Let's read this entire chapter. This is our last study in the
book of Deuteronomy. And this 34th chapter here will
finish our study. I had one more study in it, but
I thought, well, this will probably do it. But let's begin in Deuteronomy
chapter 34 and verse 1. This is the death of Moses, this
great man of God. And Moses went up from the plains
of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah. We
just sang about that, didn't we? from Mount Pisgah's lofty
height. That is over against Jericho,
and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and
all Neptali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all
the land of Judah unto the utmost sea, and the south and the plain
of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees unto And the
Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abraham,
and to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it
with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses
the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according
to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley,
in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth
of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was not hundred and
twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept
for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping
and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was
full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands
upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and
did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet
since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
And all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do
in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, to all
his land, and in all that mighty hand and in all the great terror
which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel. What a great man
of God this was there according to verse 10. All the mighty signs
and wonders that he did in the land of Israel. And he was now
120 years old. But amazing this man, the health
that he was still in, the strength that he still had. His eye was
not dimmed. his age probably when he went
blind. But here Moses, his eyes aren't
dimmed or his natural forces abated. But it's time now for
him to die. And we've looked back over his
life before, but it consisted basically of three sections of
40 years in each section of his life this man lived. He was born
there in Egypt among the slaves. He was saved from that watery
grave by Pharaoh's daughter. And the first 40 years of this
man's life he lived and was raised up in all the wisdom of Egypt. And Stephen in his message in
Acts 7 tells us that he was trained in all the wisdom of Egypt and
he was mighty in word and in deed. So he was probably a brilliant
young man. And it was here in those first
40 years that he suffered his first great disappointment because
when he came to the age of 40, he went out to visit his brethren,
the children of Israel. I do not know how he came to
the knowledge of who he was, I don't know if his family stayed
in contact with him. I don't know if the Lord made
it known to him. But it came into his heart to go out and
visit his brethren, the children of Israel, and they were in slavery.
And he saw one Egyptian oppressing an Israelite, and he slew that
Egyptian and hid him in the sand because he was afraid of Pharaoh.
The next day he went out to Beelzebub again and he saw two Israelites
fussing and feuding and fighting with each other and he broke
them up. He said, you folks are brethren. And the one said, are
you going to kill me like you did that Egyptian yesterday?
And boy, he got scared. And they thrushed him. They sent
him away from them. And that was the first disappointment.
The Bible says he thought. He thought. that they knew the
Lord had sent Him to deliver them, but they knew it not. They
had no idea. So he fled, and this begins his
second forty years of his life. He fled to the back side of the
desert, the desert of Sinai, where Mount Sinai was. He met
his wife. She was the daughter of a priest.
He had two sons. We're not told anything about
them. We're not told anything about his wife except her name.
We're told his son's name, but nothing else about them and all
their history, what happened to them, when they died or anything.
But he lived there in the backside of that desert and was taught
desert life, how to live in the wilderness. And don't you imagine
that had something to do with him surviving so well out in
the wilderness? But here's where he suffered
his second great disappointment. Now it may not seem like a disappointment
to some people, but it was a disappointment because here is where the Lord
appeared to him in that burning bush. Remember that? And He was
in the bush, and the bush was on fire, and the bush wasn't
consumed. And we said Sunday that that
was God incarnate taking unto Himself our humanity and not
consuming that humanity. The great I Am in the bush. But
where was that disappointment? Well, it was here that God called
Moses to go and deliver His people. And why was that a disappointment?
He didn't want to go. It had already been rejected
once. And he said, Lord, I can't go back. They won't believe that
You sent me. And I don't have an eloquent
tongue. I can't make an argument. I can't convince them that You
sent me. So he didn't want to go, did
he? And the Lord convinced him to go. But another reason that
he didn't want to go, and I'm certain of this, he got used
to the quiet desert life. He came out of his first 40 years
from the city life, the hustle and bustle of all of that, busy
as it was, he went to the backside of the desert keeping his father-in-law's
sheep. Can you imagine what a life that
was? For 40 years he lived in the quietness of that desert
with his wife and his children. And now the Lord says, I'm sending
you back to the city. And he said, I don't want to
go. And he was really disappointed when the Lord sent him back.
And then his second part begins there. The third part of his
life begins there, the last 40 years of his life, when he goes
back down and delivers the children of Israel out of the land of
bondage across the Red Sea. He comes out now into the desert.
And for the next 40 years, he wanders in that wilderness. We
know that, don't we? And then it's now that we pick
up here on our text, 120 years. Now it is time for this man to
die. And it is amazing that he says
this here in verse 5. He died in the land of Moab according
to the Word of the Lord. And the first thing I want to
look at and consider with you really is the premature death
of Moses. Now in our eyes, now in the eyes
of God, I know this was appointed. Even before this man had breathed
a breath, it was appointed. In our eyes, it was premature. Every man's death is appointed,
isn't it? We all die according to the Word of the Lord. It's
appointed unto men once to die. And Moses foretold his death.
When the Lord says you're not going over into the land of Canaan
but you're going to die, he went to Aaron and he told Aaron, I'm
going to die, I'm not going over there. He told the children of
Israel, I'm going to die. He prophesied of his own death.
You can do that and I can do that. I can prophesy just a few
more days in this earth and I'm going to leave this world. How
do you know that? Because the Bible says it's appointed
to me to die in a few more years and a few more years for you
and we're going to die. But that's not really the meaning
of this verse here. The meaning of this verse here,
He died in the land of Moab according to the Word of the Lord. Now,
I want us to look at that. We've looked at this before,
I imagine, in different times, but there's something I think
for us to learn here. Put a little marker there in
the text and look over in the book of Numbers chapter 20. I want to look at this idea of
Moses dying, what I would call, I don't know of a better word
to use, a premature death, but it would be in his eyes and our
eyes. But I want to look why. Look
at why he died when he did, why he didn't get to go over and
enjoy the land promised the land of Canaan. And we see the reason
for it is found here in Numbers chapter 20, and let's begin here
in verse 7 and look at this. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take the rod, and this is where the children of Israel
were murmuring now because they had no water. This was the second
time this happened. The first time you remember Moses
smoked the rock, it split, and all the water come gushing out.
Well, this is the second time, almost 40 years later. And the
Lord told Moses in verse 8 to take the rod and gather thou
the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak
ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth
his water. Now that is so important. and
thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so thou
shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses
took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him, and
Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before
the rock, and said unto them, Sure now, ye rebels, Must we
fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand
and smote the rock, and he smote the rock twice. And the water
came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their
beast also. Now here is the problem. We'll
find out here in just a minute. The first time Moses did this,
he was told to smite the rock. And he smote the rock, and the
abundance of water gushed out, as out of the great deeps, the
book of Psalms says. Now he's told just to speak to
the rock, just to speak to it, and it will give forth its water. Don't smite it. You've already
smitten before. Now just speak to it. Now that
teaches a spiritual lesson, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus was smitten
one time for sin. He suffered one time for our
sins. He will never and He must never
suffer again. That one time was sufficient.
That death atoned for our sins. It reconciled His people to God. So when Moses came here and smote
the rock the second time, it was really saying there was a
need to smite Christ again. And this is what offended the
Lord. The second time, all he was told to do is speak to the
rock. And such a good lesson here is
for you and I. When you and I go to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to God by Him, we don't go looking for Him to
be smitten again. There is no suffering anymore
on anybody's part. When we go to Him, what do we
do? We merely ask of Him. We merely
ask of Him. All that needs to be done has
been done. And now we just ask of Him and
He gives us the water of life. Wasn't that what He told us,
American woman? If you knew the gift of God and
who it was that tells you, give me a drink, you would have asked
of Him and He would have given you living water. That's all
we do now, isn't it? Humbly come to Him and stoop
down and drink. and live. That's all we do. So
here was the sin of Moses that he had committed. And that's
what the Lord tells him in verse 12. Look here in verse 12. And
the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because you believe Me
not to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore
you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given
you. Now that's the reason why he
wasn't to come into the land of Canaan. That's why he died
prematurely in the land of Moab. Now what's the lesson that you
and I can learn from this? And I think it teaches a good
lesson to you and I. What a solemn thought it is. And Moses himself said the Lord
shall be sanctified in them that come near unto him. And he said
again the Lord is a jealous God. He's jealous for His glory, isn't
He? He's jealous for His honor. And those who are blessed to
be nearest to God and favored with His grace and those who
know Him best and are blessed to speak of Him should always
be careful to honor Him and to sanctify Him with all that they
say. Here was this great prophet and
he failed only once. This was the only time this man
ever failed to honor God, to sanctify Him. You won't find
any place else that I'm aware of. But because of his great
position that the Lord had brought him into over these people and
because of the great favor he had obtained of the Lord, the
Lord's judgment came upon this man and he died this premature
death. of this sin, the Lord in another
place calls it rebellion. You rebelled against Me at the
waters of Myra. And here He says, You believed
Me not to sanctify Me before the people. And in general, this
speaks to every believer, and this speaks to the church. The
Lord said this, and it comes back to this obtaining such favor
in His eyes. And when He brings us close to
Himself and shows us favor and blesses us, what an awesome responsibility
that puts us under to be careful because He requires more out
of His favored people than anybody else. Listen to what He said
in Amos 3, 2. You only have I known of all
the families of the earth Therefore will I chastise you for all your
iniquity." Why would you chastise them? Because they're special
to me and I've bestowed such favor upon them. Therefore I
require more out of them. What was it Peter said about
judgment beginning at the house of God? Judgment begins, chastisement,
God's dealing begins with the family, doesn't it? And if it
first began with us, and sometimes the Lord deals so sharply with
His people, He said, What shall be the end of the ungodly who
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Those I love I
rebuke and chasten, He said. Be zealous therefore and repent. And we see in this example of
Moses that it is possible for a believer to be judged by the
Lord for his unbelief and rebellious attitude in something that he
has denied greater blessings in this life. And his life can
even be cut short. And what does that teach us?
How careful as believers, as children of God, how careful
you and I should be in our thoughts and in our motives And in the
words that we speak and in the deeds that we do, because we
represent our living covenant God, don't we? And what an awesome
responsibility that is upon us, just as it was this man. But
that's the reason his life was cut short, because you sanctified
me not before the children of Israel. Now I want us to look
at another place. I want us to look in Deuteronomy
chapter 3, Right. Back over to your right a little
bit. I want us to see here how disappointed Moses was. How disappointed
he was. I think sometime we get in the
attitude. I hope we don't, but I'm afraid
we do. Just as long as I'm saved, nothing else matters. As long
as I make it, nothing else matters. But it does matter, doesn't it? If the Lord begins to cut us
short and don't bless us in certain areas, then it begins to matter. And I want you to look at Moses'
disappointment here when the Lord said, You'll not go into
the land of Canaan. You'll not set your foot on that
place. I want you to know when the Lord withheld this blessing,
look how disappointed he was. Look here in verse 23. He said
in verse 23, And I besought the Lord at this time, saying, Oh,
Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness
and thy mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven
or in earth that can do according to thy works and according to
thy might? I pray thee, let me go over and
see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain
in Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me."
And he said in another place, the Lord was angry with He was
angry with me for your sakes, and would not hear me. And the
Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of
this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah,
and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward,
and eastward. And behold it with your eyes, for thou shalt not
go over this Jordan." So there is how disappointed he was. He
besought the Lord. The word means literally to beg.
And then he prayed unto the Lord, there in verse 25. He prayed
unto Him. And the Lord was wrought. Now
let's be clear about this. I don't want to give any misimpressions
here about what this means when he said the Lord was angry with
him. This wasn't the anger of a judge looking out over his
bench at a criminal. They were ready to sentence.
It had nothing to do with that. This was the child of God. And
the anger that's expressed here is the anger of a father towards
his child. There's nothing like, I'm going
to damn you, I'm going to sentence you to this amount of... nothing
like that. It wasn't a legal judgment. It was a judgment of a loving
father to the son who was the apple of his eye. But something
I want to look here. and remind you of there in verse
26 where the Lord said, Speak to me no more of this matter. And it shows how sometimes when
the Lord chastens His people, when He brings judgment in the
way of chastening upon His people, there's nothing that will turn
Him from it. That's an awesome thing to me.
You know, sometimes we say, you know, we confess our sins and
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And He does. He
does. He is faithful to do that. But
it still won't turn Him from His chastening rod. And Moses
earned his prayer. I mean, when the Lord turned
away this man's prayer, boy, you knew something was going
on. Because He never would deny this man his prayer. He was ready
to destroy this nation and Moses pleaded for him and he saved
the nation. But here he said, Don't speak to me anymore. Moses,
this is settled. This is settled. And this man
knew it was settled. He knew that because he did not
sanctify the Lord, he knew what he had brought upon himself.
And you know he was such a meek man, such a loving servant of
the Lord, we never read that he said another word about it.
He submitted to the Lord. Something else concerning the
death of Moses, that was the reason that he died prematurely.
There is something else here in Deuteronomy here in the third
chapter I want us to see a couple of things concerning the death
of Moses. It is obvious as we see this
that he wanted to go to the land of Canaan, but here is is a question
I want to ask you. Why would he rather have gone
to the land of Canaan than to go to heaven to be with the Lord?
Now, it's obvious to me that he wanted to go there at this
time and instead. Is that obvious to you? He was
disappointed that he was going to heaven instead of the land
of Canaan. Now, why was that? Why was that? That seems odd,
doesn't it? He begged the Lord, let me stay
here and go there and come to you later, to heaven later. It
wasn't because he feared death. This man didn't fear death. It
wasn't because he had any doubt of his acceptance in heaven when
he got there. It had nothing to do with that.
He lived in that assurance. What was it then? Why did he
want to stay here? Let me give you two reasons,
and we find both reasons here. in verse 24 and verse 25. The first reason is this. Look
at it again in verse 24. Lord, thou hast begun to show
thy servant thy greatness in thy mighty hand. For what, God,
is there in heaven or in the earth that can do according to
thy works and according to thy might? He said, Lord, you have
begun to show me your power. You've begun to show me your
mighty hand and your greatness. There's no God like you. There's
no God that can work like you work. You've begun to show me
your power against your enemies in destroying them. And you've
begun to show me your grace and mercy toward your people in delivering
them." And he says, I want to see more. I want to live to see
more. I want you to hold that there
and turn over. I think it's in Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter
15. Look at this. You remember the power of God
that was demonstrated there when Israel came out of Egypt and
they were standing there and the Red Sea was in front of them
and the mountains on either side and Pharaoh's army was behind
them And they saw Pharaoh's army coming and all the dust kicking
up. And they thought, oh man, what are we going to do? We can't
go forward. There's the Red Sea. We can't
run and hide. Here's the mountains. And the Lord told Moses, stand
still. Just stand still. And see the
salvation of the Lord. See my power. And see my grace. See my mercy. And he opened the
Red Sea. And he sent Israel across that
Red Sea on dry land and Pharaoh and his army came in and the
Lord blew and discovered them and sunk them as lead down to
the bottom. And they got on the other side
and here is the song that they sang. The first song in all the
Bible, the first song the nation of Israel sang it. Look here
in chapter 15 of Exodus. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse
and his rider has he thrown into the sea." Exodus chapter 15 verse
1 and look in verse 2. The Lord is my strength and my
song. He has become my salvation. He
is my God and I will prepare Him a habitation. My Father is
God and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a man of war. The
LORD is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O LORD,
is become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O LORD, hath
dashed in peace the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee. Thou sendest forth thy wrath
which consumed them as stubble. And with a blast of thy nostrils
the waters were gathered together, the flood stood upright as a
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The
enemy said, I will pursue them. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword. My hand
shall destroy them. And thou shalt just merely blow
with thy wind. The sea cover them. They sink
as lead in the mighty waters. Who is likened to thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is likened to thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, good in Thou stretchest out Thy
right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in Thy mercy hast
led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided
them in Thy strength into Thy holy habitation. And the people
shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Philistia. Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab, Tremlin,
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them. By the greatness of thine arm
they shall be as still as a stone, till the people have passed over.
O Lord, to the people thou hast passed over which thou hast purchased.
And thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain
of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast
made for thee to dwell in. in the sanctuary of the Lord,
which thy hand hath established, the Lord shall reign forever
and forever." And Moses said, this was attributed to His power
and to His mighty hand. And Moses saw it. And he said,
I've never in my life seen anything like this. I've never seen a
sea, never thought about the sea. Pardon. And the Lord delivered
us this way. What a mysterious, magnificent
thing it was. And then when the enemy went
in to catch them and said, I will, I will, I will, the Lord said,
I'm going to show you who has a sovereign will. And He brings
all the waters back over them. And Moses and them stood there
and sung. What power! What a mighty hand! And now it
comes time for him to die. And he says, Lord, You've just
begun to show me Your greatness and Your power. I want to see
more. I want to see more. That's what this year is about.
And Moses led the people out in the wilderness. And boy, there
he saw more, didn't he? He saw more of the Lord's mighty
hand, especially His gracious hand. He said, Lord, let me see
Your glory. And what was that glory? I'll
have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion upon
whom I'll have compassion. And all through this 40 years
of wonder, He just continually showed Moses more and more of
His gracious hand and His mighty power. And when we talk about
the power of the Lord, we're not just talking about power
to destroy His enemies. We're talking about power to
save His people, aren't we? When they went to drink of the
waters and they were so bitter they couldn't drink of it, they
said, We're going to starve to death. Remember what they did to make
the water sweet? They threw a tree in it. What does that tell us? They threw a tree in and the
waters became sweet. The serpents came among them
and began to bite them and they died. What do we do? The Lord
said, put a serpent on a pole. What does that represent? We
know, don't we? And He showed them that. And
when they got thirsty, He clayed this rock and it gushed up. What
is that but the waters of life? That's Christ Himself. They were
hungry and He sent down manna from heaven and fed them. That's
the breath of life. All through this, the Lord was
showing him His mighty hand and His power. And they came upon
these two great kings and they were mighty giants. Og was a
vicious giant in Sihon, king of Bashan. And the Lord delivered
these giant-like people into their hands and they slew them
and they took their lands for a spoil. And Moses said, Lord,
You've just begun to show me Your greatness. and I want to
see more." That's why he wanted to stay. It wasn't that he didn't
want to go be with the Lord, but he knew that when he died,
the battle was over. It was rest then. And he was an old warrior, a 120-year-old
warrior, but he was in excellent shape. His strength hadn't abated. He said, I don't want to quit
the battle. But you know the battle is here and here's the
glorious part of this. When we leave here, the Bible
says, then we enter into rest. We finish our course and the
fight is over. But I'm telling you, there's
a great glory that we see in this life while we're in the
midst of this battle because it's here we see the Lord working
through the weakest of means, through these vessels of mercy.
are these vessels that He's put His Gospel. He comes and saves
a poor old sinner, puts this treasure of the Gospel in his
heart. And then when He sends him out
to preach, all these giants fall before Him. All these high walls
come tumbling down before the preaching of the Gospel. And
that's what Moses wanted to see. He wanted to see that. Don't
you think he wanted to see the walls of Jericho fall down? Why,
he saw those walls. He saw Jericho, didn't he? And
he saw, man, what mighty walls. And he looked on over towards
where Judah was going around Jerusalem and seeing the mighty
walls there, some of them a hundred foot tall. And he thought within
himself, man, I'd like to see those walls. And he saw those
big proud giants walking through the land. And he thought, my
people are going to put their foot on your necks. And he said, oh, I'd like to
see that. I'd like to see that. That's what it was about. That's
what it was about. He said, I don't want to quit
the battle. I want to see His power and subduing. And you know
what? I'd love to see that, wouldn't you? I'd love to see that. Here
is where we see the Lord saving people. We ain't going to see
that in heaven. We ain't going to see no broken hearts. We ain't
going to see anybody being made willing in the day of His power.
Not up there. That happens here. And I love to see that. I love
to see that. And that's what Moses himself
said. I tell you what, if he had lived
to see what Joshua and them saw Jericho, if he'd have saw that
scarlet thread coming out of Rahab the harlot's winter, and
knew that the Lord was going to save that whole household
by His grace, why, he'd have shouted. That man would have
shot it. That's what he wanted to see.
And he said, Lord, let me go over there and see your power. Not just your judgments upon
your enemy, but your power to save your people. And then something
else, he said here in verse 25 back in Deuteronomy 3. Here's
another reason that he He wanted to go into Canaan. I pray thee,
let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that
goodly mountain, and Lebanon. That goodly mountain. He wanted
to see this land. This man had a special eye. I
tell you, nobody ever saw spiritual things like this man did. And he knew He wrote so much
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate. He knew that He was
coming to this place. He knew His feet was going to
walk on this land. And He said, I want to see it. I want to see it. He knew all
about Mount Moriah. He knew when Abraham took Isaac
up there and was ready to offer his own son. and how the Lord
delivered him and He put the sacrifice on the altar and said,
ìThe Lord will provide Himself a lamb.î He knew what that meant. He knew the Son of God was coming
to Mount Moriah to suffer. He knew that. He knew the temple,
that beautiful temple of Solomon was going to be built there,
that His little His little tabernacle that He built in the wilderness
was going to be incorporated into that huge, beautiful temple.
He knew Christ eventually was coming to that temple. He knew
His feet was going to walk those shores. He knew that He was going
to suffer and make satisfaction for sin just outside this temple. He knew that and He wanted to
see it. The Lord Jesus told His apostles one day, He said, listen,
He said, there's been many mighty men, many prophets and kings
that have desired to see the things that you see and not see
them. They desire to hear the things
which you hear. Who were some of those big mighty
prophets? Moses was one of them. He desired
to see the incarnate Son of God walk in the shores of Galilee. Maybe he thought, if I can just
sit there on the shores of Galilee and listen, maybe God will give
me an ear to hear the echo of His voice as He proclaims to
all the thousands of people, Blessed are the poor, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. Oh, that the Son of God would
walk there and live there. Men would lean upon His breast,
would hold His feet, that He would raise the dead and heal
the lepers. and give sight to the blind,
forgive a multitude of sins, all in this good land. And at
the last, there upon Mount Moriah, this goodly mountain, He would
make substitution. As a substitute, He would put
away the sins of His people. He would die there, be buried
there, raised there, and on that same mountain, He would ascend
back to His Father and our Father. to make our salvation and our
entrance into heaven sure and certain. So he said, please let
me go see it. Let my feet walk on that good
ground over there. It wasn't just the land, brothers
and sisters, he wanted to see. He wanted to see it because he
knew Christ was coming there. I'd love to see it myself. Most
people make fun of me because I'd love to go over there, but
I would. Probably wouldn't recognize any of the places. They say Jacob's
well is still there. I'd love to sit on that. That's
where my Master sat, wasn't it? He loved to go up around the
Sea of Galilee just to know He walked that place. Just because
He walked there. I'll never be able to, but Moses
wasn't either. Moses didn't either. Look back over at our text just
for a minute, and we'll close. Deuteronomy Chapter 34. This
is an amazing thing here. The Lord did let him see. Chapter
34 there in verse 1, Moses went up from the plains of Moab into
the mountain of Nebo to the top of Peski, that is over against
Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the
land of Gilead unto Dan. Now this is the most amazing
thing. If you get your map out sometime, if you have the ESWORD
program, you got your little cursor that you can put and go,
and I did that just today. And from this location of Mount
Pisgah, the best you could determine where he was, if you'll go north
all the way to Dan, that's about 120 miles. He saw all of that. And then you go out immediately
west all the way to the sea that it says he saw here, the Mediterranean
Sea, that's about 60 miles. Then you go all the way south.
down to the southernmost end of the land of Israel to Simon,
the borders of Simon. It's about a hundred miles. And
he saw all of this. Not just saw it at a glance,
a little tip of a mountain, but he saw all of that land. He saw
it in detail. The Lord showed him Lebanon and
those beautiful tall cedars that they built the Temple at. Showed
him Mount Moriah and where Calvary would be. Showed him where the
Lord Jesus would walk. Showed him the beautiful valleys,
the fertile valleys. Showed him all the land. You
say, Bruce, how in the world can a man see all of that? Well,
we're told in verse 4 only. The Lord said unto him, This
is the land I swore unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'll give unto
thy seed. I have caused thee to see it. That's why, isn't it? The Lord
gave him eyes to see it. That's how he saw it. Isn't it
the same with you and me? How do we see what we see? Divine
revelation, is it not? Blessed are your eyes, for they
see. We've had our eyes anointed by
the Holy Spirit. That's the way we see, isn't
it? That's the way we see ourselves. We never saw ourselves as we
are until He gave us eyes. We never saw God in His holiness,
God in His law, how strict it is, His requirements, Jesus Christ
and what an all-sufficient Savior He is, His willingness to receive
us upon coming to Him, His great love. How do we see these things? He has given us eyes, hasn't
He? He has opened the eyes of our understanding that we may
see Him and know Him and know the things, the deep things of
God. It's all by divine revelation,
just as Moses. And one more thing, lastly in
closing, in Numbers 27, verse 13, he says this, I'll quote
this to you. He said, When thou hast seen
it, when thou hast seen the Lamb, thou shalt be gathered unto thy
people. Not just the grave now, He wasn't
gathered and buried in the same little cemetery with all of His
people. He was buried up on Mount Nebo somewhere in the valley
there. We're not told. Nobody ever found His grave.
But this means He was gathered to His people in heaven, in heaven. He had a bunch of His people
in heaven all the way back from the first man the Lord ever saved
all the way up to this time. It was His people. You're here
tonight and you're a child of God. You've got your people. Your people. And where are they?
In heaven with the Lord. And He's still gathering them,
is He not? And someday He's going to descend from heaven with a
shout, with the archangel, and those who sleep in Jesus will
God bring with Him. And what's He going to do? He's
going to gather. He's going to gather them together
here. and they're going to be glorified
together, and they're going up to heaven, and our Lord said
they're going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
Moses, and all the saints are going to sit down in heaven together,
together in the kingdom of heaven. I don't know how many of my natural
family will be there. I really don't. We got a number there of people
that nobody can number. And it makes you long to be gathered
with them, don't it? Gathered with them, to be with
them in heaven. Mr. Baker, would you dismiss
us?