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Okay, Deuteronomy chapter 13, 
I'll just begin reading in verse 1. If there arises among you 
a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a 
wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke 
to you, saying, 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. 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 spoken in order 
to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out 
of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, 
to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded 
you to walk. So you shall put away the evil 
from your midst. If your brother, the son of your 
mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your 
friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you saying, 
let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, neither 
you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are 
all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end 
of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent 
to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor 
shall you spare him or conceal him, but you shall surely kill 
him. Your hand shall be first against 
him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the 
people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because 
he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought 
you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. So 
all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness 
as this among you. If you hear someone in one of 
your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, 
corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants 
of their city, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which 
you have not known, then you shall inquire, search out, and 
ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and 
certain that such an abomination was committed among you, you 
shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of 
the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its 
livestock with the edge of the sword. And you shall gather all 
its plunder into the middle of the street and completely burn 
with fire the city and all its plunder for the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It 
shall not be built again. So none of the accursed things 
shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness 
of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you, and multiply 
you, just as He swore to your fathers, because you have listened 
to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments 
which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes 
of the Lord your God. Amen. Well, remember that last 
week we looked at chapter 12 and we saw the centralization 
of worship. God told the children of Israel 
to go into the land of Canaan, to dispossess the land of the 
Canaanites, and to utterly destroy all remnants of Canaanite worship. They were to get rid of the altars, 
they were to get rid of anything that resembled Canaanite worship. They were to delete the names 
of the gods from that particular land, because God was putting 
His name there and God was going to dwell in their midst. They 
were prescribed a particular place. God said through Moses 
that you go to the place that I choose and that you engage 
in worship in the manner that he had specified. He underscored 
all of this in chapter 12, verse 32. Whatever I command you, be 
careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take 
away from it. And we saw the threat here was 
the second commandment. that we are to not have idols. 
We're not to worship the true God in a false way. That is sinful, 
that is bad, it is wicked. It doesn't do us any good to 
say, well, we're worshiping Yahweh of Israel, we're gonna just use 
the Canaanite altars in order to do so. God says, that's wrong, 
it's wicked, don't engage in that manner of worship. And then 
here in chapter 13, we're dealing with seduction to idolatry. Again, the attempt by persons, 
and we'll see in three particulars, attempt by persons to seduce 
others to commit idolatry, and in so doing, to reject God Almighty, 
to rebel against the covenant, and to ultimately bring the wrath 
of God down upon one's head. There's three categories or three 
groups of people here that may solicit or may seduce to idolatry. The first is the temptation from 
false prophets. We might call these the false 
religious leaders, verses 1 to 5. Then there is the temptation 
from family and friends, verses 6 to 11, and then the temptation 
from public apostasy, verses 12 to 18, are what Craigie, I 
think, rightly calls urban revolutionaries. And it's obvious that if you 
don't deal with it with the false prophets and you don't deal with 
it within the family, it's going to blossom into this full-scale 
urban revolutionary mindset that we find here in chapter 13 verses 
12 to 18. So we're going to consider these 
three particular threats, these three seducers to idolatry. We'll notice not only the enticement 
but the penalty that is spoken of in this particular chapter. Probably as we read through this 
you're a little bit shocked at what God says to do with these 
particular offenders. That doesn't reflect upon God, 
rather it reflects upon us, how we have grown so accustomed to 
idolatry, and how we've grown so accustomed to pluralism, and 
how we've grown so accustomed to the rejection of God Most 
High, that it's shocking to see God calling for such penalties 
to be enacted against those who would violate His law. Well, let's just look at the 
first one, the temptation from false prophets. Notice the enticement 
itself. It says, if there arises among 
you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, This is one of God's 
ways of communicating to the people of Israel. In Numbers 
12, 6, as it's highlighting the peculiar nature of Moses, God 
is relating how he dealt or how he deals with others. He says, 
Here now my words, if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, 
make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. So 
prophets and dreamers of dreams were something that were part 
of Israelite society. That's not the problem. We'll 
see the problem as we proceed. But notice here in verse 1. And 
he gives you a sign or a wonder. And then what's incredible is 
verse 2. And the sign or the wonder comes 
to pass. So you have a false prophet, 
you have this dreamer of dreams, he does a sign or a wonder, and 
the sign or wonder actually comes to pass. It is accomplished, 
it is brought forth. What's the admonition or what's 
the warning here? Notice. But he says to you, let 
us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us 
serve them." So you see, the man comes in the name of Yahweh, 
perhaps he's a prophet, he's a dreamer of dreams, he's in 
Israel, he's in the covenant community, he does a sign or 
a wonder, that actually comes to pass and on the heels of that 
he says let's go worship the Canaanite gods. Let's go follow 
those who are not Yahweh. That's the particular temptation 
that is given here in this situation. One need only think of the modern 
emphasis and the long-time emphasis on signs and wonders. Biblical 
signs and wonders lead us to God Most High. If signs and wonders 
become the end in and of themselves, that's wrong. If signs and wonders 
become everything that we seek to the neglect of the true and 
living God, that's wrong. And we see something of that 
here. Christopher Wright says, No sign that appears to authenticate 
is to be given precedence over the content of the words spoken 
by a prophet. He may come with the signs of 
a true prophet, but if his words contradict the normative, covenantal 
demand, everything that God has heretofore revealed, then he 
is false and must be purged from the body of Israel like a lethal 
poison. So you see this prophet or dreamer 
of dreams comes, he does signs and wonders. The signs and wonders 
actually come to pass. I suspect he'd have a stadium 
full of people in the 21st century. Who cares if it leads us to the 
true and living God? Just heal me of my afflictions 
and put money in my bank account. We don't care about God Most 
High, who these signs and wonders are supposedly supposed to direct 
us to. We rather care about the signs 
and wonders themselves. Not so in this context. Notice 
after verse 2, verse 2 and verse 3, it says, you shall not listen 
to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. Do not listen to him. Do not 
pay attention to him. I don't care if he can float 
around the sky and make gold coins float out of his mouth. 
Don't listen to him if he doesn't lead you to Yahweh. If his word 
is not consistent, if he is calling for the worship of false gods, 
he himself is a false prophet. True signs and wonders that lead 
us away from the cross are never God's sanction. They are not 
wrought by him. Again, Christopher Wright said, 
his words cancel out all his amazing deeds. No display of 
miraculous powers, no amount of signs and wonders can lend 
a moment's credibility to anybody with a message so clearly at 
odds with covenant truth and demand. So if one of these healers 
or one of these miracle workers can't get justification right, 
they are false. prophets. It doesn't matter what 
they appear to be able to do. It doesn't matter what the phenomena 
may suggest. What matters is the truth of 
God's holy word. We are a word-based, faith-based 
religion. We are not to be drawn in and 
caught up with the signs and the wonders. It does not matter 
what they say. It does not matter what they 
claim. If they are not speaking truthfully and consistently with 
the God of heaven and earth, then it is wrong. The refusal 
to hear the false prophet. There's one thing in this world 
that demands complete allegiance and it is the word of the living 
and true God. You cannot miss that working 
through the book of Deuteronomy. It is the foundation of covenant 
life. It is the foundation of man's 
relationship to God. Ultimately, we know, of course, 
the Lord Jesus, but it is that Word that reveals that to us. It is sufficient for all matters 
of faith and practice, notwithstanding the claims of prophets and dreamers 
of dreams. This would be a difficulty if 
you see someone doing amazing things, certainly the temptation 
arises for you to follow them, and to watch them, and to be 
one like them. That's not what God says here 
though. He says resist that tendency, 
resist that temptation, and realize that even in this, God has his 
purpose. Notice, verse 3, you shall not 
listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. Now 
notice, for the Lord your God is testing you. This isn't a 
temptation, a solicitation to do evil. Rather, it's the sort 
of testing that God has already revealed He did in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, you 
can turn there just so you see that God does send these things 
upon us to test us, to show, to demonstrate, to vindicate, 
affirm, confirm that what we have is indeed the true and living 
faith. Notice in 8.2, you shall remember 
that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in 
the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was 
in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So if a few signs and wonders 
get you to compromise and follow after idols, then what you profess 
was not the true faith. If you are enamored with Benny 
Hinn and you worship his God, then what you professed in terms 
of salvation by grace through faith in Christ must not have 
been legit. Do not get caught up in the show. Do not get caught up in the display. God is moving behind the scenes 
to test his people. Remember, Paul argues in a very 
similar fashion. See, as I said, when we read 
Deuteronomy 13, it shocks our Christian sensitivities and our 
delicacies. The same things are true in the 
New Covenant. Paul says, for this reason there 
are heresies among you in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, so that those who 
are approved may be recognized. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and 
verse 19. There is a weeding process going 
on when men follow down and chase down heresies or signs and wonders 
and turn away from the living God through Jesus Christ. They 
are just showing it's a way of God thinning the herd. It's a 
way for God to sort of thin out the branches. God has his purposes 
in all of this and we need to realize this. And this is precisely 
what is stated here. The Lord is testing you to know 
whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with 
all your soul. Remember that was the central 
confession, Deuteronomy 6.4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our 
God, the Lord is one. What is the response to that 
central confession? You shall love the Lord your 
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your 
strength. So if you get enamored with the 
signs and wonders that the dreamer of dreams and the false prophet 
manufactures, you weren't the real deal. This wasn't genuine 
love. You didn't have covenant fidelity. You weren't being faithful. You 
need to respond to the Word of God rather than to what men manufacture. If it jives with the Scripture, 
praise God. If it contradicts the Scripture, 
they are to be rejected, refused to listen to them, side always 
with the Word of the Living God. There were times in Isaiah's 
ministry, there was a season where the people were seeking 
out diviners and mediums, and he says, to the law and to the 
testimony. If they don't speak according 
to this, there's no light in them. They are to be refused, 
rejected, and shunned. We're not to be a people that 
are simply caught up by the demonstration of a man. We are to be caught 
up in the Word of the Living God. Signs and wonders throughout 
the Bible came consistent with revelation. When you take the 
Bible and you look at it and you read it, people say, man, 
it's filled with miracles. You know, it really isn't. There's 
a lot of ages, a lot of years, there's not a lot of miracles. 
When do miracles come? When God sends His servants, 
when God sends His spokesmen. They do signs and wonders to 
authenticate and evidence and confirm that they are of God 
and that the word that is coming is revelation. This is one of 
the arguments against tongues and prophesying today. God has 
spoken in His prophets, in His Son, in these last days. We have the final word. We ought 
not to be looking for new revelation. God the Lord has spoken. Signs 
and wonders and all of those things came at specific conspicuous 
times in redemptive history to validate the man of God that 
he was speaking for God and to affirm and confirm his word. 
So if a man does signs and wonders and then says, let's go worship, 
bail. He is to be refused. He is to 
be rejected. He is to be shunned. And notice, 
not only does the Lord have a purpose here, but the Lord demonstrates 
a sovereignty. The Lord demonstrates His sovereignty, 
lest you think that Baal is the power behind these signs and 
wonders. Lest you think that Asherah or 
Molech is the power behind these signs and wonders. God is the 
power behind these signs and wonders, and He is sending them 
to test Israel. He is sending them to validate 
and confirm whether these people are truly His own. The signs 
and wonders were not wrought by Baal through these dreamers 
of dreams. Any sign or wonder is God Almighty 
and He says, I am doing it to test, I am doing it to keep you 
from following these people. And then notice the remedy. You 
shall walk, verse 4, after the Lord your God and fear Him and 
keep His commandments and obey His voice. You shall serve Him 
and hold fast to Him. You see, we're a Him-based religion. 
And I don't mean H-Y-M-N, I mean an H-I-M. We are a God-centered 
religion. God-central. First and second 
commandments. You shall have no other gods 
before me, and you shall not make for yourself an idol. That's 
what's overarching in this admonition. And then notice, as they respond 
favorably, this then becomes the antidote to guard them against 
such false prophets and against such dreamers of dreams. If you 
are walking after the Lord your God, if you are fearing Him, 
if you are keeping His commandments, you're obeying His voice, you're 
serving Him and you're holding fast to Him, when a man comes 
and does signs and wonders and says, let's trot after Baal, 
you're going to say, get out of here! So the response serves 
as the antidote and the help so that we can avoid this tendency 
or temptation or this solicitation to idolatry that comes through 
the false prophet. Again, Christopher Wright said, 
a people consciously living with this orientation and commitment 
would have the spiritual health and vitality to recognize and 
reject idolatrous enticement as decisively as a healthy body 
deals with invading germs. When you're walking with the 
Lord and the dreamer of dreams and false prophet comes and he 
throws down the lamby and the sparks fly, you're not going 
to fall prey to this because you're walking with Jehovah. It doesn't matter if you see 
all the signs and wonders. It doesn't matter if you see 
the razzmatazz. It doesn't matter if you have 
the emotional high. You know that your God is faithful, 
that he has promised, that he will never leave you, and he 
will never forsake you. That's the religion of God's 
initiative. It isn't just responding when 
we're getting stuck. It isn't just being a fair weather 
fan. Keep the signs and wonders coming, 
Lord, and I'll follow. That was what Jesus encountered 
when he fed men with bread. What happened? They were a consumer 
mindset. When the bread was there, they 
ate and they followed Jesus. When the bread dried up and he 
said, I have a bread to tell you that comes down out of heaven 
and it gives eternal life, they didn't want that. As long as 
their bellies were being filled, as long as they were being satisfied, 
as long as they got their needs met, they were happy. But when 
the bread, the physical bread, dried up, they fell away. They didn't want it. Well, isn't 
that the case with so many professors of religion? As long as I'm happy, 
as long as I'm healthy, as long as I'm wise, as long as my children 
are well-behaved, as long as my taxes are paid, as long as 
my government is non-intrusive, I will be the best Christian 
you've ever seen, Lord. What's that? That is not the 
religion of the Bible. We are to follow the Lord in 
good times and in bad times. We are to follow the Lord on 
the mountaintops and in the valleys. We are to follow the Lord always, 
and that's what verse four specifies. You do this, you don't have to 
worry about these false prophets. You don't have to worry about 
these dreamers of dreams. They can pull a rabbit out of 
the hat and you can just say, that's for you and whatever person 
is interested in that. Yeah, good for you, exactly. Take your bow and follow after 
Baal. As for me and my house, we will 
serve Yahweh. That's what he instructs them 
in. And then notice the penalty for 
this man. This is going to be further explained 
later on in the book of Deuteronomy. Notice here in verse 5, but that 
prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because 
he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God. He has spoken in order to promote, 
here it is, apostasy. That's what turning away from 
is. It is defection from God. It is a falling away from. So 
when he does his signs and wonders and he says, let's go follow 
after Baal now, what he is promoting in Israel is apostasy from the 
true and the living God. This is no small thing. This 
is revolution. This is treason. This is high 
treachery. This is an assault upon the body 
of God Most High, which was Israel in that situation. It wasn't 
just a minor thing. We'll see that as we move through 
our study tonight. What was unique about Israel 
is that they were in covenant with God. So when men counseled 
apostasy from God, it was an attack on the civil order. It 
wasn't just religious, though it was that, but it was an attack 
on the very society itself. And so they were to be put to 
death. That prophet or that dreamer 
of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order 
to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out 
of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, 
to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded 
you to walk, so you shall put away the evil from your midst." 
First time this is used, it will be used several other times. 
Put away the evil from your midst. So we see here the punishment 
of the evildoer. And again, we see that and we 
go, boy, that's pretty harsh. That's really kind of a walk 
in the park compared to Galatians 1, isn't it? What does Paul say 
for someone who perverts the truth of the gospel? Let him 
be anathema. Let him be cursed. Let him be 
damned to hell. That anathema principle, the 
Old Testament word is kerem, it's the Hebrew word where we 
get anathema, where we don't, but the Greeks got it, it was 
the same word, that's found in this passage. When there are 
these urban revolutionaries, when they want to pretend that 
they're Canaanites, you anathematize their city. You put it under 
the ban. You put it under the curse. You 
destroy them. You destroy their livestock. 
You take all the plunder. You put it on the ground. And 
you burn the city, just like you did with Jericho. When Israel 
conducts themselves like Canaanites, they will be punished like Canaanites. That's the third section. But 
that principle of anathema, Paul pronounces that on gospel perverters. So before we roll our eyes and 
say, wow, that seems pretty harsh, Imagine what Paul is saying. 
Paul is saying, let them be damned to hell if they botch up justification 
by faith. Not because of ignorance, but 
because they want to distort the truth of the gospel. They 
are perverters. They are not fit to preach the 
truth. of the cross. If they botch it 
up, they should be damned to hell. Paul says, not only a human 
preacher, if we, he says, or an angel from heaven should preach 
something we didn't preach before, let him be anathema. So you see, 
the principle holds true. When you mess up the truth, there 
are ramifications. That's the whole thrust of James 
3.1. Let not many of you become teachers. Why? We shall receive 
a stricter judgment. Not to say that the people who 
follow don't go to hell, but the blind leading the blind, 
according to James, receives a stricter judgment. We see that 
here in this particular instance. So what we find here is the punishment 
of the evildoer. And I think that what he is doing 
as well is highlighting the gravity of the crime when he says, because 
he has spoken in order to turn you out or to turn you away from 
the Lord your God, notice, who brought you out of the land of 
Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage. They're seeking 
to entice you to apostatize from the covenant Lord and Redeemer. 
They want you to turn your back on the very God who brought you 
out of Egypt. They want you to turn your back 
on the Lord of heaven and earth who has purchased you, who has 
brought you into this situation, and it is therefore godless and 
wretched. In fact, Craigie says the false 
prophet was calling for faithlessness from a people redeemed by a God 
of faithfulness. calling for faithlessness when 
they should have been a people of faithfulness. He says he was 
calling for ingratitude from a people who should know only 
gratitude to God who brought them from the house of slavery. So we see in this penalty there's 
punishment for the evildoer, but as well there's a preservation 
for society. Notice at the end of verse five. 
So you shall put away the evil from your midst. Why? so that 
you don't get consigned to destruction, so that you are not excluded. 
Go back for just a moment to chapter 11 and verse 28. not known. So this preservation 
is seen simply in this. Either the false prophet dies 
and comes under the ban and comes under the curse or the whole 
nation dies, comes under the ban and comes under the curse. Those are your options. Purge 
the evil. Get the evil away from your midst. Yea, for the punishment of the 
evildoer and for the preservation of society as a whole. So that's the temptation from 
the false prophets. Notice, secondly, the temptation 
from family and friends. This one's even probably more 
difficult, isn't it? this is a little bit more difficult. It's not the brazen false prophet 
who does the signs and the wonders and says, all right, can I get 
a hallelujah for Baal. It's not sort of this public 
expression. It's the private mutterings from 
those whom you love the most, right? Notice the language in 
verse six. If your brother the son of your 
mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom. Notice how this hits home, right? Notice what is going on here. 
The nearness of the relation compounds the difficulty of the 
temptation. You might be able to look at 
that false prophet and say, I know I shouldn't go after Baal. This 
guy's a nut. But when your wife is nudging 
you in the bed saying, our neighbor's over there, they prayed to Baal 
and it rained. Did you notice that? Did you 
notice that Bale seems to respond and he seems to answer? Did you 
notice they got a new car? Did you notice they got new lawn 
gnomes and they've dressed up their home and everything is 
nice and he's kept his job? Have you noticed how Bale is 
responding, honey? This is the temptation. The nearness 
of it compounds the difficulty. The nearness of the relation 
makes difficult as well the necessity to report the violation. You see, they secretly nudge 
you. It's your brother, it's your 
son, it's your daughter, it's your wife, and they're nudging 
you saying, wink, wink, let us go to the Baal worship, let us 
go see what's going on with Moloch, let us go see what's going on 
with Asherah. Well, the tendency is there not 
to report them, right? We don't want to turn them over. 
That's Orwellian, isn't it? That's communistic. As I read 
through this, it really showed me how communism tries to take 
the place of God. You see, God is the Supreme Lord. 
God does demand and God does deserve universal obedience and 
fidelity. The civil state does not. When 
the civil state urges people to conduct themselves like this, 
they are intruding upon sacred ground. But we are dealing with 
God's theocracy with the covenant people of Israel. Notice, he 
says, if your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your 
daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your 
own soul, your bosom buddy, Your best friend, he comes over and 
he says, you know, I was over at the Joneses and they got some 
blessings from Bale. I'm not going to lie to you, 
that's tempting. What are you supposed to do when 
your buddy comes over and he says that? Notice, they secretly 
entice you saying, let us go and serve other gods, which you 
have not known, neither you nor your fathers. Now, not known 
there doesn't mean they had no clue. It means they weren't in 
covenant relationship with them the way they were with Yahweh 
of Israel. Of course they knew. that there 
was Baal, that there was Moloch, that there was Asherah. Of course 
they knew these false gods were rivals in the land to Yahweh, 
but this is the nature of the enticement. Let us go and serve 
other gods which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, 
of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you 
or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other 
end of the earth. Notice the prohibition, notice 
the response, notice what you are to do. So the scenario, again, 
somebody very near and dear to your heart, somebody very close 
to you, could be your own wife, some sort of pillow talk, and 
she suggests that we follow after Baal or Moloch. Here's the response 
given by God through his servant. Verse 8, you shall not consent 
to him. You shall not listen to him, 
nor shall your eye pity him. Don't let sentiment, don't let 
filial bind, don't let love color your duty and responsibility. Now again, for us, in our context, 
it seems a little bit much. As we trace through, though, 
I think you're going to see what's going on here. Notice, you shall 
not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity 
him. In other words, you must deal 
radically with such rebellion against God and with an attack, 
ultimately, on your own soul. Somebody gets those things into 
you. They suggest those things time 
and time again. What is the tendency of the temptation? It's to let your guard down. 
You know, my buddy can't be wrong. I mean, he's such a great guy, 
right? He's right. The Joneses did get a new car. 
Maybe their religion works. You see, we get pragmatic. We 
get this idea that our religion is supposed to provide for us 
rather than we're supposed to provide worship and obedience 
and seeking after the Lord. You know, we get it all turned 
around. God is there to serve us. Well, notice the emphasis 
of verse 4. We're here to serve Him. You see, all manner of wickedness 
comes when we invert that order, when we plot man in the center 
of the Bible instead of God, we end up in big, big, big, big, 
big trouble. So I always say, the best thing 
to do if you have questions about Christianity, read the Bible. 
You read the Bible and the Spirit blesses, you're going to learn 
something. God is most important and I'm not. And that's the fundamental 
place where every one of us needs to be, is to realize that God 
is most important and not us. But notice here, specifically 
in verses 9 to 11, the penalty is given. So you're not supposed 
to listen, you're not supposed to consent, you're not supposed 
to listen, you're not supposed to pity him. Rather, in verse 
9, you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be first against 
him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the 
people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because 
he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God," here 
it is again, "...who brought you out of the land of Egypt 
from the house of bondage." Just so you don't get this idea 
that when they're lying there with their pillow talk and Honey 
suggests that we go to the bail service, he takes out his dagger 
and puts it into her gut. Verses 9 and 10 speak of legal 
procedure. Verses 9 and 10 is the language 
of judicial process. Verses 9 and 10 are in place 
to make sure that a marital spat doesn't go south. Right? Honey burned dinner. Well, I'm 
going to fix you. You walk out into the neighborhood 
or you gutter and then you say, she solicited me to apostasy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There 
is due course. There is legal procedure. That 
language in verse 9 is the language that will be detailed later in 
chapter 17 and chapter 19. The laws of civil court. There is hearing, there is evidence, 
there is testimony, there is then a procedure for the execution 
of the death penalty. That language of verse 9. Your 
hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterward 
the hand of all the people. You see, this did not mean that 
a woman who was upset with her husband could stab him and then 
say, oh, he wanted me to go worship. Bail. There was due process built 
into the system. And we'll see that when we get 
to the third example in just a moment. I think the tendency 
is for Christians to jump into this section and go, wow, do 
we keep a knife under our pillow in case our wife or our husband 
suggests such a thing and we kill them? just like so? No, 
there's due process, there's legal procedure, there is a judicial 
law that had to be followed and verses 9 and 10 stipulate that. You shall surely kill him, your 
hand shall be first against him to put him to death and afterward 
the hand of all the people you shall stone him with stones until 
he dies because he sought to entice you away from the Lord 
your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the 
house of bondage." Craigie explains something of this judicial procedure. He says, the person who reported 
the crime would cast the first stone against the accused person. 
Then the rest of the community would join him in stoning the 
offender. The procedure of execution is 
significant. By casting the first stone, the 
person reporting the crime took responsibility for the execution. That will be outlined later in 
Deuteronomy 19 as well. If I allege something against 
Dodd, and we go before the judges, and the judges determine that 
Dodd is innocent, then whatever the penalty was is inflicted 
on me. It reduces a suit-happy society. It makes people think twice. 
It makes people really consider It makes people stop and ponder 
their actions. You see, in a society structured 
the way this one was, there were safeguards built in. Now, this 
isn't to suggest that somebody might have actually got stone 
that maybe shouldn't have. But if it was found out, the 
one guilty was ultimately punished likewise. So you knowing that, 
you would be a lot more cautious to present your case to the magistrate 
if you knew, if I allege that Dodd was guilty of a capital 
offense, but if the judges hear it and determine that I'm wrong, 
and they determine that this was false, then whatever that 
or that capital punishment would be inflicted on me. So it wasn't 
the scenario where your wife says, bail, and you shove a knife 
into her, or where your wife has irritated you to the point 
where you pushed her out of the car, and then you said, you know, 
I had to do it because she wanted to listen to the Praise 106, 
and they were worshiping bail. I don't mean that legitimately. 
I'm not suggesting Praise 106 actually worships bail. But you 
see the point. It wasn't a means by which you 
could get rid of a son that you didn't like, a daughter that 
wasn't pleasing, a husband that was a deadbeat. Oh well, I'll 
just take care of him and then I'll say he was soliciting me 
to apostasy. No, there were safeguards built 
in, the language of legal procedure is given here, and then the end 
result, or rather the desired effect of verse 11. so all Israel 
shall hear and fear and not again do such wickedness as this among 
you." Now, remember as well, they're being told at the outset. It's not as if the thought police, 
it's not as if men in big boots are knocking on doors and saying, 
we want to punish you. They were given the law. They 
were told. They knew not to entice people 
to bail worship. They knew not to suggest, let's 
go to Moloch services tonight. This law was given and they were 
supposed to hear and fear and not again do such wickedness 
as this among you. Now notice the third example. 
the temptation from these urban revolutionaries. Meredith Klein 
said, if the stipulations of the preceding verses, the one 
dealing with false prophets, the one dealing with the family, 
if the stipulations of the preceding verses were not vigorously carried 
out, the rebellion would increase. You see, it's growing here. The 
third scenario follows logically from scenarios one and two if 
they're not dealt with. You see, a little leaven leavens 
the whole lump. A little bit of gangrene makes 
the whole limb affected. One slug in the salad makes you 
lose your appetite. And that's what's going on here. 
He says the rebellion would increase from individual to community 
proportions. and a situation requiring the 
yet more difficult decision and action prescribed here. So you see, if you don't deal 
with it at the level of the false prophet, you don't deal with 
it at the level of the family, you're going to have to wage 
war on a city-state in the nation itself. all Israel had better 
hear and fear. God does not take lightly the 
treatment of the first and the second commandment. God does 
not take things lightly that seduce the covenant people away 
from him. If you hear someone in one of 
your cities which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in saying, 
again, the undercurrent throughout is God's gracious promise. God's 
given you these cities to dwell in. God has given you this promised 
land. God has given you Canaan. And 
yet what has happened? One of the cities has betrayed 
that grace and they have fallen into this act of revolution against 
the living and true God. Notice the specific offense. 
Corrupt men. This is the sons of Belial that 
you read about a lot in the scriptures. This is the first instance of 
the sons of Belial. The corrupt men, the wicked men, 
the godless men, the evil men. Corrupt men have gone out from 
among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city. You see, they're 
marauding now. They're revolutionaries. They've 
got their false prophets, they've got their dreamers of dreams, 
they've got a few families, and now they want to propagate this 
so that the entire city is given over, not to Yahweh, not giving 
gratitude, praise, and glory to Him for having given them 
that parcel of land, but rather they're going to bow to Baal, 
they're going to bow to Asherah, they're going to bow to Molech. Let us go and serve other gods 
which you have not known, and now notice, Again, due process 
is built in. See, what's to prohibit City 
A from taking City B over because City B has a lot of money? They've 
managed their resources well. They've done a good job. Let's 
go take their stuff. Well, there's two safeguards 
built in. The first safeguard is verse 
14, you shall inquire. You shall search it out. You 
shall ask diligently. You don't wage war upon a city-state 
in Israel without due diligence. This isn't a willy-nilly decision. This isn't the White House saying, 
well, you know, we just thought. No, you don't just think. You 
carefully calculate. before you enter in to this particular, 
it's grave. This is huge. We don't want this 
to come to pass. This is not something you want 
in your body politic. You don't want city state A waging 
war against city state B. Do your due diligence. Search it out. Inquire. Ask questions. But the second safeguard is this. It's that harem principle. The 
city's placed under the ban. You're not allowed to take their 
wealth. You're not allowed to take their 
gold. You're not allowed to take their livestock. You're supposed 
to destroy everybody in the city. You're supposed to pile up the 
loot and you're supposed to set fire to it as a burnt offering 
to Yahweh. That really, now again, there's 
wicked city-states to be sure, but if city-state A knows they're 
not going to get anything from city-state B, it really sort 
of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? There's safeguards built 
in, brethren. This isn't some barbaric code 
of a bunch of marauding orgs just engaging in some Mad Max 
society that has no restraints. This is not lawlessness. This is lawfulness. So if the 
city-state is determined to have indeed engaged in this manner 
of apostasy, then you go in and execute them. You purge the evil 
from the land. You get rid of them. You get 
rid of all of the persons in the land. You get rid of all 
of the livestock, and you burn their property. Just like what 
you did in Jericho, you will do it in Israel. What's the implication? If Israel 
acts like Canaan, they're going to be judged by Canaan. Now never 
forget, brethren, God makes good on this. This is what we find 
in 722 and in 587 and 586 when Israel was expelled from the 
land. It was God bringing His wrath 
upon that people in this particular manner. Meredith Klein again 
says, by embracing the abomination of Canaan, the Israelite city 
would become an abomination. It would become like Canaanite 
Jericho and must share Jericho's cursed doom by fire and sword. That's the stipulation. urban 
revolutionaries are not meant to be met with this idea of pity, 
of consent, or that's okay, they're going to do their own thing in 
their city-state. No, you go in and you utterly 
destroy them, destroy their livestock, burn their property, offer it 
as a burnt offering to Jehovah. And then notice specifically 
in verses 18 and 19, 17 and 18. So none of the accursed 
things shall remain in your hand that the Lord may turn from the 
fierceness of his anger. It's a propitiatory sacrifice 
in this. It averts the wrath of God. By 
destroying that city, you preserve the whole. By destroying that 
apostasy, you preserve the faithful. Again, the principle holds true. You punish the one to save the 
rest. And then, verse 17, not only 
is God's wrath averted, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness 
of His anger and show you mercy. have compassion on you and multiply 
you just as he swore to your fathers because you have listened 
to the voice of the Lord your God to keep all his commandments 
which I command you today to do what is right in the eyes 
of the Lord your God. So you see these three temptations 
are not to be met with These three temptations are to be met 
with biblically. You are to engage the false prophet 
in this manner. Resist him. Do not be caught 
up with his tricks, with his signs, with his wonders. Resist 
him, reject him, turn him over to the authorities so that they 
may execute him. Same thing in the family, in 
the domestic sphere. Same thing with your wife, same 
thing with your kids. If they are soliciting to apostasy, 
if they are soliciting to idolatry, you go through due process, you 
go through the stipulation of the law to deal with the evil 
in the midst of Israel. And then with these urban revolutionaries, 
you investigate, you diligently seek it out, you realize you're 
not going to get any of the plunder, you're not going to get any of 
the booty, there's nothing in it in terms of gain for you. 
That's two safeguards put into place so that you will not enter 
into this lightly. But when the decision has been 
made, you go in, you destroy, you go in and you burn. That 
is how God says we are to honor the first and the second commandments. Now, in conclusion, the apparent, 
I call it the apparent severity of the penalties. Again, just 
reading through this, sometime, maybe not anyone here, because 
you're all really godly and really biblical, and you only think 
covenantally. But a lot of Christians get a 
little bit squeamish when they read Deuteronomy 13. Why would 
you teach on that at a Bible study? That's just crazy. Are 
you really advocating the death to false prophets, the death 
to family? death to city-states. I mean, 
really, is that where you're going? Well, again, I think we 
see some, you know, we have a different scenario now in terms of our 
civil polity. But with reference to ecclesiology, 
we're not to use the physical sword, but the same demands are 
present. The same demands are in place. 
The gospel perverter is anathematized. The family who stands between 
us and Jesus is to be Hate it, Luke 14, 26. Again, Jesus doesn't 
say go down to the local store and buy a gun and shoot them 
because, you know, they're standing between you and me. But he does 
say you need to hate them. There is not to be allegiance 
above God in your life. It's not supposed to be your 
wife, or your husband, or your children, or your job, or your 
car, or your summer home. and then Jesus. There is a priority 
structure involved in Christianity that is reflected here in Deuteronomy 
13 that has not been compromised. We are to seek first the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness. We are to put the Lord first 
above our wives, above our husbands, above our children. We're not 
to be family-centered. We're not to be husband-centered. 
We're not to be job-centered. We're to be Christocentric in 
everything that we do, in every way that we have our being. That 
is a consistent carryover covenantally. But I do want to speak to this 
issue of the apparent severity of the penalties. Craigie explains 
it, I think, beautifully. Just listen. It's a bit of a 
longer quote, but you need to understand there's more at stake 
here in chapter 13 than what I think at times, not again you 
guys, but some of those other Christians who get squeamish, 
they don't really appreciate what's going on here. He says, 
the legal penalties noted in this chapter may seem at first 
sight to be excessively harsh. But the reason for the severity 
lies in the nature of the crime. You see, this sin, idolatry, 
was also criminal. Not all sin is crime, necessarily. You might covet. Again, maybe 
none of you, because you're all really holy, and godly, and biblical. 
But that's a sin that God will deal with. But you don't expect 
the RCMP to, you're going to jail, because you covet it. Not 
all sin is crime. Not all crime is sin. If you 
were in Iran, and you preach the gospel, that would be a criminal 
act, or in Saudi Arabia, but it's not a sin. God's not mad 
at you when you preach the gospel. Do you see, in this context, 
idolatry is both sinful and criminal. He says, the continued existence 
of the covenant community depended literally upon allegiance to 
the Lord of the covenant. Thus the crime is considered 
not simply in light of the actions of the perpetrator, but in light 
of the effect of the crime on the welfare of the whole people 
of Israel. of all potential crimes in ancient 
Israel, the one described in this chapter was the most dangerous 
in terms of its broader ramifications. To attempt deliberately, now 
remember, that's what's going on. This wasn't your wife pounding 
her thumb with a hammer and she said, oh, bail. Not to justify 
that. But she is soliciting her man 
to follow bail. They are attempting to undermine 
allegiance to Yahweh. That's what's in view here. So 
listen. The one described in this chapter was the most dangerous 
in terms of its broader ramifications. To attempt deliberately to undermine 
allegiance to God was the worst form of subversive activity in 
that it eroded the constitutional basis of the potential nation, 
Israel. In its implications, the crime 
would be equivalent to treason or to espionage in time of war. It was an act of treason. You 
know, we don't have any problem with that today if somebody engages 
in treason against the Canadian government in a time of war. 
Right thinking Canadians would say he deserves to die. That 
was an act of him attempting to betray his entire country. That's what the false prophet 
and the family member in these urban revolutionaries are doing. They're betraying fidelity to 
God and thus sacrificing the entirety of the covenant community. So when we see these penalties 
before we go, wow, that's amazing, I'm so glad I didn't live in 
that particular time frame, realize that in the New Covenant, the 
same ideas are present, the same principles are there, the same 
level of love and fidelity and follow and service to God is 
all there. What is unique in terms of the 
Canadian government is they're not inflicting the death penalty 
on idolaters. In this scenario, they were. And the idolaters themselves 
knew it. The false prophet, the family 
member, and the revolutionaries knew what the penalty was for 
this subversive activity. So in that environment, when 
they engaged in a usurpation of God and His covenant, and 
they called men to break the first and the second commandment, 
The penalty fit the crime. It wasn't severe. It wasn't excessive. It wasn't harsh. It was legitimate. It was just. It was equitable. And God had built into the entire 
process safeguards so that we would not abuse the system by 
turning people over according to our whim or according to our 
fancy. This law, brethren, is calculated 
in such a way as to bring glory to God and bring benefit to the 
people. Not the opposite. It was calculated 
and structured in such a way that the people indeed were helped. uh... right one more comment 
and i mentioned luke fourteen twenty six of this read that 
again just get our minds focused on the reality that nothing's 
changed in terms of our response to god and our faithfulness to 
god and luke chapter fourteen and verse twenty six if anyone 
comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and 
children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he 
cannot be my disciple." Wright says, neither Jesus nor Deuteronomy 
were, by any stretch of imagination, anti-family. Jesus and Deuteronomy 
are not anti-family. They were both passionately anti-idolatry 
and recognized in the family one of the toughest and subtlest 
sources of hidden idolatry on which many a profession of loyalty 
to the kingdom of God has foundered. So between the covenants we see 
the self-same principles in terms of fidelity, obedience, and treating 
the first two commandments with every bit of respect, every bit 
of reverence, every bit of fear and obedience that they should 
have mustered up by the power of God in the Old Covenant. So 
that hasn't changed in terms of us and realize the church 
hasn't been given the sword. You say, why don't you punish 
idolaters in the church? The church has not been given 
the sword. Again, that's a discussion for 
another time, but I hope that you see these threats, these 
three temptations to apostasy, to idolatry, were not to be met 
with casually, In Israel, they were to be met with head-on and 
dealt with strictly, according to God's mind and God's will 
revealed in His holy law. Well, let us pray. Father, we 
thank You for this, Your Word. We thank You, Father, for what 
it teaches us concerning Your holiness, for what it teaches 
us concerning Your demand upon Your people. And we pray in this 
new covenant setting that we would take these things seriously, 
that we would see the importance of men speaking the truth properly 
if they are in positions of leadership, that we would see the necessity 
of seeking to bring the gospel, to bring the truth to bear in 
our families. and to call our wives and our husbands and our 
children to faithfulness in the Lord. And God, we pray that you 
would just keep from the land this widespread idolatry that 
we see each and every day, increasing and growing. Give us something 
of what Paul had in the book of Acts, in the place of Athens, 
when his spirit was provoked within him, when he saw the city 
given over to idols. We see your mind revealed here, 
God, how you despise it. May we likewise despise it. And 
we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.