In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of obeying God's commandments in order to possess the promised land. He contrasts the land of Egypt, where the people had to work hard to irrigate their gardens, with the land they were about to enter, which was flowing with milk and honey. Pastor Chuck warns of the consequences of turning away from God and worshiping other gods, as it would result in the Lord's anger and a lack of rain and produce. He encourages the people to keep God's words in their hearts, teach them to their children, and display them on their homes, in order to ensure blessings and longevity in the land.

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 continuing with more encouragement on Reverencing God As we pick up in Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse 14 And now with today's lesson, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Now indeed He declares, Heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God Also the earth with all that is in it God has everything, He owns the universe The whole universe belongs to Him And the Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them And He chose their descendants after them You above all the peoples as it is this day Now, they were chosen by God to bring the Messiah into the world God wanted to send His Son into the earth He chose Abraham That through His seed all of the nations of the earth should be blessed Later on He reiterated the promise to David That from His seed there would never cease to be one sitting upon the throne And David interpreted that As the Messiah would come through him Correctly interpreted it that way There are those who misinterpret it today and say That the Queen of England is a direct descendant of David It's ridiculous But they say, well, the word ish in Hebrew is man And so you have the Danish people, you see, ish And you have the British people And so it all goes back to Israel, you see And so the tribe of Dan become the Danish people, Dan's man And the Swede, ish And so your Anglo-Saxon nations, you see Are all related to Israel because of the ish on the end You also have fool, ish Now, God chose you because of your father Abraham to be the nation However, since the Messiah has come Paul, as he thanks God for all of the glorious blessings That he has in Christ in heavenly places Places at the top of the list that we were chosen in him Before the foundation of the earth So God has chosen you Jesus said, you didn't choose me, I chose you And ordained that you should be my disciples That you should bring forth fruit, your fruit should remain So you are the chosen generation The royal priesthood That we should bring forth praise unto God And so we have now the privileges Of being God's chosen people They fulfilled the purpose of God They brought the Messiah into the world And through him, the door was opened That we, because through thy seed All of the nations of the earth shall be blessed And so through Abraham's seed, Jesus Christ The blessings has come also now upon we Gentiles And we have been chosen now in Christ Before the foundations of the world And so, Moses is addressing them Yes, they were God's chosen, God's elect And they fulfilled their purpose Bringing the Messiah into the world Therefore, he said, circumcise the foreskin of your heart And don't be stiff-necked anymore Circumcision was the badge of the nation It was given to Abraham by God To be the special mark of these people Which was the symbol that they were to be people Who had cut off the flesh, the life of the flesh To live and to walk after the spirit But the ordinance did not do it This true circumcision is not of the flesh It's of the heart And so Moses is saying, let your heart be circumcised Cut off the fleshly desires in your heart Don't desire in your heart the things of the flesh That's where the true circumcision is Paul picks this up in Romans chapter 2 And uses this figure in chapter 2 Showing and proving from their own scriptures That it wasn't the physical circumcision That made one righteous before God But it was the heart being circumcised That's what God looked upon and God desired Don't be stiff-necked any longer For the Lord your God is a God of gods And he is the Lord of lords He is the great God, mighty and awesome Who shows no partiality, nor will he take a bribe What do you have that he needs? You know, nothing, you can't bribe him He is the God of gods The Lord of lords Now, the Bible does acknowledge that there are many gods There's only one true and living God But the heathen all worship gods Men are trying to make gods of themselves these days And there are many gods But there's only one true and living God He is the God of gods He is the Lord of lords He is the great God, mighty and awesome He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow And he loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing God takes care of those who are outcast Or those who are down and out Are a concern to him He administers the justice for the fatherless and the widow Therefore, love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt And you shall fear the Lord your God You shall serve him, and to him you shall hold fast So this is what God requires Fear him, serve him, hold fast And take oaths in his name When you take an oath, you're to take the oath by his name Now, Jesus in the New Testament said You've heard that you should swear by the Lord You should take your vows He said, but really don't swear at all Neither by heaven, God's throne, nor the earth, his footstool But let your yes be a yes, let your no be a no In other words, be a man of your word The only reason why a person has to take an oath To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth Is because he's usually a liar You know, and so I swear I'm telling the truth Well, if you always tell the truth People won't say, well, swear to me Is that true? Swear to me it's true I swear to you, man, I'm a mother's honor And it's something that a person would only have to do Because they weren't really a person of their word Be a person of your word, Jesus said If you say yes, mean yes If you say no, mean no Let your yes be yes, let your no be no And any more than this is really not necessary He is your praise, he is your God Who has done for you these great and awesome things Which your eyes have seen And your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 persons And now you can't even number you because there are so many From 70 to some 3 million or so in 400 years Pretty good multiplication Therefore you shall love the Lord your God And keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments And his commandments always And know today that I do not speak with your children Who have not known and who have not seen The chasing of the Lord your God His greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm His signs and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt To Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to all of the land What he did to the army of Egypt, their horses and chariots Your kids didn't see that, you saw it, the older ones That were under 20 when they came out of Egypt But some of them in their teens, they can still remember The Egyptian army being drowned in the Red Sea They can still remember these things And he said, I'm talking to you older fellows Still remember this, I'm not talking to your kids They didn't see that But what God did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and chariots How he made the waters of the Red Sea to overflow them As they pursued you, and how the Lord destroyed them Even to this present day What he did for you in the wilderness Until you came to this place What he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab You saw these guys wiped out In their sin, and the sons of Reuben When they had rebelled against Aaron being the high priest How the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up And their households, you remember that awesome day When the earth just opened up And these guys with their tents went right in The earth closed up behind them Your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which he did Therefore, you shall keep every commandment which I command you today That you may be strong and go in and possess the land Which you cross over to possess That you may prolong your days in the land The land which the Lord swore to give your fathers To them and their descendants A land that is flowing with milk and honey For the land which you go in to possess Is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come Where you sowed your seed and then you watered it by foot They had the foot pumps And so they had irrigation canals And the guy would sit there pumping with his feet These paddles that would take the water out of the river And put it in these little sluices And so the land that you're going in isn't like Egypt Where you've got to stand there and pump all day long To get the water for your garden But it's a land that's watered It's got plenty of rain And it's got valleys and streams And water all over the place And so it is the land that you cross over to possess Is a land of hills and valleys Not the flat desert-y land of Egypt Which drinks water from the rain of heaven A land which the Lord your God cares for And the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it That's why I like to go to Israel God's eyes are always on that land And so it's certainly nice to be there, you know Realizing that the Lord's eyes are always on it From the beginning of the year to the very end of it And it shall be that if you diligently obey my commandments Which I command you today to love the Lord your God And to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul If you will do this Now this is what God requires And if today you will do this Then I will give you, God is promising them I will give you the rain for your land in its season The early rain And the latter rain That you may gather in your grain And your new wine and your oil So the two seasons of rain over there The early rain that brings out the crop And then the latter rain That really brings it up to complete Full fruition I will give you the rain for your land in its season The early rain, the latter rain And you may gather in your grain Your new wine, your oil And I will send grass in your fields For your livestock that you may eat And be filled Now take heed to yourselves And whenever God says that, listen You know Lest your heart be deceived And you turn aside to other gods and worship them Now, take heed Now, the very thing that God said, take heed Is the thing that they did When they came into the land They began to turn to the other gods and worship them As we get into the book of Judges You'll see the tragic monotony of their failure As they turned and worshipped other gods Lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you He shut up the heavens So that there be no rain And the land yield no produce And you will perish quickly from the good land Which the Lord is giving you Therefore You shall lay up these words of mine in your heart And in your soul And bind them as a sign on your hand That they shall be as frontlets between your eyes You shall teach them to your children Speaking of them When you sit in your house When you walk by the way When you lie down And when you rise up And you shall write them on your doorposts of your house And on your gates That your days And the days of your children May be multiplied in the land Which the Lord swore to your fathers To give them like the days of the heavens from above So bind them on your wrists Now today you go over to Israel The western wall And you see the guys coming up the wall And they'll go through the ritual Of binding these leather pouches on their wrists And they'll wrap the thing in a ritual way Up their arm You'll see them as they tie the little box On their forehead And you'll see them bobbing before the wall With the little box on their hand And the box on their forehead And these are the laws The requirements of God That they've put in these boxes On their doorposts They have these little metal mezuzahs And inside of the mezuzah Is the little scroll With the requirements of God Or the law of the Lord And so they're doing that Even to the present day As they bind them But again That's to be a reminder to you But you see Just binding them on my head or on my wrist Is no value if I'm not keeping them I mean you can write them all over the place You can put bumper stickers all over your car Thou shalt not steal And yet you can go out With all these bumper stickers And all these reminders And if you steal something You say But look at my bumper sticker man What difference does that make Because you've got it on your bumper sticker If you've stolen something You see Knowing it isn't enough Doing it is what is necessary The Bible tells us Not to be hearers of the word only But be doers of the word Because if you're a hearer and not a doer Then you're deceiving yourself You're deluded You're like a man who looks in a mirror And then you walk away and forget what you saw You see your image and your picture of yourself Is really better than you really are You look in the mirror and you see the truth But how quickly we forget As soon as we leave the mirror And it's sort of a self-deception Well I'm not too heavy I don't look too bad Well you forget the truth The mirror tells you the truth That's like a man who hears the law But he doesn't do it He's deceiving himself But if you carefully keep All these commandments Verse 22 Which I command you to do To love the Lord your God To walk in all of His ways To hold fast to Him Then the Lord will drive out All of these nations from before you And you will dispossess Greater and mightier nations than yourself Every place Where the sole of your foot treads Shall be yours Territory, it's there All you have to do is go in and possess it And every place you put the sole of your foot That's yours And so again the likeness of our going in and possessing This life in the Spirit that God has promised As we conquer over the areas of the flesh As we bring them to the cross Every place we put our foot God has given to it The sole of our foot treads I claim that in the name of Jesus Lord I don't have to be ruled By that area of my flesh any longer I take now and claim that area in Jesus' name And every place I go in and take God destroys the enemies And He gives me the victory No man shall be able to stand against you The Lord your God will put the dread of you And the fear upon all of the land Wherever you tread Just as He has said to you Behold I set before you today a blessing and a curse The blessing is if you obey The commandments of the Lord your God Which I command you today The curse is if you do not obey the commandments That's always true God sets before you today a blessing and a curse Your life can be blessed of God or cursed by God God gives you the option The blessing for obedience The curse for disobedience When you come into the land You're to put the blessings on Mount Gerizim And the curses on Mount Ebal Now Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal Are the two mountains above the little city of Shechem There in the Samaritan Valley Valley in Samaria And when they came into the land Joshua put the guys up on top of the mountains To call down the blessings of God from Mount Gerizim And as they called down the blessings The people said Amen, Amen And they would call out another law And they'd say Amen, Amen And we'll get to that as we go through The many blessings that God said Blessed is He And the people said yes, Amen, Amen So they followed this commandment of Moses But again You can say Amen, Amen That's right, yeah Yay, yay for God But if you don't do it It doesn't count John said don't love in word Only but in deed and in truth James said If a man comes to you hungry and he's naked And you say oh brother Bless you Be clothed and be fed He said what have you advantaged him Unless you actually give him some clothes and food Your words don't make him any warmer Nor do your words fill his stomach So you have to put works with the faith Say bless you brother, be clothed and give him a jacket Be fed and give him a sandwich Just saying it doesn't do it Just writing it on the walls doesn't do it God desires the obedience from our hearts The actual doing, be ye doers of the word Not hearers only So, Moses is preparing them to come into the land Giving them this advice, the counsel The warnings as they're about to come into the land And important advice And yet unfortunately they did not keep it And just the things he said don't do Are the things that they did Tragically We'll return with more insightful lessons From our verse by verse study Through the book of Deuteronomy In our next lesson As we review the instructions for worship 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 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 With today's closing prayer Father we thank you for your word And Lord indeed it is a guide to life Thank you Lord that you did not leave us to stumble And wander in the darkness But you have given to us the light And the knowledge and the understanding of your ways Now Lord help us That we might walk in your ways That we might do your will That we might fear thee That we might serve you with all of our heart And all of our soul And that we might keep your commandments And your statutes As we believe in Jesus Christ Your only begotten son as our Lord and Savior Through him may we receive the imparting of your spirit That enabling power to help us To be all you want us to be In Jesus name we pray, Amen Kids, I've got some exciting news Pastor Chuck has written a book just for you It's called The Story of Noah Just listen Noah guided two of each species of animals into the ark And he probably carried baby dinosaurs onto the boat Because grown dinosaurs would have been too big It's so much fun to read along with Pastor Chuck And learn about God's word And as a gift, each book contains an audio CD Of Pastor Chuck actually reading the story of Noah So your kids can read along To order your copy, call the word for today At 800-272-WORD Or to see a sneak preview of The Story of Noah Visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Again, the number to call is 800-272-9673 This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California