He Brought Us Out, That He Might Bring Us In (06/15/2003)

Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6 today, and verse 22.

This is a special message for the men in the congregation, but I don't want the rest of us to not listen, so ladies and young people, you're allowed to listen, but this is a challenge to all of us.

The title is, He Brought Us Out That He Might Bring Us In. There are two ends of the spectrum that I see in the

Baptist movement in the last 25 years. You have the Southern Baptists, predominantly, who have grown more and more liberal in their seminaries, although they did make some gains in the 80s, and took back over some of the seminaries with conservative professors and so forth, but still the move is towards liberalism and towards lack of anointing on the preacher, that then transposes down into the pulpit and from there into the nation.

We've had two presidents that I can think of, former presidents who were Southern Baptists and probably did more damage to our nation, humanly speaking, than any other presidents in my lifetime,

Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And then we have on the other side of the spectrum, the

Independent Baptists that are legalists and pharisaical in many ways, and of course

I'm speaking generally. I know that there are specific local churches that are not in either of those, but I'm speaking in generalities.

When you look at the Independent Baptist movement, they make a big doctrine of what they call the doctrine of separation.

It happened to be one of the things that drew me to that movement in 1980, and I still think that it's a good thing because the

Southern Baptists have left it behind years ago. They don't speak on verses such as, come out from among them and be ye separate, sayeth the

Lord. The Southern Baptists don't speak very often on be not unequally yoked together, but the

Independents do, and so that's one of the good attributes. But I think sometimes the

Independent Baptists make a wrong application of the doctrine of separation, which that doctrine means we are to be different than the world.

If God lives in us, we ought to be different. And they sort of make it an end, and really it's a means to an end.

And you'll see that in this verse, Deuteronomy 622 and 623, these two verses, so follow along with me if you would.

And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes.

And he brought us out from this, see that's the separation, when God takes you out of the world system, when he begins to make you different, when he saves your soul and enters your body, literally, and your body becomes the temple of the living

God, and your old lost friends don't like you as much anymore, and you don't hang around them as much because you have little in common all of a sudden, and God gives you a new spiritual family, and that's who you want to hang around with.

And all the old things that you used to read and watch that were bad, you lay them aside and you pick up the Word of God and it has a new interest in your heart because you've been born again, and God is beginning to bring you out of the world.

But that's not the end. It is a means to an end, and the end is found in the next phrase, that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.

The goal of the doctrine of separation and the act of it as God works in our lives to make us different, to separate us out from the world, is that he might bring us in to the promised land.

The promised land pictures victorious Christian living. The promised land pictures the abundant life that Jesus talked about.

He said, I came to think that you may have life, that you may have it more abundantly. That is the end of it.

God doesn't make you different just to make you unusual, to start to say the word queer, and I remember we can't use that word anymore.

He doesn't want to just make you strange. He brings you out from the world, and he does make you different because he makes you as you should have been anyway.

You were known of him from the foundation of the world, and we were lost sheep. He brings us in and he makes us sheep.

All of a sudden we are different, but the goal is that he might bring us in to himself. Separation involves two things, a taking out of something and a bringing in to something.

We're taken out of the world and we're brought in to a relationship with God. That is the end of it.

Now as we move on through this passage, we see in verse 24

God speaks of his law. Let's think of his law as limits. Think of his law as fences around the pasture that the sheep are in.

The fences are there to guard the sheep. They're there for the sheep's protection, but a lot of God's sheep don't like the laws.

They don't like to think that God has rules. The lost world certainly doesn't like it, and that's why they pretend that God is not there.

The scientist of today, the modern scientist today who is an agnostic or an atheist, is only that way so that he doesn't have to keep

God's rules. It doesn't have anything to do with he's worried about the fact that God made everything. He just doesn't want to keep

God's moral rules. So he thinks if he can take the ostrich effect and stick his head in a hole and pretend

God's not there, that God won't be there. The problem is, is behind is sticking up and God's about to whoop it.

Because God is there. So there's a purpose to God's limits.

Look what it is in verse 24. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the

Lord our God but for our good always. That he might preserve us alive as it is at this day.

It's for our good. Little children, listen to me for a moment.

I know this is supposed to be for dads, but you're the object of dad's delight. So let me speak to you just a moment.

When mom and dad give rules in the family, you may not always understand them. But they give those because they're for your good to protect you so that you'll live and grow and be useful in the

Lord's hands. So these rules are always for good if they're laid down by the Lord.

Now as we move into verse 25, we see something that's very interesting. And you hear a lot in theological circles about salvation with regard to the

Old Testament saints versus the New Testament saints. Some people will say it's the same. Some people will say it's different.

Well, that's true sometimes, and it's not true in other cases. It is the same in the sense that salvation has always truly been by faith.

So therefore the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are saved the same way if you're thinking of that.

It is different, though, if you want to look at it from the way that God deals with his children because look at what verse 25 says.

It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do.

And I want you to circle the word do. The Old Testament is a dispensation of doing.

The New Testament is a dispensation of acting upon belief, of believing and then acting upon it.

There's not a great deal of difference. It's just the emphasis in the Old Testament is on the doing, which shows the faith, and the emphasis on the

New Testament is on believing, which creates the doing. I don't see a great deal of difference, but I see a subtle distinction because in the

Old Testament the word do is far more important from the human viewpoint, from the people's viewpoint.

They thought that they had to keep this law, which God said, you do keep this law and it will be for you as your righteousness.

What do we call that in the New Testament when we see that God says if you believe it shall be counted unto you as righteousness?

The doctrine of what? Imputation. The doctrine of imputation in the

New Testament sense is that when God sees your true faith, which he of course gave you or you wouldn't have it, he counts that to you as if you are righteous.

He counts it for righteousness. It's funny, but if you go back before the law, and you go back to Abraham who was before the law, it was counted to him.

His faith was counted to him as righteous, the same as the New Testament concept. Somewhere in there the

Jew was offered a relationship by God. I believe it was at the mount, the foot of the mount

Sinai where the law was given. The Jew was offered that relationship that Abraham had and that we have, and he rejected it and said, no, no, you go up there,

Moses. We don't want to go up there. At that point the law dispensation came into being, and they did not want the relationship with God, so God gave them the law as a schoolmaster to bring them to Jesus Christ later so they could have that relationship.

But during that schoolmaster time the emphasis was on the doing, and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the

Lord, which he has commanded us. Now you have to understand, though, the commandments included something very important.

It included the sacrificial system. It's not saying to the Old Testament saint, if you keep these laws perfectly, you'll go to heaven.

If you break them, you'll go to hell. What it is saying is, if you keep the laws perfectly, and then you break them, if you then offer the proper sacrifice, it will cover your sin, and you're still okay.

So it included the sacrificial system. Now, it didn't mean they had to be perfect, because no man is perfect. Living under the law, humans are imperfect.

Living under grace, humans are imperfect. So God has an answer in the Old Testament dispensation.

The answer was, you bring the little turtle dove. If you can't afford a sacrifice, bring a little bird.

Give it to the priest, he'll offer it on your behalf. And I will then see you as if you're covered by the blood of Jesus, even though he hasn't died yet.

And he'll roll the sin forward, another year, and another year, and another year, until finally we come to the cross.

That's how God dealt with the Old Testament saint. That's not how he deals with us. So there is a difference. The emphasis was on the doing.

Of course, they wouldn't do if they didn't believe what God said, would they? God said, listen, if you'll keep my commandments, and then when you break them, if you'll offer the proper sacrifice, then

I'll count that to you as righteousness. Isn't it interesting in verse 25 that it says, that's what will be our righteousness.

You see, they had no righteousness of their own. We are the same way on this side of the cross.

We have no righteousness of our own. But when we believe that what God said is true, that Jesus Christ died for our sin, that we were in him when he died, we were in him when he was buried, we were in him when he rose, we were in him when he ascended, and we're seated in Christ at the right hand of God.

Now, if we believe that, it's counted to us for righteousness. The Old Testament is saying, if you believe the

Messiah is coming, if you believe that this sacrifice is a picture of that, and if you will apply that with the hyssop seed, weed of faith, then

I will count it to you as righteousness. So it's the same, but it's different. Now, the next thing we see about God's purpose of the law and the limits that he placed on us is for our good.

We see that it's counted to them as righteousness. The next thing we see, moving into chapter 7 now, remembering that the chapters were not really there, but it's the same thing.

We're going to see that the power of God is with the righteous. Now, gentlemen, this is where it's beginning to come home.

You want to have your family turn out right. You want to have your marriage turn out right.

You want your children to be a blessing and not a curse. Your business endeavors, the economics of your life, to turn out right.

Then we begin to listen, because the first thing God says to us is that the power of God comes with separated righteousness in the man's life.

Verse 1, When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land, whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the

Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the

Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou.

That's going to continue in a moment. Let's stop and make a point on this. The power of God to cast out these nations, which are stronger than you are, gentlemen.

Now, let's go back and remember for a minute, what does the New Testament say the Old Testament is for with regard to us?

All of it is given as types and examples for those of us who live in the last days. Every page you read on the

Old Testament, look for the spiritual truth that's applied in your life today. When you see a physical enemy, think of your spiritual enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

That's exactly what it's teaching about. When you see them go out, you see Joshua be powerful and be strong, and the walls fall down, think of your spiritual enemies, you having victory over it.

When you see them go out and you see them fail because there was sin in the camp, see your spiritual life now, you will fail in your home, gentlemen, if there's sin in your life.

You cannot have the power of God to protect your baby children as they're sleeping from the demons of hell, from nightmares, from every other problem you can have in your family.

You can't have the power of God to protect your wife as she so often goes out in the workplace where she's working side by side with good -looking men, and she's tempted.

You cannot protect her with the power of this little arm of yours. You can only protect her with the power of God's righteousness in your home and in your own life.

It must start with you. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them, he said, that's the power of God, and it came because of the righteousness that was counted to them because they were keeping

His commandments the best they could, and when they failed, they believed Him enough to do the sacrifice, and they stayed in that.

They stayed in God's plan, and they had the power to defeat seven enemies stronger than they are.

Well, you only have three, but they're far more powerful than these physical enemies were. Now, they looked at those enemies, and they were frightened by them.

We don't see our enemies, so sometimes we're prideful, and we are not appropriately frightened by them.

But, men, I want to tell you something. If you could think about it, I saw a poster one time. It's beautiful. I wish

I could find it and get copies of it for all of us. But, this poster pictured a man kneeling at the bed of his little child who was going to sleep, and he was praying for his little child, and at the window, looking through, was the most grotesque demon you've ever seen in your life drawn by this artist.

Now, we don't know what they looked like, and it probably didn't be properly depicted, but it gave the idea that that father's prayer was keeping him at bay because he was calling on the power of God to protect his family.

It's a great picture for us to think about. So, the power of God comes from righteousness in the life of the

Father, which comes from being and walking in Christ. You want to apply this on a national basis because the fathers of a nation end up being the nation, being how the nation comes out to be.

It's based on how the fathers are. If you look at every nation that was based on biblical

Protestant theology as opposed to Catholicism, or as opposed to Islam, or as opposed to Hinduism, or any of it, you look at nations in the world history that were based on Protestant Bible Christianity, you see four of them,

Holland, Germany, England, and the United States. Those nations, if you look at their economies, have the strongest economies of any in the world.

If you look at everyone who bases, every nation who bases their thought life and their practice on Islam, or on Roman Catholicism, or any other thing, you see what we call the third world.

Have you ever been down to McAllen and looked at the borderline between Texas and Mexico, which is based on Roman Catholicism and the darkest kind?

You can look at a fence road and you can see on this side all the blessings of God on this nation.

And you can walk one inch over to the left and you see, you just see trash everywhere.

You see houses with no shingles. You see grass growing up everywhere or just mud. They just have mud in the yard.

You just cross the border to go in there and do some shopping, you're going to walk, if it's raining don't go because you're going to walk through mud and streets.

There's no pavement. Why is that? Is it because they're stupid? No, not necessarily.

It's because they're lost and in darkness because they're held in the captivity of religious systems created by man.

Any nation that has ever been influenced by the Old Testament or the New or both is not a third world nation today.

It's prospering. Now gentlemen, if that's true in the nation it certainly applies in the home. If the Bible has a prevalent place in that home it will prosper.

Now there's a warning that comes at this point in verse 2. A warning of compromise after victory.

Gentlemen, think about this. You've had it well in your homes. You have a protected home.

You have a Christian school here. You have a church that does not allow the world to be brought into the church.

We have had victory. There's a warning here towards us now because we can become complacent because we have victory.

We can become complacent because we have peace. We can stop thinking about the fact that that demon is outside that window wanting to come into your home because he hasn't been there.

We can imagine for a moment that everything is well with us and we cease to be the watchman above the city or above our family.

We grow complacent. Verse 2 talks about it. When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them, thou shalt be careful,

I added that little mark, careful, and make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto them.

It's so easy when we have peace in our home to all of a sudden let a little bit of the world slip in.

We make a deal with the world either with regard to us, our wives, or our children. We make a deal.

We say, well, that'll probably be all right. They want a place to work. Or it'll probably be all right. She needs to work out there.

She needs a little extra money. I'm not going to be particularly watchful. He's right at her right elbow every day who he might be.

I trust my wife. I trust my children. That's fine, but the

Bible says we battle not against flesh and blood. The problem is not your wife and your children, gentlemen. The problem is principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places that wish to destroy your marriage and your children.

That's the problem. And if you're lax because you have peace and everything's good, you're ready to be destroyed.

Romans 1311 says, and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

That's a fact, isn't it? The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness.

Let us put on the armor of light. You see, you need power. You have to be, you have to have the armor of righteousness on.

When you sin, gentlemen, you open your home to the devil. So why don't you quickly go before the

Lord and confess and get right with him and gain back the strength of practical righteousness.

The armor of light is what it's called. Let us walk honestly as in the day. If Satan can catch you in a lie, even a small lie, what we call in a minute a small lie, he will work there.

Your children will catch you in it as well. Then they'll become liars. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy.

I dare say in many churches across this land there are fathers who are involved in drinking behind the scenes, who are involved in chambering, which means going out with whores and prostitutes and thinking that they won't get caught and their wife doesn't know about it.

Wantonness just simply means they go out and they're living with the gusto, getting all they can get from the world.

But he says, don't be that way, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Make no covenant, the book of Deuteronomy says, with the world. Make no deal, make no provision for the flesh.

The gentleman in verse 3 goes on and says, Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

Have no fellowship with the world, is the next point. We can become complacent and lax and with the very thing we love the most, which is our children, next to our wives, of course, our children, they go out, they get to be teenage years or they go off to college and we just say, well,

I just don't hope the Lord watches over them. Well, we do hope the Lord watches over them and that's our only hope is that He does and we know that He is.

But if we become lax and complacent because we've had peace in the home, we've been in a

Bible church, we've grown up, we've taught them right and we don't watch over them as a sheep who is wandering out near that fence.

Think about what's on the other side of the fence. Think about the devil as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

That's not written to lost people. Satan doesn't devour lost people until he's through with them.

That's written to the Christians. The whole Bible is written to the Christians. You have to watch

Satan as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You don't give up that watch until your child is completely married and has a family and then

I dare say that if I ask my parents or Brother Otis or some of those or Miss Sharon, some of those who have grown married children, you would say, you still haven't given up the watch.

You still pray for them. Probably pray more because you don't see them as much. We cannot lose our vigilance.

We cannot allow our children to make marriages with the lost world whether it is a physical marriage or whether it is just a love of something in this world they love.

We have to watch over them. We have to teach them. We have to let them learn some lessons, yes, but not lethal ones.

Give them a little leash but don't undo it from the collar. You have your children even in college where you can bring them in and talk and get them face front and say, let me remind you of some things we've always believed in our home.

If you lose that diligence and you think someone else out there, a professor or a

Sunday school teacher or a school teacher is going to take over for you, you are dead wrong because half the time they're from the world and they've been infiltrated.

Satan has caused them to be placed in there as a tear to bring disaster.

Verse 4, for they will turn away thy son from following me. God says that. You find this nice young man, ladies, let me warn you, you're going to like the nice young men.

You're going to like them. There's very few of them you won't like when they start coming around your daughter.

But you need to listen to your husband and if there's a brother in the house, listen to what he thinks about that young man.

Get a man's input on that young man before you just say, oh, he's the one for my daughter. And gentlemen, let me warn you, you're going to like the young girl.

They're all pretty. They're all so sweet. And they come after your boy today, they'll be calling him on the phone.

Don't allow that. Have your son tell him, my dad doesn't allow that girl to call me. He grew up in the old fashioned way in a different distant state than when the men called the women.

That's the only way we can do it, so please don't call me. Listen, dad, is that easy for you to tell your son to tell that girl that?

Isn't it easier just to not say anything? You don't make her think your son's an idiot.

He's old fashioned. But you better be watchful. And you know what?

You better ask your wife or some of those sisters what they think about that young lady. Do they like her?

Not. Pray about it. So God tells us very clearly if we allow our children to get into a place where they make marriages that doesn't necessarily mean a physical marriage.

It did in the Old Testament, but what does it mean for us in the new type of spiritual truth?

Watch who your children hang with. I don't care whether it's professors, whether it's just friends, or whether it is a potential marriage partner.

Don't let them make any kind of marriage with the world. Because the Bible says in verse 4, those people will turn them away from following God, that they may serve other gods.

So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against the child? No. Against you,

Dad. Look at that in verse 4. So will the anger of the

Lord be kindled against you, Dad, and destroy thee suddenly.

Now that happens in a good nation, not to Dad. The anger is certainly something we can see.

The kindling anger of God against a father who is complacent when it comes to his daughter or his son.

But I'm amazed with the men that I see that are complacent with their daughters.

I may touch on that here in a minute as we continue. Let me ask you this.

Is there an ordained purpose for a genuine Christian school separated from the world and the world's cares?

There are many today who once had convictions concerning Christian schools who are sending their daughters into the world's dens now in the public school system.

Let me ask you this. If they can do that, were those God -given convictions in the first place or were they just convenient preferences?

Gentlemen, I ask you, has God put a conviction in your heart that it is wrong to allow your children to go to Egypt to be educated, to go into the public school system where they're going to be taught fraud in psychology and they're going to be taught all of the

Darwinism that ever existed, even though it's old now and antiquated and they don't even believe it anymore, it's still what they're teaching in the high school.

Is that what God would have you do with your children? Now, if you don't have a conviction about it, then what happens as soon as our basketball program ceases or as soon as Brother Mitchell is gone,

Lord forbid God take me home, what I would consider early, and I'm not here anymore, well, it's too hard to run this school.

Let's just find one of these little country schools out here. It'll be safe. We'll send them over here. Do you know that one of the ones that this whole community calls safe out here has a lesbian for the girls' coach and is known to have queers all in that school system?

I know a family right now that's sending their children there this fall, Brethren and Christians. I know one other family

I'm thinking about has daughters that are going to play on a team for this lesbian. Now, I don't know how that works, ladies, how you can like another woman, and I'm sure you understand what

I'm saying. I don't see how a man could ever lay down beside a hairy leg, and they're all puking because you're normal.

It's only by demons that that can happen. It's only by demonism that that can happen.

But I'm going to tell you something. If a demon is in that coach, she will be attracted to your little girl.

So, well, you know, but we want her to play basketball in a Christian school. I want her to have that.

Was that a conviction? Or is that just a preference? And I want to remind you whose anger, the anger of God, who is it kindled toward?

The little child that goes out and plays basketball on the public school team? No. The Christian parent who thinks it's okay now.

Listen, they are saved as you are, saved as I am. They have just grown complacent.

They are asleep spiritually. They are settled in the peace that God brought them.

They're settled in the comfort. They're settled in the salvation, in the good things of life. They are not listening to the warning where God said, now, listen, when you get over there in that promised land, be careful.

Don't give your sons and your children to marriages with them for they will turn them to other gods.

It's like you're so prideful. You think, well, it won't happen to my family. They'll just be a better basketball player.

That's hogwash. Verse five, but this shall you deal with them.

I mean, I'm going to prove it. God is going to prove it to you that your pastor is not overemphasizing this.

I'm not on a rabbit trail this morning. I'm not, this is not a pet peeve. You haven't heard me preach this before probably in a long time, maybe five years if I've ever said anything like these things.

But look what God says in verse five to emphasize the point that this is not but thus shalt thou deal with them.

This means the world system. You shall destroy their altars, number one. You shall break down their images, number two.

You shall cut down their groves, number three. You shall burn their graven images with fire for thou art a holy people unto the

Lord thy God and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto him above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Does not this seem to teach against going gently concerning these decisions?

We just say, well, you know, I can ruffle or ruffle any feathers or cause any waves with people in society.

You know, even my children, I really don't want to get, you know, they're at that age now where if I don't get along with them, they'll never come home when they're married.

They won't come home and see me. And I've taught them everything I'm supposed to there. It's time for them to make decisions on their own.

If they want to go to public school, I'm going to let them go play sports. Destroy the altar.

Break down the images. Cut down the groves. Burn their graven images.

Do you know what all that picture is? Destroy the altars. The altar is the place where the beliefs are taught.

The place where Darwinism is taught. Where every kind of strange teaching on sexual education is taught at the very young level.

These psychiatrists, the board of psychiatrists come out this year and they're going to remove about five of the most perverse things you've ever thought of in your life and they're no longer going to call them mental disorders.

They're going to say, well, it's just a preference. That will filter its way right into the public school textbooks within five years.

That's what they'll be taught in sex education. That it's okay to be with a little child if you're an adult. It's just a preference. It's okay to be with an animal.

It's okay to be with this. It's okay to be that. It's okay to be a homosexual. All of that's just different. People are different.

Everybody has different likes. That's what will be taught. And those are lies from hell as we well know. And that comes from not destroying the altar.

That's the place where it's taught. Listen, it's not, it's against our laws for you to go burn the local junior high school.

I'm not advocating that. I'm not an Islamic, whatever they call their teachers, I need you to go shoot people and kill things.

What I'm asking you to do is with regard to your children, let it be counted as dead. Just pretend it's not even there.

It's not even a choice. It is not a choice of a place to go when it's an altar where Darwinism, Darwinism is taught.

Destroy that altar. Secondly, break down the images. What is the image? The image is the philosophy itself.

The image is the philosophy that they love. Listen, the philosophies of the world are the main thing that we talk about when we talk about the world in the negative sense.

You are not of the world. It means you're not of their thoughts. You're not of their thought patterns. And if you don't break down the very thoughts that they love, the philosophies they love, your child will believe them because the kid sitting next to him believed it.

The kid on the playground believed it. I'm not speaking against public school teachers, many of whom are Christians.

I'm speaking against the peers on the playground who are brought up in every kind of idolatrous home and evil home that there is in the world that has found its way into America.

You do realize that with our borders open now, we have every kind of black bird there is with regard to religion going to school with your child if you're in the public school system.

Everything there is from Islamic to witchcraft to every belief there is is playing with your child on that playground if you're in the public school system.

You are not breaking down the images or the philosophies that the world loves. You're putting your child right in there to hear it.

And then cut down the groves. That's the place of worship. It's a place other than where God is.

The groves are where they would go out and worship when God said where to worship back in the Old Testament. Where were they to worship?

One place. Where was it? The temple because God's Shekinah glory was there.

He was not out in the trees like a pantheist. He was in the place where they were taught to go and worship

God. So any time they didn't worship God in God's way, they were worshiping the world in Satan's way.

And it's the same as true. If we don't cut down the groves, they're going to go out there and say, well, you know, when they go off to college,

I don't really care what church they go to because I'm calling them right. Well, what if they get under some very intellectual, philosophical preacher that's slightly liberal and they begin to teach your child those things?

You say, well, it won't affect my child. Yes, it will because you didn't cut down the place. You didn't cut down the groves.

You allowed your child to grow up and think they can worship God any way they want to and that's not true. And then burn the graven images.

Those are the false gods made with their own hands. Those are the things that man has invented that they're teaching.

God said burn it. Now, let me ask you this. Do you think this is something we should take lightly?

Does God take it lightly? Something we say, well, you know, it's my child's choice or I want him to play on this team or that team.

Is that how we make those decisions? Only if we haven't been in the word about the last two years.

Only if you're living off what you heard preached last Sunday rather than your own personal Bible study. When's the last time you read the book of Deuteronomy?

You know, I would ask these parents out there and it's not anybody in this room. I'm just having fun preaching.

Maybe somebody will buy the tape that needs it. Sell it real cheap, free. But if they're not in the word, they're not going to remember this.

God has it so that we have to have fresh manna daily, doesn't He? It won't last if you try to save it from last week or last month or last year.

And these are the people who make these bad decisions for their children. Let me ask you again, who is God's anger kindled against?

The child or you? You, because you didn't stay in the word, gentlemen. You had to. Now, another point.

God has chosen us based upon His eternal love for His own. That's found starting in verse 7.

I'm not going to go through a lot of this because we've preached it lately. The Lord did not set His love upon you because you were more in number than any people or you were the fewest.

In the Old Testament Hebrew, that word fewest means the least of the least. It literally means the puniest.

And that's what you were. So God teaches it's not salvation by works. It's not by anything you did or I did.

It's not by anything we believed or didn't believe. It's by God. He knew us from the foundation of the world.

Verse 8 says He didn't love you because you were great or better. He says in verse 8, I loved you because the

Lord God loved you. He loved you because He would keep the oath which

He had sworn to the fathers. Brought you out with a mighty hand. He said, I simply loved you because I loved you. Now, what does that mean?

It means I love what Brother Otis has called for. It's not a decision that he made. He did not make a decision to choose you because He's always loved you.

He didn't have to make that decision. That's a great teaching. I'll always remember it all my days on this earth.

Verse 9, know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love

Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. Our salvation is a result of His great love for us from eternity past.

Ephesians 1 verses 4 through 8 testifies to that. Now, I'm going to go back. I wanted to read it but we're running out of time.

I'm going to go back into Deuteronomy verse 21. Thou shall not be affrighted at the enemy for the

Lord thy God is among you a mighty God and terrible. Gentlemen, you don't have to worry about that picture, that window with that thing looking in.

You don't have to be afraid of it. The only time you've got to fear it is if you're not on your knees praying, if you're complacent and it'll get right in the middle of your family and you'll be in this office over here for counsel with a demonized child or wife or yourself, then you'll be afraid.

But you don't have to have that fear because I'm telling you if you would just walk with the Lord daily and pray daily for your family, there is no reason to fear because demons and Satan cannot influence you or have any part of you unless you open the door.

As long as you have the armor of God, he is powerless in your life.

You don't have to worry You don't have to worry You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to be afraid of God. You don't have to worry

You don't have to worry And the power that comes from the devil hands and he comes into your hands, he that is in you and he can do anything that you were spoken about in Bible.

And he can do anything that you

Thou have destroyed them notice several things about this. God says he moves them out little by little

He doesn't move all your enemies out at one time We did the beast would come in lions and wild animals that even the enemy keeps away that teaches us there's a purpose for Satan and his demons and even for the evil people around you and God doesn't and even some of the problems with your own flesh

The sin problem God does not move all of it out in one moment of time because you couldn't handle it

But he is always in the process of moving them out always never ceasing

Defeating the enemy before you as you move into your Christian walk and at your family mature

And as you gentlemen mature as a Christian He is constantly defeating one enemy after the other and you never have to be afraid them because you're gonna meet

Jesus face -to -face One day and every one of them will have been destroyed Our victory is because he has ordained it

I Can show you this in Ephesians chapter 2 He hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ that in ages to come he might show the

Seeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ for by grace

Are you saved through faith that not of yourselves to get to God not of worthless and he managed it both for we are his workmanship

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we would walk in them

You shall have victory little by little line upon line as you go in his life

And then in Deuteronomy chapter 8, there's a warning This is a warning of compromise after economic blessing.

You see God does bless you gentlemen With economic blessing as you walk with him

Anything that you have provided for your family came from God not from your education not from your experience

Not from your strong hand. It came from God And so when you have things for your family, there's a warning about that Deuteronomy 8 11

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God and not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes

Which I command you this day Lest when thou hast eaten and art full

Has built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and flocks multiply that's your money your economy and Thy silver and gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied

Then thy heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God Which brought you out of slavery in the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led thee through that great terrible wilderness

That pictures your Christian growth and all the growth things you went through to grow wherein were fiery serpents scorpions drought

Those are all the things God brings to press you and mold you and make you strong spiritually where there was no water

Who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint who fed thee in the wilderness with manna?

Which thy father's knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do the good

At the latter in now look at verse 17 And thou say in thy heart

My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this well

But thou should remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get well

And he may establish a covenant that you swear to the father As it is this day

So what God brings to your life to your family in the way of economic well -being Always remember it's

God that brought it the converse of that is never fear when you think you see your family falling

Economically and everything falling apart. Maybe you lose your job. Maybe the economy turns and your business is going down Maybe things aren't working like you thought they would

Have no fear Satan will bring fear But you need to dispel that fear by realizing that it is

God's right hand that brings wealth to your family Who can stop

God? Can the economy can Satan can your boss that fired you can the businesses isn't going well.

Can any of that stop God? So have no fear of these things. But on the other hand when you are doing well, don't forget

God Don't start thinking That's the warning a whole nation of men that go this way of forgetting

God leads to the destruction of the nation Did you hear me a? whole nation of men to become complacent in their well -being and Forget God leads to the destruction of that nation and that nation shall be destroyed in the same way that the nation that it destroyed

Destroyed Define that in verse 20 as the nation's which the Lord destroyed before your face

So shall you perish? Because you would not be obedient of the voice of the

Lord your God. You forgot that it's he that brought the well How do we prolong our days in the land

Deuteronomy chapter 5 33? You shall walk in all the ways the Lord your God has commanded you

That he may live and if you may do be well with you And if you may prolong your days in the land, which you shall possess

And the Bible goes in in chapter 6 and talks about many of the ways that you're to teach your children

I can sum it up in a minute First thing is you should live right in front of your children

Live right before the Lord lead by example Chapter 6 verse 1

Deuteronomy. Now, these are the commandments and statutes of the Lord that God teaches you

That you might do them in the land where you go to possess it That thou mightest fear the Lord your

God to keep all his statutes and his commandments Which I commanded thee thou and thy son and thy son's son all the days of the life and the days

That your days may be prolonged here. Therefore. Oh Israel observe to do it that it may go well with thee

And that you may increase mightily As the Lord God of our fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey

You should walk with the Lord in front of your children and they should be able to see that on a daily basis

Not when you're at church not Sunday school. Not when you're having devotion time at home if you do that Whatever it's not those times it's all the other times that they do walk in your daily life

Next thing is you should let your children see you loving the Lord not just hear that you love the

Lord Let your children see you loving the Lord not just hearing you say that you love the

Lord verse 4 here Oh Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy

God with all your heart Not your mouth, but your heart your soul and with all your might that's doing that's action

Your mind is action. They see you doing things to prove to them that you love God and thirdly fathers

You must let your children see that you love God's Word verse 6 and these words which

I command thee to stay Shall be in your heart and fourthly fathers only then can you teach the children the

Word of God? In the way, which will cause them to remember it Verse 7 says you teach them diligently

Delta diligently in the Hebrew means to to point out to pierce It's translated to prick to sharpen to wet.

You must wet their appetite for God's Word. You can't make it dry You can't make it like last

Sunday sermon that I preached that everybody my family laughed about on the way home five points of law

Boy, that's exciting You can't you know, sometimes you can make it that way but not every time

You have to wet their appetite for it secondly teach God's Word in the home That comes at the end of verse 7 and shall teach them when thou sittest in thy house

But look at look at this third point teach God's Word as you walk with the children in Life, I have always thought this if you have to give if you have two things gentlemen

You have a family altar. It's a formal time when the children sit around in a circle you teach them the word

That's okay And the second thing you have is when you're out playing you're at the park It's not has nothing to do with Bible time and all of a sudden you look up at a beautiful tree

They can't God make beautiful things If you're gonna leave one of the two out leave the formal altar time out and do the second

Let your children see you appreciate and love God as you walk with them.

Look at look at this Yes, we teach God's Word in the home and shall talk with them when you sit in the home

But look at the rest of this verse 7 and when thou walkest by the way

When you're just walking by the stream with them when you're fishing with them when you're hunting with them

When you're looking at a sunset with them when you're driving down the highway on a vacation with them when you're in the backyard

With them you let the child know that you're aware of God's presence and that he made everything that's there and your child's faith will be

Stronger than any man who all he does is have a formal Bible study with his kids every night

And I'm not saying that's bad, but it is bad if you don't do the other Does they have to see

God your life? It's not formal. It's not academic It's a walk with a living

God who made everything around us and made it perfectly So teach them

God's Word when you walk by the way, you're looking at a stream like brother Otis does so well

He says everything that God put in nature. You can see Jesus in it It's not the same this morning in Sunday school.

He said how is a cloud like a Christian? When you're walking with your children and you see something in nature ask your child questions like that now

We're not all able like brother Otis to think of those Kind of questions, but if we put some thought into it

We can think of some questions that will cause our children to have a hunger and a thirst for knowing about God It works better in the way while you're just doing playing with your child

You're out having fun and you throw in a Bible principle that has to do with what you're doing and they see that it does and When you lie down and when you rise up, that's all the rest of the time

So make God's Word and his principles prevalent in your child's life and he sees that it's real with you

It's not an academic subject It's not a human religion It's a relationship with a living

God and then forth let God's Word be a real part of your life as you live day by day

Verse 8 says that and now shall find them That's God's Word as a sign upon your hand and you shall have them as front lists between your eyes

And now shall write them upon the posts of your house and on your gates The child sees

God's Word as a part of everything in your life Now this last little part here about on the post of your home I believe there's a principle there let your child know when they grow up and they go off to college

They may you know have friends and stuff. They may want to come around the house. You let your child know at that age

That as long as they were in your home and they even come back to visit your home They must respect

God's Word in your home and the way gentlemen that you've laid out your home They don't come back bring kids and smoke in the house

They don't come back bring anything in that house that you think is not appropriate under the Lord There are rules in that home even when they go off when they come back the rules are still there

That's a principle found in verse 9 and then 6 teach God's Word and principles From the

Word of God and teachable moments Never pass up such an opportunity with your children look verse 20 talks about it and when thy son asked you

In a time to come there's no better time when a human brain is open than when the human asks you a question

Now if they're not asking and you're just telling half the time we're not listening are we? But they come up and say would you explain this to me?

That's a teachable moment that when the child Asked you and in some day in time to come some day as they grow up a little bigger and they ask you saying

What mean the testimonies in the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?

Can you answer his question that child brings you a Bible question gentlemen? You're gonna take him to the pastor or will you know the answer you got to be in the word?

Then thou shalt say doesn't say then the priest shall say or then the preacher or then the Christian school teacher No, it says you then you shall say unto your son.

We were Pharaoh's bondman in Egypt Spiritualized that now what does that mean for us?

There was a time my child when I was as lost as the worst part of the world you see and God saved your father

God saved me one day give him your testimony Tell him a little bit how you speak tell him how you are now they asked so tell him

We Were under Pharaoh as bondmen in Egypt and the Lord brought me out of Egypt with a mighty hand he saved my soul

Why'd he do that? So he could bring me in to this relationship with him and I'm getting ahead of myself and the

Lord showed signs and wonders and great And soar upon Egypt God is powerful your child asked tell him about the power of God He brought these things upon Pharaoh upon all of his household before our eyes.

I'm a testimony my child I have seen God do these things you have not yet, but your dad has seen it.

You will see it someday I saw God in power in my life and he brought us out from thence verse 23

We're right back where we started the sermon Brought us out from hence that he might bring us in only difference is now you're teaching it to your child through that It's the first the sermon you were learning

To Give us the land which he swearing to our father and the Lord Commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the

Lord our God for our good my child It's for our good that God gives room And he might preserve us alive as at this day and it shall be our righteousness

If we observe to do or in our sense in the New Testament to trust all that the

Lord has said So we end where we began he brought us out that he might bring us in All the blessings of this nation the free gospel message going out the economic blessings because of Judeo -christian underpinnings of this nation

Check out the third world nations. They're based on Islam. They're based on Roman Catholicism They're based on Buddhism Hinduism in their third world.

They they're in they're just in poverty both intellectually and Economically our military might the peace here at home results from our military power to keep the enemy at bay

All of this is given to us All of these victories

These are given to us that we might just simply live victorious Abundant life and when we forget this

We forget that God brought this And Father we thank you for your word this morning

Thank you for these passages that give us such specific Guidelines as fathers for how to raise our children properly in the

Word of God how to protect our wives our families How all of that is placed upon us all of that responsibility is placed upon The father you told us not to fear it is an awesome job.

You've given us a fearful job But you've told us not to fear because really it's you that works in us

To work all this out for our family. We are merely ministers servants of yours towards our wife and our family our children

And even towards our society in this nation in the world We're your ambassador

Help us to walk in the power of Your righteousness Help it to come through as True righteous living

On our parts and where we fail you help us to confess and to be restored in fellowship with you that we might

Remain to have that powerful of the righteous Living a powerful effect in our family

Help us to understand that we're responsible that if that power is not there because it's not in our own life

Thank You Lord that you've given this church where the men really are the leaders And their families and in this church keep it so even under the next generation

Bless our fellowship together in a moment bless our food Bless our thoughts that we might remember these thoughts from today throughout this week and coming year