Deuteronomy 32 verse 1, "'Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.'" I want to draw your attention to verse 2 and three words, as the rain, as the rain. Moses here speaks of his position as prophet and his responsibility to communicate truth. But this is not just for someone like Moses. This is something that we are all called to do. We are all called to speak truth, and we're all speaking something. The question is, what is it that we speak, and whether or not what we speak is as the rain? I want you to think first of all, what is the rain? Asking this question, what is the rain? Well, you see it there in verse 2, my doctrine shall drop as the rain. My doctrine. What does he mean by my doctrine? Is he referring to the law that he had given to Israel? What is it that he's talking about? Is he referring to all the case laws that he had presented before them to help them in their guidance as a nation? What is it that he is saying is, my doctrine shall drop as the rain. Is it not the gospel? Is it not the truth of God's redeeming love to them? Is it not the sense of the gentle rain, the refreshing influence of the rain that He is causing them to think upon and to consider? Of course, His lament was, as you see, we'll read in verse 4 and 5, He is the rock, His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right as He. They have corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of His children. They are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath He not made thee and established thee?" And this is the lament. The Lord had bought them, He had delivered them, He had mercifully rescued them and given them one of the most illustrative, redemptive messages through the Exodus and the Passover. And so, Moses' primary thought, I think, when he says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain, is the gospel, the refreshing, sweet influences of the gospel upon the souls of men. This, no doubt, Joanne's desire, it's not just education for education's sake. If that's the goal, what do you do? You just make more educated pagans and heathens. What's the purpose in that? But the desire is to give them truth that comes upon the soul as the rain. Fathers, this is your job every day, to speak doctrine that is as the rain. Mothers, it is the same. In all your instruction, in all the discipline, in all the guidance, in all the efforts to raise your children, your speech matters. Your words can be illustrated in a certain way. How would you say your words are? What simile could you give? My doctrine shall drop as the rain. That's the way it should be. This is positive rain. This is something that the soul needs, the heart of man needs. My speech shall distill as a dew, as a small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. This is something that's positive. So how is your speech, child of God? You teachers, you must bring the rain to your pupils. All of us must speak as the rain to the souls of men. speaking with a man today, and sometimes you just sense in someone there's a lostness, there's a need. You don't know what's there, but you never know until you bring up the matter of the gospel, until you talk to the soul, until you instruct them in the Word of God. You get an opportunity sometimes to just unfold what the gospel is. what his heart needs. I pray that the Lord will work upon that man's heart and bless the effort. But why is it needed? Not only what is the rain, but why is it needed? Why is it necessary that we speak in such a fashion that is as the rain? Well, you know why the rain is needed. It is needed, first of all, to start life. There is no life without rain. Rain is necessary for life to begin, so if we were to plant our seeds and all the seeds are put into the ground and you're waiting for a crop and a harvest and for the little sprouts to come up, well, if you just get the sun beating down and you never get any moisture, well, forget it. You're not going to have much life. There's a need for moisture, so the rain is needed to start life. It's also needed to support life, isn't it? So it's ongoing. So it's not just a one-off. It's not just that we speak once to our children, we speak once to souls, but there needs this ongoing speaking that it is our duty to be as a regular rain upon the dry ground of the souls of men, enabling them to understand what it is they need and how they can find it in Christ. And it's also needed for subsequent life. The rain needs to come so that it can, whatever's there can grow and then be pollinated and spread and be distributed. And again, this is the purpose as well. So, we have this, of course, in our own homes, and Joanne Greer also has this burden, no doubt, in her own heart. I think I can imagine that that is the case. Yes, there are the children, but then what will the children do? Will they then bring rain where they go? Will they instruct another generation? This is the wonderful thing when God is in something And He begins to work in the lives of children and turn an entire generation around. The possibilities are endless in what might be established by those children and done by them. I think this has to be the appeal why many Christians love to educate, because they see the potential. Is that not part of the burden? Here are these lives, these hundreds of lives, potentially thousands of lives. You want to pour into them, guide them, instruct them, and then see how they will go and serve the Lord. And it brings us great joy to know when our children walk in truth, and they too begin to distribute rain to others. And what does it produce? That's the third question. What does it produce? Verse 3, I will publish the name of the Lord. This is the rain. It's the publishing, the truth of the Lord, the gospel of our salvation. And what does it produce? Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. And the souls of men ascribe greatness to God. And they understand the truth of who they belong to, to whom they owe their life, and the only one that can save their everlasting souls. And they turn and ascribe greatness onto our God. Children, that's our desire for you. Our desire for you is that you would ascribe greatness to God, that you would give your life. To the Lord, all you little ones, that you will ascribe greatness to God, because if you don't do that, what's the point in anything else that we accomplish? So as the rain, as the rain, think of it, think of those seasons when there isn't, there hasn't been rain, and you're praying for rain. That was a first for me. That was a first when we arrived in Australia in January, and January is the middle of summer, We arrive on the 3rd of January, and we're in the prayer meeting, and at some point, not long after we arrive, I could hear someone. It just had been some rainfall, and I still hear Margaret Douglas. And she prayed, Lord, thank you for the lovely rains. And I thought, I've been a Christian about five years, I've never heard anyone thank God for rain, because in Northern Ireland it's raining all the time. And you take it for granted, but here these people amidst years of famine, really, not quite there but nearby. Australia had been going through about four or five year famine at that point. Some areas were very barren. I thought, well, there's a new prayer, an appreciation for the Lord. Well, you know about it here, too. We need rain, and we need to be as rain. Your neighbors are parched. Truth has fallen in the streets. People don't know where to turn. They don't know who to turn to. Everyone's saying the same thing. The world's a mess. Have you found anyone who doesn't agree? Talk to them. The world's a mess. But they don't know what to do with it. They don't know what makes the difference. So we bring the rain. So I trust that in all our education, our Sunday school classes, those of you as you talk to your children, and in all our missionary endeavors as well, we support this work because we're sending rain to a barren land. And we want to see little ones who grow up and ascribe greatness onto our God. So may we be as the rain for Jesus' sake. Father.