After the Sermon: Deuteronomy 4:1-40
2/9/26 | Will DuVal | DEUTERONOMY: Remembering God's Faithfulness; Responding in Obedience
(00:03):
Welcome to the After the Sermon podcast, where Pastor Will answers your follow-up questions and shares your personal applications from the sermon for the benefit of the church. My name is Brian and I'm here with our lead pastor, Will.
(00:16):
Hey, Brian. Hey,
(00:17):
Will. Hey, listener. We want to remind you with this podcast that sermons are not just a Sunday thing. I've got a good amount of questions. You plugged it in sherman.
(00:27):
Ask and you shall receive.
(00:28):
Yeah, it's awesome.
(00:29):
Thanks, Cass.
(00:30):
First one's from Alex. He wrote in digitally. Thanks for submitting that. Thanks, Alex. Yes. During the sermon, it was mentioned not to add or remove from God's word. How does that relate to the reformation and the claims that books were removed from the Bible?
(00:46):
It's a really good one. So there's a pretty still active, lively debate on this one between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics charge that Protestants went through during the Reformation and removed books from the Bible. Obviously, we Protestants believe that Catholics added books to the Bible. We're talking about the Apocrypha for reference. So you can go and do your own research. I won't go too in depth here, but additions to the Book of Esther, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, First and Second Ezra, Judith, First, Second, Third, Macabees. Anyway, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon. There's a number of them, and then little snippets of other books that aren't even necessarily included in Catholic Bibles. But there are, I believe it's seven that Catholics consider to be canonical for them that if you go to a Catholic bookstore and pick up a Catholic book, you're going to see a whole chunk of, I think it's seven books, might be 10, in the middle in between the Old and New Testament.
(02:04):
So you talk about the intertestamental period, 400 years of, again, Protestants are going to say of silence from God between the close of the Book of Malachi and then the opening of Matthew and the New Testament. So again, between Jesus' birth and about the turn of the fourth century BC, where for roughly fourth centuries, we don't hear from God authoritatively through human authors inspired scripture. Anyway, it's a whole thing. And there was debate about it even within the first 300 centuries of the church. And it was a whole history thing. Talk to Bill Conick. He's big into early church history and fathers and all that. We did a class on it with Cali Boron and I think Scott Walla a couple months back, was that back in the fall. But anyway, there's a lot of debate about a lot of things in Christianity. Is Jesus divine?
(03:07):
Is the Trinity a thing and whatever? But one of them was, which books of the Bible are we going to consider inspired and considered canonical? And there were a bunch of councils, bunch of votes and whatever else. And again, for those of us who claim that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God and that God superintended, the authorship of the scriptures, we really have to believe also that God superintended that whole canonical process of determining which books were going to quote unquote kind of make the cut into the final sort of list of books that are considered holy scripture. And obviously we ended up with the list of 66 Catholics, like I said, list of, I think it's 73.
(04:00):
But even that list, so the first time that we see our list of 66 books was athanasius toward the end of the fourth century, Church Father Athanasius said, "Hey, here's the books that seem to be inspired, that seemed to be cross-referenced by legit apostles like Paul and John and James, and they're all kind of treating it and their church communities that they helped lead are all treating these books authoritatively." And so you get it with athenacious and then councils shortly thereafter, Carthage, I think it was, where you get, "Okay, hey, here's the official list we're all using. Hey, spread the word." And so there was still some debate though. So it was even after that, that then you still get some of these books that, again, like Baruch and the Maccabees and Judah and Tobet and whatever, that others are saying, "Yeah, but these give us some history for those 400 years in between." And we find communion with God through reading them, whatever.
-
(05:19):
And so they hung around. And it really, from my preliminary reading, it wasn't until even like as late as in what's called the counter reformation where the Catholics in the mid 16th century were responding to Lutheran Calvin and those guys. And again, there's this push in the reformation. We're going back to the text. We got to strip away all this tradition and all the stuff that you Catholic church has piled on top, kind of like the Pharisees had with the Old Testament, the Pharisees and Jesus' day had piled their own tradition on top. And Jesus said, "It's not about your tradition." What did God actually say? Same thing, reformation 1500 years later, what did God actually say? And so anyway, there was another council in the mid 16th century where they made it official in the Catholic church. No, no, no. We're including these books.
(06:15):
We're putting them in our Bibles just to kind of stick it to the Protestant. So there's debate on it, but it does seem like the history is, again, I'm biased, but it seems like history is more so in favor of the Protestants on this one in terms of some of those early lists, even from the fourth century that we have, and the apocryphal books being left off. But even a lot of some of the early church fathers and Protestants that agree with that said, "You know what? There's historical information here. We should still read these books, know what's going on there." We've had life groups at West Hills that have done little book studies on them. And anyway, so they can be beneficial to maybe fill in some gaps historically. And I mean, it's been a long time since I've read the Apographer. I don't think there's tons said in those seven to 10 books that really are at odds with the impression of God or Israel or whatever that we get in the Old Testament, for instance.
(07:25):
But yeah, anyway, probably more than you wanted to know. But thanks, Alex. It's a great question. So yes, the short answer is we'd have to say we're not the ones removing from the Bible, you guys are the ones adding to the Bible. So don't do that.
(07:42):
Next, Jeremy asks from Deuteronomy for verse 30, "What's the reference to tribulation about in the latter days? Does this have some prophetic significance or more referring to specific historical circumstances also keep up the good
(07:59):
Work?" Yeah, so let me just read ... And I think that word is actually mentioned twice, isn't it? I was trying to look back and see because ... No, no, no, no. It's not. He uses different words in verse 34 when Moses talks about is any God ever taken for himself by a people from the midst of another nation by trials and signs and wonders and war and great deeds of terror. He doesn't use the word tribulation again. But anyway, I'd have to check the Hebrew word for tribulation in Deuteronomy 4:30. But again, in context, what Moses is saying is he's saying, he says, "Don't make idols." Remember, that's one of God's top things. It's like, "Don't make idols." This is all on the preface to the law, of course, Deuteronomy four. But then he says in verses kind of 15 through 28, he says, "Well, more so 25 through 28," he says, "But you're going to get in the land and you're going to forget this law and you're going to drift and coast and make concessions and compromise, get complacent, whatever, and you're going to start becoming like the other peoples around you because you're not going to obey God and kill them all like you're supposed to.
(09:23):
And so they're going to be thorns in your side." And you're going to be like, "Oh, they've got gods too. And I wonder how much power they have and maybe we should give them a whirl." And so Moses says, "You're going to do it. You're going to start making your own idols of wood and stone and whatever, and you'll fall away from the true God and you'll serve these other gods." But then he says in verses 29 through 31, he says, "But from there, you'll seek the Lord, you'll find him, that beautiful verse, if you search for him with all your heart, when you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you'll return to the Lord your God and obey his voice and he will forgive you because he's a merciful God." I think that the tribulation he's talking about there, again, maybe you could read sort of a double fulfillment for both Israel and as Christians, we hear tribulation and we probably are prone to think about revelation and the whole kind of coming tribulation in the end times of the antichrist and this and that.
(10:32):
But I think certainly I think the immediate fulfillment that Moses even maybe would have had in mind, maybe given a glimpse from God of is the tribulation of their exile and being taken into exile. So in a couple weeks or months, when we get to Deuteronomy 28 and the blessings and curses, you're going to get this long ... I think it's the longest chapter in Deuteronomy where, "Hey, if you obey me, here's the blessings, like 15 verses and then like 60 verses or 50 verses of like, but if you don't obey me and you're not going to obey me, here's the basically tribulations, the plagues that I'm going to bring upon you. " And it's like infertility and you're going to ... I mean, it just gets worse and worse. And like the babies you do have, you're going to eat because I'm going to bring this foreign army against you.
(11:31):
They're going to put you under siege and they're going to starve you to death, barricade off your city walls and you're going to get so hungry, you'll eat your own children. And just terrible, terrible stuff. I think that's the tribulation that Moses talking about is that. And then eventually, okay, we surrender, Babylon takes them. This is in the early sixth century BC, so 800-ish years after Moses is prophesying all this and writing and not that specific ... Well, actually, yeah, in specificity in Deuteronomy 28, and it all kind of comes true, we know. But he says, after that time, again, you return to the Lord, you seek the Lord with all your heart, he's going to take you back. He's a merciful God. He won't cast you off forever. He won't destroy you completely. There will be a remnant left in Babylon that then ... And again, he doesn't get into all the specifics of the Persia defeating Batylon and freeing them to go back and all that.
(12:33):
But yeah, I think that's more so the tribulation. But I'm sure there are Christians that read that and want to read a double prophecy there and a double kind of fulfillment of perhaps even whatever it is, however you interpret the Book of Revelation and the 144,000 kind of remnant of Israel from the different tribes that will turn to Jesus and return to the Lord and to Christ and be saved in the midst of that tribulation, the post rapture or whatever.
(13:12):
Yeah. Again, more than anybody wanted to hear, but answering your questions. Thanks, Jeremy. I did have somebody just real quick on that too. Well, I'm not going to answer it because Greg Lowe asked me, he's like, "So in verse 40 of the passage, Moses says, therefore, keep his commands that it may go well with you and your children, prolong your days in the land the Lord God is giving you for all time." And so Greg was like, "A lot of people that are real pro- Israel," they'll quote that verse, verse 40 of chapter four and say, "Look, God gave them the land for all time." And so implications for everything going on there now with the Palestinians and Israel and sharing the land versus, no, this is our land for all time, whatever. And so anyway, I won't go into it because he forgot to submit the thing.
(14:06):
But yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of really good follow-up questions that could ... So let's keep working through them.
(14:11):
Yeah. Next one's from Mike. He writes, "The scriptures mostly list idols as things in creation or made with human hands. I've run across idols that are spiritual things without physical attributes." Is this represented in the scriptures?
(14:27):
Yeah. So a couple things going on there. First of all, you got physical versus spiritual, and then you also have things made with human hands versus just created, still physical, but not necessarily made with human hands. So certainly I've given a lot of examples and I think most pastors do and will about of idolatry, not just being little statue figurines of wood and silver and whatever that you put in your house and light candles and pray to and whatever, although that still happens. I mean, I think we need to acknowledge literally billions of people, Hindus in particular, if you go over to India or here, I mean, we got millions of Indian immigrant Hindus living here that still practice Hinduism and that's a huge part of it. It's like literal idols, you're talking fake gods, fake little statues that all the descriptions from the Old Testament, like Isaiah when he talks about you're praying to these things that you made with your ... You cut down a treat, used half of it to burn wood, and you used half of it to make this thing with your own hands that now you're praying to, like it's going to save you from infertility or drought or famine or what.
(15:52):
How does that make any sense? And he just kind of mocks that practice of idolatry. But again, I think we would connect it even more so today to, yeah, the sort of unconscious, implicit, like just anything that again, takes God's place. So if we're supposed to go to God with our needs and worries and cares and our hope and our faith and our hearts and our worship and whatever else, what are you going to instead? And so that can be your spouse or your parents or your doctor or your bank account or your ... Just fill in the blank. It can be physical material stuff even that you create or someone created with their own hands. Obviously people worship and assign more worth to possessions than they do to God.
(17:02):
But anyway, to go to more so to Mike's point, the spiritual versus physical now, and Mike caught me and he explained even more so what he was thinking was Mike has been very devoted to ministry in local mosques here in town with Muslims in St. Louis and made friendships and anyway, does a lot of evangelism and apologetics and stuff with the Muslim community. Anyway, Mike was just kind of connecting what he sees as idolatry in whether it's the worship of Allah and Islam, or he would have to give even more context for us of beyond that, maybe Muhammad, or ... I mean, even there's, I think, a case to be made with the way that devout Muslims treat the Quran.
(18:07):
They're believed scripture, sacred scripture, the Quran, and just even some of the rules and regulations around that. And you can't place other books on top of it or put it in the same book bag with other books, because it's on this different level of than everything else. You'd have to say, "Well, you're almost turning that book into an idol that someone made with human hands or a machine made, whatever." But the spiritual things, I don't know, I'd be curious to talk even more with Mike about that, but we're going to get to it in Deuteronomy 32, but Moses is going to make the case that these other gods of the other nations, and I think we could read today things like the gods of Hinduism or Allah and Islam, that these other gods, that the other nations, and of course in Moses' day, that's Baal for the Canonites or Moloch for the Moabites or whoever, but that they are, not only are they not gods, that they're actually demons, that that's really what kind of Moses identifies as these fallen angels that, like Lucifer, like Satan, the sort of chief kind of head demon, Satan, that wanted to be God and because of his pride and not knowing and accepting his place in heaven, but wanting to be God and wanting God's place, just like Adam and Eve in the garden, wanted to be gods unto themselves and were kicked out.
(19:54):
Satan was kicked out of heaven for that, but he brought a whole host of fallen angels with him that also, again, just rebelled, didn't want to submit to God's authority and that that's the origin of demons. And so anyway, whether you want to call that ... Now I think the way in which you, and again, billions of people do. They're enslaved enemy, Satan has blinded their eyes to the truth of the gospel and instead they worship these other lesser created beings, albeit spiritual beings, created spiritual fallen angels, demons, that they're led astray into, again, false worship. And I'm sure there's, like I said, idolatry that just necessarily comes with that, but maybe a different ... Yeah, what would you call that even stronger than idolatry? It's not apostasy because that's falling away from ... It's like you knew the true God and then fell away.
(21:03):
I mean, it's just ... Anyway, yeah, it's lostness is really what it is. But yeah, thanks, Mike, for the question.
(21:17):
Cody has basically three, but all related. He writes, "It makes sense for me to teach God's commands to my family's children and my children's children, but also since God's commands were given to the people of Israel." One, how does chapter four, verse nine apply within the context of a local church? Two, what implications does that have for members and non-members of the church and their children? And number three, can you give some examples of how we can teach God's commands within the context of marriage and friendships?
(21:47):
Yeah, great questions. Well, I do think that I would broaden and generalize what Moses is saying here to being about ... Because again, we can't even really comprehend or appreciate just how corporate and collective identity was in ancient times, not just for Israel, but for everybody. I mean, it was like everything's about the tribe. And so it's like that whole saying, "It takes a village to raise a kid." And they just really did that. We've just become so individualized, Adamized in our suburbian whatever. And Polly and I raise our kids, maybe we involve the grandparents, whatever, but it was just so different, I think, to understand the historical context. So yes, I think when Moses is saying to your children, your children's children, all that, he's saying like, "Look, it's not just your ... " We're talking about generations. We're talking about, again, takes a ... He's talking about culture.
(22:56):
I want, not Moses, but God wants there to be a culture amongst his people of constantly pointing one another back to him, reminding one another of him, of God and of all his good deeds and the past, of his faithfulness, of his commandments for the present, of his promises for the future. He's like, "There needs to be a culture of this intergenerationally across the board, whatever." And so I think for us, it's absolutely, we have responsibilities as a church to one another. And we say all this, we just had a membership class yesterday, so I was reminded as we read back through with these new membership candidates that are thinking about applying for membership and just reading back over our membership covenant and what we covenant to one another as a church that, yeah, we're going to care not only for our own children and raise them to know the Lord insofar as we raise them here in the church as members, but for one another and for pointing one another back to him and admonishing one another, encouraging one another.
(24:05):
I mean, all the one anothers of scripture is what we're committing to do for one another and in particular with the next generation, paying it forward. So I think that's all there.
(24:17):
And like I said, has implications for members. Now, non-members, they get sort of common grace if you want to call it that or whatever, benefits of that as well to the extent that non-members come and they drop their kids off in our kids' ministry and they get it 75 minutes to not parent. I mean, parenting is a wonderful calling, it's a beautiful, but it's also a burden. And so like, let me take that burden off for 75 minutes, give my kids to you, I'm going to go to church, whatever. Again, in an ideal world, I'm always encouraging people to be two service people and have your Sunday school during their Sunday school. Bring your kids once they're old enough, kindergarten, older, whatever, maturity, bring them into the service with you. So you're still doing family worship together. They're sitting through the sermon, you're helping them learn to sit underneath the teaching of God's word, not just in a kid setting, but unfolding them into the life of the church, all that.
(25:19):
But all that to say, yeah, non-members can do all that, get all that without even having to make the commitment that, yeah, I'm going to do the same for you and I'm going to serve and back in the kids' ministry and teach your kids too, just like you're teaching mine or whatever. But yeah. And again, some churches, they're more ... Yeah, they crack down and only members get certain things and this and that. And I think we're a generous church and we, yeah, we don't try and be punitive in those kinds of ways or whatever, but examples of how we can teach God's commands within the context of marriage and friendships, I just think more than anything, it's like we'll get to Deuteronomy six that I quoted, but where Moses says, "Teach them to your children diligently." When you talk about them all the time, when you walk through your house and you sit down, you lie down.
(26:19):
And I think it's just the more that you are personally internalizing, studying, meditating on God's word, the more it's just going to come out in the context of marriage, in the context of friendships and just it comes out in our conversation, it's just the worldview in which we swim and live. And so yeah, it's kind of like, is it Colossians three, Ephesians five about addressing one another and hymns and spiritual songs. And it's just like we're supposed to sing the gospel to one another and just like speak and pray the gospel over one another. And so anyway, yeah, great question, Cody. Thank you. All
(27:00):
Right. We have six minutes and five questions.
(27:03):
Let's do it.
(27:04):
First one's from Victoria. She writes, "How come Moses could go onto the holy burning mountain, but the Israelites couldn't? How do we get to be like Moses? I will apply this teaching by seeing God as a loving father and clothing meat in his best."
(27:21):
I love her application there at the end. As far as why Moses can go up the burning mountain and the others can't, frankly, just because God allowed it, God gave him a pass, right? I mean, God called him. That's the difference is calling and what God tells you to do. And same reason, Aaron and his son's after him and whoever else after them could be the high priest and could suit up and go into the Holy of Holies once a year and not get incinerated by God's holiness is because ... And again, I think the picture and all of that for us as we look back now in retrospect is to see, again, appreciate God's holiness, appreciate our sinfulness, appreciate the divide between the two. And yeah, it really should strike us like Victoria is pointing out. It wasn't because God was being mean to the rest of Israel, like, "You can't come near me.
(28:20):
" You got to flip it. And the inexplicable thing is the grace toward Moses or toward Aaron or toward Noah with the flood or whatever example you want to use. Why him? It's like, well, because God is gracious because he didn't have to save anybody. He didn't have to talk to anybody. He didn't have to let anybody up the mountain or send anybody on the ark or any of it. But God, this was his way of maintaining and the demonstration of his holiness while also maintaining the reminder of your sinfulness, but also just giving that prefiguring, that looking forward to a time when there wouldn't be that veil anymore and there wouldn't be that mountain anymore. Like Hebrews, I think it's Hebrews 12 talks about, or no, 10, about the shaking mountain and like, "Man, we've come to a better mountain. We've come to Mount Zion and you don't have to be scared anymore.
(29:19):
We can ascend the mountain. We can meet with God. The veil has been torn. We can go into the Holy of Holies and meet with God in prayer every day." So it brings all of it back to gratitude hopefully for us too. So thanks, Victoria.
(29:34):
Andrea asks, "Intrigued by the verse you mentioned, verse 19. Do you think this echoes similar themes as Romans
(29:41):
One?" So I mentioned just in context of things I wouldn't have time to address in the sermon, but verse 19 in Deuteronomy four, Moses going through his list of idols not to make in the likeness of anything under the here on earth With oar and all the host of heaven, the sun moonstars, lest you be drawn away and serve them instead. And then he says, "Don't bow down and serve them. Things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole of heaven." And part of, again, the way it reads in the ESV translation at least is almost makes it sound like God allotted. God set these things aside like, "Hey, here's stuff that I know you're going to want to worship." And almost you could, I think, misread it as God, because again, we know James one: two, God doesn't do evil.
(30:36):
He doesn't tempt us to evil. So it's not like God is, "Here, let me put these amazing things, the sun and look at that amazing tree or that amazing fish or whatever. Don't you want to worship it? Let's test you and see if you'll worship it instead of me. " I don't think that's ... I think that word allotted, I think in context is like, God allotted them to us for our good, for common grace. Matthew five, Jesus says, "God makes the sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike." And so God allots these beautiful things and creation for our good and yet we pervert them. And that is exactly what Paul says in Romans one when he says, "There's just something in us, sin that wants to take a good thing, a fish, the sun, the moon, whatever it is, and make it the best thing.
(31:29):
A thing worth worshiping and we're prone to that kind of idolatry." And so yeah, that's Romans one. Go back, read it about just taking creative things and elevating them to the place of the creator and just the sin, the darkness in human hearts that does that. And again, we need to see that all around us. We need to see that in the way that our neighbors treat their kids. You are treating your kid like your functional God. Your whole life revolves around your kid's sports schedule or whatever it is. And it's like, this is idolatry. And all those same warnings still apply today. So thank you, Andrea.
(32:12):
I think it's probably all we have time for. We have three left. I'll do them quick. You want to keep going?
(32:17):
Yeah.
(32:19):
First one is from anonymous listener. They wrote in, "How should we think about children raised in the faith well by their parents who still walk away? Especially in light of Proverbs 22: six, which seems to promise a child raised in the faith well won't depart." Does their departing necessarily mean their parents failed to teach them in some way?
(32:37):
Yeah. So Proverbs 22: six, famous kind of parenting verse, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he's old, he won't depart from it. Again, we need to understand the Proverbs are generalizations. Okay? There's lots of Proverbs about, "Hey, wealthy people are like this or poor people are like this. " And a lot of them frankly seem to be even contradictory of one another like the famous one don't reprove a fool, you're just wasting your time, but yes, you need to reprove a fool or else he's going to go on being foolish. So there's lots of ... Proverbs are generalizations and you have to know when to apply them, how to apply them. And so I would say that's a generalized proverb that generally you do your best as a parent to train them up in the way they should go.
(33:29):
Again, Deuteronomy six, to not just make God's word a church thing 1% of their life for 75 minutes a week, but to be talking about them all the time and be praying all the time and being steeped in God's word and truth together as a family and generally speaking, they're not going to depart from it when they're old. It's like, this is all I know. This is my world. This is how I know right from wrong, up from down, dark from light is by God's words. So I think that's a generalization. However, yeah, to this anonymous listener's point, when every once in a while you do have those cases of just rebels, right? Even the prodigal son, like the parable that Jesus told of the prodigal son. In that parable, God is the father. So if God himself has prodigal children, I mean, presumably you want to play the parable out, God has done everything perfect and right as a father, and yet that child still walked away.
(34:35):
And so it happens. However, you're not God. And so yes, you did make mistakes as a parent. And yes, they probably did contribute to some of ... Now I'm not saying go blame yourself and live in guilt all the time, but yeah, hopefully that's just motivation, exportation to those of us who are still actively ... We're all ... Even adult children, you're still parenting and you still have a role to play. So keep parenting, keep praying, keep reaching out to that straying child that's walked away from the faith and yeah, trusting the Lord.
(35:13):
Second to last one, the anonymous listener writes, last sermon you talked about the giants in Genesis six. Can you talk more about that?
(35:22):
I'm only going to say one more thing about it because we could do a whole ... And I did do a podcast on the Nephillam, so we could link it or whatever, or go back and listener, type in West Hills Church, ask the pastor in the film, Genesis six, or Brian can find the episode. But all I'll say ... So Dalton caught me in the foyer and asked me an interesting question. He said, "So that was Genesis six versus one through six or whatever." And then it says, "God saw that humans were so wicked. I'm going to wipe them out. " And then the flood. So Dalton's thing was like, so if all the Naphillim and the race of giants that was ... If you're tracing it back to that Genesis six thing, how was their DNA still on the earth after the flood?
(36:07):
Ask the pastor number 27, what did the Nephilim only get in the transcript?
(36:11):
Awesome. Thank you. But Dalton's is an interesting question. So where does their DNA then get passed down to the Refame and the Anakeem and all the other Zamzamem that you hear about in Deuteronomy two: three there. And so you either have to say that somehow Noah's DNA was affected, or I think the better explanation probably is that, again, it was this giant race that was created from the demons coming down and basically raping human women and this hybrid half breed race. And I think probably what you have to say is that even if the Nafillam of Genesis six: one through six were wiped out in the flood, that the demons kept raping even after Noah got off the arc and they did it again because demons are spiritual beings and obviously demons are still around. And so yeah, just wicked stuff and makes you ... If that's physically possible, it seemed that it's still theoretically possible.
(37:22):
And that's why you get into, not to go off the deep end here with the conspiracy theories, but there are Christians who still believe that they're in a film on the earth or today, the government's hiding giants from, I don't know, that crazy stuff. But anyway, maybe not crazy. Who knows? I mean, it's physically possible if you believe scripture, and if the demons are still around, are they still raping? I don't know.
(37:45):
Crazy stuff.
(37:47):
Ending with Sam, he wrote in, "How can we preach the gospel to ourselves from Deuteronomy for one to 40? How do we see Christ in this
(37:55):
Text?" I think I tried to lay it out for us in the sermon, always want to preach the gospel and bring the text back to the gospel, but appreciate the chance to remind again, Sam in closing. So I think the most clear verses there are, well, twofold is verses 29 through 31, where you have that beautiful, seek the Lord return to him and he will receive you because he's a merciful God. And I think I try to tie that back to the picture of the Father, the prodigal son in Jesus' parable, and then also God being our Father in those last eight verses, God is our Father. And the only reason that either of those things are true, that God receives us and is merciful and that God accepts us as Father is because of Jesus and because he has forgiven our sins and his death and resurrection.
(38:47):
And so that's the gospel. Thanks, Sam. Thanks everybody. So many good questions. Let's keep it going.
(38:53):
Yeah, absolutely. I think next Monday, the office is closed for President's Day, so you might have to look at Tuesday, Wednesday.
(39:00):
Let's keep
(39:01):
It going. We hope that this has been edifying for you to seek to be changed and to love God more as you apply God's word after the sermon. So go apply the sermon and continue to make disciples and Lord willing, we'll catch you right back here sometime next week.