← ArchivePathsYou need an IntercessorDateJune 14, 2020SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextDeuteronomy 9Passages in this sermonDeuteronomy 92:44Hebrews 7:2523:29TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00*music*0:30Okay, good morning again. My name is Josh. For those who are watching at home that are joining us, we are so glad you are watching in. They are, so best behavior here if you're in person. And we're excited to see what God is going to do in your life as we open the word of the Lord. Why can I say that? I believe this is what the word teaches us, that anytime two or more gathered, there is the spirit of the Lord also.0:57I believe that anytime we open up the word of God, that we do not leave unchanged. So here's my prayer. Here's my bold prayer for you guys. If you don't like it, that's okay. I'll forgive you. If you are in Christ, my prayer today, and this is our church's prayer, is that you will leave here encouraged and enriched through the power of the Holy Spirit.1:25That's a good thing, right? Yeah, some of you are not awake. That's a good thing. If you are not a Christ follower, our prayer is that you would see that Jesus is the way, the truth, and life. And that you would leave here with an encounter with Jesus and you would leave here a follower of Him. Because every week we have people here that are not Christ followers. And every week we believe that God is changing their life, that the gospel is a hammer breaking down the walls of resistance.1:53So join me again today in a sermon series that we've called Many Paths But One Way. And that's very appropriate for our time because we live in a time where there are a thousand opinions about any given subject.2:15We live in a time really that people who don't even have opinions are making up opinions so that they can share their opinions. There are lots of paths. But there's only one way that leads to eternal life. And that is through Jesus Christ. Today's sermon is simply entitled "You Need an Intercessor." And we're going to look at the people of God in Deuteronomy chapter 9.2:44And if you would turn with me there, Deuteronomy 9 verse 7, I'm going to read almost an entire chapter. I'm going to read in about 23 verses 40 years of history. So hold on. It's going to be fun today. Why would God remind us about the past? Have you ever thought about that?3:09Verse 7 clearly says, Moses, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says, "Remember." Why would God want you to remember? It's because we are prone to forget. We are quick to forget and slow to remember God's faithfulness. Many of you know the quote by a man named George Santaya that says, "Those who forget the past are destined or condemned to repeat it."3:35And that's not only true in a practical sense in our culture, but it's true in a spiritual way. If you forget who you are, if you forget whose you are, then you are destined to repeat the same patterns of rebellion that you have been dealing with since your inception. And I'm going to prove that to you this morning. Very easy to prove that to you, but we're going to do so. So Deuteronomy chapter 9 beginning in verse 7.4:04Deuteronomy is in the Old Testament. It's the last of the five books of Moses. So that means it's the fifth book in the Old Testament. Moses says this, verse 7, "Remember and do not forget." The Word of God is written to people like me who are hard-headed. God says, "Remember," and some of us were thinking, "Well, Lord, what do you really mean?"4:33"Do not forget how you provoke the Lord your God in the wilderness." Why are the people in the wilderness, by the way? Because they provoke God. And now they're in the wilderness doing what? Wandering around, provoking God again. You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place.4:57You provoked the Lord at Horeb, and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. When I went up the mountain," this is Moses speaking, "to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant the Lord made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights." That is very significant. Keep that in mind.5:26"I did not eat food or drink water. On the day of the assembly the Lord gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by God's finger. The exact words were on them which the Lord spoke to you from the fire on the mountain. The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant at the end of forty days and forty nights. The Lord said to me, "Get up. Go down immediately from here."5:54Why? "For your people, Moses, whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them. They have made a cast image for themselves. The Lord also said to me, 'I have seen this people and indeed they are stiff-necked. Leave me alone and I will destroy them. I will blot out their name under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.'"6:22So I went back down the mountain. While it was blazing with fire and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands, I saw how you had sinned against the Lord your God. You made a calf image for yourselves. You had quickly turned from the way of the Lord, the way which he had commanded for you. So I took hold of the two tablets. I threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.6:49I fell down like the first time in the presence of the Lord for forty days and forty nights. I did not eat food or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight and angering him. I was afraid of the fierce anger the Lord had directed against you because he was about to destroy you. But again, the Lord listened to me on that occasion.7:17The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but I prayed for Aaron that time also. I took the sinful calf you had made and I burned it. I crushed it. I thoroughly ground it into powder as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain. And now you're thinking, okay, they get it.7:45No. No, they don't. Verse 22. You continued to provoke the Lord at Terabah and Masah and Kebroth Hatah Avah. When the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, he said, "Go up, possess the land I have given you. You rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not believe him. You did not obey him. You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you. You fell down to the presence of the Lord 40 days and 40 nights because the Lord had threatened to destroy you."8:17And I prayed to the Lord. Lord God, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness, and you brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand. God, remember your servants, Abraham.8:45Remember Isaac. Remember Jacob. Disregard the people's stubbornness and their wickedness and their sin. Otherwise, those in the land you brought us will say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised him, because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness. But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power in your outstretched arm."9:10I wish everyone had a friend like Moses. Let's pray, Father. As we have read your word, we pray that you would do something in our hearts that we would not have even thought about, even if you told us.9:38Lord, do something unexpected in our hearts, in our midst right now. Draw men and women to yourself. Encourage those that are yours for your glory, for our good. We thank you for hearing our prayers, Father. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, if you didn't catch it, Israel's history is rebellious and one of provocation.10:00Over and over again, the prophet Moses uses particular vocabulary. He says, "You provoked God. You provoked him in Egypt. You provoked him in the wilderness. You rebelled against your God," in verse 7. When did they start rebelling?10:27"From the day you left." Moses even gets so frustrated at the end. He says, "From the day I knew you, you rebelled." And then he says, "You are stiff-necked. What am I going to do with you?" That's exactly what Moses is conveying. The word provocation has a deeper spiritual sense. It means to cause to become angry. Moses is saying, "Because you are acting this way, you are causing God to become angry."10:54I don't know about you, but that's not a good thing. To cause God to become angry. To provoke his wrath. And provocation is at the core of this chapter. As we read over and over and over again. And before you point your finger though. And say, "How could anyone be so hard of hearing?11:18How could anyone be so rebellious?" We are much more enlightened than this, right? Well, before you point fingers, we should look in the mirror. Because there's a major problem with sin in Israel's midst. And it is not only an instant.11:47See, God is opening up Israel's history here to reveal your heart. God is saying, "Look at them. Learn from them. Look at your life. You look similar." You have a sin problem. I have a sin problem. And it's exactly what God is trying to get the people to realize. And I know what we often think. Some of us think that sin is like a fever.12:14If I just wait it out, it'll break. And in the morning, it will be okay. Your sin is much deeper than an isolated instance. You see, our sin is a disease. And it's a disease that ends in death. It's a fatal disease. So if you're here right now and you think, "Well, my sin's not a big issue. It'll break in the morning and I will get over it. Tomorrow is a new day."12:43God says your sin leads you to destruction and your sin leads you to death. There is no sin in your life that is not serious. You got a problem. That's exactly what the Lord is showing us today. And not only is it a problem, but what do we see over in Deuteronomy 9? Not only is this an instant, it's what? It's reoccurring. They rebelled at Horeb. They rebelled at Kadesh Barnea. They rebelled in the wilderness.13:11They rebelled out of the wilderness. They rebelled from the moment they left Egypt and they even rebelled as soon as Moses knew them. Listen, your sin is not just a problem. Your sin is a pattern. It's exactly what we see in this world. Look at verse 8. He says, "You provoked the Lord at Horeb." Moses is not just pulling random geography out of the Bible. If you know anything about Horeb, you know that Horeb is near the Mount.13:37Now Sinai is where Moses was communing with God. So Horeb is not the first instant of rebellion, but it's probably the most outrageous and egregious instant of rebellion. And it's in this moment, at this moment, that Moses is at the top of the mountain receiving the what? Now let me put this in perspective, the Ten Commandments.14:06These are the commands along with manna and the staff of Aaron. This is one of the three objects that is going in the Ark of the Covenant. Moses is receiving this. He's receiving the crystal ball of the championship. And while he is on the mountain that is inflamed with the glory of God, down the mountain, what's going on? They're sinning.14:32They're sinning. They're, again, following into their patterns of sin. Now, what are they worshiping? The Bible told us. They're worshiping a baby cow, a calf. Not a big cow. Not a medium-sized cow. Not even a miniature cow. You know, I think we have people in our church that actually have mini-cows. Not even mini-cows. They're worshiping a baby cow.15:00And they're worshiping a cow that they had made from their cufflinks and their earrings and their nose rings. They gave it to Aaron and they said, "This Moses guy, he must be dead on the mountain. We want something we can see." There are patterns of sin in their life. And they are piling sin upon sin upon sin and upon sin. And Moses is screaming at them. He's saying, "Don't you understand that this sin is a pattern in your life?"15:28You don't just get over this stuff. It was so bad that God looks at Moses and God tells Moses, "You need to go down the mountain." Because who have sins? God says, "Moses, you need to get your people. They are no longer mine anymore." They have broken covenant relationship with the one true God.15:54And it is so egregious that when Moses gets to the midst of the people and he sees all of the foolishness, all of the sin, all of the iniquity. Moses, I don't know if he went, "Ah!" and they broke. Or I don't know if he just smashed them. But he threw the commands and they shattered.16:20That's not a good thing in case you were wondering. Let me put it in perspective for some of you. This is our kid moment. So little eyes, little ears, focus in. Raise your hand if there's something in your house that your parents tell you, "Do not touch this." Okay, I see a hand. There's a couple. We've given up. I've taught our kids, "I can't own anything nice until you grow up."16:46And even then, I don't have hope of owning anything nice. I just... But my grandmother has a room in her house. Some of you have a grandmother like mine. We call it the room. You go in the room twice a year. You go in the room for Thanksgiving meal. Not the kids. The adults go in the room.17:14And you can go in the room for Christmas Eve. The room has a piano, but you don't play the piano in the room. Does that make any sense? And I remember when my nephew, who would be a great grandchild... Something happens to adults when they have grandchildren. They lose their minds. And then something even worse happens when they have great-grandchildren. So I remember one time my dad was holding my nephew. He was an infant.17:43And he was looking out the front window in the room. Now, my kids would tell you that in the room, that's where mamaw hides the peppermints. And my nephew reached up and he grabbed the shears. And I think they're probably the shears that Moses made. Because they were holy. And he ripped them. And I'll never forget the look on my dad's face. He thought his life was over.18:11And I remember the conversation. He went to my grandmother to tell her what happened. And I was walking like this. Thinking, "Mamaw, do you know what your son just did?" And she looked at my nephew, her great-grandson, and she said this. She said, "Oh, honey, that's okay. They needed to be changed anyway." I said, "What happened to this woman?" It was the most gracious response. You don't break anything in the room.18:43This is a the room moment. I can imagine that when the Decalogue was shattered, the collective congregation went, "Ugh!" Because it represented that Israel had broken relationship with their one true God. And not only that, it represented that God had broken his relationship, which they had already terminated. Sin was not only a problem, it is a pattern in your life.19:14And Moses illustrates that time and time again. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Okay, I'm not as bad as Israel." This is what Jeremiah would say about your heart and my heart. Jeremiah says this. He says, "Your heart is more deceitful than anything else." And incurable. Who can understand it? So before you point fingers at others and say, "I can't believe you would do that."19:43What does God's Word say about your heart? It says that your heart is deceitful among all things. It's incurable. Who can understand it? And when you recognize that your sin is not something outside you, but it is a pattern inside you, then you can cry out, "Abba, Father." And now God says, "Okay, let me fix it. Let me do work in your life." It is not until you say, "God, it's a me issue. It's a heart issue.20:13It's a pattern issue. It's not an isolated problem. It's a me. Father, fix me." And that's when God says, "Okay, I thought you would never ask. Let me do work in your life." So what is the answer? What is Moses doing time and time again for the people of God here? Every time they sin, what is Moses doing? When God says, "Moses, okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to kill these people. I'm going to make a better team with you as the captain."20:41If I'm Moses, I'm saying, "I'm on board with that plan. A better nation, stronger, done. Can you say dynasty?" But Moses doesn't do that. What does he do? He says, "God, remember that they are your people too." He says, "God, remember that they are your inheritance. God, blot out my name.21:10Don't blot out their name." Moses was an intercessor for the people, and we need an intercessor. So here's my third point, and it's simply this. Not only do you have a problem of sin, it is a pattern. So God has provided the panacea, word for the day. Panacea means a universal cure for a disease or difficulty. Some of us are praying for that, for the coronavirus. Lord, give us a universal cure. So is there a universal cure for your pattern of sin?21:38Yes. His name is Jesus Christ. There is an intercessor that is greater than our sins. And time and time again, in verse 8, in verse 18, and in verse 25, Moses is not content to let the people fend for themselves, but he stands in the gap for the people and their sin. That's exactly what an intercessor does. The word simply means to stand in the gap.22:05When he heard that God was going to blot out, it says, God was going to blot out the names of his people. He said, "Lord, don't do that." Do you know there's another reference to people's names being blotted out of a book in Revelation? It says this in verse 15 of chapter 20. "Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."22:31And because of your sin and because of my sin, your name has been blotted out of the Lamb's book of life. And exactly like Moses, Jesus was not content to let us fend for ourselves. Because as great as the pattern of sin in your life, greater is the pattern of righteousness in Jesus the Messiah. And one who stands in the gap has to have an equal, if not greater, pattern of holiness than I have sinfulness.23:02And here is the great joy of Jesus Christ. He does. He lived a sinless life. He died on the cross for my sin. That way I might have abundant life. This is the hope that we have in Christ. You see, you need an intercessor. Let me tell you about this Jesus guy. Hebrews 7:25 says this.23:29You know, if you are in Christ, here's what Jesus is doing right now for you. It says very clear. It says, "Therefore, Jesus is able to save completely." Don't miss that, by the way. Jesus is able to save completely. He doesn't save half of you. He doesn't save part of you. He saves you completely. Those who come to God through Him.23:57Because the only way you can go to God is through Jesus Christ. Since He always lives to intercede for them. Wow. Jesus is interceding for us. If He died that your name might not be blot out, but now that your name would be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And He's living, making intercession. So when I sin, Jesus is saying, "God, remember your promise."24:24When I'm provoking God to wrath, Jesus is saying, "God, I took the penalty. I know He deserves it. I know He deserves it. God, I know we can make a better team." But remember, God, remember the cross. Father, remember my sacrifice. Father, remember my atoning blood that was shed for Josh, that was shed for you. Jesus is living to make intercession. So I want to look at that question we read earlier.24:53Because often we forget what Jesus has done for us. The Gospel Question of the Week. And I'm going to read it and I'm going to read the question and we're going to read the answer together. Why was it necessary for Christ, your intercessor, to die? Answer. Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and the penalty of sin and bring us back to God.25:14Praise God that Jesus, the intercessor, saves us from hell. That's a good thing, right? You guys are looking at me like this. Let me say it again. Praise God that Jesus, our intercessor, saves us from hell.25:41Yes. Thank you, Lord. But wait. There's more. We forget that Jesus does not only save us from the penalty of our sins, but he saves us from the what? The power of our sin. Alistair Begg is a pastor that's had a lot of just a pastoral voice in my wife and I. We love listening to his sermons because he loves Christ, he loves his church. Alistair Begg often says this.26:11He said, although sin might remain in your life, it does not rain. Because of Jesus, I can never say again. Well, God, I sinned, but I couldn't help it. No, if Christ is dwelling in you, I now have to confess, God, I sinned because I didn't let you help me. Sin has no place in our life. Ever. And I don't just say it doesn't have a place because it has no power in your life.26:39All right. That's. Think about that. Sometimes we walk around thinking, well, I just can't help it. You know, we thought Moses was dead. And so. We thought a baby cow would be better. You know, God, we know the one true God led us out of Egypt, killed the firstborn, 10 plagues, pardon the Red Sea, 10 commandment thing.27:06We get that. But Lord, the baby cow just jumped out of the fire and I had to bow down. Scary baby cow. And don't we live like that sometimes? We live in a way as if to say, God, I couldn't help it. God, you knew I was sick. God, you know, I was tired.27:35God, you know that there was tremendous unforeseen circumstances. God, if you had my neighbor, you would sin too. If I hear the word mama one more time, Lord, I'm gonna strangle this child. And we want to put our troubles and our sin on every other person. If you are in Christ, you have no right to ever say that again.28:03And I don't say that to make you feel bad. I say, listen, we have no right to say that sin has power over us. But you know why? Because it doesn't. The power of Jesus Christ and his everlasting sacrifice on our behalf. There is no cow in your life that has power over you. Christ has slaughtered that.28:31He has broken the chains of our sin. Church, wake up. He has broken the penalty and the power of our sin. This is the righteous intermediary. This is the righteous intercessor in your life. If you are in Christ, your spirit is not broken. The power of sin is. And so if you're living in sin right now and you are in Christ, just know that God has already given you the spirit to break that sin.28:56And he's calling you right now to confess it. Because when you confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive you. And purify you of your unrighteous. And if you say, well, I'm not going to confess my sin. I would say then you don't know the Jesus I know. Because if you are unwilling to confess your sin, if you are choosing your sin over the Savior, I would say you don't know the Savior.29:22So come to Jesus today. And when you do, you will find that he breaks the penalty of the sin, hell. And he breaks the power of your sin. He gives you heaven and he gives you the spirit. And if that is true, what more could we want? This is our righteous intercessor.29:49Why would Jesus do that? Why would Moses stand in the gap? Moses risked his own life to stand in the gap for his people. Because he was not content to let them die in the wilderness. But he wanted to bring them to the promised land. Do you know why Jesus died on the cross? Because he was not content to let you live in your wilderness. He wants to bring you to the promised land.30:19Isn't that what he says? I've come to give you life. And life in abundance. This is the power of Jesus Christ. And as great a friend and intercessor Moses was, we have a greater intercessor in Jesus Christ. We have a perfect priest who is right now living to make intercession for you. So as we enter into a time of prayer and response, I want you to listen to these words of a new believer in Jesus.30:48And then I'm going to lead us to a time of prayer. Several hundred years ago, a man named Charles Wesley wrote this in response to following Jesus. He says, "His love my heart has captive made, his captive would I be, for he was bound and scourged and die, my captive soul to free."31:07You hear the Exodus language there? Maybe you've never heard that poem before. I bet you've heard the next stanza. Let me read the second, the next stanza. It says this, "He breaks the power of canceled sin.31:33He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed from me." He breaks the power of canceled sin. If you are in Christ and you are living in sin, it has already been broken, confess it, find redemption. If you are living in sin, come to Jesus today. He will break your sin.32:02He will lead you into everlasting life. You say that's too good to be true. It is true. It's called grace. You don't earn it. It is freely given. And by faith, you can receive it today. Church, let's pray.← Previous in PathsWho do you think you are? I am!Next in Paths →How True Worship Changes Your LifeMore sermons on Deuteronomy →
