[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Take your Bibles if you would and turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13.
[0:16] Deuteronomy chapter 13. I just want to thank the Lord for you and the goodness you have and of your hard work and all the things that you as a church do. Thank the Lord for Him dying on the cross for us and giving us salvation, giving us hope in a world where there would be no hope without Him.
[0:32] It's a privilege that we have to serve Him. Amen? I want you to be praying. As you know, I'm sure we're working on getting to a new piece of property. We own the property already, and there's a little over $350,000 in our account right now towards getting started and the plans are being worked on and all that's happening to get us to a new piece of property and a new building.
[0:54] Hope you'll pray about that. Maybe God have you give a special gift, give an offering, but we're going to, Lord willing, in just a year and a half or so be in a new building. And so I ask you to be praying and working, asking God, let's keep building.
[1:08] This morning, there's about 150 folks in the auditorium here, not counting everybody else in different parts of the building, 247 all together here in the building. And so the Lord's blessing, and I thank you for your hard work.
[1:22] Go with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy. I want to start, instead of going to the chapter 13, I want to start, if you would, in Deuteronomy 12, 31. And this is where we were on Thursday night.
[1:34] And I just want to remind you that we're in a passage of Scripture where the Lord has warned us, warned the Jews, that they could be snared by following after false gods.
[1:47] That's in verse 30. Read verse 30 with me. Sorry about that, guys. Verse 30. Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. And after that they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?
[2:08] Even so will I do likewise. It ought never be our goal. We don't even need to know what false religion's about. We got the real one. We got Jesus. We don't need to know.
[2:19] And he told the Jews, he said, You're going to go out and you're going to destroy them. Don't be asking what, you know, when you come up and you see one of the places they've been, you see one of the things they've done, don't even ask.
[2:31] Don't try to study up on them. Don't try to learn after them. And definitely, in verse 30, don't do like them. You ought never be that we're going to try to imitate what they're doing. Satan was setting traps.
[2:43] They weren't to even study up on that. In verse 31, he makes it real clear. False gods always hurt us. Look at verse 31.
[2:55] Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God. Don't you treat him like they do one of their false gods. For every abomination to the Lord, everything he hates, everything he hates have they done unto their gods.
[3:09] They do unto their gods everything that our God hates. The Bible says, For even their sons and their daughters, they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
[3:20] The devil knows enough about true Christianity or true religion to know that it is the sacrifice of the son, but he made them burn their sons in the fire.
[3:32] He hurt them, and our God hated that. So in Deuteronomy chapter 13, he is telling them how to live godly in the new land that he's given them, and he's warning them, you are not to serve other gods.
[3:47] You are never to serve other gods. Look with me if you would in chapter 13 and verse 1. The first thing he told them is there are going to be some false teachers. And it might shock you today to know that there are a lot of people that use the name of Christ, they use the name of God, and they teach a lot of stuff that's just simply not biblical.
[4:07] And God told you, God told the Jews that that was going to happen, so it's obvious I can know that too, because I can read it. Verse 1, If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, now watch what's going to happen if you would in verse 2, and the sign or wonder come to pass.
[4:28] See, this guy's going to come out, and he's going to say, Watch this. I must be a man of God. I must be a powerful person. I can do stuff, and I can make it happen. And so he does some miracle, and it comes to pass.
[4:40] And then he's going to say in verse 2, look at it. In verse 2, he's going to say, So now let's go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let's serve them. He said, Now look this way just a second.
[4:50] I want you to catch this. They're going to step out, and they're going to say, Hey, I am a man of God. And in the Old Testament, we're going to find out the story. As we go through, you'll find more and more of that story.
[5:01] I am a man of God. Watch this. I can even work miracles. When I work a miracle, then I want you to look at me and realize I must be somebody special, so I want you to come and follow after me.
[5:13] And he said, No, no, no, no. We, you're my people, and you follow what I say. You don't follow after a guy just because he can work fancy stuff. What's really strange in the story is the guy's going to be able to work miracles.
[5:25] The guy's going to be able to make it come to pass. Now, don't think that's strange when you consider that when Moses went to Pharaoh and he threw his rod down and it became a snake, what happened to everybody, what happened to all those false religious leaders?
[5:41] What happened when they threw their rod down? Does anybody remember? Their rod became a snake. They could, too, work things and work miracles. They had demonic power.
[5:51] And then here's what the Lord said about that. Look in verse 3. Chapter 13 and verse 3. The Bible said, Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you, proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
[6:15] Now, isn't that a wild verse? Isn't that a wild verse? He said, There's going to be false preachers. They are really going to have power. They're going to be able to do stuff. And I'm going to let them do it.
[6:27] But I'm going to do it so I can find out if you are paying attention to me and what I wrote in my book or not. Because we could easily be deceived. There's tons of charismatic stuff that goes on.
[6:39] And by the way, if you travel another country, you're going to see demonic stuff. You can see voodoo in the islands and the Caribbean islands or in Africa. You can see that sort of thing. And it really does have power.
[6:49] It shouldn't shock you that it did. It did in the Bible. And he said, But watch this. I'm testing you. I'm testing you. When false doctrines arise, it's a chance to test you.
[7:00] Do you know God? Do you know what his word says? Will you follow him no matter who or what invites you to do otherwise? Know that God's tests are to allow you to see and hear falsehoods and see how you will react.
[7:16] God's allowing testing. Now, I want you to listen to me just a second. Because of the world you live in today. Because TBN is out there and other Christian broadcasting is out there. And because there are churches on every corner.
[7:29] And because as you go around, you're going to see, in fact, is that other preacher is a lot more flashy than what you're used to. And all we do is open the Bible and say the Bible. And that other guy, man, he can work miracles and he has things happen and signs and wonders.
[7:41] And you could easily be saying, I mean, he must be a real man of God. And here's what God was saying. I want you to figure out that you follow what the Word of God says. You don't follow what people can do.
[7:52] Go back to chapter 12 and verse 28 with me. Go back to chapter 12 and verse 28. So God allows false doctrine to test you. That's why you need to go through foundations. Can I get an amen?
[8:04] You need to go through foundations. You need strong foundations. You need to know what the Bible teaches. You need to ask questions. You need to study. The Bible says in 12, 28, Observe and hear all these words which I command thee that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee forever when thou dost that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.
[8:27] Now he said, Observe and hear all these words. They were listening and they were supposed to hear what God said. God was speaking through Moses. God was actually speaking with his own voice some of the time.
[8:37] And he said, Y'all listen. Now we don't listen anymore. It's not about listening. We now read. Can I get an amen? But the Bible does say, How do you get faith?
[8:48] Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so God's people are supposed to say, You know what? I don't decide what's right or wrong based on what miracles a guy can do.
[9:00] I decide what's right and wrong based on what the word of God says. You should become a fervent student of the word of God. Chapter 13 and verse 4.
[9:11] They were to know God and him only. Verse 4. 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.
[9:23] You need to understand something guys. You're going to serve God. And there's going to be some guys that can pull some really great shenanigans. They're really going to be able to heal some people. They're really going to be able to answer some prayers.
[9:35] They're going to really do some stuff and you're going to be like, Wow! I cannot believe that. I have to follow him. I saw it with my own eyes. I heard it with my own ears. I was there when this great thing happened.
[9:46] It must be right. And here's what he said. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm testing you. I'm testing you. You're supposed to be in the book. You're supposed to be figuring out what God's word says so you'll know that.
[9:58] And so here's what he told them to do. Oh. You don't want to hear this. Maybe we should go home. We've got 11 minutes. Maybe we should go home. Here's what he said.
[10:09] Kill the prophet. He didn't say tolerate him. He said take him out. Look at what it says in chapter 13 and verse 5. And the prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to...
[10:22] Can I hear the word? What's it say? Shall be put to what? Because he has spoken to you to turn you away from the Lord your God. By the way, everybody wants to turn you away from grace.
[10:33] Everybody wants to turn you away from Jesus being enough. Everybody wants to turn you away from the fact that Jesus' death on the cross at Calvary fixed all of our sin. They want to add baptism to it. They want to add good works to it.
[10:44] They want to add a whole bunch of stuff to it. And the Bible is just real clear. The end of the law of righteousness is Jesus. He's the answer. Romans chapter 10 and verse 4. We obviously are not going to be putting any false prophets to death.
[10:58] Can I get an amen right there? We don't shoot people. We don't take people out. Not literally. But we do take a stand for truth. That means we have to stand against the lie. That means that when somebody tells you something and it's not true, you don't say, well, that's okay.
[11:14] Whatever you think is okay. Whatever you... That's fine. You believe what you want to believe. I believe what I want to believe. No, you got to stay... You got to take a stand and say, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't need my kids hearing that. I don't need my family hearing that.
[11:25] And what's true, we're going to go by what the Word of God says. And you're not going to put anybody to death, but you are going to take a clear stand on what the Word of God says. Amen. Stop the talk of others.
[11:36] Don't go into your house and pull up Mormon stuff and say, man, isn't that neat? Don't do that because that's not just Jesus and Jesus alone. You don't want to do that. By the way, you might even have some family members that are going to try to pull you away from Jesus.
[11:51] And the Bible says in chapter 13 and verse 6, if you've got your Bible open, if your brother... Look at the big word, if. Circle it. If your brother, the son of your mother... I mean, I'm talking about your real brother here.
[12:02] We're not talking about your brother like, hey, bro. Your brother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, which is as an own soul. I mean, this is somebody you love.
[12:14] If they entice thee secretly, underline that in the verse, if they secretly say to you, hey, why don't we go find out about other gods which you have not known, you or your fathers have never heard of this.
[12:27] It's not in the book, namely, verse 7, of the gods of the people which are round about you nigh unto thee or far from thee from one end of the earth even to the other. You are not to listen to them.
[12:39] I'll show you that in the verse. Hey, look at verse 8. You shall not consent. Underline it. Hey, why don't we go check out... Why don't we go check out this other religion?
[12:50] Here's what you say. No, no, no. I don't consent. I don't go along with that. Nor hearken unto them. Don't listen to them. Neither shall thine eye pity them. You don't even feel sorry for them.
[13:02] Neither shall thou spare them. Neither shall thou conceal them. That's a tough message. No mercy on the false preacher. No mercy on your own family member who would get you to walk away from God.
[13:16] They were to have no mercy even on a family member or a friend who chose to serve another God and not to serve the God of heaven. Now just listen to me because you're going to say, well, I would never do that.
[13:28] Hey, Muslims are doing it and they're pulling Christians away. And then there's other false Christian religions such as Jehovah's Witnesses, such as Mormonism, and they are pulling people such as much charismatic stuff where it's about what you do and what your works are.
[13:45] any works religion, they're going to pull you away from what Jesus did on the cross and it's going to say to you, hey, it is true, we believe in Jesus. You do know that I worked with Roman Catholics.
[13:56] You do know they believe all the fundamentals. They believe Jesus died on the cross. They believe all of that. But they're going to add to salvation. You can't add to grace. It's for by grace are you saved through faith.
[14:10] And that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast. So no, we're not going to do that. The fact is, in verse 9, if it's your own family member or your good friend, here's what he told the Jews to do. He said, thou shalt surely kill him.
[14:24] Thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death. And afterwards, the other people, thou shalt stone him with stones. He has sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God. Now here's the lesson, okay?
[14:34] That was a national thing. That's like our country having a death penalty. We never get involved in hurting anybody. We never get involved in any kind of anger towards other people.
[14:45] But here's what we do. We do understand. Separation means separation. In other words, I know that's wrong. I'm not even going over there. I'm not getting involved with that.
[14:55] I'm not being politically correct. I'm taking a clear stand for Jesus and what he did on the cross of Calvary. I'm taking a clear stand on the Bible. They might say, well, our preacher, man, he's really something.
[15:06] They might say, you wouldn't believe the miracles he can work. We'd say, well, that's fine. I always carry my tape measure and I'll find out if six foot is six foot. I'm not accepting five foot ten.
[15:17] It's got to be six foot. I'm measuring because I got the word of God. That's where we go. Amen? And that means you got to study. It meant that death had to come to the offender. We do not kill, but in our attitude and heart, we walk away from whoever or whatever would lead us astray or lead us away from God.
[15:35] God, he told them, he said, Jews, I just want you to know something. You're going into the promised land and you're supposed to destroy all those false gods. You're supposed to get rid of all of that demon worship.
[15:46] You're supposed to cut down their places of worship. You're supposed to cut down all the things they used to worship. You're supposed to see to it the name of their God that's not even mentioned in our land, but I know y'all won't. And so now I want to be careful about something.
[15:59] They're going to have preachers that are going to try to get you away. They're going to work miracles. You're going to have family members and friends that will get you away and entire areas of the country will turn from the God of heaven to one of the false gods, one of the demons.
[16:12] Chapter 13 and verse 13. Certain men, the children of Belial, you know who Belial is? That's another word for the devil. Children of Satan are going out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city saying, let's go and serve other gods which you have not known.
[16:31] So there were people that were going to turn a whole city away. There were people that were going to work at leading folks away from Jesus. Now listen to me, I'm going to explain something to you.
[16:42] This is a touchy thing because, you know, honestly, I've never lifted my hand. I have been beat up, but I have never lifted my hand. But I will tell you something, we take a stand on truth.
[16:53] We just say, now listen to me, it's Jesus and his death on the cross and that's it. It's what Jesus did. We accept nothing more. We add nothing to it and we take nothing away from it. It's Jesus.
[17:05] It's Jesus and him only. But certain preachers are going to say something different. Certain family members are going to say something different. Even whole areas might say something different. So they were to handle the investigation correctly in verse 14.
[17:18] They were to inquire. They were to make search. They were to ask diligently. And in verse 15, they were to take action. If they found out that there was somebody else taking another stand, they were to go in and destroy.
[17:32] They were not even to keep anything that was in that city. If they went into a city and they got into a city and this city had been, they had turned from God and were serving false gods. There's only one God.
[17:42] You do know that, right? There's only one God. In all the earth, only 35% of the world even remotely claims to be Christian. 65% of the world does not even claim Christianity.
[17:53] But there's only one God. He is the God of this Bible. He is the creator God. And so people are constantly turning away from God. Satan is constantly doing everything he can to pull good Christians away and they get pulled away by feelings and they get pulled away by miracles and they get pulled away by friendships and they get pulled away by all this.
[18:13] And he said, no, no, no, no. Stand up. I'm warning you, all that's coming. Don't fall for it. They were to gather all the junk. They were to burn it. They were to destroy it.
[18:23] They were to burn it. They were to turn this big trash heap and they were never even built on the place where they burned all the junk. Sin and Satan will destroy. We must be ready to stand for God.
[18:35] We take action. Jesus didn't come to bring a piece but a sword. We can't be everyone's friend. We can't just go along and get along. I'll finish.
[18:46] Deuteronomy 13. Here's the big lesson. There's only one real God in the whole world. You say, why would we be so anxious to sin and missionaries? Everybody has their own religion.
[18:57] It's all a false religion. There's only one true religion. There's only one God and the real question isn't, is there one God? The real question is, how do you get to the one true God?
[19:09] And there's only one way to the one true God and that's through Jesus. I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. There's no other name given among men, under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved.
[19:21] It's Jesus and Jesus only. And so you and I should know this right here that from the very beginning he knew God's people would be tempted to walk away from truth and tempted to believe a lie.
[19:33] Now what are you going to do? Well, we're not going to be tearing any cities down. We're not going to be tearing any cities down. We're not going to be putting a, we're not stoning anybody. We're not getting mad at anybody. We're not beating anybody up but I will tell you what we're going to do.
[19:44] Here's three things you're going to do, I hope. Number one, study, study, study the Bible so you know what's right. So when somebody comes along and they want to talk to you about Christianity, they want to talk to you about maybe, maybe, maybe there's more to it.
[20:02] Fact is, they may even think that salvation is, is related to what you're doing and not what he did or whatever it is. You're going to study and know the truth. You're going to study and know the truth.
[20:13] You're going to separate from anybody and everybody who would try to get you to walk away from God. Be honest with you, if you came to me and tried to get me to walk away from my wife, we wouldn't be friends.
[20:24] If you come and get me to walk away from salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we won't be friends. And then we're going to share the truth with the whole world. It's always going to be like, well, why don't y'all just go along and get along?
[20:36] Why don't you just let them worship their God? We know the truth. There's only one God. There's only one way. There's only one person they can believe in. Let's share the truth. of Jesus Christ. Father in heaven, I love you.
[20:47] I thank you for the opportunity to serve you. And I pray that your name would be honored and glorified. And I pray you'd show yourself real and powerful. God, I pray you'd wake our people up so they'd be ready and excited about serving you and honoring you.
[21:01] And I just pray that, God, you'd help us as a church to study, to get into the Bible and make it real. And I pray, dear God, you'd help us to separate from anything that would pull us away, sin that would pull us away from you or any bad doctrine that would pull us away from you.
[21:14] And I pray you'd help us to share the truth with others that your name would be glorified and I'll give you praise. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, just one second, I'd like to say this to you. If you're not involved in discipleship, either being discipled or discipling, you're making a big mistake.
[21:31] you should be learning all you can learn and teaching all you can teach from the Bible. The Word of God is not something we study.
[21:42] It's the very foundation of everything that we are. It should be our lifeblood. It should be everything we study. If you're not involved in foundations, I want to tell you, you should get with us and say, I need to know more.
[21:56] You say, I've already been through all the training. I know all about the Bible and I'll teach others. Well, then you need to get with John Pearson. You need to sit down and say, I need you to help me get to where I can be accepted as a teacher.
[22:08] But we ought to be studying the Word of God. You should be separating. It ought not even be in your mind that you want to be politically correct. You don't have to be ugly.
[22:18] You'll not find me making ugly comments on Facebook. You'll not find me making ugly comments to anybody. I'm not throwing rocks. I'm not going to be ugly about stuff. But I'm going to make a clear stand. I stand for Jesus.
[22:29] I hope you do. And then third, you ought to be sharing your faith. Sharing your faith and telling people about Jesus. Three things that we ought to do tonight. There's only one God. Only one way to heaven. Father, I pray you'd work in the hearts of your people.
[22:42] I pray that you'd help us to grow and to magnify you. And I pray that in every way your name would be honored and glorified. Thank you for all you do in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, thank you for being here tonight.
[22:53] I'm not sure somebody's up there is somebody going to make announcements. But let me say to you, Thursday will be the marriage retreat. If you're not going, you're going to miss it. I hope you'll go. We're going to have a lot of fun together.
[23:05] And we'll have two special preachers Thursday night. Ben will be preaching for 20 minutes. He's been trying to take over the church. Ben Tom's been trying to take over. He said, you're leaving. I'm taking over.
[23:16] So I'm going to give him 20 minutes because he's trying to take my job for me. So then Trent will be preaching the rest of the time. So Thursday, I'll be good here at the church. And Thursday night we'll pray for the, Trent will lead you in prayer for all of our young people that are going to Peru.
[23:29] What a privilege for you to get to go to one of my favorite places on the planet where God did such a work in my life and allowed me to be a part of it. So I'm looking forward to what y'all will do there. And then Sunday, we're back in Matthew 22.
[23:41] Invite somebody. You know, I probably think right now you're thinking, man, that's a rough message. Well, you sound mean. Hey, I just read the chapter. Go home and read it. I toned her down, boys.
[23:52] Just be blunt honest, I toned her down big time because we're in the New Testament. We don't kill people. In the Old Testament, they're in the killing business. Amen? Thank God I don't live there. I don't know how I'd handle that. But I do know this.
[24:02] I'm going to take a stand for Jesus. I'm serious about it. You say, some of you, I know what some of you think. You say, well, we shouldn't be so rude. You don't have to be rude. Like, stop all your stuff on Facebook where you do jerk junk.
[24:15] Don't do that. Stop it. Be nice. If you can't be nice, stay off of there. Amen? Good night. Quit being ugly. I don't even know where you get that being ugly junk. I'm watching you.
[24:26] Amen? And, but you know what? If somebody tried to separate me from Betty, I've been married to her for a long time. If somebody tried to separate me, we're not going to be buddies. I'm going to see to it if we walk in a different place.
[24:38] More important than Betty. Jesus. More important than Betty is doctrine. And I'm not teasing when I say that you should really take seriously this thing of foundations.
[24:51] Probably the most important ministry in the church. John Pearson, hold your hand up, Brother John. Some people might not know you yet. He does the offer and devotion on Sunday morning. If you don't know him, get with him. If you're not, if you're not already, if you haven't been through it, go through it.
[25:04] If you have been through it, teach others. All of us, man, this ought to be the teachingest church on the planet. Say amen. It ought to be the teachingest church on the planet. Share the truth with each other and share the truth with new people.
[25:18] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[25:33] Thanks.