Ray Bentley

Natural birth. In other words, you're born as a human being in the flesh. That's good. You're made in God's image, but it's not enough. Jesus said, you must be born. What? Again, there's another birth, a second birth that really counts for eternity. It's a spiritual birth and a relationship with the Lord. So where did I get this from?

But what does this all mean for us today in our lives? So here's my first, you know, current life application for what we're about to read. And it's this every one of us is accountable to Jesus, the supreme judge. And so we're going to talk about our accountability unto the Lord. We begin in chapter 16 verse 18. So this is Moses encouraging a new generation that's just about ready to cross the Jordan River and finally enter into the Promised Land.

It's called Destroy the Idols. This was a command that God gave to the children of Israel. 3000 years ago. So chapter 11. Deuteronomy chapter 11. back to verse 22. The whole book of Deuteronomy is the final 30 days or the last month of their 40 year journey. They are literally on the edge of the Jordan River.

Once the children of Israel cross on to the other side, they're in the Promised Land, which God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Moses is again reminding these kids, these next generation, to be careful to obey the commandments which I command you to do, which he received from God. To love the Lord your God. To walk in his ways, to hold fast to him.

And God gave a command. Every idol must be destroyed. The children of Israel had a long history with idols. And this was a very powerful, important truth that was given at that time. So chapter 11, Deuteronomy, chapter 11, back to verse 22. And again, I mentioned for those who maybe knew that, Deuteronomy, of course, there was no New Testament at the time of Jesus, 2000 years ago.

So we're going to, you know, we're dropping in life lessons as we go through this study. So here's the first life lesson, and then we'll read the scriptures that go along with it. Jesus, the Messiah becomes our. Because in fact, that's the title of the message. Well, that's a strange title of the message when it comes actually out of our text, Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse 12 says this, then it shall come to pass.

And we're going to find Moses praying because he wanted to see the kingdom come in the Promised Land. so verse 23, he's he's talking to the 2.1 million Israelis there. And Moses says, then I pleaded with the Lord of that time, saying, oh, Lord God, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand for what God is there in heaven or on earth, who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds? I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains and Lebanon.

We're going to kind of overview a few highlights from Deuteronomy chapters three through seven. Okay. So, we're going to start in chapter three. And, you know, I've been dropping kind of the life lessons as we go along

They've come all this way. He says in verse two. This is fascinating. It is 11 days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Now it came to pass in the 40th year and the 11th month, on the first day of the month that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had given him his commandments to them, after he had killed Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and dwelt in Ashbourne, and then og, king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in dry.

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. The successful warrior is the average man with laser like focus. Today, even better encouragement from the mouth of Moses, inspired by God Himself. Let's open our Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy. Here's an interesting little fact I was just reminded of in the New Testament in the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as Jesus, you know, went around and teaching and doing miracles and everything else.

Amazingly. And we're actually at the end of the 40 year wilderness journey of Israel. We've come to the end, and we kind of get kind of the last bits and pieces of the story. Now, what's interesting is, though, we have one more book about the wilderness, and it's quite a long book. It's called The Book of Deuteronomy. That's where we're headed next.