Deuteronomy 6

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Deuteronomy 6:1-25

“Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: 2 that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, 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. 4 Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD: 5 and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 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. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 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 buildest not, 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; 12 then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. 16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him at Massah. 17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, 19 to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken. 20 And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? 21 Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; 22 and the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: 23 and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. 25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.”

Introduction

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED598]

“Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses and the children of Israel on the edge of the Promised Land. Moses says “Now these are the commandments, the statutes,” in regards to religious worship, statutes (i.e. especially Holy Day observances) “and the judgments,” in regards to civil life “which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:” (verse 1) the reason of learning things in Scripture is not so that we can pontificate or argue about theological points, it’s so that we can live according to the Scripture, “so that you can do them” it says, “in the land whither you go to possess it.” They are on the edge of Canaan land, they are on the edge of the Promised Land, the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are being realized, they are there, they are in view of the Jordan River, they’re in view of Rahab’s house on the top of the walls of Jericho, and those walls will come tumbling down. They are in view of so much that so many had longed to see. And yet on the other side of that river, they enter into a culture that is vastly different than what God has for them, and resembles in many ways the Egyptian idolatry they had come out of. And God had taken particular time in the judgments on Egypt, when each one of those judgments was to destroy an Egyptian deity, making them realize that none of those idols were gods. And now he’s going to challenge them about his own deity and the necessity of them understanding that. And he says that there are ordinances in relationship to our worship and our spiritual life, and there are judgments in regards to civil life [just how good were God’s judgments for his people, as compared to the civil governmental law of other nations, even those of today? Read this article: https://unityinchrist.com/IsraelAPeculiarPeople--ALightToTheGentiles.html ], because they’re both from the LORD. People think you know sitting in church on Sunday is sacred, no, no, the way you work during the week, the way you talk to the people you work with [i.e. not lying, stealing, respecting their marriages], the way you act if you’re in school, all of that is sacred before the LORD, and it says here in this first verse that Moses was to teach those things to them so that they would do them. Now, when we get down to verse 7, we’re going to have another word where is says that we are to “teach” our children, that’s a vastly different word, and we’re going to take some time to look at that. This word simply means “to instruct,” “to teach” in verse 1. And these things are to be taught, they’re to be taught so that they might be practiced, and that they might be practiced in an adverse culture, that they might be practiced in a world that’s going to be antagonistic to those things. And we are to live a certain way and practice certain things out there in a world that’s going to be antagonistic to the values that we have. But God is not at all bowing before any of that, or saying they need to make any time type of yielding to it in any way, no compromise. He saying that you may do these things in the land you’re going to possess it, “that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou,” please notice this, “and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life;” and here’s why, the purposes of God, “and that thy days may be prolonged.” (verse 2) God said these things are to be in your life, practiced by you, and your children and your grandchildren, “that your days might be prolonged.” “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, 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.” (verse 3) That’s what God wants for us, he wants our days prolonged, he wants it to be well with us, “that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.” It has all of the natural advantages. Flowing with milk means there’s grazing land, flowing with honey means there’s pollination, it’s a rich land in every way naturally. It is a very dark land supernaturally that they are to enter into, but they are to go there and be victorious. Look, we have very specific prophecies from Paul in 1^st and 2^nd Timothy about the days that we are living in, and yet we are told ‘Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.’ We are not victims in the culture and the world that we live in. We are to be victorious in Christ Jesus, he’s overcome the world. And that’s the way we should live.

The Shema

‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Echad’

Now they’re getting ready to go into this land of polytheism and all kinds of idols of different kinds, and God gives to them here in verse 4, the Shema, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (verses 4-5) Repeated every morning and every night by every religious Jew. “Hear” “Shema” and that hearing in Deuteronomy is always leaning towards “to obey.” “Hear, O Israel, the LORD” Yahweh, “our God” Elohim, which is a plural form of God, in the Old Testament there’s El, El-Shaddai, “El” is God singular, Ellah is a duality, and Elohim is a plurality [i.e. God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit make up Elohim]. So here Shema, O Israel, the LORD, Yahweh, our Gods is one, “echad,” it could say “yahid” which is a singular unity, “echad” is a compound unity. It says in the Book of Genesis that Adam and Eve were to be “one flesh,” that’s “echad.” You might say ‘Me and my wife are one on this,’ or ‘the team, we were one when we did that.’ That’s a compound unity, and that’s the word that’s used here. ““Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God[s] is “echad” one LORD:” The thing that he’s saying to them, as they’re getting ready to cross over into Canaan, ‘You need to know there is one God.’ And if there’s anything we need to remember today and teach our kids and our grandkids, is there is “one God.” I just heard one of the leaders of the supposed Emergent church in a dialogue, he was asked ‘Why are you a Christian?’ he said ‘Because I came to Christ first, if I came to Buddha first I’d have been a Buddhist, if I had come to Hari Krishna first I’d have been a Krishna.’ That’s not even Christian, that’s not the faith once delivered to the saints, that’s not the gospel we’re supposed to be preaching, there is one God, there’s one name given among men whereby we must be saved, and that is the name of Jesus Christ, and that is the hope of a lost world. All of these other gods are not the same god as our God, there is one God. And they are being reinforced in their hearts and in their minds as they’re ready to cross that river into Canaan where there will be many gods, every day this was to be repeated “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” “hear” with the intent of obeying and remembering, “the LORD our God, is one God” and it’s the God we know by the way, that God that saved us, the God that we love and the God that loves us, and he is the LORD of lords, the King of kings, and he’s coming back to straighten out all this mess, and every knee’s going to bow and every tongue is going to confess, everything we see is not out of control, though it looks like that, but there is one God, and this evening if you’re born-again, you believe in Jesus Christ, you found the right One. Because broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go there, but narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life, few there be that find it. Jesus said that. How wonderful to be here this evening, whatever else comes in life that’s painful and difficult, to know, to know, not to hope, to know in whom we believe, and that our life is secure. Here “Hear, O Israel” “Shema, O Israel,” they’re looking over into this land that has so many distractions, so many deceptions. “The LORD our God is one LORD” and connected to that, “and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (verse 5) Notice it doesn’t say ‘Hear, O Israel, thou shalt serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, etc.’ You should, and you will if you love him, but the love comes first. “Love the LORD, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might,” listen to me, I can examine myself any day, you know, the greatest commandment when the lawyer came to Jesus, he said ‘Which commandment is the great one, the preeminent one of all the Law?’ and Jesus said this one, ‘Hear, O Israel, you should love the LORD with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbour as yourself,’ in these two’ Jesus said ‘hang all of the Law and the Prophets, to love the LORD.’ And I can examine myself any day of the week, ‘Lord, do I really love you with all of my heart? all of my soul? all of my mind?’ and the answer’s no, I’m growing in grace and in the knowledge of who he is. I’ve changed over the years, I can sit alone with him and his Word, and tears run down my face, because I love God. But there are places in me where there’s still warfare, there are places where I let my heart or my imagination drift and go places they shouldn’t, and then I’m in a position of bringing every thought in captivity to Christ, knowing that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but powerful, to the pulling down of strongholds. We can actually labour to give him all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength, but not because it’s a commandment. You can never do it for that reason. Any of you that are married know that. I can’t say to my wife ‘Love me baby,’ ‘done, we don’t need to talk about anything else from now on.’ Because she’s a responder, and so am I. If she goes ‘Niy, niy, niy, niy!’ I go ‘Niy, niy, niy, niy, niy!’ we’re responders, aren’t we. And the Bible tells us we love him because he first loved us. We love him because he first loved us. Listen, that’s the greatest commandment, and Jesus said if we pray anything according to his will, we can know we have the petitions we asked. Do we, how often do you, how often to I, every day in our prayers, knowing that it’s his will and we can have the petitions that we ask, do we pray ‘Lord, let me love you with all of my heart, all of my mind, all of my soul?’ I forget to do that. But you know if we do that, we know we can have the petitions we ask. God says ‘that’s the center of it all to me, I want your heart, if I have your heart I’ll have your service, I want your mind, I want your soul, I want everything that’s inside of you, and if I have that I’ll have what’s outside of you, I’ll have the best.’ But again, he knows that can never be filled by simply commanding, so he demonstrates his love, that he sent his Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins, and a sacrifice that’s unimaginable to us. I have two sons, and I wouldn’t be willing to give either one of them up. But to have the power to stop their suffering and to watch them suffer unimaginably and restrain myself for one of you is a measure of love that I don’t understand. It’s a love and sacrifice that I can’t imagine making, and he loves us with an everlasting love. The commandment “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (verses 4-5) “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:” (verse 6) what words? The Word of God, the things that he’s been saying, not just the Shema, these words, the things that he’s been saying, he says I want them to be in your heart, you know, guard your heart with all diligence, it says, in the Book of Proverbs, because from it flow the issues of life. Not from the intellect, from the heart. Desire is always a more powerful force than thought, the heart always makes a convert of the mind. Let me tell you something, you’re his kids, you’re his kids. You sit alone with him, if you’re fried and you’re burnt out, get alone with him, sometimes just 15 minutes, sometimes just half an hour, get alone, quiet somewhere, sit with your Bible, read through these verses. And he will blow your mind, he will meet with you, he will melt you, he will have you in tears, he will speak to you about his love, he will win your heart. But we’re so busy, so involved with all kinds of things, do we make time to get alone. I’m not talking about “devotions,” ‘Oh I have devotions, 15 minutes every morning, I read this.’ Look, I’m married, my wife does not want “devotions” with me, she wants “devotion.” What if I said to her ‘I’ll me with you an hour, every morning, from six to seven, and don’t talk to me till the next morning, we had our devotions,’ that’s not a relationship. God wants our heart, during the day, all day long, in the very way of life, at work, at the table. I always have a wonderful time with the Lord when I lay my head down on the pillow at night, it doesn’t last long, but it’s wonderful to say ‘The day’s over, thank you for your faithfulness, I was such a knucklehead today, Lord, we did ok here and there,’ to commune with him, to wake up next morning, to say ‘Here I am, I’m alive Lord, you’re God and I’m not, let’s start the day right.’ How wonderful.

God Commands Them & Us To Communicate His Truths To The Next Generation

Now, the problem is, the next generation. God’s going to say to these people he’s instructing, ‘I want you, when your children ask you in times to come, why do you adhere to these things? I want you to tell them how that I brought you out of the land of Egypt, I want you to share your testimony with them, I want it to be real, I want it to touch their lives, I want it to impact them.’ Because God knows the Church is always one generation from extinction. God knows society is always one generation away from being barbarians. And here God gives them the Shema, tells them that they should love him with all of their hearts, mind and strength, that the words, plural, that he’s spoken to them should be in their hearts. And look what he begins to say to them, he says in 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 risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” (verses 7-9) God knows the importance of communicating the things that we hold dear, the truths of Jesus Christ and of his Word, these words, communicating them to the next generation. And you will never do it unless you’re loving the Lord, unless it’s genuine. You will never do it unless these things are really in your heart, because more is caught then taught, you can’t give somebody the measles unless you got it. And parents and grandparents, I encourage you, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to have reality in our own lives or we’re never going to effect our kids with anything but religion, and that’s not going to touch a lost world. It has to be that place where we get alone, and there’s a fire burning in our heart and our soul, and when we talk to them they know that. They might not understand every single thing we say, they might not agree. In fact, they won’t agree with everything you’re saying, but they’ll know it’s real to you. And that’s where it needs to start. Because this world we’re in is in a world of trouble. I read a quote earlier today, and it was ‘What’s happened to this younger generation?’ [nothing, compared to what’s happened to it in the year 2024, where kids are being made to question whether their birth sex is what it ought to be.] ‘They don’t pay the older generation any respect, they don’t stand up when someone comes into the room, they don’t show any courtesy to an older generation [except in Japan]. I don’t know what the world is coming to.’ The quote is from Socrates, 2300 years ago. I’ve a book that’s called, it’s a National Geographic book “Bible Times,” and in there, they say they found a quote from a professor that says “My students in university are good for nothing, all they do is carouse and drink beer.” And they found it in hieroglyphics in Egypt from a professor in about the 13^th Dynasty. Tell me what’s changed. You see, because the problem goes back to Eden, it goes back to Adam and Eve and the fall of man, and two boys, one of those boys will murder his brother. And they were more alike than any twins, identical twins, that had ever been born. Eve was made from Adam’s side, she was the same gene-pool, the same chromosomes, the same DNA. She wasn’t from another family, she wasn’t even from two different parents like brother and sister would be, she was from Adam. And those boys were more alike than any identical twins that have ever been born. There was no peer pressure, one didn’t hang with a bad crowd and other hung with a good crowd, one didn’t listen to one kind of music and the other listen to another kind of music. They were two boys, they were the fountainhead of all the problems we have. One of them listened to their father and mother about the way to worship, when they came and sacrificed a lamb, and they understood that an innocent substitute had to die in their place. And the other one came with his own form of religion, his own stuff, and he was bitter and he murdered his brother. We are still in the same place today. And there is all kinds of propaganda the world will seek to force on the minds of our children and our grandchildren, and it is worse than it has ever been, because it is now accepted politically, it is accepted in the Church [greater Body of Christ]. We have lost our bearings, we no longer know where true north is, our compasses are all out of whack. It’s interesting, I have an article here, an interview, a survey of public school teachers, this is U.S. News & World Report which put this together, and it was from the early 1990s, but they put together this survey. Public school teachers in the 1940s were surveyed about the major problems in public schools in America, these were the problems: talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, cutting in line, dress code violations, and littering (there’s a big one 😊). Those were the major problems in public schools in the 1940s. 1990s, speeded up 50 years, major problems, survey of public school teachers in America, the major problems: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault. You can’t even measure the old things anymore. The meter’s not even sensitive enough make measurements on those old problems anymore. And we’re handing over a generation of young people to that world, what will we do about that? Are we supposed to be hopeless? Are we supposed to be defeated? I don’t think so. God gives children into our lives, they are on loan to us, we have a stewardship. I remember a book written years ago by friends of Kathy and I, it was called ‘Children Are Wet Cement’ and the idea is, an infant is handed to you, that infant doesn’t know a language, that infant is not a Democrat or a Republican, that infant knows nothing about Communism, that infant knows nothing about bigotry or civil rights, civil liberties, that infant knows nothing about decency or morality, that infant knows nothing about right and wrong--that infant is given to you to form. And the world will not be passive, the world will be aggressive to do everything it can to take the heart and the mind of that child. But, the first and God-given relationship that that child realizes is Mommy, Daddy, you are the biggest influence in the life of that kid, whether you like it or not. ‘Hey Pastor Joe that’s a load.’ When you had a kid you had a load. And you better realize that, because you are responsible. In the Scripture, God lays the wellbeing of the next generation squarely on the parents. It isn’t the school’s responsibility. We have parents who send their kids to our Christian school thinking we’re supposed to straighten their kids out. It’ll never happen. It’s not the Sunday-school teacher’s responsibility, it’s not the school teacher’s responsibility, it’s not the church’s responsibility, it’s not my responsibility, it’s the parent’s responsibility. We should all be an addendum to that. I had my kids in Christian school because I wanted one more adult in their lives reenforcing the values that we gave to our kids at home. That was important to me. But we can never determine the outcome of a child’s life unless we’re just an addendum to that value system that’s handed to them in the home. We can never do it on our own, it falls squarely and particularly on fathers and mothers. Does that mean a kid who grows up in a single parent home can’t excel, no it doesn’t mean that at all, Jesus grew up in a single-parent home, he turned out ok. When we’re struggling as a single parent, we can go to him, he understands. Greg Laurie, we heard his testimony a couple weeks ago, grew up in a single parent home, Mike McIntosh grew up in a single parent home, Raul Reese grew up in a single parent home. Some of my heroes in the Christian faith, in ministry, grew up in very, very difficult situations, and the Lord was able to get hold of their hearts and change their lives, that’s the business he’s in. He’s a reconciler, he’s a redeemer, he’s a restorer, he can do remarkable things with a human life. That does not relinquish our responsibility as parents. ok? If we know there’s one God, and we know that we’re supposed to love that God with all of our hearts, mind and strength, and that his words are to be lodged in our hearts, then there is this responsibility towards the next generation, extremely important.

Teach Them Diligently--What Does Diligently Mean?

It says this, “and thou shalt teach them diligently” not when it’s convenient, diligently “unto thy children,” and it gives us the method here, “and shalt talk of them” of what? of the words that are to be in our hearts “when thou sittest in thine house,” well there’s too many parents that don’t sit in their houses these days, they’re out making money, they work 19, 20 hours a day rather than sit in their house, we gotta be sitting in our house. I’ll tell you this too, a great place to be sitting at your house is at your dinner table, that’s when everybody’s a captive audience, if they want to eat they have to listen, so the table’s always a wonderful place for parents and kids to sit together, “and when thou walkest by the way,” it’s a great thing to walk with them, “and when thou liest down,” at bedtime “and when thou risest up.” Listen, very interesting process here, “to teach them diligently” it’s not the same word as in verse 1 of this chapter, it says that Moses was to teach the children of Israel, that’s “instruct.” This word is used 8 times in the Old Testament, “to teach diligently,” the Hebrew, if you read a Hebrew Bible, it translates it you must “repeat” these things. Anybody whose raised kids knows that wisdom. ‘Didn’t I tell you!?’ Don’t act like you’re surprised, it says you’re going to have to repeat everything, ‘How many times do I need to tell you?’ Don’t say that to your kids, don’t even count them, just keep telling them over and over and over, you’re going to have to repeat these things. But every other place it’s translated in the Old Testament it’s actually the word “to whet” or “to sharpen a sword.” It’s 8 times in the Old Testament, it’s only used “to teach diligently” here, twice it’s translated “to whet,” in chapter 33, verse 41 it talks about God whetting his glistening sword. Four times it’s translated “sharp, to be sharp or to sharpen” speaking of a sword, and one time it’s translated that they were “pricked in their reins,” that’s the inner part of your being, that they were cut all the way to the inmost part of their being, that’s the word that God uses here. With your children you are “to sharpen them,” you are “to whet” them like the edge of a sword. And that motion is over and over, you ever seen anybody sharpen a sword, it’s over and over and over. How sharp are our kids, are they dull or are they sharp? Because the moral system they’re going to hear out there, that they’re going to hear in the entertainment industry, that they’re going to hear on television, that they’re going to see in the movies, that they’re going to hear in music and lyrics is going to sharpen them over and over and over in another direction. It’s never going to let up, it’s not going to be passive, it’s going to be aggressive. What this is telling us as parents, they look to us from the time they begin to learn a language, from the time they start to smile, from the time they start to walk, that from the time they’re little, we can tell them the same things over and over and over, and each time it’s like sharpening or whetting the edge of a sword. Because when we let them cross over Canaan, when we let them go out there, we want them to be sharp, we want them to be seeing, we want them to be recognizing. I’m very thankful my kids at home, I’m a Discovery Channel freak, and I love to watch that kind of stuff. But I’m very glad to hear my kids moaning when they say ’24 million years ago,’ I’m glad to hear my kids go ‘Oooh, cut me a break.’ I’m glad if we watch a football game or a basketball game, if a commercial comes on and it’s sensual and there’s a half-dressed woman, I’m glad my sons will change the channel, that’s from years of hearing ‘That’s carnal, turn that off,’ they know when. The answer isn’t just take the TV out of the house, because they’re going to live in a world with TVs. The answer is, do they know, and do they respond, and will they do that? It says from the time they’re little, to teach them diligently. It says talk to them, it doesn’t say preach to them, it doesn’t say lay some heavy trip on them, it doesn’t say lecture them, it says talk with them. And it’s the word most often used in the entire Old Testament of talking, just talking. Talk with them when you’re at the table, ‘What do you guys think about that?’ ‘Why’d you do that?’ I remember when my kids were younger, wanting to buy this CD, and it was a secular group, and I knew the lyrics were about getting somebody in the back seat of a car, I don’t need to go there, and I said ‘What are they singing about?’ and they said ‘I don’t know,’ and I said ‘First of all, if we get this, we get it together, only with your money, and then we’re going to come home and we’re going to sit down and read the lyrics together, if the lyrics are carnal and ungodly, then we’re going to throw it in the trash together,’ and right away they didn’t want to spend their money [laughter]. I remember one time letting them listen to a secular album, and they knew the words to that the next day, and I threw it out and never brought it back, because I wasn’t whetting them and sharpening them in the right direction, in the edge I was putting on, I was dulling them. They make their own decisions, they’re adults now. But over and over and over, it wasn’t just devotions. We did devotions with our family from time to time, and they were always a blessing. But they were hard, you have kids running in different directions, getting up at different times, and I mean, we had ten years between the oldest and youngest. We had a 10, and an 8, and a 2, and a 1. If we went to Disneyland, we couldn’t go on the same rides, we had the old family and the young family, so I went on the rollercoasters and the fun rides, my wife went on the boring rides with the little ones, she didn’t like rollercoasters, we were a match made in heaven. They never wanted to see the same movies, now they’re great friends, they’re all adults, it’s amazing to see how much they love each other, to watch what’s happening with them. But it says you talk with them, not lecture them, not preach at them, that happens too much and it’s a shame, talk with them when you sit at the table. Talk with them. Reason with them, when you walk in the way. I have four of them. Do you get alone with them? I love to just go out to lunch with my son, we don’t have to talk about anything in particular, it comes up, we end up talking about spiritual things, we end up talking about what’s happening in the world, we end up talking about Creation verses evolution, we talk about those things. I’m fascinated with those things and so are they. If I find somewhere where they’re itching, I love the scratch them, I’ll get them CDs, I’ll get them books, I’ll get them stuff, I love to indulge them, if I find where their hunger is or their appetite is in regards to spiritual things. My one son when he was 16 had already read all of Whitfield, all of Spurgeon, all of Wiersby’s commentaries, he was a voracious reader, and I just fed that…my daughters, godly, Joanna, she was always a little gristly, that’s because God knew she was going to have twins, and she needed to be. But each one of them had a completely different personality, and it was fun sometimes to be alone with them, to go out with one of them, to be with one of them, to walk in the way, and there to talk about the things of God. I remember one time down on the shore in a thunderstorm, Hanna and I walked alone and it was pouring rain and lightning and we went on the beach and they screamed at us to get off the beach, but we had a great time walking in the water this deep, and the rain was pounding on us, talking about the Lord, they said ‘Aren’t you afraid to get hit by lightning?’ God’s here to bless us, not to hit us with lightning. Just a great talk, you know. “When you go to bed” there was never a time when they went to bed when they were little, without Kathy or I praying with them, telling them that we loved them, even when we came home from church and they were asleep, I’d go up in the room and drive them crazy, I’d poke them, I’d get them giggling, I’d talk to them, they’d yell ‘Mommy, get him outa here,’ I’d just tell them that I loved them. At night, before I laid down, I wanted them to think about the things of God. “When they rise up” some of them don’t rise, you have to drag them out of bed. They have different personalities, some of them you’re going to accomplish more at night, some of them you’re going to accomplish more, some of them spring out of bed in the morning, some of them snail out of bed in the morning. This is in the everyday experiences of life, not just devotions, all day, every day, sitting with them in the house, walking with them in the way, when it’s time to hit the sack at night, I don’t like to let any of them go to bed without a hug and a kiss, any night. My older ones that have moved out, we catch up when we see each other. Rise up in the morning, to say ‘I’m praying for you’ before they walk out the door…and in all of that you’re whetting the edge of the sword, you’re sharpening, saying the same things over and over and over, there’s a stroke each time, and it wears on that edge each time, it makes them sharp. Because the world out there, you look at college courses, and I’ve read them, that are going to promote homosexuality, they’re going to promote lesbianism, they’re going to promote free sex, they’re going to promote pornography, they’re going to promote a sexuality that is against the edicts and holiness of Almighty God, and they’re going to try to ram it down their throats, and they’re going to tell them a thousand other things to try to water down the pure simple truth of the fact there is one God who is the Living God, who came and died on the cross for them, so that they could have everlasting life if they trust him. Everything out there is going to attack that. So you want to know when they go out there, they have been sharpened, they have been stroked over and over and over and over, you have whet the edge of the sword. And now it’s falling to us as grandparents to do the same thing, and it should be to you. I see a lot of you out here that are grandma’s and grandpa’s, never stop saying the same things over and over and over, teach them diligently, stroke the edge of that sword, whet it and sharpen it. The Word of God never returns void, it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and from the time that they’re little you give them the Word, you give them the Word, not lecturing, not preaching, talking, dialoguing, in the most natural places in their lives, and God will bless that. He’s asking us to do it here, not because he’s confused, because he knows the power of it and he knows the effectiveness of it.

Breaking Down “Diligently” Further

“and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them” “them” the words, teach them “the words” “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” (verses 7-9) Not frontlets, but “as frontlets between thine eyes.” Now of course, the whole practice of phylacteries developed out of these, where the religious Jews would actually put a portion of Scripture in a leather box or pouch, tie it to their hand or tie it to their forehead, the Mezuzah on the doorway of the house, I’m not against that [on the doorway of the house], I think that’s a wonderful tradition, to come into and out of the house, to touch that, remember the Word of God. [Remember in the movie Schindler’s List where the Jewish family is being driven out of their house by the Nazis, and the man of the house unscrewed the Mezuzah plaque off the doorpost and put it in his pocket as he was leaving the house? That’s what he’s talking about. The Mezuzah was placed to the right side of the doorpost, about two-thirds of the way up.] But we see clearly in the days of Christ, with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Scribes, they had the Word of God tied to their heads, tied to their hands, that had the mezuzahs, Jesus said they were hypocrites. This is saying it’s more than phylacteries, it’s more than a mezuzah, they are to be what determines, they’re to be bound to our hands, our activities, what we do should reflect the Word that we communicate, it should determine how we live and what we do, it should be bound to our hands. It should be “as frontlets,” you ever see a horse with those things on so he can only see forward? the Word of God should be as frontlets to our eyes, determining what we look at, what we turn off, what we don’t look at, very important. Because it gets piped into our homes these days, you don’t have to go out there be tempted to see something sensual [and with modern TV controllers now, you can fast-forward past that stuff, which has been imbedded into almost all “normal” TV shows now, even good historical pieces, like Band of Brothers or The Pacific, you can just fast-forward past those scenes like they didn’t exist, you have the power.] But let the Word of God be as frontlets to our eyes, to determine what we look at. Let it be on the doorposts of our houses, so that our houses are separate, “as for me and my house” as Joshua would say, “we’re going to serve the LORD,” you can do whatever you want, the doorposts of our house are going to be established by the Word of God, the entering in and the going out is going to be governed by the Word of God. So important for us. And incumbent upon us, it’s not the Christian school’s responsibility, it’s not Sunday-school’s responsibility, it is our responsibility, moms and dads. Because your kid is 20 or 25 or 26, you’re not done, I’m still fathering, and I’ll do that until I take my last breath, I’m crazy about them, and I will still take every opportunity I can to encourage them in the things of Christ. And for grandparents, and look, you have a kid that’s out there like a prodigal, parents, don’t sit and be defeated and condemned. I can’t imagine how difficult it is, worrying about is the phone going to ring in the middle of the night, and somebody’s going to say they were drunk and got killed in an accident, I understand all of that. But the only reason we know about prodigals is because the best Father has prodigals, Almighty God, and they come back, they come back. I guarantee ya, if a nuke goes off somewhere in America, we’re going to have four-services on Sunday, just prodigals, they’re all going to come back again. We swelled in Persian Gulf One and right after 9/11, they were all here, it was wonderful, we were jammed for two or three months, they came in to make sure we didn’t get Raptured, make sure the whole building wasn’t empty, and after awhile they cooled off again. But they’re out there, and there are so many of them, and they know too much. And they’re not going to become Buddhists and they’re not going to worship other gods, they’re playing fast and loose, but the fear of God is going to hit their hearts, and they’re going to come back, and hopefully they’re going to bring all their unsaved friends with them. It’ll be a great ingathering. But we’re headed into days where I think it’s imperative for us to be committed to Christ and to teach our kids without compromise, not politically correct. There’s one politic we’re worried about, it’s relative to That Throne and That Kingdom, because heaven and earth will pass away, and the Word of God is going to abide forever, so politically correct [for us] is vertical, not horizontal [see https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans6.htm ]. Inclusive, earth knows nothing about being inclusive, Heaven is inclusive, whosoever will may come, that’s the way it should happen. “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. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” (verses 7-9)

When Thou Hast Eaten And Be Full--Then Beware Lest Thou Forget The LORD

“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 buildest 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.” (verses 10-12) Look, we get saved, when we first get saved, when we first come out of Egypt, we’re excited, we’re saved, we’re learning all kinds of new things, aren’t we? When you first get saved you’re learning the difference between an epistle and an apostle, you reading in the New Testament for the very first time, and it’s blowing your mind, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this, it’s amazing!’ and have somebody say ‘No, it doesn’t mean that, you need to get straightened out a little,’ but you’re growing. You go to church, ‘Songs, wow! songs! This is cool, that song’s really cool, I love to sing that song, oh, it’s really cool, everybody hugs each other.’ But then when we get settled in the land a little, and we get fat, and we’re full, then it’s ‘They’re not singing that again, are they? Can’t they learn a new song? Don’t sit over there, that guy will hug you…can’t they end on time, the altar call thing, people can get saved without me stayin’ here, I need to get over to Friendly’s, because I’m so friendly.’ Be careful, that you don’t cool, that you don’t lose the zeal. David said ‘Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,’ our first love. Because, man, I can cool. You can too. We can cool off, we can forget the zeal that we should have. He says “beware,” God never gives us warnings just because he’s worried. He knows, “beware lest thou forget” and again that word never means in Deuteronomy “out of your mind, forget,” it means “to mislay” or “set to the side.” You’re never going to forget God once you’re saved. ‘What was it that I used to do on Sunday [or Sabbath] morning? Something about a Bible, I forget, there was something, I forget,’ no, you just set God to the side, you mislay him a little bit, other things become important. When you’re desperate and you’re in bondage in Egypt, you’re a slave to that stuff, and you get set free from it, you’re on fire, it’s so different, the lines of demarcation are clear, you’re free. And then what happens, after awhile he says, all of these benefits you didn’t work for, they were bestowed upon you, all of grace, and you get lazy and you get fat and you forget the Lord who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Idolatry is born out of prosperity, it starts to happen again, where we look in other directions. “Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.” (verses 13-15) Listen, don’t go after the gods that are out there. The problem as they came into Canaan land was Molech [Baal by another name] was there, and Molech [Baal] was worshipped by putting their children, their newborn children into the fire. You know, 40 million abortions [now must be up to 65 million] in the last 35 years, God doesn’t look past that. And if you’re here this evening and you’ve had an abortion, you’ve come to Christ, that’s forgiven, you have a reunion waiting for you in heaven, that’s not my point. But it’s the morays of our culture, it’s how far we’ve deteriorated to accept that, to accept that. All kinds of voices raised against all kinds of things, but there’s a million American children still being aborted every year. The most dangerous place for an American is not Baghdad, the most dangerous place for an American is between conception and birth, and we look right past it and don’t think about it. Look out for the gods that are out there, because they’re telling you, you can do whatever you want to do sexually. Because when they came into the land they [the Canaanites] were worshipping Astarte, and that was all sexual and pornographic worship. We wouldn’t bow down in front of a little statue today, but what a huge problem is in the Church, not just our church, but the Church at large, pornography is a plague amongst men and now women, and the fastest growing group in the country using pornography is 11 to 13-year-olds right now in this country. Those are other gods, that’s not our God, our God is pure, our God is holy. I don’t want some whippersnapper lusting after my daughter, I look at my daughter I don’t see anything unclean, I see a spiritual being, I see all the potential she has, I see somebody that’s beautiful. I don’t want some whippersnapper with a worldly, I don’t want the gods that are worshipped out there invading my home and our premises, because there’s a whole different set of gods out there. And he says, make sure, after you get settled that you don’t let down your guard, you don’t worship other gods. In fact verse 13, we find it in Matthew chapter 4 when Satan says ‘Hey, bow down and worship me, and I’ll give you all the kingdoms in this world,’ and Jesus quotes Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 13, “Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him,” and he says “and him only shalt thou serve” from Exodus 20. He quotes this verse to Satan. Again, Deuteronomy is Jesus Christ’s favourite Book, he quotes more from Deuteronomy than anywhere else in the Old Testament. And when he’s tempted in the wilderness by Satan, all three of his answers come from the Book of Deuteronomy. So we can know as we head into the world where Satan would tempt us, that the Word of God is sufficient. I hear people say this all the time ‘Satan is beating me up, man, there’s so much warfare,’ well first of all, Satan can only be at one place at one time, and no offense, he’s got more important people than you to hassle, he’s hassling Billy Graham or the president or somebody with a button and a nuclear bomb. You know, you got some buck-private liar demon that’s hassling you, no doubt, and they’re ugly, and we all have one of those assigned to us, however that works. But Jesus withstood Satan himself by saying “Man” and it’s from Deuteronomy 8, “does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” He said ‘Man, all you need to do to whup Satan is to be a man whose filled with the Holy Ghost and submitted to the Word of God.’ He had just been filled with the Spirit, driven into the wilderness, and when Satan confronts him, he uses the Word of God, and says ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,’ then he quotes the second time this verse and says ‘Thou shalt serve the LORD thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’ “Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.” (verses 14-15) Then he uses this, when Satan tells him to cast himself down, he quotes verse 16, “Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God,” and the rest of the verse says “as ye tempted him at Massah.” Remember as they came there to Rephidim, there was no water, they begin to gripe and complain against the LORD and say there’s nothing to drink, and they were complaining against God, and it says when they left God gave them water from the rock, and then he called the place Massah, which means Temptation, or Meribah, which means strife or striving, chiding. And it says here we can get in a place where we’re chiding with God, we’re complaining, we’re griping, we’re striving, we’re tempting him, instead of trusting him and loving him. “You shall not tempt the LORD your God,” he quoted this to the enemy, Jesus in the wilderness, “as you tempted him in Massah.”

“When Thy Son Asks You In Time To Come, What Means These Testimonies, Statutes & Judgments”

“Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt” here they are “do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD:” to live in them, the reason, “that it may be well with thee,” that’s what God wants “and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.” (verses 17-19) Look, this is telling you, submit to the Word of God and leave the rest to him. ‘Come on Pastor Joe, I’m in high school, I’m in college, are you telling me that all I need to do is be obedient to the Word of God, and let God worry about the rest?’ that is exactly what I’m telling you. And it’s worked for thousands of years, not because it works, but because he works, and he’s on the throne. And the Bible says if you honour him, he will honour you. And we, if we’re ever going to see revival, if we’re ever going to see one more great ingathering in this land and in this world, it’s going to be because of people whose lives are changed. He’s not going to use an unyielded instrument to reach an unyielded generation. He’s going to use us because we looked at him and said ‘Lord, I love you,’ you know, you find somebody in the world that you love, you’re old friends say ‘Where you been, man? What, are you in love, we don’t see you anymore,’ you buy deodorant, you brush your teeth, you do all kinds of extra effort when you’re in love with somebody, and none of it is ever a labour. Is it? You take money out of your wallet, when you’re in love with somebody, it’s a powerful force. And if we’re in love with the Lord, there’s no sacrifice to that. ‘Thank you Lord, that you instruct me in regards to that, thank you Lord that you care about my morality, thank you Lord that you have plans for my family, my marriage, my children. Thank you Lord that you care about my future, thank you Lord that I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know you hold tomorrow, thank you Lord that you are the one who was, and is, and is to come, you are already waiting for me next week, so I’m going to be obedient to you so that when I get there I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.’ “that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.” And look in verse 20, “And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes: and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.” (verses 18b-23) and I can say that to my kids, I was spending my money on drugs. I’m glad crack cocaine was not around in 1969 and 1970, I’m glad oxycontin was not around then, because I was spending money on drugs, I was living a way morally that I should not live, and I don’t want to see any of my kids be what I was when I was a young man. Because to be set free was incredible, to be set free was incredible, was incredible. And when they ask you, ‘What’s this all about, hey man, I’ll tell you what it’s all about, I was a slave to Pharaoh, I was in bondage, my life was worth zero, I was headed nowhere, I was nothing, I don’t even know if I’d be alive today if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ. And he set me free, and he gave me life. The only reason me and your mom are together 30 years is because he took the stupid selfishness out of my heart so I could put up with one woman all those years, and that woman could put up with me. And it’s the only reason we have a family and we have a home, and we love you guys, we live in houses we didn’t build and we eat of vineyards we didn’t plant, and God’s given us deep, deep wells of Living Water that spring up into our lives that we didn’t dig, we’re all paid for in the blood of Jesus, and it’s so vastly different than the bondage that we lived in, in Egypt.’ “and the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:” this is real to us, “and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.” (verses 22-23) God brought us out that he might bring us in, God didn’t just save us and leave us standing somewhere at a bus stop, he saved us to do something with our lives, he brought us out to bring us in, to do something with us. And all of us have that potential. Who knows what God might do with your life if you yield everything. And look, the basis of it isn’t I just want to serve you, no, he loves the servant more than the service, but the point is, our lives take on such tremendous value and worth in Jesus Christ. We’re saved by grace, by faith that’s not of ourselves. But we are his workmanship, his poema, and there are good works foreordained, Ephesians 2:10, that we should walk in them. He saves us and then has a plan for our lives that we’d have never realized without him. He says that here, he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, “to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always,” there would be good things that would happen in our lives “that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.” (verses 23b-25) You share your testimony with your kids, you got a testimony, you think you need to get a microphone, share your testimony with your kids, let’s see it there, that’s what it says here, teach them, speak to them, at the table, when they rise up, when you walk in the way, when they lay down, reach that next generation. And when they’re walking because of your testimony, how God has set you free, when we’ve infected the next generation, we have been so effective for the cause of Christ, so effective for the cause of Christ. Yes, there’s many things we do along the way, we grow, we evangelize, we do missions, all of that stuff I understand. But what does it all mean, if we lose our own? You know, I asked K.P. [K.P. Yohannan, President of "Gospel for Asia" https://unityinchrist.com/evangelism/worldmission.htm ], I said K.P. “What was it like for you to look? you know, 21,000 churches you’ve planted in the last 25 years, and there’s 11,000 others with under 50 adults in attendance that you don’t recognize, that’s over 36,000 churches, your ministry has baptized 2,200,000 believers in the last 25 years.” And they don’t lead them in an altar call and baptize them, they disciple them for a month to make sure they’re really believers before they baptize them. 2,200,000. I said “When you look at all that, what’s the thing that amazes you more than anything else?” and he looked right at me and said “My son and my daughter are walking with and serving Christ.” He said “If it wasn’t for that, none of this would mean anything, none of it would mean anything.” And that’s what this chapter is telling us. Share your testimony with them, tell them what the Lord God did in your life, let it be real, let it be infectious. “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.” (verse 25) Now ours is vastly different, it’s in Christ, I know that, verse 25. I encourage you, read ahead, chapter 7, just some incredible things in here that we get to journey through together. Teach them, look into those little faces, grandma, grandpa, look at them and start to talk to them, teach them the truth. And don’t be afraid to tell them the same things over and over and over and over, it’s just like sharpening the edge of a sword, shing, shing, shing, over and over again that stone passes down that blade, to whet it and to sharpen it. And that’s what we’re supposed to do with these kids that God has lent to us. We’ll give an account for them one day, give an account for them one day. Let’s stand, let’s pray, let’s have the musicians comes. If you’re here tonight and you don’t know Jesus Christ, and somehow in the middle of all this child-raising stuff, you decided you need to get saved, we’d love to pray with you after the service tonight, we’ll be up here, love to give you a Bible, some literature to read. If you know in your heart you don’t know Jesus Christ, and you’re still in the bondage of Satan and still a slave to Egypt, and you’ve never been set free, you come up afterwards and talk to us, we’d love to give you a Bible, love to pray with you, love to see you come into the Kingdom of God, love to see you turn to Jesus Christ, repent of your sins and ask forgiveness, and see your life transformed…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Deuteronomy 6:1-25, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]