THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So we have a Bible side book in the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Bible, Deuteronomy chapter one, we'll read together as a congregation. These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Saf, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazaroth and Dishab.

It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. In the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. After he had defeated who lived in Heshbon and Og, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edride. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, Lord our God said to us in Horeb, you have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the low land, and in the Negev, and by the sea coast, and the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them, and to their offspring after them. At that time, I said to you, I am not able to bear you by myself. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as he has promised you.

How can I bear by myself the weight and the burden of you and your strife? Choose from your tribe's wise, understanding and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads. And you answered me, this thing that you have spoken is good for us to do. So I took the heads of your tribe's wise and experienced men and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers throughout your tribes. And I charge you, charge your judges at the time, hear the case between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, nor, my apologies, from verse 16, and I charge your judges at the time, hear the case between your brothers alien who is with him.

You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone. For the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it.

And I commanded you at the time all things that you should do. Verse 19. Then we set out from horror and went through all commanded us. And we came to Kadesh, Baniyam. And I said to you, you have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.

See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession as the Lord, the God of your fathers has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed. And all of you came near to me and said, let us send men bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come. The things seemed good to me and I took 12 men from you, one man from each tribe and they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshkol and spied it out.

And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, because the Lord hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt and saying, the people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven.

And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. Then I said to you, do not be dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God goes before you with himself. He will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you. as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.

Yet in spite of this word, you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek out a place to pitch your tents in the fire by night and in the cloud by day to show you by what way you should go. And the Lord heard of this evil generation, one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caelan, son of Jipnel. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land in which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord. Even with me, the Lord was angry on your account and said, you also shall not go in there. Joshua, the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter.

Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn and journey into the answered me, we have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commands.

And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up in the hill country. And the Lord said to me, say to them, I spoke to you, and you would not listen, but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country. And the Amorites who lived in the hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in the sea as far as Horma. And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. So you remained at Kedesh many days, the days that you remained there.

Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Let's just come to that Lord. Lord, we come before you this evening. We come humbly, recognizing that what we do here then Lord, we do things in vain.

All the works of man will come to naught. We cannot do anything with these hands apart from you. We recognise this, Lord, and we plead with you that you would be among us this evening. Give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see, and Lord, I pray that you give us faith to apprehend whatever comes from your mouth, that not only we hear, not only, Lord, do we acknowledge this is from your For brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, he has extended our days and given us an opportunity to start another book in the Old Testament. This is the fifth book.

This is the fifth book, in fact, in the Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy, a wonderful book. I am very excited, actually, that we've started this book together. I love this book, all while it's rich. Of course, it is infallible. It is God's Word.

It is breathed out by God. But this book in particular, the book of Deuteronomy, is a book that is essential, that we understand of Deuteronomy is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament. I think it comes third or fourth after Isaiah and the book of Psalms. But most or many of those quotes come from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's a tremendous, tremendous book, and I'm looking forward to it.

And I hope you are also. A few weeks ago, we asked if you have an opportunity, and I hope you had, to open the book and have a read of the book yourselves. This way, at least, the context is in your mind. You know where we're going. It will take us many many months to get through this book, but by God's grace, we trust that his blessing will be upon us, because when we open up his word, we trust that he is the one who feeds us and teaches us his word.

As the title suggests, it gives us an indication of what we will find within the pages of the book of Deuteronomy, really who the original recipients of this book were, because the Deuteronomy comes, it can split up in two words, which is the Greek term for second, essentially, and nomos, which is nomos. Those who speak Arabic among us would know nomos means law, second law. Does that mean that God is giving his law another set of laws for his people? No. No, of course not.

What he does mean, though, is that God is reiterating once again his law, his covenant, the stipulations of the covenant, covenant blessings and curses to these people that are before Moses gone through the book of Exodus the first time around that law and the covenant stipulations that God had given through his mediator through his prophet Moses they came to a people who are freshly being rescued and delivered from bondage in Egypt you remember but now this is a this is a different story altogether Back then, the people heard. Back then, the people said, we will obey everything that God has spoken, we will obey. We will do it, is what they said. The covenant was ratified with the blood of oxen. You remember, Moses sprinkling the blood upon the people.

They said they would obey. Circumstances have changed since then. Is God changing the stipulations of the covenant? Has the covenant changed in any way? Has the law changed in any way?

No. No, of course not. And nor has God gone back on His promise to fulfill what He has promised that He will fulfill to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. A land He will give to their offspring, and to their offspring He will give a land. If God speaks it, it will come to pass.

This is a new generation. This is a new generation of people. A lot of what we're going to explore and see in the book of Deuteronomy has already been addressed in previous books, in particular the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers. We'll see a lot of recurring stories as we work our way through the book of Deuteronomy. But these people now are the new generation.

almost 40 years on and they need to understand what this new covenant relationship, the covenant relationship that they have with Yahweh, that which was proclaimed to their parents there at the base of Sinai is now being proclaimed once again to them here on the brink of crossing over into the promised land and receiving that which the Lord has prepared for them. It is critically important that they understand this because this people, beloved, for this old to know what their responsibility is. What they're signing up for, so to speak. What obedience to the covenant will entail. The details, the stipulations, they need to hear it once again, and they do, in the book of Deuteronomy, as we work our way through, we'll see that.

And it's important that they see it in this way, because the difference now between what they have, or what they received from the Lord through Moses, and what their parents had received, is now they have an example before them. Almost 40 years have passed, and they have that very bad example of their parents. Because if they're gonna look back to the past, to their parents, to see what sort of example they have given for them to follow by, the only example they're gonna receive is one of disobedience. The only example they're going to learn is one of how they can break their end of the covenant. God is faithful, always will be.

but he also calls upon his people to trust in him and to obey him. To trust and to obey. So that's what we have for us. We're here in chapter one. And from the onset, the context is important for us to remember.

Who are these people standing before Moses as he utters in the back of our minds so that we know this is a new generation of people. This is almost 40 years have passed by. And now they're looking back. They're looking back at what their parents had gone through. They're looking back at the consequences of disobedience to Yahweh.

And they have memories in their minds, don't they? A lot of these people may not have been even born the first time the government was spoken to the of them were. Remember, God said that anyone under the age of 20, those who are not listed in the census, were the ones who would perish in the wilderness. So, these people here, for the most part, they would have experienced the burials that took place, and they were scattered across the wilderness because so many had died, so many had buried. In fact, all of that generation would be buried in the wilderness before the Lord allowed them to cross over into the land that he had promised for them.

So this is a new generation. And as they look back, they ought to look back in humility. They ought to look back and think to themselves, our parents failed. What difference is there between our parents and us? You know, one can always look back and think those thoughts thinking that way, one may think and may be puffed up in pride to think that, what my parents didn't have, I have.

I possess that which is required to be obedient to Yahweh. And that's a very scary place to be. Rather, to look back is to be in trepidation. It ought to bring us to a point where we're actually fearful of thinking, this is what I have to do on my own. if my parents were unable to fulfill the stipulations of this government.

And so much obedience in their bodies is scattered across the world. And it's what makes me think that I can, on my own, you know, brothers and sisters, this ought to bring and drive into their very hearts an attitude of humility, an attitude to come before the world and say, I can't do it on our own. Oh, we need you. We need your wisdom. We need your strength.

We need your knowledge. We need your power. Lord, you be with us. We need your mercy. Apart from you, we can do nothing.

Our parents couldn't, and nor can we. Lord, would you be merciful to us? Would you show us mercy? Would you strengthen us? Would you guide us?

Lord, would you be our guide and teach us to be your people? Lord, there's so much we could say very quickly, is the contents that we have in Deuteronomy chapter 1. It's a summary. It's a summary of so many chapters that we've already gone through, and every one of those chapters has a context and has a story that is so rich, it's God's Word, and we ought to be studying it and meditating upon it, and it's just briefly, really touched on here in the first chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. But what we'll do this evening is just simply scratch the and see what the Lord will have for us to see in these few verses before us.

Again, just a minor scratching of the infinite richness that is found in God's Word. And I want us to see something from the onset of these verses, from the very beginning. Let me read them to you. From verse one, we read, these are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah, opposite south, between Paran and Tophel and Laban, Hazaroth and Dizhab. Here it is.

It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Sir to Kedesh Barnea. In the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them. Did you get the timestamps in there? Why are they there? Think about it.

After the people of Israel were delivered from bondage in Egypt, it was about two months before the Lord had taken them through the Red Sea and brought them to the base of Sinai. Two months. Do you know how long they stayed there at Sinai? Just under a year. Now, it could have been less than that, but because of their rebellion, Moses had to go to the mountain how many times?

Not once, but twice, and each time 40 days. So they've taken two months to get out of Egypt into the base of Sinai, and then they were at Sinai for a little under a year. And if we're going to be generous, I mean, what we're told here is it's an 11-day journey. It says here it's an 11-day journey from Horeb. Horeb is Mount Sinai.

It's the other term that's used. So from Mount Sinai, or Horeb, to the way to Kadesh, Bernia, it's an 11-day journey. Now, we know it's very likely that people in Israel took longer than 11 days because of what we have in Scripture. But Moses is telling them that it's only 11-day Scripture. 11-day, my apologies, journey, because it's under 200 kilometers, essentially.

Why does he bring it up? Why? Because of what he says next. What he says next is he says, in the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people. Two months to the base of Sinai.

Almost a year there. Let's be really, really generous and say that the journey from Horeb Hosana to Kadesh Barnea, it's a latter day journey, but let's be really generous. 38 years ago, these people were ready, prized and primed and ready to cross over the border and receive that which God had promised them. 38 years ago. Here we are, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses speaking to a people who have not yet taken possession of what God had already promised.

The only way we can describe that is wasted years. Wasted years. Why? Because they didn't believe. They failed to believe the promises of God.

They failed to embrace that which God had promised to them. They failed to trust the mighty hand of God, although it was demonstrated with power. How did they come out of Egypt? The plagues. How did they cross the Red Sea?

How are you supernaturally opening part of the waters, walking on dry land, and how did God defeat the enemy? All the power of God, the mighty hand of God, and beyond that, in the day, in the pillar of fire, in the night, and despite all these things. You know, Moses tells us here in verse 19, he says, then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness. He says he didn't stop there, because before we got to Kedesh Vernia, we had to go through this 11-day journey, what would normally take an 11-day journey. We went through this, he says, this great and terrifying wilderness.

He doesn't go beyond that, but he says he saw it. In other words, he's speaking to people who understood this. further into this book in chapter eight, where he describes to us what that great and terrifying wilderness was. And there Moses says, we confronted with fire and serpents, scorpions, and waterless lands. And yet, despite all those dangers, God made us there.

He got us there. And then when we got there, he said, go, possess that land that I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Go! Go! God cared for you, carried you along.

We're told here in verse 31, like a son retrieved us. Like a son, beautiful words in which we had time to explore it. He went before us. And yet, even then, we failed to take hold in faith of what he had promised to us. Moses says in verse 21 that it's a land That's all you needed to do.

You got it? And then you said, let's send some spies into the land. Now, let's not see that as a lack of faith because also we may think that way, but when we look back at Genesis activity on its own. But when the spies came back, you remember what they said? The spies came back and they affirmed everything that God had spoken.

This land is incredible. It is a fertile land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. God is faithful. That which God said to Abraham is actually fulfilling.

They brought a cluster of grapes back with them. It took too many to carry it on a pole. I can't even imagine how great does that be. It is a fertile land. They confirm with their lips it is true.

What God has said is true. But, but then 10 of the spies casts doubt. Not on the fact that the land is fertile land like God has described, but rather on the occupants of the land. The land is great. They're strong.

They're powerful. They have fortified cities. We can't get in there. We're like grasshoppers. That's the word they use.

We're like grasshoppers in front of these occupants. Just forget it. Get the thought out of your mind. We're not going to be able to defeat these people. And you know what?

They're true. Those words were true. They were right on the dot. We can't defeat these people. But they failed to recognize one very important point.

They weren't going alone. God said, I am going before you, and I will fight for you. That's what Moses says again here. You're not going alone. God is going to fight for you.

Who can stay my head? Who can thwart my will? You know, when these people were fearful to cross those borders. They weren't simply declaring to God. We are a fearful people.

We recognize that there are strong fortified cities with battle trained warriors that we can't. I'm sorry. We're afraid. Fear. Okay.

You bring your fears to the Lord but there's more than that here. You know what he's saying? He's saying that the one who will fight for us is not able to bring us the victory. In essence, what they're You're not strong enough. So these people are aware that they experienced, the parents experienced the judgment of God because they had unbelief.

They weren't trusting in God. So instead of going over and grasping the claim, the promised land, the inheritance that God had given to them, instead they refrain and they say, we'll forego what happened because God said to Moses, he said, tell these people they can be judged. Because of their unbelief and their rebellion, their disobedience, they will be judged. None of them, none of these who are listed in the census will go. So what did they do?

They girded their loins, flexed their muscles, and said, let's go in. Moses said, don't be silly. Don't do it. God is not with you. Don't do it.

God is not with you. This is the same unbelief that you practiced just yesterday. God said, go, and you didn't go. God says, don't go, and now you want to go. This is not courage, doing things in your own strength, presuming on God.

This is not courage. This is not belief. This is unbelief. Don't do it. I didn't realize it.

So they tried, and then we get the account here in verse 44 that tells us what happened. I'm not a creative person, so when I read things, I can't visualize very well. My wife tells me that, and it's very true. I just don't see pictures for some reason, so it took me some time to figure this one out. But it's beautiful, because, or at least to imagine it in my mind, because when Paul, when Paul, when Paul says, writes here, by his grace, He says the Amorites of those 44 chased them like bees and beat you down.

The imagery here is stirring up a bee's nest. So you go there and you stir up this bee's nest, and what happens? I don't know bees, but I know wasps, and it's probably the same thing. I know what I acted. I jumped up and down like a crazy person.

That was all I wanted to do was get out of there, and I think that's what's happened. You don't know what to do because you have no control. and other pieces of steel to flatten it into like a thin, like paper-thin substance. Or even when you get the same hammer, you smash down a piece of masonry that crushes it into like a powder. That's the word that Moses is using.

They beat you. They beat you down. Because Yahweh said, don't go. You presumed. You went.

You thought you had the inner strength on your own. What a lesson to learn. You realize what happened after this took place? We're told in verse 40 that when the rebellion that took place in Kadesh Barnea, the people there tried to go on their own presumptuously and defeat the Amorites, and they could not defeat them. The Lord sent them back into the wilderness towards the Red Sea.

That's the wrong direction. You've just come up from there. You've come up, that's the place of slavery, Egypt. They've come from Egypt, through the Red Sea, and they're progressing up north. Now you're going back down.

That's wrong direction. No, you're meant to go north into the promised land at that point. But that is such a beautiful When we think we can do it by our own strength, by our own ability, with our own knowledge, when we take our eyes off God, whatever we do, the fruitfulness of the labour, the fruit of the labour of our hands will always necessarily turn us away from God and turn us back to the slavery that we once were. Every single time you take your eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ Every time we take our eyes off the world every time we act in a way apart from faith in God We turn around and we go back to what we were back to the fifth back the dog always returns to its What a picture he says the Lord said go The Lord said go In other words, sometimes He gives you what you are looking for. By His grace, He let them go so far that He didn't go back to Egypt.

He wouldn't let them go back to Egypt. Because He made a promise. And His promise was to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, that their offspring will inherit a land flown with milk and honey, and they will inherit a land flown with milk and honey. God can be trusted. He can always, always be trusted.

Always. And then we have this account here, which is so important for us to recognize, that even Moses, he says, of himself, in verse 36 through 38, he says that even he would not see or tread foot, I should say, among the promised land. He says, on account of you, he's pointing at people, he said, on account of you, I wasn't allowed to enter. And in a way, that is absolutely true. It was because of their sinfulness, their strife, and he became angry, And he took his anger out, remember, on striking that rock twice.

Not once, but twice when God said speak. In a way it's true, but let's not discount what his sin was. Moses was a faithful prophet in the Torah, but he wasn't a perfect prophet. Moses was a faithful mediator of the covenant, but he wasn't the perfect mediator of a covenant, of the covenant, was he? In Numbers chapter 20, I think it was, yes, 20, he says these words, when God pronounces the judgment on both him and Aaron, he says, because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.

What was Moses' sin? Like faith, unbelief. It wasn't in the category of the rank unbelief experienced by the people of Israel. But God had spoken to Moses and said, speak, and Moses has gone and struck twice. And then God says, because you have not, that's the word he uses.

He's faithful, but he wasn't the perfect mediator. But like all that we see before us here in the first chapter of the book of Deuteronomy and beyond, this new generation of people is simply God's saying, you've seen the old, don't be like that. Don't be like that. Don't practice that unbelieving heart and heart of rebellion and disobedience. Why don't you just come, keep your eyes fixed upon me, believe in me, and I will strengthen you to whatever it is coming.

Believe in me. Turn your eyes simply towards Yahweh. Look to him by faith. But because your parents, they didn't make it across the wilderness. They didn't inherit the promised land.

Their bodies are scattered in the wilderness. You will make it across. We know that. We know the rest of the story, don't we? They will make it across.

But the fact is, just because they receive the inheritance, doesn't mean they'll keep it. No, it doesn't. Because we know the story of the people of Israel in the North Covenant. They receive the inheritance, but they do not end up with telling it, keeping it. Now anyway, we can look back in closing, and we can think about 1 Corinthians 10, it speaks to these occasions that took place in the wilderness, and it says for us New Testament, New Covenant Christians, we ought to be looking back and seeing them as an example for our structure that we're not found with an unbelieving heart, right?

So that we find ourselves not looking to strengthen our strength, looking to our own ability, taking our eyes off the author and the perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ, but rather continually looking to him by faith and knowing that he's the one who empowers our world every single day. We can do that and point back and say, this is instruction for us. But beloved brothers and sisters, as you're reading through this, I tell you why my heart is truly excited. It's truly exciting because I look back and I see the old covenant and I tell you in all honesty, if that was me amongst these people, I would have done no different. I would have done no different.

Even not myself, I cannot do any different. So I look at this and I think to myself, if I'm ever going to enjoy that inheritance, If I'm ever coming to enjoy the blessings that God has promised to his people, then whatever covenant, if it's going to be in my own strength, it cannot be an if condition. But if there is an if condition, that's okay, as long as I don't have to be the one who fulfills it. Because if it comes down to me, then my eyes will always naturally I've always looked at living based on my performance, on my own work, on my own understanding, on my own goodness, on my own strength to hold even to the word of the Lord and His promises, that I will always fail. Beloved, be in a better covenant.

And praise be to God in Christ Jesus, there is one. Praise be to God in Christ Jesus. It's a better covenant enacted on better promises. We need also a better mediator. I said earlier Moses is described as a faithful mediator, but he wasn't a perfect mediator.

We need a better mediator. Moses was—what's the word? He had no type of—he wasn't allowed to go into that God would never look upon him and say, you can't come in because you've lacked faith. No, we need a mediator who's perfect. One who can stand before his enemies and say, who can convict me of a single sin?

And silence. We need a better mediator because Moses says that he couldn't bear the people on his army. He looked at me and said, all the strife that comes from you, I cannot bear these people, I can't bear the work that God has given me on my own. We need a mediator, that even when he's in the epitome of the anguish he's ever experienced, where drops like blood are coming from his head, from the anguish of soul, doesn't say, I give up, but rather he says, let your will be done. Let your will be done.

We need a mediator. You need a mediator like that. One who is willing to lay down his life. One who is willing to fulfill all the ifs of the covenant of God. All of them.

Perfect obedience. The one who says, I do always what is pleasing to God. I love that. Always what is pleasing to God. Do you ever do that which is not pleasing to God?

Never. God from heaven on multiple occasions. opinions. God does require perfect faith. God does require a faultless life.

He requires that. But that is found not in your performance of mine, but it's found in in the Lord Jesus Christ, who did it for those who trust in him. Our union with Christ, beloved, is so glorious. Can I just encourage your hearts to meditate on the beauty that is Jesus Christ?