carry it right on to the second coming of Jesus Christ and the gathering of the church unto the Lord and the glorious kingdom age. He's not going to give up on His program or His plan. God's kingdom shall come, and His will shall be done on this earth even as it is in heaven. God shall give unto Jesus the kingdoms of this world, and He shall reign where'er the sun doth her successive journeys run. And that day isn't far off. So lift up your heads. Your redemption is so close. You shall remember that the Lord led you all the way. You know, in looking back at my own life, I can testify the Lord led me all the way. Now, that's in looking back. Many times as I was on the way, I questioned whether or not the Lord was leading. Surely I've made a mistake someplace. In the midst of the trials, it's awfully hard to realize that God has led me into this situation. But I'll tell you, as you go through it, and as you see the full plan, as you see the full picture unfold, then you begin to understand this little bit of a puzzle that was so puzzling to me and so difficult for me. But yet that little crazy thing fits perfectly, and look how those colors blend into the whole picture. And the picture wouldn't be complete without it. And so God leads us step by step, and all the way my Savior leads me. What have I on earth beside? Can I doubt His tender mercies? And so remember, He led you all the way these 40 years. Now, the purpose? To humble you. I don't like that, but I need that, as we all need that. If I am going to be continued to be used by God, I cannot allow pride to rule in my heart. Pride comes before destruction, a haughty spirit before the fall. Pride is a great enemy to you. It can destroy you. God hates the proud. God resists the proud. Six things does God hate. Yea, seven are abomination unto Him. And one of those seven things is that proud look, that haughty attitude and spirit. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you. He will lift you up. How important that we be humbled by God, in order that God might use us as His instruments. Then also He wanted to test them, to know what was in their heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Now, the testing to know what was in their heart, was not that God might know what was in their heart. He knew what was in their heart all the time. The Scriptures testified of Jesus, that He did not need that anyone should tell Him about some other person, for He knew men, and He knew what was in men. Problem is, I don't know what's in my heart. I may think that, you know, that area of my life is okay, there's no problem there, and God will lead me into a test, and suddenly I'll realize, hey, I've got a problem here. A couple of times this afternoon, as the situation arose, my wife says, is this a test? And it was. Prove what's in our hearts. Prove how I will react when something doesn't go my way, when someone is just poking up Fairview Street and tying up traffic, and it's a test of my patience. When you read some crazy crackpot theory in the paper, and you think, oh, they're crazy, it's just a test to show what's in your heart, to help you see the truth about yourself. There are so many things that are in my heart that God needs to deal with. He cannot deal with them until they are surfaced, until I can see that it is there. Because I would deny its existence, if you would ask me. Because in reality, I myself don't even know it is there, because my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and I don't really know it. I don't know my heart completely. I don't know what I would do. I know what I think I would do in given situations. But then God allows me to get in those situations so I could see what I would really do. He reveals the truth to me in order that He might deal with those areas of weakness, those flaws that are still within my life. And so in love, He leads us in the wilderness. He leads us to those bitter places. He leads us to those barren places. He leads us to those desolate places in order that He might test us, show what's in our hearts, whether or not we're going to really trust Him, whether or not we're going to really have faith in Him, or whether or not we're going to turn against Him in those situations. So He led us in order that He might find out, or that we might find out really whether we would keep the commandments or not. So He humbled you, and He allowed you to hunger. God allowed them to hunger. He allowed them to become very hungry in order that He might give them the manna and that they might learn through it that man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Father. And so there were things they needed to know. They needed to know what was in their hearts. They needed to know that man's life is not consisting in the abundance of the things he possesses. Man's life does not consist in the material realm. It consists really in the spiritual realm. There's where your true life is. Man doesn't live by bread alone. You can be dead spiritually if you're just involved in the material world, bread alone. But we live true life by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. During this time that God was leading them, God was also providing for them. He provided the manna. He also provided their garments that they did not wear out on you. Now, of course, I know that a lot of you would find that rather detestable that your garment would last for 40 years. And I'm sure that if you went to the closet and opened it and saw that garment hanging there, you'd say, I don't have anything to wear today. I've been wearing this dumb thing for 40 years, you know. Now, the question in some people's minds, I guess, whether or not this is a blessing or a curse, but their garments did not wear out. Nor did their feet swell. Now, that's hot desert sand. You ever walked across the hot desert in the daytime? You get those swollen feet, but their feet did not swell for 40 years. So that you should know in your heart. The third thing that they really needed to know, that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. So you need to know what's in your heart. You need to know that the real life is spiritual. You don't live by just bread alone. And you need to know that God, as your loving Heavenly Father, chastens you. Even as a earthly father chastens his son, so your Heavenly Father chastens you. And that is because He loves you. He will stop you from doing those things that can be destructive to you. He chastens you because He loves you. And because He is your Father. Therefore, because you know these things, because God has led you, therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear Him. Notice how over and over and over again he comes back. The whole thing is keeping the commandments of the Lord, walking in fear before Him. Therefore you shall keep the commands. And he'll go and he'll take another theme and he'll go out on it. But then he comes back to the main theme, keep the commandments of God. Obey the commandments of God. Follow and do the things of God. And it always comes back to the central theme. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey. Oh, you're coming into a great land. A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. It's a great land that God is bringing you into. It is a fruitful land. It is filled with resources. And when you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for His goodness and for His blessings. And so Moses is instructing the people that their times of eating should be times of blessing God, times of remembering the goodness of God and bringing them into this land that does produce so abundantly. And these things should be the reminders to them to praise God and to thank Him when you have eaten and are full. We'll return with more insightful lessons from our verse-by-verse study through the book of Deuteronomy in our next lesson as Pastor Chuck Smith teaches on The Perils of Forgetting God in Prosperous Times. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one, you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details. Simply call 1-800-272-WORD and phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673. And for your added convenience, you can order online anytime when you go to the wordfortoday.org. And while you're there, be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs, and so much more. Once again, that's the Word for Today, online at thewordfortoday.org. And for those of you who still prefer to write, you can use our mailing address, which is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence. And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study through the book of Deuteronomy. That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today. And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith. Father, we desire that Your love be perfected in us, that we might walk as He walked, react as He reacted, love as He loved. O Lord, work in our hearts through Thy love, not just in words, but in deed and in truth. And so may we show our Savior to the world. In Jesus' name, amen. For over 60 years, it has been my privilege of watching my wife Kay as she has blessed me as a helpmate in the ministry. Kay was the first one to reach out to the hippies. And today, Kay has been the cornerstone of our women's prayer ministry. It is my pleasure to introduce Kay's new book, The Privilege, as she speaks to pastors' wives and to women who God has called to serve. I pray that you will take this message that God has given to Kay and let it encourage you to fulfill the ministry that God has for each one of you. To order Kay's new book, The Privilege, visit us online at thewordfortoday.org, where you can read a sneak preview of the book for free. Or for more information, you can call us at 1-800-272-WORD. This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.