Let us return to the portion of God's Word that we read together from the book of Deuteronomy and the 33rd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. The words of our text are found in the portion verses 26 to 29. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun who rideth upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say, destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down to you. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. These words, as the Lord himself would be pleased to help us in our meditation. An appropriate title for our sermon this morning would be A Most Blessed Benediction. A Most Blessed Benediction. We see that Moses, the man of God, is now 120 years old, and these are his last recorded words. He's speaking to the children of Israel that he has led for 40 years through the wilderness. The life of Moses is quite easy to characterize. He was 40 years in Egypt as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was 40 years in the backside of the wilderness feeding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. And then he was 40 years leading the children of Israel through the wilderness. It took the Lord 80 years to prepare Moses for this great work. But now his time has come to leave the scene of time and enter eternity. And his last words are very instructive to us because in the previous chapters, we see him conducting worship. In chapters 29 to 31, he's preaching to the children of Israel. He's encouraging them to stay faithful to Jehovah. Then in chapter 32, they sing. They sing the song of Moses together. And then his final act is a benediction. He blesses the children of Israel before his death. In verses 1 to 5, we see a national blessing. He's blessing them corporately as a united body of people, the covenant people. He's reminding them that they are special, they are chosen, they are the covenant people of God, and he blesses them as a nation. And then from verses 6 to 25, He blesses them individually. Each one of the tribes of Israel gets a particular blessing from Moses, except there's not 12 tribes. And this is a task for the children this afternoon. Read through this passage and find out which one of the tribes did not receive a blessing from Moses and the reasons why. Because when you read through it, you'll see there's only 11 tribes. So this is the benediction of Moses from God, from the faithful God, from Jehovah, the I am that I am, who is not the God of the heathen nations surrounding them. He is the covenant God of Israel, the law-giving God, the God of redemption and the God of deliverance from Egypt. Oh, how blessed they are. No wonder Moses says, happy art thou, O Israel. Who is like unto thee? But this is only for Jeshura, and we'll come on to that in a few moments. This is only for those who are the people of God. This is their blessing. This is their promise. This is their benediction. And as we look around in our own day, and dwindling congregations and a nation which is opposed more and more to the gospel and Christianity, it's easy to become discouraged. But these people were dismayed and discouraged as well. They were about to enter into the promised land. They were about to enter a land inhabited by Jebusites and Hittites and Perizzites and all manner of Canaanite heathens that they would have to drive out. It wasn't going to be easy going into the land of promise. So Moses bestows this most blessed benediction upon them. to encourage them as they crossed into the promised land. Remember the absolute greatness of your God. Remember who he is as the sovereign creator God. And this is what we must do. We must, must, must encourage ourselves in the Lord. Remember David when he was discouraged? The scriptures tell us he encouraged himself in the Lord. He didn't look to man. He didn't look to man's blessings. He didn't look to man's deliverances. He encouraged himself in his unchanging, immutable, absolutely sovereign Jehovah God. So if you are one of the Lord's people this morning, if you are of Jeshurun, this is your benediction. This is your blessing. It's to you. and to be pled for your seed after you. And we want to look at four things, each one of the four verses, concerning this God of Teshurun and concerning this blessed benediction. And the first thing that we want to see is glorious in his perfections. Glorious in his perfections. Moses is very instructive because he puts God at the very beginning in the highest possible place. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the sky. This God is unique. Jehovah is one. He is singular. It has echoes of his previous words at the beginning of Exodus. Who is a God like unto thee among the gods? It's wonderful, isn't it? When he's about to begin leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, he says, who is a God like unto thee among the gods? And 40 years later, he's still saying, oh, there's none like unto the God of Joshua. We sang that in Psalm 89, didn't we? who in heaven with the Lord may once himself compare who is like God among the sons of those that mighty are. When we sing these words, we must remind ourselves this is speaking of the sovereign omnipotence of the God who we worship. Psalm 115 is another wonderful psalm that reminds us of the sovereignty of God and the puny idols that are like idols dumb. All other gods are idols dumb, which blinded nations fear. Ah, but our God, our God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. We fear him and we worship him. So there's none like unto the God of Jeshurun. Let's look at this word Jeshurun. It's a very interesting word. It's only used three times in scripture. It conveys to us a uniqueness in the children of Israel because they are regarded as the upright ones. They are regarded as the holy ones. They are regarded as the righteous one. It's a unique identifying name that Moses uses to describe the children of Israel particularly. They're not like the Canaanites. They're not like the Egyptians. They're heathens. But you're the righteous ones. You're the holy ones. You're the upright ones. Or you should be. So what he is saying here is, there is none like unto the God of the righteous ones. There's none like unto the God of the upright ones, because Jehovah is the upright, holy, and righteous God. It's similar to the The description we have in the Acts of the Apostles where we read that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Christians was a uniquely identifying name. Well, Jeshurun's the same. Jeshurun is the name for the Lord's people. Those who are holy and righteous, not in themselves, but are holy and righteous because they are depending on the finished work of Jesus Christ and they look to the holy and righteous God. And look how this God displays his power for his people's encouragement. He rides upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the sky. This Jehovah God who is like none other is riding on the heavens for your help. Omnipotent power at your disposal. He exhibits his glorious perfections in great displays of majesty, of glory, of dominion, and of power. He comes in power for the deliverance of his people. How many times have the Lord's people been delivered in their Christian experience? You're delivered because of the power of the God of Jeshurun. He rides upon the heaven in thy help. to help us understand this, a way of translating it might be, he rides from heaven to help thee. What a picture. What a picture when you're cast down, when you're surrounded by enemies in your workplace. I have Jehovah riding from heaven to help me? Oh, that's not like the dumb idols. who have mouths but can't speak and eyes but can't see. Our God rides from heaven to the help of those who are of Jashurin. What's the source of this power? Well, the source of this power is in himself, his glorious perfection, his glorious attributes. He is wisdom, he is power, he is holiness, he is justice, goodness, and truth. Nothing external having any effect upon the God of Jeshurun because the source of his power is within himself. He is powerful by necessity of his eternal being because he is God, he is power. And our puny minds must always remind ourselves, he doesn't have power, he is power. The source of his power is himself, but he condescends to describe for us where the seat of that power is manifested for the encouragement of his people. It's manifested in the clouds of heaven. When I look up into the heavens, which thine own finger framed, and to the moon, and to the stars, which whereby they are did, we see the power. Those who are of Jashurin see the power of God every time they lift up their eyes to the clouds and the heavens of heaven. That's not all. He doesn't just come in power. He comes in excellency. He rideth upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the sky. It conveys a wonderful picture of kingly majesty. The kings in those days would have white stallions that we would ride on and they would be admired. So this is a picture of conveying to us the stately, grand, sovereign majesty of God. No created thing. can stand before the excellence of this God who is preeminent, who is sovereign, who is omnipotent, who is excellent, and superlative adjectives are insufficient to capture the greatness of our God. Is that what's in your own mind this morning? That your vocabulary cannot grasp the greatness of the God before whom you worship this morning? Calvin says, having the celestial creatures for his cavalry and the terrestrial creatures for his infantry, how can his help be lacking in anything? The sovereignty of God. Do we grasp the sovereignty of God? It was the distinguishing doctrine of the men of 1843. They were marked out because they held to the sovereignty of God in all things. The enlightened thinkers, so-called, of the 19th century, shilly-shallying about, trying to compromise with Darwinism and evolution, the advance of science, falsely so-called, And the men of the free church disruption said, oh, the sovereignty of God, there's none like the God of Joshua. He is glorious in his perfection. We see secondly, in verse 27, not only is he glorious in his perfections, but he is mighty in his protection. He is mighty in his protection. The eternal God is thy refuge. The incommunicable attribute of God, his eternity, even the children know Catechism 4, don't they? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. These are the incommunicable attributes of God. He is immense. He is of absolute perfection. He is unity in one. These belong to God alone. And the passage reminds us that this is an eternal God who has made an eternal covenant with Joshua. And he sees these transient things, these temporal things should not unduly concern you because the eternal God is your God. The word refuge there in the original language is wonderful. It conveys to us a hiding place, a covering place, a place where we can go safe from all harm. And note, this eternal God doesn't just provide the refuge. The God of Jeshua is the refuge. Protection provided that is mighty. And he says he is the eternal God to highlight the nature of that refuge. It's an eternal refuge, not just for time, not just for entering the promised land and driving the heathen out. This is an eternal refuge. And underneath are the everlasting arms. Oh, what a wonderful picture. God, of course, has no arms. He has no parts nor passions. But what a great condescension of Jeshurun's great and eternal God that he will describe himself in his word in such a way that puny creatures like you and I can grasp how gracious he is. And there's none of us that fail to grasp the picture of this text. Underneath are the everlasting arms, his eternal power underpinning every one of his people, every one of those who are of Jashurin, upheld, protected by his mighty arms. You see, an eternal God can only have everlasting arms. An eternal God can only protect eternally. Everything that ascribes to him, everything that is attributed to him is eternal. Time without end. And not just defensively, but these everlasting arms are there offensively. He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say, destroy them. There's nothing passive in the God of Jashurin. He will go before them as they enter the promised land, and He will drive out these tribes before them. You just need to read in the first few passages, the first few chapters of Joshua. They're commanded. to drive out the Canaanites and the Hivites, the Girgashites, the Amorites in their own strength. Oh no, not in their own strength. They're reminded here, you're driving them out because the eternal God is your refuge. And when they come upon you in their thousands, remember that the eternal God has his everlasting arms under you. Constantly going on in the strength of Jeshurun's God. Is that you this morning? Are you going on in the strength of Jeshurun's God? How many times in your Christian experience have you come back to this text? It's a sweet one. It's like honey falling from the honeycomb. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arm. When you've been overwhelmed, when you've been crushed, when you've been perplexed, when you've been grieving because you've lost a loved one, when you're pressed down in your own soul and you think you're going to come to an end of yourself, you go to God's word and he gives you a sweet promise. Underneath are the everlasting arms. And why? Underneath every member of Jeshurun are their everlasting arms, because they are saved by the one who knew no standing, the one who plumbed the depths at Calvary's cross. I downward in deep mire do sink, where standing there is none. That's why for those who are unassuring, who can say the eternal God is my refuge, nothing in time will make an end of you, because underneath you are the everlasting arms. We see thirdly, not only is he glorious in his perfections, Not only is he mighty in his protection, but he is also faithful in his provision. In verse 28, Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down. Do you think it would be enough for God to display his perfections? for God to protect his own people, but not only that, he provides for them. No wonder Moses starts this benediction by saying there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun. The God of the heathen don't provide. And this shows us the covenant faithfulness of the God of Jeshurun. That's what he promised. He promised Abraham, when he called Abraham out of the land of Ur, he promised that he would make his seed as the sand on the seashore innumerable. And he would lead them into a land flowing with milk and honey. The covenant promises that were conveyed to Isaac, to Jacob, to Joseph, and now Moses. And for 40 years, he's led them through the desert. Led them through the wilderness. As we heard on Wednesday, they passed through the Red Sea, and they were not overwhelmed by the waters. Why? Because the eternal God was their refuge, and underneath were the everlasting arms. And now as they cross into the promised land, God will continue to provide for them. He is faithful who promised, and he will fulfill all the promises of the covenant. but only for those who are upright, only for those who are the righteous, only for those who are holy. We must remind ourselves, this is a narrow promise. It's only to those who are of Jeshurun, those who flow from the fountain of Jacob, those who are of Jacob's seed. his posterity from the fruit of his loins. Do we remember the promise that the God of Jeshurun made to Jacob when Joseph sent for him to come down into Egypt? It's a bit like The children of Israel passing into the promised land, fearful, afraid, doubting what's going to lie ahead. And what was the promise that God gave to Jacob? Fear not. There's one of the 366 times that fear not is in the scriptures as we heard on Wednesday. Fear not, Jacob, to go down into Egypt. Why not? For I will there make of thee a mighty nation. and I will surely bring thee up again. Here's the faithfulness of this God's provision, this great God's provision. And they're coming out of Egypt, a mighty nation. 70 souls go down into Egypt. They come out hundreds of thousands, a mighty nation in captivity. And where are they heading? They're heading to a land flowing with milk and honey. They're flowing, in verse 28, to a land of corn and wine. They're traveling to a productive land, a prosperous land, a fertile land where God has made all necessary provision for them. You read that through the blessings. They shall suck of the sea, they shall find things hidden in the sand, the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sand. Why? Because they deserve it? No, because God is faithful. He promised to Abraham, and he will be faithful to that covenant promise. What a land! Earlier on in Deuteronomy, in chapter 8, Moses, again, to encourage the people, describes the land to them. He says, it's a land of wheat and barley. It's a land of vine and fig trees. It's a land of pomegranates, a land of oil, olive, and honey, where thou shalt eat bread without scarceness. But those who are of spiritual Israel, Those who are spiritually of Jeshurun, they eat bread without scarceness. They eat the bread of life and they drink from the fountain of living water, a source of provision that the heathen know nothing of. And if that's not enough, the heavens shall drop down to you. Why will the heavens drop down to you? Well, because the God of Jeshurun rides upon the heavens. And when the children of Israel passed into the promised land, they were well watered, well irrigated to provide all the things necessary for their temporal sustenance. Drought is a disaster in the desert, but look at the promise of God. The heavens shall drop down due, or the heathen, They might endure famine, but not Jashurin. Your land will be well irrigated. Your land will bring forth abundant crops. And again, that relates specifically to a promise that God gave to the patriarchs. Isaac blessed Jacob. And what did he say to him in Genesis 27? He said, a prophetic blessing that Isaac passed upon Jacob now fulfilled in Moses blessing the children of Israel as they pass into the promised land. Abundant provision because of God's faithfulness and despite their wanderings in their wilderness, despite their apostasy, despite their rebellion and their sin. Oh, are we thankful this morning that God is faithful? Despite our sin, despite our unbelief, despite us saying, is this promise really for me? Despite that, God is faithful in his provision. And there's no lack in the spiritual provision that God makes for his people. We heard of a wonderful promise being preached on Wednesday evening. Here's another wonderful promise. Is this your default position when you're perplexed? Do you dive into the word of God and say, I will find a promise for me? Because it's not a scarceness in the provision that God makes. It's a reluctance for us to go to the word of God and find the promises and plead the promises, not just once, but plead them again and again and again. If you are spiritually hungry, if you have spiritual anorexia, it's your own fault. Because when you're fed, you spew out what you hear. God provides his word, everything necessary. We are to fill ourselves, we are to fill ourselves abundantly and not expose ourselves to spiritual hunger or spiritual drought. We are to eat a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees, well refined. So he's glorious in his perfections, he's mighty in his protection, he's faithful in his provision, and finally in verse 29, he is merciful in his preservation. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. This is who this promise is for. The people who are saved by the Lord. You see, Jeshurun's God, the omnipotent Jehovah God, firstly, he delivers his people in mercy out of bondage, out of the darkness of Egypt. and then all through their wilderness journey. In His great mercy, He preserves them from all their enemies. He even preserves them from themselves. They are saved by the Lord. They've been saved from Egypt. They've been delivered. They've been redeemed. They've been set on high, taken from slavery and from servitude and brought through, preserved from man and beasts. And we have that in Psalm 36. Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How precious is thy grace. He is merciful to save. Not only is he merciful to preserve, but he's merciful to persevere. He perseveres with us, us unfaithful, unprofitable servants. Oh, he is merciful to persevere with his people. And so therefore, if we know this, if we know he's mighty, if we know he's faithful, if we know that he has been merciful in saving us from Egypt, No wonder Moses says, happy art thou. The word means blessed. It's like a double benediction. Blessed art thou. Oh yes, we're blessed, but there should be joy there too. Why should there be joy? Why should Jashurin, why should the spiritual seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob be happy? Because there's none like our God. the eternal God is my refuge, and underneath me are his everlasting arms. No wonder Moses says, blessed are thou. Oh, blessed are thou, O Israel, the children of the covenant, those who have been delivered, those who have been saved. You should be a happy people. But their happiness is dependent on something that he mentions in verse 29 there verse 28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone You see just you're not to be separate to assure her to dwell in safety when they are alone, when they have driven out all the enemies that inhabit the land of Canaan. After you've driven them out, you shall be the sole occupants of this land, and you shall be preserved by your merciful God. because of the sword of His Excellency. They will find their enemies to be liars, to be fraudulent, to be double-tongued, to be untrustworthy. They shall be caught in their own snares, and you shall be preserved if you remain jeshurun, if you remain upright, if you remain righteous, if you remain holy, if you remain faithful to me. I will be merciful in my preservation of you. There is no people like my people, says God. Like you who are redeemed by the Lord. If you know what it is to be redeemed by the Lord, if you know what it is to be taken from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God, Oh how God's mercies we should ever sing, and with my mouth I shall. We should be joyous, not the frivolous, idiotic, giggling that the liberal church will pass off as the worship of God, but a reverent joy, a thankful joy, a happiness that is founded thinking and pondering and meditating upon the mercy of God to those who deserve to be left in Egypt. A joy founded on the fact that he has promised that he will even unto death guide those who are of Jeshurun. That even through death they can say, the eternal God is my refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Rejoicing in the merciful nature of his preservation because he shall preserve you until you enter Emmanuel's land. You shall be preserved and dwell in safety if we remain faithful to the upright and faithful God alone. Remember we said that Jeshurun was a unique name. It was a distinctive name. Well, those who are of Jeshurun should not be hard to identify in this world. If Jeshurun means, and we believe it does, means the upright, righteous, holy ones, it's a must for those who were first called Christians in Antioch, who are of Jeshurun, they should stand out amongst the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the heathen in this world. Do you stand out? Do your neighbors know that you're of Jeshurun? Do your neighbors know that you are joyous because there's none like you, that whatever the Lord and his providence causes you to pass through, you will always be able to joyously say, the eternal God is my refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Why is there none like the God of Jeshurun? Well, there's none like the God of Jeshurun because he's glorious, because he is mighty, because he is faithful, because he is merciful to his people. And there's none like the God of Jeshurun because he is of absolute perfection. Because he protects his people, he provides for his people, and he preserves them. We'll sing in closing Psalm 86, verse eight, there no wonder the psalmist says, Lord, there is none among the gods that may with thee compare. Thou art incomparable. Thou art beyond our vocabulary. The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. We are all probably very familiar with the old 19th century hymn. I think it was written in the 1880s. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms, I have blessed peace with my God so near. leaning on the everlasting arms. Now those who can say that, they're a blessed people. They're a happy people. That's a most blessed benediction to have. But that's only for those of Jashurin. Can you say, Can you leave God's house this morning saying whatever my providence is, whatever my providence will be tomorrow if I am spared, I have blessed peace with my God so near because I'm leaning on the everlasting arms. But if you're not of Jeshurun, this is not for you. And you are of all men most miserable. because you face the providences that the Lord will place in your path. You face tomorrow if you are spared and you are filled with dread and you are filled with fear because you're not leaning on the everlasting arms. You have no blessed peace and the Lord is not near to you. But he is there to be entreated of. He is there to be called upon. He is there to be supplicated with the words, I cannot cope any longer. I have come to an end of myself and I feel as if I am about to be consumed. May I know something of the everlasting arms of the God of Joshua, who is a people. If you are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. May the Lord bless his word to us. Let us pray.