Final Instructions For Big Events

A. Opening illustration: When it comes to being on the alert and ready at any moment to do the job, it’s hard to beat the Pony Express. This historically famous mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and California depended on constant movement and readiness. Relay stations were established every ten to fifteen miles. A rider would shout aloud as he approached a station, giving the station master very short notice that he needed to be outside waiting with a fresh mount. Even when a rider came to the station where he was to spend the night, another rider was already mounted and waiting, ready to grab the first rider’s bundle of packages and continue the trip.

B. Background to passage: this is the last time God speaks to the nation of Israel for about 400 years. And so, this instruction is very significant. God is preparing them for the next time that He speaks and the next big event on the calendar of God—the birth of Christ. God prepares us for big things in our lives spiritually.

C. Main thought: in the text we will see three things that God says to Israel to prepare for a big event/trial

A. Let the Word be determinative (v. 4)

1. When the bible uses language like “remember,” it means to keep in the forefront of your mind. Here God tells the people, if you want to prepare for 400 years of silence, then the Messiah, keep the law of Moses at the forefront of your minds. It means to allow it to be determinative in your life. It means to reverence and honor God’s Word for exactly what it is.

2. Ps 119:9-16

3. Illustration: I will seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. –George Mueller, Story/testimony from the former homosexual that was trying to justify his previous life in the scripture on day, and his partner came down the stairs and nonchalantly said “it’s not there.”

4. In scripture we are exhorted to love the Word, memorize it, meditate it, learn it, speak it, live it, and honor it in every way. The bible is our guidebook and final authority, but it is much more than that. It is historically, culturally, and scientifically accurate, but much more than that. It is the perfect, self-revelation of the One True God. It is the absolute, unshakable truth forever. It is the means by which we come to know God, are sanctified by God, sustain our daily walk with God, discern the heart of God, and gain guidance from God. In marriage disputes, financial decisions, workplace ethics, personal purity, and everything else, we must allow God’s Word to be authoritative in our lives. If we want to be prepared for God to work great works in our lives, we must allow God’s Word to shape our lives. Or else, when crisis comes, we make all the wrong decisions, thus delaying the deliverance in our lives, and dishonoring God in the process.

5. For example, if you are wrestling with the sin of lust manifesting in various behaviors or thoughts. We examine Rom 8:15, want to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, then we turn and begin to memorize and apply Psalm 119:37 “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways,” thus doing 1 Thess 4:3-5 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”

6. Or if you are struggling with forgiving another person who has treated you unjustly, we read Jesus’s warning in Matt 6:14-15 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses,” then we read Paul’s instructions in Eph 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Then you go and do whatever is necessary to forgive, and fight to take thoughts of unforgiveness captive, 2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,