30. Ablazing Grace: In The Wilderness Part 2

and we're gonna see some great things in the text of Scripture so we're gonna have a brief prayer and we're gonna go right to the book of Deuteronomy fifth book of Moses let's pray together father in heaven great day today it's a beautiful sunshiny day and it is a day to be thankful it is a day to be glad it is a day to rejoice and father you have given me a lot on my plate this week to rejoice about my father the truth of the matter is is that you have given us all something to rejoice about every week every day of our lives because father this life is a grand beautiful frustrating sometimes dark mysterious thing but father it is a gift and today we have so much to be thankful for even in the pain even in the sorrow even in the struggle and fathers we're gonna learn today even in the death we have something to be thankful for and so father today the prayer of my heart the pastoral prayer of my heart is that you would illumine our minds give us today a fresh perspective new eyes to see the text of Scripture and to come away with a better understanding not just of who you are but of who we are and father we're looking forward to a great message and not because of the delivery but because of the message the content bless us now we ask in the name of Jesus let everyone say Amen all right Nathan I'm trusting you that we're ready to go back there all right what book did we open up to book of Deuteronomy last week we spent our time in the Book of Numbers what we call the Book of Numbers what the Jews call in the wilderness or sometimes just the wilderness the Jews refer to this book as the words the words because for the most part the book of Deuteronomy the fifth and final book of Moses in Torah it's very likely that Moses also wrote the book of Job but at least as far as the Torah goes Genesis Exodus numbers Leviticus Deuteronomy this is the fifth and final book and the phrase the words comes up again and again the words which were spoken the words words the words the words and for the most part the book of Deuteronomy is a series of farewell messages from an aged Moses 120 years old at this time and he is delivering his homily he is delivering a history of Israel in their wanderings because for the most part those to whom he is speaking were very young 20 and younger when Israel came out of Egypt when they stood at the base of Sinai when God thundered in lightning and flame from Sinai summit that many of these kids would have been one two three five ten twelve years old and so Moses feels a paternal and patriarchal responsibility to deliver a series of farewell messages basically to remind them of the amazing things that some of them saw and would have remembered but certainly the things that their parents saw and so what we discover in the book of Deuteronomy is not so much a book of stories as it is a book of sermons or a book of homilies in which Moses is bringing before the people the children of Israel the culmination of their wilderness wanderings and the sort of high point which is also simultaneously the low point which is also simultaneously the high point again of the book of Deuteronomy is the death of Moses we'll talk about why it's the high and the low and the high point in just a bit look at Deuteronomy chapter 1 Deuteronomy chapter 1 and here in verse 8 we find a verse in fact I think I've got this one on the screen let me just turn there Deuteronomy chapter one here we find in verse eight in the wilderness part two here we find a verse that really helps to tie together several of the elements that we've been learning in our blazing grace series beginning family Exodus we've moved now into the land and we've actually had a slight shift in our sermon schedule I'll be preaching again next Sabbath as well Jared and I had to make a small shift and next Sabbath is gonna be a very very difficult sermon a sermon that I've already begun preparations for in fact I've been preparing to preach the sermon for probably 10 years and we're going to talk about what is arguably the most thorny the most problematic the most difficult part of Scripture and that is the extirpation or the dispossession of the Canaanite peoples on behalf of Israel that God said go in there don't spare man don't spare woman don't spare a child drive them from the land and a lot of people myself included we read those stories of the conquest of Canaan and we say what's going on how is this a God of love how is this a God of mercy how is this a God of forgiveness and we're gonna tackle that next week the conquest of Canaan but before we can get right into that we've got to bring the Torah to a close and of course the Torah never really comes to a close because it informs all of Holy Scripture right everything that follows from Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy everything that follows is standing on the shoulders of these five books the books of Moses and here in the beginning of Deuteronomy we find this passage that ties together together several of the elements that we've been discussing in our series here a blazing grace Moses says see this is God speaking through Moses see I have set the land before you go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your father's to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give to them and their descendants after them now for those of you that have been on this journey with us from the very beginning you will recall going all the way back to the book of Genesis when God originally appeared to Abraham he said that essentially he was going to give him two things the Covenant Allah promised revolved around two things I will give you land and descendants to fill it land and descendants in fact that covenant will promise was identical or I should say very similar to the promise that God had made to Adam God gave Adam the garden and he said be fruitful and multiply fill it very similar to what God said to Noah and Noah after he came out of the ark after the world had been destroyed by a flood the first words that God speaks to Noah is be fruitful and multiply here's the land fill it with descendants here's the land fill it with descendants and so that Abrahamic promise was just the third in a line of similar promises that God had made to Adam that he had also made to Noah but the Abrahamic promise was unique and it was different because it became the Ark title covenant promise it became the promise upon which all biblical promises afterward including the promise of Messiah the coming of Jesus would would rest and so here when Moses is sort of standing this is actually right he's remembering if the initial opportunity for Israel to go into Canaan but but it encapsulates the essence here of what Moses is saying this land that you're getting is a direct fulfillment Moses says to the promise that God made to your fathers to Abraham with whom you made a covenant and to his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob Abraham Isaac and Jacob and we've already noted the marvelous and massive condescension that it was for God the illimitable eternal omnipotent spiritual God of the universe to be identified by his association with human beings what a remarkable condescension hey which God is that which God are we talking about oh this is the God of Abraham this is the god of Isaac and the God of Jacob God's identification with human beings is remarkable and the reason is is that God saw something in Abraham something in Isaac and something in Jacob something in their family that he could he could work with they were malleable they were pliable he could say these will be my people and I will be their God well we move now several hundred years into the future and Moses is a hundred and twenty years old Moses is at the very end of his life the first generation that had come out of Egypt have all died every one of them including Aaron and Miriam at this point with the exception of Joshua and Caleb Moses is soon to die so of that an initial generation the older generation that came out of Egypt only two of the adult population are going to go into the land of Canaan only two I remind you that this journey should have taken no more than two months it's a two-month journey look at it geographically on a map a to be it's a short journey but here they are 40 years later Abraham excuse me Moses is not going in Miriam is not going in Aaron is not going in only Joshua and Caleb and Moses reminds them this lands and all of these descendants are a fulfillment of the promise that God originally made to your father's Abraham and Isaac and Jacob now I had the privilege this week of just reading through the book of Deuteronomy and it's it's a very dense book it requires a lot of thought but if you if you've done the hard yards of working through Genesis Exodus Leviticus and numbers much of what we see in Deuteronomy is a revisitation or a recapitulation of things that have already happened there's not a lot of new material and Deuteronomy because as we mentioned this is Moses revisiting restating for the younger generation the next generation the great journeys and the great truths that God had committed to the children of Israel and so as I read through the sort of 35 or 36 chapters of Deuteronomy I came up with what what I surmised as I was taking notes were sort of the major themes and what I want to do is just spend a little bit of time on the first four of these themes and I don't want to spend most of our chime time the lion's share of our time on the last theme there which is the blessings and cursings motif but let's start with the first one the first one is we've already mentioned is that the book of Deuteronomy is is largely a recapitulation of Israel's history and of the law that had been given to them now just a word about that the word Deuteronomy is actually kind of an interesting word it literally means second law right from Nomos and do which is to the second law but it's not really a second law as such it's more the revisitation or the restatement of the law for the next generation this generation was eager man they had they had a lot of miles or kilometers in their shoes they had a lot of kilometers in their legs they had a lot of kilometers in their bodies and they were tired of walking they were tired of wandering they were tired of dwelling in tents they wanted to go take possession of a land a land that they had been told due to no merit of their own or no accomplishment of their own and nor no deserving of their own had been given to them had been gifted to them by God we're gonna talk about that next week how can God just give these people somebody else's land and not just give it then have the temerity to say wipe them out completely and again that's a big sermon big giant sermon and I'm looking forward to it but I am a little afraid of just the largeness of the topic so Moses sort of revisits this revisits the history revisits the law and reminds them of where their parents had gone wrong and reminds them that if they made the same mistakes that their parents had made that they would suffer a similar fate another major theme is this Hart experience covenant with God and I'm just going to share with you a few of these there are so many passages in Deuteronomy in which God is saying I want your heart I want your heart I want your heart I want you to love me I want you to love me I want you to love me we come to the New Testament and we are trained almost by our by our lack of critical biblical evaluative thinking to see a discontinuity between the old and the New Testament we read the Old Testament we say oh that's a certain kind of God acting in a certain kind of way with a certain kind of people and then we come to the New Testament and rather than seeing continuity and consistency we tend to see discontinuity different kind of God acting in a different kind of way with a different kind of people the mean old God the nice God the Father the Son works grace right and there are whole denominations that have actually systematized this discontinuity into what's called dispensationalism that there's one way that God works with people and then there's another way that God works with people when in fact this whole idea of a demarcation between the old and the New Testaments it's largely artificial if we will read the Old Testament as the Old Testament is designed to be read and if we will read the New Testament as it's designed to be read and particularly if we will do what the New Testament writers did and that is read the Old Testament through the eyes of the New Testament writers and the revelation of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament we will see not discontinuity but continuity and one of the things that we find in the New Testament as Jesus was asked on several occasions what's the great commandment in the law the Jews believed that there were some 613 commands both major and minor in Torah Genesis Exodus Leviticus Deuteronomy they sort of distilled it all down to 613 commands right and so there was often in Jesus day a lot of rabbinical debate about which was the most important of those commands which were negotiable and which were non-negotiable which were principled and which were preferential and Jesus would be asked this they they would try and Jesus data tease him into these rabbinical debates what do you say about paying taxes what do you say about this woman who's had a number of husbands whose will she be in the resurrection always trying to tease Jesus into these philosophical rabbinical debates that were very common in 1st and 2nd and 3rd century Judaism on what occasion Jesus was asked the question that was on the minds of many first century Jews what's the great commandment what's the most important commandment and jesus answered and said the great commandment is to love the Lord their God and wonder if you know this with all of your heart and with all of your mind and with all of your soul and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself well here's the remarkable thing Jesus did not invent some new thing this language to love the Lord you've got a fall of your heart mind and soul in a second to love your neighbor as yourself is straight out of the Old Testament and the first part of that is straight out of the book of Deuteronomy let's look at several of these passages Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 29 but from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul for many of us for many of us in this room one of our favorite passages in scripture is probably Jeremiah chapter 29 for I know the thoughts that I have toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and and to give you a hope and a future right one of the great passages and then jumps down to verse 13 and it says this very thing you will seek me and he will find me when you search for me with all your heart that's not a Jeremiah passage yes it's in Jeremiah but that is a restatement of Moses you will seek me Israel and you will find me not when you are perfectly robotic ly obedient to all of these strictures and commands but when I have your hearts you will find me 5:29 the next one there's literally dozens of these we're just gonna look at about four or five of them oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever ah this sounds just like Jesus in John chapter 14 verse 15 if you love me what did Jesus say if you love me keep my Commandments not discontinuity between the old and the New Testament but continuity not inconsistency but consistency that's one of the reasons that we called this series purposefully a blazing grace another look at the Old Testament the New Testament teaches the amazing grace of the resident life death and resurrection of Jesus the Old Testament teaches the amazing and a blazing grace of the life death and resurrection of Jesus in symbol and in metaphor and in story continuity consistency same story look at this one Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 12 and 13 and now Israel what does what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to love him to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandments of the Lord in his statutes which I command for you for your good that sounds very much like Micah chapter 6 verse 8 which is another passage that many of us know and love he has shown you O man what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your gut straight out of the writings of Moses straight out of Moses this is why in Jewish thinking and to some degree even in Christian thinking the whole Bible everything after Torah is resting and standing on the shoulders of the writings of Moses the simple way to say that is that the Bible makes no sense without Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy and when Moses would have stood before the the next generation of the children of Israel who were just preparing to go into the land one of the major features of his emphasis was you got to love God you've got to love God you've got to love God give him your heart give him your heart that it may go well with you and then it may go well with your children forever it wasn't just about loving God there was also this love your neighbor as yourself in a Deuteronomy chapter 15 verses 7 and 8 God said is there among you a poor man of your brethren within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend to him sufficient for his need whatever he needs so these two great principles that Jesus articulated in the New Testament love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul in the second love your neighbor as yourself firmly safely ensconced in the writings of Moses and particularly in this case the book of Deuteronomy I think we've got just one more maybe to Deuteronomy 26 16 this is that this day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul it's always about the heart and about love can the church say Amen that's not a New Testament idea that's not some New Testament flowery cutesy grace-filled merciful magnanimous idea that is somehow non-existent or invisible in the Old Testament you go right back to Moses and Moses is saying you've got to love God and you've got to love your brother and sister you've got to give God your heart it always has been and it always will be about love God having the heart which leads us into the next one a hard experience in the Covenant with God number three is warnings of rebellion and idolatry another phrase that occurs regularly or a word that occurs regularly in the book of Deuteronomy is the Hebrew word for neck the neck and the way that that's often translated in the English Bibles is either stiff necked or stubborn you are a stiff-necked people you are a stubborn people God repeatedly says here's just one instance of that Deuteronomy chapter 9 verse 13 furthermore the Lord's Lord spoke to me saying I have seen this people and indeed they are a stiff-necked people there are stubborn people but here's the remarkable thing that stiff-necked miss that rebellion that obstinacy that stubbornness was not a product of the neck it's not like they needed a massage they didn't need to go to the physical therapist God's like man you've got major neck problems God's concern was not the neck the neck was a product of the heart look at this here you cannot have a soft heart and a stiff neck if you get nothing else from the sermon and you'd miss a lot if that's all you got but if you got nothing else remember that simple line if your heart is soft your neck can't be stiff this is one of the things I'm saying to my to my boys boys if you soften your heart toward one another and toward others your your neck will change but if you harden your heart toward people then your neck will be stiff and at the end of the day beloved your problem in my problem is not our neck it's not our stubbornness it's not our hands it's not our actions it's our heart it's the way we think it's the way we believe it's the way that we relate to those around us and that's why my advice to you and my advice to myself is work on the heart not the neck you can't change your neck according to scripture your neck is naturally stiff neck it's naturally rebellious it's naturally stubborn and of course the idea here is of a neck that just won't Bend it's resistant it's obstinate it's stiff it will not move it's not pliable it's not supple and God says you're a stiff-necked people you're a stubborn people but God doesn't then say to us go change your neck he says give me your heart give me your love give me your affections because the only way our neck will ever change the only way our stubbornness and our our unkindness on our meanness will ever change is if we give God our heart can the church say Amen this sounds very New Testament this sounds very much like Jesus no wonder Jesus would repeatedly say in the New Testament if you believed Moses you would believe me Jesus didn't see discontinuity he saw continuity and then of course an emphasis on the education of the youth and I want to spend just a moment on this turn with me in your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 4 Deuteronomy chapter 4 join me there Deuteronomy in the fourth chapter and we find here one of places in which God specifically cites the importance of the education of the youth Deuteronomy chapter 4 will pick it up in verse 9 to Tirana me chapter 4 verse 9 now this is God speaking but in your mind's eye imagine an age of Moses standing there addressing the people of Israel and what would have been some sort of a natural rocky amphitheater and he speaks to them about their own children the grandchildren of the initial generation that had come out of Egypt verse 9 take heed to yourself I'm in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 9 and diligently keep yourself lest you forget the things your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life and teach your children and your grandchildren especially concerning the day that you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb that's Sinai when the Lord said to me gather to me gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children so thankful to larell Kingsbury she came up to me after last sermons Sabbath is larell here somewhere where you at larell hiding came up remember what you said to me after last Sabbath what did you say she said you should have included the grandparents and shame on me I should have because I talked about the importance of parents setting a good example and parents having parameters and boundaries in their home and children not just needing parental discipline but self discipline but but larell was exactly right and she's totally in harmony with Moses with what Moses says here the raising of a child is not just the responsibility of the parents it is primarily the responsibility of the parents but he says also the grandparents the grandparents have a role to play an important role and especially in this case those that were a little older they would have been able to tell their children's parents and perhaps even their great-grandchildren what they had seen maybe when they were 10 or 11 or 12 standing below sign eyes amazing summit with the Thunder and the lightning and the voice that they would have heard the voice that was so loud so sonorous and thunderous that they actually said to Moses Moses tell God to turn off the megaphone because if he keeps speaking like that we're gonna die and Moses says tell your children rehearse for them these stories rehearse for them the way that they have been led and tell your grandchildren and if you should live long enough tell your great-grandchildren go to Deuteronomy six stay right here Deuteronomy six same book just two chapters later verse four Deuteronomy chapter six verse 4 is arguably the single most important verse in the whole Torah from a Jewish perspective in all of Genesis all of Leviticus all of numbers all of Deuteronomy all of Leviticus it is arguable that Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 is the most important verse here o Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one the Lord our God the Lord is one or some translations render it the Lord our God alone is God there is no other God no idols in fact just a word on that one of the things that they were specifically instructed to teach their children was the dangers of idolatry in fact when you go to Deuteronomy chapter 12 we're not gonna spend any time there this morning we'll probably talk a little bit about it next week when you go to Deuteronomy chapter 12 God's is a very unusual thing and it's a thing that's frankly very politically incorrect and and seemingly hugely culturally insensitive God says Israel when you come into this new land when you come into the Canaan land and I displace these five nations from before you when you come upon one of their places of worship if you find what he calls a sacred pillar or a shrine in the high places he says destroy it utterly destroy it I want every evidence of their religious culture and of their religious practices and of their religious cult I want it erased eviscerated from the earth and he actually tells us why in Deuteronomy chapter 12 and this will be familiar to us in this congregation he says because they they put their children into the fire one of the ways in which these Canaanite people so we're gonna talk more about this next week one of the ways that these Canaanite peoples worshipped their various gods and deities was by burning their own children a thing that we've mentioned here before God says that never even came into my mind I am so disgusted I'm so repulsed by the idea that somebody would think that I would be a bloodthirsty God or that any God that would require such a thing isn't a God but is a demon or a figment of somebody's imagination so God says when you come into Canaan and you find those shrines don't preserve them as heritage sites don't preserve them as and he says don't pay any attention don't try to figure out how they worshiped he said you come up on one of them eviscerated destroy it teach your children he was deeply concerned that the sort of cultural and historical and social awareness that the children might have that it might slowly but surely bleed into their own experience and their own expression of how to worship God and sure enough that actually does end up happening look in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 again here O Lord the Lord our God alone is God you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength we've already talked about that verse 6 and these words which I command you today shall be in your hearts teach them diligently to your children you shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down when you rise up you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates now this was actually eventually taken literally by the Jews but God is not saying as as the Jews in Jesus day and to some degree today as they do which is to take literal copies of Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 or little literal copies of sections of Torah and write it on small bits of paper and then put it on a phylactery that's placed either on the hand or on the head God wasn't saying hey look get a tattoo on your hand get a tattoo on your head what God was saying is in your actions teach your children in the way that you think in the way that you relate in the way that you feel in the way that you speak teach your children and your children's children it he says write it on the doorpost somebody comes into your house there should be some some sense some aroma some essence that communicates hey this house a little different not just by the things that are there but by the things that aren't there he says teach your children and he says when you're sitting teach your children when you're walking teach your children when you're standing teach your children when you wake up in the morning teach your children when you when you go to sleep at night teach your children and I suppose the lesson for us here today is we need to make time to educate our children because of the culture the world that we live in today 2015 Australia is not going to take the time to educate your children about the one true God and how they should live in the requirements that he has on their life can you say amen to that well who's gonna teach them then if it's not happening in the home it's not happening and praise God for TV AC but if you're hoping that TV AC will do something or Gold Coast Christian to County it will do something that you're not doing in your home that ship is sails that ship has sailed men ladies that ship has sailed you think oh it's a Christian Church they ought to be having worship you're a Christian home are you having worship this is a Christian school they ought to be teaching Scripture this is a Christian home are you teaching Scripture now some of you might be nervous about that you might be like oh man I'm not sure I'm not sure I can't sit on that chair can I you might be thinking on I you know I don't know what David astrick knows I don't know I'm not a theologian I'm not a preacher you don't have to be open the Bible to the Gospel of John and read a chapter right just pray for the Holy Spirit and read a chapter I am pleading with you and I'm looking particularly particularly lead to the men here but also the ladies of the men won't step up ladies you can step up I am pleading with you to take the religious education of your children seriously because TV AC for all the good work they do and Gold Coast Christian College for all the good work they do and maybe your children go to Hillcrest or some other school those are all fine schools but at the end of the day you're it's your responsibility the religious education of your children the salvation of your children the conversion of your children thank you so much for that at the end of the day that is your responsibility can the church say Amen right and part of that and I just want to make it very practical part of that it doesn't have to be a 30 minute sermon where you put on the suit and the tie and pretend like you're the preacher having prayer with your children in the morning gathering them together holding your hands as a family and praying and saying God be with us today give us a good day give us a productive day are there any prayer requests what are they let's pray we have two simple devotional books one that we read in the morning one that we read in the evening and our worship sometimes there is short is two minutes and sometimes as long as 15 but never more than 15 minutes that it's it's unrealistic to think that you're gonna kick with continuity and with consistency have a worship that's longer than 15 minutes with teenage children but get your kids together men even if they're so young they don't understand what you're saying and just have a simple prayer even if they're 16 17 and you've never done it you can start it it's still your home when I was 18 years old and I lived in my own house my dad charged me rent and my advice to you is if you have adult teenage children that are living in your home it is still your home and you can have simple rules reasonable you don't need to force anything on them but you can say with Joshua as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and I'm pleading with you pleading with you if you want to get some simple devotional book if you want some some hints my wife and I can help you as to what we do you can talk to other elders in the church I'm pleading with you to take the religious education of your children seriously and if you're sitting and you don't have any kids still have worship or if your children have already left the home just in the morning it's so simple you grab your wife's hand you grab your your husband's hand and you just have a simple prayer 30 seconds 60 seconds two minutes start your families day with God and and your families day with God can the church say Amen I'm just pleading with you and Moses I think is pleading with us through the annals of history through the pages of Scripture Moses is saying are you sitting teach your children are you standing teach your children are you walking teach your children are you waking up teach your children are you going to sleep teach your children and I don't have to tell you that we live in a world gone crazy are we together everyone just this week I was driving down over there by salt and drove past Nathan Marshall and he said hey you just drove by me and I said swung around and went and spent a little time with him there while he was working on one of the houses that he's building and just out of the blue Nathan says to me man the world is going crazy have you noticed that the world is going completely crazy right it's just outlandish the things that are happening in the world whether you want to talk environmentally or economically or governmental II or this whole immigrant thing I mean the world is going crazy and if somebody is not a stabilizing anchoring biblical force in your children's life they're gonna be swept away by the currents of the by the by what the Germans call the zeitgeist the spirit of the age are you with me on this I'm pleading with you and this could be for some of you that have gotten a little lazy in your own religious experience in your own religious education one of the stories that I've heard repeatedly about the kingscliff Church here the sort of the sort of legend or the the story the history perhaps is better of the Kings butcher CH is that a number of years ago there were just some people that just started spending an hour a day with God in Scripture and they had listened to some CDs from herb Larsen and then somebody shared that with somebody who shared that with somebody who shared that with somebody before you knew it you had you had you know a couple dozen people in this church who said hey man we're gonna take this seriously and maybe that fire is cooled a bit and it's become 30 minutes and then 20 minutes God's not concerned so much with the amount of time the amount of time is simply a product of the fact that for the rest of the day we're being saturated by ungodliness and foolishness that when we spend any amount of time with God we're basically buttressing our soul shielding our soul against madness the world has gone insane can you say Amen completely insane crazy kooky wild insane so insane that we're like fish living in water we're not even aware of how insane the world is gone but to the degree that we are aware of it we have to take seriously our own education the education of our children and to the degree that we are able the education of our grandchildren amen whoo okay all right finally the blessings and cursings motif this is a major major passage as Moses draws his various farewell homilies to a closed beginning in chapter 27 Moses delivers a series of statements that what we just call today the blessings and the cursings the blessings and the cursings and at first blush that can sound a little shady it can sound a little like yeah if you do what's good all bless you and if you don't I'll curse you but in fact the blessings and the cursings are more like this God says look I've created the world to operate in a certain way a sequential Newtonian cause-and-effect way and if you behave in certain ways this will be the result and if you behave in these ways this will be the result not the gods we talked about this last week not that God is actively punishing or even in some case not that he's actively blessing but he has created the world to operate in a certain way and when we operate in harmony with that whether it's our own health or the way we raise our families or the way that we take care of our our intellectual energies we can be blessed or we can be cursed depending on how we relate to the way that God has made the universe to set up this makes sense we cooperate with those laws we benefit if we ignore those laws we suffer remember God didn't say to Adam and Eve hey in the day you eat of that tree I'm gonna kill you no he said in the day you eat of that tree you will die not not an external imposition on them from God but something that was intrinsic to disobedience something that was intrinsic to the fruit he this is not a warning of punishment he's not like hey if you do that I'll kill you he said hey this is the consequence this is a warning not a threat and the blessings and the curse things are not threats God's not like you'd better behave or else he's saying hey look the world operates like this the universe operates like this love and mercy and kindness and forgiveness those are the ways that I have created the world to operate because there they are the extension and the outflow of my character and if you operate in harmony with that you will be benefited and if you operate out of harmony with that you will reap the consequences not because I'm imposing something on you but because that's the way the world works whether we're talking about Newtonian physics or the way just this week I was reading a book that Alona gave me great children's story by the way Alona a book called the brain that heals itself and man if time allowed and I'm sure at some point I'll be able to talk in this church about the plasticity of the adult brain but the most recent neurological research in the last two decades is confirming that neural plasticity that is the ability to change not just your mind but the actual physical structure of your brain is is in your hands the brain is this marvelous amazing plastic malleable thing and yes there are genetic inheritance a--'s and yes there are we can habituate ourselves to certain actions but I just have been reading not just the chapter that you recommended Ilona but quite a little bit of the book and it's astonishing everything from the treatment of autism to schizophrenia to just bad habits is actually healable when we understand the science of the way that not just the mind operates as an immaterial entity but the way the brain works can you say man just awesome God has built us to be able to make changes and to become the people that he created us to be so whether we're talking about you know Newtonian physics or the way that our brain works or the way that we raise our children as scripture says God has not mocked whatever a man so is that he will also reap and so when Moses gathered the children of Israel together there and he began to speak to them about the blessings and the cursings this wasn't a giant threat this was a this was a pleading of admonition please pay attention to the way that I've made the world to operate now with that in mind I want to show you something quite fascinating go from Deuteronomy to what might seem like a strange book to the Book of Daniel go to the Book of Daniel you'll find that just beyond the center of your Bible to the rites so go through Isaiah go through Jeremiah go through Ezekiel and come to Daniel Daniel chapter 9 and for the last all 15 minutes of this sermon I need you to think with me illogically and what I mean by that is I need you to think biblically because if you will I've been sort of giving you a lot of encouragement here a lot of exhortation a lot of advice biblical advice I hope but these last 15 minutes are more theological and if you can follow the train of thought the biblical train of thought these next 15 minutes you will be blown away by the conclusion okay so hang in here for the next 15 minutes and see if it makes sense so we're in Daniel chapter 9 now Daniel chapter 9 is many centuries after what takes place in Deuteronomy Moses laid out for the children of Israel what would happen if they obeyed and what would happen if they disobey well much of the history of the Old Testament is that they disobeyed and they bore not the blessings but the cursings they Blore the penalties and the downsides of operating out of harmony with the way that God had made the universe to work and by the time we get to Daniel Israel has been divided not just into their 12 tribes but into the 10 that was Israel the two that became Judah the 10 have been carried away into a Syrian captivity never to be heard from again the two Judah have now been carried away into Babylonian captivity their City Jerusalem has been sacked their temple has been ruined Daniel and many of his compatriots have been carried away to Babylon in other words God's grand and beautiful and glorious vision for Israel has completely fallen on its face it did not happen the potential the opportunity that was there has not been realized and Daniel as an old man at this point many hundreds of years centuries and centuries after Moses had said to the children of Israel you'll be blessed you'll be cursed Daniel kneels down to pray parents are dead cities in ruin Israel is is no more Judah is now in captivity the wheels have come off it's over and Daniel kneels down to pray and I want you to see what he says Daniel chapter 9 beginning in verse 1 we're gonna read just 11 verses of this prayer look at what he says in the first year of Darius Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 the son of Ahaz you where us of the lineage of the Medes who was made King the realm of the Chaldeans and the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through the through Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem Daniels beginning to realize at that 70 years is nearly up he'd been studying the Book of Jeremiah and he's like man this is the opportunity this is the time we need to be set free so he says I set my face verse 3 toward the Lord my God to make prayer and supplications with fasting in sackcloth and ashes and I prayed to the Lord my God and I made confession and I said now what follows here from verse 4 all the way almost at the end of the chapter is Daniels heartfelt earnest heartbreaking prayer and I want you to notice what he says O Lord great and awesome God first thing out of his mouth who keeps his covenant first thing you have been faithful you have done what you said you would do not in one dot not in one iota not in one detail have you been unfaithful Oh Lord great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who want what's the first word of his mouth with those who love him that's what we've been talking about the whole time give me your heart give me your love give me your affection give me your attention those who love him with those who keep his Commandments now watch this we have sinned you have been faithful we have sinned we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly we have rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments neither have we heeded your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings and to our princes into our fathers and all the people of the land verse 17 Oh Lord righteousness belongs to you you have been faithful but to us shame of face as it is this day the men of Judah the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all of Israel those near and those far off in the countries to which you have driven them because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against you O Lord to us belongs second time shame a face to our kings to our princes to our fathers because we have sinned against you to the Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness that we have rebelled against him rebelled stiff necked hard-hearted two more verses verse 10 we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants prophets yes all Israel is transgressed now watch this carefully all Israel has transgressed your law and has departed so as not to obey your voice therefore the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us because we have sinned against God so here's Daniel many centuries later opening his heart pleading before God and he's like God everything that you said in Moses would happen everything you said in Deuteronomy chapters 27 to 30 all of that stuff has happened to us everything to a tee the captivity happened the idolatry happened the rebellion happened the hard-heartedness happened the Wars happened the loss of our children happened the lack of financial blessing happened everything you said and you can spend a Stanford afternoon read Deuteronomy 27 28 29 and 30 he says everything that you said happened all of that not as a punishment not as an external imposition by God actively punishing but as the natural consequences of the choices that they had made God said man you kept making decisions that eventually you forced my hand and I had to give you over to the consequences of your choices now I told you to hang in there watch what happens now when we come to the New Testament the Apostle Paul says something that is hugely remarkable about the blessings and the cursings the climax of the fifth book of Moses the climax of the whole Torah Paul says something radical something mind-blown it's in Galatians chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 Christ has rescued us redeemed us from the curse of the law any Jew that's reading that knows immediately what's being talked about the cursings now a lot of our evangelical friends well-meaning Baptists and Pentecostals and Assemblies of God and beautiful people who love Jesus they read that like this Christ has redeemed us from the law of course that's not what it says it says Christ has rescued us from the what from the from the curse of the law which raises the question how how did he rescue Israel from its unfaithfulness how does he rescue us from our unfaithfulness how does he rescue us from our shame of face from our rebellious nough stiff neck how he says Christ has rescued us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us and then he quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 21 as it is written Deuteronomy chapter 21 cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree and I'll just give you a brief history on that there were particular sins that were so disgusting so egregious and so repugnant to God that God said if a man commits that sin if a woman commits that sin don't give them a nice and proper burial when they have died hang them in a tree in the same way that sometimes the police forces will take a car that's been seriously smashed in an accident and they'll put it out at a major location so that you see who we're gonna drive a little more careful and drive a little slower might pay a little more attention he says take somebody take somebody who's committed an abominable sin a curse of sin a terrible sin and hang them on a tree so that everybody can see that cursed thing and Paul says Jesus redeemed us from the curse well how he became the curse and he hung on a tree why that the blessing of what's that name right there that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles that's us in Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith now watch how theologian NT Wright articulates this follow this when you ask most people hey why did the Messiah become a curse for us you ask you know you ask a Christian person a reasonably intelligent well-educated person hey why did Jesus become a curse for us he said the normal answer would be something like this so that we might be free from sin and we might share fellowship with God in all eternity probably many of you would give an answer very similar to that why did Jesus become a curse for us all so that we could be saved and live forever with God that is not Paul's answer that's a consequence of Paul's answer but that's not his answer Paul's answer is totally different radically different why Paul then did the Messiah become a curse for us he says so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith what Jesus becomes a curse so that the promise that God made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis could become fulfilled that it could reach its maturation what then is the problem to which the cursed bearing death of the Messiah is the answer if Jesus is the answer what was the question if Jesus bearing the curse on Golgotha stry if that's the that's the answer what was the question that's what he say well here's the problem the problem is that the law looked as if it would prevent the Abrahamic promises from getting out to the nations that was the that was the plan all along remember Abraham in you all the families of the earth will be blessed but what happens if the descendants of Abraham don't keep covenant and they break covenant with God the concern that Paul has and the concern that Moses has is the nations will perish because who will give them a knowledge of the one true God you see friends the Sabbath wasn't just given to Israel it was given through Israel the sanctuary wasn't just given to Israel it was given through Israel the truth wasn't just given to Israel it was given through Israel but what happens if the mechanism through which the truth and the sanctuary and the Sabbath and the goodness of God what happens if that mechanism fails well then the nations those that would receive that beautiful message they don't get the benefit this is what he says the problem is that it looked as if the that this law would prevent the non keeping of the law would prevent the Abrahamic promises from getting out to the nations and to make this point he draws out the great covenant passage in Deuteronomy 27 to 30 the same one that Daniel quoted Paul sees the entire history of Israel since Moses as the outworking of these great promises and warnings not threats warnings in particular he understands the long period since the geographical exile as the continuation of the period of the curse if Israel were to stay under the curse forever as it appeared inevitable granted that nobody in Israel did in fact abide by everything written in the Torah well okay then what then the promises would never be released to the wider world the concern wasn't just the salvation of Israel any more than our primary concern in this building should be our own salvation you're the church we're the conduit through which the message goes to the world all of this navel-gazing and inward-looking and introspection about our own spiritual condition has a place but that's not the primary reason that God called the church the church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men it was organized for service and its mission is to take the gospel to the wider world Israel itself could never be renewed and here it is but then comes the punchline how will this seeming insurmountable insuperable obstacle be overcome the Messiah became a curse for us by hanging on the tree and coming himself to the place of the curse as indicated by Deuteronomy and thereby making a way through the curse and out the other side can the church say Amen thank you there is some enthusiasm here they might be under 8 and they don't understand a word of what I'm saying but at least they're enthusiastic beloved I want you to I want you to feel the weight of this Jesus bore the covenantal curse Jesus bore the covenantal unfaithfulness he bore our rebellion he bore our stiff necklace he bore all of that and the remarkable thing is as Daniel was like Lord you are faithful you are awesome you are good we have rebelled we have sinned we have fallen and and Moses his life was coming to an end his life was coming to an end Jesus not only enables the Covenant blessings he bore the Covenant curse that's the key you see friends Moses was coming to the end of his life some of you in this room are coming toward the end of your life okay now let me sort of explain to you what I mean by that in Deuteronomy chapter 3 God actually asks Moses Moses actually asks God to change his mind he says hey God that whole thing about me not going into the Promised Land can you change your mind on that and God says no Moses was as the aussies would say devil devastated Moses was devastated I mean here he's been wandering with these stiff necked obnoxious obstinate people for the better part of 40 years and he makes one seemingly insignificant mistake and he wants to go into the promised land and God says you're not gonna go to the promised land only Joshua and Caleb will go when they will be the only adults that came out of Egypt and then got Moses and Genesis in in Deuteronomy chapter 3 he says God please change your mind I want to go in and God says now I'm sorry now I read this just this week and I about fell out of my chair when I read this line from patriarchs and prophets this is Moses this is amazing awesome grand saintly in you know insuperable Moses without a murmur Moses submitted to the decree of God God says no I'm not changing my mind and Moses manned up he took it and now his great anxiety was for Israel that's why he gathered them together this is the context of the whole book of Deuteronomy he gathered them together and he pled with him teach your children teach your grandchildren soften your heart don't have stiff neck he just he just this is just the this is the pastoral heart of Moses on full display he knows he's gonna die you know within days or perhaps some of those discourses within hours God please change your mind nope and now his great anxiety was for Israel now look at this as Moses reviewed the result of his Labor's his life of trial and sacrifice seemed to have been almost in vain I almost fell out of my chair I thought to myself you mean you mean Moses Moses Moses came to the end of his life and he thought I've wasted my life now I don't know how that makes you feel but if Moses wasted his life what are we doing with ours the greatest leader in all of history right Ellen White says one of the greatest philosophers one of the great I mean the the the the the influence that Moses and his writings and his leadership have had on the history of the human race is in estimable and Moses when he came to the end of his life one hundred twenty years he looked back he surveyed his life and he thought man I've wasted my life it's been in vain and they climb to the top of this mountain right here Mountain Ebell and God didn't just show him the Promised Land he showed him the future you know that he showed in the future because when you read the blessings and the cursings the things that he says came to pass he saw the future he saw perhaps even Daniel on his knees and he certainly saw Christ and him crucified Moses Moses God showed it all to him not only did he see the valleys and the hills and the away seas and the timbers and the trees he he saw it and he saw the future and is he prepared to die he thought about his life and his life could be divided into into three sets of 40 the first 40 years he was basically in Pharaoh's house the second 40 years he was wandering around the desert chasing sheep and the last 40 of his 40 of his life who's wandering around the desert chasing rebellious people and he thought my life has been a waste fascinatingly psychologist identified these three basic phases of a human life early age middle age in the later years and you're not gonna live as long as Moses but your life probably looks something like this the first 25 years and then 26 to 50 the middle age and then I'm sorry after 50 you got a date with destiny man you're in that you're in the twilight years of your life ladies right if you're out you're 50 60 it's you know unless you're Agnes and you're gonna live forever you're 98 and still going strong but for most of us it's just some of you might get this you know you're a seventh-day Adventist you take good care of yourself you eat well you might get this you might get 30 30 and 90 good for you but Moses looked back and he saw this first 40 years he said man I just spent my time in Pharaoh's house I blew it and then he like he thought he's a man what about those next 40 years what a waste I was a shepherd what did I do I have nothing to show for it I wandered around the hills chasing sheep what a waste and then those last 40 years here he is he doesn't even get to go in and God shows him the future and all of these people that he's been caring for and taken care of and judging and ministering to he sees the future and the whole thing the wheels gonna come off and collapse and he's just like my listeth it's in vain I want to tell you today you might feel a little bit that way I feel that way at times I look back and I think man I could have done so much more if Moses is allowed to have a midlife crisis late in his life than you are to life's success is God's business not yours and a remarkable thing happens Moses dies on Mount Nebo but he died and was resurrected very shortly thereafter there's this teeny little verse tucked away in the New Testament book of Jude that says yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the devil about the body of Moses did not bring against him a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke thee this this little hint that Moses was not allowed to be eaten by vultures or Ravens or torn apart by jackals that Moses perhaps a few days later not more than a few weeks or perhaps only a few hours later was resurrected and taken to be with God and here's the remarkable thing he was the first to ever be resurrected throughout eternity Moses will bear the unique honor and distinction of being the first recipient of the resurrection of Jesus Christ just this week this this man died his name is bill Carlson Ferguson you can go read the article on my Facebook page 48 years old it says Adventist evangelist 48 killed in u.s. plane crash he was like me was a preacher to young kids 13 and 16 like me beautiful wife like me dead he died Moses died and one day you're gonna die but your success or your failure is not to be ultimately determined by you but by God God has a bigger plan and a bigger vision and a bigger strategy for your life I want to close with this story just this week I rewatched what some call the greatest chess match in the history of the game of chess and that's a game that's been around for for the better part of two thousand years this young man is Bobby Fischer he's 13 years old in this picture he's considered by many to be the greatest chess mind in the history of chess on October 17th in 1956 he played a man by the name of Donald Byrne in what some consider to be the greatest chess match in the history of the world and in which the single greatest chess move happened he was a 13 year old boy that was considered to be a chess prodigy he had beaten some very capable players and here at this a tournament he came up against a man who was Grand Champion Grand Champion at the prime of his career in his his early 50s and as the match begins to unfold it's it's fairly even but Bobby Fischer seems to be developing his pieces just a little better it's like he has a bigger vision for the game he sees what Donald Byrne even with all of his gifts just can't quite see and then it comes to the 17th move out of 38 in the whole game and Bobby Fischer commits what everybody looking on thought was a blunder he moves his queen into a position where it can be taken without recapturing by burns bishop he dangles his queen out there people think oh he was going so well and Bern takes the Queen and then ends up over the course of the next 21 moves losing the game it's called the sacrifice that the greatest sacrifice in the history of chess the greatest single move ever made and here's the point even at that young age of 13 playing against a man that was his senior not only in years but an experience Bobby Fischer saw the whole game from the 17th move to the 38th move he saw the whole thing and he saw that if he sacrificed that Queen that that that would be an irresistible take for bern and he would take that and the pieces would align in such a way he could see the whole view bern could see the next few moves Fischer could see the whole game and when Jesus went to Golgotha stree Satan thought I've got him how easy is this how simple is this I'll just take him except that Satan could only see the next few moves but God could see the rest of the game and that seeming blunder a dead Messiah stuck on a tree a Roman instrument of torture the whole thing coming - not that seeming blunder actually became the means by which God rescued us from the curse of the law of Moses I want to tell you today the devil's check has always been death puts us in check puts us in check puts us in check we're thinking about death thinking about failure thinking about success and here's the punchline until Christ died he rose again he redeemed us from the curse and he put the devil in check mate friends I want to tell you today God has a plan for your life you might die but Jesus has redeemed us from both death and the curse of the law and you will be resurrected I don't know what number you'll be you won't be number one Moses has that distinction but you will be resurrected if you die and if you never die if you live to be one of those that are translated without seeing death it will all be because Jesus became a curse for us Moses saw not only the land he saw the heavenly Canaan the heavenly land he saw Christ redeeming rebellious stiff-necked stubborn people from the curse of the law he saw can you say Amen Father in heaven you have redeemed us in Christ from the curse of the law just when Satan thought he had made that perfect and final move by capturing the strongest piece on the board by taking Jesus and nailing him to a Roman instrument of torture in that very move which he could not resist he couldn't resist the opportunity to torture Jesus to put him on a tree and to mock him and see him bruised and beating father in that moment when he flexed seemingly his insurmountable strength he was at his weakest and you were at your strongest you showed us that love will conquer that love will win and that death and sin and the curse will be defeated and father today we stand as recipients and as beneficiaries not only of the ministry of Abraham in the life of Abraham not only of the ministry of Moses and the life of Moses but especially as the beneficiaries of the ministry and the life of the one that Moses and Abraham looked to Jesus Christ father the prayer for my church and for my family is that we will not be a stiff necked hard-hearted stubborn rebellious people but we will be a soft hearted generous pliable loving people who know that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law and who know for certain that one day should we breathe our last we will be resurrected just as Moses was we love you Father and we thank you for having brought us through this glance at the blessings and the cursings and seeing that the distance between the Old Testament and the New Testament and 2015 is not so great indeed but in fact they are very very close and father today we put our faith in Jesus and we are thankful for the ministry and the life and the faithfulness of Moses and have the one that he saw Jesus Christ this is our prayer father and we love you in Jesus name let everyone say Amen god bless you all happy Sabbath you

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 7,067

Rating: 4.9245281 out of 5

Keywords: Kingscliff SDA Church

Id: Mnf_rTPU2uo

Length: 67min 39sec (4059 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2015