Hold to God's Commandments

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We're at Deuteronomy chapter 13 We're gonna look at laws about false prophecy and apostasy and stuff like that. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word Let's pray father we thank you so much for this day Lord, we thank you for the joy it is to be your children and to get to hear from you. Lord, we pray that you please help us to understand your word. Please teach us this morning. God, we need your help. We may be tired. Our minds may wander. But father, we pray that your spirit would teach us in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Deuteronomy chapter 13. Here we go.
If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which 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 know whether you love Yehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him. But the prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death. because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk, you shall put away the evil from your midst. If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, or the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, or from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth.
You shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him. But you shall surely kill him, and your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.
If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, Rupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known. then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true, and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it. All that is in it and its livestock the edge of the sword and you shall gather all its plunders into the middle of the street and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder for the Lord your God.
It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you, and multiply you, just as he swore to your fathers, because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all his commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
Well, we have three scenarios that we need to talk about here. So there's in the economy of Israel, Moses is telling them, hey, if there's going to be a false prophet or there's going to be a temptation towards idolatry, here's three different ways that's going to happen.
And you've got to deal with it fast, deal with it quick, right? The first is a false prophet. That's what the first paragraph was about. So verses one through five, if there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, right? Even if they do miraculous things and do amazing things, they say, hey, look, come follow after this other God. Don't do it. Nope. Don't do it. Follow him. Don't go after them. Right. Why?
The Lord has allowed this to happen, brought this by his providence into your life so he could test whether or not your heart is firm to him. That's exactly what verse three talks about. This is what the Lord's gonna do. It's similar to what the Lord does with Jesus in the book of Matthew chapter 4 when he's taken out into the wilderness and is tempted. But you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. You gotta hold fast to him. That's the whole point of this. You gotta hold fast to the Lord.
As far as that prophet, right? Again, this is the economy of Israel. This is not America. We're not in that same position, but in that economy, in that government, in that localized historical event, they were to kill that false prophet, get rid of them. Second was, right?
Okay. So there's somebody from the outside comes in, they do these amazing things. What happens when it's somebody you love? What happens when it's your brother? your wife, or one of your children, or your neighbor who's like part of your own soul, your best friend. Same thing. Same thing.
Don't go for it. Actually, if you hear of it, you got to cast the first stone, right? And that's one of the difficult parts here. You shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him, right? Those might be the things they would be naturally tempted to do. But notice verse 9, but you shall surely kill him.
This is not vigilante justice, by the way. This is after a trial, right? In Israel, if there was going to be a capital punishment, the person who's the primary witness is the first person who casts the stone, and then the judges, and then the rest of the people, right? It's the witnesses who have to cast the first stone.
Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the people, the hand of all the people. Why though? Why though, right? Because he's enticed them to go after another god. To go after somebody else rather than the god who redeemed them out of Egypt.
So if it's a prophet from outside, you got to take care of them. If it's a prophet who raises up from the inside, no matter how close they are to you, you've got to take care of it. But also verse 12 through verse 18 is about if you hear someone from within the community doing this. If it's within the Israelite community and you hear of a town over there, you know, we live let's say in Morning Sun, but if I hear that there's something going on in Mediapolis, right, that might be that close, like three miles apart, six miles apart from each other.
Okay, hold on, I heard that there's a false prophet. They're telling the people to go and worship another god. Go investigate. If you find out it's true, bring it to the rightful civil authorities. But you got to deal with that whole town if they've deserted the Lord, if they've listened to this false prophet. Why?
Because a little leaven leavens a whole lump. A little bit of poison. If you have a glass of water, but you just put in a tablespoon of cyanide. Only a tablespoon. but it will destroy the whole person who drinks it. The same thing in Israel. There's just a little idolatry, even in one town. spread and ruin the whole people.
God says you got to take care of it, destroy the city, burn it all down. It's just like what's going to happen to Jericho, right? Everything's devoted to the Lord. You got to make it clear that you're standing with the Lord. That's what this is about, right? So this is about what do you do with these false prophets and what do you do with this apostasy and things like this? So that's what this is about. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I have a verse three underlined. I also have 8 through 11 underlined so you can let me know what you think would be the best verse to summarize this. Last seek calling.
What are we called to do? Well if there's one of those who are in the church and they're preaching or teaching false doctrine, if they're teaching lawlessness or things very contrary to the scripture, where to put them out? And that's what 1 Corinthians talks about with putting out the immoral person who is bringing shame upon the community or the false prophet who comes in, right? The shepherds of the sheep have an obligation by Jesus Christ to chase off the wolves.
There's a time to put somebody out of the community. There's a time to hold firm. But it must be with a point. It must be with a purpose. God's people will worship and serve him alone. God brings various trials and circumstances and difficulties in our lives. The question is, do we follow him? Do we love him? Do we serve him? Not easy, man.
I'm sure there's a reason that people didn't do this. I don't know of any example in the Old Testament. I could be wrong, but I don't know any example in the Old Testament where verses 12 through 18 actually happened, even though idolatry did come up in the cities. I don't think they ever actually did this.
Indeed actually they had a hard time even destroying the idols most the time To be hard in the church to do it, too It can be hard in the church to stand up with courage and say what you're doing is wrong and evil Hard to put people out not easy There's not easy to follow God's commands We need his Holy Spirit and we need right motivations for it.
Let's pray Father, we confess to you that we are easily tempted to love others more than you. We're easily tempted to follow other gods rather than you. We're easily tempted, Lord, to just brush away sin. Father, please help us. We're also easily tempted for doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
Please give us your spirit. Instruct us by your word. Preserve your church. Build up your people. May you be glorified. Help us, Lord. We pray in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may you cling to Jesus Christ. He endured trials and temptations for you and has earned you a place in the kingdom. Trust in him. Love him. I'll see you next time. Bye.