The Lord Our Rock

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Test, test, test. Good. Well, welcome back, Pastor Jeff. You can tell your film better.

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We're going to be in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, as it says in your bulletin.

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Deuteronomy, chapter 32. The title of this message is,

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The Lord, Our Rock. We'll have a reading from the chapter for the first few verses, and then we'll get to work and dive in.

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These are the words of the living and the true God. Give ear,

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O heavens, and I will speak. And let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

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May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.

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For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our

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God, the Rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.

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A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

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Thus far is the reading of God's word. Please join me in a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you today that we can gather under the hearing of your word.

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We thank you, Father, that you have chosen us for yourself before the foundation of the earth to be your people, to image you faithfully on this earth.

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We thank you that you yourselves have taken upon yourself the punishment that we deserve in Jesus.

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We thank you that he lived righteously, he died, he rose again, and he has ascended and seated as the reigning king, and he reigns even now.

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We thank you that he ascended and poured out the spirit upon his church to make us your sons and daughters,

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Father, so that we would be a people that is holy and prepared to advance your kingdom in the world.

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God, as we peer into your word today, I pray,

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Spirit, that you would teach. I pray that you would equip. I pray that you would convict,

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Lord God, for your namesake, for your glory. Let this word today,

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God, fall as upon tender and fertile soil.

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Let us now lift up our hearts to you, preparing to you the soil of our hearts to receive this word that falls down like showers today.

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God, we love you. We thank you for saving us. Lord, I thank you for the joy that it is to stand in this pulpit today and proclaim your word.

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I pray that you would guard the words of my mouth, that you would remove me from the equation,

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Lord, and that you would be pleased to speak to your people today, God, so that we may be faithful to you and live worthy of our inheritance.

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It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. The book of Deuteronomy, the last book in the

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Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

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It's actually one of the most oft -quoted books from the Old Testament in the New Testament. You have

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Genesis, you have the Psalter, you have the book of Isaiah, and you have the book of Deuteronomy, most often quoted from the

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Old Testament in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus, when he is tempted by the deceiver in the wilderness, following, of course, after the very pattern of Israel, God's son in the

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Gospels, he himself is quoting from the book of Deuteronomy to do battle against the deceiver.

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And so, this book is something that the people of God would do very well to familiarize ourselves with.

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The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that all that happened to our forefathers, right, the nation of Israel in the wilderness, all of their many failures, their experiences, their wanderings, their triumphs, all of those things were written down for our instruction.

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God made sure to record these things so that you and I, as his people, would learn and be equipped and would learn to repent when we fall short and sin.

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As Pastor Jeff alluded to in Deuteronomy chapter 4, the law of God was to be the wisdom for Israel in the sight of the peoples.

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Other nations were to look into what was going on in Israel and long for that kind of just society, that just community.

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And so, you have, of course, Deuteronomas, the second giving of the law. Moses recites, of course, and reiterates the

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Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, various case law applications. But then, on top of that, very specific instructions about what

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Israel is to do when they go from the plains of Moab, where they're camped, and they go into the promised land to take and claim their inheritance.

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Israel is on the verge of taking possession of the promised land, and so the book opens with Moses reminding the people of their past failures to trust

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God. If you'll recall, they were to go up and take the land before, and they sent spies into the land to scout it out and to see how beautiful it was, how glorious it was.

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And the spies returned, and they gave a good report about, yes, it is a land rich and fertile, just as God promised.

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There's just one problem. The people there are really big and really mean and very scary, and I don't think that we can take it.

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I don't think that we can go into the land and claim our inheritance. And then you have

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Caleb saying, no, I think we can take them. And he and Joshua, of course, the one who will succeed

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Moses, they are the only ones from that generation left over to actually go into the promised land, because the rest of the generation, in their grumbling, unbelieving hearts,

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God would not allow to go in. If you're ever tempted with the sin of grumbling in your home,

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I know I certainly am. I know one of the most oft -repeated verses in our home is to do all things without grumbling or complaining.

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Just read the book of Numbers. That should whip it out of you. But you have, despite even the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel, despite the fact that they watch

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God part the seas, deliver them by mighty acts of wonder from their enemies in Egypt.

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They don't get very far, do they, before their grumbling.

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Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness, Moses? We had everything so good back in Egypt when we were in slavery.

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We had our meals taken care of. We had a place to sleep. Yeah, the labor was strenuous, but that's looking pretty good right now in comparison to chariots beating down our doors, chasing us.

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God provided for their every needs. Despite their unfaithfulness, He faithfully provides and graciously keeps

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His word again and again. And they are urged to trust and obey

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God, to go into the land and conquer, because the promised land is filled with good things.

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It is a land flowing with milk and honey. Milk, of course, a form of water.

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Honey derived from sap of trees. So it's a land that's fertile and rich with water and trees.

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Where do we hear about water and trees first? In the Bible, in the garden, right?

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God is giving them a miniature Eden to take possession of.

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He's restoring them to Edenic blessing. That is the purpose for their redemption.

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The promise is that they will be restored to this land and claim an inheritance.

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However, if they abandon their covenant Lord, if they reject

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His commands and embrace idols amongst the peoples, if they allow their sons and daughters to intermarry with the peoples, if they don't commit the land to complete destruction,

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God warns them. They will be given over to all of the sanctions of the covenant that we see, for example, in Deuteronomy chapter 28.

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Blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. And of course, we know the story, don't we?

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Are they faithful or unfaithful? Unfaithful. And so God carries them off into exile because God, despite what many 21st century evangelical

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Christians believe, is still the imminent God who draws near to judge nations in terms of their faithfulness or unfaithfulness to His covenant law.

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He's not only the transcendent one who is set apart, who is far off, who is other, who is holy, who is not like you and I.

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He is also the imminent one, the one that draws near, that watches over His word to perform it, and that watches over the nations,

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His own people, yes, but the unbelieving nations as well that cannot be refuted from the revelation of Scripture because all of these nations, including

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His own people, are held accountable to the exact same standard, aren't they? That is why

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He warns His people, don't do any of these abominations that these other nations did, for which

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I am casting them out of the land and giving it to you, or you're next. It's a sobering warning.

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The Lord renews the covenants in the latter chapters of Deuteronomy, and Moses is about to go the way of all the earth.

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He will not enter the promised land. He's about to be succeeded by Joshua. And here you have, in these last several chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, you have

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God, if you listen to the message I gave in Louisiana, it's kind of in the same vein as this, this idea of covenantal controversy, the idea that God is entering into dispute with His people, into controversy.

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He's putting them on trial, and He is telling them that there are several witnesses to this event.

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There is the book of the law, the book of the covenant that He has given them. There is

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Moses, as we will see, as the chief character witness to the integrity of God and His holiness and His perfection.

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But then He does something quite astounding. He actually calls heaven and earth as a witness against them.

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And He speaks these words in the witness of heaven and earth.

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Creation testifies against you. And so He gives them, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, what we know to be the song of Moses.

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This is a song that they are to sing, that their children are to sing, and that will actually become a witness against them later on.

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And so the song of Moses as the Lord enters into controversy with His people.

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Now, I want to hone in on a particular aspect of God's character in this passage that we read from.

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The passage starts out, Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak.

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Once again, calling the very creation as a witness against His people.

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And let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.

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For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. We've seen this type of language.

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If you read the book of Exodus, for example, and you see Moses before he advances one more single step in the presence of God, he says,

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You must go before me, or I cannot do what you are asking me to do. I cannot lead these people.

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It's too much of a challenge. It's too much of a task. And you know what he says to God? You know what he prays? He prays,

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Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory.

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And God essentially tells him in Exodus chapter 33 and 34, I will grant your request.

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I will let all of my glory pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the

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Lord. And if you don't understand exactly what's being said here, let me explain to you just for a moment briefly.

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You have God himself, Yahweh, I am who I am, telling

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Moses, the messenger of the covenant, that he himself will ascend the pulpit and exposit himself.

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God will proclaim his own name. He will enter the pulpit and preach himself.

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God's own self -disclosure, isn't it remarkable that you and I would know nothing about this

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God, our God, unless he willingly condescended to reveal it to us?

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That's the God that we worship. And so the same language is on display here. I will proclaim the name of the

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Lord. This is part of the song. Ascribe greatness to our God.

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So backing up in the first few verses, what is the condition of the heart that the people are to have in the presence of God and the chief character witness

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Moses as they receive this gracious revelation from God? What should be their disposition?

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Well, it ought to be like tender grass, fertile soil that is ready and willing to receive the showers of God's word and his revelation.

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These showers, this living water, if you will, has a restorative capacity.

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It's meant to heal, it's meant to bless, and it is meant to invoke worship and praise.

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That's why the demand comes, ascribe greatness to our God. It doesn't mean make God better than he is.

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It means recognize him as Yahweh and worship him. Ascribe praise to him.

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This is the disposition that the gathered assembly is to have in the presence of this song.

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And because of that, as the gathered assembly here receiving this word today, that is to be the disposition of your heart and my heart as we receive this revelation of God's character, what is the first thing that Yahweh says about his very character through Moses, the chief character witness?

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Verse four, the rock. His work is perfect.

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The word literally means impeccable, without fault, blameless.

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God is impeccable. He is perfect in all of his mighty works.

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What else does he tell them? All his ways, everything he does, not only the way he is, but every action that he takes is justice or mishpat.

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That is, he not only does what is right, the judge of all the earth will do right, he is always in the right.

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You can never contradict him. You can never bring him on trial and say, Lord, why did you do it this way?

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I didn't like that, or I think I had a better idea that maybe it should have gone this way.

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Not so with the God of the Bible. All his ways are justice. Nobody that our

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God deals with ever receives injustice, ever. What else?

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He is faithful. That is, he is unfailingly dependable, reliable, trustworthy.

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You can count on him. And he is just and upright.

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What is this referring to? He's just and upright in that he possesses righteous integrity.

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He tells the truth. When God speaks, you can take it to the bank.

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It is unfailingly reliable. It is always honest, and it is without any hint of iniquity.

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So you notice now the connection between God and his word, the identification between those two things, the fact that he and his word are without iniquity.

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He's perfect in his record. He's blameless in all of his ways. He's just.

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He's faithful, unfailingly reliable. Now, if you notice as you're hearing this,

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I painted the context for us for a reason in terms of covenantal lawsuit,

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God putting his people on trial and giving them this. God has taken up the cause of being his own defense so that no one, even the grumbling

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Israelites, can bring any charge against him. Is there any better witness to his own character than the

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Lord, our rock and our redeemer? God is the rock.

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Now, it may surprise us, but the Bible has a lot to say about rocks.

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I don't know if you're familiar with this, but the Bible has actually a great deal to say about rocks and precious stones and gold and silver.

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But if we don't possess a biblical lens for creation and the things in nature, we'll miss it.

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The Bible presents its own worldview to us through imagery and patterns, right?

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Biblical theologians call this typology, right? How God is working in history, his dealings with man, and also imagery.

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We tend to fail to understand this because we're very word -oriented people since the production of the printing press.

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Before this, people were very visually oriented people in terms of pictures. And the

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Bible presents itself to us in terms of images. It's actually what it means to use your imagination, right?

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When you tell your kids, well, just use your imagination. What do we typically mean by that? We typically mean we'll make something up. Just use your imagination.

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Just think about how it might look. But when we use our imagination, what God intends for us is to hear his word coming to us, to absorb these images, these pictures, these symbols, if you will, and to remember, to remember who he is, to remember who we are, and to remember that the story that we are in is real and true.

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Another way to say this is that all things are symbols and that they point us back to God.

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Now, I don't mean that creation is some type of metaphor for something, right?

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We take a literal view of the Genesis creation account, just like we would take a view that when

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Jesus actually fed 5 ,000 people, the bread and the fish weren't metaphors.

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They were actually food that he fed them with. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that all of nature and the created world tell us something about God and his dealings with all men in history and the future.

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So whether we're talking about stars, plants, animals, angels, or even man himself, all of these things show forth the glory of God in some way.

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Pastor Jeff, when he was going through the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24, he did something very, very effective.

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How do people in the first century, when they hear these things, where's their mind going?

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When they hear things like the Lamb of God, when they hear things like the sun and the moon and the stars, they have a worldview in their mind already familiar with the imagery of the

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Bible that communicates something to them so that they understand the story that they're in.

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They go, oh, that's right. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God in the...

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wait a minute. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. They know where they're at in the story.

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That's what I'm getting at here. Whether stars, plants, animals, angels, man himself, all of these things show forth the glory of God, even rocks.

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And seeing this is how we really avoid worshiping creation. It's how we avoid becoming idolaters, right?

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What does Romans 1 tell us? If you don't see the world the way God made it, if you refuse to, you're an idolater.

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So God wants us to see the world in the way that he made it. So what does the

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Bible say about rocks? Well, this is going to be brief or try to be, at least I will. The first we see of rocks in the

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Bible is in the garden. We have the river flowing out of Eden in the valley of Havilah, and we have precious stones that are present there.

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We have gold and onyx and all of these things present in creation.

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And these things are weighty. They're valuable. They're glorious, if you will, and radiant.

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They shine like God himself. God is both weighty, glorious, and radiant.

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Shines, right? The book of Hebrews talks about Jesus being the effulgence, the radiant outshining of the glory of God.

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In Exodus, we see the construction of the tabernacle, and all of the construction is ornately laid with what?

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Gold. Precious stones. You have the high priest himself in his ephod wearing what in the breastplate?

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Onyx stones. Harkening back to the garden, right?

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The high priest himself bearing the stones of creation as he goes into the

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Holy of Holies to represent the people. And these rocks, these stones, they shine, don't they?

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They remind us of the frozen pieces of fire that we see in the rainbow, for example.

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It's what the rainbow is. Frozen chips of fire, if you will. And this bow that signals the beginning of the new creation is what encircles the very throne of God itself in Revelation chapter 4.

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The presence of God. Revelation 21 tells us that the new

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Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven, the bride that's adorned for her husband is comprised of and associated with what?

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Jewels and precious stones, emeralds, jasper, sapphire, pearls.

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So, what is this getting at? Rocks bring us back to and point us back to Edenic blessing.

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The blessing of Eden. And show us the results, or if you will, the final picture of that blessing being unleashed on the earth by God's people.

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With Israel, God carved his covenant in stone, in rock, and he allowed them to wander in the wilderness, which is really nothing more than a collection of rocks.

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And in the midst of this, if you'll remember, what does God tell Moses when does that very thing?

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Show me your glory. He says that, and he says, I will hide you in the rock, in the cleft of a rock, and I'll allow my glory to pass by you so that you may see my back, because if you saw my front, you'd die.

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So, he hides him in the cleft of the rock. So, how does the rock itself, this imagery of the rock, tell us about God's character, his attribute, and what are we to glean from the

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Lord our rock in Scripture? A few things. God is constant.

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God is constant and unchanging. Theologians refer to this as his immutability, right?

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The fact that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change with varying or shifting shadows.

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I am the Lord. I change not. He is the same. He is constant, and he's a large rock, so he is unbreakable.

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He's not fragile like you and I. Of course, he doesn't have our problems.

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He doesn't rely on anything outside of himself. How could he? He is immovable and does not fail to fulfill his promises.

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Think of all the many precious promises that God has made to his people that we in this room are the very evidence of today.

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In the first chapter of Romans, Paul tells the people, this is what he calls them, he says, you are the called of Christ and the beloved of God.

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Those are two attributes that were spoken of about the nation of Israel. And the apostle

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Paul is writing to a collection of Jewish and Gentile believers. So what is he saying? You've been incorporated now into all of the promises and blessings of the covenant people of God.

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All of those promises we have been given access to, and the scope of those promises has now in Christ exploded into the earth because our mission is a global one, is it not?

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A global mission of gospel proclamation and discipling the nations and dominion and unleashing the blessings of Eden upon the earth.

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How else does the rock personify God's character? It shows us that God provides.

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Jehovah Jireh, right? God provides. If you think about what followed the

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Israelites in the wilderness, the cloud of glory that God descended in upon the mountain of Sinai, the same cloud, the glory cloud that followed the nation of Israel through the wilderness that was actually there to separate

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Pharaoh's army from them at the parting of the Red Sea, the one that followed them everywhere, the presence of God that filled the tabernacle when it was completed with God's glory, right?

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That was a theophany or an Old Testament appearance of God, a visible manifestation of the invisible

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God. Ezekiel refers to it in chapter one of his book as God's transportable glory chariot.

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That's what it is. It's God's portable house. And then

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God gives, according to the pattern of heaven, something to the Israelites like a transportable glory house where they can make sacrifices and be in His presence again and experience that.

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But in that cloud, that glory cloud that followed them in the wilderness, that cloud gave them shade during the day, and it was a pillar of fire at night so that they could see, so that they weren't blind and dark and in darkness, and it gave them shade, it gave them a covering during the day in the sun -scorched heat.

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God provides for His people. He follows them as the rock, the glory cloud.

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He goes before them and is their rear God. Remember in Exodus 14, before the people cross the

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Red Sea, this is Pastor Luke's favorite passage in the Bible. What does Moses tell the people? They're freaking out.

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You bring us out here to die. Chariots are coming. Moses says, essentially, shut your mouth and watch

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God fight for you. Watch Him. He's a man of war. He's going to go out and make war and there will not be any of them left.

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He will fight on your behalf. He will make provision.

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He followed His people through the wilderness, covering them and providing them with this sticky, frosty -like substance that rained down from heaven, and they were like, what is it?

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What is it? Manna. He fed them in the wilderness, gave them water, provided for them to the point that their shoes never wore out, and He'll provide for you.

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Even if we walk through a sun -scorched wilderness, the Lord our rock will be our shade from the heat and shelter from the storm.

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And that leads us to God. How is He like a rock?

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He's our refuge. Right? David, in Psalm chapter 18, when he is remarking about the deliverance of Yahweh from his enemies, he says, the

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Lord is my rock. He's my refuge. He's my strength.

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He's my deliverer. He is the one in whom I hide myself.

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Remember God now, hiding Moses in the cleft of a rock, the rock of ages.

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Even then, God was teaching His people something. He was teaching them that they will be safe, they will not melt away in the glory of His presence and His holiness and His justice if they are hidden in the rock.

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If they are in the security of Yahweh and His refuge, and if they are in a place next to Him, they will not be consumed.

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God is a fortress and a bulwark, arrayed like a mountain stronghold, and unlike Helm's Deep, this place of refuge is impenetrable.

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He is the source of rescue in the day of calamity, and we

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His people are hidden in Him. So have you taken refuge in the rock? If you're here today and you don't know

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Christ, have you taken refuge in the rock? Are you hiding in Him?

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Are you clothed in His perfect righteousness? Because if not, you will be crushed in judgment.

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How do we know this? Well, what does Jesus say about Himself in the

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Gospel of Luke? He says, you can either come to this rock and you can fall on it and be broken to pieces, aka you can come to me for salvation, because that's what it means when you come to Christ.

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You're broken. You ever fallen on sidewalk before? There's no give. There's give in you.

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You break. But the rock stays the same. And so Jesus says, you come to me and you fall on me and you be broken and you'll be saved.

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Or this rock, this stone of judgment will crush you.

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Those are the options. Are you drawing nourishment from the rock?

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Are you abiding in the rock? It's incredible.

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The passage I alluded to at the beginning, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, if you look at this, this is what

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Paul says to the church at Corinth. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.

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For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was

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Christ. That rock that was following Israel in the wilderness was the pre -incarnate

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Christ. The one that was feeding the people, the one that was making sure their clothes never wore out, the one that was giving them drink, the one that gave them victory over their enemies, the one that protected them at all times,

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Paul says that was Christ. The rock. Christ is the rock of offense.

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He is the stone that the builders rejected. And what did he do for us?

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He set his face like flint to go to the cross.

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What is flint? It's a stone. He was resolute in accomplishing the will of the

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Father. He was set. Have you ever seen a man on mission before? You can't reason with him.

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You can't deter him. You can't distract him. That was

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Christ. He set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem and to die.

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That was his mission, to accomplish all that the Father gave him to do.

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He set his face like flint. He had resolve. He would not be detoured or led away from the objective, from glory.

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That's where he was going to the point that he's rebuking his own disciples on the way there. Don't you love that by the way?

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They can't get Jesus to stop. They can't make him stop and so what do they do? Go tell his mom.

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Somebody's got to be able to reason with him. He's ministering to people. Him and his followers are ministering to people to the point that they can't even eat.

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They don't have time. Go get his mom. He's a madman.

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Somebody should be able to reason with him and of course she comes and they can't get in and someone sends word to him on the inside and says, hey your mother and your brothers are outside waiting for you.

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What does he say? These are my mother and my brothers right here. The ones that do the will of God. Showing us something very important by the way.

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This is a little bit tangential. If you will not put covenant over clan, you are unworthy to follow

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Jesus. Because those relationships can only mean something if they are sanctified in the kingdom.

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That's what Christ is showing us there. He always honored his father and mother.

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He is after all the perfect law keeper. But when it came to doing the will of his father in heaven, nothing was going to stand in his way.

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If he was going to be your representative and my representative and your substitute and my substitute, if he was going to be the faithful image bearer of God in the way that you and I have failed to, he could not.

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He could not be deterred. He set his face like flint. What do you think it was like to look into those eyes going to the cross?

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He set his face like flint to go to the cross and turn with me briefly here to Exodus chapter 17.

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Exodus 17 verse 1. This is by the way very shortly after the deliverance from Egypt.

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Very shortly. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages according to the commandment of the

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Lord and camped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink.

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And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?

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So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to, that's just a bonus,

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I didn't even know that that was, I forgot that that was there, stone me. And the

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Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people taking with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the

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Nile and go. Behold I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink.

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And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel and called the name of the place Massa and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the

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Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Can you imagine? I know we're hard on them when we think about the nation of Israel and all of their many failings.

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We should be very hard on ourselves. They just watched this mighty deliverance in Egypt.

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They just saw God work wonders and smite down the most powerful world power at that time.

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Pharaoh thought he was some kind of God. He thought he was the sun God and God turned out the lights for three days.

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He really turned out the lights on the nation of Egypt. But what's amazing here, what

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I don't want to miss, what I want to hone in on, when Moses struck the rock in the wilderness with the rod of judgment, notice how the text tells us that God himself was going to stand there before him at the rock or on the rock.

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Now we know, of course, we've laid the foundation of this theophany, this cloud. So the cloud,

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God's presence, the visible manifestation of his presence was there and God himself was going to be standing before him on the rock.

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And so when Moses struck that rock with the staff of judgment, the rod of judgment, that rod passed through the cloud of glory, swept through it, struck the rock and water gushed forth to make provision and renewal for the people.

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And what you have here is something truly incredible.

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You have a picture of the gospel. You have the rock himself,

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Christ, who took upon himself the rod of God's judgment that you and I deserve.

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And when Jesus was pierced on that cross, water flowed from his side.

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To do what? To constitute a new heavens and a new earth, a new bride for himself.

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And just as Adam was put to sleep in a death and resurrection -like state,

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Jesus, the rock, died and rose again and made provision for a bride from the rib of his side.

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The gospel right here. God taking upon himself the rod of judgment that we deserve.

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And you'll know, of course, later on in Numbers, Moses is given similar instructions, but this time

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God tells him to speak to the rock, not to strike it. You remember? This is why he couldn't go into the promised land, because God told him to speak to it and he struck it.

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Why is that a sin that disqualifies you from entering the promised land?

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Because the rock can only be struck once. There will be no secondary or supplemental striking of Christ.

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And now what we have, and this is the amazing thing, you've got to see this here, in Romans chapter 10, when

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Paul says, he's actually quoting from Deuteronomy when he says this, shall we say this commandment is too hard for us?

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Shall we ascend into heaven so that we can bring it down? And he says, no, the commandment, the word is actually in your very mouth.

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It's not too hard for you that you can't do it. For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is

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Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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So the reason we don't ever attempt to strike the rock is because the word of faith and confession is the way to secure the nourishing living water of Christ, our rock.

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Picture of the gospel. It's beautiful, isn't it? Have you fallen on Christ to be broken?

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Or are you neglecting him and trusting in other rocks?

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Or as we could call them, pebbles, right?

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Isn't that what God rebukes his people for in the song of Moses? He tells them in verse 15, doesn't he?

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What's the problem with you, Israel? But Jeshurun, which is just a poetic way of saying Israel, but Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.

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You grew fat, stout, and sleek. And then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation.

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Verse 18, you were unmindful of the rock that bore you and you forgot the

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God who gave you birth. And then what does he say further about their disobedience in verse 30?

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How could one have chased a thousand and two have put 10 ,000 to flight unless their rock, capital

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R, had sold them and the Lord had given them up? For their rock is not as our rock.

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Is it any wonder why the Bible says the gods of the nations are worthless idols but the Lord made the heavens?

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Idols, whether they are carved out of stone or not, are no match for the rock.

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Idols, whether they are carved out of stone or not, are no match for the rock.

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Now, one more thing in wrapping this up. I really want to press this on us.

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Rocks remind us of God's character as we've seen, but they also tell us something of God's plan for the world and for history.

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What was the original calling of God's image bearers in the garden? God designed the earth according to the pattern of heaven, gave man charge to cultivate it, tend it, and to have dominion, and to make a dwelling fit for him.

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Another way to say this is that God wanted his image bearers to build a house for his name.

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Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, right? Isaiah.

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So this thematic calling for the people of God throughout the scriptures is that God wants a house for his name.

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He wants a place to make his name dwell and he wants to fill the earth with his presence, which means he wants to fill it with image bearers.

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Men and women who will image him faithfully. He wants a house for his name.

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If you recall the messianic promise of 2 Samuel in chapter 7, what was promised about David's descendant, who we know to be the

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Messiah, Mashiach? David's descendant will build a house so that God's dwelling place is to be with man.

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This is all over the scriptures. God's dwelling place is to be with man.

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I will be their God and they will be my people. But what's the problem with this calling?

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Well, we ruined it by sin. We ruined it with our sin.

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So how does God come to accomplish his purposes and to actually have his presence fill the earth, his image fill the earth?

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Well, who is the image of the invisible God? Who imaged

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God most faithfully? It was the one of whom was said, who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him?

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We've never seen anything like him before. He's utterly unique. He's one of a kind.

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Or as John's gospel, the monogamist, the unique and one of a kind God, he's come in the flesh now and he speaks as one having authority.

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He just speaks and people listen. They drop what they're doing, they drop their nets, they drop their lives, they drop their work, and they just come running after him.

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What kind of authority must he have? Unclean spirits obey him, right?

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He's walking around possessed by the Holy Spirit and he's dispossessing people of unclean spirits.

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Jesus is the perfect image of God. So how does

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God accomplish this great task of building a house for his name? By laying down a cornerstone in Zion.

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By laying down Christ the cornerstone, God is keeping the promise to build his house because Christ is the bedrock.

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He's the foundation. And if you know about Scripture, then you also understand that stones and rocks not only point us to God, but they represent people.

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You are Peter, and upon this rock

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I will build my church. Peter is the little rock, right?

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Different than the rock, he's a chip off the old block like you and I. Chip off the old block, that's what we are.

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Stones and rocks also represent people in the Bible, and what does

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God say about these stones, these rocks that are being purified, that are being shaped together for some specific purpose?

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Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus himself being the, what is it, cornerstone.

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In whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

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Spirit. I just finished the book of Exodus not too long ago, and you remember what happens at the end? The tabernacle is constructed, it's completed, and then

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God's glory cloud descends upon it and fills it with the glory of God. That was an image, a portrait of God's ultimate purposes in the world.

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That's why earlier on in the book of Ephesians, what does Paul say about Christ? He's been seated far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and God has given him as head over all things to the church the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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First Peter 2, 4. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.

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To be a holy priesthood, don't miss that. What would the first century audience be thinking in terms of?

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Priesthood, holy priesthood. Well, what does Exodus 19 say before God actually gives the law?

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He says you're going to be, for me, talking to Israel, a nation of priests, right?

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A kingly people, a royal people, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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One more, 1 Corinthians 3, 10. The apostle Paul talking about the different constructive outcomes of different builders of God's house.

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1 Corinthians 3, 10. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder,

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I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is

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Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, notice now the distinction.

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In God's house, at any given time, there is gold, silver, and precious stones, and wood, hay, and straw.

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Don't miss that. Each one's work will become manifest, for the day, capital

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D, will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done, right?

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So, God has his people in the church, he has these living stones, he has this gold, silver, and precious stone, and then he has them existing alongside wood, hay, and straw, those who are reserved, of course, for, well, what does

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Psalm 1 say? Furnace. And why does that happen?

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Why does that transpire? Why does God allow that to go on? Well, wood, hay, and straw are things that catch on fire, and things that catch on fire within the church and cause division and disruption are for the express purpose of purifying the stones.

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Verse 14, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

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If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

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Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys

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God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

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We are the dwelling place of God. God has purpose to build his church, and guess what?

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Daniel chapter 2, what is the promise that is made about the coming kingdom of the Messiah? What is it likened to?

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It's a stone that's cut out of a wall by no human hand, and that stone actually shatters the kingdoms of men, all the other kingdoms, the nations, before actually growing and becoming a whole mountain that fills the entire earth.

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And so what God has purposed in history, what the rock is doing, the reason why the cornerstone has been laid, is so that the living stones will be brought in to the family of God and will build a dwelling place suitable for God as the presence of God comes to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.

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Now, two closing points of application here. First, for the body.

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Watching the way that this body comes together and serves one another is truly remarkable.

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I know I've certainly never seen a church like this before. From the attacks without and the attacks within, my encouragement today for all of us is that we will only be able to continue to stand strong for one another and stand strong and set our faces like flint against the world to the degree that we are drawing strength from the rock.

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We will only be able to stand strong for one another with faces set like flint against the world to the degree that we are drawing strength from the rock.

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He is the one who has engrafted us into his story. The rock of Israel is our rock.

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May we remember our high calling in the midst of all of the noise, the tumult, the media, all of these things because we have to understand what

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God is doing with us. We have to understand the reason why our rent's being raised, the reason why the grocery store shelves are bare, the reason why many of us are losing our jobs to ungodly, unlawful mandates by tyrants and authority.

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Why is it happening? Why is God allowing this to happen?

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If we don't understand why, we'll lose our place in the story and we'll be tempted to despair.

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God is preparing, as he always has been, he is preparing his people to lay hold of their inheritance.

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How? By discipling his people to maturity.

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God is disciplining us. Why? Because we're not his children? Does he discipline his illegitimate sons or his legitimate ones?

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According to scripture, he disciplines his children. Now, of course, there are injustices, there's things that we should realize

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God says are evil, that are against his law, that we need to speak out against, but we have to understand that once again,

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God is the imminent God. He draws near to judge the nations in terms of obedience or disobedience to his covenant word.

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And why we are where we are is because when a nation covenants with him and says to the effect of, if I don't do all the things in this covenant, may these curses be on me.

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That's what our nation did. That's why we're where we're at right now. And so how is

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God calling us to live? Why are we going through what we're going through right now? God is disciplining his people to maturity by blessing and judging the nations by his covenant word.

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If we lose sight of this, we lose our place in the story. God is preparing us to lay hold of our inheritance. So believer, are you anxious and fearful about the time that you're living in right now?

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Are you nervous for your kids? Are you worried about your declining health?

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Are you worried about illness spreading through your church body, through your city, through the world?

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The only way that you will be able to stand and endure, of course, with one another, the living stones leaning upon each other, but the only way that you'll be able to stand and endure is to do what

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Jesus said. And what did Jesus say to do? He gives in his kingdom ethic, in the gospel of Matthew, two foundations, two destinations, the rock and the sand.

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He says, if you don't dig deep, if you don't build your entire life on my word, the rock, the foundation, the bedrock that bears my authority, if you won't build your life on my word, when the winds come and the storm comes, you will crumble.

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You will collapse. We have to build, and this is me talking to myself, we have to build our lives on his word, not just knowing it, but being obedient to what we know.

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I feel like we would be such better Christians, I would be such a better Christian, not if I knew more, but if I did what

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I know, if I just obeyed what I do know.

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So let us remember today, as we go forth from the gathered congregation, that our

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God is the rock. His perfect work, his just ways, his faithfulness, his integrity, let us never dare to call his character into question, for there is no rock like our

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God. And if you are tempted to despair, Christian, in the day that you live in, remember this, he is making you into a stone of fire.

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He is purifying and sanctifying us together so that we can bring the peace of the gospel over all the earth.

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And do you know the proof that this will be successful? Just as the high priest carried the fiery stones in the ephod on his breastplate close to his heart, so will our high priest carry us his stones close to his heart, representing us before the throne of God, interceding on our behalf, and being with us all the days until the task is accomplished.

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Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the word that went forward today.

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God, it's all of you, and I just pray that, God, our hearts would be fertile to receive it today, that,

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God, you would allow this word to bear fruit in the hearts and minds of your people, and that, Lord, we would be obedient to you, we would not be grumblers in our hearts, we would not be characterized as people of fear and instability, but that we would lean upon our rock to endure, to be rescued in a time of calamity.