Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19951008.htm

THRU THE BIBLE SYNTHESIS
"Part VI: Deuteronomy - Getting Others To Be Victors, Not Casualties"

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) While riding the elevator at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital this past Tuesday, minutes after the O. J. Simpson trial's verdict was read, I heard a white woman on the elevator bitterly tell another, "Now a black man can murder whites and get off scot free! Things have swung just too far in favor of blacks now!" Racial problems still exist in our land, making it difficult to impress new believers and our children to walk in grace without getting vengeful. What can we do in today's moral climate to get the next generation of believers to be victors and not casualties of the faith?!

(2) Recently, we heard of shocking news from dear Christian friends we know from out-of-state. They have a lovely daughter, a recent graduate of a Christian school who was head of the former drill team, who also had to remove another girl from that t eam for getting pregnant out of wedlock! This young woman herself has become pregnant out of wedlock! If that weren't enough, she has begun to doubt making a commitment in marriage to the father of the baby because she has just found out a severe characte r flaw in him! Though she had dated him for several years, all of a sudden she is having second thoughts about marrying him, making it possible that the child might be born to a single parent! The young woman's father can hardly speak and her mother is spitting up blood due to the shock this has been!

The young woman was such an outstanding example of the Christian walk! In light what this mother and father has done to raise their daughter well, what is our part to motivate the next generation of new believers to obey the Lord and be victors, not casualties in their Christian live s?!

(We turn to the "Need" section of the message . . . )

Need: "I see the value of trusting and obeying God in MY life, but I am bothered about new believers and the next generation learning the same lesson well! In view of the corrupt world I know they will face, what would God have me do to influence them for Christ?!"
  1. Deuteronomy is Moses' repeat of the Law given with a loaded delivery as an incentive for Israel to obey the Law after he died!
    1. In Deuteronomy, God's plan to advance His rule on earth versus Nimrod's apostasy is spiritually focused at the intensely personal level:
      1. Though God created the world with man as ruler, sin caused chaos and Satan ended up the god of this world, Gen. 1-5; 2 Cor. 4:4.
      2. God renewed history through the Noahic flood, Gen. 6:1-9:7.
      3. Yet, Noah's descendant, Nimrod began an apostasy, Rev. 17:5-6.
      4. God thus chose Abraham to start a nation that would influence the world to check Nimrod's apostasy, Gen. 12:1-3.
      5. After serious challenges, God took Abraham's seed as a nation from Egypt into the Sinai to head for Canaan, Gen. 12:4 - Leviticus.
      6. When this nation failed to trust God's fulfilling the covenant so as to take it into Canaan, a whole generation died in the desert, Numbers.
      7. Sadly, Moses himself became exasperated with the people and sinned so that he also had to die in the wilderness, Num. 20:1-13!
    2. Deuteronomy is thus Moses' impassioned charge for Israel to obey God's will after his death where even he, Moses had personally failed!
      1. Deuteronomy is Moses' sermon organized in a suzerain treaty form for persuasive effect (Meredith Kline, Treaty of the Great King, p. 13-44, Ph.D. dissertation, Westminster Theological Sem., 1962):
        1. In Moses' era, people would make solemn treaties with overlords (suzerains) for protection from marauding bands.
        2. These treaties had an overlord pledging to protect some serfs if they obeyed him. Copies of the treaty were kept in the serfs' temple and the suzerain's temple. Deuteronomy uses this suzerain treaty format with its (a) preamble (1:1-5), (b) historical prologue (1:6-4:49), (c) stipulations (5:1-26:49), (d) covenant ratification (27:1-30:20) and dynastic disposition (31:1-34:12).
        3. God was Lord and Suzerain, so both copies resided in the ark.
        4. Thus, Moses' treaty format for Deuteronomy hit home Israel's great obligation to obey her holy Suzerain AND God or be candidly doomed for ruin by invading Gentiles!
      2. Unlike the laws given in Exodus through Numbers, Deuteronomy powerfully adds the solemn warning of Moses' personal failure:
        1. During his Deuteronomy charge to Israel, Moses revealed his heart-wrenching failure to convince God to let him enter Canaan. God instead order ed Moses to die in the desert because he had sinned while exasperated with Israel, Deut. 3:23-26!
        2. God repeated His decision for Moses to see but not to enter Canaan when Moses finished this message to Israel, 32:48-52!
        3. After Moses died, Joshua penned the final chapter of Deuteronomy 34, relating that Moses died in the wilderness!
      3. Thus, Moses' literary format PLUS personal testimony impressed the nation to heed God's law to be blessed, OR ELSE!!!
  2. Deuteronomy adds to the "thread of redemption" by predicting the answer in Christ's atonement to man's FAILURE to obey the Law!
    1. No matter how well Moses exhorted Israel to obey the law, they would not do so, for the law only condemns all men, Rom. 3:19-20!
    2. Thus, God gave us the great hope of Calvary's grace in Deuteronomy:
      1. Moses commanded Israel to perform an object lesson upon her entering Canaan: half of the people were to stand on Mt. Gerizim to recite the blessings for obeying the law and half on Mt. Ebal across the valley to narrate the law's curses for sins, Dt. 11:29; 27:11-28:6.
      2. However, an altar of burnt and peace offerings was to be built on Ebal, and Israel was to eat in fellowship with God and REJOICE THERE on EBAL, the hill of CURSES, Dt. 27:1-7!! This event teaches us that though all men stand cursed before God as sinners (Rom. 3:23) yet, by grace, Christ would become a curse for us at Calvary that we might be saved through faith in Him and rejoice in fellowship with God as saved sinners, Gal. 3:10-14; 2 Cor. 5:21!
    3. So, via Calvary, wilderness casualty, Moses himself finally made it to Canaan during Christ's transfiguration, Lk. 9:29-31, I.S.B.E., V, 3006
Application: If concerned about getting others to be spiritual victors, (1) become influential (a) by believing in Christ to be saved (Jn. 3:16) and (b) fellowship with God via confession (1 Jn. 1:9) and reliance on His Spirit (Gal. 5:16-23) (c) to be able obey His Word, 1 Jn. 2:3-6. (3) Thus endowed, we may use our own testimonies in a moving way to motivate others! (4) Yet, others are sinners just like we are, and they will thus need God's grace, so teach them of His grace and entrust them to God's future care!

Lesson: We can use our own testimonies in as moving a delivery as is possible to motivate others to obey God. Yet they, like we, are sinners and can fail so easily; thus, entrust them to God's grace for the future!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the lesson . . . )

 When I was a teen, a one-armed Baptist pastor, Rev. Wood used to sing at our citywide teen rallys. One song told of people in the Great Tribulation crying out for the rocks and mountains to fall on them to hide them from God's wrath!

I was disturbed by the level of emotional intensity this minister put into singing this song as he even shouted instead of singing at one point! Bothered, I talked to my Mom about it.

She then shared an amazing story about Pastor Wood! Twice in his ministry he had gone visiting families in his church with horrifying results! When he had come to the door, not a member of the home, but a stranger had answered the door an d had not let him in. Feeling uneasy, he had left the house only later to discover that the stranger had then been in the process of executing that family in cold blood! This had so scarred the minister's soul that he had sought a release for his sense of loss and injustice through his singing, warning people to repent or suffer the wrath of God! Shouting in his song was his way of handling his inner scars in a fruitful way that discipled us teens!

When Mom told this to me as a teen, it made me see the horror of hatred, and how careful we must be in avoiding it and in getting others to depart from it. Pastor Wood's example also spoke of handling injustices, that it was O.K. to be upset at terrible w rongs, but that we were to look to God alone for vengeance! Unlike the people of Israel who flagrantly sinned, we were not to disobey the Lord. But unlike Moses who sinned out of wrath at these people, we were to entrust wrongs done to us or others we lov e to God for Him alone to take vengeance!

That's how we influence new converts and our children to be victors and not spiritual casualties of disobedience to God! Like Pastor Wood, we communicate from the soul and leave the rest to God!