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Colin Smith: Read the Bible in faith, read the Bible in repentance, and keep reading it, Moses says, all the days of your life. Fill your heart with the promises of God, shape your will by the commandments of God, guard your life with the Word of God. Then you will be able to face the temptations of money, of sex, and of power.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, at least on some level, all of us have some level of leadership here. So today's message sounds like a helpful word of warning for all who are in some sort of leadership position.

Colin Smith: That is exactly right. We're looking in the book of Deuteronomy where God speaks very directly about leadership and lays out the particular temptations that every leader will face. And guess what? Thousands of years ago, these temptations were the same big three: money, sex, and power. They're all addressed in Deuteronomy as well as, of course, in so many other places in the Scripture.

Then God lays out for leaders how we are to pursue lives of integrity that are going to be honoring to the Lord. So whatever the sphere in which God has given you leadership, we're going to look today in the scriptures at what it will take for you to be a godly leader, for your influence to honor the Lord. It's all in the book of Deuteronomy.

Steve Hiller: We are going to be in Deuteronomy chapters 16 through 18 today. So grab a Bible and join us there as we continue: "Lead by Learning to Follow." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: There are particular temptations that all leaders face. Insofar as God has given any trust or any responsibility to you, you need to be particularly aware of the special temptations that come to those who are trusted with leadership in any sphere, whether it be in the church or anywhere else.

I'm focusing in particular on what is said to the king here. We're told that the king will face particular temptations that come from three directions. As soon as I say them, you'll say, "I might have guessed." Money, sex, and power. Anything new there? It's right there in the book of Deuteronomy.

Here are the temptations that leaders face. Number one: power. The king must not acquire for himself great numbers of horses. Now, I've observed that this is a common reality of life. Most leaders would like to have more power. But God says to the king, "Be very careful about that."

All kings have horses, but don't acquire great numbers of horses for yourself. In other words, don't try to become a power. It will be a temptation to you. With regards to temptation in the sexual sphere, verse 17 says, "He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray."

Now, you know that it was common in those days for a king to have not simply a wife, but to have a harem. Wives from different royal families from surrounding nations would be taken and there would be a great wedding. This was a means in the ancient world of sealing political alliances.

Inevitably, with many wives, there came into the royal court the worship of many gods. This is what happened to King Solomon, and the Bible says it turned his heart from the Lord. I think there are other applications of this that speak to us. A man with one wife has the gift of someone next to him who can tell him the truth. Isn't that a good thing?

Do you think a man with a harem ever hears the truth? Really think about it. A man with a harem is surrounded not with the truth, but with the sweet fog of flattery and lies. God says this leads the heart astray. You need someone who speaks the truth in your life, not a group of flatterers.

In our time, when we live in a culture that is saturated with pornography, Christian men are surrounded by many women. God says this leads the heart astray. So beware of the lure of this temptation. Then with regards to money, verse 17 says, "He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold."

Now, you can see the point of this because being the king—think of the opportunities to accumulate large amounts of personal wealth. God says, "As you're given the trust of being the king, you're not to use this for your own advantage. You are not to do this. Don't use your position for personal gain."

Are you not struck, as you see this in the Bible, how human nature never changes? The temptations that God's people were facing more than 3,000 years ago and half a world away are exactly the same temptations that leaders face here and around the world today. Knowing that these are the temptations that leaders distinctively face, was anyone surprised by any of this, by the way? Of course not.

Knowing that these are the temptations that leaders face, the question becomes: how is the king to face these temptations and to overcome them? I move from identifying three temptations that leaders face to one priority for leaders to pursue, and it's simply this: saturate your life in the Word of God. It's the only way to stand against temptation. You saturate your life in the Word of God.

Notice how this is spelled out for the king. First, he's told he is to write the Word. Verse 18: "When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of the law." This is so fascinating. Nobody else in Israel was required to write out the entire book of Deuteronomy by hand, but the king is.

Here is this man and he's given such a trust and such a responsibility. When he's crowned, his first task is not to go and rule; his first task is to go and learn how to rule. And he learns this by writing out the Word of God—that is, the book of Deuteronomy, this law.

He writes out the 34 chapters in his own hand on a scroll that he keeps with him for the rest of his life, his own personal copy. It's almost as if the people of God, when they place the crown on the king's head, are saying to the people, "Now we're placing this trust in you and we need to know that the Word of God is in you."

We need that Word of God to dwell in you richly. We need that Word of God to be deeply in you more than we need it to be deeply in anyone else. So here's what we want you to do. You go off into the study, take the crown off your head, and you sit down with a copy of the book of Deuteronomy and you write out on a scroll in your own hand, word for word, every word that God has given, so that it will be in you. This is what we want you to do.

How long do you think it took? When we read the book of Deuteronomy, it took two and three-quarter hours. We read the entire book out loud. What a wonderful evening that was. My guess is that to write the entire book of Deuteronomy, which I've not done—but then I'm not a king—my guess is it's probably a full week's work.

And there the king is. Can you picture him? He's writing and there's this long scroll and it's his personal copy of this book, the Word of God.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Lead by Learning to Follow." We're going to pause here, but we're going to get back to this message from the book of Deuteronomy in just a moment. This message is part of our series called "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start."

If you want to get a copy of the entire series on CD, ask about that when you call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org. Back to the message, here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So write it, God says to the king. And then read it. Have it with you always and read it. Get it into you. Let your life be saturated in the Word of God. Don't be one of these folks who has a Bible for years that hardly looks like it's been opened.

Then of course, God says obey the Word. It's to be with him. Verse 19: he's to read it all the days of his life. Why? So that he may learn to revere the Lord his God. There's the fruit. And follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.

The king will have his philosophy. The king will have his own vision and his own values, as every leader does. But he must allow the Word of God to be constantly rebuking him and correcting him and teaching him. The Word of God must always be shaping his thinking, always be challenging his ideas.

That is why one of the great cries of the Reformation was this: Semper Reformanda. Semper Reformanda—that's what the Reformers said, which means "always reforming," always reforming. What the Reformers had grasped was this: we don't want to be the kind of people who say, "Hey, we've got justification by faith worked out and so we've got everything in place. We know it all."

The Reformers were wise enough to grasp, as Luther said, "My mind is captive to the Word of God," that a true Christian is a person who is always seeking to grow and to develop and to be challenged and to be stretched by the Word of God, however long you've been a follower of Christ.

The true Christian leader is always being challenged by the Word, always being humbled by it, always learning from it. We are not to pose as people who think we've got it all right, but as people who are always seeking humbly to follow the Word of God. So write it, read it, obey it.

The very last thing is simply this: who is this king who bears all these marks and overcomes all these temptations and follows all these laws? You know where I'm going. You read through the Old Testament story at the various kings that follow in the Old Testament Scriptures and with a few exceptions, they were pretty much a sorry lot, weren't they?

The vast majority of them surely never wrote out a word of the book of Deuteronomy. In fact, in the later period of Israel's history, instead of being copied out by hand by every new king, what happened was that the copy of the Word of the Lord, which was in the possession of the priests, was left to languish and gather dust in a vault in the temple until in the time of Josiah.

You may remember that story. It was found and Josiah heard something for the first time he'd never even heard before. Even the greatest king, David, failed in his own calling and found himself as a leader hanging on the mercy of God, which is the position that every true Christian leader is always in.

In the fullness of time, God sent His Son. Because He is God with us, He has all authority in Himself and God's anointing is on Him. He's born of our bone and flesh of our flesh and so He truly is a king from among God's people. He is saturated in the Word of God.

Even as a young boy in the temple, His mind is filled. Look at how many times the Lord Jesus quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures and especially the book of Deuteronomy. He goes out into the desert. He overcomes temptation. His great humility—He does not come riding into the city on a great, massive horse.

He comes into the city riding on a donkey. This king, because He is God, is also the priest who on the cross makes Himself to be the sacrifice for our sins to reconcile us to God. Because He is God with us, He rises from the dead because death cannot keep a hold on Him.

He comes to His disciples and you remember what He says. He says, "All authority—not just some of it, not parceled out authority—all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me." In other words, He is the prophet, He is the priest, He is the king, and He is the judge.

Therefore, because all authority is given to Him, because He is the prophet, priest, and king and judge, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. That's why, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We are to call people from every nation, from every culture, to faith in Jesus Christ, to become followers of Jesus Christ. Why? Because all authority belongs to Him. He is the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords.

And so here's the thing that I want us to take away now. When you know who Jesus is, then you will grasp what it means to follow Him. He is the prophet. So to follow Christ is to believe His Word. It means that I give up the right of saying, "Well, Jesus says this, but I think that."

To become a follower of Jesus means for you, if you are His follower, that His Word defines truth for you. When you have a different thought from His Word, you're wrong and you change your mind. That's what it means for us to submit ourselves to the Word of God.

Christ is to be the prophet in authority over us, not the one who suggests ideas to us. Following Christ means that we trust in His sacrifice because not only is He the one who speaks the word of truth to us, He is the priest who offers Himself as the sacrifice for us.

To be a Christian means that you trust the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has made of Himself, the shedding of His blood, the tearing of His own body, in order to make atonement for your sins. Because Jesus is the judge, to be a follower of Jesus means that you accept Christ's judgment.

We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You say, "What does it mean for me to accept Christ's judgment about me?" Listen. We are justified by faith through Jesus Christ our Lord and in this way we have peace with God. What's His judgment about you?

If you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, here's His judgment about you: you have peace with God. That's how you get peace in your own soul. You accept the judge's verdict about you, which is why Paul says in Romans chapter 8, "It's God who justifies, so who is he who condemns?"

When someone says to me, "Well, I know God's forgiven me but I can't forgive myself," I say something like this: "Well, if the blood of Jesus was good enough for God to forgive you, are you putting yourself in a higher position than that? Good enough for him but not good enough for me?"

Because He is King, to be a follower of Christ means to obey Christ's command. He says to His redeemed people, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Lead by Learning to Follow." It's one of the messages in our series called "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start." A series where we're taking a look at the book of Deuteronomy.

If you missed any of the broadcasts in our series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org, and you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org.

Open the Bible depends on your generosity to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, I think it's for anyone who really loves the Word of God. But especially, I think, for anyone who's looking for something fresh or anyone who's looking for something really short. This little devotional that was actually used by Abraham Lincoln himself simply offers a verse of Scripture for every day.

They're organized by themes—a different theme each month. They go through the experience of a Christian believer in the various parts of life that we go through and it gives to us just a verse that you can meditate on. So if you're looking for something really short just to pop a verse of Scripture into your mind each day, then this book does it very simply, very wonderfully.

It does it from the old King James Version, of course, which so beautifully expresses the English language. I think, too, for someone who feels, "I just want to do something fresh and different," I find it helpful to change up what I'm doing in my own devotional life, to move from one thing to another, one part of Scripture to another, to use different books and devotionals and aids at different times.

Here is something that might just be fresh for someone today: a verse of Scripture each day from Abraham Lincoln's devotional that will help you to meditate on the Word of God, take in its truth, and live in its beauty and in its power.

Steve Hiller: We want to send you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365.

Again, 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.

Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again and I want you to know about Watch Your Life. Watch Your Life is a six-session course that is geared for leaders but accessible to every believer.

The six sessions will show you how to grow in godliness, how to feed on Christ, how to pray in the Spirit, how to battle temptation, exercise faith, and discern God's will. There are questions at the end of each session and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend. For more information, visit openthebible.org/courses. That's openthebible.org/courses.