We turn in God's Word tonight to Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy chapter 31. We're going to begin our reading at verse 14, but at the beginning of this chapter, Moses appears before Israel in order to give them final instructions. He says to them in verse 2, I am 120 years old this day. I can no more go out and come in. Also the Lord has said unto me, thou shalt not go over this Jordan. And then Moses assures the people that God will bring them over Jordan, even though he doesn't go over with them. and then brings Joshua before them in their sight, in verse 7, and encourages him with the same instruction, Be strong and of a good courage, for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. Verse 9, we find Moses writing the law of God, which God had delivered to the people, and then we'll pick up our reading in verse 14, where we read this, And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold thy day's approach, that thou must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go a-whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, and that they are turned unto other gods. Now, therefore, write ye 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 against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swear unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat, then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness. For it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swear. Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel. And he, that is God now, and he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge and said, Be strong and of a good courage, for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them, and I will be with thee. And it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord, and how much more after my death. Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days, because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended. And now in chapter 32, we have that song. I'm going to read through that a little bit later in the service. That's from verse one through verse 43. And so let's just turn to verse 44 in chapter 32 to see the end of that song. And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea, or Joshua, the son of Nun. This is the word of our God, holy and infallible and inspired. May he bless it to our hearts this evening. Our text is verse 19, God's word to Moses. Now therefore, write ye 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 against the children of Israel. Beloved congregation, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the events that unfold in Deuteronomy 31 would have made a great impact on the people of God as they saw these things unfold. It would have made such a great impact because it's very evident to all of them that Moses is now at the end of his life. That's the way he begins this chapter, telling them he's 120 years old and he's not going to be allowed to go with them into the land of Canaan. And that itself would have made an impact on the people. This Moses who had led them through all of their years of wandering in the wilderness. This Moses who had taken them through the Red Sea. This Moses who had led them out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. This Moses is going away from us. This Moses will not lead us into the land. That would have had an impact on them so that whatever he says to them here would have stuck in their hearts. Then the events that unfold here would have had a great impact on them because here in chapter 31, almost as the last thing that Moses does before he dies is teach to the people a song. God called Moses before him and said, I have a song for you to teach the people. I want you to write this song down And then you must teach this song to the people so that they do not forget it. And this would have been especially impactful because this song was intended as a witness against the people of Israel. God says in this song, I have formed you, I have called you, I have done all things for your sake, my church, but you are going to depart from me. You are going to rebel against me and forsake me and break my covenant. I formed you, but you will not be faithful to me. And I, nevertheless, will be faithful to you and restore you and save you. I think of the impact that that kind of word would have on us if Jehovah would teach us a song And in this song, we sing of the great act of Jehovah in forming us as a congregation or forming us as a denomination of churches. And then Jehovah says to us, but you will not be faithful. It's not in you as you are in yourselves to be faithful. You will depart. but I will save you and I will call you back. That would have a tremendous impact upon us as it did upon the people of God in Israel. God's purpose with this song was that Moses was not going with them into Canaan. The previous generation had all perished in the wilderness And now a new generation arises that has to go into the land of Canaan. And it was for the sake of that new generation that God taught this song of Moses to the people of Israel, a song to teach that new generation and a song to remind that new generation of the mighty works of Jehovah and a call to them to trust in him alone. So that makes this song an appropriate song to consider at the occasion of the baptism of an infant. the baptism of another member of the next generation that rises after us. This child, too, and all of our children are to be taught the mighty works of God, to have those mighty works fixed in their hearts so that they remember them, so that they know the Lord their God, and walk in His ways, and know the way of salvation from all their sin and from all their unfaithfulness. So we turn our attention to this song tonight under the theme, Jehovah's Song of Witness. In the first place, we consider what it is. In the second place, we consider its purpose. And in the third place, we see its use. Jehovah's Song of Witness, what it is, its purpose, and its use. This song that God taught Moses and that Moses taught Israel was a song from God. That's the first thing to see about this song and what it is. It is a song from God. That's evident from the setting and the scene in which this song was given, verses 14 and 15. The Lord said unto Moses, Behold thy day's approach, that thou must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, And the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. What a setting and what a scene for God to teach Moses this song. He calls those two men, Moses and Joshua, to appear before his very presence in the tabernacle. And as they stand in the tabernacle, the presence of God is seen as that cloud that would lead them through the wilderness, standing over the door of the tabernacle. so that all of the people who were in the camp could look towards that tabernacle and see, towering into the air, that burning, fiery cloud of Jehovah's glory. Jehovah himself appeared to Moses and to Joshua, and as God appeared to Moses, he instructed him, write down this song. And so that's the second way we know that this song is directly from God to his people, because in verse 19, our text, God says to Moses, now, therefore, write ye this song for you and teach it to the children of Israel. Perhaps that means that God actually dictated this song word for word to Moses, so that Moses, hearing the word of God directly, wrote down the words that God was speaking. Perhaps it means that God inspired Moses, not by direct dictation, as it were, but by inspiration, breathing that word of God into Moses' heart, with the result the same, so that what Moses wrote was not his word, but the word of God itself. This song, sometimes called the Song of Moses, is in reality the song of Jehovah. It is from him. And then the second thing to see about this song of Jehovah's Witness is that it is a song about God, a song from him, but a song about him, all about him. And that too is evident from the context, first of all, in Deuteronomy 31, We read about what the Israelites will do to God. And then we read what God will do to the Israelites. Verse 17, they will forsake me. Verse 16 rather, they will forsake me. And then verse 17, my anger shall be kindled against them and I will forsake them. Even the context, before God starts telling the song, he's showing this song is all about me. But then when we get into the song itself, we see that the whole song is about Jehovah. And now we're going to take the time to read through this beautiful song of God in Deuteronomy 32 and see that every part of it is about Jehovah. First of all, in the introduction to the song, which is verses one through three, part of the song, but the introduction to the song, we read, 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. Moses says as he teaches the people this song, I will publish the name of the Lord. That's what the rest of the song is going to be about. And this doctrine or this teaching of the name of the Lord will drop on you like gentle showers. And it will distill upon you like the dew of the earth. It will be good and refreshing for you. The Church of Jesus Christ yet today has that experience when the name of Jehovah is published to us. It's like gentle showers and the distilled dew. It's refreshing to us to hear our God and hear his doctrine. Then we come to the theme of this whole song in verse 4. 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. This verse teaches, this theme verse teaches the immovable righteousness of Jehovah. That's what we're going to learn about in the rest of the song. The rest of the song. The immovable righteousness of Jehovah. He is truth. A God of truth. He is a God without iniquity. He is just. He is right. And in all his justice and his rightness, he is a rock, immovable in that righteousness. And that is so different from the world of men. Men are changeable. Men are movable. Men move this way or move that way. Maybe for the favor of men, or maybe because of the fear of man, or maybe for gain, or for whatever reason it may be. Men move all the time. They are not rocks in their righteousness, but Jehovah God is different. He is a rock. All his ways are perfect. God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. Then in verses five and following, we have the truth of God's gathering of his people. God takes the people back to their origins. 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? "'Remember the days of old. "'Consider the years of many generations. "'Ask thy father, and he will show thee. "'Thy elders, and they will tell thee. "'When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, "'when he separated the sons of Adam, "'he set the bounds of the people "'according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him. and there was no strange god with him. 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, butter of kind and milk of sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the breed of bation and goats with the fat of kidneys and wheat, and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. In this section, God teaches us his work, gathering and saving his people. He takes them back to their beginnings. In fact, he takes them all the way back to the beginning in Adam, and then the division of all of the nations in verse 8, and says, God even divided the nations into that land and that land, with so many millions in that nation, and so many millions in that nation, all for the sake of his people Israel. He divided the nations for the sake of his church because Jacob is his inheritance. He loves this Jacob. He bore him on eagle's wings and he made him suck honey out of the rock. He gave him all good things. Jehovah God is the subject of this whole psalm, including the works of forming his people for himself. Then in verses 15 and following we have more of God, but now we have God's response to the rebellion of His people. Verse 15, "...but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Thou art waxen 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. With 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. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them. because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be, for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them. I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction. I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without and terror within shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said I would scatter them into corners. I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. In this section of the song, God teaches His people His judgments upon all their sins. Still a song about Jehovah. And then in the last section, through the end, God teaches His saving work among His people. Verse 29. 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, and the Lord had shut them up? For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of 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 up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants. when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left. And he shall say, where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you and be your protection. 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 mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh. And that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenge is upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance to his adversaries and will be merciful unto his land and to his people. The whole song of Jehovah's Witness is a song about God. The first thing about this song, it's a song from God. The second thing, it's a song about God. And now the third thing about what this song is, it was a song for Israel. God gave this song to Moses to teach to his people Israel so that they would know it. We find that in chapter 31, verse 19, And then verse 21, or verse 22 rather, Moses therefore wrote this song the same day and taught it the children of Israel. And then verse 30, Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song until they were ended. This was a song for Israel, for them to learn. It was a song for them to memorize. they were to have it in their mouths according to the text in verse 19. And in order for them to have it in their mouths, they needed to have it memorized. They didn't all have this song written out on a scroll that they would read as they sang the way we have the Psalms or the versification of the Psalms in the Psalter that we can hold while we sing. They had to memorize this song so that it could be in their mouths and they could sing it to Jehovah It was a song that they were to memorize and teach their children to memorize. God emphasizes that in verse 21. Their seed would know the song. The coming generation was to be taught the song and memorize this song. This song was for Israel as the preeminent song through much of their history. Think of the timing of things now. This is Moses Day. God gives this song to Moses and the people of Israel in Moses Day. After him is going to be Joshua and entering into the land of Canaan. and the conquest of Canaan during the duration of Joshua's life. And after Joshua will come the period of the judges, 400 or so years of the period of the judges. And then after the judges will come the kings, Saul, and then the sweet singer of Israel, David, who would write many of the Psalms. When God gave this song to Israel, they were hundreds of years away yet from having the whole book of Psalms, so that this song would be the preeminent song that they sang, the preeminent instruction for them regarding Jehovah and his ways. And so preeminent was this song in their minds that when David would write many of his Psalms, Being inspired by God so that what he wrote was not his words, but God's words. And when David wrote his Psalms, he would use phrases and even verses from this Psalm. And you recognize some of those things. He is the rock. That's in many of the Psalms. Sucking honey out of the rock. That's in the Psalms. Keeping us as the apple of his eye. That's in the Psalms. And if you have a reference Bible, look over the references that are indicated in Deuteronomy 32 and see how many of these phrases appear again in the Psalms that we sing yet today, so that this was a preeminent song, not only for Israel through much of her history, but as a preeminent song for us today, even though we may not have known it. This song was given to God's people for them to sing and for them to know. And that takes us then to the purpose of this song of witness of Jehovah. And there are several purposes that we can distinguish to this song. The first purpose was that it would warn the people about or warned the people against departing from God. This is what God says to Moses right before he teaches him the song. In Deuteronomy 31 verse 16, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go a-whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them." God tells Moses, this people will forsake me. And then in the song itself, verse 15, Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked, Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation." That's a warning to the people of God then, and a warning to the Church of Jesus Christ now, and especially the next generation of the Church of Jesus Christ. There is always a danger that the Church forsakes Jehovah in her generations. There is always a danger that the church in her generations esteems lightly the rock of her salvation. And the reason that that's a threat to the church is because of who we are in ourselves apart from the grace of God. Who we are in ourselves are totally depraved, corrupt sinners. In ourselves we hate God. I do not want to be with Him. We want to forsake Him. And in ourselves we would lightly esteem the rock of our salvation. Let those words hit you in your minds and let those words hit me. Lightly esteem the rock of our salvation. That means what we give weight to. That means what interests us. is not the rock of our salvation. Oh, there are things that interest us. We esteem certain things. But by nature we never esteem the rock of our salvation. By nature we esteem other gods. And that's what God said too in 31 verse 16. They will forsake me and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land whether they go to be among them. going to look at all that's available from Moab, and from Ammon, and from the Philistines. All those powerful gods with all the pleasures that those gods promise. And they're going to go whoring after them. And that's the threat in the church today yet too. That the church does not remember Jehovah, but forsakes Him. because of our sin and goes a-whoring after the gods of this land that we dwell among. The gods of our land today are not the Molech, that idol upon which children would be sacrificed as burnt offerings, but there are Molechs today. There are many ways to sacrifice our children to the gods of the age in which we live. teaching our children that the most important thing in this life is our pleasure, or our way, or whatever else, so that our children are consumed by these idols of the world. Oh, there's dangers. in our world in which we live today, too, that the church in her generations forsake Jehovah and seek after other gods and lightly esteem the rock of our salvation. And so the purpose of this song was to warn, to sound the alarm. And that warning and that alarm is sounded tonight. Beware Church of Jesus Christ. Of all the gods that draw away the eyes and the ears and the mouths and the hands and the hearts of our children, beware of all those gods. And know that we need to hear this warning because of who we are in ourselves. But for the grace of God, we would forsake the Lord and go after those gods too. That's the first purpose, a powerful purpose of this song, memorized by generations so that they do not kick against Jehovah. A second purpose of this song was to declare judgment upon the apostate. Really that's the idea of what Israel would do. They would go apostate. And to go apostate means to depart from God. When God said this song will be a witness against my people, what he meant was When they go apostate, when they depart from Me, and I bring all the judgments upon them that are written here in this song, then this song, which they memorized in their youth, will be a witness against them, that they ought not have apostatized, and that they knew exactly what the judgment for apostasy was." They knew all along what the judgment for apostasy was. And that same warning and judgment is sounded yet today against apostasy, against departing from Jehovah, and against departing from His doctrine and His truth. Remember that the song begins, My doctrine shall drop as the rain. That is my teaching, my doctrine, my teaching about Jehovah and all of who He is as the God of truth. And God in this song took them back to their beginnings. He took them back to His love that had delivered them from Egypt, His love that found them in the waste-howling wilderness, His leading of them through that wilderness, and then bringing them into the land of Canaan, which would happen presently. God brought them back to their beginnings and then rebuked them for departing from those beginnings and departing from the God of those beginnings. And that warning against apostasy must be heard by the Church of Jesus Christ today. That warning against apostasy must be heard by the Protestant Reformed churches today. Because apostasy is in the air all over in our day and age. Apostasy is in the air for those churches that in the past have had a name for being sound and reformed. And through erroneous decisions, through the embrace of false doctrines, those denominations have gone apostate to the degree that they have embraced those false doctrines and are apostatizing from the truth of Jehovah God. And that's a threat for every church. That's a threat for our denomination. That's a threat for our congregation. Do not depart from our beginnings from the work of the Lord graciously to redeem and save His people, from the work of the Lord to give us the truth of His Word, not due to anything in us, but purely in His grace. The Protestant Reformed Churches, our cry ought to be back to 1924, Protestant Reformed Churches, back to those days of our beginning, when Jehovah God in His mercy showed us the truth of sovereign particular grace that is not common for all men, but is particular for His elect alone, and therefore is effective and effectual to save His people back to our beginnings. Our cry in the Protestant Reformed Churches ought to be back to 1953, PRC, In those days when Jehovah God found us in the waist-howling wilderness of a life-and-death controversy over the covenant of grace, whether it depends on man at a specific point or not, whether it's conditional or not, Jehovah God led us through that wilderness and gave us the truth of the unconditional covenant that is established by His promise, which promise is rooted in election, so that the covenant of God is made with His people, His elect people in Jesus Christ and is sure for every one of His elect. A covenant that depends upon Him covenant in which He bestows upon us in that friendship all of the riches of salvation that our Savior has earned. Back to 1953. Beware the threat of apostasy. Back to our origins. If anyone is looking for good reading along these lines, pick up volume 27 of the Standard Bearer, which you can find online as well, and read through some of those articles. The whole volume is full of the truth of the unconditional covenant and others who were opposing that truth. You can read what the origins of the Protestant Reformed churches are, at least early history in 1953 was back to our origins, back to this God who bear us on eagle's wings, back to this God who gave us the riches of salvation in Jesus Christ. And it would be a good idea for us to consider using this phrase to our children as we teach them the truths and warn them about the danger of apostasy and departing from God. Use this phrase, Our Protestant Reformed Truth. Our Protestant Reformed Doctrine. That was a phrase that, in the PRC, we used to use all the time, and there's a way to misuse that phrase if anybody ever says it with pride, or if anybody ever thinks that this means we invented this doctrine and it didn't come from God. But that phrase, Our Protestant Reformed Truth, is a good phrase used rightly because it impresses upon us that we have an origin, we have a history. God in His grace has delivered certain truths to us that we must maintain in our day today. For the coming generation, let them know that there is our Protestant Reformed truth, which is nothing less than the truth of the Word of God and the truth of the Reformed faith. There's a warning against apostasy, departing, and a judgment upon it. God teaches in this song that those who depart shall be judged. They have forsaken Me, He says, and I will forsake them. In their generations they will be cut off. They will have the sword without and terror within. They will not have peace. And all who go apostate, every denomination or every church that goes apostate, when it finds the judgment of God weighing heavily upon it, knows this was the judgment. This is what comes for apostasy. But now to come to the third purpose of this song of Jehovah's Witness. The third purpose is to show the way of salvation. These warnings against departing and apostasy come because we're corrupt in ourselves. These warnings come because this is the only way that the church would go apart from the grace of God. It is His grace alone that preserves her. And so the church of Jesus Christ that finds this wickedness in her heart, this love for the gods of the land in her heart, this temptation to apostatize and give up, The doctrine and the truth that God has taught. The church that finds those things knows there's a way of salvation. What is that way of salvation that this song reveals? The mercy of God. The mercy of God. That's verse 43. Rejoice, O ye nations, of chapter 32 now of the song itself. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land and to his people. The mercy of God is what preserves the church of Jesus Christ. The mercy of God is what calls the church of Jesus Christ back to her beginnings and back to the truth. The mercy of God and the mercy of God alone. And where is that mercy revealed? How is that mercy shown? You know the answer. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that too is in this passage. In fact, that is strikingly, startlingly in the passage. In chapter 31, which from verse 14 on, is all about the apostasy of Israel. Right in the middle of Jehovah teaching Moses this song as a witness, we find this in verse 23, And God gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a charge and said, Be strong and of a good courage, for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them, and I will be with thee. Joshua is here receiving from God this charge. Bring them into the land. You shall. You shall bring them into the land. Where does that come from? In the midst of a whole passage about the whoring of Israel after other gods. Where does that come from? Except the mercy of God. And that is the mercy in which God gave to us Jesus Christ, of whom Joshua was a picture. Even his name, Joshua, in the New Testament is translated Jesus. Even his name reveals the salvation of Jehovah. Joshua, that is the true Joshua, Jesus Christ, our Lord, brings us into the land. The mercy of God does this. And that mercy is described in the song, chapter 32, verse 30, 36. God seeth that their power is gone. His people are powerless. The chastisements and judgments of Jehovah and their own sin and sinfulness have rendered them powerless. And when their power is gone, then Jehovah reveals His in His Son Jesus Christ. By His power sent Him into our flesh. What power that the Word of God should be made flesh. And in His power, He takes all of our sins and the great eternity of the curse that should fall upon them and lays them on Jesus Christ and punishes Him in our place. And in His power, He raises our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and brings Him to heaven to sit Him at His own right hand. That's power, the power of the mercy of God that delivers His people through Jesus Christ. And then to come to the fourth point, the fourth purpose, that is, of this song. The purpose of the song is so that the people of God constantly, generation after generation, give glory to Him and look to Him alone for their salvation. There's always that threat. There would be for Israel all through her days. For the New Testament church in our day today, there's always that threat that the people of God look to themselves somehow for their salvation. What of Israel is there in this song? What did Israel contribute to her salvation? She only contributed one thing. Sin. Waxing fat. Rebellion. Forsaking God. Apostasy. There's nothing that she contributed to her salvation. The whole came from Jehovah. And that's the song laid upon the hearts of God's people that teaches us all through our generations until the Lord returns. Look to Him. Look to Him who is the Rock and whose work is perfect, who is a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He. And so Israel was to use this song. And we too are to use this song. How do we use that today? The use of this song of Deuteronomy 32 today is in the Psalms. That's where all the major thoughts of Deuteronomy 32 are transferred into the 150 Psalms And just as this was a song that was to be taught to the seed for them to memorize, so also the Psalms are given to us. One of the reasons that they're given to us is for the next generation. What a good thing that the children of the church know the Psalms and know the truth of God as the rock The Redeemer, the Lord. And know the truth of their own willful stubbornness and sin. And know the truth of Jehovah's bare arm to save His people in the day of His might through Jesus Christ. What a thing for the youth and children of the church to memorize and know the Psalms. And so there is that encouragement by implication. for the Church of Jesus Christ today make use of this song of the witness of Jehovah by instructing our children in the Psalms of God, where all these truths are found, where the whole of the Bible is condensed into one song book that our children can memorize and learn, so that they too, in all their days, and their children, and their children's children all their days, learn to look not to themselves, and hear the warning about departure and apostasy, and learn to look alone by faith to Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, whose mercy saves. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word, For Thy word in all of the Scriptures, and for Thy word in this song, and Thy word in the Psalms, we pray, Father, that Thou wilt give us grace as Thy church, not to forsake Thee, which we undoubtedly would, left to ourselves, but give us grace to be faithful, and save us by Thy grace, not even for our faithfulness, but for Thy faithfulness, and for Thy mercy's sake. through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Psalter number 230. 230. Here we sing of the assurance of blessing and mercy that God gives us, picking up some of the ideas in Deuteronomy 32. Let us sing just stanzas 1 and 4, 1 and 4 of 230. and show us thy salvation, Lord. May thou wilt answer us in peace, and from our falling we will see. Praise ye the Lord, ye hosts of love and gath'ring The Lord, he saves me not, who in his grace divine. I, all his creatures, let his name be honored and adored. Let all that breathe in praise unite to glorify The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.