Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The tribes of Israel were each allotted an inheritance. their own share of the promised land.
Well, all except for the Levites. They were people set apart to minister for the Lord. The Lord would be their inheritance and their provision. Pastor Rich unpacks God's expectations for the treatment of the Levites and the way Israel would receive knowledge about the future. not through Spiritism like the other nations around them, but through the Lord's prophets.
Now, I imagine very few of us listening are Levites. But Deuteronomy 18 has a message for all of us. It repeatedly presses on the importance of entrusting ourselves to. He is enough. Let's listen to this message titled, The Lord Has Chosen Him to Stand and Minister.
This is part 3 of a message first preached on September 1st, 2024. Do we trust God? Do I feel like I need to be in control? Do I need to seek some means of foreknowledge so that I can be more in control of what happens to me tomorrow? May God rescue us from that.
This is what he's talking to. He's saying to his people here in Deuteronomy chapter 18. God has spoken. And I love what he says here. Look with me at verse 15.
This is prophetic now, okay? Verse 15: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me. from among you from your brothers, it is to him you shall listen. You know that's a messianic prophecy, right? It is.
The point of this is, we worship a God. Who communicates? God speaks to us. He, listen, he has spoken. Do you trust him?
He has spoken.
So do I know what he has said and do I trust what he has said?
Now we go back here, as he says, that God spoke to his people at Sinai, Mount Horebs. It's another word for Sinai. And when God first spoke to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, The people were utterly terrified. At the voice of God. And they said, Moses, you go talk to him.
We can't do this. And God said, rightly so. You should be terrified at the voice of God. When you, a finite, limited, sinful being, encounter an infinite perfection and power. That should be terrifying.
But he is good. And God communicates. And he communicates. often through human agency.
So we have the spoken word of the prophets and we have the written word of their records. But what this is, is God's self-disclosure. God makes Himself known to us. And it's important for us to know that the God that we worship and serve, the God who made all that is, the God who made us and made us for Himself, He doesn't just sit aloof or stand aloof and expect things of us. He communicates.
And he does so sufficiently. And what he communicates is his own disclosure of himself. This is who I am. This is what I am doing. This is my purpose.
his character and his purpose. And those are things, listen to me please, those are things we must know. We must know what God has communicated about his character and his purpose. Ignorance is not an excuse. We must know.
So Again, read scripture, read through the scripture, read huge chunks of scripture. Do not allow yourself to develop your faith on bumper sticker and coffee mug theology. Read scripture. God makes His character and His purpose known in His Word. But what God has revealed is also, shall I say, sufficiently revealed.
It's sufficiently revealed in this sense, it is what we need to trust. and not go beyond. We don't need to add to his word and we should not be taking anything away from it. It is sufficiently revealed. Is God's word?
Here's a question I want you to ask yourself this morning: Is God's word Sufficient. for my life. I could ask you this morning, do you believe the Word of God is inspired? Yes. Do you believe the Word of God is inerrant?
Yes. Do you believe the Word of God is infallible? Yes. Is the Word of God sufficient? That's a question I want you to ask and answer.
honestly before God. Is the Word of God sufficient for you? Because not only is his word sufficiently revealed, it is also authoritative, meaning this, his word is to be brought to bear upon our lives. There are so many forces in our culture and society today that are thinking, you know, the Bible is so old and people are changing, society is changing, norms and mores are changing. Maybe we need to update the word of God.
It is the Word of God that is the authority. And we don't bring the scriptures to come in line with our lives. We bring our lives to measure up to what the Word of God reveals. God's word is to be brought to bear upon our lives. This is what God is calling his people to in this section of Deuteronomy.
In verse. 19. Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, Let not there hear again the voice of the Lord our God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die. Verse 19, whoever will not listen to my words That he shall speak in my name, speak out of the prophet. I myself will require it of him.
When God speaks, and even if it's through human agency, when God speaks, He expects us to listen.
So, what he is also saying here is that we are also called to discern. Imposters. Those who claim to be speaking the word of God. But they are promising or requiring something that God does not promise. or require.
That's where it requires our discernment. And how do we have that discernment but by knowing the Word of God and what He has said. Because there are many, many out there today, even today, especially today. who make promises or impose requirements ostensibly from God, that God has never communicated. They're going beyond the word of God.
they are being presumptuous. And the Bible tells us you should not fear them. Do not be afraid of them, it says at the very end of the chapter. Here's the point I would like to make from this section, because false prophets eventually, ultimately, what they promise and what they require will not come to pass. But here's a point we need to remember: what God promises.
will be fulfilled. Period. What God promises will be fulfilled. In two ways. Number one, faithfully.
God keeps his word. You can count on that. Number two, literally. What God promises will come to pass. in ways that can be empirically observed.
That's how we know God did this. What God promises will be fulfilled faithfully and literally, and ultimately. the ultimate fulfillment of this promise right here. That Moses makes to the people of Israel, the ultimate fulfillment of this promise is in Jesus Christ. This is a prophetic statement.
Turn with me in your copy of the scriptures to the book of Acts. Chapter three. Acts chapter 3. Peter is speaking near. in the inside the temple, in the portico of the temple.
This is just after they'd healed. The lame beggar. Look at verse 22. This is Peter talking. Moses said, The Lord.
God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him, who proclaimed these days, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.
And he's speaking there of Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise. in Deuteronomy chapter 18. He is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the word became flesh.
So that means that now God having given this new revelation through His Son Jesus Christ, now God is known specifically. and exclusively, and might I say sufficiently. Through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ. Because he is the Lord's chosen one.
Jesus Christ, the suffering servant. is the Lord's chosen one. That's what it says in Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. and he will bring forth justice to the nations.
This is repeated in Matthew chapter 12. And Moses says here, it is to him you shall listen. Because in him all nations of the earth will be blessed. And so I end with what Peter calls us to in 1 Peter chapter 1. And verse 13.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope. fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus. Christ set your hope free. Fully. on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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.
