The text: Deuteronomy Chapter One

The promise of entering in
Heb 4:1-3
1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest," although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. (NKJ)

The Exodus of the people
The Ten Plague
God takes them the long way

· God promised them wealth but they wavered
· God promised them health but they did not heed
· God promised them manna but they murmured
· God promised them refuge but they ran
· God promised them rest but they roamed

Jesus and the Pharisees
They missed the time of their visitation
Luke 19:44
"and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." (NKJ)

Faithless generation [How Long Shall I]
Matt 17:17
Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." (NKJ)

A dull generation
Matt 13:15
For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.' (NKJ)

The Greek word DULL
3975 pachuno (pakh-oo'-no);
from a derivative of 4078 (meaning thick); to thicken, i.e. (by implication) to fatten (figuratively, stupefy or render callous): KJV-- wax gross.

A lesson from history
1. Don't be ignorant

The positive aspects
1. They were under the cloud
2. They passed through the sea
3. They were baptized into Moses
4. They all eat the same food and drank the same drink

The negative aspects
They set their hearts on evil
1. They were idolaters
2. They committed sexual immorality
3. They tested the Lord
4. They grumbled against god and Moses

In Jesus' day they wanted to throw him off the cliff
Luke 4:16-30
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"
23 He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"
24 Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 "But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;
26 "but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27 "And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.
30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

1. People want
Revival without Relationship

2. People want to experience
Freedom without Fire

3. They want to
Triumph without Trials

Wholehearted
1. King Hezekiah reminds the Lord of his complete devotion
II Ki 20:3
"Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. (NIV)

2. David instructs Solomon to be wholehearted to the Lord
1 Chr 28:9
"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. (NIV)

3. David prays for Solomon
1 Chr 29:19
And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided." (NIV)

4. God rewards Caleb's wholeheartedness
Num 14:24
But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. (NIV)

5. The penalty for half hearted devotion
Num 32:11
`Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-- (NIV)

6. The Lord will circumcise your heart
Deut 30:6
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. (NIV)

7. The heart that turns away from God will worship other gods
Deut 30:17
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; (KJV)

8. We are to take heed to the command of the Lord
Josh 22:5
But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you,

• to love the LORD your God, and
• to walk in all his ways, and
• to keep his commandments, and
• to cleave unto him, and
• to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. (KJV)
  

9. God wants us to incline our hearts to Him
Josh 24:23
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel. (KJV)

10. God wants faithful wholehearted service in the fear of God
2 Chr 19:8-9
8 In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites, priests and heads of Israelite families to administer the law of the LORD and to settle disputes. And they lived in Jerusalem.
9 He gave them these orders: "You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD. (NIV)