Deuteronomy 9:1-29 – “Keep a Check on Your Heart”

Jon Beck

My sermon notes for Sunday morning, Jan 24th. Remember, these are my personal study notes and not a manuscript of the sermon.  They are provided to help you follow the sermon as you listen each week. The church provides a live stream of the service each Sunday at 10:45 on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/firstbaptistavonpark/  We also provide the services through our website by Sunday afternoon at www.fbcap.net

Deuteronomy 9:1-29

Instruction as you enter and live in the land:

  • Chap 6 – Teach the Law
  • Chap 7 – Conquer the Land
  • Chap 8 – Remember the Lord
  • Chap 9 – Keep a check on your heart

As they enter the land and live in God’s blessing… the temptation will be to assume it was the result of THEIR doing.

God reminds His people that as they LIVE IN THE LAND…

THEY NEED TO CHECK THEIR HEART BY ACKNOWLEDGING (recognize as truth)

  • God is gracious and a consuming fire – vv. 1-3
  • Left unchecked their heart will turn  – vv. 4-6
  • Redemptive history is full of lessons – vv. 7-29

God is gracious and a consuming fire – vv. 1-3

You are to cross over and take the land – vv. 1-2

  • Cities – Great, mighty, fortified.
  • People – Great, tall,

He who goes before you is a consuming fire – v. 3a

  • Destroy, Subdue, Perish
  • Gen. 19:24 – Sodom and Gomorrah.
  • Psalm 21

As the Lord has promised you – v. 3b

Left unchecked the heart will turn – vv. 4-6

YET… in the midst of living in HIS BLESSINGS and PROMISES…the heart begins to turn.

Do not say in YOUR heart – v. 4

  • After…. The Lord has worked.

It is MY RIGHTEOUSNESS the Lord has brought me in to possess the land – v. 4

  • MY
  • POSSESS – He gave it…defeated the enemy….now it is all my doing.

Jeremiah 17:9–10 – [9] The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? [10] “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (ESV)

Proverbs 16:18 –  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (KJV)

You are a stubborn people (stiff necked) – v. 6

  • We must listen, acknowledge, believe, and obey
  • Remember…. vv. 7-24

Redemptive history is full of great lessons – 7-24

God is Fair and Consistent

  • His Righteousness and His Justice
  • As we read, recall and contemplate the God of Scripture.  Blessing for trust and faithfulness.  Discipline and judgement for rebellion.

The example of the Israelites and the giving of the Ten Commandments

  • They got tired of waiting.
  • Created their own god.

Idolatry

  • “Not satisfied to let God be God on His terms and our role in the universe to be defined by His terms.” (Daniel I. Block – NIV Application Commentary)
  • We dethrone God and replace Him with???? Fill in the blank.

v. 24 – You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

  • In Egypt, In Exodus, In the Command to Conquest, In the wandering

I see the church today as the church of Ephesus….it has LEFT ITS FIRST LOVE. Rev. 2:4

  • Jesus, The Gospel
  • The sufficiency of the Word

vv. 25-29 – Moses prayed to God at Mt. Horeb on behalf of the people because he knew they had sinned.  He prayed because he knew the people deserved the “consuming fire” of judgment.

  •  It points to God’s faithfulness.
  • The importance of God’s glory (everything in HIS CREATION IS ABOUT HIS GLORY)
  • That true believers are God’s own covenant people.

Deuteronomy 9:29 – For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’ (ESV)

CONCLUSION

REMEMBER WHAT WE HAVE IN THE NEW COVENANT – IN CHRIST

Titus 3:3–7 – [3] For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. [4] But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, [5] he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [6] whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (ESV)

Hebrews 12:28–29  [28] Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, [29] for our God is a consuming fire. (ESV)

Moses praying for his people serving as a mediator.

  • Jesus is the mediator – John 17:20-26

John 17:23 –  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (ESV)

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