Sermon Tone Analysis

Not Because of Your Righteousness - Deut. 9

PRAY with me and we’ll dive into this text for tonight.

Here’s the setup for the other verses we just read:

Time to Take the Land God Promised (vv.

1-3)

Deuteronomy - Covenant Renewal

Deuteronomy is a book which records Moses renewing the covenant (that God made with Israel at Sinai—here called Mt. Horeb) with the next generation preparing to go in to possess the land that God had promised to this people dating all the way back to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

They’re camped on the east side of the Jordan River, listening to Moses prepare them to enter the land under the leadership of Joshua.

- It’s been 40 years since God made a covenant at Sinai, and 40 years ago the previous generation lacked faith to obey God and go in and possess the land.

They were afraid of the military power and even the size of the enemies in Canaan.

One particular opponent their eyes had rested on were the Anakim.

… which makes perfect sense.

My basketball team has a 7-foot guy named Larry.

When opponents look over at our team before the game, would you guess that their focus lands prominently on me or Larry?

The Larry-kim, I mean, Anakim, are the symbol of the superior military power of the Canaanites.

Guess what, in the 40 year interim, nothing has changed in terms of the superior nations, fortified cities, and military power of the peoples across the river.

- Good pep talk, Moses.

We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves and about our odds right now.

Impossible Mission Made Possible

Your team would be fairly unconcerned about this guy named Larry who works at SDC for his day job if one player on your team was Kevin Durant or Lebron James.

Moses reminds them that Israel’s secret weapon is the Lord, the one true God, who goes before them as a consuming fire to destroy and subdue their enemies.

Their job will be to obey God and finish the task with each people group as the Lord gives them into their hand.

And now there’s a shift in emphasis:

Moses reminds the new generation going into the Land of Promise that God's favor is not because of their righteousness but due only to his sovereign grace.

Heart Deception (vv.

4-6)

We tend toward heart deception and selective memory in order to put ourselves in as good a light as possible.

Modeling and makeup, lighting, even photoshopping - The crazy thing about us is that we have a tendency to view ourselves this way… covering up or hiding all the glaring flaws.

God understands our hearts.

From listening to God, so does Moses, so he warns the people:

Don’t credit victory to your righteousness.

When the Lord delivers you (and he will) by his own gracious and mighty hand, don’t take credit and think that it was because of your own goodness that God did this thing for you.

Victory (on your behalf) is due to...

God’s judgment against wickedness

God’s faithfulness to keep his word

God chose you not because you are so deserving but because of his sovereign grace:

So don’t go thinking God’s deliverance is because of your goodness.

It isn’t.

In fact, you’re just plain stubborn.

Evidence of Your Stiff-necked Rebelliousness (vv.

7-24)

Exhibit A - Idolatry at Horeb (Sinai)

While Moses was on the mountain receiving the tablets from the Lord!!! - What were the first two commandments?

For quick reference, look back at Deut 5:7&8.

What were they doing in Moses absence?

Other Examples

Taberah - “burning” -

Shortly after leaving Sinai, the people were complaining about their plight (Num 11:1-3) and the Lord’s anger burned against them such that he literally set fire to the outlying edges of the camp.

They cried out to Moses and he prayed for them, and the fire died down.

They name that place Taberah, which means burning.

Massah - “testing” -

Moses then references an earlier time, when God had delivered the people from Pharaoh’s hand with great signs, and across the Red Sea.

He had given them sweet water when they complained it was bitter.

As they journeyed on and they complained of hunger (“at least we had food in Egypt”), God rained bread from heaven 6 days/week for them to gather each morning.

(The manna tasted like wafers with honey, cakes baked with oil… but they’d even complain about that later!)

When they came to a place called Rephidim (Ex.

17:1-7), they had no obvious source of water, so they grumbled that Moses had brought them out to die of thirst.

God provided water for them from a rock, but Moses said they were “testing” God because they had said “Is God among us or not?”, which is why he called the place Massah.

Kibroth-hattaavah - “gaves of craving” -

The Lord had given them water and manna and would even give them meat in the form of quail brought right to them.

But they let their craving for the meat get the best of them and they seemed to kill more than they needed.

So even as they were over-eating, the Lord’s anger burned against them and he struck down many with a great plague.

So they called that place “graves of craving,” Kibroth-hattaavah.

And finally, Moses references when they were at...

Kadesh-barnea - where they lacked faith to obey God and take the land

The Lord God commanded them to go in and take the land, but when the people believed their eyes regarding the enemy instead of their God, the Lord punished that generation by not allowing them to enter the land.

This generation to whom Moses is now speaking, would have been alive, but not yet old enough to be held responsible for the decisions made by the previous adults.

Interestingly (and appropriately), Moses does NOT give them a pass when making this admonition:

They are not being held accountable for the sins of others.

They are being warned about the same tendency of their own hearts.

What does such rebelliousness do to our relationship to God?

Failure to acknowledge and obey God by faith incurs God’s wrath.

(vv.

7, 22)

And God’s displeasure means that you are destined to perish apart from him.

(8:20)

Do we need to understand what kind of people we are in order to not take credit?

Do we need to understand the consequences of our rebellion?

...In order to rightly view ourselves as fully incapable of righteousness apart from the gracious intervention of God on our behalf?

Intercession on Behalf of God’s People (vv.

25-29)

Moses’ Appeal to God:

-not an appeal to his vanity but to his sovereign GLORY

Your people and your heritage… whom you redeemed through your greatness… you brought out with a mighty hand

Remember your covenant

For the sake of your own glory among the nations

New Covenant Correlation

Have you recognized your condition in sin before God? Have you rejected self-righteousness and turned in faith to God to rescue you through Jesus Christ?

In what ways do you still functionally put trust in your own works for salvation?

How can you grow in living from Christ’s righteousness and not your own?

Christ’s Righteousness for your Position

Christ’s Righteousness for your Practice

I have two tendencies in my fight against sin: working in my own strength and moping when I fail.

But through faith in Christ, the final decision has been made:

Christ’s Intercession for His Own