Hold Fast To The Lord | Deuteronomy 13

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray. As we continue our Deuteronomy sermon series, let’s ask God to move in our midst. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus, who is the center of all of creation. The Son of God, the eternal Son of God, who has existed before time through whom all things were created. Lord Jesus, you truly are the centre of it all. And we pray that during this time, as we read from Deuteronomy and as I preach, you would be glorified. I pray there might be someone who does not yet know Jesus as Saviour and friend, that you would bring them to salvation during this moment. And I pray that every Christian in this room would be strengthened in their heart to hold fast to Christ. Come, Holy Spirit, and do that. For your glory and for your sake, we pray this Jesus name. Amen.

Introduction

I’d encourage you to hold Dio’s prophetic picture in your mind as we go through this sermon of Jesus the Son, pulling people back to him, pulling people into following Christ. Because in some of the most beautiful and comforting scriptures in all the Bible, Jesus says these words. John 10, 27, 29. Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. If you are a sheep, a follower of Jesus Christ, you are in Jesus hand. You are in the Father’s hand, and nothing can snatch you away. It says in 1 Peter that God will guard you through faith. It says in the book of Jude, he will keep you in his love. These are such wonderful, wonderful words. And I believe in the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. I believe that Christians can have assurance of salvation, knowing that God keeps us in his hand. And yet. And yet, the Bible is full of commands to persevere in faith and encouragements to cling to God. The Bible even contains warnings about what would happen should we fall away. The Bible is packed full of these kind of commands and encouragements and warnings. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 2, it says, Now I would remind you brothers, of the gospel. Sorry, I would remind you brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. Hebrews 3, verse 6 says, Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house. If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope, 2 Thessalonians 2:15 says so then, brothers, stand firm and hold on to the teachings that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.

You see, true Christians, true saints, born again in the Holy Spirit, don’t read those passages complacently and say, oh, Jesus has got me, the Father has got me. I can ignore those passages. No. Instead, true Christian believers say, because Jesus has got me, because I am in the Father’s hand, because the Holy Spirit works in me both to will and to work for his good pleasure, I will hold fast to Christ. I will endure in faith. I will stand firm against temptations to idolatry.

Our passage this Morning is the second half of Deuteronomy 12 and Deuteronomy chapter 13, and it contains warnings about ways in which followers of the Lord might be tempted to leave God and to worship idols. And as I read this passage, I would urge us not to be complacent, to rejoice that we are in God’s hands, and yet at the same time to be vigilant, to hold fast to the Lord, to be ready to repent of idolatry, to turn back to Jesus. I pray that as I preach this sermon and read this passage, the Spirit would work so that every person in this room would hold fast to Jesus with everything that they have and everything that they are. And it wouldn’t just be a momentary holding fast. It would be a lifetime of holding on to the Savior who rescued us, of the King of the world, the center of it all.

Bible Reading

So let’s turn to Deuteronomy 12:29, and I’ll read through to the end of chapter 13. It says this. The Israelites are about to go into the promised land when the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land. Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, how did these nations serve their gods, that I also may do the same. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates, they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take away from it. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to and if he says, let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. If your brother, the son of your mother or your son, or your daughter or the wife you embrace, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you, secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods which neither you nor your fathers have known. Some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him, but you shall kill him. Your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do such wickedness as this among you. If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, let us go and serve other gods which you have not known, then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction all who are in it and its cattle. With the edge of the sword, you shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with Fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you as he swore to your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments, that I’m commanding you today and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Sermon Outline

You cannot read that passage of Scripture without seeing the severity and seriousness of the sin of idolatry. The sin of forsaking the true God who has saved the Israelites and who has saved us and going after false and foreign gods. It’s obvious, isn’t it, in reading that passage just how serious that is? And therefore in that passage that I’ve just read to you, there are four different ways that temptations to idolatry can come. And we need to be careful, we need to be diligent. We need to know that these things, these temptations come and we need to hold fast to Jesus, our Lord and Savior. So four different ways temptations come. Temptations that come from a non Christian culture. Temptations that come from false prophets, Temptations that come from family members. Temptations that come from worthless men and crowds and a whole city that has deserted the Lord.

Temptation From Non-Christian Culture

Well, look with me at chapter 12, verses 29 to 32, where we see temptations to idolatry which come from a non Christian culture. The Israelites go into the promised land and they conquer and destroy the nations currently living in in that land. And of course, this act of destroying those nations is an act of the justice of God. God is punishing those nations because they are despicable nations. You can see that from the way they worship their God. They burn their sons and daughters as though that is worshipful to the Lord or to their gods. That’s how they worship. These nations deserve to be conquered. They deserve to be driven out of their land. They are awful, awful nations. So the Israelites go into the promised land and they conquer and possess this promise. Promised land. But God says through Moses in verse 30, take care. Take care that you be not ensnared. I believe God would say the same thing to us this morning. Take care. You are Christians living in a non Christian world. Take care that you aren’t ensnared. Don’t be naive. There is a trap, there is a snare that will pull you away from the Lord. There is a snare. There is a trap to pull you away from Jesus Christ. If you are not careful, you can see the trap in verse 30. What some of the Israelites unfortunately do, because they do not heed this warning is they go into the land and they go, oh, how do these nations serve their gods? Maybe I can do the same. So then, brothers and sisters, take care that you don’t become ensnared and worship the false idols of the non Christian world that we live in, forsaking Jesus Christ.

Tim Keller, in a great book called Counterfeit Gods, defines idols in this way. He says idols are anything more important to you than God absorbing your heart and imagination more than God providing your ultimate security and meaning. Everyone has one God or gods in their life. It is the one who absorbs your mind, your imagination and your heart. It is the thing where you find your ultimate security and meaning in life. So let me ask you that question. What absorbs your heart? Where is your ultimate security in life? Is it in the Lord God or is it elsewhere? I think the word imagination that Tim Keller uses is really, really helpful. He talks about things that absorb your imagination. Those are your gods, those are your idols, the things that your imagination is full of. So let’s ask ourselves what? What do I imagine? What do I dream of? What fills my brain? Is it wealth that absorbs your imagination? If only I had an extra 10k or an extra hundred k then I’d be secure and financially safe. That’s where I want to find my security. That’s where I want to find my So I dream and I imagine of having more money in my bank account. Or maybe you dream of bigger homes, nicer cars, luxury holidays, more possessions. Fueled by the voice and God of culture in adverts and marketing which says that happiness comes from having and doing more. Is it wealth that absorbs your imagination? Or maybe it’s romantic love and relationships which absorb your aspirations, everything about your life. What you really want is that romance. And you watch rom com movies, moments where the man or woman of your dream comes and sweeps you off your feet and you’re ensnared by the lie of the film. That happiness comes when your romantic needs are met. Or perhaps you dream of power and glory in the world or at work or in politics, even online. I think people dream that their words that they’re typing online would be really influential and change the world. Maybe you dream aspire to have a voice to influence people and a voice that is praised by other people, fueled by the lie and God of culture that it’s better to be served. It’s better to be influential and to be heard than it is to serve and to lift others up. Or perhaps what absorbs your imagination are more trifling things. What is your favourite celebrity up to right now? Will your football team win a trophy this season? What will happen next in your favourite drama series? You know, I confess that sometimes my imagination is absorbed by things that really, really don’t matter. And yet they’ve become more important to me than God. Many have been ensnared by the gods of money, sex, power, celebrity, entertainment. How many of us can truly say our imaginations are absorbed with the glory of God? We dream of a town that loves and worships Jesus. We dream of a life which is more like Christ. Lord. When I think of my life in the future, I’m thinking that I would be more like Jesus, serving others, sacrificing my time and energy to love others. Do you dream of a church more on fire for God? Is that what your imagination is absorbed with? And sometimes actually not dreaming at all, but simply just contentedly thinking of how magnificent Jesus is and that he died for you and that you have a relationship with him and that he is the King and the center of it all and he’s the creator of the universe and he loves us and he guides us and strengthens us. Is your imagination absorbed with Christ and who he is and what he has done?

Other questions to ask yourself to assess whether cultural idols have ensnared you or are ensnaring you? What stops you gathering with God’s people on Sundays at prayer meetings and life groups? What things take up a disproportionate amount of your time keeping you from prayer and relationship with God? What’s the first thing you do or think when you wake up, and what’s the last thing you do or think before you go to sleep? I would encourage you that just a short prayer as the very first thing you do or think when you wake up can be so powerful. Good morning Lord. Today is your day and then when you go to sleep, thank you Lord for all that you’ve given me today. I pray you’ve been honoured in the things that I’ve done. That shows you that God is first in your mind and first in your heart and that Jesus is central in your life. And let me confess again. You know, sometimes it’s I wonder what’s going on online or I wonder what people are saying on Twitter. I wonder whether Tottenham have signed any players in the last 24 hours you know, we smile, but actually that says something about what’s most important in my life. Sometimes have we been ensnared by idols, in which case this is a moment to repent, to turn away and to turn to Christ and to pray for a changed heart in the power of the Holy Spirit. And it’s not just a moment to pray. It’s also a moment to say I need to take action.

There are actions required in Deuteronomy 13, and they are not the actions that we are to copy. We’re not to kill the one who’s tempting us like they were commanded to do in Israel. We live under a different covenant, a new covenant, and yet we ought to take very, very seriously these things that ensnare us. We don’t kill the tempter, but we do need to put temptation to death in our life. We do need to forget fight against sin in our hearts. And therefore there might be something radical you need to do. If wealth is your idol, if possessions, then maybe it’s time to say no, I’m going to be radically generous. I’ve been storing up wealth for myself and actually I need to get rid of it because my heart is all about that money and what I’m going to do with it and where it’s going to go. It needs to be given radically, generously away. Maybe I need to stop watching those kind of films. It’s absolutely inappropriate for me to watch those things, those things, because I’m being ensnared and enticed into a vision of the world which is not true and good. Maybe it’s that you love power and actually God is saying to you right now, you need to serve in the most demeaning way possible. You need to find the thing that’s completely unseen, which has no glory attached to it whatsoever. And you need to say, I want to do that because I need to break the idol of power in my heart. So I’m going to drastically go and do the thing that nobody else wants to do. Of course, there’s another form of idolatry in Deuteronomy chapter 12 as well. If you look at verse 31, it’s not worshipping other gods directly, but rather it’s saying, how do those nations worship their gods? Well, why don’t we worship the Lord like that? Why don’t we learn from what they’re doing and do the same? You can see immediately why this would be an absolutely awful thing to do because they’re murdering their sons and daughters in worship. So if they Were to copy that, that would be astoundingly evil.

Instead of obeying the Lord’s instructions, the temptation to idolatry, this other form of idolatry is adding to or taking away from what God has said and learning from culture instead. Do you know, historically, the church has been very, very good at adding to God’s word, things that we have to do in order to worship Him. Even if you make a distinction between veneration and worship, this is what the Catholics do. They make a distinction between veneration and worship. And they say, we venerate Mary and we worship God. But even if you make that distinction between those two things, how have paintings and statues of Mary and Hail Mary’s become a central element of Catholic worship? It’s not in scripture. Paul the Apostle doesn’t even mention Mary in any of his letters to the churches that he writes to. So how can that be a central part of worship in the Catholic Church? It’s possible that it’s an influence from the fact that there were female Roman gods and Greek gods that were worshiped and this desire to have a feminine object of devotion. It’s possible that. That what I would describe as a cult of Mary in the Catholic Church is a consequence of the influence of culture. Looking at culture and saying, that’s how they worship, why don’t we do that in the church? I could say the same thing for kissing icons in the Orthodox Church. They take pictures of saints and they kiss them in their worship.

Now, even if you make a distinction and say that’s not actually worshipping the person you’re kissing, how has that become a central element of worship in that kind of church? Even today in the evangelical world, there is a temptation to learn from culture and make cultural ideas central elements in how we worship. Now, the church must be accessible to unbelievers, and the Gospel needs to be contextualized so unbelievers can come in and hear it and believe in Jesus Christ and give their lives according to. So we’ve got to do some things to be accessible to the culture that we’re trying to reach. And let me tell you, we in Christchurch Ferrum long for the gospel to go to our town and to our nation, into our culture. So we must be speaking and worshipping in a way that is understandable sometimes so that non Christians come in and go, yeah, I want some of this. I understand something of what’s going on here. But the central elements of worship come from God’s word. The central elements of our worship come from God’s word. We sing with instruments and music because there’s a whole songbook in the middle of the Bible called the Psalms, which shows us how to worship God. We preach God’s Word because throughout the pastoral epistles, Paul is charging Timothy and other young leaders. You’ve got to preach the Word in season, out of season. Preach the word of God, preach Jesus, preach the gospel school. We pray because in Acts they were devoted to prayers. We break bread in communion because in Acts they were devoted to the breaking of bread. The central elements of worship in this church, I pray, will always be those which the Lord has given to us in His Word. Because we don’t want to add or take away from what God has said in Scripture, we ought not to ask how do they serve their gods in culture, but rather, how has the Lord asked us us to worship him? Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, to worship you in the way you have asked. So chapter 12, cultural temptations to Idolatry. Either worshipping false gods and making them more important than God, or worshipping God in the way that you think culture wants us to, rather than the way the way that God has asked to be worshipped.

Temptation From False Prophets

Now the start of chapter 13, second point this morning from verses one to five, the temptation to idolatry that comes from a false prophet. So there’s a temptation outside the church that can influence the church. This is perhaps a more dangerous temptation because it’s temptation that comes from within the church. It’s a fascinating text. The first five verses of chapter 13. There’s a prophet or a dreamer of dreams who really does a sign or a wonder what they say really does come to pass. It says verse two. So it looks like this prophet is a true prophet. But then in the second half of verse two, this prophet, this dreamer of dreams says, hey, let’s worship other gods rather than the Lord God. He’s actually the most dangerous of all the false prophets because it seems like he’s anointed with power. It seems like who he is is an awesome person to be followed, but his message leads to idolatry and death. Verse three is a bit shocking to me. It says, you shall not listen to this prophet. That’s not the shocking bit. To me that makes sense. You shall not listen to this prophet for because the Lord is testing you.

So basically what this text says is that God has allowed, possibly even actively raised up this person to test the the Israelites in the middle of the Israelite nation to find out if they truly love God, if they’re truly holding fast to God, or whether if an impressive person shows up whose prophecies seem to come to pass, well, they’ll go, well, we’ll give up on God and we’ll follow this man wherever he’s taking us. God has done that. God has done that to test the Israelites. There’s therefore so much to learn from these verses. The most important thing is this. Even if someone looks impressive, if they are great leader, if their leadership is accompanied by great signs and wonders and prophecies, and they have a big following, under no circumstances allow that person to lead you away from Jesus Christ. I want nothing to do with impressive leaders if they have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. I want everything to do with Jesus. He is the centre. So actually it doesn’t matter. In many ways, the signs and wonders and prophecies that accompany the false person who’s going to lead me away from Christ? Hold fast to Jesus Christ. Let no one lead you astray.

The second thing that we need to learn from these verses is that sign and wonders and correct prophecies do not necessarily mean a ministry or a church is healthy. It is the true gospel message of Jesus Christ being preached, which is more critical. It’s leading people into the worship of God rather than away from the worship of God. T

his passage thirdly, even implies it’s possible for God to do miracles and bring prophecies through a person who does not preach a true gospel message from the Bible, which is about salvation in Christ. Certainly he tested the Israelites this way. And it’s possible he might test Christians today in this way by raising up someone who looks impressive or a ministry that looks impressive. Impressive, but actually isn’t leading people to God. In Matthew 7, Jesus says that there are going to be some people at the end of time who say to God, didn’t I prophesy in your name? Didn’t I drive out demons in your name? Didn’t I do mighty works in your name? And Jesus will say, depart from me. I never knew you. So there are people in this world who look like their ministry is amazing and brilliant and fantastic because of miracles and prophecies. But actually they’re not leading people to Christ. Christ.

The fourth thing we need to learn is that prophecy can be dangerous, can be used to manipulate and mislead others. It can even pull people away from Jesus Christ. Now, we love prophecy as a gift in this church. We believe it continues today. We want to hear from God prophetically. We love it as a gift because we know that when God truly speaks Prophetically, it can transform lives and bring them to Christ. You know, it says in the New Testament there are going to be unbelievers who come into church and hear the words of prophecy and fall down and go, God must be in this place, because how could this possibly be known? So prophecy is an amazing gift. I’m not trying to say let’s not prophesy. I’m trying to say if you do prophesy, ensure that you’re glorifying Jesus. In fact, that’s true of every spiritual gift. Every spiritual gift in the Bible ought to be used ultimately to glorify Jesus. Ensure that if you use and hear the gift of prophecy, that it’s leading people to Christ rather than away from Christ.

We also have something called a prophecy policy in this church, which is that we encourage all prophecies to be shared with at least one other witness. In services, in prayer meetings, words are weighed by the elders and the whole congregation. We listen and we weigh and go, yeah, that sounds like it’s from God. Let’s press into that. But when you give private words, private prophecies, I want to say to you, have a witness there to listen and to hear. And if you are invited to listen and to hear to a prophecy, I would encourage you to listen, to weigh, and then make sure that Christ is glorified in some way in that conversation. That’s how prophecy ought to be used. It’s a word from the Lord that leads us to Christ and Christ is magnified. And if we do that, then God’s going to use prophetic gifts in this church to change hearts, to change lives, and to lead us into more worship of the true God.

You see, God is testing the Israelites in this passage. Do you really love me, says God, more than you love signs, wonders, and prophecies? That’s the test here, isn’t it? Are we following after God himself because we love him? Or are we? You know, do you come to church hoping to see a miracle every week? And if you got your miracle, you go, right, I’m done. Now I’ve seen it. I can leave, I can never come back because I’ve seen the miracle. Or are you here for God himself? And that those things, those signs, those wonders, those miracles, those prophecies which are all throughout the Bible, lead us to worship him more and more and give him the glory that he is worthy of, because that’s their purpose. Don’t listen to the false prophets. Even if everything they say comes to pass, if they lead you away from Jesus, this,

Temptation From Family and Friends

The third temptation in chapter 13, verses 6 to 11, is idolatry that can come from family and friends. If you were in any doubt about how serious temptations to idolatry are, consider this section of scripture, because it is hard hitting in Israel. If a family member entices you secretly to idolatry, God’s instruction in verse four is that they be killed. You’re not supposed to listen to them, you’re not supposed to pity them. You don’t spare them, you kill them. And that’s because idolatry, forsaking God to follow false gods, leads to hell, leads to death, leads to eternal damnation and suffering. If someone is not following Jesus, they will end up in hell. And so the thing that God is warning against here is that one person would secretly entice another who would secretly entice another, who would secretly entice another until the final and fourth thing that happens is there’s a whole city that is not following God and they’re all headed for destruction. Because that’s what happens in the final temptation to idolatry. The whole city is destroyed. I know it sounds harsh, but death here was actually the righteous and merciful punishment of God. They got what was coming to them, the righteous justice that they followed after false gods. And the whole nation was protected from this secret lie that could spread throughout the nation.

Now, of course, under the new covenant, as followers of Jesus Christ, we do not follow this law. I’m not saying please don’t go home, please, I can’t believe this. But. But yeah, that would be an absolute disaster if people go right, okay, if someone secretly entices me to idolatry, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to kill. No, please, please don’t. Under the new covenant, we don’t put the tempter to death, but we do take very seriously that temptation. We do take care and we say, someone is trying to secretly entice me here into something other than following the Lord. I’m not going to kill them, but I need to do something drastic about this. I need to cut them off from speaking and say, that’s not for me. I’m not going that direction. This is the way I’m going. Our loved ones, our family and our closest friends are the people who influence us the most. And therefore they are the most likely to entice us secretly away from the Lord. Just be careful. Cling fast to Christ and be careful. Brothers and sisters, life and joy and salvation are with Jesus.

So do not let Mockery or apathy or even the hate of a friend or family member pull you away from Jesus as far as you are able. Try and create a home which is actually dragging you in the opposite direction. A family. A home where you pray together. A family or home where you lead one another to Christ. A family or a couple where you do Bible study together. It’s a great thing. Try and create a home where together you’re coming closer to Jesus day by day rather than pulling one another away day by day. And it’s worth examining yourself this morning. Even if your home is entirely a Christian home or your friendship, are all Christians? Are there habits in your home life which are leading you and others away from Christ rather than towards him? Are there things that need to change in your home that would help you grow to be more like Jesus day by day? If you are unmarried, this passage is another warning and reason not to marry an unbeliever. The New Testament is very clear about that. If you are a Christian, don’t marry an unbeliever. We love friendships with non Christians, but be careful that those friendships aren’t leading you into idolatry. And we from Jesus, we want every Christian to have non Christian friends so that they can be sharing Jesus with them. But just be careful. Be careful about those friendships. Are they leading you down a wrong path into idolatry and sin? Or are you kind of gently encouraging them to come closer to Jesus?

Keep praying for your non Christian friends. Keep building non Christian friendships, but don’t let you be tempted away. These close relationships are so precious to us. Us. And so this type of passage in this sermon can sting. Can sting. If you’re struggling with a sting of conviction from this passage or from what I’ve said, act accordingly. But also talk to us. We’d love to pastor you through some hard conversations and changes that need to be made. That would be such a brilliant consequence of this sermon that someone comes and says, duncan, I just need help. There’s something not quite right in my home life. Or there’s someone who’s influencing me away from the Lord. Can you pray for me? That kind of conversation would be such a wonderful consequence of reading this passage together.

Temptation From Worthless Crowds

Finally, then, the fourth and final way idolatry can come in verses 12 to 18 is the spread of idolatry that’s full of crowd pressure. And so a whole city forsakes God and slips into idolatry in this instant. Worthless fellows. Which kind of makes me chuckle, that kind of phrase. There’s worthless fellows all over the city people opposed to God have drawn many people away from the Lord, a whole city. And what this passage says is the only thing this city is good for if they’re all following after false idols. The only thing that this city is good for in Israel is to be destroyed. For it to become a burnt offering to the Lord. For it to become a heap forever, a a monument to the truth that idolatry leads to destruction. This is why this sin is so important to be careful on. Because if you follow after foreign gods, it leads to destruction.

We must be careful not to be enticed away from God in secret by our closest friends and family members. But we also must be careful in public that the crowds that random worthless fellows would draw us away from Jesus. Let me just say something about the Internet. The Internet is a wonderful tool for advancing the gospel, preaching the gospel and reaching people. It’s also a dangerous tool where enticements happen and people are led into idolatry through the things you watch and read and see online. There are lots of worthless fellows online, so be careful and be aware of them. Brothers and sisters, we must hold fast to Jesus Christ. We must persevere in faith. We must stay true to the Gospel in the Bible. We must love the Lord with all our hearts and with all our souls.

Concluding Remarks

Therefore, we must be careful not to be enticed into idolatry. We must not be enticed to worship the false gods of culture. We must not be enticed to worship the Lord, but in the way that culture says we must worship him, rather than the way that God says we ought to worship Him. We must be careful that prophecy isn’t abused and we’re led enticed away from God just because someone’s ministry looks impressive. We mustn’t love signs and wonders and prophecy more than we love the Lord Himself. We must not be enticed and let our closest family and friends lead us away from Jesus. We must not let crowds of worthless fellows entice us away from God.

But why am I labouring this point? Why devote a whole sermon to this point? Well, the threat of the penalty of forsaking God is one reason. It’s very, very serious. But surely the ultimate reason that we hold fast to the Lord, we hold fast to Christ, is because he is magnificent and wonderful, our Savior and our King. In Jesus, we have all the treasure we need. Don’t be enticed by what the world has. They don’t have Jesus. In Jesus we have everything, all the treasure we need. He is God. He is the eternal One. He is the everlasting One. He is the mighty God. He is the all powerful God for whom nothing is impossible. In Christ we are friends with the Creator, the universe. Jesus Christ is the loving one, not just the mighty Creator, but the One who’s loved us since before the creation of the world and will love us always into eternity. His love is pure and wonderful and perfect. The love of a person on earth is a wonderful good gift from God. But it’s nothing compared to the love of Christ for you. He is the kind and gentle and humble one. He is the servant king and and the shepherd king. He’s the one who laid down his life for the sheep. He loved you so much. He said, I’m going to die for you on the cross. I’m going to take your sins so that you can be forgiven and you will rise again and have eternal life. Follow me, he says. Listen to his voice. He is the servant king. He is the Redeemer, the one who rescues us.

Did you spot it in verse 5 and verse 10? This is what Moses is saying. God is the one who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. He’s rescued you Israelites. The don’t desert Him. He’s the one who saved you. And he would say the same to Christians. Don’t desert Jesus. Don’t forsake Christ. He’s the one who’s redeemed you out of the slavery of sin and death into life eternal. Keep cling fast to Jesus Christ. Do not forsake him. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is our rescuer. Do not forsake him for idols that promise much but deliver nothing compared to being with Jesus. Therefore, let us examine our lives this morning. Is there anything enticing us away from Jesus? Is there anything or anyone stopping you holding fast to the gospel of grace and love and joy? If so, repent this morning. Turn away from it. Turn to the Lord. Receive mercy and cut it off. Take drastic action in order to know that you’re going to hold fast to Jesus all the days of your life. And as you run back to him, his arms are wide open in mercy to receive you. And just as you cling to him, so he will hold you in his hand so that nothing will snatch you away. Let’s stand and pray. I’m going to invite the band to to lead us in a song as well.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, you are our Savior. You are our King. You are the loving one and the eternal One and the majestic one of beauty. You are the God of glory whom we love. You have taken us out of sin and death into life and life eternal. You have taken us from a long way off and brought us near to God, our Father in heaven. Now would the Holy Spirit work in our hearts both to will and to work for your good pleasure, so that we might never forsake Jesus, that we would love you with our whole heart and our whole soul, that we would cling to you with every fibre of our being, that every area of our life would be about drawing near to Christ rather than drawing away from him. And Lord, we confess that some parts of our lives have not been like that. Would you forgive us? Would you reveal those places to us and would you help us cut them away, cut them off, change them drastically so that we follow you and you alone. Because we look forward to that day when we’ll be found in you, dressed in righteousness. And you will return and we will worship you with the whole host of everyone who has believed in Christ for salvation. Keep us, Lord, from idolatry. May we not be enticed, but may we hold fast to Christ. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.