I Pledge Allegiance

An expository sermon from Deuteronomy 13:1-18.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you have your Bible with you, would you open it to Deuteronomy chapter 13? We're going to read all 18 verses and should be somewhat of a short exposition tonight. Deuteronomy 13 begins by saying, If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and cleave unto him, and that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death. Because he has 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. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of 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 surely kill him. Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he died, 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 any such wickedness as this is among you. 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God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods which you have not known. Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently, and behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you, 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 of the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof, every wit for the Lord thy God, and it shall be a heap forever, it shall not be built again, and there shall cleave not of the cursed thing to thine hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee as he hath sworn unto thy fathers. When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just ask that you would bless the reading of your word, that you would open our eyes to understand its uh its content. Lord, that we would make right application to our lives today through the lens of interpretation. Father, I pray that you would help me to explain your word and to do it accurately. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to adopt these principles for ourselves, and that we might pledge our allegiance to you and you only and not allow anyone to draw us away from you. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I understand reading that chapter, it is uh very harsh, right? We are, they are, Israel is told that they are to put certain people to death if they try to draw them away from the Lord. We always have to understand in the Old Testament, God is establishing and organizing a nation. And that is different than a church. A nation has to have laws, a nation has to have a judiciary system, a nation has to have an army, a nation has to enforce those laws, and so when God is speaking to them, he is speaking to them in their context, and this was law. And the reason that he's speaking to that and giving them this law is because everything that they are about to inherit in the Promised Land is contingent on their allegiance to God and God alone. And any of these that would come in to draw them away is a threat to their nationhood. It is an existential threat to their very existence. And I would say that you and I from the history of Scripture could determine that they failed and that they were drawn away, and that they did lose their land, and they forfeited the blessings of God. So, yes, there is a lot at stake, and God speaks very plainly and very bluntly through Moses the prophet. Now, as to the structure of the chapter, I want to point out to you that there are three hypothetical situations that are laid out in this chapter, and they're all indicated by the word if. You find the word if in verse 1, and the paragraph goes through verse 5. And then you find the second if in verse 6, and that paragraph goes through verse 11. And then you find the third if in verse 12, and that goes through verse 18. And so, when we come to this text of scripture, we understand these are three hypothetical situations that God is laying out, and he says, if these happen, this is what you are to do. I would also point out to you that all of these have to do with Israel's allegiance to God. If this person comes in and tries to draw you away, if that person comes in and tries to draw you away, if those people come in and try to draw you away. So it is all about their allegiance to God. We have to understand that total and complete allegiance to God is at the very heart of the Abrahamic covenant. Essentially, we could summarize the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant with these words. I am your God, you are my people. That's the very heart of the covenant. It is God chose them, they are choosing God, and they are committing themselves to one another like a husband and a wife in complete fidelity and allegiance. And so that is at the very heart of the covenant, and that has to be a total and complete allegiance. They are not allowed to have other gods. As a matter of fact, when they pursue other gods, God likens that unto spiritual adultery, that they have broken their covenant with him. But the reality is their allegiance will be tested. These things are going to happen. As a matter of fact, in that first paragraph, it says God allows these things to test you, to prove you, to reveal whether or not you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, as you have in covenant professed to do. That was the vow. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And they made that vow to the Lord. Moses is warning these covenant people that not all attacks will come from outside enemies, which are easily identifiable. If there's a foreign nation that comes in or agents and they're trying to preach some other God, that's easy to recognize. But Moses says, listen, you're going to face some threats, and again, he's trying to prepare them to inherit the promised land and to remain in the promised land. And he says, you've got to be aware of all threats. You're going to be aware of those external threats. They're going to be easily identifiable, but these are going to be some more subtle threats. And they will be dangers from within that challenge their allegiance to God, and they can be just as devastating as a full frontal attack. That infiltration. I've heard it said, I grew up hearing it say that, and I can't remember who it was attributed to, but that the fall of America would be from the inside, right? That no nation thought that they could actually take us on in a battle and win, but that they thought that they could enter in with subterfuge and crumble the foundations. And so we understand that there are real threats for Israel without, but also within. And God says, no level of compromise is allowed. No level of compromise. Notice in verses 3, 8, and 17, he says, verse 3, thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams. And then verse 8, thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him. And then verse 17, there shall cleave not of the cursed thing to thine hand. No level of compromise. No level of compromise, God says. Don't entertain it for a moment. Don't even give an ear to it. Don't let them have residence in any corner of the country. No level of compromise is allowed because any concession, any concession on this part is high treason against God, and it violates the conditions of the covenant. And so that's why they cannot make any concession to this, because it is high treason. As a matter of fact, it is a treasonous act against God. As I said, sadly, we know from biblical history that this was the downfall of Israel. Was it not? I mean, ultimately there were foreign invaders who were God's instrument to discipline them, but they fell long before that. It is this spiritual fall that we read about through the books of Kings and Chronicles, how that they get these bad kings. And these bad kings are not bad simply because they have bad policies. They're bad because they're not leading the nation in fidelity to God. And they are allowing other worshipers and other religions and idols and groves and other things like that to come into the country. And so for our purposes, we look at this, and we are not a nation. We're a church. And a church is operating different than a nation. And so God never commanded the church to take somebody out and stone them, right? He never commanded us to wield the sword. But we also know that this is foundational, and what we find here as law in the Old Testament oftentimes becomes principles for us to practice in the New Testament. Don't take my word for it. Just listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 through 14. It says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples. To the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they lusted, and do not become idolaters, as some of them, as is written, the people sat down to eat, to drink, rose up to play, nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell, nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents, nor complained, as some of them also complain, and were destroyed by the destroyer. And again it says, Now all these things happen to them as examples for us, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond that you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. And so that's how we make the connection between Deuteronomy and where we are in the New Testament. We understand that God's not commanding us to take people out and to stone them to death, but he is saying, listen, these are examples for us. And the same things that tempted them are the same things that tempted us. We're going to be faced with temptations to our allegiance to Christ. And we need to learn from their example not to follow in their ways, because it was detrimental for them. And so I would simply say this: we have entered into the new covenant with God. And it also requires complete allegiance to the Lord Jesus. And our allegiance will be tested in the exact same ways. Would you agree? We're in a covenant with God? We're in a covenant with God through Jesus Christ. It is described as the new covenant. And one of the conditions of that covenant is total and complete allegiance to God. Total and complete allegiance to the Lord. He doesn't want us sharing our affections spiritually with any other entity, does he? And yet we know that temptations arise. That there are things that draw us away. Just like our longing for the old world sometimes, and their longing for Egypt. We find that symmetry there between those two. And so I would just like to take you through those three hypothetical scenarios this evening. The first one is our allegiance will be tested by false prophets. That was laid out for us in verses one through five. Just as they would be tempted by false prophets, you and I will be tempted by false teachers. He said, Hey, if a prophet comes or a dreamer of dreams, and they tell you a sign or a prophecy or a wonder, and it comes to pass. Like they it appears that they have some sort of power. But after that, they say, Well, let's go serve this other God. It says, Don't follow them. That is a false prophet. You say, is it really? Are we really still in danger of false teachers? Well, a cursory reading of the New Testament would affirm that. As a matter of fact, we're getting ready to enter into 2 Peter chapter 2 next week. And chapter 2 is all about false teachers. And the very first thing Peter says is, just as there were false prophets back then, there are false teachers today. And they bring in damnable heresies. Why? Well, because the devil has not retired his strategy. Where'd those false prophets come from? Well, they came from the pits of hell. They came from the mind of Satan. He is such a genius at strategy that he knows that oftentimes the most effective temptations are the ones that look very close to the original. That is an alternative, not a complete departure, but let's add this to what God has said, or let's take that away from what God has said. Or let's not just make it about this God only, but how about those other so-called gods? We're warned about Satan's continuing strategy in 2 Corinthians 11. Paul wrote, and he wrote to the Corinthians, and he said, All that you would be able to bear with me a little my folly, and indeed you do bear with me, for I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you. I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Sounds a lot like allegiance, doesn't it? And Paul goes on to say, but I fear, I'm afraid, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we've not preached, or if you receive a different spirit, which you have not received, or a different gospel, which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into the ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. You know, sometimes these preachers appear to be authentic, and they use all the right terminology. But if their teaching leads us away from complete allegiance to the Lord, then they're false prophets. Has this happened? Absolutely. A couple of instances I can think of. In the early 1900s, there was this new teaching that came about that became known as the social gospel. Have you ever heard of the social gospel? The social gospel really placed the emphasis not on the ministering to the soul, the conversion of the soul, but on the meeting of physical needs. And while it is right that we are supposed to care for people's needs, their greatest need is salvation, and that should always be a platform to get the gospel to them. So just like feeding a meal, right? We're feeding a meal, not just because we want to be known as good people or make sure that the students have good nutrition, but because we want to meet that physical need in order to be able to meet their spiritual need, we want to preach the gospel to them. Well, the social gospel started out well, but it left off the real gospel. And it was an entire movement. And not to hurt anybody's feelings, but the Methodist denomination really gave way to that in the 20th century, to where it became very focused on being a good neighbor and became very light on the gospel. Twenty years ago, as a church planter in Colorado, I had a man come to my church from the Methodist church in town, and he said to me, his words, he said, the only time I ever heard the gospel at the Methodist Church was on Easter. He said, It's Easter every Sunday here. Now, you might know a Methodist church that is different than that, and I praise the Lord for it. I'm not trying to paint with a broad brush, but if you survey the entire denomination and their recent history, you will find that the gospel has been downgraded. Another movement, more recent, is the prosperity gospel. And this has been popularized, really, in the charismatic movement. And it is the idea that you, if you believe in Jesus and love Jesus, then he will prosper you and you will be blessed, and your diseases will be healed, and your bank account will be filled, and you will have all of these things. And oh, how I wish that were true. But never once did Jesus promise prosperity to those who followed him. As a matter of fact, he promised persecution. He promised that they would have to deny themselves. He he did not guarantee that their lives would. Be preserved. That's a false gospel. That's a false gospel. But the people preaching it may seem very authentic about it. They may feel very heartfelt. They may even sprinkle in the other language. But if it adds to or takes away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is another gospel. It is a false teaching. One of the passages that I find the most disturbing in the entire Bible is Acts chapter 20, verses 28 through 30. The Apostle Paul is making his way back to Jerusalem for Passover, and he stops on the coast of Ephesus, and he calls the elders to him. And in his address to them, before he departs, he says this take heed therefore unto yourselves. These are the elders, these are the pastors. Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, Paul says, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And here's the line that gets me. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Can you imagine? Can you imagine somebody standing before you and saying that? Could you imagine if I this evening says, I have no doubt that there are some among you who will rise up and lead people astray? Boy, that'd be pretty offensive, wouldn't it? And yet, Paul spoke these words to the elders of the church of Ephesus around 60 A.D., and within 30 years, Jesus said to that same church in Revelation 2.4, Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Without a doubt, that is a failure of allegiance, isn't it? Leaving their first love. You were once wholeheartedly in love with me. You were exclusive with me. You were allegiant to me, and now you have departed. It's a failure of allegiance. And it happened because of false prophets. But false prophets aren't the only threat to our allegiance. It gets much closer to home. The second scenario that is given in Deuteronomy 13 tells us that our allegiance will be tested by family members. Verse 6, he says, if your brother, if your son, if your daughter, if your wife, if your very best friend, who is as your own soul, secretly says, let's go pursue this God or that God, don't surrender to them. You say, man, that seems so unlikely. Like I can't imagine somebody in my family doing that. And yet, in Luke 12, Jesus said, Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. Listen to what Jesus says. Luke 12, 51 through 53. From now on, five in one house will be divided, three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother-in-law, against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. You know, how many Christians, I wonder, have compromised because someone in their family chose a different belief. It's easy to be solid in your convictions when there's not somebody in your immediate circle who chooses a different belief. But sadly, there are times when that happens, and because of love for family, a person compromises their belief, their allegiance to the Lord. In some ways, this may pose the greatest threat to our allegiance because of our love for our family. It is a powerful thing, rightly so. Which is probably why Jesus went on to say in Luke 14 that if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father or his mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Boy, those are some strong words from Jesus. As a matter of fact, he thinned out the herd on that day, I remember reading, that the multitudes were following him, and he says, If you, if you don't love me more than anything else, you cannot be my disciple. What Jesus is saying is that our allegiance to him ought to supersede our allegiance to all others, even our family. It's not saying that we can't love our family and love Jesus. It is saying that we cannot allow our love for our family to cause us to compromise our allegiance to the Lord. We can still love people and not go along with them. We can still love people and not affirm them. You see, sometimes we think that love has to affirm a sinful lifestyle, and it does not. God loved us while we were yet sinners, the Bible says. Do you think he was affirming our sin? Do you think he was saying, you're all right in your sin? You're alright by me. Just keep on living how you're living. No. We know that he called us to repentance, and yet he still loved us in that condition. As we have to understand, we can keep loving our family. We just cannot go along with them if they're going in a way that is opposite to Christ. The third scenario that is given in verses 12 through 18, we find that our allegiance will be tested by fellow citizens. In Deuteronomy 13, the scenario described as a city in Israel, not a foreign city, but a city within Israel's borders that allows false worshipers and unbiblical practices to have residence in their community. They have given quarter to it. They are coexisting with it. And the word comes from Moses and says, if you hear about a city and fellow citizens that are doing that, you have to go and stop it. Like the church in Galatia. Remember in Galatians 2, they were struggling with legalism, Judaism. And Paul wrote, When Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face. Uh-oh. Apostle face off right there. Why? Because he was to be blamed, Paul said. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? And so there's a scenario. When we think about it, it's not that we are going out from town to town and saying, hey, you guys got heretics, we're going to burn you out. But it is saying that we cannot compromise just because brothers and sisters in Christ are compromising. Now, I would liken this to a church within our fellowship, if you would, that allows unbiblical members and unbiblical practices. As a matter of fact, I would say to you that that's one of the reasons why we felt that we had to add language to our bylaws at the Southern Baptist Convention this year, defining the role of pastor by the biblical qualification of being a male. We cannot compromise our allegiance to God. Just because we count them as brothers and sisters in Christ and we love them, if they are going to give residence to something that is unbiblical, we cannot be partners with them in that. And though it may reduce our numbers, and I think that's the big fear. I think that's the holdup. That anytime an issue like that comes to our convention, there are those who are worried. Well, if we take this stand publicly, we might have a lot of churches pull out of the convention. And those churches are who partners with us to help send the gospel around the world and to support our missionaries and to fund our seminaries. And I think there are some people who don't vote along those lines simply because of that concern. But I believe that though we might reduce our numbers by removing them from fellowship, I believe we will actually strengthen our convention by allegiance to God. I don't believe God blesses compromise. I believe God blesses faithfulness. God blesses allegiance. And it's not always easy to be allegiant to God. Because just like we see in this chapter, there are going to be times when it's tested. And it may be tested by a beloved Bible teacher. We've had a few of those who have gotten wonky, haven't we? Somebody should say, I used to love listening to their teaching, but now they're saying some kind of weird things. It might be somebody in our family that we love dearly who has chosen to accept a different belief. Might be brothers and sisters in Christ or another church in our fellowship. But the fact is, our allegiance to God is going to be tested by these things. And just as surely as those were an existential threat to Israel, I believe they're an existential threat to us as churches. That just like the church at Ephesus, within 30 years, Jesus calls them to repentance. You've left your first love. And so we need to realize that this warning, this admonition that's given to Israel, can also apply to us today. And so I would simply close by saying, may we pledge our allegiance to God and to God alone. Let's pray. Dear Father, you are worthy of all our allegiance. Lord, truly, we want to love you so deeply with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength that we would never compromise our belief in you, our practice of your word, because someone in our circle of influence tempts us or departs, and we make an exception for them. Lord, I don't believe that you are calling the Israelites to be harsh people. I don't believe that this is born out of hatefulness because you, God, are love and you're the God who is speaking these words through Moses. Father, we don't want to be harsh people. We don't want to be people who are looking to exclude anyone and everyone at every opportunity we can. We don't want to be self-righteous people who think that we're the only ones who's got it right and nobody else measures up. But Lord, we also don't want to be compromisers. We don't want to commit treason against you. We want to be willing that our love for you is so strong and powerful that we are willing to accept any severance that comes into our life for our allegiance to you. Father, we thank you for the 143 years of gospel ministry that we've had here at Cedar Bluff Baptist Church. But we know that a long history of faithfulness does not automatically guarantee a future faithfulness. Father, our desire is that we would be faithful until Jesus comes back. And so, Father, I pray and ask that you would help us to pledge our allegiance to you and to you alone, and that we would become acutely aware of anything that would cause us to compromise that so that we might avoid it, Lord, and not be partakers with it. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.