Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 7, 2024 | Deuteronomy - The Intercessor

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April 7, 2024 | Deuteronomy - The Intercessor · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning! This thing's made of like solid metal.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's about a thousand pounds.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have Colton Parrington bring it up here.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: So um hey, uh as we get started this morning, I'd love for you to pull out what you might have received when you came in the quarterly financial statement.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just want to run through that real quick.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um long story short, doing great.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um slightly longer version.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you might recall it was it actually wasn't even a year ago that um came before you and we were facing a$170,000 shortfall here at our church with our budget.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so what you see here in the quarterly summary is actually a year-end sort of total because it concludes our fiscal year.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so we finished the year 10% over our budget, which is fantastic.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and I mean, I think more than just it's not necessarily about hitting a certain number, but just the response of this church uh when we saw the need, and I told you at that time, you know, we're not we're not a financially invincible uh church.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are we have needs just like everybody else, and it's important to remember those.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: But when your generosity, what it ends up doing is it helps us really do two things specifically.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, three, it covers the budget, but two other things.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: One is it helps us absorb unexpected expenses, and two, it helps us sort of make great um, helps our ministries grow, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so both of those are evident in some of the expenses in this past quarter.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can see um if you look at the third item, facility upkeep.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you are in the um sort of elevator market right now.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but actually that's not even it says 121,000 uh for an elevator, and that's not actually the full expense.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It got split over a quarter, and so it's closer to like 185,000 to get an elevator replaced.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So just make sure the elevators in your home are in working order, make sure and doing the maintenance.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is part of what happens when you have two buildings that are 100 years old, is you have these kinds of expenses, and they were not planned.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were not expecting that.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the other one, though, and one that's really exciting, is if you look down at the bottom, we are 90% of the way towards our student ministry project.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in anticipation, yeah.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just to be clear, I never know.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I feel weird being like, can we clap for this thing here?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I feel sort of awkward, some, but I'm thankful for those of you that got that started because it is a huge praise.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so what that means is uh in anticipation of us closing the gap on that in the next year or so.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: We uh we have selected a contractor and uh construction is hopefully going to start mid-summer here.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there there will be there will should be no disruption to what is happening immediately in this room.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the ministries that are happening here during the year um will uh be disrupted slightly, but we're really looking forward to getting that going.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Before I I move off of this, I wanted to share something with you.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this past week, um Carolyn Wojakowski uh pointed me towards a binder that was TBC's 40th anniversary kind of binder.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So this was 1979.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was looking through it this week, and I found our very first annual report from 1940.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to read just the how it begins, because I think you'll find this interesting.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And how true it still is today.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: With thanksgiving unto God, we make this first annual report of the work of the Topeka Bible Church.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has indeed been with us and good to us beyond measure.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can in truth say, quote, Blessed be the Lord God who only doeth wonderful wondrous things.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as we I mean, there are some big numbers at the top of this page, but we're just building upon a legacy of gospel work and generosity that was started before any of us were here.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, before any of us were in this church, was even in this building.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think as we look at this, it's worthy of celebration and also thanksgiving as we praise God for how He's provided for us.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So let's do that through prayer.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for today.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you for um how you have brought us here, Lord, um uh the the legacy of faithful people who love you and want to see your kingdom grow.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And God, how that is still true today and continues to describe this church.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um Lord, we are thankful for um your provision.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, especially when we consider where we were a year ago, uh some of the conversations that we were thinking about.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, what it means to be able to speak from a position of um prosperity.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, we know that it is not because we are righteous that you do this, but out of your great mercy and love for us that you have provided.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, we ask that you would help us to be good stewards of the resources that you've given to us, and Lord, that we would uh carry out your will to the best of our ability.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Back in uh 2013, there was an Ohio man uh named Scott Insminger, who passed away, and uh Scott was a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan, and being a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan uh football team is a very painful thing.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the back in 2013 the team had just recently finished their sixth consecutive season with few five or fewer wins, and his family used the obituary uh to encourage friends and family to wear Browns gear to his memorial service and also to include one final request from Insminger.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: According to his obituary, Scott quote, respectfully requests six Cleveland Browns pall bears so the Browns can let him down one last time.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty good.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you've struggled for a long time, uh like the Browns have, uh it can be hard to shake the stink of failure, right?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it can be something that lingers.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at the book of Deuteronomy, uh we see Moses wrapping up 40 years of faithful ministry uh to the nation of Israel.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that is presented in the book of Deuteronomy is this kind of weary figure who is basically tired of Israel's stuff.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he is tired of Israel's constant rebellion.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is tired of how they are so, um, the word is often stiff-necked, but how they are so stubborn and unbending to God's will, um, how they are so forgetful of the things that God has done for them.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you get really this mixture, um, it's kind of even different than the leadership of Moses in that we see in Exodus and Leviticus and even Numbers, um, because in Deuteronomy, as he is recounting these things to them, you get this mixture of both um great and sort of faithful encouragement, you know, as he's telling them what they will encounter when he's no longer with them, uh, but also kind of this weary reminders of their past failures and how they're in danger of repeating them again.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um when we see Moses doing this, and we're gonna be in Deuteronomy chapter 9 this morning, he reveals something to them that is really interesting, which is that if it wasn't for his prayers protecting Israel from God's righteous judgment, they would have died long ago.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: That actually the nation of Israel, where they are at, the privileged position they are in, um, preparing to go into the promised land, uh, this is building upon earlier in chapter 9 when uh Moses was telling them, it is not because of your righteousness that you are receiving this.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is not because you are great and obedient to God that actually you are receiving this blessing.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's in spite of that.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's building upon it, and he's gonna tell them a story.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to recount for them, going back to Mount Sinai, and the situation where he goes up to receive the Ten Commandments, and they are making the golden calf.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what he reveals to them, which he hasn't done in such explicit language before, is that he has been interceding, he has been their sort of advocate for over 40 years, multiple times, and that the Lord had given Moses multiple times an option that they would actually be entirely destroyed, and God would be justified to do it, and yet Moses has gone before them to the throne of God and said, Please have mercy on this people.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do not do what you rightly could do, and instead forgive them for what they have done.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is where we're at in uh Deuteronomy chapter 9.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll begin this morning in uh verse 12.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the Lord said to me, get actually let me take a step back.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me kind of recount real quick where we're at before we get to verse 12.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about the very beginning of Israel at Mount Sinai, there was a significant event that happened.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been with us through Deuteronomy, we've talked about the covenant a lot and the covenant that God made with his people Israel.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So the initiation of that covenant was when Moses went up to the top of Mount Sinai, this mountain sort of wreathed in holy fire, and he stayed with God for forty days and forty nights, and then he receives the Ten Commandments, two stone tablets which have written on them the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, written in the hand of God.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And what is happening as we read in Exodus, um, as this is going on at the top of the mountain, there's a simultaneous event at the bottom of the mountain.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so as Moses is at the top, and it's this very like spiritually beautiful sort of relationship that God is connecting with sort of the ambassador of Israel, he is their representative, he is speaking on behalf of the Israelites.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as he is doing that, um, God reveals to him that down at the base of the mountain, um, Aaron, Moses' brother, and the first high priest, they've basically become nervous that Moses has been gone so long.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And to be fair, their leader has been gone for 40 days on a burning mountain.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, they uh begin to create this golden image.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the golden image, regardless of sort of their mixed motivations, broke the first two commandments that God had given to them.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we get this very um sort of poignant reminder of both God's faithfulness and Israel's disobedience, in that in nearly the moment that Moses said, Yes, we will be your covenant people, down at the base of the mountain, God's like, You've already broken the covenant.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is where we pick up in Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 12, where the Lord is speaking to Moses and telling him, Hustle down the mountain, you need to go and take care of some things, because my covenant people have already broken the covenant.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to me, Get up and go down immediately from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: They have made a cast image for themselves.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord also said to me, I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven, then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Moses, as the leader of Israel, is responsible for the nation.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And as they have already broken the covenant, God's righteous anger is presented here, and what he does is he basically gives Moses an option.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this option is that Moses, I will, I'm willing to restart the whole thing with people who come from you.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: It would still be a fulfillment of the descendants of Abraham if we went all through you, Moses.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And God sort of gives him this option.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, I'm willing to restart, and it will be a people stronger and more numerous than the nation of Israel, and we can do it through you.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And as Moses is speaking in Deuteronomy and retelling this story, he kind of leaves that option sort of just hanging as he continues on.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, he says, So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I saw how you had sinned against the Lord your God, you had made a calf image for yourselves.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: You had quickly turned from the way the Lord had commanded you.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: I fell down like the first time in the presence of the Lord for forty days and forty nights.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I did not eat food or drink water, because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight and angering him.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So when Moses comes down, and Exodus gives more details, really sort of sad details about how the Israelites are like having a party, and actually that Moses, and Joshua's with Moses, that the two of them, as they're coming down, Joshua hears the sin of Israel before they see it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, we can hear the nation sort of carousing and doing a lot of these things.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as they go down and they see the terrible situation and what has happened, really just the worst case scenario, uh, Moses throws down the stone tablets.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And though it he he does do it in part because he's angry, it is also a sign that they've broken the covenant, right?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: What was on these two stone tablets was God's sort of agreement with them.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than that, but God's agreement with Israel that I will be your God and you will be my people and you will do these things, and you've agreed to them, and if so, I will bless you, and if you don't, then I will curse you.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's this sort of wonderful agreement that God has made with people throughout all time.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even today, we're under a new covenant with God.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in this particular one that he had given to Moses, they had broken it.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so as Moses throws down and shatters the Ten Commandments here, later on he'll have to go and get new ones as they renew the covenant.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: We are presented with this like really kind of dangerous scenario, which is still hanging in the balance, is God's option that he had given to Moses, right?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, this people who have basically just been a headache the entire time that you've known them, and you haven't known them that long, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is just about a year or so.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Moses, would you like to start over?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, what Moses does is he goes back up to the top of Mount Sinai, and just as he spent 40 days and nights there the first time receiving the Ten Commandments, now he receives goes, stays there, excuse me, forty days and nights, and he prays on behalf of the nation of Israel to God and asks the Lord for mercy.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he says.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to skip ahead to verse 25.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I fell down in the presence of the Lord forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had threatened to destroy you.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: I prayed to the Lord, Lord God, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness, and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Disregard this people's stubbornness and their wickedness and sin.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, those in the land you brought us from will say, Well, because the Lord wasn't able to bring them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: But they are your people, your inheritance, whom he brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine being Moses, who you might imagine now Deuteronomy, roughly 40 years after this event, as he's telling the generation, he's like, This is what was going on with your parents.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Your parents made the golden calf.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as he's telling this story to them, you can only guess what is going through his head, as this was really the first of many events where he would go on behalf of Israel to protect them.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And really what he does is he goes before God in his persuasive essay.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It focuses on two truths, two things that were true.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: One is that God's election and choosing of Israel as his people before they had done anything was a sign of his power and might as he drew them out of the nation of Egypt.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is that not only was it a sign of his power, but by redeeming them from the nation of Egypt, the most powerful nation at the time, and protecting this tiny, small, insignificant group of people as they are wandering through the desert and fighting enemies far larger than they, and ultimately going into the promised land, which is occupied by um many, many people, many nations, far larger, that God is going to reveal his glory and is deserving of blessing because of these things.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so Moses goes before God and is kind of, we we could say reminding him of these things.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as if God forgot.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: But what we have to understand when we read this passage, okay, is this is not like God is going, well, you know, I'm kind of riding the fence here.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, like, what are you?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's really God saying, I would be righteous if I pursued both of these ends.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: If I were to destroy the nation of Israel because of their sin, I would be righteous in doing so because they have broken the covenant, they have rebelled against me, they are sinful from the moment that I have known them, and they have continually worshipped other gods.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a full sort of potter in clay scenario.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: God would be perfectly righteous to carry out that sort of direction.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the other one appeals to another part of God's nature, which is that he is merciful.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see the justice and mercy of God not in competition with each other, but as two viable roads that the Lord could walk down and be sort of continuing to fulfill his own nature, being faithful to who he is, and God is defined as, being good and righteous and just.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Moses really sees here is an option.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: God says, I could do both of them and be okay.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses says, I want the one that keeps the nation of Israel.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want the merciful route.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: God is the righteous judge.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Moses is appealing to his mercies.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so as he does this, right, Moses ends up becoming the intercessor, which is kind of an obnoxious word that I'm going to end up using a number of times during the sermon because it's like one of those things where the definition really fits.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, it's more than an advocate, or more than just standing in the corner for Israel, more than going to bat for them.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: An intercessor is one who sort of steps into the breach in between the righteous judge and the sinful people and says, Hold on.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know you could easily destroy them and be righteous.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, would you be merciful?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know they are a wicked and sinful people.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody's saying that they deserve your mercy, but Lord, would you?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Moses intercedes on behalf of Israel, really doing the job that they could not do for themselves.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then what he also tells them, again, keep in context, this is a story being told to a new group of people.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: He also reminds that group of people how many times he has had to do this.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just a few verses earlier, he says, You continued to provoke the Lord at Tabora, Masa, Kavroth Hataava.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: When the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, he said, Go up and possess the land I have given you.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you did not believe or obey him, you have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is in reflection of forty years of ministry.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Forty years of walking with these people.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You have rebelled against the Lord, Lord, at every opportunity, ever since I have known you.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And all of those examples, they're uh they're all in the book of Numbers.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Times when the nation of Israel complained.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: They complained about water, they complained about food.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh Kadesh Barnea is the location where they were at when they sent spies into the land, and the spies returned and said we shouldn't go, and ultimately the location where they were sent on their 40-year journey.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Moses is reminding them is all I mean, each one of these words, though they don't mean as much to us, would be sort of like a painful reminder of yes, again, that was when you had to stand in the breach for us.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, there have been many times, and all of these would be an example, where God goes before Moses, and either one of two things is happening.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Either there is a a plague or a a natural sort of event that happens that is killing the nation of Israel.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: A plague runs through, or a fire, or snakes come, or all of these different things that is God righteously bringing about judgment against the people of Israel.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses is going to stop it or intercede in some way.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's something physical that he does, sometimes it's something verbally that he does, sometimes it's a prayer before God.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or we get an account like we did at Mount Sinai where God literally comes to Moses and is like, hey, options still on the table here.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to sort of hit the eject button, I'm okay with it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: These people are rebelling against me too.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But Moses continues to be faithful.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this should, I mean, we should see in Moses here in Deuteronomy this suffering servant.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is one who has been faithful and loving and walked with Israel through all of these trials and circumstances that they have had.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, many of much of the suffering that Moses has endured is because of the nation of Israel.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was faithful.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: He shouldn't have had to walk 40 years in the desert.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, later on, when he is not allowed to enter into the promised land, though the primary cause is because at the waters of Meribah, he struck the rock twice instead of once.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he revealed sort of his um, instead of speaking to it, excuse me.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he revealed his sort of in that moment, sort of this desire for his whatever is his anger or his pride that he was not going to rely on God.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: That was the main reason why he's not able to enter into the promised land.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the other one that is only revealed in Deuteronomy is that it's because of the sin of Israel, and he is their representative.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is in part of their sin that Moses can't go into the promised land.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he's kind of frustrated with them.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's in Deuteronomy 1 and chapter 3.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: He says, It's in part because of you that I won't be able to go into the promised land.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, as we close out sort of this section of Deuteronomy, what we're left with, right, when we finish chapter 9, is sort of this mixed hope.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: It finishes with the prayer, but it's this mixed hope because Israel is being reminded that they are not only are they inheriting the promised land in spite of their sin, but they would not be here at all if it had not been for the intervening, the intercessing work of Moses on their behalf.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: That if it were not for him, and he's not doing this from a position of pride, he's not doing it because he wants glory and honor.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's doing it because what should be going off in the minds of all these Israelites is alarm bells.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like we did not realize how close we had sort of treaded to the edge of the cliff, that you had protected us from falling off so many times, we did not realize how close we were to destruction.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And there is kind of a question that comes up here.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, Israel, you should be asking, how is it possible that we were able to spit in the face of God so many different times, and his righteous anger that we keep getting told about instead was replaced by his mercy?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is that Moses was going there on your behalf.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: But in this battered and faithful image of Moses going before God, we see a beautiful picture of Jesus.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what the Bible goes on to explain is how Jesus is not only an intercessor on our behalf, like Moses was, but in fact he is far, far better.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of reasons why.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first we find in Hebrews chapter 7, and this one might seem kind of silly to you at first, but it is very appropriate falling on the heels of Easter.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the reasons why Jesus, as our intercessor, which I'll explain in a moment, is better than Moses, is because he is alive, and everybody who came before Jesus who would intercede on behalf of Israel ultimately died.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Hebrews 7 says.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office, but because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, talking about Jesus.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Hebrews is really, really interesting if you've read the Old Testament first.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible, but it does kind of require a little bit of background knowledge.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you what this is saying.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the Levitical priests, there were many of them, but the first one would have been Aaron, Moses' brother, the first high priest.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that this is phrased, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office, is kind of funny because the point that the writer of Hebrews is making is like God keeps bringing out these people who are going to sort of, in this case, through sacrifices in the Old Testament, are going to atone for the sins of the nation of Israel, right?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: All those feast days and sacrifices we've talked about in the past.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, but there's this huge problem that's really annoying, is they keep dying.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like these high priests, they can't stay in that job forever because they get old and pass away.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: What's up with that?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we need people who are going to stay in the job.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is how Jesus is introduced here, is in contrast to the high priests, and in this case, even Moses, who is one that is continually interceding and protecting Israel, right?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is a superior sort of advocate for us today because he is alive at the right hand of the Father.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: He is resurrected from the dead.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we have for us is instead of relying on this system that needs to be sort of recycled over and over and over and over again, which is how they were living, instead we go before the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins, and we say, when he said it is finished on the cross, he meant it.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when he said it is finished, that meant that then and forevermore, that the sacrifice for sins had been made through his blood on the cross.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so today he stands before God as both the high priest and the sacrifice.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: He basically sacrificed himself, if you want to combine those two job titles, and he's doing it permanently.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be a really big deal now as we look at what does that even mean?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean that Jesus intercedes for us today?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: What you're going to realize is that we are very, very much like Israel.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are a people who do not realize how close we have come to just destruction because of our sin and rebellion.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what we're going to see is that Jesus, time after time after time, goes before the Father in heaven and says, These are my people, have mercy on them.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: They are wicked and they are fallen, but because of my blood, they are now righteous.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, as the lead-in to this, right, we do need to establish that if it's Moses and Israel, it is now Jesus and us.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: That they are, we are, have these parallels, right?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what is said about the nation of Israel variously in chapter 9 of Deuteronomy is remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: You had quickly turned away from the way the Lord had commanded for you, and you have been rebelling ever since I've known you.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And these are some of the attitudes that as uh Bible-believing Christians we have to adopt within ourselves.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the idea that we are sinful people in need of a savior is core to our understanding of who Jesus is, what he has done, and why he is important.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if we overlook this, if we like Israel, and by the way, if we had been Israel, if we had lived back then, we would have done the same things too, right?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're not better than them.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what Israel continues to do is go, well, good things keep happening to us, and so maybe because we're pretty good.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, just saying, maybe it's because we were obedient on Tuesday that God is giving us all of these good things.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the sort, I mean, it is a gracious reminder of what Moses is doing for them.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't know if you realize how wrong you are, and also how mistaken you are to think that it is not just because of your righteousness, but that it is anything other than the mercy and grace of God that you're even like standing, right?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, first John chapter 2.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: So what we see here now is this position that Christ holds permanently and daily at the right hand of the Father as our advocate.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we see is that Jesus is standing before God in an even higher position than Moses ever was, right?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: And stands in our corner continually reminding the Father that we are sinners covered by the blood of his sacrifice.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we need to take one step back here because really what's happening is if you can picture like a courtroom scene, the courtroom scene has the father not as the prosecutor.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: The father is not the one condemning.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: The father is the righteous judge.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And our defense attorney is Jesus.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the defense attorney, and making perhaps a surprise appearance, you might not expect this, the prosecuting attorney is Satan.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible, multiple times, I'll talk about this more in the podcast, but many times over, what is revealed is that one of Satan's favorite things to do is to remind God that his people are unfaithful and undeserving of his grace.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the beginning of Job.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: We find this elsewhere in Scripture, that he is called the accuser.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is not us v God.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, it is Jesus going against Satan, who is continually bringing up our sins before the Father and saying, Hey, remember, you said they couldn't do this stuff.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is going, Yes, right?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I have covered over their sin, and they are righteous because of my sacrifice.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is very important to also understand in this sort of courtroom scene that our sin is covered by Christ, but it is not ignored.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: When Moses made his prayer to God back in Deuteronomy chapter 9 and verse 25, the what one of the things he asks God to do is disregard the sin of Israel.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the Hebrew word there is that he would look away or turn aside.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we believe and we do in a good and righteous God, he cannot just dismiss the fact that we have sinned.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: He cannot just say it doesn't matter.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: What he has to do is do something with that sin.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: He either needs to, if he is the righteous judge, he needs to punish that sin.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, excuse me, that is that is his one option, is that he can punish that sin.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: But then the two things that he has before him is either he can punish us, or he sends Jesus Christ on our behalf to receive the punishment for that sin.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is not us versus the Father.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Father is the righteous judge.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who is advocating for us, interceding for us before the Father, and it is Satan who is accusing us.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where we see sort of this whole thing playing out.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And because we sin all the time, it becomes very important that Jesus is the permanent and continual defense attorney for us.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: That he is always going before God.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so, just like Moses is appealing to the nation of Israel, the proper response to these things, finding this information out, understanding how even today Jesus is on our behalf advocating for our sake, is that we would want to go and sin no more.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is the same sort of lesson that is presented to Israel.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: That we would desire to not continually rebel against God, but instead we would learn this information.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: We would understand our sort of precarious position, knowing that it is only by the blood of Christ that we are saved, and that we would desire to sin no more.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the final thing I want to show you, briefly, is that it is Christ alone who is able to hold this job description.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody else can do what he does.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy 2 5 says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can pray for other people, other people can pray for you, but nobody can go before the Father and say that you are righteous except for Jesus Christ.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can intercede on your behalf except for him.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is righteous enough to do it, nobody has the power, nobody has the privilege, and nobody has done the work to be able to say it with authority.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus holds this exclusive position.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And what is true is that everybody needs Jesus as their Savior if they're hoping to make it past the judge's scrutiny.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we look to Christ today, here's what I want you to see, and this is our application, right?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: What I want you to see and develop is a heart for God and a relationship with him, that instead of maybe thinking, as some of us do, that he is the one who that he actually might be the accuser, but rather that our relationship with Jesus is one where he is always going before us and saying, Hey, I know you messed up, and I've got it covered.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you're gonna mess up tomorrow, and I've got that covered too.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not doing this to lay a guilt trip on you, I'm not doing this so that you feel shame or the burden of your sin, but rather that that might be lifted from you, and that you would see in the heavenly realms your relationship with Jesus and God, not distinguished by your failure, but rather his amazing love that daily is going before you.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's just sit on that for a second, right?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is supporting us today.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: He is our advocate and intercessor today.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: We have sinned today and need a savior today.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those, like it is so easy to be like Jesus died 2,000 years ago, and all of our application has to do with remembering that that happened.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is alive today, and there are aspects of our relationship with God, many of them in fact, that have to do with us bringing to bear things that God says will happen in the future and things that did happen in the past and applying them to our lives now.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: But there is also a significant part of our relationship with God, which is based on his continuing and active work in our lives every single day.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that your relationship with God should not be one marked by your failure in the way that you think about it, but rather that you are so deeply loved that he died on the cross for your sins and goes before the Father every day and says, I know you have two options before you.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: You would be righteous to punish, but Lord, also you would be righteous in your mercy.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as I have died on their behalf, I have taken their sin on that cross.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, they are now righteous.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: There is no need to punish them because they are covered by my blood.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is how we should think of our relationship with God.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not that he is some distant being, but that when we make mistakes, we should have this image in our head of Jesus going, I love you.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have already told the Father that you are clean, and you have no need to fear because you are righteous.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when we think about Moses, when we think about him as a sort of weary intercessor for the nation of Israel, we must also then draw our hearts and our minds toward Christ, right?
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Who is daily our advocate, though we don't deserve one, right?
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's because of his love, just like Moses loved Israel.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is because of his love that we have one who goes before the Father and says, they're clean.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: They messed up, but they're clean.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna mess up tomorrow, but they're clean.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you, and um Lord, we are reminded that right now, in this moment, Jesus is alive at the right hand of the Father, and he is interceding on our behalf.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, later today you will be doing it.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow you will be doing it a week, a month from now, Lord, a year from now, you will be doing it.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever it is that we come before you with sin, Lord, we know that you go before the Father on our behalf.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to keep this in mind.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, so that we might be sober in our estimation of our righteousness, but God also that it would just continuously draw us deeper in our love and appreciation for you.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: God, thank you.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you have done this for us.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: We have done nothing to deserve it.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: But God, in your mercy, in your mercy, Lord, you have sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins so that we might be able to have a relationship with you.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that anybody who does not know you as their Savior, that they would trust in Jesus, that he died on the cross for their sins, and today he can intercede for them on behalf of the Father and say, They are clean.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: They are clean.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: As we turn now to a time of communion together as a church, it's important to remember that communion, the Lord's table, is supposed to be one of the things that God says it is, the reason that we continue to do it and replicate it over and over again is it is supposed to be a reminder for us of this sacrifice, of everything that Jesus represents now, living at the right hand of the Father.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, back when he was speaking to the disciples, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also, he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant and my blood.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we proclaim your death until you return.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: You have died on the cross for our sins.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are broken and lost without you.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have no hope without you.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: But God, with you, we are not broken and lost.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are restored and we are renewed and we are righteous, and Lord, we have hope.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: God, your death is what accomplished this.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: And as you resurrected, you now stand as our advocate.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that by the power of your spirit, more often than not, Lord, more often than we have in the past, you would help us to remember that you advocate for us.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: You are in our corner.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: You stand on our behalf, you go to bat for us against Satan, against the powers of evil, and before a righteous judge.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for the love.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we pray that we would follow you with all of our heart, our soul, and our strength.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's in your son's name we pray.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Love you.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.