SPEAKER_00: If you would turn back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 32.
SPEAKER_00: We begin this evening a four-week study through the Song of Moses, as it's been called, by looking at just the first four verses, which I will read for us again.
SPEAKER_00: Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass and like showers upon the herb.
SPEAKER_00: For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, ascribe greatness to our God.
SPEAKER_00: The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
SPEAKER_00: So reads the word of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: According to archaeologists, the oldest known song in human history was written by a man to a god.
SPEAKER_00: The Hurrian hymn was written around 1400 BC, about the same time that Deuteronomy 32 would have been written.
SPEAKER_00: It was discovered on a clay tablet in the city of Ugarit, and it was written to a goddess named Nikal, the goddess of the orchard.
SPEAKER_00: It included instrumentation notation about a nine-stringed lyre, and said a verse that's something like this Once I have endeared the deity, she will love me in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: The offer I bring may wholly cover my sin.
SPEAKER_00: According to the Bible, one of the oldest songs ever written was written not by man to God, but by God to man.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 32, the Song of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: In contrast to the hopes of the Hurrian hymn, this song offers no hope that you could endear yourself to God by some sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it warns that you'll be entirely unable to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And really, these two songs, this ancient Ugaritic hymn and Deuteronomy 32, are not just two different ancient contemporaneous worldviews, but they represent two totally different views of God.
SPEAKER_00: One is a song about a God that is made in man's image, a God who can be pleased by what men do in their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And the other, written by God, who made man in his image, has no such delusion.
SPEAKER_00: One is a song by a man to a God, the other is a song by God to man.
SPEAKER_00: One song is empty idolatry, and the other, according to Moses, is your very life.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 32, I would submit to you, is one of the most important, least known chapters in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I know this because for the last month, people have been asking me, hey, what are you going to preach on Sunday evenings?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Deuteronomy 32, and they're like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's a chapter in the Bible, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00: And I also know this because I tried to find sermons on Deuteronomy 32 and searched in vain.
SPEAKER_00: They don't really exist.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a well-known part of the Bible, and yet it is an absolutely critical part of the Bible for us to understand.
SPEAKER_00: It's called in the Jewish liturgy Parasha Haadzinu, which is just the first word.
SPEAKER_00: It's comprised of 2,326 Hebrew letters and 614 Hebrew words.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Bloch, one commentator, calls Deuteronomy 32 the national anthem of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It essentially tells the whole story of the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 15 references this song and calls it the Song of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: This song is a foundational biblical text.
SPEAKER_00: It forms the prophetic language and logic that works its way out through countless passages in the Old Testament and is cited some 18 times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: We get phrases from this chapter like A Crooked and Twisted Generation, which Jesus uses a number of times.
SPEAKER_00: We get the phrase, Vengeance is mine, thus saith the Lord, or the phrase, the Lord will judge his people.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps most significantly to biblical theology, this song is the first time that God is called the rock in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to be called that 31 times throughout the scriptures, which makes this the first ever rock song.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: I felt as bad about it as you did.
SPEAKER_00: I knew it was coming.
SPEAKER_00: I've known for a long time that joke was gonna land in this, and I felt bad, but there it is.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're we're done, we can move past it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a song about the rock.
SPEAKER_00: And Deuteronomy 32 is particularly poignant because it is a song that is written not just by Moses, but by God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 31, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: God speaking to Moses says, Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You realize there is no other song in Scripture that is directly dictated by God like this one.
SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of other songs in the scriptures that are inspired by God, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But this one is not just the words of Moses inspired by God.
SPEAKER_00: These are God's words that were dictated to Moses and then inspired in their inscripturation.
SPEAKER_00: So you should ask yourself: if God wrote a song, what would I expect him to say in it?
SPEAKER_00: You already heard me read it, so you kind of know, but put yourself before you heard it read.
SPEAKER_00: What would you expect God to say in a song that he wrote?
SPEAKER_00: There's a recent Southern gospel band that wrote a song called If God Wrote a Song, it'd be about love.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think this song would be about if God wrote it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this heaven-sent lyric is really the story of Israel, beginning to end, and it is a powerful witness to us today about the character of the rock, this God and our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, that's exactly what God calls this song over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: He calls it a witness.
SPEAKER_00: A witness.
SPEAKER_00: In order to understand some of what's going on here, I need to back up and we'll spend some time just getting our arms around the context of this song, and then we'll get just into the first few verses after that.
SPEAKER_00: So look back with me at Deuteronomy 31, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: This is at the end, of course, of the book of Deuteronomy, several sermons delivered by Moses, the prophet of Israel, on the plains of Moab on the eve of the conquest of the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And here in chapter 31, verse 14, after Moses has written down all the rest of this law and read it and delivered it to the people, verse 14, it says, Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, the days approach when you must die.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the very day that Moses recites this song will be the day that he dies.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one more thing that he says after this.
SPEAKER_00: It's his last words.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes up onto the mountain, he sees the promised land, and then dies and is buried.
SPEAKER_00: This is Moses' last act in a sense.
SPEAKER_00: And so God says, Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting that I may commission him.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting, and Yahweh appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the tent, entrance of the tent.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is something that Moses would have done a number of times in the course of his ministry as the prophet of Israel, but this time was the last time.
SPEAKER_00: This was it for the most humble prophet who ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: And what he says to him is probably just as surprising as the announcement of his own death.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers, then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in a land they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.
SPEAKER_00: There's an intentional wordplay here.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to lie down, and the people are going to rise up.
SPEAKER_00: When you die, that's when it's all going to start to unravel.
SPEAKER_00: And what we find out is that this promise does come true.
SPEAKER_00: The people do forsake God and turn to idols, but really not until a whole nother generation has elapsed because of Joshua's faithful leadership.
SPEAKER_00: It says at the end of the book of Joshua that everyone who knew Joshua during his days remained faithful to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's only in Judges 2, when there was no one left who knew Joshua or Moses, that they begin to turn away.
SPEAKER_00: But turn away they do.
SPEAKER_00: God makes a promise.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Moses, after all of these years with these people, all your sermons, all of your putting up with their complaining, it's not going to work.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to turn back.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to break like the first of the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: You shall have no other gods before me.
SPEAKER_00: God, knowing Israel's coming apostasy, tells Moses and Joshua to expect it.
SPEAKER_00: You have to just feel for a moment how discouraging that must have been for Moses.
SPEAKER_00: But then appreciate how much more grievous it would be to the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, verse 17, My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured, and many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?
SPEAKER_00: And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
SPEAKER_00: This is God saying, I'm going to do what I promised to do just a few chapters earlier.
SPEAKER_00: I told them, if they obey, blessing, if they disobey, curses.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what they're going to do?
SPEAKER_00: Disobey.
SPEAKER_00: So what am I going to do?
SPEAKER_00: Curses.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to face the judgment that their sin deserves, which I have warned them about.
SPEAKER_00: And because all of that is going to come to pass, God says to Moses, verse 19, now, therefore, because all of that is true, because they're going to turn away, write this song.
SPEAKER_00: The word song, it's exactly what you think it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's poetry, but it's set to music.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have the music here, but they would have sung it.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Teach it to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a number of things we need to note there.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the word write, write this song.
SPEAKER_00: That verb is plural.
SPEAKER_00: It's a plural imperative.
SPEAKER_00: You, Moses and Joshua, write this thing down together.
SPEAKER_00: But then the verb teach it and put it, that's singular.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Moses, your last job is to put this song in the mouths and in the hearts of the people of Israel, so that it can be a witness for me against the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The reason God wrote this song and dictates it to Moses is in order for it to be a witness.
SPEAKER_00: A witness.
SPEAKER_00: And there's all kinds of different forms of witnesses in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 31, 48.
SPEAKER_00: Laban sets up a heap of stones and says, This heap is witness between you and me.
SPEAKER_00: It's heard the agreement that we made, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 22, 27, he builds an altar and says, This altar is witness that we're not departing from Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth chapter 4, verse 10, the people of Bethlehem themselves are witnesses of Boaz and his deal to redeem Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of different forms of witnesses in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea behind them every time is that it's something that keeps talking after the person has left.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that knows about an agreement, knows about a truth, and even after the person is gone, it just keeps saying it, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: It's a constant, consistent refresher, repeating what's already been said, only absent the original speaker.
SPEAKER_00: And part of the reason he calls it a witness is again because Moses is dying.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Moses, you're not going to be here any longer to keep warning the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's a song.
SPEAKER_00: Give it to them so they can keep hearing your voice, even as they hear mine.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder from Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 31, verse, chapter 31, verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: Take this book of the law and put it by the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be therefore a witness against you.
SPEAKER_00: So the whole law is a witness.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, even today, while I'm yet alive with you, you've been rebellious against Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: How much more after my death?
SPEAKER_00: Moses knows it's only going to get worse.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, the thing to appreciate about this witness is that God chose to put it in the form of a song.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: Why did he put it in the form of a song?
SPEAKER_00: Why not another pile of rocks?
SPEAKER_00: Why a song?
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a couple reasons.
SPEAKER_00: One is because God himself created music.
SPEAKER_00: And he made music, and along with its attendant poetry, to be sticky.
SPEAKER_00: To be the kind of thing that rolls around in your head that you can't get rid of.
SPEAKER_00: It's an earworm.
SPEAKER_00: You want to stop hearing it and you can't.
SPEAKER_00: It's a special kind of mnemonic capacity to music.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that's how it's supposed to work against the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says back in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness, for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offsprings.
SPEAKER_00: They just won't be able to get rid of this song.
SPEAKER_00: As much as they try, as much as they want, it'll still be there in their register.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you parents know what this is like listening to your kids' music on repeat in the car.
SPEAKER_00: I know this right now.
SPEAKER_00: You just can't get frozen songs out of your head.
SPEAKER_00: They're there forever, and try as you might, they won't leave.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this song is.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that when they enter Canaan and they find rest and they start eating that milk and honey, and they are tempted to leave from the God who gave this land to them, that song will pop into their mind.
SPEAKER_00: And they'll remember, oh yeah, I was warned about this.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't worship that idol.
SPEAKER_00: I should worship the living and the true God.
SPEAKER_00: This song should be a reminder, a warning in an hour of temptation.
SPEAKER_00: And just as kind of an aside for a moment, ask yourself: is there a song that's like that for you, like a hymn, a Christian song that functions that way in your life?
SPEAKER_00: We got lots of them.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of good ones.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you one of mine personally that pops into my mind in a moment of temptation.
SPEAKER_00: When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the song is supposed to work for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That in their moment, when they are tempted to go the way of the world, when they are tempted to leave from their God, when they are tempted to forget all that he has done, to bless and to keep them, this song pops in and reminds them how good their God has been and what evil awaits them if they follow through with their apostasy.
SPEAKER_00: So the Song of Moses is both a history of Israel's failures, a testimony of God's faithfulness, and it is a witness, it's a warning to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it should work, I think, in its original context, but that's also how it should work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: As we apply it to ourselves today, and we will continue to do this over the course of the next few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: This is how it should work for us.
SPEAKER_00: That when you face a moment of temptation, when you are tempted to turn away to idolatry, this is the truth that should pop into your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And to keep you faithful to God.
SPEAKER_00: The witness of the song of Moses is meant to keep you pure for God and his worship.
SPEAKER_00: And it begins with an idol-slaying portrait of the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on from verse 5 and following to describe Israel's rebellion and God's anger in response to their rebellion, which hasn't even happened yet at this point.
SPEAKER_00: And then eventually God's future deliverance of the people of Israel against their enemies.
SPEAKER_00: But it begins in verses 1 through 4 just with a portrait of the glories of the character of God, the brilliant, magnetic, unique, and absorbing greatness of our God.
SPEAKER_00: It begins in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It's calling all of creation to be in the jury stand, to see that what he's about to say is true.
SPEAKER_00: This use of heaven and earth, it's a metonym, it's meant to capture Genesis 1.1.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, meaning everything, all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: So, Israel, wherever you go, wherever your foot trods, you won't be able to get away from this.
SPEAKER_00: All of creation will know that this is true, because they've all heard it from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 May my teaching drop as the rain, may my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass and like showers upon the herb.
SPEAKER_00: This is a sweet, poetic way of saying, let this be effective in their hearts, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let this take root and grow in them true eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is very much the kind of language that we see in Isaiah chapter 55, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
SPEAKER_00: This is just in Deuteronomy 32 a way of praying for that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, may it be that this truth so pierces their hearts that it plants a seed in there.
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus' parable of the soils, let them be the good soil that the seed lands in and springs up and grows a bounty, a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: May the song keep them from sin, from spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00: May give them life.
SPEAKER_00: And just as an aside, isn't that the heart of wisdom that we've been hearing about in Proverbs?
SPEAKER_00: A willingness to receive the instruction and wisdom of God, even when it's the correction of God, and to let that change us and grow in us, his fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this prayer is about at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, he says, For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: This is the very same language that we find in Exodus 34, when Moses is up on the mountain and God shows him his glory by proclaiming it.
SPEAKER_00: He goes by him and proclaims the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh, Yahweh, a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language here.
SPEAKER_00: I will proclaim the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: What Moses heard on the mountain, now you sing in the plains, the glory of the God of Israel, a revelation of the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then it builds into an imperative.
SPEAKER_00: For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, ascribe greatness to our God.
SPEAKER_00: Ascribe, meaning give to, render back to.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 29, verses 1 to 2.
SPEAKER_00: Ascribe, O mighty ones of heaven, ascribe glory to the Lord, ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name.
SPEAKER_00: And greatness, ascribe greatness to our God.
SPEAKER_00: Greatness is, I mean, it's a broad word.
SPEAKER_00: It means all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: Here, I think it's trying to grasp at God's magnificence, his splendor, his immensity, his beyondness, his power, his transcendence.
SPEAKER_00: You see this language come up in the Psalter over and over and over again, very end of the Psalter, Psalm 150, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him according to his excellent greatness.
SPEAKER_00: Or Psalm 145, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
SPEAKER_00: You should think of God as great as he is and praise him for as great as he is, but you cannot figure out how great he is.
SPEAKER_00: That greatness is what you ought to ascribe to God.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4, then, is just an encapsulation of what it means for God to be great.
SPEAKER_00: A description of that greatness that we should ascribe to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing to take away from this song is that as a reminder, it should turn you away from sin and idolatry toward the living God when you ascribe to God his own character.
SPEAKER_00: The first step of turning away from sin and temptation is not some bare recognition of who God is, but it's worship to God for who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that the antidote to apostasy is worship.
SPEAKER_00: The solution to sin is praise.
SPEAKER_00: The termination of temptation is exaltation.
SPEAKER_00: And the end of idolatry is a song to your God.
SPEAKER_00: When you are tempted, one of the greatest tools in your spiritual toolkit is a song, a praise, a hallelujah to your God.
SPEAKER_00: And how should you describe that God in his greatness when you sing to him?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what verse 4 tells us, and that's going to be just kind of a short little outline for us this evening.
SPEAKER_00: The song of the rock, to sing when you're tempted to turn.
SPEAKER_00: And the first aspect of this rock that you should see is the rock as he acts.
SPEAKER_00: The rock as he acts.
SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 4, the rock.
SPEAKER_00: His work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.
SPEAKER_00: This name, the rock.
SPEAKER_00: It's a name of enduring strength.
SPEAKER_00: It's a foundation, a solidity.
SPEAKER_00: It's a name that says, Israel, when you are tempted to look somewhere else for the kind of stability and help that you so long for in your journey along the way, look no further than the rock.
SPEAKER_00: The rock whose name is Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: The rock who bore you, the rock who encircled you, and the rock who keeps you.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only dependable one.
SPEAKER_00: This name is used for God five times in this short song.
SPEAKER_00: It's used again in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 2, in Hannah's song, 2 Samuel chapter 23, and David's last words.
SPEAKER_00: It would be laborious to describe to you all of the psalms that use the language of the rock to describe God.
SPEAKER_00: It's all over the Psalter and all over Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same message everywhere it's used.
SPEAKER_00: God is the rock because God is your refuge, because he is dependable, because he's trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason you know that first, he says, is because of what he does, how God acts.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the rock, his work is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: The word perfect there means without blemish, integris.
SPEAKER_00: Simply, God does nothing requiring repentance.
SPEAKER_00: If God does anything, it's a good thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: It describes God as he acts in creation, in providence.
SPEAKER_00: We say this when we sing, Jesus doeth all things well.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means for his work to be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But then he goes on to say, all his ways are justice.
SPEAKER_00: From Deuteronomy chapter 10, this concept of justice is that he's a God of justice who gives justice without partiality to the needy.
SPEAKER_00: To do something in a just way is to give someone what they are due.
SPEAKER_00: So God always gives what is due.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is God perfect in what he does in general with the world and in providence, he is perfect and righteous and just in what he does toward people, toward you, toward moral agents who deserve and don't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: The Psalms say that his throne is established in justice.
SPEAKER_00: He gives all men what they deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike inert, motionless idols, God is always working.
SPEAKER_00: And everything that he does is exactly what it should be.
SPEAKER_00: And you read over this quickly, I'm sure, when you read a passage like this and think, yeah, yeah, this is another one of those sort of lofty sentences about the character of God, but appreciate this was exactly the problem that Israel had faced.
SPEAKER_00: Right when they had gotten on the other side of the Red Sea, what did they do?
SPEAKER_00: You know what, God, your work wasn't quite perfect.
SPEAKER_00: When they were in the wilderness, you could have done something better than manna, don't you think?
SPEAKER_00: And they're going to do the same again.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that the very temptation that you and I face?
SPEAKER_00: To question the perfection of what God does.
SPEAKER_00: To shake our fist at heaven and say, this wasn't right, God.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we need a song like this to remind us the rock, his work is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Or as Psalm 119, verse 68 says, You are good and do good.
SPEAKER_00: Are you tempted to question what God has done?
SPEAKER_00: All his ways are justice.
SPEAKER_00: That's the rock as he acts.
SPEAKER_00: Next, it goes to the rock as he speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Not only are all of his ways justice, but he says a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, a God of faithfulness, that is a truth-telling, trustworthy, reliable God.
SPEAKER_00: It would be one thing for God to simply act in the world and say nothing, to commit himself verbally to no course of action.
SPEAKER_00: It's another thing entirely when God says, this is what I will do.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now he's on the hook.
SPEAKER_00: He either does it and is true, or he doesn't and is a liar.
SPEAKER_00: And God is a God of truth.
SPEAKER_00: He never lies.
SPEAKER_00: If he says it, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: He'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: And that cuts multiple ways for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says back in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, know that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God, same word, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We like that faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: God's also faithful on the other end, verse 10, and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them.
SPEAKER_00: He will not be slack with the one who hates him.
SPEAKER_00: He will repay him to his face.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, God will always keep his word.
SPEAKER_00: Whether that word is a word of judgment or a word of blessing, he'll keep it.
SPEAKER_00: He is a faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: You can bank on his word always.
SPEAKER_00: This is the positive way of saying his word is truth.
SPEAKER_00: But then he goes on to say it back in Deuteronomy 32 in a negative way.
SPEAKER_00: He says he's a God of faithfulness and without iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning there's no dishonesty in God, there's no injustice in his speech.
SPEAKER_00: God never speaks falsely or makes empty promises.
SPEAKER_00: So when God made this covenant with the people of Israel and said, if you obey, blessing, if you curse, or if you disobey, curses, he said, I mean to keep that word.
SPEAKER_00: As horrific as it might get.
SPEAKER_00: And it was time for them to see if he would keep his word.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we can appreciate how astounding God's faithfulness to his word is when we look at it through the lens of a parent.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a parent, then you know one of the hardest things is consistency in your speech, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: To just do what you say all the time, without exceptions.
SPEAKER_00: When we say one thing and do another, I mean, that's one of the hardest things for a kid.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder then they start testing it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Is mom and dad gonna get angry about this today?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't last time, but they said they would.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get away with it?
SPEAKER_00: Is my dad's promise true today?
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, God's word is true all day, every day.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is true at 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: And God's word is true at 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is true when the grape is on the vine.
SPEAKER_00: And God's word is true when the fields are empty.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is true always.
SPEAKER_00: He never says anything untrue.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you're tempted to sin, don't sing the song, Will God be faithful today?
SPEAKER_00: Sing the song, Great is Thy faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Lord unto me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the rock as he acts and the rock as he speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, in verse 4, he shows us the rock as he is.
SPEAKER_00: The rock as he is.
SPEAKER_00: Just and upright is he.
SPEAKER_00: The word for just, it's the normal word in the Old Testament for righteous.
SPEAKER_00: God is righteous, he defines righteousness, he doesn't conform to an external standard of righteousness, he defines what it is himself.
SPEAKER_00: And what God says is righteous is that which glorifies him the most.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever glorifies him perfectly, that's what's righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And God does.
SPEAKER_00: He is morally upright.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word upright here.
SPEAKER_00: Morally right, correct, pure.
SPEAKER_00: God is never defiled by sinful motives.
SPEAKER_00: He is holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: He is righteous in all his ways and perfect in all his ways.
SPEAKER_00: He is in his very character that God, even as he is in his actions.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he says all throughout the Psalter that he is a God of righteousness and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm chapter 11, verse 7, for Yahweh is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: He loves righteous deeds.
SPEAKER_00: The upright shall behold his face.
SPEAKER_00: Or Psalm chapter 25, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, not righteous.
SPEAKER_00: There is none who is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: No, not one.
SPEAKER_00: God, in who he is, is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that this God with whom you have to do is the exact opposite of sin and is himself the greatest reality, the most exalted, the most glorious person.
SPEAKER_00: And taken all together, what you should get from this is that whatever you are like toward God, God is perfect toward you.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you are tempted to betray God, you need to know that he never earned that.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: What he deserves, what he should get from you and from me is, well, a heart that loves more than anything this God.
SPEAKER_00: The character of this rock is such that he has never and will never give you the slightest reason to distrust him.
SPEAKER_00: So, Israel, when they walk off into idolatry, and oh they will, they can never point the finger back to heaven and say, You did something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: There was something wrong in you, or in what you did, or what you said that put me here.
SPEAKER_00: No, the fault cannot be in God.
SPEAKER_00: God deserves your loyalty and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: He has not earned betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: And the wonder of this God and his steadfast love and his faithfulness and his compassion is that even though he has earned your full allegiance, you have not earned his.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, this God whom you have betrayed over and over and over again, this God who you wake up blaspheming in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: This God against whom you have sinned only and done what is evil in his sight, this God has set his loyal love on you.
SPEAKER_00: We the faithless, he the faithful, we the unrighteous, he the righteous, and yet he says, I will love you.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy chapter 7, he says to Israel, listen, it's not because you are any more in number than the peoples of this world that I chose you and set my love on you, it's just because I love you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of God he is.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of the gospel is that even though God deserves our perfect obedience and worship, and even though we deserve his right condemnation, he instead gives us the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us what Christ deserves.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ on the cross receives what we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that this just, righteous, faithful rock is no soft rock.
SPEAKER_00: He is the solid rock.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only reliable source of truth and life and health and joy.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that this God does, your very God, who you will interact with this week, this God, everything he does is crying out, trust in me, believe in me, worship me.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: I am reliable, I am dependable, even when everything else is not.
SPEAKER_00: And I was just commending him for how he has handled it.
SPEAKER_00: And his response via text was God is good.
SPEAKER_00: His character is incomparable.
SPEAKER_00: He is worthy of all my trust.
SPEAKER_00: Can you say the same?
SPEAKER_00: The rock, his work is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: All his ways are justice.
SPEAKER_00: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
SPEAKER_00: Can you sing that song to yourself?
SPEAKER_00: In the moment of temptation, what will you say?
SPEAKER_00: What song will you sing?
SPEAKER_00: The siren song of this world or the song that we're about to sing?
SPEAKER_00: On Christ, the solid rock I stand.
SPEAKER_00: All other ground is sinking sand.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, help us to sing like that.
SPEAKER_00: May this be the pulse of our hearts, the reminder and the witness that continually plays in our minds that you are a God worthy of all our trust.
SPEAKER_00: May we honor you as such.
SPEAKER_00: May we worship you as such.
SPEAKER_00: May we sing to you as such.
SPEAKER_00: And may you be pleased as a worthy God to work in us and to keep us until the day when we see you face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us this week of your good character that we might follow you in obedience and in love.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_01: 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.