Deuteronomy 7 and the 17th verse. If you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left who hide themselves from you are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them for the Lord, your God, the great and awesome God is among you. Well, then the reading there at verse 21 and. Again, I feel so keenly how much we need the Lord to apply this word. I could give you a whole lot of applications of this passage that would meet my life, address my fears, and mean nothing to you. And so let's take a minute and just ask the Holy Spirit this afternoon to speak to you today in a way that encourages you with the heart of this passage, with its meaning as to why when we have a finite Bible, why this passage is in God's word, what this word is for each of you as for me. So let's bow in prayer, let's ask the Spirit's help. Oh, Father, we bless you. We thank you, Lord, that this book is a perfect book, so much so that you say it is. You say it is supernatural. You say it's the hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, that it is sharper than any two-edged sword, that it has this incredible ability to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. You tell us, Lord, that it is the all-consuming fire. You tell us it is that thing by which we can live, because man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word out of your mouth. And we thank you that you have given us this blessed book. We thank you that you have guarded it. You have forbidden us, Lord, to add anything to it or take anything from it. You have said it is what you have to say to our souls. And we thank you that it's an all-sufficient word that Father, it tells us everything we need to know. And that through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So we thank you, Lord, for all your goodness. And yet, Lord, as we come to your word, we feel like the disciples often on the road to Emmaus who heard the rebuke of the Lord Jesus. Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Father, we would not be those this day. We would have hearing ears. We would have seeing eyes. We would have hearts that believe, Lord. And yet we know we need the supernatural grace and help of your spirit to have that, to be that. So help us now, we pray. Lord, we come and we just ask humbly, help us, Lord. Send your spirit, empower him to speak to us what we need to hear today with its power, such that it affects everything we do, how we look at the world, how we look at ourselves, how we look at you, and how we look at the problems and things with which we're faced. So Father, send that help now, we ask in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Well, this is in the first five books of the Bible, which are called the law section, but also are history. And part of what the history is rehearsed for us in this is the conquest of Canaan. of what God did to take a people. And if we were to go back and spend time in Deuteronomy chapter four, and we'll take a peek at it a little later on, but here is God taking a people out of the midst of another people to make them his own people and to bring them into a promised land, which he says flows with milk and honey. But in the process of this story, it's not just history. It is fraught with spiritual imagery, with spiritual insight to teach us things that though we look and say, well, that's a long time ago, things that we still need to understand to live by. And so here in this particular passage, Moses, the speaker, has been addressing various aspects and parts of that history. Look at chapter six, the previous chapter in verse 23. And there Moses said, then he brought us out from there, meaning Egypt, that he might bring us in to give us the land of which he swore to our fathers. And that to me is one of the most beautiful scriptural images. He never brings us out and leaves us. He brings us out to bring us in. And he says that in Exodus 5 and ties it to his name, El Shaddai, the gracious, bountiful God. And then he spells it out in the New Testament to show us what he means by bringing us out to bring us in. And that is when he takes us out of the clutches of sin, when he takes us from self and the dominion of Satan and of the world, he brings us into the fullness of every single thing Jesus Christ has purchased for his people. and he applies that powerfully by the Spirit of God. So that's one great picture. In verse 24, just after that, chapter six, and the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God. Notice these words, for our good always. that he might preserve us alive as it is this day. Too many New Testament believers have an image of God's law that it was tough and hard and you wanna stay as far away from that as possible and yet here's God's own testimony that it was for their good always. That what God set before his people was always to benefit them in every sense. Well then we come into chapter seven. And in verse two, we read this. And when the Lord your God delivers them, your enemies, over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. Now, again, in the context of battle and at the conquest of the land, and also of God's judgment upon those nations for their sins, which had been building up for over 400 years, that's one part of the story. But this particular expression tells us something spiritually, that we don't come out of sin and keep one foot in, so to speak. We don't come out of it and make truces with it. And in other words, there's no surrender to the enemy. There's no, you know, he says, don't make a covenant with them. Don't come to terms with them. In other words, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot afford Cannot afford, in a sense, to walk in the ways of this world and just say, yeah, but I belong to a church, and yes, someday, you know, you'll see me there. As if there wasn't any danger in those enemies. And that is a massive theme all across this Old Testament, because he tells them, he says, when you start doing what the nations do, dressing like what the nations dress, when you start marrying them, here's what's gonna happen, he says. They'll steal away your heart from me. That's what will happen. Did he care about the dress? Did he care about the particulars and the circumstances? No, he cared about the hearts. And what he predicted is, is when your fancy is taken by things of the world, your heart will follow. Your heart will follow. So there's a danger there. And so once again, tremendous spiritual insight and imagery that teaches us in this passage. So many lessons all across this Old Testament section for sanctification, for service. But one of the most significant ones is found in our Bible reading today. Here in verse 17, we read this of Deuteronomy 7. If you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. Now we'll stop there, but that is the gist all the way to verse 21. I tell you, do not fear them. Do not. Now, why does the Lord say this? Because he knows the very natural thing for the children of Israel to do is to fear. They see walled cities and you remember the report of the spies that were sent? You know, there are giants there and the sons of giants and you know, there are walled cities and all of these defenses and not to mention the fact that they happen to have a whole lot more people than we do. You know, so there was plenty that those who did not trust in God, like Caleb and Joshua did, plenty for them to bring up and terrify the people so that an entire generation of Israelites wandered in the wilderness without tasting and experiencing the promised land that God had given. So now we come to Deuteronomy 7. Now we come, and by the way, what has happened at this point is they are in the plains of Moab. They are just on the east side of the Jordan River. Next thing on the to-do list is to cross the Jordan into the promised land, which they will do under Joshua's headship. But they are right there, and Moses, as kind of a last official duty, Moses is here in the book of Deuteronomy preaching truth to them, reasoning with them, ministering to them who God is, what he has promised, and what it says for how they live. So that's where they are. And what does he say in no uncertain terms? Your natural inclination is gonna be how in the world am I equal to this particular enemy or this particular realm of fear? And what does the Lord say? When you think that way, here let me tell you what you should do. You shall not be afraid of them. You shall not be afraid of them. Instead, you will remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. That's what you will do. So here's a very powerful passage that in a sense just looks our fears right in the face and says God has something to say about that. This isn't a matter of well am I doing well enough that I'm not gonna be walking in fear. Walking in fear is also walking in disobedience. It's also ignoring what God has said to us. So what we wanna understand is How do I understand this? Why does God say this? What is the basis for the fact that I'm not to fear, especially in my own particular needs and difficulties? So there are always many things we're facing. Sometimes we're just overwhelmed, overwhelmed by a task or overwhelmed by difficulty. Sometimes what we see is making a stronger impression than what we know. You know, what we're facing in a particular difficulty, and the most natural thing is, Lord, I am not equal to this. How can I face this? And we look at ourselves instead of our rock and our king, or we look at the waves as Peter did, or we look at the size of the giants, the enemies. We're looking at something other than him. But what we have in this passage Whether it's the overwhelming, whether it's the size, whether it's the complexity, or whether it's the fact that it just happens to touch on an area we struggle with and happen to fear pretty easily and readily, this passage gives us an answer. So knowing our frailty, the Lord poses this, says this to the people, and by the way, again, we don't have time to deal with it, but if we were to go later into Deuteronomy, we actually have a procedure where the high priests, when the children of Israel were to go out to battle, the high priests were to join them in the preparation for the battle. And part of it was to be basically to preach this truth to them. You have no need to fear. Let me tell you, you have no need to fear. And so the priests were part of preparation for battle. They strapped on armor. They did all these things. That was the externals. But the priest said, I have truth for you for the internals so that you may go forth in faith and may go forth in courage and confidence. So the Lord gives them this specific answer. Verse 18, you shall not be afraid of them. Verse 21, you shall not be terrified of them. This is God's word. Now, that being the case, We are not being presumptuous to take the perspective that we have the right to defy our fears. That would be presumptuous had God not spoken. But instead, it's humility. Instead, it is obedience. Instead, it is saying, God, I'm gonna take the position that you know more than I, you are bigger than I, and that the safest ground on which I can live my life for time and for eternity is to obey you. to hear your perspective and to walk in that. We therefore have every reason to defy our fears. Now, in this passage and in these verses that we have read, the Lord gives us the ground on which defying fear may be done. how it may be done. He tells us to remember well. And so there are things that we need to remember today. And what I want us to do this afternoon is just to consider briefly what it is exactly that we are to focus our attention on and to remember well. so that we are defying fear. Well, let's begin with the past because the Lord tells us, first of all, that's what we will remember, verse 18. You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did. We are to remember the past, what he did to Pharaoh, what he did to all Egypt, which was one of the premier nations on the face of the earth at that particular point in power and in wealth. And yet the Lord took them over. The Lord defeated them as an enemy. And so when we can think about this, and remember, the deliverance from Egypt is the Old Testament picture of salvation. We see it again and again. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Psalm 81, you know. I am the God who delivers my people, who purchase them to myself and defeats the bondage that they were in. So what do we see here but the Lord addressing their redeeming work, the work by which they were redeemed. Turn back just a few pages here to Deuteronomy chapter four. And I told you earlier that Moses kind of rehearsed their history and God's faithfulness before he launched into what it was he wanted to essentially preach to them. So in Deuteronomy 4, 7 and 8, listen to what he says. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we may call upon him? Verse eight, what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments are in all this law which I set before you this day. And factoring in what he says in chapter six, for your good always. Says what nation that has such a privilege to have spelled out for them how to live and walk before me as I have done for you. But then skip down to verse 32. Deuteronomy 4.32. For ask now concerning the days that are past which were before you since the day that God created man on the earth and ask from one end of heaven to the other whether any great thing like this has happened or anything like it has been heard. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard and live? Did that ever happen? Or did God ever try to go and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, the 10 plagues in Egypt for instance, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown that you might know the Lord himself is God. There is none other besides him. That your confidence might be in God because he has been faithful to you. He has redeemed you. And he's redeemed you for a purpose. He brought you out. to bring you in, you are his. And now your welfare is not just a matter of interest to him, no, his name's at stake. And we see that here in Deuteronomy, we see it in Joshua's time, we see it in Nehemiah's time, we see it in Daniel's time, where they come back and they say, Lord, these are your people. Your name, your reputation is wrapped up with their welfare. So Lord, your name is at stake. And so this redeeming work, what he's done in the past, is a tremendous reason to have confidence and not to fear. And folks, we've had deliverances, have we not? We've not seen God work in unexpected ways so many times, answer prayers for things that we began praying looked so hopeless, and yet God has worked. He's that good, he's just that good. But not only is there the redeeming work, but there's also the keeping work. And look at Deuteronomy 8. I'm skipping forward just a little for this. But Deuteronomy 8 records this in verse four. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. You know, does that make sense? Does that make sense? No, that's miraculous. That's preserving, keeping power. And of course, we can read the record. So we know there were many deliverances, many answered prayers, many outpourings of grace. And we can then turn and say, the reason we're here this afternoon is because that grace has not ended. He's still doing that, still being faithful, still keeping us looking to him. And so he tells us, remember, do not forget all that he has done for us, redeeming us and keeping us. But then let's come to the second thought, and that is not only the past, but the promise, because when we get to verse 19, He's still rehearsing the past when he speaks of the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. But then he says this, so shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left who hide themselves from you are destroyed. God says down to every detail. And so verse 19 here, the end of it tells us the past is the guarantee of the future. That just as he did deliver us, he will deliver us. Just as he did keep us, he will always keep us. To me, one of the most powerful statements in the New Testament for some reason, I don't hear it mentioned all that often, but what an expression. Peter talks in chapter one and verse five, talks about God's people and he says, you, and then two commas, you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Why are you here? How are you kept? Why haven't you folded? Why haven't you accepted the many invitations of the forms of idols the devil is killing thousands with and wrecking people's lives? Because you're kept by the power of God. You're kept by his power through faith. He keeps you believing just as he did Peter. Peter, Satan has asked for you. He has desired to sift you as wheat. Jesus says, I have prayed for you that your faith does not fail. And when you are recovered, when you are delivered, strengthen your brothers and sisters. The grace that I'm giving you and I'm giving it will sustain you, I will keep you believing in me, and then I will use what you've gone through to help others. It's still the same. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We're kept safe until glory. That's how he works. I don't, you may remember David on his deathbed. This is first Kings chapter one in verse 29. He said these words, the King took an oath and said, as the Lord lives, he lives. who has redeemed my life from every distress. Now he's speaking about the fact that Solomon is his choice for the king and so the oath is invoking his authority and the witness of God. But who is God to him? He describes him, who has redeemed my life from every distress. He's delivered me again and again and again when I have had need. So the past is the guarantee of the future, but we come to verse 20 and we see that the extent of it, and it is to the smallest detail, and I think this is such a tremendous picture. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them. until those who are left who hide themselves from you are destroyed. So you can't see them. Maybe they're in a place where you can't get to them. But do you know how big a hornet is? Yet do you know how persuasive they can be? The Lord says, I'm going to send the hornet and there won't be anyone who escapes my attention, anyone who escapes my notice. All your enemies, remember our Shorter Catechism says that, that the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingly office conquers all his and our enemies. Because our enemies are his and his are ours. And so again, here is this faithfulness that down to the smallest detail will deliver us in every sense that we need it. And folks, that's a great thing. I mean, isn't that a great thing? You know, I'm 60. And I don't particularly enjoy this, but pretty frequently the Lord reveals something that I was not seeing right or something that I was believing that I shouldn't or not believing that I should. Excuse me. He reveals to me things. I think I mentioned to you, and it's on this very subject, that just these last couple of years, I have seen how many little fears, weren't great big terrors or whatever, but I don't do this because, well, it'd just be uncomfortable for me, I'm just not good there. And how many things in my life are hindered by this little fear that I almost don't even give it notice because it's so small, yet it's controlling me. Yet it's stopping me. And so we're always learning these things and so to know that he knows all our enemies down to the tiniest one and our blind spots that we don't happen to see or understand, he's able to search out and expose and especially to destroy and to give us deliverance. So the Lord tells us and I think this is a great practice for the people of God. If there's anything that is stealing your joy, if there's anything that regularly troubles you, bothers you, makes your days heavy or your perspective makes you down, that is worth tracing out, that is worth seeking until you understand, because one of two things is so. You're believing something that's not true or you are not believing something that is true. I heard a preacher here recently say, if what you are believing is not encouraging your soul and moving you forward, it's not the truth. It's not the truth. And that was so helpful and encouraging for me. So we are not to be in the fear of any enemy. We have this very clear command and it's grounded on promises that tell us he will seek out and overcome every enemy. It's already done in Jesus Christ. It only needs to be applied by faith to the enemies of our lives. He promises a complete victory. He promises that He will indeed show us how we are victorious in every realm. So it's for us to remember the promises, to lean on them, to plead them by faith to a God who cannot lie and what a. Once again, we have the record of Old Testament saints doing this very thing, coming to the Lord and saying, Lord, I didn't say this, you did. You said it. You said it. It came from you. Lord, be true to your word. So not only the past and the promise, but also the presence. This brings us to the beginning of chapter 21, where We read, you shall not be terrified. Did I say chapter? I meant, I'm sorry, verse 21. So Deuteronomy 7, 21. You shall not be terrified of them. Why? For the Lord your God. Who is he? The great and awesome God is among you. His presence is there. The Lord is among his people and we have such wonderful amens to this in the New Testament. Jesus, Matthew 28, last words, last words of Matthew's gospel. Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Hebrews 13, five and six. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? His threats are just flea bites. Psalm 118 shows us that. And so this is the emphasis here, that again and again the Lord tells his people, I will never leave you, I will not forsake you, I will do you good because I will always be in your midst. And this again is, I think, in fact I wasn't thinking of this earlier, but let me turn to it now very quickly. Just some of the most encouraging words that we have in the Old Testament, especially from the prophets, are found in Zephaniah chapter three. Beginning at verse 14, saying, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgments. He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. "'You shall see disaster no more. "'In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, "'Do not fear. "'Zion, let not your hands be weak. "'The Lord your God in your midst, "'the mighty one will save. "'He will rejoice over you with gladness. "'He will quiet you with his love. "'He will rejoice over you with singing.'" That is one powerful passage. And that is his presence with his people. Well, that brings us finally then to the power because verse 21. talks about the presence of God, but it also gives a pause to describe him as the ultimate. You shall not be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God is among you. And this is again a place where there are a number of different translations just because it's just hard to try and come up with a way to truly express the magnitude here. This is who he is, he is great, he is mighty, he is terrifying, he is awesome. All these words come into play because that is who he is and what he is calling upon us for is an active exercise in looking at him to remember who he is, to remember how powerful he is and to therefore rest from all our fears because that's who he is. Because that is exactly how great he is. And we've talked about various things at times where it helps us to set this next to that. One of the examples we have is in Hebrews chapter 11 where it talks about Sarah. She received strength to conceive seed after she was said to be with child. because she, and the word is there, judged him faithful who had promised. Now that particular word in the original language is often used of scales, where you balance things out. And so there's a reckoning, there's a financial transaction that takes place. And so what you do is you say, you know, you may, We don't have a lot of experience with using scales anymore for this, but they had these scales, and so they would say, well, I'm gonna give you this much of this for this much of that, and you're weighing the balance there. And so picture Sarah in this situation. I'm 90, my husband's 100, I've never had a child, It's not like, I don't know anybody who's had a child at my age. Okay, ooh, boy, that weights that scale down. God has spoken, donk. It just falls flat on the ground. No contest, no contest. God has entered the equation. Joey was telling me yesterday that she was listening to a message and it was talking about some particular situation and it was just saying, painting the picture of how difficult and unlikely and hard this particular thing was, and then the preacher said, but God. And then went on to trace how many times in scripture the impossible situation was totally transformed by, but God. He entered the equation and that changed everything. And so this passage is meant to tell us he's massive. He's massive. He's so big that you can't even conceive of something that's his equal to fear. It just doesn't exist. It's just not there. So the point is here is what we fear is tiny. He controls it because he controls all things. Everything is in his hand. And so, May God therefore keep us, and this is what this passage is emphasizing to us, in perspective. Keep us in the realm of reality where we see all these things, the past, the promise, the presence, the power, and as it were, we anchor our souls on those things. Fears are feelings. They're just feelings. Yeah, it's powerful, but it's just a feeling. It's not truth. It is not the reality. It's like Jacob saying, all these things are against me. No, they weren't. They were all in the hand of God. They were all under control. They were all leading faithfully to God's provision for his people. But the feeling, I like to call it a paper tiger, you know, it just really has no teeth to it. It's just a feeling. Well, that's the reality with our fears. And so in the most direct way, the Lord says, you shall not be afraid of any of them. And then he says, you shall not be terrified by a single one. So may the Lord grant us to just take him at his word, to humble ourselves under him, but also to check the feeling. You know, the scriptures, the devil is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, believing. Resist the devil, he will flee from you. Resist your fears on the stand of truth. And they dissipate, they blow away like smoke. And so may the Lord give us grace to call upon him, to lean upon him, to take him for who he is and what he has promised. And then to rejoice that even though I might have this feeling in the pit of my stomach, who cares? It's a feeling. Where I'm anchoring my soul is in my God. And I say, Lord, you said, fear not. I'm just going to obey you. I'm just going to fear not. I'm just not going to walk in the grip of fear. I'm going to disown that. And every time the devil tries to bring it back to me, I am going to turn it against his kingdom by making it prayer, by turning it into pleading for your grace, your glory, the outworking of your purpose. I'm going to fight. And oh, may the Lord let us fight because we We have won. Jesus Christ is already conquered. We war from the standpoint of victory. May the Lord grant us to live in that. Let's all pray. Oh, Father, we just bless you today. We thank you for what you've said. And Lord, we do say, even though we would be bold to say, we didn't say this, you said it. Lord, we sure are clear enough to say, if you had not said it, we would never dare think it. So we thank you that you did say it. And we pray that you'd give us the simplicity with which to walk in faith. And we pray, Father, that you would keep us always rehearsing in our hearts the past, the promise, the presence, and the power, because they are realities that cannot be changed. Thank you for our Lord Jesus. Enable us to walk with him this week. Father, make our times in the secret place precious. Oh, Lord, open your word to our hearts. Guide us, we pray. And as we talked about fasting earlier, Lord, I pray for every one of us that you'll just lead us in that. And that, Father, we will see you do great things, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.