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Colin Smith: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever. But the gospel would say to George Orwell, however much a boot stamps on a human face in this world, George Orwell, not forever.

Guest (Male): Welcome to *Open the Bible Weekend* with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, I wonder how many people just had flashbacks to their high school English class with George Orwell’s *1984*. Good to know that that is not the way things will play out.

Colin Smith: That is exactly right. It shows that some things can stay for a lifetime from an English class, and that has certainly stayed with me. What an extraordinary image that is: a boot stamping on a human face forever. And of course, Orwell had this gloomy view of the future of the world—that it was totalitarian, that it was going to be violence and brutality. So much of what he anticipated has proved to be true since the time when he wrote these words.

But not forever. Our coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ, will triumph and righteousness will reign. His kingdom will come, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. We’re going to lift up our minds and our hearts today in the scriptures and anticipate the good ending that is promised to us in Jesus Christ. We are in Deuteronomy chapter 32 as we continue a message, "The Goodness and Severity of God." Here is Pastor Colin.

God now speaks in private to Moses and to Joshua. He says to them, "Write down for yourselves this song. Teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it." You’ll see then that the message of this song is the same as the message of the drama, and indeed the same as the message of the whole book of Deuteronomy and indeed the whole of the Bible. It begins in its first half, verses 1 to 26, with the severity of God.

As Moses sings this song, he rehearses in the earlier part the blessings of God. From verse 10, let's pick this up. There's a catalog of blessings here, both blessings past in the desert and blessings that would come in the future in the Promised Land. Verse 10 of chapter 32: God found you in the desert. God has shielded you, verse 10, and He has cared for you. God, verse 11, has guarded you like an eagle guarding its nest. Verse 13: God nourished you with honey from the rock and with oil from the flinty crag.

God's blessings in your life, my friend, and in mine are more than we can number. But Moses goes on to describe prophetically the choices that God’s people will make. The rest of the Old Testament simply is an outworking of everything that Moses says here in this song. Verse 15, one of the most striking verses in the book of Deuteronomy: "Jeshurun grew fat and kicked."

Now you see what the picture is here. You imagine a mule, and the mule has been doing good work for its master. But the mule puts on some weight and it begins to feel lethargic. It thinks, "I don't want to work for the master anymore," and so one day the master comes up, and what does the mule do? Kicks.

Now, God is saying that is precisely what I know you’re going to do. He says right here that He knows what is in our hearts. He knows what we are disposed to do. That's chapter 31 and verse 21: "I know what you are disposed to do even before I bring you into the land." I know what's going to happen.

You're going to receive my blessings and you’re going to credit yourself. And then when something goes wrong, despite all the blessings that I have poured into your life, what are you going to do? You're going to resist me, you’re going to resent me, you’re going to speak against me, you’re going to doubt me. You will grow fat and you will kick.

Therefore, God begins to speak of the judgment that they deserve. As you know the Old Testament story, or as you would find out if you read more of the Old Testament, the very judgments that are spoken of here are exactly what happened as you follow the story of the Old Testament. Verse 19: the judgment you deserve. The Lord saw this and He rejected them because He was angered by His own sons and His own daughters.

Notice what God says He will do. Here’s the severity of God. They grow fat, they kick, and God says in verse 20, "I will hide my face from them." He says in verse 21, "I will make them envious." This happened, of course, because God prospered other nations that did not even acknowledge Him and caused these people who bore His name to go into this terrible decline.

"I will make them angry." Well, you see, that's why they were angry. Why is God blessing them and not us? Why is it all going well for them and not us? And verse 23: "I will bring calamities upon them." I will hide my face, I will make them envious, I will make them angry, I will bring calamities on them. Why, Lord? Look at verse 22: "For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below."

You could hardly read a verse like that and not believe, if you take the Bible seriously, in a God who punishes, right? Consider the severity of God. What a picture of God's judgment: to be surrounded by calamity, to live in envy towards others and anger towards God, while God turns away and hides His face.

And friends, this is the judgment that I deserve. This is the judgment that we deserve. For at our best, this is the truth about us: Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. Have you ever considered the severity of God? Really? Or are you living in cloud-cuckoo-land with a sentimentality of a God who would never hurt a fly? You’re not in the world of the Bible. You’re not in the world of reality.

Is this truth of the severity of God rooted in your heart? I need this truth to restrain me from sinning. So do you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You can't replace that with anything else. But as this judgment thunders to its climax in verse 26, where God has said "I will, I will, I will, I will," and He did—you read it in the rest of the Old Testament.

But then He says in verse 26—notice the change—"I said, I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind." That would be terminal, wouldn't it? Then notice the next word in verse 27: "But!" But! So here's this train of the judgment of God and it's thundering down the track, and suddenly the brakes screech on. But!

Don't you thank God for all the places in the Bible where we read about our own human wretchedness and then we read some statement like Ephesians 2: "But God." Because when you have said everything that there is to be said about the judgment of God, there is more to be said about God.

So Moses now begins to unfold to them as they've seen the severity of God, and as they would see it in their history, he now begins to unfold to them the goodness of God. Are you ready for a bit of that? Are you ready for a bit of that?

Guest (Male): We'll come back and look at that question in just a moment. You're listening to *Open the Bible Weekend* with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "The Goodness and Severity of God," part of our series on the book of Deuteronomy called *Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start*.

You can always go back and listen to each broadcast online at openthebible.org, or you can listen through the free *Open the Bible* app, which you'll find at your app store. Simply look for *Open the Bible* next time you're there, or again, come and listen online at openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Verse 27 onwards. There's really three strands to what he says about the abundant goodness of God, and the first might come as a surprise until we think about it together. The first strand of the goodness of God is that God will take vengeance on His enemies. Now, you see this in verse 29, verse 35, and verse 43. It runs all through Moses’s exposition of the goodness of God.

And your first reaction may be like mine was: "Wait a minute, if this is about the goodness of God, God taking vengeance on His enemies sounds more like more judgment. How can that be the goodness of God?" And here's the answer. A God who cannot destroy evil is of no help to you or to us.

A venomous serpent came into the Garden of Eden, and the poison of evil has affected the human race ever since. We need a Savior who can crush the head of the serpent. And this is the Savior that we have in Jesus Christ. When He comes into the world, He says of Satan, "The prince of this world now stands condemned."

The New Testament tells us that Christ came to destroy the works of the evil one. And because of the coming and the dying and the rising of Jesus Christ, the promise of the New Testament is this—and it is God's certain word and His oath and you can bank your eternity on it—that Satan and all who do his works will be destroyed in the lake of fire forever and forever. It is an awesome and somber and eternal reality.

Sin will be no more! And friends, that is the beginning of hope, because what would heaven be if heaven was just more of the same of what we’ve got on earth? I don't know how in the world folks decide what kids should read at high school, but what you read tends to stay with you a long time. When I was at high school in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of the books we were given—some of you would have been the same—was George Orwell's *1984*.

These were in the days before 1984 when everyone was worried about what's going to happen in 1984. Nobody cares about that now. But as a 14-year-old, I read a phrase from George Orwell that has stayed with me all my life. He said, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

See, that was what Orwell saw of the world. He saw the rise of totalitarianism, the loss of freedom. And while we thank God for freedom in so many parts of the world, there are so many for whom even today the experience of life resembles a boot stamping on a human face. But the gospel would say to George Orwell, however much a boot stamps on a human face in this world, George Orwell, not forever.

There will be no boots stamping on human faces in the new heaven and the new earth. Why? Because God will destroy all evil. That's good news, isn't it? That is the abundant goodness of God. A Savior who is merely meek and mild and who merely weeps is of no use to you if He does not have the power and the will to destroy evil not in part, but wholly, completely, utterly, and forever.

Sin will be no more! This is the issue of the coming of the Savior, the effect of His coming. And that is why in verse 29, Moses says about God’s enemies, "If only they were wise and discern what their end will be." For verse 35, God says, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip."

And in verse 43, God will avenge the blood of His servants. He will take vengeance on His enemies. Sin will be no more because God in His infinite holiness will destroy it. Nothing that defiles will enter the holy city. And that is the goodness of God.

But there has to be more to the goodness of God than that. If you're thinking with me, you’ll be saying, "Well, yes, but if God destroys all evil, what about the evil that's in me? What about my growing fat and kicking? Where does that leave me? A world where all evil is destroyed is surely a world where no people continue to exist."

Behold the goodness of God. Not only does God take vengeance on His enemies, but second, He will have compassion on His people. Look at that in verse 36. This God who judges, it says in verse 36, "He will have compassion on His servants." Then verse 43 tells us how God will bring this compassion to us.

Do you notice right at the end of verse 43 what an amazing statement in the Old Testament? "God will make atonement"—do you see that word?—"for His land and for His people." And friends, this is why Jesus Christ came into the world. God, whose judgment we deserve, God whose judgment would wipe me out because I’ve grown fat and kicked, God took our flesh in Jesus Christ.

And here's the amazing thing: Christ bore our judgment. He carried our sins in His body on the tree. And the goodness and the severity of God meet at the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ came under the curse that belongs to us so that we might enter into the blessing that belongs to Him.

And there's one more thing that I want us to see to complete the picture of this abundant goodness of God. Not only does He take vengeance on His enemies, not only does He wonderfully, wonderfully make atonement for His people, but He reaches out to all nations. And I want you to see this in verse 43. It’s at the heart of the gospel.

Notice the surprise here, verse 43: "Rejoice, O nations, with His people." Why? "For He will avenge the blood of His servants and take vengeance on His enemies." That's the first thing that we’ve seen. And here's the second: "He will make atonement for His people." But now Moses is saying, "Rejoice, O nations."

So He's speaking to Israel, God's people, but He's saying people from nations all over the world. All the non-Jewish people, all the races on earth are to rejoice along with Israel at this atonement. Why? Because the atonement that God makes for His people is also offered to the nations. That's the point. That's why the nations are to rejoice.

That is why when Jesus Christ is born into the world, it’s not only Jewish shepherds who come to the manger. It's wise men from the nations, from the East, from cultures that don't even have the Old Testament. Men who never read the book of Deuteronomy, men who don't have that in them. Christ comes into the world for them too. Rejoice, O nations!

That is why the angels say to the shepherds, "To you is born a Savior," but this is good news of great joy which is for all people. Whatever your background, whether you are rich or poor, employed or unemployed, whether you are Black or White, whether you are young or old, whether you are Jew or Arab, whether you are Christian or Muslim, the Savior has come into the world to make atonement. And in Christ, God is reaching out to you, whatever your background. This is the abundant goodness of God.

So friends, as we wrap this up, let me just make two observations. Consider the goodness and the severity of God. Impressed on God’s people in the Old Testament through an extraordinary drama and through an amazing song. I just want to say these two things in closing. Number one: let the goodness and severity of God then help you grasp the meaning of Christmas.

You can't make sense of Christmas until you see the goodness and the severity of God. And so many people get so sentimental over a baby lying in a manger. Just ask this question if you’re a sentimentalist: Why is He there? Why is He there? And the answer is He has to be there because there is an awesome judgment to be taken away and only He can take it away. Only He can take it away for you. That's why He's there.

You consider the severity of God, you’ll begin to understand Christmas. But then you don't get the picture unless you have to ask the question again. You have to say, God takes flesh and He lies there in this manger, and what are we going to do? We grow fat, we kick, and then we take this flesh and we rip it and we nail it to a cross.

And you say, "This is the Lord of glory." So you say, "Why is He there?" And the only answer to that is this is the abundant, inexplicable goodness of God. The Father gave the Son for you. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for you. And not only for us who believe today; God is reaching out to every person from every background through His Son, who made atonement, and that atonement is sufficient for you.

So here's my very last word and it’s simply this: let the goodness and the severity of God lead you to Jesus Christ. Friends, all over this city today, there are thousands of people busy in their lives and they feel no need of Jesus Christ. They see no need of Him. And maybe you are among them.

You’re here in church, but there's any number of reasons for coming to church and it may well be here you are, you sit through the sermon and then there’s communion, then we'll be on our way, but you don't particularly feel that you need Jesus Christ. Listen, I say to you: consider the severity of God. You’ll begin to see your need of Jesus Christ.

And then there may just be someone here and you're saying, "I have begun to see that. I know I see in myself, I've grown fat and kicked. I have credited myself for every good in my life. I've become arrogant. I've been despising and dismissing of God. And I would like to have peace with God today, and I surely need it, but I feel so ashamed. I have this voice in my head that says, 'Why would God want anything to do with you?'"

Look at the goodness of God. He makes atonement for His people. He invites the nations to join in the joy. That atonement was made for you. It's offered to you today. So will you come to Him? Will you come to Him now?