Scott Brown's sermon, 'The Steadfast Love of God,' primarily explores the theme of obedience from the heart as laid out in Deuteronomy chapters 8-10. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of understanding the broader context of Moses' messages, which are interwoven with calls for heartfelt obedience and identification of areas needing reform. By drawing parallels between the Israelites' struggles with Egypt and contemporary challenges, the sermon highlights the tumult that arises when God calls His people to obedience, exemplified by discussions on public versus religious education. Brown illustrates that God's commands are often contrary to human traditions and comforts, leading to spiritual conflict. He describes Moses as an intercessor for the Israelites, emphasizing the mercy and patience of God, who continually offers guidance and new opportunities for obedience despite human rebellion. The sermon underscores the notion that while righteousness is not attained through works, one's works reflect the state of salvation, thus balancing the tension between grace and obedience. The narrative of God's steadfast love concludes with a reminder of His promises to Abraham and the ultimate deliverance from sin through Christ, encouraging believers to trust in divine grace while striving for obedience.

Please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8. Our focus is chapter 9, but we need to begin at the end of chapter 8 to understand chapter 9. Again, we have to be reminded where we are in the book. This is a long sermon. Moses is preaching three sermons in the book of Deuteronomy.

The first stretches to the first four chapters and then from the 5th to the 26th is another sermon. We're in the middle of that now. And as we try to consider this, I'm hoping that we'll understand where we are in it and where it's going so that we can understand what it is. There's a attempt, there is a temptation just to focus in on the first seven verses of chapter 9, but I don't know how we can do that to understand the broader message that God would have for us. So what I want to do this morning is begin reading in Chapter 8, verse 18, to pick up the context, and then we'll read all of chapter 9 and then we'll also read the first 11 verses of chapter 10 because there's a complete thought that Moses is bringing to us.

What is that thought? It's the same thought that he has been bringing to us, and I mean us, very personally, all along. And that is that he's issuing a call for obedience from the heart, and he's identifying areas that are needful for obedience. And Moses has led the children of Israel out of Egypt, but unfortunately Egypt has gotten so far into the hearts of the people that they just continue to struggle, just like we do, as we constantly struggle and fight against the things of Egypt that have worked our ways into our hearts. And it's very tumultuous.

It causes disruption when God calls His people to obedience. This came to my mind yesterday as I was among a group of people in which one of those was publicly I think chastising me because of something one of my friends said at a conference when he said, Unless you take your children out of pagan public schools, you are throwing your children to the wolves. And this person told the story of how someone was so offended that they stomped out and remained offended as a result of that. And I thought, we've just gone through Deuteronomy, chapter 6, where we are commanded to bring our children up in the law of God and that we should speak of them when we sit in the house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, when we rise up, and how easy it is to set aside the commandments of God for the sake of our own traditions. And this person, I'm sure, if you asked them, would you send your child to a Muslim school, they'd say absolutely not.

If you said, would you send your child to a Hindu school? Absolutely not. Would you send your child to a pagan school? Absolutely not. But our public schools are pagan by federal mandate.

God has been stripped out of them in every form of immorality and licentiousness. And every thought raised up against the knowledge of Christ is promoted in these schools every day. And so we have a population that is offended when somebody tries to take them out of Egypt. But Egypt has gotten so deeply in the hearts that they don't even understand what Egypt looks like. And that was the trouble with the people of Israel here as they're standing on the side of the Jordan River, getting ready to enter the promised land.

Moses is in the last few days of his life, and he's appealing them to obey from the heart. But obedience always causes tumult in the church and in the family and everywhere else. It always causes a fight because God's ways are not our ways. And we so reluctantly give them up. And one thing we know is that we don't ever completely give them up all our life long and God has prepared a place for us in heaven, a home for us so that these things would end.

And what a blessing it is that God would be so faithful and kind to his people that he would he would not only call them out of Egypt in this life, but there be a finally a day where they would be completely delivered from all of the bondage of Egypt." And this is what Moses is doing and it does offend, yeah, it does it does cause a fight in the tumult. And who would be the people appointed to fight the fight? It's the people of God. And if God's people don't fight the fight to lead the people into the promised land, how terrible it would be for those people. But happy is that people whose God is the Lord, and that we would obey all the commandments of God, that it might be well with us and with our children forever.

And so here we find ourselves in this passage of scripture. It's a call to obedience. Now, we've just exited Deuteronomy chapter 8, where the theme is, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." How Egypt, we cannot live out of Egypt and what Egypt has given us, but out of every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That's the logic of chapter 8, that God has given us a testimony, He's given us a word that we would live by. And so we pick up in verse 18 in chapter 8, would you please follow along with me.

And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to give wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them. I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish and the nations which the Lord destroys before you so you shall perish and get this because so you will perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God that's that's the framing of the whole issue here So you see how wrong it would be just to start in verse 9, in chapter 9, without thinking about the last verse in 8, in chapter 8. The appeal here is that if you don't obey, you'll perish. That's the idea.

And so we enter chapter nine with that idea of the seriousness of obedience to God. And so we read in chapter nine, verse one, Hear, O Israel, oh, you've heard that before in Deuteronomy. You are to cross over the Jordan today and go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified to heaven. Now so this this begins with the command okay So what I want us to do is think now, what's going to... I want to just sort of present what's going to happen in the chapter that we're going to read.

This section is a historical narrative, first of all, and it's much like the historical narrative that we read in chapter 1 verse 6 through 329, where this very similar historical narrative was played before the people. So Moses is kind of doing this again. He's giving them another history lesson so that they can understand who they are and where they've been. Hey, this is the history of your life and my life as well. It's a history of living in Egypt, being locked in the jaws of the devil and in the mouth of the lion, in the jaws of the dragon.

And God prying the jaws apart and letting us free. But we're still bleeding and scarred from Egypt, and that's the problem. So it's a historical narrative. And it's a reminder. What's coming ahead is a reminder of the failures of the people.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of our former failures, not to destroy us, but to warn us. And as we go and recount the moral and spiritual failures of Israel, I think we should be thinking about our own. We should be thinking about the ways that we've fallen short and use it as an opportunity to repent for those things that we've lapsed on. So there's a reminder of moral failure and it's interesting that both these narratives that I'm speaking of at the beginning of Deuteronomy and now here. They both begin in the land of Moab and they all end in the land of Moab.

So they have tremendous similarity. Here we see Moses as an intercessor. He is the tenderest, kindest intercessor for his people that you'll ever find. And he really brings a pattern to us that we would be these same kinds of intercessors. When we get there, take note of the kind of intercession, the quality of it, the nature of it.

It's very beautiful. And it reflects a very tender heart toward people. Notice how there's a humbling of the pride of man, because There's one illustration after another of rebellion and idolatry. When we were studying this on Tuesday morning, we finished reading it. And one man said, it lets the air out of my balloon.

And that's exactly what it does. It lets the air out of the blossoming pride of man about how how good we are how well we've done and and How successful we've been because aren't we just such smart people this text? I will just have to warn you it's gonna. It's What will The patience of God is he lets the air out of the balloon. This one, though, actually might just pop the balloon.

It's possible. He pops the balloon of all pride. None of us are left standing with any righteousness of our own. And you'll see that here as we read through it. You'll also see that this text will help you from exalting yourself.

This text is very threatening to my self-image and my self-exalting tendencies. And so it pierces the heart. It shows idolatry. It shows the mercy of God in the heart and the prayers of Moses. And then it ends with an appeal to obey.

I've chosen the title of this message to come from the very last verse in the whole section in chapter 10 verse 10. He says the Lord heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. The Lord chose not to destroy you. And I really think that picks up the theme of the Gospel that's here in this passage of Scripture. And yet it's qualified as well.

The offer of the Gospel is extended to all those who would have their hearts circumcised, who would turn from their stiff-necked ways. But if not, there will be an everlasting destruction of sinners. That's the message. But God does pass over His people who are covered in the blood of Christ that was applied through their repentance and their humility. So here there's a picture of the Gospel in this text.

But notice again, we cannot forget verse 20 of chapter 8. You will perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. The Bible always holds these two things in tension. First man is not saved by his works, but his works testify that he is saved And that's the principle that's here. OK.

So you have an outline before you. Let me take one more step to see the big picture of this text. First of all, we're going to look at a command to dispossess the nations greater. This is direction. God gives direction to his people.

That's the main point of this first section. And then the next is assurance. There's a revelation of the greatness of God and the weakness of man. And that if you would survive, it would be because God would make you survive. But that's assuring, because it's God who will sustain you.

It's God who will make you proceed until the end. And that's assurance. Your salvation is not secured by your own works, but by God. And he assures that he is the force that will lead his people to heaven. And then third, there's a confrontation for how to think about our success.

It's a reality check. And it helps us deal with our self-image. And then, fourthly, there's a reminder of the history of rebellion. This is a long section, verses 7 through 23. And this is a warning.

This should be a warning for us. And then the next section, the fifth section, is a lamentation for rebellion and a prayer for mercy. Here you see the tender heart of intercession in Moses that you see in Christ as well. And then lastly, there's instruction for a second set of tablets. And I just think this is hope.

As Moses came down from the mountain, he broke the first set of tablets. God was not finished with Moses or his people yet, and he came back again and he wrote another set of tablets to help the people know again what would bless them and what would help them, that it might be well with them and their children forever, even though his people might in anger break the commandments and find themselves so broken on those rocks that they would return to Him again and God would supply His commandments again. It's an act of mercy that we see that God provides a second set of commandments. How many chances have you been given in this life? How many chances has God given you to obey?

Well, God is the God of hope. And so, he gives his children commandments again after they've broken them. So that's the big picture, okay? It's a long section, but I wanted you to see where we're going. Even as we're reading it, you might just look at this outline to help you see where the logic is.

Okay, so let's read in the first section. Hear, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim whom you know and whom You heard it was said, who can stand before the descendants of Anak? So let's pause there and deal with this section. I think that I'll just read a section, and then we'll go on. So here's what you see.

There's a familiar term here. Hear, O Israel. The Shema, It also appears in 4.1. Hear, oh Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe that you may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add or subtract to the word that I'm giving you." This is a sort of a wake-up.

Hero, whenever you hear hero Israel, it's a wake-up call. It's like, wake up everyone, listen to this, You cannot miss this. And then we see it also in 5.1, hear O Israel the statutes and the judgments which I speak in you hearing today that you may do them, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. And then we also read it in 6, chapter, verses 3 and 4, therefore, hero Israel and be careful to observe it. And then in 4, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." And this is the greatest commandment.

So there's this listen up phrase. And it's always followed up with an appeal to obey and also the blessings that come from obedience. Every time you hear the Shema, the same principles are given. And so this opens up with the Shema. And again, the presence of this word just casts a vision for everything that is included in the Shema.

I believe in all of its places. And it includes this call to obedience, but also the sweetness of obedience and how God uses his laws to soothe and care for his people. So then he gives a very difficult directive. You are to cross over the Jordan today. Now he's speaking of urgency.

It won't happen on that day. It'll happen in a few days. But it's a spirit of urgency that's being cast, that this is going to happen imminently. And then he says, but the Anakim are there. There are people there, and there are cities that are great.

The Anakim were the giants. Remember Goliath? These are the brothers of Goliath, way back, hundreds of years before. These bad old, these bad guys are there in the land. They were bad back then, and they were bad in the days of David.

And the truth is that God does have his people in threatening situations with people bigger than they are, badder than they are, and more threatening than they are. And so a people stronger are in the land. And that's what the spies reported, remember? Hey, There's bigger, badder people. We don't want to go in.

And that was the report that came back from the spies. And then he quotes a proverb here, which is really interesting. And you've heard it, he says. And they say, who can stand against the descendants of Anak? That was the proverb.

It's kind of like there are a lot of proverbs that we play in our brains all the time to keep us from doing what God would have us to do. Well, you can't fight city hall. There are just all kinds of proverbs we play in our minds that restrict us from doing what God has called us to do. And some of those proverbs are of our own making. But there's this proverb that would keep them back.

But God calls his people into difficult situations that are threatening, that are contrary to the culture. And you might think, well, if I do that, I'll lose that. Or if I begin to apply this, something else will be threatened in my life. But it's always been true that we think that way. If I obey the command of God in education or whatever it might be, something bad will happen to me.

That's what the devil always does for us. He helps us to see why we can't obey God. And you might just ask yourself this question. What commands has God put before you that you're afraid of fulfilling? Because there's a proverb in your mind that you've been repeating over and over and over again.

And it's keeping you from your obedience. And so God places challenges before us that are bigger than we are, and often it's just to test our hearts to see if we will be obedient. So what does God put in our way? What about us as a church? What proverbs are there in our minds that are keeping us from obeying?

It's possible that there are some. So, there is first of all, there is this command to dispossess Nations greater and mightier, but a provision of strength also. And then there's a revelation of the greatness of God and the weakness of man in verses, in verse 3. Therefore, understand today that the Lord your God is he who goes before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you.

So you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly as the Lord your God, as the Lord has said to you." Now there's a couple of things here. First of all, he's assuring them. He's giving them assurance. He just gave them direction, going to the land. Now he's giving them assurance.

And he's saying, he's saying, I go before you and I'm a consuming fire. I lick up everything in my way. Don't be afraid of obedience. I'm there and I'm walking before you. And so we should never be afraid, because God is there, providing His consuming fire to lick up all things in our way.

This term, consuming fire, is used in a number of places in scripture. I think there are at least three ways that this term consuming fire is used. Here the Lord uses it to give assurance, to give comfort. Go into the land. I go before you.

I'm a consuming fire. In other words, to help them to be fearless, to help them not be worried about what might happen if they obey. That's how he uses it here. But this is the second time that Moses has used this term in Deuteronomy. He used it in 424.

And in 424, he speaks of it as an illustration of the jealousy of God. That God is a jealous God, God is a consuming fire. And he speaks about the provoking sinfulness of his people And he warns them and says, I am a jealous God. I am a consuming fire. So not only does he use the, God used the term for us to embolden us, to encourage us, but also to tell us how jealous he is for our souls, that he's a consuming fire.

And he would destroy our souls if we reject him. So on the one hand he uses this term to encourage us, but also to be bold, but also to encourage us not to be unfaithful because he's a consuming fire. And then in Hebrews chapter 4, it's used to inspire reverence and fear toward God. In Hebrews 4, 28, we read, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire." This term, consuming fire, is used in these three ways.

You could sum them up really in two ways. He uses it to encourage us that He'll lick up our enemies and we can fearlessly obey. On the other hand, that He might lick us up as well. That he's jealous for our souls. And he doesn't take his commandments lightly toward us.

How would God's people ever leave Egypt? They would have to be brought out for obedience that God might bless them. That's the whole logic. And he uses this imagery of the consuming fire both to encourage them and also to terrify them of the consequences of not obeying. And he's saying here that God is not controlled.

He does as He wishes. He goes before you. He's not controllable. And He lifts up everything in His way. And so this is the message God is giving.

He is revealing the greatness of God and the weakness of man in saying, for your God is a consuming fire. And then the next section we come to is a confrontation, Is a confrontation on how they will think about their success in verses 4 through 6. This is a reality check. So not only has God given direction a command to cross over, not only has He given them assurance that He's a consuming fire, but He's now going to give them a reality check through confronting them and helping them to understand something about themselves. He's helping them with their self-image, really.

And he says, do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them before you, saying, because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go into possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from you, before you. That he may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore, understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people." Well, there's a little damage to self-image.

You know, here we are thinking we're so gifted, so wise, we've done things so well. Not so. God has nothing of this for your self-image. The devil would puff you up and make you know that you are so wise and wonderful and beautiful and good, and that's why he's blessed you so much. But that's not what God does.

God has something better for your soul. And he says, no. He says, do not think in your heart. So he's confronting their thinking. He's helping them to see how they're thinking about themselves and how they're thinking, how they view themselves.

And that's why I call this, it's really an attack against a wrong self-image. And it's a confrontation of spiritual pride. And there are two reasons why the Canaanites will be cast out and they'll be so successful. Not because of your righteousness, not because of that, but because of their wickedness. If any of you ever thought, why would God command His people to destroy a people?

Why would God destroy the Canaanites? And the answer is right here. You don't have to go anywhere out. You don't have to make it up in your own brain. You're told right here why God chose that the Canaanites would be exterminated by the Israelites.

God commanded the Israelites to exterminate the men and the women and the children. And we think that's so repulsive and horrible to us, we can hardly consider it. But we're given the answer for why right here. It was because of their wickedness, verse 4. If anyone wants to know why God would exterminate a people, it's right here in verse 4.

Because of their wickedness. They were offering their children as sacrifices on the fire. They were destroying one another in such a terrible way that God desired to wipe them out. In the same way that he wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah, as his people were constantly being defiled by the sexual immorality and the abuses that come from it. He finally wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah because he desired to relieve the suffering of his people.

Wickedness equals suffering. God hates the suffering of his people by wickedness. And not only did he send his own son to die on the cross for all of your wickedness, but he's willing also to wipe out a whole people. So here's the answer in verse 4. Why did God wipe those people out?

Because he desired to destroy the wickedness that was raging against men and women made in the image of God. Because his sons and his daughters were being defiled. And he desired to end it, and end it in a way that is terrifying. So the first reason is their wickedness, but there's another reason in verse 5, and that has to do with the success, to fulfill, that he may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the people would be tempted to go into the land and misinterpret their success and use it as a heart puffing up mechanism.

Because the human heart desires greatness, but God desires a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Moses says you're a stiff-necked people. This happened because I made a promise to Abraham. Our success, our spiritual success, will happen because God made a promise to Abraham. And God has made it so that our salvation is not dependent upon ourselves, but upon a promise to Abraham.

So how do you think of yourself? Do you think of yourself as someone who has secured your own salvation because you are so wise and good? But that's not what God says here, but that He secures it by His promise. And so here in this section, this confrontation, confrontation for how to think about your success, God deals with our smugness, with our pride, with our thinking that we're better than our brother because of anything at all. And he would take our cold-hearted self-congratulatory souls and dash them at his feet.

That's what he's doing right now. I pray that he would do that with us. You know, there's really no greater happiness than to know what a sinner you are and how great the grace of God is. And that's what Moses is doing with his people here. You see how the Gospel is so clearly pictured in these images and shadows.

And then here's the fourth section. It's a reminder of a history of rebellion. And here the dark clouds kind of form around this text because there's a picture of the depravity of man. Verse 7 starts out with, remember, remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness from the day you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord." What a discouraging thing to have to say and to recognize. That rebellion is constantly in the hearts of the people.

And so their only hope is to continue to return to God to repentance for their hope. And we have to always remember our nature. No, we are not good people. No, even if we've been able to shine up the outside and fix our practices, We still have hearts that are so susceptible to evil. And we need to constantly remember.

Remember, remember, remember. That's what you hear in these chapters in 8, 9, and 10. The term remember appears over and over again. And remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God. And then he speaks of the ferocity of the anger of God in verse 8.

Look at this. Also in Horeb, you provoked the Lord to wrath so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. You know, when you think about your life, you need to be instructed by this principle that's here. Here's why I say that. How many times does Moses take the children of Israel back to Mount Sinai?

He does it over and over again. Why does he he does that to show us who we are that we are just we are like those people at the base of Mount Sinai, who are idolatrous, who, when we are delayed for a moment, we jump ship, who, we are so desiring for our own success that we'll do anything or our own pleasure that we'll do anything in order to secure it. We won't wait for the answer from God. And so Moses does again what he does over and over again. He takes you back to Horeb.

You know, Horeb and Sinai are the same place. He takes us back to show us our sinfulness and our depravity and he says that his wrath, it was enough to have destroyed you. See that verse 8, do you connect verse 8 to the verse that this message is named for, where he says, he says, at that time I did not destroy you. The Lord chose not to destroy you. Here in verse 8 he says, he was so angry that he could have destroyed you, but he didn't.

How many times has God not destroyed you when you were disobedient or following your flesh or your lust? This is the mercy of God that has caused this escape from so much wrath that we deserve. And then the incident that inspired the anger is in verses 9-12. When I went to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets which the covenant the Lord made with you, then I stayed in the mountain for forty days and forty nights. And I neither ate bread or drank water, and then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

And on them were the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them, and they've made for themselves a molded image. So notice in verse, they provoked, in verse 12, they turned aside.

In verse 13, they're stiff-necked. In verse 16, they sinned. That's this whole picture that we see in this section. Why are we talking about all this sinful behavior? Well, because somehow we must need to hear about it.

It's here in the text before us. And God has laid before us this vision of our own depravity and how short we fall. We are our idolaters. You know, what we need to understand is the human heart, as Calvin said, the human heart is a factory of idols. It constantly churns them out.

And whether you're at the Red Sea, your heart is a factory of idols, even though you see the deliverance of God, or whether you're at the foot of Mount Horeb, the heart is a factory of idols. Or if you're in 2009 and you live in North Carolina, your heart is still a factory of idols. The human nature has never changed. And he's here presenting to us the vision of human nature that is very dark. Is very dark.

One of our brothers this week sent me a link to a section in a book by an English Puritan on idolatry. David Clarkson, the English Puritan, said that there are two kinds of idolatry. There's this rampant physical idolatry that's so observable you can see it. But he says there's a soul idolatry that's just as rancorous to us and he gave 13 expressions of soul idolatry. They're in the heart.

Nobody can see them. Certain kinds of idolatry you can just see when they are bowing down before a certain idol. But there's a soul idolatry that only you and I know about. And he lists them. I'll just give you, I'll give you them in summary form.

First, number one, he talks about any reigning lust is an idol. Anything that rains over you makes you an idolater. He says number one, esteem, that which we most highly esteem, high esteem for things on this earth and a low esteem for God. Number two, mindfulness, that which takes up the thoughts of your mind, the things most remembered, the most minded. These are acts of worship.

Number three, intention, that which we intend the most. That which we intend is often an act of worship and ends up a God in the end. Number four, resolution. What we are most resolved about can also be worship. Number five, love.

That which we must, that which we love can be an act of soul worship. Trust, that which we place our trust in. You know, some trust in riches, some trust in cherries, some trust in their good image, some trust in their lands or their security or whatever it might be. But he says trust is a soul. Nobody can know if you have the idol of trust of some other thing other than God.

Only you know and I know when I'm trusting in something other than God. Number seven, fear, that which you most fear. Desire, that which you most desire. Delight, that which you most delight in. Zeal, for that which you have the most zeal in, gratitude for that which you have the most gratitude, and then lastly, 13, that which you have great care and industry in other things than God.

He says we cannot serve God in mammon, and God is found in our lusts too. So here Moses is showing them the idolatry of their hearts as it was expressed at the mid-base of Mount Sinai. So God is always taking us back to Mount Sinai to show us our sin, and also to show us the law. And at the same time to show us the refreshment that comes from turning from our sins, obeying the law, and that it may be well with us. And so the Lord speaks to Moses about the people.

In verse 13, he says, I've seen this people. They're stiff-necked. And God says, Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a great nation, mightier and greater than they." Do you understand what is being said in verse 13 and 14? Look at it. Look at verse 13 and 14.

It's really amazing. Here, God says to Moses, look, I want to wipe these people out. You and I, we're going to go make a great nation. What a temptation that could have been to Moses. Any one of us would have said, yeah, let's wipe out these people.

And we're going to go make a new kingdom. But Moses didn't do that. Moses turned from the mountain, verse 15. You know, it's interesting. Somebody in our Bible study on Tuesday said, what an opportunity that was.

Why didn't Moses take up that opportunity? Because God was helping him to see. And so I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord, your God. You'd made for yourselves a molded calf.

You had turned aside quickly from which the way the Lord had commanded you. Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and I broke them before your eyes. I neither ate bread or drank water because of all of the sin of your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and the hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also, and the Lord was also very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him.

So I prayed for Aaron at the same time. Then I took your sin. Verse 21, I took your sin which you had made and burned it with fire, and crushed it, and ground it, very small." Here you see Moses is responding like the Lord Jesus Christ. He confronts sin, but he also takes the sin. And he has mercy on the people for their idolatry and their sinfulness.

And then He says, I ground it very small. I ground up your sin. I ground it up very small. The spine is dust, and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain. And then he tells them about more rebellion.

So he goes to the base of the mountain and then he tells about rebellion in other places. In verse 22, also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth-Hetava, you provoked the Lord to wrath. Likewise, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-bar-nia, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe him or obey his voice as at that time." So anyway, he goes to the base of Sinai, and then he goes to Taberah and Massa and Kibroth and Kadesh Barnea. And he's saying these are also places of rebellion as well. If it wasn't in one town, it was in another.

You know, the idolatry, here's the problem with idolatry. It follows you in whatever town you go to. And God deals often with One idolatry in one town and then the next town, he confronts another one. What idolatry is God confronting in this town that you're in now? What is it?

What is the rebellion that's risen up in your heart? Isn't it faithful of God that he would follow us? He says He carries us in the wilderness, wandering. He says, I carried you as a father carries his son. And He carries us and He reveals us to us one idolatry after the next, whatever town we live in.

And We never can escape God. Where can I go from Thy Spirit? How can I hide from Your presence? There's nowhere. There's nowhere to hide idolatry.

And God will follow us all the days of our lives in whatever city or town we live in to attack the devil in us, to expose the idolatry that's there. Would you listen to the voice of God in this town? Yeah, you've been to Horeb, you've been to Tibera and Nassau and Kibrov, and you've been to Kadesh Barnea, but what about Wake Forest now? What about here? You know, this is the place that God would come and help us with our idols.

And Moses is taking a long time here in this part of the speech to tell them about the geographical and the spiritual and the physical elements of their idolatry and how it all works before them. And then amazingly, amazingly in this next section, Moses cries out with a great lamentation for the sins of His people. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ cried out on the cross and says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they did. Moses is doing the very same thing right here in verse 24. And there's a lamentation for the rebellion of his people and a prayer for mercy.

So do you see what Moses is doing here? He starts off and he's giving them direction, a command. Go into the land. That's what God does with his people. And then he gives them a revelation of his greatness and he assures them that he's a consuming fire and he'll go before them.

And then he confronts them about their own thoughts, about their success, And he gives them a reality check and he says, no, it's not your righteousness. It's mine that is accomplishing these things. And then he reminds them of their rebellion and issues a great warning that in every city they've rebelled and had idols. And now here they are again, next to the Jordan River, getting ready to cross in and their idols are still there. Repent, repent, repent, remember the rebellion.

And then he comes and so surprisingly pours out a lamentation and a prayer of mercy. And so he comes with mercy. He comes with mercy. Verse 24, you've been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. Thus I prostrated myself before the Lord, 40 days and 40 nights.

I kept prostrating myself because the Lord had said He would destroy you. Therefore I prayed, Oh Lord, God, do not destroy your people and your inheritance whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out from Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people.

He is so much like Christ who stands as the sacrifice for sin. Don't look on the sin of your people, lay them on me. That's what Christ did. And Moses is saying so many of the same things that are consistent with Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. And so he says, I took your sin.

It's just an amazing statement that really requires tremendous detail. But just know that he is interceding for the people and he is reminding them of the covenant that was made to Abraham in the same way that The Lord Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. In a few minutes, we're going to take communion. And we're not celebrating anything different than what we find here. The mercy of God toward his people.

It's no different at all. This new covenant in his blood is our only hope for our sins and our idolatries which are filling our hearts and continue so as we continue to learn how to sin more, maybe in a more genteel way. But our idols are still there and our only hope is that someone would take our sin as is portrayed here. And again, I'm just reminded of the last verses of this section. The Lord chose not to destroy you.

The Lord chooses to replace his son with your sins. And then finally, finally in the last section, verses in chapter 10, 1 through 11, There's instruction for the second set of tablets. Now, I'll just have to tell you, I love this section because it reminds me of how many times God has come and reminded me of things I already knew, of how His patience for me is so great that He would even as a young boy show me something and then I would need it again and then I would need it again, and then I would need it again. That He would continue to make the tablets of stone and deliver them to me. He wouldn't give up on me.

He would continue giving me bread. He would say, no, Scott, man shall not live by bread alone. Put that earthly bread away. Take my bread. You will live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Here's another piece of bread. Every day, God's given me a new piece of bread, a sinner, an idolater. An idolater standing in one town and then another and then another. And yet he continues and he holds out his bread and he says, I'll take your sin. It's absolutely astonishing to see the mercy of God.

Moses, I think, is overcome with it here in this passage. And he sees the great sin and the great mercy of God. And then he gives them a symbol of hope. He reminds them that God gave a second tablet. And he said, and God commanded to put it in the ark and preserve it there, that it might be referred to.

Don't break this one. Put it in the ark and preserve it there for my people. So There's a very clear call to obey throughout this whole sermon. And this section begins with the command, shows the rebellion that's in our hearts, and then comforts us with the knowledge that He will continually give us His bread so that it might be well with us and with our children forever. Now I want to close on something that happened to me this week.

Something I was very grateful for. And I had scheduled a lunch, actually with Jason Dome. And he walks into my office. And he sits down in front of my desk, and he has this red book in his hands, and he opens it up. And he read this to me.

And I do believe that what is here helps us to see what God is calling in this great speech in Deuteronomy. And he is quoting from J.C. Ryle in his commentary on the Gospels. And so here's what he read. He opened this up.

Thank God, thank God for brothers who read to one another and speak to one another and help one another. He says this, Ryle. We can imagine no higher degree of perfection than that which is set here before us, to take patiently whatever God sends, to wish nothing but what God approves, To prefer pain if it pleases God to send it. To ease if God does not think fit to bestow it. To lie passive under God's hand and to know no will but His.

This is the highest standard at which we can aim. And of this, our Lord's conduct in Gethsemane is a perfect pattern. Let us strive and labor to have the mind of Christ in this matter. Let us daily pray and endeavor to be enabled to mortify our self-will. It is for our happiness to do so.

Nothing brings us so much misery on earth as having our own way. It's the best proof of the real grace to do so. Knowledge and gifts and convictions and feelings and wishes are often to be found in unconverted persons, but a continually increasing disposition to submit our own wills to the will of God is a far more healthy symptom. It is a sign that we are really growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. And so I said before you two things.

The commands of God that we might obey them and grow in grace and the enormous mercy and grace of God, the hound of heaven who follows us from one town to the next to show us our idols because he loves us and he will never leave us or forsake us and he's preparing a place in heaven for us that he might take us there out of this idolatrous world that we've lived in living in all of our lives thank God for his grace would you pray with me oh father I thank you for giving us Moses and his love for your people. Give us that same love. I pray that you would help us to see our sins and to hate them. Oh Lord, for every little child here, help them to hate their sins. Oh fathers, mothers, husbands, that we would hate Sin and love your ways and obey it and Trust only in your blood for our hope