Deuteronomy chapter 31. This
will probably be our last study. In
this chapter, we go to chapter 32. But one of the things that
adds to the interest of this chapter is this was Moses' birthday. We found out out there in verse
2. He said, I am now 120 years old this day. That was his birthday. We know something about birthdays
around here, don't we? We celebrate birthdays pretty
good around here. Gabby makes us a cake. We sing
happy birthday and sometimes the kids have a party and we'll
get little presents. You know there's only two times
in the scriptures where anybody celebrated their birthday. And
it wasn't good either time, was it Greg? Pharaoh had a birthday
and he hung his beggar. Herod had a birthday, and you
remember what happened on Herod's birthday? They went down in a
dungeon and cut dear John the Baptist's head off and brought
it on a charger. So I think I prefer our birthdays. I like birthdays. I don't celebrate mine, but I
like birthdays, and I'll take mine over these fellows' anytime. But Moses, boy, he had a solemn,
heart-searching birthday. In this chapter 31, what the
Lord was telling him showing him with some of the most solemn
things and heart-searching and maybe too in a way heart-rendering
things for him. One of the things here in verse
14, look what he says to him in verse 14, And the Lord said
unto Moses, Behold thy day's approach, that thou must die. Boy, how'd you like to get a
present like that for your birthday? Thou must Well, the Lord does not pull
any punches with us, does He? He does not pull any punches
with His choicest servant. Here was the greatest prophet
probably in the Old Testament, and the Lord comes to him and
says, Thou, you are going to die. Here was a man that saw
God face to face. The Lord said, I speak with him
as a friend speaks with a friend. One time he came down off of
the mountain and his face was so shining that he had to put
a bag over his face to talk to the people. But he said, even
you, Moses, thou shalt die. Boy, death has no respect to
persons, does it? Great men, even thou shalt die. And he adds this to it. He says,
thou must die. It's not, you might die. But
you shall. You must die. There's a lot of
must in the Scriptures, isn't there? You must be born again.
I must be lifted up. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. Christ must need to go through
Samaria. You must die. Moses, you must
die. Die. What does it mean to die?
Isn't that a solemn thing to think about? Well, we see people
dying all around us. But I tell you, that's the most
solemn thing that could happen to anybody. What happens when
we die? Our bodies and soul separate,
don't they? It's impossible for that to happen
except in death. The spirit leaves the body and
goes back to God who gave it, the soul goes to its long home,
either to heaven or to torment, and this body goes back to the
dust. It was said of David that he
was laid at rest and slept with his fathers and saw corruption. He saw corruption. That is what
it means to die, isn't it? Here this man was that was a
beautiful young man. He was a handsome man, a great
warrior, and what happened to him? He died, and his body rotted. That's a solemn thought, isn't
it? For the body and the soul to sever, and the body go back
to the corruption, and the soul goes to its long home. And if God didn't spur these
great men, like David and Moses, He won't spur us, will He? He
won't spur us. You are going to die, Jim. I
am going to die. All of us are going to die. He
turns to me and He turns to you and He says, Thou must die. Well, sometimes He sends these
secret, little secret messages to us. He speaks to us in so
many ways about death. You feel those sharp pains sometimes
in your chest? You reckon that's the Lord secretly
speaking? You must die. Sometimes you lose
a friend or you lose an acquaintance or a relative or a neighbor,
and boy, sometimes that's the Lord speaking to you. You must
die. You must die. Getting old, we
start thinking about these things. That's the Lord speaking to our
conscience, maybe through a song or through a verse, but He speaks
to all of us, doesn't He? die. He often uses this word and speaks
this to unbelievers. This night shall thy soul be
required of thee. And boy, that word seals their
hopeless eternity. Wouldn't it be awful? Death is
a solemn thing anyway. Wouldn't it be awful to be lost?
to be an unbeliever and have the Lord to whisper that to you?
You fool! This night your soul shall be
required of thee, and to go out into eternity Christless and
hopeless. Death is a solemn thing. You
must die. And what He said to Moses, He
says to us and He says to every man living. It's appointed unto
men once to die. We must die. We must. every believer every true born
child of god has the hope and it's a good hope it's a good
hope through grace that it'll be well with him when god says
you must die for god has not appointed us to wrath has it
that's what the bible says he's not appointed us to wrath but
to obtain salvation by our lord jesus christ that whether we're
awake when He comes, whether we're still alive when He comes,
or whether we're asleep and decayed when He comes, we shall live
together with Him. So it's a solemn thing to die,
but it's a blessing to die in hope of life eternal, to live
with the Lord Jesus Christ. When must we die? When? Well, He said here to Moses,
He said, by day's approach. And boy, we don't know, do we?
When must I die? I have no idea. I tell you this
much, it's closer to me tonight than it was when I got out of
bed this morning. That's for sure. And it's closer to you,
isn't it? But only God knows because He has appointed the
day. And aren't you glad for that? I'm content to leave it
right there with Him. He appointed the day of our birth. He appointed the day of our new
birth, and I'm content to leave the day of our death with Him.
Aren't you? He knows. He could say to Moses, Your day
is approaching. I told you a story one time that
I thought was sort of amusing. The short version is, a virgin
had an older lady in his congregation. She was getting feeble, and he
said, Dear sister, what if the Lord referred it to you when
you would die? And she said, Mr. Spurgeon, I'd
refer it right back to him again. He said, what if he referred
it back to you? She said, I'd refer it right back to him again.
I don't want to take that into my hands which belongs to God
only. That's his appointment, and I'm
content with that, aren't you? He knows when the silver cord
will be loosed, when the picture is broken at the fountain. You
and I don't know that, but he does, and we're content to leave
that with him. Death comes to some people quickly
and others it lingers. It comes to some and they are
so restful and others struggle, even God's children. Some die
peacefully and some die violently. But I tell you this, it is coming
to all of us, isn't it? In Adam all die. You must die. Boy, that is his birthday. That
is what he told him on his birthday. Thou must die. Something else
here. in verses 16 and 17 and verse
29. It deals in different places
through this, but this was sort of heart-wrenching, I guess,
to Moses. I wonder sometime in reading this why the Lord give
him this, but the Lord does think like this. But look here now
at the message He give Moses. He opened his heart, and look
what He told Moses to tell the people. Verse 16, And the Lord
said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy father,
And this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods
of the strangers of the land, whether they go to be among them,
and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made
with them. And my anger shall be kenneled
against them in that day, and I will forsake them and I will
hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils
and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that
day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not
among us? And he even told Moses what was
going to happen to this people even in the last days. Look what
he said over in verse 29. For I know that after my death,
Moses said, the Lord had revealed this unto him, you will utterly
corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have
commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days,
because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke
him to anger through the works of your hands. And there in verse
19 and verse through verse 21. We'll see this next time. But
he even made Moses write a song to witness against these people.
It wasn't enough he told them what they were going to do. He
gave Moses a song to write to witness against them. You know,
you see the kids sometimes when they're trying to learn something
in school, capitals of states and so on. They make this little
rhyme, don't they? A little song to remember stuff by. It's good
sometimes to remember something with a song. Well, that's what
the Lord told Moses. They're going to forget these,
He said. They're going to forget what I'm telling them. I know
what kind of people they are. So He said, I'm going to give
you a song to write for them. And that's what chapter 22 is
about. This song. And boy, some of it's rough on
these people. I wonder how Moses felt when
the Lord told him this. Well, how would you ladies feel
if the Lord told you, you must die? You must die. And then He told you, Gilly,
after you die, Clarence is going to become a sot. And he's just
going to become a drunk. Then your family is going to
leave their profession of the Lord and begin to start cults
and worship idols. How would you feel about that? If it was some families, it would
make no difference. What's new? My family is like
that anyway. But if your family was a decent
family, and the Lord told you you were going to die, and He
said, after your death, your family is going to fall apart,
and they're going to kill My anger, and I'm going to devour
them. I'm going to destroy them. You wonder why He would have
even told Moses this day. But He did. He revealed some things to the
Apostle Paul too. Here is what Paul said when he
called the Ephesian pastors together. Listen to what he knew. This
is what the Lord revealed to him. He said, I know that after
my departure, grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. Even of your own self shall men
arise teaching perverse things to draw away disciples after
themselves. He said, Remember, by the space of three years,
I have warned you about this with tears, with tears. And I tell you something else
the Apostle Paul knew too. The Lord made this known unto
him. What was going to happen to the professing church in the
religious world after he was gone and in the latter days.
Listen to this. He knew what was coming. Men
shall be lovers of their own selves. and covetous, and boasters,
and proud. Men shall be lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse. The time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall
they heap to themselves teachers, having itch and ear." Boy, that
wasn't a rosy future, was it? I wonder how the Apostle Paul
felt. when he looked down through time and saw what the Lord made
known to him. Things aren't going to get any
better. I'll tell you one thing I found out about serving the
Lord and following the Lord. I wish I'd have known this when
He first saved me, but I didn't have sense enough to know it.
I thought, boy, everything's going to be rosy. Man, what an
easy road this is going to be. I'm so happy. And boy, if I'd
have known what I know now, I'd have just went ahead and knuckled
down to God under the cross and said, it's bad, but it's going
to get worse. But I tell you, they had to come
up with an old silly saying, being saved is fine. Being saved
is fine. That wasn't what the Lord told
Moses. Man, I've had joys and you've had joys. Your hearts
have been thrilled with what Christ has done for you. Follow
Him. There is peace that passes all
understanding. But I'm telling you, there's
trouble too, ain't it? And sometimes we see it in the future. What's
going to happen in the future? It's rough now, but it may be
worse. in the future. Get ready for
trouble and tribulation. Look over, hold that there for
just a minute, and look over at Luke 19. Just talking about
looking out in the future, when the Lord makes these things,
when God makes these things known to us, to His prophets, and they
tell us about these things. You just wonder sometimes how
they felt. But here in Luke chapter 19. Boy, we know how the Lord
Jesus felt when He was predicting the destruction of Jerusalem,
that those cobblestone streets were going to run with blood
of these people. Here is how He felt. Look at
this in verse 41. Luke chapter 19 verse 41. And
when He came near, and beheld the city, it was upon Mount Olive,
and you can look over and see the whole city, from the top
of Mount Olive. And when He beheld this city,
He wept over it. He wept over it. Man, no wonder some of these
mere men like Moses and like Paul was burdened over what they
know. But here is the Son of God, God
incarnate, and look what He does. When he sees and predicts the
future of this city, he weeps over it, saying, If thou hadst
known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes,
for the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast
a trench about thee, and can pass thee round, and keep thee
in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of
thy visitation." And boy, you can see the history from this
time especially on to just a few years ago. Some of you remember,
Barb and Wayne and maybe Clarence, this business about the evil
that shall come upon you in the latter days, you probably saw
some of that fulfilled, Wayne. In World War II, six million
Jews were slaughtered. That's a portion of the fulfilling
of that verse 29, the evil that shall come upon you in the latter
days. Boy, sometimes the Lord's fire,
His anger, smoldering. And they had a reprieve for some
years. Then boy, He rekindles His anger
and He sends a devouring fire among them again. And that's
been with this people ever since they left Him and made them idols. I tell you, it's a dangerous
thing for an individual or a nation to go a-whoring from God and
worship an idol. Do you know that? It kennels
the fire of God's anger. And when the fire of God's anger
kennels, who knows the depths and who knows the length of it?
How many hundreds of thousands of years now? Paul said God's
wrath has come upon that people to their uttermost. And boy,
we still see it today, don't we? They live over there and
dread just about every day that bombs are going to come in. But
I tell you, the worst condition of that is in their souls because
they still have this veil over their minds. They know nothing
of the Christ and nothing of His Gospel. And why? God's blinded
their eyes, hasn't He? One dear brother used to say,
if you blind your eyes and leave the Lord, He'll fix it where
you can't see. And that's what He's done with
these fellows in the latter days. But it's amazing the Lord Jesus
wept over them, isn't it? How did Moses feel when the Lord
told him this? How would you have felt if you
put yourself in his shoes and imagined what the Lord told you
was going to happen after you died. This was a people that
He loved. A people that He loved. Let me give you four or five
things I think that maybe show some emotions that he obviously
had when the Lord told him these things. Don't you imagine having
the spirit of the Master as He did? He almost burst out in tears. When the Lord showed him this,
you know he was having to repress those emotions down inside him.
He was so like the Lord Jesus, when he looked out over this
people, I imagine his lips almost began to tremble. He was almost
ready to weep. Jeremiah said this about him,
Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears. that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people." I imagine he felt
that, don't you? He probably felt like this, and
I bet he did do this. I bet he poured out his heart
to God for these people. He always did that, didn't he?
Paul did that. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And I bet you
this old man, as he went up on that Nebo to die, I just about
bet you anything, the last thing he did was pray for that people.
That's the kind of man that he was. He prayed for them. We know
he felt the urgency to warn them because he says here in chapter
30 verse 20, look what he says, that thou mayest love the Lord
your God. Thou must obey His voice and
cleave unto Him, for He is your life and the length of your days."
Boy, He warned them and encouraged them and instructed them. That
is why we warn so many people, is it not? Some sad times may
be coming to your life. And trying times to the church,
cleave to the Lord, love Him and obey Him. Paul said, ìWatch and remember.î
The Lord Jesus said, ìWatch and pray.î Watch and pray. I bet you this also, I bet you
Moses had a certain anger and disgust at these people too because
he said to you in verse 27, look what he said, ìYou can almost
feel the disgust with these people when you pray.î Look in verse
27. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiffed neck. Behold,
while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious
against the Lord." How much more after my death? Can't you feel
just a little bit of disgust in there? You rotten, rebellious,
hard-hearted bunch of people. It's holy man. Well, I tell you,
there's a holy anger, is there not? There's a holy hatred, isn't
there? There's a reverential disgust
sometimes, and I think this man of God had it. He's the kind of man, a gracious
man, a holy man. I bet you, I bet you he'd have
hated his mom and dad if they'd have been idolatrous, if they had brought shame on
the name of the Lord. That's how this man was. If any
man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his
wife and his children and his brothers and sisters, he cannot
be my disciple." And what Moses is basically saying here, above
the burden and the prayer and the weeping, what he is saying
is, I hate you for what you are going to do. I am so disgusted
with you for what you are going to do. Don't we have that sometime
too? I heard Robert Shuler one time,
I think that's his name, the guy that just died a year or
so ago out in California, he had the big church, I heard him
make the statement, the greatest harm that's being done to evangelism
in our day, men going around telling men and women, preachers
telling men and women that they're sinners. I hate him for that. And Billy Graham said, said that
he believed that those people in the tribal situations that
never heard the name of Christ, that they were yet in the body
of Christ and was going to heaven because they believed in a higher
power and they did the best they could. Now I heard him say that.
I hate him for saying that. There is a holy hatred and disgust
that we should have. for men that corrupt the gospel
and bring men's souls into jeopardy and bring shame on God Himself. We hate them for that, don't
we? We feel this certain disgust for them people. And while Paul
could weep and carry a burden and pray for men, he had a certain
disgust for those false preachers. He said to one, Thou child of
the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert
the right way of the Lord? There is a holy hatred and sometimes
it is stirred up inside of us, especially when we know people
are doing the very same thing that Moses said you are going
to do out of your hard-heartedness and out of your stiff-neckedness
and out of your unbelief. the hurt and the shame that you're
going to bring. So I bet he thought that, didn't
he? I bet that was one of the feelings. That's the way he spoke
to him. And fifthly, I imagine, though,
he had this certain contentment about it all, don't you? I bet
he had a certain contentment about it. He's a gracious man. He knew the Lord was sovereign.
And he knew the Lord had a purpose. And I can just see this great
man resigning himself to the will and good pleasure of God. I can just about hear him in
his thoughts thinking, I'm going up on Mount Nebo, I'm going to
sleep, and I'm going to leave it all in my Lord's hands. Whatever
he does with his people or anybody else, it's his business. And
I can rest in that. Can't you see him doing that?
I tell you, when you know the Lord and you're submissive to
His will, you're content with no matter what's coming to just
leave it in His hands. That's contentment. I have learned
in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. And one of the
reasons I say that, we see this man again in the New Testament.
Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration? when the Lord Jesus took His
apostles up on that mountain, and He became white and shining,
and His clothes were as white as the driven snow. And this
cloud came overhead, and the Father in heaven spoke and said,
ìThis is My Son. In Him I am well pleased.î And
lo and behold, who shows up at that scene? Moses and Elijah. And Heís glorious. And he seems
so peaceful and restful. And he doesn't seem like he's
burdened. And he doesn't seem like he's pained about anything.
And he appears there with Elijah and they talk with the Lord Jesus.
What about? Something wonderful that Christ
was going to accomplish. His death. Redemption that He
was to accomplish in His death. That's what they were talking
about. And I bet you if you'd have said, Moses, don't you know
how the Jews, your people, don't you know how they're treating
the Lord? Don't you know they've called Him a devil? Don't you
know they've called Him a deceiver? They despised and they've rejected
Him. I wonder what Moses would have
said. What about it? I'm not concerned with their
miserable depravity. I'm free from all of that. I've
got better things to think about, better things to think upon,
and that's my Lord and His accomplishments, His redemption. I tell you, it's
a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, and above all other
burdens, above all other ways and emotions that we feel about
the life that we're in and what we think may be coming in our
family or in our nation, above all the burden of that and the
tears and the prayers, We need this contentment. We need this
resignation to leave it with the Lord. Whatever it is we're
facing. Because I tell you, He has a
purpose. He'll do His good pleasure. And
if you can resign yourself in that, you'll have some peace.
You'll have some comfort in His will. And we need that here. That's what goes on in heaven.
We know what goes on in heaven. There's perfect contentment there.
Moses didn't go up to heaven and sit up there and wring his
hands about what Israel was getting into, did he? He was at rest.
He was at peace. God give us grace to have some
of that here. And when he comes and says you
must die, Lord, I'll leave that with you. I'll leave that with
you. You've given me grace to see
Christ my Lord through the eye of faith. I believe you've given
me a good hope through grace. Okay. I'll leave that with you.
And here's what's going to happen after your death. Your family's
going to be in a mess. And this country's going to fall.
And there's going to be bloodshed and chaos. Lord, whatever it
is, that's fine. You're in charge. Do your will. Fulfill your purpose. Let me
go to be with my Lord and my Savior and worship Him as I long
to worship Him here. God give us grace to resign ourselves
to the Lord's will here. May the Lord bless His Word.