SPEAKER_01: Would you open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter thirty-two?
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy thirty-two as we finish our study in the Song of Moses.
SPEAKER_01: I'll begin in verse thirty-five.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord says, Vengeance is mine and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip, for the day of their calamity is at hand and their doom comes swiftly.
SPEAKER_01: For Yahweh will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bonder-free.
SPEAKER_01: Then he will say, Where are their gods?
SPEAKER_01: The rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering.
SPEAKER_01: Let them rise up and help you.
SPEAKER_01: Let them be your protection.
SPEAKER_01: See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside me.
SPEAKER_01: I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
SPEAKER_01: For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, as I live forever, if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
SPEAKER_01: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives from the long-haired heads of the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice with him, O heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children, and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
SPEAKER_01: He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people's land.
SPEAKER_01: So it reads the word of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: One of the gravest threats that you face is the incessant temptation to liken God.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it sounds like, well, all religions are basically the same.
SPEAKER_01: Likening God to Buddha or Allah or Vishnu.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it sounds like, well, I think God just wants me to be happy.
SPEAKER_01: Likening God to a butler or a vending machine, some kind of grandpa in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it sounds more like, well, I don't think God would send me to hell.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a good person.
SPEAKER_01: Likening God to yourself in your own very unjust standard of justice.
SPEAKER_01: All of those statements and far more that we are tempted to make in the recesses of our own hearts are nothing more than a denial of the uniqueness of God.
SPEAKER_01: The uniqueness of God.
SPEAKER_01: The uniqueness of God is not an attribute of God per se, it's more a description of how God relates to his creation, that he is not like them, that he is singular in that sense, that he is alone, categorically distinct, unlike you and I.
SPEAKER_01: He is in a league all his own.
SPEAKER_01: None can compare.
SPEAKER_01: God is without rival, because God is incomparable.
SPEAKER_01: He is unique.
SPEAKER_01: And we see this all over the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says it very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 4 to 6.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one.
SPEAKER_01: For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, so there's a lot of people who say that there's gods, other kinds of gods, as indeed there are many gods and lords.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the ESV's quotation marks there.
SPEAKER_01: Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
SPEAKER_01: There's just one God.
SPEAKER_01: You can call other things God, that doesn't make them God.
SPEAKER_01: There's only one.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Himself says that there's only one God.
SPEAKER_01: He says this in John chapter 5, verse 44.
SPEAKER_01: How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
SPEAKER_01: There's only one source of the glory that we should desire, and it's the only God.
SPEAKER_01: Or he says this in his high priestly prayer, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, if you go all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible, you find out this has been what the Bible has been saying all along.
SPEAKER_01: That there's only one God.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it starts in Genesis 1-1, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, God just assumes that there's nobody else.
SPEAKER_01: It was just him who started it all.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus chapter 8, verse 10, Moses speaking to Pharaoh, be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_01: Or when the people of Israel are delivered across the Red Sea by this one and only God, they sing a song, the very first song in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And the song includes this lyric Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
SPEAKER_01: Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
SPEAKER_01: And when the people of Israel arrive at the precipice of the promised land, about to enter in on the plains of Moab, and Moses delivers to them this series of sermons that we call Deuteronomy, he says the following.
SPEAKER_01: For what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours?
SPEAKER_01: The answer, of course, there is not another one.
SPEAKER_01: Or he says again in Deuteronomy 4, 35 and 39, To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord is God, that there is no other beside him.
SPEAKER_01: Know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the Lord Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath, there is no other.
SPEAKER_01: God is unique.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only God, the one true God, the incomparable, matchless, peerless God.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 40, just so I can show you a glimpse in this incredible song that stretches from Isaiah 40 to 48, the servant song.
SPEAKER_01: Just this repeated reference to the uniqueness of God over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: God is unique.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just put the references on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at them.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 40, verse 18, we read this earlier.
SPEAKER_01: To whom then will you liken God?
SPEAKER_01: Or what likeness compare with him?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One.
SPEAKER_01: Or chapter 41, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?
SPEAKER_01: I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am He.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 43, verses 10 to 11.
SPEAKER_01: You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.
SPEAKER_01: Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
SPEAKER_01: I, I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on to say, You are my witnesses, I am God, I am He, there is none who can deliver from my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Using very much the language of Deuteronomy 32, chapter 44, verses 6 to 7.
SPEAKER_01: Thus is Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts, I am the first and I am the last.
SPEAKER_01: Besides me there is no God.
SPEAKER_01: Who is like me?
SPEAKER_01: Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people.
SPEAKER_01: Let them declare what is to come and what will happen.
SPEAKER_01: Only God could see the future.
SPEAKER_01: Tell people what's going to happen before it happens.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 45, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: For thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens, he is God, who formed the earth and made it.
SPEAKER_01: He formed it to be inhabited.
SPEAKER_01: I am Yahweh, and there is no other.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 46, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you.
SPEAKER_01: I have made and I will bear, I will carry, and will save.
SPEAKER_01: To whom then will you liken me and equal me and compare me that we may be alike?
SPEAKER_01: Down to verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other.
SPEAKER_01: I am God and there is none like me.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 48, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I called, I am He.
SPEAKER_01: I am the first, and I am the last.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God wants you to know that He's the only one?
SPEAKER_01: He is unique.
SPEAKER_01: He is on His own God.
SPEAKER_01: God is unlike everyone and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: He alone is who He is.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, to liken God to something that is not God is not only a fool's errand, but it is a dangerous self-deception.
SPEAKER_01: And it is one which God intends to correct in us this evening by this text in Deuteronomy 32.
SPEAKER_01: You can turn back there.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 32, the song of Moses, a song written by God, dictated to Moses, written down by Moses and Joshua, and then recited by Moses to the people of Israel to live unforgotten in their mouths as a witness against the people of Israel, chapter 31 tells us, for the time when their foot shall slip, when they will depart from their God and go after idols, when they will grow fat and kick.
SPEAKER_01: The song is a gospel presentation all of its own.
SPEAKER_01: It begins with the perfection of God, the rock, his way is perfect.
SPEAKER_01: He is just and upright.
SPEAKER_01: And then it moves quickly to the sinful pattern of Israel, not only during the time of Moses, but even the time that would come after him.
SPEAKER_01: The whole history of Israel really inscribed in this song, where they start worshiping other gods.
SPEAKER_01: After having received blessing after blessing from God, they turn away from their source of true blessedness to false gods, strange gods, demons, new gods, not gods, were unmindful of the rock that bore them.
SPEAKER_01: And God's response, verse 19, is to be furious, and justly so, to be angry at their rebellion, at their forgetfulness, at their decision to worship another.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says in verse 35, what Israel needs to know is that vengeance belongs to him.
SPEAKER_01: What happens with them, their eternal fate is in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: And then at the very end of this song, we see a turn.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 36.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For Yahweh will vindicate his people.
SPEAKER_01: The word vindicate there, it could also be translated judge.
SPEAKER_01: It could be positive or it could be negative.
SPEAKER_01: I actually think in this context, probably judge is a better translation because that's how it's used in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 30, where it's quoted.
SPEAKER_01: Right after quoting this, it says, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: So it says, God will judge his people, Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But then it says this.
SPEAKER_01: And have compassion on his servants.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of his fury there is mercy, there's pity.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it says he sees that their power is gone, that there's none remaining bond or free.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, the phrase there, the power is gone, it's that their hand has evaporated.
SPEAKER_01: They have no strength whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: They have been winnowed away by army after army after famine after locust plague, one after another.
SPEAKER_01: They have been brought low and destroyed until barely anyone is left scouring the streets of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Kings chapter 14, 23 quotes this very passage.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time when Israel had been rocked by civil war, decimated, and God looked on this northern kingdom of Israel and saw that there was none left bonder-free, and he had compassion on them.
SPEAKER_01: And he expanded their borders.
SPEAKER_01: He preached through Jonah the son of Amitai a blessing on them.
SPEAKER_01: So when God sees that Israel hits rock bottom, he comes to be their rock.
SPEAKER_01: God has compassion.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning that the close of this song is for you who have hit rock bottom.
SPEAKER_01: For you who have found yourself at the end of your tether, who you who have found yourself without the compassion of God, it seems, in your life, you have felt the sting of judgment, the pain of loss.
SPEAKER_01: And now God comes to you with this word and he says, I see that.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word.
SPEAKER_01: When he sees.
SPEAKER_01: And he has compassion on you.
SPEAKER_01: And in his compassion, God does just about the most compassionate thing he could do.
SPEAKER_01: He reminds you that he alone is God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, listen, in your dark hour, you do not need another motivational speech.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need someone else to just kind of come along and boost your ego.
SPEAKER_01: That's not gonna help.
SPEAKER_01: What you need is this reminder.
SPEAKER_01: God is God alone.
SPEAKER_01: You need to hear that there is one and only one who sees you, who cares for you, and indeed only one who can save you.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he intends to make you look around at your life at all the things that you have likened him to, and to smash every last one of them.
SPEAKER_01: Until you recognize there is none like him.
SPEAKER_01: That he alone is your source of hope, that he alone is your rock, that he alone can save.
SPEAKER_01: So that you would run to him and find him to be complete.
SPEAKER_01: The one who sees you is the only God.
SPEAKER_01: God alone.
SPEAKER_01: And that's going to be our outline for this evening.
SPEAKER_01: God alone.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this God alone who shows compassion to you?
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing that he says about himself is that he is the only rock.
SPEAKER_01: He is the only rock.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 37 as God begins a taunt of compassion to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 37, then he will say, Where are their gods?
SPEAKER_01: The rock in which they took refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, this is supposed to be a contrast with the truth of who God actually is.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, they forsook God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they looked to other gods who could not be their salvation, who did not make them.
SPEAKER_01: The people of Israel started giving themselves to the Baals.
SPEAKER_01: Baals got their crops, Asherah, their bodies, Molech, their children.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Where is the rock in which they took refuge?
SPEAKER_01: It's supposed to be ironic.
SPEAKER_01: This whole time he's been calling himself the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And now you think somewhere else could be a refuge for you?
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea of the image of the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Why he's been saying it all throughout this song is because the picture of a rock is a picture of safety, of refuge, of help.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says, the rock in which they took refuge.
SPEAKER_01: This is the very language that we find in the rest of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's related to the same word, the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm chapter 18, verse 2 says, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 31, verse 2, Incline your ear to me.
SPEAKER_01: Rescue me speedily, be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.
SPEAKER_01: Or Psalm 62, verse 2, He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.
SPEAKER_01: I shall not be greatly shaken.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
unknown: Can you read Matthew 21, verse 21?
SPEAKER_01: I'd be happy to afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: Would that be all right?
unknown: Sure.
unknown: I just want to know why.
SPEAKER_01: Why he curses the fig tree?
SPEAKER_01: I would love to have that conversation with you afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: Totally.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Let's meet in the hallway afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: All the fig trees all day.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_01: You remember in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus, when he ends the sermon on the mount, says, The one who is wise builds his house on my teaching, which is like building on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place of stability, a place of safety, a place of comfort and help.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says at the end of verse 38, let them rise and help you.
SPEAKER_01: Let them be your protection.
SPEAKER_01: God is lovingly taunting the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: How has it really helped you worshiping these other gods?
SPEAKER_01: Has it really gotten you what you wanted?
SPEAKER_01: Giving all your food and your wealth and even your own progeny to false gods.
SPEAKER_01: What did you get in return?
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter 44, Isaiah mocks idols.
SPEAKER_01: You take a tree, chop it down, half of the wood, you make a fire, cook some bread, the other half, smith it up, make an idol.
SPEAKER_01: Start worshiping it.
SPEAKER_01: He says they don't even realize they got ashes in their mouths.
SPEAKER_01: There is no other God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the problem with false religion.
SPEAKER_01: Is that it's wrong, that it's incorrect, that there simply is not another God.
SPEAKER_01: You could appeal yourself to Allah, He won't hear you because He doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_01: You could appeal yourself to the God of Mormonism, you could appeal yourself to the God of Buddhism, you could appeal yourself to any other God of any world religion, and they won't hear you because they don't exist.
SPEAKER_01: Only God does.
SPEAKER_01: And only God, the God of the Hebrew scriptures, that God will hear when you are in your moment of distress, and he will come and he will be your rock.
SPEAKER_01: That God will hear, that God will comfort, that God will actually save.
SPEAKER_01: The impersonal universe, that doesn't have compassion on you, does it?
SPEAKER_01: Your career?
SPEAKER_01: Your kids, your fame, your money.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what he says in verse 38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings.
SPEAKER_01: Look how much you've given to all of these idols.
SPEAKER_01: Look how much of your life you've poured out for them, and what has it done?
SPEAKER_01: Your house, your reputation, your entertainment?
SPEAKER_01: What good have you gotten by worshiping them?
SPEAKER_01: What can they do for you, these false gods, these idols, when the doctor calls with bad news?
SPEAKER_01: What can they do for you at the hour of death?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: They've never done anything, and they won't start now.
SPEAKER_01: The only source of refuge, of shelter, of help is God.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: There is only one who can.
SPEAKER_01: The one who saved the Israelites in Egypt, the one who fed them in the wilderness, the one who snuffed out 185,000 Assyrians in a night.
SPEAKER_01: That God is real.
SPEAKER_01: And he can be your shelter.
SPEAKER_01: That one God says, Come to me.
SPEAKER_01: That one God hears your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, what have you been sacrificing to?
SPEAKER_01: What have you been giving your strength and your years, your time and your energy to?
SPEAKER_01: Is it paying off?
SPEAKER_01: Can it really help you?
SPEAKER_01: There's one who can.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is he the only rock, but also he is the only God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 39 is the center of this section of the song, and it states the principle so forcefully and so clearly, heralding God's uniqueness with a resting clarity.
SPEAKER_01: He says, verse 39, see now.
SPEAKER_01: See now.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I've seen your evil, verse 19, and now I see your calamity, verse 36.
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm calling on you.
SPEAKER_01: Open your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: See what I have seen.
SPEAKER_01: And then look up.
SPEAKER_01: The word now in this text, it's a call.
SPEAKER_01: He says, at the bottom of the valley, that is the perfect time for you to look up.
SPEAKER_01: And see this glorious truth, that I, even I am he.
SPEAKER_01: This is an emphatic statement.
SPEAKER_01: God and God alone is what he's getting at.
SPEAKER_01: What does he mean when he says, I am he?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he means I am God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one who can actually do what you have been looking to all the other sac all the other gods to be able to do.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I am he, the one who is responsible for everything that has happened to you up until this very point.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he follows it with this.
SPEAKER_01: I kill and I make alive.
SPEAKER_01: There's no God besides me.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, your prosperity never came from Baal to begin with.
SPEAKER_01: Your help never came from Asherappoles to begin with.
SPEAKER_01: None of those things ever actually did anything.
SPEAKER_01: They don't exist in a spiritual realm.
SPEAKER_01: Only God does.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's God.
SPEAKER_01: The concept of a God, then, is fundamentally a question here for the ancients in a lot of ways, a question of power, of sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: Who's in charge?
SPEAKER_01: Israel worshipped Keyun, the star god and the queen of heaven, because they thought they had power.
SPEAKER_01: That's why anyone worships any false god, because they think they can do something for them.
SPEAKER_01: And God says emphatically, no, they're not.
SPEAKER_01: They can't.
SPEAKER_01: There is no God besides me, and in fact, I, he emphasizes it the way it's structured, I kill and I make alive, I wound, and I heal.
SPEAKER_01: Just notice the striking language here.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying, listen, I'm not just responsible for feeding you lots of nice grapes.
SPEAKER_01: Remember back in verse 14?
SPEAKER_01: Giving you lots of milk and honey?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just responsible for that.
SPEAKER_01: I am also responsible for the death.
SPEAKER_01: I'm responsible for the judgment, the killing, the wounding.
SPEAKER_01: I am sovereign over that too.
SPEAKER_01: That was me.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't someone else.
SPEAKER_01: That was God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the only one.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying, you know who is responsible for every blessing, every trial, every pain, every hardship, every joy.
SPEAKER_01: It was me.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we call the doctrine of providence.
SPEAKER_01: That God does it all.
SPEAKER_01: If it happens, it is part of God's sovereign plan.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Hannah declares in 1 Samuel chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: In her song, she says, There is none holy like Yahweh, for there is none besides you.
SPEAKER_01: There is no rock like our God.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh kills and brings to life.
SPEAKER_01: He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh makes poor and makes rich.
SPEAKER_01: He brings low and exalts.
SPEAKER_01: You say, man, why would you say that to a people who are already beat down?
SPEAKER_01: That seems kind of rough.
SPEAKER_01: They're at their lowest, and you're like, yeah, I put you there.
SPEAKER_01: Why say that?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is telling them the one who is in charge of your suffering is also the only one who can give you hope.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he says in Hosea chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us that he may heal us.
SPEAKER_01: He has struck us down and he will bind us up.
SPEAKER_01: As it turns out, the very God who Israel had made their enemy is also their only source of salvation, their only hope.
SPEAKER_01: These other gods never had anything to do with it.
SPEAKER_01: It was only ever God.
SPEAKER_01: It was Winston Churchill, some say, who said in some private conversation, you can always count on Americans to do the right thing only after they've done all of the wrong things already.
SPEAKER_01: I think we are wired that way, aren't we?
SPEAKER_01: There was a man named Andrew Bowen who, when his wife had an ectopic pregnancy and they had lost the baby, went into kind of a depression, a spiral, and ended up deciding that he was going to try 12 religions in 12 months.
SPEAKER_01: And so he did.
SPEAKER_01: Buddhism, Catholicism, Wicca, Baha'i.
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of it, he was more confused, of course, than he was at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: And found no real comfort or peace.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote a book about it, so he made some money, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: But still found no real answers.
SPEAKER_01: His wife, on the other hand, at the very same time, just decided to go back to her Baptist church where she had grown up.
SPEAKER_01: And she heard the gospel and became a Christian and was baptized.
SPEAKER_01: And she had peace.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I, even I, am He.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's only one God.
SPEAKER_01: And that one God is the one source of hope, even for those whom he has allowed to feel the sting of sin and its consequences.
SPEAKER_01: The secret, then, to seeing the uniqueness of God as the only God is seeing his sovereign hand in it all.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Look around you.
SPEAKER_01: Look back in the history books.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine with me your whole life in one span.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you think did that?
SPEAKER_01: Who was behind it all?
SPEAKER_01: It was me.
SPEAKER_01: So why would you go anywhere else?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way Samuel Rutherford appeared and said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Do not focus your thoughts among the confused wheels of secondary causes.
SPEAKER_01: As if, oh, if this had been, this had not followed.
SPEAKER_01: You ever talk like that?
SPEAKER_01: He says, instead, look up to the master motion of the first wheel.
SPEAKER_01: The hand of providence, the God who is behind it all.
SPEAKER_01: God is the one in charge of history, he is the one in charge of your life, which means he is the only one who can help you.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only rock.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only God.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, this text tells us he is the only judge.
SPEAKER_01: He is the only judge.
SPEAKER_01: The dramatic conclusion of this song takes us all the way to the end of the time, to the return of Christ, to the eternal rule of God on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: And what God is promising is that in the end, very simply, he wins.
SPEAKER_01: God wins.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you're gonna bet on a horse, bet on a winning horse.
SPEAKER_01: This one's gonna win.
SPEAKER_01: The only one who will win.
SPEAKER_01: He says, verse 40, for I lift up my hand to heaven and swear as I live forever.
SPEAKER_01: He's making an oath, as God does customarily throughout the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And who does he swear by?
SPEAKER_01: Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Who else could he swear by?
SPEAKER_01: And he says this: if I sharpen my flashing sword, the lightning of my sword literally, and my hand takes hold on judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Your hand can't do anything, but my hand takes hold on judgment, meaning if in a moment I decide to bring about the calamity that will wrap up all of human history and consummate my redemptive plan and bring in an eternal paradise through the judgment of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: If I decide to do that, then he says, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.
SPEAKER_01: He's just quoting back from verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: The vengeance that belongs to him, the repayment that belongs to him, he says, One day I will bring it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the only one who owns it, and I'm the only one who will bring it one day.
SPEAKER_01: And it will be furious.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 42.
SPEAKER_01: I will make my arrows drunk with blood.
SPEAKER_01: Just a visceral image.
SPEAKER_01: And my sword shall devour flesh, imagining it like a ravenous beast, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy, maybe a better translation, from the heads of the leaders of the enemies, meaning heads will roll, blood will spill, God will bring about the vengeance that belongs to him.
SPEAKER_01: But jump ahead to verse 43, he says, for he avenges the blood of his children or his servants.
SPEAKER_01: He cleanses his people's land, meaning there are some for whom that day will be a very bad day.
SPEAKER_01: And there are some for whom that day will be their very salvation.
SPEAKER_01: What he's talking about here in verse 42 is the return of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Then when Christ comes back to this earth, having paid for sins and resurrected in his first coming, his second coming will be one of judgment and installation.
SPEAKER_01: He will set up his kingdom here on this earth and rout all of the squatters.
SPEAKER_01: And on that day, when he does that, his people will sing a song.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 15 tells us.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 15, verse 3, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
SPEAKER_01: For you alone are holy.
SPEAKER_01: All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.
SPEAKER_01: When Christ comes back, this is the very song that they'll sing.
SPEAKER_01: That He has brought the vengeance that has always belonged to Him as the only God, the only Judge of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: He will right every wrong and make right every injustice.
SPEAKER_01: And on that day, your favorite political candidate will be a pretty meaningless historical footnote to the everlasting reign of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He alone will bring justice.
SPEAKER_01: He alone will end death, wipe tears, save Israel, usher in eternal bliss.
SPEAKER_01: And when he does, Revelation 19, verse 2, they will sing once again, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just, for he has judged the great prostitute who has corrupted the earth with her immorality, and then quotes Deuteronomy 32, verse 43, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus rides in on a white horse with a sword in his mouth and a rod in his hand to rule the nations, nobody will wonder who is the only judge.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody will wonder who's in charge.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody will wonder anymore who is God and who is not.
SPEAKER_01: On that day it will be plain.
SPEAKER_01: And so the song of Moses ends with this call to us in verse 43.
SPEAKER_01: It's a verse with lots of textual issues.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to get bogged down in it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Rejoice with him, O heavens.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's also probably a good line in there, also all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Bow down to him all gods, including angels, Hebrews tells us, for he avenges the blood of his children, his servants, and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
SPEAKER_01: He repays those who hate him and cleanses or atones for his people's land.
SPEAKER_01: The idea there is like the priests would cleanse the tabernacle, atone for the tabernacle, make that a holy space for the worship of God.
SPEAKER_01: God will do that for the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: And if you had to sum up what the command is at the very end of Deuteronomy 32, the thing that Moses is trying to communicate to Israel there on the plains of Moab, the thing that we need to hear today, it's very simply this hey, you worship the one God.
SPEAKER_01: All of creation is doing it.
SPEAKER_01: The angels worship him.
SPEAKER_01: The nations, they'll worship him, his people, they'll worship him.
SPEAKER_01: So you worship him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he made you to do.
SPEAKER_01: You exist for his holy, eternal, perfect worship.
SPEAKER_01: So give it to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have been likening God to something or to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: You've been making him a lot more like you or someone you like.
SPEAKER_01: You've been turning him into a God of your own imagination.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you find yourself spent.
SPEAKER_01: What should you do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, today you have the opportunity to come to the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: Because the only God sent his only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_01: That whoever would believe in him shall not face that vengeance, but have eternal life with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so today is a day of a free offer that will not last forever.
SPEAKER_01: The time of the years of your life will be few.
SPEAKER_01: God knows how many.
SPEAKER_01: But today he has given you this moment to come to the one true God through his son Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross has paid the penalty for the sins of all who would ever believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: And whose resurrection has gloriously proved that He, He, the Son, is also the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and they are calling you through the song of Moses, even to say, that's my God, the only God.
SPEAKER_01: One day, Christ alone will reign on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: One day there will be no more question about who is and who isn't God and what God is like.
SPEAKER_01: Today He calls you to see into that day.
SPEAKER_01: With the eyes of faith to perceive the kingdom to come and the Lamb on the throne, when his servants will see him face to face, to look upon that scene and say, I want to be there.
SPEAKER_01: I want to worship him in that kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way is if you will believe in him this very day.
SPEAKER_01: And so will you come to Christ, the only God, the true God, and find him to be your God.
SPEAKER_01: And God alone.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: You alone are God.
SPEAKER_01: We worship you as the unrivaled, unmatched sovereign and Lord of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: We render to you the praise that you are due.
SPEAKER_01: As the one worthy to receive all power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray for those who are here who have not bowed their knee to the one true God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, have compassion on them.
SPEAKER_01: Expose the emptiness of their idols.
SPEAKER_01: Help them to see how unlike you they are.
SPEAKER_01: So that they might run to you as their refuge, their rock, their only hope.
SPEAKER_01: You are the God in charge of all of history, and you have led us in your sovereign plan to this very moment, in this room, on this day.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, do your work in us, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: And exalt your Son Jesus Christ through us, both now and forever, so that on that day when He appears we may sing hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation belongs to the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: We ask all of this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.