Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, welcome to Living Hope Church. Good morning, everyone.
[00:00:05] Good morning. Good morning. If you have a Bible with you, open your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy. We've been going through a series beginning the beginning of this year, the start of the year, walking through the Old Testament. How many? Pop quiz again, how many books are in The Old Testament?
[00:00:19] 39. And for those of you who didn't know, now you do. The first book of the Old Testament is called Genesis. And the last book of the Old Testament is called Malachi. Now I want to encourage you to think through something. Hopefully you've been reading through the Old Testament with us as we started off this at the beginning of the year. One of the things that is just a helpful tool to have tucked away in your back pocket is knowing the Old Testament books of the Bible in order.
[00:00:49] And so I want to encourage you, if you don't know the Old Testament books of the Bible in order, Genesis to Malachi, have it memorized so you don't have to flip through the Old Testament, try to remember where it is or look at the table of contents. I want to encourage you right now, challenge you between now and maybe even the end of the year or before, memorize the books of the Old Testament in order. Now some of you might be thinking that's pretty crazy, right? Any of you thinking that seems like overwhelming. I want to just let you know, not to shame you in any way, but in our awana group that we have here, there's a group called sparks. They're ages 5 to 7 year old. And now you're going, oh great.
[00:01:30] One of the things they need to do is memorize all of the books of the Bible in order.
[00:01:35] So there you go. The five to seven year olds can do it. You can do it too.
[00:01:41] The books of the Old Testament. Let's just start there. If you want to be an overachiever and do all of the books of the Bible, you can do that. But encourage you, the books of the Bible, the books of the Old Testament even particularly see if you can begin memorizing that in order.
[00:01:54] I know that you can.
[00:01:55] Deuteronomy is where we're gonna be today. Let me just give you just a really brief synopsis of what is going on with the title of the book. Because this is not a word that we use a whole often. I mean, how many of you used the word Deuteronomy this last week in normal conversation? Anybody? Now words like Genesis that might come up in conversation, perhaps even I got a revelation from Something, and maybe a word like there was this mass exodus of whatever it was. But Deuteronomy is not a term that we use a whole lot, really, any other time than right here. What does this word mean? Where does it come from? It is actually. It's the last book of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. And the name, actually, the word comes from kind of a transliteration of something that means second law. Can you say that with me? Second law. And if we were to say that in Hebrew, because that's cool, right?
[00:02:47] Is Mishnah Torah. Can you say that? Mishnah Torah. And that comes from a particular verse in chapter 17, verse 18, where it says, this is the second law or a second writing of something that has been written before. Now, when you hear the name, the definition, second law, you might be thinking, well, we've already heard this before, so why are we doing it again?
[00:03:11] Well, let me just give you peace of mind there. This book, though there's many places throughout the book that we see a repetition of laws that we've heard, the book is very, very different than a book like Leviticus or Exodus. And we're going to see that as we go through this book together.
[00:03:28] Let's pray, and then we will dive right into our time.
[00:03:32] Lord Jesus, we're so grateful that we can come together this morning and sing the songs that we did, reminding ourselves of your incredible grace and mercy in our lives.
[00:03:45] That you are a great and powerful God. Holy.
[00:03:48] You are the rock of our salvation, the one who holds us together. That we can truly come before you with confidence this morning, knowing that because of what Jesus has done on our behalf, we can lay our burdens down before you and know that you can carry them.
[00:04:04] We can lay. We can confess things. We can agree with you about our life and know that you have forgiven.
[00:04:11] As we spend time here in your word, we ask that you would open our eyes and our hearts to the work that you want to do. That you would soften us so that whatever you want to say here, Lord, we would be changed because of what we see here. The things that I say, Lord, would be from you in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:28] All right, the snapshot. Let's just give a brief overview of what's going on here in this book. And then what you can do in your outline is you can just fill in the lines that you have. What's happening here in this last book of the Torah. The Torah means the law, also sometimes called the Pentateuch, the first five books of The Old Testament. Moses, the author, gives Israel final words to this nation that he's led out of Egypt. So there's a little bit of history there for you. He is the one who was born in Egypt. He lived in Egypt for 40 years. He ran away from Egypt. He lived as a Shepherd for 40 years. He. And in this last section of his life, it's three sections of 40 years. This last section of 40 years. He has been wandering in the wilderness for a long time with some people who are less than grateful for his leadership. And he's guided them through the wilderness, as you see on the screen there, for 40 years. He reminds them here in this book of what God has done. There's a few things here. He clarifies the instructions God has given in preparation for their new home. They've been waiting to enter this place called the Promised Land.
[00:05:33] And then he issues strong warnings. This is a major part of the book. He issues strong warnings about what will happen if they stray from the Lord. Read it with me, their God. Now, I draw that out here because that's an important piece for us to pay attention to. Over 250 times in these 34 chapters is the phrase the Lord your God used. Can we say that together? The lord your God 250 times throughout these 34 chapters? Moses says this over and over and over again because he wants them to understand something.
[00:06:06] This is not just me calling you to pay attention to a few things that have happened before or remember what has happened. He wants them to pay attention to this fact.
[00:06:17] God, who you believe is real, needs to be your Lord, the Lord of your whole entire life. And that principle permeates the entire book that we are gonna walk through here. So Deuteronomy is not like many of the other books that we've looked at before. Deuteronomy is actually a series of sermons.
[00:06:38] It's perhaps actually the longest sermon in the Bible.
[00:06:43] And so what does that mean? I get to do, have the longest sermon? Not really. I won't. Deuteronomy, though, presents Moses standing in this place called the Plains of Moab in Israel. Two and a half million people or so are assembled before him. And this is his last sermon.
[00:07:01] And when he completes it, what we're going to see at the very end of the book, when he completes it, he says goodbye. He climbs up on a mountain called Mount Nebo, and he dies.
[00:07:13] I ask myself this question every once in a while. What if this was my last sermon?
[00:07:19] What would I say?
[00:07:22] What would be the things that would be Important to bring up.
[00:07:26] This is Moses last sermon before a nation that he has led for 40 years.
[00:07:32] This is his. Perhaps if you've ever been next to somebody who is on their deathbed, you pay attention to every word that they say.
[00:07:40] We remember the last words of friends and family who have died because those words are important, perhaps their most important things that they want to share with the world before they leave this earth. That's what we see here with Moses, if we were to consider it. Perhaps this is. He's not actually on his deathbed, if you will, but these are his last words, words that we should pay attention to. And unlike somebody who's on their deathbed who can't move and can't talk very well or very loudly, we see at the tail end of this book something interesting about Moses. His eyes are still sharp. He's still able to walk. It says that his eyes are undimmed. He still has energy and vigor. It wasn't like, I'm slowing down and he has a walker or he has a cane or someone's pushing him along in a wheelchair. That wasn't the case with Moses. He still had lots of energy, but his time had come to an end because of something that he had done before. God said, you're not going to go into the promised land. And Moses knew that.
[00:08:40] So let's look at the basics. If you have your Bibles open to Deuteronomy, chapter 1, the first four verses actually answer the questions that we're gonna see. These three points on this basics point, on your outline, who's the author and the audience, the timeline and the location. So verses 1 through 4 actually answer that question. So we could just read some of that. If you have your Bibles open, you should be looking there. These are the words that. If you have your Bibles open, you should be reading that with me. Verse one of chapter one, These are the words that. Who?
[00:09:09] Moses. So who's the author?
[00:09:11] Moses spoke to all of Israel. Who's the audience?
[00:09:15] Israel. Beyond the Jordan, in the wilderness. What's the location?
[00:09:22] There you go. So they're in this place beyond the Jordan. So there's a Jordan river here. There's the Jordan River. If we were to have. Here's the river, just imagine there. They're on the east side of the river. The. The Jordan river they have to cross. You know the story when Joshua starts off, what's the big giant place that they need to defeat? And the walls come crumbling down. What's that city called? Jericho. So they're Sitting over here right now, there's the Jordan River. There's a mountain right here called Mount Nebo that Moses is going to climb up later and he's going to be able to see all of this promised land over here. So the people are waiting here. And Moses is giving his last massive major sermon, this message to the nation. And he's gonna, many times through this book, he says, hey, you're about to cross over. You're about to cross over. When you get into the promised land, remember this. So that's the location that we're sitting in. And then the timeline is a little harder to see. If you wanna write this in, this is. You can see on the screen 1400 years, 1405 BC so before Christ, it's been 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. And so what we see now is Moses is. If you remember I said this earlier, how old is Moses?
[00:10:29] 120 years old. Any of you know somebody 120 years old?
[00:10:33] I don't either. But Moses, he has had quite a life, but he's not old and frail. He has vigor. His eyes were ready, his voice was still strong. So we see here that he now is going to give this massive sermon to these people. Are you ready for it? There's three main lessons that he wants.
[00:10:53] The first of them we see in chapters one through 11. You can keep going there to the lessons, chapters one through 11.
[00:11:00] Unlike before, we've kind of had locations that we've walked through or big ideas here. These are messages or lessons or major points in this sermon, if you will, from Moses.
[00:11:12] Lesson 1. Be faithful to God as he has been faithful to you. This is what we see, the main thrust of his point in chapters one through 11. Be faithful to God as he has been faithful.
[00:11:23] So chapter, the chapter starts off as we saw in verses one. And for the first few verses, he says, here's the speaker, here's the location. This is when this is happening. But then he jumps right in, in verse 5, look in your Bibles there. He jumps right in with this very long history lesson. How many of you like history?
[00:11:41] Moses gives these people a very long history lesson, starting in chapter one and going through the next few chapters because of something important that we need to remember.
[00:11:51] Everybody there, other than Moses, Caleb and Joshua, everybody there is younger than 60 years old. And a bunch of those people are younger than 40, which tells us this. The people that Moses is talking to, they were kids in Egypt or they have been born in the wilderness. So they have forgotten many, many things. So Moses starts off with this lesson about being faithful to God, as he's been faithful to you. With this reminder, I want you to remember all that God has done. He calls them to this over and over. And so if you look in your Bibles, the first few chapters, it's literally just Moses saying, here's what has happened. Here's what has happened. Here's what has happened. And then he says this in chapter six, flipping your Bibles, he says something that the Israelites pay attention to, and even to this day called the Shema. Can you say that with me? The Shema. And it's calling Israel to hear. Can you say hear? Hear. And that word, Shema, it doesn't just mean hear like listen, like I heard something. It means pay attention.
[00:12:53] This is important.
[00:12:55] Look in chapter six, verses four through nine. I put it on the screen. This is actually also. If you have been memorizing our verse of the month, this has been. This is a part of the verse of the month. Here's what it says. Chapter six, verses four through nine. This encapsulates much of what Moses wants them to understand in these first 11 chapters. Look what it says. Hear, O Israel. That's where we get this idea. This Shema, this. Pay attention. The Lord your God, the Lord is one you shall. This should sound familiar, by the way, to many of us, because the Israelites and even Jesus spoke about this thousands of years later or about 1,400 years or so later. The Lord your God.
[00:13:37] You shall love the Lord your God with all of your what, heart? And with all of your soul and with all of your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.
[00:13:52] You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk, by the way. And when you lie down when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Interestingly, even the There are some Jews today that will take this portion here that's written and put them on either pieces of paper or stone tablets, and they will wrap them and tie them on their head and wrap them on their arm when they pray. So even something that is taken very literally for some today, the last line there says, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Here's what he's saying is, don't forget.
[00:14:28] Please don't forget.
[00:14:32] Love God over all things.
[00:14:34] He has been faithful to you. And then chapters five and six, if you look there, it's actually a repetition of the Ten Commandments.
[00:14:42] And then chapter seven, if you look there in your Bible, God says something very, very important. And it's so important that it's worth us reading. Look in your Bibles, Chapter seven, God says some really important stuff for us to remember for the future. If you have your Bibles open, you should there look in chapter seven. It's not on the screen. So listen in here. Look in your Bibles. When the Lord your God brings you this is Moses speaking to the people. When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it and clears away the nations. And then he lists off some nations. The Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. Seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. Listen to what he says. And. And when the Lord your God, notice that phrase, again, gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall take no covenant with them and show them no mercy. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve their gods.
[00:15:45] Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and will destroy you quickly. But thus you shall deal with them. If we skip ahead a little bit further to verse six. For you were a people holy to the Lord your God. For the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession.
[00:16:04] Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, it is not because you were more numerous or there was more in number than any of the other peoples that the Lord set his love on you or chose you. For you were fewest among all people.
[00:16:17] But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping an oath that he swore to your fathers. He goes on in the midst of that and says, God has been faithful. He has shown up to you in powerful ways. And I don't want you to think that when you right, here's the Jordan river, here's where they are. When you cross over and you come into this land, I don't want you to think that you can live amongst all these pagan people because as we see later on, it says that God abhors what they're doing.
[00:16:47] Idolatrous people that are even Jonathan shared about some idolatry earlier that are even to the point of sacrificing their own family members before their various gods. Horrible things that are taking place here. God says, when you cross over, get rid of all of those people. They are doing horrible, horrible things. And by the way, when you get over there, don't get puffed up because you aren't winning because you're just awesome. You're winning because I am.
[00:17:16] The main point here is this. If you like to write things down, here's the main idea again, is this, is this is relational and responsive. God is saying this. I have shown myself loving. I have delivered you. I have sustained you. I have been merciful. Thus, here's your response.
[00:17:34] Love me over everything else. Be committed to me over everything else. I am a jealous God. I am merciful. I am God alone. There is no other gods out there. I have been faithful. I have loved you well. And so what's the right response? Be faithful back to me. Chapter 8 tells them, Again, love the Lord your God. Chapter 9 goes on. As we read already, be sure to pay attention to the fact that there's wickedness in the land.
[00:18:02] I'm giving you this land because I am a good and faithful God and I want you to be faithful to me. Remember what I have done and respond in like, isn't this what we can do today?
[00:18:12] We can remember what God has done in our life and then we can say, look how God has shown me love. I want to love him back.
[00:18:19] And that's what Moses is calling the people to do. Be faithful to God. Now, you might ask yourself this question. How do I demonstrate faithfulness to God? Because that's what God is calling them to do. He says, I've been faithful to you. I've met your needs.
[00:18:33] But God doesn't have needs that we can meet.
[00:18:36] So how do we be faithful to God? That's the question, and it's very clearly answered here. It's this obedience you want to show me. God says that you're going to be faithful to me as I have been faithful to you. It's by obeying the things that I've asked you to do that I've called you to do. And more specifically, it's obedience not just in the public space, but in the private space.
[00:18:59] It's when no one else is watching. Are you doing what I have asked you to do? Now? Do we know what God has asked us to do?
[00:19:06] Very clearly, right?
[00:19:08] Very, very clearly. And Moses plea, is this in the small things and in the big things.
[00:19:15] Show the world that I have impacted your life. Which is the next Point here, Lesson two, that Moses looks at, look in your bibles there, chapters 12. And following this is now a plea that Moses has, because quite literally, it is a plea he's calling these people to remember and to respond rightly to God's faithfulness.
[00:19:35] Lesson two, here in chapters 12 through 26, here's the big idea. Your daily life should reflect your identity as God's people.
[00:19:45] And so as we look at this, this is actually where, if we were to look at the most places, where there's repetition between like Leviticus and Numbers and Exodus, with this second law that we're kind of looking at here in Deuteronomy, These chapters, chapters 12 through 26, is the place we're going to find the most repetition. This is really where this came from, this second law. We also see a few new ones. But the big idea is your whole life should change because of what God has done, not just a small part of it. Not just a small part of it. Many of you know that even in the midst of Christianity and all of that, the word that can be used at times that can be hard to hear is that Christians can just be hypocrites. Have you heard that?
[00:20:33] Which is sad, right?
[00:20:35] And that's what we're seeing Moses calling the people to here. Don't be hypocrites.
[00:20:41] See how God has worked in your life. Now, don't say it's okay. Even as we heard Jonathan talking about earlier, going to church and all, that's fine. But when I go to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I'm gonna do whatever I want here, Moses lays out very, very practical laws for the people to say, this is how God influencing your life should look. And he speaks to things like social justice, moral purity, ritualism, worship in the tabernacle, weighing honest weights and measures, family life, kingship, supporting the poor, neighborhood, debt cancellation, tithing festivals. He talks about all sorts of things in these chapters with this whole focus.
[00:21:22] God is holy. That is, God is separate and special and unique, and you should be too. Now, as you look through this, maybe just flipping your Bibles through some of this, you're gonna see some interesting laws. How many of you have read through some interesting laws in the Bible before?
[00:21:37] You're like, what on earth is going on here? Some of them, as you read through it, you're like, that doesn't seem.
[00:21:43] Have any of you run into passages like that? You read through some laws and you're like, is that they're giving some laws, for example, about slavery?
[00:21:52] Wait a minute. Does that mean that God's cool with that. There's some reading tips I want to offer you. Three reading tips as you read through, particularly like Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and particularly even Deuteronomy. And it's this. Three things to keep in mind as you read through this, especially when you run into some confusing things.
[00:22:10] Firstly, the laws here are for ancient Israel not speaking to us today. So just because we see laws about, for example, how the Sabbath should be practiced, how far people should be walking, dietary things. I mean, many of you eat bacon here, so you know that some of this is okay being for ancient Israel.
[00:22:31] Firstly, not for Christians today. These are for ancient oaths. Secondly, we can't compare them directly with modern laws, because what Israel was supposed to do is as they were given these laws, they're gonna go into much worse nations. And so the comparison that we see is not just what does this say? And what's my understanding of our cultural laws? But what does this say compared to the laws of the land that they were about to walk into? Does that make sense? So the comparison is actually very different.
[00:23:02] How they were to live was actually incredibly different and much better than the laws of the land that they were about to walk into.
[00:23:10] The laws given them were to set them apart as more holy than their neighbors. And yes, they seem strange to us, considering our own culture, but as they walked into that new land, all of those people would have said, there's something different about you folks.
[00:23:29] They would have caught that. And then thirdly, it's this.
[00:23:33] As Christians today, right post resurrection Christians, people who have the whole Bible, our job as we look at this, to do this, discern the core principles underlying the law.
[00:23:45] Discern the core principles underlying the law. And as you do that, you will see these laws in a different light altogether.
[00:23:53] As you look through, if you're flipping in your Bibles, chapters 12 through 16 focuses on worship and how to do that, right?
[00:24:00] Chapters 17 and 18 speak about leadership. Chapters 19 through 25 is things like civil laws, social laws, moral laws. That's the justice system. Because what God is doing, we have like something called the Constitution, right? We have laws that help us govern our land. Did they have anything like that?
[00:24:19] Not until God gave it to them.
[00:24:21] So God is establishing a nation and he's saying, if you will, here's the laws that you should live by. This is the right way to live. And he's having Moses is speaking it all, and they're gonna write it down. And these folks are supposed to, every seven years, call all the assembly together and read through the law of God so that they can, in front of everyone, remember the lesson that they have been given. What's the big idea here? Your daily life should reflect what your identity as God's people. And that's what Moses wants them to understand. So 3400 years later for us today, what does this look like?
[00:25:01] At my work, I don't steal time or steal money.
[00:25:06] And I treat my co workers, my employees, and my boss with respect.
[00:25:10] If we were to shift this forward 3400 years, this is what we would be hearing. In my marriage, I treat my spouse the way I would treat them in front of somebody that I respect.
[00:25:21] As a parent, I don't treat my children with contempt, with anger, but rather with love and with care and with honor. As God's children that are on loan to me with my money, I treat it as though it were God's and I'm just a steward for a time with my friends. I don't hide the fact that I follow Jesus and they will expect my attitude, my emotion, my actions to display the convictions that I have as a follower of Jesus.
[00:25:52] That's what that would look like for us. Now, perhaps you might be in a situation where you're like, I don't see that in my life. I don't see myself with my spouse or with boyfriend or girlfriend or my parents or my friends or my co workers. I don't see myself living like that. And I would ask you three questions and. And here's the three questions very briefly. One, are you a follower of Jesus? Because the promise of God is this. When you trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside of you and will change you. How many of you have been changed by God?
[00:26:22] The second thing is this. I know I'm a follower of Jesus, but I'm still not seeing my life changed. The second word I would consider here for you is this. Are you submitting to the Holy Spirit's voice in your life?
[00:26:33] Are you saved? Are you submitting to the Holy Spirit's voice in your life? Because I promise you, he's saying something.
[00:26:41] And thirdly, not just are you saved and are you submitting, but are you seeking the Lord? Right? We're called to seek the Lord with all of our hearts to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, right?
[00:26:54] So are you saved? Are you submitting? Are you seeking? And when you do those things in that order, you will see that your daily life will reflect your identity as someone who is a child of God.
[00:27:05] Lesson three that we see in these final chapters in chapters 27 through 34. Here's the big lesson, the big point, if you will, in Moses, big old sermon here, and it's this.
[00:27:16] Your choices matter deeply.
[00:27:21] And then he pleads with them, will you please choose God's way?
[00:27:27] Chapters 27 through 28, he says this. He's like, when you cross over, anyone who does things to you that aren't right, God will be on your side, and there will be curses upon them. But also, if you choose to completely ignore God, you'll experience all sorts of punishment and hardship. So chapters 27 and 28 is all about this. Instructions and blessings and curses. There's this phrase, if you obey, can you say that with me?
[00:28:01] If you obey? Moses over and over says that, because what he's aiming at here is your choices. They matter.
[00:28:08] There's significance to them.
[00:28:10] How many of you played in the snow before and you've made a snowball?
[00:28:14] What happens if you take a snowball and you keep rolling it? What happens?
[00:28:17] It gets bigger. How many of you played with dominoes before? What happens if you line them all up, you stand them all up and you push one of them over, the rest of them fall down, right? You can see that whole line. You can see that one small something that starts small can get bigger and bigger and bigger depending on what you do with it. You can have one action that suddenly impacts the rest. Now, you know this in your life, don't you?
[00:28:41] You've made some good decisions, and you can see how that one good decision has brought you to a much better place. And if you have experience like that, and you also have experiences making bad decisions too, don't you?
[00:28:52] I know I do. Where I made one choice that I shouldn't have. And then I see the rest of those consequences that happen.
[00:29:00] And this is what Moses is aiming at. Pay attention to your choices, because they matter. It may seem like a seemingly small decision right now, or I really, really want to right now, but later on in life, we're reaping the consequences, whether positive or negative consequences. And Moses, he keeps leaning into this big idea. Pay attention to how you choose to follow God, if you choose to ignore him, or if you choose to actually say, I'm going to treat him as the Lord my God, not just their God. It teaches timeless principles. Maybe you want to write some of these things down. Firstly, this actions have real consequences.
[00:29:37] Secondly, God's commands aren't arbitrary restrictions, but pathways to life and blessing and thirdly, even when we fail, repentance opens the door to restoration, because God is a God who is faithful.
[00:29:57] And the beautiful part of all this, if you have your Bible still open, flip to chapter 30, verse 19. There's this phrase that just encapsulates this pleading of moses before this three million people. Here's what he says in chapter 30, verse 19.
[00:30:12] Oh, that you would choose life.
[00:30:16] That's what he calls them to. And then he defines. In chapter 20 of. Sorry, verse 20 of chapter 30, he defines how to choose life. He says this. Look in your Bibles, verse 20 of chapter 30. Love the Lord your God, obey his voice and hold fast or cling to him above all else.
[00:30:36] Oh, that you would choose life is his cry.
[00:30:41] And perhaps you're uncertain. I don't know which way is God's way. And then he says, I've given you an instruction manual so that you can know.
[00:30:50] And here's his plea for us even 3,400 years later, friends, oh, that you and I would daily choose life.
[00:30:58] Because the consequences, the positive repercussions, if you will, the positive consequences of choosing God's word above everything else is life and blessing. If we go forward a little bit to chapter 31, look in your Bibles, it says. At least the heading in my Bible says, this Joshua is gonna succeed Moses.
[00:31:17] After that, we have an instruction in chapter 31 to reread the law every seven years.
[00:31:24] And then Moses does something in the tail end of chapter 31. And all of chapter 32, he does this. He says, hey, everybody, pay attention.
[00:31:32] I'm gonna teach you a song.
[00:31:34] Now, if you would like to know the longest song that's probably super hard to Remember, read chapter 32.
[00:31:40] Chapter 32 is literally a song of warning. And it says. He says this. I'm gonna teach you this song, everybody. And if you read through chapter 32, it's, if you do this, this is the consequence. If you do this, this is the consequence. And by the way, if you follow God, here is the blessing. If you follow God, here's the blessing. The whole chapter is. Pay attention.
[00:31:59] Your life matters. God wants to do good things in your life, but you have to choose to follow him.
[00:32:06] And then chapter 32, it's a blessing for every one of the tribes.
[00:32:11] And then the very end of the book is chapter what chapter?
[00:32:15] Chapter 34.
[00:32:18] My Bible entitles it the Death of Moses.
[00:32:24] Then Moses, verse one, went up from the plains of Moab, that's where they were, to Mount Nebo to the top of this And I don't have a picture of this on the screen or anything. But what he does is he goes, right, he climbs up, he leaves the plains, he climbs up this mountain and he looks over at the promised land that he's not gonna be able to enter at this time.
[00:32:45] And then it says that he dies and God takes his body and buries it in a place that we don't know.
[00:32:52] And who takes over leading Israel after him?
[00:32:55] Which if you flip one more page in your Bible, you will see it's the book of Joshua. And Moses has completed his journey of 40 years through the wilderness. And the last sermon is this what you just saw on your outline. Those main lessons, please don't forget God's faithfulness. Be faithful to him like he's been faithful to you.
[00:33:16] Don't forget that your whole life should be permeated with the presence of God in all the different private and public areas of your life. And lastly, as we saw in the third lesson, your choices matter deeply. Don't forget that. And in the midst of all this, we see the Savior, Jesus showing up. And this is the tail end of your outline there that we're just going to look at briefly in the application. One that's not on your outline is this. That's just a special connection, is that Jesus, even in our failures, offers us forgiveness and blessing.
[00:33:51] The reason Moses couldn't enter into the promised land was because of his past sin. But Moses looked forward to Jesus coming and fulfilling the promises set before us, that there will be one day a Savior. And you know what? Moses did enter the promised land on the mount of Transfiguration. Do you remember that Jesus is there on the mount of Transfiguration. And there's Elijah and Moses.
[00:34:16] Jesus shows up. And because of Moses faith that one day there will be a coming, as we're going to see in a minute, a coming prophet, someone we can look ahead to, the Savior who will actually change our hearts to follow him. He is able to do something he wasn't able to do pre Jesus. What do we see about the Savior? You could write this in point one.
[00:34:36] Not only is he one who is faithful to meet us even in our brokenness, we see that Deuteronomy is the most quoted book by Jesus. It's Jesus go to book. So you could just write that in Jesus go to Book. Which I think is just a fun, interesting fact for us. Jesus, when he's in the wilderness, being tempted for how many days?
[00:34:55] Isn't that an interesting parallel? The spies went into the land. To spy out the land for 40 days, the people were in the wilderness for 40 years.
[00:35:02] Jesus is in the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days while he was in the wilderness, the three times that he's tempted. His rebuttal is Scripture. What book is that scripture from?
[00:35:13] Deuteronomy and many other places in his ministry. Does Jesus quote from Deuteronomy? Secondly, on your outline for the Savior, Jesus, the prophet from Israel, in chapter 18, it speaks about this prophet who the people will one day listen to that will turn the course of Israel and change their hearts. This is Jesus, chapter 18, verse 18, Moses saying, I will raise up for them a prophet like you, like Moses. And then later on, in Acts, chapter three, Peter speaking, he says this to all the people who are listening. Hey, you know how Moses, who you guys believe in, talked about this prophet who would one day come? That was Jesus. That was Jesus. Stephen, as he's about to be stoned, who does he talk about, this prophet? Hey, you all believe that there was one day, this prophet who was going to come, that's Jesus, the one who's here, who's now at the time of Peter and of Stephen, who has come to grab ahold of your hearts and give you a message from God. And thirdly, on your outline, you can write this in. Jesus took the curse that was due us.
[00:36:16] In chapter 21, there's a unique. Another law kind of tucked in there. It says this, that if a man has committed a crime punishable by death, he is to be put to death. And if you put him on a tree, and he is to be hung on a tree, and then his body is not to be hung there overnight, but on the same day you shall bury it. Who hung on a tree, friends?
[00:36:36] Jesus Christ, Galatians 3:13 says this. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, cursed is anyone who. Who what hangs on a tree. Jesus took the punishment that was due us.
[00:36:55] You and I couldn't do the work to make ourselves right with God. Jesus came and did just that for us, the fulfillment of all of this.
[00:37:04] Moses, over and over through this book, he's saying to all the people, will you please listen to God. The law of God is good, and he is faithful, and he is kind. Will you please listen? And one day, the. And by the way, Moses says this many times. He says, by the way, I know you're gonna mess up. Isn't that an encouraging word? You're gonna mess up. Obey God. You're gonna mess up. I mean, I know you're gonna mess up. I've been with you for 40 years. You're gonna mess up. And then Jesus is gonna come.
[00:37:28] And because of his coming, you are gonna be made new. You're gonna be made new. Let's look at the applications here. Some points you could probably write in many things.
[00:37:38] I'm just gonna give you one on the screen for each of those points with God, humanity, and me.
[00:37:45] Firstly, for God in the application point. What does this teach me about God?
[00:37:50] God wants us to remember what he has done in our lives. Maybe you need to start writing those things down. When God shows up in faithful and powerful ways in your life, remember what he has done in your life. And to experience him and his blessings. He wants that. God's desire is that. But we see this. We saw this already. He will respect us. If we say, I don't want to, there's consequences. But he will respect our choice to do things our way. You've experienced this, haven't you? You know, there's been times. I know that. There's been times when I look, I know this is wrong. I don't want to, and I do it anyway. And God's like, I let you do that, and now you're gonna deal with the consequences. God wants us, though, to experience the blessings that he has for us and to experience an intimate, close relationship with Him. What does this teach me about humanity or about life?
[00:38:40] It's no secret as we read through this book that we need reminders.
[00:38:43] We need reminders, and as Moses pointed out, we need to be warned about what happens when we don't do life God's way. What's fascinating about this, especially amongst us as Christian people today who take breath right now, is when I go, or when you go and you warn someone, hey, you shouldn't do this, because this will happen most of the time. Here's the response, don't judge me.
[00:39:04] This is my life, not yours. If I wanna do life my way, I can do it my way. What's it to you?
[00:39:10] What do we see here?
[00:39:12] Moses warning people.
[00:39:14] And we see, actually that's an incredibly godly thing to do. Jesus over and over and over again in his ministry warned people, if you don't trust in me, here's the result. There's heaven and there's hell, and there's heaven and there's hell. Just Jesus warned people a lot. Warning people is actually a very godly thing to do.
[00:39:34] We need reminders and to be warned. And I would encourage you in this way.
[00:39:38] When you, perhaps from somebody who comes alongside you in a kind and loving type of way, hopefully warns you about someone, be humble and receive it. Say thank you. Maybe not in the moment you're going to be able to say thank you, but saying thank you, recognizing this is a godly thing, actually.
[00:39:55] And lastly, what does goodness teach me about me? This is me personally, something that jumped out at me. These three questions, maybe something different for you.
[00:40:04] Is the Lord my God? How many times did we see in this book the term the Lord your God? How many times? Remember I said at the beginning, 250 times, did Moses say the Lord your God? I want to ask myself this question is, do I treat God as my Lord?
[00:40:22] That is, my master over all things, both in the public parts of my life and in the private parts of my life.
[00:40:29] Am I loving him above all else? What does that look like? Am I considering the things that I have? Maybe it's the amount of time that I spend on things. Maybe it's the affections, the things that pull my heart one way or another, the things that I pay for or invest in are those things that his law dictates how I do it. It's not that I say that I have to spend, you know, I spent three hours watching a show. Now I have to spend three, four hours in the Bible or I don't love God more. It's not that. It's am I placing his values above all of mine, all of my passions, all of my desires? And lastly, aligned to that is what is taking his place. And that is a question that you can ask God yourself.
[00:41:10] God, what in my life is taking a place that you deserve? That's a question you can let God answer for you. And I think that he will do that if you authentically ask him that question.
[00:41:20] Pray together.
[00:41:23] Lord Jesus, we're grateful for your faithfulness to us as we all in this room right now. Think about the ways that you've shown up in our lives.
[00:41:32] Whether it's the homes that we live in, the food on our table, the situation that our bank account is in, the clothes that we're wearing, the friends that we have, the church family around us, and the list can go on and on and on. The ways that you've shown up and been faithful to us, the way that you've led us through hardship and continue to meet our needs, help us to remember, to be people who are intentional about remembering and that we don't just sit in that remembrance, but we respond.
[00:41:58] We respond in faithfulness to you, in obedience to you.
[00:42:03] Lord, thank you that you care about us enough to warn us of the pitfalls of going our own way, and that you promised to bless us as we walk with you.
[00:42:14] Even as we look back many years, we see it coming alive today in our own life. Your faithfulness in coming into our world and dying in our place.
[00:42:22] For any here today, Lord, that have not trusted in you as their Lord and Savior, Lord, I pray that you would help them see your beauty and your power, your justice and your holiness and your grace present in their life.
[00:42:35] That they would trust in you as their King.
[00:42:38] For all of us here today, that we would continue to be people that remember and respond to you in the way that you're calling us, in the way that you're prompting us. However that may be for us individually. In Jesus name, amen.
