Deuteronomy 12-13

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Deuteronomy 12:1-32

“These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the hills, and under every green tree: 3 and ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. 4 Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. 5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come. 6 And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: 7 and there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee. 8 Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. 9 For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you. 10 But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; 11 then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD: 12 and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: 14 but in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. 15 Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean [person] may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as the hart. 16 Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. 17 Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand: 18 but thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. [verses 17-18 refers to the 2^nd tithe, it is the Feast tithe, to be spent on one’s own family, primarily at the Feast of Tabernacles, see https://unityinchrist.com/gifts4.htm ] 19 Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. 20 When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. 21 If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD giveth thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. [I think verse 21 is a provision allowing a person to partake of his 2^nd tithe at home if he lived too far from Jerusalem to attend the Feast days. This would later be applicable to the Jews in the Diaspora. i.e. during the Feast days, when you’d normally be using these Feast animals where the Feast is being held, i.e. Jerusalem.] 22 Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. 23 Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. 24 Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. 25 Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose: 27 and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. 28 Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God. 29 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; 30 take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. 32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

Introduction: When You Enter Into The Land, Destroy All Their Places Of False Worship

[Audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED602]

“Deuteronomy chapter 12 now, the LORD begins to speak to the children of Israel in particular about entering into the land that he has for them. And he begins by saying “These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe” God is certain, “to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth” i.e. he’s in the process of “giving you to possess it, “thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.” (verse 1) There’s assurance of the conquest here. There’s no question about whether they’re going to have conquest in the land, God by his grace, is going to give that to them. They’re not going to do those things and earn redemption, redemption is already there, they’ve already experienced it the night that they came out of Egypt by the blood of the lambs, they are a redeemed people. But they are also a stiffnecked people, God told them. He’s going to bring them into the land, not because of their righteousness, not because of their greatness, not because they deserve it, but because he had loved and promised these things to their fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. There is no doubt about whether his promises are real, and whether they can be the recipients of those things. The question is, when they come in will they put themselves in the position where God’s blessings may continue upon their lives, and there’s a series of exhortations. Now look, you and I are not earning our redemption either, it’s complete. As we grow we’re to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to walk worthy of the vocation, it tells us in Ephesians, that God has called us as sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are to flee youthful lusts, we are not to walk in sin, we have liberty, but we do not have license to live in compromise. God has higher things for us, we’re his children. And so as we look at the challenges he makes to Israel, nationally, certainly because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, he never changes, he says ‘I am the LORD, I change not.’ Then there are for you and I, contained within these exhortations, certainly spiritual exhortations for us corporately, and us individually also, and we’ll take note of those things as we continue. He says here, ‘that you will go in to possess the land, all the days you live upon the earth, and when you’re going in to possess this land I want you to keep these statutes, these judgments.’ And notice, he says “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the hills, and under every green tree:” (verse 2) I want you to take note in these next two verses, everything’s in the plural. They’re coming into this land, there are places, there are nations, there are gods, there are hills, there are pillars, there are idols, there are images, it’s a hodge-podge of religious idolatry as they come into the land. Much like Egypt, in fact, Egypt was probably more ordered, because there are different nations here, governed by different kings and different rulers, and they worshipped different deities. And what God is going to say to them, is when you come into the land, there’s going to be a place, a name, a God, a way to worship. But when you come into the land, you’re going to find there are places of worship, there are different gods, everything’s in the plural. And he’s going to challenge them and say ‘No, there’s One, there’s One.’ We’ve actually talked about this Sunday morning. He says here “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places,” plural, “wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods,” plural, “upon the hills, and under every green tree: and ye shall overthrow their altars,” plural, “and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.” (verses 2-3) Now this is in great contrast to the Shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD thy God is one LORD, and you shall love the LORD your God will all your heart, soul, might,’ you know, every day they were to repeat that, ‘Our God is One, there’s One God,’ that was the God of Israel. And he says you’re going to come into this land, and there are many gods and many places of worship, and many forms of worship. And as you study through these, the groves, the worship of Ashtoreth, of Molech and Baal and so forth, they were perverted, they were sexual, they were unclean, there were whole villages that died of venereal diseases. You can go, again, the University of Pennsylvania has got a great museum and a great library and a great bookstore where you can look at some of these things [log on and scroll to the title “American Temple of Baal” https://unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html ]. And what man does when he does everything his own way, what trouble there is. And he’s here going to challenge them about that, to the point where he says, look over in verse 31, he says “for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.” It was always the last straw to him, they would take their infant sons and daughters and put them in the fire, little molten images of Molech [Baal] and then they would all scream so they wouldn’t have to hear the screams of their infant children as they were burning. God’s saying this is the ultimate perversion, this is what you’re going to encounter in the land. Because look, when you turn away from the Truth, what do you embrace? Look in our nation. And there’s a famine of the hearing of the Word of God in our land, there is not a famine of the Word of God, it’s everywhere, it’s on television, the Gideon’s Bible are in hotels, it’s on radio, there’s Christian music, there’s Christian this, Christian that. The famine is of the hearing of the Word of God, there is a famine of the hearing of the Word of God in this land, a turning away from the hearing of the Word of God. And when man turns away from the Truth, when he turns away from an absolute in relation to right and to wrong, to moral truth and spiritual truth, just think of what then he’ll embrace. When that standard is gone, think of what standard is embraced. And here, he challenges them about all of this idolatry they will encounter as they come into the land. “Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.” (verse 4)

‘Do Not Neglect The Gathering Together Of Ourselves, As The Manner Of Some Is’

Look in verse 5, “But unto the place which the LORD your God” one God, not gods here, “shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name” singular “there, even unto his habitation” singular “shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come.” One God, one place, one name, one people. It doesn’t say that individuals can’t sit in their tent door and worship and sing praise. But when they came to sacrifice, when they came to worship ceremonially, the way God prescribed, according to the statutes and so forth, there was one place, there was one way to sacrifice, there was one altar, there was one name for God that they were to worship in the land that they were coming into. And there was one place where his presence was, there between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle, within the Holy of Holies, and ultimately as Solomon built the Temple there was the presence of God there. Not that Solomon said God’s presence could ever be contained to a building built with hands. But God did that to give them a place. God is gracious enough to give us a place. It’s not that he can ever be contained in a building. But he’s gracious enough to tell us even today, ‘not to neglect the gathering together of ourselves, as is the manner of some, that we should be stirring up one another to faith and good works’ (Hebrews 10:25), and we should be doing that all the more, as we see The Day drawing near. And we should all be able see that as we watch the news. [the actual quote is: Hebrews 10:25 “Let us not neglect to meet together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”] And God gives a place because he’s gracious to us, he gave them a place because he was being gracious to them. And “And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: and there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.” (verses 6-7) Notice, he’s going to say this over and over by the way, “ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.” There’s a place. Now look, remember there, the woman at the well, when Jesus broke through her exterior veneer and she realized she was dealing with a Prophet, and she changed the conversation to a more spiritual context, she said ‘You Jews say Jerusalem is the place where God should be worshipped, and we Samaritans say it’s Mount Gerizim,’ and he says ‘Look, I’m telling you the truth, the day is coming when neither in Jerusalem or Gerizim will God be worshipped, because God is a spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ [And that is where we see that God the Father, and Jesus now in heaven with him, are spirit-beings, not composed of physical matter, as we are. Revelation 1:13-18 basically show this to be true.] Most wonderful for the freedom we have to do that, to worship him in spirit, you don’t just want the dead letter of the Law, you don’t want to be just so right you’re dead right, to worship him in spirit, and in truth. Our worship still has a parameter, the worship of God still has a parameter. One author I read said it’s like a well, it still has a circumference, but the depth of it can never be measured. But it has a parameter, there’s a way that God prescribes even today that we’re to worship. And Sunday we talked about it, there’s one name on earth among men whereby we must be saved, that the name of Jesus. And there’s all kinds of gods and places and methods, and all kinds of things being promoted out there. But God is the same, he hasn’t changed, there’s still one God, and one way to Salvation. He says here, ‘When you come into the land, and you partake in this worship,’ he says ‘I want you to rejoice,’ he doesn’t want us to be bummed out, he doesn’t want us to be witnessing saying ‘ya, you should become a Christian, it’s really great,’ like Eor. ‘Ya, let me think about it, you’re convincing.’ He says over and over again, that our worship, our drawing near to him, coming into his presence, is a place for us to rejoice. Paul tells us that we are living epistles, known and read of all men, that that needs to be real. Now look, that doesn’t ever mean that God isn’t sensitive to those that are dealing with extremely heavy trials, because even that Christian, in an extremely difficult place, has a level of rejoicing that is different than an unbeliever that’s in the same place. There is still hope connected to it. There is still the everlasting arms underneath, there is still even in the difficult hour something attached to it. But here we’re going to read several times in this study this evening, that he asks them to rejoice when they come into his presence. Look at verse 8, “Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.” Now at the end of Judges that’s what it’s going to tell us, that every man was doing what was right in his own eyes. Look, there are a lot of people that have done that. Karl Marx did that, didn’t make it right, but it was right in his eyes. Lenin did it, Hitler did it [Joe Stalin did it], Osama bin Laden did it, it was right in his eyes. God says it doesn’t make it right. This is not a situation he says, where every man is going to do what is right in his own eyes. And look, I want a one-world government, I want a one-world religion, I want one throne ruling over everybody, with one King, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, Jesus Christ, with the whole world brought into order, I want that. It’s just there’s so many others have tried in their own ways, and it’s not a reality, it tends to tyranny, and it never ends up to be anything. Here he says, that’s not the way it’s to happen, every man doing what’s right in his own eyes. “For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you. But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety;” look, verse 11, “then” when you come to that comfortable place, when you come to that place of blessing, “there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD:” and notice again, “and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters,” and he always looks to the next generation, “and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.” (verses 9-12) Rejoice with also the Levite, providing to them through their offerings. Look, your sons and your daughters. I hear about too many that grew up in a brutally legalistic situation, and their kids, of a family that felt when you got whipped to death in church on Sunday morning, it was a good one, when you came out of church Sunday if you were bleeding, ‘Man, that was a good one.’ [And some have labelled the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God as being like that, but I never found that to be so, and I attended one for 25 years] No, because it tells them they should rejoice, and it says with your sons and your daughters, with that next generation. It is mandatory, it is necessary, it is expedient for them to understand the blessing and the joy and the truth of this relationship with the Living God, even your sons and daughters, he says. “Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place” wherever you want to, “that thou seest: but in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes,” and you know they were all saying ‘I bet it’s mine,’ if they’re like us, “there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.” (verses 13-14) Of course the Tabernacle was in Shechem, then it was in Shiloh, and finally David moving the Ark up to Jerusalem and so forth. “Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean [person] may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as the hart.” (verse 15) Now what he’s saying here is, you’re allowed to slaughter an animal where you live, as long as you’re killing it to eat, as long as it’s not a sacrifice, as long as it’s not a burnt offering. You’re not allowed to offer those anywhere, wherever you want. Notwithstanding you are allowed to put a roast on your dinner table, you’re allowed to do that, he’s saying here. “the unclean and the clean” now he’s talking about the eater, not the eaten, he’s talking about you and I, you don’t have to be ceremonially clean to eat a standing rib roast, I’m glad. He says “the unclean and clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as the hart.” “Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.” (verse 16) Even in your own villages the blood is to be drained out, there’s to be respect for the life, “ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.”

Just What Is This ‘Tithe Of Thy Corn, Wine & Oil’?

“Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand: but thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose,” notice this again, “thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto. [Comment: verses 17-18 refers to the 2^nd tithe, it is the Feast tithe, to be spent on one’s own family, primarily at the Feast of Tabernacles, see https://unityinchrist.com/gifts4.htm . Be sure to log onto that link, as the Orthodox Jews understand these verses, as well as the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God, who observe these Holy Days, this tithe mentioned here is understood to be the 2^nd tithe, which was the Feast tithe, to be used to help the ordinary Israelite or person observing God’s Feast Days to be able to afford to go to the Feasts, particularly the Feast of Tabernacles, and have the money to do so, and have a good time at the Feast. Ordinarily, the member would save a separate tithe of their income, putting it aside as “2^nd tithe” to enable them to be able to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, and enjoy those 8 days spent there, with plenty of this Feast money to spare (log onto and scroll to the end of this link, and read from this paragraph title down to the end:

“Christian Retreats and Holy Days, What Can They Do For Us?

(A short paper on the effects of spiritual warfare--battle fatigue, and some good suggestions for countering it.)” https://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Holydayshadows.htm ]

Again, God with his eye to the next generation, always, you come to worship. God is saying ‘I want you to rejoice, and when you come to worship you’re going to come to this one place. You can eat in your house, but when it comes to worship, when it comes to sacrificing an animal, when it comes to substitutionary atonement, when it comes to cutting the throat of an animal and watching that animal die, and realizing that an innocent substitute has to die in your place, there is a way to do that, there is a place to do that, it is to happen under my direction, because I am your God, I’m the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and I want your children, your sons and daughters to understand that there is an order, there is a way.’ There is a way that seems right unto man, the end thereof is death, ‘I don’t want everybody doing what is right in their own eyes, there is a particular worship that I want handed to the next generation, I want your sons and your daughters to be partakers, because they’ve seen the genuineness and the obedience in your own life,’ he’s challenging them here. What a contrast, listen, what a contrast to the world, to all of the gods that are out there. It says “for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.” (verse 31b) Listen, if you’re under 24 years old and you’re in this room, half your generation never made it out of the womb. The most dangerous place for an American is not Baghdad, the most dangerous place for an American is between conception and birth, that’s where you stand the least chance of survival in this country. And that’s not to condemn anyone here whose had an abortion, because if you come to Christ with that, he’s forgiven you, you have a reunion, you have a babe in heaven waiting for you. That’s not my point. My point is, look at the way the world does things, look at the gods they worship, look at what it produces, look at the pain, and the emotional shipwrecks that come out of that, look at the destruction, look at the loss of life. You know if you add up all of those years of abortion, it’s about the same amount of people that aren’t paying into Social Security right now, that would have everything balanced out. How many of them would have been scientists, how many of them might have discovered a cure for cancer? That’s the world. God says I want your sons and daughters to worship in the right place, to worship the right way, I want to see them rejoicing, I want to see them alive, I want to see them in my presence, see them forgiven, I want to see them blessing and being blessed, and possessing the land. “Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.” (verses 19-20) “thou mayest eat flesh” that’s a great bumper-sticker or a great plaque, isn’t it? No offense to vegans but that’s a great thing to have on your wall, “thou mayest eat flesh.” “If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD giveth thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.” (verse 21) [[I think verse 21 is a provision allowing a person to partake of his 2^nd tithe at home if he lived too far from Jerusalem to attend the Feast days. This would later be applicable to the Jews in the Diaspora. i.e. during the Feast days, when you’d normally be using these Feast animals where the Feast is being held, i.e. Jerusalem. So this again is a direct reference to the 2^nd tithe animals you’ve set aside for the Feast of Tabernacles, which would be all the female firstborn of your flocks, again, see https://unityinchrist.com/gifts4.htm ] “Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.” (verses 22-23) it was to be drained, there was to be respect for life. And we’re going to hear about that again, as we come the end of the chapter, the ultimate respect for life, realizing where it comes from. “Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose:” (verses 24-26) [Again he’s making reference to bringing your 2^nd tithe and offerings, vows, etc., to where the Feasts of the LORD are being kept.] Does it sound like he’s repeating himself? This is about the 3^rd time now he’s told us this, isn’t it. [Comment: and because the Calvary Chapels and all the other Sunday observing churches don’t literally observe God’s Holy Days of Leviticus 23, minus the sacrifices of course, they don’t understand the significance of these verses, or the Old Testament tithe system, which was agrarian in nature, and they don’t understand how they’re being applied to God’s Holy Days of Leviticus 23.]

‘These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children’

But remember, he said to the children of Israel, ‘These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,’ again, it’s the Hebrew word “to whet” the blade of a sword, to stroke it over and over and over, and that’s the way you sharpen it. He tells them the way that you teach your children, is repetition, to say the same things, over and over and over. Don’t say to your kids ‘How many times do I have to tell you that!?’ It doesn’t matter, again, that’s how many times. You just reinforce and reinforce, God says that’s the way you teach. It’s like the stone going down the edge of a sword, over and over and over, that’s the way they become sharp, and we need them to be sharp in the world they live in, because the enemy is sharp, and the lies out there are sharp, but the Truth is sharper, sharper than any two-edged sword. And God doesn’t just tell us to do it, and not do it himself, so as we read through these things he’s repeating, over and over, the stone’s going down the edge of the sword in regards to his people that he loves so dearly, and he’s telling them over and over. “Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose: and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh.” (verses 26-27) There where the fire was, it wasn’t just the sacrifice, just the shedding of blood, there was no completion without fire, without the altar, holy fire too, that had come forth from the presence of the LORD. “and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.” (verses 27b-28) Let me read that again, “Observe and hear all these words” talking about the Book of Deuteronomy, the 2nd repetition of the Law, reinforcing everything he had said, this is the Pentateuch here, “observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee” if you are obedient and you are yielded, you are contagious “that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.” not just hearest, doest that which is good. He says here that the vertical corrects, the vertical steers, the vertical determines the wellbeing on the horizontal. It’s not the other way. If you hear my words, if you do these things, if you walk before me, if you do that which is good in my presence, then you’ll live long, things will go well with you. He’s saying here the vertical corrects and determines the horizontal, on a personal level and on a national level. The horizontal is determined by the vertical. This nation will never fix it’s problems strictly on the horizontal. It’s up to you and I, to get on our knees, to have the vertical right in my life, in our lives. To ask God to pour out his Spirit and bring an awakening, in my heart, in our hearts, in this land. “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee,” he’s doing the battle, “whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them,” look out you’re not deceived, don’t be curious, don’t be looking at these things, “after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.” He’s warning them, and it’s the mindset they would get in, “Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods;” and then he says this is the ultimate, “for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” (verses 29-32) Look, and that is all a Satanic perversion, there is one Father who has the right to sacrifice his Son. And he has the right to do it, because he is the originator of life, you and I are the recipients of life. We have no power over it, it’s given to us by God’s grace, we are the recipients of forgiveness and life. He alone is the origin of life, he was always alive. And in the sacrifice of his Son, he offered his Son, it tells us that Christ offered himself, it tells us he was offered by the Eternal Spirit, it says that he raised himself from the dead, it says the Father raised him, it says the same Spirit that dwells in you is the one that raised him from the dead, he’s going to quicken your mortal body too, that’s ok. It’s done right, it is “the sacrifice” that provides life for all. Everything else in these ancient religions, and today, is a perversion of that. There is One who has the right, because he is in fact the originator of life itself, he’s the origin. He says they do these abominable things, even to the point sacrificing their sons and their daughters, they have burnt them in the fire to their gods. Look in verse 32, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” the second canonical statement now in Deuteronomy, “thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” Not just take away, don’t even diminish from it. The statement of God himself, the inerrancy of his own Word, don’t add to it. In the Garden of Eden, Eve was there adding to it, Satan is there taking away from it. Don’t add to it, don’t take away from it. Jesus warns us of the leaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven of the Sadducees, the Pharisees added to the Word of God, the Sadducees detracted from the Word of God. The problem is, when you’re adding to the Word of God, it condemns you, it become legalism, it’s more of a burden than God ever asked us to bear, those who would add to it, and there’s always an agenda. And those who would take away from it, it tends then to compromise, to diminishing. Look, it’s important, remember Paul says in Galatians, talking about Christ, he says ‘He said, speaking of Abraham’s seed, as of one, not seeds, plural, as of many.’ Paul said if you add a letter to the Word, it destroys the argument, because God’s Word is inerrant. If you change it from singular to plural, it destroys the argument. Here it says ‘Do not add to God’s Word, and do not diminish from it.’ He had given them his perfect Word, to go in and possess this land, and to flourish and to be blessed, and to be guided, to be instructed. The Holy Spirit will never contradict the Word that he inspired. Don’t ever listen to a Christian say ‘Well God’s telling me to do this, to do that,’ and it contracts this [the Bible], that’s not the God that wrote this [holding up his Bible]. Now look, there were no chapter breaks when God gives this to Moses…

Deuteronomy 13:1-18

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2 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; 3 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 ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. 5 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 commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. 6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, 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; 7 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 the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: 9 but thou shalt be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 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. 11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more such wickedness as this is among you. 12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, 13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; 14 then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; 15 thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. 16 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 thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. 17 And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers. 18 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 thy God.”

‘If A False Prophet Comes To You, Showing Signs & Wonders’

Now look how he ended the last chapter, “what things soever I command you to observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it”--“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,” and please notices this, “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;” (verses 1-2) It’s bad enough you got all these phony guys out there, you know the psychic hotline and all that stuff going on, trying to get a date when you can’t get a date, and get hooked up when you can’t get hooked up. Again, when the psychic hotline went out of business in Florida, the Newspaper said “they never saw it coming” 😊 That was their headlines. Here it says, look, here’s the problem, what if this prophet, what if this one speaks of a sign or wonder and it comes to pass, that does not legitimize it, because the governing factor is the written Word, not adding to it, and not diminishing from it. Jeremiah, again, would say this, and he’s always one of my favourite texts, speaking of prophets, the prophets that prophecy lies, he said, which seem to cause my people to forget my name, he says ‘That prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that hath my Word, let him speak my Word faithfully, what is the chaff to the wheat?’ That the spiritual experience and the dream and the prophecy is chaff compared to the Word of God, which is the wheat. He said ‘they have dreams, they have their prophecies, let them tell them, but the man who has my Word, let him declare it faithfully, he says, what is the chaff to the wheat, saith the LORD, is not my Word like as a fire, saith the LORD, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?’ So here, way back in Deuteronomy, God is beginning to say this to his people. Even if the sign comes to pass, or the wonder, the miracle, “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 ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (verses 2-3) Look, a miracle happening does not legitimize what’s taking place, you have to understand that. Our generation is on the docket, to be deceived by one, the anti-christ, who will come on the scene with all lying signs and wonders. 2^nd Thessalonians chapter 2 says because people received not the Gospel, they didn’t have the love of the truth, therefore God gave them over to believe “the lie,” “the lie.” And when he comes he’s going exalt himself and oppose all that is God, and he’s going to come with signs and wonders, with miracles. [2^nd Thessalonians 2:3-4, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”] Moses had stood before Janes and Jambres in Egypt, he threw down his staff, it became a serpent, they threw down their staves and they became serpents, Moses turned the water to blood, they turned water to blood, Moses called up frogs over the land, they called up frogs over the land. They duplicated his miracles until he turned the dust of the earth into lice, and that’s when they said ‘Pharaoh, this is the finger of God, we can’t reproduce this.’ But there was power there, and there will be powers in the last days. And he knows they were going to encounter power when they come into the land of Canaan, there was dark power. He says even if the sign or the wonder come to pass, you know, it’s interesting, Paul when he meets with the elders from Ephesus on the beach at Miletus in Acts 20, on his way to Jerusalem, and he gathers them together and he’s weeping, and he says ‘I ceased not over the past two years to warn you, that after my departure, two things will happen, grievous wolves would come in from outside, not sparing the flock, to consume, to take advantage, and’ he says ‘men will arise out of your own midst, leading disciples after themselves instead of after the Lord Jesus.’ And people and just with tremendous insecurity sometimes, they need to be the center of attention, and they’re drawing people away. And if people are successful doing it on that level, imagine on the level when there’s genuine signs and wonders taking place around them. The means of judging that is the Word of God, that we are not to add to, and we are not to diminish from. And he says that to us right here, as we look at it. He says “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 ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments,” here it is again, the written Word, “and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death;” now we can’t do that anymore, it would cut down a lot of radio nonsense and so forth, but that can’t happen now, “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 commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.” (verse 2-5) Please listen how serious it is turning God’s people away from him. In ancient Israel, kidnapping was a capital offense, if you stole someone’s children, you were put to death. If you take somebody away from the Living God, you’re talking about their eternal destiny and wellbeing. And it’s way more serious for us. It says here, they shall be put to death because “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 commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.” (verse 5b) We’re going to hear that at least 8 times in Deuteronomy, you deal harshly with this, you deal severely with this, you identify this. Now certainly, in the Church today we exercise church disciple, sometimes there’s someone we have to put out, and we have had our share of screwy people with screwy prophecies, handing out screwy tapes and CDs with weird stuff on them. We had our false prophet running down the aisle here once on a Wednesday night, who came to prophecy against me, and I’m usually here every Wednesday night, but I happened to be down on the shore dedicating a church that night, and he was a prophet but somehow didn’t know I wasn’t here, and poor Jerry, he was teaching that night, and when he came up to teach the guy was running down the center aisle screaming ‘Don’t listen to Joe,’ and our security guys who are normally bored all got to tackle somebody finally, and then he was screaming ‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed,’ and then they drug him outside and said ‘If you are a prophet, how come you didn’t know Joe wasn’t going to be here?’ We finally got a restraining order, we couldn’t get a stoning order, so we got a restraining order. Ah, he was harmless, he was just nuts. The crazy thing, months after that I was in getting a headlight for my wife’s car, going to the airport to pick somebody up, and the power went out, and we’re all standing there in line with no power, the cash register didn’t work, and the guy in front of me turns around, and it’s him [laughter], ‘Pastor Joe, I’m coming back to church,’ and I said ‘No, you’re not coming back to church,’ he said ‘Ya, I am,’ and I said ‘We got a restraining order, you come back to church you’re gonna get locked up,’ and everybody’s listening in all the lines, there’s nothing to do, so we’re way better than the National Inquirer on the stands, ‘You know, we got a restraining order,’ ‘Well the Lord told me,’ ‘No, the Lord didn’t tell you, the Bible says we prophecy in part, we know in part, and you did it in part, and you were wrong, and you disrupted the church, and you’re not coming back,’ and I’m thinking ‘oh Lord, just find my exit.’ We entertained everybody until the power came back on, jousted back and forth. But look how seriously, look, the LORD takes this, someone who would take the hearts of his people away and point them in another direction, it was a capital crime. You know, we talked about that Sunday, and some of what’s going on in the Church [greater Body of Christ] is troubling, what’s going on across our country is troubling, we talked about Tony Blair and Time Magazine, saying he wants to bring Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism under one roof, to do benevolent work in the world, we hear people saying we’re all the same. Here is a survey, somebody gave me this, and I always appreciate when somebody shoots this stuff in my direction. It was the latest Pew forum on religion in public life, they surveyed 35,000 Americans in August, May through August 2007, the survey finds that U.S, adults believe overwhelmingly, 92 percent of them believe in God. And 58 percent say they pray at least once a day. 26.3 percent of the adults who share strict ideas on Salvation and common historic origins. Mainline Protestants, 18 percent of them, they have a less exclusive view, and a strong emphasis on social reform, it says 78 percent overall said there are absolute standards of right and wrong, but only 29 percent rely on their religion to delineate these standards. The majority, 52 percent turned to practical experience and common sense. It doesn’t seem like anybody’s put that into practice, I watched the news today. 74 percent say there’s a heaven, where people who have led a good life are eternally rewarded, and 59 percent say there’s a hell. I don’t know what they think the other place is. 70 percent including a majority of all major Christian and non Christian religious groups say many religions can lead to eternal life. 68 percent say there’s more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own religion, 50 percent say homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society. Most consistently traditional religious groups say society should discourage it. 76 percent of Jehovah’s Witnesses say they should discourage it. 68 percent of Mormons say they should discourage it, 61 percent of Muslims say they should discourage it, and 64 percent of, these days what calls themselves evangelicals say they should discourage it. Americans believe in everything, it is a spiritual salad-bar says Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsey. Rather than religious leaders setting the cultural agenda, today it’s Ophrah Winfrey. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the national memorial service was at Washington’s National Cathedral, conducted by Episcopal clergy. After 9/11, the attack in New York, Ophrah organized the official memorial service at Yankee Stadium, and while clergy participated, she was the master of ceremonies. Christianity Today dubbed Ophrah as one of America’s most influential spiritual leaders. She grew up as a Baptist, and heard someone preach that God is a jealous God and then turned away from her faith in God, she didn’t want anything to do with a God that’s a jealous God. Of course if you hear the whole story, he’s jealous on behalf of his people to bless them, I’m hoping she’ll come back to that at some point. She says there are many paths to what you call God, she is now promoting her new spiritual guru, Eckhart Tol. March, 2008, youtube.com referred to her 5.2 million viewers as the largest church in the world. Now, we should be praying for her every day, that she will come back to the faith that no doubt her grandma and her ma tried to instill in her life. It says here, that you should deal with them severely, ‘because they have come 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,’ that is our God, Jesus Christ, who paid with his blood, and brought us out of the house of bondage and set us free. And he says there’s severe consequences to anyone who would turn people away from that narrow path, and it’s happening all over. And America’s accepting it, it’s happening all over.

Bringing This False Prophet Stuff To The Personal Family Level

Here, look what he says, in verse 6, he brings it to the personal family level, “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, 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 the earth even unto the other end of the earth;” (verses 6-7) Listen to what that’s saying, even if someone you love, if someone whose close to you says ‘Let’s go and worship other gods, gods in the land, Philly, that are close to us,’ listen, you’re not going to bow down in front of an idol like ancient Israel did, but when they bowed down in front of Ashtoreth they worshipped pornography and sexual pleasure, when they bowed down in front of Molech they worshipped something else, when they bowed down in front of Baal, they worshipped the creation more than the Creator whose blessed forever. When they worshipped Bachus, they worshipped wine, being inebriated and high. We hear Paul tells us that we should beware of sorcery, Pharmekia, where we get Pharmacy from, it’s the word Pharmakos, that means using or selling drugs. He could have used other words, cause he knows that most of us aren’t going to be sacrificing a chicken in our living room, we’re going to be the dope sitting on a log smoking a joint, saying, ‘look at the woods, they’re so beautiful, aren’t they?’ you know, reduced to an idiot. Or the worship of Mammon, money, it’s all around us. We’re not going to bow our knee before a statue, but we’re going to bow our life before these things. And he says, even if a friend or somebody whose close to you, a son or a daughter, mother or father, somebody you love, like your own bosom friend, closest person to you says ‘Let’s go watch pornography, let’s go get drunk, let’s go get high, let’s go cheat a little and get this extra money,’ all of that he says, is worshipping another god, it’s bowing before something else. And there’s a warning here, not to let that happen. “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 the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.” (verses 7-9) now obviously we can’t do that. But this is telling us how severe this is. The idea is, when he was finally found guilty, there was order, it wasn’t an lynch mob, that as they took up stones, the person who was directly offended was to cast the first stone. Jesus would say that with the woman taken in adultery, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ So that’s kind of the injunction here. “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. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more such wickedness as this is among you.” (verses 10-11) When there was severe consequences, it had an effect. It says in the Book of Ecclesiastes that because the sentence against evil is not executed speedily in a land, that in a nation, the hearts of men are set to do evil. There are other countries in the world, I’m not a proponent, I’m not saying that’s the way it should be, but as an example, if you get caught stealing in Saudi Arabia, they hack your arm off, and you walk down the street and see 4 or 5 people without an arm, you’re less tempted to steal. They have way less of a problem. In Singapore, if you get caught with drugs, the officer has the authority to put you to death on the spot, execute you. There is no drug running or drug problems in Singapore. Am I saying it should happen here? No I’m not, because I wouldn’t be alive, a lot of people wouldn’t be here, we’d have no worship here that’s for sure. We survived those days, and God forgave us, and here we are washed in the blood and we’re new creations in Christ Jesus, I’m thankful for that. But his point is, here, things are to be dealt with severely. Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, says when a sentence against evil is not execute speedily, then the hearts of men are set to do evil. You know, if they bring somebody up on charges for child molestation for the 5^th or 6^th time, and put them back in prison, and they sit there for two years while the tax payer’s paying the bill, and they don’t know what to do with them, whose going to be afraid? You know, think of the cost, sometimes in our culture, to maintain someone who everyone knows is guilty. Think of how sad it is, that so often the officer becomes the perpetrator, their hands are tied, they have so many rules. I’m not saying they’re always innocent, but sometimes I understand the frustration, because the criminal ends up with more rights than the arresting officer, sometimes. When I was a kid, which was in the stone age, and I’m 57 years old [back in 2008], we were scared to death of the police. Kids today are brazen, man. If a policeman ever had to bring me home, I’d want to die in the backseat of his car, instead of under the strap when I got home. Our country has changed. Things have changed. “And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more such wickedness as this is among you.” (verse 11) Now we’ll finish this, he goes to a bigger picture, he starts with God’s ordinance in regards to his Word, not to add, not to diminish from it. Then he says even if prophets come, if they show signs and wonders, that doesn’t remove the authority of the Word. Just because somebody does a miracle doesn’t mean that the Word of God is no longer the most authoritative thing, because heaven and earth are going to pass away, but God’s Word is not going to pass away, it’s going to abide forever. And he says, let’s take that to the personal level, what if it’s somebody in your family, what if it’s your best friend? No, it’s to be dealt with, you’re not supposed to cut them slack because it’s someone close to you. And look, in the church, if you see someone overtaken in a fault, that’s not written to pastors, every one of us here, if we care about this church, if this is our home church, every one here should realize this is paid for in the blood of Jesus. This was the most expensive undertaking ever in human history, that we can be here like this, washed of our sin. The amount of grace represented in this room is incredible, and the responsibility is not just on me, it’s on each one of you. If you see someone, you know someone in this fellowship that is living in sin and compromise, and you love them, you have the responsibility to challenge them. Not like a Pharisee, but with a broken heart, to seek to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness it says, if you see somebody overtaken in a fault. So he says, if it’s a personal friend, a family member, that doesn’t cut them any slack, you still have a responsibility to address that.

‘If You Find A City In Your Land Has Gone After False gods’

Now he’s going to say, if somebody gets into a city, and the whole city is overtaken by this being led astray, it’s almost revolutionary here, “If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial,” the children of the devil “are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently;” just don’t go destroy a city, find out what’s going on first, “and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;” (verses 12-14) Now that will happen, remember, Bethel and at Dan, where they will set up a golden calf, it’s gonna happen. “thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying 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 thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.” (verses 15-16) If an entire city in Israel turned to Baal or Ashtoreth or Molech, and you confirmed that this city within its walls has determined, ‘We don’t care what everybody else believes, this is what we’re going to do,’ then you go there, and you destroy that city, and you destroy the cattle, you destroy everything there, you bring all the spoil, it’s not for you, it belongs to the LORD, into the middle of the streets, and you burn it, and when you’re done, you want an ash heap there, it’s a place that never should be rebuilt, and it’s always to be a reminder. Because the consequences of what would have taken place spiritually would have been eternal, where that is a temporal example to put in front of the people. God knows the danger of it here, it should be a heap forever, it shall not be built again. “And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers. When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God,” notice again, “to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.” (verses 17-18) So what great exhortations to the nation of Israel, as they get ready to enter the land. And again, the lessons that we can draw off the top, not as dogmatic, I don’t want to hear about anybody going home tonight and burn down their house. That’s not the point, the point is, look at what God is serious about, look at what he deals with severely, understand why he takes that seriously. It’s to be an exhortation and a lesson for us as we look at these things. And we are headed into an age, in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, when they asked Jesus about the times of his coming and the end of the Age, in all three places, the first thing he said is ‘Take heed that no man deceive you.’ The first thing he said, ‘because false prophets, false teachers, false messiahs will come in my name, showing signs and wonders, take heed that you’re not deceived.’ the first thing that he said. We’re headed into very interesting times, economically, spiritually, politically, there’s a lot of things going on around us. If we had any idea, of the angelic activity around Jerusalem and Israel and Iran and Syria I think we’d be amazed [not compared to now at the end of the year 2024, where now I can honestly say we’re about at verse 8 of Matthew 24, wars and rumours of wars, all around the world, but especially with the Israeli wars against HAMAS and Hezbollah, with Iran, with the Houthis of Yemen, with the war going on with Russia against the Ukraine, with China arming itself and becoming militarily belligerent like Japan of the 1930s, the world is ready to explode, the first seal of Revelation 6 is about to be opened. Look for a United States of Europe with the Beast person and false prophet to come on the scene very soon (see https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm )]. We live in a busy world, spiritually, and I think all of that lends itself to the fact that Jesus Christ could come at any time, he could come at any time. Let’s stand, let’s pray, we’ll have the musicians that are now saved, come, and lead us in a last song, let’s lift our hearts in prayer and worship. And there’s exhortations for us, not to let anyone, don’t let anybody set our heart in another direction, don’t let anybody take us away from Jesus Christ, don’t let anybody take us away from Jesus Christ, from the Way, the Truth, and the Life…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Deuteronomy 12:1-32 and Deuteronomy 13:1-18, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]