Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Deuteronomy chapter 29, the children of Israel stand on the cusp of a new life in the Promised Land. And so near to the completion of this forty year journey, With so much ahead of them to look forward to, God calls on them to look backward. to see his faithful provision and protection.
He wanted them to see that they had not reached this place in their own strength. but because of his loving purpose. Here is the point If they walked forward into their future without a heart for him, they would only find emptiness and disaster on their doorstep. May the Lord challenge our hearts. to remember.
in this message titled, The Things That Are Revealed Belong to Us. You're listening to Part 3 of a message first preached on October 27, 2024. And this is what's so important. Many of you married here today, some of you. Looking forward to getting married, maybe one day, right?
And it's like, I remember when Andrew and I, we were working up to and waiting for the wedding day.
Well, she was working more than I was. She's put it that way. I mean, as far as preparing for the wedding day, right? But we're working up to and waiting for the wedding. All the anticipation that goes into that, the anticipation, the preparation, there's a lot of work that goes into that.
But here's an important thing to remember. The event. is not the point. Is it? Israel simply crossing over the Jordan and arriving in the promised land.
wasn't the point. It was a mile marker, yes. In our wedding, Beautiful wedding. Long, beautiful wedding. Wasn't the point.
The point is, here we are 37 years. We're not anywhere near 50 yet, Dwight and Susan. I'm so impressed. But 37 years later, And we're still friends. That's an accomplishment.
At least I think she's my friend with And she is.
Okay. But together. For God's glory. That's the point. That's the point.
And so, Israel is to remember that it's not just getting to the promised land. That is the main issue here. It's when you are in the promised land. Are you going to remember? God's Providence and what got you here.
And will you trust him? For today and tomorrow. Will you continue to trust him? As Moses said, here you are standing today, all of you, about to enter into the promised land. Verse 13, as he promised, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as many as almost 600 years before.
God had promised to Abraham this land. will belong to your family. It's the land where Messiah will come. God is a promise keeper. He is the promise keeper when God promises something.
He keeps it. And yes, they've been through plenty of time. There's been plenty of time past, and there's been plenty of struggles, but he has a purpose, and he will do it. He said this through the prophet Isaiah: My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. Learn that, loved ones, Christians.
People. Learn that. God says, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. We can count on that. And then Moses embarks on another warning here.
Verse 18: beware. Beware lest there be among you a man or a woman. or clan or a tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord your God. To go and serve gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.
He says, Listen, Israel, all this time that I've brought you through, you have witnessed the contrast. Between these useless gods of human imagination and ingenuity. They've crafted beautiful idols. And they bow down to them. And Isaiah points it out well: you chop down a tree, you cut it in half, half of it you carve and you paint, you fall down and worship it, the other half you chop up and use for firewood.
And we think of it, how silly, how could people do that?
Well, we do the same thing. When we look to some created object to be our security and our satisfaction other than God. We forget that it's created. And we worship and serve the creature rather than the creator.
So let's not be so hard on Israel.
Okay. But Israel has witnessed the contrast of these useless gods of human imagination and ingenuity. And they are no competition for the Creator, Jehovah, the living, caring, sustaining God of Israel. They are no competition. But he says, beware lest there be A bitter root.
A root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. What is E-Hart talking about? We find this mention, something similar to it, mentioned in Hebrews 12, verse 15. And he's talking about a root, what grows from a root, a tree does, or a plant does. The root becomes the source.
So he's talking about a family line or a successive generation.
So there could be, I, for example, I could start drifting in my walk with God. I could start drifting in my spiritual pursuit of God. And I start thinking less and less of him and more and more of me. And things are becoming more important to me. And God is becoming less and less important to me.
and I lose the sight of the fact that he's the greatest and most important reality.
Okay. Now I become the root. What happens to successive generations? All my children will see that in me. My family will see that in me.
God's not so important to me anymore. And what happens, and that will happen in family lines. If the parents serve God casually, Then the next generation will serve God. Optionally. And then the next generation will serve God.
and differently And if it continues, those who feel that they have to serve God, they will do so grudgingly. This is what Moses is warning Israel about. Don't let this happen. Keep your eyes fixed on the one who made you, who loves you, who redeemed you. Keep your eyes fixed on him.
And he says, this is what happens. This is so cool. The word of God. I would say the word of God is so cool, and that just sounds so glib, doesn't it? I mean, just, but it is.
Here's the poisonous and bitter the root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. This is the self-talk that goes in somebody's heart. Verse 19: When one, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, here it is, blesses. himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. Every one of us can relate to that, can't we?
Every one of us. And in the Hebrew, the word blesses in his heart. The word blesses is in the middle voice, which means the actor is both the subject and the object of the verb. of the action.
Okay. So he's talking about self-esteem here. I will be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This is the self-talk that goes on in the heart of somebody who drifts away from God. I will have what I want.
I know better. I will do it my way. I don't care, God doesn't care, God doesn't keep his promises. That's what's going on. Those are the assumptions.
the inferences that are going on in the heart of the one who says this to himself. And he says this will lead to. The end of verse 19. This will lead to The sweeping away of the moist and the dry. The moist is well-watered lands and deserts.
It leads to the sweeping away of all of it. In other words, what he's talking about, if this is what's going on in your heart. You are on the path to disaster. Disaster. Moses is here pointing out the folly of abandoning the one who has proven to be your sustenance.
and your security and your satisfaction. the folly of abandoning him. the delusion of self-preeminence. is tantamount to practical atheism. We might claim religion or religiosity or have a form of it.
But the delusion of self-preeminence is practical atheism. And the outcome of it, as we studied in chapter 28, is abject emptiness. That's what chapter 28 is about. And he mentions in here Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, verse 23. What are those?
Those were cities that lived utterly in self-centeredness. And it manifested itself in all kinds of deviant behaviors. And what happened to those cities? They are now rocks in the wilderness. There's nothing left to them.
They are also mentioned, the same cities are mentioned in Hosea chapter 8, chapter 11, and verse 8. And what he's talking about here, this notion of abandoning God, it's like the branch, let's say you are the branch of a tree. It is the branch wishing away the tree. What happens to the branch? if the tree goes away.
The branch withers and dies. dies. A very slow and thirsty death. You're choosing your own demise. You're choosing a life.
the desert without sustenance. And so if That happens, and Moses is predicting this. And he says in verse 24: All the nations will say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of his great anger? The people will say it is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made.
them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
So in other words, when In the future. people is this what happened people C and they know the history that happened here. and the awesome wonders that God did bringing this people into this land. And then later on they abandon God and the land is desolate. And people come through and say, what happened here?
Here's the answer. God did this awesome thing. And then they abandoned him. It's crazy. That shows the condition of the human heart, doesn't it?
We would rather trust what we can see and manipulate. Then trust God. We would rather trust what we can see and do. Then trust God. 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. I'm going to use a little bit of a pain.
