All right, so of course we're going to the book of Deuteronomy we're in Deuteronomy chapter 13, and you know, this is one of the
more
You know, I guess one of the more well-known. Thank you one of the more well-known passages of Scripture, but you know it
It's also one that's probably not very popular. It's one that's
You know, maybe a lot of pastors aren't going to turn there and want to expound this book
You know, especially in the day and age that we're living in because of the fact that a chapter like that could get you in
A little bit of hot water and you say well, do you really believe that? Do you really believe that we should be?
You know keeping the the commandments of God such as Deuteronomy chapter 13. Well, amen
The Bible says all scripture is profitable for doctrine for a proof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be
Thoroughly furnished may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works
He didn't say well except for the ad old stuff except for those passages that kind of you know, rub the fur the wrong way
No, he said it's all profitable and you know, there'd be a lot of profit today if we actually
Practice some of these things or you know mankind would profit from
carrying out laws that are given such as Deuteronomy 13, I
Mean are there not false prophets in our land today?
Are they not everywhere
Are they not preaching false Gospels and drawing people away after false gods on everything?
It's it abounds in our country. They're everywhere now
Here's the thing if we actually enacted the laws like this, we probably wouldn't have to do it that often
You know the false prophets would probably say hey, you know, I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut
I saw what happened last rock false prophet, you know, I preached about it a few weeks ago, you know where it says in Ecclesiastes because
because of because
Judgment is that speedily carried out the hearts of the sons of men are fully setting them to do evil
When when God's law is not being upheld when these laws are not being enforced then the wicked say let's prosper
You know, what's the worst that could come of this?
You know and especially when it comes to this, you know this specifically about false prophets
You know, they make a lot of profit being a false prophet, you know
There's a lot of false prophets out there that are millionaires
Making a lot of money fleecing the flock and preaching lies and damnable heresies
So this is a good law. This is this is a whole this is just this is right now
It's we're gonna dive it into here
it says there in verse 1 if there arise among you of a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and
Giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass where if he spake unto these saying let us
Go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not harken under 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 and with all your soul
So this is interesting here because the what is showing us is that you know
The purpose of a false prophet is to prove God's people. Okay, the the purpose of a false prophet is to prove us
There are a lot of peas in there, right? How's that for alliteration?
But that's the truth isn't it? Is that what he's saying there? He's saying look if they arise among you he says
Why is that verse 3 that the Lord your God prove with you? That's why he's there. That's why God allows that to happen now
Let's clarify this by saying that you know, the false prophet arises out of his own accord
You know the Lord does not and the Lord allows such people to exist
It's not that God is raising up false prophets and sending them to the people. God doesn't even have to do that
False prophets will come up out of their own accord. They'll love the the wages of unrighteousness
They'll be motivated by greed and
Envy and power and covetousness that they'll they'll want these things for themselves that God doesn't even have to raise them up
It just happens naturally
So it's not that God's raising them up and then and then sending them to see
Saying look because what does it say if there rise up among you a prophet? No, not when I mean
They surely will come right?
But here's the thing like I said just a minute ago if we actually carried this out
It'd be more of an if than a than a when you see what I'm saying if they're if they're arise a false prophet
It's not when God creates a false prophet and sends them to you to see what you're what you're made of
So because there's a thing if you would turn over to James chapter 1 a very familiar passage and a very familiar scripture
I'm sure but God does not tempt man with evil. We know that from James chapter 1
He doesn't tempt man with evil, but he does allow man to be tempted by evil and that's obvious
God allows, you know temptations into our life. God allows false prophets to cross our paths. God allows bad
wicked things to exist
To what end into what purpose to prove his own people to prove whether or not we really love God to prove
You know really to give us an opportunity to show how much that we love God and to express our faithfulness to him
It says there in James chapter 1 verse 13
Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil
Neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted when he has drawn away of his own lust and enticed
So what is it that tempts man? It's what's comes with from within
These are the things that defile man
These are the things that that tempt us the things that come from within us
Of course, we understand, you know, there's also external temptations such as this false prophet
But the false prophet only exists because of the wickedness that's in his heart
It's not because God is you know, raising up these people and sending them our way
And
You know, here's the thing the same type of people they arise among us today
Even still we still had we have still have plenty of false prophets
And it's also to the same purpose
It's still so that God can test us and prove us and that can often it's so God can you know
Purge his church can purge his house to clean house
You know, we've had experience with this and painful word where people come in they start preaching damnable heresies
They start denying the Trinity. Why does God allow that kind of thing to happen?
Well, God allows that kind of thing to happen maybe so that he can get some of the riffraff out
And let him take them away, you know, let them be carried away with these false prophets
So the same type of people they arise among us today and to the same purpose go and turn over to Jude chapter 1
And we need to really let this sink in that there are false prophets among us today
That there will be even false prophets even in our own local church
You know
We've seen that us more than once and faithful word as we've grown and gotten bigger as the congregation gets bigger
You know, we've seen meeple creep in we've seen false prophets arise
You're not in our own sure even not just in our own church, but elsewhere, you know, and there's many examples that we could cite
But
The same type of people they arise even today even as back then in their own when Deuteronomy was written
Bible says you're going to Jude, but it says in 2nd Corinthians 11. What Paul was was was you know
Speaking of the things that he's suffered
you know to
And he says in verse 13 or excuse me verse 26 and journeys often in perils of water perils of robbers and perils by my
own countrymen
Perils by the heathen perils in the city in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea
imperils among false brethren so in Paul's day again, we see false prophets even then as well and
Galatians 2 would be another one where we could turn to and look at but we're not going to
Where he talks about that there were some that were
That they'd let me just read it. He said I
Went up by revelation and communicated unto them the gospel that I preached on the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation
Lest by any means I had run or had run in vain
But neither Titus was with me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised and that because of false brethren
Unaware is brought in now what I want you to notice there is he says that it was false brethren unawares brought in
You know, that's how these people come in they come in unawares
They creep it look here in
Jude chapter 1 verse 4 for there are certain men crept in
Unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation
ungodly men turning the grace of our God in lascivious ness and denying the old Lord God and
Our Lord Jesus Christ. So one of the trademarks are one of the hallmarks
One of these things these false prophets like to do is like to turn the grace of God into lascivious ness
You know, that's what we see a lot of today in our ecumenical movements in these in these
No neo-evangelical churches where everything just everything's under grace
Live however, you want God's not mad at you, you know, you're gonna be fine, you know, you're free to sin and you know
I'm glad the Holy Spirit's convicted you of that, but he hasn't me, you know, therefore it's not sin
It's a bunch of not it's a bunch of nonsense and what they're doing is they're turning the grace of God into lascivious ness
They're saying oh because you're saved, you know, you can do whatever you want and we understand we could do it
We want to go to heaven
But what they're preaching is oh you could do whatever want and there's no consequences
That got somehow God is just gonna not, you know, he's gonna turn a blind eye to his own people living in sin
And that's really a whole nother sermon
But I really want us to notice there is that it says that these men were crept in unawares and even in Galatians
He said the brethren's were unaware a false brethren unawares were brought in meaning there wasn't obvious
It wasn't they could not you couldn't say. Oh this person's a false prophet
This perfect person is a reprobate
So the motive is always the same it's denying the Lord God it's preaching, you know, lascivious ness
but they creep in unawares and what that means to us today is is that
You won't know who it is, you know, who's the false prophet? Well, you won't know
There's no, you know
There's no point in trying to figure that out because it says they're crept in unawares
And if you would turn over to John chapter 13 John chapter 13
So what that means is that if you have a if you have a suspicion about somebody, you know
You got a hunch about a specific person. You might as well just cross them off your list because they're crept in unawares
I mean if you you know, we think oh, it's this person what's like well
they know it can't be because because it's not unawares you see I'm saying and
You know, here's the thing. I've suspected people being a Judas. I'll be perfectly honest
Let me just be completely candid up here. You know, I've met people at faithful word. I've been like this guy is probably a Judas
Don't
Come up to the service and ask me if it was you. Okay. All right, that's just gonna be awkward
Right, but I'll be honest. You know, I wasn't like and I wasn't because I had any evidence
It wasn't any because I had it was just a hunch, you know, I didn't like though
I didn't like the guy for some reason, you know, you know
You know newsflash. There's some people I don't like
They wouldn't know it though because I always managed to smile and be polite but here's the thing, you know, I'm thinking you're a Judas
You know, I'm just waiting, you know, there's a little clock starts running over their head just a timer, you know
like a ticking time bomb and
You know what? I've been proven wrong about every one of those people
Not one of them has turned out to be a Judas and the people that I said, there's no way this guy's a Judas
They turn out be the Judases the people that crept in unawares the people that were my buddies the people that you know
Even to this day send me random texts, you know, wish me Merry Christmas
It's like what in the world anyway, I don't want to go off on that
You know
They turned out to be the the phonies and the backstabbers and the Judases and the false prophets and all these things
It wasn't the guy I thought
Why because they creep in unawares?
Because the devil is subtle if it was that obvious it wouldn't work
Okay, and I mean look here in John chapter 13
We got to get this to our heads understand this because this is the you know
God puts us in the Bible for reason to show us something
That even the disciples gave Judas a pass and it wasn't just because they you know
There was no there was no reason to suspect Judas
I mean Jesus without I mean not in so many words, but pretty much just said hey, it's Judas
The Judas is the one and they're all like I couldn't be Judas
But it was and he even said it was
He gave him a pass even after Jesus made it clear that it was you just look at John chapter 13 verse 21
When Jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit and testified and said verily verily I say unto one of you unto you
That one of you shall betray me then the disciples looked one to another doubting of whom he spake, you know
Is it I Lord and I start looking around now
There was one leaning on Jesus bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake
He then lying on Jesus breast saith unto him Lord
Who is it?
Jesus answered it he it is to whom I shall give us up when I have dipped it
Now is that really is that a cryptic answer? Is that Jesus being tricky? That's a pretty clear answer
I mean, it'd be like if we were sitting around the table and I said, hey one of these guys in here is a Judas
And you said hey, who is it? It's like hey, it's he who I spread that
I'm gonna spread some butter and a piece of bread. I'm gonna hand it to him
Would you go I wonder what that means?
Man, that's deep. You know, wow, that's profound
Like how would you have a hard time following what I just said, you know, and that's what Jesus saying
Hey, look, I'm gonna dip the sop in the bread and then I'm gonna give it to him and that's who it is
I mean, you couldn't be more clear
I mean might as well just like set off a flare gun that had that just burst and it had it said like a giant
Arrow that said it's Judas and like, you know doing this, you know
Hey, the only way you could have been more clear is just to stood up and said Judas is the betrayer
Right, but he's he's he's doing this in this manner for a reason
I believe and when he dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot the son of Simon. I
Mean they should have been able to put that together, right?
Now do you think anybody up to this point has suspected Judas I
Don't think they had
You know, they trusted him with the bag, you know, they gave Judas the money right and after the and it says when he dipped
The sop verse 27 and after the sop Satan and it entered into him then Jesus said unto him that thou doest do quickly. I
Mean, he's pretty much just spelling it out for these guys, right?
Now no man knew at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him
Well, it's because it was an answer to your question. That's what he was doing
For some of them thought because you just had the bag which Jesus said unto him
That Jesus said unto him buy those things which we have need of against the feast or you should get something to the poor
So this goes completely over their heads
They do not they don't figure this out. This isn't like
You know, they go. Oh, well, let's stop Judas from going and doing that. They this they totally missed this now
What's interesting is that they had to pull this information out of Jesus
Did you notice that
That's the way this this passage reads. It's showing us that Jesus had no it seems like he didn't have any intention of revealing it
To them. He just said hey one of you is gonna betray me and he kind of leaves it at that
And then they have to be like hey John ask him. Who is it?
You know the curiosity was was getting the best of them. They wanted to know they had to press Jesus for the information
So why is it that Jesus doesn't volunteer this information?
Why didn't just come right out and say it? Hey Judas is gonna betray me
You know, that would have been easy right because Jesus knew they still wouldn't get it
He even after he said look at what's the point in me volunteering it? You're still not gonna get it
That is Judas
you know what that so it's pointless for us to go on a witch hunt looking for Judas's and
Trying to figure out who it is
Because here's the thing you you'll never know who it is. You have to let Judas out himself
Judas has to reveal himself
Now when Judas shows up with with the Pharisees with with you know
Spears and and and and torches in the garden a few hours later in the middle of the night to arrest Jesus
Do you think it comes to Jesus and says master it kisses him to betray him. Do you think they had any question then?
No, but by then it's too late that now it's obvious who the Judas is, right?
But at this point it wasn't even though he had pointed him out and said look, you know, it's Judas
Whoop so we can't go on this witch hunt looking for people and trying to figure out who Judas is
because we'll never know until Judas outs himself and
Then you know what? It's gonna happen. We're probably gonna be very surprised on who the Judas is and who the Judas isn't
You know, I'm sure when they find out Judas they were like
You know, somebody probably came to Peter was like dude. I thought it was you
You know, I I had my I had my money on you the whole time Peter. I'm really I'm a little relieved, you know
Because you know, I don't know why anyone would suspect Peter, but you know what?
I'm just making a joke of it
But you know probably be like really that guy I thought for sure it was gonna be this disciple over here
So it's gonna take us be by surprise no matter who it is, you know
So let's not bother going on some witch hunt trying to figure out who the Judas is because we can't know
they have to reveal themselves and they will and
You know you think that's one thing you can count on about a Jews is that they're going to reveal themselves
You know because they they reveal themselves why because they have a motive to do harm
Eventually, it comes out, you know, the backstabber always ends up stabbing the guy in the back
The Judas always ends up being a betrayer. That's their motive. They're going to out themselves eventually
It just takes time and we just have to let them do it now. It's unfortunate
I understand where a lot of times we come from from that place
We're like, well, we got to figure out who it is, you know as a type of you know
We want to stop the Judas before anything bad happens, but you know Judas isn't a Judas until he does what a Judas does
Does that make sense? So we have to let Judas be Judas and that's just the way it goes
So let's not bother going on these witch hunts
What we need to do rather is to just focus on ourselves just focus on our own walk
Look here in verse 4 in Deuteronomy chapter 13
You
Know God doesn't want people getting caught up with false prophets. He doesn't want them being led away with the error of the wicked
But any any prescribes here a method to do that
He says look verse 4 you shall walk at the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice
And he shall serve him and cleave unto him
You know, that's what's going to keep you getting from you know, caught up with the Judas's is when you're getting God's Word
You know and you fear God more than you fear, man
You know you fear God more than you value some relationship with a friend, you know a lot of times
That's what happens with people when some guy goes off the deep end into heresy is
His buddies go with them just out of you know, their loyalty to their friend
Well, you know what?
You love you love your friends false doctrine and in your and you're letting your your relationship with some man get out of getting
You know be more important to you than the fear of God at that point and that's why God this is the remedy here
God's saying look fear me keep my commandments and
Cleave unto him, you know then that then we're not going to get caught up and swept away with these false prophets
You know, we passed the test of the false prophet
By focusing on our own walk if we just stay focused on what we need to be doing in our own lives
Serving God being faithful to the Lord fearing God, you know, the Judas's will come and go but we will remain faithful
unto the end
So we need to focus more on ourselves rather than others if we're gonna pass the test
You know, that's how we're going to prove and out these people and
Well, let's just go on here verse 5 he says and that prophet or that dreamers of dreams shall be put to death
Now that's that's what the Bible says and I don't apologize for that at all
That's what needs to happen to these people according Bible
You know, but what's going on today the dreamer of dreams right the the false prophet shall have a book deal
You know
Shall have a you know hour-long special on every Sunday afternoon or whatever
Is gonna fill stadiums?
Is gonna be a multi-millionaire is gonna preach lies and heresies with no consequences in this life. That's what's going on today
Because people shy away because people pull back from that now, I'm not saying vigilante judge
I'm not promoting that we as a body go out and string up Joel Steen or something, right?
You know
That's to be that this is we have to understand Deuteronomy is given as the the law of the land, you know
It's the civil government's job to carry this out
If they're if a government's going to follow righteous law, this is what they're going to do, right?
We're not gonna do this as a body
and I anytime you talk about the death penalty in church or bring this up you have to clarify that because you get all the
Haters that oh, you're you're just trying to start a theocracy
You're trying to you're you're encouraging people to go and take up arms and commit violent acts
No, we're not I'm saying this is what a righteous government would do
This is what a holy and righteous government would do. They would put these people to death according to the word
And you say well doesn't that seem a little harsh well what well God gives the reason why here
He doesn't just say that he tells us why he has such a harsh penalty because God doesn't just prescribe
the death penalty for every little thing
You know
he there it's it's there's just a very few handful of things that God
prescribes the death penalty for and
This is one of them and he gives us the reason why it goes on there in verse 5 and says because he hath spoken
To turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt
And it's not you know, God is jealous. We talked about this earlier. God is jealous for his people
you know if God's the one that turned it brought them out of land of Egypt and
Redeemed you out of the house of bondage and to thrust thee out of the way
Which the Lord thy God God commanded thee to walk in so shall thou put away evil from the midst of thee
So God takes this matter very seriously
Because of the fact of everything that he has done for his people
you know, I mean God's the one that brought them out with a strong arm, you know with all the the miracles in Egypt and and
Destroyed Pharaoh's army and
What you led them through the wilderness all those 40 years brought him in is bring him into the land of Canaan
Is gonna get you know, drive out the inhabitants before them. God's just doing all these things for them delivering them
blessing them
So God takes it real serious when somebody else is going to come in and try to and throw as it says there thrust thee
Out of the way, you know, which is an interesting way to put it
Because you think of a false prophet being someone who's kind of like leading you out of the way, right?
But if we start to give ear to a false prophet
We're gonna end up as feeling pushed out of the way thrust out of the way. It's a very
you know
Anyway, he what he's just he's he's jealous
He doesn't want so he's not gonna share his glory with another
And so that's why God takes us so seriously seriously because it's an offense to him
You know, how would we feel if we were in those in those shoes in his shoes and in his position?
You know, we would we would probably feel much the same way and
What this does and if you would turn over to Proverbs chapter 6 Proverbs chapter 6
It shows us a side of God that a lot of people want to pretend just isn't there anymore
that God is just all love and peace and and and flowers and rainbows and puppy dogs and
There's no abrasive side to God's nature
There isn't a very abrasive side to God's nature God is wrath God is indignation God is righteous judgment
I mean God, it says, you know, God is one whose mouth kindled the very fires of hell
I mean, he made hell he sends people there. That's who God is
So let's not ignore this side of God, you know, we can't we can't have just this one-sided view of who the Lord is
He's a he's a multifaceted person. You know, he's a complete being we have to understand
Everything about him and we can't just cherry-pick what we do and don't like
And of course we understand God is love and all that as well. That's another sermon right now
We're in Deuteronomy 13 where he's talking about putting people to death. So this is what we're talking about tonight
Now he says here, you know in Proverbs chapter 6, you know goes on to show us
I'll read to us in a minute. But what God is showing us is that God hates certain things
God hates certain people
You know, sorry Joyce Meyer, but you know, God is in fact mad at something
To the point where he says put him to death
That's Bible
And God hates certain people and God hates certain behaviors that people do look here in Proverbs 6 verse
16 these six things that the Lord hate
Yea, seven or abomination unto him. So here's about here's at least seven things
We know for sure according the Bible that God hates meaning that God hates some things, right?
So we're about to read some hate speech tonight
So we're about to read some hate speech tonight in God's house things that God hates
Verse 17 a proud look a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood
I mean, are these not good things to hate?
Why would we want to why would we want to give?
hands that be swift
That that shed innocent blood. Why would you want to not hate that?
I mean like oh don't pick on them. I know they shed innocent blood but give them a break
you know
God says he hates it and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations
feet that be swift in running to mischief
A false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren. God hates these things
You know and a lot of these things should never be would not probably never be found on us
But let's make sure none of these things are ever found in God's people
You know, I'm sure there's nobody in in this house tonight. That's going to be quick to shed innocent blood
All right, everybody can relax a little bit
There's not going to be any murders tonight
You know, but there is a temptation sometimes to sow discord. That's one that happens
This kind of thing can creep in
You know and we've seen this even recently, you know in our in our movement or whatever you want to call it
You know with these these pastors that have turned on our pastor and are stabbing in the back
And if you're not on social media, you probably don't know even what i'm talking about
So i'm not going to go on and on about it
But these people that are constantly attaching themselves to our pastor because of the influence he has online
You know and he has listeners and then they then they attach themselves to him
And they get a following and people start coming to their church
And then you know, it turns out that
You know, they've been talking smack about them. They've been sowing discord among the brethren about him
And they've been speaking lies quite frankly about him
And i'll tell you what god hates it
God's not pleased with that
And here's the thing false prophets are often guilty
Of all if not many of these behaviors, you know now i'm not saying these guys that did this these guys are all false prophets
I have some strong suspicions about one but you know, like I just said
I could be wrong, right?
But these guys, you know, uh, i'm just false prophets in general ones that you know
Hey, these guys are false prophets, you know, oftentimes they're guilty of all these things if not many of them
I mean many of them if not all of them
But we'll move on here so
You know, why is god so harsh about this?
why is god saying look put in death don't spare because god hates them for one and because of the fact that
It's they're not just speaking lies and to note with no consequences
It's not just that god is jealous, you know, uh or something of of the fact that they're getting some floor time with his people
You know, it's because people do get turned aside
Because that does have consequences
And look if we end up getting turned aside by some false prophet. We're the ones that are going to suffer the consequences
We're the ones that are going to have to deal with the repercussions
You know, whether it be in our lives or the lives of our children, you know
That's why it matters
And that's why it it, you know, it shouldn't matter who it is to us. I mean look here in verse six
You think this was harsh, you know god god gets even harsher
You know, he says in verse six if thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter
Now thy son, you know, I could kind of know i'm just kidding but thy daughter
Or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend which as is as thine own soul entice thee secretly
Look, he's saying I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's the I don't care what relationship it is
I don't care how close they are are you I don't care how near and dear these people are to you
If it's your son your brother your sister your wife your friend your best buddy
It doesn't matter if they entice you secretly
And they and they and they to serve other gods with thou hast now not known thou nor thy fathers
Lamely of the gods of the people which are round about you nigh unto thee or far off from thee
From one end of the earth even unto the other of the end of the earth thou shall not consent unto them nor hearken unto them
Neither shall thine eye pity them he's saying look you need to put your emotion aside
You need to put your feelings aside for these people
Neither shalt thou spare
Neither shalt thou conceal him
Don't say hey, just don't talk about that. You know, don't put him in the cellar and be like
You know, don't you know if it gets found out don't conceal them
So yeah, they're right here. Here. They are do what you will, you know, don't spare these people
He's saying
Like this is all bible and he says here in verse 9
Thou but thou shalt surely kill him
I mean this this is what god thinks of it. And not only that he says thine hand shall be first upon him
He's saying look if if one of these people even if it's a dear relationship like this
Turns out to be some wicked false prophet who's going to teach lies and damnable heresies
With the intent of bringing harm upon god's people and lead others astray after false gods
You know because of the severe consequences that come with that no matter who it is
You should be the first one to take them to the proper authorities
Thine hand shall be first upon him and take him before the judges right and and carry out the sentence
But thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death
And afterwards the hands of all the people now that's interesting
It says not only will you not conceal him and not only will this person be killed
But the person who discovers them will be the first person to kill them
They'll be the ones to first they're going to cast the first stone as it were because he says
Stone them with stones, right? That's the punishment
And he's saying look the guy that finds them out. They're the ones that have to start everything
You know what that does it keeps people from just throwing out false accusations
If you know that you're going to be the one that is going to have to put the noose around their neck
You're probably not just going to go turning in everybody
You know just making false accusations and say oh, yeah, it's a it's a serious and grave matter
You know, I mean it's real easy this day and age just call cps randomly
And just say hey so-and-so is you know doing this and that
And you should probably go and then just place an anonymous call. God doesn't believe in these anonymous tips
God says you're going to be at the one that doesn't you're going to have to be the one that brings it to light
And not only that you're going to be the one that carries out the judgment the execution
Because it's a lot harder to do that, you know
It's a lot harder to just make up lies and false accusations if you know, you're the one that has to do that
And I think that's why god wants it that way because you know, it is a double-edged sword, isn't it?
You know this this debt this issue the death penalty unfortunately, you know the way man does things innocent people do get put to death
You know, should we I mean that's unfortunate that's an that's unfortunate that's very bad
That's why god says here, you know that we need to be making you know, or doing our due diligence
We need to make diligent inquiry
And the person that levies the accusation has to be the one who actually pulls the trigger so to speak
That would take care of a lot of it wouldn't it and the fact you know if we won't study out right now but
The fact that if you bring a false witness against somebody it's found out you're lying you get the punishment that they would have
That takes care of a lot of it
You know if I i'm not going to be so quick to you know
Accuse something of something that's worthy of death if I know there's a chance it might come back in my own head
So that takes care, you know, god puts all these things in place to try to minimize
You know, uh bad judgment, you know, and of course god gives the sermon and things like that
But really what god is showing us here, you know, I believe that's part of why god wants
You know us to be the first to do it. But also I think he's also trying to get us to consider something
Who do you love more?
Okay, and now I don't want people to misconstrue this as you shouldn't love these people these relationships in your life
You know
We should love our brothers and our sisters and our wives and our daughters and our sons and all that, you know
That should be there
It's not a question of not loving somebody, you know
Loving somebody at the expense of another
But who do you love more?
You know, are you gonna love are you gonna let your affection and your your memories and your nostalgia for some?
Relationship in your life, you know supersede your love for god
Even if that person's wicked
You shouldn't I mean that's that's the message of the bible
Jesus said he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me
Now he didn't say he that loveth father or mother is is not worthy of me
He said he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me
He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me
And he that taketh on his cross and follow with me is not worthy of me
So, you know, who do I love more do I love my wife more or do I love the lord more?
Well, I love the lord more, you know, the best way i've ever heard is, you know, why do you say that?
Because I can't be the husband I need to be for my wife if I don't love god more than her
Me loving god more than my wife or children is the most loving thing I could do for them
Does that make sense?
If I say hey, i'm gonna let this book, you know the word of god i'm gonna love this more
Than any other relationship in my life
You know that's going to benefit every other relationship in my life because that's going to make me the husband I need to be
You know, it's going to make us the spouses. We need to be that's going to make us
You know
Everything we need to be in every relationship that we have and that's why we need to love god more
Than any other relationship
He says here in verse 12 will go on he says if thou shalt hear
Say in one of thy cities which the lord thy god hath given thee to dwell
dwell there saying certain men
The children of belia are gone out from among you
And have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city saying let us go and serve other gods, which he have not known now
He's kind of transitioning a little bit right? But let me just stop here real quick and let's just define
What is the children of belial most of us are probably familiar with this but beal
Belial is just another word for the devil, you know ebelial another word, you know bale is another one
beelzebub
right
And he's saying look if the if certain men the children of belial, what is he saying children of the devil, okay?
Now not every but every unsaved person is a child of the devil
Some people have this mistaken notion that if you're not saved
You're a you're automatically a child of the devil and that's not the case
And that's that's a whole nother thing to we have to we would have to unwrap tonight
and we really don't have a lot of time but
Look the children of the just because somebody is unsaved doesn't mean they're automatically, you know, a son of belial
Okay, so we need to keep that in mind
Children of belial are reprobates people who have been given over to a reprobate mind. That's what they are
You know a great example of this is i'll read to you from samuel chapter two
If we recall hofni and phineas, right which were the priests the sons of eli
In the tabernacle and they were they were stealing from the offering they were they were uh, you know
Doing all the things false prophets love to do they fleece the flock
You know, they they they cause people to despise the offering of the lord
By you know taking the best for themselves. If you recall they were taken by force
Unsodded flesh from the people and they were taking the fat which was supposed to be burned and they were eating it for themselves
And they were you know fornicating with the women which came to the door of the temple
So they're basically just you know at at the temple just you know
Cruising for these illicit relationships
Wicked people, you know doing this in the house of god
That's not your average sinner
That's not just some guy who's got you know a drinking problem or something
Or you know you takes the lord's name in vain when he's when he hits his hand with a hammer or something
This isn't just your run-of-the-mill sinner
This is wicked people who could be so brazen and so brash
To go into god's house and just you know
Do these wicked sins? That's a special kind of wicked and it says there and and talking about
Us the sons of eli it says in second or samuel chapter 2 it says
The sons of eli were sons of belial they knew not the lord
So to be a son of belial, you know, you have to be doing these actions that they're doing you have to be
Somebody who's capable of these kinds of sins and you don't know the lord
and uh
That's what we're god is beginning to dress here look how are you going to handle the reprobates?
How are you going to handle these sons of belial in your in your community?
okay, and news, you know, let me just
Break it to you. You're not going to give them a pride parade
You're not going to block off the city street
And let them march up and down and display their filth to the world
You're not going to promote their philosophy to kindergartners
you're not going to let their their crude and
lewd books be published and given to children in in junior high's
High school and and promote this filthy wicked ungodly lifestyle
That's not god's prescription for how to deal with these people. We're about to read it
He goes verse 14
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
So again, what what is god prescribing here death the death penalty that's how god deals with it
You know, you know
somebody write the advocate
that wicked publication
You know and tell them to whatever i'm gonna go off but he's saying look this is how you deal with it you kill him
And he says in verse 16 and thou shalt gather all the spoil into the midst
Well pick it back up in verse 15 just in case we didn't get it the first time
Thou shalt surely smite the with the inhabitants of the 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. He said don't even take the animals
You know, he doesn't even want he doesn't want anything everything god's eyes. It's all tainted
It's all polluted
And he says in verse 16 and thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof
And shall burn the city with fire
Burn with fire the city, excuse me
So he says not only going to kill everybody and every every all the cattle
Then take everything that they have and take it to the end in the middle of the city and burn it
This is extreme
Right
I mean, this is this is about this is on the more harsher end of god's punishment. God doesn't do this to just everybody
You know, this isn't just you know
You know
Little billy got caught stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar. It's like well, sorry, bud
You know, it's fire and brimstone for you, you know, bring everything out of your bedroom pile it up here out in the yard
Grab a pile of rocks kids. That's not what you know, I mean god doesn't just roll with this
That's the stupidity of people who say well all sins equal not in god's eyes. Well, then why does god punish all sin equally?
Why does god have such severe punishments for certain sins and not others if all sin is equal?
That's that's a stupid statement
It's because it's not equal
And god's saying look you're going to kill them and then you're going to burn everything that they have with fire
Because god's trying to make an example out of them
Because god wants us to get the idea get it through our heads what he thinks of these people
And his mind hasn't changed
Go read jude tonight
God says that those people are put forth an example suffering the eternal a vengeance of eternal hell fire
That that's the example we're looking for you go to jude and say what does god think about homosexuality day
He points back to sodom and gomorrah
He says that's what I think
Well, why don't we have a new testament example? Why does he have to point to the old testament example because god hasn't changed
Because god had made up his mind back then and he hasn't changed in the new testament
You know, and we have an example of this in scripture if you would turn over to judges chapter 19 this very story plays out
If you recall judges 19
You know, the man is traveling with his uh, his concubine they're trying to find a place to sleep
and he
He goes aside into uh, this this man's house brings him in and out of the street
and uh
And it says in verse 22, we'll pick it up there
Now as they were making their hearts marry behold the men of the city certain sons of belial
So there's that term again, right? We just read that
Beset the house round about and beat at the door and spake to the master of the house the old man saying breathe forth
The man that came into thine house that we may know him now
He's not they're not saying they want to you know, ask him what his favorite color is
You know when it says me that we may know him. They don't want they're not trying to get to know him like that
He's talking about having a carnal physical relationship with them
You know raping him basically is what they're talking about
You know filthy wicked thing
and it says and
And the man verse 23 the master of the house went to them and said to them nay my brother nay I pray you
Do not so wickedly
Saying this man is coming to saying this man is coming to my house. Do not this folly
Behold, here is my daughter a maiden and his concubine. I will bring them out now and humble ye them and do with them
What seemeth good unto you?
But unto this man do not so vile a thing, but the men would not hearken him
So the man took his cute concubine and brought her forth unto them and they knew her
And abused her all the night until the morning
And and when the day spring began to spring they let her go
So, you know, there's a few things we can learn thus far is that you know, these reprobates, you know
Don't think they don't go both ways because they do
You know, they're they'll anything that has you know, god
Now i'm trying to keep it as tame as I can here
You know, but here's the thing. God makes it real clear
You know in leviticus
We read about the sonomites and you read about the people that are into beasts right after that right the bestiality as well
So these people this is what they're like
Anything that moves is good enough for them
And so they bring out the he brings out the concubine and then of course when the day comes up they let her go
Verse 29. We'll pick it up there
If you recall the story
She makes it back there and gets to the threshold and the guy just gets up and says come let us be going
You know such a tender-hearted individual
And uh, you know, of course, but she doesn't move so he throws her on on his animal they go and she's dead
So these guys literally killed her
Through what they did to her
In verse 29 it says when they're coming and when he was coming to his house
He took a knife and lay hold on his concubine and divided her
So he quarters her, you know, he takes off an arm another arm couple legs
You know, he cuts her up is what it's talking about
You know, uh, you say the bible's a boring book well, hey, that's pretty interesting story
Now god's just saying this is what happened god's not saying this is how he wants things done
You didn't see that you didn't read that in deuteronomy where god says hey
This happens if you suspect this is the sons of belial you need to cut somebody up
That's not what he says
This guy's doing this because he's trying to draw attention to the fact that this city has sons of belial in it
This city in the in the tribe of benjamin has these wicked wicked reprobate sons of the devil living in there and thriving
To the point where they can just take go to a house and just demand that they give over some strangers
They can do whatever they want to them
and then then and they can do it and then instead they get a concubine they do whatever they want to her and they're just
And because they think they're just going to get away with it. There are no consequences. That's how wicked it had gotten
So this man does this
You know very drastic, uh deed here goes to these these drastic ends to make sure it's known
So he cuts her up
And he took a knife it says in verse 29 and lay hold his concubine and divided her
Together with her bones into 12 pieces
And sent her into all the coast of israel
you know, so he sends his body out and people are
You know, you know, I don't know where exactly it went
But you know these people are bringing body parts and saying hey, it's from this concubine
And it was so that all that saw it said there was there was no such
Deed done nor seen from the day of the children of israel came out of the land of egypt
Unto this day consider it
Excuse me, take advice and speak your minds
And what happens as a result?
Well israel as a result, of course unites comes together against gibeah where the city was
Or that's the name of the city
And they destroy it. We know the story right they come up against it
They acquire of god they go against it and they and they destroy it. And if if you recall they actually ended up burning it with fire
Just like god told him to do in deuteronomy
Now here's the thing you say well that's harsh this is real harsh chapter night stone this false prophet stone the son of belial
Why is this guy cutting up his concubine and just why are they destroying this entire city and burning it with fire?
Why are they doing this? It seems kind of harsh
Well, if you consider that harsh you need to stop and you fail to consider
the suffering of the concubine
You fail to consider the suffering of the innocent
That are being preyed upon by people like this
And that's what people need to do in this country today instead of getting this soft spot for all these sodomites
And letting the television brainwash them into thinking that there's something they're not
You know, they're in every go go look up these people in every bible story there is
And see what kind of people they are predators every time rapists. They're the worst people there are
That's the only picture the bible paints about them. That's the only one I need to see
and if we're going to start getting the soft spot, you know what you're doing you're you're
you're
You're downplaying the suffering that they inflict on other people
You know, we talked about it in that sermon a few weeks ago
About you know what needs to happen to perverts
in this country
These molesters they need to be dealt with, you know harshly
And uh, you say well, let's rehabilitate them, you know, or let's give them a background check
It's too late for the persons whose life they've already destroyed
You know, there's got to be justice
Let's move on here says in verse 17 in deuteronomy chapter 13 and there shall 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 has sworn unto thy fathers
When thou shalt harken to the voice of the lord thy god and keep all his commandments
Which I command thee this day to do that which is right in the eyes of the lord thy god
So here's the thing, you know, god wants to forgive these people. He not those people that not the sons of belial
But god doesn't want to have to judge the entire nation because of them
You know if a nation just steps back and says, you know
If if israel when they when they all got their body part it just said it's just a concubine anyway
I mean, is it that big a deal? I mean, it's benjamin, you know
It's our brethren
I know they're into that over there, but
It's just their lifestyle
You know, it's just it's just they just want to love one another
That's just how they are. You know, they can't help it. They were born that way
Do you think god would just not done anything about it?
You know, god would have started just pouring pouring out his wrath on that whole nation
Now, how do you know that brother corman because that's exactly what he did later
When they went after false gods when they stopped carrying out god's righteous judgment
And god had them all carried away in babylon had their cities destroyed
You know as syria came
The caldians came and just destroyed them
And that's and it happened to the whole nation because you know, they don't want to deal with this
And that's where we're at in this country
And again, i'm not saying that we as individuals you and I should go do something about it i'm going to get up and preach about
it
You know and you should do with it what you will as far as how you're going to instruct, you know
You're lead your own home
And teach your own children and help them to understand
right from wrong in this matter
But you know if ours if we wanted to spare ourselves some some wrath from god we would deal with these people like this
Our civil authorities would do exactly what god says
With these people stone them with stones burn everything they have make an example out of them
And that's bible tonight, you know
We were just talking about this last the other week, you know, because I had to end this chapter short and I was like, you know
hey, we uh
You know, I like preaching very you know, we we say we're preaching verse by verse. We're really preaching chapter by chapter
You know you say well you should preach verse by verse in case you you know
You don't want to preach anything. I think i've proven tonight. I'm not holding back anything. I'm the word of god
You know, it would have been real easy, you know a lot of churches they would have just gone right by chapter 13
You know, let's go find something else tonight to talk about that's that's a little harsh, you know
It's going to give the kids nightmares or something
You know
But that's what's in the bible. That's what i'm here to preach. That's what I have to do. It's my job as a preacher
And i'm not ashamed of it. I don't say that grudgingly, you know
I'm glad to preach the whole word of god
And you know god wants to show mercy and god wants to have compassion
And that's what I want for this country. I want god to spare his wrath
And to not destroy this country, but guess what? Someone's got to get up and say hey, this is
What god thinks of this stuff?
And we're treating these people completely wrong
You know giving them their their their time in the sun is is not the answer
You know giving them prime time television spots
You know, sorry anderson cooper
Go jump in a lake of fire, buddy. That's what I say to that guy
Sodomite, you know, they're being lifted up in the media lifted up in entertainment lifted up in our public school systems
Exalted praise that's what's going on in our country. That's nowhere near what god prescribes. It's not even close
So do you expect god to show us mercy when we need it to forgive this country for all the innocent blood it shed
For all the wicked things it's been doing
for decades now
Because god says look if you'll do all this, you know
He's that he may turn away the fierceness of his anger
It's not just that god's going to hold back his blessing. It's that he's going to get proactive
And show his anger towards people that refuse to deal with this that allow this kind of thing to go on in their midst
Because here's the thing
You know, god is love god is mercy god is but you know what else god is is justice
And god is it has a just nature
And god's ways are higher than our ways if we if we don't agree with this tonight, you know
We get need to get our hearts, right? Maybe we should spend a little bit more time in the book
Than you know letting some movie or hollywood tell us what to think about these things
Because you know justice must and shall be served. It's going to be served
They're going to get what's coming to them one day sooner or later
Either by the hand of man or by the hand of god
The question, you know, we as a nation need to ask ourselves tonight is do we want to go down with them?
Because that's that's the option, you know, it's not it's not that god's just going to turn a blind eye
God will just take us all down with them
So
Here's you know, what's what's god showing us here tonight in deuteronomy chapter three is that you know truly compassionate leadership that really cares about
Its people, you know is going to execute god's judgment in accordance to his word
So that it will spare other people around them from having to suffer the consequences of not doing so let's go ahead and pray