Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The old hymn rings out, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it.
prone to leave the God I love. Oh, how easily our hearts can stray from the one for whom they beat In Deuteronomy thirty one, God reiterates the tendency and the danger of a heart that drifts from Him. Today Pastor Rich unpacks the text, leaving us with five habits to prevent us from drifting. In this message titled It is the Lord who goes before you. While the kids are going out, if you'd like to get your copy of God's Word.
We'll be reading the first 13 verses. of Deuteronomy chapter 31. I encourage you to Take your your Bible. and your finger. And follow with me.
It just draws you to it in a different way than watching the screen.
So, if you have your Bible, try that this morning. Uh Here we are, Moses is hitting the realization that His time and leadership is coming to an end. Let's start in verse 1.
So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. And he said to them, I'm 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go in and out and or to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan. The Lord your God himself will go over before you.
He will destroy these nations before you.
so that you shall dispossess them. And Joshua will go over. At your head. as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og.
the kings of the Amorites. and to their land when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. Be strong. and courageous.
Do not fear or be in dread of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you. or forsake you. Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and courageous.
For you shall go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them. and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.
Do not fear. or be dismayed. Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, at the end of every seven years, at the said time and the year of release, at the Feast of the Booths, When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that He will choose.
you shall read this law before all Israel. in their hearing. Assemble the people. Men, women. little ones, and the sojourner within your towns.
that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God. And be careful. to do all the words of this law. and that their children who have not known it. May hear and learn to fear the Lord your God.
As long as you live in the land. that you are going over the Jordan to possess. May God add to the reading of his word. Let's pray. Father, we Thank you for your faithfulness.
Lord, just these short verses. Uh Full of your promises. of faithfulness. to go with us, to go before us. uh to not forsake us.
Lord, you are the one That carries us. Lord, as these people of Israel. that trusted in this promise As they wandered in the wilderness, As we wander in this world. Lord, will you strengthen us to trust in this same principle? that you go before us.
That you won't forsake us. Lord, this comfort. We I pray will motivate us. this covenant that you you've given us will we use it, uh to to build your kingdom. Thank you for your word.
Thank you for your love. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Airam. Deuteronomy chapter thirty-one.
So let's pick up where. where we left off. back in November. It's been a while. This is uh Section six now.
Six sections breaking up the whole book of Deuteronomy. Section six is benediction. and succession. Chapter 31 title is It is the Lord Who Goes Before You. Little bit of review here.
Let's begin with the Shema. Chapter six.
Now, this is the commandment that the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God. You and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey. Let's read this together. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God.
The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. and with all your soul. and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children. And shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way. and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
So Israel has A mission. Israel has a mission. God's chosen people are going into the chosen land. That's what's going on here. Why is this important?
Because we see in this God's outworking of history, it is His purpose that has happened in history. And Israel going into this land because this is the land, and this is the people through which the Messiah would come. the Redeemer of humanity. That's why this is important.
Now as Israel was following God's promise They're just coming off of 40 years of wandering in the wilderness because the first time they were about to go in. They sent some spies in, and they came back and said, It's a wonderful, beautiful land. Absolutely. Oh. But we can't do it.
The people are too big, the walls are too high. We can't do it. Never mind the fact that God rescued them from the most powerful army. of Egypt. and walked them through the Red Sea.
They forgot. They wandered. And here they are a second time, Deuteronomy, second law.
Now the next generation is rising up. And God, Moses, is giving them the law again. Here it is. Time to go into the land. But this is going to be a hard, there's going to be hardship involved in this.
God is asking, he is leading them through a hard thing, which is why he tells them to be strong and courageous. It is the Lord who goes before you. So trust him, follow him. Stop and think for a moment. Hear the Lord saying that to you.
What does it look like for you to trust God and follow Him through a hard thing? He's calling you to that this very moment. He says it here in this passage that was read today. He says it to the people of Israel, but he also says it to Joshua. Because there is a focus here.
There is a focus that we're going to see in verses 9 through 13. And it is the law. It is God's commands. And he says, My commands, my word, my self-disclosure has to be read. With regularity.
So that the people may Hear and learn to fear.
so that the people may hear and learn to fear. Does God want us to be afraid of him? Is that what's going on here? Let me give you a good working definition of what it means to fear God. Here it is.
To fear God means to be captivated by God's perfections. and my accountability to him. To be captivated by God's perfections. His perfect love, his perfect holiness, his perfect power. is perfect justice.
His perfect grace. to be captivated by all of that. and my accountability to him. Because as we sang this morning. There is not one knee that will not bow.
before him. And there is not one tongue that will not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So that's what it means to fear him. And the feast gatherings, the feast of booths that mentions here, the feasts were established in the law specifically so Israel would have set aside times to remember God and His provision and His call and His mission for them and His provision for them through all of it.
So that's the mission and the focus, and now we come to the commissioning. And this is the bulk of this chapter, chapter 31, the commissioning. The restatement of the law is now complete. He's given them their charge to go in to possess the land. He's given them the promises of God that are going with them.
He's also given them warnings. And if you remember as we left off studying back in November, Chapters 28, 29, and 30, there is a choice that the people have. 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. Yeah.
