What Do You See?

Audio Teaching

Notes

Introduction

Last Week: Deut. 7:12 ESV “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.”

This Week: Deut. 11:26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:”

• We see the blessing and the curse (11:26-28) (entirely in ch. 28).
• We see the Land God promised (11:29-32).
• Most importantly, we see the future residence of God (12:5).

Jerusalem: God’s Dwelling Place

Deut. 12:5 “But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,”

• Seek (H#1875): Frequent, worship toward, care for, require.

The place the LORD will choose: Deut. 12:5, 13-14, 18, 26; 15:20; 16:2, 6-7, 11, and 15-16.

• Jerusalem is the place Daniel prayed toward (Dan. 6:10).
• Psa. 122:6-7 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! 7 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”
• Psa. 125:2 “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.”
• Psa. 135:21 “Blessed be the LORD from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!”
• David mentions Jerusalem seventeen times in his Psalms.
• Psa. 137:5-6 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!”
• Isa. 2:2-3 (The Word comes forth from Jerusalem, the highest mountain) and 60:1-14 (see also ch. 66).
• Zech. 14 – all nations will go to Jerusalem.
• Ezek. 40-44: The Third and final Holy Temple after the battle of Gog and Magog (ch. 38-39).
• Yeshua wept over Jerusalem and set His face towards Jerusalem.

(Recommended Reading: Facing Jerusalem by Waller and Hilton and The Truth About Palestine: Lars Enarson)

The Problem of Idolatry and False Prophecy

Deut. 12:1-5 and 12:29-13:18

• Israel was not to be ensnared by other gods.
• They were not to worship God the way pagans worshipped their gods.
• 1 Jn. 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
• Matt. 7:15-27
• The churches in Revelation:
  • Ephesus: Rev. 2:4-5 (abandoned first love).
  • Pergamum: Rev. 2:14-15 (Balaam: prophecy for money and tempt with idolatry and immorality. Nicolations: Immorality).
  • Thyatira: Rev. 2:20-23 (Immorality, food sacrificed to idols, tolerated false prophets and false prophecy) – “I will give to each of you according to your works.”
  • Sardis: Rev. 3:1-3 (Their works were incomplete).
  • Laodicea: Rev. 3:15-22 (Thought they had need of nothing)
    • be zealous (do good works) and repent.
    • He’s knocking on the door of the Church, not the sinner’s hangout.
  • Idolatry and false prophecy are always connected.
    • Through false prophecy, we have idolized signs and wonders.
    • Through false prophecy, we idolize men and follow them even when their prophecies continue to fail.

Where Are We Looking?

• We need to turn our faces and our hearts towards Jerusalem.
• When we convert to Christianity, are we converting to Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or being Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, or Presbyterian? No. We are giving up our godless ways to follow a Jewish Rabbi named Yeshua.
• Jn. 10:14-18
• One flock who doesn’t cast off God’s Law for Church Doctrine.
• One Shepherd: A Jewish Rabbi, King of the Jews, and King of Kings.
• Will we allow ourselves to see?
  • The importance of Jerusalem
  • The danger of Idolatry and false prophecy
  • The benefit and blessing of eating kosher and keeping the Feasts. (Deut. 14 and 16:1-17)
    • Progression, not perfection.
    • Start simply by cutting out unclean foods.
    • Going Kosher in 30 Days by Rabbi Zalman Goldstein
  • All of God’s Commandments are about closeness.
  • Read Psalm 15 this Shabbat