Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You're listening to part two of a message titled, The Lord Your God Goes Before Us. which was first preached on April 14th, 2024.
It's not about the journey.
Okay?
Now on that journey On that journey, The road. has its challenges. Can I get a witness? The road has its challenges. But those challenges are not the focus nor are they the point.
We have a tendency to make them the point.
Okay. But they are not. The road has its challenges. We understand that. Life is hard.
But God is taking us to a place. And those challenges are not the focus, nor are they the point. They are, those challenges are preparing us for the place where he is taking us. I look out here in the congregation, and I can just look at just about everyone in here. Unless you're a visitor and I don't know you and I say They've got some challenges in their life.
And I even heard from some of you this morning how God has provided and God has brought you through. And it's wonderful to hear that. We've got challenges, but listen, remember this: God is taking us to a place. The challenges The obstacles on the road Are not the point. Don't make them the point.
Don't become defined by them. God has a purpose for them. We're going to talk about that later on. They prepare us for the place where he is taking us.
So we come down to verse 9, At that time I said to you, Moses, talking to the people, I am not able to bear you by myself. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. That's a fulfilled promise. The people are multiplied as the stars of heaven, as God promised Abraham in Genesis 22 and chapter 26. Here's something we can learn from that.
Blessing produces new challenges. Blessing produces new challenges. We want God to bless, right? And when we have His blessing, all of a sudden, there's new challenges that come with that. And you're like, and sometimes they catch you off guard.
Blessing breeze. For example, take our country, right? We feel like we are a blessed nation. And it is one thing to acquire freedom. It's an entirely different thing to keep that freedom.
And that's where the struggle is today. When definitions and roots and foundations are being uprooted and changed, And God is being forgotten. We are finding it more and more difficult to keep the freedom that we have enjoyed. for over two centuries. No extra charge for that.
But there is a call for wise leadership here. A call for wise leadership, say that in verse 13, because it is important that God's people are stewarded well. leading people. And so he calls them, verse 13, he calls for men of wisdom, understanding, and experience, and four responsibilities that he gives them very, very quickly: to judge righteously, verses 16 and 17, to include foreigners, to judge righteously, and to include foreigners. And to be equitable, equitable means they use the same standard for all, whether they're small or great.
That's what equitable means.
Okay, and number four, to be confident. In other words, not to be intimidated because their leadership is God-ordained.
So, this is what God called them to. This was necessary for order and structure, preparing to take possession of the land that God had promised to them.
So, why all this? Why is this important? Let's step back here now and look at the big picture. Who are we talking about and where are we talking about? The big picture here is that this is the family and the land, the place where Messiah would be born and live.
And this is like a millennia and a half, almost a millennia and a half before that time. But God is planning this, He's preparing this, okay? He is taking them to a destination. as he is taking us.
So we have then that God gives them a charge, verse 19. Then we set out from Horeb, that's Mount Sinai. And remember, Moses is talking to the younger generation now because the first generation has died off. They're the ones that rebelled against God. And now he's speaking to the younger generation and recapping all the events that have happened.
We set off from Mount Sinai, verse 20. He said, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord God of your fathers has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
That command to not fear or be dismayed is anchored in what? A direct promise. A direct promise. We must know the promises of the Word of God. We recited them.
We read a lot of them this morning from Romans chapter 8. A lot of them. I'm going to challenge you this morning, okay? I've said this before. Please don't be offended by this.
But for many people, when I ask you what are the promises of God, the first thing you come out with is the Lord will never leave me or forsake me. And that's as far as you can get. Listen, it's time to graduate from that. You need to move on from that. The promises of Scripture, Romans chapter 8, chocked full of them.
Ephesians chapters 1 through 3, full of the promises of God. John 14 through 16, promises of God. Know them, read them, know them, be familiar with them.
so that you can follow this command of do not fear or be dismayed. Because God gave them a charge to go up into the land. And then the people came up with this fabulous idea. Listen, we need to scope out the land first. We need to scope it out.
Let's go have a look first. Let's see this place where God's taking us. And so Moses agreed with it. Remember, he's talking to the second generation and giving them a history lesson here, okay? And they go up and they take a look and they bring back some of the produce and what is their report?
It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us. It is a good land. That what? The Lord our God is what? giving us Why?
Because he's promised. What's the next word? This is sad. This reveals the human heart. All right, here's now the MRI.
We're in the MRI machine and it's checking out our heart. Right here. God's promises are good. Why? Because God is good.
Yeah. Yet what? You would not go up. but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. We can't do it.
They said. God promised. And by the way, what's already happened? Right, remember where they are and what has already happened? He's brought them out of Egypt.
He's brought them across the Red Sea. He's defeated Sihon and Og. Right? All of this stuff, he's provided for them. We can't do it.
We don't Trust you. They complained. It says, You murmured in your tents.
Now, look, listen, look with me at verse. Twenty-seven. You murmured in your tents and said, This is amazing, because the Lord. hated us. He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.
Isn't that just mind-blowing? And you've never done that, have you? When we think of the biblical word of hate, I want you to think of the concept of indifference. Eile Riesel said it. A survivor of the Holocaust.
The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. And so, what are they accusing God of here? God, you don't care about us. And of course, you have never said that, have you? Have you ever blamed God about not caring about you?
This is what you're saying. See, you're in the MRI machine right now, right?
Okay, and God's checking out the heart.
So this perfect law of liberty is a mirror to our hearts and our minds. It is because the Lord hated us, indifference. He doesn't really care about us. There are way too many obstacles for us to go in there and take the land.
So we can't do it. God is indifferent. He doesn't care about us. They completely forgot his promise, didn't they?
Now, what does Moses do? If I were Moses, you know what I would have done?
Well, let's not go there because it 'cause it ain't pretty. Moses was a meek man. Verse 29, then I said to you, Do not be in dread or afraid of them. Verse 30, here it is: The Lord your God goes before you. Who goes before you will himself fight for you just as he did for you in Egypt for your eyes, before your eyes, and in the wilderness.
Where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place. Hear the tenderness of God. Hear the goodness, the care, the loving care of a good God. Do you remember that? Or are you totally preoccupied on the obstacle of the moment?
That's where our downfall comes. Moses gives them encouragement. It is the Lord your God who goes before you, He fights for you. This is the promise, the privilege, the protection because he's given purpose to his chosen people. That's what it means to be chosen.
Just as he did in Egypt and in the wilderness, but, but. The people double down, verse 32. the people double down. In spite of this clear, direct promise anchored in history that they should have well remembered. Here's the point.
You did not believe God. You did not believe the Lord. 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.delightangrace.com. to discover how to live by grace.
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