This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] Invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of Deuteronomy 13. I'm not sure what you expect to happen right now as we get into a sermon. Now, I just want I just wonder sometimes what people think we're going to do when we open them by. Like, if you walk out of here afterwords and somebody says to you, hey, how was the sermon today? Was it a good sermon? Like, I wonder, what criteria do you use to answer that question? How do you decide if it was a good day at church or not, or if it's just one of those days where we're thankful that there's donuts after the service? Because that's about all we're getting out of this one, right? I mean, what is the criteria, I can tell that people often come to church with a sense of expectation about what's going to happen and then their expectations are not met by what actually does happen.

[00:00:56] So what is the the page that we're all supposed to be on when we open up the book of deciding what we should be doing here at church and Moses? He's going to say something so profound here in Deuteronomy 13, verses one to five. We're gonna learn two things here from this passage that are still strong implications for how we do church right here today. Because as we're going through Deuteronomy and I hope you're reading through it with us, we've got our little booklet with the devotionals. We've got his schedule. You can see it there on the on the back of your hand. And I really hope your reading Deuteronomy, because it's exactly what we need to hear at this place at this time. And we're gonna see that Moses is really a prophet and he's been the leader of God's people. But this is his masterpiece here in Deuteronomy as he's teaching the people of God as the spokesperson of God and prophets, they do two things. The thing that prophets are famous for is when they tell us the future. That's what we think of when we hear the word prophecy, like they tell us what is yet to come. Well, that's something that he's going to give us a little bit of here today. But prophets also do something. And it might even be the main thing that they do is that prophets, when they speak for God, when they're a mouth for God, they take what God has said in the past and they apply it to God's people in the present. They take the eternal word of God and they apply it to this place and this time. So Moses has been leading God's people out of Egypt and he brought them into the wilderness on their way to the promised land. But because the people won't believe God's word and they didn't have faith to enter the promised land. That generation wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. We studied that in the book of numbers. And now a new generation has come of age. And so Moses is telling the law for a second time and he's saying, hey, here's the law that God gave us in the past. Let me tell what you should do about it. Now, in the present, let me tell you, he's even going to happen in the future.

[00:03:08] This is a work of prophecy that we're reading in Deuteronomy, the law of Moses. We call it Moses.

[00:03:16] He has this idea that even after he's done writing these five scrolls in the law and they're handed over to Joshua and Joshua is not going to let this law depart from his mouth. And he's going to lead God's people with one copy of the scripture, the law of Moses. See, Moses, he can see into the future. You know what? In the future, there's going to be more prophets.

[00:03:38] And some of these prophets, they're going to have different things to say.

[00:03:42] And he wants to prepare his people for that in Deuteronomy 13 versus one to five. It's on page one hundred and fifty seven. If you got one of our Bibles. And out of respect for God's word, I'm ask if everybody would stand up for our scripture reading here today.

[00:03:57] This is the text that God has put in front of us here together. Let's give this our full and undivided attention and listen to this as it is the word of God. Please follow along with me.

[00:04:09] As I read for us, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and a sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass. And if he says, let us go after other gods, which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord. Your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

[00:04:40] 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 hold fast to him.

[00:04:51] But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord. Your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the Lord, your God, commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. That's the word of God. Please go ahead and have your seat. So Moses foresees a day and warns the people of Israel that at some point there's going to be a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, someone who has some kind of vision, and they might be able to do a sign or a wonder.

[00:05:35] They might be able to do a miracle.

[00:05:37] They might make a prediction of something's going to happen. And then it happens, just as they said. So this prophet, this this seer, this this person with a vision, they're going to seem logit. They're going to seem like they're from God. They've got some kind of credibility, like they're doing miracles. They're saying this is going to happen. And what they say happened is what exactly comes to pass. And so people are going to be like, hey, let's hear what this person has to say. It seems like they have the authority of God to speak.

[00:06:07] And yet when they speak, their message actually leads people away from God to turn to other gods.

[00:06:19] So we have to understand is if we're gonna study Deuteronomy, we've got to get into the context that Moses is riding in here to the nation of Israel, where every nation around them is polytheistic.

[00:06:30] Every nation at this time is worshiping many gods, many idols. The more idols you bowed down to and worship, the better, because those idols, they're going to give you some kind of benefit. They're going to do something for you. They're going to protect you. They're going to excuse the sin that you want to indulge in.

[00:06:48] And so at this time in the world, it's different than our time in the world. We're living in a day where it seems like people don't believe in God and we want them to believe in God at this time in the world. Everybody believed in many gods. And then there's one nation, Israel, saying, actually, there's only just one God. His name is your way. He's the true and living God. There is no other God but our God, which was so radical because every other nation had many idols, many images that they would make, that they would bowed down, that they would worship, offer sacrifices, all kinds of things. This was the way of the world. This is what everybody was doing. And so the temptation was to go and be like the other nations and worship idols. And if you keep reading the history of Israel and judges and Samuel and Kings, they end up worshiping many idols.

[00:07:40] And Moses, he foresees this, that there's gonna be people who look like they speak for God, while if you really listen to their message, they're leading you away from God at this time. They're leading you to worship other gods.

[00:07:56] And Moses says that these false prophets who are giving out their message of fake news, it's actually a test from God to you to see if you really love God with all your heart or if you hear a message that leads you away from God.

[00:08:13] Will you want to listen to that message? And will you be led astray from God, or are you really locked into a relationship where he's your God and you're one of his people and you have given him all that?

[00:08:25] You are heart, soul and my. And you are loving God with everything and you're just live in for him?

[00:08:31] Or can these false teachers lead you astray?

[00:08:36] So right away, we see that the point of the prophet of God is to speak on behalf of God, to the people of God, so that they would love God with all their heart. That should be our expectation when we gather together that if we really hear from God's truth, the truth will always lead us to the source of that truth.

[00:08:56] Let's get that down for point number one. If you're taking notes, the truth will always lead you to the source.

[00:09:05] So the point of us studying God's word is that we would respond to love God with all of our hearts. Jesus had no problem saying that right there is the greatest out of all the commandments. This is what God wants from you more than anything else. God wants you to know who he is through his word and to respond to him with all that you are. That is the most important thing in your life. That's what's precious to God in his side, that he's your God, your one of his people, and he loves you so much that he would give his son for you and you love him so much that you would respond by giving all you've got to God that relationship.

[00:09:47] That's the whole point of life right there. Most important thing, number one priority is your relationship with God.

[00:09:54] But there's going to come people who seem like they're from God and they're going to be giving messages. And their point, actually, of their message is to lead you away from God. And it's a test whether you want to listen to the fake news or whether you're going to listen to the truth and love God with all your heart. Look at how clear it is, if you could look with me at at verse four. I mean, look look at how focused this statement is.

[00:10:23] This is all about God. The whole point of us studying God's word together is that we would respond, that we would learn to live our lives in a way where God is the most important, number one desire of our hearts. Look at how everything here is meant to direct us towards him.

[00:10:41] You shall walk after your way, your God, and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

[00:10:56] So the whole point of you and I reading through Deuteronomy of us gathering together to hear the word preached is teach me about God cause I want to love him with all of my ah.

[00:11:07] But there's going to be prophets. They're going to seem credible. They're doing miracles.

[00:11:12] They're saying things that are actually happening. They've got signs and wonders. But actually, what the prophets are saying is, hey, you can blend in with the world around you. You can be like everybody else. Hey, go the way of idolatry. Look, it looks pretty fun. Look what the other people are doing. Why don't you go try it, too? There's gonna be fake news. Moses is the first one saying, watch out.

[00:11:34] They're gonna give you the wrong view of God.

[00:11:38] And while it seems like they're from God, they're leading you away from God the entire time.

[00:11:43] Turn with me to Acts Chapter 20, everybody. If you've got a Bible, grab it and turn all the way to the Book of Acts. And let's go to the apostle Paul here and acts 2027 at the top of page nine hundred and thirty if you got one of our Bibles. Because I want you to see that when Moses says in Deuteronomy 13 is so profound, it's not just for the nation of Israel in the old covenant. It's for us today in the Church of Jesus Christ and the new covenant of his blood. And this this vision that nothing that Moses had, that there is going to be these prophets rising up after him or are going to try to lead people away. Paul is going to express that same exact thought here to the Ephesian elders. So Paul plants a church in emphasis. He's there for quite a while. He's seen people get saved in this church get built up. Paul loves this church, but now he's leaving. And he's raised up this group of men, these pastors. They're going to be the elders there and emphasize the new church leaders. And he's giving them his final words, his pep talk to these people. And Liquidy says here in Acts 20, verse 27, this way. This is like a little pastor's conference he's having here with the with the new leaders of of the church in emphasis. And he's reviewing what he did when he was there among them.

[00:13:03] He says, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole Council of God, I taught you everything in the law of Moses, the prophets, the writings, I taught you the word of God.

[00:13:17] Pay careful attention to yourselves, because you're the leaders of the church and to the flock, because they're God's people in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseer's to care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his blood. You guys better not blow. This is basically what Paul's saying right here. The father sent his son Jesus to die and shed his righteous blood for the souls of these people. You better watch yourself and you better watch out for these people. You better love these people, is what Paul's saying to them. And then he says this verse twenty nine. I know he's in this is the same idea that Moses is saying. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. We're saying that God's people are the flock. They're sheep. And here comes wolves. And they're coming in to prey on God's people.

[00:14:12] To come in and take advantage of the church. And look what he says, verse 30. And from among your own selves will arise, men speaking, twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. He says you guys might even be the bad guys.

[00:14:32] It's going to come right up. It's going to look like it's a part of you, like it's among you. It's going to rise up right there in the middle of you and somebody is going to start teaching. But what they're going to teach is actually twisted instead of making it all about God and the response being that people should love God with all of their heart. They're going to twist it around and they're actually going to try to get people to follow them and create a following for themselves. Not encouraging everybody to follow Jesus Christ, to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. No, certainly in this twisted way, it becomes about following a person rather than following Jesus Christ.

[00:15:10] And he says you guys might even be the guys.

[00:15:13] Watch out. There's going to be false teachers. There's always been a warning among God's people that fake news is common and it's a test for you whether you listen to it or not.

[00:15:24] So the truth will lead us to the source. God's word will make us love God, but we are already starting to see how that gets twisted and how we get led astray. How there's a temptation, a test for people to be led astray by false teachings.

[00:15:40] You've got three dashes there under point number one. And if the truth is going to lead us to God. Well, let's look at three places. It's not going to lead us. And one is it's not another God. That's what Moses specifically said in Deuteronomy 13. If this false prophet is trying to turn you away to another God at that time in the nation of Israel, it says we should put those false prophets to death. And if you want an example of where that actually happens, where Deuteronomy 13 actually it takes place, you could go to first Kings. Eighteen were Elijah takes the prophets of. But all he has like a prophet throwdown with them on Mount Carmel, where they both have sacrifices. But the real God has to consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven. And they cry out for but all this idle and nothing happens. And Elijah prays to God and fire falls from heaven to consume the sacrifice. And after proving that your way is the one true God. And there is no other, Elijah takes all these prophets of ball down to the Brook Kidron and he kills them there. He puts them to death for leading God's people away from your way and towards idols.

[00:16:55] Now we're not living in the same time period. OK, so we're not we're not stoning to death with stones, false prophets anymore. We're not we're not living in the nation of Israel and we're not living in a time of idolatry where we know people who are bowing down to idols and and worshiping them. That's not our context. But don't be deceived. There are major world religions where people have heard somebody who claimed to be a prophet and speaking for God and they got led away to worship another God. It's happening all over planet Earth. It is a major problem and it is involving millions of people being deceived in thinking that they are worshiping God.

[00:17:36] But really who they're worshiping is not God at all.

[00:17:39] There was a famous prophet in the history of the world, a prophet named Muhammad, and he came along and he would say that he was a prophet like Moses or like Jesus, and he led people. There is now countries, governments that are run under the religion of Islam and they worship all.

[00:17:57] And all is a guy where there is no father and there is no son.

[00:18:02] And so many people have believed Mohammed.

[00:18:06] And now there's massive groups of people, countries of people all thinking that they're worshiping a god. And there is no other God.

[00:18:15] I mean, this has happened in the brief history of America. America's only been around for a short time on the stage of world history. But even in our nation, we have seen profits right. Rise up and write another testament of Jesus Christ and claim that Jesus came to the Americas and act like we need more than just the Bible, more than just the scripture. We need more.

[00:18:36] These are the Mormons.

[00:18:38] This is Joseph Smith, who claimed to be a prophet, speaking from God, and he led many people away. And if you get into Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as they refer to themselves, you will find out that they talk a lot about Jesus, Jesus, a man who became a god rather than a God who became a man.

[00:18:59] They're using his name. But who they're talking about is someone completely different.

[00:19:03] And there is no one other than Jesus Christ that can save us. And so they go out to buy two.

[00:19:10] They have a system to go out over the entire world doing what Jesus originally started to do with his disciples, that they would go and preach the gospel. They're now going and preaching all over the world about a Jesus. That's not the real Jesus.

[00:19:25] They claim that Jesus and Lucifer, Satan were born as brothers and one of them, one good and one of them went bad. They take the holy son of God and they profane his name down to the level of demons while calling themselves Christians.

[00:19:39] And they're deceiving hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people believing this. Listening to what is false. Maybe they've come and knocked on your door, the witnesses of Jehovah. They're going out and they're two by twos. They're going out. They want to reach the whole world.

[00:19:58] They're run by the Watchtower Society in New York City. And if you ask a Jehovah's Witness who they think Jesus is, they will tell you that surely Jesus is a God, but they will deny him his glory.

[00:20:10] And they will not say that Jesus is the God, the son of God. They will say that God created Jesus and then Jesus, who is some kind of spiritual being, created everything else.

[00:20:21] Jesus is now created rather than the creator of heaven and earth, rather than the eternal son of God for all time. No, there are plenty of people preaching a message that claims to be from God, but they are leading people away from God.

[00:20:37] And there are so many that are deceived in believing these lies. And we need to warn people, hey, not everything you hear that supposedly is from God is good or true. Moses knew it. Paul knew it. Look what Paul says here in Acts 20 30.

[00:20:52] He says they're going to try to lead you astray in a different way here and acts 20 30 says from among your own selves. See, it looks like they're one of us.

[00:21:01] It looks like they're a Christian. They're in their Christianity section of the podcasts.

[00:21:06] They preach at a church. It looks like there are one of us. They rise up right among us. But these men are speaking twisted things and they're drawing the way the disciples after them. So you're not supposed to be going after another God. And it's also not another person. There's. That's our second dash here.

[00:21:25] That should be coming up here on the screen. Not another person.

[00:21:30] They don't want you. You shouldn't be following any man. And we've seen this play out. In fact, this has really ruined the reputation of the church in America. There have been so many celebrity pastors, famous TV preachers, people flying around in private jets, getting rich on everybody, sending their money, becoming really popular. And everybody's listening to them. And really, they're they're getting you into the cult of a personality. And you end up following a person in their writing books to help people in their relationship with guy with a big old picture of their face on the cover. And it's about getting people to follow them rather than lifting up God so that we would love him with all of our heart and deny ourselves to follow Jesus Christ. No, watch out for the pastor who's really in a for himself. There's a warning of this false teacher who's in it to puff himself up with some kind of his own reputation or some kind of financial gain for himself. He's not really in it as a humble servant of the Lord most high. He wants his own name to be lifted up. And so many scandals of pastors like that who have been proven to be hypocrites and have fallen and have taken so many people's money that it's no wonder many of our fellow Americans don't trust the church anymore and want nothing to do it when there's been so many hypocrites getting people to follow after themselves. What's wrong with being the second Timothy four, and you'll see that, Paul, he's got another prophecy here about what's going to happen in the in the time to come, he says. It seems like when these men of God who speak for God, when they come to the end of their time, of speaking for God, when it's kind of their last words like Moses in Deuteronomy or Paul to the Ephesian elders, or this is now second Timothy Chapter four page 996. This is Paul's final chapter. This is the last letter that he's going to write to Timothy. His disciple in Jesus Christ, his true son in the faith, Timothy, a young pastor, is writing to him about how to be a pastor in the church. And Paul knows he's about to be killed. He's about to be martyred for the gospel. And he's calling Timothy to live his life for the gospel, to be ready to be martyred himself. And in his final words in the last chapter, Paul writes this to Timothy. This is second Timothy, chapter four, verse one. He says, I charge you. He's trying to get Timothy's attention here. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ. Jesus. I wanted to two witnesses, Timothy. God's here. And what I'm saying. And Jesus is here and what I'm saying. He wants Timothy to listen to this Jesus who's going to judge the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, Timothy. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And then look what he says here in verse three. Paul's going to say the time is coming. Surely in America this time has come.

[00:24:34] We are living in it for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

[00:24:51] What the word of God is not supposed to do is it's not supposed to lead you to your own passions. Let's get that down as the third dash there. It is not supposed to lead you to follow your heart. The word of God is supposed to get you to love God with all of your heart.

[00:25:10] And it says here, look how it's going to work. The people are going to get teachers for themselves who will tell them what they want to hear with these itching ears.

[00:25:21] I'm here to tell you that the number one criteria people use today to evaluate sermons in America is, did I like that sermon? How did that sermon make me feel? Did I already agree with what was preached in church today?

[00:25:35] Did that affirm what I already believe in myself? That's what people want to hear. Tell me I'm good. Make me feel good. Affirm me. Tell me I'm doing right. They're crying out for it. And many people preaching in America today are happy to give the people what they want.

[00:25:54] They're happy to scratch those itching years.

[00:25:57] You've got whole pastors now that are sitting down when they design a message. They're not thinking, what did God say? What does God want me to say? They're thinking, what are the people want me to say? And how can I get people to get attracted to this message?

[00:26:13] That's what a lot of pastors I'm telling you. That's what they're thinking when they prepare their sermon is how is it going to go over with the people rather than how are these people going to go over with God?

[00:26:25] And it says that time is common. Timothy?

[00:26:29] What it says here in verse four, that many people are going to be led away from God. This is by preaching in churches. They're going to be led away.

[00:26:36] They're going to turn away from listening to the truth, the truth, which will lead them to the source.

[00:26:41] The word of God, which will lead them to love God with all of their heart as they grow in the knowledge of God. But instead of hearing the truth.

[00:26:48] No, they're going to wander off into myth's sermon. Time is going to become story time. And pastors are going to talk about themselves more than they talk about God.

[00:27:02] That's what we're live in, in. So much false teaching.

[00:27:08] So much fake news. And it was happening in the church long before it ever happened in the media.

[00:27:15] And it says this is a test for you.

[00:27:19] Whether you're going to really love God with all your heart or we're gonna you're gonna try to find a message that allows you to follow your heart. See, the point of this book right here is to get you to stop loving yourself and to give yourself completely to God. Can I get any Amen from anybody on that?

[00:27:37] It's about him.

[00:27:39] It's about walking in his waist, fearing him, keeping his commandments, obeying his voice. Serving him, holding fast to him. Hey, newsflash, hard truth. Big facts. Life is not about you, everybody. Liquidnet says there an inverse to it says reprove rebuke and exhort. I don't think we're meant to be here to feel good. We don't even use those words in our normal language. Oh, how was your day? I had a great day. I got a rebuke to my face. It was awesome. And what happened to you at what happened to you at church today? How was church? Oh, let me tell you, this was a good day at church because he reproved me from the word of the Lord. I loved it. I loved. I just come here. I open my Bible and I'm like, exhort me right now. Give it to me. Hold nothing back. This is not what people aren't crying. Bring the book. They're crying. All right. All right. Give me something that I need. Lift me up. Make it about me. It's me, me, me. These days in the church.

[00:28:46] I can I can tell you, I've been preaching here in Huntington Beach now for five and a half years and I have disappointed a lot of people.

[00:28:54] They do not like it.

[00:28:56] This was not what they were expecting. It wasn't about what God's going to say, it was like, tell me something I want to hear. Tell me something that that makes that affirms me, that makes me feel good as a Christian, that tells me I am fine just the way I am.

[00:29:13] No guides say whether it's popular or not.

[00:29:17] Paul Sanza, Timothy Hay. If you're going to die doing something, this is what you should die doing. Preach the word. Whether people like it or not, we got to say what God says. And the point the response is that you. I'm talking about you right now that you would hear what this book is saying, that you would grow on a passion and love for the word of God, because it's not about the book. You want to actually love God.

[00:29:45] See, this is the whole purpose. OK.

[00:29:47] It might sound harsh. Were warning about false teaching, but the whole point of teaching is this relationship that God wants to be God and he wants to have a people. And he loves those people so much. He's given his one and only son. And his command for those people is to love him with all of that power and that love between God and us is the most important thing in life. It transcends all other human experience. And that's what we're supposed to be talking about when we open up. The word is real. People like us responding to God and loving him with all that we are. That's the purpose.

[00:30:22] And Moses is saying it's not going to be like that. It's not going to be like that. They're going to rise up.

[00:30:29] They're going to lead you to other gods, they're going to lead you after themselves. And worst of all, they're going to lead you to love you. And they're going to lead many astray. And when it comes to you and you've got a choice of what you're going to listen to, just know then that God is testing you to see whether you really love him.

[00:30:48] Whether you're happy to listen to something else.

[00:30:53] Turn back to do Terry Deuteronomy 13 and look how serious this is taking this false prophet. It says that prophet, that dreamer of dreams. Yeah, they looked credible. They looked like they were speaking on behalf of God. But no, they are not. They're leading people away from God. Says here in verse five, that prophet, that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death. They're actually teaching rebellion against God.

[00:31:18] They're trying to make you leave his way. It's not to love him and to walk in his ways. They're actually leading you away from God.

[00:31:27] Now, when we're reading through Deuteronomy, there's going to be a lot of crimes that deserve the death penalty. There is going to be a lot of things that have been embraced as normal in our lives that it's saying in Deuteronomy. If somebody does that, they shall be put to death. You shall stone them with stones. And from our perspective, reading Deuteronomy today, we're gonna read about people being killed and put to death for these sins that are like everywhere in our culture. And here Deuteronomy is saying, well, someone should be put to death and are impression's going to be. Well, that's really harsh. That's really intense that someone would die for that, that you would actually kill somebody. And you just gotta understand what's really going on is that God is loving these people. He has chosen these people. These are his precious people, that he is adopted as his own.

[00:32:21] And God wants nothing to come in the way between his him and his people. That's how much he loves them.

[00:32:28] He will suffer no rivals. He will eliminate all threats. So, yes, things have to be cast away.

[00:32:35] They have to be put to death because God will not allow anything to come between him and his people. That's why it says that.

[00:32:45] It's about the relationship and the relationship will be protected at all costs. And if people are acting against the relationship, then they have to be cut off. They have to be removed because it will be God and his people and nothing will stop God from loving his people. That's what it's about. And so, yeah, to the point of any threat to that must be put to death. And it's not like, whoa, it's harsh or intense. No, that's the value that God has for this relationship.

[00:33:16] And so there's a line here. Look at this line at the end of verse five, the line that summarizes this whole story about the false prophet that's gonna arise and give the fake news. It says this, so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

[00:33:32] You shall purge, you shall remove, you shall burn away the evil, or you could translate it, the evil person that's among you, that's in the middle of you.

[00:33:42] Kate, now Moses is gonna go on to write that line right there.

[00:33:47] Eight more times in the book of Deuteronomy.

[00:33:51] When you write a line nine times, that means you're trying to make it a theme that you want people to take away. He's gonna give different scenarios, different since different things that people are doing wrong. And when he's done describing these different scenarios, there's one common theme he's going to use to tie them all together. That if there is evil being done among you, you gotta purge it.

[00:34:15] You gotta remove it. You gotta burn it out. You cannot as God's people who are here to love him with all your heart. You have to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to evil being among you because you are the people of God.

[00:34:30] So you've got a purging.

[00:34:32] He's going to say, you're going to if you read Deuteronomy, and I really hope you will, because this is the book that our church needs to hear in this place at this time. If you read this, you're going to keep seeing this line. So you shall purge the evil from your myths. It's like one of Moses says, go to lines as he's writing this book. And chances are you've never heard it preached on before in your life.

[00:34:56] I mean, I've been scrolling through Instagram and I see all the trendy things that the Christians, all the cool quotes and verses, I've never been on Instagram and been like, oh, so you shall purge the evil from among you. Oh, heart that one. I've never I've never, never seen that. My mom my mom's at church this weekend. She's here, my mom used to. She was like a cross stitch. I'm like a marathon person. Like she knew how to cross stitch. She cross stitch. So many verses for so many people I never saw. Like, so you shall purge the evil from your myths and cross stitch. Anybody ever seen that before? Send me a picture, please. I haven't seen that.

[00:35:33] So, see, here's the thing. If we're trying to say what we want to hear, if we're trying to say what the people are going to like, this is the kind of line that gets edited out of the teaching of God's word. And that might be why you've never heard it before, because who wants to get together and before donuts and coffee and talk about purging evil from our midst? Well, apparently the people of God do. Because they care about being the people of God. And they know that God is a holy God who commands us to be holy. Like him, that he has a standard. And there could be no compromise, that it doesn't matter how much time goes on. The word of God is eternal. It doesn't change. And what God has said yesterday is still true today. And we must uphold the word of God. And when people want to compromise and lower the standard, we remove that from our midst and we say, well, that's not happening here. We're not allowing that. We're not tolerating that.

[00:36:27] Now, this isn't just something Moses said, this is something God said through Moses.

[00:36:32] And again, just like the warning about the fake news, this statement that you that God's people have a responsibility, every single one of us, and collectively and also individually, that we are called as God's people to purge the evil from our midst.

[00:36:50] Turn with me to First Corinthians, Chapter five. You've got a Bible. I need you to turn with me to First Corinthians, chapter five. Page 954. If you got one of our books, because Paul is now going to use this quote that Moses used a lot in Deuteronomy and he is going to apply it to the Church of Jesus Christ.

[00:37:13] So this is not just some old covenant idea.

[00:37:17] No, this is an idea that is supposed to be embraced by God's people and obeyed for all time. As long as there are the people of God and the old covenant. It was the nation of Israel in the new covenant. It's the church of Jesus Christ.

[00:37:32] And in this church, in the church of Corinth, this was a church that had a lot of problems.

[00:37:38] A lot of compromise of sin. A lot of division among the people. And Paul's writing a letter to reprove rebuke and exhort the people in this church not to affirm them or make them feel good. He's correcting them. You guys have been led away from from loving God with all your heart.

[00:37:56] We got to get back to one of the things that happened in this church.

[00:38:00] And you could read all of First Corinthians five to get the full context. But there was a man who was committing sexual immorality. He was engaged in sex outside of marriage. And somehow this became public knowledge in the church that everybody knew this man in the church was living this kind of a way that this was was how he was living his life. He was not repenting of it. This was a sin this man was in and people in the church knew about it and they were doing nothing about it.

[00:38:33] And Paul's writing to them.

[00:38:36] And he's saying, hey, look at verse nine, look at how he explains this. First Corinthians, chapter five, verse nine. He says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

[00:38:48] Not at all. Meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. Since then, you would need to go out of the world. I wasn't telling you to get away and separate yourselves from the people in the world, of course. People in the world live in sin.

[00:39:04] You can't be around them. We'd have to go find a new planet. He's saying. No. No, this is what I'm saying. Verse eleven.

[00:39:12] I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother.

[00:39:17] Anyone who claims to be a Christian don't associate with them if he is guilty of sexual morality or greed or is an idolater, revile or drunkard or swindler.

[00:39:28] Not even to eat with such a one, you should restrain from fellowshipping with them. You shouldn't even have a meal with them.

[00:39:36] If they're claiming to be a Christian and they're continuing in sin. Verse 12, for what I have I to do with judging outsiders, I'm not here to judge people.

[00:39:46] Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. And then here it is, last line here, just like in our passage, purge the evil person from among you.

[00:39:59] Hey, guys, don't you know what Moses said about the people of God? Why aren't you doing that at your church?

[00:40:06] Now, I'm talking about this church right here and at this church, I hear more people judge people for their sin outside the church than I do hear people concerned about sin within the church. And it's saying we're not here to judge America. We're here to reach America. We're here to pray for America. You know, we were who were here to hold to the standard of righteousness in Jesus Christ. Look at him. This is us. We're the church.

[00:40:33] And if you're gonna call yourself a Christian that you've been washed clean by the blood of Jesus, that the father sacrificed his son, the father took all of the righteous wrath, all of the holy vengeance that he should have had for you because of your sin. And he poured out all of that judgment on Jesus and Jesus shed his blood. And he was forsaken by the father. So you could be forgiven by the father. And you're gonna say, yeah, I believe that. I know Jesus died for me. I know his blood washes me clean. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can cleanse me from my sins.

[00:41:04] And then you're gonna go home and step over that blood on your way to more sin. No. You then are the evil person we're supposed to purge from among us.

[00:41:13] That's what Paul's saying.

[00:41:15] Don't tolerate hypocrisy in the church.

[00:41:19] Don't allow sin to concern you. If somebody is getting saved out of their sin, do everything you can to help them. Somebody stumbles and sin, be there to lift them back up. But somebodies living in sin. This is the what they're going to keep doing. They know what's wrong, but they continue to live that kind of way.

[00:41:38] Oh, that's not OK. You can't tolerate that because you're the people of God. You're supposed to love God with all your heart.

[00:41:48] Look what God has done for you to love you with his son. Look how his son shed his blood. And now you're going to compromise that.

[00:41:58] The command look. God is speaking through Moses, through Paul to you sitting in your seat.

[00:42:04] And here's something God wants you to hear. As one of his people purged the evil from among the.

[00:42:11] And this is clear, Jesus says this When Jesus tells us what the church is going to be like in Matthew 18, verse 15.

[00:42:17] He says, if your brother is in sin, you go to them. If you know that another Christian is in sin, it is your responsibility to go to them about that sin. It is not your job to ask a bunch of other people to pray for them.

[00:42:35] It is not your job to go get somebody else to go talk to them about their sin. If, you know, if somehow God brings it, hopefully you don't know because of gossip or meddling. But God has a way among his people of exposing the darkness and shining a light upon it. And when that sin comes to the light and you somehow know that somebody else, a brother or sister in the church, is in sin, it is saying it is your responsibility to go to them.

[00:43:05] You can't pray it away. You can't hope somebody else will do it. No, Jesus says in Matthew 1815 and Paul later says in Galatians six one, you who are spiritual, do you have the spirit of God in you? Then you should go and seek to restore that brother sister.

[00:43:21] And you're not going to if you go to them and you're trying to win an argument, that's the wrong way to do it. You go to them and you're coming down on them. That's the wrong way to do it. You're supposed to, first of all, look at yourself in the mirror and make sure that you're not a hypocrite.

[00:43:33] Living in sin yourself first.

[00:43:36] First place you need to purge evil is start. And right here in your own heart. And then as your humbling yourself looking to yourself list, you also be tempted. Your concern for this brother or sister is completely motivated by love for them and wanting them to be right in the most important thing in life. The relationship that God has with his people.

[00:43:58] And so you come to them and it's motivated by a love for them and you want to win them and you come to them gently seeking to restore them. And you say, hey, how are you doing?

[00:44:09] Hey, I care about you.

[00:44:11] Hey, is it true that you're doing this? Is it true that you're continuing in this? Am I right in thinking that you have been allowing this in your life?

[00:44:23] Well, I'm here because I love you and I'm here to beg you to turn from that sin. And if you want to confess that sin, all pray with you and you could be healed from that. And you could be right with God. And I want to I want to see that happen in your life because I actually care about you.

[00:44:37] And you beg with them? You try to win them.

[00:44:41] And if they don't listen to you, it is so hard if people don't listen to you about that. And you don't get mad at them, you don't you don't know what you do, it says very clearly a Matthew 18. You will get one or two other Christians, one or two other people that, you know, know Jesus and they know this person. And then the two or three of you two or three witnesses, you go back to this person and you have the conversation now. But with one or two others, you know, where that idea of two or three witnesses comes from comes from the Book of Deuteronomy. That's where it comes from. Still happening in many courts of law to. To this day happening throughout scripture. Don't hold anybody guilty based on one witness. There's got to be two or three witnesses. And so then the only other people you tell are the people who would go with you to talk to this person. And you go together and you have that conversation. Is it true? Are you really doing this? We care about you. We're concerned we're coming to you because we are taking this seriously, that Jesus died so we could be set free from sin. And we want you to experience the full salvation of Jesus Christ. We want you to know forgiveness and cleansing and righteousness in his holy name. So please, will you turn from your sin? Now, if they blow you off the two or three witnesses, then you're supposed to tell it to the church, then you got to get the leadership involved.

[00:46:04] And then if that person will not repent of their sin, claiming to be a Christian, but also wanting to sin at the same time, it says that you are supposed to withdraw fellowship from that person. You're not even supposed to sit down and eat with them. It's been called throughout the history of the church. Church discipline that we would as a church, we would beg with someone, we would plead with them, we would pray for them. We would love them. We would ask them to turn from that sin.

[00:46:33] But if they will not turn from their sin, then we will have to ask them to be removed from the church because the scripture says you've got to purge the evil from among you because the relationship with God matters more than the relationship with any other person.

[00:46:50] And we must protect the relationship between God and his people at all costs.

[00:46:57] And so we've done that here at this church. We have had to do that where we asked people to no longer fellowship with us because they would not acknowledge their sin and turn from it.

[00:47:09] And you might be the person. Who finds this out?

[00:47:13] You might be the person that they start talking about their sin with, you might be the one. A lot of times when people are living in sin, they don't come up and let the pastor know about it after the service. They don't post about it on social media. A lot of times sin.

[00:47:32] It's in the dark. They try to keep it a secret. But God, he has a way of revealing all things and bringing them to the light. And you might be the person who finds out that somebody is in sin. I got a question for you. Are you ready to purge the evil from among you? Because this is the command of God to his people. Point number two, the church must confront the sin within.

[00:47:57] The church must confront the sin within.

[00:48:03] And this is what Paul's saying to the Corinthians. You've got to stop judging people for their sin. Outside the church. But if they're seen in the church, you've got to take it so seriously. That if that person wants to continue in sin, you're not even going to fellowship with them. You're not going to eat with them. You're not going to consider them a brother or sister. If they want to sin.

[00:48:25] And step over the blood of Jesus Christ.

[00:48:30] So this these are these are things that Moses. He had. He knew how this was gonna go down. I mean, God.

[00:48:38] God revealed to him that the people of Israel, they were going to disobey his commandments, the people of Israel, they were going to be led astray into idolatry. God was going to give them the promised land. And eventually he was going to bring in other nations to judge his own people and drive them out of the promised land. And Moses saw this comment and he said, hey, you better watch out what you're listening to because there's going to be so much fake news.

[00:49:02] And if there's somebody who's saying wrong things or doing wrong things and it's evil and it's sin and it's right there among you, you you've got to remove the evil.

[00:49:12] You've got to be a part of the purge because this relationship where God loves his people and we love him with all of our heart. This is the most important thing in your life. And you must protect it at all costs. And God will suffer no rivals to the people he loves.

[00:49:33] And so let me ask you, is that your commitment here at this church? Is Compas HDB going to be a place where we don't lead people to other gods?

[00:49:43] We don't lead people to follow people. We don't lead people to follow their own passions, but we lead people here to love God with all their heart.

[00:49:51] And that means we will not tolerate compromise if everybody else is lowering the standard of what it means to be a Christian. We will uphold the standard that God gives us here in this book, and we will make it about him. And as much as it may break our hearts, as much as we may not want to do it, if we see somebody insane, we will be faithful to lovingly approach them. And if they will not turn from their sin, then we will turn from our fellowship.

[00:50:22] Because the scripture says here this.

[00:50:25] Purge the evil from among you.

[00:50:30] This is the word of God.

[00:50:33] And so we need to pray and we need to pray for this church that God willed, that God will really have this be a place where the word is preached. And sin is not tolerated. Someone ask that we would close our service with a word of prayer, a commitment that you and I'll make here together today. I'll make a promise to you right now. I'm going to preach what this book says, and I'm going to ask you to make sure that if I ever say something that is not what this book says, I hope you're ready to rebuke me. You're ready to call me out. And I hope that if somebody of sin is revealed in our church, you're ready to talk to that person in love. This is what we must do, this is the word of God. Let me pray for our church. Father in heaven, we come to you.

[00:51:20] And now we come to you at a time.

[00:51:23] That it seems like Moses new is common. Paul knew was common.

[00:51:27] And that time has now come. Where people want to hear what they want to hear.

[00:51:33] And a good sermons, a good sermon, because they agree with it. Because they liked it.

[00:51:39] Because it made him feel good in preaching your word is definitely out of season here for us where we live. So, guy, we ask that every time your word is opened here at this church, every time we gather together for a service like this, that your word will be cut straight. It will be spoken as you rode it through the man that you inspired to ride it to the original audience, that we will use scripture to interpret scripture and that your name will be hallowed here among us.

[00:52:06] And the response will always be to call people to you, to love you. With all that we are all of our souls.

[00:52:15] Now we pray that we will never lower the standard of what your word says, that we will say it exactly as it says, God, please, God, if I'm insane, if there's other leaders here in this church in sin, if there's people here, a part of the fellowship groups, people who attend the services on the weekend and they're in sin. Father, we pray to you today that you will remove that you will purge the evil from among us. God, please don't let this be a place where hypocrisy can happen. Please don't let this be a place where sin is not dealt with, according to your word. Now, we know that many people today believe because they've heard it, they've heard it, taught that it's OK. You can be a Christian and you can continue in sin. I pray that we will hear that you have commanded all people everywhere to repent. To turn from that scene to a new life in Jesus Christ. And then we will we will be ready. Even though it may be very difficult for us to do, we will be ready to love people enough that when we know they're insane, we will talk to them about it. God, please make us this kind of church. That we what we want to be your people. We want to not love ourselves. We want to love you with all that we are because, God, we just want to say right here altogether. Thank you so much for loving us. Thank you so much.

[00:53:35] That you would send your your one and only son, the one who is the son of God, the only name by which we can be saved, that you would send Jesus to die for us, that you would sacrifice your true son and adopt us sinners to be your sons and daughters, and that you would value that relationship that you have with us so much that you will not let anything come in between the love that you have for us, that nothing can separate us from the love that we have with you, our father and your son.

[00:54:06] Jesus Christ. And God, I pray that to a man, to a woman, we would be able to say that the most important thing in my life.

[00:54:14] The thing that I will keep if I have to lose everything else is my relationship with God. And I will love him with all of my heart.

[00:54:23] I pray that that will be true about us as your people, that you will set us apart for that purpose, that we will truly be called out once the Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ led church, not be a service we go to or a building we visit.

[00:54:39] But let it be us, your people. Loved by God. People who love you with all of our hearts.

[00:54:48] We ask that you will do whatever it takes to make us here.

[00:54:52] Those people, we pray this in Jesus name and everyone said, Hey, man, thanks for being here. Have a great day.