2019-07-14 Deuteronomy 9
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3 But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you.
4 When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.
5 You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
I. God is going to do what God is going to do.
I. God is going to do what God is going to do.
3 But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you.
A. God has and will work to accomplish his plan of redemption for the world.
A. God has and will work to accomplish his plan of redemption for the world.
3 But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you.
Illus: Often when we read the Bible we want to read it as if it is a collection of short story, poems and motivational phrases.
That is how we treat the Bible. We take a story or passage out of context to fit it to our lives.
When you read the Bible, every passage is apart of the God’s singular story of redeeming and reconciling men back to him.
Today’s passage is no different. The people of Israel, with pride in their hearts, thought the land and their importance was the end of the story. God would bring them into the promised land, and as Paul Harvey used to state “now you know the rest of the story.”
There were two problems with this line of thinking. 1. The people were in no way worthy of the promised land, and 2. The promised land was just a step in the bigger plan.
When you think of Israel, I don’t want you to think of the place, think
How often do we do this with God, forgetting both our unworthiness before God AND our place in his plan.
We are living in a day where God is working his plan forward, not because of our goodness or righteousness, but because of His plan.
(This is what God is working towards)
9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
10 And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!
B. God does not fail because God is faithful to his word.
B. God does not fail because God is faithful to his word.
3 But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you.
Illus: Our view of God often rises and falls based on the circomstances of our lives.
When life treats us well, we will look and say “See what God is doing before me”, Or “look at how blessed I am.”
When your candidate is elected to office you would say “It is good that God is back in the Whitehouse again.”
On the opposite hand when life does not go your way, you ask “where is God when I am walking through this pain?”
When your candidate loses, you say “God has been kicked out of the Whitehouse, and out of America.”
Do you realize what you are saying about God in those moments? We are making the work of God dependent on human circumstances.
If we are winning, God is working?
Our God is the God raises up nations and brings them down. When we talk about God, we must remember that what drives God is a faithfulness to himself.
God keeps his promises because God is true to himself.
(When we say amen it does not mean the end… but instead it is a statement of faith that God is in control.)
20 For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God.
II. You are not that important.
II. You are not that important.
4 When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.
5 You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
A. We have an inflated sense of our own righteousness.
A. We have an inflated sense of our own righteousness.
4 When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.
5 You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Illus: A few weeks ago I preached that God was bigger than your self esteem.
One of my kids came up to me and expressed that they sometimes think to highly of themselves, sometimes really struggle to have any self esteem at all, and asked me what they should do.
I told them that humility was not that they should think less of themselves, but instead to think rightly of themselves.
Humility teaches that the value of every person is that we are created in the very image of God. We are valuable because we are God’s image bearers.
Humility teaches that we are broken in our sin. We know that there is nothing good in us, but instead our heart, soul, mind, and strength are all polluted by sin.
Humility teaches that all the good we try to do will not measure up to the holy and righteous standard God calls us to.
Humility teaches us that we need a saviour who will stand in our place before God.
Humility helps us to see that our place before God is not because of ourselves, but because God has worked graciously through the work of Jesus Christ.
Humility teaches us that we are valued through the cross, and that we are sons and daughters in God’s kingdom standing in the righteousness of God who is faithful.
(what happens when we see ourselves as God sees us)
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.
4 The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.
B. God will accomplish His plan of grace and justice on this earth.
B. God will accomplish His plan of grace and justice on this earth.
4 When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.
5 You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Illus: What we see in this passage is the faithfulness of God towards both mercy and justice.
Here in this passage we see that God will give grace to a people, not because of their worth of righteousness, but because God keeps his promises.
In this passage we also see that God will bring the fullness of justice on a people who deserve it.
Often when we look at scripture we place ourselves in the place of the good guys. We want to be on the side of grace.
That said, I want you to see yourself on the side of justice. You will face God’s full wrath if you stand on your own. We should face the wrath of the nations because of our sin.
The only hope you have is not your righteousness or birth, but instead God’s promise.
Remember it is not about the place, but instead about the plan. When you embrace the plan of God, that God through Israel brought Jesus to this earth to die in your place, you step into the same grace that Israel stood, that God keep his promises to His people.
41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness.
42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen.
III. Grace means that God works despite our foolishness.
III. Grace means that God works despite our foolishness.
6 Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
A. God’s work in spite of our stiff necks speaks to wonder of God’s grace.
A. God’s work in spite of our stiff necks speaks to wonder of God’s grace.
Illus: Some may say, It is not fair that people go to hell. I disagree.
I believe that it is not fair that some people go to heaven. Because fair means everybody would get what they deserve. Fair means we all get hell.
God does not treat all fairly, but instead has given every person the ability escape a very fair hell. When you cling to God’s faithfulness and secure promise, you can escape fair, and embrace grace.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.