In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith reviews the rebellions of the Israelites as they journeyed through the wilderness. He emphasizes the importance of walking in the ways of God and fearing Him. Pastor Chuck explains that through the power of the Holy Spirit, believers are able to live according to God's commandments and will. He also highlights the significance of loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, as well as loving our neighbors as ourselves. The sermon draws parallels between the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land and the Christian's journey in the life of the Spirit.

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 hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of 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 looking at a review of Israel's rebellions As we pick up in Deuteronomy, chapter 9, verse 11 And now, with today's lesson, here's Pastor Chuck Smith And it came to pass at the end of the forty days and forty nights When He had given me the two tables of stone Then the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here for your people God won't even own them at this point Your people, Moses, whom you brought out of Egypt Have acted corruptly They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them And they have made themselves a molded image Now on this table of law, what was the second command? Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image or likeness To bow down to it and worship it They had already broken Thou shalt have no other gods before me They were worshipping this golden calf that Aaron had made Before he can even come down from the mountain with the tablets, the law of God They've already violated and broken the law So you're not such a righteous people And it isn't because of your righteousness that God has brought you into this place Furthermore, the Lord said to me I have seen the people, indeed they are a stiff-necked people They are tough cookies Hard to deal with Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heaven And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they So I turned and came down to the mountain And the mountain burned with fire The two tables of the covenant were in my two hands And I looked and there you had sinned against the Lord your God You had made for yourself a molded calf And you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord commanded you Then I took the two tables of stone and threw them out of my two hands And broke them before your eyes And I fell down before the Lord as at the first forty days and forty nights And I neither ate bread nor drank water Because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly In the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure With which the Lord was angry with you to destroy you But the Lord listened to me at that time also And the Lord was very angry with Aaron Because Aaron was the one who did this He was the one that said bring me all your gold And he's the one that made the golden calf And God was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him So I prayed for Aaron also at the same time And I took your sin The calf which you had made And I burned it with fire I crushed it and ground it very small Until it was fine as dust And I threw the dust in the brook that descended from the mountain So you started out wrong You started out on the wrong foot And then if that were not all Remember there at Taborah Now Taborah means burnings And that's where the people began to complain against the Lord And God sent the burning in the camp And many of them were destroyed Remember Massah Massah means tempted That's where they came to the place and there was no water And they were striving with Moses And they called it Massah tempted God And also Merubah The waters of strife Where God brought them water out of the rock And remember Kibroth Hata'ava At Kibroth Hata'ava Is where the people began to lust greatly after the flesh And say oh if we only had meat to eat You know we're sick of this manna And how God gave them meat to their fill But also brought leanness to their soul And the plague of God struck the camp And they buried the people there And called it Kibroth Hata'ava Which is the graves of lust or cravings Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea Saying go up and possess the land which I've given you You rebelled against the commandment of the Lord Your God, you did not believe him nor obey his voice You've been rebellious against the Lord From the day I knew you You're stiff necked You're rebellious It's not because of your goodness that God has When you get in the land don't get prideful And say well it's because we're so righteous God has done this Just remember the truth about yourself And oh God help us to remember the truth about ourselves You know it's so easy when God begins to work in our lives To get puffed up Remember when Peter said to the lame man Hey look at us And the guy reached out for his arms and said Sorry I don't have any silver and gold But what I do have I'll be glad to give to you In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Stand up and walk And he took the man by the right hand And lifted him to his feet And immediately his ankles were healed And he began to run and leap and praise God And he went through the temple Walking leaping praising God And when he came back out People in the temple said Isn't that the guy that's been lying at the gate all these years That was lame Sure looked like him What does he do I don't know let's find out And they followed him out And he came back out to the porch Where Peter was standing And he grabbed hold of Peter And began to hug him And people began to gather Thousands of them And they began to stare at Peter Like he was some kind of a Holy man or something Peter said hey wait a minute Wait a minute You men of Israel Why marvel at this Or why are you looking at us As though we Through our own righteousness Have done this good deed to this lame man When God begins to use us It's not because of your righteousness It's because of God's grace That he has worked in our lives And so he goes on You've been rebellious From the day I knew you Thus I prostrated myself before the Lord For forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself Poor Moses Remember as we were going through And he fell on his face before the Lord And again and he fell on his face He's always fallen on his face I prostrated myself And I kept prostrating myself Because the Lord said he was going to destroy you Therefore I prayed to the Lord and said Oh Lord God don't destroy your people Now notice God said get down to your people You know they've done And Moses prayed and said Lord don't destroy your people Your inheritance Nobody wants them At this point Nobody wants to claim them you know Whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand Remember your servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob And don't look on the stubbornness of the people So they're stiff necked They're rebellious They're stubborn Or on the wickedness or their sin Unless the land from which you brought us should say Because God couldn't bring them into the land He destroyed them in the wilderness They are your people Your inheritance That you brought out of By your mighty power And by your outstretched arm So Passes it right back Now at that time the Lord said to me Hew out two tablets of stone like the first And come up to me on the mountains And make yourself an ark of wood And I will write on the tablets The words that were on the first tablets Which you broke And you shall put them in the ark So I made an ark of acacia wood I hewed out two tablets of stone like the first I went up to the mountain having the two tablets in my hand And he wrote on the tablets according to the first writing The ten commandments which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain From the midst of the fire and the day of assembly And the Lord gave them to me Then I turned and came down from the mountain And put the tablets in the ark which I had made And there they are Just as the Lord commanded me Somewhere The ark of the covenant Is probably hidden Probably hidden by Jeremiah At the time that it was obvious That he was going to capture Jerusalem And to save it from being destroyed Or save it from being carried As part of the loot to Babylon Jeremiah hid the ark of the covenant He did a great job hiding it In 2500 years of search They haven't been able to find it yet However To me That would probably be one of the greatest Archaeological discoveries that man could make To find the ark of the covenant Because in that ark of the covenant Are the two tables of stone Upon which God himself inscribed The ten commandments Now what would you give to see that? That would be absolutely awesome To look on those two tables of stone On the first table The first four commandments That have to do with your relationship with God And on the second table The second six commandments Upon which your relationship to your fellow man Oh How I would love to see that But Jeremiah said the day was going to come When God would not write his law On tables of stone But upon the fleshly tablets of our hearts So God has written the law in our hearts today And that is He has given me that desire and that yearning To do his will It comes now from within He plants his desires within my heart So that doing the will of God Becomes the delight of our lives In that ark of the covenant There is also a jar of manna I don't know if it's still preserved When they opened King Tut's tomb They found a jar of wheat That was buried with him And that wheat that they found They planted some of it and it grew It was still alive It was able to be planted And so the jar of manna And then Aaron's rod That had budded So that would be some archaeological find If they could find The ark of the covenant Tremendous Now the children of Israel, verse 6 And he sort of gives a little Portion here of their journeys And that brought them To the place where they now stand ready to cross Into the promised land Verse 12 And now Israel What does the Lord your God require of you? What a vital question It is the question that comes To every man who has become conscious Of the existence of God David said What should I render to the Lord For all of his benefits to me? God has been so good to me What can I give to God in return For all of the benefits and all of the goodness That God has bestowed upon me? Now here Moses is saying What does God require of you? What is God's purpose? What is God's plan? First of all he requires that you fear the Lord your God That is to have a Reverential awe of God They that fear the Lord depart from evil A person who continues in sin Cannot have the fear of God in his heart Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom God requires that you fear him Secondly That you walk in all his ways The ways of God are right You must walk in righteousness The way of God is truth You must walk in truth The way of God is love You must walk in love It is peace You must walk in peace That you walk in all of his ways And that you love him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God With all thy heart With all thy soul With all thy strength And with all thy mind That is the greatest commandment Jesus said And the second is like the first Love your neighbor as yourself And upon these two All of the law and the prophets Now can you say Well I don't think that's right I don't think that's right Do you find fault with that Or do you agree with it Do you say Well yeah that's reasonable You know I mean God isn't making unreasonable demands upon us It's only right that we reverence him Stand in awe of him After all he created the universe It's only right that I walk in his ways Because his ways are right And to love him I have no problem with the command To love the Lord my God And surely I should love my neighbor as myself Then you're to serve the Lord your God With all of your heart And with all your soul Paul in talking about In writing to the Romans Said I beseech you I beg you brothers By the mercies of God That you present your bodies Holy and acceptable unto God Which is your reasonable service It makes sense I have no problem with serving God And you're to keep the commandments Of the Lord and his statutes Which I command you today for your good Now You see my problem isn't That I disagree with the law of God The problem is I just don't have the power Capacity to keep it Though I try I consent that the law is good I don't argue with the law I don't argue with the commandments They're good They're righteous They're You know they're alright The problem isn't the law of God The problem is my flesh My flesh that rebels against the spirit My flesh that rebels against God There's where the rub is There's where the problem exists Not the law of God It's holy It's just It's good The problem is the weakness of my flesh And as the children of Israel I'm stubborn I'm stiff-necked I'm rebellious And thus I have failed I have not served the Lord always with all my heart I have not always walked in the ways of the Lord I've not always loved God pre-eminently Does that mean I'm wiped out? That I have no hope? No, for when I go to the New Testament And they came to Jesus and said What must we do to do the works of God? He said this is the work of God Believe on Him who He has sent And so the actual requirement of God is right here This is what God actually requires of you But you weren't able to keep it So that's the ideal requirement of God You weren't able to keep it God's ideal None of us have kept God's ideal All of us have sinned, the Bible said And come short of the glory of God None of us obtain God's ideal Not one of you can stand up and say Well I'm perfect I have kept every commandment of God I have loved Him completely And I've served Him with all my heart and soul And I've always walked in His ways None of us can say that None of us have attained to the ideal Thus God's actual requirement now is that I believe in Jesus Christ And by my believing I am forgiven My failure My rebellion My stubbornness That's all forgiven My walking in my own self-willed way My walking after the flesh That's all forgiven That's all covered by my believing in Jesus Christ Now that doesn't mean that God has now changed the whole thing Now you believe in Jesus, go out and do what you want Not at all Now that you believe in Jesus He imparts to you the power of His Spirit In order that you might walk in His ways In order that you might fear the Lord In order that you might serve Him with all your heart and soul and mind In order that you might walk according to His commandments and His will And now by the power of the Spirit I am able to do what I could not do before Now The children of Israel In coming into the promised land We dealt with the typical history as they came out of Egypt We are now coming to their entering into the promised land And that also is typical history In that It was a foreshadowing of the Christian Entering into the life of the Spirit There was that time after you received Jesus Christ that you Looked at the law of God and said Yes, I'm going to do that, I'm going to change my life, I'm going to live a new life But you still stumbled You still have problems with the flesh You still had your Your wilderness experience Up and down And some days you seem very close to God and other days you seem far away Some days you were drawn by the Spirit and other days you were moved by the flesh And your Christian experience was just, Paul describes it in Romans 7 When he said I consent to the law of God that it is good But I find that there is another law working in me, in my flesh That keeps me from doing that which I want to do So that Whenever I would do good, evil is present with me So that the good that I would, I don't do And that which I do not allow, I do Oh wretched man that I am Who will deliver me from this body of flesh? And we come to that place in our walk and we say Wretched man that I am Who's going to help me? I've tried to help myself and it's not there I've done my best and I've failed Well even in Looking beyond myself now for help is really where the secret of success begins to germinate As long as I think I can handle it, as long as I think I can do it As long as I say give me one more chance God, try me once more I'll really come through this time And as long as I think I can do it, I'm going to keep failing It takes more than just my thinking myself Into a relationship or experience It takes more than my willing myself because I'm willing To do it But my flesh is weak 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 teaches on Rebellion Against the Lord 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 that 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 May the Lord bless you and cause you to grow in grace And in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ May you increase in your understanding and knowledge of Him May you be freed from that power of darkness Corruption that is in the world through lust May you grow up in Him in all things And strengthen May you increase day by day In His richness In His love, in His grace, in His word In Jesus' name As we look back over the roadmap of our lives We often see the value of troubled times, personal trials And even the experiences of pain or the death of a loved one These are the building blocks that establish God's plan for us It is with great honor that I'm pleased to introduce Pastor Chuck Smith's autobiography entitled A Memoir of Grace You're invited to pull up a chair and listen As Pastor Chuck shares his personal story Of how God's grace prepared him for life's purposes Perhaps as you're reading this story You'll be prompted to evaluate your own past Your present situation and that which is yet to happen And realize that it all plays a part In establishing God's plan for you See God's grace at work in your own life When you order a personal copy of A Memoir of Grace by Pastor Chuck God called me into the ministry And how God has just led us step by step For more information on how to order your copy Visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Or call toll free at 1-800-272-WORD This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California