Well, it's good to be back with
you, and I want to turn this week for the message to the chapter
that Stephen read to us earlier, Deuteronomy chapter 32. What has prompted it is going
about in the world, and we interact with this world. We enjoy the
things of God's creation that are beautiful. We see them all
around us. We see the signs of God everywhere. The whole place
is just brimming with the fingerprint of God. The fact that God has made all
things and sustains all things is wonderful. But also, this
world is not just the beautiful things that we see, but it's
the kingdom of Satan that we see all around us. And when we
interact with this world, we see how vain and empty it is. We listened to a sermon while
we were away, and I know you did as well, of Gabe Stolnicka,
preaching on the vanity, the emptiness of this world. And
it truly is, as you cross paths with it, as you interact with
it, you see how vain and empty it is. Vain conversation. We were on a bus last week while
we were away on holiday, and there were two elderly gentlemen
sitting on adjacent seats to us, and you couldn't help hearing
the conversation. And we said to one another, whispering
to one another, how vain and empty, how utterly vacuous was
the conversation. It was just, just, you think,
there's men got to that age, and is this the best that they've
learned? Is this the best thing that they've
come across? The pleasures that this world
delights in. We look at it and we find it
so empty and vain. The things that they aspire to.
Oh, if only I could have all of these riches and like that
rich fool, not realizing that God will say to them, thou fool,
this night your soul is required of you. the things that this
world, this society, this kingdom of Antichrist values, the things
that it treasures, the stores that it lays up for itself in
this world where moth and rust corrupt and cause to decay. And
what does it end in? What is the end of it all? The
end of it all, Stephen mentioned in his prayer, the broad way
that leads where? To destruction. It leads to destruction. What a complete irony it is. Think about it. What a complete
irony to be such, mankind, you and me, to be such a sublime
creation of God, made in the image of God, a sentient being
with the traces of the morality of God in our very being, the
justice of God, the law of God, the righteousness of God, the
fact that we think and we speak and the image of God within us,
to be such a sublime creation of God, and yet in our wisdom,
the wisdom of this world, to reduce mankind to an impossible
result of a pointless accident. I choose my words very carefully. The whole world is completely
taken up with the fact that there's no need for a God because it's
all a huge, great accident. It all happened just... You take
all the atoms in the universe and you give them a great big
shake, and billions and billions and billions of years, and the
end result is absolutely inevitable. Out pops life, and here it is.
It's not because of God, it's because of just the... It's impossible. And those that propound it know
it's impossible. It's utterly and completely impossible. And we know why they say it and
why they propound it. Because they do not like to retain
God in their knowledge because they are accountable to God.
For it is appointed to man to die once and then the judgment.
What an irony to be such a sublime creation and yet live in such
a futile, empty way. The history of Israel in the
Old Testament illustrates this very graphically for us in the
scriptures. Israel was so blessed amongst all other people. What
advantage, says Paul to the Romans, what advantage is there in being
a Jew? In Romans 3 verse 1, much every way. Why? Because of all
the peoples of the world, this little nation was favored of
God because he gave them his word. They were so blessed, yet
they were so prone to stray from God. They were so blessed with
the truth of God, What a blessing it is in these days, what a blessing
to be blessed with the truth of God and yet so prone in the
flesh and the weakness of it to stray from God. To be guests
at the Lord's banqueting table. I'm not just talking about communion,
I'm using a metaphor. To be guests at the most sumptuous
banquet of spiritual things. as the Lord's people, yet preferring
to put our snouts in the trough with the pigs, the pigs will.
Are we no different? Israel was like that, we're no
different. It's only God's Spirit imparting God's Word to us that
will keep us from the same error that Israel constantly fell into. In verse 46 of this chapter 32
is our text, even though I'm not going to get anywhere near
there, but in verse 46 Moses is concluding what he's saying.
He says, set your hearts unto all the words which I testify
among you this day. and teach them to your children.
Set your hearts to these words. So I've called this message,
Set Your Hearts Unto God's Word. Set your hearts there. What I
want to see today is this applied particularly, Moses applies it
particularly to chapters 32 and 33 of Deuteronomy, but I want
to look just at the first part of chapter 32. And I want to
see first of all the background to these chapters, these chapters
32 and 33. We might come back next week
for some more from these chapters. The blessings of the Lord's inheritance
the tendency to forsake God, and that call to faithfulness.
Set your hearts unto God's word. The background to this was the
children of Israel about to go into the promised land. This
is the fifth book of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. This is the fifth book of Moses,
the fifth book that he wrote. And in it we have the history
of faith, right from creation, right down through the patriarchs
to the children of Israel being bond servants in Egypt, and being
in bondage, and God raising up Moses to bring them out of bondage. And it came to its climax with
the Passover, on that Passover night, when they did come out
of Egypt, because the Egyptians drove them out, said get away
from us, because the angel of death from God had come through
the land, and every firstborn in that land was slain, with
one exception. In the houses of the Israelites,
a lamb had already died, and its blood was painted on the
doorpost and the lintel. And when the angel of death came
through, he saw the blood. And he didn't need for anybody
else to die, because one had already died. And therein is
the Gospel. Because the Lamb is not a little
baby sheep, but the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And they came out
of Egypt. And they went into the wilderness,
heading for the promised land, the land of Canaan, the land
that God had promised to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, to
their forefathers. And He gave them a fiery law. He gave them a strict law, a
do this and live law. He gave them that law, but in
amongst it all, He gave them the gospel. He gave them the
tabernacle worship, which was a picture for the temple worship,
which was how sinners must be right with God. How should a
man be just with God? Like this, because it all pictured
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he promised them
blessings in Canaan, in the promised land, a land flowing with milk
and honey. But they didn't believe him.
These people who were so singularly blessed amongst all people on
the planet, they didn't believe him. And they sent spies to spy
out the land and they came back with a terrible tale of what
a wonderful land it was, but how we'll never take it because
the people are too big for us. Was not the God of the universe
on their side? Was not the God of the universe
telling them to go and take it for he was with them? And they
didn't believe. And they said to Moses, why have
you brought us here? It would have been better if we'd stayed
in Egypt. And God cursed that people. And every one of them
from 20 years old and upwards, with the exception of Moses,
Well, even he didn't go in to the Promised Land for another
reason. But with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, everyone
from 20 years old and upwards was to wander in that wilderness
for 40 years till they'd all died. And then, when they get
there, this is where Deuteronomy is. And Deuteronomy literally
means second law. It's a reiteration of the law
that God had given. Moses repeats the law. They've
done their 40 years of wandering and now he repeats the law of
God to them throughout this book of Deuteronomy until we get to
chapters 32 and 33. Chapter 34 is just a summary
of the final end, the death of Moses. But chapters 32 and 33
Here, we see the Gospel. The Gospel is clearly reiterated,
along with warnings. What are these things for? You've
heard this quoted many times, Romans 15 verse 4. Whatsoever
things, these things, were written aforetime, were written for our
learning. for our learning, today, that
we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have
hope. Let's see what we can get from
this chapter 32. First of all, what I want you
to see and what Moses is bringing to the people of God, the nominal
people of God, which contain the true people of God. Israel
was just a picture of the true people of God. The Israel of
God is the people of God without any barriers of race, or language,
ethnicity, in any way whatsoever. It's a number, a multitude that
no man can number that God chooses to save. The Lord has an inheritance. Let's see what are the blessings
of being those who know the living God and the gospel of his grace.
First of all, what's the greatest blessing that God can bestow
upon you? is to show you that you are numbered
amongst the people of God. Is it not? You look around at
this vain world, is that not the greatest blessing? I will
show to this one, this one was born in her in Zion, this one
was born in her, this one was born, to show to individuals
out of the whole of humanity the truth of God, the truth of
eternal life, the truth of eternal righteousness, the truth of the
gospel of grace, to show you that you are numbered amongst
the people of God, to show that your name Your name is written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, for there's a judgment coming, and
that judgment is terrible on sin, and it's the just judgment
of God upon sin. But you read Revelation 20, it
doesn't fall on those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. What is it to be numbered amongst
the people of God? Look at verse 8 of chapter 32
for me. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
when He separated the sons of Adam, He made a distinction amongst
the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel, princes with God. For the Lord's portion is His
people. Do you hear that? The Lord's portion is his people. The Lord's particular possession
is his people. The people that he has saved
by his grace, oh, to be numbered amongst the Lord's people. The
Lord's portion is his people. Jacob, the sinner, is made Israel,
prince with God. Jacob, of which we are all Jacob,
if you're the children of God, if you're in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Jacob is your name. We are Jacob. We are sinners
saved by grace. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. God's prized possession. The
purpose of all creation is that all things, read it in Ephesians
chapter 1, all things should be brought together in Christ,
in eternal glory. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Look where he found his people,
verse 10. He found him, his people, Jacob,
in a desert land, a barren land. in the waste-howling wilderness,
in the empty vanity of this world. He led him about, he instructed
him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. The apple of your
eye is that tender bit in the middle where if somebody tries
to poke you in it, you cannot but do other than fight it off
and blink and flinch away from it. And God is like that with
his people. He will not have anybody touch
his people. He kept him as the apple of his
eye, as an eagle, which is a bird most ferocious when it comes
to looking after its young. The eagle flutters over its nest,
over its young, spreads its wings across them, takes them, bears
them up on its wings. If there's any threat, the eagle,
with its huge, great ability, takes its chicks away to safety. So the Lord does with his people.
So the Lord alone did lead him, Jacob, his people. And there
was no strange God with him, no false God. This is the true
God of the universe. He made him ride on the high
places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the
fields. And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil
out of the flinty rock. Providential care every step
of the way. Butter of kind of cows, and milk
of sheep, and fat of lambs. It's talking about providential
care for his people. God singled his people out from
sinful mankind to be God's special possession by sovereign grace
alone. He took them from a hopeless
condition. As Ephesians 2 verse 12 says,
ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. This is what you were before you heard the truth and
embraced it. Strangers from the covenants of promise. They were
nothing to do with you. You didn't have a part in them.
You had no hope, you were without God in the world, but you are
put in the providential sovereign grace of God, the providential
care of God. This is why it says in Romans
8, 28, we know He causes all things to work together for good
to them who love God, who are the called according to His purpose. Don't think that you have to
do things to make things happen to the good for you. For God
causes it. Think what Abraham did. God promised
Abraham a son. And Abraham said, it's taking
an awful long time. I can't let this go on much longer.
I've got to do something about it myself. And Sarah said, well,
there's my handmaid Hagar. Let's go and have a son by her.
And so they did. Abraham went and followed his
and Sarah's own reasoning and not wait for God. to show what
he would do. And when he was as good as dead,
a hundred years old, God fulfilled his promise. He gave him that
son, his only Isaac. He gave him that son of promise,
that son which so pointed to the line from which the gospel
of grace, that Christ would come and save his people from their
sins, that we might have a possession in eternity. but were so prone
in the flesh to slip. Have your feet, have mine, well
nigh slipped?" The Psalmist, Psalm 73, that Psalm of Asaph,
he says, my feet had well nigh slipped from the faith, because
he'd got so Frustrated with trying to live the life of the children
of God, he got so frustrated with it. I can't wait any longer,
I need something for myself. Like the prodigal son, Father,
give me my inheritance. I want it now. I can't wait until
your time. Give me my inheritance now. And
he went away. And when he had wasted all of
his living, when he'd wasted all of his inheritance in riotous
living, when he'd wasted it on fair weather friends. Then things
got hard and he came to his senses. Have you come to your senses?
Will you come to your senses and still know that God is your
Father? If I am a joint heir with Christ,
the kingdom of God is my inheritance in Him. Whatever else could you
aspire to? He will take care of everything
else. Set your heart on things above where Christ is. Lay up
treasure in heaven where moth and rust doesn't corrupt. Don't
worry about the things of every day. Look at the garden, look
at the flowers of the field. Did we clothe them? Did we dress
them up? Did we paint them? Did we make
adornments for them? No. It's all done. The birds
of the air, look at the birds of the air. God's fed them. God's cared for them. He is the
heavenly father of his people. Is there any richer blessing
than to be in him, to be one of his people, when you look
at the vanity of this world? And secondly, What a blessing
it is to be showered, and I use that word advisedly, showered
with God's doctrine. Look at verses 1 to 4. You see,
the emptiness of this world, the vanity, the emptiness that
you hear all around you, is because of a lack of wisdom from God. When the world in its wisdom
knew not God, That's what Paul says. The world in its own wisdom
knew not God. Its own wisdom taught it stupid
things, which because of its sinful unbelief, it chose to
believe and to follow. It's empty because it knows nothing
of the doctrine of God. Look at these verses one to four.
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the
words of my mouth. God is speaking. God, the Creator,
is speaking. You know, when it comes to, people
say, oh, I haven't got faith to believe in a Creator. Well,
no, you haven't. You haven't got the faith of God. If you're
in your flesh and just in your sins and you will not believe,
then yes, I know. I know. You can't believe. By
the same token, I can't believe the impossibility of blind evolution. I just cannot believe it. I just
cannot believe. I mean, people who say that order
came out of nothingness, I think it was Malcolm, wasn't he, put
on a Facebook Some of you are nodding, you saw it. To say that
order came out of confusion, and I can't remember the rest
of it, perhaps he'll send it to us again. But he said, I just
haven't got the faith to believe such things. No, God made it
all. God has spoken. Our God has spoken. Give ear, listen, O ye heavens,
and I will speak, says God. Hear, O earth, the words of my
mouth, wake up and listen. The conversation of the world
is so empty because they refuse to hear the wisdom of God. His doctrine, my doctrine, shall
drop as the rain. That's why I used the word showered
with it. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. What is doctrine? Oh, dry, dusty,
horrible old doctrine. No! Glorious, glorious, sweet. Do you know the word doctrine
comes from the word, the root word is to receive or reception,
that which is received. The doctrine is that which is
received from God. Doctrine is that which God is
pleased to show you. Paul said in Galatians, he said,
when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. to give me the
doctrine of His Son, because in His Son is all doctrine. What is doctrine? It is Christ.
There is no other doctrine than Christ. Christ is all. He is
in all, and before all, and in everything. It's teaching of
the truth, eternal truth, the truth of life. What is it that
makes us conscious, sentient beings? It's the truth about
God, and it drops down as rain from God to His people. He showers
it on you. What a blessing! You know, we
say, oh, we don't like the rain. Ah, you wait till it hasn't rained
for three or four weeks. I know we've had some pretty
heavy rain the last two or three days, and the garden is much
appreciating it. But before that, there were three
weeks of fairly dry weather, and according to the neighbor
who was looking after the garden, it was starting to look quite
like a parched desert in places out there, just so, so dry. How much we appreciate the rain
when we know the consequences of no rain. Well, so it is with
truth. You know, God said to Amos, the days are coming when
there's going to be a famine in the land. There's going to
be no food, no water. I'm not talking about literal
food and water, he says. I'm talking about a famine of
the Word of God. Well, here to his people, my
doctrine shall drop as the rain. What does the rain do? It refreshes,
doesn't it? It quenches thirst. It softens
the ground. It invigorates because life,
you see life springing up. It causes to flourish the tender
herb and the grass. In my garden I wish it wouldn't
cause to flourish quite so many of the weeds that it does, but
nevertheless it's the same effect. It causes to flourish the tender
herb and the grass, and it's speaking of frail humanity, unable
to satisfy itself and dependent on God to speak. This is the
blessing on God's people. What a blessing to know that
we're His by sovereign grace, to know that it's Him that chose
us and not we that chose Him, to know that it's Him that put
us in His Son before the beginning of time, and to know the truth
of life and eternity that He reveals to us in His Word. to
know that we are His, to know that He is mine and I am His. We are His, and to be taught
His truth concerning life. Look in verse 3, to hear His
name published. I will publish the name of the
Lord. It's not just to publish the
name of the Lord, as in the letters that form the word, the syllables
that make up the name, but to publish everything about that
name, to publish who he is, to publish what he has done in righteousness
and in mercy, in the gospel of his grace. That's what it is
to publish the name of the Lord. Look back at Exodus 34 if you
can, if not just listen while I read it. and verse five, Exodus
34 and verse five. This is back before the 40 years
of wanderings. The Lord descended in the cloud
and stood with him. Moses stood with him there. The
law had just been given on the tablets of stone. And proclaimed
the name of the Lord. God proclaimed, what did he proclaim? The Lord passed by before him
and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children,
unto the third and fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head towards the earth and worshipped. And he said, if now
I have found grace in thy sight. See, this is the blessing of
God's people, to have found grace in the sight of the Lord. To
have found the grace of the gospel, of the good news, that my sin,
which would take me down to hell justly in the judgment of God,
has been dealt with, has been paid for. has been atoned for
in what Christ came and did. That's what it is to publish
the name of the Lord, to publish the gospel of the Lord, to publish
the truth of the Lord, that in His Son, in whom is everything,
in His Son is the righteousness of God established, is the justice
of God preserved. He says He will by no means clear
the guilty, and in His Son the guilty do not go free, for in
His Son the sins of His people were punished and paid for there,
in the Gospel. As it says in Psalm 85 and verse
10, mercy and truth are met together. In the Gospel, in the message
of the Gospel, the mercy of God meets the truth of the justice
of God, and they're both happy. They're not in conflict. The
righteousness of God and the peace of God. How can God show
peace to sinners? In the gospel of His grace, where
His righteousness is not offended. They have kissed each other.
Verse four, in whom is it? He is the rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. The rock, the rock. What is Moses
talking about here? He's talking about the foundation
stone of the city of God. The chief cornerstone. Behold,
I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. This is Christ. It's a marvelous
work in our eyes. It's illustrated again and again
through the scriptures. This rock, the wise man built
his house upon the rock. The wise man built his life upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. The foolish man upon the sand
and emptiness of this world. He is the anchor for the soul.
When the ship is in the storm, what does it need? It needs its
anchor fastened round a great big rock. And then it won't move.
An anchor for the soul. We have an anchor that keeps
the soul steadfast and sure as the billows roll. Founded on
that rock. And who is that rock? That Moses
Moses, 1500 years before Christ or thereabouts was writing about,
1 Corinthians 10 verse 4 tells us, that rock was Christ. It is Christ. You see, Moses
looked to Christ. Let me just, I'll be quick with
this because I don't want to run over. Hebrews 11, let me
read this to you. Hebrews 11 verse 23, speaking
of Moses and his faith, by faith Moses blah blah blah, Moses chose
rather, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
he could have been, he could have had all the wealth and privilege
of the royal family of Egypt, the premier empire of the world
of that day, but he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather instead, to suffer affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
What was in your mind Moses? Paul tells us, esteeming the
reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt,
for he had respect to the recompense of the reward. Moses was looking
to Christ. The word that God gave him was
pointing to Christ. He saw Christ in all those temple
sacrifices that were specified by God. He looked to Christ.
In Him alone is peace with God, through redemption in His blood.
What liberty that brings! This eternal inheritance, this
bliss of eternal fellowship with God, who is the source of life,
this is the blessing to know these things. William Cowper
it's spelt, but a lot of people insist it's Cooper, but he said,
he is the free man whom the truth makes free and all are slaves
beside. And he's alluding to that text
where Jesus said in John 8 36, if the son, meaning himself,
Therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. There's a freedom that men and
women think is freedom, but in actual fact it is slavery and
bondage. But the truth of God brings true
freedom. Verse 5, they have corrupted
themselves, those who oppose Christ, those who oppose God,
they have corrupted themselves. How perverse and crooked and
foolish and unwise to repay God with such rebellion, to convince
yourself that He is not, as it says in verse 4, perfect. in truth and just and right in
his judgment. Convincing yourself that the
world, the lie of the kingdom of Satan is true when you know,
when you've experienced, when you've tasted what it is to be
numbered amongst the people of God. And so there's a warning
against forsaking God. Look in verse 15. but there's
all the blessings of being God's people and having his truth showered
upon you. But, Jeshurun waxed fat. Jeshurun is Jerusalem, or the
nominal people of God. The Jews, basically, is what
it's talking about. Those who were nominally the
people of God, they waxed fat and kicked. Thou art wax and
fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then
he forsook God which made him. and lightly esteemed the rock
of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy
with strange gods, and abominations provoked they him to anger. They
sacrificed unto devils, not to God, to gods whom they knew not,
to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the rock that begat thee thou
art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. Whilst
God's true children will never be lost, we have to ask ourselves,
am I deceived? Am I deceived? Did I have a false
assurance of true faith that time and eternity will ultimately
prove to have been counterfeit? You know, the disciples who were
with Jesus, the 12, when he said, one of you shall betray me, they
all said, Lord, is it I? Is it I? I can't believe it's
me. Is it me? when one of them, and only one
of them, truly was a devil. Jesus said, you 12 I have chosen
and one of you is a devil. And none of the others saw it.
Am I deceived? Am I deceived? Let me ask myself.
Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. You see, the
only assurance of faith, the only assurance that we're the
people of God is faith itself. The only assurance that I'm God's
child is that I believe the word of God and the truth of God.
Jeshurun, we read, waxed fat. The nominal people of God, how
would we interpret waxed fat? They became self-satisfied, self-righteous,
well-pleased with themselves, and in the process they forsook
God. Then he forsook God which made
him. Jeremiah the prophet, quite a
long time later, 800 years later than this, says, Quoting what God gave him to
say, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken
me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Lightly esteemed the
rock of salvation. Having tasted that we're the
people of God, and known the truth of God, and been directed
in all our ways by Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. He who is made unto us by God
the Father, he is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. Have we lightly esteemed him? That's what he's talking about.
Have we lightly esteemed the only rock, the only foundation
stone of the salvation of the Zion, city of our God. Ask yourself,
me, ask myself, have we been enticed and seduced by the lies
of Antichrist's kingdom to leave the true God? We should always
beware. Look at verses 28 to 33. Verse 28, they are a nation void
of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. Oh
that they were wise. He's speaking about these people,
nominal people of God who've gone away from him. Oh that they
were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider
their latter end. How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them?
What he's talking about is that the thing that the others, the
kingdom of Antichrist, those that were not the people of God,
trusted in, when it came to it in the battle that they had experienced,
it's It's one and two of the true people of God put to flight
thousands of the rest because their rock had sold them. Their
rock was no good for them. The Lord had shut them up. For
verse 31, their rock, the rock, the thing that the world, this
false vain world trusts in, is not as our rock. For our rock
is the God of the universe, even our enemies themselves being
judges. Their vine is the vine of Sodom and of the fields of
Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall,
their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons
and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store
with me and sealed among my treasures? See what a vile, worthless kingdom
it is. What a worthless exchange to
forfeit the blessings of the kingdom of God for that. What
a vile kingdom to embrace. And what a just end awaits, verse
39. See now that I, even I, am he. And there is no God with me.
I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my
hand to heaven and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering
sword and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance
to mine enemies and will reward them that hate me." You see,
God is a God of justice and of judgment. The broad way really
does lead to destruction eternally. Do you see the stark contrast
set before you? If you've professed the faith
of God's elect, as the hymn writer Dear wrote, the mariner's mad
part I played, who sees yet strikes the shelf. Let me translate that
into words that some of the younger ones of you might understand.
The sailor, the mariner, you know the last thing you want
to do as a sailor in the sea is run aground on the rocks,
on the shelf. You don't want to do that because
you will get shipwrecked and you'll get drowned. And he's
saying, there I am, the mariner, the sailor, and I see the rocks,
and yet I don't do anything about it. I still sail straight onto
it and get shipwrecked. Knowing. Having tasted the good
things of God's kingdom. Having heard the warnings against
the broad way to destruction. Oh, that God's grace would keep
us from that folly. So Moses calls the people to
faithfulness, and I'll finish with this. It's in verse 46,
and it was the text. Set your hearts unto all the
words which I testify among you this day. Set your hearts, not
just your minds, your hearts, your emotion, your affections,
set your life's ambition and hopes and aspirations to all
the words of God's book. This is Moses' call. to the people
of God, beware of that slippery way. It's like Joshua's call
in Joshua 24. It's always needed throughout
history. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. Not that it's in your power,
for God is the one who makes his people willing in the day
of his power. You see, you say, and you say
quite rightly, I can't do it on my own. I'm too weak in this
flesh. And that's true. You are weak
in the flesh. Strength is not in the arm of
the flesh, but in God's Spirit. He says, doesn't he, when Paul
knew his weakness, when we know our weakness, God says to his
people, my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength, God's
strength, is made perfect in your weakness. God's strength
is made perfect in human weakness. He says in Philippians, he says,
work out, you people, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. Oh, oh, oh, that means I've got
a work to do. But he says, no, for it is God
who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Follow him, keep following him, keep looking to him. Thou will
keep him, says Isaiah 26 verse three, thou will keep him in
perfect peace. in every situation of life. In
every situation of life. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Set your heart to all the
words. How should we go on? Hebrews
12 verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. By his grace, I trust, if we're
his true children, we'll be kept to walk in his ways and know
the blessings of being his people in this fallen, sinful world
that seems ever to wax worse and worse. Amen.