We're probably going to make
it down through verse 7. I'm not for sure. Hopefully we'll
make it that far. here in Deuteronomy where Moses
is basically preaching to the people. He's teaching to the
people. He says here in verse 1 of chapter
9, Hear, O Israel. Hear, O Israel. And we've said this different
times in the study of this book. You don't see any sacrifices
offered. You don't see any observance
of holy days. You don't see the priesthood
even mentioned. This is a book about hearing. Hearing. Hear, O Israel. This word itself is used over
twice as many times as Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers combined. Hear. Hear. Hear. And what's so important about
hearing? Well, life comes by hearing, doesn't it? Hear and
your soul shall live. Life doesn't come by doing. It
comes by hearing. Peter went down to preach to
Cornelius' house, and the angel told Cornelius, he's going to
tell you words whereby you can be saved. The gospel, we can
be saved by hearing and believing the gospel. Hear and your soul
shall live. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing
by the Word of God. The hour is coming, Christ said,
in which the dead shall hear the voice. of the Son of God. So it's important to hear, isn't
it? Hear, O Israel, and your soul
shall live. And not only do we hear and live
by hearing, but you know, when we have life, we live by hearing,
don't we? We have life by hearing, but
we live by hearing. As we read the Word and listen
to it and hear it, it tells us the things that we'll face in
this life. the things that we'll be confronted
with that tells us how to live this life? And that's what Moses
is going to tell them here. Look in verse 1. Here, O Israel,
thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess
nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and
fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children
of the Anakims, the giants, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou
hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Hanak?"
Now, if you remember this, we studied this, I think. Remember
when the ten spies brought in the report about these giants and the walls?
You know they said almost exactly the same thing as Moses said.
Here is what they said in Numbers 13.28, "...the people be strong that dwell in the land, the cities
are walled, and very great. Moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there, and that discouraged their hearts." But here Moses
says almost exactly the same thing. What's the difference
in them saying it as opposed to when Moses says it? Well,
there's a vast difference in them too. Moses uses almost the
same language. But let's look first at this.
Moses doesn't hide from his people, the children of Israel. And neither
does the Lord hide from His people the difficulties that they face
in the way, in the Christian life. He's not going to deceive
us and tell us the way is going to be easy. There was a multitude
following the Lord Jesus one day. And He turned and He said
to them, You hate your father, your mother, your wife, your
children, your brothers and your sisters. You cannot be my disciples. Don't you imagine a multitude
of them went back? He wasn't after the crowds. He
was after that one person. And he told that one person,
here's what you're going to face if you come and follow me. You're
going to face some difficult times. And he gave this two illustrations. He said, which one of you that's
going to build a tower? And you sat down first and you
count the cost of what it's going to cost you to build this tower.
Less after you've laid the foundation, you don't have the money to finish
it. And then people begin to mock you and say, boy, what a
shame. That guy started to build, but
he ran out of money, and they mocked him. Or he said, if you're
a general, or you're a king, and you're going to fight another
king, and you've got 10,000 people, and you're going to fight another
king with 20,000 people, you better sit and count the cost.
You better sit down and get some strategy how to defeat this fella,
lest when you cross the hill, and you see him down there with
20,000 people, twice your number, you're going to have to sit down
and write out a surrender. and have your fellow just give it
to him. So he tells us to count the calls. Moses wasn't telling
these people this to discourage them. But you know why he was
telling them this? That they would be forewarned
and forearmed, ready to face the task that they would have
to face. But here's the difference. Here's
the difference. Here's the difference in those
ten spies and Moses saying almost the same thing. They were looking
at it from a purely humanistic standpoint. And therefore their
hearts were filled with unbelief and they looked at it as an impossibility. When they looked at the battle,
when they looked at the walls, when they looked at the giants,
they looked at it strictly from a humanistic standpoint and said,
we can't do it. And you know something? They
couldn't. That's why they couldn't enter
the land. Because they looked at it from a humanistic standpoint. When you and I consider some
of the battles that we have to face, who do we have to face? Well, Paul said we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Looking at our
battle from a humanistic standpoint, can we fight against devils?
Can we defeat the gods of this world? What about this world
that allures us on every hand? A weak, weak, weak flesh that
we abide in. We look at some of the things
that we're going to face, and if we look at them from a purely
humanistic standpoint, we're going to despair of it. Because
we can't defeat our enemies, our temptations, and our sins.
But Moses was looking at this from a divine standpoint. He
looked at it with a deep-abided faith in God, and he says, not
only are you going over this Jordan, not only will you face
these nations, but you are going to possess them. You see, with
God, all things are possible. That is the way Moses was looking
at it. He was looking at it from the divine standpoint. How were
they to do this? Well, look in verse 3. Would
it be by the power of their flesh? What gave Moses the confidence
to say, you shall possess these nations? Was it human wisdom?
Was it determination? Was it self-denial? It really
had nothing to do with self-debt. Look what he said in verse 3.
Understand, therefore, this day, that the Lord thy God is he which
goeth over before you as a consuming fire, he shall destroy them,
And he shall bring them down before your face, so shalt thou
drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said
unto thee." So when he told them, you're going over to face these
giants. You're going over to face a nation that's mightier. They're mightier than number.
They're mightier than your number. They're mightier in strength.
He looked at it from a divine standpoint. And he says, here's
the way you're going to defeat these nations. Here's the way
you're going to scale these walls. Here's the way you're going to
fall those giants like falling a big oak tree. God is going
over before you. He's going to destroy the nations
as a consuming fire, and they'll fall before your faces. This
was the answer to their difficulties, and it's the answer for our difficulties. Did they know all about the land
of Canaan? They knew very little about it.
They knew very little about the dangers. Very little about the riches.
But you know something? Their God knew all about it.
Because He was going over before them. And you think He was going
to lead them into any kind of danger that would overwhelm them
and destroy them? Not so. Not so. If the Lord is
leading the way, you and I don't have to be afraid to follow Him.
Wherever He leads, follow. My dad used to take me hunting
when I was just a little fellow. I mean, I was real little. He
started me hunting when I was little. I'd carry a shotgun.
It felt like almost as heavy as I was. But he'd take me and
he'd put me on a spot over there in the woods squirrel hunting.
And then he'd go off what seemed to be a mile away. And I would
be scared to death. I wasn't looking for squirrels.
I was hearing sounds and voices out of the woods because I couldn't
see Him. I didn't know where He was. But
when I was following Him, when I was walking in His footsteps,
I tell you, I wasn't afraid of anything. The thought never entered
my mind that something was going to come out of these woods and
hurt me. Why? I was following Him. My dad, the one who loved
me, I was following Him. And Jesus Christ, our God and
our Savior, has gone before us. He's ran the race before us in
our humanity. He's walked every step of the
way. And I don't know where you are
in your journey tonight, but I tell you this much. If you'll
look close enough, you'll see His footprints. You'll see His footprints. He's
been that way before you. And that should relieve us of
all the fears that we could have. No matter where He leads us,
He'll never lead us in any place that will do us any harm. Now,
He won't do it. We may think we've come into
some harm. We may think He's brought us
into a valley that we'll never get through, or a hill that we
never get over. But if He's been there, if He's
been there, and if you're following Him, He's been there. And if
you can see His footprint, then you don't have to be afraid.
He's been there. And something else He tells us
here in verse 3, not only that He was going over before them,
but He says here in the second part of verse 3, that the Lord
thy God, which goeth before thee as a consuming fire, He shall
destroy them. As a consuming fire, He shall
destroy them. He's gone over before you And
he is going to deal with your enemies. He's going to destroy
them. What's a high wall compared to
God who is higher than the heavens? Who has to humble himself to
behold the things that's in heaven? What's a giant after the flesh
compared to God who is a consuming fire? Nothing is. God is going to deal with your
enemies. He's gone over before you. And He's going to so deal
with them and humble them and bring them down that you're not
going to have too much trouble with them. That's what He's telling.
That's what He's telling. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
to this earth, and how did He deal with our enemies? Well,
He dealt with them, didn't He? Before you and I ever faced one
enemy, Our enemies have already been dealt with. Satan, has he
been dealt with? He's one of our chief enemies,
hasn't he? You know what the Bible tells us about him? Well,
look over here. Hold Deuteronomy 9 and put your
little mark under it. Look over Colossians chapter
2 with me. Look here, he tells us here in
a place or two how the Lord Jesus has gone before us and dealt
with our enemies. Look what he says in Colossians
chapter 2. And look in verse 14. Colossians chapter 2 and
verse 14. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. Now, what is that? Handwriting
of ordinances. That was all of the law that
God Himself had written down. The handwriting. Remember, we
studied about the Ten Commandments. Who was it wrote those? God wrote
them, didn't He? with his finger on tablets of
stone. What about those commandments?
They were contrary to us. Nothing the matter with them,
the problem was with us. But they said this do, and we
couldn't. We couldn't. The carnal mind
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.
The law cursed us. It obligated us to do everything
that God commanded of us, and we couldn't do anything, so it
cursed us. What did Christ do with that
law? What did He do with all those ordinances and commandments? Well, look here what He did in
verse 14. He blotted them out. He blotted out those ordinances
that was against us and contrary to us, and what did He do with
them? He took them out of the way, nailing it. to His cross. He has redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. He has dealt with the
law. And dealing with the law, He
dealt with our sins because the whole problem between us and
the law was our sins. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. So He took all the commandments,
obeyed them all, and He took the consequences of those broken
commandments. That is the guilt. The condemnation. The curse. And he bore it all
to Calvary's tree. Bore it all. And what about Satan? What about those fallen angels
that we wrestle with? Has he dealt with them? You better
bet he has. Look what he said in verse 15.
Having spoiled. You remember what they did to
Sidious when they took them? They spoiled them. Didn't they?
They took all their weapons from them. And spoiled them. All their
riches, they spoiled them. Jesus Christ having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphant over
them in it, in Himself, in the cross. He's got the victory.
He triumphed over them. Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter
2 that He destroyed him that had the power of death, even
the devil. Now, in what sense did He destroy?
He didn't annihilate him, did he? Because he's still around.
But I'll tell you what he did. He put such a wound in his head
that he'll never survive it. He'll never survive it. He's
defeated. He's defeated. And I'll tell
you what else he's done too. He's dealt with death on our
behalf. Death is our enemy. Boy, what
an enemy it is. Do you fear it? I do sometimes.
I mean, when I'm good and healthy and feeling good, I don't fear
it then. But I just about bet I'll be a little bit apprehensive
about it when I come down to die. I know it will be if He
don't give me grace. But you know something? He's
done dealt with the enemy of death. And here's what He said,
I am He that liveth and was dead, and I'm alive forevermore. And
because I live, you shall live also. He's dealt with death. And I tell you this, he's dealt
with the death of this body, too. Listen to what he says in
Hosea 13 and 14. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave, I will redeem them from death, O death, I will be
your plagues, O grave, I will be your destruction, and repentance
shall be hid from my eyes. He's dealt with our enemies.
He came to this world. And he dealt with them and he
went back to heaven. There's not a single enemy that
you'll face now that hasn't already been dealt with on your behalf. I'll go over before you, the
Lord said, and I'll destroy them. I'll destroy them. And then what's
going to happen? Look back over at our text again.
He's going on. He's going on. He's going over
before them. He's going to deal with their
enemies. And then what he says in the last portion of verse
3, look what he says. And he shall bring them down
before thy face, so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them
quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee." He shall bring them
down before your face. That which was humanly impossible
became a divine certainty. You shall destroy them. You shall bring
them down. That's what you're going to do.
See what you're going to do. He's been telling us what he's
going to do. And because he has so weakened these giants and
so empowered his people, now he says you're going in. I've
done dealt with them. Now I'm sending you in to deal
with them. Can you imagine, can you imagine
these Israelites scaling these walls? Can't you just see it
in your imagination? Scaling these walls. They scale
these walls. These brass gates, somehow or
another, they locked them down. Can you see them facing a big
giant? That their fathers were out to look the spirit of death
at? And I'm falling? This really happened. Remember
when David stood before Goliath? And he said, you come to me with,
you've got your sword, you've got your big heavy sword, you've
got your shield and your spear and your big brass hat down over
your head and all your mail on. He said, I come to you in the
name of the Lord. The name of the Lord God of Israel whose
armies you've defied. I come in His name. And he said,
today God's going to give you unto my hands. My hands. It ain't God that's going to
kill you. He's going to give me grace. He's going to give
me power. He's going to give me strength. I'm going to do
it. I'm going to put a rock right between your eyes. And you're
going to jar the ground when you hit. And I'm going to watch
the birds come down from the sky and start pecking your eyes
out, eating your flesh. Man, that sounds like it's bragging,
doesn't it? But that's what the Lord did.
That's what the Lord did. And since He has gone before
us, since Christ has dealt with our enemies, He says, now you
can overcome them. Don't you think the devil gets
frustrated sometimes when poor little old people like us defeat
Him? And John said, you've overcome
the wicked one, because greater is he that is in you. You've
overcome the wicked one. Boy, that's something. Do you
know why you and I will overcome the world and overcome our sins
at last and not be overcome by them and make heaven our home?
Because of the same thing he told the children. He went before
us. He defeated our enemy. And now
He's so working in us by His grace that we're going to watch
our sins, watch the devil, watch this world fall one at a time. We don't have to be afraid either,
do we? We don't have to be afraid. Look in verse 5 through verse
7. Here's the attitude that they're
to have after He does this for them. We've studied this in the
preceding chapters, but he just keeps repeating things like this
because it's needful. And look in verse 4. Speak not
in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out from
before you, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to
possess the land, because I am so righteous. But for the wickedness
of these nations the Lord did drive them out from before thee.
Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart
dost thou go in to possess the land, but for the wickedness
of these nations the Lord your God dost drive them out from
before thee, and that he may perform the word which he swore
unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the
Lord your God giveth thee not this good land to possess it
for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Remember
and forget not how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in
the wilderness, from the day that thou didst depart out of
the land of Egypt until ye came unto this place, ye have been
rebellious against the Lord." What a deceitful and wicked heart
the natural heart is! I tell you, the best thing the
Lord can do for us, brothers and sisters, is to keep us low.
is to keep us down, is to keep us humble at His feet. Because
if He don't, even in the victories He gives us, what's the first
thing that we want to begin to thank in our hearts? It's because
of me. It's because I have been so seft
in I. It's because I've been so committed.
that the Lord has done these things for me. It's because of
my righteousness that I've got these victories. Don't we think
that? How deceitful, how wretched the natural fallen heart must
be to take the glory and the honor that belongs to God Himself
unto us. But that's the way we are, isn't
it? That's the way we are. And the only way that we can Give Him the glory and worship
Him and praise Him. It's to continually hear this
over and over and over again. It's not because of your goodness
I'm doing anything for you. It's not because of your commitment
and righteousness that I'm blessing you. It's not that at all. Moses
teaches them two truths here about possessing the land of
Canaan. Two truths about why they're going to possess the
land of Canaan. Here in verse 5 he says this, Not for your
righteousness, nor for the uprightness of your heart dost thou go in
to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations
the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee." For the wickedness
of these nations. You remember when the Lord told
Abraham, He said, I'm going to take your seed. He's going to
have a son, and he's going to have a son, and he's going to
have a whole host of sons, twelve sons. And they're going down
into Egypt, into the land of bondage, and they're going to
stay down there 400 years. And then I'm going to bring them
out and give them the land of Canaan. Well, Lord, why don't
you give them the land of Canaan now? Well, he told him this reason. He said, because the fullness
of the iniquity of the Amorites had not come yet. They're filling
up their cup of sin. And it's going to take those
nations 400 years to fill up their cup. And when they fill
up the cup of their sin, then I'll bring judgment on them.
It took 400 years for them to fill up. Now, some people's cup
don't seem to be very big, does it? The Lord's taken a lot of
teenagers out of this world because the fullness of their sins had
come. He said that's enough. I won't put up with them anymore.
I'm going to destroy them. Others live to be 80, 90 or 100
years old or more before their cup is full. But when the man's
cup is full, when he's sinned and sinned and sinned, and God
says that's enough, what does He do with that man? He destroys
him, doesn't He? Can anybody blame God for turning
these nations out of the land of Canaan. Seven mighty nations. And he said, I'm going to turn
them all out. I'm going to destroy every one of them. And somebody
said, well, that's not fair. If you've got a bunch of houses
that you're renting to tenants, and they're destroying your house,
and they're wicked people, don't you have the right to eject them? I don't know if you do anymore
or not, but you should have, shouldn't you? That's your house, isn't
it? This was God's land. This was
God's earth. And these tenants were wicked,
wicked people. And He turned them out. He has
the right to do that, doesn't He? He can do with His own what
He will. So Moses is telling the children
of Israel here, irrespective of who inherits this land. If nobody goes in there to inherit
this land, there's one thing for sure. They're going to be
turned out of it because of their wickedness. It's not because
of your goodness. It's because of their wickedness.
And brothers and sisters, on the Day of Judgment, when God
has Satan up there, when He has all of His angels up there, and
He casts them into the bottomless pit, when He takes all the wicked
and He says to the angels, bind them hand and foot and cast them
into outer darkness, You know not one saint can look at one
devil or one wicked man and say, you're going there, but I'm not
because I'm better than you. I'm more righteous than you.
That's what made the difference between me and you. We can't
say that, can we? I tell you, brothers and sisters,
if these seven nations had committed enough sin to be ejected, so
had Israel. So had Israel. Look what he says
here in verse 6 and 7 again. Understand therefore that the
Lord your God giveth not this good land of possession for your
righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. And he said from the
time there in verse 7, that the Lord brought you out of the land
of Egypt. You departed out of the land until this place you
have been rebels against the Lord. Rambles against the Lord. I bet you anything, in proportion,
they have sinned against more light than all these nations
put together. Don't you think? They didn't have any more right
to this land in and of themselves than these seven nations did.
And when it comes to inherit in heaven, you and I have no
more right than devils have in and of ourselves. We're just
as sinful as devils. Aren't we not? Our hearts are
wicked, deceitful above all things. And we can't point our finger
at anybody else and say, I'm better than you. That's why I'm
getting that land. That's why I'm getting heaven.
I'm better than you. And that's what Moses is driving
in their hearts. And all through the Bible, that's
driven in our hearts too, isn't it? Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. And it's wickedness on our part
when these thoughts come into our head that the Lord's blessing
me because of what I am. of what I've done. The second
thing is this. He said there in the last portion
of verse 5, here's why they're going to the land. He said in
the last part of verse 5, "...the Lord thy God doth drive
them out before them, that he may perform the word which he
sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." You're going
in to inherit the land. because God promised it to your
fathers. That's why. It has nothing to
do with you. Ain't that what he's telling
us? It had everything to do with your father Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob. Abraham took his son, his only
son, up on Mount Moriah and put him on the altar and raised up
his knife to stab him because God sent it. And God stayed his
hand and said, Abraham, now I know that you fear God. And here's
what he said, I swear by myself, Abraham, that in blessing I'll
bless you. I'll bless you. I'll make your
seed as the stars of heaven, as the sand which is for the
seashore. I'll give them this land of Canaan for your sake. For your sake. That's why they
were going in to inherit the land of Canaan. It was because
of the promise that God made to Abraham and confirmed it unto
Isaac Jacob. And God says to His dear and
blessed Son, My Son, because you stood a surety for your people
in this everlasting covenant of grace, because you stood a
surety for them, and because you were willing to go and take
to yourself their humanity and be tempted and tried and suffered
and rejected, And because you were obedient to death, even
the death of the cross, my son, I swear unto you that I'm going
to give you a name that's above every name. I'm going to give
you a name in heritage. I'm going to exalt you from the
dead. I'm going to set you upon the throne. And for your sake,
I'm going to forgive the sins of all your people. And for your
sake, I'm going to give them eternal life. And for your sake,
I'm going to conform them to your image. And for your sake,
I'm going to bring them up to heaven to be with you someday.
All for your sake. What do we have to do with it?
We can't glory-camp. It's no thanks to us. God included
us. He elected us. He chose us. He
redeemed us. And everything we do is because
He works in us to will and to do. Everything we have, He's
given it to us for the sake of His dear and blessed Son. Therefore,
the land of Canaan was sure for these people. I mean, He looked
at them and He didn't say, well, now if you're righteous enough,
if you're committed enough, if you're obedient enough, No, I've
done promises. And if He don't bring them now
into the land of Canaan and give it to them, what's going to happen
to the throne of God? It's going to fall because the
promises are going to fail. God doesn't make promises, brothers
and sisters. He can't keep them. When He promised Abraham, I'm
bringing your seed into this land, He brought them in. Therefore, the land was sure,
wasn't it? Heaven is sure for the saints.
For every believer, heaven is sure. Because they're not going
there for anything in them. For their own righteousness or
marriage or commitments. But they're going there for Christ's
sake. And that makes it sure, doesn't it? Makes it sure. I
hope that was a blessing to you. We'll take up there Lord's Will
in next week. In verse 8. And try if we can
to finish the book chapters