Turn with me, if you would, to
the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, chapter 7, please. Deuteronomy,
chapter 7. Well, the day has finally come. Tonight, through Wednesday night,
40 plus churches in our area are joining together to bring
a nationwide religious crusade to the city of Madisonville.
You've seen the signs and the billboards in our community for
a couple months now. And their claim, according to
their website, is to get all the different denominations to
come together to solidify the body of Christ. They claim that
their goal is to put away their differences and concentrate on
the one thing that they have in common, and that's to save
our community by the preaching of the gospel. Now there's only
one problem with that. We don't all have the same gospel.
I'm not trying to be a troublemaker. That's not my intention this
morning. But that's what Paul told the church at Corinth. He
said, I fear, I'm deeply concerned, that the same way that the serpent
beguiled or deceived Eve through subtlety, that your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he
that cometh preacheth another Jesus, with whom we have not
preached, or if you receive another spirit, which we have not received,
or another gospel, which we have not accepted, ye might bear with
him." Or in other words, you might give him an ear. But since
there is not another Jesus, and there is not another spirit,
and there is not another gospel, you better not give heed to him.
Paul told the church at Galatia, he said, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from him, that being God, that called you unto
the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. Another gospel, which is not
another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. There is another gospel that's
being preached today that's a perversion of the truth. And this is what
God said. I'm not endeavoring to come across
this morning as holier than thou, and I'm not trying to say that
our little church and our beliefs are the only ones that are right.
I've been accused of that for many years. In the end, God alone will reveal
if that is so. But what I do desire in this
morning's message is to simply make you aware from the Scripture,
from God's Word, the Bible, what God says about having fellowship,
communion, and linking arms together with that which is false and
contrary to the teaching of Scripture and the Gospel of God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. You can narrow down every and
all religions and every and all denominations within those religions,
and there are multitudes, I'll add. You can narrow them down
to two groups, just two. That's pretty simple. I understand,
too. The true and the false. The gospel,
the true gospel, and another gospel, which is not another.
the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and the message
of another Jesus, which is a perversion of the true gospel. There are
those who believe in God's grace in Christ, and those who trust
in their own works. Just two, just two groups. Those who trust in their doing,
and those who trust in what Christ has done. Those who believe and
preach the salvations of the Lord, and those who preach and
believe that salvation is a man. You see, it doesn't matter what
I think, and it really doesn't matter what you think. It only
matters what God says, and God speaks to us through this word.
And what I hope to show you from this Word, from the Scriptures
this morning, and what I hope God would divinely reveal to
each and every one of us from His Word, is His total rejection
and displeasure of this perversion, this distortion, that's what
the word means, this misrepresentation or deviation from the truth of
the Holy Scriptures. Years ago, the church where I
attended used to sing that old song, Give Me That Old Time Religion. Do you remember that? Or am I
just telling my age? Give Me That Old Time Religion.
It's good enough for me. It's good enough for Mommy. It's
good enough for Daddy. It's good enough for Grandma.
And it's certainly good enough for me. But is it good enough
for God? In order to be accepted by Him,
the Scripture says that it has to be perfect to be accepted. And they used to sing that old
time religion, and then they started making up verses. So
it makes the Methodist love the Baptist. And it makes the Catholic
love the Protestant. But is it enough to make God
love the sinner? The sinner's offering and sacrifice
to a thrice holy God, again, I say, has to be perfect. Only one thing that God will
accept, and that's the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus, and nothing
else is good enough. How can we link arms together
with what's false when God says, come out from among them and
be ye separate? Okay, Deuteronomy chapter 7.
Let's look at verse 1. Moses here speaking to the children
of Israel before they entered into the promised land says this,
When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou
goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before
thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites,
and the Perizzites and the Habites and the Jebusites, seven nations
greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, now look at this, thou shalt smite
them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
Why? For they will turn away thy son
from following me, that they may serve other gods." You see,
these were religious nations. These were worshipers of other
gods. And it says, so the anger of
the Lord will be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. Not them, but you. God is already
gonna destroy them. But here God tells Israel that
if you have anything to do with them, he said, I'll destroy you
too. This is serious business. Verse
five, but thus shall you deal with them. You shall destroy
their altars, break down their images, their statute, cut down
their groves, that was upon which the idols were placed to be worshiped,
and burn their graven images with fire. God says, destroy,
break down, cut down, and burn. That's what you're to do. Now,
does that seem extreme to you? Our God is an extreme God. It's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So it's obvious from these first five verses that God demands
total rejection and the complete destruction of false pagan religion. And when you think about the
constant assault on the truth of God by false religion, well,
it's a continual source of trouble for the child of God. I know
with me and I know with many of you, there's nothing more
upsetting to a true child of God, a believer in Christ, to
have someone lie on their God. and someone to make the efficacy
of their Savior's blood to mean nothing. And to say that Christ
shed His blood for sinners who can still be lost is to do just
that. If Christ can shed His blood
for a sinner, to put their sin away, and that sinner can reject
God and still be lost, then what does the blood of Christ have
to do with salvation? Today's religion says, let's
join hands together. Let's go along, let's get along.
Let's put away our differences for the common good of the preaching
of the gospel. But they don't preach the gospel.
It's another gospel. It's another Jesus and another
Spirit. Is it not so? Or am I just imagining
it? The God I hear declared today
by mainstream religion doesn't even come close to resembling
the God of this Bible. The Jesus Christ that most in
religion preach is a pathetic failure compared to the God-man
that God's Word boldly declares. And it's true what the Lord said
to David. He said, men and women today
think that God and His Christ are all together such a one as
they themselves are. But in the end, God will reprove,
that means dispute, convince, correct, and rebuke those who
declare such self-centered things. To put God anywhere near our
level is blasphemy. God has set them in order before
mine eyes. Psalm 50, 21, it was then that
the Lord told David, now consider this, ye that forget God, lest
I tear you to pieces and there be none to deliver. And I'm afraid,
friends, that men today have preached Jesus Christ and His
Father so low that men have no reverential respect for God.
Jesus is the little old man, and God is the little old man
upstairs. He's trying and willing and wanting
to save people, but nobody loves Him back. That's blasphemy. God's
nothing like us, and He's certainly nothing like the God that false
religion preaches and worships. And God, as we can see here in
our text, has zero tolerance, absolutely no tolerance whatsoever
concerning everything that is not the truth and that's contrary
to this gospel. And that's why Paul wrote, but
though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than the one we've preached to you, let him be accursed.
Friends, it's God who's going to do the cursing and the condemning
and righteous wrath and judgment. In these first five verses, God
commands His people, Israel, to destroy all these pagan nations,
giving specific instructions to having no dealings with them,
none. They're to make no covenants
with them. They're not to join hands or link arms with them.
They're not to form any alliances with them. They're not to enter
into any marriages with them. They're to show no mercy unto
them, verse 2. We've made God this God that
loves everybody and nobody anymore talks about the holiness and
the wrath and the judgment of God to those who will not bow
and kiss His beloved Son. destroy their altars, break down
their images, cut down their growth, burn their graven images,
their idols. How do we do that? Through preaching. Through declaring the truth.
I make no apology for it. And though it's true that the
Old Testament ways of search and destroy, as we just read,
do not apply in our day, yet the promise is still the same. And the warning is still the
same. We're to distance ourselves and separate ourselves from their
doctrine, their worship, and their practices. The gospel is
singular. Singular. And to involve ourselves
with teaching that's contrary to God's truth will in the end
bring only eternal destruction. Now let me say this. I know that there are some very
sincere people that no doubt love Christ in the light that
God has given them. I remember a story Brother Mahan
told from this pulpit about preaching in a Free Will Baptist church
many years ago. And in his message to them, he
said he boldly declared the election of God and the predestination
of God's love and grace to sinners before the foundation of the
world. And he said it turned a few heads. At the end of that message and
at the conclusion of service, Brother Henry said that this
older gentleman approached him very excitedly. And he said,
I've never heard anything like that in my life, but that's exactly
how God saved me. Now, I'm not saying that everyone
in mainstream religion is lost, but in most instances, that's
the case. The God that most folks in religion
worship is not God. Just not. He's a figment of men
and women's imagination. He's something that men and women
have conjured up in their own mind and they've made Him just
right there with them. He's too much like man to be
God. Teresa and I have some in our family who are religious. I mean religious. and full of
zeal, but it's not according to knowledge. And it doesn't
take long to see and understand that we have two different gods
and two different saviors and two different hopes. Their hope
is in their doing and our salvation is already done. And it's not
the same God, it's another Jesus. Now here in verse 6 of our text,
Deuteronomy 7, God gives us the reason and the incentive of separating
ourselves from those who trust in a false god in Christ. Of
course, the obvious reason is that they desire to turn us from
following Christ. They may not even know it, but
that's Satan's desire behind it all. The Lord said right there,
they'll turn your sons and your daughters away from what? Following
me. But notice that verse six begins
with that word for. We need to pay attention to the
little words in Scripture. What that's saying is this is
the reason, this is why. This is the incentive for fleeing
from false religionists. And I'm gonna quickly give you
seven things. Verse six, the first one. For
thou art a holy people unto Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. The reason for this separation
is the fact that God has been gracious to us of his own will
and accord. You see, a sinner who's been
made righteous and holy by God is commanded by God to have no
fellowship with the unrighteous and the unholy. We cannot be
unequally yoked. That's what God demands. He's
chosen us to be a special people unto Him. Hold your place here
and turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6. Hold your place because we're
coming right back. But look at 2 Corinthians 6,
verse 14 with me. 2 Corinthians 6. Verse 14. The apostle Paul, taught of God,
received this word from God. And in verse 14, he says, be
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what conquered hath Christ
with Belial? And that's just simply, that
word's used one time in the old Bible, and it's a name for a
wicked person. What fellowship can Christ have
with someone that's wicked? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel, an idolater? And what agreement, verse 16,
hath the temple of God with idols? And then he says, for you are
the temple of the living God. As God had said, I would dwell
in them and walk in them and I'll be their God and they shall
be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. This is what God says,
Ro, it's not what I'm telling you. This is not what the preacher
is telling you. This is not what Paul the preacher
is saying. This is what God says, says the
Lord. And touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and you
shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. The
Lord described false religion, false religion as doing iniquity. Many will say unto me, Lord,
Lord. Those aren't the words of an
infidel. Those are the words of a professing believer, one
who claims to know God. And they start out well, calling
Him Lord. Oh Lord, Lord this, Lord that. They praise Him with their lips,
but their heart is far from Him. The truth in their hearts are
revealed in what they ask next. Haven't we done? Well, there's a telltale sign. Haven't
we done? A true believer never speaks
that way. A true believer never talks about
what they've done. They talk only about what Christ
has done for them. It's all about what God's done.
It's all about what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Haven't we preached in your name, they said? Haven't we cast out
devils? Haven't we done many wonderful works? Haven't we,
haven't we, haven't we? The Lord said, depart from me
ye that work good works, ye that work righteousness. No, ye that
work iniquity. When we expect a reward or acceptance
for something that we do, even if it seems to be a good thing,
it immediately becomes iniquity. That kind of religion doesn't
do anything but honor self now, I'm telling you. God will not
share his glory with another, and God will say, I never knew
you. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity, Psalm 55. In Luke
chapter 13, many said to the Lord Jesus, haven't we eaten
and drank at your table? And haven't you taught us in
our streets? And the Lord said, I know not
whence you are. I don't know who you are. Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. Okay, back in Deuteronomy chapter
seven. I want to give you, I gave you
the first, let me just go over it again, but seven reasons,
seven incentives for God's people to separate themselves from false
religion. Look at verse six again, first
reason, for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. Now let
me ask you, how did we become holy? How did we become holy? God has made his people holy. How did he do that? and the holiness
of another. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul
lists several things that men and women are by nature. He says,
neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, drunkards,
revilers, extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And
then he said, and such were some of you. Were. But, You are washed, but you
are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. It's God who has sanctified us.
Sanctified means to be made holy. Webster's even got that figured
out. You look it up in the Webster dictionary and it's sanctified,
to be holy, that's what it means. by which we are sanctified and
made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all, Hebrews 10.10. That's how we're made holy. We
are sanctified and made holy in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints with all that in every place called upon the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. That's how we're made
holy. Jude writes to them that are
sanctified, made holy by God the Father and preserved in Jesus
Christ and called. God's people are elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification,
being made holy of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Christ. That's how we're made holy. Not
by something you do. Not by you straightening up and
flying right. How are we holy? We're holy by the substitutionary
work of Christ. And this holiness, it's a state
of being. It's not a progressive work.
Why do people think that? There are no degrees of holiness.
Progressive sanctification? No. You're either holy or you're
not. You're either sanctified or you're
not. You're either set apart by God or you're not. And the
believer's holy because God made them so. Secondly, we're to separate
ourselves from false religion because God has chosen us. Verse
7, the Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because
you were more in number than any people. For you are the fewest
of all people. And not only the fewest in number,
but the fewest in everything. Less than the least, Paul said. You are the fewest of all people,
but because the Lord loves you. Me, you. In John 15, 16, our Lord said,
you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. Now listen, we didn't
decide to follow Jesus. You can sing that if you want
to, but I did not decide to follow Jesus. He decided to save me
before the foundation of the world. Was there a decision made
in my salvation? Yes, but it wasn't my decision.
It was the one He made before He ever created the worlds. The
Lord said, I have ordained you. You've not ordained yourself.
Christ ordained us to go forth and bring fruit. We haven't ordained
ourselves to do so. Many believe that election is
a reason for pride. Not so. It's just the opposite. How can one take pride in something
they had nothing to do with? Huh? Isn't that a good question?
How can you and I take pride in something we didn't do? We
can't. We're bought with a price. We
didn't purchase ourselves. We've been bought with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul asked, where's boasting
then? What have you got to boast about?
It's excluded. By what? Law? By what? Works? Nay, but by the law of
faith, by believing and trusting in the Christ who loved you and
gave Himself for you. And then the third reason, given
to not join hands with false religion, is that God has chosen
us to be a special people unto Himself. Verse 6. Paul wrote
this, According as He hath chosen us and Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Now that's being special. Not
special because it's something I did. That we should be to the
praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Ephesians
1.12. That's being special. Boy, I'm telling you it is. That
word special means several things. You can look it up in a concordance.
It means first to be shut up. Not this shut up, but we're shut
up to the mercy and grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's going to bring the sinner to where he's got no place else
to go but to Christ. Shut up. It means to be peculiar. And not peculiar in the way that
I am. but peculiar meaning purchased, purchased people. God's people
are preserved people. That's what peculiar means. Purchased
and preserved. It means to be jewels. We're
precious jewels in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're those pearls, that
pearl of great price. His church is that pearl of great
price that the Lord Jesus sold all to purchase. It means to
be a treasure. You shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people, for the earth is mine. For the Lord
hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. You're special. You're special. And that's what makes grace so
beautiful. Verse seven says, the Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more, but because you're
the least. And that brings us to the fourth
reason. The fourth reason we have nothing to do with man's
perversion of the true gospel is, and the primary reason for
all that the believer does, is that God loved His people. The
love of God for His people brought justice and judgment and wrath
upon our substitute and sacrifice. He that knew no sin, He that
did no sin, because you and I were sinners. We could not pay our
own sin debt, He paid it for us. Herein is love, not that
we love God, but that He loved us. And He sent His Son to be
a propitiation for our sins, 1 John 14. unto Him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation chapter 1. The believer does not separate
from all that's false to incline God's heart toward them. God's
people do so because God loved them before the foundation of
the world with an everlasting love. Our dedication to Christ
is never the cause of our salvation. It's always the result. We love Him because... This is
why He first loved us. And then the fifth reason for
our separation is that our great God has done everything for us
according to His covenant. Verse 8. because he would keep
the oath. That's what a covenant is. He
would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers.
Oh, God is a covenant God, and his covenant is the eternal covenant
of grace. Note the positive language used
here. God would keep his oath. Not might, not maybe, but God
will keep his oath. And what follows is the content
of that oath. The content of that oath. He
hath brought you out. That's because of His oath, His
covenant with you. He brought you out. It's by His
sovereign will and power. He did so with a mighty hand.
He hath brought you out. None can stay His hand saying
to Him, what do us now? If God brings you out, if He
purposes to bring you out, He'll bring you out. Secondly, He redeemed
you from the bondage of slavery, from the bondage of Egypt, from
the bondage of sin and self and Satan. How do we, what we do
out of love for Christ and what He's done for us, let me rephrase
it. We do what we do out of love
for Christ and what He's done for us. No other reason. We're obedient to Him because
He loved us and gave Himself for us. And then the sixth reason
for rejecting all that's against God is the blessed truth that
He's given His people assurance. Do you have assurance this morning?
I have great assurance because it's in the Lord Jesus Christ,
not in what I do, not in what I am. Verse nine, no. Know therefore that the Lord
thy God, He is God, the faithful God. Now that's what you can
put your confidence and assurance in, that He's God and that He's
a faithful God. He's the God which keepeth covenant
and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments
to a thousand generations. We know that He's faithful. He
keeps covenant mercy to them that love Him. Why do we love
Him? Because He first loved us. Those who love Him are those
whom He has caused to love Him. That's what that means. His love
for us is the cause of our love for Him. And if you know that,
friends, it was God that revealed it to you because it's not man's
nature to believe that. Man believes God loves him because
they loved him. They got it backwards, just backwards. And it can only be known by divine
revelation, by God revealing it to us. Then lastly, the seventh
reason given is that those who oppose God and not found in Christ
are gonna be dealt with in justice. Verse 10. God will repay them
that hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not
be slack to him that hated him. He will repay him to his face. Well, that don't sound like my
God. My God loves everybody. Well, you're God, not God. Verse
11, Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments and the statutes
and the judgments which I command thee this day to do them." That's
the God with whom we have to do. And that's why we separate
ourselves from all who hate God and go about to establish their
own righteousness by their own filthy rags works. God loved
us. God chose us. God keeps His covenant. to us and for us. He delivers
us from bondage, the bondage of sin, self, and Satan. Salvation doesn't come by the
great things that men and women believe that they do for God.
No, religion uses all the right terms. They speak of Christ. They talk of the Holy Spirit's
work. They use all the right names. They use all the right
terms. But they compromise the very thing that is most important. The perfect righteousness that
Christ accomplished. And they do so by going about
to establish their own righteousness. And for themselves. And they
call it the gospel. But that's not good news. Because
you and I cannot finish that perfect work. We can't start
it, we can't finish it, we can't accomplish it. Why? Our righteousness is filthy,
filthy rags. There'll never be a time that
the true believer's not under the mercy of their blessed God. Never. You know why? For God's
mercy's in Christ. And on His behalf, His mercy
endures forever. We're forever accepted in Christ
the Beloved. Thank God that He was pleased
to make it so, for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake. Amen.