Beware of This Trap | Sunday, February 21, 2021

When the LORD your God drives your enemies out before you, do not say to yourself, "The LORD brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." Instead, the LORD will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness... Understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9)

Israel didn't inherit the land because they were righteous — and neither were you saved because you're better than anyone else.

A Privilege to Open the Scriptures

As strange as this season has been, I am truly grateful for the privilege of opening the Scriptures week after week, whether in person or online, to teach the eternal truths found in God's word. I would much rather be preaching in person every Sunday morning, but we've had a great time on Sunday evenings for the last four or five months gathering for worship and the word out on the patio at the church. It has sometimes been cold — though not as cold as Texas this last week — and we've occasionally had to postpone for weather, but on the whole it has been a blessed time.

Whatever the circumstances, we will always continue to do what the church has done since the very beginning. The book of Acts records what the early church did at the very start, and Acts 2:42 sums it up:

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The early church gathered regularly for worship, prayer, and teaching — and at the very beginning it was outdoors on a patio area at the temple in Jerusalem. So what we've been doing outdoors is, in a sense, a return to what the early church did. When I traveled twice to Mozambique to serve with Cross Connection Outreach, many of the churches we ministered at simply gathered outdoors under a tree.

How We Will Continue as a Church

Going forward, we will continue to gather for worship at the church facility as we have for decades, and we'll add additional opportunities like our Sunday afternoon gatherings. We'll also keep focusing on gathering from house to house in our connect groups — I was blessed this last week to meet with my own. We'll continue producing online content, spending time in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship and hospitality, in communion, and in prayer. That's why we ask you every week to send in your prayer requests.

All of this is simply the expression of the church, the body of Christ — what the church has done for two thousand years and will continue to do until Jesus returns. You can find my Coffee Time videos at pastormiles.com/coffeetime, and information about connect groups and prayer requests at lifeinconnection.com.

The Setting of Deuteronomy

We are continuing our weekly studies in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible and the last book of the Pentateuch — the books of Moses. Deuteronomy is the message the great lawgiver Moses gave to Israel just before they entered the Promised Land, nearly 3,400 years ago.

Israel had been slaves in Egypt for nearly 400 years and were redeemed about 40 years before this message. If you saw The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, The Prince of Egypt, or that completely strange film Exodus: Gods and Kings with Christian Bale, the basic story may be familiar. Moses told Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Pharaoh said no, God said "bad choice," and after the ten plagues — the Nile turning to blood, the frogs, the flies, and finally the death of the firstborn — Pharaoh relented and Israel left Egypt.

They crossed the Red Sea, came to Mount Sinai where they spent about two years receiving the law and building the tabernacle, and then journeyed to the border of the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea. There they sent the spies, who brought back an evil report, and Israel failed to enter because of their faithlessness. They wandered in the wilderness for 38 years until that entire faithless generation died. Now they're back at the Jordan River, on the border, and Moses preaches the law one final time — this time to the children who saw God's faithfulness for 38 years.

Why Should We Care?

It's worth asking: why should I care about something that happened to a faraway people long ago? One answer is that the same God who called Israel to be His people has called you to be His child. The apostle Paul, writing about this exact period of Israel's history, told the Corinthians:

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age have come.

It is tragic that so few people, even within the church, ever really get to know the Old Testament. Israel's failures of faith and obedience were written so that we might learn to live faithfully. And if we are to live faithfully before God, the message of this passage is critical.

Beware the Snare of Self-Righteousness

Did you notice the theme in Deuteronomy 9? The repeated idea: do not say to yourself the Lord blessed me because of my righteousness, and do not say He is judging your enemies because of their wickedness while imagining yourself righteous. You are not righteous — you are stubborn, rebellious, and stiff-necked.

This is a simple and essential lesson: beware of the snare of self-righteousness. We touched on this in Deuteronomy 7:7–9:

The LORD was devoted to you and chose you — not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples — but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers... Know that Yahweh your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

God is good and faithful. That is why Israel was redeemed from slavery in Egypt, and that is why you have been redeemed from slavery to sin and death. It isn't because you are more awesome, more beautiful, more intelligent, more cool, or more righteous than others. It is because of God's love and faithfulness. This should stir us to gratitude and worship — and in this season, I hope you have private times where you are simply in awe of God's love toward you.

The Danger for Religious People

This is an especially important lesson for religious people. If you are a church-going believer, you are effectively religious — and so am I. We might tell someone, "I don't have mere religion; I have a relationship with God." That's true, but we are also religious, and there is a real danger for religiously committed people to slide into self-righteousness. We can fall into a dangerous spiral of seeing ourselves as pious, moral, upstanding people, and then look out at the world from our churchy place and think, "Those people are immoral and unrighteous."

That danger is exactly what inspired Jesus' parable in Luke 18:9:

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.

Notice the reason: they trusted in their own righteousness, and as a result they despised others.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess." And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"

Here is Jesus' application:

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

We never intend to be self-righteously religious, but as my friend Larry Osborne puts it, we become accidental Pharisees. That's why Moses kept reminding Israel that God chose them not because they were better, but because He loved them and was faithful to His oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Remember and Do Not Forget

So Moses says in Deuteronomy 9:7, "Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness." He recounts their failures: they provoked God at Horeb when they made the golden calf (v. 16, "you quickly turned from the way the LORD had commanded"); they rebelled and would not believe or obey (v. 23); "you have been rebelling against the LORD ever since I have known you" (v. 24).

Like it or not, it's easy for us to read these Old Testament stories and think we are so much better than Israel. We say, "If I had seen God turn the Nile to blood, walk across the dry ground of the Red Sea, bring water from rocks, and provide manna from heaven, I would never have turned away like Israel did." But that very attitude is the danger — the same one Israel faced toward the Canaanites. Paul warns us:

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

If we're not careful, we become accidental Pharisees, praying, "God, I thank You that I'm not like other men — extortioners, adulterers, politicians, tax collectors — for I fast and pray and give, and I still watch church on Sunday mornings." But it was the tax collector, beating his breast and crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner," who went home justified.

Don't Forget Who You Really Are

Don't forget who you really are: just another sinner saved by the awesome grace of God. The safeguard against self-righteousness is to humbly remember our failures and God's grace. We are sinners in need of a great salvation, and one of the important ways we remember this — just as Jesus exhorted us — is by taking the bread and the cup of communion.

All of this is given so that we remember Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice who knew no sin and became sin for us.

He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

There is no way we can stand in our own righteousness. We must humbly remember our failures and God's grace in Jesus Christ.

Communion: Examine Yourself

I hope you have the bread and the cup to partake of communion this morning, or you can come back to this video and do it another time this week with your family. Jesus told us He wanted us to remember His death, burial, and resurrection through communion. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:28, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat." We can dangerously fall into rote routines and accidental pharisaism. So examine yourself: are you trusting in your own self-righteousness — in what you give and fast and pray — or are you trusting in Jesus' finished work?

The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me."

In the same manner He also took the cup, saying, "This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

The book of Hebrews says, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." Jesus gave His body broken and His blood shed so that we could be forgiven.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we thank You for Your grace. The Scriptures say You loved us so much that You gave Your only begotten Son, that as we trust in You, You deal with our sin and give us everlasting life. Jesus, You demonstrated Your love toward us in that while we were still sinners You died for us on the cross. Today we remember Your body broken for us and Your blood shed for us, so that we could be made righteous, clothed in Your righteousness. You who knew no sin became sin for us, and You have given us imputed and imparted righteousness.

I pray that we would see ourselves through that lens, and that we would see other people — our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family members who don't yet know You — not as lower than us, but as in need of Your grace, compassion, and mercy. Stir us to share that good news, and give us boldness to share that memory with others this week. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

And now may the Lord bless and keep you; may He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.