God Only January 16, 2014 No Other Thing to Be Added Ever Deuteronomy 13 Page 1 Chapter 12 showed us the expectation God has on how we are to worship Him He stated clearly for all to hear But since we are stubborn, and sometimes hear the voice that says God has not really said that now has He? What did He say in Chapter 12? Deuteronomy 12:29 32 When the LORD your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example. You must not worship the LORD your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods. So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them. (NLT) Once you cross the Jordan God will give you the land You will be the instrument of God s judgment on those nations You will obtain a living there You will be to live like they lived You will be tempted the way they did Be careful and obey Do not add anything to God s word Do not subtract anything from God s word Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Is any of this a problem for us today? Crossing the Jordan = being empowered to live the Christian life Problem one Grieving the Holy Spirit Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. For the nation, how they were to live could become the problem
For us we need to: Page 2 Ephesians 4:1 3 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How do I get tempted to slip? Ephesians 4:14 16 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. In order to slip Make sure you are not grounded in Never grow up in the Compartmentalize your life from your Ephesians 4:17 19 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. In order to slip Get your fire insurance but Don t let anyone at work know about what Keep driving like No need to change your No need to cut back on Ephesians 4:20 24 But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Page 3 In order to slip Come to church but Check out what your No need to stop going to those Keep putting in, you need the money Go to the boat show, you might need a new boat Buy that television you want on credit, you do Don t get to serious about that No need to read or study the Ephesians 4:25 29 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. In order to slip Tell folks at church how Come to church but Ask to serve but always Do something about that you have Tell the boss about who obviously does not have what it takes to do the job Squeeze another for lunch Give the person who cut you off in the grocery line a piece of your mind Then invite the checker to church If you have done any of those things you have the Holy Spirit This is what Moses is warning the nation about. Problem two, example one false prophets / teachers There is one who is coming who will meet the requirements of lying signs and wonders
Page 4 2 Thessalonians 2:8 12 Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming. This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth. (NLT) 2 Thessalonians 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie (NKJV) Did the nation put up with false prophets? Jeremiah 14:14 15 Then the LORD said to me, The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them yet they keep saying, There will be no sword or famine in this land by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end! Do we have the problem today? 2 Peter 2:1 3, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. Problem 2, Example 2 Family This is a simple reminder of his first sermon Deuteronomy 7:3 4 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.
Page 5 The people were not in the land They were to only marry other believers 2 Corinthians 6:14 15 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 1 Kings 11:1 8 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. The land across the Jordan is a type of the world that we as believers live in Exodus 34:12 16 Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. Covenant =, partnership agreement, contract, marriage Do we make covenants with those we find in the land? Do we enter into business relationships and partnerships that we need to rethink?
Page 6 The northern kingdom was led into idolatry by false prophets and Which would have been easier, to stone the family member at the beginning or to see the entire northern kingdom go into captivity in Assyria never to return 1 Kings 12:28 31 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt. He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. 2 Kings 17:16 18 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. Luke 17:1 2 He said to His disciples, It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble. For the nation, if someone in the family has become a Baal worshiper, how are we to treat them? Deuteronomy 13:8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. If we have someone show up at Calvary teaching false doctrine or telling us how we need to add something to our faith in Christ. Don t give them a Don t to them Don t feel sorry for them (do not let your human emotions cloud what God says needs to happen) and let everyone know why you kicked them out
Page 7 Luke 12:51 53 Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Problem 2, Example 1 False prophet Problem 2, Example 2 Family and friends Problem 2, Example 3 Corruption has set in This came close to occurring in Israel with Gibeah in Benjamin Judges 20 Punished due to gross sinfulness God considers idolatry to be We have all committed against God We are all deserving of Romans 5:6 8 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Do we inquire today of another god? Are there things around us which intrigue us? Mormons took big advantage of the last election cycle Horoscopes and astrology Meditation and relaxation Legalized marijuana Tolerance 2 Corinthians 6:17 18 Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE, says the Lord. AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me, Says the Lord Almighty.
Page 8 False gods the Father the Son the Spirit allegiance the body John 10:7 10 So Jesus said to them again, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. Past teachings, study notes and slides of Through the Bible with Pastor Ken Brown are available at: www.calvaryword.com/bible