If you don't have a Bible, if
you need a Bible, someone is going to get you one. Everybody
have a Bible? If you have a few Bibles, it's
on page 232. 232. Deuteronomy chapter 13. This chapter has three divisions
in it. I'm going to look, if I can,
at all three divisions, so we'll have to get through it pretty
quick. And it's God's provision for Israel. And you and I have
been studying about this now really all the way through this
book. The Lord has promised to provide. He had provided. Forty
years in this wilderness, and we don't know how many there
was among the children of Israel. What numbers? Some go all the
way up to three or four million people. that was out here in
this wilderness at this time. I have no idea. But there had
to be many, many of them. I know different times He said,
Look, you're as the sands of the seashore. You're as the stars
of heaven. The Lord has multiplied you. And the Lord had provided
for this multitude of people 40 years in the wilderness. And
their feet didn't sweat. And their shoes didn't wear out
on their feet and their clothes on their backs. He gave them
food from heaven, angel's food. Gave them water out of the rock.
Protected them from the kings, overthrew kingdoms of the Amorites. He had protected them. And now
they were going into the land of promise. And his promise was,
I'll be with you. I'll be with you. I'll provide
wells that you didn't dig. Houses that you didn't build.
Vineyards that you can eat out of. One of you will chase a thousand. The Lord was going to provide
for His people. But we see something tonight
that is one of the most blessed provisions. And He knew that
they needed this going into the land of idolatry. And that was
to provide guidance, to provide protection, provisions against
false religion, against false prophets and false teachings. That's our first division. I
want us to read it in verses 1 through verse 5. Let's read
it right quickly. If there arise among you a prophet
or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and
the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee,
saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known,
and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the
words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord
your God proveth 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 cleave unto Him. And that prophet, or that dreamer
of dreams, shall be put to death. because he hath spoken to turn
you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the
land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage,
to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commandeth
thee to walk in, so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst
of thee." Now here's another kind of evil they were going
to face. Much of what we studied And the provisions of the Lord
has been provided for them has been carnal. Physical protection
in their carnal needs. But now, he tells them he's going
to provide for their spiritual needs. Protect them from that
which is false. And I think this is the most
important provision, don't you? That he provided for all. Because
this land was full of idolatry. Seven nations and all of them
had their gods. And some of the gods was probably
going to be very appealing to the flesh. So now he says, I've
provided for you. You know it's always easy for
the natural mind to be caught up in signs and miracles. If
we wanted to get a crowd here tonight, you know we could run
some ads in the paper. and say, Come expecting signs
and wonders. And we couldn't meet here. We
probably couldn't meet out there. Because there's something about
signs and wonders, the supernatural. When people begin to perceive
that something supernatural is happening, especially in religion,
well, you can get a hearing, can't you? Because that appeals
to people. Programmed the other night that
this young man, when he was four or five years old, he died. This is what they say. And he
had a dream that he went up to heaven. And he told some marvelous
things that happened there. And he told what was happening
on the earth. And his parents couldn't believe it all. But
they said it must be true because, you know, he had no way of knowing
these things. So they wrote a book about it.
And they're flying off the shelves. And whether that's true or not,
I'm not here to judge that, but I'm just here to say when something
like this happens, it gets people's attention, doesn't it? People
love these things. We had an incident here in this
community, in our town here, four or five months ago or so.
This one fellow said that he had suddenly become paralyzed
and three or four months later he had been healed. That may
have been so. I'm not here to question that.
But I'm here to say this. That is very appealing. People
love these things when this happens. And what I think sometimes probably
we could ask ourselves, what's the motive behind it? Well, we
don't always know people's motives, do we? I don't know why that
kid told his dream and why they wrote the book. I have no way
of knowing their motives. But we know the motives behind
these false prophets. We know the motives behind their
dreams. And he tells us there in verse
2 was this. Let us go after other gods. It's not just dreaming a dream
or doing a sign. If I dreamed a dream and I kept
it to myself, all right. But they never keep it to themselves,
do they? If they speak unto you and say,
let us go after other gods. See what happens? They dream
a dream and they tell it with this motive in mind. They have
their opinion. They have their agenda. They
have their teaching. They dream the dream and they
tell the dream because they want it to appeal to you. And once
they appeal to you, once they do some sign or wonder, That's
just to get your attention. Now that they've got their attention,
now they're going to say something to you. They're going to do something.
What is the motive behind these fellas doing this stuff? Well,
it was an evil motive. It was to lead you, take you
away from the Lord by God. Now, here's a couple of difficulties
that children of Israel faced, especially back in their day.
The first one was, God often used dreams to teach people. And He often used signs and wonders
that He did by His prophets and His apostles. So how were they
to know if it was of God or if it was of a false prophet? And look over here. Let me show
you that. Hold your text right there. Look in Numbers chapter
12. He was speaking here of Moses,
but he did this way many, many times in the Old Testament. Look
at Numbers, chapter 12, in verse 6. God spake in the Old Testament
by dreams. He did it sometimes in the New
Testament by visions. He spake by the prophets, did
signs and wonders to get people's attention. He often spake this
way. Look here what he says in Numbers, chapter 12, verse 6.
And he said, this is where Byron and Aaron was mad at their brother
Moses. And the Lord said in verse 6,
Hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord
will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak to
him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who
is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to
mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude
of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?" So the Lord did speak to men
in dreams, and they often did wonders and signs. How were they
to know then that this was a false prophet? How were they to know
that the dream he had wasn't of God? That put them in just
a little bit of dilemma, didn't it? And there was something else
here. This is amazing back in our text. Look at this. You talk about a trial now. Look
in verse 2. He said, if he has a dream, he
gives you a sign, and the sign or the wonder come to pass. Somebody comes into the community
and says, I'm a prophet, and six months from now this place
is going to flood and thousands of people are going to be killed.
Yeah, right. Yeah, we'll believe that when
we see it. And it happens. And some homes are carried away
with flood and several people are drowned. How are you going
to know then if he's a false prophet or if he's not? And you
know what he said here? In verse 3, the Lord's trying
you. That's what He lets these things
happen for. The Lord's trying you to prove you to see if you
will love the Lord your God. I tell you, the Lord tries His
people, doesn't He? He tries His people. Signs and
wonders. And God gave these people provisions
to keep them from being led away. These dreamer of dreams and worker
of science, even when something that they had predicted came
to pass, he had given provision. They were very plain provisions,
very simple provisions that the most simple-minded among them
could be kept from false religion. He had provided. And you know
what the provision was? It was so simple, a child could
understand it. How were they not to be led astray
and deceived by the dreamer of dreams and the workers of these
miracles? What he tells us in verse 4.
Look at this. 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 cleave unto Him. Now all of these things are very
relevant. But here's one thing that clears it all up and shows
that He had given them ample provisions so they wouldn't be
led astray from Him. What is it? Obey His voice. What does He talk about obeying
His voice? We read this, didn't we? Look
back over in chapter 8. We read this. Remember when the
Lord Jesus Himself was being tempted of the devil? He quoted
this verse. And look what it says in Deuteronomy
chapter 8, and look in verse 3. He humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee
to know, that man doeth not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God does man live. What is that which proceedeth
out of the mouth of God? It's His Word, isn't it? It's
His Word. What did He give to keep these
people from being led away with these false prophets? His Word. His truth. His truth. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by this truth. What if something comes to pass?
What if the miracle that he predicted came to pass? What if his dream
came to pass? And then he turned around and
said to you, now, you need more than what the Bible gives you. What are you going to say? You're
wrong. But my miracles have come to
pass. I don't care. You're a false prophet. You go
contrary to the word of our And you know you can be the most
simple person, the most uneducated person, and yet right here it
is so plain and so simple that you don't have to be deceived.
Provisions, provisions. Obey His voice. This is the way the Lord Jesus
Himself escaped the temptation of the devil. Every time the
devil quoted a scripture, the Lord quoted one right back to
him, didn't He? It is written, it is written,
it is written. And he escaped the temptation
of the devil. And you and I can too, can't we? See, this wasn't
unique to them. When we come over to the New
Testament, we find ourselves in the very same situation that
they found themselves into. Our Lord tells us that there
will arise false Christs and false prophets, and what would
they be doing? Showing what? Signs and wonders. That's what he says here, wasn't
it? And they should deceive the very elect if possible. But we have the same provisions
provided for us as they did. The Word of Truth. You shall
know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And it will
keep you free. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free and don't be entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. How can we stand fast in that
liberty? We have the Word of Truth. He's
given it to us. He's made provision for us. I
want you to look. I want you to hold the text because
we're going back over there in just a minute. But I want you
to look in 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians. What will secure
you and me? from being led away with the
error of the wicked. Look over in 2 Thessalonians,
chapter 2. This is speaking primarily, I
think probably, to us in our day, more than it was even to
folks that Paul wrote to because he was telling what was going
to come to pass in the latter days. And he called this man
the man of sin. And look here how he deceives
people. Look in 2 Thessalonians 2. Look in verse 3. Let no man
deceive you by any means. For that day, the day of the
Lord, shall not come except there come a falling away first And
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, the son
of destruction, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all
that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God
setteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Remember you not that when I was yet with you, I told you these
things? And now you know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time? For the mystery of
iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth, now restrains,
will restrain until it be taken out of the way. And then shall
that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming,
even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, look at
this, with all power and signs and lying wonders." Boy, I don't
know what you and I may see before this is over with. I don't know
what signs and wonders and miracles men may be doing. I don't know. I don't know very much about
this. I just know it's going to come to pass. And I know the
devil's in the deceiving business, and he has his false prophets
and false apostles. He's got them. And look in verse
10, "...with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish." Why do they perish? Why are they deceived? And why
do they perish? Look at this, "...because they
receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved." What
will keep us from being deceived? The love of the truth. Not just
the truth, but the love of it. The lovers. If you love the truth,
I'm telling you, nobody's going to lead you away from it. You
just won't stand for it. You may not have a fifth grade
education. And you may not be able to analyze
these signs. A lot of stuff's going on today
that I don't know what it is. If you ask me what all this stuff's
about, I don't know. But I don't care. I don't care. Is this of God or is that of
God? I don't know. There's a lot of stuff going
on out there. But I know this, I love the truth. I love the
truth. And when they do all these signs
and this wildfire and strange fire that's going on today, and
if it turns me from the truth, if it has a tendency to entice
me from the truth, I say, I don't want anything to do with it.
And that will keep you wanting. The love of the truth will secure
us from leaving our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he told them
there. Love me and hear my voice. Love me and hear my voice. Listen to my voice. And that's
the way you'll be kept from these false apostles and false prophets. Paul said it like this. He said,
nor an angel from heaven." Angel from heaven? What would you think
if an angel from heaven appeared to you and gave you a vision?
Man! And said, that gospel of the
grace of Christ, that ain't enough, you need more than that. And
he was a shining angel, beautiful. Paul said, though we are an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel. than that which I've
already preached to you, let him be accursed." If he tries
to take you from the Word of God and the love of the truth,
let him be accursed. The truth. That's all we need
is the truth. The Bible is the infallible Word
of God. Hide it in your heart. Take it
in your heart. Let it be your rule of faith
and practice. And I assure you this one thing,
you won't be led astray. You will not be led astray. I
don't care how many signs and wonders you and I see in these
last days. He won't be led astray. The Word. That's why the devil
fights against the Word. That's one of the reasons. I'm
honest with you. That's one of the reasons. I think in our country
here and in the English speaking world, he's given us so many
of these different versions of the Bible. He's wanting the people
to just throw up their hands and say, what is truth? Do we
even have a Bible in here? Yeah, we got the Bible. They've
tried to take it from us all along. Don't give up your Bible. Don't give it up in any sense.
Don't give it up to your dresser or a nightstand. Don't take it
home and park it and give it up. Open it and read it. Read
it for yourself and you won't be deceived. That's provisions
God gives. I was reading John Foxe's Book
of Martyrs, and I've told this before, but I always chuckle
when I think of this. It's back during the days when
Catholicism was trying to take the Bibles. They didn't want
you to have a Bible. And the Pope had sent down a message
to his priest, if you see anybody with a Bible, then you talk them
out of it. And I was reading this one little
story, and the priest We found the one peasant reading the Bible,
and he went up to him and said, listen now, if you want the sincere
milk of the Word, you need to come to me and I'll give it to
you. And the poor old peasant said, I thank you. I appreciate
that. But he said, I'd like to keep
a cow of my own. So that's the way we ought to
be, isn't it? We want a cow of our own. I don't want somebody
to just teach me and read you. I want to read it for myself.
I want to read it for myself. That will keep us. Look back over in our text right
quickly, and we'll go on to the second section. Look here in
verse 5. Man, this was a... I think the
Lord demonstrates to us here how serious it is to lead somebody
astray, to lead somebody into idolatry. And that prophet or
that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has
spoken to turn you from the Lord your God. I don't want to say
anything else more about that. I'll deal with that in just a
minute. Look at the second section. Verses 6-11 deals with the second
section. First of all, it was dealing
with a prophet. Maybe nobody knew him. He was trying to lead them astray,
lead them into idolatry, lead them away from the Lord and from
the truth. But boy, this second section, it gets a little bit
closer home. It's not some unknown prophet
that you don't really care that much about anyway. But look at
it in verse 6. If thy brother, the son of thy
mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or
thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly,
saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known,
thou nor thy fathers, namely of the gods of the people which
are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from
the one end of earth even as the other end of the earth, thou
shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken to him, neither shalt
thou eye pity him, neither shalt thou spur, neither shalt thou
conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him, Thine hand shall be
first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand
of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with
stones that he die, because he hath sought to thrust thee away
from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Now boy, this is serious here,
isn't it? How do we explain this? What's
this about? I mean, I can understand stoning
a prophet that you don't know anyway, but taking the wife of
your youth and stoning her because she sought to lead you away from
the Lord and the truth? Taking your son or a bosom friend
and don't pity them? Lay your hands upon them and
stone them and watch them die? This is serious, isn't it? And
that's what the Lord is telling us. To lead somebody away from
the truth, to deceive somebody, is one of the most serious things
you can imagine. And the sentence for doing that
was death. It was death. Hold that and look
at another Scripture. I want you to read some of these.
I can quote them to you and I've got some that I can write down.
Look in Luke chapter 14. Look in Luke 14. And look in verse 25. Boy, I tell you, there's no one so plain
in this as our Lord was. Sometimes when He had multitudes
following Him, instead of embracing them, He examined their motives. And He said things like, if you
come to Me, if you follow Me, and you love your wife more than
you love Me, you can't be not My disciple. If you love your
children more than you love Me, you can't be My disciple. He
that takes not his cross and follows Me cannot be My disciple. He wasn't just wanting followers
to get himself a great name. If you followed Him, you've got
to follow Him because you loved Him. And He was your Lord and
your God and your Savior. And you had to give up everything
else to follow Him. And if you didn't, He'd see right
through you. If you loved land more than you loved Him, He'd
say, you better go enjoy it. If you loved your wife more than
you loved Him, He'd say, you better enjoy her. That's your
reward. He was that way, wasn't He? He deals honestly with our
hearts. And look what He says here in
the 14th chapter. And look in verse 25. And there
went a great multitude with him, and he turned and said unto them,
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and his mother,
and his wife, and his children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Now how in the
world are you and I supposed to understand this? Except you
hate your father and your mother. How do we understand this? Is
the Lord telling us that we're to be without natural affection? That would be sinful, wouldn't
it? That's what He said was going to come in the last day, without
natural affections. The grace of God in the heart
doesn't interfere with our natural affections. If anything, it strengthens
them. Nobody loves and has affections
like believers do. Husbands love your wives as Christ
loved the church. And if you're a Christian, you
can love your wives. You can honor your father and
your mother. Being a Christian doesn't interfere with these
things. So he couldn't be talking about naturally hating them. I think he's saying this. I'm
all in all. You're going to follow me. And
if anybody that is dear to you, even your wife of your youth
or a bosom friend, and they attempt to interfere with you from following
Me, then you've got to hate them and love Me. You've got to reject
them and love Me. That's what He said. You can't
love them more than you love Me. In comparison, the love we
have for Him, must be hate if they try to interfere with us
from following Him. Don't leave Christ and His worship
and His service because some dear loved one has enticed you
to do so. And boy, it was the same terrible
consequences in this. Put your hands on them and stone
them to death. That wife of your youth, stone
her. That husband that you love dearly,
stone him. That's the consequences. The
third section, let's look quickly at the third section. We'll go
over these again probably next week and study them just a little
bit because I know there's questions. Look in verses 12 through verse
18. Here's the third section. We
dealt with the prophet, then we dealt with the loved ones,
the ones that's dear to you, the relatives. Now, he deals
with the whole city. Look in verse 12. If thou shalt hear say in one
of thy cities which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell
therefrom, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, the children
of the devil, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn
the inhabitants of the city." They enticed the whole city.
And saying, Let us go serve other gods which ye have not known.
Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true, and
be certain, that such abomination is wrought among you, thou shalt
surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of
the sword, destroy it utterly, and all that is therein, and
the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword, and thou shalt
gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof,
and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil therein,
every whit For the Lord thy God, and it shall be in an heap for
ever, it shall not be built again. And there shall cleave naught
of the cursed things to thine hand, that the Lord may turn
from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have
compassion upon thee, and multiply thee as he sworn unto your fathers,
when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to
keep all his commandments, which I command thee this day, to do
that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. Here again, we have
the same principle. Now it's not just a man drawing
his wife away, or a friend drawing you away, but there's a whole
city. A whole city. See what happens when false teaching
is allowed to spread. It's like leaven. It can spread
through the whole city. Entice the whole city to leave
the Lord. And the same consequences in
every case. Show them no pity. Kill them. Stone them. This shows us the dreadfulness
of idolatry in leading people away from the Lord and His truth. Is there false prophets around
today? Oh, there is, isn't there? We'd be
naive. Somebody said, well, you shouldn't
be judgmental. Wouldn't that be so naive? Ain't
it strange that we only apply something like that in religion?
If you go to buy a car, wouldn't it be silly for somebody to come
up to you and say, you better not try that out. That's being
judgmental. We won't do that. You see some
food laying around? You wouldn't taste of that, would
you? If you didn't know what it is and examine it? It's only
in religion when we judge that man could be a false prophet.
You better not say that. Well, we should search diligently,
like he said you. You better make sure. Don't jump
to conclusions. This is a serious charge. That's
what the Lord is telling us. There was a young lady that left
our congregation. She went off and accused us of
preaching a false gospel. She accused some of you of believing
a false gospel. That's an awful charge, ain't it? That's not
something we do lightly. You do that with thought and
diligence, with knowledge and searching. What's the church's responsibility
towards such prophets in our day? We've got them. We can name
them. There are cities, there are entire
cities given over to open and profane sin and idolatry in our
country. What's the church's responsibility
towards such people? Are we to stone them? Are we to decapitate them? Are
we to drag them out and burn them? They do that in some places,
don't they? I hope Islam never takes over
our country like they have some countries. If they are, they'll
cut our heads off. And they'll do it in the name
of their God. They're thinking they're doing Him service. This is something very important
as we read this section. Very important to know and remember.
From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the nature of
sin hasn't changed. Idolatry is just as sinful today
as it was back then. That's not changed. But the method
and the way the church deals with idolatry has changed. It has changed. Israel was a
theocracy. Ain't that the right name of
that, Mr. Baker? Theocracy. Church and
the state in one. I have trouble, I can't never
think of that. I couldn't spell it. And I asked my granddaughter,
I said, this poor church and state is one. You have the church
and the state, and they're combined, and they're one. And she said, Grandpa, think
of it like this. Just remember this word. The-o-crazy. And that's what a theocracy is.
The-o-crazy. You remember in the 1500s when
John Calvin, bless his heart, he got himself a block by this. Him and the church, they've been
in Switzerland. I can't remember where he was
at. They set up a church state. And they killed a man. They put
him to death. I think, Mr. Baker, did they
burn him? No, they drowned him. Drowned him? Well, drown him,
burn him, hang him, whatever. But he was a blasphemer. He blasphemed
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They drowned him. They drowned
him. Is that the church's business?
There are people that should like to drown. There's people
you wish the Lord would drain. But we don't do that, do we?
That's not the church's business in the New Testament. The Old
Testament, what did they do to adulterers? They stoned them.
And I imagine when they brought them out and put them there in
the square and they picked up the stones, some of those men
and some of those women were crying for mercy. But you know
what the Lord said? Don't let your eye pity them.
You're going to cleanse this land and keep it clean. Don't
pity them. Stone them. But you come to the
New Testament and the method of dealing with these people
changed. They brought a woman to the Lord
Jesus Christ one day and they said, we've called her an adultery
in the very act. Now you know what that means.
You adults know what that means. And they said Moses and the Law
commanded us to stone her to death. But what do you say we
should do? What do you say? What does the
Savior say? Things have changed some, haven't
they? The church and the way we deal with adulterers, the
way we deal with ungodly people has changed. What would you do
with it? The Lord stooped down and began
to write on the ground. And they said, we've got him now. And
they kept asking him. And finally, he stood up and
said, this is what we'll do. You that are without sin, you
cast the first stone. And the old man, first of all,
the old man, they began to drop their stones and walk out. All
the young men followed them. And the Lord Jesus looked at
that woman who had been taken in adultery, and He said, Woman,
neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. They preach judgment. They preach
justice. You and I preach forgiveness
of sins. The Lord's mother. I think if
you read about in the Gospels about Mary, there's times when
she tried to interfere with our Lord doing the will of His Father.
Now, that's so obvious to me. when he was 12 years old. He
stayed at the temple. She came back and got on to him.
Said, you have worried me sick. Don't you realize what you did?
You should have never did this. We've come back and searched
for you three days. And you know what he said to
her? I must be about my father's business. But did he stone her? She was interfering with him
and his work of the Lord. Was she not? Did he condemn her? You know what he did? He went
back down to Nazareth. And he was subject unto her and
Joseph. Another time she tried to do
it, when they were at the feast of the marriage, and she came
to them and said they have no wine. She was going to try to
take the lead. She was going to boss him around.
Here's what I want you to do. He said, Woman, what have I got
to do with you? What have I got to do with you?
But did he hang her? Did he burn her? I tell you what
he did do when he was dying upon the cross, he made sure his mother
had somebody to take care of her. That's the difference, isn't
it? That is the difference. Let me show you a couple of passages
right quick and I'm almost finished. Look in Psalms chapter 34. In Psalm 34, verse 16. I want to show you what David said. Then I want
to show you what Peter said when he quoted this passage in the
New Testament. Look what he said in Psalm 34,
verse 16. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. What's he going to do? To cut
off the remembrance of them from the earth. These evil doers,
the face of the Lord is against them and he's going to cut them
off. He's going to cut them off. Peter quoted this. I want you
to look how he quotes it in 1 Peter. Look in 1 Peter. Look in chapter 3. Look in verse
12. 1 Peter 3, verse 12. The eyes of
the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their
prayers. But the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, to cut off... No. He stopped there. He stopped
there. Did you notice that? Why would
he stop there? The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. Then he stopped where it said
to cut them off. You know why he did that? Today
is not a day of cutting off. Today is a day of receiving,
is it not? This is the day of the Lord. This is the day of receiving.
A day of mercy. A day of grace. That's why we
don't take people out that's been caught in idolatry and adultery
and every other sin that you and I can imagine and burn them
and stone them. Nobody in here would have been
left. Would we? No. None of us would have been
left. I wouldn't dare have windows on my heart. Would you? Well,
I've never did this. What about your heart? God looks
on the heart, doesn't He? He sees the heart. There was thousands of people
around the cross and they were looking up at the Lord Jesus
in His hour of death and mocking Him, spitting at Him, spitting
up in His face. If you're the Son of God, come
down from the cross and we'll believe. You pity people in their
suffering hours, but they didn't. Well, just about 50 days later
or so, the Holy Spirit come upon the Apostle Peter and the other
apostles. And they were preaching and speaking
in tongues, and all of these people come running together,
doing signs and miracles, and they all come running together.
And you know what Peter said to them? You have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain, and the Lord's going to
cut you off." He didn't say that, did He? If there's ever any evildoers
that deserve to be cut off, they did. But what did He do? He said, Repent everyone of you.
There's remission of sins for the worst of the ungodly, even
for you with the blood of God's Son. on your hands. And they
repented and there was added to the church 3,000 people who
had a part in the death of the Son of God. That's the difference,
isn't it? Now, is God going to cut people
off? You better bet He will. He will. But He'll do it in His time,
won't He? Now is the day of long-suffering. He's long-suffering to usward. To usward. Today is the day of mercy. And
you find the sorriest man or woman taken in very open and
profane sin, preach the gospel to them. Tell them there's forgiveness
in Christ. There's salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the difference, isn't
it? Sin is still sin. It's still damnable if men aren't
saved from it. But I tell you, I'm so glad today
that we can leave punishment to the state and punishment to
God hereafter, and we can go about preaching salvation. Mercy.