Sermon for Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, 2026, from Deuteronomy 7:6-9
Pastor Peter Ziebell
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
The text for our sermon today is Deuteronomy 7:6-9, our First Reading read before.
6“You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”
Lord God, heavenly Father, sanctify us through Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ,
God did not inspire the Old Testament to encourage us to copy Daniel, become a courageous leader like Moses, or lead decisively like Joshua. Certainly, observing how these esteemed individuals experienced God’s grace and how He enriched their faith also inspires us, as Article 21 of the Augsburg Confession points out. However, if we regard Scripture merely as a book of instructions—often referred to as the “basic instructions before leaving earth,” then we fundamentally miss its true significance.
The Word of God, Jesus Christ, took on human flesh so that we may trust in the one true God. The written Word of God came into being to point us to Jesus Christ. That’s the point of all Scripture. Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me” (John 5:39). The Scriptures give eternal life only by and through Christ.
The Scriptures do not instruct us on how to attain holiness—as if it were achievable solely through our own will. Instead, they demonstrate that our holiness is derived from the Lord, who is exclusively holy. Furthermore, the Scriptures do not teach us how to redeem ourselves, as if such redemption could be gained merely through learning. Rather, they explicitly communicate how Jesus has redeemed us.
The Bible doesn’t try to persuade you or me to choose God. But it does assure us that God has chosen us, as Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). And as Paul said in our Second Reading,
“For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30). God “foreknew” us from eternity, that is, by His grace God chose us in advance, from eternity, before we ever had a chance to lift a finger or do anything to win His favour and approval. Again, Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:3-5).
Furthermore, Scripture isn’t all about us making promises to God but about trusting in His promises for us. Balaam, a prophet hired by King Balak of Moab to curse the Israelites but forced by God to bless them instead, said, “God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19).
In today’s First Reading, Moses addressed the Israelites, who were prepared to enter the Promised Land, with the words, “You are a people holy to the Lord your God,” who had selected them “to be a people for His treasured possession.”
Moses would not be entering the Promised Land; that responsibility would fall to Joshua to lead them. However, before their entry, Moses would reiterate God’s Word to them once more. Moses declared who the LORD God was and who the Israelites were because of the LORD God. He had led them from “the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” They were His people. He had redeemed and rescued them. He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The LORD God had chosen them to be His special people, and they were His treasured possession. At Mount Sinai, God had given them the Old Covenant, thereby blessing them.
Moses joyfully shared how the LORD God had lovingly redeemed His people from bondage. He also eagerly reminded them of God’s ongoing faithfulness and steadfast love, promising that He would continue to redeem and sanctify them. Moses assured everyone that “the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.”
Moses also shared God’s hopeful promise of a coming Messiah.
In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses explained, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me–a fellow Israelite. You must listen to Him.” He lovingly echoed the promise made to Eve, Noah, and Abraham, reassuring us that God will never leave us to face our sins alone. Instead, He will send a greater Prophet—One who will crush the serpent’s head and bring blessings to all the nations of the world.
In the Book of Acts, chapter 3, the Apostle Peter quoted Deuteronomy 18:15 to show that Jesus was the anticipated Messiah, whom Israel rejected and condemned to death, but whom God the Father resurrected on the third day. Furthermore, in Acts, chapter 7, Stephen also cited Deuteronomy 18:15, illustrating that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy by being the Prophet whom the LORD God had summoned from among the people of Israel.
As followers of the long-promised Messiah, we are truly cherished by the LORD God, His treasured possession. In Christ, we are loved, redeemed, and blessed beyond measure. Through the gift of the New Covenant in His blood—His Holy Supper—we are joyfully united as members of Christ’s body. Our true identity is found in Him, not in ourselves, reminding us of the incredible love and belonging we share in Christ.
These are truths that God’s written Word reveals to us: Because of Jesus Christ, we are God’s holy, chosen, and redeemed people, and it’s all by God’s grace; it’s all His doing. By faith, we trust and cling to those truths and promises of our faithful God. By grace, we belong to Him, and this grace is a gift of God. All gifts are free; otherwise, they wouldn’t be gifts.
For those of you who are grandparents, think about your role. Don’t grandparents love to give gifts to their grandchildren? Whether it’s money, toys, or anything else, they love to give to their grandchildren. That’s what grandparents do. They give gifts.
However, accepting gifts also exposes the darker aspects of our hearts. When we receive gifts, we see how our sinful nature can surface quickly. For example, when grandma or grandpa visit without bringing presents, we might pout and feel cheated. We believe we are entitled to those gifts, which can lead to feelings of anger and even temper tantrums.
If you feel that God owes you like a petulant grandchild, you need to repent. If you think like that, you are asking God to judge you by your righteousness, by what He owes you because of what you have done or how you may have lived. God’s grace and a humble heart go together. Grace is God shining His favour on you. God doesn’t favour you because you deserve it. He favours you because of His Son, Jesus, and what He has done to save you.
When humility is sincerely embedded within our hearts, we find peace, assured that God’s grace is bestowed upon us through Jesus. Conversely, when we succumb to arrogance and pride, we arrogantly expect and even insist upon God’s favour. It is at this point that we harbour the misconception that we are entitled to be served. “God, I have been adhering to Your rules all this time and is this the outcome You allow for me?!” Such sentiments lead us to unjustly blame God for the consequences of sin in our lives, while sinful pride fosters a self-righteous arrogance.
To understand grace, Moses revealed who we are by nature when he preached, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you.” The LORD God doesn’t choose based on someone’s worthiness. He didn’t choose us because we are greater, smarter, or better than others. He chooses us solely by grace, not because we deserve it, but because He is merciful.
Later in Deuteronomy, Moses shared with the Israelites that their standing in the LORD God’s Covenant wasn’t about their own righteousness. He explained: “It’s not because of your righteousness, or even the virtue in your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land” (Deuteronomy 9:5). The LORD God’s choice of the Israelites wasn’t based on their righteousness. Instead, blessings come purely by His grace. This was a powerful reminder of His faithfulness to the promises He made to Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
What Moses shared about the LORD God’s choice still holds true for us today. His words about grace come from understanding who He is in His very nature. And that nature stays constant, whether we’re in the Old Covenant or the New, reminding us of His unchanging character.
Moses reminded the people about their simmering rebellion against the LORD God, which sometimes flared up into a full-blown fire. They were stubborn and refused to be taught, thinking they knew it all. And so, because of their sin, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They wanted to worship the LORD God their way instead of His way, through a sculpture of a false Egyptian god, a golden calf. Moses had warned them not to fall for the false gods in the land where they would soon live. If they did, they would be destroyed, just as the unbelievers were.
And yet, the LORD God revealed to Moses that the people of Israel would turn away from Him and follow false gods, bringing death and ruin on themselves. And so, Moses gave the people a song to sing, teaching them about the faithful acts of the LORD God and the often-faithless deeds of the people. That song is in Deuteronomy, chapter 32.
There, the Israelites sang such lines as, “They have provoked Me [that is, God] with their so-called gods and angered Me with their worthless idols” (Deuteronomy 32:21). And again, “I shall bring one calamity after another on them and spend my arrows against them. They will be weak from hunger, ravaged by pestilence, and bitterly stung” (Deuteronomy 32:23-24).
The Israelites were to learn that song so their hearts wouldn’t grow dull. They were to teach it to their children, helping them understand their sin—all so they wouldn’t turn from the LORD God, bringing ruin on themselves.
The real destruction and judgment of unbelievers are not what may happen here in this world. For in this world, unbelievers often have an easier go of life than believers do. No, the final judgment is what unbelievers will experience in eternity: The wages of their sins. Hell is an eternity based on your righteousness instead of Christ’s righteousness. You experience eternity as if on fire instead of being a child of Light.
The Apostle Paul told us to learn from Israel’s mistakes, “so we won’t set our hearts on evil as they did” (1 Corinthians 10:6). We share the same fallen nature as the Israelites of old, but, like them, our salvation is also because of Christ.
God has chosen us in Christ, not because of our righteousness, but because of His righteousness. In Him, we are holy because He is holy. We are part of His people because “the entire fullness of God’s nature lives in Christ’s body” (Colossians 2:9).
Jesus has redeemed us, and so we are the redeemed. “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” God alone is holy and righteous, and He alone saves. And when we are in Christ Jesus, He is our righteousness and salvation. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.