The Four Speaches of Moses - Part 1

Listen and Observe, That You May Live
Deuteronomy 1-34

This is the last sermon on Deuteronomy given by my elders in Hope Baptist Church. This sermon, by Mr. Brown (one of the elders at Hope,) is a review of the book of Deuteronomy.

The first of Moses' sermons can be found in Deuteronomy, chapters 1-4. The Lord desires to have control and authority over our time, our energy, our thoughts, our actions... even though all these things are His already. The Lord also wants to carry us through the wilderness...the times of trouble in our lives that we have to go through to get to the promised land. We must also take and let the Word of God change and take control of our lives.

Six things about the book of Deuteronomy:

1. Going through and studying this book, we can see that it covers our whole life.
   
2. It confronts the "sufficiency" of the "wisdom" and feelings of our heart and life.
   
3. It shows our deprivation: (spiritually and physically).
4. We can find the picture of the Gospel and the glory of God throughout it.
5. It shows the superiority of God and His ways.
   
6. Lastly, it causes us to love what Jesus loved.

The second and longest speech can be found in Ch. 5-26.
The laws given in chapter 5 are given to us to protect and guide us in a land of idolatry. And since these laws come from God we must obey them. But the ultimate protection and guidance comes from God.

The first of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God is that you shall no other god but Him (God). There are many "gods" in this world and all have worshipers. There's entertainment, security, money, nature, "toys." All these things are gods that people can worship. There are many more Gods of this world, hundreds and thousands of more things that people can worship or take as a god. Our security should be in God, not in this world or the things that it can offer. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also(Mathew 6:21). We can see this played out in chapters 6-11. This is the first and greatest commandment.

The second commandment is that we should not make any image of God. I take this in a literal sense. I believe that we should not make any drawing, painting, or image of Christ. Why do people do this anyway? To try to make us "see" what Jesus did or looked like. It's also a way to worship the picture instead of the real God. Take, for example, the movie, The Passion. The creators of the movie tried to picture what Jesus did and how He died here on earth. When people watch this, they get emotional because they think that this is really how Jesus lived and was killed here on earth. This is simply not true! No one on earth can possibly picture how Jesus looked and how He was beaten and tortured. It is proud and disrespectful to think we can make an image of God. This is also true when people make images and miniatures of Jesus on the cross. The reason that Jesus suffered so much was not because of the abuse of men, it was because when He was dieing, He suffered the extreme wrath of God. He took all the punishment and guilt of every sin ever committed by every person ever born or to be born when He died. That was the true terribleness of the death of Christ and since this commandment connects with the first commandment, we, as Christians, are called to conquer all "gods" and images of God in this world. We see this in 12:1-13-13:18

The third commandment is that you should not take the Lords name in vain. There are many ways to take the Lord's name in vain, not just by swearing. One way we take the Lord's name in vain is when we call ourselves Christians and act like the world (14:1-21.) If we say we are a Christian we are to act and live like a Christian.

The fourth is that we must keep the sabbath day holy. This is the day that the Lord has commanded to be a day of rest. This is a day where we are to meditate on the word of God and to bring glory to God. When it says that we cannot work, it doesn't mean that we cannot prepare food or clean up from our daily living. If it will bring glory to God you are allowed to do it, for example having someone for dinner and cleaning up afterward. On the sabbath we are not supposed to sell or buy anything. We can find all of these guidelines in ch.14:22-16:17.

To be continued in Part II.

Happy Birthday!!

To my GRANDPA!
Who's birthday was last week.
Happy Birthday!!!
I Love You Papo!

The Last Days of Moses

Sermon Report from Sunday, January 23.

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

These verses speak about the last days in Moses's life. After he blesses 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel (the tribe of Issachar was absorbed into the tribe of Zebulun), he climbs to the highest peak of mount Nebo, where as the Lord willed, Moses died.

Before the Lord ends Moses life, He shows Moses the promised land from the top of the mountain where He again reminds Moses that he will not enter the promised land. One thing that I want to point out is that you see, in verse 1,2,and 3, the Lord showing Moses the land that the tribes will have. It may be that Moses prophesied or that the Lord actually showed Moses a vision of the land where each tribe would live.

After the sight seeing, the Lord takes Moses life and then the Lord himself buries him. Until this day no one has found the grave of Moses. One reason I learned from the sermon and I agree with is that the Lord did this because He did not want the children of Israel to worship the body of Moses as they may have been tempted to do. The devil has created many other "gods" for us to worship instead of the one true God. (Before the reformation and even now, relics and important dead people were worshiped.) In Jude 1:9 it says that the archangel Michal fought with the devil over the body of Moses. The reason the devil wanted the body is that he wanted Israel to have superstitions and glorify the body of Moses and turn them away from glorifying God to glorifying the acts of Moses.

I also want to point out that when Moses died, he did not die from bad health or old age. In verse 7 it says: "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished." Think about this! This is amazing! It may be a blessing for a believer to die without having to pass through physical pain and sickness. God does bless some more than others. Also, think about this, Moses had to climb more than 3000 ft. in elevation and he was a 120 year old man! I don't know any 120 year old man who could do this today!

After Moses died, the people of Israel, according to tradition, mourned for Moses thirty days. We also see this happening when Aaron, Moses's brother dies. There is a certain way that Christians should treat the bodies of the deceased. We have to treat them with respect. The burial of Jesus and many others were placed in the tombs, which is part of the earth. The Bible does not say to burn the bodies to ashes, as some other religions do. The bodies of humans are the Lords temple here on earth.

The people of Israel had proved that they needed a leader, so the Lord chose Joshua as the next leader over Israel. Here in this chapter is a Biblical example of the passing on of leadership. To win the leadership in this age, the candidates make themselves look like the saviors of the generation, and when they win, they criticize the last leader and try to make themselves seem better than the last leader. But here in this passage we see a beautiful taking up and passing on of the leadership of the children of Israel. Throughout his life, Joshua was under the tutorship of Moses. Some of the attributes that Joshua had which qualified him for leadership are that he "was full of the spirit of wisdom," his commission was given by God, he was successful with the people, he was faithful to Moses and the Lord. Instead of trying to take the rule of the people and being jealous of Moses, like Miriam and Aaron, He submitted to God's plans for his life.

There are some special things that we see about Moses in the last two verses. First, we see that, like John the Baptist, there never has been or will be a prophet like Moses. Than we see that he was special because the Lord allowed him to know Him face to face(no one has ever lived seeing God face to face). Then the Lord used him to do His signs and wonders. In Numbers 12:3 it states that Moses was the most humble man on earth. Humility and meekness are the marks of true men of God.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30.

The First Sermon of the Year

My sermon report for the first sermon of the year on the first Sunday of the year by my elder, Mr. Scott Brown:

Nearing the end of Deuteronomy, we are now in the last two chapters of this amazing book.

Before Moses goes up into the mountain that God has called him to, he blesses the children of Israel.
Just to note that in ch. 34:7 we are told that Moses died in full bodily strength even though he was 120 years old!

In Numbers 12:3 it says that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth.

The flaming law in the hand of God in v. 2 being given to us is an act of love even though it may cause us some pain when we sin.

Moses was an anti-type of Christ in the way that he blessed the children of Israel before he died, as Christ blessed His followers before He ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50-51). Men of God should be full of blessings.

There were three periods in the life of Moses, each of them forty years. We may be able to see our own life through the life of Moses. The first forty years of his life Moses spent as a prince of Egypt where he thought he was a somebody. Before we were saved we lived for the world and ourselves, always searching for our own pleasure. We believed we were able to govern our own selves and thought we were somebody.

The second period of Moses's life was the forty years that he spent in the desert where he found out that he was a nobody. God brings us hard times to show that when we are in those hard times we must be totally dependent on Him. God uses difficult periods to prepare and sanctify His people for the plans he has for us.

The third period was the forty years that he spent in the wilderness leading the people of Israel to the promised land. This is the time that many are in right now, and the place that we are called to bring other people to.

The reason that Moses was never to enter the promised land, although he saw it from the top of mount Nebo where he died, was because when the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock and Moses, because of his anger, disobeyed the Lord and struck the rock. In doing this, Moses was saying that the Lord was not sufficient for them and showed that Moses needed to do something to make it happen, giving the example of doubting the sovereignty and power of God (Numbers 20:8-11.)

At the end of this journey to Gods kingdom we will sit at His feet and be in awe of His wisdom and power. But we can do this even on this earth by the way that we live our lives. It is awesome how God will ordain our steps when we live in obedience to Him.

One of the amazing things that we see here is that Moses was very meek and patient with the people of Israel, and even though he was the most humble man on the earth there were some times when he wanted God to just take his life! The example that Moses gives is a life of faith and He proves that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

NEW YEAR OF 2011!

This last year has been been a year of blessing for me and my family. We have finally moved closer to our church. The Lord has also taught us many blessed and sanctifying things from His word.

Now we have begun a new year to serve God in all the things that we do. We should also be very thankful for the mercy that God has shown to us in giving us a new year. Even though we are terrible sinners that should have been destroyed in Gods wrath the moment we were born.
We should bless God for this wonderful new year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Blessings of God

This Sunday, September 12, Mr. Brown gave a sermon on Deuteronomy 28:1-14. This passage is about the blessings that God gives his people when they do what his law requires.

Here are my notes:

Sometimes we think that we can keep sinning and asking for forgiveness over and over again and still receive blessings from God. It is true that God does bless the wicked (and this is for His glory), but sooner or later he will punish them.

Some Christians think that blessings come from where you live, or what condition you are living in. For example, a family could be living in a comfortable apartment but they make themselves unhappy by thinking if they could only move to the country or maybe have their own farm, then they would be blessed and happy! In their farm then there they could work for God! We need to be satisfied with what the Lord gives us. It may be that it is the Lords will for you to have your own farm. If he makes a way and you feel that it is His will, than move to that farm!

People often think that riches are evil. When they see another who is wealthy they think that that person gained his wealth by doing something illegal or wrong. The Bible does not say that money is evil. It says that the love of money is evil(1Timothy 6:10). Whatever the Lord gives you, try to make it bigger and better. If the Lord gives a gift of speech, than use it for His glory. If the Lord gives you riches, use it for His glory.

The Lord blesses those who practice the law. The law does not justify you, but the Lord will bless you for following his commands.

The Lord sometimes withholds blessings from his children. All of the examples of this happening in the Bible show that all withholding are for His glory and for the good of His children.

Don't always be worrying about what you are going to eat or wear. The Lord always takes care of his children.

Let's obey God, for in doing so, he is delighted to bless us.

Foolish Galatians

I am reading Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit, by Charles Spurgeon

I am writing a chapter summary after I read each chapter.

Here is my summary for chapter 1.

Chapter 1
"O foolish Galatians, are you so foolish? having begun in the spirit, are you now you made perfect by the flesh?"
Gal. 3:3

Who are the Galatians? In this case it is us. This book starts by showing our helplessness to gain God’s forgiveness for our sins. We may think that we are good maybe even righteous! But this is not true. As it is written, "There is none righteous, no, not one" Romans 3:10. The only one righteous is God and He is the only one that can save us from the fires of hell. This chapter talks about our sinful nature, and how only God is perfect. He is the only that can help us truly be saved.

The Galatians were not satisfied with the Gods help and they wanted more than that. This is human’s sinful lust. Once we obey the Lords commandment, the Lord will bless us. Though His blessing will be upon us in this world, our greatest reward will be to see His face in heaven and to never leave His side. There in heaven we will worship him all day because in heaven there will be no night. This does not mean that our lives will be easy, no, our lives might be even harder being a Christian than being an unsaved person. However, we are still not better than unsaved people in this world. No, we always have to go to God over and over again for mercy.

Spurgeon also talks about how we cannot be saved if the Holy Spirit does not touch our spirit to be saved. It is impossible to be saved without it. The best preacher in the world can preach his best sermon to someone and not convince him to be saved if the Holy Spirit is not urging the person’s soul to do so.