Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Deuteronomy seven, God is instructing the people of Israel as they prepare to fight against the nations that God will give over to them. This passage talks about battling enemies and about God's blessing of health, wealth. and prosperity for the nation of Israel.
if the people will follow after him. Maybe you find yourself asking what parts of God's command and covenant with Israel still apply to us now? Under the New Covenant in Christ were not under the old covenant. This is part three of a message titled, It is Because the Lord Loves You. It was originally preached on may twenty sixth, twenty six.
Yeah. Verse 9, know therefore that the Lord your God is God and faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast. Verse 10, and he repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
You shall therefore be careful to do the commandments and statutes and the rules that I command you today. He will not be slacked with one who hates him. What is he talking about?
Well, first of all, these godless nations that God was going to remove from the land. He's removing the opposition to God's character and his purpose. They were in opposition to God's character and his purpose. They were directly opposed to it. the plan and purpose of Messiah.
And they were also, he's removing opposition to the people of God's treasured possession. God takes it very seriously when there are those who do harm. to people who are God's treasured possession. That includes you and me. Read Second Thessalonians chapter one.
Verses six to nine. God will seek revenge. on those who hurt. His people. He's a good and holy and just God.
Here's the third blessing, the third promise here. Verses 12 to 16: You shall be blessed above all peoples. Let's remember something here, okay? What kind of covenant is the Mosaic law? What kind of covenant is it?
It is a conditional covenant, meaning if, then, if you do this, then I will do this.
Okay? you shall be blessed above all peoples.
So, the if is this: if you hear and keep my commands. which are for your good. Then you will have abundant children, food, and health. If you Keep my commands. If you hear and keep my commands, then you will have abundant children, food, and health.
I've got six kids. How are y'all doing? Is it because I'm living right? That's not new covenant, okay? This is where we need to be very, very careful.
This is this, in theological terms, this is what we call the necessary discontinuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Covenant. was a conditional covenant. to a specific people for a specific time.
Okay.
So, this is the blessing that God promised his people Israel. Verse 13, look at verse 12. The Lord your God, if you listen and keep the commands, the Lord your God to keep you with the covenant and steadfast love that he swore to your fathers, he will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the grain of your wine and your oil, and increase your herds and your young flock, and in the land he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples.
Listen. There are theological systems today that take a promise like this. and make it apply to us today. Listen to me. That is twisting the Word of God.
I joke about stuff like this, right? If something good is happening for me and it doesn't happen to someone else. and we've both been trying for it, I will look at him and say, well, I must be living right.
Now that's a joke, but it's very bad theology. That's not new covenant. Because if that's true, if that were to be true, then that means that people who are suffering and missing out on things are doing so because God's unhappy with them and they're not obeying Him. Listen folks, that's not new covenant.
So you with me on here?
Okay, we are studying something that is under the old covenant. And these were promises and blessings that God made to his people Israel. Why? Because Messiah would come through them. God has Messiah in view, and he is protecting and blessing his people so that Messiah will come.
Aren't you glad Messiah came? We would be utterly hopeless without him. This is what God was doing. Here's the fourth promise, and it's in verses 17 to 26. In your.
I better turn there. 17 to 26, okay? If you say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them, for you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt. Look down at verse 21: You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
And that's in a nutshell what this whole section of his statement is talking about. In other words, what Moses is saying to the people of Israel: when you go into the land, you don't need to be afraid or fearful or in dread of those who oppose me. and you'll know they oppose me because they oppose you.
So, when you go into the land, don't be afraid of them. Don't be in dread of them. I've given you a promise. I will fight for you. This land is yours, I'm giving it to you.
Because Messiah is going to come through this land. and the people in this land. And so God made a promise to them. And this is very similar to like years later, David and Goliath. Remember when David was young?
And the armies of Israel are fighting the Philistines, and they have a champion. His name is Goliath. And what are the armies of Israel doing? They're cowering. What are we gonna do?
And David comes along and he says, what? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? What is David saying there? He's not saying, I've got this giant within me that I just need to let loose. Go!
I'm sorry, no extra charge for that. That's not what that story is about. The story is about David believed what God said. What did God say? I will fight for you.
And David believed it. The armies of Israel and Saul did not. They thought it was all up to them.
So, what did David do?
Well, you know the story. You've known it a long time, haven't you? And it's not because David mustered up within himself some great, no, no, no, he believed God, period. That's what that story is about. And this His people, the people of Israel, here to do believe God.
He is your God. Remember what He did to Pharaoh. He brought you out of Egypt. He brought you across the Red Sea. He gave you water and manna in the wilderness.
Remember what God has done. Why? Because God is. Like what God has done. Based on what you know about me, this is what I expect of you.
This is what this covenant is saying.
Okay, so remember what God has done. Remember who He is. He's great and awesome God in your midst. He will clear away the nations. He will clear away the nations.
Now, listen, you are instruments in the Redeemer's hands. And you need to be faithful. But God will do the work necessary. He will clear away the nations, and no one should be able to stand against you. He makes this promise: no one shall be able to stand against you.
Isn't that an awesome promise? How many of you today are sitting here thinking, I wish God would make me that promise? No one will be able to stand against you. In other words, Israel, when you're faithful to me and you go in and you fight to take the land, no one's going to be able to stand against you. Conditional covenant.
Old covenant. And so, what does he say? That follows, it logically follows: here's the behavior that I expect from you: do not trust created things like they do. Why? Because I'm the creator.
It makes no sense to trust the created things when you can trust the creator. Let me say that again. That's good. It makes no sense to trust created things when you can trust the Creator. Who made them all?
This is God's challenge to his people here.
Now, I mentioned this before. There is a continuity between the Old and New Testament. It is God's. out working plan to bring Messiah to the earth for the redemption of humanity. That's the continuity.
And then the New Testament, we look back how Messiah came and he did the work necessary. But there's a necessary discontinuity. Let's point it out here, okay? Hebrews Chapter 8, look at Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one what?
Any questions? And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. See, he wrote this in the first century when the old covenant was vanishing away. Why? Because the new covenant had come.
Romans 7, verses 4 and 6, My brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. But now this is verse 6, but now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Did you know that was in the Bible? There it is. All right, that's the necessary discontinuity.
The Bible limits. itself.
Okay, only the Bible can limit itself, okay?
So as the church, here's why this is important, all right? Here's why this is important. Because in Deuteronomy 7, God makes some pretty awesome promises to the people of Israel. But we're not under that old covenant. We're under the new covenant.
So Here's what that means for us when it comes to Deuteronomy chapter 7. As the church, as the church, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, we are not. Called to devote godless nations to destruction. You knew that, right? We're not called to devote godless nations to destruction.
That's not a new covenant. We are not called to a national or familial identity. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear this message and others, check out www.delightandgrace.com. to discover how to live by grace.
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