Utterly Destroyed | Sunday, May 17, 2020 (Full Service)

Good morning, Cross Connection Church family, and welcome to Church at Home. It's hard to believe that this is now our tenth week coming to you at home. As much as the novelty may have worn off, I truly am grateful that we can continue to worship with you, our church family, every single week, even if it's not gathered together at our facility.

That said, we do miss seeing you guys here. It was a real blessing and a treat this last Sunday afternoon to see many of you as you drove through the parking lot to receive the gift that we had for all of the moms on Mother's Day. It really seemed like a lot of the moms were blessed, and it also seemed like you guys were really missing fellowship with one another. We are praying and looking forward to the day, hopefully not too far away, that we can see one another here as a family.

Until then, you can be sure that we'll be meeting online in this way. As I shared during the service last week, we are planning, as soon as we have the go-ahead to meet in groups of 10 or 20 or more, to start meeting on Sunday mornings and having watch parties from house to house with our connect groups. We will keep you updated about those changes when they happen.

Now, before we begin our time of worship this morning, I would like to ask you to consider sending a text message to a friend or a group of friends, inviting them to join us for Church at Home this morning. Just send out a text inviting people to join us at liveccchurch.com. In just a moment, we're going to join Pastor Anthony and our guest youth worship team for worship, but make sure you grab your Bible and get ready to go into our study in Deuteronomy chapter 2.

I am really convinced that the Lord has a message for us this morning and a very challenging passage of Scripture. So let's invite the Lord to meet us now in prayer as Pastor Anthony leads us. Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it says in Your Word in Psalms 91 that those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. God, that is just so comforting to know. Lord, if we run to You, You will give us rest, and that's what we want to do this morning. We want to run to You in our worship. We want to run to You with our praise and with the reading of Your Word, my God. So would You fall upon us and give us that rest as we minister to You?

You, Lord God, we know that You always minister to us, so we bless You. We praise You. Receive our worship now in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

In a great way, You are jealous. In a visa, lies forever. Joining clustered by Severson, I am captivated by this. It's washing me. Your face, I see You.

Jesus Christ, you are my one. I praise you for your love. Welcome and thanks for joining Cross Connection Church for Church at Home. I'm Pastor Garrett, and at Cross Connection, we are all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

Last week, we had a really great time handing out gifts to your moms. We hope you were blessed by those gifts, and we are continuing to pray for you. Speaking of prayer, I want to encourage every single one of you to spend time in prayer with the Lord this week. It's our first step in life in connection with God. Prayer is so important. You can submit your prayer requests simply on our website, lifeinconnection.com, or at prayer@lifeinconnection.com. Right there, there's a prayer portal where you can type in your prayer request and submit it. Know that your prayers are being prayed for. We have a devoted and dedicated prayer team that loves you and prays for you every single week. We are seeing God answer so many prayers here at Cross Connection.

For all other points of connection and ways to connect with our pastors and our church, just check out our website, lifeinconnection.com. It has all the points of connection there. We would love to connect with you this week and stay connected with you through this pandemic, so check out the website for all those points of connection.

In just a moment, Pastor Anthony is going to be leading us in a song of worship. This is going to be a time set aside and dedicated for those who came prepared today to worship the Lord with their giving. There are a couple of different ways I want to encourage you to be able to do that.

First, you can simply text 84321 on your cell phone and give through your cell phone that way really easily. Second, you can just go on our website, give.lifeinconnection.com, and there's a really easy way to give on our website. Third, you can also mail your tithe to our church address here at 1675 Sevenoaks Road in Escondido, California.

We'd love to worship the Lord with you guys now, so let's go ahead and worship Him together. God bless you guys and have a great week.

I see your face in every sunrise; the colors of morning are inside your eyes. I see you again for now.

That eternity sure waits; it is just a memory. Tears are no more.

I see your face in every sunrise. The colors of the morning are inside your eyes. Family, Father, we just love you so much, Lord. Your beauty is amazing. You are such an awesome God, worthy of our worship, and we adore you. I thank you for this time, our time in Your Word, now in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

Well, good morning once again. I want to speak to you this morning on a topic that has, in our day, been anathematized by a culture that detests the concept of moral culpability. We don't really like to talk about the topic that this text addresses. Words like accountability, liability, responsibility, and guilt stir our emotions, especially if those words and concepts are conjoined to the idea of morality.

Of course, we are not generally hostile to these concepts if they are being used in reference to someone we don't like, someone on the other team. If that is the context of the discussion, then we are more than ready to pick up stones and be ready to judge another person. If someone we don't like is being held accountable for being unethical or immoral, there is something in us that...

We kind of revel in it. If we're honest, we like it when someone we don't like gets judged. However, we become uncomfortable when the discussion of moral accountability comes anywhere near addressing us. Even worse, we can become almost indignant if we feel, in any way, that those in the seat of justice are not being fair or righteous in their judgments.

This is why the text we come to today is one of the most problematic passages for 21st-century Westerners. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 2, verses 26 through 37, where we read:

"I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 'Let me pass through your land, and I will keep strictly to the road. I will turn neither to the right nor to the left. You shall sell me food for money that I may eat and give me water for money that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar are did for me until I crossed the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.'

But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day. The Lord said to me, 'See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.'

Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz, and the Lord our God delivered him over to us. So we defeated him, his sons, and all his people. We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead. There was not one city too strong for us; the Lord our God delivered all to us.

Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon, anywhere along the river Jabbok or the cities of the mountains, or wherever the Lord our God had forbidden us."

Some of the things in this passage are extremely challenging and problematic for us.

I think that it is worth pausing for a moment to pray for understanding so that we might wisely interpret and apply this text. Father, I do pray this morning that You would give us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding into this passage of Scripture. We believe here at Cross-Connection Church that all Scripture is given by inspiration from You, and it is useful for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God would be thoroughly equipped and ready for every good work. Even these difficult and challenging passages in the Old Testament are given by inspiration from You, and You have a purpose in them. You want to speak to us; by Your Spirit, You want to teach us. So we pray for wisdom from Your Spirit. We pray, Holy Spirit, that You would help us to comprehend what it is that this text is teaching us and how we ought to apply it to our lives today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In October 2006 and May of 2007, two books hit stores dealing with the topic of God. Each of these books ultimately became bestsellers and further solidified their authors as spokesmen for what has since come to be known as the New Atheism. The first book, written by English biologist Richard Dawkins, was entitled The God Delusion. The second, written by the late journalist Christopher Hitchens, was called God Is Not Great. Each of these atheistic heavyweights argued against God, Judaism, and Christianity, at least in part, on the basis of passages like this one in Deuteronomy.

For atheists like Dawkins, Hitchens, and Sam Harris, a passage like this one presents the believer in the God of the Bible with a moral conundrum. Since the time of these two bestsellers, an oft-cited trump card against the Bible has been a moral argument against the genocide passages of the Old Testament.

Now, there are a number of things that are fascinating to me about this development. First, I think it's more than a little ironic and funny that atheists, who ultimately believe that there is no such thing as objective moral standards, have asserted that they have the moral high ground against religion because of passages like these in religious texts. Second, in the nearly...

Fifteen years since these two books came out, this argument has become one of the primary arguments levied against Christians from antagonistic unbelievers. It has come up in countless debates, articles, documentaries, college classrooms, and elsewhere. However, often when it is brought up, it is done in a drop-the-mic sort of way, which assumes that believers have no worthwhile answers to the assertion that this proves the Bible is bad.

This challenge from skeptics reveals what amounts to a very narrow perspective on the world and world history. In other words, it is relatively easy to belittle the perspective of other people in other places and at other times when you are doing so from the highly modern, peaceful, and safe position of the 21st-century Western world that we live in. What I mean by this is that myself and most every other person who has lived in North America and Western Europe in the last 60 years cannot really conceptualize heinous evil and how such evil ought to be confronted, which is really what is happening in passages like this.

Finally, the position that speaks antagonistically about passages such as these assumes the non-existence of a moral law and of a moral lawgiver. Therefore, it refuses to accept that God has any jurisdiction over our lives because, to them, He does not exist. To this mindset, what is presented in texts like this is nothing more than ancient imperialistic warmongering genocide.

But listen, if you're a Christian, then your worldview and understanding of a text like this is different. For the Christian, this passage presents a moral accountability to a moral lawgiver. Here’s the challenging reality: as I've shared many times before, passages like this in the Old Testament reveal what it looks like to live before a holy, righteous, and just God without mercy and grace. The frightening fact is that for the Christian, the God of the Old Covenant is still on the throne. Though under the New Covenant He extends grace and mercy in Christ, the Scriptures reveal that there will be a future day.

Of judgment, it will be as bad, and likely much worse, than the judgment presented in Deuteronomy 2 and 3, in Genesis 19, and in the book of Joshua. But we'll get more to that later. First, we need to go back and get some context.

In this passage, Deuteronomy 2:26 reads, "And I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace." In this section of Deuteronomy, Moses is reminding Israel of their recent history just before they are about to enter into the land that was promised to Israel centuries before, when their father Abraham began following God by faith.

Prior to the point described here in Deuteronomy, Israel had wandered in the wilderness for 38 years. As their wilderness wanderings were coming to an end and as they were about to cross over from east of the Jordan River to west into the Promised Land, we are told that they came to the land of the Amorites. In Numbers 21, as they entered the land of the Amorites, they did battle against Sihon, king of Heshbon, and later with Og, another Amorite king of Bashan. This is chronicling the beginning of Israel's conquest of the Promised Land.

Before we delve into the challenging words regarding the utter destruction of the men, women, and little ones of Heshbon and Bashan, it is essential that we do not miss the opening words of this section. Moses says in verse 26, "And I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace." You can check me on this; as far as I can tell from all of my studies in Scripture, and I have spent more than two decades intensely studying Scripture, before God renders judgment, He always offers grace and extends words of peace.

Our critics always decry the harshness of the judgment of God but never consider His offers of grace, mercy, and peace. Listen, I want this to be utterly clear: as a Christian, I believe that one day God will judge the earth. This truth is presented throughout Scripture. But right now, He has sent His messengers throughout the world with words of peace and an offering of grace and mercy in and through Jesus. That's what the gospel is; it is good news of grace and peace in Jesus. For 20 centuries, Christians have gone throughout the world to testify of the gospel of the grace of God.

God, if you do not receive His offer of mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, then you stand in opposition to the holy and mighty God. His justice will one day come. It is not the church, the people of God, who bring about God's justice; one day He will bring justice and judgment.

Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Then, in Hebrews 9:27, we read, "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment."

Hebrews 10:26-31 goes further: "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a certain and fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We are living during an extended time of the offering of the grace, mercy, and peace of God. The Amorites also lived for centuries during a time of extended grace, and even right at the end of that, God, through Moses, offered them words of peace. How did they respond?

The account to which Moses is referring is recorded in Numbers 21:21-23. There we read, "Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, 'Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into the fields or vineyards; we will not drink water from the wells. We will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your territory.'" But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together.

And went out against Israel in the wilderness. He came to Heshbon and fought against Israel. God gave us the capacity to choose how we will respond to His offer of peace, and He will hold us responsible for how we respond as well. Like it or not, this is what the Bible teaches.

Now, someone will object to what they perceive to be inequity on God's part. In Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 30, we read, "But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us pass through, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is this day." There is, I believe, a lot to be said about this passage, but I'll simply say at this point that, like Pharaoh in Exodus before him, Sihon's heart was already hard and obstinate to God. God only allowed him to remain in his stubborn position.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, do not let Pharaoh and Sihon be your role models. Do not harden your heart. There is grace, there is mercy, and there is peace on the table.

Continuing on, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 2, beginning at verse 31: "And the Lord said to me, 'See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it, that you may inherit his land.'" Then Sihon and all his people came out against us to fight at Jahaz, and the Lord our God delivered him over to us. So we defeated him and his sons and all his people. We took all his cities at that time, and we utterly destroyed the men, women, and little ones of every city; we left none remaining. We took only the livestock as plunder for ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we took from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, and from the city that is in the ravine, as far as Gilead. There was not one city too strong for us; the Lord our God delivered all to us.

Only you did not go near the land of the people of Ammon, anywhere along the River Jabbok, or to the cities of the mountains, or wherever the Lord God had forbidden us. As I shared previously, this is what it looks like to live without mercy before a pure and holy God. When you begin reading the Bible from Genesis through to this passage in Deuteronomy, you realize that...

The Amorites, the people of Sion and Bashan, were given 400 years to repent. They were given the opportunity to let Israel pass through; they were given an opportunity for peace. However, when they obstinately stood against God, His people, and His offer of peace, then God's judgment would be final and complete.

It is worth pointing out that there are some scholars who believe that the language of utter destruction in passages like this, including utter destruction upon women and children, is hyperbolic speech. However, the general consensus on passages like this has traditionally been that it is literal and that this actually happened. Ultimately, 3,400 years removed from Deuteronomy chapter 2, we don't know for sure, but the main point remains: God's judgment will be final and complete. This is why we need God's grace, mercy, and peace in Jesus Christ. There will be no excuse when we stand before God.

Of course, this is the point at which modern Westerners shake their heads and ask, "How can you possibly believe this?" You may say, as many in our day have, "I could never believe or serve a God who would judge like this; it's just wrong." Yet, it's fascinating to conclude this: Have you noticed that you've placed yourself in the judgment seat and have condemned God as unjust? I want to suggest to you that our moral judgments against God are more unrighteous than He will be in His judgments of us.

A little more than 400 years before Israel's defeat of the Amorites, God brought divine judgment upon another group of people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is recorded in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis. Prior to pouring out judgment in the form of fire from heaven, God revealed His plan of judgment to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. When God did, Abraham did exactly what you and I should do when we realize that God will one day bring judgment upon other people: he prayed. He prayed and interceded on behalf of the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you're a follower of God today, I have to ask you: Are you praying for those people that you know do not yet know God? If not, I really hope that you'll start doing that.

Interceded on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18, Abraham asked a critically important question. It is ultimately the same question that we wrestle with when we realize that God will judge. It's recorded in Genesis chapter 18, verses 24 and 25. There we read, "Suppose that there were fifty righteous in the city. Would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from you that you should do this thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

That really is the question. If there is a moral law and there is a moral lawgiver who will one day judge the earth based upon His moral law, then He must be right and righteous in His judgments. So how did God respond to Abraham's question? Genesis 18, verse 26 says, "So the Lord said, 'If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all of the place for their sakes.'"

Our moral judgments against God are more unrighteous than He will be in His judgments of us. If there is one thing that I think we can be certain of when thinking about the judgments and the justice of God, it is that He will be righteous in His judgments. The Scriptures declare, "With righteousness He shall judge the earth" (Isaiah 11:4). The justice of God will be with righteous judgment.

But there's a huge problem. Romans chapter 2 in the New Testament, beginning at verse 1, says, "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things

God will render to each one according to his deeds. The problem is this: you and I are no better than the Amorites, and we are no better than those in Sodom and Gomorrah. We deserve every bit of the judgment they received.

Jesus gave a teaching in the Gospel of Luke, which is probably a good place for us to end today. In Luke chapter 13, beginning at verse 1 through 5, we read, "There were present at that season some who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

He continued, "Or those eighteen on whom the Tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all the other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you will likewise perish."

Paul the Apostle, testifying of the Gospel in Athens in Acts chapter 17, said, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent." That is the word that the Lord has for us today. In light of the judgments of the Amorites, God overlooked their ignorance and obstinance for more than 400 years. But then, when they refused to repent at His offering of peace, they were judged.

You can get angry with God at what you perceive to be wrong, or you can receive His offering of peace by accepting the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. I hope that's what you'll do, because the alternative is not so good.

In Romans 5, verses 1 and 2, we read, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Paul goes on in verse 6, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God..."

Demonstrates His own love towards us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. The peace of God will be found only in Jesus Christ.

Today, as we close, I want to speak to you if you've not yet received the peace of God and the grace of God. In the same way that Moses sent messengers to the Amorite kings before judgment came, God has sent messengers bringing the gospel. Myself and many other pastors, maybe even friends and family members of yours, are here to bring you the gospel and share with you the good news of what Jesus did on the cross for us, that we might have peace with God.

The messengers came to the Amorite king and shared words of peace. God has been sending, for the last 2,000 years, missionaries and gospel preachers into all the world to bring words of peace to you, to share the good news of what Jesus did—that He died on the cross in our place for our sins. That is the clear and simple gospel.

In First Corinthians chapter 15, the Apostle Paul says in the New Testament, "This is the gospel that I preach to you, by which you are saved if you believe in the Lord Jesus." That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. The book of Romans chapter 4 tells us that He was lifted up on the cross for our justification. He died in our place so that He could take away our sin and give to us peace and righteousness.

I want you to know that truth, and I want you to put your faith in Jesus Christ today to receive His peace. There is coming a day of judgment, and no one will be able to stand before a holy and righteous God unless they are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. In the New Testament book of Romans chapter 10, Paul tells us that if we believe on the Lord Jesus and confess Him as our Lord, we will be saved.

If you'd like to do that today, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer of faith, acknowledging that you are a sinner, confessing your sin to the Lord, confessing your belief in Him, and asking Him to come into your life and to save you from your sins. If you'd like to do that, I'd like to lead you in a very...

A simple prayer to do that right now would be to pray with me. Just pray these words with me:

"Dear Jesus, I recognize that I am a sinner. I ask you to come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow you by faith. Be the Lord of my life. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Listen, if you prayed that prayer today, we would very much like to know about it. Please go to the website commit.gotlifeconnection.com and fill out the form. We will be in touch with you. We would love to send you a Bible if you need one and to help you as you start on your walk with the Lord.

For the rest of you, thank you so much for tuning in with us today. In just a moment, Anthony is going to close us with another song of worship, and then we'll have a benediction. But before we go to worship, would you pray with me one more time as we rejoice in the good things that God is doing?

Every single week, we are seeing people come to faith in Jesus through the broadcast that is going out from Cross-Connection Church, and we are so grateful for what God is doing. So would you pray with me?

Father, we do thank you right now. We thank you for the work that is happening through this church and many other churches like ours, as people are being reached with the gospel. But God, we do pray. We ask that you would move in a mighty way in our nation and in the world, and that you would move against this virus. Lord, that you would either provide a vaccine or therapeutic drug alternatives, whatever it may be, or Lord, that you would just miraculously do a work.

In the midst of this trial that we're going through, this difficult time, I pray, God, that you would encourage the hearts of your people to be rejoicing in the good things that you are doing. As I keep going back to every single week, I just can't get this out of my head, Lord: the things that have happened to us. Philippians chapter 1 says the things that have happened to us have turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become clear that you are working in the midst of this. You are causing your church to be all the more bold in sharing their faith.

We pray, God, that you would continue that work beyond what is happening with church at home and COVID-19. Lord, would you bring about a revival? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

To make sense of no place, Jesus is the hope. Where is your hope? You peruse His days, and the crush distraught me too. It's troubling, I know.

Oh, give all the hatches to Jesus. There's no one beside Him. Because of You, Jesus, my son is here. Because of You, Jesus, we have hope.

There's no one beside you, forever the hope in my Father. We thank you so much today for the youth worship team that has led us in worship. Lord, we thank you that there is peace found in You, Jesus. You came as the Prince of Peace to make it possible for us to have a relationship with the one true God.

You have given us this offer of grace and mercy, and we rejoice in that. We pray, God, that You would use us to be conduits of that grace, mercy, and peace to other people this week. So, would You pour out Your Spirit upon Your church, Lord, and just give them Your grace and peace?

May the grace, mercy, and peace of God be upon you in fullness this week. In Jesus' name, Amen.