This morning, the text of the sermon is Deuteronomy 9, verses 1 through 6. Deuteronomy 9, the first six verses. And before we read that, would you turn with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, as we read that familiar first portion, the first ten verses of Ephesians chapter 2. And then we will turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 9. Ephesians 2, as we hear now the Word of God. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the Spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Back to Deuteronomy chapter 9. The first six verses. Hear, O Israel, you are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall, Anakites, you know about them, and have heard it said, who can stand up against the Anakites? But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them. He will subdue them before you and you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly as the Lord has promised you. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, the Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. No. It is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land, but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you to accomplish what He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand then that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. Let's bow in prayer, asking God's blessing upon His Word this morning. Indeed, O Lord, once again we praise You for Your Word, which is truth. We pray that You would bless Your Word, which has been read, which is to be preached. We pray You would bless us, that You would open our hearts, our minds, that we might be attentive to Your most holy Word, that You would instruct us by Your Holy Spirit through Your servant. Give Him strength, for He is weak, but You are strong. May Your Word go forth in all of its beauty and all of its boldness. May Your people be blessed. May Your name be praised. May Your kingdom be advanced. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen. Beloved in Christ the Lord, when it comes to our successes and our accomplishments, we like to take the credit, don't we? Well, I worked hard. I did this or I did that. That's why this project was a success, because of what I have done. But when there's failure, we don't want our name to be mentioned. In fact, we like to blame others for failure. For example, think about the recent hurricanes again and the devastations in the southern states. with regard to the response of helping out the victims, much blame was given by some to others, credited to others. Well, on the other hand, much credit was taken by some upon themselves. Maybe that's a simple reminder to us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We see things and we see situations the way we want to see them. But the point is we all like to take responsibility for success. But we don't want to be given responsibility for failure. Well, once again this morning, we are called to examine our hearts, our minds, our wills, our actions in preparation for coming to the Lord's table next Sunday, the Lord willing. And in reality, that call to self-examination, as we read, is a call to accept the responsibility for our sin and our failure. To acknowledge our sin and to acknowledge our inability. boys and girls, the fact that we are not able to do even one thing on our own to please God. As well, it's a call to give credit to where credit is due. We are reminded in this call of our only true comfort and that the success for our salvation does not belong to us. We must confess that we must look outside of ourselves only to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ to whom we belong. This is the teaching of Scripture. And our God teaches us this through the history of His people, the Israelites. The fact that they would enjoy success in the promised land points to the success of salvation that all of God's people enjoy. And through Moses and His message to Israel, God is reminding us, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 7, of the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And we notice, first of all, that this success is foretold by God's Word. As we come to this portion of Scripture, we know that Israel is at the doorway of Canaan. Their journey through and their long wait in the wilderness is almost over. The land flowing with milk and honey is once again within their reach. Soon it will be theirs. Guaranteed. Again, chapter 9, verse 1 says, Hear, O Israel, you are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you with large cities that have walls up to the sky. You see, in the verses following, then Moses speaks over and over about the reasons why they will possess the land, which we'll talk about in a moment. But the point is they will possess it. That's God's promise to them, which He speaks here, but which He has also spoken of before. If we go back to chapter 4, verse 1, we read, Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them, so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Chapter 7, verse 1, When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess. Chapter 8, verse 1, Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. See, long before this time, the Lord had foretold to Abraham and Jacob that this land would belong to their descendants. They had the very promise of God, the One who is truth, the One who cannot lie. They had no reason to doubt God. But they did. We know that they did often. And when they doubted God, they turned away from Him over and over again. And beloved, every time the Israelites would forget God and His promises and walk by sight, they became afraid. And then they wanted to run back to Egypt and they wanted to take their chances with an angry Pharaoh. And time and time again we know Moses interceded for the people of Israel when God spoke of destroying them because of their rebellion and their lack of faith. Yet God remained faithful, true to His promise to successfully give them the promised land. Beloved Canaan was a type of and pointed to the heavenly promised land. And as we also know, God foretold over and over of the One who would come to lead His people to that heavenly land. Already in Genesis 3, God promised the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. In Isaiah 7, God promised Emmanuel, God with us. In Isaiah 9, the promise of the wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace is given. In another place in the Old Testament, God promises the Son of Righteousness who would come with healing in His wings. And then in Matthew 1, the angel speaks to Joseph again of the Immanuel child whom Joseph was to call Jesus. Why? Because He will save His people from their sins. And God's promise is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But beloved, there are some who outright deny God's promise by rejecting Him and by rejecting their need for salvation. And there are others who doubt God's promise and say, Well, my sins are too bad. They are too many. Surely God can never save one as bad as me. But that's the beauty here. Not only do God's people have His promise, but they also have His power to back up His promise. It will take power to take the land. And it will be taken by God's power. You see, just as Israel did not escape Egypt by their own power, and just as they did not defeat the Amalekites in the wilderness by their own power, and just as they did not survive in the wilderness for 40 years by their own power, they could not defeat the nations of Canaan by their own power. But they already knew this, didn't they? They had been standing at the door of Canaan many years before, remember? And they had been terrified by the report of the ten spies who said, well, indeed, the land is great, but so are the people. They're great big. We don't stand a chance against them. Yet remember what Joshua and Caleb said? No. The Lord is with us, not with them. And in a sense, Moses is now reminding the people of that very time in history. Again, verses 1 and 2. Hear, O Israel, you are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall. Anakites, you know about them, and have heard it said, who can stand up against the Anakites? And back to 7 verse 1 again. When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you. Moses is reminding them here that if they depend upon themselves, then yes, by all means, they should turn around and run away as fast as they can. But you see, his intention here is not to drive them away from God and to discourage their hope in God. But his intention is to drive them to God. His intention is to encourage them and to give them hope in Him because nothing less than the almighty power of God will secure and prosper them. Moses, again, had just been reminding them in chapter 8 that it was God who took care of them these past 40 years. He led them. He fed them with manna. He brought water out of the rock for them. He protected them from venomous snakes. Because of Him, their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell during those 40 years. In chapter 7, Moses says, beginning at verse 17, you may say to yourselves, these nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out? But do not be afraid of them. Remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples that you now fear. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God who is among you is a great and awesome God. Success in the promised land would only come by God's power. Verses 3 and 4 of the text, but be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them. He will subdue them before you and you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly as the Lord has promised you. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, the Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. Indeed, Israel was the underdog. Boys and girls like the best team or the worst team going out to challenge and to play against the best team. Humanly speaking, they didn't have a chance against the nations of Canaan. But again, as Joshua and Caleb said, the Lord is with us. And beloved, that could only mean one thing. That could only mean that even though the nations had tremendous strength and large cities with great strong walls, and even though the enemy had experience in battle and had plenty of fighting men, yet because the Lord was with His people that meant that the enemy was doomed even before the battles began just as the Lord went before the Israelites in the desert in the pillar of cloud and fire so now He would go before them as a devouring fire and notice the order here notice the order of events as Moses lays them out He will destroy them He will subdue them before you and you, as if to say, and then you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly as the Lord has promised you. What an assurance of victory. In a sense, the nations would be destroyed before Israel even lifted one sword. All Israel really had to do was to go in and sweep them up like sweeping dirt into a dustpan. Yes, they would be engaged in battle. But if they stayed faithful to the Lord, they would not fail. Brothers and sisters, the heavenly promised land, salvation, is accomplished for you and me only by God's power through His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul makes that clear when he says in Ephesians 2, but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Now we all know that someone who has died or is dead has no power. They can do nothing. They cannot even lift a finger. Those who are dead in sin cannot choose to believe in God apart from the Holy Spirit making them spiritually alive. And the Holy Spirit makes us alive and gives us the gift of faith because Jesus Christ, through the power of His saving sacrifice, has conquered Satan, sin, and death and has made us adopted children of the Most High God. And because He has paid for our sin and conquered Satan and made us right with God, therefore, beloved, we have peace with God. Ours is the gift of God which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's why we can sing in confidence as we have done, Thy grace alone, O God, to me can pardon speak. Thy power alone, O Son of God, can this sore bondage break. I bless the Christ of God. I rest on love divine. Tis He that saveth me and freely pardon gives. I love because He loveth me. I live because He lives. Paul says in Ephesians 6, 10 and 11, and finally be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Beloved, it's because of God's power through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that Satan is now powerless against us. We all know. We all know by experience that He still prowls around tempting us. And that we do still fall into temptation. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, He will never let us fall away for good. He will restore us as His Holy Spirit reminds us each and every day of our sin and misery and that salvation is only in Jesus. Satan cannot and will not snatch even one true Christian out of the Father's hand. We enjoy success in the heavenly promised land even today as Peter says so beautifully, in Christ ours is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, but that which is kept safe in heaven, even now. For who? For those who enjoy new birth in Christ and therefore through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. And that success in the promised land is not only foretold by God's Word and accomplished by God's power, but it is motivated by God's justice. Notice again verses 4-6. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, the Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land, but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you to accomplish what He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand then that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. Now, beloved, this is humbling to say the least. The people of Israel were not to be patting themselves on the back. This success in Canaan would not be because of them. But really, in spite of them, the Israelites in no way deserved the land flowing with milk and honey any more than the heathen nations who would be driven out deserved it. Israel had in no way been righteous enough or done enough good works to merit the promised land. In fact, the very opposite was true. Moses reminds them of this if you read beginning at verse 7 and continue on. And Moses reminds them of this very fact. They needed to be reminded. Because although we easily remember the good things we do, especially for others, we easily forget our own sin and our offense against God and others. But the Lord through Moses will not allow Israel to forget. Remember the golden calf? That's what He talks about right after this. And do you remember how, beginning at verse 22, You also made the Lord angry at Tibera, at Masa, at Kibreth, Hatava. And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, He said, Go up and take possession of the land I have given you. But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust Him or obey Him. You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you. Now Moses really lets him have it, doesn't he? You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you. So then why? Why did God promise Israel this good land? Why would He destroy the nations who already live there and give it to Israel if Israel didn't deserve it any more than the Canaanites? Very simply because of God's justice. Moses says it's on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity, but on account of the wickedness of these nations. Three times in those three verses, Moses says, emphasizes it's not because of Israel's righteousness. And twice in the same verses, he says, it is because of the wickedness of the nations. It doesn't get any plainer than that. Beloved, God hates sin. Sin must be and will be punished as we see with the wicked nations of Canaan. Our God is a just God and as His Word says, the wages of sin is death. Success and bounty in the Promised Land was not because of righteous living, but because of righteous anger. Well, then we can understand why God would take the land away from the Canaanites, but why give it to Israel if they were stiff-necked, stubborn, and rebellious themselves? Well, because God's justice also means that He will stick to His Word. The Lord your God will drive them out before you to accomplish what He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord God covenanted with Israel's forefathers. And we especially remember His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 where God Himself passed between the parts. Those animals cut in two, spread apart. God Himself passed between the parts. He promised to be their God. He promised to take the curse for a broken covenant upon Himself. And this He did through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Indeed, Israel deserved to be destroyed. But instead, they would be the recipients of God's grace. You see, it was not God's intention here to build up their self-esteem. Well, you've been pretty good, so I'm going to give you this land. No. It was God's intention that they might know how great is His mercy and how amazing is His grace. And even though we may sometimes want to think that we deserve to be saved, even if just a little bit, we must be reminded, beloved, that there is absolutely no truth in that. We don't deserve it. You don't, I don't, not one person who has lived or who will live deserves to be saved. Our salvation is only because of God's goodness. Again, that flies in the face of the world. Come on, I'm not so bad. I haven't done anything that bad for which God would send me to hell. Salvation is only because of God's good pleasure and because God's justice demands that our sin be paid for in full in order that we might be able to enjoy fellowship with Him. Jesus Christ took our place in judgment. Paul says in Titus 3, but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. And beloved, just as Israel was set apart from all the other nations of the earth because of God's good pleasure, in the same way His elect are set apart from those whom He has not chosen. But as a believer, it's not because of what my hands have done. but because of His amazing grace. Those whom God rejects are rejected for their own wickedness. They bear the responsibility, but none, not one of those whom He accepts are accepted for their own righteousness. We don't get the credit for that. The reprobate are rejected by God because of their sin, but the elect are blessed by God, we might say, in spite of their sin. And only because in Christ they have peace with God. Boys and girls, you need to understand that even one sin, one sin is enough to make us ugly and stained in the sight of God. It doesn't matter how good looking you are. It doesn't matter how beautiful of a personality you might have. One sin makes us ugly and stained in the sight of God. And because of God's hatred for sin, He has conquered our most feared enemy. We are not strong enough to conquer sin and Satan. We are not righteous enough to even pay for one sin. But the Lord's table, the Lord's table reminds us beautifully that it is finished in Christ Jesus. All is well. The debt's been paid. And through self-examination, we are to be reminded that we can only find our salvation apart from ourselves. Only in Jesus Christ. And through that same examination, we are to confess our tendency to fall into the sin of thinking once in a while, well, I'm not that bad. I'm a little bit worthy. I give God a little bit of a reason to love me. Rubbish. It's not true. Each one of us can only sing, I know not why God's wondrous grace to me He hath made known. Our only comfort is, as Paul says, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And beloved, as the Holy Spirit helps us to examine our hearts and as we are reminded that God hates sin, we must also examine our attitude towards sin. When we know that sin is offensive to God, when we know that He hates it, and when we remember His amazing grace to us in Christ, then we too must hate sin. Do you hate sin? Boys and girls? Young people? Beloved? Do you truly hate sin? if so how do you show it in christ you see we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness and if we truly hate sin that means we take it seriously that means that we strive to keep from sin we think before we speak and act and instead desire to say and do that which is pleasing to god and that means that we don't treat sin as a casual thing sometimes we say well, I know I shouldn't do this or I know I shouldn't say that. Well, then don't. Don't. Very simply. We treat sin so casual sometimes. Well, yeah. It's not that bad. God will understand. Beloved, the truth is God will understand that you willfully sin against Him with that kind of an attitude. Boys and girls and young people don't fall into the trap of doing things just because everybody's doing it. You see, as Christians, you and I are called to be discerning and to use the wisdom God has given to us and to apply what He says in His Word to our lives and to the things that we do. And when we do sin, beloved, as those who take sin seriously, when we do sin as Christians, then we are truly sorry for and humbled because of our sin. And as we remember the blood our Lord Jesus Christ shed to pay for that sin. If we truly hate sin, we will strive to deal honestly in business and with each other. And boys and girls, if we do hate sin, we will strive to keep from fighting with our brothers and sisters. And beloved, if we truly hate sin, we will desire to worship God and praise Him for His saving grace to us. Success in the heavenly promised land depends completely on the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who reject Him will never see the glory of heaven, but they will suffer the destruction of hell. Jesus is the only way to the Father. And not one of those who look to Him in faith will be cast away. Not one will be cast away. But all those saved by the grace of God I can already sing of this success in glory as we're going to do in a moment. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, Indeed, You have shown us wonderful things, wonderful truths from Your Word. We thank You and praise You in this morning hour again for that precious gift of salvation. It is a gift. Not something earned. Not something worked for. Not something we can buy. But something merited for us by our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, we thank You and praise You for that precious gift. We pray, Father, too, that we might indeed hate sin more and more every day and love the truth and love what is right and seek to live according to it. To Your name's honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.