Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 13 The Bible is always for us but not always to us.
Good morning, everyone. This morning we are in Deuteronomy in chapter 13. There's an interesting phrase that I'd like to introduce that can help us in understanding how we apply Scripture to our lives today. And it's a statement that says, "Everything is written for us, but not everything is written to us." What that means is that the entire Bible is for us. The entire Bible is something we can learn about God and learn how to apply rightly to our lives. However, everything isn't written to us, meaning we live in a different dispensation, a different era. We live under the New Covenant now, and not everything is written to us specifically to apply it exactly as it was then to our lives today. But yet it is still for us to learn from, and that's an important understanding as we ascertain how to apply Deuteronomy chapter 13. Recall that Israel is in the desert, and they are about to enter the Promised Land, and they're given instruction about what to do and what not to do and what to remember about God when they enter the Promised Land. And one of the things that's talked about considerably in the Book of Deuteronomy and in chapter 13, and again we'll see it in chapter 18, is what to do with a false prophet. And in this particular case, the instruction is pretty harsh and pretty significant that if there's a false prophet that's leading Israel away from God and leading them to worship false gods, that you need to remove them. In fact, even to stone them, have them be killed so that they cannot continue to entice God's people to worship something other than God. That's something God cared very much about. He was created, as we've talked about in recent days, a theocracy. It was a government that essentially was going to be, he was going to be king, and his ways were going to govern. They were not going to have an earthly king. And in this theocracy that God was creating, he was to be worshipped in him alone, and there was no false worship that was going to be allowed. Now, we live in a different day and age where, you know, in Jesus did as well, so when we look at the New Testament or the New Covenant, Rome was in charge. The Jews had some rights to Jerusalem, but they weren't in charge of the country, and they couldn't just say, "We want to kill someone and have it happen." Now, they did end up killing Jesus, and they got Pontius Pilate to agree to it, but they had to get the Roman governor to agree with them on the killing of Jesus, and he went along with it. The point is, is that, although maybe we would like to take out a false prophet today, we don't have that right in our government to just, we don't have a theocracy. So, we're not to do exactly what's being done here today. We live in a different era, yet it's still for us, and that we should be very careful of false prophets. So, with that being said, let's get started. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and this is interesting. So, in this particular case, the prophet actually does some type of sign or wonder in order to convince you that you should follow him. So, even a sign or wonder, even if someone could do some kind of miracle, it doesn't mean that we should take their instruction if what they're saying is to worship something other than God or, in our case, Jesus Christ. And the sign or wonder verse two comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods whom you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear him, and you shall keep his commandments, listen to his voice, serve him, and cling to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you." So there we have it. I try to try to do a good job of introducing this section to you, but it's interesting that, you know, a false prophet, even if he can do a miracle, we are not to listen to him if he is to turn us away from worshiping the true God. And this is true today, not that we would kill a false prophet, but that if anyone is trying to lead you away from the worship of Jesus and him alone, don't follow him, no matter what they say or do, don't follow them. You know, in the future times and end times, there's going to be a false prophet called the Antichrist who's going to be able to do wonders, him and his false prophet, and he's going to lead you to worshiping or lead people to worshiping him instead of God, and we are not to do that as well. We're to honor Jesus and him alone. Listen to this, this is a pretty strong word. If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend, who is as your own soul entice you secretly saying, "Let us go and serve other gods who neither you nor your fathers have known of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you, or far from you from one end of the earth to the other end." You shall not yield to him or listen to him, and your eyes shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him, but you shall surely kill him, your hand shall be first against him to put on the death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery, then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you. God wanted them to worship him and him alone, and he is putting a great warning in place before the end to the Promised Land, and this would put the fear of God in anyone to even begin to lead Israel or lead people to turn away from him, and he's doing it for our good. Why would we want to follow something that's false, and what is good for us is to follow the one true God who did miracle throughout the Old Testament to show us that he could be trusted, parting the sea, bringing water from the rock, bringing manna from the sky, and he wants them to worship him and him alone. You know, it's interesting that there are some passages that reflect some similar things in the New Testament, however again it was not killing anyone that led us astray, because again they weren't a theocracy and they couldn't do it, but there is a teaching from Jesus that talked about these are my mothers and brothers, the ones that follow after me, and that we can't basically allow our family to influence us away from the one true God. We have to put him first, and Lord willing, our family will come with us, but that is an important thing that God wants us to have him be first and not out of a devotion to your mom or your dad or your brother or your wife turn away from Jesus. That's not going to get you to heaven, and that's not what God desires. He wants you to worship him first, and Lord willing be a light and a witness to your family, and Lord willing one day lead them to worship Jesus just like you do. If you hear in one of your cities which the Lord your God has given you to live in, anyone saying that some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city saying, let us go and serve other gods whom you have not known, then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true in the matter established that this abomination has been done among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, and all that is in it, and it's cattle with the edge of the sword. Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God, and it shall be a ruin forever, it shall never be rebuilt. Nothing from that which is put under the band shall cling to your hand and order that the Lord may turn away his burning anger and show mercy to you and have compassion on you and make you increase just as he has sworn to your fathers. If you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments which I am commanding you today and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God. It's so evident and so clear that God wants us to worship him alone and you know it's interesting, it's interesting as in it for those of you who are, you know you're in different parts of the world but for those of you who are in America, we have a constitution that gives religious freedom that essentially says that in America you have the right to worship whatever you want. And in this day and age of the Old Testament God was creating Israel to have one true God and no one else could be worshipped amidst Israel. So it's just interesting the different world views that we live under today and now today as was the case in Jesus's day we are to worship God alone and be a light to the nations around us and to seek to make disciples of all nations and to be his witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Sumeriah to the ends of the earth. So God is not going about winning the world to Jesus in the way that he did it in the Old Testament through a theocracy. Now we live under the governmental system of our land but we still seek to live for Jesus and win people to Jesus within the framework of the government that we have. So that's interesting teaching on today and the other thing I want to bring up and we're going to see this in a few chapters ahead is in Deuteronomy chapter 18. It deals again with false prophecy and in that particular case it talks about hey listen if someone's trying to be a prophet you know test them, test what they say and see if it comes true. And we just have to be very careful about prophecy and prophets today. I do believe that God's spirit is still can do can still speak and give vision and give insight not on par with the Bible we're not going to create no prophets going to create a new word as though it came from God in that way like a biblical word. But yet I do believe that people can still serve God in incredible ways and sometimes have an auction or a vision from the Lord but just because someone says that they have an auction or vision or they say, and I would be very careful to do this by the way thus says the Lord. That's a really bold statement and in some charismatic circles, you will see people want to celebrate anytime someone says they have a word from God or something of that nature. And I don't see unfortunately a lot of testing of the prophets will see this as we move forward in Deuteronomy 18, but it definitely is to be tested. We shouldn't just celebrate when someone says they have something from God, we should wait and we should see if it's truly of God and prophets are to be tested not just celebrated as so everything someone claims to say is of the Lord. That can lead us astray, that can lead us into air as we've seen here in Deuteronomy 13, we've got to be very careful about prophetic things yet knowing we do want to hear from God today and believe that his spirit is still moving powerfully in our midst today. So I call myself a cautious continuationist in the sense that I do believe that God can still move and operate today, but we have to be very cautious that we're in the truth and not be led astray because God was very careful about his people not being led astray. Well, we'll see you again next time in Deuteronomy 14, God bless you all. [BLANK_AUDIO]