[0:00] Two weeks ago, two weekends ago, we had a holiday. We call it Anzac Day. What we're supposed to commemorate on that day.
[0:11] ! But it was not.
[0:31] It was Australia-New Zealand Army Corps. It commemorates the First World War, right? Where many Australian and New Zealand soldiers died in that Gallipoli, right?
[0:46] So lest we forget, a hundred and something years now down the road. Still, every year, they remember that event. And I believe that there are greater things we should remember.
[1:00] You know, as the verse of the month, I found that it's quite an apt translation from King James Version. Lest thou forget.
[1:14] Forget what? Lest thou forget the things they have seen, the things that they have heard from the Lord.
[1:25] So I hope we can remember Deuteronomy 4.9 well. Okay. So, Deuteronomy.
[1:37] This is, I think, this is how many sermons now? Fifth sermon? Yeah. Now, I think, you know, 34 chapters in 19 sermons, we cannot expect looking at this stuff too detailed, right?
[1:54] I liken it like it's not a map of Auckland. It's more like a map of New Zealand, right?
[2:05] So you can't see things in very much detail. It's kind of an overview, okay? Yeah. Yeah. So we want to give you an overview of what Deuteronomy looked like and the messages behind it.
[2:24] So, look, this is the first, actually the first, the sermon today finishes the first speech of Moses.
[2:37] All right? He had three speeches. So, 1 to 4.43, this is the first speech of Moses. So the first, for the chapter today, chapter 4, verses 1 to 43, it says, Moses was trying all his best to prepare the younger generation to enter into Canaan, right?
[3:08] Moses, the grandpa, looking at the young generations. Actually, he saw them. Every one of them were born in the desert, right?
[3:23] And also he witnessed the parents. Every one of them died in the desert. I don't know. We probably cannot appreciate how Moses would have felt.
[3:36] After that 40 years, the whole generation died. And the new generation raised up. And here, before they enter into the promised land, in his heart, he really felt, hey, young guys, don't do what your parents have done.
[3:57] Lest you die. You know, God is an awesome God. Hey, he tried everything. He sounded like your parents, right?
[4:10] Nagging, nagging, nagging, right? Don't eat this. Pull on more clothes. Don't come home too late. I know, Mom. I know. Don't you think?
[4:21] I'm not three years old. You know, when I was, I remember still, my mom was nagging and nagging. And I told my mom, Mom, I've been a pastor for 10 years now. No, I'm not 20.
[4:33] I'm 40. I'm 50, you know? And I tell you what, I miss the nagging of mom. So if you still have mom and dad nagging you, give thanks.
[4:47] All right? Josiah? Huh? Eh? Yeah. And why do they nag you? Why do they keep long-winded? Because they want the best offer for you guys.
[5:01] So I think the message for us today, we don't have Moses with us now. But God uses others to remind us. Pastors.
[5:14] Self-group leaders. Parents. Right? To remind us, hey, let us check our lives. Are we actually staying intact, in line with the Word of God?
[5:27] Otherwise, we'll go astray. Lest we forget. So if the sermon today, if I feel like a grandpa nagging, nagging, nagging, I'm doing a good job.
[5:42] All right? Okay. And it is. You read the passage. Thank you, Eva, for reading that. That was not a whole chapter. There was only parts of it. But you feel very repetitive, right?
[5:56] Haven't you said that before, Moses? Oh, I know what he's talking about. You can speak this line. I can tell you you're going to speak this. And that's the nature of what was in the heart of Moses.
[6:09] It was really like a grandpa looking at the young folks. Hey, I've been with your parents. Your parents done this. And they were disciplined by God.
[6:20] And that was the prices they paid. And young guys, don't do it. Don't do it. Be careful. Lest you forget. So these are the five R's in those passages, right?
[6:33] Recalling, reminder, rebuke, reassurance, and requirement. I don't have a lot of time going through every detail. But I'll kind of brief through them.
[6:45] Okay? Firstly, recalling. Verses 1 to 8. Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I'm about to teach you. Now, if you read carefully, even with your English Bible, you will see this thing about follow, follow, follow them.
[7:05] There's six times in the whole chapter of chapter 4. Even just that 40-something verses. Six times. Follow. Follow. And there's another word similar.
[7:20] Two more times. There's eight times. Follow. Follow the decrees. Walk in it. All right? Why? Why? Why?
[7:30] Why? Why? Because really, the Lord really wanted to bless. You know, it was 40 years ago, actually, the Lord has prepared them to go into the promised land. they denied to go in there.
[7:42] But 40 years later, the Lord still had the promise. He kept faithful, right? So God really wanted you guys to go into to take the possession of the land.
[7:59] But the thing is, you need to follow. And the command, you do not add, you do not subtract.
[8:11] Exactly what the Lord says, you do it. You do not think of something new and do not delete something that's very important. I think for us Christians today, we are pretty smart and trying to think, we want to do this and we do not want to do that.
[8:33] You know, some churches, we only focus on the love of God and we don't focus on the bearing the cross for the Lord. We don't think about suffering, all right?
[8:44] We're all talking about the blessings of God. Surely, the Lord really want to bless, but do not act, do not add, or do not subtract, neither.
[8:56] All right? And thirdly, he brought something up, bow of pure. And what was that? He said, look, you saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal pure.
[9:11] Now, that was something that was happened in Numbers 23 to 25. It was two guys. One is called Balaam. It was a spirit medium who curses people, all right?
[9:28] And there was another guy called Balak. Balak was the king of Moab, okay? Because the Israelites was too, yeah, too powerful.
[9:39] Wherever they went, wow, they just stomped on people and just, yeah, and this guy, Balak, was fearful. What happened if he comes over and takes over my land, my country?
[9:51] So he hired this guy, Balaam, to curse, to bring a curse onto these Israelites. But being a spirit medium, obviously, he could hear from the spirit world, right?
[10:07] And Yahweh, God, God is a spirit, right? And God says to Balaam, do not curse. Even though Balak had given you a lot of money to curse them, do not curse, only bless.
[10:24] So he did. You know, he just listened to God, and he just blessed the people and Balak, that's the king, said, wait, I give you so much money to curse them, why do you keep on blessing them?
[10:37] And he said, if the Lord asks me to bless, I cannot not bless. So that was the story. All right? But the Bible stopped there and did not say what else did Balaam done, Balaam done.
[10:55] But in chapter 25 of Numbers, something happened. It says that 24,000 Israelites died in a plague because they committed idolatry with the Moabite women.
[11:16] What happened? Something had to do with Balaam. it did something to tempt the Israelites to commit idolatry.
[11:33] And something in Revelation, the book of Revelation, said something about Balaam taught Balak to entice Israel to sin, to eat the food sacrificed to idol and committed sacrifice.
[11:52] immorality. So, that's something that Moses recalled. Hey, remember that?
[12:03] Don't do it again. All right? So, something we need to remember. Some of the faults that we have committed, we need to beware.
[12:14] All right? God's willing to forgive, but we need to beware. if something happened, anything that idolatry we commit, God will take it to offense, right?
[12:30] And a guy called Augustine says something about what is idolatry. Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshipped.
[12:41] Now, for any ordinary people, if they had some sort of religious mind, he would know there is a higher being, right?
[12:54] But, if we are not truly worshipped the true God in a proper attitude, that's idolatry. You see Chinese people, they worship many gods, deities, right?
[13:08] But they just really want to use them. Entice them, worship them, so that we gain blessings, right? And vice versa, it's also idolatry.
[13:22] Are there things, you know, are there attitudes we actually adopt to worship God? God, I worship you, I come to church, I offer, I do this, I do this, but I want this from you.
[13:38] Do we use God? I think we need to be careful with what Moses had recalled. We need to be careful. Next, a reminder, verse 9, that's our verse, only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget, lest you forget, right?
[14:02] The things your eyes have seen and let them fade from your heart, but more than just not to forget, but something else, to teach your children so that they can teach their children.
[14:17] I think that's very clear, very clear reminder for all of us. Parents, if we are parents here, do we pass on the goodness, the 100% godly commands to our next generation?
[14:41] Do they see that personified, I mean, actualized in our lives? I keep on thinking, I keep on thinking and reflecting.
[14:54] If Anaya, okay, when she's about 30, 40, when she has her children, that's my granddaughter, right? When she has her children, what would she tell her children of grandpa?
[15:10] Grandpa, even though he's a pastor, he's actually pretty hypocritical. He comes to church and one person, he's at home, he's a different person altogether.
[15:22] Wow, I would, you know, I would be really ashamed of myself. how would our children perceive us?
[15:36] Just a religious guy or truly godly parents? You know, this is something at home, everything is very real.
[15:51] We cannot deceive, right? people at home. You're truly a godly guy, they will see it. If you're not, they will know.
[16:05] So, let us be careful and lest we forget all the things that we have here, we have heard, and we have seen from the Lord.
[16:18] In verse 11, you came near to the, and stood at the foot of the mountain that is Mount Horeb, right? And verse 12, something very, very interesting.
[16:31] He said that the Lord spoke to you out of the fire, and you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form. Israelites, do not create any images, because you saw no images of God, right?
[16:49] Even though the bull, they're trying to, to, to, you know, worship, they did not want to worship idols, they just create, they wanted to create something to worship Yahweh, right?
[17:02] But God said, no, I'm, you've seen no images of me, so you do not create any images. You only heard the sound, so what you have heard, what you have saw, what Yahweh has did to you Israelites, you do not forget.
[17:26] The problem was, they created images and forgot about the words, and forgot about the things that they have saw. that was a problem, you see?
[17:40] I think, I think that's a sober reminder for all of us as well. If we have experienced God in our lives, try not to create any images.
[17:57] If we have heard from the word of God, let's just follow, and do not go from left or right, just go straight with the will of God.
[18:10] I think that's something. Parents, we do have our responsibilities, and even young people, one day, you will be parents as well. You start now, we start now, we start as children, we start as young adults, when the Lord bless us and lead us to relationships, we get married, one day the Lord gives us children, then, we don't only learn then, we start now.
[18:41] So, let's be reminded. And thirdly, rebuke. Verses 15 to 31, I won't read all those verses, but there are three things mentioned there.
[18:54] First, verse 15, then watch yourselves very carefully. Watch yourself very carefully. Verse 24, because Yahweh is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
[19:09] What is a consuming fire? That consuming means eat up, you know. As a fire comes along, he just consumes everything along the way. God is that, all right?
[19:21] And also, a jealous God. Can you imagine God being jealous? What is a God, a jealous God looks like? He cannot, there's no one can stand between me and God.
[19:39] Wow, really? So narrow-minded? So jealous? Look, if, if, ting-ting, if, one day, you saw Hakan in his wallet, oh, oh, there's a beautiful woman in there.
[19:57] Who is this? Oh, that was my ex-girlfriend. Huh? You will be jealous, won't you? Of course. Any genuine, intimate relationships would be jealous a third person in between.
[20:17] If God is, is the, just, is the almighty God, the one and only true God, he will not allow any false deities, false gods to stand between me and him.
[20:34] That is jealousy. That's the holy jealousy. Even, even us as a human, in human relationship, we, we, we understand that, right?
[20:46] How much more in our spiritual relationship with God? And 29, 25 to 29, Moses foretold that, that young, this young generation, when they went into the promised land, when they go to the promised land, they would abandon Yahweh and will be punished.
[21:08] I thought, when I first read it, I thought, oh, goodness me, Moses, you're not very encouraging. You know? I mean, before I actually go into exams, you say, you're going to fail.
[21:21] What kind of, what kind of, grandpa are you, Moses? You know? You should be encouraging them. Oh, just walk with the Lord. But, indeed, it happened.
[21:33] Because I think Moses knew them too well. And, he could say it because, he, because he watched every one of them born in the desert. He's watched and grew up.
[21:46] You know, as I watch some of you guys, you know, as I watch you, you know, from about three or four years old, and as you grow up, I won't be as negative as Moses, you know, but I really, really want to try my best to encourage you.
[22:00] But, if something that, you know, seeing you keep on walking that way, you're going to walk away from God, I think I would be firm.
[22:13] Right? I think like any parents. So, that was a very firm rebuke from Moses. In verse 25, it says that, after you had children and grandchildren and had lived in the land for a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger.
[22:46] Because going into this land of Canaan, it was not a place that no one lived. It was full of these people, all right? Canaanites, Amorites, all these rites, parasites, all these kind of stuff, right?
[23:05] people with all different kind of gods. Every god had their, every god kind of related daily lives.
[23:18] For instance, Baal, all right? Baal. It was an agricultural god. Now, when they went into Canaan, they did not, they had to work, they had to farm, they had to plant.
[23:35] They could not just wait for God to, you know, to rain manna to them anymore. So, they had to settle. So, it was a lot of temptation when the neighbors said, oh, we worship Baal, because he gives us, you know, this winter, this springtime, he wakes up in the springtime and gives us rain.
[23:57] And if they did not have remembered the word and the commands of Moses from the Lord, they would just follow and indeed they followed.
[24:10] Right? And you would see the history. Joshua, judges, and that's what happened. All these gods, and one of these gods called Dagon, you know, that was the deity that during the time of Samson.
[24:28] Right? So all these deities, all these idols, they had to be very careful. And Moses was really rebuking them, warning them.
[24:44] But indeed, they failed. Then what? We failed too. Then what? But if it was not the goodness and the merciful kindness of God, we'd be gone.
[25:04] Right? But Moses reassured them, even though you are faithless, God is faithful.
[25:15] Right? This is what Paul said to Timothy as well. Even though we're faithless, even though we fail, God does not fail. He keeps to be faithful because he cannot deny himself.
[25:32] See, Moses reassured them, look, look, look, your God, Israel, Israelites, your God is so different from others. Right?
[25:43] He's a powerful God, but he's not, he's not up there, you know, had nothing to do with you. He cares for you. Even though he's good and mighty, made to heaven and earth, but he speaks to you.
[25:59] Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire like you have and you still lived? Right? This is our God.
[26:10] You know, our God is an awesome God, but he cares for you. He cares for me. He's in our sufferings.
[26:22] He's in our anxiety. Right? And verse 37, he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants. Now, that was something that it was a covenant and the people at that time, they knew very well what a covenant was.
[26:43] All right? It's not two equal parties. It was a powerful suzerain king to have mercy, to establish this covenant with a vessel king who has lost the battle.
[27:00] And he will put this stipulation onto this vessel king and to establish this relationship, this covenant. And that was exactly what Israel was to Yahweh God.
[27:15] He loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them. And because of that, he promised to be faithful, even though the rest of the generations were being faithless.
[27:31] I think that's very true to us, we as Christians, you know. We fail, I fail. As a pastor, I failed many times.
[27:43] If it was not his love, his election is chosen through Jesus, I won't be standing here, not at all.
[27:55] No matter how much I do, no matter how hard I try, no matter how loud I preach. No is no. I stand here because of his loving, mercy, and faithfulness.
[28:12] All of us. That's very, very reassuring. Right? None of us can come before him. I remember a song, it was a very, very old song, it stuck into my into thy presence we come, not by the works we have done, but by the grace and the grace alone, into thy presence we come.
[28:50] Every time I remember those lyrics, you know, indeed, nothing to brag, nothing to boast, only by his grace.
[29:03] Very reassuring. In chapter 4, 30 to 31, for the Lord your God is a merciful God.
[29:15] He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he had confirmed to them by oath, because what he has established with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, right?
[29:32] Even though the later generations fail, because God promised, and he cannot fail. And in Christ, Christ has bore all our sins.
[29:45] In Christ, we have the assurance. Praise the Lord for that. And lastly, a requirement. The cities of refuge.
[29:58] When I first read that, I said, huh? Why is this kind of inserted into it? It's not very timely, or it's not, I don't know, why this bit here?
[30:15] But then, if you understand the background, it's sort of the finishing of a speech. So probably Moses had come to remember, okay, now there's something we need to do.
[30:27] I finished what I've said in this particular speech, but something I remember from the Lord, actually it did happen because it was mentioned in Numbers, said the Lord, Numbers 31, that the Lord had actually mentioned and required them to have cities of refuge because now they were actually on the eastern side of Jordan, they were about to cross the river, to go to the western side, all right?
[30:59] So there were three cities mentioned, Golan, Ramoth, and Bessa. And remember, before we go into the land, we need to have three cities established for people who mistakenly kill someone, not intended murders, but like if I go hunting with you, I have an axe, suddenly I try to axe, branch, but that thing fell off and boom, and cut off the half of his head.
[31:35] And then, oh, and I'm being arrested for being, killing someone. I never tried to kill him because Dennis is my might, you know, we prayed together, I did not know, and his relatives trying to kill me, and I had to run, run, run, run, run to one of these cities.
[31:51] And the city, the elders in the city had the responsibility to protect me because, and to judge me as well, whether I was intentional in the killing.
[32:03] No, and if they found out it was just accidental, they have the responsibility to protect me until the high priest died. That was the requirement and the regulations about the cities of refuge during those times.
[32:22] So it was about six cities to be established. So that was really the justice and the mercy of God to be manifested, to be fulfilled, to be worked out in amongst his people.
[32:41] It's like a justice system, right? And the people of God has to follow that. So that was the requirement. So people and Moses doing that and he was being faithful to God as well.
[32:57] And the people of Israel, to follow that, we need to, as God's people, we need to follow the merciful kindness and the justice of God.
[33:11] Do not just kill because somebody else killed someone. You need to find out whether it was justice to be done or it was mercy to be carried out.
[33:24] All right? So, five R's. Recalling, reminder, rebuke, reassurance, requirement. If you forget the contents, that's fine because I've been nagging all along, right?
[33:38] But remember, Moses did, even through those nagging, he was actually have this real parental loving heart to the new generation.
[33:54] So, when you go back home and mom nag at you, give thanks for them. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for mom nagging at me because she wants the best of me. Let's pray and ask God to, yeah, to bless us.
[34:11] Lord, just thank you for your word and thank you for the kindness and the heart of Moses to remind the young generations.
[34:23] Lord, thank you for people around us that love us, to remind us, to recall things into our lives, to help us to walk in your way.
[34:36] Thank you, Lord. So, we ask the Holy Spirit to keep your word into our hearts so that we do not go left or right, so that we can remember and we follow you, Lord.
[34:49] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.