Sin-Dt 1:1-46

Deuteronomy, Old Testament, Sermons

Deuteronomy 1:1-46; Key Verse: Dt 1:41

“We have sinned against the Lord.”

Theme: Your sin will find you out (Num 32:23). Sin brings God’s severity. Sin never pays. Sin always sets you back.

This first sermon of Deuteronomy addresses:

  1. What sin does: Sin brings dire consequences (Rom 3:23a).
  2. Why sin happens: Sin is always crouching at the door (Gen 4:7).
  3. How sin is overcome: Sin is supernaturally solved from without by God (Dt 30:6; Rom 2:28-29; Jer 31:33-34; Eze 36:26-27; 11:19).

(The introduction, outline and theme of the book of Deuternomy is below under Additional Notes.)

The severity of the consequences of sin. Deuteronomy 1 begins with a tragic recollection and recapitulation of their recent history. It is a painful negative story of sin and failure 40 years earlier by the people of God. With their own eyes, they had personally seen, experienced and encountered God’s miraculous and supernatural deliverance from bondage and slavery in Egypt. Yet they sinned and rebelled against God (Dt 1:26, 41). Because of their sin, they were set back for 40 years (Dt 1:2-3)–wandering in the desert wilderness and going in circles rather than forward–until they all died in the desert and did not enter the promised land (Num 14:27-35; Dt 2:14-15). Their sin found them out and they suffered sin’s severe consequences.

What is the purpose of such stories of sin in the Bible?

  • Paul said, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did” (1 Cor 10:6), and “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” (1 Cor 10:11).
  • The main theme of Hebrews is the absolute supremacy of Christ, in whom God has spoken his climactic word (Heb 1:1-3). Yet the important pastoral exhortatory goal of Hebrews is to warn Christians not to turn from or “drift away” (Heb 2:1) from the gospel they received, for their faith was unlike the “the faith of those who obeyed” (Heb 4:2), those who listened and heard in faith (ESV, HCSB).
  • Heb 3:7-11 says, So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

Moses recounted their history of sin and rebellion–not to threaten or scare them–but to encourage them to move forward in faith expressed by their obedience; they were to conquer the promised land as God promised and commanded (Dt 1:8, 21, 30-31).

I. WHAT SIN DOES (Dt 1:26-46)

  • Rebel (Dt 1:26).
  • Grumble (Dt 1:27a).
  • Accuse (Dt 1:27b).
  • Blame (Dt 1:28).
  • Presumption (Dt 1:41).
  • Arrogance (Dt 1:43).
  • Defeat (Dt 1:42, 44).
  • Weeping (Dt 1:45).
  • Invites God’s severe judgment (Num 14:27-35; Dt 1:34-35).
  • Your sin will find you out (Num 32:23). Your sin will set you back as it did the Israelites.

II. WHY SIN HAPPENS (Dt 1:32-35)

  • Not trusting in God (Dt 1:32)
  • Not following God wholeheartedly (cf. Caleb in Dt 1:36).
  • Sin is ever present, under the radar, crouching at the door (Gen 4:7).
  • We do not sin and become sinners. Rather, because we are sinners (Ps 51:5; Rom 7:20) we sin.

III. HOW SIN IS OVERCOME (Dt 1:8, 21, 30-31)

  • Hear/listen/believe/obey/take to heart the word of God (Dt 1:8, 21).
  • Wholeheartedness toward God (Dt 1:36).
  • No man can ever solve and resolve their sins. We need God’s limitless mercy, forgiveness and grace (Ex 34:6-7).

Yet who is able to overcome their sin? Even our righteous acts are like a soiled tampon (Isa 64:6). With any degree of self-awareness we know that our own hearts deceive us (Jer 17:9), and that the inclination, intent and scheme of our hearts is still evil (Gen 6:5). So even when we earnestly want to please God, evil is waging war within us until we are utterly wretched (Rom 7:21-24). Paul rightly cries out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:24-25a)

Only Jesus. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Cor 5:21). Martin Luther refers to this verse as the great exchange: God exchanges our sin with Christ’s perfect righteousness, and condemns Christ on the cross, for Jesus took our sins upon himself. No one has any possibility of righteousness apart from Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: As Christians, we need to get to Jesus, who takes away our sin (Jn 1:29) for only God can save and redeem us (Dt 15:15; 24:18). How? In no particular order:

  1. Read the Bible (Ps 1:2; 119:16, 24, 97). Reflect, review, reasses, reconsider, reevaluate, repent.
  2. Take sin seriously (Lk 17:1-4). Perhaps for most Christians it is the “small sins” that keep us from being the people of God that we should be. It is the sin of habituality and of going through the motions of being a Christian. It is the sin of compromise when I use the internet. It is the sin of “faking it” as a Christian.
  3. Confess your sins to each other (Jas 5:16).
  4. Let us not give up meeting together (Heb 10:25).
  5. Exhort one another (Heb 3:13).
  6. Live together in community (Ps 133:1) and unity (1 Cor 1:10) [which is not conformity and uniformity].
  7. Contend for your faith (Jude 3). Love, obey, choose God (Dt 6:5; 10:12-13; 30:19-20).
  8. Live with the conscious awareness of the presence of Christ (Mt 1:23; 28:20), who loves us with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3) by giving himself up for us (Rom 8:32).

Do you realize how much you are loved by God? The threat of God’s punishment and judgment for sin may not stir affection in our hearts toward God. Any change or apparent repentance is usually not sustainable. But the fact of God’s love for us in spite of our sins should touch and transform our hearts to love and thank God for his grace. Through the study of Deuteronomy in 2014, may God help us to never forget but remember the grace of God.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

INTRODUCTION: Deuteronomy consists of three speeches (sermons) Moses gave to his people before transitioning leadership to Joshua, before their entrance to the promised land, and right before he died. Three key commands of Deuternomy are:

  • Love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Dt 6:5).
  • Obey. “And now, Israel,what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” (Dt 10:12-13)
  • Choose. “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Dt 30:19-20).

MAIN THEME: The theology of remembrance: Remembering God’s grace begets obedience. God blessed his people by redeeming them from slavery (grace). Obedience to God’s commands is the result of love and grace already experienced. God’s people do not obey to be blessed. We obey because we are already blessed. We obey when we remember the grace of God.

OUTLINE of Deuteronomy (based on Moses’ Three Addresses to Israel):

  1. Remembering the Grace of God (Retrospect) – What God Has Done (1:1-4:43).
  2. Explaining the Grace of God – What God Commands for the Future (4:44-28:68).
  3. Trusting the Grace of God – Recapitulation of the Covenant Demand and the Call to Choose God and Obey (29:1-30:20).
  4. The Death of Moses – The Transition from Moses to Joshua (31:1-34:12).

TITLE: The Theology of Remembrance: When we remember God’s grace, obedience follows.

REFERENCES:

  1. Fernando, Ajith. Deuteronomy: Loving Obedience to a Loving God. Wheaton: Crossway. 2012.
  2. Block, Daniel I. Deuteronomy: The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2012.
  3. Woods, Edward J. Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press. 2011.
  4. Frame, John M. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief. Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company. 2013. Chap. 36: Sin. 845-873.
  5. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994. Chap. 24: Sin. 490-514.
  6. The Words Moses Spoke (Dt 1:1-46). The sermon I preached in Manila in Mar 2013.
  7. Sarah Barry’s Deuteronomy Daily Bread.
  8. The Gospel in Deuteronomy (ESV Gospel Transformation Bible).
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