Rejecting Pagan Practices

Okay. Okay. Trickster. We're at Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses nine through 14. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into this section. That's going to talk about. Oh, oh, oh, a little spider on you. Okay. It's gone. I mean, don't worry. I'm your big, strong dad. I'll take care of spiders for you. All right.
So we're going to be talking this morning about kind of avoiding the wicked customs that the pagan nations were doing. So 18 or 19. Deuteronomy 18 verses 9 through 14 18 9 through 14. All right, you want some coffee? No. Okay. Well, I'm gonna have some coffee and we'll pray Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word. Lord, it's not a blessing everybody gets in this world, but you have given us your word in a language we can understand. We thank you for those who have gone before us, who have studied the Greek and the Hebrew and the Aramaic and have translated these words. Lord, we pray that we would understand what they mean now and that your Holy Spirit would please apply it to our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. OK, you ready? Deuteronomy 18 9 through 14 you want to read it.
Yeah When you come into the land, which the Lord your God is giving you You shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations Yeah, that's like that was like throw him up out of his mouth There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations which you will dispel Dispossess. Dispossess. Listen to soothsayers and diviners. As for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. Okay. So we have our three questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the best for us to summarize? And C, what are we called to do? So what do you think this is about?
Um, about them not worshipping false gods, not following their ways. Yeah, so it's not so much about false gods necessarily. Well, part of it is false gods, I guess, where it says, you shall not make his son or daughter pass through the fire. That was specifically a child sacrifice to the detestable god of Molech or Chemosh. That's one of the things that they would do with those false gods. But there's another whole section here, something else that they would do. witchcraft yeah right there's like this whole like dark arts dark spiritual magic stuff going on here isn't there sorcery and witchcraft and necromancy and talking to the dead and all that type of stuff what's the lord say Yeah. Right. Don't do it. Right. Oh, interesting. Did you notice what it said there? What did it say at the very end of verse 12? Because of these. Because these abominations, the Lord, your God drives them out for you. So why is why is God letting the Israelites go into the promised land and take it over?
Because they're not worshipping... Well, the other people are not worshipping God. Yeah, right. And they're they're engaging in these evil practices that the Lord hates. Right there. These practice arts are an abomination. God wants to, like, spit them out of his mouth. He hates it. So so that's why he's dispossessing the people who are in the land. And so he says, don't be like them. I'm kicking them out for these things. So don't go in. Do these things.
Right, so so what's this section about? You're not doing wickedness doing What the wicked are doing? Yeah, right Don't go do the wicked things that the wicked people are doing that it's getting them caused to get kicked out by their wickedness because if you do you're gonna Be wicked and do those wicked things and what's gonna happen to them? Exactly right, so don't go do that It'll be like a revolving door.
Yeah, it might feel like a revolving door. Yeah. So don't do that type of wickedness. All right. What do you think would be the best verse to summarize this? What is the best verse to summarize this? What do you think? Nine, probably. OK, so. All right. So you shall not learn to follow the abomination of those nations. Or 14, nine or 14. Yeah, I have 13 and 14 underlined in my Bible. But yeah, that's good. Nine or 14. Good. Yeah, I like those. OK, so let's take it out of its context. Right. So we've we've wrestled with it where it was at ancient Israel about to go into the land. Don't be like them. But are you about to go into the land of Canaan? Are you going to go dispossess the people there? No. So how does this apply to you then? That we shouldn't do what other people are doing if we know that it's wicked.
Yeah. Yeah. Right here. I think specifically we can learn about this soothsaying, witchcraft, sorcery and passing through fire, interpreting omens, conjuring spells, medium spiritus, calling up the dead. Right. I think all those types of things, if the Lord was kicking the other people out of the land and the Lord says, I'm going to kick you out of the land, if you do that, you think it'd be good if we did that?
No. No, right? So this is why there's certain TV shows that I just think, you know, probably not best to watch or movies that I'm like, yeah, I don't, I just don't think that that's good for us. Right. There's certain books that I just rather not mess with. Right. So I think this is one of the things we want to be careful about. People are really easily tied into horoscopes and trying to find out if there's some type of thing that maybe you could figure out the future. And I would say probably best just to stay away from all that stuff.
Actually, in the very early church in Ephesus, do you know what they did when people became Christians? It took all, they had a bunch of magic scrolls. It was very popular to buy and sell magic and magic scrolls at that point. It took all these magic scrolls and they threw them all away. They burned them. It was worth a huge amount of money. Oh, yeah, people were really, really mad at them for this.
Right. But that's what the early Christians did. Right. Because they recognized, hold on, we follow the Lord Jesus Christ and this is not he would want us to behave and act and walk. And so they that's one of the ways in which they walked in obedience is walking away from this type of magical and sorcery type things. So. Are you ready for me to or you want to? Me, there's a lot of those.
We speak in tone like whales. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. God, we pray that you would please help us to trust your spirit. And to read your word and to live in. Lord, we pray that we would not be like Saul, who when things go hard or wrong, that he went and found a witch indoor. Lord, to talk to dead Samuel. Lord, we pray that we would learn from those Ephesus and we would also not trust in magic, but that we would trust in you.
Lord, we thank you for all you have done. We thank you for speaking to us clearly in your word. In Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may you walk as a disciple of Jesus Christ. May you be washed in the water of the word and may his spirit guide you in your thoughts, in your words and in your deeds. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.