Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. We've reached the final message in our Deuteronomy series titled, It is Because the Lord Loves You. At the beginning of the new year, Delight and Grace will move from the radio to a podcast. We invite you to continue listening with us at our podcast.
www.delight in grace dot com In today's message titled Moses, whom the Lord Knew Face to Face, Pastor Rich looks at the narrative of Moses' death in Deuteronomy chapter 34. It's a chapter full of insight for us. on leadership and running a faithful race for the Lord. Let's listen in. This is part two of a message first preached on February 9th, 2025.
To hear other messages in this series, you can visit our podcast at www.delightingrace.com. The redeemed of the Lord shall return to Zion. You and I are going to be there one day.
Some people ask me, Rich, have you ever been to Israel? I said, No, but one day I will. I'm counting on it. Jesus is going to reign there. Because he is king.
All of this that we've been studying is backstory leading up to this.
So, this is the first time Israel is about to cross over into the promised land. Moses has led them up to this point. And God said, you're done.
Somebody else is going to take them in.
Somebody else is going to take him in. He says, I've let you see the land. And the Lord showed him all the land. This was a miraculous vision, okay? There's nothing short of that.
I make no apology saying that. God opened the eyes of Moses to see all of the land miraculously. How big is your God? Do you worship the infinite transcendent being? He's not bound by the laws of nature.
He created them.
Okay.
So he let Moses see now the realized promise that God had given. all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now all two and a half to three million of their descendants. about to walk into the promised land.
So here's the principle, several principles I want us to learn from the text today. And here's the principle of this that we've talked about so far. The role of spiritual leadership is to lead God's people to pursue with perseverance the promise of God. I take that seriously as my role. The elders of this church, the teachers of this church, we take this seriously.
The role of spiritual leadership is to lead God's people to pursue with perseverance the promise of God. Now we let's talk about some loving prohibitions.
Some loving prohibitions. He said in verse 4 to Moses, you shall not go over there. Again, this is a reminder, back in the wilderness, When the people were thirsty and they were complaining, And this is a reminder, God is reminding Moses of when he wielded his own authority, his own power. contrary to God's command. And God said, you did not set me apart.
You did not treat me as holy. You broke faith with me. You did not treat me as holy, says in 32, 51. Which means that those who will be spiritual leaders will have a stricter judgment. That's scary.
You know, I appreciate it so much. when people tell me they're praying for me. Because I need it. Let me tell you something. I am sheep just like you are.
I'm sheep just like you are.
Okay.
There's nothing special about me. There's no spiritual hierarchy here. And all I can say is follow me as I follow Christ. Yeah. But For those of us who will unpack the treasures of God's truth, there is a stricter judgment.
This is a serious task. It's a serious task to unpack it and communicate it. It is also a serious task on your part to listen. and to heed. And to remember.
So That is the prohibition that he gives to Moses. The second prohibition is: after Moses died, it says he died according to the word of the Lord. And then the Lord buried him. Notice what he says in verse 6: no one knows the place of his burial. To this day.
No one knows the place of Moses' burial. Why is that? Moses died at the word of the Lord. Why Does no one know?
Well, God prohibits idolatry. God. He is faithful to prohibit idolatry. First of all, with Moses's prohibition, No one is above accountability. These are the principles now we learn from this.
No one is above accountability. That means not one of us, not one of us, is autonomous. No human being. is autonomous. Not even the greatest prophet, Moses.
Because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We must all appear there. We will give account. And then the second God prohibits idolatry. And this is why no one knows the burial place of Moses.
Things should not be objects of worship. What would have happened if people, if ancient Israel knew of Moses' burial place? What would they have done? They would have made a shrine out of it. And they would have had pilgrimages to go and worship there.
And we would have said, been saying of Moses, as people say today, he'd be turning over in his grave if he knew they were worshiping. Right? And God says, I'm just not going to let that happen. I'm going to bury him. Nobody's going to know where it is.
Because a shrine like that would distract. glory away from God and God doesn't share his glory with anyone.
Okay.
So that's the principle there. God prohibits idolatry.
Now let's look at passing the baton in verse 9. Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him.
So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. Joshua, full of the spirit of wisdom. This was a divine gifting for the task. Can you imagine leading a group of people two and a half million strong. considering the history that's already happened, right?
Moses Moses. Laid hands on Joshua, and Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom. Remember, Solomon had the same request.
Solomon, God came to Solomon and says, Ask me whatever you want. 1 Kings chapter 3, verse 9. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people. You want to know how to pray for those in authority over us? There it is.
Solomon asked for that. And so should anyone, and we should also pray the same for anyone in authority over us. Moses had laid his hands on him. This is passing on the mantle of authority. And God gave Joshua A blessing of the Spirit.
A gifting of the Spirit to have the wisdom to lead the people. And the mantle of authority was passed from Moses to Joshua. This is divinely ordained and recognized authority to lead the people of God. To carry on the task of leading God's people towards the promise. The same thing happens, can happen and ought to happen in a church.
You know, any one pastor doesn't last forever in that church. I've been here 20 years. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. This is not an announcement, okay? Calm yourselves.
But the Lord knows I don't have tomorrow guaranteed. I could, as Dwight says, get run over by a bus. Mm-hmm. You say that, don't you? He drives the bike.
Yeah. Yeah. But there will come a day when I am no longer filling this pulpit. Who's next? We just leave that up to chance.
No, we have a process in place. A plan of succession. The passing on of the task of Opening God's word for God's people. God gave Moses a clear vision. and purpose.
That was passed on to Joshua. And the people followed, it said. The people obeyed everything Joshua said.
Okay.
Now that's the 2 Timothy 2.2 principle, as Paul said to his disciples, to Timothy in particular. The things that you have learned from me. Commit these to faithful men that they may be able to teach others also. There's four generations in that verse. Paul, Timothy, faithful men, others.
That's how it works. And this is the passing of the baton right here. of God-ordained leadership.
So let's talk about some principles that we learn from this. Authority structures, principle number one, authority structures include appoint man. Yeah. There is zero hubris in that statement. Please understand that.
Okay.
Every entity, everybody. Every body, not everybody, every body. has to have appointment. It doesn't mean he's sovereign. The point man is not sovereign.
I don't have complete freedom to do whatever I want. The point man is accountable. You know where a point man comes? Russell knows. Anybody who's been in the military, you know what a point man is.
This team, this platoon that goes out, right? And they're out on reconnaissance. There's a point man. He's the one out front. and everybody else is walking behind them.
That's what a point that is. Dads, men, listen to me. You're the point man in your family. Be that point, man. Every structure, every authority structures always include appointment.
Anything with more than one head is what? A monster, yes.
So, but there are structures of accountability.
Now, listen, we have four elders in this church right now, myself. Adam is associate pastor and Dwight as elder and Max as elder, okay? And we meet on a regular basis and we talk about the teaching of this church. We talk about the shepherding of the church. 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. Um
