[0:00] Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy chapter 13 is where we will be this evening. We will look at the entire chapter, it's only 18 verses, but we're in Deuteronomy 13, just continuing to make our way through the Bible, and in particular through the book of Deuteronomy.
[0:21] And, you know, we are looking at, always good to keep in mind the setting and where we're looking at, and how we've got there, we're looking at Moses' final message.
[0:32] He's declaring these words to the nation of Israel immediately before they go into the promised land. We know the book of Deuteronomy ends with Moses going up Mount Pisgah, sees the promised land, and then he dies.
[0:46] And the Bible tells us that the Lord his God buries him. No one knows where, I'll get it out in just a moment. But before his death, he declared this message, or he proclaimed this message to the people.
[1:02] He states at the very beginning of it, he is seeking to expound the law, or to make clear God's expectations for the nation of Israel when they go into the promised land.
[1:12] And it's not just his expectations for the nation of Israel, but it's just his expectations of what it looks like to live in a covenant relationship with Holy God. Okay, because we have a tendency to separate the nation of Israel, and the Old Testament, and the church, and the New Testament.
[1:29] And there is some separation there. There is, I think, still a place for the nation of Israel, and eschatology, or the end time events. And there's still a place for all those things.
[1:40] We're not looking at that now. But we don't want to separate it to the point that we think, well, that was then, and that's not now. Because we understand the purpose of God calling the nation of Israel to himself, or Abram in particular to himself, and making a nation out of him, would be to display to a watching world what it looks like to live in a relationship with covenant God, with a holy God.
[2:04] Right? To put on display for everyone to see, if I want to live in communion or fellowship with holy God, this is what it looks like, this is what it takes.
[2:16] Of course, we understand the standard is intentionally set so high that none could attain to it. Because from the very beginning, God had determined that man could not overcome his sin, and God was going to do it through his son.
[2:28] So we have that beautiful picture for us. But still, the standard remains. And Deuteronomy 12, Moses declares to the nation the centralized worship of the nation.
[2:42] Remember that? You couldn't just worship wherever, however you wanted to. The declared sacrifices, or the specific sacrifices, had to be brought to the place where the Lord God decided to put his name, or cause his name to dwell.
[2:57] The first place inside Canaan was Shiloh. This is where we read 1 and 2 Samuel, and then Ichabod's written across that, and then it becomes Jerusalem later on.
[3:10] But wherever the presence of God is, that's where you go, and you worship, and you come, and all the truths that went with that, you were to bring every member of your household, and you were to come together with your sons, and your daughters, and your male, and your female servants, and the Levites, who dwell inside your gates, and you were supposed to all come together to this one place, so that people could see other people worshiping, and they would understand that they weren't just isolated individuals with this strange series of beliefs, but they were united and connected to other people, and they shared a common faith, and they would strengthen through that, and now we transition into Deuteronomy 13, and it doesn't come as an encouragement to worship, it actually comes as a warning against idolatrous worship.
[3:56] So Deuteronomy 13 will be the warning against idolatrous worship. Let's pray, and then we'll just get right into the text. Lord, we thank you so much for this evening.
[4:08] Lord, we thank you for allowing us to gather together. We thank you for the time of fellowship, which we've already had. Lord, we thank you for this time of Bible study. Lord, that you give us a great opportunity to open up the Word of God.
[4:20] We pray, Lord, as we open it up, we read it, that we would have a mind and a heart to understand it, and a life that is willing to apply it. Lord, we pray that these truths would lay hold of us, even in a new way, O God, that they would captivate us, or that they would draw us closer to you.
[4:37] Lord, that we would see Old Testament truths and New Testament application. Lord, we'd see it not as something declared in the past, but something declared to us in the present. Lord, just be glorified and honored throughout it.
[4:49] We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Deuteronomy chapter 13 says, If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder 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.
[5:12] 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 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.
[5:31] 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 from 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.
[5:44] So you shall purge the evil from among you. If your brother or your mother's son or your son or daughter or the wife you cherish or your friend who is as your own soul enticing you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods whom neither you nor your fathers have known of the gods of the people who are around you, near you, or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other.
[6:06] 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 hands shall be first against Him to put Him to death and afterwards the hand of the people.
[6:19] 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.
[6:33] If you hear in one of your cities which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their cities, 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 and a matter established that this abomination has been done among you.
[6:57] 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 its 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 as a ruin forever.
[7:16] It shall never be rebuilt. Nothing from that which is put under the band shall cling to your hand in order that the Lord may turn from 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.
[7:42] Deuteronomy 13 A Warning Against Idolatrous Worship I probably should have given you a warning before we read the passage in that this is probably not one of the most pleasant or easy to read passages because it seems to come with such force and severity.
[7:56] It seems to be one of those passages which we would rather not read or really put a lot of thought into because it seems like God is commanding He does not seem like He is absolutely commanding the destruction of those who lead others away into idolatrous worship.
[8:11] Hopefully we'll get to a better understanding of that by the time we get to the end of the message tonight but the first thing we need to understand is that we are not commanded to perform corporate worship on those who don't agree with us, right?
[8:22] So what we see here is something that God had put within this body the nation of Israel among themselves as they were trying to preserve the purity and the unity and the sincerity of their faith.
[8:36] We'll see our application in the church to that by the time we get to the end but I just want you to know from the very beginning God is absolutely not declaring just because someone does something wrong we need to get rid of them, right?
[8:49] We need to have corporal punishment and we need to take them out. He's not telling us that but He is giving us very, very great warning in this passage. So we see this warning against idolatrous worship which is intentionally connected with the reality of a centralized worship found in Deuteronomy chapter 12.
[9:08] Man was created to worship and man will worship and the reasoning behind the centralized worship found in Deuteronomy chapter 12 is because they were going into a land which had a multitude of sites on the hilltops and under the shade trees and up on the ridges and all these places where every man was worshiping however they saw fit and people were worshiping false gods and people were worshiping these Asherah poles and the bell gods and all these things and they were doing it however, wherever and whenever they wanted to and God understands that man's desire to worship will lead him to extreme.
[9:49] It will lead him to trying to attempt to do that which is right in an improper way. Man always worships something. Okay?
[10:02] Agnosticism states that there may or may not be a god. It really just denies the existence of there even being a god. Atheism on the other extreme of that states that what believes in a good and evil and really chooses to worship the evil rather than worshiping the good.
[10:18] Of course Christianity we understand and realizes the difference between good and evil and chooses to worship the good. But agnosticism claims to not worship anything because they don't know or they just have this unknown but the reality is is even the agnostic worships something.
[10:36] Man is created to worship but man does not have the right to choose how he will worship where he will worship or that which he is going to worship because God sets himself up as the desire of man's heart.
[10:51] He sets himself up as the fulfillment of all that man longs for and looks for and he gives grace in Deuteronomy 12 and centralizes the location and brings them in with some accountability and ensures that man is worshiping or has the opportunity to worship properly and then he gives warning in Deuteronomy 13 against this idolatrous tendency to worship.
[11:16] Now we will say from the very beginning here that the nation of Israel did not heed the warning found in Deuteronomy 13. Never did. As a matter of fact the majority if not every one of the warnings that are recorded for us in the book of Deuteronomy were ignored.
[11:34] They were discarded. They weren't taken to heart. They weren't put into practice. Some of the sad realities is even the keeping of the Passover was something that was forsaken and the festivals that are declared was forsaken and all of the covenant relationships and covenant standards were absolutely forsaken.
[11:54] And the warnings were discarded and forgotten. And it's no wonder that God's people end up in captivity because they fail to heed the warnings.
[12:07] So when we come upon these passages we need to see why these warnings were there historically for the people and what application they have for us. And the one that is before us this evening in Deuteronomy 13 really has direct application because we know that we all worship something and we all have this tendency to worship and man around us is a worshiping creature.
[12:30] And we see here that while we may not be looking at Asherah pose or totem pose and we may not be worshiping bells and images and there's no molten calves or any of those things that are necessarily displayed all around us we see that man's heart is prone to worship and we need to make sure that we are prone to worship accurately.
[12:54] And we need to take warning to the cautions that give us. The first thing we see in this passage we're not going to go necessarily verse by verse we're going to go as a big chunk in a hole and we'll see the truths that we can glean from it.
[13:06] The first warning we are given are the snares of temptation. Because we have an enemy who longs to entrap us in false worship it longs to entrap all in a false sense of worship or even idolatry.
[13:24] We need to understand this. Okay? The enemy of our souls Satan himself does not deny the existence of God. From the very beginning go back to the book of Genesis and you see the first temptation where the serpent tempts Eve and Adam because Adam is there with her.
[13:44] Remember the text? He is right beside her watching it this whole way and he does not deny the existence of God. Rather he tries to redefine the word of God and he tries to redefine the actions of God.
[13:58] So the enemy's greatest plan is not to convince people that God does not exist but rather to try to convince people to worship God wrong or inaccurately and not to come to him the way he is openly declared.
[14:16] So it is very becoming of us to understand the snares that our enemy uses because if we see the traps that are set if we see the snares that are there that could lead us away then we would have a higher chance of avoiding them.
[14:33] And these snares come really in this passage in three ways that are all too familiar not only for the nation of Israel but all too familiar with us in our own day and time. The first snare seems simple enough and pretty straightforward because he says if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams comes among you or arises from among you.
[14:52] Now we need to understand this a prophet or a dreamer of dreams is not necessarily a bad person. God is going to use prophets and dreamer of dreams to declare to his people warnings he's going to use the great prophets of Isaiah Jeremiah you know we can keep going on Ezekiel Haggai Zechariah Zephaniah Malachi all these prophets that God will use Nahum and all these minor prophets and major prophets that God is going to use to warn his people the office of prophecy is something that God is really going to utilize Moses himself is a prophet Deuteronomy 18 will tell us that a prophet will arise unto like Moses who we know to be Jesus Christ we see the office of the prophet going all the way throughout scripture and we see it having its place and its prominence now a prophet has come to forth tell not to foretell now that's one thing we need to understand is that a prophet comes to tell forth that which God has told him or her because there are prophetesses in scripture as well that's always a hard word for me to say not necessarily always to foretell or to tell the future even though as they foretell sometimes they do foretell now you say wait a minute pastor does that really matter yes because the office of a prophet and you need to know this for today's day and time as well because a lot of men will stand up call themselves a prophet and declare future events well the office of the prophet was originally given for the purpose of telling forth what God had told them and sometimes when they told what God had told them it would include things to come as in Isaiah
[16:29] Isaiah is probably one of the greatest examples we would have of that Isaiah is coming to tell forth of the wickedness of the nation of Israel and to call them to repentance and to call them to renewal and in the process of telling forth he speaks of the coming of the king of kings and lord of lords he speaks of the coming of the messiah the branch from the root of David and he also speaks of a king named Cyrus who would issue a decree that the people would rebuild the city but all of that is connected to the forth telling right so we're not looking for a future teller we're looking for a forth teller but even let me just back that up we're not looking for any of that today because the bible says in the book of Hebrews in these last days he has spoken to us through Jesus Christ his son okay so if anybody ever asked me if I think the office of prophets still exists today I would say as scripture defines a prophet no okay I don't really have time to flesh that out right now and I'll always use the Hebrews passage because it says in times past God spoken of various ways and various means and various matters but in these last times he's spoken to us through his son Jesus
[17:36] Christ Jesus is the final word of God now the Holy Spirit comes to help us remember and understand what Jesus has told us and so anyway I got off I got on a side track there let me get back on track so we're not discounting prophets here at this point historically but the first snare we see if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he has spoken to you saying now let's just stay right here here's the first snare if someone comes and declares to you a sign or a wonder and that thing comes about it comes true all of a sudden our mind goes well this person must be real he told me something that was going to happen and it did he told me something that nobody knew and it happened exactly like he said it was I better listen to this person the first snare is a false prophet with a true fulfillment and he says be very careful we're going to get to the rest of this verse later
[18:50] I told you we're taking this hope be very careful not to jump on board just because the person who said they could tell you the future was right be careful not to jump on board and to follow blindly just because what they said would happen did happen and just so we don't discount it and cast it aside I know it gets a little touchy-feely at times when we start looking into horoscopes and fortunes and all those things and like oh man everything it said happened everything it said came true everything it said was spot on our enemy comes to lie steal kill and destroy and he is a master of deception we forget at times that Satan was an angel of light the most beautiful of God's angelic creations because it would be very very easy to ignore a red individual with horns and a pitchfork running around with a forked tail but something that is beautiful and appealing and pleasant to the eyes it seems to be so hard to ignore and we need to understand this too some of the greatest tragedies is people jumping on board simply because simply because what someone said would happen did happen I remember when I was a kid and this may make no make no never mind or whatsoever I remember
[20:32] I was a kid it's probably one of the earliest memories I have I wasn't very very young but it's very clear memory I remember I was I was watching a Tennessee football game I can't remember who they were playing a Tennessee vault because that time there were no such thing as Tennessee Titans so I was watching a Tennessee football game and I was sitting in the living room with my family and Tennessee was behind surprise surprise right Tennessee was behind and and they were everybody in my family was rooting for them and you know we were watching it and I remember saying I tell you what's about to happen they're going to get an interception in the end zone he's going to take it out about the 30 yard line and then after that they're going to go down and score and win the touchdown and they're going to win the game and it happened exactly like I said it that's block luck right but it happened everything I mean it was like my mom and dad were there like what in the world I was like I don't know it's just a good guess I guess because I didn't even you know I wasn't really that big of a football fan I could care less my brother was watching so I was there but I remember but just because I said it right doesn't mean you need to follow right but the danger is that people put so much trust because people can tell them their future people can tell them what's happening or they can tell them things and all these things come about but you don't understand everything they said what happened would happen okay first snare we'll get to the rest of that in just a moment the second snare is a little bit harder because it says that we cannot be held captive by those who can tell us things to come but we also cannot be swayed by those who are closest to us because the second snare that we see is if your brother or your mother's son or your son or daughter or the wife you cherish or your friend who is as your own soul these are those who are closest to you if any of these were to come to you and say let us go after this other God don't do it the second snare we see that we have to pay attention to are those that we trust the most those closest to us and we have to be careful here right but the reality is this it doesn't matter who it is that tries to lead us away from the Lord
[22:48] God it doesn't matter how much we trust them it doesn't matter how much we love them it doesn't matter how much we rely on them it doesn't matter how much we cherish them the reality is is they do not have the right to lead us away and we see this this is a snare used of the enemy getting to those closest to us Carrie knows it about me and I know it about her and I'm so thankful for it I want her to love Christ more than she loves me I want her to follow Christ more than she would ever follow me I want her to trust Christ more than she would ever trust me and it ought to be that way with everyone around us because we cannot allow anyone no matter how close they are to us no matter how much we cherish them no matter how much we rely upon them we cannot allow anyone to lead us away I don't know how many times I've counseled individuals and dealt with people who who just what listen I've had a friend of mine who's a pastor or he is a pastor in our association there's not anyone around here I dare say just about none of you would know him other than those who go to association meetings so I'm not going to say his name but I remember he was serving as a pastor and he was he was doing really good I went priest revival for him many years ago where he was at and he got he just opened up to me we were both fairly young at the time and he said you know what brother he said I'm serving and the Lord's working the Lord's moving he said but my wife doesn't support me in the ministry she didn't attend the church he pastored it was actually another county over she wouldn't even come there and she she wouldn't go to church anywhere he would get up on
[24:54] Sunday morning she'd still be in bed she didn't want him being a pastor he said she just doesn't support me and it would just it just wrestled he wrestled that he knew he was supposed to pass he knew he was called to preach he knew he was there and it was just a battle for him and he had to leave the ministry for a little while he became a butcher he went back to cutting up meat fast forward a couple more years and he had came back into the ministry he's pastoring a different church same county still part of association and he's it's thriving they're doing great it's growing he told me very first time I talked to him after he come back he said you know what my wife supports me in the ministry she's there every Sunday she's got an active role in the church he said you wouldn't believe the difference the night and day difference between those closest to you either pulling you away or pulling you in so we understand that one of the snares that our enemy uses unfortunately are those close to us we need to be careful with that we need to be careful the other snare that we see here that is so prominent today is only do we see the snare of those who could tell the future and the snare of those that we trust the most but then it says in verse 12 if you hear in one of your cities which the Lord your God is giving you to live in anyone saying that some worthless men have gone out from among you have seduced the inhabitants of their city so now we go from those close to us to a whole city full of people right and this whole city full of people are are following this other God so now we go from someone telling us a future event that comes about to those closest to us trying to sway us to now a majority or a multitude of people who seem to be going in one direction so now it says don't be caught in the snare of the multitude because just because a lot of people are doing it doesn't mean it's right one thing we find in scripture that unfortunately offends us at times and but also causes us to pump the brakes and have caution is that more times than not the majority is wrong the majority is wrong and that coincides with a lot of scripture when it says that broad is the path that leads to destruction but narrow is the way that leads to eternal life so he says that one of the snares that we have to pay attention to is everybody over there is worshiping this false God and it seems to be going well for those of you that are reading through the book of Matthew you read today or you will read today God causes his son to rain on the righteous and the unrighteous and his rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous there are what we call common grace that all men experience right we have to be careful we have to be careful we have to be like the psalmist who says when I consider the way of the wicked that their belly was always full and their mouths were always full of food and that everything in their life seemed to be going pleasant and that things seem to prosper in their hands when I considered the way of the wicked I was despaired and said oh my soul but then when I looked to their end I said now I'm paraphrasing oh I get it when I look around at the multitudes and I see how well it goes with them and how pleasant it is when I consider the end then I go oh I get it because see one great snare that our enemy uses and probably utilizes it more today than any other is the decision of the majority do you know when they put up stores when they when they build the store this building they build this structure the building some of my
[28:55] useless information that I know when they build the shell of the building they go to stock its shelves they are very strategic in the way that they put things and they're very strategic in the way that they place things in store and as a matter of fact that many of the things that are kind of spontaneous buys and many of the things you know you know they're to register you understand that but a lot of things are designed for right-handed flow of traffic because the average individual the majority of people when they walk into the building always go right so me knowing this when I walk into the building more times than not I go left that's just what I do I don't that's kind of how I am right I'm just a little I'm always kind of been against the grain kind of guy now maybe you will too but they build stores for the purpose of drawing you into the right because they know when you walk in and the crowd is all going right you're going to follow the crowd and it kind of funnels you that way I don't like being funneled so I always go left I don't care how many people I run into but that's just kind of me but they do this because they know the effect of the crowd they know the effect of the crowd and they understand it but how much more of an effect the crowd has on our spiritual life and we need to be careful of that snare so here are the snares of temptation and we're making our way through now we see secondly that was just number one by the way we see secondly the standard of measure so how do we avoid those snares this one's very simple and very quick and very straightforward because if these are the snares these are what our enemy uses and this is what he was utilizing for the nation of Israel to capture them this is what he still uses today because
[30:37] Satan still uses the same tools in the toolbox he always has right he still works the same way so operates the same way things just look a little bit different even though it's the same tool has just been shined up a little bit and so he's still doing the same thing still has the same snares and traps set for us so what's our standard of measure well the prophet is not necessarily wrong the prophet is wrong only wrong when he says let us go after another God see that he says when a prophet or dreamer dream arises among you and he declares something and it comes about and he says let us go after other gods there's our standard which you have not known nor have your fathers known and those closest to you are not necessarily wrong until they say let us go after other gods and the multitude is not wrong until this says let us go after other gods see there is but one standard and the standard is the truth the truth is the standard which we measure all things by it doesn't matter if someone can tell me what's going to happen it doesn't matter what those closest to me say it doesn't matter what the majority and the multitude around the world say if it doesn't line up with the truth then it is wrong that sounds narrow-minded and bigoted and that's okay but it says verse 4 I have verse 4 underlined in my scripture and my own mark on that verse is here is the mandate for following the Lord here's the mandate in
[32:08] Deuteronomy 13 verse 4 you shall follow the Lord your God well how are you going to follow him you're going to fear him and you shall keep his commandments listen to his voice serve him and cling to him which means if anyone does something that causes you not to do any of those here's your standard if someone is declaring something to me or someone near me or even the multitude around me if what they are doing causes me to not fear him keep his commandments listen to his voice serve him and cling to him then I want nothing to do with it now if it pushes me to do these things then I need to pay attention to that take heed but if it pushes me further away if it takes me away from listening to him if it takes me away from clinging to him if it takes me away from serving him then I need nothing to do with it there is but one standard and we measure everything by this standard as a matter of fact I believe this is a good standard to measure everything in our life this thing that I'm doing now does it help me live up to this standard if it doesn't then why am I doing it because here's the mandate we shall follow him with all of our heart all of our mind all of our soul and all of our strength right and this standard that we use to measure is but one so there's our standard and now we get the third and final thing and that is the seriousness of sin the seriousness of sin after declaring this standard and highlighting the the false worship now idolatrous temptation he makes this declaration so you shall purge the evil from among you shall purge the evil from among you and we see the serious nature of sin because of the tragic consequences of it and because of how much it takes our breath away when your brother or your mother's son or your wife whom you cherish or your son or your daughter your friend who is near and dear to you when they lead you stray then you shall stone them we let the weight of that sink in now this is not just talking about causing you to stumble it's not like the illustration and this is someone who's telling you to go worship this false god says you shall stone them now stoning wasn't a quick instantaneous decision right I know it's actually really gracious but now stay with me because it doesn't sound gracious it's gracious in the fact that you had to be the first one to cast a stone and which means you had to be certain right and everybody did it with you so either the sins of an individual were going to affect the multitude or the discernment of the multitude was going to remove the individual but the consequences for it highlight the seriousness of it when a whole city goes that way then strike the edge of that city with the edge of the sword and completely demolish it and burn everything that is there the cattle and the livestock everything is there all the things that you gather together burn it as an offering to God why because that is the consequences for idolatrous worship and it highlights the seriousness now this is really a gracious act that God calls them to do because he declares then all Israel will hear and be afraid and will never again do such a wicked thing among you the reality is is if they had taken sin this serious it would have stopped it in its trap if they had done this everybody would have heard it
[36:11] and said we don't need to go there I mean they're serious about that now we're in the church age right we're not stoning anybody we're not we're not casting stones I'm doing corporate punishment but this this is where Paul gets his I've put this one outside the church I've separated them from among us when he calls the church to preserve the unity and the purity of the body he says set them outside the church this Acts chapter 5 remember that husband and wife team who sold a piece of property brought a portion of it laid it at the apostles feet was it wrong that they didn't give the full amount no that's not wrong what's wrong is that they said they gave the full amount and the Bible says they had tempted the Lord Satan had led them to tempt the Lord and they died instantly why to preserve the unity of the body did they do it no Lord struck them and fear did you ever notice what happens after that it says and fear overcame everyone and no one wanted anything to do with them because they said wow you don't mess around with those people and then there's this statement and the Lord added to their number daily people feared them people stood in all of them people said don't mess around over there and the Lord added to their number daily why because man asked the church by accepting all things God asked the church from the church call sin sin and treat sin as serious and I promise you each and every one of us and I know I'm the greatest sinner I know not being judgmental here if we saw sin in the serious light that it really is and we were put out of the church for it the rest of us would pay special attention to how we live the rest of us would say you know this whole holy God thing that's no joke he's not joking around it's really real and one of the greatest ironies is this and I'm done I know we need to pray man loves to convince ourselves that it is the church with the lowest standards they experience the greatest amount of growth greatest lasting growth I use those words intentionally greatest lasting growth because it's those that the Lord says that's the Lord says that's the one I want to have to do and the serious nature of sin is belittled or forgotten cast out it may appeal for a while but it's going to always end where the nation of Israel ended it's going to end in a mess all you have to do right now is look around the modern church age and see a lot of mega churches with a lot of mess
[40:15] and a lot of stuff coming out and a lot of harm being done in the name of Christ because of it and see that it doesn't last long before it finally falls flat here we see this warning against idolatrous worship thank you brother so Thank you.