This morning we will be in Deuteronomy chapter 8, I would encourage you to turn their with me,

NASB

8 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers.

2 You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3 He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

Let’s pray

For the past few weeks i have been “honed” in on this word “remember.”  

We began with a call to remember the work of Christ seen in the life of Moses for he was a type of Christ, sent to his oppressed people living in a land of slavery, a land called Egypt.

It was by the initiative of God that Moses was sent, in order to redeem God’s people from their slavery.   In the same way Christ was sent to us, all because of God...

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

It was his great love for us, a love that was willing to come into this world, to set us free from a life of oppression, and redeemed us from the penalty of our sin.

And I don't know if you have seen in these past few years what I have seen, but it seems increasingly evident that people, christian and non-christian, have turned away from the truth, from this knowledge that sin exists and that it is sin that keeps us from hearing and doing the will of God.

For the unsaved, it seems every time you turn on the TV there is a new display of death.  More and more men have lost the conviction that there is a moral conduct that is required for us to live by.  

Murder and mass killings have become everyday news.  It seems to have become just another news topic.  Something we see happening and yet for the vast majority of us we remain unaffected by it.

For the church continues to decline in attendance, and less and less people can identify sin when they see it.

Back in March when we were studying the life of Gideon, this was the description of the world he lived in.  There was these public displays of murder as babies were murdered and offered on the idols of Baal.  

Sexual immorality was on the hilltops of the land for all to see, and just like TV today... people just walked on by like it was another day.  

Just this past Friday night, my family had the TV on and we were watching America’s got talent.  A family show as it is considered… In a moment of wickedness, two men came on stage completely naked holding only two frying pans to cover their shame.

My wife and I and the kids were in complete shock!  We ushered the kids out of the room as the crowd began laughing and cheering for these two wicked men.  

What have we come to in this land?

America is losing it’s grip on what is moral, on what is right and wrong… it is because right and wrong are no longer defined by God, for no one is reading His word.  Rather morality has been turned over to the general consensus of the people.

God help us!  We are in big trouble.    

For like in Gideon’s day, the god of Baal is alive and well.  Men are increasingly setting themselves free from the moral code of the Bible so that they can live for themselves and enjoy all that the world has to offer.

The father of lies, the great deceiver, called the devil has come to destroy us, and in reality he does not have to do much.  

All he has to do is keep the word of God from ever penetrating into the hearts of men.  

All he has to do is keep vigilant in stealing the seed that has been thrown onto the pathways and the roadways of where man is most.

The public squares of government.  The courts.  TV and the Superbowl games.  The internet and social media.

Once he plants his birds on the road and captures the seed, man will destroy himself.  

We are not inclined to want what is righteous, we are inclined to fulfill our fleshly desires.  

We are inclined to burn in our lust, to lie and cheat, we are inclined to want all that the world has to offer, and we likewise entangle ourselves in the weeds and thorns of this life that the devil has planted himself.

Christians, we need to remember why it is that Christ came.  He came to give us life! and freedom! from the enemy, from our flesh, so that we could enjoy his fellowship and his pleasures that are wrapped up in a love for him and a love for one another.

After we come to Christ and repent of our sins, and trust him as our lord and savior we then must learn and follow the commands written about in this book, called the Bible.

For in the Bible it contains the knowledge of where the dangers in this life exists.  God has given us good commands, good rules and principles for us to follow so that we can have life and a life without harmful consequences associated with a sinful life style.

A few weeks back we talked about remembering your Father’s commands...

They are there because he loves you!  He wants what is best for you!  He desires for you to enter into the land of prosperity and keep it, by living the way he has designed you to live.

Therefore, my friends, we all need to be resolute, to take our oath to our King and likewise know his commands by reading our Bible!  

The Bible contains the food on which we need to live on.  For you cannot live on the knowledge that it is in your head alone, it is deficient, it is selfish, it is not like the Word of God.  

And we cannot live solely on the combined life experiences that we have had.  We cannot live on the world's wisdom even if we went to the best colleges in the entire country.

It is not sufficient.  It is not good enough.  All of this worlds experiences and understandings are already sinful because it has come from the fallen mind of sinful people.

The only truth you should be living on, is the truth that is found in this holy book!  

And you cannot live on it, if you are not reading it, and if you are not eating it!

We are reminded in verse 3 that Man cannot live on bread alone, on this world alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  

This is our bread, this is His words.  We need to Eat it and live!

Far too many of the world’s christians can’t find their Bible.  In fact they haven’t seen their Bible in years.  

Want to know why?  The devil has hid it in their houses.  He has swooped down like a bird and taken the seed away.  

He buried it a box they never look in.  He has turned it backwards in the bookcase so they don’t see it.  He has filled their life with work and debt so they don’t have the time to read it.  

And he has covered it with the junk of this life knowing that they are too lazy to clean and unbury it to use it.

Church, we must never forget the commands of our Father, and the only way to remember them is to read them daily.

We should be thanking God for being so gracious and patient and a loving father toward us, for if any earthly father had children who never sought to obey their commands, we, as a whole of earthly fathers would be so less patient than he is.  

God is patient, and yet He will let you starve yourself by not reading his word.  

He will let you fail and come to the end of yourself.  He will let you believe in your fallen mind that you are beyond hope so that when he shows up, and reveals his goodness to you, you are humbled by his goodness.

We must not forget then how he humbled us.  How he embarrassed us, when we were so full of ourselves in our pride thinking we could handle life all on our own.  

As christians, we should know better.  We should humble ourselves daily by doing what he has commanded us to do so that we do not have to be humbled by him.

Things like forgiving our families, forgiving our enemies, and forgiving ourselves.  

Things like loving one another deeply, and loving our enemies, and loving ourselves enough to take care of ourselves and so on...

You see God has already given us everything that we need.  

He has provided us with his Bible.  A book that is full of provisions for us as we travel through life.

This book is perfect for us when we are young christians and just learning about him, till when we are old and have been been walking with him for 40 years or more.

What he has provided for us does not ever have to be replaced.  We will never need any other book more than this one that is on your hands.

For example, It will always be relevant to the day we live in.  These were the commands given to the people of Israel back before they had ever entered into the promised land.  

These commands were relevant then, it was relevant in christ’s day as he quoted from them, and it is relevant for us today.  This word is so special, so amazing, that it is all we will ever need.

Look at the example in Deuteronomy 8 and verse 4.

The NASB says, “Your clothing did not wear out on you.”

The KJV says, “Thy Raiment did not wax old upon thee.’

This word Raiment is the Hebrew word - simlah [sim-law]. It carries with it the idea of a cover that assumes the shape of the object beneath.

In some languages, like Hebrew, there are both masculine words and feminine words, The Female version of this word would mean to 5566 (reassemble).  

And that is also interesting because what the Bible is not saying directly - is that it is not specifically talking about clothes.  That would have been the word salmah - 8008 (clothes).  

Rather it is saying that this was a Square piece of cloth like a wrapper or mantle, which did not wear out.  

It did not become too small, like as you grew, but somehow it grew with you.  It reassembled itself to always being just what you needed as you traveled along with God.  

It was the perfect provision.  It was completed, in perfect condition, never needing replacement, and always usable.

That is what the Bible is for us!  

It is our raiment, our wrapper, our picture of Jesus christ’s sacrifice on the cross that puts us in right standing with the Father.  

For we wrap ourselves in his righteousness.  But we have to learn about it, we have to read it, we have to believe it, we have to look like him, and……. how do we do this without the word of God?

The word of God, properly applied to a person's life changes a man.  They look differently than the rest of the world.  

They also act differently because we think differently thanks to the word of God.  This holy book never grows old, never wears out, it is the perfect provision for every stage of life.

Even as a church, there is nothing we need more than a dedicated mindset to not compromise on how we “look” to the rest of the world.  

We do not need man’s wisdom to reach the lost.  The lost needs the provisions of the Word of God.  

The world is out there dancing with two frying pans thinking that it it can cover their shame but they look nothing like a child of God.  

A child of God embraces the word of God, then clothes himself with the truths of this book, and presents himself unique to the world.

Now... by contrast, what happens when we don’t use the provisions of God?  

What happens when we do things in our own strength?  

We blister, we bleed, we have hurts in our life that was not the intention of God for you to have.

In Deuteronomy 8:4 it finishes by saying, “neither did thy foot swell.”

In the Hebrew this should be literally translated, “Neither did thy foot swell AS you walked along; your foot did not blister; you were able to endure.”

That is what a life dedicated to the teaching of God’s word does to your life.  It causes you to live life free from the friction of the world which would cause you to swell or to blister.

Friends we know what that looks like.  We know when we have a sore caused by sin and pride.  

Perhaps, we have a relationship in our lives that is causing friction in our lives because we have not forgiven them.  And now that relationship is swelled up with hurtful comments, hurtful memories, it has blistered by the constant rubbing of arguments against one another.

Christian, pop that thing!  

Let all that puss ooze out and drain out so you can be healed.  God’s word tells us that when we are walking with him, in the light of his commands, in his ways, that we will be free from these sores of life!

Here’s a question: When we are wearing our spiritual outfits, our armor, what do we have our feet shod with? High heels?

“the preparation of the gospel of peace”

The Gospel… which brings peace.

When you are dressed with the Word of God, because you have prepared yourself for the journey,  your feet will run to peace.  You could walk for forty years, because with his boots your feet will not blister!

These aren’t uncomfortable boots you are wearing, these are the boots fitted perfectly so that you can endure under any circumstance, under any trial, because your mind and heart is filled with the peace that comes from this book, from him!

This past week has been extremely exhausting at a personal level for me.  

You see I left you on Sunday and worked at my other job for Lowes on both Monday and Tuesday.  When i got there on Monday I went up to my boss and asked why she had scheduled me to work on a box truck on the following day rather than on the tandem (the large flatbed)?  

The reason for my question was that the box truck guys work a different schedule than what I work.  And sometimes they don’t finish till 7 ro 8 o’clock at night.  

Inside then you see, I am already hesitant about working that truck because if I commit to being flexible in that way, I may lose my ability to leave as close to 3 as possible which is important because that is how I maintain my ministries in the evening,

I still want to be part of our Bible studies at the Ross’s house, I still need to make Elder’s meetings and be here for the meetings of the church.  

I still have a service to do at Tioga county jail in the evenings on Thursday nights, and I minister to the juveniles at 330 on fridays and do a recovery group on Friday nights at 6.

She says, “well… I thought you might want to change it up a bit.”  I said, “no ma’am, I do not want change.  I want to make my commitments to ministry.”  

With her blessing, I talked with another driver and swapped my shift with his so that I could maintain my hours on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, my boss sends me a message that I will no longer be able to work only two days a week.  

It is now required that I work a minimum of three days a week and that I work any day of the week and any hour of the day.  Sure enough, they posted the new schedule and overlapped a time I needed to be at jail.

Now... I wouldn't be working at Lowe’s if i did not need the money.  But I had choice to make.  Do I blister myself trying to hold onto this great hourly rate and do ministry, or do I walk with God in the truths of His word, believing that he will cover me with his provisions as I continue to walk the road of ministry which he has clearly called me to do?  

Now I am not saying that I do not have to work, I do need to raise more support for prison ministry being only at 65% of my goal.  

Margo will also have to work more hours at her job, which is what she is willing to do.  I may have to find a job where I work one day a week, I do not know, but the point is, how much of my life is being lived out in obedience to God’s word?  

And if it is not in line with God’s word, can I admit that there is friction, that there is a blister which needs to be dealt with so that I can live in harmony with how God intended me to live?

It is so easy for us to forget, that God created a perfect world.  There was no friction when he created it.  It wasn’t until sin entered the world that there became consequences to living outside his will.

So let me ask you directly, is there friction in your life?

Is there a blister from walking your own road?

Are you on your own road because you are not reading God’s word daily?

Do you know what his commands are?  

Church let me give you a commandment that cuts to the chase.

1 John 4:19-21 Amplified Bible (AMP)

19 “We love, because He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should also [unselfishly] love his brother and seek the best for him.”

It is possible, that many Christians are not reading their Bible enough to read this command?  Is it possible that there is a Christian, hopefully not in this room, but a christian walking around with bare feet?  Feet that are all sore and blistered because they have not spent time preparing their shoes for walking and likewise do not know the way of the Lord?

If only these bare footed Christians would read things like:

Psalms 119:1-8 in the MSG Bible says it this way,

“You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him.

That’s right!—you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set.

You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it. Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set; Then I’d never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel.

I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways. I’m going to do what you tell me to do; don’t ever walk off and leave me.”

That is a picture of a life who knows how to walk with the Lord.  Their raiment never waxed old, and their feet never blistered.

Let me close with one more thought, because it perhaps is the best thought of these few verses.

Look at Deuteronomy 8:5

“Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son .”

This phrase, “Thou shalt also consider” is one big verb.  In the Hebrew, it is the word - yada [yaw-dah] meaning to ascertain by seeing, or by feeling, with all of your senses.

What is he saying?  

Remember... think about about how I provided perfect clothing for you that never faded, that you never grew out of.  

Remember seeing it always on you, and how it felt.  Use all of your senses to remember how perfectly I provided for you so that even your feet did not hurt when you walked with me, and learned from me.

So say it this way, “Thus you are to know in your heart [with all of your senses] that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son .”

In the KJV “discipline” is changed for “Chasteneth”, and perhaps that is the better word in our English because in the original text this word is marked with an intensive stem, it is rightly defined as an intensive verb, like the difference between, “He broke, compared to He smashed!”

It is an intensive type of action or with an active voice.  The word is yacar [yaw-sar] meaning to chastise, literally with blows.  Or fig. (with words) like to instruct, to punish, reform, teach. And it is written in the second person masculine - so he is writing to you!

So say it this way… “Thus you are to know in your heart, with everything that you are, using all your senses, that the Lord your God, was disciplining you, was reforming you, was teaching you,  just as a man disciplines his son.”

That end part…  “just as a man disciplines his son” always gave me a negative feeling.  Like remember when I gave you that spanking?  Cross me again and you will not sit for a week!

But this would not fit the text for he displays his goodness describing the raiment which never failed, and their feet which never swelled, and he connects those positives to this verse with the word “thus”.

4 “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

And what I came to realize, is that God does not betray his character.  He is not reminding them of their sins and likewise their beatings.  

He is not saying I remember your past sins and how I had to beat it out of you!

If he had said, “remember how I opened up the earth and swallowed you up?” Then he could not say what he did in…

Psalms 103 NASB verse 6

6 The Lord performs righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
9 He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

13 Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
14 For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.

You see, Instead of remembering our faults which he promises to not do...  he recalls to their attention the good he did in their life.

How he spent the last forty years providing for their every needs.  How he pursued them with his teachings and supplied them with his daily bread.

In this way, I treated you like a Father.  Giving you what was good for you.  Providing for you in all the best possible ways.  I took compassion on you.

The challenge for us is just the same as it was for these people listening to the words of Moses before entering into the promised land.  

Do you remember your provisions?

Do you remember how a loving and compassionate God provided exactly what you needed when exactly you needed it?

I would like for you to consider this week, How has God taught you about how good and loving he is these past forty years?  

Name His blessings and know that He was disciplining you as a father disciplines his son...