Do Not Say In Your Heart, “Because Of My Righteousness The Lord Has Brought Me In To Possess This Land”

There's a good friend of mine here, Andy Halsey. He's the pastor of Christ Church Columbus, which is just about an hour or so down I-65, I can never remember, toward Louisville. They're planting a church, so if you're ever down that way, Brown County way, look up Andy. But they are here with us this morning, he and his family, so we're very glad to have you guys with us. Though I will say it's a bit intimidating knowing you went through the book of Deuteronomy in how long? A year? Yeah, so we've been at it for a little over a year, and we're starting chapter 9. Yeah, so anyway, we are, as I said, we're starting here in chapter 9. At the end of chapter 8, Moses warned Israel against thinking that their strength and their power would be the reason for their success. He says, be careful that you don't take my glory and think that you've gained all this wealth by your own strength and power. Moses exhorted them to remember the Lord who gave them the ability to grow in wealth. And if they didn't remember him, their wealth would then become a curse to them, revealing that they had already and always had been rebels against him. And that if they persisted in that rebellion, they would perish like the nations that they were about to drive out, whose land they were about to take.

And so this week's passage contains another warning for God's people. It says, There's a temptation to think that we deserve what we have. If we get bad things, we think we don't deserve it. But if we get good things, we think we do deserve it. And so God's dealing with us and dealing with our hearts in this warning. There's a real temptation. to steal away God's honor. And that's what they would have been doing. If they said, it was because of my righteousness that the Lord gave me this land, they were taking away the true reason that God was giving them this land. And we'll find out as we read and study the passage that they were far from a righteous people. There's another word that God uses for them that we will come to. And so this morning, as we study this passage, I hope that I'll be able to show you how it is we steal away God's glory. You have to realize that most of the time when we're sinning, we're not aware of it.

We don't know what we're doing. We just think we're just going on through our life, doing our thing and making the decisions of the ones we see available to us. And we just hope that it's, if we even give a thought to it, that it honors God. But we have to learn to think as Christians who are considering what they do and considering their heart's motivations, not the stuff they say. We're never so brash and bold as to just say what we actually think. We're always packaging it for acceptance. And so I hope that I'm able to show how it is that we are tempted to steal God's honor and why that theft is so wicked. We're going to be reading Deuteronomy chapter 9, verses 1 through 6. Would you please stand as we read the word of the Lord? Hear, O Israel, you are crossing over the Jordan today to go into dispossessed nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said,

Who can stand before the sons of Anak? Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and he will subdue them before you so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly just as the Lord has spoken to you. Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me into this land. But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not... for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land. But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Now here's one of the themes we're going to be working

through and around as we go through this passage. And it's this, why does God give good things to wicked people or stubborn people or us? That's really the question. Because all the while he's warning them, don't point to your righteousness as the basis for you getting this stuff. He says it multiple times, three times, in fact, in this passage. Don't point to your righteousness. Don't think it. Don't believe it. It's not why. We're going to have to deal with this question. Maybe it's more commonly heard. Why does God do bad things to good people or good things to bad people? You're going to find that the Lord doesn't reason and rationalize and prioritize the way we do. And that's for our good if we're in Christ. But it is a different way of thinking, so I hope we're able to see that. Our passage starts out with him, Moses, recounting to them the sort of fight they have in front of them.

nations greater and mightier, cities fortified to heaven, giants even, the sons of Anak, the Anakim. These were the people, and this is the testimony of the spies 40 years previous. These are the reasons given as to why we can't go in there and we can't win. If we go in there, they're going to mop the floor with us, is basically what they said. We're scared. There's no way. They're bigger. Their cities are fortified. Who are we and what are we? And so they spread their fear, the spies, all but Jacob and Caleb. They spread their fear. to the nation of Israel, and they followed them. So what was the problem that 40 years ago? Was the problem that the cities were great and big and fortified, that there were giants there and all of this type of stuff? No, that wasn't the problem. And it's also worth noting that wasn't a lie. All of that stuff was actually true. The cities actually were fortified. There were actually giants, and Israel really was weak and small in comparison to the nations that they were supposed to dispossess. Israel was the extreme.

as far as we see things. You and I, I don't know if it's a daily basis, but have occasion in our lives to sort of measure up in a competition and to decide, you know what, that's not even worth it. No, you can have it. I'm not going to fuss and fight with you about it. And that's what Israel was doing these 40 years ago. They looked at the size and the strength of the place they were to go, and they said, no, we can't do it. So here's a question. In those 40 years, did the Lord weaken those nations so that Israel would have a fighting chance? Nope, didn't do that either. They're 40 years bigger and stronger. And so Moses tells them, and he even recounts the stories. He's like, you've heard it said, you know, it's just kind of a common thing. Who can stand before the sons of Anak? You know, they're just the heavyweight champions, you know? And so Moses tells Israel that the Lord's going to pass before them and he's going to dispossess these lands. And so one of the first things we learn,

from this passage is that the way we assess life is not how the Lord assesses our lives. We often look at life and throw our hands up in the air and say, it can't be done. It can't be done. And not only can it not be done, it would be foolish if I tried. It would be unfaithful if I tried. In point of fact, I will only do things I'm sure I can accomplish in my own strength. Do you know what that produces? Like in terms of the real world outcome of that, it produces nothing. You won't do anything. You'll always have a reason because of the corruption of your heart to not go for it. And we also live in a society that would tell men who may still have enough male principle intact to want to go for it, that that is bad. And that they shouldn't want to go for it. They shouldn't take risks. They're encouraged to be fearful, to be safe, to be good stewards.

It doesn't sound as appealing or attractive when we say it that way, when you're looking, if you could be in their spot and in their place and go, seriously, this is what we're doing. It is exactly what they're going to do. They're going to go and they're going to dispossess the nations. They're going to take down the Anakim. God had already brought them through in their wanderings as he's bringing them up to this point where they're going to cross over. He's already brought them through these lands where there were giants. If we were to remember back in the earlier chapters, there was a point at which they talked about a bed, a giant bed, you know, and it was this enormous trophy that they had from having, you know, and God walked them right through those nations. Some of them they passed through without conflict. Some of them they passed through being engaged in conflict and winning. But through all of that, God was teaching them, I will bring you through. I will be faithful to my word. I will give you what I promised to you.

And so then comes the danger to think that having been brought through all of these things and given all that God's promised, that man, we must deserve it. We must deserve it. He's not doing that for anybody else. And that's true. He's not doing this sort of thing for anyone else. He's doing it for his people. And he really does have to do it for them. Otherwise, they would be consumed. And so Moses tells them, know therefore today that the Lord your God who is crossing over before you is a consuming fire. He will destroy them and he will subdue them before you. So pretty much he's going to wear them out and soften them up until they just need to be knocked over. He will destroy them and he will subdue them before you so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. And so after the Lord does all of the work, he brings his people in to finish the job. And if you think about it, that's a dangerous thing with regard to our temptations. It might be easier if he would just...

send fire from heaven and just burn them all out and just give them the land once they were all gone. But that's not what he does. He weakens them. And by weaken them, I mean, you think of the walls of Jericho, right? Big fortified cities. What's he do? Why don't you guys go on a walk, a loud walk with a really loud conclusion. At the end of it, all those walls are going to fall down. The people are going to not know what's going on because they're all sitting here going, could you imagine being in the city of Jericho? The nation's wandering around and yelling and blowing trumpets and all these things, and you're like, what are they doing? But when your walls fall down, all of a sudden, you might be confused or buried in rubble or scared out of your mind or not dressed for battle. And so Israel comes and they win. That's an example of how the Lord went before them as a consuming fire, confused and destroyed the nations, but then brought Israel in to...

to accomplish and finalize the deal. And we have to be careful. If you take that as an example, we have to be careful what we remember of it all. How did those walls fall? It doesn't make any sense. Walk around, blow some trumpets, and the walls of a fortified city come crumbling down. To people who have no means to get past them any way, I was going to say any other way, but no one would draw that up and say, you know how we're going to get through the wall? Get the trumpets. The Lord really does have a way of doing things that we don't remember or give weight to. And we could go through scripture and we could multiply. Even just in Israel's history, up to this point, the ways he does things, they're done. They're backed up against the Red Sea, right? Egypt's coming. I'm going to kill them. Pharaoh's going to have their heads for the plague. And God opens the water. They walk through and then consumes their adversaries. They go out into the wilderness and they're hungry.

and manna. They go out into the desert and there's no water. And out of Flint comes what they need. God's been providing them the things that they need perfectly and faithfully. And yet the deception and the depth of our corruption is to forget all of that, a lifetime of that, and to take the glory ourselves. That's what they're warned against. And yet God in his wisdom is the one who puts his people into these situations. And I do believe many times it's a test to see if they will give him glory or not. He sets them up to succeed only to see if they will praise him and thank him and honor him for what he did. This is what's happening to Israel. He subdued the nations and then Israel gets to come in and win. Proverbs 21, 31 says that the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.

And that proverb is aimed at saying there's a lot of effort, humanly speaking and earthly speaking, that's put into accomplishing the ends and the goals which we pursue. But if we accomplish them, whenever we accomplish them, to the extent that we realize them, it's because the Lord's given them to us. And this applies to all kinds of areas of our lives. This applies to you wanting good things that the Lord withholds from you. And you try by every means you can to get it. And yet he doesn't give it to you. Do you remember when Paul wanted to go preach in Macedonia? You remember what he said? He said, I've tried three times. I've tried three times to get over there so I can preach the gospel over there, but the Lord prevented me. He wouldn't let me go do it. It was a good thing he wanted to go do. But the Lord in his wisdom said, nope, not right now. And he just stopped them. And so we do have to understand that as we live our lives and as we pursue things, even good things, as we realize them, as we receive them, God is due his honor. We didn't get them by the strength of our own hands.

We can't keep them by the strength of our own hands. And so we as God's people should always remember God's agency in every good thing that we have gotten ourselves. What good thing do we have that we haven't received? When we forget this, you remember I said at the beginning, I said, I'm hoping to show you and to spark in your mind this new way of thinking about it. I want you to think about every good thing you've gotten in the last week. And ask whether you thanked God for it. Or whether you just went, by the strength of my hands and the power of my might. Or however you say it in your heart to yourself. Why are your kids so much better than those other kids? Because you're a better parent. Why do they have so much trouble in their marriage? Why do they bicker and fight all the time? Why don't they maintain their vehicles better? Why don't they cut their grass? Pull their weeds? Why don't they let their kids have haircuts like that?

Why don't they make their kids get all A's? Why don't they make their kids run so that they're better athletes on the soccer team? I mean, there's really no end to the pride we take. And it's a theft. It's stealing from God. And the worst of it all is we teach everyone else around us to do the same. We teach our kids to be just as proud and self-righteous as we are. Ugh, it's kind of gross. So Moses warns them. Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you. Like in this context, don't say in your heart, because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me into this land. I don't know if you realize it, but this is the second time, just in our past last week, the warning was given in the exact same form. Deuteronomy 8, 6 through 18 says, in the wilderness, I'm reading a little bit of context. It says, in the wilderness, he fed you manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you.

to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you might say in your heart, my power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth, but you shall remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who's giving you power to make wealth, that he may confirm his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this day. There's only a small change in the warnings. It starts out with, look at God's faithfulness, and then he says, be careful what you say in your heart. That you take credit for these things. And then he gives a reason as to why God does the things he does. But this idea of saying it in your heart is an issue we need to deal with. You often think of sin in terms of outward, overt, public, visible trouble. But here, twice, in just a short amount of time, Moses is warning them not about what they're going to go do, or even what they're going to say out loud to other people.

but about what they're saying to themselves. It's not even concerned with whether other people agree with your assessment and your judgment. It's simply about whether you believe it. Do you think of yourself as better than others? The secret things that you and I say to ourselves, I don't deserve this. This isn't fair. That's their fault. Don't they know better? Why do I always have to clean up their messes? When will they learn? I shouldn't have to do this. I've done this enough. Isn't this someone else's job? I'm not going to do it. I'm going to teach my kids to work hard. I'm going to teach them responsibility. You ever say that stuff to yourself? Or things like it? That's what he's talking about. That's what he's talking about. That stuff. You whisper to yourself about how you're better and above. You remember when the...

Pharisee and the publican came into the temple. Like the Pharisee, we look at them, you know, Pharisee comes in and he says, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like these people. And what really goes on in our hearts when we hear that is we go, you're not supposed to say that out loud. You're supposed to know better than that. But what I mean to tell you is that in God's sight, there is zero difference between saying it out loud and saying it to yourself in your heart. It's just as foul when you say it to yourself as it is when he says it out loud.

In point of fact, it's probably better that you say it out loud because then somebody else can have this look on their face of like, what did you just say? Are you kidding me right now? You know what I find in pastoral ministry? You know what I find people get most upset with me or with the elders? Is when we try to tell them what they're thinking. And it's not because I'm always right. I'm not always right. But we get really offended when someone would dare to tell us what might be going on in our heart. We don't like it. You can't do that. And I'm like, but.

Isn't God doing that? He's like, hey, I know what goes on in your heart. It's not all pretty. It's pretty foul. Do not say to yourself, in your heart, because of my righteousness. It's a funny thing. When you think of yourself as being righteous, there always has to be something you're righteous in reference to. There's always a standard somewhere, right? And all the things I've mentioned earlier, the standard is other people. And so the natural state of man is to climb up in strength and in appearance and in stature by pushing others down. You climb over them. They have to be worse. I'm more righteous than you. But it's the wrong reference. When we look at ourselves, we should not be comparing ourselves to one another. You know how many of your fights in your marriage and amongst your children would just evaporate if you stopped comparing yourself to each other?

Isn't that a lot of the fight? Well, I'm better at this. You married couples, do you ever fight and you're just like, well, if you would just do it my way. Your way doesn't work. I mean, we've been trying your way. How many of you kids think that about your parents? Life would just be easier if they would just get with the program and do it your way. You're so much more wise and efficient. You have better priorities. And so we bolster our pride. and point to our righteousness because we compare it to the wrong thing. We compare it to other people. And I'll tell you something. Most times when we're comparing our righteousness to other people, we're just wrong. Before we even, if we were to make a true comparison, it would be a false comparison. It wouldn't take into account everything.

That's what's necessary for us to, in our own minds, to look better than other people is to cherry pick and to spin or to shade whatever we're seeing in our favor. Where if we did what we ought to do, which is to compare ourselves to God, to his law, to Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have righteousness to talk about, or at least not ours. That's why the apostle Paul says, if I'm going to boast, I'm going to boast in my weaknesses. I'm going to boast in my shame. Because he's got in his mind the right comparison. He's like, I'm where I am. But the only thing that it should be compared to is what I'm aspiring to, what I'm working to, what I want to attain to. And all I can see is the distance between what I should be and what, by God's grace, I will be one day and where I am.

We would say that my righteousness, if I have any righteousness, has come to me by the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's really all I have to stand on. And I don't just mean at the beginning of your Christian life. And I don't just mean when things are really difficult and hard, when that's all you feel like you've got left. I mean like as a foundation for every single day of your life. That is the extent. of the foundation and your whole life, if it were a house, it has to be built on that. There's no overhanging parts that are built on your righteousness. It's all built on his. And so we would do well to humble ourselves, remembering if we're going to compare our goodness to someone, we would do well to remember we ought to compare it to Jesus Christ and to God's law. Now, why don't we want to make that comparison? Well, because we don't come out looking so good. We don't come out saying,

I've kept it all from my youth up, right? Like the rich young ruler. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Well, how does the law read to you? Well, this and that and the other thing. Well, how's that going for you? I've done all of that stuff. And then Jesus says to him, well, there's just one thing you lack. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven. And he went away sad because he owned many things. You see, he was wrong. There really is a thing that Christians have to understand and it's that you're not, You're not good. You're not better than other people. And if you are, it is by the grace of God that you have anything good in you. And if it were left to you to get it, you would not be able to get it on your own. And if it was left to you, once you had it, to keep it, you would lose it. Everything that you have that's good in your life, you've received from God. It's not because of your righteousness.

It's not because you have the right theology or you go to the right church or you're good with your money or you private school or you homeschool. None of that. None of that. None of that's righteousness. Your righteousness is a righteousness you received from Jesus Christ. And not only does he give it to you, he makes sure you don't lose it. And so we should never say what Moses knows we'll say by my righteousness. Because of my righteousness and the uprightness of my heart, the Lord has given me these things. I debated whether to include verse 6 in this text. And I just thought it was helpful. It sort of tied it all up with a nice big ugly bow. Because it tells us at the end what we're like. We're walking around preening and saying, how righteous and upright and good I am. After Moses, we're going to come back to the reasons he gives. He says, no then.

The final time he says, know them, like pay attention. Like here's the thing you need to know. Know then it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land for you are a stubborn people. Oh, really? And that's all we've got to say about that. It's not qualified and it's not lessened and it's not like a joke. Truth, you're stubborn people. Stubborn is a long way from righteous, isn't it? So why does God give good gifts to stubborn people? If they're not righteous, they haven't earned it, they don't deserve it, why does he still bless them? It's worth noting we wouldn't do that. We know better. We don't give anything to anybody who doesn't deserve it or earn it. We have a principle about the thing. You have to be righteous in my eyes for me to give you a good thing. Why does God give good gifts to stubborn people?

Our passage gives us two reasons. The first is that he swore them to give them this blessing, and he's obligated to do it. It says that God is driving them, the nations, out before you in order to confirm the oath which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is a refrain that you see in the early chapters of Deuteronomy. There's always this reference to the covenant, to the promises, to the fathers. It's been hundreds of years since those promises were made, but they're still there. They're still intact. They still are to be fulfilled by God. He said he'll do it, and so he's going to do it. And so he's giving a good thing to people who are going to squander it, really. But he does it in faithfulness because he promised it to them. God keeps his promises, and so we ought not doubt them. Now, here's a question. Is God glad to give them this land, or is he just doing it because he's contractually bound to give them this land?

I have no doubt in my mind that he is glad to give them this land, these stubborn people. But he rejoices to give them good gifts. You remember when Jesus reasons, he says, you being wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, right? When they come and they ask you for bread, you don't give them a stone, do you? How much more then? Does your father love to give good gifts to his children? Is this a good gift? Are they his children? Stubborn children? There is children. And so there's a good lesson in here about fatherhood and motherhood and about generosity and giving to the poor. Why are they poor? I don't know. Does it matter? If you have to give to them, what are your obligations? To assess whether it's their fault or not? What if you find out it is their fault? What if you find out they're terrible stewards of everything they've ever had? Are you now free from giving them good things? It's uncomfortable to think about though, isn't it?

Because we're always like, well, it's all transactions. It's all, you earn it. It's you deserve it. It's you prove you're going to take care of it. And then we'll consider it. God, on the other hand, is training them by giving them foretastes of his goodness and his mercy as he's bringing them up to this point in the land, as they're traveling up. He's showing them what he's going to do to them. And they're scared and they're fearful and they're tired and they're proud. And they're all of these things. And he's training them and showing them. Who he is. God is glad to keep his word. He's not just giving them this land because he has to. He's doing it because he loves his children. And good fathers love to give good gifts to their children, even if their children are stubborn. What the children then do with their father's good gifts reflects on the child, not the father. Maybe another way of saying it is, would you be a bad father for giving a good gift to an ungrateful child? Seems to me in this passage, the answer is no.

That if you, being a good father, give a good gift to your child out of your love for him and he squanders it, that doesn't mean you did the wrong thing. Which is what we're all tempted to think with the father of the prodigal. Why did he give him the money? You don't know why? Because he's a good father. But he gave him the means to go out and corrupt himself. You're right. And that's a reflection on the son, not the father. Exact same thing's going on in this passage. It's really uncomfortable. And yet I do believe it's what's going on. But as I said, there are two reasons he's giving them this land. The first is that he's promised it. Did you catch the second one? It's not for your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess this land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord God is going to drive them out. God is judging these nations for their sins and rebellion. They were a very wicked people who refused to give God glory. And before God gave his children their land, his...

He purposed to cleanse it and to remove the wickedness from the land. There's a danger in thinking about everything personally, acting like you are the center of God's universe and that everything that happens in your life is because of you. It's not. It's not all because of you. God has dealings and judgments and mercies to pour out on all of creation. And he does it. And that's what he's doing here. Israel wants to take the wickedness of other people and God's judging of that wickedness and say, you know, I think it was our righteousness that made him do that. It had nothing to do with their righteousness, of which they had none. It was because of their wickedness. And so sometimes in your life, you're going to be the benefactor. The benefactor or beneficiary, or maybe it's the same word. You're going to get the goods because God's judging somebody else. Sort of like Israel did when God judged Egypt. What did they leave with?

They left with all of Egypt's wealth. Why? Because God was destroying Egypt. It was his prerogative to harden Pharaoh's heart that Pharaoh would increase his wickedness so that God would lay him low and take all of his wealth and give it to his children. Was it because the Israelites were righteous that they got all the Egyptian wealth? No. But you can understand how they might think so. And they'd be wrong. And so if you only think personally about what goes on in your life and you have your eyes shuttered to the fact that God is at work in the whole world working out his will, you really will be puzzled by many of the things he does. God is often at work, working in ways that we're unaware of and for reasons that we don't understand or that don't have anything directly to do with us. So when we see something bad happen or something good happen, We should consider our part in it. We should ask the question, is this because of me? What lessons is God going to teach me in this? But we also should realize that not everything God does that touches us is exactly because of us. I will tell you this. If you think this way, it will make God much bigger to you and the world much more interesting to you. You'll come up with other perspectives and other thoughts and other priorities.

When all of the world can only rationalize and reason to themselves. When the whole world's saying, they got it because they're the best. You might say, or because he was judging those wicked people over there for their wickedness. Spiritual things are spiritually appraised and our God is spirit and he works in this world in ways that the world doesn't comprehend, right? John tells us that the light came into the world and the world did not comprehend it. Our God is still at work in a dark world doing things by his own will and for his own purposes that the world can't comprehend. But we should be growing in our ability to understand. We shouldn't look at politics and inflation and the moral decay of our society around us and only be able to come up with what everyone else already thinks. We should have a Christian thought about it. Then it would be interesting to listen to you talk.

That took a little bit, but thank you. Here's the point. Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. You be careful what you say to yourself about yourself. God loves you, but it is not for the reasons you preen about in the mirror. And when things go on in the world that you don't have an answer to, that's okay. That's okay. The Israelites never would have come to this conclusion that God was judging them for their wickedness had Moses not told them. But that is exactly why he was judging them and destroying them and wiping them out. And so it's okay for you and appropriate for you as a Christian to live by faith and to leave questions that you don't have answers to unanswered. Realize that if you try to answer them too thoroughly, you're out on a limb and you're probably going to end up taking his glory, stealing his honor with your answer. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. And it's not all readily available to us.

the timing and the why and the how and all of that type of stuff. And so our part is not to answer all of those questions, but to guard our own hearts. That we don't end up like the nations that are going to be dispossessed, destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth. Because that was the warning just a few verses before for those who go after the way of the world. So we ought to make sure to keep our way pure and clear of destruction. Let's pray.