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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you hey man alright great singing this evening great to have you all back with us here for the five o'clock service that's raining huh well hey praise what I prayed this morning that God would keep it dry for us for the soul winning and he did so praise God right it was nice out there it's nice getting a break from the heat too this is one of the first weeks on a Sunday where it's like this isn't so bad this is I could do this but anyways let's go through our notes if you don't have one of these bulletins slip your hand up real high we'll make sure that we get one out to you and if you look there at the top of the first page we've got our service time is listed there Sunday morning at 1030 Sunday evening again 5 p.m. Wednesday nights at 7 we're in our Bible study we're gonna be in Hebrews chapter number 2 this week try to make it out for the Bible study if you can it's a great great book of the Bible lots of stuff to learn there we got the soul winning opportunities listed there and as I mentioned this morning we added another one here so Saturday we got two times on like opposite sides of the state of people going out so winning so appreciate everybody who is Ellison has decided to have official scheduled times in the bulletin it's really important obviously I know there's some people who do so winning on their own on random days of the week and things or maybe go solar with their family and that's awesome and I encourage everybody to do you know you want to do those awesome that's good it's very good but then on top of that being able to have a scheduled time where we have a published and you're you're kind of committing to be there on a regular basis is also excellent so appreciate everybody who steps up and puts in the time to to be there and to lead these times so it's very good sorry I'm looking at a note here which I don't know if it's for me or not continuing on we've got the salvation and baptisms for the month of August as well as for the year real quick I don't think we have anything is there anything to report that I didn't catch this morning on salvation's for earlier in the week anything at all okay then how about for today if you went out soul winning today what happened to my pen thank you if you went out soul winning today and had any salvation slip your hand up real quick I see two over there and three I gave the map away in a Bible yeah it's been a while since like I like I always have extra Bibles and I usually give out the ones that I use right so I'm just I'm used to doing that and they haven't doing that and for a long time now like it it just hasn't come up to give the Bibles away like people just haven't needed them or whatever and then but then today it was just like I'm handing out Bibles left and right and then my my map I always fold up and stick in the back of the of the book and then yeah that one that one's gone too so sorry brother Jesse make your life a little bit more difficult but anyways it was a good day for us so all right excellent keep up the good work out knocking on those doors we got the offering totals down there at the bottom of the page through the month of August prayer requests we have another addition to the prayer request so please please please pray for Jamie Wright this is brother Kevin's aunt and she has I'll read this for you leakage in her heart she's need gonna need to have a second heart surgery she's in ICU and sedated and he's gonna find out from the cardiologist if it's even okay to do surgery tomorrow but they want to do surgery tomorrow if she's excuse me going to be able to to handle it basically if she's strong enough to be able to go through surgery and there's what fluid in her lungs it's pneumonia now so very serious now brother Kevin said that she saved so it's that's comforting to know that she saved but at the same time very very serious ordeal big big situation here so please please say extra prayers for her and that God will heal her and guide the doctors and everything that she will have she'll get through this so pray for her pray for everyone else on our list as well mentioned this morning pray for my seller family pray for for Cindy specifically her parents going through extremely difficult times here so as I mentioned this morning you could see with her mother that that's her mother and father there and her mother is physically stable so that's good she's at home but it was a it was a serious attempt and obviously a lot of things going on there her husband having that stroke and recovering from that so a lot lots lots of things going on please pray for them pray for her parents pray for their family and as well as everyone else I saw the Johnson's were here this morning so it's really good to see a turnaround in Carmela that that she was able to be out and out and about so so we're really happy to yeah I got a look at her she looked you know from a distance she looked pretty pretty good she looked pretty normal so there's a big ordeal for them so praise the Lord for that I'm glad to see that and she's doing much better and then if there's no other updates that I'm aware of here I know that brother Logan was telling me that he's gonna try to get an update on their neighbor Lonnie and when I see my neighbor too I'm gonna get an update on Henry is that boy that's two-year-old that has that has cancer and he wasn't scheduled for his next chemo until I think this week so I'll find out more about him how he's doing and then I don't know any I don't have any more details or updates on steadfast but just continue to pray for them I mean of all the churches all our friends I don't really know what's going on I've been I've been like off social media almost completely now for a while for at least a few weeks like not even like getting on I think I tried to get on Facebook the other day and then it just like like I went to scroll and it just didn't load so I was just like well forget it I don't care I just I just missed it I don't know I'm just like pretty much completely unplugged so if there's anything going on I don't even know I know people are getting YouTube channel shut down I think I got an email that said like FirstWorks Baptist Church and Verity have their channel shut down so I'm sorry I was like shocked that you know FirstWorks had that dude they were doing the YouTube shorts man he was killing it on the YouTube shorts like they were they were just doing awesome on that and I was like praise the Lord he's getting all this traction and views and stuff but I guess you can't go you can't go that unnoticed for it for too long right so I don't know we'll see what happens you know I'm not every day that we have our channel up I think is great and I'm just expecting one day it's just gonna be gone just like the rest so just remember if you're following our church we stream to our website so that's not gonna get taken down they stream we stream a stronghold Baptist Church it's our website so if you've never been to our home site page before it's not really anything special I do plan on getting some work done on that but we do stream there there's a there's a section for the sermons or something video and we stream directly to the website so you'd all you have to do is go the website and you can stream from there you know it's not YouTube you don't need a special app it literally just plays on the web page so if you ever need that for any reason that or if we get our channel shut down or something you don't know how to find us that's how you could find us all right all that to say I don't really know what's going on with steadfast so keep praying for him hey if I didn't have a long way of saying things and I wouldn't be a good preacher right did anyone pick up on what I was trying to throw down in the morning sermon I told you about it did any did anyone notice that I said every name of every new IFB Church in the sermon did you pick up on that how long did it take okay I didn't want to make it too obvious but then I was surprised when I talked to people and they're just like oh you did that that's all I wrapped up at the end I was like I was just rattling I don't know yet brother Carter's only one he was the only one awake he was the only one paying attention thank you brother Carter for listening to one of my sermons I appreciate that in Boise yeah yeah any how I never do things like that every so like that's not the way that I preach but anyway I want it let's get through the business let's get through the business here August challenge bring a visitor to church so we are what do you have one more week of August left right I think it's today the 22nd well for church it for church services you've got you've got Wednesday and you've got Sunday to bring a visitor you want to earn that prize work it work it out next Sunday big Sunday try to get try to get people in and then we've got the homeschool field trips there please RSVP please if you know now try to remember to sign up for these as far in advance as possible it's very very helpful for us Hebrews chapter 4 week 5 of 10 so we're halfway through the the length of time that I've given you but we're more than halfway through the verses for Hebrews chapter 4 if you are keeping pace so I will be divvying out prizes when I get the rest available for Hebrews 3 we've got the upcoming events of course the big one so winning marathon it's gonna be awesome I'm really looking forward to this and I'm planning on planning for the the last soloing event at near the end of the year for South Carolina because I want that one to be just as successful as this one is and the more time I could have out there and kind of put the word out the the better the results will be so looking forward to that and please again for this sign up for this if you plan on attending and regardless of hotels like if you need hotels or not let me know because the one of the most important things I need is breakfast to know how much food to bring for people how much we're gonna consume and how much space we're gonna take up we rented a pavilion and I you know want to make sure that we got the right size that we're gonna fit everybody and and be able to accommodate with food because we usually have we'll have breakfast there and we'll have lunch too so I'm thinking maybe we might even run out to pavilion so it just depends on how many people are coming so please let me know as early as possible about that birthday's anniversary we sang to little Zuri this morning she turned eight so that was cool for her hopefully she got some ice cream and that's about it for our announcements this is from July so there's a follow-up card here from July I don't know who's that is but I'm gonna leave that right here if if you're missing one you can grab that and I'm gonna turn the service over to brother Jesse and he will lead us in our next song Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh this time we will be passing out our tithe and offerings and while we are playing and we pass around please turn your book would your Bibles to Exodus chapter 32 Exodus chapter 32 here strong old Baptist Church we'll be reading the entire chapter again that's Exodus chapter 32 you can follow along silently while brother Devin reads again that was Exodus chapter 32 and when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him up make us gods we shall go before us for as for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt we want not what has become of him and Aaron said unto them break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives of your sons and of your daughters and bring them unto me and all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron and he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten molten calf and they said these be thy gods Oh Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and when Aaron saw it he built an altar before and Aaron made proclamation and said tomorrow is a feast to the Lord and they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play and the Lord said unto Moses go get thee down for thy people which thou brought us out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them they have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed there unto and said these be thy gods Oh Israel which I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and the Lord said unto Moses I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people now therefore let me alone that I may that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation and Moses besought the Lord his God and said Lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people remember Abraham Isaac and Israel thy servants to whom thou swearst by thine own self and said stunt to them I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people and Moses turned and went down from the mount and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand the tables were written on both their sides on the one side and on the other were they written and the tables were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables and when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted he said unto Moses there is a noise of war in the camp and he said it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome but the noise of them that sing do I hear and it came to pass as soon as he came nigh unto the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount and he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and straw it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it and Moses said unto Aaron what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them and Aaron said let not the anger of my Lord wax hot thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief for they said unto me make us gods which shall go before us for as for this Moses the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt we want not what has become of him and I said unto them whosoever hath any gold let him break it off so they gave it me then I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf and when Moses saw that the people were naked for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies then Moses took stood excuse me then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said who is on the Lord's side let him come unto me and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him and he said unto them thus saith the Lord God of Israel put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from the from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor and the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and their fail of the people that day about 3,000 men for Moses had said consecrate yourselves today to the Lord even every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day and it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up unto the Lord fair adventure I shall make an atonement for your sin and Moses returned unto the Lord and said ah this people oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou has written and the Lord said unto Moses whosoever hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my book therefore now go lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee behold mine angels shall go before thee nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them and the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made let's pray dear Lord thank you for this chapter thank you for your word thank you for our church and all the values that we have here and pray to be with pastors he comes now and preaches this evening sermon I pray that you would give us all ears to hear and and help us to focus tonight tonight and in Jesus I pray amen all right so this evening I preach a sermon title who's on the Lord's side who is on the Lord's side which obviously comes from this passage that we're seeing tonight and one of the things that we're gonna look at we're gonna look at multiple things in the Bible and some of them might be things that are hard to understand or hard to read especially for newer believers or people who are new to the Bible maybe you just got saved hey you're trusting in Jesus Christ but there's a lot of things in the Bible especially in the Old Testament you just don't really understand but we need to from the very beginning just decide who is on the Lord's side right are you on God's side or not are you on the side of the Lord or not are you on Jesus Christ's side or not there are many times where people are faced with decisions and you need to pick a side and I want you thinking about that tonight we're gonna look at various examples in Scripture where a choosing point comes up and people are you know it they're being confronted with people are being confronted people God being confronted with a choice are you gonna serve God or not whose side are you really on anyways are you on the Lord's side now one of the things that we see here in this story with Moses is of course he's coming down from the mountain like he's just been spending a bunch of time with God receiving the commandments receiving the Ten Commandments you know communing with the Lord him and Joshua are coming back down off the mount and they hear a noise and Joshua thinks it's a sound of war and he's thinking that like either you know it sounds like there's some kind of war or something going on he could just hear it as they're coming down the mountain and Moses like no no no that's not the sound of people who are being defeated in battle and retreating and running away and screaming and everything else he said it's also not the sound of someone who's beating it you know other people in battle he says that sounds like music that sounds like a party that sounds like dancing it sounds like a celebration and of course when they get down the people had said unto Aaron hey we don't know what happened to this Moses guy I mean he's already been gone for a while so just make us some gods that we could worship and they throw a party and Aaron makes them naked and they put together all this gold they make these calves and the people sit down they eat and they drink and that says they rise up to play and they're singing and they're dancing and they're partying and having this grand old time now with their brand-new gods who knows what happened to that Moses guy and when Moses gets down from the mountain and he sees this he is furious he's angry and the friend and look I could understand exactly why he's so angry when you come and you see a scene like that after how much time you just spent the Lord leading you leading you through the wilderness all the miracles he's done all that God has done for you to just so quickly turn and brush aside and just say well whatever new gods and then just get involved in whatever sinful acts are doing as they're made naked and as they're dancing and play a Bible says they're playing well one thing I noticed here about Moses and you'd have to ask yourself this question if you came across that scene would you be angry would you even be angry or would you just oh man well that was quick you know and it not be a big deal to you would you are you so desensitized to sin that if you were to walk up on this scenario oh well it looks like they're throwing a party or would you be righteously indignant and have the anger and have that not sit well with you at all and say I we can't tolerate this like Moses had the reaction of saying this is unacceptable this is intolerable we're gonna fix this problem right now I'm gonna take your stupid idol we're gonna grind it to powder we're gonna smash it down and you're gonna drink it sometimes I think we have a problem and you know you ought to pray and I ought to pray more because we live in such a wicked perverted society that sin angers us more that sin should be exceeding sinful and that when we see it it shouldn't just be not that big of a deal just because the world has grown to accept so much filth it oughta vex your soul we don't want to grow to be like lot who's just becomes complacent in his place in Sodom I'd much rather be like Moses where you walk in you'd be like what is going on here what are you guys thinking what is the matter with you Moses observes this whole situation it says in verse 25 and when Moses saw that the people were naked for Aaron had made them naked under their shame among their enemies then Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said who's on the Lord's side let him come unto me so you tell me right now hey who's for God there's all this going on obviously that's one side but who's on the Lord's side he's just been spending all this time with the Lord he's got the ark he's got the Ten Commandments he's got the law hey who's on the Lord's side you want to follow the way of Baal you want to follow the way of these false gods come on to me and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him and he said unto them thus saith the Lord God of Israel put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor they have to cut out the evil and the wickedness from among their group from among the camp and this is just to just to keep right in the eyes of God this is this is of the Lord this isn't just Moses flying off the handle and just going into a rage and like Moses kind of making up stuff to do like kill these people this is like this is of God the Bible says in the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses and their fellow of the people that day about 3,000 men for Moses had said so this is what Moses had said to them consecrate yourselves today to the Lord separate consecrate means you're separating yourself make yourself holy set yourself apart from this wicked group of people and serve the Lord and even every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day so you want God to be happy with you this is what you need to do this cuts to the closest ties that you may have humanly speaking in relationships this divides the family even you say you're gonna be on the Lord's side then you need to be willing to take up your sword against your son and against your brother are you really on the Lord's side do you love them more than you love me obviously today we are not called to take up physical swords and fight a physical battle we read that verse this morning our battle is a spiritual one we're involved in the spiritual warfare but the consequences of ramifications are very similar because as we fight as we take the Word of God and draw that sword you know whose side are you on are you on the Lord's side or you on the world's side we see battles all the time there's decisions that come across your path in this life that you need to make and I'm not talking about the the false dichotomy that the world wants to throw at you like the Republican and Democrat like here's your two choices that's false choices okay you don't have to be one or the other in that regard but there are plenty of times where you have absolute decisions you have to make for example your gender that's not even a decision that is a binary decision that's made you're either man or woman you're either male or female like you don't get to choose that that but that is something you only have two choices you have man and woman there is no other choice with the Lord you must also choose sides and there's times when things come up and you have to choose a side you cannot take the middle ground you cannot just try to play it safe and ride the fence and be lukewarm because if you're lukewarm read that Bible verse out there by the coffee maker God's gonna spew you out of his mouth and yes we have that by the coffee maker because lukewarm coffee is disgusting but also to remind you not to be a lukewarm Christian right hey we've got the hot coffee over here and the cold coffee over here we don't have anything in between get hot get cold one of the two but but but seriously though you know that is a true cunt I mean this is we see this in scripture quite a bit this is one blaring example of Moses saying look who's on the Lord's side because we have to do something right now that's not gonna be fun it's not gonna be pretty it's gonna separate it's gonna be something that you just have to do if you're gonna be right with God you're gonna be on the Lord's side this must be done and when you make a stand and when you're gonna do something right for God it may cause a lot of people not to like you it may cause you to split and divide between family members but where is your loyalty really I mean there's people who have to face the the problem of oh I've got this sodomite in my family well we know what the Bible says about that we know what God thinks about that how are you gonna deal with it are you gonna pick a side or are you gonna try to appease everybody and just pretend like it's really not that big of a deal oh well that's okay we're just I'm just gonna play the piece the peacemaker look you got a child of the devil you got someone who's wicked as hell sorry no I'm choosing the Lord like I'm gonna be on God's side and you know what that might make the rest of my family the other people my brother my son it might make people upset with me it might divide them from me but you know what I'm on God's side I'm not gonna back down on that I'm not gonna compromise on that and there's there's times where God is expecting you and you come to a decision point you have to make a decision you are it's it's not allowed to stand somewhere in between at this point something must have been done something needed to be done I mean these people were getting way out of line really fast and Moses like who's on the Lord's side all right we're settling this right now who's on the Lord's side come over here by me and they pick up their their swords this is 3,000 people three that now look I mean let that sink in 3,000 people lost their lives of like their own brethren this isn't a cool story this isn't a fun story this never should have happened but sometimes things get to a point and now you're faced with a situation and something needs to be done right and again I'm not talking about physically taking up arms or anything of that sort but I'm talking about you know you don't Moses didn't make this situation happen other people did but as a result now as a result this wickedness a bunch of people are gonna have to die and it's gonna be close family members there's gonna be this this forever separation now from these people because because of all of this other garbage and this wicked sin that was brought in and this was so bad I mean again we don't know exactly what was going on but with the idolatry and when people just start going after false gods God does not tolerate that at all at all we gotta understand who our God is the Lord is a jealous God he doesn't want no look and look you know we we could all say yeah I I'm not looking to go after any other gods right I'm not looking to make any other good we can avoid this type of situation when God's own people start going after other gods and setting up idols and just be careful though what you're setting up in your heart and and if you're putting anything start putting anything before God right but this is interesting in this passage too because while on the one hand Moses is really angry and he's trying to write remedy the situation and he's saying look there needs to be the separation right now there needs to be this action that takes place he still has a heart for the people in general it's not like he hates the people but the but the situation was really bad and this course of action needed to be taken so you know the separation and the 3,000 people being separated by the swords as so to speak right about spiritually it doesn't mean he doesn't love the people in general and care about them because he does the Bible says in verse 30 and it came to pass on tomorrow that Moses said unto the people you have sin a great sin and now I will go up unto the Lord per adventure I shall make an atonement for your sin he said okay now I'm gonna have to go and try to make this right with God if he didn't care about him at all he would just be like yeah good luck with God good luck but no he said you know what now I'm gonna have to go and I'm gonna have to go and try to make things right and make peace with God and try to make an atonement for your sin and Moses returned unto the Lord and said oh this people have sin a great sin and have made them gods of gold and he's just coming right out this is most doing the right thing he's just coming right out and just saying spilling the beans hey this is the way it is this is what they did God not trying to hide anything this is what they did they made gods of gold yet now if thou wilt forgive their sins and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written now that's a pretty strong statement to make and this gets to the heart of Moses which obviously gets to the heart of Christ as well as a symbol you know symbolically he's going to make atonement for the people just as Christ made atonement for us and is has this attitude of look God forgive their sin and if not then just blot me out of the book of life let the let the curse let the the the ramifications fall on me let me be reprobate and forgive them it's that selfless act which obviously Christ went to hell for us and had that selfless act of being damned in order that we can receive forgiveness of sins and the Lord said unto Moses whosoever has sinned against me him will I blot out of my book so even though Moses the same guy that commanded hey look we need you need to pick up the sword now and start doing some separation you need to start you know taking care of this business he's also the same one though that was really really intriguing the Lord for the forgiveness as well we need to have the heart right the heart that will go with the extreme wickedness we're not going to tolerate this look things need to be done we need to make some separations here we need to cut this out but at the same time that people even if people get cut out and maybe there's a whole bunch of family you know we could still love them and pray for them and and then treat for them that one day you know they'll get right to this isn't just Old Testament but turn if you were to Joshua chapter 24 we see choices people being prevented presented with choices in Scripture here's a very major decision who's on the Lord's side and the Levites said you know what we are and you know the Levites are blessed for that they end up getting the service of God as a result why well God sees people who are going to say our relationship with you God is the highest we are willing to serve you at all costs we will not put anyone before you it only makes sense that God says okay you're gonna be the people now that serve me you want to be used of God you want to be a servant to the Lord well how about you make him the most important in your life and say even if it comes between father mother sister brother son daughter God gets number one spot in my life number one and look God's not gonna gonna ask you to do things like well now you just got to go kill your father your father your brother like it's causeless does that make sense like it's not like you're in and again I'm when I'm preaching about this talking about this it's a spiritual application okay so please don't take it literally talking about going to kill your dad or something that's not what God is gonna have you to do like ever because it's a spiritual battle we're not we're not talking about physical death even though there's many examples Old Testament of physical death okay it's the spiritual application that we take from that they're teaching greater truths did this happen physically yes it did absolutely it did and it was righteous and it was righteous judgment it was under the laws of God and we're gonna go we're gonna look through the laws of God as well but we see that here hey they were willing to even take up the sword against their brother and against their sons Joshua 24 look at verse number 14 the Bible says now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord and if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me in my house we will serve the Lord hey he's making a decision but you know what you just you need to choose here we are we come to the promised land here we are we've conquered the enemies who are you gonna serve you're gonna serve the Lord you're gonna serve these false gods you're gonna set up your idols you know what you make that decision where do you stand are you on the Lord's side or not says hey I've already made that choice me and my house we're serving the Lord that's what we're doing and the people answered and said God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods for the Lord our God he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of land of Egypt from the house of bondage in which did those great signs in our sight and preserved us and all the way wherein we went and among all the people through whom we passed and the Lord drove out from before us all the people even the Amorites which dwelt in the land therefore we will also serve the Lord for he is our God and to bring it up a lot of good reasons all these reasons say hey no no no no look Joshua we're serving the Lord to look how he answers them and think about the gravity of what's being told here about being on the Lord's side it comes at a cost if you're gonna say I'm gonna be on the Lord's side and I'm gonna fight for the Lord and I'm gonna serve Lord many then understand it comes at a cost verse 19 and Joshua said unto the people ye cannot serve the Lord for he isn't holy God he is a jealous God he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins and you can't you guys can't serve the Lord what are you thinking you think you could serve the Lord he's not gonna forgive you he's a jealous God if ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods and he will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that he hath done you good and this is why Moses was trying to get things right because he knows the Lord he knows what he's gonna do when when God sees these people who are dancing around and breaking these these false gods and these idols he's saying look God's a jealous God he's gonna consume you so Moses is trying to take care of it right away in that last story in Exodus saying look let's let's show God that we could handle this ourselves before God gets involved and has to rain down on us and the people said unto Joshua nay but we will serve the Lord and Joshua said unto the people your witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you the Lord to serve him and they said we are witnesses now therefore put away said he the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel and the people said unto Joshua the Lord our God will we serve and his voice will we obey choice to be made turn if you were to Deuteronomy chapter 13 and before while you're turning there I'm just gonna read for you from Luke chapter 14 because we're reading a lot of examples in the Old Testament and some of these when you read them they can be like maybe you never really thought about it before maybe you saw and you're just like wow that's pretty extreme it may sound extreme but if it's depending on how extreme it sounds to you whose side are you on ask yourself that question it doesn't get any less extreme in the New Testament the words of Jesus Christ you can keep your place and do it on me 13 if you want to turn to Luke 14 you can see this for yourself Luke 14 verse 25 Bible says and there went out and there went great multitudes with him talking about Jesus great moments a whole bunch of people Jesus doesn't hide this either by the way he's preaching this to the great multitudes and he turned and said unto them if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yay in his own life also he cannot be my disciple he didn't just say that to the 12 he said that to the great multitudes say wow and you know what that is that is a bold state as a strong statement it ought to make you take pause and and ponder and think about that what does he mean what does he mean you can't tell if you're gonna be if you're gonna choose to be a disciple of Christ if you're gonna choose to say I'm gonna follow the Lord that the Lord is my God and him will I serve then he better be number one in your heart he better have that number one spot because if he doesn't you're gonna end up not serving him you're gonna end up betraying him you're gonna end up turning your back on him for something else or someone else he needs the number one spot so you need to be able to do it and say it doesn't matter if it's father mother wife child husband brother and sisters my own life even no it's God is number one that's how you're gonna be a disciple and this is in line with everything we're reading in the Old Testament by the way this is what God's expectations are Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever okay I am the Lord I change not God doesn't change it's the same message it's the same message Old Testament New Testament and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you intending to build a tower said it's not down first and count at the cost whether you have sufficient to finish it lest happily after yet laid the foundation is not able to finish it all that behold it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish he's expressing here and there's another example after this one essentially just illustrating you need to understand that serving God comes at a price and by the way being a disciple is not the same as being a son of God it costs you nothing to get saved you receive a free a free gift you get a benefit by being saved there is no strings attached you don't have to do a bunch of work or anything else but you know what if you want to be a disciple if you want to be a follower if you want to do anything any work like that that is work and you have to understand there's a cost with that it's one thing to be in the family it's another thing to work for for your father right I could have a son and my son will be my son will be my son will be my son forever right he'd be my son but it's another thing for to say oh yeah dad you know what I want to help you and work with you dad I'm gonna get on the job with you and I'm gonna be a help and I'm gonna do what you do right he's my son either way okay you want to help me oh you want to go soloing with me guess what you got to put the iPad down right now my son's little right so guess what you got you got to not do the playtime guess what you can't go swimming guess what we're gonna be walking in the heat and guess what you're gonna be stuck out there with me for hours he's still my son and I love him either way but count the cost right count the cost this is this is what you're gonna have to do this is what you and and choose choose for yourself are you gonna serve or not hey I want to be a disciple yeah it sounds great and it is great but you know what don't go in it with some false idea of saying oh I'm gonna be a disciple of course I mean understand what God expects out of you you're gonna claim you say I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ I'm a disciple of Lord I'm gonna follow God Joshua gave the warning says hey you guys think you could follow the Lord you think you could serve the Lord yeah right but he gives it to okay you want to serve the Lord here's the way it is watch out because God's a jealous God watch out you're gonna say you're gonna serve the Lord then you're gonna go after these other gods and God's gonna rain down on you there's a lot more curses than there are blessings just be aware of that Deuteronomy 13 so I just I wanted to get that one you know there's plenty of other passages New Testament we're gonna get to but I wanted to just throw that in there to show the consistency of this teaching of when you're gonna choose a side man you better be on that side God doesn't allow you doesn't he doesn't want you wavering right we talked this morning about holding fast the profession of faith so you're not wavering being steadfast unmovable when you pick a side stay on that side you want to serve the Lord hey get baptized get in church get soul wedding get reading your Bible get praying and you know what don't get out stay the course stay with it don't drop out don't go back and forth like well I think I'm gonna serve the Lord this week this year this month and then I'm gonna go out don't be wishy-washy Deuteronomy 13 is a very serious passage in the law here about leading people away from the law and this is something that does not get touched on very often because I think a lot of Christians don't know what to say about this passage and I'll say this much about passages like this I don't care what anybody has to say negative about the Bible I don't I'm not afraid of it I don't care if people want to try to kill you're the Taliban oh you're the look that's a stupid comment we're not the Taliban but you know what what's right is right and the law of the Lord is righteous and these laws are right and if we were to have a government that was set up right this would be another law these would be laws that would be on the books this is right God said so we don't need to be ashamed of any part of the Bible I don't I I already picked the side how about you you're on the Lord's side look if you're gonna get on the Lord's side then you just have to be prepared to say I believe all of it 100% yes yes I'm on the Lord's side because if you're able to do that then you could defend them then you can preach then you can then you can work and God can rely on you hey you are you accept it all great we verse number one if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and give it the a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass where I'll be spake unto thee saying let us go after other gods which thou is not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul now before we continue on earlier there's a passage that says basically if some if there's someone claiming the the word of the Lord's claiming to be a prophet and they prophesize something that doesn't come to pass well that's easy that's that's not a prophet of the Lord because the Lord says something it's gonna happen right the Lord delivers on his promises he delivers on what he says is going to happen through his prophet so if someone just makes this claim like Joseph Smith or these other phonies the old boy God's gonna do this and God's coming back on this day and then you know the watchtower all these other cults false prophets they make these claims they don't come to pass easy right just absolutely not of God you are a false prophet because you made this prophecy and didn't come to pass it was not from God end of story but sometimes a false prophet will make a claim will prophesize something and it does come to pass and God's saying here he's clearing it up and saying okay look just because something comes to pass doesn't automatically mean that that person is of God the opposite if it doesn't come to pass you know a hundred percent for sure it's not of God but the other side is not true if it's well if it does come to pass well it may or may not be from God and what he's saying here is I don't care what sign or what wonder you get if someone's trying to tell you hey let us go after other gods which you didn't know that's not the Lord he's saying uh-uh he may just be allowing those prophecies and lying signs and wonders to be done just to test you just to see hey are you gonna believe the word of the Lord or not and that is going to happen too in the end days with the Antichrist because there's gonna be lying signs and wonders which the world hasn't seen and they're gonna be so deceptive that if it were possible they would deceive even the very elect even believers but it's not possible but here's what we do so he's saying okay there's this guy going around let us go after other gods which I was not known and let us serve them verse 3 thou shalt not harken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God prove with you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him basically saying you know whose side are you on if you're on God's side you follow the word of the Lord and if someone comes along and brings you know the snake oil salesman comes in and tries to sell you something and wow you and do all these magic tricks or whatever to try to deceive you and make you think oh here's the great power of God or whatever and he starts telling you about to following some other gods no no I don't care what he could do I don't care I don't care if he's able to throw his rod on the ground and make it turn into a serpent no because that's what the enchanters were able to do too if you remember that that there was a few things that they were able to mimic and copy that were oh you know that when Moses did it was of God and when they did it it was not but the problem was is that Pharaoh's magicians were worshiping false gods so you don't listen to them right off the bat because the faith is in God's Word nothing's gonna contradict that and nothing should ever contradict that and that's why and that's why I mean it this is so fundamental you know the Catholic Church is so screwed up because they put so much faith in man and saying oh well the you know the Bible is authority but then you also have Church authority and the Pope and everything else and it's like no no because if it's contradicting the Word of God then that's a false prophet so when you get these popes that come around and try to tell you what the Bible means until news is what this is some new revelation is what look no you're contradicting what God already said no false prophet and verse 5 says and that prophet of that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee this is right but that's not freedom of religion it's not freedom to proselytize for a false god absolutely right absolutely right and if we had a nation whose God was the Lord this would be a good law to have and I don't care what you're yeah but if there's human people they're gonna corrupt they're gonna yeah I know people are simple but it doesn't make this any less of a righteous command don't let your politics and your your national pride put the United States of America the best country it's ever been is it the Word of God is the Constitution of the United States the Word of God no sorry it's not I mean if it's so perfect look at the condition we're in right now and look I'm not I'm not just trying to bag on the Constitution because there's a lot of good things in it but here's the thing the good things that are in it line up with Scripture that's why they're good is because the Bible is the truth the Word of God is the truth and anything that is gonna come close and line up with that great and when it doesn't garbage so do you think that a prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death if they're trying to lead people to Allah yes yes yes I do now again we don't live in that in that society or that culture and that that legal system we don't and I accept that but we're talking about what's right this is right I'm never gonna be ashamed of the Word of God this is absolutely right continuing on that's that's the well let's let's keep reading this first counting I've read the whole verse shall be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee and we say well why would God have that so so extreme well how about because hell's a real place how about when people start leading people astray after false gods are gonna die and go to hell I think that's probably a pretty good reason why they'd have the death penalty on that where he's saying look this is my people they're claiming me as the Lord you want to go serve some other God you go in another nation and and you go serve some false gods somewhere else but as for me in my house and as for you know this nation or whatever we're gonna serve the Lord and we're gonna follow God's laws and God's rules and that's where you do it you want to follow some other God get out of here and you know what people had the freedom to believe in whatever they wanted to believe in we better not go proselytizing and trying to get people away from the Lord that's the law here in the book in the book of Deuteronomy but doesn't stop with a false problem verse number six if thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying let us go and serve other gods which thou has not known thou nor thy fathers namely of the gods of the people which are round about you nigh unto thee or far off from thee from the one end of the heaven earth even unto the other end of the earth thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken unto him neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him conceal means to hide but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people this is where God wants your heart with him above all that would not be an easy thing to do I mean think about it a family member a direct family member a son a daughter goes hey dad hey dad I've been studying about you know the Hittites and their God sounds amazing I think I think we should get one of those idols and bring it in here and we should start worshiping that it's good I think it's gonna bring you some prosperity I think it's gonna help you dad I think this is you know what God's law says your hand is gonna be the first to put that person to death and then the rest of the people it's not pleasant or fun at all but it's necessary and it's right whose side are you on are you on your own side you care more about a person a human being than you do about your God now obviously laws like this are very preventative in nature so that this shouldn't even happen at all right but if it were to this is the law and this would be a righteous judgment there is no you don't need any other explanation for this passage because it's very clear what it's stating here and it is what it is obviously we can apply this spiritually again but my point is that you know if someone wants to try to say that the Bible is evil or wicked or wrong no you're evil or wicked and wrong God's Word is right and true and now shalt stone him with stones that he died because he had sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God which brought thee out of land of Egypt from the house of bondage he you got to understand is look they're trying to get between you and God they're trying to take you away from the Lord Emily stop right now go back to mom let's keep reading verse number 11 and all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you see that's the purpose of it they're gonna hear and they're gonna fear and you're gonna say this is this isn't gonna happen if thou shalt hearsay in one of thy cities which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there saying certain men the children of Belial are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city saying let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known then shalt thou inquire make search and ask diligently and behold if it be truth and the things certain that such abomination is wrought among you thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword destroying it utterly and all that is therein and the cattle thereof with the edge of the sword and thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof and shalt burn with fire the city and all the spoil thereof every wit for the Lord thy God and it shall be in heap forever it shall not be built again notice all three scenarios what are they doing they're trying to turn people's hearts away from the Lord whose side are you on are you on the Lord's side you try to fight against the Lord and pull people and drag people away from the Lord that's a big deal in God's eyes you know we explained to people I give them the gospel you know just because everybody tells lies doesn't make it okay and it doesn't make it any light of lighter of a sin then then it actually is just because everybody does it you may think it's not a big deal but God thinks is a big deal God puts the hell on that you may be like well I mean on a lie yes on a lie yes yes because that's what God said is right and righteous yes well I don't think that yet well you're not thinking well then each instance it's a death penalty in God's making it clear like in this instance the city's like you're just gonna burn it down don't take anything from that city it's all polluted it's just going to be burnt the spoil every you're not taking any you're not gonna benefit from them you're just gonna burn it all down and no one's gonna live there again it says in verse 17 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 hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep all his command which I command thee this day to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord turn to Matthew chapter 12 we're gonna see a couple of New Testament examples see I could understand why people could have problems with these passages because it might it sounds really extreme especially with just where the world is today in the culture and just kind of the way of thinking and philosophies and stuff like that but you know what we need to embrace the Word of God it is what it is and the more you you see in the more you understand and the more you see how wickedness works this is necessary and it's unfortunate but it's it this is necessary with the with the state of wicked man in sinful man that you have to have measures like this in order to try to keep the people as pure as possible and keep the Lord look we want the Lord being promoted because the Lord is good because God saves right we don't need a bunch of work to the contrary that's just gonna damn more people to hell so is in in this nation the nation of Israel that's the law of the land and that's the right those are the right judgments we need to pick sides Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 30 he that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scatter at the broad are you a gatherer or scatterer you know I'm not well I'm not a gatherer then you're a scatterer well no no I'm not a scatter yes you are your scatterer are you gonna stand with Jesus on his stand on whatever the the issue may be of the day that the the public doesn't like well I mean I'm with Jesus on a lot of things but no how about you you're either with them or you're against him he is not with me is against me you need to be with him on everything or else you're against him well like some parts of the Bible well you know you have to you have to choose it's an all-or-nothing deal you're not going to gather then you're scattering you're not with them you're against them flip back to Matthew 6 another choice you you you have to make the choice you can't there is no middle ground here who you're gonna serve you're gonna serve God or money are you gonna gather scatter are you gonna be with them and against them are you gonna serve God or money you don't you don't have middle ground it's like faith and works salvation it's either it's either by grace or it's by works you there's no middle ground you add any amount of work to grace it's works it's all works but no I'm saying 99% grace and 1% it's works that's it it's works I don't care how many percentage points of works you have in there it's works it's in a works category one and the other grace works that's it you're gonna serve God you're gonna serve money that's all you get there's no middle ground look at verse 19 of Matthew 6 lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust of corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust of corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also the light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness look you have light and darkness that's it if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he'll hold to the one and despise the other no no no but I can because I could love both no you can't because as soon as you start loving money you hate God the love of money is the root of all evil if it's the root of all evil you can't love God you can say that you do but love isn't an emotion it's an action so are you putting money first or God you can't do both if you put money first you have to reject God because where's your money gonna come from the world why is the world gonna give you a bunch of money if you're putting God first not going to happen not I believe Jesus when he said no man can serve two masters you had to hate the one and love the other or else you hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and mammon you cannot no but I think I can okay then Jesus is wrong you're right let me think about that one for a minute who's right yeah I don't know maybe Jesus is wrong maybe I can serve God in money no you can't just accept it whose side are you on last place look at James 4 form the adulterous and adulterous is know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God it doesn't get easier in the New Testament I guess we're not reading about swords coming out and people getting you know physically killed but the decision making is still there I mean Jesus language is pretty strong either you know if you're gonna be my disciple you've got to hate your father mother son daughter you know in your own self like nothing comes in between you'll be a friend of the world or a friend of God you're gonna serve God you're gonna serve money whose side are you on what are you gonna do with your life choose look God gives you the choice you decide what you want to do go ahead you want to serve money have at it you want to come to this church great you don't fine I'm not gonna be harassing you and running you down and trying to drag you in here you choose what you want to do I'll tell you this much you want to serve the Lord it's gonna cost there's gonna be some division the swords gonna come out there's gonna be some dividing going on it will happen it must happen because when you have two things diametrically opposed like the things of the world are not the things of the father light in darkness you know you can't eat at the the table of devils and the table of God I mean you can't do both so choose and why don't you just get all in and get on board and just say you know what I am gonna serve the Lord take heed to the warnings like Joshua said you sure you could serve Lord right you can't serve Lord you understand he's jealous God right okay well yeah I do so I'm gonna serve God okay great God wants you to serve him but if you're gonna do it don't don't do it half-heartedly and don't just kind of think well no I think I'm gonna just try to be as worldly as I can answer God no it's not gonna work you're gonna fail you're gonna fail and people are gonna mock you what's gonna happen so I just gave the example of you know the builder that began to build and then oh it finds out really have enough so now I've got this half built structure and it just looks stupid and everyone's just gonna laugh at you and mock you because wow look at this guy he was gonna do this great work and all those great things and look at it now it's dumb couldn't finish it that's the Christian who wants to go out and boast of all the things they haven't done yet how much they're gonna serve the Lord now I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that and they boast about the day and they haven't done anything and then they don't read the hearts not really in it because they still want to be like really worldly and they still want to do this and so on and that and then what did you accomplish well well I started to do that what did you actually do though starting to do it and then not completing is worse than just not even starting it at all like you might as well just not make it look something stupid right you could have just saved up until you were actually ready or whatever because now now you're just making a mockery out of people who want to do what's right just ask yourself whose side are you on I think I know the answer that everyone's gonna ought to have the same answer but understand what that means in the scripture and what God expects that's that's what you really need to know what does God expect of me if I'm gonna say I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ what does God expect he expects your best he expects your heart he expects your respect that's what he expects you better be willing to give that to him if you're gonna claim that name and you better not be ashamed of God or of his words because then he's gonna be ashamed of you and then you'll just be ashamed it's my rise that word of prayer your heavenly father Lord we thank you so much for for all the truth that you gave us for shining the light dear Lord and helping us understand more about you I prayed you please help us to to take with with sobriety it's seriousness dear Lord the the task at hand of being a disciple of yours of wanting to really be used of you dear Lord and that we wouldn't just half-heartedly jump into things or try to try to do stuff and run off without being without really thinking about it without counting the costs dear Lord I pray that you would just strengthen us I pray that you'd please help us and open up our eyes we want to we want to serve you and please you dear Lord and we love you to Jesus name we pray amen all right we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed of course we're saying who is on the Lord's side song number is at 406 I believe song number 406 song number 406 who is on the Lord's side who will be his helpers other lives to bring who will leave the world side who will face the cold who is on the Lord's side who for him will fall by thy call of mercy by thy grace divine we are on the Lord's side Oh raise Jesus Oh Oh Oh all right we are dismissed and anyone that can help