Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130602.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
B. Heeding Our Accountability To God Through His Messenger's Ministry
(Deuteronomy 5:22-33)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    There is a great lack of a sense of accountability in today's world, a fact we can illustrate (as follows):

    (1) The Wall Street Journal, May 25-26, 2013, p. A13 ran the article, "A Battering Ram Becomes a Stonewall" by Peggy Noonan, President Reagan's former speech writer, where she wrote: "I don't know.' I don't remember.' I'm not familiar with that detail.' It's not my precise area.' I'm not familiar with that letter.' These are the quotes from the Internal Revenue Service officials who testified before the House and Senate . . . people who run Washington in the modern age -- smoother, highly credentialed and unaccountable."

    (2) Some evangelicals have big accountability lacks as well, even to the demeaning of the credibility of those who have long been considered to be God's messengers: "Jack Deere, a former Dallas Theological Seminary professor . . . has made the following assertions: . . . Satan . . . has launched various attacks . . . One of his most successful . . . has been to develop a doctrine that teaches God no longer speaks to us except through the written word. Ultimately, this doctrine is demonic even [though] Christian theologians have been used to perfect it.'" (R. Fowler White, "Does God Speak Today Apart from the Bible?", p. 78 in John H. Armstrong, gen. ed., The Coming Evangelical Crisis, 1996, p.78 in citing Jack Deere, "Vineyard Position Paper #2: The Vineyard's Response to The Briefing, 1992, p. 22-23)

    I along with many Christian pastors have for many generations held that Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura) is our final source of faith and practice. However, this former professor of the seminary where I received my training for the ministry claims this view is demonic, countering the credibility of the ministries of all of us pastors!



    So, we ask, "Am I accountable to anyone, and if so, how can I discern to whom, and how can I know it?!"

    Need: "With today's lack of accountability, am I accountable to anyone, and, if so, how may I be sure what the party expects of me?!"

  1. Moses' general Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32 call for loyal obedience to God in the suzerain treaty format of Deuteronomy directs Israel in Deuteronomy 5:22-33 to heed Moses's words as God's messenger.
  2. As such, the revelation of accountability to God and the identity of God's messenger is given in the immediate and extended contexts:
    1. Moses reminded Israel of her great fear of the Lord when He gave His dynamic, fearful displays at Mount Sinai, Deuteronomy 5:22-25.
    2. Accordingly, Moses told how Israel's leaders had all approached him to request that he, Moses, be God's messenger lest God's fearful way of communicating destroy them as a people, Deuteronomy 5:26-27.
    3. God condoned this request (Deut. 5:28), but explained that He had frightened Israel to make her see that she was accountable to Him to heed His commands that He might bless her forever, Deut. 5:29:
      1. The sign of the definite, direct object, et is joined to the pronominal suffix, "Me" in verse 29 of the Hebrew text (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 272) to emphasize that God wanted Israel's dread of His fierce display at Sinai cause her to fear HIM!
      2. In fearing GOD, Israel would sense she was accountable to Him!
    4. The Lord thus had Moses send the people back to their tents while he stayed by God to hear God's future messages to Israel so that Moses could relay them to the nation as God's messenger, Deut. 5:30-31:
      1. The pronoun, "you" at verse 31 is emphatic, being written separate from and before the verb, "stand," and the last appearance of "I" before the verb "give" in this verse is also equally emphatic, Ibid.
      2. Thus, God emphasized that Moses was to stand by Him to get His words though God Himself would be giving Israel the land. This all meant that God would hold Israel ACCOUNTABLE to heed MOSES' words as God's MESSENGER for her future blessing!
    5. Thus, Moses WARNED Israel to heed God's commands without wavering, commands he, Moses, had spoken TO her, Deut. 5:32-33.
    6. Yet, if WE would ask how Israel could be SURE the words Moses spoke were God's words and not Moses' words with Moses' agenda, the answer comes in noting God's call of Moses to serve Him:
      1. When God had initially called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt to the Promised land in Exodus 3:4, 9-10, Moses had objected:
        1. First, Moses had claimed that Israel would not believe God had appeared to him, so they would not listen to his words, Ex. 4:1.
        2. Second, Moses claimed his way of speaking would hinder his credibility before Israel since he spoke slowly, Ex. 4:10.
      2. However, God countered these objections, with great lessons for us on identifying the credible ministries and messengers of God:
        1. First, re: Moses' believability, God gave him the gift to perform authenticating miracles: (a) God gave him the ability to turn his rod into a serpent and back again, Ex. 4:2-5. In Egypt, serpents symbolized power ( Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 113), so this sign showed onlookers that God was giving Moses power over Egypt to lead her out of Egypt to the Promised Land. (b) God also gave Moses the power to give himself leprosy and to heal himself from it, a disease the Egyptians considered incurable, Ibid., Ex. 4:6-7. This sign would fortify belief in Moses' power over Egypt to lead Israel out of Egypt, Ex. 4:8. (c) The Lord also gave Moses the power to turn Nile River water into blood, Ex. 4:9. The Egyptians believed the Nile to be the symbol of life and productivity (Ibid.), so Moses' turning its water into blood, a symbol of death, would again certify that God was giving him power over Egypt to fulfill God's calling, Ex. 4:9!
        2. Then, re: Moses' alleged speech problem, God said He made man with all of his abilities and lacks, that He knew all about Moses' human characteristics, and would incorporate them in his ministry, Ex. 4:11. In fact, God said He would be with Moses' mouth and even teach him what to say, Ex. 4:12!
        3. Accordingly, today, God is STILL the fearful "consuming fire" that He was at Sinai (Hebrews 12:29) Who holds us accountable to obey Him, and He equips His human messengers in the Church with spiritual gifts for ministry that are apparent to the onlookers (1 Tim. 4:14-15; 2 Tim. 1:6-7), and He uses them in their human uniqueness (2 Cor. 4:7; 10:1-4, 10) to proclaim His truth from His written Word, 1 Peter 4:11; 2 Timothy 4:1-2.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. May we then (2) revere God (3) and so heed His Biblically credible messengers in line with His Word.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 A number of years ago, I began a series of sermons in our Sunday evening services, messages from 1 Corinthians that I had typed twelve years previously on an electric typewriter prior to the institution of our Church web site and my word processor. I was retyping these messages from the older notes almost word for word, giving the same essential thoughts I had presented in the messages twelve years earlier in order to place the series on our Church web site.

However, soon after beginning to preach through this series, for several Sunday evenings in a row, the messages themselves began dramatically to address very sensitive issues we had suddenly been allowed of God to face as a body! Indeed, different people who attended our evening services on different Sunday nights expressed amazement at how directly the messages addressed these issues!

For me, this was a huge relief! I could not be charged with trying to manipulate my hearers through these messages, for I kept telling them that any relation between the sermon content and what we were then facing as a body was purely "coincidental" from the human perspective, for I was simply copying and re-teaching messages I had prepared twelve years earlier so I could place them on our web site!

It became clear to all of us that the Lord was the One Who was taking my notes formed long before and was applying them to our present situation! I as one of His messengers was merely being used by Him in His great grace to address these issues we were facing!

This matter not only affected those who attended the services, but it also greatly affected me: it gave me tremendous assurance of what the Lord had often indicated in my past via His Word -- that He had been leading me all along in the ministry here at Nepaug Church! He was my Helper, my Advocate, and all I needed to do was to keep serving Him as I was!



May we apply the Biblical tests of credibility for God's truth and God's messengers, knowing we will surely be held fully accountable to Him to obey His messages to us!