The God Who Set His Heart On You

Introduction: The Astonishing Contrast

Last week we looked at the five dimensions of covenant faithfulness in verses 12–13. And wow! There's a ton of stuff implied in those four verbs. We really dug into what it means to fear Him, to walk in His ways, to love Him, to serve Him with all our heart and soul, and to keep His commandments. So - that is a claim upon the whole person, isn’t it? God does not ask for a little corner of our lives. He calls for our hearts, our affections, our decisions, our work, our homes — everything.

And perhaps, as we were considering those commands, some of you felt the distance between what God requires and what you see in yourself. You want to love Him wholeheartedly, but your heart is so easily distracted. You want to walk in His ways, but you stumble. You want to serve Him joyfully, but sometimes you grow weary and dried out.

Well, in these next two verses, Moses gives those of you who feel this way some encouragement. He gives us one motivation that can stir up our hearts and can give weary believers encouragement. He directs our attention to the God who has chosen us and who has put His love upon us despite our imperfections.

The opening word, translated “Indeed” here in the NKJV and translated as “Behold” in other translations, calls us to stop and consider what follows. And actually, it's a bit stronger than that in the Hebrew. Several commentaries¹ point out that this first Hebrew word is an emphatic particle that logically connects verses 12-13 with verses 14-15 by giving us the reason why they were called to have undivided covenant faithfulness. Moses is saying, “Look at this. Before you turn away discouraged, consider the God who has claimed you as His own. Consider the greatness of the God who has brought you near. Consider the incredible privilege you have.” Yes, verses 12-13 have called us to have an undivided covenant faithfulness to God, but it is because He has amazingly already condescended to have an undivided covenant faithfulness to His elect. We are bound to God and God is bound to us. And when you truly understand the doctrine of electing love, it is a huge motivator to reciprocate that love - to love God with all of your heart.

So this is one of several fantastic passages that describe the tender warmth of God's electing love. God's election was not an arbitrary tossing of a coin as to who God is going to save. It was an amazing display of condescending love and care to people who deserved to be cast away. He loved the unloveable and that motivates us to love the unloveable by His grace. It tenderly unites God's transcendence and sovereignty with His imminence and care.

He starts in verse 14 by encouraging us to stretch our minds to think of the outer limits of His creation. He says, “Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it.” Verse 15 then narrows our attention to one family: “The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.” So He moves from God's sovereignty over every aspect of this universe to His sovereignty in salvation, but does so in a way that displays the amazing depth of God's love in election.

The God who owns everything set His heart upon these people.

Let that settle into your heart for a moment. The Lord of heaven and earth was pleased to love Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He bound Himself by covenant promises to their family. And here their descendants stood, still being addressed as His people, even after all their sin. Amazing!

Moses wants this truth to stir our hearts. The Hebrew particle that stands behind the word "Indeed" shows that God wants this truth to move our hearts to gladly give our undivided loyalty to God that He has talked about with the five verbs of verses 12-13 that we looked at last week. But beyond that, the doctrine of election stimulates both worship and comfort.² It tells us something astonishing about the heart of our God.

So the theme of these two verses is this: The Lord of all creation freely (He didn't owe it - He freely) set His covenant love upon an undeserving people, drawing them into a life of humility, assurance, gratitude, holiness, and love. (And it will take another two weeks to fill out all of those dimensions.)

Consider the Immeasurable Extent of God’s Ownership — verse 14

In point one I am asking you to consider the immeasurable extent of God's universal sovereignty and ownership of the universe as a backdrop to the doctrine of sovereign election to salvation. It helps us to appreciate the miracle of our election. He says, “Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God.” The phrase, "heaven and the highest heavens" in the Hebrew is literally “the heavens [plural] and the heaven of heavens.” Some understand it simply as a superlative - as a way of gathering up everything above us, reaching as far as our minds can go.³ And so they would say it is not necessarily a description of multiple heavens - or layers in cosmology. Others, like Henry Morris and myself, take it literally. I tend to take most Scripture much more literally than many commentators do. A lot of six day creationists (like myself) take the first heavens (which is in the plural in Hebrew) as distinguishing the atmospheric and starry heavens, and then the heaven of heavens is the invisible heaven where God's throne room is exalted above the physical heavens.⁴ But whichever way you take the Hebrew grammar, the force of Moses’ statement is unmistakable: the entire created order (visible and invisible) belongs to the God who is sovereign over all.

So he is encouraging us to look up into the night sky and realize that everything you can see belongs to Him. And everything beyond the reach of your eyes belongs to Him. And when you have reached the limits of what the most powerful telescopes have been able to show us about our universe, you have not reached the limits of His ownership. It is staggering that God spoke all of that into existence in Genesis 1.

Then Moses brings our attention back to the ground beneath our feet: “Also the earth with all that is in it.”

The mountains, oceans, and fields belong to Him. The forests, animals, and nations belong to Him. Every ruler exercises authority in a world that already has an Owner - God.

And so do we. The breath with which we praised Him earlier in this service is His gift. The strength with which we work in this coming week is His provision. The food on our tables comes from His earth. We live every moment surrounded by things that belong to our Father.

And commentators usually point out that this confronted the pagan idea that Israel’s God was merely a local deity whose authority ended at a national boundary - like the demonic gods of the nations did. In contrast, it insists that Yehowah owned Egypt even while Pharaoh was defying Him. He owned Canaan before Israel entered it. His people would never travel beyond His jurisdiction - never.

That should be deeply comforting to us. You may enter a place that feels unfamiliar and frightening to you. It may be a hospital room. A new job. A season after a horrible divorce. Or it may be a difficult conversation whose outcome you cannot control. But you will never enter a place that lies beyond the government of your Sovereign God. You may not know what tomorrow holds. But the One to whom you belong already owns tomorrow’s world.

And notice something easily missed in the grandeur of this verse. Moses says that all these things belong to “the LORD your God.” Your God.

The One who rules the highest heavens has amazingly entered into covenant with you. He is your God. His transcendence and greatness does not make Him unavailable to His children. It means that the Father who hears your prayers has the power to take care of you. Just as He spoke the stars into existence, all it takes is a word from His mouth to answer your prayers. (And that's why I debated whether to divide verses 12-22 up because the later verses are grounded in these verses. But I didn't want to give short shrift to these verses either. But they are logically connected.)

A little child does not need to understand everything his father does before he can rest in his father’s arms. In a much greater way, we do not need to comprehend God’s government of the entire universe before we can trust His care.

Of course, His ownership also calls us to surrender - the surrender that we looked at last week in verses 12-13. We speak of “my time,” “my money,” “my body,” and “my plans.” There is a proper sense in which these things are ours as a stewardship trust. But we have seen in the previous verses that none of them is independent of God.

Perhaps there is some part of your life that you have been holding onto tightly, unwilling to let Him direct it. Well, honestly, you can't thwart His sovereignty. You can either joyfully come into line with it, or you can get frustrated with it. But you can’t thwart it. He is sovereign.

Maybe you are holding tightly onto some ambition; some relationship; some habit; some resentment that you have quietly defended as your right to hold onto. But when you understand God's universal sovereignty, you begin to realize that all of these things can be trusted to His care. Why? Because He has complete sovereignty, yet also has complete love for you. Don't separate His sovereignty from His love.

So this verse invites you to open your hands to God and not to desperately try to control life. It calls you to trust Him.

You are yielding to the Lord - who already sustains your life anyway and who has made Himself known as your God. His claim upon you is complete, and His wisdom is greater than yours.

Marvel at the Freedom of God’s Covenant Love — verse 15a

But Moses has something even more wonderful to say in verse 15. Heaven and earth belong to Him, yet He set His affection only upon this family. Those not elect are reprobate. It was a discriminating election that rejected some and poured undeserved love on others. You cannot get around that word "only." And some people react against that and think it is not fair and say that they can't believe in election. Well, honestly , there is a sense in which it was not fair for Jesus to have to die for any of us. But election is a wonderful doctrine when you truly understand it.

God was under no necessity to choose Abraham - or anyone else for that matter. He did not need someone to complete His happiness. He was not lonely, helpless, or dependent upon human companionship. He had no needs. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have eternally enjoyed the fullness of fellowship and divine life and love. He didn't need your love; but He gladly receives it. That's the amazing thing.

Nor did God search the earth until He discovered someone whose qualifications He could not resist. He didn't say, "Oh, wow! There is someone who is so cool that I am going to elect him to salvation." No. We know enough about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to know that grace was necessary from beginning to end. Abraham had occasions of fear and failure, didn't he? Isaac showed sinful favoritism. Jacob’s story includes deception, family conflict, manipulation, and painful consequences. These were people who needed mercy. God did not need them. He elected them out of the overflow of a generous, loving, and giving heart.

And their descendants could hardly claim to have improved upon the fathers. Remember where we are in Deuteronomy. Moses has just reminded Israel of the golden calf. He has told them plainly that they are not receiving the land because of their righteousness. Imagine hearing these words on election with that history freshly brought to mind. He has already pointed out, “You have been stubborn. You have provoked the Lord. You have broken His covenant.”

And then He remarkably says, “The LORD delighted in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them.”

How could those words fail to humble them and melt their hearts in gratitude? How could those words fail to give hope? Their continued existence as God’s covenant people was a testimony to sovereign mercy.

The word translated “delighted” is a bit stronger in the Hebrew - it conveys attachment — the setting of affection upon someone. Moses wants Israel to understand that God’s choice of them was a personal choice, not an arbitrary choice. He was pleased to love them.

And we need to be careful here. God’s delight in His people does not mean that He delights in their sins. He does not. Our sins grieve Him. The surrounding chapters make any other conclusion absolutely impossible. He rebukes them, disciplines them, and calls them to repentance. But beneath His dealings with them lies His faithful covenant purpose.

Christian, have you allowed that truth to shape how you think about God? Some believers know that God has forgiven them, but they imagine that He must continually regret having brought them into His family. They think of Him as perpetually reluctant to receive them, perpetually disappointed that they have come to Him yet again with the same weakness.

If that is how you think, listen carefully to the language God Himself gives us: He set His affection upon an undeserving people. His saving love did not begin with a mistaken estimate of what you would be like. He knew you fully. He knew every sin for which Christ would have to die in your place. He knew every weakness that would require His patient care.

And yet He chose His people in Christ. This means that God’s love began in God. His love was not stimulated by something in us. He did't fall in love. I hate it when people say that God fell in love with us as if there was something beautiful, attractive to Him about us. No. He bestowed His love freely. The deepest explanation of His love lies in His gracious purpose.

That does not make His choice thoughtless or capricious. It means that we will never find the foundation of His saving love by searching for something impressive in ourselves.

And actually, that ought to bring you relief - huge relief. That ought to free you from constantly feeling like you have to impress God. If God’s love rested upon our spiritual impressiveness, how long could any of us feel secure? What would happen on the day our courage failed? We would lose assurance of our salvation. What would happen when our prayers felt weak, our service felt small, and our hearts needed correction?

But the love that first brought us to Christ arose from God’s own gracious heart. That leaves us with no ground whatsoever for boasting. It gives us every reason to worship Him. And it teaches us how to respond when we fall. Bring your sins into the light. He knows about them anyway. Confess your sins without excuse. He knows your mixed motives. Come back to your Father through Jesus Christ. You do not need to persuade Him that mercy is a good idea. He is the One who provided the Savior.

And the reason I am emphasizing this so much is that election is sometimes misrepresented as a cold and harsh doctrine, but Moses uses warm language to describe His election of people to salvation. He uses words like delight, attachment, and love. God’s sovereign choice is not less personal because it is sovereign. It is the sovereign determination to enter into covenant communion with His people, bestow promises upon them, preserve them, and ultimately bring the Savior into the world. It shows the generosity of His heart. I love the doctrine of election.

Recognize the Covenant Continuity of God’s Choice — verse 15b

But Moses continues with another encouraging thought. He says, “and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.”

God’s covenant dealings extended from the fathers to their children. Abraham died, but God’s promise did not die with him. Isaac died, and Jacob died, but the Lord continued to remember His covenant.

By the time Moses spoke these words, many generations had passed. Yet here they stood. “As it is this day.” Those words invite them to look around. Their presence on the plains of Moab testified to the faithfulness of God. He had brought them this far.

Sometimes we need to do that ourselves. We can become so absorbed in the next difficulty that confronts us that we forget about the undeserved mercies by which God has carried us up to the present moment. We forget the sins He has forgiven, the prayers He has answered, the correction He has supplied, the people He has used to help us.

Take a moment to remember those things. How did the Gospel first reach you? Who taught you the Scriptures? Who prayed for you? How has the Lord restored you when you wandered?

Some of you can trace His kindness through generations of believing family members. Others were brought to faith out of homes where Christ was scarcely mentioned - just like Abraham was. In either case, you did not bring yourself to this day by your own goodness. The Lord has been merciful.

And there is something especially tender about the way this passage speaks of descendants. God’s covenant administration takes households and generations into account. I love that. He places children among His people, surrounds them with His Word, and calls parents to teach them His ways.

That gives Christian parents both responsibility and encouragement. Our children must personally trust Christ, yes. Their place in the covenant community never makes unbelief harmless - that is true. It never guarantees salvation irrespective of faith. Jacob and Esau remind us that outward privilege and inward saving grace must be distinguished and that we must not assume regeration. So Israel’s corporate election as a covenant nation must not be flattened into a claim that every Israelite was eternally saved. Moses will immediately call these people to circumcise their hearts in verse 16. They need the inward reality to which their outward privileges point. And, Lord willing, we will look at that next week.

But neither should we speak to our children as though they were strangers to the Lord’s covenant claims and promises. We can say to our children, “Hey! The Lord has placed you among His people. That’s an awesome privilege. He has given you His Word. You have heard of the Savior from your earliest days. Trust Him. His promises are true. His commandments are good. Give Him your heart.”

And let there be warmth in the way we say it to your children. Our children should hear more than our alarm about what they might become if they don't shape up. They should hear testimonies of our joy in the Lord and desire that they have the same joy. If you want them to repent, model true repentance to your children. If they see us humbly admitting our own sins, it will help them to do so. Let them learn that obedience belongs to the happy privilege of walking with Him.

And to parents grieving over a wandering child: this passage does not give you access to God’s hidden, secret decrees. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." He is saying, "Don't try to read His secret decrees of who is elect and who is not. That's not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to bank on His promises that He has revealed. And His promises are true to anyone who believes them." Those promises give you confidence to bring that child before the faithful God who deals mercifully with generations. So keep praying. Keep speaking truth with tenderness. Keep the door open for honest conversation. Your child’s wandering has not exhausted God’s power to bring sinners home. His sovereignty is something we can bank on when claiming our children and grandchildren for Christ.

But there is another phrase that I think is cool. The words “above all peoples” also speak of privilege - incredible privilege. Obviously, the surrounding passage will not permit Israel to turn privilege into a reason for pride or contempt of other people who are not yet saved.⁵ In verses 18–19, the Lord declares His care for the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger, and commands His people to love the stranger just as He did. Chosen people should display the Choser’s character by loving the unlovely just as God loved us despite our unlovely state. Those whom He brings near must learn to show His kindness to those who currently are outside the covenant. The promises to Abraham always looked toward eventual blessing to all the families of the earth. And as those promises unfold in Christ, we look forward with confidence to the worldwide triumph of the Gospel, to the earth being filled with the knowledge of the Lord. So even though election was narrowed down to one family at this point, the horizon of election keeps expanding and expanding to eventually encompass all families. That was the promise to Abraham.

And, if the doctrine of election of us as individuals is true, then there is no reason to doubt that God can and will convert the earth. It gives faith to our prayers. Election gives us reason to expect fruitful mission. The Lord who chose Abraham knows how to gather people from every nation. He is sovereign. And that sovereignty should transform our prayer life and give us faith to pray for impossible things to happen in the hearts of others.

Respond Properly to Electing Grace

So those are two simple verses. But I want to apply them a bit further. How should these truths shape us? Let me draw out five godly responses to the doctrine of God's sovereign election.

First, election should produce humility. Deuteronomy has already removed every possible ground of merit. It has gone to great pains to remove any grounds for our merit. We were not wiser, stronger, or more spiritually perceptive than the non-elect. No way. If we believed while another person's heart remained hardened, grace alone made the difference. As 1 Corinthians 4:7 words it, “What do you have that you did not receive?” And the answer is, "Nothing." That realization produces humility. It's no wonder that God hates pride in His people. Pride is inconsistent with this doctrine. The doctrine of God's sovereignty over the universe and His sovereignty in our salvation destroys pride. We have no ground for pride. So the first application is that the doctrine of election (when properly understood) should produce humility in us. If it doesn't, you have not yet understood election.

Second, the doctrine of election (when properly understood) should produce assurance. If God’s saving purpose began in His grace rather than our merit, our hope does not finally rest upon our fluctuating performance. And who of us does not have fluctuating performance? Why does God include the stories of so many messed up lives among His elect in the narrative sections of Scripture? It's to encourage us that our security does not rest in our performance. Don't just shake your head at Jacob. I used to do that - until God revealed similar tendencies in me. Instead, marvel at God’s grace to Jacob. The same God who set His love upon His people preserves, disciplines, restores, and completes His work. Assurance must never become carelessness - that is true. And that is because the God who ordains the end also ordains the means to the end - including faith, holiness, and perseverance. But trembling believers may look away from the instability of self to the faithfulness of God.

Third, election (when properly understood) should produce gratitude and worship. Paul responds to the doctrine of election in Ephesians chapter 1 not with embarrassment but with praise. After talking about predestination, he breaks out in doxology and worship, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” A doctrine that never becomes doxology has not yet been understood as Scripture presents it.

Fourth, election (when properly understood) should produce holiness. After all, verse 16 will say, “Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart.” We will look at that next week, but I want to point out now that the word “therefore” is crucial. Grace does not say, “Since you are chosen, stiffness of neck does not matter.” It says, “Because this sovereign love has claimed you, cut away everything that resists your covenant Lord.” Since He has given His all for you, how could you not reciprocate by giving your all to Him? Jack Deere observes that election is answered by an inward submission that replaces stubbornness.⁶ That's what the word "therefore" and the rest of verse 16 implies.

Fifth, election (when properly understood) should produce mission and love for others - not a holy huddle that appropriates God's grace for ourselves but fails to generously extend that grace to others. God did not choose Israel because they were more deserving than all other nations of the earth. Nor was He content to keep the scope of election small. It started with Abraham, expanded from generation to generation, and grew into a multitude at Sinai. But more importantly, He told Abraham that eventually all families of the earth would be blessed in Christ. That's mission. That's evangelism. That’s outreach. The line of election narrows toward Christ in order that grace may widen to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. So, when the doctrine of election is looked at through the lens of Postmillennialism, it hugely expands the mission and love that is already implicit in the doctrine.

Christ, the Chosen One in Whom We Are Chosen

And that leads us to the last point - that we must look at election in a Christ-centered way. Christ is the chosen one (the Elect One) in whom we are chosen (in whom we are elect). And if we are elect, we will cling to Jesus. All of these covenant purposes converge upon Jesus. He is the true offspring of Abraham, the beloved Son, the chosen Servant, and the faithful Israelite. Where national Israel repeatedly failed, Christ did not. He feared, loved, served, and obeyed His Father.

The New Testament therefore speaks of believers as chosen “in Him.” Christ is not an afterthought added to an Old Testament doctrine of election. He is its center and goal and always has been. God’s purpose was always to gather a holy people under the headship of His Son. Christ was at the center of His promise to Abraham.

At the cross, the Chosen One endured the abandonment deserved by covenant breakers. In the resurrection, He emerged as the firstborn of the new creation. Through the Gospel He now calls people from every nation, and everyone who comes to Him discovers that he was loved by grace rather than rewarded for merit.

This keeps election evangelical. We do not peer into God’s hidden decree before coming to Christ. We don’t try to second guess whether we are elected or not. We hear Christ freely offered in the Gospel. We come, repent, believe, and then discover afterwards that underneath our belief and feeble grasp of Him lay His eternal grasp of us. So you shouldn't try to second guess if you are elect. That's pointless. As I mentioned already, Deuteronomy 29:29 says the secret counsels of God belong to God; what belongs to us are His promises given in Scripture to anyone who will believe them. He calls you to believe, and if you believe, you are elect. Charles Spurgeon has a wonderful sermon that. Faith and perseverance is the result of election. It is the proof of election.

Conclusion: Why Us?

So Moses places two truths side by side. Everything belongs to God; He is sovereign. Yet God set His heart upon His elect people. His greatness and His tenderness belong together. The One who rules all things is the One who has brought His people near.

• So when you feel small, remember whose you are in Christ. You are legally perfect in Christ; you are loved in Christ; you are secure in Christ - and in Him alone. • When you become proud, remember that everything you have is a gift. • When you fall into sin, come in repentance to the Savior God has provided. Don't look to yourself; look to Christ. • When obedience is costly, remember the costly love that calls you to keep moving forward. • And when you look at a world that seems very far from God, remember that the nations already belong to the Lord who knows how to gather His people.

Why Abraham? Why Israel? And why should sinners like you and me be welcomed into God’s family through Christ? We will never be able to point to something in ourselves that made us deserving. Instead, we will be able to praise His free mercy forever and give our lives unreservedly to Him (as the previous two verses have called us to do).

Let’s pray.

Father, You own heaven and earth, yet You have been pleased to bring sinners like us near to Your heart through Your Son. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Forgive our pride, our suspicion of Your goodness, and our stubborn resistance to Your will. Help the discouraged to rest in Christ. Restore those who have wandered. Give us tenderness toward our children, compassion toward our neighbors, and courage to speak Your Gospel. Help us to love the unloveable even as You have loved us. Teach us to rejoice in belonging to You, and make our obedience to be a grateful obedience; a grateful response to Your love. In Jesus’ name we pray this, amen.