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Guest (Male): If I'd been there, I'm sure I'd want to have raised my hand and said, "Excuse me, Moses. Excuse me. Why are you saying this to us? I was only 12 when these things that you're talking about happened, and most of the rest of us weren't even born. It was our parents who did these things, not us."

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, I can just imagine people gathered around Moses, listening to him and saying, "Moses, hang on a second. Why are you railing on us? This was stuff our parents did."

Colin Smith: Yeah, the place where we're at in the Bible story is the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy. God's people have been wandering in the desert for 40 years. A whole generation has died in the desert. Moses is now addressing the younger generation who will go on to enter the Promised Land. He says to them, "Now, you have been here too long."

It was the older generation that had all died off that were responsible for not having the faith to go into the Promised Land earlier. But the point here is what's in our parents is in us as well. We all have to fight the battle against the impulse to unbelief that lurks within every human life. How we can overcome that is what we're going to look at in the Scriptures together today.

Steve Hiller: We are in Deuteronomy chapter 1, near the end of the chapter. Join us there as we begin a message called "Change the Future by Owning the Past." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I hope you have your Bible open at Deuteronomy. Last week, we really answered the question, "What does this book have to do with us today?" We saw that the book of Deuteronomy is really about how people with a faith become people with a mission. This is the word that God spoke through Moses to his people on the very verge of the land of Canaan. God is telling them what it takes to break free from the habits of the past and to enter into something that is new. That is why we have called this series "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start."

If you have your Bible open at the first chapter, you may recall from verse 6 that the book begins with a flashback. Picture this: Moses is with the people camped on the verge of the Jordan River. They're about to go into the land of Canaan. From verse 6 of chapter 1, Moses goes back and tells the story of what has happened in the last 40 years. "The Lord our God said to us at Horeb..." That was 40 years before. "You have stayed long enough at this mountain."

Then he tells the story, as we saw last time, of how the people rebelled against God, refused to trust in him, declined to go into the land of Canaan, and therefore 40 years were wasted wandering in the desert. After 40 years, we saw last week that all the men who were of fighting age—what's fighting age? I'm going to call that 18 years and older—all the men 18 years and older at the time of the Exodus, the time of Mount Sinai, all of them died in the desert during the next 40 years.

I want you to get the picture because it's very important for us to understand the message from God's word today. Let's assume that fighting age is 18 and work this out. If everybody over 18 is dead after 40 years, then nobody over the age of 58 is alive. Think about the implications of this with me. Everyone aged 18 and older at Mount Sinai, all the folks 18 and older at the time of the Exodus when they came out of Egypt, they've all died.

After 40 years, the 18-year-olds, the youngest of them, would be 58. So 58 is the oldest person in the nation as far as this generation is concerned. All the adults that came out of Egypt, all the adults who were standing there at Mount Sinai when God gave his law, all of them died in the desert. None of them entered into the Promised Land. What that means is that the children at the time of the Exodus, those who were just young, all those who were under the age of 18 at the time of Mount Sinai, they're going to have moved up and they're going to be between the ages of 40 and 58.

Imagine that: a nation where the oldest is 58 years of age. Those who are 40 years old and over only have vague memories of these events, according to the stage that they were at in life 40 years ago. The vast majority of the people were obviously under the age of 40. They were born to parents who then died fairly young in the desert. So this is a young nation. No one really over 60, with the exception of Moses, who's now over 100, and Caleb and Joshua.

These guys must have been having a major experience of a generation gap. Can you imagine being Moses, over 100, and the next guys are 58? It's a huge gap. This missing generation, those who have died in the desert. I just want to make really sure we've all got this and that we're all together before we move on because it's key to understanding this part of the Scripture. How many of you here today are under the age of 40?

Let's have a show of hands, all the under-40s. You are the ones who were born in the desert. You weren't alive at the time of the Exodus; you were born in the desert. Let's have the 40-to-58-year-olds. I'm in that group. All the ones who are 40 to 58, hands up. Very good. There's a good number of us here. We were there at Mount Sinai, but most of us were very young. Forty years ago, I was 12. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of these guys. What would I remember from all of these events?

Those of you who are over 58, thank God today that you were not in the generation that was in the desert, the generation that came out of Egypt, because you wouldn't be alive if you were in that generation. Thank God for his gift of life to you. Now, we've got it clear in our minds. Look at chapter 1, verse 6, please. When Moses says, "The Lord our God said to us at Horeb," he's talking about what happened 40 years ago when most of the people weren't even born and many of the rest were too young to remember.

Now I want you to look at verse 26, which is the beginning of our passage for today, and I want to see if you notice something that is obviously very strange. Verse 26: "You were unwilling to go up." Verse 26: "You rebelled against the Lord." Verse 27: "You grumbled in your tents and said, 'The Lord hates us.'" Verse 32: "You did not trust in the Lord your God." You see where I'm going with this. The obvious question is, why in the world is Moses saying this to them?

If I'd been there, I'm sure I'd want to have raised my hand and said, "Excuse me, Moses. Excuse me. Why are you saying this to us? I was only 12 when these things that you're talking about happened, and most of the rest of us weren't even born. It was our parents who did these things, not us. How can you say, Moses, we refused to go up? Why are you saying, Moses, that we were the ones who grumbled? It wasn't us who did these things; it was our parents." That's what I'd want to say to him, wouldn't you?

So why is Moses saying this? Is he blaming the children for the sins of the parents? No, God never does that. He is teaching the children to learn from the parents. The message here is very simple, and Moses is making it plain: Understand this, folks, that what was in your parents is also in you. You will face the same temptations, the same struggles that they did. What defeated them, you now have to overcome in your time, in your life, and in your experience.

Steve Hiller: It's a good way to begin our message, "Change the Future by Owning the Past." In just a moment, we're going to continue to look at six impulses that are in you by nature. Our message is part of a larger series called "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start," really a look at the book of Deuteronomy. If you miss any program in our series, you can come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. There you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free.

You can also listen if you have the Open the Bible app. That's free, and you're going to find that at your app store. Just look for Open the Bible, or again, come and listen online at openthebible.org. Whether you listen online, on the radio, or through the app, it's all made possible because of your generosity. We want to say thank you for your financial support this month by sending you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand-new 30-day devotional book called "Grow in Faith."

It's our way of saying thank you for your support. You can give online at openthebible.org or by calling 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or again, our website is openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Understand this, folks, that what was in your parents is also in you. You will face the same temptations, the same struggles that they did. What defeated them, you now have to overcome in your time, in your life, and in your experience. That is why I've called the message from Deuteronomy today "Change the Future by Owning the Past." What is this past that they must own? What is it that's in these people that also was in their parents and also is in us that we must overcome?

I want you to see that from the passage that's in front of me. So let me offer to you from the Scriptures here six impulses that are in you, as they are in me, by nature. Six impulses that are in you, as they are in me, by nature. They're all right here in front of you in the Scripture. Number one, verse 26: By nature, I rebel against God. Now, I mean me, and I mean you. By nature, I rebel against God. "You were unwilling to go up," he says to this younger generation. "You rebelled, rebelled against the command of the Lord your God."

You see, what this means is that our corruption, the effect of sin in you and the effect of sin in me, is deeper than a few sins and a few mistakes. By nature, I resent God. By nature, I resist his authority over my life. By nature, it is my nature, my old nature, to want to assert my independence from God. I want by nature to be my own savior. I want by nature to be my own Lord. By nature, I rebel against God.

Second, by nature, I treat God with contempt. Verse 27: "You grumbled in your tents and you said, 'The Lord hates us.'" Isn't that striking? "So that's why he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, he was just out to destroy us." Think about this. The deliverance from Egypt is this miracle of God's grace. And these people are treating the miracle of God's grace by which they've been brought out of slavery with absolute contempt.

They're so twisted that they have the idea that God's miraculous deliverance is some kind of plot to do them harm. And this is me. This is me by nature. I treat God with contempt. By nature, what I do, by nature, what we do is that we hold back praise to God for his goodness, and we apportion blame to God whenever we experience evil. By nature, I say, "Here I am in the desert, and it's all God's fault." Do you recognize that? By nature, I insult God. By nature, I treat the abundant goodness of God with contempt.

Number three, by nature, I blame others. Verse 28: Notice what they say, "Our brothers have made us lose heart." It's always the brothers' fault, isn't it? They say, "They say that the people are stronger and taller than we are." The reference here, of course, is to the spies coming back. The spies who brought this negative report and brought discouragement to the people. And now the people are saying, "Well, it's all the spies' fault. They're the ones that discouraged us. Not my fault; it's the spies."

By nature, you recognize this, I blame others for all my problems. By nature, what's wrong is always everyone else's fault. By nature, in the words of the Lord Jesus, I see a speck of dust in the eye of my neighbor when I cannot see a plank of wood in my own eye. I blame others. Number four, by nature, I resist the truth. Look at verse 29. Here's Moses speaking to the people, and they're afraid, and he says, "Now, don't be terrified. Don't be afraid of them, that's the Canaanites.

The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, just as he did in Egypt and in the desert. Haven't you seen how God bears you up as a father carries his own son?" And Moses is pleading with the people here. They're full of fear, and so what does Moses do? As a prophet, he pours the word of God into their lives. But it makes no difference. These folks hear the word of God, and it's just like water off a duck's back. It never goes in. It doesn't change them.

In spite of this, verse 32: "You did not trust the Lord your God." By nature, I am always hearing the word of God, but never really understanding. I'm always seeing God at work, but I never perceive it. I resist the truth by nature. Number five, by nature, I refuse to believe. Verse 32: "You did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you." This is the reality of our sinful nature. This is the reality of our fallen condition. By nature, I am suspicious of God.

By nature, I hold back from full devotion to him. By nature, I do not trust him. And here's God. He is beside these people. He's walking with them in the pillar of cloud and in the pillar of fire, and yet they refuse to believe. You see what this is telling us, folks? None of us is neutral when it comes to this matter of faith. You're not neutral when it comes to the matter of faith. No one is. By nature, I am antagonistic towards God, and so are you. By nature, we are unwilling to believe.

That leads to the sixth thing here: By nature, I am under the wrath of God. Verse 34, it's so clear. "When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore, 'Not a man of this evil generation will see the good land that I swore to your forefathers.'" And none of them did. And what this is telling me is that by nature, I am alienated from God, and by nature, I am justly under his wrath. There is a heaven, but folks, by nature, it's not for me, and by nature, it's not for you either.

By nature, I have no basis on which to enter into the land of promise that is full of God's good things. And Moses is saying so clearly here, "Now, folks, understand this: All of this was in your parents, but don't think it stopped there because all of it's in you." That's the message. Makes you want to weep, doesn't it? But folks, this is the human condition. This is, by nature, my condition. This is, by nature, your condition. This is who we are.

It crosses all the economic differences between us, all the cultural, racial differences between us. This is who we are by nature. This is what sin has done to us, and this is what we need saving from. The Gospel will always be like water off a duck's back to you until you grasp the extent of what you need saving from. Now, this raises an obvious question: If everything, think about it, if everything that kept your parents out of Canaan is also in you, if everything that kept them out is also in you, then what hope is there of you ever getting into the Promised Land?

That's the question, isn't it? If all that kept them out now is also in me, what hope is there of me ever getting in? When you see the human condition, when you see yourself before God as you really are by nature, that is the question. Do you see yourself here? Maybe you would say with me right now, "Yeah, I see myself here. I see that in my very nature I am totally messed up. I see that I'm a rebel against God. I see that I treat his mercy with contempt.

I see how I live blaming others for everything that's wrong in my life. I see how much I resist the truth, however much I hear it. I see how I'm a person who, for all the professions of faith that have been made, actually refuses to trust God in the reality of life. I see that I am under the wrath of God. So now, what hope is there for me?" That's the question, isn't it?

Steve Hiller: That is the question, and where we have to pause, but we're going to continue to look at the answer to that question on our next program. You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith, and our message is called "Change the Future by Owning the Past." It's part of our series "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start." You know, if you think about your faith, you probably recognize that the tendencies and the fears of your parents have probably influenced or shaped your faith in some way.

But now, God is calling you. In this series "Take Two," we're discovering God's word for people on the threshold of something new, looking at what it takes to break from habits of the past and how to live as people on a mission. If you want a copy of today's message or this 12-part series "Take Two," call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or you'll find ordering information at our website openthebible.org. Open the Bible depends on your generosity to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching, and we're grateful for your support.

As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Pastor Colin's new 30-day devotional book called "Grow in Faith." Colin, what is one thing that you want people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, this is a book for ordinary Christians. You talk about growing in faith, someone might think, "Well, I'm no giant of the faith, so that's probably not for me." Well, you know, Jesus spoke on five occasions about people with little faith. "Oh, you of little faith." And that's where we start in this book "Grow in Faith." If you feel that your faith is small, this is exactly for you. It's a place from which you can begin to grow.

And you know, there are two wonderful things about little faith. One is that little faith is saving faith if it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the other is that little faith, because faith is a living thing, is faith that really can grow. I think that this book will help people to grow in faith. That's our hope and our prayer as we've been working on it and preparing it, and I hope that it's going to be a real blessing to you.

Steve Hiller: We'd love to send you a copy of this new book from Pastor Colin. Again, it's called "Grow in Faith," and it's our thanks for your financial support this month. You can give when you call 1-877-OPEN-365, or online at openthebible.org. Again, our phone number is 1-877-673-6365, and the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the Gospel around the world, and to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in. Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.