Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Fifth Commandment Pt.1

Let’s turn to Timothy. We’re going to take a little sidetrack here for a moment—It’s still talking about the last days, there’s a number of things that we’re dealing with in the fellowship at this time that really are more important than just the study of eschatology. Though we were trying to look at it, not from just a study, but the true spirit of the age, the secret power of lawlessness that we’re dealing with. And when we talk about lawlessness, remember what it is that we’re making reference to. We’re talking about anti-Christ, or a people that are becoming bolder in their hatred for God, His Word, a defying of Him like we do study in eschatology in the last days. Can you imagine the nations are going to rise up and defy the coming of the Lord? The Scripture says He’s going to destroy them with the words or the sword of His mouth. Can you imagine calling God out? That just shows the arrogance of men and the condition of men’s hearts. But in the process of all this, we’ve been teaching now for months and months about this spirit, how vexed we are by it and don’t know it. We keep looking at topics, trying to look at our own hearts and what it is that has a hold on us that we’re not aware of. And no man—I think this Scripture is something that I spend time meditating on because I really try to know myself and be honest with myself. I’m very aware of most of my faults. (You know, when you have so few it’s easy to take care of them.) I try to be aware and honest with what I really am, who I really am. But none of us really knows exactly, do we? We have blind spots, and so in this last day, the enemy trying to take advantage of those different things in our lives. So we need one another to speak into our lives and to bring us instruction and to bring us illumination and teaching and reproof and rebuke. The Scripture says it’s to be done with all longsuffering, patience, gentleness, kindness. Aren’t you thankful that you have people that care about your life and will speak into your life and truly love us?

In part of this situation, we‘ve been dealing with numerous situations in the fellowship of how we relate to people in our households that have turned their back on the covenant of the blood of Jesus. And how do we deal with this? I think that we’ve spent so much time on the "how to" that we forgot the "why". Why do we do this? Not just how do you do it and what’s the response to this person if you see them. I think we’ve lost the "why" and I want to talk about that a little bit this evening and then see where it goes from here. But I want to start with us just understanding who we are. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Do you understand who we are tonight? We’re the children of Almighty God. Amen? What a blessing! Have you ever heard a rebellious—you want to slap them upside the head, kid make a statement like, "Well, I didn’t ask to be born." And we’ve talked about Bill Cosby’s response. "I brought you into this world. I can take you out. Make another one just like you." You stop and think about that, but the arrogance, the adolescence that oozes out of someone in a statement like that. No, you did not ask to be born. Listen to me—And this is going to be what we’re going to hang all of this on in instruction—The sovereign God chose you. Amen? You didn’t ask to be born; the sovereign God chose you to be born, from before the foundations of the world. And guess what? He doesn’t make any mistakes. And guess what? The family you are in is no mistake. That’s one that’s hard to swallow sometimes. Let me give you another one. The church you’re in is no mistake. And the next president we’re going to get is no mistake. That’s going to be a hard one to swallow.

So, we’re stepping back and we’re trying to look at the bigger picture, that we’re a part of the eternal plan of God, and everything that’s working in our lives is for the glory of God. We’re the sons of God, and I love what the apostle said, and this passage I want you to meditate on. I’m going to refer to it numerous times over the next couple of sessions. We’re going to probably be a couple of sessions in this to realize who we are and what we’re doing. We, beloved, are a chosen generation. Amen? A royal priesthood, a holy nation. Think about it now. Get this down. Get it in your notes. Get it in your thinking. This is who we are. We are a chosen, the chosen of God. I want to tell you something. Israel is not all there is to God’s chosen people. Amen? But now, watch. God has a covenant with them, doesn’t He? Ticks the world off. Nobody—well Christians, we’re running there—but between fundamentalist Christians and God’s love for the Jews, it’s got everybody else upset in the world. But we are a chosen generation. We are a peculiar people. Remember, we talked about what that word "peculiar" means. It means to be set off by boundaries. We’re confined by the glory of God and by the sovereign purpose of God. A peculiar people, set apart, holy, set apart for God’s purposes. A holy nation; and we’ve talked about holy many times. But let me give you a little more insight into it. Holy means what? Set apart. So we are a nation set apart not only to God, for God exclusively. But holiness, we said, is a unique thing. There’s nothing else like it. So stop and think with me for just a moment. If we are a holy nation, then the natural nations cannot identify with the laws that govern us. They are spiritually discerned. What God states are the laws,—the way we conduct ourselves, the life of faith calling things that are not as though they were, seeing the invisible—the world doesn’t know anything about. We look weird to them. What we do is weird to them. They not only don’t understand it—because they don’t—they oppose it. And the further we go into this thing the more opposition we’re going to get from the spirit of anti-Christ and from the nations, from the world. Yet, we’ve seen men sit down over the years, and primarily in our nation here, in 1776, men took certain moral aspects of the Word of God and the kingdom of God and wrote some of principles down, and based upon those, tried to make laws by which we would govern ourselves in this democracy. But there’s no comprehension of why those laws, the Word of God, exist. It’s not for the creature. It’s for the creator. And our focus has always been in the wrong place.

So I want to talk about how these different things cause us to relate in these last days to rebellious children, to defectors from the community of God, the household of faith. How do you relate to folks like that? What is biblical love? What is the love of God extended toward these? How does God show His love? And I think one of the other interesting things that we really get into trouble with is this. There’s always talk about where’s the love and where’s the mercy and where’s the…? But isn’t it interesting, just like we do in our society today, if you’re asking those questions from a humanistic perspective, what you’re saying is, where is the mercy for the evildoer? Where is the love for the evildoer? You see, the judgment of God is to express the love of God to us, the good guys. What’s wrong with us getting love? Amen? What’s wrong with God loving us and killing this bad guy so that we’re spared? Isn’t that what the law is all about? So that you might live what? Peaceably. See, the humanistic mind focuses on giving the evil guy a break. God focuses on giving the good guy a break, doing what’s right for the good, doing what’s right for the holy, doing what’s right for the just. So if you begin to think from the other perspective like the world, all of the laws are set up today for the criminal! Everybody feels bad for the criminal. What about the victim? And we sit here as Christians knowing that, and we look and say, "How in the world can you people think that way?" But how often do you think that way? How often do we misapply justice and mercy and love?

So, these are a couple of things that we’re going to address as we go on into the study. I’m throwing out different principles that we’re going to address. One of the first things I want you to see—have you found Timothy yet? 2 Timothy, Chapter 3, we want to look at the age that we’re in and we’ll start off with this, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [We’re all very familiar with these passages.] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, [We were talking about this in our pastors’ meeting yesterday. You know, it’s kind of sad; they’re looking for the last WWI veterans. The other day there was a guy 104 years old. There’s probably not too many of them. And most of them probably don’t have e-mail addresses. So trying to find them is interesting. But you know, when you stop and think about it that’s interesting, but even the WWII veterans, there’s not that many of them now. They’re in their early to mid to late 80’s. And I’m just saying all that to say this. The great generation is just about gone. The baby boomers, they’re starting to creak a little bit too. And what is the new generation, the "I" generation? It’s an interesting thing to see the isolation, the internalizing, the introspection that is so prominent in the generation that we’re in at this moment] lovers of their own selves, [most without causes to stand for, communities to pour yourselves out for. I don’t want to get caught up in this.] covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, [just out of control, no self discipline] fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady [strong], highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [And then look at verse 5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."

I want to talk about the aspect of disobedient to parents a little bit this evening, and see what we can do to establish or re-establish a biblical fear. In your notes, and we’ll be going there in just a moment, in Chapters 13, 17 and 21 of Deuteronomy, these situations are addressed, and in each one of them there’s a judgment that God pronounces, and on each judgment it’s followed by this: that the people may hear and fear. So we want to ask the question as we go on to this, where is the fear of God? Where’s the fear of God in the church today? And not only the church at large, but what about us, this fellowship? Are we a people walking in the fear of God, the holiness of God, the reverence of God? Are we a people that embrace the judgment of God? Because the whole judgment of God is for the purpose of keeping us pure, that we might be victorious over the power of Satan. Now, how important is it that we stay pure? Think with me for just a moment. If God brings these judgments to kill the adulterer, to kill the idolater, to kill the rebellious, to kill the effeminate, and I use the word effeminate there not speaking of someone who is effeminate in their character, but I’m talking about the homosexual. What is the purpose of all of that? Why is God killing all of these people? You want to know why? Because God can only move to establish His kingdom and covenant to the fullest in the environment of holiness and obedience.

Case in point, we’re all very familiar with the passage, this little story. "Okay, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go up to the city. I want you to march around it. I want you to blow the trumpet. I want you to shout; the walls are going to come down. This is for the glory of God. You’re going to go in and possess this land like I promised you." And they go in and for the glory of God they shout the holiness of God. They declare His promises. The walls come down. What is it that God said? I want all of this increase, all of the spoil, all of the first fruits, all of the abundance and the glory to go to who? What did He say? It’s mine. I’m going to send you into a land, and I’m going to bless you and I’m going to give you houses that you didn’t build. And you’re going to drink from wells that you didn’t dig, but I want my glory. Now in the midst of all of that, thinking back on that, what happened? Achan did something. What was it? He got the gold and the Babylonish garments. Watch. A whole nation, a people that defeated a walled city stronger than themselves because they were honoring God, had great victory, this same nation moves against a little, bitty city that they should be able to take without breaking a sweat, and they turn their backs and run and flee and are defeated. Why? There was sin in the camp. There was sin in the camp. And you know—people for years they’ve wondered why we as a fellowship—"Why do you—you rebuke people and publicly mark people and you deal with sin head on. Why?" Because we want to be victorious, because we want to honor God, because we want the Spirit of God to move in our midst, because we want our prayers answered. Amen? And I want to tell you something. When there’s leaven in the camp, when there’s sin in the camp, when there’s sin in your home and you want to bring it into here, we’re weak. I want to be strong. Don’t you?

How many of you would like to see the people on our prayer list healed? I wonder what’s wrong with our praying? Why isn’t our praying working like it should be? Have any of you felt like you’re not hearing from the Lord like you could or should? Are some of you feeling that you’re just not—where’s the zeal, where’s the fire, all of the different things? And we can all be through those at different cycles and it’s never going to be Utopia. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is known sin has to be dealt with. And what was the admonition? This is no time to what? Pray. Get up and do something about the sin. "I’m just praying and we’re just believing God." And we’re talking here about children because we have a number of families that have faced this and—broken hearts of parents. Don’t for a moment think that your friends, your family here, this community, ourselves, are not aware of your brokenness and your grief and the pain. But I want to tell you something—and you say, "Yes, but when it’s your child it’s different." And you know what? It is. Amen? When it’s your baby that’s dying, it is different. When it’s your spouse that you lose, when it’s your child that has to be brought to the gates, it’s different. Nobody’s going to deny that. But I want to tell you something. There’s another heart that’s being broken in all of this, the one that ever lives to make intercession for us. How could we think He doesn’t care? How could we think that He is not just? And how could we think that His purpose is other than an eternal glory and bringing about a discipline and a judgment, turning over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the what? The soul might be saved. It’s not about momentary ease and embracing and comfort and what’s going to happen? They’re going to get saved! That’s what’s going to happen, if you do it God’s way. And if you don’t do it God’s way, they’re going to die and you’re going to die with them. And we’re not going to see any victories. And we’re not going to see God glorified. And that’s what the Scripture says here, as we begin to look at some of these passages.

Remember now, for just a moment—Turn with me to Matthew 10 and we’ll look back at a couple of Scriptures. This one we’re all very familiar with, in Chapter 10 of Matthew. What I’m wanting you to see is, there’s more of us than we would like to think that are governed by our emotions, by our humanism, by our natural affections, by our natural relationships than we would like to think. We would like to think that we are governed by the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the justice of God and the truth of God. But many of us don’t understand who God is, and really don’t understand who Jesus is. You know, the Lord spoke to His disciples one time and He said, "Listen, you’ve got to understand something. What I pull up, don’t you try to plant again." But He’s saying, "What I remove; what I take out of your midst; don’t try to put it back again. I’ve got a reason for what I’m doing."

Now, go back to the original statement that we made. The sovereignty of God, God’s made no mistakes in what He’s done in your life—I’m talking to you parents right now—in cutting a covenant with you. Some of you grew up in the church. Some of us have been added. But every one of us has had an encounter with God and have known Him and have received the blessing of the Lord in God giving us children. And sometimes we wonder if it’s a blessing, but it is. It’s the blessing of the Lord. And God gives us, in His sovereign will, those children. And we’ve read it through the Scriptures, whether it’s in Malachi or whether it’s in this passage in Matthew 10 that we’re going to look at in just a moment. These children have been given to us, in covenant, to raise up a holy seed, a godly seed. Now, I’m going to step back and I want to make a statement so that we can work off of this as we go on, because I’m trying to build this thing for you to see. Every child born into a Christian home is expected to be a Christian. That’s God’s intention. He put them there to equip them to the continuation of His kingdom, this holy nation, this royal priesthood. Okay? It’s God’s purpose. Now, what’s our responsibility as parents? We know that. Paul speaks to us very clearly. He says your responsibility is to train them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Amen? So our job is to train them. We talked a lot about training. I won’t get into that part of it right now, but we’ve talked a lot about training. It’s repetitive. Train them up in the nurture and admonition. We’ve talked about it. We know that in the Greek it talks about a putting into the mind or, literally, a brainwashing. Our children—see there’s no excuse for us losing kids. There’s no excuse for us losing kids. God can take them, but we can’t lose them if we train them up properly. God can remove them. God in His sovereign purposes can bring judgment upon them. Listen to me, and some of you aren’t going to like this, God in His sovereign will can allow Satan to take them, but they shouldn’t be lost. They should have only one thought process. They should be so brainwashed that they can’t think any other way, but that I’m here for the glory of God. The reason I live is to glorify God. I am a special person. I am unique. I am set apart. We are the sons of God. Beloved, listen to what these words are. The highest calling that a human being could encounter—the Son of God—and for someone to thumb their nose at God and tread upon the blood of Jesus, and for us to pat them on the head for it, is an abomination.

"Well, we trained them up." No. No, there’re some gaps. They’ve seen too many double-minded decisions. They are not brainwashed. They think there is another choice. Let me tell you something. You’ll see it very clearly in the passage that we’re going to. Serve Him or die. Those are the two choices that God gave. "Well, that sounds awfully tough." You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to read these passages and come up with the right conclusion. When God sent His people into the nations, what did He say? You can’t marry them. You can’t become a part of them. You can’t worship their gods. And if you do, I’m going to kill you. Let’s put it in plain language. If you choose another god, I’m going to kill you. If you defect from the covenant household, I’m going to kill you. What do you think? I thought it was kind of humorous. I was reading through all the different commentaries and I love the way the natural mind thinks. All of the commentators would say, "And the Word of God said that they were to be taken to the…but it was never recorded that it was done." You want to know why it wasn’t? Because they believed it! Now watch. You mean that nobody ever defected? Of course, they did. But it wasn’t in-your-face defection. It was slipping out. It’s not bringing another god in and saying, "Here’s the god I’m serving this week." You’re dead! It’s not rebellion to your face. You’re dead! Yes, they went away, but they didn’t do it in a way that wanted to remain in the community and think that there were going to be no consequences. If you brought the idols in, you’re going out.

Now let’s find out if that’s part of what God says. And let’s look at it from the New Testament and then we’ll go back to the Old Testament. Take a look at this in Chapter 10 of Matthew, "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. [We know this passage.] And a man's foes [enemies] shall be they of his own household. [Now.] He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that [will not embrace and identify with my] taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

He goes on and makes another interesting statement over in Chapter 12 of Matthew. Take a look at this. While He spoke to the people, they said, "Your mother and brothers are outside." And of course He says this in Chapter 12, verse 48, "But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Let’s step back again to the original covenant, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people, called, called to show forth the praises of Him, thanksgiving to Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We who were not a people are now the people of God. How precious is that to us? What does it really mean to us to be called the sons of God, to be this holy nation? What is God saying the whole duty of man is? Reverence Him, fear Him and keep His commandments. It’s a no-brainer. Okay, so we all know if we’re going to be in right standing with God, it’s not he that says, "Lord, Lord." But it’s he that keeps my Word. Those are my disciples; those are my brothers and sisters. But what about those that want to say they’re of us—and I don’t just mean spiritually. We’re going to deal with both aspects. Those that are hypocrites, those that are wanting the benefits of the community and are feigning to be part of us, how does God deal with that? And then what about those that say, "Well, I think I’m just going to go serve another god." We as good Americans, we as good secular humanists say, "Well, everybody has a choice and as long as they’re not going to be openly rebellious…" Now watch—and here’s where we really get ourselves in trouble, talking about parents again and the way we think, "As long as they’re not bringing drugs into my house. As long as they’re not having sexual orgies in the house, as long as they’re not standing up and cussing me to my face, then if they be pleased to dwell, then I’m just going to continue to love them and be merciful and be kind." Interesting, isn’t it—my house, my face, my morality. "I can take a little bit. I can take you maybe smoking a little weed, or having a little fling that I’m not aware of, but when I’m offended, judgment’s going to come." What about when God’s offended? What about God’s house? What about God’s rules?

Now you see, we have some families that are in the midst of this right now. And some of you are going to be in it. And I’ll make another comment for some of you that have the little people, infants that are old enough—"Well, at what age?" You want me to tell you at what age? When they cry and cry, and you pick them up and they go, "Hey, things are cool. I’ve got this baby under control." It’s starting right then. It’s the battle of the wills. If you’re dry, and you’re fed, and you’re not getting stuck by that Velcro thing—you remember when we were younger when the baby was crying you wanted to make sure the safety pin wasn’t sticking them, right? Some of you are going, "Safety pin?" It was before Velcro. Before Pampers. "You mean there hasn’t always been Pampers?" We all remember this don’t we (motion of dipping a dirty diaper in to water)? The manipulation starts before one [year old] and the war begins, the battle of wills. And wherever your little blessing is at this moment, I want to tell you something. If you break it now, it’s going to save you a lot of grief later to where you can guide them with your eye, to where there’s only one way to live and that’s to obey mother and father, and not only obey mother and father—I just entitled this teaching "The Fifth Commandment." I was going to call it "Standing on the Fifth" or "I Need a Fifth" but we opted for" The Fifth Commandment." And in the fifth commandment the thing I want you to really see, it’s not just about obedience. It’s about honor. And listen, it’s not about honoring you. It’s about honoring you for honoring God. And you’re going to see that that’s what that fifth commandment is all about that comes with promise, because these words are not penned to anybody but the covenant people. These are specific directives for how this kingdom of God operates, this holy nation, this royal priesthood, this peculiar people. Who? God’s people. "Well, who are God’s people?" The ones that are doing God’s will. And if you’re not doing God’s will you’re not God’s people anymore. And now you’re an enemy of God, and you’re a hater of God. You know what? Stop and think from natural terms. God allows no desertion. It’s the death penalty. Some quicker than others, but it’s the death penalty. Some will just run off, and God will deal with that. But those that want to remain in our midst, and those that want to blaspheme in our midst, I want to tell you something, beloved. There needs to be a people that are willing to take up a javelin and put it through their stomach. When God is cleansing and moving and someone will defy and sin in the camp, somebody needs to do something about it.

And so let’s see if that’s not the premise that the covenant people were operating off of. Turn with me to Deuteronomy for a moment and we’ll get started into some of these things. You hear the stories; we’re involved in the lives of numerous situations that this really addresses, and even more that, should the Lord tarry we’re going to have to deal with, because frankly, some of you with your little ones haven’t got the message across yet. And we think its loving our children, but you are just loving yourself. You’re not willing to embrace the cross and die to yourself. Take the chance that your child might not like you. I’m not concerned if my children like me. I want them to love God. And they’re going to learn to love Him by how they deal with His visible representative, dad. We won’t get into that tonight, but I want to tell you something. You go back and study the Bible—you know Father’s day’s coming up. You want to know who dad is? Dad’s the guy that decides who you can marry, girls. And you can’t marry without his permission. You want to know who dad is? Dad’s the guy that can have you killed under the Old Testament. The power of the life of the child was in the hand of the father. You want to know who dad is? Dad could sell you to pay a debt. That will keep you from running up your credit cards. Dad is God’s representative. The powers that be, Romans 13, are ordained of God. You resist the power, you resist God.

That’s who dad is. That’s who mom is. Mom, don’t you be putting all this stuff off on dad. "When you’re dad gets home, boy, you’re going to get a whipping. Let’s play till he comes." Your role—this is father and mother. You are God’s representative, God’s authority, God’s justice, God’s judgment, God’s teacher. I won’t get off into it right now, but you can study historically, children were tended to by the mother. If they were richer families they had sometimes tutors that would take care of them, but usually till about five years of age. Then after five years of age the men would begin to assume the instruction and all of the different things. You want to know something interesting about the covenant people of God? The very fact—and I think this is a very interesting thing. When was the child circumcised? Eight days. Now what was circumcision all about? Circumcision was the identification, the awareness of and the sealing of the covenant, wasn’t it? It was the indicator, we all know, of the cutting off of the flesh or the sin, and it was a way of identifying at that juncture—we know that people since then have done it for health reasons and everything, but the original purpose of circumcision was to make and identify again a unique people.

"Well, I didn’t ask to be circumcised." It’s not your choice. God put you in this house. And if you’re in this house, you’re getting circumcised. And if God put you in this house, you’re going to be a Christian. I’m interchanging the two right now, we’re talking the covenant of Israel. You’re going to be an Israelite. And if you’re an Israelite, guess what? You don’t marry the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Hittites. A lot of ites and you couldn’t do any of them except the Israelites. And we’re not unequally yoked together. And it’s not your choice. "Well, we got rights, bless God!" Free will abused is rebellion. It will separate you from God. God gave you free will to choose right. And He gave you grace to choose right. And He put you in a household of faith and among a bunch of godly people to choose right, not to do what you want to do. You have not right to do what you want to do. You have a right to fulfill God’s purpose for your life and He chose you and put you in the community. So at eight days old, they’re Israelites. They’re expected to live like Israelites. They’re expected to grow up and keep the commandments of God and the covenants of God. It’s an assumption.

Now watch, Chapter 13 of Deuteronomy, and we’ll end with this one probably for this evening. See, we don’t assume that. You know what’s been sad to me over the last years, and especially among Pentecostals? I’ve grown up in this stuff, traditional Pentecostals. Let me give you an interpretation of Proverbs. Train up a child in the way that he should go, he’s going to backslide and go into the world, but when he’s old he won’t depart from it. And tragically, traditional thought processes almost assume backsliding. But when they’re old they will not depart from it. That’s not what that’s saying. That’s not the context of it. Train them up and it will last them all their lives. There is no indication anywhere, Old or New Testament, that God ever expects anything else than us staying on course and living lives of obedience and raising up a godly seed and a people that will not depart from it. Now, watch what he says and in Chapters 13, 17, and 21, they’re addressing different aspects of polluting the house of God. One thing we have to remember, as good Americans, we sit here and go, "Well you know, bless God, as for me and my house we’re serving God." And we talk almost like we’re individuals and we’re a house unto ourselves. Men, you are God’s priest to that household. You’re the head of that home. But you are part of a kingdom. What am I saying? You can’t have different rules for your house. Just because you are the head of that house doesn’t allow you different rules than the nation, the kingdom. We all have to live by the same rules. We apply them. We set course. We’re about Father’s business. We have our own responsibilities. We’re going to answer to God in many of these things. But the standard of the nation is set. And that’s what becomes obvious in some of these passages.

Now watch. He says Chapter 13, "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, [look what it says] shall be put to death; because he hath 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." Get that phrase: So shall you put evil away from the midst of thee.

So we [have] this guy that’s moving in supernatural powers or appears to be spiritual or whatever, and then it begins to take us away from the standards of holiness, the purpose of God, etc. and he tells us what to do. That’s easy, we can all deal with that one, no problem. Verse 6, "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, [It’s interesting how he’s making these terms very intimate. The purpose of this is to show the closeness, the natural bond. God’s recognizing the power of that natural bond. Blood is thicker than water. It’s interesting to see the strength that’s in family and blood, that tendency to rally to and support and identify. But isn’t it interesting the choice that some of us have had to make in embracing that cross? And when we were baptized in the name of Jesus, we were disowned, some of us by our families. Anybody here besides me experience that? Let me see your hands. Hold them up. How many of you lost friends when you got saved? Let me see your hands. They don’t have any trouble putting us away, do they? They’re jealous for their god. They have no problem at all. I can quote to you exactly what I faced. I can still hear it like it was on the phone yesterday, as I was holding that phone and my dad said, "I don’t want to hear anymore about this Jesus stuff. You choose between Jesus or your family." And I still can remember what I said. "Well, it’s too bad it had to come to that, but it’s no contest. You didn’t die for my sins. Jesus did." And he wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I’m his only natural child. It never dawns on me till I have to think about it and make a statement like that. My brother’s been there as long as I can remember. He was there when I got there. A choice based upon pride, self-righteousness, the false religions of humanism, atheism which is of itself a religion, worship of self. And the point I’m making is this. Listen clearly. You run into it all the time. People separating themselves for something they truly believe in. In some of your families, you’ve had feuds come up in the family. "I’m not having another thing to do with them. They treated me…" Whatever! It’s all about self. But you’re not going to do it for your God? They do it for their gods! The first century church, when they were baptized in the name of Jesus, those that were Jews, they lost their families. They were separate. Separating yourself isn’t unique. It’s just Christians. So many of them think that it is somehow not loving. No, it’s loving properly the one who deserves to be loved.

Now, how intimate this relationship is. He addresses all of them. And I want to get back on course here.] or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, [We got family, friends taken care of. And they] entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you…" What do you think we could relate that to today? What are some of the gods that are around us today? We addressed some of them: secular humanism, the god of hedonism, pleasure. "Well, you know I just want to go out and enjoy life. I was raised in the covenant. I was circumcised at eight. We don’t circumcise here. I was dedicated. Everybody in the church prayed for me. I was set apart for God. I was born into a godly household. I was raised and trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but I’m just going to go out and party." Don’t you tell me that’s not idolatry! "Well, they’re just sowing their wild oats." They’re worshiping the god of this world. And we blow it off like its, "Kids will be kids. It’s no big deal." It is a big deal! And as long as we allow children, the little one, to be raised up in our midst, thinking it’s no big deal, then it’s going to continue to be no big deal. And they sit around and they watch brother so-and-so and Mr. So-and-so and whatever and their kid’s doing this and nobody’s doing anything about it. It’s no big deal. Where’s the jealousy? Who’s going to pick up a javelin around here? How long is the wedge of gold going to be tolerated and we think that it’s acceptable to God? Nothing’s changed. "Well, these are Old Testament." The Old Testament is the Word of God. The Old Testament hasn’t gone anywhere. I did not come to destroy the Law. I came and what? Fulfill it. The Word of God, the Law of God is good and holy and just the Scripture says of the New Testament speaks toward it. Jesus quoted it. You want to know what Jesus said? What must I do to be saved? What did He tell him? What did He tell that guy that wanted to know what he should do to be saved? Keep the what? The Ten Commandments. And he said, "This I’ve done from a child. What do I lack?" Sell all that you have, give it to the poor and come and follow Me. And he dropped his head and he walked away because he was very rich. Now, he said he was keeping all of the commandments, but when he dropped his head and walked away because he was very rich, which commandment did he break? Which commandment does the young person break who’s raised in the house of God, who’s trained up in the way of the Lord, who’s been taught, brainwashed, lives lived before them, and they’re going to go party?

It’s not number one because there’s ten of them and God shook them up and that was the first one that came up. It’s number one because all of the others can be adhered to if that one’s in place. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, body, mind and strength; and the second is like unto it. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Well, to love my neighbor as myself means that I need to make sure my neighbor is keeping them all so that he can make it, so his house isn’t under a curse. And the consequences of it are innumerable in how sin affects us physically, emotionally, spiritually. You can’t all see it, but it’s happening in that environment. There’s no way to get around it. And so he said, if they entice you "Thou shalt not consent [Now, the enticing comes a couple of different ways. Come and sin with me. How about covering up my sin? Don’t tell Mom. How about just asking you to lower the standards a little bit? God will understand. Don’t consent] unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: [We’ll go back to verse 8. Those are very interesting statements. Don’t consent. Don’t pity. Don’t spare and don’t conceal.] But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, [Pretty ruthless. Seems very harsh] and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God,…And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you."

The purpose there is the admonition, the holiness of God. Now this is an enticing, asking you to compromise the Scriptures. You see, beloved, they’re not asking you to come and worship some totem pole. They’re not asking you to—"Come and party with us. We’re going to go down here and get drunk and take a few drugs and hang out. Dad, why don’t you just come on with me? Mom will understand." They’re not asking us to do that. They’re just asking us to compromise, just to look the other way, just to be "loving." "How come you’re not loving?" I am. I’m loving God. And if I don’t—listen, if I don’t keep the first commandment, I’ll never be able to love you. It will all be a selfish relationship. The love that I will show you is going to be a humanistic love. It will be a love that’s limited. It won’t be the love of God. I can’t love you if I don’t love God first. So, we see then these commandments.

I want to show you 17 before we finish for tonight, but I’m not going to go to it in depth, but I just want you to see something about Chapter 17 first to give you something to think about. Chapter 21 you’ll want to read also. We’re very familiar with Chapter 21 because that’s about the stubborn and rebellious child. We’ll talk about that a little bit more. The funny thing though is, and I stated this a little bit earlier. We talk about a rebellious child and we don’t think they’re rebellious unless they’re rebellious to us. Rebellion isn’t just against you. Rebellion’s against society. Rebellion’s against the Word of God. Rebellion’s against the fatherhood of God and the sovereignty of God. "He’s not rebellious. He’s not in my face." He’s in God’s face! We don’t label somebody rebellious until it affects us, until my position is questioned—Rebellious to the teachers; rebellious to the statutes of the Word of God and the Laws of the community. It’s not about your house. You’re house doesn’t stand alone. You’re part of a holy nation. There’s only one way to live. And so—no, we’re done.

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight and no more sensitive issue that can be dealt with than children. They’re the heritage of the Lord. They come into this world and they’re so totally dependent upon us. The bond that comes because of the dependence; and some of us want to keep them ever-dependent upon us. But in their dependence we’re to take that empty slate and program them to be dependent upon You, to teach them to love You more than us, to love You more than their wife that they’re going to take, to love You more than the children they’re going to be blessed with. If we make the bond greater with us than with You, we’re Your enemy. If we make them dependent upon us more than You, we failed to train them up. If we’re their source, then we’re their god and we’ve made ourselves an idol. Thou shalt have no other gods. We can’t worship our children, and they can’t worship us. They’re lent to us. They’re the heritage of the Lord. Father, give us a jealousy for Your glory and Your holiness. In an environment of creature worship, let us stand out as worshipers of the Creator.

I won’t get into it tonight, but all the wrestling matches that you’ll have as parents, "What did I do wrong?" You might have done stuff wrong. You might have done stuff right. There’s plenty of biblical evidence for godly kids coming from ungodly homes and ungodly kids coming from godly homes. God is sovereign, but His rules don’t change. And those that by His sovereign will He places in the community, defection and desertion is met by death. We don’t physically kill them anymore. But we know what it’s talking about. I died to my father. He said, "You’re no longer my son." He didn’t have a son, a younger son. I chose another God. My inheritance went to another. How jealous are we for God’s glory tonight? What do you think about the little ones, the little foxes, the little compromises? How many times have you said, "If you do that, here’s the consequence if you don’t follow through?" How many times do we know to do good and don’t do it and its sin? You see, beloved, and this is the last statement for tonight. The real, and I’m talking to parents right now, the real issue is not whether your children have idols, but whether you do.

Father, make it real we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, before you go, turn to somebody and say something about the fifth. Study the Ten Commandments and we’ll be ready for Sunday.

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