A Song of Moses

Introduction

Well, good morning. Wonderful to be here on the first day of the week, as the psalmist says in Psalm 122 in verse 1. And I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. If you’re visiting with us this morning, we’re glad that you have chosen to be a part of the worship services here at the South Bumbi Church of Christ. We ask of you that before you exit the building, for you to linger a while, stay a little bit, come to meet us and visit with us. We’re so glad you’re here. Some of you are here locally, you live in the area, and we’re glad that you’ve chosen to be here. Others of you are from all other parts of the world, and we’re glad that you’ve chosen to be here too.

Deuteronomy 31 and 32 is where you can place a bookmarker this morning. I have my Bible with my uh post-it note tabs there, Deuteronomy 31 and 32, because I will be going to some other passages, but this will be our central text for the morning. Deuteronomy 32, particularly, looking at the song of Moses. Most of us are familiar with Moses. We think of Moses as the one that was in a little basket floating down the river and raised in Egypt. We think of Moses as the one who went to Mount Sinai and had the Ten Commandments given to him by the finger, if you will, of God.

Who was fearful and gaining much trepidation and cowardice at the command of God at the foot of the burning bush area where he said, Go forth and lead my people out of Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And Moses said, I can’t do that. I’m scared. I don’t think I can do that. And God told him, Well, Aaron, your brother can be your mouthpiece. He will go. He knows how to talk. And you, Moses, will be to him as a leader, as I am to you, a leader. We think of Moses with cowardice or Moses with fear or trepidation. But when you get to Deuteronomy 31 and 32, in no way, shape or form does this sermon at the end of Moses’ life, before Moses dies, at the end of his time in the wilderness, when they’re getting ready to transfer the commanding of the people over to Joshua, you don’t get in this sermon a sense of fear.

You don’t get in the sense of this sermon a sense of lack of confidence in what to say. But you do get in this sermon a sense of reality and a sense of a reality check for his people regarding spiritual matters. On the day of my 40th birthday in February, I went to go visit Hugh Barry.

It was a very rainy day. I made it through the rain to his house. I got there, got into his driveway and talked. I wanted to talk to him. 98 year old was Hugh at that time. He’s 99 now. And if December 26th arrives, he will have been married to his lovely wife Chris for 75 years. I thanked him for his example. He has been both an elder and a leading member of the church for quite some time. And his smile and his zeal and his love for the Lord was still ever present. He was lucidly powerful when I talked to him. And when you meet someone of that age, like I can ask John, you ask him questions, right? You ask questions of those that are older.

And I asked him a few questions. I said, are there different things you’ve noticed over the years regarding spiritual matters? Without missing a beat. He instantly said, oh yes. Regarding the respect for the word and the prolific use of scriptures, things are different. It was once great that people really respected talking about the Bible and really respected and even used scriptures in their speech. He said, listening to something about the Bible wasn’t mocked. It was viewed as something sacred. I then asked, Well, how are things now as you see it? He said, now things are not done out of love. Things aren’t done out of love. He said there’s raw sex, people rarely getting married. Instead, they opt to live together. There’s nearly no morality. The schools promote wild dancing.

There’s no respect for God’s word, and much of the society blatantly opposes the Bible and mocks it as such. I said, Well, Hugh, do you have any positive things to say regarding society? Is there anything our society has gotten better or done in the right era? And he smiled at me. He wasn’t grumpy, he wasn’t mean, but in a very nice way, he said, J.R, you haven’t got it figured out right. He said, it’s like a stach of dominoes or such. He says, if you lose the foundation of biblical respect, then transformation and transformation the right way, it’s just not there. As a society goes, so does everything. As the family goes, so does society goes. If one doesn’t let scripture transform you at the foundational level, you’ve chosen to not let the word of God have the respect it needs.

So good as good does not actually spiritually rule, and that’s where we are. That’s why this requires us as the remnant of God’s people to be extra vigilant and more dedicated workers today. And believe it or not, that’s a lot like what Moses was telling the people oh so many years ago in Deuteronomy 32. The song of Moses is essentially a first person song of farewell. It’s written in first person as if Moses is speaking. Moses had become a bold spokesman for God. When you read it, there’s no politics. There’s no wishy washy nature. It’s just preaching and teaching. At the end of his spiritual maturity was basically at the end of his phase of life. And through his years, he advanced in spiritual maturity and he grew to be a very wise teacher.

There are so many lessons we are learning as we study the Bible. And if we’re growing in our knowledge, the lessons we learn from Moses can be filled so much in this scripture. If we’re growing in our knowledge as Christians now, there are so many things that we can be mindful of, Jesus that will help others grow. And so turn in your scriptures this morning to Deuteronomy 31 and 32, and let’s look at a few things together for the song of Moses that has an impact for today. I’m not going to read the whole thing. I’d like you to.

1. Let My Teaching Drop as the Rain

A conjunction between Jesus’ teaching and Moses’ teaching at the end of the Bible. But when we look at this, he says many interesting things in Deuteronomy 32. He says, Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak and hear, O earth the words of my mouth. That’s kind of a bold sermon introduction, isn’t it? I think we’re kind of not always like Moses, but this is good. He says in verse 2, let my teachings drop as the rain in a desert land in which they were so frequently in this particular juncture. He’s saying, Let the words that I as Moses speak be so refreshing, they’re like raindrops in a desert land. That’s the type of teaching and preaching we need our society to hear today. When people gather together to worship God, they need to drink up, if you will, the teachings that come from the Word of God.

2. Ascribe Greatness to Our God

Like Moses said, his words were like rain in a desert land. Because our society is dry. Our society is without God, and it needs God’s word more than anything. And Moses says at the conclusion of his life, the introduction to his sermon. The Beatitudes, pretty important introduction to his sermon for Jesus. For Moses, he says, Let my words drop like rain. My speech distill as the dew is raindrops on tender herbs and showers of the grass. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. He doesn’t say this is about Moses. He says this is about God. He says, When it comes the time to teach, and it comes the time to preach, and at his particular juncture, when it comes the time to quit the walks of men, we ascribe to God greatness.

We don’t have a puny God. We have a mighty God. Our God is so great, strong, and mighty that we ascribe to him greatness. He is the rock and his word is perfect. For all his ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice, righteousness and upright is he. Look at verse 7. Remember the days of old.

3. Remember the Days of Old

And he goes all the way back to Adam, and he goes all the way back to the scattering of the people, and he goes all the way back to an older time and he says, Remember the days of old. It’s kind of like saying to every generation, remember a generation before that. Because when you remember the good and the righteous things generations before you did, you’ll remember to repeat the good and omit or don’t do the bad. And that’s what he says to them. He says, Remember the days of old. Let history serve you and learn from her lessons. That is the lessons of lady history. Then he says, Ask your father, he’ll show you. Ask your elders, and they will tell you. We had a great lesson a couple weeks ago by Brother Sean Jeffries, where he gave us some really practical things to take home from the lesson.

And one of the things he said was, go talk to some older people, young people. He says, if you want to learn about the patriarchs or the old ways, go ask someone older spiritual advice. Pay attention to the ways of the older people. He says, your elders will tell you when the Most High divided their inheritance in the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam and set boundaries for the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s, here’s the next point he makes.

4. The Lord’s Portion Is His People

He said, Well, society’s really not getting better, J.R. You can’t really say what are the individual things in which society is getting better, because society’s not. Now, God’s people, they’ve always been a remnant. They’ve always been the smaller number. They’re trying to do what’s right. And we we can honestly say if you’re here this morning, you’re probably trying to do what’s right. But look at what he says here. The Lord’s portion is his people. That’s his portion. You’re his people. You’re the Lord’s portion. You are a remnant. When it concerns evangelism, when it concerns spreading the gospel message, when it concerns things of God’s ways, or what he’s got. He doesn’t have society. Society is not delving in spiritual reality. They’re being hoodwinked by the masses to do the things of evil, unto which the evil, sly, sneaky devil wants them to do.

That’s society. We’re his remnant. So if you’ll notice some of the things he says in the Song of Moses, there are a lot of interesting and good things. But before he switches gears, he tells them a lot of positive things. Did you notice those positive things we just talked about? If someone was to read the Psalm of Moses, they’d probably say, Well, that’s about all the positive things he said, because pretty soon he starts kicking it up into high gear and stepping on toes. Because that’s what he’s gonna do. That’s the type of sermon it is. And it really, really does step on toes. But he gives them some preface first or preemptive things unto which they can have a background about the purpose of the song, to let his teachings drop his reign, to ascribe greatness to God, to remember the days of old, to ask their elders, and they will tell you the things you need to know, and to know that the Lord’s portion is you, his people.

Those are some of the things he says. And so before he gets to verse 18 where he says, you’re unmindful of the rock, you’re unmindful of God, these are the things he introduces. It’s nice to have some common ground, some nice, nice things to say. I’m not gonna ask for a show of hands, but a number of people have heard, even from this pulpit, from probably where I heard it the first time, uh, sermons by the late D. Bowman. I’m gonna look out and just see if I see any looks that, yeah, if we’ve got some hands. Remember D. Bowman. I love D. I missed D. He was a great speaker. He could really connect to an audience. You almost felt like he was having a conversation with you when he preached.

One of the things he said, talking about he and his wonderful wife, and different things he said is he said, guys, you’ve got to remember those very special three words. And those three words will carry you through a long, lengthy marriage. Those words when you tell your spouse that I love that you’re not fat. I just thought that was so funny. He was saying, you’re not fat. I love you just the way you are. As we grow together, as we age together, I find you more beautiful now than I did when we first got married. I can attest to that. I find Rachel more pretty each each year than earlier. She says, What? I said, No, that’s true. Because we have shared experiences. We have things I appreciate in her that I see in her just as much as her heart as her beauty.

5. You Grew Fat and Forsook God

She’s beautiful. I love her. She’s my wife. She’s not yours, she’s mine. And I love her very much. But when Moses said this to the people, you could kind of wonder in our society, what are the people thinking? You grew fat and obese. Wow. That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever told an audience ever. Because them’s fighting words. We don’t say those type of things to people. I tell my kids, don’t call someone by those names. Don’t say that to someone. Now, in the ancient Near East, cultures were different. And being large and grand was something different. Even today, in some cultures, when you go overseas and they see someone who is larger, they think, wow. They’ve eaten. They’ve had more food than I have in my meager rice or my meager grain of barley or my apportioned cup of food that I have for the whole day.

Because they don’t eat like we do at a golden corral buffet. They eat a little portion of rice, and that’s all they get. And so when they see someone from another society like America that’s grand and robust, they have respect for that and they have covetousness of fat. So believe it or not, even today in our nation, there are some people that are covetous of those that are fat and obese. So if that’s we’re gonna go through overseas and learn of that, you can learn of that. But I want this concept to dwell in your mind in verse 15b. And I want you to relate verse 15b to evangelism. When you look at the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 31, 19 through 3247, the context says, You have gotten large, you have increased, you have gotten obese.

But listen to how he says it. And I’m gonna read from the New King James Version. He says, Jeshran grew fat and kicked, and you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese. Then he forsook God who made him and scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with foreign gods, with abominations, they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and we have forgotten the God who fathered you. What he’s basically saying is they had blessings, the blessings abounded, and then they turned their back on the Lord. They grew fat or mighty, and yet at that time that they had the blessings that caused them to be at that juncture, and they didn’t do what they should have done with that.

And so we can see some of the parallels to our society today. A lot of times we have blessings, and we don’t allow the blessings to materialize in the way they should. Let’s look at John chapter 6 through 48 through 63 for a moment. So turn in your scriptures if you wish to John chapter 6, 48. He says, I am the bread. Who said that? Jesus said that. Jesus said, I’m the bread. What is bread make you do? Carbohydrates anybody. It makes you get fat if you keep eating bread. Hey says, as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so is he who feeds on me. They will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead.

He who eats this bread, that is the feeding of Christ on his words, will live forever. Deuteronomy 32 and 15 through 18. Verse 63 says, It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. What he’s saying is, if we are ones that have grown up with teachings of Jesus, then we’re growing and developing in the knowledge of the word. As we grow and develop in our knowledge of the word, we are gaining spiritual strengthening. We are getting bigger in our knowledge. We had a great gospel meeting. Many of you were here for that, and I think it was the last night or the night before our gospel meeting speaker spoke of one who said, I don’t think I can teach that class.

I’ve only been a Christian 15 years. You remember that part? I was like, huh, that’s kind of thought provoking. He also said comments about how good he could tell that the congregation was on board trying to do evangelistic things and seek out in the community. And he’s right. We’ve had door groups of as many as 20 and groups of people going out in the community. That’s great. But let’s remember this as just kind of a warning to me and for all of us. If we’ve got knowledge and we’re growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and our heart and our mind, as they work together, are growing in the knowledge, and we’re getting more meat of knowledge. We have the ability to go teach the gospel message to other people.

And John chapter 6, 48 and 57 and 58, it’s basically saying in that context in John that the words are the life, and that the words are like the bread of life that sustain us. And we have to share the gospel to people. And we need to do that because we are the remnant. We’re the, as one song we sing, we are the only gospel the sinful world will read. We are the sinner’s gospel. We are the scoffers creed. We sing that. We are the world’s Bible. And so we need to remember that. Evangelism. Command your children to observe all this law. It is your life. By this word you shall prolong your day. That’s what he sums up his sermon with before he passes away.

That’s what he wants to say at the end of his life. He very much is concerned about the next generation. Command your children to observe all this law. It is your life. By this word, you shall extend your days. Some of these scriptures on the board, I think you’re already familiar with.

I’m just gonna say, look at them. Just for a minute. Pause. Don’t be too squeamish about the awkward silence that is not on the radio. We’re here live at Bumby. What does this look like? Just look. I’m gonna pause for a moment. Seriously. Have you thought about it? Talking about what we’re supposed to do, isn’t it? Go into all the world and teach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Well, that’s what we’re supposed to do. Go ye means go me. That’s an old sermon. First Thessalonians chapter 1, 6 through 8, for the word of God has sounded forth from you unto all the brethren, even so those beyond Macedonia in the regions of Achaia, the word has sounded forth from Thessalonica to the world because of you.

And the gospel didn’t just spread to you and those in Macedonia, but it’s gone out to the world.

Yes. Matthew 10, 42. That’s an important one. Let’s turn to that one. Matthew 10 and 42. Jesus called them. Did I put the right verse on the board? I may have not. Let me look at my notes. Matthew 10 and 42.

Almost there. Yeah, that’s the right verse. Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. I was in Mark. I’d gone back to Mark and back to Matthew. So we look at that, and he’s basically saying, There’s something you can do. There’s something you can do. It doesn’t have to be, you know, preaching to a million people. It doesn’t have to be, you know, some sort of big deed. But you can take a gospel meeting flyer and give it to your next door neighbor. You can go to your teacher after school, after class, and say, I like that you teach me a lesson.

Why don’t you know if you go to Bumby.org, you can find out about a church that I think will also teach you about Jesus. I liked your teaching, misses. Liked your teaching, ma’am. Uh, I want you to know I care about you and want you to know about Jesus. That’s pretty simple, young people. Simple, simplistic. A cup of cold water. There’s a lot of things that we can do. 1 Timothy 2 15. We’re very mindful of that scripture. We know what that one says readily. Matthew 25, 14 through 30. We talked about this in the uh the parable of the talents, I believe. Had a whole sermon on this just a day or so ago, a couple days ago. And so, increase our talents. Don’t bury your skills, develop your skills.

Don’t short sell your skills. Find Bible chapters and do that. Small deeds will be rewarded. Sound forth the Word of God and be the church that continues steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. Do that.

I’m going to go around this week and in the next couple weeks with the South Bumbi Evangelism Service roster. Sounds real technical. All it is is looking at these scriptures and me asking you, hey, do you have 45 minutes this week? 45 minutes? Yeah, that’s all I’m asking. You say, well, I don’t really this week. I’m pretty busy this week. Okay. In three weeks from now, would you have 45 minutes? In three weeks, I got 45 minutes. What day of the week is most convenient for you? Say Saturday. Okay. Saturday. This is this person’s first choice of 45 minutes to sit down at a coffee shop with me or some others that are teaching the class and you helping someone in the community turn to the scriptures.

45 minutes. Not a lot of time. Why? Because it takes five, ten minutes for them to get there, five, ten minutes to pray and dismiss. It was basically an hour long study, but it’s 45 minutes essentially of studying the Bible. You know, we’ve had a number of these studies already. We’ve had a lot of them down in uh the orange and pine lock intersection at a restaurant there. We’ve had a lot of good studies. We’re wanting to expand that here at Bumby. We’ve expanded it, if you see in your bulletin already, to three or four other locations, and we’ll probably expand it beyond that because it’s going good so far. We have a number of teachers already that have said they’ll be willing to teach, they’ll be willing to do that, and they’ll be willing to help in evangelism.

That’s great, guys. But I’m going to try to ask many of you that maybe you didn’t think you could do anything, but me saying, hey, you’re growing in your knowledge, you’re growing in your wisdom. I will not call you fat or obese. No laughter. Okay. I won’t. But I think we all are growing in our wisdom and in our knowledge. We’re growing, right? We’re developing our faith. We’re trying to serve the Lord as best we can. And he says, go into all the world and teach the gospel to every creature. So what I’ll do is in the next few weeks or so, I’m going to address the congregation just by walking around after services saying, hey, what could you do? When can you do it? And when can you devote about 45 minutes throughout the week to be able to do that?

6. From I Can’t Do This to Bold

We’re going to have at least an AM study, a midday study, and an afternoon study throughout the week. In addition to expanding those, we’ll have some others after that. But right now we’re just going to start with three a week. And if you’re able to do that, we are going to divvy up the work. And so we’ll go out in the field and we’ll see what we can do to help teach the gospel to the creation and creatures around about us that have souls that are precious to the Lord. What did Moses say in Exodus 4 10? I can’t do this. No, not me. Go send somebody else. Lord, I can’t do this. I can’t. Look, I’m talking to a bush. I can’t do this. Some of you laughed.

I like that. I can’t. This is not me. The fear and the timid style is just like us. I’ve been nervous to talk to people about the gospel. I’ve even shook. You know what song we sang about Jesus and the cross? Sometimes it causes me to tremble. I’ve trembled. Okay. I’ve talked to people and told them various things with wisdom, saying, You’re not right with the Lord, but you need to be. I’ve told people, you know, you’re living a good life, but you’re missing Jesus. I’ve told people various things, and I’ve trembled. But yet at the same time, we get in such a way where we’re able to feel we’re more comfortable talking about the Bible with people as we mature and as we grow. I don’t think we should necessarily tremble less at God’s word, because I don’t think we should.

I think we should keep that reverence for God’s word. But when we’re meeting people in the community, we should be able to share with them that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and that when they see us trying to teach them the gospel, they need to be thirsty for Jesus. Who in their right mind would say after reading the song of Moses in Deuteronomy that, oh, there’s no courage there. No. Deuteronomy 32 had a lot of courage. He had a lot of boldness in the things he said. And so when we look at that, where once Moses thought, I can’t do this, now Moses is bold and confident. Moses is an interesting guy. Aaron was his spokesman at the beginning.

Yet look at Moses as his mature speaker at the end. Aaron was his spokesman. I want you to remember that. He was his spokesman. He literally did tell God, I don’t think I can do this. And God said, okay, there will be someone with you to help you. God didn’t say there won’t be helpers. If you look at the book of Acts over and over and over and over and over, they go two by two to various places. It’s not just one guy, it’s not just Paul, it’s not just Peter. They’re all together working together. And Aaron helped him. But later in this passage, Moses’ clear, clarity rings true like a clarion call, and he’s able to teach and preach and do the things he needs to do by the spoken mouth that is wonderful for the people.

Have you ever heard of an egot winner? Okay, I’m looking out. I’m seeing if anybody knows what an egot winner is. I think there are some who do, but they’re not wanting to say what they know. James Earl Jones was an egot winner. He won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. As far as I know, there are only 21 people in the world who have ever won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Only 21. The Emmy is kind of like a TV program daily shows five days a week daily. A Grammy is about songs. Oscar is about being an actor. He won a class act for lifetime award. Tony is for singing. Tony, you get that? Tony is for singing and stage productions, particularly on stage.

Now I want to mention something that sounds a lot like Moses here that you maybe never thought of. In daily work, five days a week, Moses did his work. He lived where he wrote the song of Moses. He was a class act for a lifetime. And the tabernacle, it was not a play. In no way was the tabernacle a play. But it did stage a representation of a greater symbol, the tabernacle of God in heaven.

James Earl Jones had a huge speech stutter. When he was young, he couldn’t speak in the ways that he could when he passed away. And he became one of the 21 performing arts broadcasters in the history of 21st century Western civilization that won all those awards. I can’t speak. I can’t talk. Not me, Lord. That’s what we sometimes say. 45 minutes, 20 minutes of turning to Bible passages, and then studying and then teaching and preaching. You may be able to do a lot more than you give yourself credit for. One high school teacher helped that fella speak and talk and do all that. Have all those awards. God’s not seeking to give us awards on earth. That’s not what God is seeking to do for us.

What he’s seeking to do for us is help us get to heaven.

Conclusion

We’re going to look at that for just a moment. The song of Moses and the Lamb. Those who have the victory, sing the song of Moses. For great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the saints, who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you alone or holy, all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. He’s basically saying at the end of the song of Moses and the end of the song of the Lamb and the end of the book of Revelation that it’s not only for the Jew, but it’s for the Jew and the Gentile. Moses forecasts that at the conclusion of his sermon, at the conclusion of his last oration before the people.

Jesus concludes it with the song of the Lamb in the book of Revelation. John forecasts that, and what is he talking about? But the idea that everybody can be saved if they obey God.

Many as are willing to obey, they can be saved. So hear the word of God, Romans 10 17. Believe, Jesus is God’s Son, John 3 16. Repent of your sins, Acts 2 37. Confess the name of Christ, Romans 10 10. Baptism doth now save us. 1 Peter 3 21. And then share the gospel message, Mark 16, 15 through 16. That’s what we ask you to do. And I want you to look real quick at Matthew 11, 28 and 29. We’ll conclude with this scripture for the morning. You’ve been a very wonderful audience this morning, but also participants in that you’ve listened and you’ve thought and you’ve planned to do good things. In Matthew 11, 28 through 27. They said to him, by what authority? Oh, I’m in the wrong scripture again.

This Bible, I don’t use this much, but I wanted to use it today, thinking it would get me through my scriptures quicker, where in fact it has not. But that’s okay. I can still turn pages as you’re still turning. Matthew 11, 28 through 29. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I’m gentle. I’m lowly in heart. You’ll find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. He’s basically saying if you want to teach the message, if you want to share the message, if you want to live the message, be yoked with Jesus. It’s going to make things a whole lot easier. It’s going to be very difficult if you’ll go through life without Jesus.

But if you go through life with Jesus, the burden is easier. The challenge is more manageable. If you want to become a Christian, if you want to become a child of God through repentance and baptism, we’re going to give you that opportunity in just a moment. But before we do, I just want to say this to those of us who are Christians. Remember, on the last day, we won’t be judged on what we used to do. We won’t be judged on what we believe. We’ll be judged on what we’re doing. And that is important. If you want to become a Christian, come forward while we stay at its name.