Deuteronomy 3

Alright, please be seated again. We now have the main message. Randy Deloson, but I think I dropped some.

Let's turn over to the Book of Deuteronomy. We want to continue our study there. As we go through the material today, I think you're going to find it to be very helpful, very useful, something that we can relate to. The Book of Deuteronomy is not some old, musty book of begets and begoths and things that are useless for a modern Christian today. As we go through the material today, I think you're going to find this to be very much up-to-date, something that we all need.

In the preparation of the sermon today, I've used the teacher's commentary, the preacher's outline and sermon Bible commentary, as well as the Bible knowledge commentary. I mentioned that when we began the study of Deuteronomy, that Deuteronomy is largely three long sermons that Moses gave to the people of God, to the next generation of people who were about to go into the promised land. Three large sermons. The first sermon is what God has done for Israel. That goes from Deuteronomy 1, verse 1, through Deuteronomy 4, verse 43. Now, what Moses is trying to accomplish as he's speaking to the people he's speaking to, he's trying to prepare them for entering into the promised land, for getting ready.

Now, as I go through the material today, you and I are also planning and preparing to go to the promised land. We don't refer to it as a promised land, we refer to it as the kingdom of God. And there are so many similarities to what these people had to learn, and what you and I must learn before we enter the kingdom of God. So let's begin. I'll give you a... as we go through... we'll go through chapter 3 today, just a little bit of chapter 4. I'll give you an outline as we go through the material. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 11 is the first segment we want to look at.

And here we see the believers march to victory. The believers march to victory, verses 1 through 11. Deuteronomy 3, verse 1. Then we turned and went up the road to Beishan, and, agh, king of Beishan came out against us, he and all of his people to battle at Edri. And the Lord said to me, Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all of his people, and his land into your hand. You shall do to him, as you did to Shaihan, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbaam.

Now, let's pause here for a moment. Here we've got the children of Israel. They're not yet going into the Promised Land. They're approaching the Promised Land. They've already defeated this first king, King Shaihan. We see that in Chapter 2. And now there's this other guy, this king, Og, a giant. You think of Goliath. He's the same sort of guy. As a matter of fact, if you look at the very end of verse 11, it says, His bed was nine cubits in length, four cubits in its width, according to the standard cubit.

Now, you would normally build a bed for somebody who, you know, you don't want your legs halfway dangling off the end of the bed, right? His bed was six feet wide, and that's not too terribly, you know. We probably have beds like that, king-sized beds today. But the length of the bed? Thirteen and a half feet.

Now, if you're five foot five, you don't need a bed that's thirteen and a half feet long. So he was a giant. He was a king. He was a large individual. And God said to Moses and to the people of Israel, They're yours. They're yours. And here in verse 2, where it talks about, don't be afraid, God is assuring His people that He's going to give them the victory, just as He'd already given them the victory in the past.

And brethren, that's something that we need to understand today. As you and I go through life today, that God assures you of victory. You will make the kingdom of God, if you do, God's bidding. If you and I are close to God, we have victory assured, despite the fact that we have monumental challenges that we face.

Let's continue on with the story, verse 3. So the Lord our God also delivered into our hands, Og, king of Beishan, with all of His people, and we attacked Him until He had no survivors remaining. Now as you and I go through this story, again, there is a running analogy here, that whatever the difficulties were, one by one, with God's help, those get knocked down. There weren't any challenges surviving here.

Verse 4, and we took all of His cities at that time, where there was not a city which we did not take from them, 60 cities, all in the region of Argab, and the kingdom of Og and Beishan. These cities were fortified with high walls and gates and bars, besides a great many rural towns. So in other words, what we have here are cities that were great impediments. They were well, well fortified. And despite how fact, how well fortified they were, how great they were as an obstacle, our God is greater.

His power is greater. And again, what's in your life right now? What things are you facing right now in your life? Our vision should not be looking at the greatness of our difficulty, the greatness of our challenge, and that's where some of us, and I've been guilty of that myself, we tend to default to looking at the greatness of our challenge, as opposed to the greatness of our God.

And one of the story lines here in this chapter is, Look to the greatness of our God. Verse 8, All the livestock, all the spoil of cities, we took as booty for ourselves. You know, the people needed to be nourished and supplied, so God allowed for that. Verse 8, At that time we took the land from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon. The Sidonians called Hermon Syrian, and the Amorites called Sinner. All the cities of the plain, all of Gilead, all of Beshan as far as Salcha and Edri, cities of the kingdom of Og, of Beshan.

For only Og, king of Beshan, remained of the remnant of the giants. Remnant of the giants. Indeed, his bedstead was an iron bedstead, is a nut, a reba of the people of Emma. Nine cubits its length, four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit. Six foot wide, 13 feet, 13 and a half feet long.

Now, as we go through these sections of scripture, I do want to, in many cases, draw a lesson to be learned. And here, for these first 11 verses, the lesson we learn is that God will help us conquer whatever stands between us and his kingdom.

Whatever standing between us and his kingdom, God will be there to help us.

Again, I don't know what challenges you're facing here at announcements, I was talking about this one having cancer, that one having cancer, this one having a life threatening this issue or that issue, death and so forth. All sorts of issues that we in God's church face. And yet, with God's help, nothing will keep us down. Nothing will defeat us as long as we look to our great God. Put a marker here in chapter three. Let's look at John 16. John 16. Let's look at the words of Jesus Christ.

John 16, verse 33.

These things I have spoken to you that in me, in Christ, you may have peace.

Now, there's an awful lot of people in the world who need peace. There's a lot of people in God's church who need peace.

Every church I've ever pastored, there've been plenty of people in each of the churches I've pastored who really don't have a great deal of peace of mind. In the world, you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And you know something? One of the things that we can look forward to and we can be encouraged by, it says Christ has overcome the world. Brethren, you and I have the spirit of Christ in us. We call it the spirit of God, and it's truly the spirit of God, it's truly the spirit of Christ. Just a different name for the same thing. We have got Christ in us, and we can overcome through Jesus Christ.

Over here in Psalm 44.

Psalm 44.

In verse five, it says, through you we will push down our enemies. Through your name we will trample those who rise up against us. Of course, as Christians, we don't treat people that way. That's not a Christian way to treat people. You know, there was a different era back then, but there's a principle here in verse five, and that principle is, as challenges confront us, God will help push those out of the way. God will help to press those down, make way for us, get us through those difficulties. But we've got to look for Him and for His help. We have a believers march to victory.

Okay, we go back now to Deuteronomy chapter three. Let's look at the next section.

The next section here is chapter three, verses 12 through 20.

Chapter 12, chapter three, verses 12 through 20. And here we have a warning against being complacent.

A warning against being complacent.

What we have, I'm not gonna read all these verses here, but what we have in this section of Scripture is a discussion about how some of the tribes had won over the territory on the one side of the Jordan, not in the Promised Land, but the side that's not the Promised Land. And it could be quite easy for those tribes who had already won their territory to say, hey, we've got ours.

We've got ours. We're just gonna take our ease and relax in what we've got.

Moses lets them know, say, wait a minute, we are a family, we are a nation. Yes, you've got your territory. We've not yet crossed over the Jordan to the Promised Land. But I'll tell you one thing that's gonna happen. He said, all of you soldiers, you can leave your wives and your children and your livestock in your homes. They'll be safe. But you soldiers, you're coming with us over the river.

You're coming with us. You're not gonna stay back in a life of ease and complacency. You're coming with us until we conquer the whole of the land and every tribe has got their share.

Moses and God did not want the people to be complacent. Now, with that in mind, let's cut to the chase here in this section of Scripture. We'll go right to verse 18.

Deuteronomy 3, 18. And I commanded you at that time, saying, the Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over arm before your brethren and the children of Israel.

Moses is saying, look guys, you're not done yet. Just because you've got what's yours. They carved out a niche. They had their niche. And I guess you and I can look at life and say, have we carved out our niche? Have we got something and we think, well, that's ours and I've got everything I need. I've got the good job. I've got the nice family. I've got everything, you know. Yeah, there's troubles in the world. But you know, right now things are kind of good for me. I've got my niche and be complacent about it. Now, Moses says, no, you know, you're going to go over with all the other soldiers until everything is one. Verse 19, but your wives, your little ones, your livestock, I know you've got much livestock, shall stay in your cities, which I have given you until the Lord has given the rest to your brethren as to you.

We've got a great work to do yet, guys. We're not finished yet. Don't you start laying down your weapons. We got work to do until the Lord has given a rest to your brethren as to you. And they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. The other side of the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession, which I have given you. You know, once everything is done, then fine. Then go to your possession. And the story is very similar for us as we look toward the kingdom of God. We can't afford, and here's the lesson to be learned, we can't afford to sit back. We have got to keep on pressing and pressing and pressing. I think Herbert Armstrong said a wonderful example along those lines. Here's a man that toward the end of his life was blind in one eye, could hardly see out of the other, was almost deaf in both ears, could hardly get around. And he was still doing the work of God.

He kept, you know, he could have gone into retirement years before, the church would have paid for that. He didn't want that. He kept on pressing and pressing.

We must be totally committed to this way of life and not giving up, not carving out little niches where we feel comfortable and then kind of sitting down and say, well, I've got mine.

Let's take a look at Matthew, put a marker here. Take a look at Matthew chapter 24 for a moment.

You know, brother, and I take a look at prophecy, and I'm concerned what I see in prophecy. I'm concerned about what I see about God's church in prophecy. Not a pretty picture about God's church.

That's the church you and I attend.

Here in the Aledah prophecy, Matthew 24, we read about God's church. We're not gonna be talking now about the people on the outside. We're looking at God's people here. Verse nine, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you.

Now, there's coming a day when, you know, we will have this kind of persecution upon God's church. When has the church experienced this? I mean, if you look at the Old Testament, if you look at the New Testament, New Testament church, if you look at the book of Hebrews chapter 11, God's people, they have gone through all sorts of difficulty in trial and martyrdoms.

And the same thing will happen to the end time church. End of verse nine, and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake.

People are going, you know, people want us in the church and rightfully so. They want us to have a stronger warning message.

I want the same thing, a stronger warning message. But with the stronger warning message, you will have people out there who say, you know, we never heard about all the stuff you're now talking about, all the stuff that's now taking place that you were talking about. We haven't heard about that before. So you guys must somehow be in cahoots with a lot of bad karma.

You're the one who's bringing the bad news, so you must be somehow purveying that all this stuff that's happening. They're going to want to kill the message-bringer. That's going to be you and I.

Verse 10, and then, because of what's taking place, many will be offended.

We're talking about people in God's church.

Many will be offended.

Many will betray one another and will hate one another. People who formerly used to wash somebody else's feet at Passover time.

Now, we're going to get into a little bit more of that later on in the sermon as to why that can be. But, brethren, if you and I don't have a relationship with God that we need to have, this could be us. Verse 10 could be us.

I certainly don't cut myself out of the herd there. I can be the one doing this. You can be the one doing this. We don't want to be. We don't have to be. But we can be.

Verse 12, and because lawlessness will abound.

In the church, not the world is always abounded in lawlessness. It's talking about in the church. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

We have to be committed. If we're not committed, then when the difficulties come, we may find ourselves being just what we see here. And it's incumbent upon each and every one of us to look at our own hearts and minds, and make an evaluation as to where we are. First Corinthians chapter 15.

First Corinthians chapter 15.

Verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

If there's one way for you and I to really beat what's coming. You know, we talk about people, you know, getting their homes ready for hurricane Irene. They're putting the plywood up, they're doing everything they can do to protect their property.

But we have something that's coming, and prophecy says it's coming. We know it's coming. And for us to withstand that storm, that spiritual storm is coming, we must be abounding in the work of the Lord, corporately and individually.

This is Mr. Armstrong taught us so many years ago.

Okay, let's go back now to Deuteronomy chapter three.

We're gonna take a look at a very short section here, just a couple of verses. The next section we wanna look at, chapter three verses 21 and 22. Deuteronomy three verses 21 and 22. What we see here in these two verses is the commissioning and the encouragement of Joshua.

The commissioning and the encouragement of Joshua. Let's look at them. Verse 21, and I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two Kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. Again, there's a tremendous key here in verse 21. People always want to be encouraged, and rightfully so. But one of the great keys to encouragement is look what God has done for us in the past. The positive things. How many times has God healed you? How many times has God answered your prayers? How many, you know, through all of our difficulties where we have fallen short of God's glory, God's never walked away from us. We've walked away from him. But he's never walked away from us. He's always been there for us. He's always been loyal to us as we have followed him.

So, you know, Moses is talking to Joshua here. He's being inspired by God. Remember that your past, and the positive things God has done. Verse 22, you must not fear them. These various places they're gonna go, and Joshua's gonna be their general. You must not fear them, for the Lord your God himself fights for you.

He fights for you. The second great key we have here as a key to encouragement is to be mindful of the greatness of our God. I said it a moment ago. Be mindful, fill our minds with the greatness of God, not the greatness of our challenges, but the greatness of our God.

Psalm 34 is very encouraging along these lines. Let's take a look at that. The whole psalm can be read, but don't have time to go through all of that. Let's take a look at just one verse in Psalm 34. That's verse seven.

Psalm 34 verse seven, where it says, The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear him and delivers them.

The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear him.

I don't know about you, but I like the idea of God kind of camping out in my house, pitching a tent in my backyard. That doesn't bother me one bit.

I would love that. I love that thought right there. That's something that we need to remember. Isaiah 41.

Isaiah 41.

And in verse 10, Isaiah 41.10, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

The great God himself doing that for us.

We go back now, and I'm gonna spend a little more time with this next section because it's very important.

It's chapter three, verses 23 through 29.

And we're gonna see here where one of the greatest servants of God who ever lived, Moses, is denied entrance into the Promised Land.

A man of tremendous faith, a man of tremendous courage, valor, a man who put up so much for so long, a man who was willing to stand in the gap when God was going to destroy all of Israel, Moses said, please don't do that. What will the nations around think? And yet, God said to Moses, you're not going in.

There are lessons for us to learn from this. Now, we're not going to go right immediately to chapter three of Deuteronomy. Let's turn to Numbers, chapter 20.

The story flow works well there in terms of going through what took place. Numbers chapter, let's understand what it was that God himself penalized this man.

Jerry and his message earlier today was talking about repentance. Was Moses repentant? Sure he was. But why, if he was repentant, then God did not allow him to go into the Promised Land. Well, let's take and understand something. Numbers, chapter 20, verse one.

Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation came into the wilderness of Zinn in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, "'If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.'" This is not the first time Moses has gone through this with these folks. Verse four, "'Why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?'" It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there any water to drink.

So you've got an awful lot of contention here.

And one of the things we're gonna see as the story progresses, is Moses is on his last nerve with this group. He is on his last nerve, the last straw is about to break the camel's back here, and he's gonna do something he will regret until the day he dies. And there's much for you and I to learn here. Verse six, So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. You know, in Scripture, this is symbolic of people who really humbly are coming before God. They're not just kneeling down and asking, going to the tabernacle where God lives saying, Father, you know, these guys are laying down on their bellies, face down, really humble. They really wanna, you know, how do we work with this? They fell on their faces and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take the rod, the rod, the symbol of God's power, the symbol actually of God himself, take the rod, you know, the same rod that was used during the time of the Exodus, take the rod and your brother Aaron and gather the assembly together, speak to the rock before their eyes and it will yield its water. Thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock and give them a drink to the congregation, to their animals. Now there's some deep symbolism here. Obviously the rock represents Jesus Christ. You know, 1 Corinthians 10 for the rock was Christ. Water symbolizes the refreshment of God's Holy Spirit. These people were parks, they were in the wilderness. Like sin, they were in a sinful place, a sinful area, but Christ was there to give them refreshment.

Deep symbolism here, verse 9. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. So far so good, Moses is being obedient to this point. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, again, they're being obedient to this point. And he said to them, first mistake, God didn't tell Moses to speak to the people.

God told Moses to speak to the rock.

Speaking to their rock would be similar to us going to God in prayer. When we have a need, we go to God in prayer. We don't go to other people. We make sure we're going the right direction.

So he said to them, here now you rebels must we bring water for you out of this rock. We, Moses here is being arrogant. Moses here is being prideful. Moses here is putting himself on his same shelf as God Almighty. We are going to bring the water. Can Moses have done that on his own? No.

We will bring the water out of this rock.

Then verse 11, then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. He was told to speak to the rock. He was not told to whack it. He was told to speak to the rock. He struck it twice with his rod.

Representing anger, representing lashing out at God himself.

What we have here, brethren, is the sin of Moses that caused him not to be able to go into the promised land. What we have here, in a moment, in an episode, Moses lost his cool. He lost his composure. He lost his control. He lashed out. And why? Because he had been having so many difficulties with those people for so many years, he finally said, that's enough!

And he blew up.

And that is why God said, you're not going into my promised land.

Verse 12. God has to respond to that, regardless as to how much God loves Moses. And he loved him a great deal. Verse 12, The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I give them. So here we see an example.

And we're gonna talk in a few moments about lessons. There's a number of lessons here I'm gonna cover with you. It's gonna take the bulk of the rest of the sermon. But there's so many lessons here from what Moses did. Now let's go over, if that is background, let's go back over now to Deuteronomy chapter three.

And we do wanna take a look at verses 23 through 29 and show this whole episode of God and Moses talking about the situation we just read.

Deuteronomy chapter three, verse 23.

"'Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying," Now when you look at the Hebrew here, the Hebrew shows that Moses is going to God time and again.

Father, you know I'm repentant. You know I'm sorry for what I did.

Time and again, and there are plenty of places in the scriptures where people, you've got the example of the widow woman who kept on going to the unrighteous judge. There's a scriptural example about being persistent in prayer. He felt he was being persistent.

But let's read the rest of the story here, verse 24. "'O Lord God, you have begun to show your servant your greatness in your mighty hand.'" You know, between the lines, Moses is saying, "'Hey, look, I get it. I'm really sorry. I get it.

For what God is there in heaven and on earth who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds? I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains in Lebanon, those pleasant mountains in Lebanon. Please let me go over. If there's anybody who deserves to go over to that promised land, for what I've been through, it's me.'" Verse 26, "'But the Lord was angry with me on your account. It would not listen to me, so the Lord said to me, enough of that speak no more to me on this matter.'" I read those words, and I see the words of a father, because I've used those words with my kids. And enough, I've heard you, you've come to me a zillion times asking for something I've already said no.

And God says, you know, Moses, this is a closed book. You're not going in. Enough. I've heard every argument, I've heard every angle, you know, you've been pretty good, but you're not going in.

Verse 27, notice what God says, "'Go up to the top of Pishka, and lift up your eyes toward the west and north of southeast, and behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.'" Is God being heartless? God being cruel? Man seems like he's repentant, he's really sorry. But there's lessons here for us to understand.

Verse 28, the command Joshua, encourage him and strengthen him. I mean, these words were so hard for Moses to hear.

"'All he had done, and now he's got to turn the reins over to somebody else.' He loved Joshua, but he wanted to be there because he loved the people. He was truly a leader who loved his people. He wanted to be there as they got to go into the promised land for all these years.

But God says, you go to Joshua, you encourage him. Strengthen him, for he shall go over before his people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see. So he stayed in the valley opposite Beth Bior." There are a number of lessons for us to learn here, brother. Number one, and please learn this lesson I've discussed with you so many times. Number one, stockpiled hurts, not properly dealt with, will come back with a vengeance.

Stockpile hurts, and you can check your own heart and mind right now. Have you been stockpiling hurts? Have you really not been dealing with things in your life? You've been putting them off? You've been submerging them? You've been avoiding them? You've simply not dealt with them? Stockpiled hurts. And Moses had a tongue with the people of Israel.

And it got to the place where one straw broke that camel's back. And he lashed out, he did something, he regretted, he truly repented of that, and God did forgive him of that.

But you see, sin has its consequences.

And even though you and I may repent of something, that doesn't mean we don't face consequences for our actions.

We face consequences all the time. How many times have I had people in the ministry, over the years I've been a pastor, and sometimes it's been at the Feast of Tabernacles. Many times people will come at the Feast of Tabernacles. They want to come to counseling and anointing, they want to talk, because I'm a stranger to them. Or they'll talk to one of the other ministers who's a stranger to them, and they'll say, you know, I got involved with sex, or I got involved with this, or I got involved with drugs, or this, or that, or the other. And they're deeply sorry, but they've got this horrible disease now. Or they lost their house because of gambling. You know, there are sins, and we can repent of those sins, but there's still consequences. Moses had to face the consequences. And God wants you and I to remember that.

There are consequences for our actions.

And in this particular case, Moses had been stockpiling the hurts, not dealing with those hurts, and they came back with a real vengeance. Brethren, I've already read to you, Matthew 24.

I am deeply concerned for myself. I am deeply concerned for each and every one of you, that if we don't watch ourselves, we can be the ones who are hating our brothers and sisters, and turning our brothers and sisters over for torture and what have you. If you and I have got things in our hearts and minds, we are not dealing with. And it takes the power and the love of God to deal with those things.

Let's turn over to Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4.

Notice what Paul says here to the church there, who was a loving church. You know, the book of Revelation talks about the great love that the people here in Ephesus had. They were known for their love, but they also had some other issues.

They were not all perfect. They had other issues. We see that right here. Ephesians 4.26. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

You know, the idea, the concept there is you gotta deal with it.

Don't submerge it. Don't neglect it. Don't walk away from it. Turn your back on it. Turn a blind eye to it. Deal with it. And notice verse 27, and it's interesting that verse 27 follows that verse. Nor give place to the devil.

If you and I aren't dealing with life's hurts, we are leaving a tremendous opening for Satan.

You know, if we've got hurts we're not dealing with, then when the time comes, we might say, well, you know what? Those people in the Detroit church, they really didn't care for me. They rarely, they didn't do this, X or Y or Z for me, or in the Flint church, they didn't do X or Y or Z, or whatever church you go to.

And you know, why should I suffer pain and loss for that person?

Verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification that it might impart grace to the hearers.

You know, you combine verse 29 with a verse that talks about out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If our mouth is speaking corrupt communication, it's because our heart is corrupt.

Verse 30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. How is the Holy Spirit grieved? It's grieved when we got things percolating in our hearts and minds that just shouldn't be there. We're embracing our pain and not embracing, you know, we're embracing our victimhood and not embracing the fact we need to be overcomers.

Let all bitterness, verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Get these awful negative things out of our hearts and minds. Verse 32. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ also forgave you. Brother, in that section of Scripture, it takes a world-class Christian to live like this. This is not something that's easy. This is something that's extremely hard. It takes the great love of God to be able to do what we see here.

So one of the lessons we learned from Moses is we can't stockpile hurt and think that somehow we're not gonna get burned. Moses stockpiled us hurt. He got burned. He will be in the kingdom of God. But something he prized very highly. He said, God said, you're not gonna get it.

There's another lesson here, a major lesson that I see as I look at the story there. Lesson number two is that blessings are not always a sign of God's approval.

Blessings are not always a sign of God's approval.

I think sometimes in a church, we get to this kind of having a formula.

If we do right, God will bless us. If we do wrong, God will curse us. Well, we can do right to Jesus Christ that right all of his life. And look at what happened to him at the end of his life. Torture!

If you remember the story that we read just a few moments ago, even though Moses sinned, and it was a big sin in God's eyes, blessings still took place. The water did come out of that rock, even though Moses didn't do it the right way. God allowed the water to come out of the rock, the people, the herds, everyone was satisfied by the water. So in that sense, there was a blessing. But privately, God went to Moses and said, you know, I'm going to bless these people. I'm going to show mercy and grace to these people, but you, you're not going into the promised land.

So brethren, keep that in mind. Let's not look at Christianity as a, somehow it's all like a big equation in simplified things. Let's go to Numbers, chapter 32.

Numbers, chapter 32.

And verse 23, Numbers 32, 23.

But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord. And last part is what I want to key in on. And be sure your sin will find you out.

Be sure your sin will find you out.

Why? Something that Jerry said in his sermon that earlier. God can't forgive when we don't repent.

It's not that God doesn't want to forgive us. God wants to forgive us. Jesus Christ came to this world to give his life, so we can be forgiven. But if we will not repent, then we can't be forgiven. And if we don't, as it says here, to let our sin, you know, find out where we're sinning, ask God, you know, show me my secret faults. Show me where I'm doing wrong. Be sure our sin finds out why. Well, we do that so that we can repent.

So we can turn around and go a different direction.

Isaiah chapter 59.

Isaiah chapter 59 verses one and two.

Isaiah 59, one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so he will not hear.

Moses is gonna be separated from his countrymen because of his sin.

And God said, you know, Moses, you know, you'd have to pay a price for what you did. I'll forgive you, your sin. I see you're repented, but there's a consequence here. There's a lesson that you need to learn, and there's a lesson of those around you need to learn. And so the price that had to be paid by Moses. Lesson number three.

Lesson number three, and that is that God is no respecter of persons.

God is no respecter of persons.

There is an argument that could be made that Moses was the greatest figure. You know, if we don't think about God himself in the Old Testament or the God of the Old Testament, when we're talking about just flesh and blood, human beings, an argument can be made that Moses was the, you know, Moses or Abraham, I guess, would be the key figures in the Old Testament. He was a tremendous figure. But you know something? When he sinned, he paid a penalty. God was no respecter of persons.

We can't go to God and say, hey, I'm in your church. Hey, I've been in a church all these years. I've kept X number of feasts. I do, you know, I do tithing. I do, you know, I haven't eaten pork in a long, long time.

God is no respecter of persons. If he's not gonna respect what, you know, just overlook what Moses did, he's not gonna overlook what you and I do. What is it in your life? What is it in my life that we're not getting right now?

What is it in our lives that God is simply saying, you know, enough?

You've done certain things, and now you are gonna pay the price. You may be repentant along certain lines, but maybe not along all the lines. And because of the stance you're taking, I can't bless you. I can't, I can't do, you know, I can't allow you to go into the promised land. Or in your case, maybe I can't have that house, or I can't have that car, or I can't have that job, or I can't have this or that, because, well, there's something in our life that got the better of us.

First Peter, chapter one.

First Peter, chapter one.

Number 17.

First Peter, 117.

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality, this is First Peter, 117, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, the time of your sojourning here in fear, judges each one according to our works. What is your work? What is mine? The Bible talks about it in the last eight, it's gonna be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

First Peter, chapter four, verse 17.

First Peter, 417. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. If you don't like the word judgment, use the word evaluation. The time has come for you and I to be evaluated by God. And it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, interesting phrases, isn't it? We are scarcely saved?

Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good.

It's one of the very first points he made today in the lesson going through Deuteronomy, committing ourself to God.

Committing ourself to God. The last lesson to be learned from that story of Moses, and I've already mentioned it actually a number of times today. Number four is that sin has its consequences.

Sin has its consequences.

How many people, as I said a little earlier, how many people have come to me and said, you know, Mr. D, I'm so sorry I did that one-night stand. You know, she's pregnant, or I'm pregnant, or I've got this disease, this sexually transmitted disease, or I've, you know, I blew this or blew that. You know, things are just so out of whack in my life. I really am sorry, but you know what?

Doesn't remove the sexually transmitted disease. Doesn't remove the fact that, you know, you had the one-night stand, maybe somebody's pregnant, maybe, you know, the woman was pregnant. Those things, you know, there are certain consequences that we all bear through the decisions we make. Moses had to, and God wanted people to see that. As great as he was, and I think in large measure, God says, you know, I want people to understand this.

Moses will be one of the great ones in the kingdom of God, but also he's going to be a highlight film of, boy, that wasn't the right thing to do.

Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six.

In verse seven, Galatians 6-7, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. Spirit reap everlasting life.

All right, so much for that. Let's go back and just finish up with just a few verses. We'll do the first four verses of chapter four, and we'll call it a day. Wait for the next time. Chapter four is really an interesting chapter. The thrust of chapter four of Deuteronomy, it's a strong exhortation to obey God's laws, and one of the things, we won't get to it today, we won't have time to get that far today in the chapter, but one of the things that is so interesting in this chapter is the stress that is laid on parents, the stress that is laid on parents to teach their children. We're going to see that over and over as we go through the book of Deuteronomy. It wasn't, you know, the priest had his job to do, but the main job of educating his children is to teach their children. But the main job of educating the young generation was upon mom and dad. We'll get to that next time. Right now, chapter four, verse one. Now, Moses hopes that, you know, the things he said to this point has sobered them, thinking about, you know, as he's redressing these people, remember your parents, they've all died in the wilderness. Remember me, I can't go into the promised land. Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgment which I teach you to observe, that you may live and go in and possess the land which the God of your fathers is giving you.

You know, Moses is entreating them, he's exhorting them, he's pleading, don't repeat the sins of your parents. Don't do what I did, because it has disastrous consequences. Verse two, you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shall you take anything from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you. And this is something, brethren, that, you know, you and I, we perhaps take this for granted, and we never should. You know, I think all of us in this room look at the word of God with a tremendous amount of respect and awe and reference, realizing that it is the very heart and mind and thinking of God the Father and Jesus Christ. How dare anybody think that they can add to God's mind or subtract from God's mind? As a matter of fact, I put a finger here, and let's go to 1 Thessalonians 2.

1 Thessalonians 2 is maybe the last time we go out of Deuteronomy here.

1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13.

For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, there's a principle in the Scripture that you teach as you have been taught. You see that in Colossians 2. I've repeated it to you so many times over the years. Colossians 2, verses 6 and 7. Titus 1 and verse 9. People being taught as their predecessors have given them the word. Because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. Paul's saying, we're giving you, and Moses is saying the same thing, these are the very words of God. Don't confuse these with my words. These are God's words. Don't add or subtract from those words. Verse 3. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-Pior, for Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal at Pior. 24,000 people died. Why? Because they decided, well, they were going to do their own thing. They knew better. They were going to start intermingling with the peoples around about that eventually led to inner marriage, which eventually led to, well, you don't need to worship the God of Israel. Worship my God. It's easier. As Jerry was talking about earlier today in the sermon, idolatry.

And they, 24,000 of them died. But notice verse 4. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. Every one of you.

I will turn to one last scripture outside of this section. It's still in the book of Deuteronomy. Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 30. This will be the last scripture we turn to today. Deuteronomy chapter 30.

You and I as adults, as Christians, as free moral agents, we've got a choice to make. As we've read today, we looked at the life of Moses and the various happenings. There's an awful lot for us to learn and what we covered today. And we've got to make some decisions. Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 15. See, I've said before you today life and good, death and evil. And that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, and all of His judgments, that you may live and multiply. And the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and sermons, then I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over to Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I've said before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. Choose life.

Brendan, we've got the same choice in front of us. We need to choose life. We need to take a look at what has been taught us in these early chapters of Deuteronomy and move forward.