11-2-25 - They Are Your People

This morning, we're gonna be finishing up Deuteronomy chapter nine. Moses has been recounting Israel's repeated disobedience. Just reminding them of their sins, their father's sins, all of this bad stuff from the past. And this chapter, concludes with Moses' prayer at the at the occasion of the golden calf where the Lord's angry with with the people and wants to destroy them. And so Moses records for us that prayer from some forty years before.

We have two records of this prayer, one here in Deuteronomy nine, the other in Exodus chapter 32. They they are largely similar. There are some, additional details that someone has and the other one doesn't. There are some things that are pretty incredible about Moses' prayer. The first is that he prayed for forty days and nights.

And I mentioned, I think last week or the week before, that this is the second time that Moses has fasted and prayed for forty days and forty nights. That God would not destroy Israel but remain faithful to them. There are a few things in this, prayer that I think we ought to focus on. The first, being a length of Moses prayers I just mentioned. And then secondly, some of the details, the way Moses prays.

How to pray and what to pray. How to orient to God in prayer is a question that Christians should ask. How do we talk talk to God? How do we come before him? How should we think about that?

That's And how should we do it? That's what, we're gonna be focusing on this morning. My hope is that this sermon will do two things. The first, that it will convict you convict you to pray more fervently. And second, that our prayers would be better form informed by the truth and would, glorify God as we bring our requests and, our needs before him.

That's what I hope we come away with this morning. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Deuteronomy chapter nine verses 25 through 29. Moses says, so I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the Lord and I said, oh Lord God, do not destroy your people, even your inheritance, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. Otherwise, the land from which you brought us may say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet, they are your people, even your inheritance, whom you have brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

And you may be seated. So Moses had been up the mountain, Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai, depending on which section you're reading, forty days with the Lord. They had just covenanted to be his people and he had covenanted to be their God. And it's worth remembering, you know, put an earmark here, for later in the sermon. This isn't the first time that he's promised to be their God.

This is this is known as the Abraham the, the Mosaic Covenant and it has to do with the giving of the law. But this idea that they would be his people and that God would and that he would be their God is not a new idea. It's a reaffirmation of the Abrahamic covenant which was given many hundreds of years before. And so Moses is up the mountain with the Lord and the people are down at the base of the mountain with Aaron. Moses is receiving the law and he's gone for forty days.

In previous sermons I've talked about how the people approached Aaron and said, Aaron would you basically, we don't know what happened to Moses. Would you would you lead us and would you would you make make us this idol? And Aaron in his weakness so came to their desires and made for them this golden calf. And then Moses comes down the mountain. Well first the Lord sees what's going on and he tells Moses.

And Moses pleads with God to not destroy them. Then he goes down and he smashes the tablets and grinds up the the golden calf and spreads it in the water and makes them drink it. But I think we missed the part that Moses was up the mountain forty days with no food, no water, and presumably no sleep. Then he comes down the mountain, sees what's going on, smashes the tablets, and again goes forty days and nights praying because of Israel's wickedness. There's a really simple lesson we can learn here about prayer.

This is true prayer. This is what real prayer looks like. What was Moses praying about? He was praying about their sin and their wickedness. He was pleading with God that he wouldn't destroy them.

And he did that for forty days and nights. What have you done for forty days and nights? What hap just leave prayer aside and just tell me what new ambition have you taken up and given yourself to holy for forty days straight? Maybe we've intended to do something like that. Lent, right?

It's coming up. Don't think it's a good practice personally. But there's this idea that we ought to do things. And it's kind of pathetic. If you think we're to think about Lent for a minute, what people actually give up for Lent?

Chocolate, coffee. Maybe you should give those things up. But how successful are people at doing something for forty days straight? How good is how how deep is your resolve? How strong is it?

One late night. One sick kid, one midterm, and we're off the wagon. So Moses prays for forty days and forty nights, twice. It's really incredible. It indicates to us that something serious is going on because of how seriously Moses prays and takes, and the time that he takes to do it.

What Moses is doing here is extraordinary. It's it's miraculous that one could pray for forty days and forty nights and be sustained. The Lord is sustaining him without food and without water. Now I want you to think for just a minute. Last week, we talked about he he listed off three different places where the Israelites grumbled and complained.

Do you remember what they grumbled and complained about? Food and water. Food and water. This is just manna and we're it's awful. And you brought us out in the wilderness and there's no water.

You brought us out here to die of thirst, we and our animals. And we're so sick of this manna, we want meat. They complained about not having food. And Moses prayed twice for forty days with no food and was content. And period of time.

What was Moses doing during those forty days? Was he proving something? No. He was communing with God. He was he was interceding with God on their behalf while they were down making an idol, Moses was communing with God face to face at that time.

And then hereafter, again. Moses was not concerned about food and water. Moses was concerned about their souls, pleading and praying and interceding that God wouldn't destroy them. Because Moses knew that's what they deserved and that's what was coming their way. That God wouldn't have been unjust to to do what he said.

What you have here in Moses is an example of excellent husbandry and fatherhood. That men's group last week. Yes. Yesterday, we were reading them. Chapter was actually about marriage.

So men who weren't there, I'm sorry you missed it. It was very convicting and a helpful chapter and discussion. But one of the points that, Kent Hughes makes in the book was that a husband's job is to sacrifice for his his wife through prayer. And he makes this statement about how husbands pray for their wives, and I don't remember the exact wording, but he says, dear Lord, would you please make sure that good old Martha gets through it okay? Or something like that.

And it was like a dagger to many of our hearts. Because it's like, yeah. That's pretty pathetic when you say it like that. And then you look here at Moses forty days and forty nights praying and interceding without food and without water and without rest on behalf of the people that he loved and was willing to die among. And it's like, there's such a such an expanse between the two.

When you can't sleep at night, what do you do to get back to sleep? What? I take shower. You take shower? I sing the doxology.

You sing the doxology. Over and over. Over and over. In your head or out loud? You don't wanna wake your wife up.

I wanna hear the cats howling. What do you do? I can't hear you. Take some melatonin. It's millennial.

Watch. Yeah. Get your phone out and start doom scrolling until you think you'll till maybe you'll fall back asleep. Do you worry? What were you gonna say, Aaron?

You you said YouTube. You're the center. Okay. The rest of us do it during waking hours. You wake up upset upset about things?

Mary and Mary's like, I do. You go to sleep worried about things? No. I don't. I don't go to sleep because I'm worried about things.

And then when I get to sleep, I wake up and I'm worried about things. I'm not asking a trick question, but you do realize none of us said we pray. Dan sings the doxology and that's close. We pray first. We pray first.

Well, you didn't say that. I'm glad. Why don't we pray in the middle of the night when we're worried? Martin tells me about how he and Angelica pray in the middle of the night. They wake up and they're afflicted about something or worried about something or or angry about something and they pray.

It's it's the background they came from. They pray. They have prayer meetings all night. They have a church function. You you come to the church and you pray all night.

Twenty four hour prayer services of am I remembering correctly? Okay. Twelve hours. Can you believe it? No.

So Martin's lying? So they're foolish. Just be prepared to say that if they're foolish, then Moses is foolish. And none of us wanna say that. Right?

How long is too long to pray? When do you wish in your head that they would say amen? Nudge them. When you despise the nudge that you get because you're starting to snore. We laugh but this is really pathetic when it comes to prayer, isn't it?

It's not like I'm asking you about prayer with the kids at the table when they're hungry and you've got somewhere to go. I'm asking in all of your life about your prayer life, How long do you pray? How long have you ever prayed? Martin says as long as we need. And I suspect with fasting.

It's not in us. It's not in reformed people. And it's to our shame that it's not in us. We read Moses praying this long period of time and I I'll grant you that he was sustained miraculously. I'm not I'm not saying you should go pray for for forty days and forty nights.

But I would ask you, like, when was the last time you prayed for sixty minutes without touching your phone or being distracted? Can you even conceive of having enough things to pray about for sixty minutes? Dan can't, Timothy can. I think many of us are like, what? I don't know.

How long is sixty minutes? I I thought when I was about this this sermon, I thought, you know what I I actually thought about doing? Was not preaching and just praying for forty five minutes. I believe in the preaching of the word, so I'm preaching. But I think many of you would have been frustrated.

Carrying on and going on and talking and like, what? When is this gonna seriously? Yes. Seriously. Moses, forty days and forty nights twice bringing the needs of the people before the throne of grace.

How many of the people in that nation do you think Moses prayed for by name in those forty days? I mean, he prayed that God wouldn't destroy them. But I don't think he just was like, Lord, I just hope would you, you know, would you not destroy these these people? I think he knew their names. I think he knew their fathers and their mothers.

I think he knew their histories, their kids, their griefs, their sorrows, their weaknesses. I think he knew which ones were the grumblers and complainers, and the ones who were swept along and were weak, and the ones who were strong, and the ones who were burying their talents. And for forty days and forty nights, he prayed for them that God wouldn't destroy them. Man, we don't pray like that, but we should. But we should.

Moses is is concerned. I said this a minute ago. This is excellent husbandry and fatherhood. He is the father of Israel at this point. He's not listed among one of the among the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he is very much a father to Israel and a husband to them, a husbandman.

You husbands, do you pray for your wives? That was a question that was asked yesterday at men's group. Do you pray for your wives? Of course, you pray for your wives. I know you pray for your wives, but do you pray for your wives?

How long do you pray for your wife? You pray for your kids? You pray for your elders? Do you pray for your siblings? Do you pray for your parents?

Do you pray for our nation? We complain about it. Do we pray for it? These are uncomfortable questions because at every point of return, we're just like, well, yes. But no.

Not the way you're talking about. No. I think back up. I'm convict convinced that we don't pray because we don't think it matters. I think that if we were in Moses' shoes at this point, we would have been like, what can be done?

Look what they've done. They they deserve what they're getting. And and the the the the glory of Moses' fatherhood and husbandry of the people is that he believes that God will hear him and answer him and he pours himself out. You remember that he prayed. This was in Exodus 32.

He says, Lord, if if you will forgive their sin, but if not, blot my name out of the book. Like, kill me along with them. Don't don't don't separate me from my people. I want to go down with them. They're I'm them and they are me.

He just loved them. And they weren't very lovable, but he loved them. He saw their wickedness and pleaded their case forty days and nights. You see we have room to grow in our fervency in our prayer. But we we will struggle to do it if we don't believe that God answers prayer.

Well, I prayed once half heartedly and quickly and distractedly. Check. Shame on us. Listen to what it says about Job in in Job one five. It says, when the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them.

This is talking about his children, their families. Job would send and consecrate them rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, perhaps my my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Do you know what it says next? Thus Job did continually.

He continually prayed for his children. They're grown, they had their they they were married, they Thus Job did continually. Brought his children before the Lord, offering sacrifices, pleading for mercy, continually for his children. It's good fatherhood. Prayer is something we ought to be persistent in.

Pray without ceasing. Right? Luke eighteen one to eight says now is a parable. Now, he, Jesus, was telling them a parable showing that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart. Saying, in a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.

So a wicked judge. An unrighteous judge. Right? He did not fear God and he did not respect man. There was a widow in that city and she kept coming to him saying, give me legal protection from my opponent.

For a while, he was unwilling. But afterward, he said to himself, And the Lord said And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now, will not God bring about justice for his elect who cried to him day and night? And will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly.

However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Now they're not that unrighteous judge is not meant to teach us lessons about God. But that widow is to teach us lessons about us. And Jesus concluding statement, but when the son of man comes will he find faith on the earth? What he's asking is, will the faith of my people be demonstrated through their prayer lives day and night petitioning God for his justice and their needs to be met?

So that question is posed to us. When Jesus returns and when we stand before him, will he find faith in us to petition him the way the widow petitioned that judge? And even if an if if an unrighteous judge who doesn't fear God and doesn't fear man will will execute justice because of her persistence, how much more so our God? But persistence is required and necessary. And an expression and a demonstration of our faith in the power of God.

I said earlier, I think we don't pray because we don't think it works. And what I mean to say is, I don't think we pray because we don't think God will act. And so Jesus told us the parable of the widow and the unrighteous judge to say, that's faithless and shouldn't mark our my people. And so this sort of fervent petition to God should mark our lives. Again, I ask you, what's the longest prayer you've ever offered?

How how detailed are your confessions of sin? I'm sorry I did that. Will you please forgive me? It's pretty anemic. It's it's a start.

It's it's a start. It's a it's it's barely a start. Have you ever had someone confess their sins to you to the point that you wanted them to stop because it was uncomfortable? They were on the right path and you weren't. You just just like just don't be all those details.

But how can we even doubt that Moses prayed in just that manner for forty days and forty nights? And that his prayer on behalf of those people was the truest example of Christian love and faith in the Lord. There could be. And so again, I say to you what I've said to you in weeks gone by, be like Moses. Be like Moses.

That's just commentary and preaching on forty days and nights. Now we come to the substance of his prayer. I prayed to the Lord and I said, oh Lord God do not destroy your people even your inheritance. Moses shows us how to pray. He's arguing with God.

And he's arguing with God and appealing to God's character by calling Israel your people, even your inheritance. Those whom you've brought up out of the land. Why? Well, because God is wants to disown them. He he proposed to Moses, I'll wipe these out and start over with you.

That's one of the things that was said in Exodus 32, that's not here in this passage, but is in the same in the same back and forth. Moses appeals to God's character and he says, these are your people even your inheritance. And what he's hearkening to, and he gets to more fully in saying, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is he's hearkening back to those promises that God has made. These are your people. You chose them.

You didn't have to choose them. They weren't better than the rest. In fact, the testimony of their of their obedience is is not impressive. These are your people, even your inheritance. And Lord, you committed yourself to be these people's gods when you chose Abraham.

In Genesis seventeen seven and eight, the Lord said, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give you and your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. These are the Lord's words to Abraham, and these are the words that Moses lays before the Lord and says, you have to be faithful to this. Do you pray like that? Do you demand that God be faithful to his word to you?

It seems like an ungodly prayer. I'm not supposed to demand anything of God. God is not forgetful. Right? He's not slow about his promises as some count slowness.

Right? Peter says. But sometimes it seems slow the way we count slowness. Right? But let me ask you this.

You love your children. You do anything for them. And they come and say, dad, you said you'd do this for me and you have it. And I need you to. What is your response?

You angry that they're reminding you of your word? Sometimes we are angry that they're reminding us of our word and we sin against them. Right? Sometimes we do that, but it's but it's wicked and we know it. Other times, they come to us and they say, dad, you said you would you would do the thing.

You said you'd you'd help me with whatever. What's your response to your son? You're right, son. Let's go do it. That's fatherhood.

So if God is your father, why can't you come to him and say, you've promised these things to me and I'd like you to give them to me. Not so that I can spend them on my pleasures like the prodigal son did. Right? He came to his father and said, give me what's mine. I'm not proposing you we approach God in greed and in selfishness.

But I am proposing that we approach God and take him at his word and pray and expecting that he will fulfill his word without wavering, without being double minded. But there's this niggling thought in the back of our heads. But what if he doesn't? And I say, when the son of man returns, will he find faith on the earth? Or will he find a bunch of pragmatists who don't pray because God can do it whether I pray or not?

When Jeremiah was in the hospital, we prayed for him. I trust many of you prayed for Jeremiah. Is it because Jeremiah was on the brink of death? Did the doctor say, you better pray because we don't know what to do? They generally say, like, we don't know what causes this and we we've got some ideas that might help stop the seizures, but it kind of just has to run its course.

It's a true statement, but it's also doesn't acknowledge God's God's sovereignty and work at all in it. And so we pray that God would would stabilize Jeremiah and heal him. He has. Jeremiah got to come home and is improving and doing better. And maybe he'll have more seizures later.

That we don't know the future. Right? But I wasn't worried when I prayed for Jeremiah that like, oh no Jeremiah. If I don't pray Jeremiah is gonna not gonna make it. That wasn't the fear.

The reality was though that someone that we know and love had a need. And that we ought to ask God on their behalf along with them to act and to work quickly in that situation. And then when he did, we ought to praise God for it. And not just go, well, we're just glad the medicine. Yeah.

We we just kind of figured the medicine would all work. We're glad that the medicine worked, but we ought to give glory to God for having made the medicine work. You see, there's a way of just being just being just being sinfully pragmatic And it will kill your prayer life. And you won't claim any of the things that God has promised to you. You'll sit there like a like a like a bastard.

Like like a child without a father who just takes whatever falls in their lap, but never expects anyone to give to them good things. And that's not how Christians ought to live with regard to our to their father in heaven. He's promised and Moses petitions with force. You promised to be Abraham's God and his descendants and his descendants and his descendants. Here we are, his descendants.

Be faithful to what you said. I can't tell you why there are times when you'll pray, and you'll pray in accordance with with scripture. And God won't give that thing to you. You wonder if Isaac prayed for Esau after he gave the blessing to Jacob. Like, Jacob came and he stole it.

And Isaac's like, I only have one blessing. And it was providential. And Jacob was the one that was loved and Esau was the one that was hated. And we we know this from scripture, but as a father, you wonder if he prayed for him. If he did, God didn't answer the prayer of to the end to to the to salvation for for Esau.

But there are times when we pray for good things, biblical things. And and in God's secret hidden will, he doesn't provide that that good thing that we're seeking after. But I mean to tell you that is no reason for you not to ask. That is an occasion where you're gonna be tempted to to curse God. And you have to realize that and you have to fight against it.

And it's really vulnerable to do that. Because you're like, so what you're telling me is I have to take the most personal, vulnerable, important things to me and I have to hold them with an open hand before God. And I'm like, you have you have begun to understand what prayer is. Why pray for something if you don't care how it turns out? Why pray for something if you don't think that you, that, that you can have any impact on it?

Why live like God doesn't exist? That's what a lack of a prayer life amounts to. We're in this world on our own and we really just believe in fate and karma and and reaping and sowing and and good luck. But none of those things are God. God's faithfulness.

Even when we can't trace out exactly what that faithfulness looks like, God's faithfulness is reliable. Paul said in second Timothy two thirteen, if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. He cannot fail to do what he says. And so when from our perspective it seems as though he's not doing what he says, we have to understand that our perspective is very limited. And that's why it seems the way it does to us.

And we have to fight the temptation to curse God and to vulnerable requests to God in prayer, and most personal and vulnerable requests to God in prayer repeatedly vulnerable before your father in heaven. Man, I think we found why we don't pray so much. That's very uncomfortable. We struggle with that even with one another. Even with our spouses, just like, I don't know that I want you to know all of my all of me.

However wicked Israel was and however much they'd sinned, they just made a golden calf. Their sins could not thwart God's plan and his promise. Though, not many of them entered that rest. And we'll come to that a little later. Moses goes on and he says, remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He's calling to a into to view the covenant promises that God has made to them that I just read to you from Genesis 17. And then he says, do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or at their sin. Is Moses doing a look at the birdie? Just don't worry about that over there. It's not that big a deal.

Just, you know, give him a mulligan. No. That's not what he's doing. So is he asking God to be unjust? What is he asking then when he says, do not look at the stubbornness of this people or their wickedness or their sins?

Good question, isn't it? It's not because their sins aren't terrible. It's not because, nothing can be done about them. It's not simply a request for God to be pragmatic. Moses is asking in these words, do not look at the stubbornness of this people or their wickedness or their their sins.

He's asking two things. First, look at your promises to them, and because of your promises to them, forgive them for their sins. He's asking for mercy. Do not retain their sins and judge them. Though that is what they deserve, don't do that.

Remove them from your sight. Forgive them. Wipe them away. Moses was very painfully specific in the preceding verses to Israel about their sins, and about their stubbornness, and about being stiff necked, and about their rebellion. He didn't minimize in any way.

And so when he goes to God, he seeks his mercy. It's for those same things he had rebuked them for. He doesn't make any excuse for them. He knows their sins. He made them drink their sin after he'd sprinkled the water with the the the dust of the idol.

This is what confession should look like. Specific, detailed by faith. Many of you who are who struggle with melancholy, shall we say. I think the path out of that would be for you to learn more about your sin. And I know that seems that that seems counterintuitive because if you say, well I already am depressed and you want me to look at my sin more?

And I'm like, yes, because if you're a Christian it will lead you to look at your savior more. If you're melancholic, the problem is you don't look at God. You just only look at yourself. And you think about your past, you're like a cow and you've got sins in your like fifth stomach and you just regurgitate it, chew on it some more, feel bad about it, swallow it back down into another stomach so you can do it again later. It's awful.

It's that disgusting. I know. That sounds gross because what you're doing is that gross. It's that repulsive and it's what we do. How can we sing a song?

It's well with my soul. My sin, oh, the glorious sight. What in the world was he on about? Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. That's what you don't see.

That's why you're so melancholy. You don't see your sins. You're kind of like a bad person, but not so bad anything needs to really be done about it. Better to say I'm a bad person and so bad that I need mercy. And then claim the mercy of God as Moses does here for all of those sins in all of their fine detail.

The beautiful thing about biblical Christianity is it's the only system of doctrine and of faith that trusts God to be merciful. It's the only system that's not works based. That doesn't say, see to it yourselves. It's the only thing that says salvation. Your salvation is not dependent upon your actions, but upon the faithfulness and mercy of your God.

Who else says that? I think I'm remembering it correctly. I don't remember the guy's name who wrote it as well with my soul. Is it John Newton? Is he the ones who was it him whose wife and children were killed in the sea?

So some for those of you who don't know, he'd come over, I believe, to America. Is that correct? And his family were on a ship later, his wife and his children, and the ship sank. They all drowned and they were they were killed. And so when he says when sorrows like see billows roll, he's talking about the storm that that took his wife and his children from him.

And he's the one who said, my sin, all the bliss of his glorious sight. It's a song of faith and a song of hope. It's a song that grabs a hold with both hands of the mercy of God. Having just lost all in this world that was dear to him. That's what Moses is doing.

That's what we ought to do. No other system holds that kind of hope out to you. Every other religion is fashioned after man's sinful heart. One that's ready to judge and to destroy anyone who doesn't comply or tries to pay for their own sins. But not so with our God.

Moses continues and he pleads, otherwise, meaning, if you destroy them, the land from which you brought us may say, speaking of Egypt, those who are looking on, those who are licking their wounds and mourning their dead. Otherwise, the land from which you brought us may say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land, which he had promised them. And because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Isn't that perceptive about man's thoughts about God? That the wicked would say, because he's not able.

You remember earlier I said, I think the reason we pray is because we think God's not able. The reason why we don't pray. He says, well, Egyptians are gonna look on, the world's gonna look on, and they're going to say, well, because the Lord wasn't able. Who thought that the Lord was able to give them that land? Two.

Two. Joshua and Caleb, everyone else thought exactly that. He's not able to give us this land. We're given to fear and to trembling, to fainting, to grumbling and complaining. He's not able.

Lord, be faithful to these people so that that accusation will will evaporate, will disappear. And also, because he hated them. If you destroy them, oh Lord, this is how Moses reasons. If you destroy them, the world's gonna conclude that you hated them. And that's why you destroyed them.

Does God hate his people? Do they deserve to be hated? It's an interesting thing, isn't it? They deserve it, but God doesn't do it. He's really merciful.

And so Moses pleads at first by by the covenant, and then by the, by, by the, the, the, the onlooking world. Lord, reveal yourself and your character and your nature in your kindness to them, to everyone who's watching. Remember your own reputation and and show your glory by preserving this people, this stubborn and rebellious and and stiff necked idolatrous people. You've chosen them. Be faithful to them.

You've chosen them. Sanctify them. You've chosen them. Forgive them. And give them what you've promised them.

First Thessalonians five twenty four says, faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass. Moses hadn't heard those words from Paul, but he understood the truth that they contain. Our prayers ought to be bold and to rely upon the promises of God. We ought to wrestle the way Jacob did for a blessing from God. Not because we deserve it but because he's promised it.

And because he's promised it, we rightly claim it as our own. Moses really did believe what he was saying to God. And he really did believe that God would answer. And so he concludes his prayer by saying, yet they are your people, even your inheritance. This is what he said at the beginning and now he says again, yet they are your people, even your inheritance, whom you've brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.

He's effectively saying, you've begun the work of fulfilling your promise. Don't don't quit. If you didn't want them, you could have left them in Egypt. If you didn't want them, you could have buried them in the Red Sea. If you didn't want them, you could have not fed them.

If you didn't want them, you could have starved them by you know, and and not them water. If you didn't want them, you could have sent enemies against them. If you didn't want them, you could have sent lions and bears. You could have opened up the earth and swallowed them all up if you wanted to. But all of those things would be a failure to keep your word because you put your name on them.

And you promised to give them this land. And so Lord forgive them, it's the only path forward. And that's an interesting thing. You're gonna come into situations in your life where you want so desperately with all of your heart restitution or justice or what's owed. And I'm not here to tell you that it's not just or right.

But the path forward for the Christian will be forgiveness, not justice. Because that's what we see here with God. The path forward is forgiveness. And so I ask you guys who love politics, do you believe in forgiveness? You say, yes.

I believe in forgiveness. But but but justice. I'm not opposed to justice. I want justice, but I want forgiveness. I need forgiveness more than I need justice personally.

And that's not only true of me. And so I think that in your pursuit of justice, your pursuit of forgiveness ought to lead the way. You ought to be ready to forgive because God is ready to In fact, justice and forgiveness are not mutually exclusive. We find in the answer to Moses prayer that both mercy and forgiveness as well as justice walked hand in hand. In Exodus 32 verses 33 to 35, this is the Lord's response to Moses prayer that we've just studied as it's it's also in Exodus 32 I mentioned.

He says, the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me I will blot him out of my book. There's your justice. But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. And there's mercy.

Cause were there any of them that didn't deserve to be blotted out? No. And yet there were some by God's mercy and according to his faithfulness who weren't blotted out, but who were led by the angel into the land. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin. Then the Lord smote the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.

And so God heard Moses' prayers, and God answered Moses' prayers in the affirmative and was just as he did it. And so if all we ever want is justice, we're out of balance. Okay? You're like one you're like a tire that's that's just been put onto a car and they didn't balance it. And when you get it, the faster you go the more the steering wheel shakes, you know.

It's not balanced. And as Christians we ought to to seek after and love and give priority to love and mercy. God is just. You don't have to worry that God is just. He may not be just in your time frame, but there's coming a day where God will right every wrong perfectly and better than you ever could.

And so you can rely and count on his justice. What you ought to seek then is his mercy. We ought to claim the promises that he's made to wicked people for us. That he would be faithful, that he would be steadfast, that he would be long suffering, that he would forgive, That he would lead and provide the things that he's promised. I can't tell you that you that my exhortation this morning will take the tension away.

It won't. It doesn't take the tension of of praying and vulnerability and and seeking the Lord. It doesn't it doesn't resolve all those tensions. I didn't say you shouldn't want justice. I didn't say it was a bad thing.

I just said there's a danger over there. There's a snare that you might step into and get caught by. So be careful. And the best way to avoid it is to seek after the mercy and forgiveness the way Moses did fervently. And see if you've got time left to complain after you've been praying on your knees day and night.

If Jesus prayed for those who who hung him on the cross as he was there suffering naked, bleeding and dying, father forgive them for they know not what they do, we really ought to recognize that scripture's testimony is that we should seek mercy and forgiveness for sinners ahead of justice. And I realize some of you are like, no. You no. You don't understand. I'm not saying you can't seek you can't want justice.

I'm trying to to caution your heart and your soul against wanting justice for everyone else, but not for yourself. I'm cautioning you against being harder on other people than you would have God be on you. I'm cautioning you to remember that if you stand it's by the mercy of God. It's not by the justice of God. And so if you stand by the mercy of God, then the only hope of anyone else standing is by the mercy of God.

And you ought to seek that mercy for them on their behalf. And if God deals with them justly and consumes them as he did many in Israel, there's no cause for for frustration or or angst or as though God didn't accomplish his will. I just mean to say that the heart of a Christian ought to love mercy and forgiveness. And that that that is one of the that seeking it is one of the primary expressions of your love for God and for your neighbor, for sinners. And so we ought to pray to that end.

Let's pray.