Every Christian should want to know how to serve God. You’ve repented and turned from your old way of life, and you want to know how to live to please him. But you live in the real world, with all its obstacles. Life can be hard; all sorts of things are against you. And if you do make progress, you’ll be tempted to give yourself a pat on the back.
Deuteronomy 9 is about trying to learn how to serve God in obedience to him, even in the face of opposition. More, it’s about keeping your feet on the ground when things go well – because when you serve God, he works his plans through you.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in May 2024. You can find more in the series in our Sermon Index.
Be Confident in Obedience (1-3)
Last time we looked at the command that you’re to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” We asked how we can be commanded to love. The answer was that by being obedient to his commands we experience his goodness, and that in turn fuels our love. And, obviously, love then fuels further obedience.
And we had examples of prayer, giving, or loving others. You’re commanded to pray. So you pray, and you experience God at work, answering your prayers. And you love him more, so pray more. Obedience to the command led to deeper love for God.
But that’s also true for the commands we find harder, such as mission, forgiveness, humbly serving others. In fact, it’s still true even when you’re opposed while trying to obey.
Deuteronomy is set on the border of the Promised Land. Israel will soon be crossing the river Jordan. There’ll be opposition! What kind of opposition? Read Deuteronomy 9:1-2.
Notice how there’s no effort put into diminishing the challenge. The trouble will come, and it will be very real. When God tells you to be ready to give an answer for the hope in your heart, he knows that sometimes you’ll be ridiculed or opposed when you do. You might worry you’re too old, or too young, to obey. Family disputes might make speaking about Christ almost impossible for you.
But instead of trying to play down the problems, v1-2 almost seems to big them up.
Our God is the vanguard
But then v3 reminds you that our God is greater still. Read Deuteronomy 9:3.
Who goes ahead?
- The LORD your God. The God you rescued his people from Egypt and delivered them though the Red Sea.
- The same God still goes ahead of his people – of you.
- God doesn’t sit in a bunker sending all his troops “over the top” into enemy fire.
- He goes ahead of you; he’s the vanguard.
In John 14, Jesus promised his disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit to them. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit using an unusual word, translated differently in different English Bibles: Counsellor (CSB); Advocate (NLT, NIV); Helper (ESV); Comforter (KJV). They’re all correct. He is all of those things.
The Holy Spirit is an Advocate of God in the world.
- He moves ahead of you, convicting people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come.
- The Spirit opens people’s eyes to see their own state before God; he gives life and faith so that people can and will turn to Christ.
So the Holy Spirit is also a Comforter and Helper to Christians.
- You go out to tell people about Jesus, and the Spirit of God has already gone ahead, as the vanguard, into the world.
- That is comforting, and helping, and encouraging to you.
You worry about speaking about Jesus to someone? The Holy Spirit who fuelled Pentecost and countless revivals since goes before you. You can be confident in obedience because you are moving with the flow of God’s will and blessing into the world.
Enabling encouragement of the Holy Spirit
In Chapter 4 we saw the missional value of your obedience – that people would be surprised at your godly priorities, and wonder about the God you serve.
Chapter 6 showed you the righteous value of your obedience – that you’ll love God and live under his righteousness in love.
And now you also see God’s enabling encouragement of your obedience.
So what happens when you are obedient, and things go well?
Be Humble in Progress (4-5)
The apostle Paul achieved great things for God and by modern standards he’d be considered a success.
- There would be “Paul Ministries Publications”.
- Maybe a “Paul Seminary”.
- Paul devotionals, a Paul Study Bible, and so on.
But the man himself said this:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10
Notice the last part. “I worked harder than any of them” and yet he knows that everything that was achieved was God’s work in him.
If you (or us as a church) make progress for Christ, it’s not your success! You can’t steal the glory to to God and make it your own. Read Deuteronomy 9:4-5.
Could you really think things like this? What might it be?
- You can easily think that success in church growth is down to things you’ve done: “our methods, our leadership, our prayer, etc”. Pride.
- You can feel it individually too: If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time you might feel you’ve made progress. God “must” be pleased with you for the progress you’ve made. Give yourself a pat on the back. Polish your halo.
No, you have no righteousness of your own. You deserve no good thing from God, nor have you ever.
Grace and rest
Read Titus 3:4-7.
Rich things have been promised to you, if you’ve come to Christ. Did you deserve any of those good things? No. Not one. But God is gracious. He makes his children heirs with the hope of eternal life.
Heirs of what, exactly? Hebrews 3 and 4 speaks of a promised rest.
A kind of eternal sabbath rest for your soul. Eternally in the glorious, balming presence of God bringing healing and rest forever. Un-earned by you; given freely to you by God’s grace.
And none of that will be a reward for anything marvellous achieved for God in this life.
Anything remotely wonderful achieved for God in this life will be his work through you!
It’s worth being clear for anyone who hasn’t grasped the grace of God yet:
- No-one is made right with God by their own actions.
- You’ve done wrong, and that means just punishment.
- You can’t undo your wrongs, but God can do something about the punishment.
- So he sent Jesus to take the punishment your sins deserve by dying on the cross.
- That’s what the verses in Titus are saying: Jesus is the kindness and love of God to you.
- Turn in repentance and faith, and he will give you life.
- No penance, or mass, or baptism, or pilgrimage required.
- Jesus has done it all.
Those Israelites weren’t to think they might succeed because of their righteousness: They were as sinful as anyone.
God would give them success for his own reasons, and he gave two in Deuteronomy 9:4-5.
God’s purpose
The first reason is the wickedness of the nations in Canaan. They were under God’s judgment for their idolatry and degrading morality. Israel had been no better, so the fact that God had chosen them ought to lead to great humility in any progress.
Christians can sometimes bemoan the state of society around us and, for sure, judgment looms over everything we see. But there’s no space for a sense of superiority, or looking forward to the world’s comeuppance. Judgment is coming to the world, and Christians have a solemn task to fulfil to let people know. Compassion ought to drive you to witness and prayer.
And that relates to the second reason God would give his undeserving people success in Canaan: He’d promised it. God had made a promise to Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. And God would keep that promise (covenant) despite the godlessness and faithlessness of Abraham’s descendants!
God will grow his kingdom in Wirral. He doesn’t need you, but graciously he will work through you if you obey his commands to go and tell.
If there is success, it’s his not yours.
Be Bold in Prayer (6-29)
Just in case the Israelites wanted to dispute with Moses, saying they weren’t totally sinful, and maybe they deserved a bit of credit, Moses spells a few things out in the last section:
- In v6-21 he reminds them that they made a gold calf to bow down to and worship at Mt Sinai itself!
- God was ready to destroy them: Read Deuteronomy 9:13-14.
- Moses himself was desperately angry, but he laid himself down and prayed to God for Israel.
Then again!
- In v22-29 Moses spells out a list of places where they rebelled against God!
- “You have been rebelling against the LORD ever since I have known you!” (v24) Ouch!
- And again, Moses speaks of how he had to intercede for the nation.
- God had threatened to destroy them – using the same word he used to describe what was going to happen to the pagan nations in Canaan.
- So read Deuteronomy 9:26-29.
Moses could have been rid of them all!
But he chose to intercede, to pray for them.
Intercession
Moses doesn’t plead on the basis of Israel’s righteousness – because he knows how bad they are. But instead he reminds God that they are his people, that God has made promises to keep, and that God will be ridiculed in the nations if he destroys his own people.
As you read on into chapter 10 you’ll see that God listened to Moses’ prayer and had mercy on his people.
So get this:
- God had eternal plans for humanity that were bound up with the nation of Israel, since it was through them that Christ would come to us all.
- It seems that plan was in jeopardy, until Moses prayed and God listened.
- The paradox and miracle of prayer is right here: God binds his eternal sovereign purposes to the prayers of his people. Don’t try to analyse how. Let God be God.
But that was Moses. Will your prayers be heard? Christians have someone better than Moses in heaven itself. Jesus is your advocate: He stands with your name on his lips and claims you as his own; you will be heard. And he intercedes for you: According to your needs, he pleads to the Father on your behalf.
Even more, the Holy Spirit in you fuels and energises your prayers – even those things you find hard to articulate. The Spirit knows your heart, and groans with you.
All of this means that you can and should be bold in prayer.
You will be heard, despite your sin.
Sovereignty includes prayer
God does bind his sovereignty to your prayers, so pray. If you choose not to pray, through apathy or lame excuse, you can expect God’s sovereignty to be bound to that too: You can’t expect to receive what you haven’t asked for.
God (Father, Son and Spirit) is poised to bless this community and region with eternal blessing. He will work through you as you are obedient to his commands – to pray, to tell, to love, to serve.
- Be confident in obedience, knowing that the Spirit is in the world ahead of you, making straight paths, convicting hearts.
- And be humble in progress, remembering that you deserve no good thing but have received an eternal inheritance of promised rest in Christ – all by grace, undeserved.
- Be bold in prayer, knowing that Christ stands as intercessor and advocate for you, and that your Father delights to hear his children’s prayers – and to answer them in ways you can’t begin to imagine.