We're reading Deuteronomy chapter 8, and we're reading through the whole chapter.
The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live
and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years
in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart,
whether you would keep his commandments or not.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know,
nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone,
but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these 40 years.
Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
So shall you keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and springs,
flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity,
in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes,
which I command you today.
Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them,
and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied,
then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,
who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness,
with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty grounds where there was no water,
who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
who fed you in the wilderness with manner that your fathers did not know,
that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Beware lest you say in your heart,
my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.
You shall remember that the Lord your God,
you shall remember the Lord your God,
for it is he who gives you power to get wealth,
that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers,
as it is this day.
And if you forget the Lord your God,
and go after other gods,
and serve them and worship them,
I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you,
so shall you perish,
because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
We're trying to walk through the book of Deuteronomy,
which is a big but very important book,
and if you were not here last night,
we looked at the first four chapters quite quickly,
where Moses does a recap of the travel
from Mount Sinai to the edge of the Promised Land.
And one of the things I tried to point out last night
is that the relationship between God and his people
is like father to son.
And it came up in the reading we just had,
that God is a father to his people.
He's not asking them to be obedient
so that one day they might enter the family.
He has brought them together as his family,
and now he's giving them wisdom
on how to live as members of the family.
So last night I said we could divide the book of Deuteronomy
into four parts,
which is the four talks for this weekend.
First four chapters is basically,
where have we come from?
Five to 11 is basically,
what's our relationship like?
12 to 26 is an unpacking of the Ten Commandments
in very practical detail.
And 27 to 34 is it's time to make a decision.
And this equates to the kind of treaty
that would be made
when a king would overtake another nation.
And the king would say,
here's a recap.
This is the relationship.
This is how you're to live.
You need to decide whether you're going to live or die.
But this, of course, is a friendly treaty
from God to his people.
So let's think carefully together
about what I've called
the seven diamonds on the covenant ring.
One of my favourite wedding stories,
which I often tell at a wedding,
is where a young man goes down to the coffee bar
and the lady behind the bar,
seeing the nice shiny ring on his finger,
says to him,
you must be on your honeymoon.
And he says, yes, I am.
She says, it's a funny thing, you know,
when I was on my honeymoon,
I was reading the book,
A Tale of Two Cities,
and within the year,
we were blessed with twins.
Nearby, there's a man sitting,
and he says,
that's a funny thing, he says,
my wife was reading The Three Musketeers,
and within the year,
we were blessed with triplets.
The young man goes very pale,
says, I've got to get back to my room.
My wife's reading Alibaba and the Forty Thieves.
So there is a guy
not wanting to be over-blessed.
But I want you to know
that as we look at what I've called
The Covenant Ring Between God and His People,
there are seven chapters to look at in this talk,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.
And if you were to read them straight through,
you would say to yourself,
boy, there's a lot of repetition.
But actually, every chapter is different.
Every chapter is expressing
a different greatness of God
and a different expectation from God.
And that's why I've called it
Seven Diamonds on the Covenant Ring.
Is there a little bit of a buzz?
Can't do anything about it?
No? Okay.
As long as it doesn't irritate you,
it only mildly irritates me.
No, that's not true.
I'm okay.
So we come to chapters five to eleven.
This would be a great series for a sermon,
a series of seven,
but we're going to try and do it in one quick talk.
So let's look at chapter five.
And if you've got your outline there,
I have called this Rescued to Respond.
You'll see in chapter five, verse three,
if you were to open up Deuteronomy five, verse three,
that the covenant is meant to be a very long covenant.
This is what the Lord says.
The Lord did not make the covenant
just with our fathers,
but with us,
those who are here today.
In other words,
it is a long lasting covenant
for the people of God
in every generation.
And it's a covenant of grace
because in verse six,
we read,
and some of you will know this well,
I'm the Lord your God
who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
You shall have no other gods,
verse seven,
before me.
What's unusual about six before seven?
Anybody like to comment?
Thank you.
Relationship before law.
Salvation before stipulations.
Liberty before legalizing.
Yeah, relationship before rules.
The world gets this completely upside down.
If you were to ask a thousand people
why they thought they might go to heaven one day,
what will they do?
They'll talk law.
I've been good.
I've not been bad.
I've tried my best.
I've always.
But you see how the gospel works
in the Old and the New Testament.
Get saved.
Live well.
It's the sequence
which is absolutely vital.
And it's here in chapters five.
It's here in chapter five,
verses six and seven.
The commandments are mostly
a restatement of Exodus 20.
But the Sabbath is slightly changed
in Deuteronomy five
and looks now back to the Exodus.
Not back to the creation,
but looks back to salvation.
You'll notice in,
at Mount Sinai,
they were listening.
Verse 27,
if you go down to the end of the chapter.
Yes,
they were listening in Mount Sinai.
They heard the voice of God.
But verse 29 says,
Moses,
oh,
that they had a heart,
that they would respond.
In other words,
wouldn't it be great
if they were not just listening,
but were actually keen
and able to respond?
And Moses can only urge
this group to respond.
He has no power
to get into their hearts
and make them
a brand new people.
Only God can do that.
And down the track
of the Old Testament,
the new covenant
will come along
and it will change the heart
and make the person responsive
so you know what it's like
when a person is not a Christian
and you're trying
to get them to church.
It's just miserable
because there's no will
or the person
who doesn't want to read,
doesn't want to pray,
doesn't want to fellowship.
Making them from the outside
is such a miserable business
but when God changes the heart,
then there is something
that is willing.
So that's chapter five
very quickly.
Chapter six,
I've called welfare dangers
and at chapter six,
verse four,
if you have a look at six,
four,
we come to the famous
Shema,
which is the Hebrew word
for hear or listen.
Six,
four says,
hear,
listen,
O Israel,
the Lord our God,
the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
soul and strength.
Yahweh is the one true God
to whom they belong
and there is a library
packed into this little sentence,
the Lord our God is one.
Let me mention some things.
First,
there's probably the doctrine
of the Trinity here
in embryo.
One God,
three persons.
Second,
there are no other gods.
Do you remember
when the prophets of Baal
on Mount Carmel
were calling to Baal
and eventually not getting anywhere
so they start slashing themselves?
Because they're just longing
for response
but there is nothing,
nothing,
nothing
because there's no Baal up there.
There's only one God.
Yahweh, therefore,
has everything
under his care and control.
You don't need to hedge your bets
when you get into the promised land.
You don't need to say,
well,
we'll trust Yahweh for salvation.
He was great
but we're going to trust Baal
for agriculture.
No, no.
Yahweh is the only God
and he has everything
under his control.
And therefore,
give him your heart,
mind,
soul and strength
because when you do,
you've brought yourself
into the harbour
of truth and peace.
If you divide your heart,
you are disintegrated
and we pay the price of that.
But if we bring to him
our heart,
mind,
soul and strength
with the help of God,
then of course,
we are integrated.
Well,
in chapter 6,
verse 2,
we're told that the children
and the grandchildren
are to be grounded
in the one God.
And verse 7,
they're to be taught
as you walk along the road
and as you sit
and as you lie.
And I honestly think
the families of churches
need to be helped
to know
that they can play
a fantastic role
in talking to their children
about God
and godly things
all through the week.
Not in an insensitive way,
not in an unhelpful way,
but I look back
to my long time,
30 years at North Sydney
and I just wonder
how many of those parents
thought,
I'm no good at this,
I'll just leave it
to the Sunday school teachers.
But the parents
are not to leave
the children's
spiritual welfare
to the Sunday school teachers.
The parents have got
a fantastic opportunity
to keep reminding
the children
of a very great saviour
and a very great God
and a very great creator
and a very great heavenly father
and that's what
Moses is talking about here.
When he talks about
having the law
on the hands
and the foreheads
and the door frames,
I'm pretty sure
that was meant
to be symbolic.
I know the Jewish people
then insisted
on having law
hanging from the
sides of the head
and law stuck
on the door frames,
but I'm pretty sure
what Moses meant was
it's to be in front of you,
it's to be a constant.
Now the dangers
in chapter 6
of having this great
one God
as your God
in verse 10, 14 and 16
are first of all
that you might fall
into the trap
of prosperity.
Woe to you
if you get too wealthy
because you're
in danger
of then thinking
I've got everything
solved myself.
Well the Lord
can bring that undone
very quickly.
Idolatry,
verse 14 and 15,
we talked about
last night.
This is the danger
of replacing God
with something else
and let me assure you
that when the Israelites
got into the promised land
the idols that were present
were not doping.
We might say
who'd be an idiot
and worship a pole
or a block of wood
but behind those idols
there was a huge amount
of pleasure offered
and a huge amount
of prosperity promised.
So we mustn't
fall into the trap
of thinking idols
are all unattractive.
Idols are incredibly
attractive.
The thing we need
to keep asking the Lord
is that he'd incline us
to him
so that we don't
get disinclined.
So prosperity
is a problem.
Chapter 6,
idolatry is a problem
and adversity
is a problem.
Verse 16,
Moses says,
remember how you were
tested in the wilderness.
You were tested
to see whether you
had a heart for God.
And we're told
in verse 620
that the call
is to obey
which is on the backdrop
verse 21
of salvation.
God brought us out
to bring us in
says Moses
in 623.
Well,
we need to keep
reminding ourselves
again and again
that the rescue
that we've received
outweighs the call
for faithfulness
that God gives us.
Do you ever fall
into the trap
of thinking
the Christian life
is so terrible
I think I'm actually
asked to produce
more than I'm given.
And we know
when we fall
into that trap
we really have
made a mistake.
We have received
infinitely
and we're called
to be responsive
to that.
Let's go to
chapter 7.
Racing along,
chapter 7
is what I've called
loved,
you're a loved people
so make a decision.
And chapter 7
verse 1
is a lovely verse
which says
when the Lord
your God
brings you
into the land
which you go
to possess
and has cast
out many nations
before you
and then there's
a list of 7
verse 2
then when the Lord
your God
delivers them
you shall conquer
and utterly destroy them.
Notice what he says
I'm going to go in
and fight for you.
Of course you're
going to have to fight
but I'm going to
fight for you
and that's why
you'll win
the fight.
And then very
serious verses
from verse 2
that you're to
make no treaty
with the idols
or gods
of the land.
In other words
you're not to leave
a trace of cancer
in the body.
You're not to leave
any drugs
in the house
all down the toilet.
You're not to
allow a stranger
to linger
in the school.
Get him out.
And that's what it's like
with idolatry
and that's why
Paul tells us
in Colossians 3
put it to death
and you'll know
if you've been
a Christian
for a while
that one of the best
things you can ever
do with a lingering
sin is just to say
get out of here
and move on.
You never regret that
but the lingering
is so tricky.
I remember my old boss
who I worked with
in the UK
he said
and this was
a great confession
and it did us
a lot of good
he said
even when I'm
repenting
there's a part of me
which would like
to take down
the phone number
of the sin
so that we could
keep in touch.
I thought
gee what an honest
thing to say
and then he looked
at the rest of us
and he said
is that not you?
And of course
it was us
and he said
if it's not you
collect your wings
and go straight
to heaven
and I thought
it was a great
reminder to us
that we are
in a battle.
So that's
how chapter 7
begins.
Now why did God
choose us?
Chapter 7
verses 7 to 8
two of the loveliest
verses in the whole
Bible
and this is what
Moses says
in 7
7 to 8
Why did God
choose you?
The Lord did not
set his love on you
nor choose you
because you were
more attractive
more in number
more wealthy
had more potential
more sweet
for you are the
least of all peoples
but because the
Lord loves you
and because he
would keep the
oath which he
swore to your
fathers
Why did the
Lord love you?
Because he loved
you.
It was his
decision.
He didn't look
down and see
Simon Manchester
and say what
potential
or what a
past
such a winsome
guy
or where would
the kingdom be
without this guy?
How are we
possibly going to
make any progress
unless we quickly
rescue that guy?
Not at all.
He looked down
and saw somebody
hopeless, hopeless,
hopeless fixed his
love and said
we'll make something
of this guy.
That's what he's
done with you.
He's loved you
because he loved
you.
And therefore
chapter 7 verse 11
respond well
because he loves
you and he will
bless you.
And there's a list
of the blessings.
The Old Testament
blessings were much
more outward.
Crops and
children and
herds and
cattle and
sheep and all
the outward
blessings.
The New Testament
blessings are
inward and
eternal.
Let me tell you
that if you had a
choice of outward
Old Testament
blessings, outward
temporal or inward
eternal New Testament
blessings, go for the
inward and the
eternal.
They're much more
precious, much more
precious.
And therefore the
comfort in chapter 7
verse 17, the
Lord has loved you,
he's going to look
after you and
therefore don't fear
the battle, 7
17.
He's already won the
battle in Egypt, he'll
win the battle in the
promised land.
So there's a
beautiful balance in
chapter 7 of you're
loved, so respond
well.
How do we respond
well to God?
Well we might say I'm
deeply thankful for
Jesus, otherwise I
wouldn't have any
hope.
I'm amazed that you
would call me.
I'm amazed that you
would choose me.
Please help me to
respond well to you
because my inclination
is to go all over the
place.
So incline me to
yourself and then
work through me so
that my life is
pleasing to you,
helpful for others.
That's how we might
respond to this.
Have any of you heard
John Piper's I-O-U-S
before?
Anyone know what I'm
talking about?
He said it as an
aside once and I
found this incredibly
helpful in the
mornings.
He has a little
mnemonic called I-O-U-S
I-O-U-S and they're
four little phrases
from the Psalms.
Incline my heart to
you.
Open my mind to
your word.
Unite my will with
yours.
Satisfy my soul with
yourself.
I find this
tremendously helpful
because I get up in
the morning and I'm
disinclined and my
mind is closed and my
will is wayward and my
soul is dissatisfied.
And the I-O-U-S says
incline my heart to
you.
Open my mind to your
word.
Unite my will with
yours.
Satisfy my soul with
yourself.
Chapter 8.
This is what I've
called trained for
wisdom.
Are you still with me?
We're nearly through.
No we're not.
We're halfway through.
Stay with it.
Chapter 8.
Trained for wisdom.
Chapter 8 verse 2
which Jacob read for
us says that God has
led them and tested
them and the test was
to reveal the heart.
So when a trial comes
along in our life and
trials do come along all
the time they are
testing experiences.
If we begin at that
point to accuse God
ah there we are God
I was so great and you
failed me by bringing a
test.
That's very revealing
isn't it?
If we find a way of
saying to him this is a
very difficult test but
I'm not going to walk
away from you I'm
looking to you.
That's a very revealing
response as well.
And listen carefully to
this friends.
The Lord tests to
strengthen the
friendship.
The devil tempts to
stretch the friendship.
Can I say that again?
The Lord tests to
strengthen the
friendship.
He's putting you in
deep water to build up
your spiritual muscles.
He's for you.
The devil tempts to
stretch the friendship
and cause you to want
to give up.
And there was an amazing
provision in the desert
chapter 8 verse 4 but
there were serious tests
as well.
And so the point in
chapter 8 verse 6 is to
be wise.
To give glory to God
who's looked after you.
And beware of self
congratulation of saying
gee you know the reason
I got all this is because
I was so great.
Well in Corinthians 1
Corinthians 4 verse 7
Paul says what do you
have you didn't receive?
I was just listening to
that violinist this
morning whose name is
and I was envying the
ability to do that.
Thinking how could I just
get that?
And of course God has
given him this great
ability and it blesses
the music.
And everything we've been
given is a blessing from
God.
All that we have we have
received from him.
So therefore we find it
hard to boast when we've
got our correct mind on
our heads.
That's chapter 8.
Let's go to chapter 9
what I've called success
and humility.
Chapter 9 verses 1 to 3.
God is going to enable the
entry to the promised land.
Hero Israel you're to
cross the Jordan and go
in to dispossess nations
greater and mightier than
yourself.
In other words humanly it's
impossible.
Cities great and fortified
are people great and tall
the descendants of the
Anakim and of whom you
heard it said who can stand
before the descendants of
Anak.
Therefore verse 3
therefore understand today
the Lord your God is he
who goes over before you
as a consuming fire.
He will destroy them and
bring them down before you
so you shall drive them
out and destroy them
quickly as the Lord has
said to you.
So God is the one who's
going to enable the
success of the entry to
the promised land and
therefore the people cannot
turn around they should
not turn around and say
we won this ourselves.
That would be insane.
Chapter 8 says don't boast
in your skills and chapter
9 says don't boast in
your goodness.
Now I don't know what
you make of pride and
humility.
Tim Keller says in one of
his books that in the
old days people used to
fear pride but you'll
notice today pride is
applauded and humility is
not so popular.
It's linked to low
self-esteem.
C.S. Lewis says pride is
the essential vice.
It's the chief cause of
misery since the world
began.
It's the one sin which
fractures friendships.
When people talk evil,
drink, sex, etc.
it can bring them together
with a lot of fun but pride
polarises.
And so notice in chapter 9
verse 7 how does Moses
drive this home?
He reminds them of the
incident in Exodus where
they built the golden calf.
Imagine you're Moses
talking to the people and
you're saying to them
you're about to go into
the promised land and I
want you to listen very
carefully because you know
at Mount Sinai God spoke
with tremendous power and
within hours the people of
God were committing adultery
on their honeymoon.
I remember meeting a girl
whose husband went off and
committed adultery on the
honeymoon.
and that's what the people
of God did.
Almost immediately after
hearing him speak at
Mount Sinai they went off
and they organised the
golden calf.
And so Moses is saying to
them I want you to realise
what you're like.
You're the sort of people
who can fall very quickly.
You're not a gold medal
people.
You're a gold calf people.
You can fall very quickly.
And therefore you need to
take seriously what's being
said to you.
Chapter 10 what I've called
mercy and fear.
In face of the golden calf
and that dreadful debacle
Moses realises of course
in Exodus that the only
hope is the mercy of God.
Do you remember that
lovely moment where Moses
says oh Lord here we are
we've all fallen on a heap.
Show me your glory.
And the Lord says come up
the mountain.
I'll hide you in the
cleft of the rock.
You remember this?
And I'll pass by.
And I'll show you my glory.
And he doesn't actually
show him the glory.
He declares the glory.
And he passes by and he
declares the Lord the Lord
gracious, merciful, slow to
anger, abounding in
steadfast love.
And it says in the original
Bible that I bought when I
was a boy and at this
Moses made haste to bow his
face towards the earth and he
worshipped.
Because he suddenly realised
that the answer to the
judgement of God was the
mercy of God.
The problem that would
drive you away from God
finds its solution in coming
back to him for mercy.
And that's what chapter 10
is all about.
There's going to be two new
stone tablets.
Chapter 10 verse 3.
Does anybody know why there
were two stone tablets?
We tend to think, don't we,
from church buildings that
one to five went on one of
them and six to ten went on
the other.
As if we never had room on
the tablets for Ten
Commandments.
But actually a treaty, you
see, had two parties.
And so when they drew up the
Ten Commandments, one copy
went to one half and one copy
went to the other half.
When God draws up his treaty
with his people in the Ten
Commandments, he doesn't need
a copy.
His copy can go into the tent.
And their copy goes into the
tent.
So they've got two copies.
It's a little bit like Jesus
saying, truly, truly, I say to
you, you've got double good
reason for taking seriously
what God says to you.
So the new two stone tablets
are being built because the
people have failed.
And Moses is reminding them on
the edge of the promised land.
And he says to the people, this
God, chapter 10, verse 12, is
massive.
Absolutely massive.
But he's also deeply interested
in the widow and the orphan and
the needs of your table.
That's the wonderful thing about
God.
He's transcendent and he's
imminent.
He's the God of the telescope and
he's the God of the microscope.
I heard a man say once that he had
small views of Jesus until he went
on a retreat like this.
And the speaker said, I want to ask
you to try and experiment.
You may have heard me say this
before.
And he said, the experiment is I want
you to make a model of the galaxy
that we live in.
And the scale of the galaxy is that
the distance between the earth and
the sun is going to be the thickness
of a piece of paper.
Okay, so here's a piece of paper.
Earth to sun is that far in your
model as you build a model of the
galaxy.
And then he said, how big a box do
you need to put the model of your
galaxy in?
And the answer is you need a box
that's 700 kilometres by 700
kilometres by 500 kilometres to put
the model of the galaxy in the
box.
And the speaker said, since the
Lord Jesus has made and governs
billions of galaxies, we don't get
to put him in our back pocket.
He is massive.
But he's also incredibly interested
in the minor details.
The tiny, tiny details.
Everything.
Nothing misses him.
And that's why we must respond to
him with great gratitude.
Merciful, but majestic as well.
Well, the last chapter, 11, is what
I've called grace and obedience.
And this is where God, again, reminding
them if his grace calls on them to be
obedient.
Now, I don't know how you think of
obedience in the Christian life.
You may think it's a miserable thing.
But let me give you an illustration
which may help you.
And that is that I think of obedience
like this.
When you're taking small children on a
holiday, some of you may identify with
this and some of you may identify in
the past, or you may at least be
familiar.
When you're taking children on a
holiday and you're going from A to B,
500 Ks, you do not put the security of
the trip in the hands of your children.
They get put in their seats.
They get their little seatbelts put on.
You close the door.
You take the wheel.
The security of the trip is in your
hands, not theirs.
But it is possible for them to
contribute to the joy of the journey.
I know that sounds ridiculous.
But it is possible for them to
contribute to the joy of the journey by
being cooperative in the back seat.
I know it's never happened.
But in theory, it's possible for them to
contribute to the joy of the journey.
And that's how obedience fits into the
Christian life.
It's pleasing to God.
And it contributes to the joy of the
journey.
But it's got nothing to do with the
security of the journey.
And that's why we give thanks for the
security that comes to us through
Jesus.
But the obedience will contribute to the
joy.
So in chapter 11, verse 2, if you just
look at 11, verse 2, the children who
are standing in front of Moses now, those
little kids, they were not there at
Mount Sinai.
And so the older people who are adults
who were children at Mount Sinai are
being told to help the younger ones to
know what took place.
And chapter 11, verse 10, the land which
you go to possess is not like the land of
Egypt from which you've come, where you
sowed your seed and watered it by foot.
But the land which you cross over to
possess is a land of hills and valleys
which drinks water from the rain of
heaven.
In other words, when you're in Egypt and
you had to get your rain by foot, that
either means you had to walk to get your
water or there was an irrigation system
where you pumped little planks with your
feet, but you had to work hard for water.
Well, it's not going to be like that in the
promised land, says the Lord.
The rain is going to be plentiful and is going
to come down as a mark of grace.
So therefore, the climax of the chapter, choose
carefully who you're going to serve because
God is this covenant God with all the blessings
and all the requests or obligations.
And we read at the end of chapter 5 from verse 26, there's going to be two
mountains as you enter the promised land.
Gerizim to announce the blessings, Ebal to announce the curses, and you've got to
make your choice.
Are you going to be a God following people or a God forgetting people?
If you're a God following people, well, of course, you'll be living under his joy,
favour, blessing.
If you're a God forgetting people, you'll be living under his discipline, not because
he doesn't love you, because he does love you.
It's just going to make it much awkward.
Now, friends, all of this is a great signpost to the Lord Jesus, because in the end, when
we think about the curses which could fall on people, the Lord Jesus, because of the
cross, has caused the curses that could fall on us to fall on him.
And that's the wonderful privilege of being a Christian, Galatians 3, that he took the
curses, that we might take the blessings.
So as we live with God in the world, we have this heavenly Father who's lifted the curses
off us, seeks, of course, to be gracious to us, always gracious.
But sometimes that grace will be seen in testing, strengthening, and when we fail, calling,
disciplining, but all the time, this gracious God is going to be at work again for his people.
Now, I thought I might just finish by reading something again from John Piper, who I haven't
read for a long time, but a long time ago, I read his little meditation on rain.
And since there has been a bit of rain lately, I don't know if you've noticed, but there has
been a bit of rain.
I thought I'd read to you as we close something about rain.
Have you heard this before?
This is a meditation by John Piper on the text from Job.
My God does great and unsearchable things.
He does wonders with a number like rain.
Piper says, is rain a great and unsearchable wonder?
Well, picture yourself as a farmer, far from any lake or stream.
A few wells keep the family and animals supplied.
But if the crops are to grow and the families to be fed, water has to come on the fields.
From where?
Well, the sky.
The sky.
Water will come out of the sky.
Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles
and then poured out from the sky onto the fields.
Carried.
How much does it weigh?
Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night,
that would be 27,878,400 cubic feet of water,
which is 206,300,160 gallons,
which is one, nearly two billion pounds of water.
That's heavy.
How does it get up in the sky and stay up if it's so heavy?
Well, it gets there by evaporation, really.
What does that mean?
It means the water stops being water for a while so it can go up, not down.
Then how does it get down?
Well, condensation happens.
What's that?
The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little particles
between 0.0001 and 0.0001 centimetres wide.
What about the salt?
Salt?
Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is salt water.
That would kill the crops.
What about the salt?
Well, the salt has to be taken out.
Oh, so the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea,
takes out the salt and carries it for 300 miles and dumps it on the farm.
Well, it doesn't dump it.
If it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm,
the wheat would be crushed.
So the sky dribbles the billion pounds of water down in little drops
and they have to be big enough to fall
and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.
How do all these microscopic specks of water
that weigh a billion pounds get heavy enough to fall?
Well, it's called coalescence.
What's that?
It means the specks of water start bumping into each other
and join up and get bigger.
And when they're big enough, they fall.
Just like that?
Well, not exactly,
because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up.
If there were no electric field present, what?
Never mind.
Take my word for it.
I think that I will take Job's word for it.
I still don't see why drops ever get to the ground
because if they start falling as soon as they're heavier than air,
they would be too small not to evaporate on the way down.
But if they wait to come down, what holds them up till they're big enough not to evaporate?
Yes, I'm sure there's a name for that too.
But I'm satisfied now that by any name,
this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done.
And I think I should be more thankful than I am.
Isn't that great?
Let's pray.
Our gracious God, thank you for your greatness and your goodness,
seen to your people and especially seen in the Lord Jesus.
And we pray that because our hearts are so wayward,
you would incline us to yourself.
You would keep opening our mind to your word.
You would keep uniting our wills with yours
and keep causing us to be satisfied with yourself.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.