Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Just because things are challenging and difficult. doesn't mean you've fallen out of favor with God.
See, God ordains hard things to develop our trust in Him. and to build our character. In Deuteronomy, God was taking his people Israel to a specific destination. not just on a journey. The road had its challenges, but those challenges were not the focus nor the point.
Those challenges prepared them for the place he was taking them, the place that God had promised them. I'm so glad God is faithful to take us places where we're required to trust Him. if we're to move ahead. Would you turn in your copy of the scriptures to Deuteronomy? Chapter 1 Deuteronomy chapter 1.
I'll be reading verses 21 to 33. If you do not have a Bible, In this under the seats in front of you, there are Bibles. There that um You're welcome to take. That's our gift to you. You do not have a copy of the scriptures.
If you've got 12 of them at home on a shelf, don't take it. Deuteronomy chapter one. Remember the context? Israel is standing at the Jordan River, ready to go across into the Promised Land because of their disobedience. They were not allowed to cross after they had left captivity in Egypt, but now their children are about to cross over.
And Moses is going to remind them of God's covenant with them.
So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 1. Words of Moses. See? The LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up.
Take possession as the Lord the God of your fathers has told you. Do not be fearful. Do not fear or be dismayed. Then all of you came near me and said, Let us send men before us that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up. and the cities into which we shall come.
Well, the thing seemed good to me. And I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshkol, and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us. And brought us word again and said, It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.
Yeah. You would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, Because the Lord hated us. He brought us out of the land of Egypt. to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great. And fortified up to heaven. And besides, We have seen the sons of the Anakim there.
Then I said to you, Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, will Himself fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt, before your eyes. and in the wilderness Where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you. as a man carries his son all the way that you went until you came to this place. Yet in spite of this word, You did not believe the Lord your God.
Who went before you in the way you The way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in fire by night? and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go. Father, it is a Privilege. For us. To have a copy of your words.
that we can hold in our hands. It is a joy to hear you talk to us. I think of David who said, I love to hear your laws. It's like honey. dripping on my lips And the prophets who said, it's like water to a thirsty man in the desert.
It's also Father of responsibility. For now. We have to Do what your Spirit is prompting us as the word is opened up. I think of what James said to us, don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror. and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom. and continues to do this. not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, He will be blessed.
in what he does. Father, we desire this blessing. As we hear the word open to us. The challenge given, and your spirit apply it to our hearts. that we would leave this place and do what you've called us to do.
Hey ma'am. Good morning, church. Deuteronomy. Let's begin. Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Did you do your homework? Those of you here last Sunday, you know I gave homework, right? Say it with me. Stand with me. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4, the beginning of the Shema.
Say it with me. Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Please be seated. How do you get that out of the way? All right.
So there's a familiar story in this, and Dwight gave us the context. The title of today's sermon is The Lord Your God Goes Before You.
Something to remember. Let me begin by saying this. It's not about the journey. There's a lot of people today who would say, you know, it doesn't matter where you're going, it's all about the journey. That is not true.
What good is it if you have a wonderful journey if you end up in the wrong place? Yeah. Now, we look at the text in front of us, and verse one. Lot of different names mentioned there. This is where Israel has gone.
Here's what's happening. This is the second generation now, because Moses is recounting what happened with the first generation. This has been forty years since the Exodus and Israel coming out of Egypt. Because the first generation rebelled. And God said, You want to have it your way?
Fine, I'll let you have it your way for 40 years. And so he's recounting this. And if you look in verse 1, there's Horeb. These are different regions in the southeast of the Dead Sea. If you can think of the Middle East over there, the land of Israel.
Horeb is just another name for Mount Sinai. That's where God established the covenant, the Mosaic covenant, with his people. And Peran is a region, a desert region. Mount Seir is the region of Esau's descendants southeast of the Dead Sea. And Kadesh Barnia is an oasis where the infamous decision was made not to trust God as a whole.
Right, as Israel as a whole. And so we find in here, as he says, verse 3, in the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. Down in verse 6, it says, The Lord our God said to us in Horeb.
So, in other words, God is speaking. And this is a clear indication that what we have in the scriptures is, in fact, divine revelation. This is internal evidence that God has spoken to us, which, by the way, is one of the reasons why we generally don't accept the books of the Apocrypha, because that is one thing they lack: the internal evidence that it is, in fact, a word from God. Not so here. And so he mentions in verse 4 that after he defeated Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ash.
Those are kings. If you look back in Numbers chapter 21, God is taking the people of Israel, and Moses is asking these kings, he says, Please let us pass through your land. We won't do anything to you, we won't sack your land or anything like that. Please let us pass through. And they said what?
Uh-uh. Ain't gonna happen. And so God gave Israel defeat over these lands. And Numbers chapter 21 is where that is recorded. And again, that is just another indication where, in the history of Israel, the very existence of the nation of Israel is in itself a proof, an evidence for the very existence of God.
Israel could not exist. were it not for God. These are examples of that.
Okay. And then we get down to verse 8. Look what he says in verse 8: See, I've set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to To them and to their offspring after them.
So that's a direct promise. God spoke that. Promise. Go in, take possession of the land. Here's the point: that's why I said it's not about the journey.
God is taking them to a place. Side note. God is taking you to a place. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out www.delightandgrace.com to discover how to live by grace.
Tune in with us on weekdays at 10 a.m. Uh
