07 | Song of Moses | Deuteronomy 32:34-43 | I, EVEN I, AM HE

ELDER CANDIDACY

Exciting update regarding the elder candidacy of Tony Webster and Sam Powers

We brought them before the congregation a little more than a year ago to enter into an elder candidacy.

During that time they have sat with the elders, share their wisdom and lives with us, studied our foundational documents together, and shown themselves to be qualified for this ministry.

In the mean time, it has been the duty of the congregation to watch their life and ministry.

Now, at the end of their candidacy, we bring Tony and Sam before you again for congregational affirmation of their qualification for eldership.

From our bylaws:

The proposed confirmation of any Elder shall be communicated to the Congregation where the Elder candidate has partnered at least fourteen (14) days in advance and Church Partners shall have an opportunity to submit questions, comments and concerns, which will be considered by the Full Council on a case-by-case basis. Confirmation of a new Elder shall require a passing vote via simple majority from Partners at the Congregation where the Elder candidate has partnered.

This morning, the elders of CrossPointe Coast are putting both Tony Webster and Sam Powers forward for confirmation by the congregation.

The next two weeks are for prayerful consideration of questions, comments and concerns.

On Sunday August 24, all partners of the Pineda congregation will receive a confirmation ballot via ChurchCenter notification.

Confirmation requires a simple majority.

Again, from the bylaws:

Following the appointment by the Full Council and confirmation by the Church Partners of the Local Congregation an Elder will be installed as an Elder of the Full Council of Elders.

Pending an affirmative vote, we will hold an ordination and installation as part of our Celebration Service on October 31—Reformation Day!

In the meantime, we call the congregation to pray together:

We would even call you to consider a fast over the next two weeks that the Lord would guide his church into this new season of a growing eldership.

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MAIN IDEA

The Lord alone is God—there is no other. He will bring certain vengeance on his enemies and sure vindication for his people.

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INTRODUCTION

This morning we come to the second half of the third cycle …

… and the end of the song.

During the course of the song:

… the Lord has called the people, Israel, to himself.

He has nurtured and nourished them with the blessings of his kindness.

We have also seen how the people turn from their Rock …

… to presume on the gifts of the Lord

… and worship other gods.

We have seen the Lord’s hatred of idolatry …

… and judgement upon the people.

The Lord brings a godless enemy against his own people.

We have also seen that the people not only fail to discern …

… that the Lord was behind all their blessings

… but also fail to discern that the Lord was behind their judgement as well.

Now, the Lord speaks one more time …

… to tell the people that that he sees and knows, remembers and acts.

And at the center of what he has to say in our passage this morning …

… is that he alone is God. There is none beside him.

And so, we will consider the four parts of this final portion of the Song of Moses:

The Lord Speaks

Moses Explains

The Lord Speaks Again (his final word)

Moses Gives His Final Exhortation

PRAY

5:00

v34-35 — VENGEANCE IS MINE

Read v34.

The Lord is not blind to the idolatry of Israel.

Neither is he blind to the godlessness of the enemy.

He sees and remembers.

Unlike Israel:

Who failed to see, discern or remember the truth about God.

As we saw last week, in v19, the Lord saw the idolatry of the people and spurned them.

Now, in our passage today, what does the Lord see?

What does he know such that he stores it up in remembrance?

He sees the evil of the foreign nations that he has sent in judgement upon his people.

v32 - He sees that their vine is of Sodom and their fields of Gomorrah.

7:00

There is a sense of answer to accusation—a sort of defense—in v35.

If the the Lord sees, will he do anything about it?

And the answer is that vengeance and recompense belongs to the Lord.

He has a day planned when their foot will slip and their calamity will be at hand.

Sins and judgments are laid up in the Lord’s treasury.

When the Lord passed before Moses in the cleft of the rock.

He proclaims his name.

That he is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

And that his covenant keeping is not only that he will forgive iniquity, but that …

“I will by no means clear the guilty” — Exodus 34:6–7

We see both of these things happening in this one act of vengeance and recompense.

For the enemy:

The Lord has planned their end—storring up the certainty of their judgment.

He will by no means clear the guilty.

For his people, Israel:

The Lord continues in steadfast love and faithfulness.

By preserving a remnant, though they were almost gone …

… he will vindicate his people and have compassion on them.

10:00

For the faithful:

in Christ, sin is no longer remembered

love keeps no record of wrongs (1 Cor 13:5)

sins removed as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12).

This is not a contradiction.

Outside Christ, sin is stored for judgment; in Christ, judgment is already satisfied.

Vengeance belongs to the Lord; repayment is certain.

their foot shall slip – inevitable downfall of the enemies.

the day of calamity is fixed and will come swiftly

APPLY

The Lord’s vengeance targets the godless nation he used to judge his people.

This is a call to trust the Lord’s justice without presuming to take it into our own hands.

It challenges us to view the apparent victories of the wicked in light of God’s sure and measured repayment—which comes according to his own timing.

You probably know something about days of calamity—great hardship and defeat.

Surely, at times, you have discerned that at least some portion of that hardship, you brought upon yourself.

And, yet, you are right to call upon the Lord for both of these things:

That his justice would bring his enemies to nothing.

That his mercy would spare you and restore you to the days of his blessing.

14:00

Now, Moses gives his explanation

v36 — THEIR POWER IS GONE

The Lord will vindicate his people.

When?

Mercy comes when strength is gone.

Moses is teaching the people one of the most important lesses of God’s covenant.

Mercy is based on God’s covenant with his people …

… not on any sense that they either deserve or have earned mercy.

Two things are true in Israel:

Idolators are destroyed and a remnant is preserved.

Again, this calls all who hear to consider both the reality of judgement and mercy.

17:00

When does the Lord vindicate his people?

He restores them when he has purged their idolatry—

—when he has stripped away ever vain hope from among the people.

He sees that there power is gone.

Moses explains that there is none remaining, bond or free.

I understand this to mean that there is nowhere for the remnant to turn for help apart from the Lord.

There are none, neither strong nor weak, high nor low …

… to which the people may turn for relief, vengeance or restoration.

The Lord has stripped the people of ever other hope.

19:00

APPLY

Often, the chastening work of the Lord is to strip us of all but our weakness.

This leaves us with no illusions of self-reliance.

It forces us to recognize that vindication depends entirely on the Lord’s covenant mercy

… not on our worthiness or ability.

21:00

In v37, the Lord speaks a final time in the Song.

He asks the most important question of the Song.

Where are their gods?

To which the Lord himself responds …

v37-42 — I, EVEN I, AM HE

In the blessings of their properity under the nurture of the Lord …

… the people of Israel had turned from the Lord to worship foreign gods.

But, as the song says in v31: their rock is not as our Rock

23:00

What we have in these final word by the Lord is a comparison.

The Rock vs. their rock

When the Lord brings down his sure and just judgment, he asks:

“Where are their gods?”

Where is their refuge?

They had made idolatrous sacrifices in their properity …

… attributing to foreign gods the riches of their success.

Now, when their power is gone and they have no where to turn …

… surely the idols to whom they sacrificed will save and restore them?

Finally, these false refuge of foreign gods are revealed as powerless.

They are no protection and no help.

26:00

Now, we come to the epicenter of the Song.

The resounding sound of the Lord’s central claim about himself.

Exclusive claim: “I, even I, am he; no god beside me.”

The Lord then rattles off a series of statements of divine reality.

Sovereignty over life and death: “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.”

If the Lord takes up his sword and his arrows, he will bring vengeance.

Yes, the enemy was let loose on the people of Israel in the Lord’s righteous judgement upon the idolatry of the land.

But, it is not that foreign gods have triumphed over the Lord …

… because foreign nations have triumphed over the Lord’s people.

The Lord will repay. The Lord will avenge.

The Lord will vindicate his own name by vindicating his people.

What was the purpose of the Song of Moses?

The whole idea of this song is to give an anthem to:

proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God.

Now, at the and of the song, that proclamation reaches its high point by the voice of the Lord himself.

I, even I, am he

It is the foundational confession of all of biblical reality.

The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

This eternal, divine reality means two things:

It means absolute and final judgement for the enemies of God.

It means mercy, cleansing and vindication for those whom the Lord extends his arm to save.

30:00

APPLY

The one who holds ultimate power over life and death will, in the fullness of time …

… reveal that power not only in judgment but also in salvation through his own self-giving.

This whole time the Lord is tutoring all who encounter his word, the work of his redemption in history with this:

The Lord alone is God.

The Lord is fashioning a people for himself.

The Lord will not pervert justice, but will bring down ever rival.

The Lord will cleanse his people, stripping them of every vanity …

… whether it is an idolatrous or an self-righteous hope.

The Lord will establish a remnant of those who have been made to trust in him …

… revealing himself, and him alone, to be their just vindication

… over every enemy stronghold, that exalts itself over against the Lord God.

THE GOSPEL

Christ himself is the vindication of God’s people.

The One who was struck for our transgressions, raised in power, and now reigns to bring final justice and deliverance.

Christ brings the sinner to the end of himself.

His sin is idolatry, and his self-righteousness is vanity.

In the cross of Christ, the Father brought final judgement upon sin to the uttermost.

In the substitution Christ in the place of sinners, the Lord rescues the condemned and vindicates all who believe.

I think of the thief on the cross to turns to the Lord for rescue.

He has been literally stripped of everything—even his own life.

He turns to the Lord, dying their next to him in his place to receive these words:

Today you will be with me in paradise.

35:00

The gift of the Song of Moses is given to the people of Israel as that make their way through the generations.

It is a song that looks forward, so that the people can see not only what is coming ahead …

… but so that they would understand reality along the way.

Now, in light of the coming of Christ:

His life, death, resurrection and the hope of his return.

We live in an age that looks back to the just judgment of God on sin …

… through the death of Jesus on the cross

… where our sins (the sins of all who believe) were removed in that moment of the union of judgment and mercy.

And, we live in an age that looks forward to our final vindication, when God will judge our worldly enemies and our final enemies—casting sin, death and the devil into his lake of fiery judgement.

37:00

Now, in v43 Moses gives his final exhortation.

He began the song with a call to give ear, to hear his voice.

He concludes his song calling for response.

v43 — REJOICE AND BOW DOWN

Heavens and nations called to rejoice.

Deuteronomy 32:1 ESV

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

The Lord does three things:

He avenges the blood of his servants.

He repays those who hate him.

He cleanses his people’s land.

Two realities ring throughout the whole of this Song.

Perfect justice and faithful mercy.

These have been the proclamation of the song from the beginning.

Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

Now we see what the Lord is doing by both judgment and mercy.

Judgment and mercy lead to restored worship and joy.

APPLY

We can rejoice now with the assurance that God will set all things right.

The story of redemption which the Lord tells in the scriptures …

… is set to the music of this song.

As I have set as my aim throughout this series:

I pray that the Lord has set your imagination alight by the images of his glory in this song.

As we look back on the work of the Lord in history …

… we ought to have a renew clarity and confidence for his work in the future.

We ought to have our imaginations alight …

… that the vindication of his people and the cleansing of the land

… anticipates the joy of the new creation and the gathering of his saints into his eternal kingdom

40:00

APPLY

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Financial Update

The elders have said we would keep you updated.

The most important and consistent update is at the bottom of our weekly Top News in ChurchCenter.

Please keep checking there and keeping that update in prayer.

But, sometimes its good to give a face to face check in.

Three parts to this update:

When we brought on Sam, we made a two-year commitment to the establishment of this role of Ministry Development Director.

At the time, we had a financial nest egg that we committed to leverage for this purpose.

We knew two things:

That the growth in numbers and opportunities at CrossPointe Coast called for this additional staff ministry role.

That the church would need to accompany our ministry growth with financial growth in order to sustain the role.

Two things have happened during the course of the last year and a half.

We have continued to grow, adding new partners and taking hold of new opportunties as a church, and eldership and a staff.

As much as it has confounded us, financial growth has not accompanied this ministry growth, but rather monthly financial decline.

Sam has been a blessing in every single way as the Ministry Development Director.

But, even more importantly, the whole of his household have become family to us …

… and we have partnered well together in the gospel and our shared mission.

So, we have spent a great deal of prayer and effort seeking to discern how the Lord would provide for a further season of flourishing.

Made to Flourish

Shortly after bring Sam on staff I was made aware of a grant organization called “Made to Flourish” that seeks to serve and accelerate the establishment of Local Church Pastoral Residency programs.

The elders have applied for a grant with Made to Flourish that would establish an ongoing pastoral residency …

… of which Sam would be our first resident.

If we are awarded this grant, Sam’s would remain in the role of Ministry Development Director …

… but would begin to serve also in a two-year pastoral residency beginning in January

… when the grant would be funded.

We hope to have good indication by end of this month whether we are awarded this grant.

We will share and update at our Partner Vision Night at beginning of September.

We realize, and want to communicate with you, the clarity that only with this grant (or another, unforeseen provision of the Lord) will we be able to continue to fund Sam’s staff role.

Please pray, as you make this request also a part of our call upon the Lord for his provision!

For us, we believe that this organization is rightly named:

As this grant would provide an opportunity for CPCoast to flourish in the years ahead …

… in a good labor for which we have already shown ourselves willing to sacrifice much.

That is, to raise up godly leaders, to serve the church …

… as the church labors to serve in the homes, schools and workplaces of our community

… to give glory to God in every good endeavor.

August is the end of our Fiscal Year

We have never wanted to make a practice of an end of year budget drive, or annual giving Sunday.

Then again, we never wanted to make a practice of running a budget deficit either :)

We have have shared how $25,000 was our minimum monthly threshold for FY2025.

We have been close to this threshold this year, at times exceeding it …

… and for this we give thanks to God and honor the contribution of the the partners in the gospel here at CPCoast.

But have fallen consistently just short of this need for the past few months, which leaves us in need of about $12-15,000 to meet our needs at the end of this fiscal year.

We have asked the congregation to pray for the elder candidacy, not only for discernment, but also with thanksgiving for the provision of godly leaders.

We have asked the congregation to pray for our Made to Flourish grant application. Again, asking the Lord for his good provision.

Finally, we ask the congregation to prayerfully consider a fiscal year-end contribution so that we can begin the new Fiscal Year on a solid footing.

As always, the elders commit to continue to keep the congregation updated.

Please plan to join us for the annual Partnership Vision Night on Wednesday, September 3.