Back to Deuteronomy chapter 32. First thing I would like to say
this morning is that the Bible is the most amazing book. It's not one of the most amazing
books, it is the most amazing book. King Solomon, in the book
of Ecclesiastes, told his son, of making many books, there is
no end. Can you imagine how many books
have been made? A person would be foolish to
even attempt to number how many books have been made since the
beginning. And yet, we have the book in
our hands this morning. I see some of you children, you
are required to read books at school, and that's good. And
you read good books, I realize that. But there's one book which
is above every book. You'll never find another book
like this book that is the Word of God. And it doesn't surprise
us that the Bible is the most amazing book because this book
was God-inspired. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. What that simply means is all
Scripture is God-breathed. God chose certain men to write
His Word and breathed upon them so that what they wrote was what
God intended. We have His verbally inspired
Word. The first 43 verses in this chapter
chapter 32 of Deuteronomy, contained the words of a song. A song that
God gave to Moses to teach the nation of Israel. And He gave
Moses this song to give to the people of Israel to be a witness
for Him. That is, to be a witness for
God against the children of Israel. You see this if you look back
to chapter 31. And verse 19, now therefore, this is God commanding
Moses, now therefore write you this song for you and teach it
the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this
song may be a witness for me, this is God speaking, a witness
for me against the children of Israel. And then in that same
chapter, if you look down to verse 30, we find, and Moses
spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words
of this song until they were ended. So chapter 32, the first
43 verses contain the words of this song. And Moses, let me
remind us of this, that Moses taught He was given this song
and he taught this song to the children of Israel at the very
end of his life. Maybe the last day. If you look
further down in chapter 32 to verse 48, we read, And the Lord
spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, Get thee up into
this mountain, Abiram, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of
Moab, that is over against Jericho. And behold the land of Canaan,
which I give unto the children of Israel for possession, and
die in the mount, whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto
thy people. I try to think how I might illustrate
this. George Washington When I was
in school, we were taught he was the father of our country. If when he came to die, think
about Moses, he was the head of this nation of Israel, had
been for 40 years, as he brought them out of Egypt and led them
to the promised land through the wilderness. But if the father
of our country, George Washington, about 250 years ago, before he
died, If he had written a song, that
would have been a prophecy because that's what this is. This song
is a prophecy, but when we read it today, it is a history. It is a prophecy that God gave
Moses to witness to the children of Israel of what would take
place And when we read it today, we realize that the Word of God
was fulfilled. The prophecy was fulfilled. Not
for a space of 250 years. We would be amazed if we had
a document that George Washington had written, and he had outlined
the history over the last 250 years of our nation. That would
be amazing, wouldn't it? It hasn't happened, and it's
not going to happen. But Moses was inspired by God
Almighty and he wrote this prophecy, yes, that turned out to be a
history, not of 250 years, but of 1,500 years, till the time
of Christ and some men believe even until today. It speaks to us of the nation
of Israel. Now I want to take one verse
of this song and speak to us from it today, and that is verse
4. He is the Rock. 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. First of all, He is the Rock. Notice the antecedent of He is
God who is the Lord. Notice that in verse 3. Because
I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto
our God. He, God, the Lord. And we see by the title Lord
that it is Jehovah, the one who inhabits eternity, the self-existent
one. Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when He revealed
Himself to Moses as Jehovah, He said, I am that I am. And
how many times in the Gospel of John, especially, do we read
the Lord Jesus Christ confessing, I am. Confessing that He is Jehovah,
the Lord, manifest in the flesh. I am the way, I am the truth,
I am the life. I am the bread of heaven. I am
the water of life. All of these I am's. I am the
door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He, He is our rock. He is the
rock. He's pictured many times in the
Word of God as the rock. And I want to mention five of
them to us this morning. First of all, in Scripture, we
read that a rock is a sure foundation. A rock is not a foundation, it
is the foundation. The reason for this is that rocks
are durable, they're permanent, they're lasting. We're not talking
about a pebble here. We're not talking about pea gravel.
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. We're talking about the
rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the foundation upon which
every soul must be built to be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. It's sad to say, But the devil,
Satan, has so deceived people that they're not just a few hundred
or a few thousand, but several million people today who believe
that that refers to a man by the name of Peter. The church
is not built upon Peter. The church is built upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul was writing back to
the church at Corinth, He reminded them other foundation can no
man lay. There were teachers who were
visiting and teaching in the church at Corinth, and Paul established
this fact first of all. There cannot be another foundation
laid. He said, I have laid the foundation. The foundation is Christ. He is the rock upon which everyone
who is saved must be built. Our Lord Jesus Christ also gave
the illustration of a man who was going to build his house,
and so he dug down to the rock. And he started building upon
the rock. The rock served as a foundation for his house. And
when the waters came up, his house remained sure. But other
men built upon the sand, and their house was taken away. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
rock, the foundation upon which everyone who would be saved must
be built. And I ask you this morning, is
your hope, is your salvation, is what you are trusting in,
built completely, not mostly, not mostly, but completely upon
this foundation the Lord Jesus Christ. Is your rock, in other
words, is your rock, is your foundation durable? Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Is your rock permanent? He'll never be moved. And is
your rock lasting? That is, throughout time, and
yes, even into eternity. He is the rock. This is the way
the hymn goes. He is the rock, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the rock. He is the sure
foundation upon which You must build your hope of salvation,
of eternal life, of forgiveness of sins, of reconciliation with
God, of justification by God, of sanctification, of glorification,
is your hope. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. And we do have some sweet frames,
don't we? Feelings. But remember, as Martin
Luther said, feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are
deceiving. But no one who is built upon
this rock will be deceived. A second thing, in scripture
we read that a rock supplied the people of Israel's need for
water. If you turn back to Exodus, with
me just a moment, Exodus chapter 17. Exodus 17 and beginning with
verse 1. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,
and pitched in Rephidim. And there was no water. There
was no water for the people to drink. Now that's an awful situation. Water's not a luxury, is it?
It's not a luxury. Water is an absolute necessity. And here they were, 600,000 men,
not counting women and children, and no water. Wherefore the people
did chide with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink.
And Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? Wherefore
do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there
for water. And the people murmured against
Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready
to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Now, think about this. As I've already said, how many
people were here? Do you think if Moses had asked,
are there any thoughts? Anyone here have any idea where
we might get some water? I tell you, there may have been
a few people that had some suggestions, but not one. I guarantee you,
not one would have ever thought We'll get water out of a rock.
We'll get water out of a rock! No. God told Moses where water
would be found. The Lord said unto Moses, Go
on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel,
and thy rod. Wherewith thou smotest the river,
take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, And thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.
And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Water
is a necessity to have or to maintain life. The Apostle Paul
tells us in 1 Corinthians that the spiritual rock that followed
them, speaking of the nation of Israel, was Christ. He was
the one who gave them and supplied their every need as they went
through that wilderness, 40 years. Now, they not only needed water,
they did need water, and water came out of a smitten rock. The
rock had to be smitten with that rod that God had given to Moses. Smite the rock. The Lord Jesus
Christ had to be smitten, wounded, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
had to come upon Him that by His stripes we might be healed. Water came out of the rock, but
it was a rock that was smitten. And as long as they were in the
wilderness for 40 years, God supplied them with water. But
not only did they need water, they needed food. They needed
bread. And the Lord supplied every day,
except on the Sabbath day they would go out and gather the manna.
Think of the number of people that God was supplying their
food. Not only did they need water,
did they need bred, but they needed protection. They were
not a trained, armed group of people. They'd been slaves. And when enemies came against
them, the Lord fought for them. Remember that monument that Moses
lifted up? Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is our
banner. Not only did they need water
and bread and protection, but they needed direction as they
walked through that wilderness. And all of that came from the
rock, that is from Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. As you travel,
as you travel through this barren land, and that's what it is,
it is a wilderness that we go through in this world, all of
these things that we need, And yes, we need them. We need water. Water refreshes us, doesn't it?
Sometimes you can be hot and tired and just turn the water
hose on. I do that sometimes when I'm
working outside. And it's refreshing. It's cool. It's refreshing. We need Christ
as we go through this world continually to refresh us when we are weary. And water cleanses us, doesn't
it? It washes us. We get dirty physically,
and yes, we get dirty spiritually as we walk through this world. Scripture says if we confess
our sins that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When they smoked the rock, that
is Christ when that man took that spear and thrust it into
the side of Christ, you remember. Blood and water came out. Blood to justify and water to
sanctify, to cleanse us. I'm so thankful for that fountain
that God opened up, aren't you? For sin and for uncleanness. We love to sing that hymn. There's
a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And sinners plunged beneath that flow. lose all their guilty stain. We come daily, daily to the rock
for cleansing, for refreshing. Here's a third thing. In scripture
we read that a rock is a safe dwelling place. A rock is a safe
dwelling place. In Isaiah chapter 42 in verse
11 we read, let the inhabitants of the rock sing. the inhabitants
of the rock. Let the inhabitants of the rock
sing. Let them shout from the top of
the mountain. I want you to look at a passage
in Proverbs just a moment. Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter 30, and let's
read verses 24. through 28. There be four things
which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. The ants are a people not strong,
yet they prepare their meat in the summer. God sends us to the
ants, doesn't he? He sends us to the ants to learn,
and what we learn from the ants is to make preparation The ants
make preparation in the summertime so that when the winter comes,
they have their food stored up. How many people go through life
and when the thought of death, the thought of dying, the thought
of appearing before God does intrude upon their minds, they
just put it out, put it off as much as they can. And some people
make plans. They have their funeral prearranged. They have the plot out in the
cemetery where they wish to be buried. They have their will,
their last will in Testament signed and sealed. They make
all kinds of preparation except to stand before God. They never
think, what will it be when I stand before God? There'll be no one
there with me. I'll be all alone. What will
it be when I stand before Almighty God? Go to the ants. Make preparation. Salvation. The Scripture today
is the day of salvation. Many people live as though there
was never going to be an end to their life or to this world.
But notice the next group. The Coneys are a feeble folk. They make their houses in the
rocks. The Locusts have no king, yet
go they forth, all of them, by bands. The Spider taketh hold
with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. No one is sure what
this insect or animal is. Coney. But we know because of
the group it's grouped with, with ants and locusts and spiders,
it's a small, small insect or small ant. But we are told this,
it is feeble. It is feeble. Whatever it is,
it is feeble. And because it is feeble, has
little protection and little strength, it builds its house
in the rocks. So when an enemy comes, they
can run and hide and they are safe in the rocks. Spiritually speaking, how could
we be any more feeble? You and I. Think about it. When the Lord Jesus Christ said,
without me, you can do nothing. when the Apostle Paul said that
we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourself. Not even sufficient in ourselves
to think a good thought. Who could be more feeble than
you and myself this morning? Feeble, but the Cornish, they
make their home in the rock. For us to think, for us to speak,
for us to act for God's glory, we all need His sufficient grace. Where's that grace going to come
from? Yes, saving grace we've experienced, but we need grace
every day as we go through this world. Where does that grace
come from? It flows from the rock from Christ. As we look to Him, as we trust
in Him, as we Pull from His strength, His power. We live upon Him. We live in the rock. A safe, a safe dwelling place. And then we read in Scripture,
number 4, that a rock yields honey and oil. And we find that in the song
that Moses wrote back in our text today, Deuteronomy chapter
32. In verse 13, the last part of the verse, it
says, And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil
out of the flinty rock. That suggested that the honey
in this text comes from bees, of course, which made their nest
in the rocks. And the oil from the olive trees,
which grew upon the rocky terrain. Honey is sweet. No question about
that. Honey is sweet. And Christ and
His work of salvation is sweet. He is our rock. His work, His
person is sweet. Do you ever just like to get
alone, if that's possible? Close your eyes and think about
Jesus Christ. He who is fully God and fully
man. It's sweet to meditate and think
about him who came into this world that he might redeem us
from all iniquity. Do you ever think about his work?
We sang that wonderful hymn just a few minutes ago, declaring
unto us that Christ is all our righteousness, His blood, His
righteousness. Isn't that sweet? Oh, taste and
see, the psalmist said, that the Lord is good. Many people,
they say, well, I don't have any interest in that. I don't
have any relish for that. Have you ever tasted? Have you
ever tasted? If you taste honey, I would imagine
you're going to say, that's sweet. That's sweet. And when you taste
Christ and the forgiveness of sins and know that you're reconciled
unto God, that's sweet. And the oil, the oil of joy,
or the oil of gladness rather, oil was used at that time for
medicine. And what healing power is in
Christ and in his word. It's one of the Psalms that said,
he sent his word and healed them. And I know Christ is the eternal
word who was made flesh, but yes, even the written word. He sends his word and heals us. Sometimes you get discouraged,
you may get somewhat depressed, and where do you go? Turn on
the television? You're not going to find any
encouragement there. Listen to some worldly song?
You're not going to find any encouragement there. Where? To the rock. To the rock that
is higher than I. Let me fly to God's Word, to
Christ. And then here's the fifth thing.
In Scripture we read that a rock yields shade in a weary land. Look at that in Isaiah chapter
32. That rock, it yields shade in
a weary land. Isaiah 32, and I'll read the
first two verses here. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man,
now notice this, a man shall be as an hiding place from the
wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place,
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Who is this
man? Who is this man that is spoken
of here in Isaiah 32, 2? A man. A man who is a hiding
place. I was trying to remember this
morning the diary of Anne Frank. If I remember right, eventually
her hiding place was exposed. Here's a hiding place, my friends.
The Lord Jesus Christ. And the devil and all of his
angels cannot overtake you here. He's a hiding place. He's a covert. When the strong wind is blowing,
the tempest is against us. He's the water, rivers of water
in a dry place. And oh, he's a shadow of a great
rock. Be merciful unto me, O God, be
merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in Thee. Yea, in the
shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities,
until these calamities be overpassed. In life we experience calamities,
don't we? Things come, unexpected sometimes. Calamities, what else would you
call them? Let's hide in the shade of this
rock, under the wings, the shadow of this rock, the Lord Jesus,
till they be overpassed. We're safe, secure in the rock. Now, let's go back to our text.
That's the first part of that line. He is the rock. But notice the second thing is,
His work is perfect. His work is perfect. Now when
we think about His work, this would include creation. There's
no doubt about that. Creation is perfect. Sometimes people forget that
God's creation is under a curse. This creation, and I see much
beauty here, don?t you? We see it all the time. And yet
we know it has been cursed. Yes, the creation itself groaneth
and prevaileth. The creation was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, no, but because of man?s sin. Cursed is the ground, God said. But we know His work of creation
in that in the beginning we can only imagine how beautiful and
perfect and serene and pristine everything must have been. And
then His work of providence. It's not by accident that you
were born on the day you were born to the parents that God
gave you. to the schools, to the country,
to the schools and education, and to the church, to hear the
gospel, to be brought under the sound of the gospel. God's providence,
His work is perfect. But no doubt, especially His
work of salvation, His work is perfect. In his prayer, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. Christ, as the second
Adam, did what the first Adam failed to do. The first Adam
failed to obey God. He disobeyed God. But the last
Adam, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, he came into this
world and he finished the work. He glorified the Father in all
things here upon this earth. When he was arrested in the garden,
remember Peter, he pulled out a sword and cut one man's ear
off. He was going to Protect the Lord
Jesus Christ, but the Lord would he had he was showing that he
was going willingly. He was not being forced Yes,
he was bound as That type in the Old Testament Isaac was bound
and put on the altar the Lord Jesus Christ. He too was bound
but he went willingly willingly with that mob to the high priest's
office, and then to Pilate's judgment hall, and then to the
cross. He finished the work. He said, the cup which my father
hath given me, shall I not drink it? You know a cup, we have eight
ounce cups, 10 ounce cups, 12 ounce cups, some are bigger,
I'm sure some are smaller, but a cup is a unit of measurement. And it's marked off by its rim. When it reaches the rim, then
it's full, starts running over. The Lord Jesus Christ, he drank
the cup, or think about this, he suffered all that you, if
you are one of his children, he suffered all that your sins
deserve that you suffer. He suffered it all. The cup which
my Father giveth me, shall I not drink it? In that cup was the
curse of the law, the guilt of sin, separation from God, and
all of that in the presence of demons. He emptied the cup. He is our rock. His work is His
so great salvation is perfect, so that God's people, we today
who trust in Him, we are accepted in the Beloved. Paul in Ephesians 2.10 says that
believers, we are His workmanship. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works. lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship."
And think about this, dear child of God. You may be here this
morning and you may say, well, I can just, I can just see so
little life in me, but you are his workmanship. And he that
hath begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. He's not going to lose one of His children, of His sheep
that the Father gave Him. His work is perfect. And let
me close with this. Third, His ways are judgment,
a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. All of
his ways formed in eternity and executed in time, remember, are
the products of infinite wisdom, truth, justice, and righteousness. We may be always sure his ways
are without iniquity, for God is light and in him is no darkness
at all. In eternity, he made an everlasting
covenant in which he ordained his son to come to be the surety,
the God-man to save and to bring to glory each and every one that
he set his love upon. His work is perfect. His ways
are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and
right is he. I began thinking about this verse
a few weeks ago. I read it, and it really stood
out to me. And the thought I had at first
was this. What a foundation for young people,
for children, for young believers to learn this. His work is perfect. And all of his ways are ways
of justice, and truth, things you will experience in this world,
no doubt, you won't understand, but this is the foundation. This
is solid. It's right. It's right. His work is perfect. It's right. It's God's way. And we should
learn to rejoice in it. God help us. Let's sing this
hymn, 466.