Welcome to Delight in Grace. the Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The famous pastor John Wesley once asked his mother how she would define sin. Her response was powerful.
Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things. Whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may seem in itself. Wow. We must be ruthless with the things that draw our hearts away from God. loving him is our highest function.
Let's listen to this message from Deuteronomy thirteen titled Purge the evil from your midst. Our scripture reading this morning is found in Deuteronomy chapter 13. Verses one through five. If a profit or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and gives you a sign or a wonder. And the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass.
And if he says, 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 the Lord 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. and you shall serve him. and hold fast to him.
But that profit or that dreamer of dreams. shall be put to death. Because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God. who brought you out of the land of Egypt. and redeemed you out of the house of slavery.
to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk.
So you shall purge the evil from your midst. Pray with me. Father, we Thank you for your word. and for all the wisdom and instruction. that are in it.
And we thank you for our pastor who so faithfully each week. delivers your word to us. Bother. May we abide in you. as you abide in us.
So that our Lives will be a testimony, Lord, to your goodness. And your grace. Father, may our thoughts and our words and our actions. Declare you. May it clearly be displayed, Lord, that we love you with all our heart, soul.
Mind and strength. to your honor and glory. Father, I pray for our pastor as he comes. and delivers your word. that our ears will be attentive.
and our hearts will be open. And Father, we give you the praise and the glory for what you're going to do in and through us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Good morning, Dan.
Good morning. Thank you, Daryl. Good morning, church. Just a copy of scriptures open to Deuteronomy chapter 13 as we hear from the Word of God today. We're in the third part of Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy chapter 13.
The first part, Moses was giving them a history lesson, how did we get here? And then the second part, chapters 4 through 11, it was a call to faithfulness because this is a second generation. The first generation rebelled at Cadish Barnea, said, we can't go into the land. The people are too big, the walls are too high, we can't do it. Never mind the fact that God brought us over the Red Sea, right?
How quickly we forget. We learn from that. But now, in this third section of Deuteronomy, He gets into the very specific laws of the behavior that he expects from his people because of what God is like. This is what I expect from you because this is what I am like. This is the charter for the people of Israel.
So he's expressing this now for the second time to the younger generation in the plains of Moab before they cross over the Jordan to go into the promised land, the land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Now, this is a tough chapter today. I offered Bobby to be able to teach it, and he said no.
So this is a tough chapter. We have to remember The unique situation of the Old Covenant. The law of Moses was a covenant for a specific people for a specific time. time. We have to remember that, okay?
And as we read this, what we're going to do is understand it in its history, but then also we're going to apply it to us today. What is this for us today in the new covenant? What is the overarching principle that God has for us? as worshipers of God, as followers of Jesus Christ. We have to remember four things.
I want you to remember four things about this: that in the old covenant, The Mosaic law It was a people in covenant with God. In other words, a national. Ethnic People. in covenant with God. namely the people of Israel.
That's why they were called God's chosen people at this time. Second thing I want you to remember is that all aspects of worship. were for the welfare of the people. All aspects of how they did life were for the welfare of the people in general.
Okay. If you remember... When When they first crossed over And they came. And Achen took some things that he wasn't supposed to take. Remember Achan?
Aiken stole the bacon. You remember here that?
Now you remember. And he took some things that he wasn't supposed to take. And how did that impact the people of Israel? Defeat for the whole nation. And God said, this needs to be cleared out.
There is a bad apple. We have a brack of potatoes at our home. And every once in a while you go in the kitchen. Nothing smells worse than a bad potato. You know, and you go in the kitchen, you know exactly what's going on.
You have to empty out the whole thing, right? Just get that stuff out of here. Can't stand it. That's how it is in God's nostrils, okay? And so we have to understand this in the context of the covenant that it is: covenant with a specific people for a specific time in all aspects of worship or for the welfare of the people.
Point number three. Worship of another Another God or another object, worship of another would be insurrection against God's authority. and let me add, a threat to the nation as a whole. Insurrection to God's authority and a threat. to the whole nation.
And then number four. Counterpart worship systems. In other words, the worship systems, the religions of the surrounding nations, did, as he says in chapter 12, verse 31, every abominable thing. Including sacrificing their children in the fire. That's where religion can take them.
Because their religion was up to their imagination and their sensation. And when your religion is anchored in your imagination and your sensation, your religion will take you to a place where you indulge your passions. That's what human religion does. But God says, No, I am your Creator and your Redeemer. This is how you worship me, and you worship me exclusively.
So here's the point for today. I want you to grab this, okay? This is what he's saying in chapter 13. Here is the point of Deuteronomy chapter 13. 13.
Here it is. Be merciless. on what draws you away from God.
Now we can take that for us today too. It's prescribed specifically in these ways in Deuteronomy chapter 13. But we can also understand. Jesus said something very similar to that. Matthew chapter 18 and Mark chapter 9.
He said something like, if your eye causes you to sin. Or if your hand causes you to sin, do what? That's pretty severe, isn't it?
Now Jesus was speaking hyperbolically. What is he saying? What is the principle of what he's saying? Be merciless on what draws you away from God. The whole point of Deuteronomy chapter 13.
Where might that drawing away from God come from. Number one. prophets and dreamers. verses one through five of Deuteronomy chapter 13. Prophets and dreamers, and he's not talking about necessarily, you know, this, not all prophets and dreamers, all dreamers are just bad people.
That's not what he's talking about. Because God would. reveal truths through prophets and also through people Having dreams. We see that in Numbers chapter 12, verse 6. Other well-known people we have in the Old Testament, for example, Joseph.
Joseph had dreams. God revealed truth to that. Daniel had dreams. Right, so God revealed truth through dreams, but you have this man, this person that comes along and says, I've had this dream. And what he's saying in Deuteronomy 13: if this dreamer or this prophet who claims to be speaking for God comes and lures you away from God, listen to me.
even if he does what you think are attesting signs. Wow. Well, he did this miracle. We've got to believe him. It's true.
It's validated. What is the point here? God's self-disclosure is the standard. You with me on this? And we are so blessed to have a, here it is, written record of God's self-disclosure.
Anybody that comes along. And lures you into a faith system that is counter to what God has revealed. It is by definition a false system. And this is what he's saying. And he says, be merciless on what draws you away from God.
What might that look like today?
Well, there are a lot of non-ordained self-interpreters. of scripture That starts their own following without any ecclesiastical oversight. They pop up all over the place. Or there might be those ordained who are ear ticklers. They just simply tell people what they want to hear.
That's not the truth of God. Paul said something Strikingly about this, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, for such men are False prophets, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder. For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. their end will correspond to their deeds. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace.
You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
