Well, let's take our copy of the Scriptures, please, this morning, if you would turn with me to the book of Numbers, Numbers 27. Let's go there. Numbers 27, we have been here for a few weeks now. You remember the last time we were in this book, we were looking at these five daughters of Zelophehad. We're going to leave that now behind, and we want to pick up a reading at the verse number 12. So numbers 27 and the verse 12. And the Lord said unto Moses, get thee up into this mount, or probably Averim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered. For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of sin. in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes, that is the water of Meribah, in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in. That the congregation of the Lord be not as a sheep, which have no shepherd. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee, Joshua, the son of none a man, in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hand upon him." Well, I'm not reading there, but if you would, please move over to the book of Deuteronomy. Here is, I suppose, part two, Deuteronomy, the very last chapter, chapter 34. And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah. That is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan. and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor. But no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses. were ended. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses, had laid his hands upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel. Amen. We'll end our reading there at the conclusion of Deuteronomy. Now, there may be occasions when you pick up the local newspaper, and you might read your name. You might see a photo of yourself, perhaps, at some particular event that you attend, or you might have done something noteworthy, and it is reported of in the local paper. But there's one thing you'll never read, and that's your obituary. You'll not read the announcement of your own death. But the passage that we read together in Numbers, bearing in mind that Moses was the pen man, Moses wrote his own obituary. He announced when he would die, how he would die, and where he would die. It was on Mount probably pronounced Averim, or Averim, and or copied the scriptures. And from there, he would have the opportunity of seeing the promised land, but he wouldn't get to enter the promised land. That was a bittersweet experience for this champion. for this exceptional man of God. And the reason for his death in this passage was directly linked to sin. It was his own rebellion against God. You read of that in verse 14 of Numbers 27. For ye rebelled against my commandment. And so Moses did something deliberately and willingly. He deliberately and willingly rebelled against the word of God. We're going to look at that instance in a moment or two. It's way back in chapter 20, but as I said, we'll look at that in a moment or two. The point here is this sin, This failure to rightly honor and glorify God's meant that, well, Moses forfeited the experience of the promised land here on earth. He forfeited blessing because of his sin. So this morning we are coming to Moses' death, his departure from this world. Now, we commenced this study, believe it or not, on the 12th of July, 2020. Doesn't seem like that to me, but it's almost been two years we have been looking at the life of Moses. For those of you who only come here on Sunday morning, I do preach on our subjects as well. It just so happens this is how we have been progressing through our morning services. And in the past two years then, we have observed the 120 years of Moses' life, from his birth and now to his death. That being said, we're not finished with Moses this morning. We still want to look at, briefly, his successor and his song. In a couple of weeks or so, we'll finish this study. That's the plan anyway. But this morning, we are considering the death of this giant of the faith. And I want to ask a question, just as we begin here. Why did the Lord tell Moses about his death? Why did Moses have the eerily uncomfortable task of writing his own obituary? Well, I'm going to leave that with you to ponder over. But I will say this. The main reason is more to do with the Lord than it is to do with Moses. There is no doubt Moses was a significant leader, and there was time needed to transition, and there are many practical benefits to knowing for sure. You can think your way through those. But primarily, the reason was to reveal something about God. God told Moses when he would die, how he would die, why he would die, to reveal something about himself. And so this morning, three observations are as follows. Firstly, the seriousness with which God views sin. Secondly, the sovereignty of God over death. And then thirdly, the scene which God graciously permitted Moses to see. The seriousness, the sovereignty, and the scene. Firstly, I want you to see from this text, it is the outstanding observation from this passage. I want you to see the seriousness which God texts in. The seriousness by which he takes sin. Moses is told here that he would not enter the promised land, verse 14, because of his rebellion. For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin. And the Lord is very precise here. In the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes. That is the water of Meribah in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. And you and I and Moses and every reader is left in no doubt whatsoever about the precise reason. And you can't read verse 14 without noting the precision. It's not just that Moses, you're a bell. It's not just like Moses, you're a general sinner. No, there was a particular occasion, a specific event, deliberate behavior, and the Lord doesn't want Moses, nor Israel, nor you or I to miss that. One sin, just one, just one. And the consequences to that were huge. Let's go back to observe the occasion. Numbers 20. We looked at this some weeks ago. Let's go back to it now, only just to refresh our minds. Numbers 20. The people have traveled to Kadesh. And the problem was there was, well, lack of water. Perhaps we can go back a few verses to the verse number four. Here's the complaint of the people in Numbers 20, and, well, go back to verse three to get the full context. And the people chode with Moses. And Speck said, would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. And what that means is it would have been better for us to die years ago, with those who fell in the wilderness. You see, from chapter 20, this is the last leg of their 40-year wandering. Remember how they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness? They're at the end of it now. And some of these people, again, when there is no war, they completely say, we'd have been better dying with our forefathers wandering in the wilderness than carrying on like this. Verse 4. And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die in there? Well, I'll tell you why. Because of their sin. Moses brought them to wonder for 40 years in that wilderness that they would die. That's exactly the reason they are walking in circles so that they all die because of their sin. They didn't go in to invade the promised land and receive the promised land. And so again, there's consequences to sin. They blame Moses. Did you see that, by the way? We remarked that the last time they were, they chode with Moses and they said, why have ye brought us up here? Well, actually it was their behavior that brought them up. Verse five, and wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt? So going back further now, why did you even bring us out of Egypt? We're all dying in the wilderness anyway, because of their sin. But they don't say that. And wherefore, verse 20, have ye made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in onto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. Well, that's their fault. God offered it to them. He said, go into the promised land, but they said, no, we're not going. That's why they're not enjoying the promises of the fig trees and the vines and so on. Verse six, and Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly onto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared onto them. And straightaway, these men were innocent. God's with them. Verse 7, And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Now note carefully, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together. Now think about that for a minute. Moses could have done this in darkness of night when no one would see him. But the Lord said, no, you make sure and gather the whole assembly so that everybody witnesses this. So this is going to be a declaration of the greatness of God. That's the context. Take the rod and gather thou the assembly together. Now, the more you read that verse, it rings of grace and of mercy. and of longsuffering and of gentleness. The Lord has heard their accusations and their complaining. And the Lord responds with perfect graciousness and sweetness. He's going to do them good and refresh them. That's what Moses was to convey to the people, that they have a gracious, forgiving, and merciful God. But look at verse 9. deliberately. In Rebellion, verse 9, Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, hear now ye rebels. Must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand with his rod. He smoked the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank on their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believe me not. Because you believed me not. And I think the word believe there very clearly means believe in the sense of not obeying. Because you believe me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel. That was the goal, that they would sanctify God, that this would set the Lord apart. These people would see that although we're gurned and we're complained and we're miserable, yet here's a God of abundant grace and mercy. We don't deserve this God. But instead, Moses portrayed a God who was angry at them, calling them rebels. Here's God's spokesman speaking to the people words that God never gave him to say. There was no rebuke. So verse 12, So that's the situation, that's the sin. And you might read that and think, well, is the Lord not being a little bit hard on them? It was one wee slip of the tongue. No, it wasn't. It was outright rebellion. You see, Moses could not cope or handle, sadly, with the fact of how gracious God was. You see, God was greater than Moses, and the Lord is more gracious than Moses. And Moses thought, I'm weary of this. I'm gonna give these people a piece of my mind. That's never Christ-likeness. That's never godliness. The Lord didn't give anybody a piece of his mind. Therefore, Moses and Aaron had no right to do so either. They failed to honor and to represent and to glorify God in the manner that he should have been honored Was it such a big deal then? Well, yes, it was. All sin, any transgression is a serious matter in the eyes of God. No matter how insignificant you might think it is, it's significant in the eyes of the Lord. If you go then to Deuteronomy, it's actually chapter 3 I want you to turn to. Deuteronomy chapter 3 and the verse 23. And it says here, and I besought the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works and according to thy might, I pray thee, let me go over. and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. And so Moses prayed to the Lord, let me go and see the land. Well, I know you've told me I'm not allowed to, but I'm going to pray for it. It's my desire, Lord. Let me go and see the good of the land. Verse 26, but, the wee word but is always there to show an indication of change. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me. And the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, And lift up thine eyes westward and northward, and southward and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes, for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. And so, here's the point. Moses pled with the Lord, Lord, let me see the good of the land, let me see it, let me do more than see it, Lord, let me enter into it and enjoy it. The Lord says, no, no. The Lord would not remove the punishment they had given to Moses for how he had behaved. I want you to think about it for a moment here, because in Deuteronomy, Moses recorded that the Lord said that he would not lift the punishment for thy sake, for the people's sake. What does that mean? Would you go with me for a moment to the Psalm 106? And the Psalmist here records a little detail for us, which is helpful just to read. Psalm 106. It's the verse, what's the verse, 32. There's the record of Israel's journeying. And verse 32, dealing with the situation we're studying this morning, it says in verse 32, they angered him. also at the waters of strife, so…" Now, read this, men and women, read this. "...so that it went ill with Moses for their sake." And there's something we want to see here, men and women, The people sinned with their complaining and their strife, so much so that the effect of Moses, they stirred up Moses, I suppose, beast or man. And it was their sin that made Moses sin, and Moses was the one that bore the ill effects of not the people. The people got their water. They were refreshed. They got what they wanted. And Moses suffered. As a child of God, you and I have to be very careful. There are times that we can be provoked by other people's sin, but somebody else's sin is never, ever, ever a justification for your sin. Because you will pay the consequences of your sin, that's the reality. You need to be cautious. Somebody else could do something stupid. Doesn't mean you can't as well. But that is an opportunity, as we saw here in Moses' day, to show forth the goodness and the grace of God. That's tough! Moses had a very difficult job in hand here. He's the meekest man on all earth, and even he struggled with it. So might you and I. But it's what's required. God would not remove the punishment that he had placed upon Moses for his behavior. And this is to remind us as well, the pleasure of sin, the pleasure of venting your wrath, like as Moses did here, whatever sin you care to mention, the pleasure of sin is no compensation for the results of sin. What sin gives you, What you have, what pleasure you derive from your sin is no compensation for what the cost of that sin will be down the road. And Moses demonstrates that. Yes, he might have got a wee bit of steam out of his ears, a wee bit of a frustration off his chest and really lynched at the people, but he didn't get to see the promised land. He blew it. There is no doubt, men and women, that God is gracious, God is long-suffering, God is good and kind. Nevertheless, there are definite and absolute repercussions for your sin. Simple as that. Your sin, no matter who you are, will have repercussions. So let's go back to our text in Numbers 27. Numbers 27 and verse 13, and when thou hast seen it, that's the land. Thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people as Aaron thy brother was gathered. And that's a reference to death. The exact same thing is said of Abraham in Genesis 25, that he was gathered onto his people and he died. So that phrase, gathered onto thy people, means that he's gathered onto his forefathers who have gone before him as his brother Aaron, because Aaron died in the similar manner. taken up a mountain. In Oran's case, he was defrocked. And then Oran was taken into glory. But likewise, it was for the same cause. It was because of how Oran had behaved himself at that same occasion, along with Moses. Moses is reminded then, in this text, now Moses has a long while to live. They're not at the border of the promised land, yet they're pretty close. They're still on the final straight. But Moses is told here, you're not going to cross into the promised land. And men and women, this is challenging for any of us who are saved. Listen, if Moses, think about it for a moment here, if Moses lost out because of sin, how much have we lost out because of our sin? I don't think there's anyone here today would even suggest that we even scrape up anywhere remotely near Moses' holiness and meekness and gentleness. I'm not here to exalt a man. Moses was only a man. But as far as men go, he is one of the godliest men to have ever walked on earth. The friend of God. Make a smile on earth by God's estimation. and yet even Moses by his sin lost out. What about you and me? How much have we lost out because of our foolishness, because of our ungodliness, because of our flesh and our nature? What would we have been today if we would have walked holy with God, forsaking sin every opportunity, sin knocked at the door? It's too late to look back at the past. We can look to the future and seek to serve God with holiness. But exclusion from Canaan was the result of sin. So men and women, let's never take sin lightly. Remember something here. You can be forgiven of your sin. God can take the records and wipe your records completely clear so all your sin is, well, not noted. But know this, understand this, that sin robs you of blessing. It does. Let me quote you something F.B. Meyer said. Let not the ease of pardon ever tempt thee to think light of sin. And how often does the world, the flesh, and the devil challenge you with that? Listen. God'll forgive you for your sin. God's just and merciful. He'll forgive you. Praise God. That is theologically true. But the world, the flesh, and the devil will never say it to you. But hey, sin will rob you of blessing. Let not the ease of pardon ever tempt you to think light of sin, or to imagine that it leaves no trace on the soul or life. If one act of mistrustful anger laid Moses, the friend and servant of God, in the desert grieve on the frontiers of the land, what may it do for thee? Moses died because of a sin. And so, you know, the dominating fact here is the sovereignty, or sorry, the seriousness with which God sees sin. You can't miss it. Can I show you? Secondly here, the sovereignty of God over death. Again, you can't miss this. There is no doubt how sovereign God is. Because the Lord told Moses where, when, and how he would die. And that's exactly what happened. Because God is sovereign over death. Perhaps we can go to Deuteronomy and the final chapter. And Moses, verse one of chapter 34 of Deuteronomy, and Moses went up from the plains of Moab onto Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead onto Dan and so on. And so here it is, here's the event. This is what Moses wrote about beforehand. You know, I can't just help but pause here for a little minute. Moses rebelled, but you get the sense of how Moses is like a little lamb here. He reminds me of Isaac. He reminds me of Christ, who willingly, like Isaac, Moses, and Christ, willingly went up the mountain. Knowing full well, they would not come down again. Now, of course, Isaac was a miraculous event. The ram was there. Substitute was there. Isaac come down. Abraham brought him. Moses here, no opposition, no fight. Listen, if you knew the place you were going to die, you would avoid it like the plague. You wouldn't want to go there. But Moses willingly, like a little lamb, walks up quietly, accepting God's will here. He knows, he knows. As a striking thing, you know, as he leaves the people behind, there's the people he labored with, some I'm sure he laughed with. Many of them he prayed for and he looks at them. He turns his back and he looks at the mountain. He knows this is it. No more breath. No more traversing in this land. I'm not seeing my wife. I'm not seeing my children. I'm not seeing my grandchildren. It's goodbye. No opposition, no fear, and no fight. And so he goes to Mount Nebo, Pisgah, and he journeys up. Moses was a good man, a useful man, but he was only a man. And it is appointed unto all men once to die. Verse five, so Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab. Not in the promised land. This is not what Moses set out to do. He didn't set out to end up in Moab. He set out to land in the promised land, but when they got to the boards of the promised land, the people kept him out. And so he walked for 40 years in the wilderness. He sinned himself and kept himself out as well. Sad, you know. Moses knew that he would die, and to be truthful, this is the kind of information none of us want. You don't really want to know how, where, and when you'll die. Or you'd live a sad individual for the rest of your life, knowing that that's the full stop of your life. There's some things we don't really want to know, and we're grateful that God doesn't let us know. But one thing we do know, men and women, is we're all going to die. We must be ready. Moses was certainly ready. Just very quickly, indulge me for a minute here to run through a few of these things. Note his age, verse 7. And Moses was 120 years old when he died. That's a good age. But not only his age, but note how he aged, verse 7. His eye, the end of verse seven, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. That meant he was healthy and strong and well. Listen, on the day this man died, he climbed the mountain. He was healthy and well. He had strength. He had health. The thing about it is, men and women, God gave him that health for Moses to serve the Lord. The Lord doesn't grant everybody health. Very few of us, in fact, I can safely say no one has ever had 120 years of impeccable strength like Moses. But Moses did. The rest of the human race, we suffer under sickness and sorrow. Many a believer has served Lord, the first man that comes to my mind, David Braynard, who regularly would have coughed up blood before he went to preach. He would have been bent over in agony and pain before he got on his horse to go and visit the people of the place where he ministered. He suffered greatly in the midst of his ministry, and he was found dead eventually, all of his sickness. Many of us suffer under sickness and lack of health. You see, here's the thing. It's not so much about your physical condition. The Lord is interested in the consecration of your heart. Whether you've got good health or not is irrelevant. It is the consecration of your heart before God. So even if we must serve in sickness and in sorrow, let's do so. Let's do so. Let me try and finish up this point really quickly. I can't not mention this. Moses was, well, why do you go to a funeral? When somebody dies, why do you bother going? Why? The person who's dead doesn't know. They're gone. Why do you go? Why do you do that? We do that to honor the person. We go to their funeral to remark how much that we thought of them. We honor them by your presence. Well, no man was honored like Moses. Look at what we read here. We read in Deuteronomy 34 that God buried him. Verse five, so Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord, and he, that's God, that pronoun there is referring back to the Lord, and he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab. You see, there was nobody else with Moses. There was no other he. There was no other person, only God. And we're told here that no one to this day knows. Look at verse six. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no man. So who buried him? God. No man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day, because no man buried him. God buried him, and the Lord did so to honor him. This man, this man of God. A great privilege. But can I say then, if you look at the next verse here, verse eight, and the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab. They wept for him. I think that's the first time the Israelites wept over Moses. They were usually complaining, accusing, hindering. That's the reality. We're all like that. It's our natural inclination. But now they weep. Because the people here, they understood what God had given them. The Lord had given them a man who led them, prayed for them, ministered to them, was patient with them, forgave them, worked with them. They were blessed. They wept. But here's particularly what I want you to see. Verse 8. and this men and women will be important for us all. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days, just 30 days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. They didn't weep forever because that would be idolatry. Yes, it is right and proper to weep, and Solomon says that. There's a time to weep, and there's a time to laugh. It would be dishonorable to God if these people would profusely weep and mourn over someone who has died and gone, and Moses was a significant loss to the people of God. Nevertheless, they could not continue to hanker after him. You see, or joy. and our satisfaction and our contentment is not found in any relationship with human beings. Our relationship is with the God, man, and that's what brings us joy. Yes, we weep when someone dies, of course you do, but there's something desperately wrong. But you cannot be consumed with weeping and mourning all your life. There must be, again, that understanding and setting our affections upon God, for we will lose everything in this life. We've read, we'll leave that last thought this morning, but we'll not worry about that. But we have read of an early obituary where Moses wrote of his own death. And he went to his death a sinner, but with great grace and great godliness. And we have a massive chunk of the Bible which is dedicated to recording what God did through Moses, such was this man, a channel of blessing. And I suppose in closing, can I say this? Let's all pray that we would live so that we'll be missed when we die. Life is here. We have an opportunity to serve and live for God. Let's serve the Lord well so that when we die, there's a loss. a loss to our families, our friends, our neighbors, everyone will feel the absence of you and I. Let's be a wholesome, let's be a winsome, let's be a spiritual weighty people. May God help us. Our Lord and our God, we pray that indeed you would help us to serve thee. While life is still our gift to enjoy, we are very conscious that rest comes sure, and rest comes soon. And Lord, Thou art the one who tells us when to retire from life. Till then, Lord, no matter what age we are, we think of Moses as a man of 120, and yet still serving the Lord. Help us, Lord, to serve Thee as best we can, and Lord, to go to heaven knowing that we have spent these days serving Thee, and we'll not regret that. We'll regret, Lord, laziness. We'll regret, Lord, mistakes and sin, but we'll never regret giving our life for Thee. With us now, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen.