Deuteronomy 13. This is our second
and final study in Deuteronomy chapter 13. We looked at it last
week, and we saw there were three sections. We looked at it in
three sections. The first section was there in
verses 1 through verse 5, and that is where it spoke of false
prophets deceiving the people. coming with dreams, telling his
dreams, and giving signs, and it dealt with the false prophet.
What you were to do with him, how you were to distinguish whether
he was telling you the truth or not by the Word of God. That's
found there in verses 1-5. And all of these three sections
has to do with idolatry. That's what makes it so serious.
There in verse 2, the false prophet, this is why he did his miracles.
Let us go after other gods. Idolatry. And then, beginning
in verse 6, if you had a brother, or a son,
a spouse, or a dear friend that tried to lead you off into idolatry. Verse 6, it's the same thing.
If thy brother, thy son, the son of your mother, or thy son,
or thy daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or thy friend,
which has thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us
go serve other gods." Let us go serve other gods. Idolatry.
Idolatry. But they did it secretly. They
did it secretly. But it was so serious. And then,
beginning in verse 12, If it happened to the whole city, if
some false prophets or false teachers went into the city and
led the whole city away into idolatry, and that is what that
was about too, we have up in verse 14, in verse 13, Certain men, the children of
Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants
of their cities, saying, Let us go and serve other gods."
So this whole chapter is about idolatry, being enticed to leave
the living God, the public worship of God, the private worship of
God, to turn from Him to idolatry, a false god. And then we look
last week, and every case was what? Every case ended in what? Death. Death. Stone the prophet. Stone your wife or stone your
husband. Stone your dear friend of your
bosom. And if the city is drawn away
into idolatry, kill them all. Pull up their goods and their
machinery and burn it in the midst of the town and never let
it be rebuilt. Now that's a serious thing. It
was serious, and that's what we saw last week. It's serious.
And can you imagine what a trial this was? They weren't to take
this lightly. If you had a prophet and he predicted
something and it came true, now think of that. Kill him anyway. Stone him anyway. And if you
have a dear spouse or a son or a bosom friend who secretly enticed
you, It wasn't that you and the whole neighborhood knew. He came
to you and he said, Bill, listen, let's go worship this other God.
And you know what Bill did? He went to the elder and he said,
hey, my dear friend is enticing me to go worship the Bible. And
they said, let's stone him. Let's stone him. And then you,
you go to this town that's been led away into idolatry and kill
everybody, burn all their goods, tear down the walls in the city,
don't even save anything for a spore. That's radical, isn't
it? But it shows us the seriousness of idolatry, of not worshiping
the true and the living God. And we come to this conclusion.
To profess to know God and worship Him is the most serious thing
that anybody could ever be involved in. The greatest blessing that
any of us could do is to worship God. To worship Him in spirit
and in truth. To serve Him in the gospel of
His Son. That's the greatest blessing
anybody could ever know. And the greatest curse is to
worship a false god. That's what we learned last week
from our lesson. God takes this so seriously that
He tries His people on this very point. And this is the first
thing we want to look at this evening. I want to go in just
a little bit deeper. But I want you to know why did God allow
this to happen? Why in His providence did He
bring this prophet and his people together anyway? Why do these
things happen? And we are told here in verse
3. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or
that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you." He's
trying you. "...to know whether you love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, to know
whether you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him
and keep His commandments and obey His voice and shall serve
Him and cleave unto Him." He's proving you. He's trying you.
He's putting you to the test. About what? To see if you're
going to follow a false prophet. That's what He's going to put
you to the test. Now, He knows, doesn't He? It would be naive
of me to stand up here and say God has to wait until something
happens before He knows. But what this means is God's
going to prove you experimentally. He's going to prove you experimentally.
He's going to see if you fear Him or if you fear some man above
Him. He's going to see if you hear
His voice or if you're going to listen to some stranger. He's
going to see if you're going to serve Him and cleave to Him
when testing time comes, or if you're going to be like those
of old and say, this is a hard saying, we can't hear it, and
take off. But He's going to prove you.
Here's what the Lord does, brothers and sisters. He puts grace in
your heart. He gives you faith to believe
His Word, to believe Him, to believe His Gospel, and then
He tries that grace. He tries that faith. He does
it to everybody that He calls. Listen to these passages of Scripture.
Listen to Psalm 7 and 9. The righteous Lord trieth the
hearts, and He trieth the reins. Psalm 11 and 5. The Lord trieth
the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence
his soul hateth." Listen to Proverbs 17 and 3. The refining pot is
for silver and the furnace for gold. Now what's that about? That separates the precious metal
from the gold. Fire. You put fire to gold or
to silver and it separates that precious metal from the dross. The refining pot is for silver,
the furnace is for gold, but the Lord trieth the heart." He
tries the heart. Remember when the Scripture says
He tested Abraham? He tested Abraham. He tempted
Abraham. The word means He tested him.
Go up on the mountain that I'll show you of. You take your son
Isaac and you offer him there for a burn off. Boy, that's a
test, wasn't it? That's a test. That's a test. He raises his knife up to stab
his son and burn him, and God says, hold it. And listen to
what he said. Now I know. Now I know. He didn't know it
all along. I'm sure he did. He proved it,
didn't he? He proved it experimentally.
Now I know that you fear Me, seeing you have not withheld
thy Son, thine only Son from Me." I tell you, the Lord tries
His people. He tries their hearts. Peter
says, "...you may be in heaviness through manifold temptation,
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perishes, may be found unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. God's proven you. And man, that's
a severe test, ain't it? Severe test. You hold that right
there. Put your little mark. And I want
you to turn over to the New Testament. And look in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2. Look in verse 1. 1 Thessalonians
2, verse 1. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, our coming to you, that it was not
in vain. Now look at this. But even after that we had suffered
before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi. Do
you remember what happened at Philippi? Paul and Silas was
beaten, thrown into jail with their backs bloody. At midnight they sang praises
to God. Shamefully entreated them. They got out of there and
went to Thessalonica to preach the gospel to them. And he says,
even after we were shamefully treated at Philippi, we were
bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much
contention. Now, if you want to read what
was going on, read Acts chapter 17, those first few verses. Paul,
as his manner was, went into those synagogues and began to
open up the Scripture and to teach them that Christ must needs
have suffered. He had to suffer to fulfill the
Old Testament Scriptures, the predictions that he would suffer.
Christ must suffer because you and I are sinners. We're going
to perish if he don't die for us to atone for our sins. So
he said, I preach to you that Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead. And this Jesus is the Son of
God. He's the Christ. And boy, when
he preached that, they stirred that place up. The house of Jason,
they captured them, got them out and was ready to beat them.
Paul had to flee. Contention. I preached the gospel,
he said, and it stirred up the whole city against them. In verse
3, For our exhortation was not of deceit. We weren't there trying
to deceive people and lead them astray. That's not what we preach. And nor of uncleanness. It wasn't
of uncleanness. We didn't preach out of sinful
motives. We didn't preach for filthy lucre. For money. They
preached against these things, didn't they? By the Word and
by their practice. Not of uncleanness. Nor of guile. They weren't dishonest. They
weren't hypocrites. Not insincere. But look at this. But as we were allowed of God. Approved of God. To be put in
trust with the Gospel. Oh, man, isn't that wonderful? To be put in trust with the Gospel. God called these men. He taught
them the Gospel. He gave them grace to believe
it. And He said, I'm going to give it to you and put it into
your trust to preach to other people. What an honor, brothers
and sisters, to be trusted with the Gospel. You know if somebody
trusts you with something. I often think of babysitters. I've had people call me, do you
know a good babysitter? Where can we get a good babysitter?
I mean, you just won't let anybody keep your kids with you. When
somebody that loves their children and brings their children to
you, they entrust you with their children. What an honor that
is! Can you imagine what an honor
it is for God to entrust us with the gospel? This is the most
precious treasure known in heaven. The most valuable treasure. And for God to entrust a man
with it, to entrust His church with it, He entrusted us with
the gospel. And look at this, even so we
speak. Just as He taught us the gospel,
that's what we speak. We don't take anything from it.
We don't add anything to it. We don't disguise it. Just as
He's revealed it to us, that's what we speak. Just the Gospel.
And look at this. Not as pleasing men. Not as pleasing
men. Not as pleasing men. Boy, that's
a big temptation, ain't it? To please men. You want men's
applause. You want men's approval. Some
people want men's money. They are afraid of men's persecution.
They are afraid of the looks on their faces. But Paul said,
God has entrusted us with the Gospel, and we preach that Gospel. Not as pleasing men, but God. But God. And look at this, which
trieth our hearts. What does He trieth our hearts
on? This very thing. This very thing. The Gospel.
The Gospel. I've entrusted the gospel to
you. Are you going to keep it as a precious treasure? Are you
going to compromise it? Well, He brings us there. I'm
telling you, you may be a preacher. You may be a businessman, Bill,
Terrence. You may be a wife that stays
home. You may be a student. But God
in His providence is going to bring you to the place and to
a situation where you're tried on this very point. Once God
talks to you from His Word, He's going to try you to see if you
believe it. And it's going to be a real trial. It's going to
be a real trial. And it's going to take His grace
to keep you. Can you imagine some of the situations He can
bring you into? Oh, I'll stand today. But here's
what happens, you see, when you're not ready for it. Suddenly there
you find yourself in a situation. Am I going to stand for the truth,
whatever it is, or am I going to compromise? If He gives you
His grace, if He grants you faith to believe Him and His Word,
He's going to try it. He's going to try it. And your
pastor never leaves his house in the morning. Very seldom he's
out of bed until I'm praying this, Oh Lord, keep me today.
If you try me today, give me grace. And your pastor has gone
on a lot of times, weeping in his heart, saying, Lord, forgive
me. Why did I not stand? Why did
I not say something? Why did I do what I did or say
what I said? The Lord is going to try us.
He's going to try us. I'm going to see if you love
me. I'm going to see if you love me. I'm going to see if you love
me more than that false prophet. I'm going to see if you love
me more than your wife or your husband or your child. I'm going
to see if you'll listen to me. To prove you. The Lord thy God
proveth you to see if you love Him. If you'll walk after Him.
If you'll cleave to the Lord your God. If you'll listen to
His Word. That's what this is all about.
All three of these sections. It's about that. I heard two fellows lately. I heard one last night. One of them is a preacher. He has a large congregation.
Probably the largest congregation in the world. And he had an opportunity on
national TV. A man asked him directly. What
do you think about the Deity of Jesus Christ? Is He God? Is He God? Well, God put that
man right there for that time to test him. And you know what
He said? Oh, you know what He said. I've told you so many times.
I don't want to get into those issues. I heard another man last
night. He got a letter and he was reading
the letter somebody wrote him on his program. I watch his program. Somebody ask him the same question.
He has heard all over the world. What do you believe? This specific
question. What do you believe concerning
the deity of Jesus Christ? And you know what he said? I
don't get into those things on our program. You better change
programs. You know what the Lord Jesus
Christ said? He that is ashamed of me, and of my word in this
adulterous and sinful generation, of him will I be ashamed when
I come in my glory with the holy angels." The Lord is going to
try you, isn't He? God is going to try us. He is
going to try us. And that is what these three
sections are about, trying us. Now, look back over at our text
again, Deuteronomy 13. Let's look at the second section. Let's learn this from the second
section. You know, if the first section teaches that with a prophet,
a prophet that maybe you don't know, you can take a stand against
him. You don't know him, don't care
that much. But, boy, the second section, if your wife or if your
husband or your son entices you, if they want you to leave the
living God and go worship idols, well, that's getting closer to
home, isn't it? This is a greater proof here. And what we see here
in this one is that divine grace in the heart is stronger than
human affections and natural relationships. And the Lord is
going to prove that. He says there in verse 6, If
thy brother, the son of your mother, or thy son, or thy daughter,
the wife of your bosom, and so on, if they entice you, if they
entice you, stone them. Stone them. Now, how much courage
would you have to have, how much grace would you have to have
in your heart to say, not only are you not leading me away from
the Lord, I'm going to stone you for it. I'm going to kill
you. Now, we studied a little bit about this principle. Sin
is the same in the Old Testament and the same in the New Testament.
But we don't stone people, do we? We looked at that last week.
We don't stone people. We don't cut people's head off.
But I'm telling you this much, we still don't put up with it,
do we? We can find that in the New Testament. If we get time,
we'll build that up just a little bit. But here it shows that divine
grace in the heart is stronger than human affections and these
natural relationships. Now it is. The Lord Jesus said,
A man's enemy shall be they of his own house. And a lot of times,
that's it. That's it. When the Lord saved me, my dad
was a free will Baptist preacher when I was growing up. And he
taught me two things. And I appreciate what he taught
me. He taught me two things. He taught me there was a judgment
to come. And he taught me there was a hell. And I appreciate
him teaching me those two things, but he taught me nothing of the
grace of God. He taught me nothing of Jesus
Christ being a substitute for sinners. He didn't teach me that. I don't know if any of you ever
heard of Herbert W. Armstrong. He's been dead now,
but we were raised on Herbert W. Armstrong. Every day that
he was on, my dad turned up And I still remember, the world tomorrow,
Herbert W. Armstrong, post office box 111
Pasadena, California. And I listened to that man all
the time I was growing up. I came north, the Lord saved
me, and then I started talking to my dad. And I found out the
reason he never did tell me about the grace of God in Christ, he
knew nothing about it himself. Why he didn't tell me about Christ
being an effectual Savior? He never knew it himself. He
never knew it himself. And I loved my dear dad to death.
He loved me. He'd do anything for me. But
I told him, I said, Dad, listen, you're wrong. You are dead wrong. And I'd open up the Scriptures
and I'd show it to him. You're wrong. And here's where
you're wrong. Now, how can you do that with
your dear dad? Divine grace in the heart is
stronger than natural affections. I want you to turn right quickly. Hold that again and look over
at Ruth. Just turn over to your right. Start turning to your
right. Go past Joshua. That's the next book to your
right. Then if past Judges, then your next book will be Ruth.
You've got a few Bibles on 324. Here's what I'm talking about.
Look at this. This story about Ruth demonstrates exactly what
I'm talking about. Divine grace in the heart is
stronger than natural affection. Look here in Ruth chapter 1 and
look in verse 6. This is where Naomi had left
Israel. Her and her husband and their
two sons went down in the land of Moab. Her two sons married
two Moabite girls. And her husband died and her
two sons died. That just left her and her two
daughters lost. And here's where the story picks up. Look in verse
6. And she arose with her daughter-in-law, that she might return from the
country of Moab. For she had heard in the country
of Moab how that the Lord had visited His people and given
them bread. The Lord's visiting people. He's
visited His people. I'm going home. I'm going home. They're worshiping the Lord there.
I'm going home. Wherefore she went forth out
of the place where she was, and her two daughter-in-laws with
her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go return each to her mother's house." Her mother still lives.
The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead
and with me. Verse 10, And they said unto
her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi
said, Turn again, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are
there yet any more sons in my womb that may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go
your way, for I am too old to have any husband. If I should
say, I have hope. If I should have a husband also
tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry and wait
for them till they are grown? And they lifted up their voice
and wept again. And Oprah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clung to her. And she said, Behold, your sister-in-law
is going back to her people. And to her gods return thou after
your sister-in-law." Why'd she go back? She didn't much want
to. She cried, I don't want to leave
you. I don't want to leave you. But
boy, that natural affection for her mother, her family, her home,
her house, drew her back. Oh, I can do it. I don't want
to, but I'm going back. But look at this one, look at
Ruth. And Ruth said, And treat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following acts of thee. For whither thou goest, I will
go. And where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God.
Where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord
do so unto me, and also more, if aught but death part me and
Thee. Spiritual connection. Spiritual
affection. Grace in the heart. Who is my
mother? Who is my sister? Who is my brother? Those who do the will of God. That's it. That's it. As some of you right here tonight And the gospel, grace in your
heart, has brought this division between you and your intimate
family. It's brought this division, hasn't
it? It's brought this division. Len, you tell us a lot about
your family. And that's what grace does. I
came not to send peace, but what? A sword. A sword. That's what grace does, isn't
it? It does that. You don't want it to happen.
You pray that it won't happen. But that's what it does. And
here's what's happened. You're a child of light. They're
a child of darkness. They don't want you to worship
the God that you love. They don't want you to cleave
to the cross that you're cleaving to. You come and go with us.
Don't be so narrow. Don't be so dogmatic. So what
happens? There's a division, a sword there,
among you and the most intimate, natural person in your life. And the Lord tries you with that.
He tries you with that. Look at the last section right
quickly. Let's look at the last section. That begins in verses
12 through verse 18, where they went into the city. and destroyed
it all. What's this about? It's about
the same thing. This is about the unity of the
nation of Israel. Twelve tribes. Twelve tribes. One nation. One nation. That's unity, isn't it? That's
unity. When you walked into the holy
place in that tabernacle, when the priest walked into the The
first compartment, the holy place, on his right hand sat a table
that had twelve cakes on it. Twelve cakes on that one table
that represented the whole nation of Israel. When Joshua and the
children of Israel crossed the Jordan, when the priests stepped
their feet down in the river of Jordan, that thing parted.
And Joshua said, get twelve stones and set them up here in the bed
of that river. They went across and set twelve
stones up on the other side. Those twelve stones, twelve,
twelve, twelve, represents one nation. If there was ever one
nation under God, it was this nation right here. And nothing
could separate their unity as one nation. This third section here is about
preserving this unity as one nation. What does one tribe in
the South have to do with the era of another tribe in the North? Here's what it has to do with
it, brothers and sisters. They're one nation. One nation. What if one of the tribes in
the south heard that one of the tribes up north had erred from
the truth, left their profession of the living God, and was worshiping
idols, and what if they got together and they said this? This has
broken our heart that they did this. But what's that to us? We ought to send a letter or
something to try to encourage them to come back. But if every
time a tribe erred from the truth, we got involved in it, what are
we going to do about our factories? What are we going to do about
our farms? We're not going to have time to do anything but
correct an error. Wouldn't that have been an awful
attitude of indifference? This was the most critical thing,
more important than their farms, more important than their jobs,
more important than their families. If error entered one tribe, it
affected the whole nation, because they were one. That's why he said here in verse,
back in our text, in chapter 13, in verse 14 Then shall you inquire, and make
search, and ask diligently, and behold, if it be true, and the
thing certain, that such an abomination is wrought among you." But it's
not among this one tribe, these eleven tribes. They've done nothing. The one tribe is the one that
did it, and yet he said it's involved all of you. Among you. And how far reaching is this
among you? It extends to the uttermost borders
of Israel. If one tribe errs, it is among
you, because they have unity. They are one nation under God. Among you. Now, how do we apply
this to the church? How do we apply this to the church?
Well, look over, you can leave that now if you want to, and
look over right quickly in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Probably
been two years ago now since you and I went through our confession
of faith. And the reason we did that, was not to create any confusion
or disunity, but we went through that confession of faith to solidify
the unity that we have. Those old timers, our forefathers,
got together and wrote these great confessions of faith. The
Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the London Confession of Faith,
The Presbyterians got together. They did that in the Council
of Dort. We all have read something about that. But the reason they
did that was for this reason. It was to cement, as it were,
unity in the church. The church is one church. She has many members, but she
is one church. And when you and I went through
that confession of faith, remember some of the things we studied.
We studied about the nature of God, who God is, and the trinity
of His sacred persons. What's He like? What's God like? We studied about the nature of
Jesus Christ, His nature as God and man. What did He accomplish
upon the cross? Where is He now? What's He doing? What's He going to do? What are
we? What's our nature? How do we
get in the church? What's the church's glorious
end? Why did we study these things? You know why we do that? Unity. Unity. And you know what happens
when we come here and we open our Bibles and we teach from
God's Word? You know what happens when you're
a child of God? You know what happens? It cements
you together, doesn't it? It lets you know that you're
one with every other child of God. Not only in this congregation,
but everywhere that Christ has established His church. How far
reaching is that? You go to Africa, you go to Mexico,
you go to Canada, wherever you find the true church, we are
one with them. And we're concerned about them,
aren't we? Are you concerned about the church of Jesus Christ?
You say, Bruce, I love this little congregation. I'm not talking
about just this church. I'm talking about the church
of Jesus Christ. He has a church in this world. Are you concerned about that
church? Do you care about that church? Do you pray for that
church? That's what this is, the unity,
the unity. I know, boy, we've got, man,
a lot of look at the false religions. I know that on Abraham. I realize
that. But I say the Lord has a church
in this world, too. He's got a bunch of them that
we don't know anything about. Scattered all over. And it's
about unity. We want them to stand fast in
the truth. We don't want them to err. We're one body. That's what Paul's going to tell
us. Look in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, look in verse 12. For as the
body is one, and hath many members, Israel had twelve tribes, but
they were one nation. And all the members of that one
body, being many, are one body. So also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond
or free, have been made to drink unto one Spirit, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one church, one gospel, one, one, one, unity. For the body is not one member,
but many. If the foot shall say, Because
I am not of the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body? If the ears shall say, Because
I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? If the whole body were not an eye, where were the
hearing? If the whole were a hearing, where were the smelling? But
now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body,
as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member,
where were the body? But now are they many members,
yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the
hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet,
I have no need of thee. Nay, much more those members
of the body, which seem to be most feeble, are necessary. And
those members of the body which we think to be less honorable,
upon those we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts
have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no
need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honor to that part which lacketh, that there should be
no schism, no division in the body, but that the members should
have the same care one for another. And where one member suffers,
what happens? All the members suffer with it.
If one member errs, what happens? All err with it. If one member
be honored, all the members rejoice together. Now you are the body
of Christ and members in particular. There's a bunch of the Lord's
people in this world today, but you know something? We're one.
We're one. We're just one. And we're going
to keep it that way if we can. We're not going to let any error
come in from outside if we can help it. Not in this congregation. Not in the Church of God. Any
place that we know that we can help them. Sometimes people get
on to me. You don't know about it. I don't
tell you. But sometimes somebody comes up to me and says, I wish
you'd quit saying anything about false religions. Especially when
you name them. And people's got on to me about
getting on the Pope. I know that I'm tough on the
Pope. I realize that. But you know why I'm tough on
the Pope? He's been left alone too long,
ain't he? You know what that fellow believes? He believes
there's two mediators between us and God. What would they have done in
the Old Testament? They'd have stoned him. And we're
to embrace him? When he tells people to come
to my priest and get your sins absorbed, and we're to embrace
him? If somebody treated your character like he
treats Christ, what would you think then? If somebody ran your
name down like they ran Christ's name down and like they do him,
what would you think then? It would be different, wouldn't
it? If you were to stand for anybody's
honor and glory, it's the Son of God's glory, and it's His
honor. We're one church. I don't want anybody to err on
you. We want to keep this unity, don't we? Unity. Unity in the
body of Jesus Christ. That's why we stand against these
things. I want to end with a paragraph
written by C. H. McIntosh. He's talking about
this subject. Here's what he says. If Christ be honored, if Christ
be dishonored, If doctrines be taught derogatory to the glory
of his person, the efficacy of his work, or the virtue of his
offices, we are bound, by every motive which could possibly act
on our hearts, to reject with stern decision such doctrines. Indifference or neutrality where
the Son of God is concerned is high treason in the judgment
of the high court of heaven. We would not be indifferent if
it were a question of our own reputation, our personal character,
or our personal or family property. We should be thoroughly alive
in everything affecting ourselves to those dear to us. How much
more deeply are we to feel in reverence to what concerns the
glory and honor and the name and the cause of the One who
we owe our present and everlasting awe? The One who laid aside His
glory, came down unto this wretched world, and died a shameful death
upon a cross in order to save us from the everlasting flames
of hell? Could we be indifferent to Him?
Could we be indifferent to things concerning Him and His glory
and His honor? God in His mercy forbid it. No,
it must not be. The honor and glory of Christ
must be more to us than all besides. Reputation, property, family,
friends, all must stand aside if the claims of Christ are involved. Does not the Christian reader
own this with all the energy of his ransomed soul? We feel
persuaded that he does even now, and oh, how shall we feel when
we see him face to face and stand in the full light of his moral
glory, with what feelings shall we then contemplate the ideal
of indifference or neutrality with respect to him? Could we
contemplate being neutral? were His glories in God? Could
we contemplate indifference? Why, if we did, brothers and
sisters, it would be like the priest going in and grabbing
those twelve cakes and scattering them before the throne of God. Or somebody coming through and
kicking those twelve stones over the other two planets in the
bed of Jordan River. Could we possibly remain indifferent
seeing what's at stake? The glory of Jesus Christ and
the unity of His body in this world. God helping us. We're
going to stand, aren't we? We're going to stand. We don't
go cut anybody's head off. Let me give you these three scriptures
right quick what we do. Listen to this. You can mark
these down and read them later because I've kept you too long.
Romans 16 and 17. Chapter 16, verse 17. Mark them. Mark them. I mean, put a mark
on them. which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them."
As you read through the first 15 chapters of Romans, learn
the doctrine of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And then,
when anybody comes up and teaches and preaches contrary to what
you've learned, avoid them. Avoid them. We don't kill them,
we don't stone them, but we avoid them. We don't put our approval
on them, do we? Listen to Titus chapter 1 verse
13, speaking of these false teachers. Rebuke them sharply, that they
may, that the people may be sound in the faith. Paul goes further
when he talks to Timothy. He says, "...them that sin, rebuke
before all that others may hear." Let's check Thessalonians 3,
verse 14. "...If any man obey not my words
by this epistle, know that man, and have no company with him.
Count him not as an enemy, but warn him as a professing brother."
So if you see somebody that's false, and he wants to be your
bosom buddy, but he's living in willful rebellion against
the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ, don't take him for your
bosom buddy. Don't take him for your bosom
buddy. Don't count him as your enemy. Be cordial to him and
be good to him. If you take him as your bosom
buddy, I'll tell you what he'll do. You won't so much influence
him, he'll be influencing you. And people will be looking at
your relationship with that person and say, man, man, what a bad
lot. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. Watch who you hang out with.
Be careful. Be careful. The glory of Christ. If it's at stake, brothers and
sisters, be careful. Cap you a little bit long. I
appreciate your patience.