Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The things you spend your time and money on. often point to the desires of your heart.
God doesn't want our performance. God wants our love He wants our hearts. He calls us to love him. How do we do that? We behold him.
As we come to know Him through His Word and His Spirit, we can be captivated by his beauty. It is then that He can work a mighty transformation in our affections and our attitudes. Let's listen to this message from Deuteronomy 10, titled The Call to Faithfulness. Has anyone here thanked God for air conditioning? I know I do.
Do you ever ask yourself, why do we do this at church? Why do we do this or that or the other thing? Why do we have a scripture reading? Paul wrote to Timothy. In chapter 4 of 1 Timothy.
And he said, Until I come. Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture. The public reading of Scripture is powerful. Not because of the reader. but because of the word of God.
And so we get to do this. It's a blessing every time, and God uses it all the time. I know in my life, Um Okay. that this prepares our hearts for the message of God's word.
So let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10. Versus 12. Number 22. And now Israel. What does the LORD your God require of you?
But to fear the Lord your God. to walk in all his ways. to love him. to serve the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you to-day for your good.
Behold, To the Lord your God belong. Heaven and the heaven of heavens. The earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart In love are On your fathers, and chose their offspring after them. You above all people.
as you are this day. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart. and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords. The Greats.
The mighty. And the awesome God. who is not partial. and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless.
and the widow. and loves the sojourner. giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore. for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him. and hold fast to him. And by his name you shall swear. He is your praise.
He is your God. who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons. And now the Lord your God has made you as numerous. as the stars of heaven.
Let's thank God for this wonderful text. Father, we thank you for your word. We do thank you for the public reading of Scripture. as this was a custom that was carried on. By the apostles.
Help us to Look forward to this. as we look forward to the message from God's Word. God, we thank you for your long suffering. toward us. We know Israel failed you many times They disobeyed.
They did not walk in your ways. They did not serve you. But they were stubborn, as this text says. And we can be stubborn ourselves. Thank you for your grace.
and restoring us from our stubbornness. Help us, Lord, to love you. Help us to walk in your ways. I will pass the board to Obey your commands to us. And we thank you so much.
that you are long suffering toward us. You're a patient God. You're a God that's Knows us. And we pray that you would help us to know you. As Paul said, that the goal of his life was to know him.
and the power of his resurrection. Help us to do likewise. We pray that it would be our goal in life. to get to know you more and more and more. And we thank you for the message this morning.
We pray that you would powerfully use it in our lives. And we'll give you all the thanks and praise. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Steve. Good morning, Church.
Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy is a compilation of four sermons that Moses gave to the next generation of the children of Israel as they had left Egypt and now they're about to go into the promised land. This is the next generation because the first generation rebelled at Kadish Barnea. They sent 12 spies in. They come back and said, it is a beautiful land, but we can't do it.
And so the Lord said. You're right, you can't. But you're not trusting me.
So They got to spend an extended time in the wilderness. And the Lord upheld them, and now they are back in the plains of Moab, and Moses is telling the people of Israel, because he's not going into the land either. And Moses is telling this next generation: this is a call to faithfulness. He gave them a history lesson. This is how we got here.
40 years ago, okay, we left Egypt, and now here we are, we're about to go into the land of Gan, into the land that God promised. And Here's a call to faithfulness. That's what we're in right now, and through chapter 11, is a call to faithfulness. The title for chapter 10: I've chosen Serve the Lord your God with all your heart. With all your heart, that becomes so cliché, doesn't it?
You know, with our music today and all that stuff. It's just all about emotion. That's not what he's talking about. We're gonna see that today, all right? Serve the Lord your God with all your heart.
I want to look first of all at God's steadfast love and mercy. You may have, I hope you did, read. Exodus chapters 33 and 34 in preparation for today's sermon. But the first 11 verses of chapter 10 Account for God's steadfast love and mercy. What he does is he has, he reestablishes.
The Covenant. The covenant that he established with them at Mount Sinai, he re-establishes it here.
Now, if you remember, when Moses was up on the mountain of Mount Sinai, 40 days. He was up there. And as he was communing personally with God, God was writing with his finger on the tablets of stone the ten words, which we know as the ten commandments. What are the people of Israel doing down at the base of the mountain? They are committing idolatry.
And Moses goes down. Breaks the two tablets of stone. You have broken your covenant with God. And as God was talking to Moses, he said, Go down, your people have acted corruptly, step aside, I am ready to exact my judgment upon them. And Moses intercedes for them.
He says, God, it's your reputation at stake. And what we have in verses 1 to 11 of chapter 10, which is reflected in Exodus chapters 33 and 34, is the re-established covenant after the people of Israel had shattered it. In Exodus chapter 33, verse 3, the Lord says to Moses, after Moses interceded, God was ready to exact judgment on the people. And he says, Stand aside, Moses, I'm going to destroy, I'm going to make a nation out of you, and you can take that into the land.
Okay. And Moses says, No, Lord, it's your reputation at stake. And so, what the Lord says, chapter 33, verse 3: I will send an angel before you, but he says, I will not go among you. Lest I consume you. Do you understand the holiness of God?
The only attribute of God that is repeated thrice. Holy Holy Holy. Absolutely pure. Absolutely. Perfect.
Which is a redundancy. I get it. Do we understand the holiness of God? And if we look, so I want you to, you have Deuteronomy, keep your finger there, turn back to Exodus chapter 34. In this context, Moses meets with the people and they make intercession.
He makes intercession for the people. And as Moses goes back up to the mountain to receive the second set of tablets of establishing God's covenant with his people. He asks God. to show his himself. to him.
Boy, we can learn so much from that. Like we did from Job. Job had a lot of questions about his suffering, didn't he? Moses had a lot of questions and perplexity about the sinfulness of people. And what does God do?
What did God do to Job? What did God do to Moses? He showed himself. Boy, we learned so much from that. And Moses asked him, and the Lord said, I will make my goodness go before you and proclaim before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
But you cannot see my face. God said to Moses, I can't show you my face. You would be utterly consumed if I showed you my face. the holy awesomeness of God. How dare we make him small or make him in our image?
But now look at chapter Chapter thirty-three, verses fourteen. Beginning at verse 14, this is Moses, and he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. He's quoting, and he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. for how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight? I and your people.
Here it is. Look at this. Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct in I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth? Is it not in your going with us that we are distinct? Boy, remember that.
You see, it's not about Us isn't It's not about us. It's about the one who made us and made us for himself.
So Moses said to the Lord, If you're not with us, we might as well not even go. Might as well not even go. Because you are what sets us apart. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
The Delight in Grace mission. Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
