May the Lord be graciously pleased
to bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the book of Deuteronomy, and chapter eight, and we'll
read verse two. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter
eight, and reading verse two. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, and to know what
was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no. Moses was now an old man, just
about 120 years old. He spent the first 40 years of
his life in Pharaoh's palace, the next 40 years of his life
in the backside of the desert, and this present 40 years leading
the children of Israel from Egypt up to the present moment of time.
So he had a very varied life. but he had very clearly seen
the Lord going before him and instructing him and teaching
him and therefore he was well qualified to be able to come
and to speak to the children of Israel because he had had
to learn these truths which he brings before the children of
Israel to humble thee and to prove thee and to know what was
in thine heart Because as we look back in Moses' life, of
course, when he was 40 years of age, he thought that he was
then ready to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, and he
thought all of his countrymen would know it as well. But of
course they didn't, and it wasn't God's purpose. He thought he
was ready. There were another 40 years to
go before he would be ready to lead Israel out of Egypt. So we see how Moses was prepared
by God to lead Israel and what a wonderful direction they had,
what a glorious master they had in God to lead them and to direct
them. So now he comes at the end of
his life and there's a greater part of Deuteronomy is written
to the instructions that he leaves behind for Israel to read and
to remember it was an amazing favor for them. Little did they
really appreciate it but nonetheless it was written and it is recorded
and it's a blessing for us today to be able to read such words
from Moses to Israel at that time and to recognize the application
it has to us today. And so he comes and in this verse
which of course is just a part of the many instructions when
he lays before Israel and he says, and thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in
the wilderness. Now remember, there was that
occasion about a year after they come out of Egypt and the Lord
directed them to go and to conquer Canaan and Kadesh Barnea And
they sent the spies, 12 spies, and the spies checked out the
land for 40 days and 40 nights, and they came back. And apart
from Joshua and Caleb, the other 10 spies brought back an evil
report and discouraged Israel from going up to conquer the
promised land. And as a result, God caused them
to then wander in the wilderness for 40 years. It was really a
day, a year for every day that the spies checked out the land
of Canaan. And the solemn statement was
that all those who were over 20 years of age would die in
the wilderness. So we can conclude therefore
that as Moses now addresses Israel, there were very few older than
20 years at that time and probably therefore there were virtually
none who were over 60 years of age and many would have been
much much younger and so they are to remember and it must have
been a very painful remembrance to remember their disobedience
of a direct command of God and the effect it had You see, God
is not to be mocked. We solemnly treat sometimes God
as though he's someone that you and I can argue with, someone
that you and I can put aside if it doesn't suit us, somebody
that we can disobey if we so fancy. And we somehow and sadly
treat God as though he was just another being, human being, rather
than recognising You and I stand before the creator of the whole
world, indeed the whole universe, and the creator who is so mightily
powerful that he just spoke the world into being and the universe
into being. No little God, a great God. And sometimes it's terribly solemn
to think that we treat God as though he is of nothing worthy
of any notice. And therefore what we are really
doing, we are mocking God, we are disobeying God. And it's
just what Israel did. And they disobeyed God. And they'd
had some wonderful deliverances. If you think how they came out
of Egypt, how the Lord fulfilled his promise to Israel, which
he'd given to the patriarchs many years before, that they
would be delivered. And so it came to pass. And they
came out with a high hand. They were brought out. And we
might liken that, of course, to our spiritual condition. Spiritually, we are in Egypt. That means we're following the
things of this world until the Lord graciously comes and brings
us out. He brought Israel out. They all
came out. And it's a wonderful thought
to know that every true believer will come out of spiritual Egypt. They won't be allowed to stay
there. They will come out. And it'll be a blessing for us
today to recognize that the Lord has brought us out. You see,
the Israelites, they could not get themselves freed. They were
stuck in Egypt. And you and I cannot free ourselves
from spiritual bondage. But when the Lord appeared, Israel
were delivered. And when the Lord appears to
us in our spiritual life, we are delivered and we come out
of Egypt, spiritual Egypt. Now, no doubt Israel thought,
well, this is going to be a nice easy run. Well, it wasn't very
long, was it? Before they suddenly came to
the Red Sea and they were hemmed in all around, things weren't
working out as they thought they would. And that may be so in
our spiritual life to remember and look back and realize things
didn't perhaps work out as we thought they would. We might
have thought it was all going to be a bed of roses. We were
going to walk on our way wonderfully without any problems. We need
to trace out the journey of Israel. They came to the Red Sea. It was a great obstacle. The mountains were either side.
The Egyptians were behind them. They were hemmed in. What were
they to do? Well, they were to cry unto God.
And God heard. And God brought about a wonderful
deliverance, something which had never happened before. The
Red Sea parted. And the Israelites went out across
on dry land. My friends, spiritually, you
and I may come into what we might seem to be a cul-de-sac. Seems to be nowhere out. We're
stuck in it. No, you're not. God leads and
directs. And God appears. And my friends,
he does appear in his way and in his time. And it's good therefore
to remember the journeys of the Israelites. And so they came
safely across and of course at that time all the Egyptians were
destroyed in the Red Sea. The Lord didn't work by halves,
did he? It was a complete victory. What a mercy to know that we
have the same God today. We tend to forget, we tend to
somehow think That God is not the same, but he is the same. And he is the same God that controls
your life and my life. And therefore, do not ignore
the great God. Do not walk in your path. Do not think, I'm going to do
what I want to do. God will hedge up your way. You may not like it at the time. You may rebel against it at the
time. You may endeavour to get out of God's way and go your
way. It's like Israel. They then came
into this place to go up and to possess the land. What did
it involve? It was going to involve a battle.
They didn't want a battle. They didn't want to fight the
Canaanites. They didn't want to get involved
in something which possibly appeared to be very difficult. And it's
just like the Christian life is. It may appear to be difficult. It may appear to be hard. And
you may think, well, I'm not going to take up my cross. I'm
not going to follow the Lord. I'm going to follow my own way.
Don't forget, as I've said, God is not mocked. Don't dare treat
God as someone else like yourself. Israel did. Israel thought they
could do what they wanted to. And you may remember that after
just a little while they decided they would obey God and they
would go up and fight. And God was not with them. You
and I, my friends, are to work to God's program. We're not allowed
to work to our program. And don't map out a little path
for you. You might think it'll be nice and easy. No. You follow
the word of God. You follow God's direction. And
if you need the encouragement, read the word of God. Because
God leads in the right way. God doesn't make any mistakes.
We do. God doesn't. And it's a good thing to be able
to look to the Lord and to trust in him at all times, all times,
not just when it fancies, it suits us, but to trust the Lord
at all times. And so here Moses comes and instructs
Israelites. Remember, he's leaving this on
record for them. He's going to die. He's not going
to be allowed to go into Canaan Because he disobeyed God, and
you might just ponder that, Moses disobeyed God. I don't know if
you traced out what he did. You can easily pass over it.
The Israelites a second time needed water. The first time,
God had instructed Moses to strike the rock with his rod and the
water gushed out. The second time, Moses was ordered
to speak to the rock. But he didn't. He hit the rock
with his rod. Disobeyed God. You might say
that's not very much, was it? Well, perhaps in our language
it isn't very much. But the reality was he disobeyed
God. It's a very powerful instruction
really for us to think that we shouldn't think, well I can just
do that, it's obvious, that's the way I've got to go. No, it's
not. We ought to follow the instructions of Almighty God. And because
of that, the Lord told Moses he wouldn't be allowed to actually
go into Canaan. So you see, we have a great God,
a God who's very merciful, a God who's very compassionate, a God
who has great love to his people. But my friends, he will have
us obedient to him. And it's important that you and
I do recognize the truth of that. Because as Moses spoke here,
thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee
these 40 years in the wilderness. And then he summarizes it in
just a few words. To first of all, to humble thee.
Secondly, to prove thee. And thirdly, to know what was
in thine heart. And fourthly, whether thou wouldest
keep his commandments or no. So, just coming back to the commandments,
a bit back to front this is, but nonetheless it's appropriate.
Whether we will obey, whether we will keep God's commandments
or no. And it's easy to think, well,
I can just disobey God in that little thing. You know, I'll
tell you what will happen. If you do that, you'll find a
path. Your walking will be hard. You'll have opposition. You'll
wonder why things aren't working out as you anticipated. You'll
wonder why this arises and that arises. You know why? Because you're walking against
God. If we walk contrary to God, he
will walk contrary to us. Don't forget the truth of the
word of God. Don't think you can get away
with walking contrary to God. Don't think you can get away
with disobeying the gracious commands of God. And just remember
this, all of God's commands are good commands. Nothing bad, nothing
evil, nothing wrong with any of God's commands. They are all
good and they're for two reasons. For the honour and glory of God
and for the blessing of our souls. So we might say, well, in which
case, how dare we walk contrary to God? It's true, isn't it? How dare
we? walk contrary to God. The Lord has laid before us such
clear words of instructions. Well, to remember then all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee. Well, let's start at this
point. It's a blessing if you and I
can look back in our lives to something that God has led us
in, that God has directed us in. Yes, it may be in the things
of our natural life, it may be the things in our spiritual life.
But it's a good thing when we can look back and remember what
God has led us in. And we can be encouraged if we
can see that, that God has led us, that we do remember, because
the Lord says here, and thou shalt remember. And that really
means that if the Lord has led us, we shall remember that leading. So perhaps we can therefore conclude
if we can't remember anything, then we have to conclude God
hasn't led us. And that's a solemn condition
because if God never leads us, we shall end up in hell. And
that's no light matter, is it? And so we do want to feel and
we do want to know We do want to have the evidence that God
is leading us. If we read in the 107th Psalm,
he led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city
of habitation. That was of course in reference
to Israel, but it's also in reference to the whole church of God. What
a blessing for us then to know that the Lord has led us. because we can remember the Lord
leading us. And so tonight, let us all ask
ourselves a question. Has God led me? Has God led me? Or have you just carried on in
your own little life without any realisation there is a God
in heaven before whom you and I must stand? Well, thou shalt
remember all the way. You see, he tells us this quite
clearly. If God has led us, it's the work of his Holy Spirit and
therefore it's wonderful to realise that he does remind us of the
things that he's led us in. And it's quite remarkable really
sometimes when people get rather old and perhaps their mind becomes
a little infirm They're not able to remember many things, but
it's very wonderful to know that they remember very much, perhaps
all of the leadings of God. And they can have quite clear
remembrance of those things. And what a wonderful evidence
that is of the work of God in their souls. And you and I, my
friends today, need this blessed evidence because the word is
positive. Thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee. In Israel's case, these 40 years
in the wilderness to humble thee. Well, the Lord does humble us
and he humbles us sometimes in this way, a bit like Moses who
expected everybody to know that he was the great chap who was
going to lead them out of Egypt, but they didn't. You and I may
have perhaps high views of ourselves, and we may have to prove that
the Lord perhaps doesn't allow us to have a high view of ourselves. As we mentioned this morning,
the case of the Apostle Paul, when he came and spoke to those
Ephesians or wrote to those Ephesians and told them he was less than
the least. He didn't have a high opinion
of himself, did he? He had a very low opinion and yet he was a
wonderfully blessed individual. So what a mercy if again we can
look back in our lives and see when God has humbled us. And that's not something that
you and I naturally like. No, because what does it do?
It affects our pride. We're proud creatures, naturally. We like people to think well
of us. We like to think we're doing rather well. And we like
people to congratulate us and to encourage us. But you see,
what a mercy it is when God humbles us. And when God does humble
us, the effect will be like this. we will then acknowledge that
all that God has done for us, all that we have, all that we
possess, God has provided for us. We won't be able to claim
anything ourselves. And I'll just show you what I
mean by that. First of all, as we read together,
God gives power to get wealth. God gives power. And God gives
us our minds. God's even given you your mind.
God's given me my mind. It's not something that we've
suddenly developed ourselves. God has given it to us. The brains we have, God's given
us. Some more, some less, in accordance
with his sovereign will and purpose. But it is that which God has
given to us. And so here we have this gracious
word that the Lord speaks to Israel through Moses to humble
thee. And therefore, to not honor ourselves
to glory in what we have done, but to glory in what God has
done. And you young people, when you
take exams, and when you get good results, to realize it's
God that has given you the ability to do well in those exams. and when that is so then to thank
him and to praise him for it and not to forget to be thankful
to God. It's very easy you know to have
prayers answered and we forget to thank God. It's very important
to thank God for what he's done to humble thee and he goes on
to say and to prove thee God proves our motives. God digs deep into our hearts
to see whether we have right motives in our lives. And again we must come back to
what I said before, our motive should be, and pray it may be
so, that it may be for the honour and glory of God that we might
have a right motive And you see, God brings us into situations
to prove that. Whether that is our desire. Whether it is our concern that
God will be honoured and glorified. Or whether we're more concerned
about ourselves. More concerned about what people
think, rather than what God thinks. It's a vast difference, isn't
there? People die. People perish. They vanish. It
doesn't matter. Does matter what God thinks.
Does matter how we walk our lives. And therefore the Lord does bring
situations into our life to prove us. To see which way we will
turn. Whether we'll turn the way of
the world. Whether we'll follow the natural
desires of our heart. or whether we turn and follow
the Lord and follow His way. Now it doesn't mean to say that
way is going to be easy. In actual fact, the truth is
the path of a Christian is not easy. And you may say, well why
is that? I'll tell you why it is. We follow
the path of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
have an easy path, did he? And therefore, why should we
expect to have an easy path? But the wonderful blessing is,
and if we are walking in the way the Lord has ordained for
us, we'll be walking with the Lord. And as the Apostle Paul
tells us, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. And therefore there may be times
of opposition, times of hardness. What a blessing, therefore, to
be found depending upon our God. Now you won't be able to depend
on your God if you're walking in a contrary way. If you're
doing things which are not right, if you're pleasing the devil
rather than pleasing God, you can't expect to receive strength
from the Lord, can you? But if you are hearing his voice
and obeying his voice, the Lord's proving you. Sometimes naturally
the decision is very tough. There's one way which your flesh
likes and wants to go after. Another way, which is the way
that God directs you in, and as a warfare and as a tussle.
But remember, what he says, he giveth more grace. He gives grace
to follow the narrow way, not to wander off into the broad
way, the way of the flesh. And that's why the Lord comes
and proves us. He does prove us. He proved Israel. Many occasions, many occasions,
most solemnly, they turned their back upon God. And yet, you see, it was so evident
that God was with him in so many ways. And one particular way,
which you read of when the Lord Moses said, Thy raiment waxed
not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell. These 40 years,
just think of it, that clothes didn't wear out for 40 years.
Can you imagine wearing your clothes for 40 years and not
wearing out? If that happened, you would say,
well, this is a miracle. I wore this this year and I wore
it last year and the year before and it still looked as good as
new. It would be a miracle. Well it was of course with Israel.
It was a miracle and it was a very clear indication that God was
with them and yet still they disobeyed God. They disobeyed
God. They turned their back upon him. How terribly sad. You see you
and I have this gracious word to our hearts to direct us today. We live in a very materialistic
day, I'm sure you're aware of that, and everything around us
is placed to detract us from the things of God and attract
us to the things of the world. And of course, because of the
materialism there today, mostly we're able to obtain things that
perhaps Our flesh wants and goes after, but we have to wonder
whether it is beneficial to the health of our soul. That's really
the great question, isn't it? Whether by following a certain
path it's going to benefit our soul or just benefit our natural
being. And yet our natural being will
perish and our soul lives forever. How tremendous a difference.
How important it is that we understand the difference. And so the law
does prove us. And if there is this situation
set before us, we should realize that God is testing us. He's
proving us. Don't therefore take the way
that appeals to your flesh, just like Israel did when they disobeyed
God. You know, they had to suffer, didn't they? Very greatly. Remember
that time when all those serpents came and bit them and thousands
fell and there was only one way out I expect you know what that
was I hope you do anyway and that was Moses was commanded
to make a brazen serpent and command the people to look to
the serpent and those that looked they lived today it's the same
not a brazen serpent but it's the same we are commanded to
look to the Lord. Indeed in Isaiah we read, look
unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God
and there is none else. It's a very gracious word. My
friends, if you and I are in a time of temptation, the devil
will do all he can, all he can to deceive us and to tempt us. Never forget the ease with which
he tempted Adam and Eve. to make them sin that terrible
sin on that sad day in the history of the world. And my friends,
he's very active still, and he's looking to tempt you and me,
to deceive us, to deceive us, so that we don't listen to the
gracious words of our God, but we listen to the enticing words
of the devil. Enticing words of the devil. He made it all appear to Eve
very lovely, very beautiful, very wonderful. And she was taken
in. And don't think the devil has
changed his technique, he's the same today. He will try and persuade
us to follow a false way. He will try and tempt us to be
disobedient to our God, to prove us. You and I will have cause
to be proved in our spiritual life. It won't be just a one-off. It'll be again and again. So
let us remember Israel. Remember how they were proved.
Let us realise the need for us to examine ourselves, whether
God is proving us, perhaps on some particular thing. I don't
know. You may have some particular
thing before you and you're very tempted. to do it. Perhaps you're
very tempted to buy it. Perhaps you're very tempted to
follow a particular way. Well, is it following God's commands? Is it following His way? Or is it following the way the
devil would have us to go? Well, it says, Moses, to humble
thee and to prove thee. And then he says to know what
was in thine heart now we're told our heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked perhaps we don't want to know
that we don't want to believe it but it is so our heart is
desperately wicked and deceitful well what a blessing when the
lord comes and shows us what is in our heart. Now, He doesn't
do that to those who are not the children of God. But those
who are, He does direct us. He does show us what is in our
heart, at least in measure, and to show how deceitful we are. You know, I'll tell you the effect
of that. It'll be like this. You will come and you will cry
out, can ever God dwell here? And do you know what that will
do then? I'll tell you what it will do. You see the devil oversteps
his mark very often. And what it will do is this.
It will drive you where? To Christ. Yes it will. And that's a very wonderful position
to realise that the Devil has endeavoured to turn you away
from the things of God. But the Blessed Spirit has used
that to direct you to come to Christ, to seek unto Him for
strength and help and guidance, direction and to receive His
grace. So the Lord does give grace and
the Lord gives more grace He gives that wonderful favour to
be able to resist the devil. And he gives us that wonderful
favour to look to him. And it is as Moses said, to know
what was in thy heart. We fall down and we recognise
how bad we are. We realise that there's nothing
good in us. We have to look out of ourselves,
out of ourselves. to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful word that, as
I mentioned, to look to the Lord, look unto me, look unto me, nowhere
else. You won't find help anywhere
else. But as you look to the Savior, and you may be heavy
laden and burdened with the sins of your heart, you see it's the
sins of our heart, other people don't see them. you and I know
the sins of our heart and that's only revealed to us by the Holy
Spirit to show us what sins there are and you see because we're
the only person that knows about them thankfully we can come and
we can come to our God and we can confess our sins and the
Lord tells us if we confess our sins He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a wonderful gospel word
that is. And what a wonderful thing it
is when the Lord makes us willing in the day of his power to confess
our sins to our God and to seek for forgiveness. And that forgiveness
comes through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. in dying upon
the cross at Calvary to redeem our souls and to deliver us from
the condemnation of the law which says the soul that sinneth it
shall die, to know what was in thine heart. What a mercy that
is for us today to realise the blessed God then comes to us
and shows us what's in our heart and then makes us cry out to
him for mercy and makes us flee to Christ. The hymn writer says,
a refuge for sinners. The gospel makes known, it is
found in the merits of Jesus alone. Nowhere else, nowhere
else. Look nowhere else. Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. Oh, my friends,
there is redemption, there is pardon, there is forgiveness. And so what a mercy it is that
when we remember all the way the Lord has led us and seen
therefore what in our heart the evil there and the effect has
been to direct us to the blessed Saviour and his finished work. Now there is a place to rejoice
in. There is a time to praise God. There is a time then to bow down
and to worship. You may have been bowing down
and worshiping the devil. We all have. What a blessing when the Holy Spirit brings us
to bow down before God. acknowledging our sin and seeking
to him for pardon, seeking to him for the application of his
precious cleansing blood on our soul. Because in this condition,
when the Lord shows us what's in our heart, we will need cleansing
and we will value the glorious doctrine of redemption. And we will value the precious
blood of the Saviour. Because we know that without
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. There is no forgiveness. And therefore to come to that
fountain, that fountain of the precious blood. Remember the
hymn where it says, there is a fountain filled with blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And what a relief it is to be found that fountain comes and
cleanses us from all sin. Indeed, we're told the dying
thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. The dying thief was
a great sinner, but my friends, he wasn't a greater sinner than
us. Yet he was able to come and confess
his sins. What a blessing when the Holy
Spirit enables us to come and to confess our sins. And what
did he do? He cast all his care upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Was he turned away? No. The Lord
received him. The Lord told him, this day shall
thou be with me in paradise. Now we come today to the same
Lord Jesus Christ the same crucified Saviour, but the risen Saviour,
the one who now sits on the Father's throne, interceding for his people. What a wonderful blessing it
is to realise we have such a Saviour in this evil world in which we
live. That Saviour who has said, Jesus is the same yesterday and
today and forever. He does not change. He's always
there ready. to hear our prayers, and so to
know what was in thine heart. It's a good thing therefore,
isn't it, when the Holy Spirit shows us what's in our heart
and directs us to the Saviour. Neither place, neither fountain,
the only place of redemption. And then, of course, the great
question, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. Well, that's a whether for us
today, isn't it? And that applies to every one of us, whether we
will keep his commandments or not. I don't need to spell out
what the commandments are. I'm sure you know very well what
they are in the Word of God. You may have been resisting them.
You may have been turning your back upon them. In reality you
are saying, I will not have this man reign over me. And what a
blessing it is when the Holy Spirit breaks down all the barriers,
takes away the hardness of our heart, gives us a heart of flesh,
a soft heart, gives us a new heart, and blesses us indeed,
and indeed makes us willing in the day of His power. Oh, bless
God for power. It's His power. And what a mercy
when that power comes into our hearts, affects us. So here we have Moses then on
these last days upon the earth recording this for the benefit
of the Church of God and may it be for our benefit tonight. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was
in thine heart whether Thou wouldst keep His commandments, or no. Amen.