In this message, Pastor Ben describes three key attributes of God’s covenant love. 1. God’s love tolerates no rivals for his people’s affection 2. God sanctifies and blesses those he loves 3. God empowers those he loves for obedience

Thanks be to God for the reading of His Word.

If you have a bulletin, there is an insert in there for your note-taking purposes as well.

Today I want to talk about the love of God. Jesus loves you. Have you ever said that to somebody before? I hope so. I surely hope so. But when was the last time somebody looked you square in the face with joy or compassion and said those three little words, “Jesus loves you”?

Today in our text, we get a better understanding of the sturdy quality of God’s love. I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of peculiar ideas floating around in this world about what love means. Unfortunately, many of those ideas have even spread to how people think about the love of God. Love can be a very fluid term—like Jell-O—shaky, wobbly, and easily shaped into whatever we want it to be.

But today, from our text—with all of its joys and some of its difficulties—I want to talk to you about three traits of God’s covenant love.

1. God’s Covenant Love Tolerates No Rivals

Let’s begin in Deuteronomy 7:1:

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you—and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods.”

This chapter starts on an encouraging note. The encouragement is found in that little word “when.” It is not “if,” not “perhaps,” not “maybe.” Moses is certain: the Lord will bring you into the land He promised. He will drive out the inhabitants. You will possess it.

But this “when” comes with a clear responsibility for Israel: “You must devote them to complete destruction.” The instructions are very specific: show no mercy, make no covenant, do not intermarry, break down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.

These commands can sound jarring to us, and many godly people have wrestled with them for centuries. Yet the reason is clearly stated in verse 4: “For they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.”

Remember the golden calf? The people demanded gods they could see. Aaron gave in, and judgment followed swiftly—first by the sword of the Levites, then by a plague. For over four hundred years, the Canaanites had practiced unspeakable evil, including the burning of their own children in fire as worship. God had been patient, but His patience has limits.

This command is not rooted in hatred. It is rooted in holy love. God will not allow His redeemed people to be led back into idolatry and death. You cannot worship the one true God and Baal. You cannot worship the Lord and Asherah. As Elijah would later say, “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). God wants the whole heart of His people.

There is one important exception to this command: faith in the true God. Rahab the Canaanite prostitute believed in Israel’s God, hung the scarlet cord from her window, and was spared. She even became an ancestor of Jesus Christ. God’s love tolerates no rivals—but it always welcomes genuine faith.

2. God’s Covenant Love Sanctifies and Blesses His People

Amid these serious commands, the Lord reminds Israel who they are to Him:

“For 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.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

Here, “holy” means set apart. These Canaanites do not belong to God in the same way. He did not redeem them from Egypt. He did not give them His law, His tabernacle, or His presence. But He has made Israel a brand-new people with a brand-new purpose.

This is not because Israel was numerous or impressive. In fact, Moses tells them plainly:

“It 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, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers…” (Deuteronomy 7:7–8)

God’s love is free, sovereign, and mysterious. He delights to take what is small and humble and exalt it. And because He loves them, He sanctifies them and promises to bless them.

He is “the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (7:9). Those who walk with Him experience His nearness, His righteous laws, and His rich blessings—blessings that ultimately point forward to greater, spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ.

3. God’s Covenant Love Reminds His People of His Power and Faithfulness

Finally, God reminds His people of His power so they will not fear or doubt His commands.

“If you 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 what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt…” (Deuteronomy 7:17–18)

God never gives commands He does not also give the power to obey. When fear rises, Israel must look back to the plagues, the Passover, and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. The same mighty hand and outstretched arm that defeated Egypt would drive out the Canaanites.

As Joshua and Caleb would later declare, “If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land… Do not fear the people of the land… the Lord is with us; do not fear them” (Numbers 14:8–9). The same truth rings through the New Testament: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

Application: How Then Shall We Live?

I am not suggesting you pick up a sword or a shotgun and go after your unbelieving neighbors. That would be both wrong and foolish. Our enemies today are not flesh and blood, but spiritual. The weapons of our warfare are spiritual, not carnal.

So what do we do with this text?

• First, put sin to death without mercy. We often treat sin like an injured dog we bring inside, nurse back to health, and play with—only to discover later it has grown into a ravenous wolf. Do not show mercy to the sin that will destroy you. Put it to death.
• Second, meditate deeply on the love of God. This is not a shaky, wishy-washy love. This is the love that gave His own Son to bear God’s wrath in our place. We who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ and are now God’s treasured possession.
• Third, depend completely on God’s power, not your own. You cannot fight temptation, pray, read the Word, or love others in your own strength. Lean on the Lord in prayer, cling to His promises, and walk in fellowship with His people.

All of this flows from the great, steadfast love of God expressed in His covenant—a love He will keep forever.