The Dangers Of Taking Liberties With God's Word

An expository sermon from Deuteronomy 12:1-32.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

If you have your Bible with you, would you open it to Deuteronomy chapter 12? It's actually been a few weeks since we've been in our Deuteronomy study on Sunday nights. We've had some special days and other things going on where we didn't have our Sunday night service, and so I'm excited to get back into this text. Deuteronomy chapter 12. We're going to cover the whole chapter, but I'm just going to read the first four verses and the last four verses of the chapter, and then I'll walk you through it in our sermon. It begins in Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 1. It says, These are the statutes and judgments which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee, to possess it all the days that you live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which you shall possess serve their gods upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree. 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. Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. Then if you would look at verse twenty nine, the last paragraph of the chapter. 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, take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. After that they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. 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. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it, that thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we just pray and ask that you would be our teacher this evening as we come to your word, we sit at your feet. We thank you that your Holy Spirit has that ministry in within us of teaching us, guiding us, reminding us, illuminating for us the scripture. Father, may we learn principles from the Old Testament that we can apply to our lives today as Christians, especially about the danger of taking liberties with your word. Father, I pray and ask that you would help me to be a faithful expositor, help me to accurately interpret your word and make a right application, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. This chapter is actually about the word of God that He has revealed and recorded for Israel. Practically speaking, it is referring to the entire Bible up to this point, which would be Genesis through Numbers. So as you're thinking about the revelation of Scripture, it was progressive. And so God gives Genesis through Deuteronomy to Moses and then Joshua and then through Ruth and Samuel and the others, and it comes along until we get to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, which was revealed to John, and then the canon is complete. But up to that point, God is revealing it in installments, if you were, progressive revelation. And so up to this point, their main scripture is Genesis through Numbers. And what God is doing in this text, specifically that last sentence about not adding to or taking away from it, is intended to shape their views as a nation about the sacredness of Scripture. God is establishing this principle from the very beginning that revealed Scripture stands alone, that it is sacred writing, that it is different. And Scripture is to be treated differently than the Word of men, because it is the Word of God. We acknowledge that there are written books that really are outstanding. They are masterpieces of men and women's literary genius. But even the best masterpiece of literature is nowhere near to the Word of God. The Word of God is completely separate. It is distinctly different. The Apostle Paul expressed this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13. Let me remind you that he is writing to the city of Thessalonica to a church that he started but didn't get to spend very much time with. Remember Thessalonica? They were a contentious bunch, and he wasn't there very long, and they run him out of town, and then he goes to Berea, who were more noble than the Thessalonicans, because they searched the scriptures to see whether these things were so. And so the occasion for him writing back to the Thessalonians is he's concerned. He has led them to Christ, but he hasn't been able to disciple them, and he knows that they are in a hostile environment, and he wants to make sure that they are standing. He also understands that they are really almost in the shadow of Mount Olympus, uh Thessalonica, about 50 miles from Mount Olympus, Greek mythology, and so they would have been brought up with that pantheism. And so this idea of this sacredness of Scripture that stands alone would have been somewhat of a new concept to them, too. And when Paul writes back to them, he gives them these instructive words, he says, for this reason, 1 Thessalonians 2.13, for this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. And so that is the sentiment that I think we find here in Deuteronomy chapter twelve also, that the word of God is distinctly different than the word of men. As a matter of fact, in this chapter, God is instructing Israel to destroy those false idols and those false altars and any relics and remnants and traditions that those people who worship false gods had had, but that they were not to do that to the things of God, that the things of God are distinctly different. And really, a lot of it is based in the revelation of God. Do you understand that if we don't have a Bible, we don't have Christianity? If we can't trust this book and recognize it as divine authority, we are simply navigating in our own opinions. If we are to stand in judgment on the Bible and say, well, I believe this part is literal and I believe this part's inspired, but I question that part. Well, you and I don't have a Bible at all if that's the case. And sadly, that is the state of much modernism that began to emerge in the 20th century in churches. Where they say, well, Paul was just writing and gave those restrictions because it was it was just the time, but that's not binding on us. We can change the rules now and open the gates and do other things. My friends, this word is either authoritative or it's not. It is either the authority that is over us, or we are the authority that is over it. And so in this text of Scripture, we learn some things about the Word of God. Let me highlight them to you, some of these distinctives that are implied in Deuteronomy 12. First of all, this is an authoritative word. It's an authoritative word. Notice the very first verse of Deuteronomy 12, verse 1. These are the statutes and judgments which you shall observe to do in the land. That's authoritative. This chapter begins with a declaration of the authority of the statutes and judgments of God that are to be observed by all of Israel. This was not just to be populist opinion. This was not to be optional. This is authoritative. God said, These are the judgments, these are the statutes, you are to observe to do them in the land. From there you'll notice that the phrases you shall and you shall not are found thirty times throughout the chapter. I can show them to you. You find it in verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, verse 7, verse 8. We find it in verse 11, verse 12, verse 14, verse 16, verse 17, verse 18, verse 20, verse 21, verse 24, verse 25, verse 26, verse 27, verse 31, and verse 32. Thirty times you shall, you shall not. Thou shalt, thou shalt not. You understand that the takeaway is that God is not giving advice. He's giving directives. He's not saying this is what I would advise you to do. He's not saying, well, you know, this is what I think is best. No, he is giving directives. You shall do this, you shall not do that. God's commands are not optional, they're obligational. They are imperative, they are compulsory, they are mandatory. If there is a God and God has spoken, then the word of God is to be obeyed. Whether we understand it or not, whether we like it or not. Let me ask you. Did God tell Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him? Did he tell him that? Do you think Abraham liked that? Do you think Abraham wanted to do that? But what did Abraham do? He obeyed. Why? Because God said it. Because God said it. And I'm just going to tell you, there's going to be some things that you read in the Bible that you don't like. There's going to be some things that you read in the Bible that you say, I don't want to do that. But it's an authoritative word. And we are under its authority. Do you know why the tradition came about in our court system? They don't do it anymore. But they used to. Have anybody who took the witness seat place their hand on a Bible and swear an oath? You know what the significance of that was? That this is the highest authority. That you are recognizing that, listen, you could lie to people and get by with it, but the the the point or the intimation was you are swearing to the highest authority, and the scripture represented that. And you're swearing an oath before the eyes of God that you're going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And so the word of God is authoritative. This also reminds us that God doesn't speak any unnecessary words. People do very often, but none of God's words are unnecessary. Therefore, none of God's words are ignorable. I'm a really, you know, bottom line type of guy. Listen, I don't need you to tell me every single detail. Let's just let's get to it, right? Don't walk me around the barn to get to the door. Just it's right here. Walk me into the door. I want to get to it. And uh and I am encouraged to know that God doesn't have any unnecessary words. And if God doesn't use any unnecessary words, then God doesn't have any ignorable words. Secondly, this is a specific word. One of the things that you'll notice about this chapter is the specificity. The entire chapter is filled with specific instructions from how to expel the nations and where to make the offerings, and how to make the offerings. Very specific statements are made. For example, six times God said that all sacrifices and offerings will be made in the place which the Lord shall choose. You can mark it in your Bible. Verse 5, verse 11, verse 14, verse 18, verse 21, and verse 26. The place that the Lord shall choose. You're getting ready to enter into the promised land. You've been out here in the wilderness, and anywhere where you're at, that's where the altar's at, and that's where you make your sacrifices, but now you're getting ready to move into the promised land, and you're gonna spread out as your 12 tribes into all these different regions, and I am going to set the place where the offerings are made. You're not gonna be making them on every mountain, you're not gonna be doing it on every high hill, you're not gonna be doing it under every grove. You're gonna do it where I say to do it. And so five times God says, listen, the place that I will choose, that's where your offerings will be made. Remember, Israel is a theocracy, not a democracy, and that means they don't get a choice about these things. There is no vote. Well, Lord, we really think it would be a good idea. I mean, if you just put it right central, all right? We're looking at the map, and we see that we go up north to Galilee, we go south, down to Echemia, we've got the Mediterranean, and we got the Jordan as our borders. So it just makes sense to us that you'd put it right in the middle. I don't know if you've looked at a map of Israel, but Jerusalem's not right in the middle. It's really down on the southern end of things. As a matter of fact, when Jesus traveled from Galilee down to Jerusalem, it was about a 73-mile trip. But if you were traveling from Bethlehem, it was about six miles. And in human reasoning, we say, well, let's take a vote. Let's do something that's fair to all. But it's not a democracy, it's a theocracy. And God is not only authoritative, but God is very specific, which is why God's word is not nebulous, it's not ambiguous, it's not vague, it is specific. We note it this morning. One of the great differences between the Bible and the Quran is that the Quran is ambiguous. It doesn't speak in specifics, it doesn't give locations, it doesn't give times, it doesn't give proper names, and yet the Bible records all of those things for us. There is a specificness about the Bible. For example of this principle, listen to the instruction that God gave to the prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk 2.2 says, Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. What is God's instruction to the prophet Habakkuk? Make it plain. Make it plain, be specific. I don't want you to cloud it, I don't want you to veil it. I want people to read this and know judgment is coming so that they know they better get out of town. Make it plain. After all, what good is an indistinct command? What good does it do you if God said something at some time, somewhere? Don't do that. 1 Corinthians 14, verses 7 through 9 speaks to this when it says, even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or played? For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. God speaks literally, and God speaks specifically for us to know what to do. I love that. I love it. I love in Acts chapter 16 when the Philippian jailer asks Paul, sir, what must I do to be saved? That Paul doesn't give him some long hypothesis or some philosophical jargon. He says very plainly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And you find that type of specificity throughout the entire Bible. Now that is not to say that there are not prophecies that are difficult to understand because God did shroud some things in mystery. But it reminds me of a quote that I read from Mark Twain one time. He said, It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me as much as it is the parts that I do understand. You see, we can't pretend like we don't understand what God has said. You ever had people do that to you? Huh? Huh? Ain't no reason for huh up in here. You heard what I said. You're trying to buy some time to come up with some sort of an excuse. We can't pretend like we don't know what God has said. Can you pretend like God didn't say that he created the heavens and the earth in six literal days? Can you pretend like God didn't say that he had sinned judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual sin? Can you pretend like you don't know that there is only one way to be right with God? It is through the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, he has been very specific. We cannot pretend that we don't know what he said. Any honest reader of the Bible will recognize and acknowledge that God speaks in specifics. And Deuteronomy 12 is a perfect example of that. Third, this is a blessed word. This is a blessed word. If you would look at look at chapter 12, verse 28. Verse 28 says, 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 doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God. If you do what I tell you to do, it will go well with you. I will bless you. Verse 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. These verses remind us that God's word is for our good. God's word is for our good. God's word gives life. God's word gives life. If you want a good life, obey the word of God. If you want a difficult life, then ignore the word of God. God's word brings God's blessing. James 1, verses 22 and 25 says, be ye doers of the word. Not hearers only deceiving yourselves, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. And so it's a blessed word. Hey, it's not only authoritative. God has told me I am to obey. Not only is it specific, I know exactly what I'm supposed to do, I know exactly what I'm not supposed to do. But listen, if I do what God tells me to do, then God's going to bless me. Because God can bless obedience. God cannot bless disobedience. And so it is a blessed word. If you want to be blessed, learn and obey God's word. Period. Learn and obey God's word if you want to be blessed. Fourth, this is a protective word. Notice again, chapter twelve, verse number thirty. It says, Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them. After that they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. God's word will protect you from the snares. He is warning them about the snares that will be left there in the land. Those relics and those remnants and the memory of what those other nations did in their religious practices. He says, Don't even be curious about that. Don't go looking into that and say, well, how did they do it? Well, maybe we will adopt that. Into our own faith practice. That word snare is a very descriptive word. A snare is a concealed trap. It's a trap that is camouflaged. You don't readily see it. And snares are often set along commonly traveled paths, near to food supplies or water supplies. So if you're trying to snare an animal, why would you place the snare on a well-traveled path? Well, history tells me they are going to walk this way sometime. Why would you place it near a food or water supply? Well, because if they're hungry or they're thirsty, they're preoccupied with that. And they're not going to be on high alert looking for the snare. They're going to be on a mission to get food or water. The danger is that your guard is down. That you're not paying attention because you're preoccupied. So you don't see the snare until it's too late. Notice the language in verse 30. Take heed to thyself. Pay attention to yourself. No, watch. He says that in verse 19 and verse 13. Take heed to thyself. We have to be alert. We have to be on the lookout. We have to be disciplined. And the word of God helps us do that. The word of God helps us do that. Have you ever noticed that correlation between your daily Bible reading and your daily Christian living? You ever found that when you're faithful in the Word and you're getting intake of God's Word? Man, you kind of live better. But you get away from that daily intake of God's Word, and sometimes there's some things that slip in your life. Sometimes there's some things you're not as sensitive to because you didn't just read about them and hear God call them sin or call them fleshly or call them wrong. It's so easy for us to be inoculated by the sin of the world if we're not getting into the Word and getting an injection of God's truth on a regular basis. The Word of God does that for us, it protects us. And I'd say, don't imagine that this was just a danger for the Israelites in their day as they were entering the promised land. It's a danger for us. You say, well, well, you know, we're not worried about the idolatry of the people who here were before us. We're not animists and we're not spiritualists, we're not following the ways of the Indians. I mean, that's nothing that's ever a concern to me. Why do you think that a snare is a concern to me? Well, it's because the one who sets the snares is still setting them. It's the devil. It's the devil who's the snare setter. And I can tell you, he's the one who set the snares in Israel. He's the one who sets the snares in our world today. 1 Timothy 3 7 says, moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach, and check this out, the snare of the devil. That's a word to those who would be pastors. And saying, hey, listen, you've got to take heed to yourself. Be above reproach. Have a good testimony. Lest you get ensnared, lest you fall into the snare of the devil. 1 Timothy 6, verses 8 and 9, Paul writes, having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perd. Yes, I would say that there are snares for us to be aware of today. But here's the good news. God makes a way for us to escape the snares of the devil. 2 Timothy 2 26, that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. Yep, there's still snares. The snare setter is still out there. He's still setting snares. He's going to sit it in the well-traveled path. He's going to set it on the way to our food and water supply, because he knows we're going to be preoccupied with other things, and we are in danger of being snared, but it is not inevitable because God has made a way for us to avoid and escape the snares. The word of God is the key. Listen to this proverb, Proverb 13, 14. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death. That's a good proverb that Solomon wrote to his son. Son, the law of the wise is a fountain of life, and it will keep you out of the snares of death. And so the word of God, we find, is a protective word. And then last of all, this is an immutable word. We find this in verse 31. For you shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and you shall possess it and dwell therein. Verse 32, here it is. You shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments. My bad. I'm reading chapter twelve. I mean chapter eleven. Let me back up here and take another run at it. Chapter twelve, verse thirty two. What things soever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. God's word is not changeable, it is not to be altered, and we're not to take liberties with it. God says through Moses, this is the word. Don't add to it, don't take away from it. This is the word. We are told many things about the word of God, about the sufficiency of the word, about the inerrancy of the word, about the inspiration of the word, about the preservation of the word. Let me share a few of those verses with you that highlight this. Psalm twelve, six, and seven say the words of the Lord are pure words. Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, you shall keep them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever. God gave his word, God preserves his word, his word is unchangeable. Matthew 5, 17 and 18, in Jesus' very first public sermon. Right after the introduction of the Beatitudes, he says in verse 17 and 18, don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill, for assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Again, it's a statement about the preservation of the Word of God, that God gave his word, that it's not going to be changed, it's not going to be altered, that God preserves his word for us, and that it is immutable, it is unchangeable. First Peter chapter 1, verses 23 through 25 says it this way. Having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass, but the grass withers and the flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Can we look at an example of what happens when we take liberties with God's word?

unknown 30:24

Right?

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Immutable means not changeable. But people do sometimes change God's word to their own detriment. Do you remember? I pointed out to you that five times in this chapter, God says, I'll choose the place where you are to worship. I'll choose the place where you are to worship. And we know ultimately that he chose Jerusalem, and that's the location where the temple is built. But in 1 Kings chapter 12, when the ten northern tribes of Israel split off from the two southern tribes, they, the first king of Samaria, Jeroboam, decided to change the location of worship. What he realized is up here in the north, we're hanging by a thread. And if I let all the people in the north go back to Jerusalem three times a year, they're going to see their old friends and their old family, and their hearts are going to get solved, and they're going to be like, well, let's get these two divided kingdoms back together in one. And Jeroboam was a pragmatist, and he says, I can't have that. I just got this kingdom. I'm not about to lose it. And so he says, Don't worship down in Jerusalem. We're going to worship up here. And he sets a place for them to worship. And he builds an altar that's like the altar down in Jerusalem. And he has similarities to what they do down in Jerusalem. But he changed the location. And that's a no-no, because God said in Deuteronomy 12, I will choose the location. Then fast forward to Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter 4, where we learn the outcome of this change. Remember, listen to the exchange between Jesus and her. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worship in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Look at that. A dispute over the location of worship. Why? Because Jeroboam changed it back in 1 Kings 12. And he didn't have the authority to change it because God says, I'll pick the location. I'll pick the location. I'll pick the location. The location that I will choose. And I would put forth to you the results of that change in location led to the fall of the kingdom of northern Israel. The loss of their land to the Assyrians. The intermarriage with the Gentiles, because that was one of the strategies of an invading kingdom, was to get them intermarried with your people. The forfeiture of their covenant. Do you remember by the time Jesus comes, those Samaritans are viewed as worse than Gentiles because they had intermarried with Gentiles, which wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that they forfeited the covenant of Abraham. They gave that up when they defiled their bloodline. And worst of all, they lost God. She thought she knew. She thought she was worshiping. God says, You don't know what you're worshiping. Jesus said, You don't know what you're worshiping. Oh, but thank the Lord she found out that day, right? And so I just say to you that the word of God is not to be changed. And so let's learn from their mistakes the danger of taking liberties with God's Word. When we take liberties with God's word, we reject God's authority. If you say, ah, you know, I don't know if I'm going to go all in on this. Well, you're rejecting God's authority. That's exactly what we do because it's an authoritative word. We obscure God's message. God made it very specific. And if we take liberties with God's word, we obscure the message. That's the great tragedy of our age. People don't know how to get saved because the message has been obscured. Be a good person. Keep the sacraments. And any number of things that they've added to it obscures what the message is. We forfeit God's blessing. When we take liberties with God's word, then we are forfeiting the blessing that God wants to bestow upon us, and we lose God's protection. I believe that there is an umbrella of protection that comes by living under the authority of God's Word. That it protects us from a lot of things. You say you really believe that, Justin? Absolutely do. Let me give you an example. It'll protect you from STDs. I got you awake up, didn't I? What do you mean? Well, the Bible says don't be promiscuous. The Bible says don't have sex outside of marriage. The Bible says one man and one woman for one life. You know how greatly you reduce the risk of those types of transmitted diseases when you follow the law of God? I know that was a bit attention grabbing. I just want you to understand God's word protects us when we live under its authority. I don't want to forgive. You're stepping out under the protection of God's word. It's going to eat you up, it's going to turn you bitter. It's going to gnaw at you. Gotta let that stuff go. There's protection under the authority of God's word. Let's not forfeit that. Let's not lose that. Let's recognize his authority. Let's take him specifically. Let's uh not try to change it to suit our opinions. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for all that it is. So much more powerful than we realize. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. It has the power to sanctify us, to change us, to make us more like Jesus. Oh Father, I pray that we would just place a higher value on your word. That we would love it. That we would live it. Lord, that we would conform ourselves to it and not try to conform it to our lifestyles. Father, may we be unashamedly may we be unashamed in our stance on your world word. In this world it is not a popular position to hold. There are any number of slurs that will be thrown our way if we do. But may we not compromise. May we stay true to you and to your word until Jesus comes back. Help us to hold the line, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.