Well, it's good to see you all
out this evening. I remember those who requested prayer. Crow's
brother, David, out in Washington, died. I remember that family
in prayer. And also, we just learned that
Debbie's and my former sister-in-law She was married to Randy, her
name is Susie. She's got late stage cancer and
it doesn't look good, like she's going to make it, maybe not through
the night. So we just found out about it. But she was a sweet
girl and we hated it for her and her family. Her name was
Susie Woo, I think. She was married to a boy, a young
fellow. I remember them and I was more
in the yard, and they would come out on the porch with a phone
and said, somebody wants to talk to you. So I come inside, and
it was Marvin Stoniker, talking just as good as you could imagine,
just lucid and funny and cutting up and carrying on, just like
he always did. He said he wanted to call the ornery fellow, so
he figured he'd call me. Well, I was utterly amazed, flabbergasted,
because the day before, two days before Gabe had said they didn't
think it was going to be any good. They thought it was a bad
deal. And there he was talking to me.
So I was thankful for that. No new word on Larry Brown. For me, it was like a miraculous
recovery, you know. Joe Terrell's church up in Iowa
Community Grace Church. They had a bad flooding up in
Iowa and the church got flooded real bad. The basement got six
feet of water in it. So remember those folks. I don't
know what they're going to do. Whether they're going to sell
that old building or try to redo it or fix it up or whatever.
But remember those folks who lost their pastor and lost their
church in one year in a matter of a couple of months. So remember
them in your prayer. They're a fine group of people
that I've preached for many times. Let's begin our worship service
tonight with hymn number 40, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions
they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever
will be. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed thy hand hath
provided. Great is thine faithfulness,
Lord, unto me. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, join
with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy,
and love. Great is thy faithfulness. Grace, thy faithfulness, morning
by morning, new mercies I see. All I have need. your hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Pardon for sin and a peace that
endureth. Thine own dear presence to and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand
beside. Great is thy faithfulness Great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Hymn number 62, crown hymn with
many crowns. 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee. and hail him as thy matchless
king through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight. But downward bends his wandering
eye at mysteries so bright. Crown him the Lord of life, who
triumphed o'er the grave, who rose victorious to the strife
for those he came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. Crown Him the Lord of heaven,
One with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given
from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, for
Thou for us hast done. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Now if your Bible's turned to
Exodus chapter 34, verses 9 through 17, the title of my message tonight is
Marvelous and Terrible Things. Verse 9 of chapter 34, and he
said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my
Lord, I pray thee, go among us. for it is a stiff-necked people,
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as thine inheritance. And he said, Behold, I make a
covenant before all the people that I will do marvels such as
have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation, and
all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the
Lord, for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Observe
thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out
before thee the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Pezzorite,
the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy
their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their
groves. for thou shalt worship no other
god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with
the inhabitants of the land, and thou go whoring after other
gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and
thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and their daughters go a-whoring after their gods
and make their sons to go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt
make thee no molten gods. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven,
blessed Creator, Sustainer, Consummator of all things, You who rule in
Heaven and Earth and among the inhabitants of the Earth, doing
Your will, none can stay Your hand, and none can say unto you,
what doest thou? Your dominion is from everlasting
to everlasting. Thou art God, and there is none
beside thee, none like unto thee. We praise you for who you are,
and we thank you that you have revealed to us what we are, and
created in us a thirst and a hunger for Jesus Christ. We know that
was not natural to us. We were not born with that. But
we know that you have made your people willing in the day of
your power. You've given them a new heart and a new mind. Made
them a new creature. A creature that wants to look
to Christ in all things and trust Him. Father, we pray for those
who are sick. Pray for the Crow family, the
loss of David. We pray for Susan Wu and her
husband and her family as they set vigil with her concerning
his cancer. We're thankful for the good news
from Marvin Stoniker. We continue to pray for Larry
Brown and for Brother Randy as he's starting his second round
of chemotherapy. We pray you'll be with him. We
ask, Lord, tonight, for those who are away from us and traveling,
you've given them traveling grace to make a savory home to us.
We thank you that Arlene has recovered and doing well. We
ask, Lord, if you'd be pleased tonight to give us your grace
once again, cause us to see the glories of Jesus Christ. Let
us, by your grace, worship you in spirit and in truth. We ask
this in the name of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Moses, having been blessed to
learn of God's glory, having bowed to the ground and worshipped
and having heard that glory involved showing mercy and grace to whom
God will, Moses speaks to God, but he doesn't speak to God in
presumption, but as a needy sinner. By all accounts, God had shown
mercy and grace to Moses time and time again, but no sinner
takes such grace for granted but finds himself often at mercy's
door. Moses' first words after God's
glory has been revealed to him, he says, If now I have found
favor in thy sight. If now I have found favor in
thy sight. If indeed he has found grace
in God's sight, he makes a request. He asks God to go among his people,
dwell with them, be in the midst of them lest they go completely
astray. Thank God that under the new
covenant Christ dwells in His people by His Spirit and every
awakened sinner knows that he would be as a beast if the restraining
hand of grace were lifted from him but for a moment. So Moses'
reason for asking this of God is an acknowledgment of that
fact that these are a stiff-necked people. They are obdurate and
obstinate and they're in constant need and will be in constant
need for sin, for pardon for sin and iniquity, and their only
hope is that they be God's heirs. He said, let them be your inheritance,
your inheritance. Over in Romans chapter 8, verse
15 through 17, this is the promise of the new covenant as children
of God. Romans chapter 8 and verse 15
says this, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage, again
to fear but you've received the spirit of adoption whereby you
cry Abba Father the spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God and if children then heirs heirs
of God and join heirs with Jesus Christ if so be ye have suffered
with him that we may also be glorified together the whole
book of Galatians talks about us being heirs according to promise. In other words, Christ in Hebrews
chapter 7 was the mediator of the new covenant and by his death
that covenant was ratified and we who are in the will and testament
of God received all that God had for us, all spiritual blessings
in Jesus Christ. We received that because we are
heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Jesus Christ in the
desire of Moses, let this company, let this people, let these twelve
tribes who have been delivered out of Egypt, let them be your
inheritance. Let them be your heirs. The Lord's
answer to Moses is found in verse 10. He said, Behold, I will make
a covenant before all the people i will do marvels such as have
not been done in all the earth nor in any nation and all the
people among which thou art shall see the work of the lord for
it is a terrible thing that i will do with thee now what he's talking
about is Historically is the journey that they're about to
embark on that will take 40 years for them to get there. They will
wander in this wilderness because of their sin and iniquity. That
doesn't change. They remain a stiff-necked people.
We're studying Jeremiah just before the destruction of Jerusalem.
We're studying Isaiah. If they were around our dollars
as people, nothing has changed. Nothing has changed, but he's
talking about the covenant that he made with them before when
he gave the Ten Commandments, and he's going to renew that
covenant that had previously made, the one that they broke.
With what follows, the Lord asserts that the result will be the same.
The stiff-necked people will break the covenant a thousand
times over in their 40 years' journey to the land of promise
and will continue to do so while inhabited in the land. This is
the underlying meaning of his promise to do marvelous and terrible
things. Marvelous and terrible things
is covered faithfully in the book of Numbers beginning with
the book also of Deuteronomy. The people will see wondrous
things. They will see Korah and Dathan
being swallowed up by the earth because they wanted to be priests
and they weren't priests. what they'll see, they'll see
Moses take his rod and hit a rock and it will gush forth with water.
They will find that that rock, that singular stone, that stone
that gives little water, that rock will follow them, according
to 1 Corinthians 10, will follow them throughout the desert. And
Paul said that rock was Jesus Christ. They'll see, that's a
wonder, that's an amazing thing. they'll see people bitten by
fiery serpents because they despised the manna. They said, Our soul
loatheth this light bread, and God sent serpents to bite them.
And as the people were dying who were bitten in pain and anguish,
they cried out, and God said, What shall I do? Moses said,
What shall I do? And He said, Make thee a brazen
serpent, and raise it up on a pole. And everybody who looks at that
serpent who's been bitten will be healed. They saw that. They saw the fiery serpents,
they felt their bite and they looked at that serpent and wonder
of wonders the pain and anguish of that snake bite went away.
And they were healed. What a thing. They'll hear Balaam's
ass speak. Speak and rebuke the prophet
when he does it. A donkey talking. that's a wondrous
thing they'll see Jordan divided when they go across into the
promised land the Lord will divide that just like he did the Red
Sea they'll see when they get into the promised land they'll
see a whole city crumble at their feet at the sound of trumpets
the city of Jericho one person was saved in that town a harlot
by the name of Rahab she hung a red cord out her window to
show that she was the Lord's they will see the sun and moon
halted in their course, while a battle's being waged until
the battle is won. The Lord promises that He will
rout their enemies. He said, I'll wipe them out.
He says that in verse 11. Observe that which I command
this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Pezzorite, the Hivite, and
the Jebusite. God says, I'm going to wipe them
out. If we look at the book of Deuteronomy, in that study, we
found that God went before them. And God fought the battle for
them and then gave them credit for winning. What a wondrous,
gracious thing He did. But God says, I'm going to fight
your battles for you. Now historically, that's the
case. But the wonders and the terrible things and amazing things
that He's done today all go to Calvary. to the lonely hill of
Golgotha where Jesus Christ has died in the room instead of his
people. That's a wonder. That's an amazing, the most amazing
thing that's ever happened. The cross is the hinge of all
time and eternity. We use the term crux, the crux
of the matter. That word is just Latin for cross. Well, cross is where it happened,
and there God did some terrible and wonderful things. God made
His spotless Lamb Son to be sin for His people. How did that
work? I have no idea, but that's what
He did. And because He was made to be sin for us, God poured
out His wrath upon His blessed Son and punished Him for our
sins so that we'll never be punished for that sin. And Christ gave
up His life and died the death that we owe God. What a wonderful
and a terrible thing that is. I'll do wondrous things, He said,
and terrible things no nation has ever seen. And he did on
Calvary Street. And back in our text in verse
12, he commands Moses to take heed what he has learned, lest
there be made a covenant with the pagans and the land that
they will possess. And this was reiterated countless times in
those 30 days prior to their entrance into the Promised Land
when he gave them the second law, the law for the Promised
Land, the Deuteronomy. countless times he said do not
intermingle with the pagans don't do it don't do it over and over
again then he said that they were going to do it god said
when you do it he didn't say if you do it he said when you
do it and they they did don't make a covenant with him as lord
as the lord is omniscient and knows all things he knows that
israel will not honor the covenant will not obey the commandments
that he's given them but will go headlong into idolatry until
centuries later the nation will be desolate. They have not been
long out of Egypt here. A matter of weeks, maybe short
months. But you think about that. 430 years they had been in a
pagan land. I wonder how few generations
had passed before they forgot God. you don't we're no priest there
were some people we've got women who worship god one of them said
moses bull rushes he was taken by the daughter the king daughter
the fair there were some wars There was no priest, there was
no ceremonies. Those things hadn't even been enacted until they
got out of Egypt. That was Exodus when we find it. He gave them
the tabernacle and the priesthood and made Levi the tribe of priests
and gave inheritance to all the others. But there they were for
430 years. They were not Jews then. They were the tribe of Israel.
They would not adopt the name of Jew until about 100 years
after Sinai, so 100 years after this date, a century later from
here. They will call themselves Jews. Everywhere they went for
400 years, for 430 years, in these four countries there were
idols and icons, golden calves and cats and dogs, all these
things were worshipped. Now Joseph had saved the tribes
from famine, but after he died, centuries of slavery ensued.
Human nature, under such circumstances, adapts. For centuries they were
born and they died as slaves. By the time Moses came on the
scene, the 12 tribes were actually, rather culturally, probably more
Egyptian than the children of God. And you knew that that's
what we do, to survive. They can't get out, they're the
prisoners of these people. And they had adopted their culture.
We know that so because in Deuteronomy they cried unto Moses, they hated
Moses, they murmured against Moses, they said, let us get
us a captain to take us back to Egypt. Why would they do that? Now there were leeks and garlics
there and they was living on manna and water, bread and water
out in the desert. They said, let us go back. And
they were just right on the border of the promised land. They said,
let's go back to Egypt. Why? Because they were culturally,
they were Egyptians. Even after 40 years of God providing
for them in the wilderness. Though they had been delivered
from their helletry by God's mighty hand and were glad to
be free, a few weeks of freedom could not alter centuries of
indoctrination, as proven by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Hosea, and Amos, all prophesied during their captivity. And their ideology was so ingrained
in them that no covenant that required their obedience to a
set of principles and laws that God had given would ever change
their behavior. But that's us by nature. I saw where several states were
going to put the Ten Commandments back into schools. They're going
to put them in. That's all right. I don't mind doing that, you
know. be reminded that there is a God. It wouldn't bother
me. Maybe God used that some way
to bring them under the gospel. I don't know. But nobody's ever
kept those commandments because they weren't made to be kept. They were made to define what
the people were doing. They were added because of the
transgression. They entered that sin might abound. They weren't there all the time.
When God gave them everything he talked about in those Ten
Commandments, they were doing at the bottom of that mountain
with a golden calf. But human nature, when given
the option of an eternal life by keeping the law, will keep
what they want to keep and not keep the rest. or say they keep it when they
do or realize that they've not kept it because they don't realize
what's going on inside them and inside their heart and their
mind. Oh, they may not pull the trigger and kill somebody, but
they're a murderer in their heart. They might not ever steal a thing,
but they're a thief in their heart. We're not law keepers. We're
law breakers by nature, by birth. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies as soon as we are born. And though God gave them this
covenant. He did not garner a false hope,
for lack of a better word, that they would keep it. He knew they
wouldn't keep it because he had a better covenant coming down
the road, one that he would do himself. This is all according
to purpose, revealing the need of a covenant whose obedience
required that God did it and not man. So in the New Covenant,
what God has required of His people, He has given to His people
or done for His people. If He has required faith, He
has given faith. If He has required repentance,
He has granted repentance. If He has required a death, He
supplied the death. If He requires perfect righteousness
and holiness, He has made Christ to be that to His people, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Still, the terms
of the covenant are reiterated here by God with the warnings
and threats included therein. The pagan idols will be destroyed,
he says in verse 13. Destroy them, tear them down,
tear down the groves, destroy the idols. But they weren't. They weren't
destroyed, save in the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah. They
were to worship no other gods, but they were not jealous for
God's glory, and they worshiped Baal and Ashtar and many other
gods. The reason is plain. They did
not cease their idolatry. They would whore after other
gods, marry pagans, raise the children in false religions,
sacrifice to idols, and even entice Moses to join in their
false worship. He said, they're going to ask
you to join and eat their sacrifices, verse 15 and 16. They were to
make no molten gods, but they did. See, they broke every law
that God gave them. They proved themselves to be
stiff-necked people who only called on God when their troubles
were too much to bear, and shortly thereafter returned to their
deified stumps and stumps. Like most people, trouble gets
bad enough, they'll call on God. The old saying is, there ain't
no atheist in the foxhole. And that's the truth. ever be mindful that under the
covenant of grace God does not require His people to keep themselves.
I'm so glad. Be ye thankful that ye are kept
by the power of God in the covenant that has secured your salvation
from eternity to eternity. That's a wonder. That's a wondrous
thing. That's a marvel like no other
nation has ever seen. Peter said, be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively or living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ the Lord from the dead. And He has resurrected
us to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that
perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
who having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him
not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your salvation." We are kept
by the power of God because a covenant that relied on you keeping it
has never worked. Father, bless us to understand
and pray to Christ.