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All right, you can turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. I'll read the chapter and then we'll take up the first half this evening, verses 1 to 11, but beginning in chapter 7 at verse 1. When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you, because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. And he repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

Therefore, you shall keep the commandments, the statutes and the judgments which I command you today to observe them. Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flock, and the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.

"'You shall be blessed above all peoples. "'There shall not be male or female barren among you "'or among your livestock. "'And the Lord will take away from you all sickness "'and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases "'of Egypt which you have known, "'but will lay them on all those who hate you.

"'Also you shall destroy all the peoples "'whom the Lord your God delivers over to you. "'Your eyes shall have no pity on them, "'nor shall you serve their gods, "'for that will be a snare to you. if you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?

You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little.

You will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. but the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And he will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire.

You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing.

Amen. Well, as we are in the largest exhortation given by Moses on the plains of Moab, we see now the policy concerning the conquest of the land. This has been given already in Exodus chapter 23, but it's amplified and developed and and given more detail here in Deuteronomy chapter 7. It makes perfect sense. The flow of this particular exhortation from chapters 5 to 28 is an exhortation to covenant loyalty. Foundational to that is the Ten Commandments that you see in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Deuteronomy 6 deals with a way to receive those commandments or to respond to that one true and living God with love. with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and we are to pass these things on diligently to our children. We're to be a people consumed by the word of God.

Chapter 6 then continues with reference to some particular dangers that may face the children of Israel. as they enter into the promised land, the danger of forgetting God due to affluence. In other words, they're going to receive a lot of things they didn't work for, and the tendency or temptation might be to forget God. The second danger is the danger of abandoning God because of idolatry, or forsaking God because of idolatry. They're going into a land that is filled with false gods, with deities, with false deities, and they can be tempted to be drawn away after them. And then the third danger in chapter 6 is the danger of doubting God because of hardship. In other words, there's going to be difficulty, there's going to be trials, there's going to be things to deal with when they get into the promised land. And so chapter 6 is taken up with giving them those warnings and then encouraging them on how to succeed. They are to hide God's word in their heart, they are to pass it on to their children. So now in Deuteronomy 7, we get into that policy of holy war specifically.

So we'll look at the conquest of the Canaanites in verses 1 to 5. And then secondly, we'll take up the distinction from the Canaanites in verses 6 to 11. In other words, what separates Israel from the Canaanites? Why is Israel receiving these blessings of God and the Canaanites are being dispossessed from their land and or destroyed by the Israelites? So note first with reference to the conquest of the Canaanites, we have a reminder of God's faithfulness in verse 1.

In fact, all throughout Deuteronomy, all throughout the Pentateuch, after the original giving of the promise by God to Abraham, that Abraham would inherit the promised land. We see that promise carried on and on and on throughout the Pentateuch and certainly here in Deuteronomy when Moses is exhorting the people about entry into the land and conquest of the land, it's good to remind them concerning God's faithfulness. So in verse 1, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess. There's never been a question concerning entrance into the land.

Now, the children of Israel certainly struggled with that. We remember in the book of Numbers, they were told to go and spy out the land. Moses separates 12 spies. He sends them into the land. Two of the 12 are faithful spies, and they report that the land is good and that we are able to go up at once and take the land. But the other 10 spies were whiners and grumblers and complainers.

They said, no, the land is filled with with giants. The land is a land that actually destroys its inhabitants. So they evidence that lack of faith in the living God. In fact, Numbers 13 starts off with a reminder of God's promise to Israel. So they're acting contrary to the promise of God And so all of these promises are given to fortify their faith with reference to the living and true God. So when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess. It's been tough sledding to get to this point on the plains of Moab. If you were here during our study in the book of Numbers, you'll remember that.

In fact, the first generation died. The first generation is not going to enter the promised land. This is the second generation, the second giving of the law. It's not a new law. It's the same law, but it's a different audience. It's the children and their children's children. from that first generation who did not enter in because of unbelief. So it was a long haul to get to this particular point, but again, the promise of God has never wavered. When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess. Notice then the author identifies the enemy.

He says in verse 1, the cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. When you compare other passages, you'll see that sometimes not all these seven cities are named. I think the name or the number seven probably refers to the completeness, the totality, the reality that all of the inhabitants of the land are going to be dealt with by God. Now, as I've said many times, Joshua portrays a favorable view of the conquest, Judges, not so favorable.

Subsequent to Judges, the people of Israel decline, they apostatize, they forsake God, they end up being like the very Canaanites that they were told to dispossess from the land. And so what God says here is that all the enemies in this land are going to be subject to this conquest. Again, Israel is not going to act faithfully upon that, but that's not reflective of God's faithfulness and God's goodness to them. And then notice in terms of the policy itself concerning holy war. It says specifically at verse 2, And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

Now the particular word that is used in verse 2 means to devote to the ban. The verb means to devote to the ban or to dedicate to destruction. And the noun that's used here refers to what is dedicated to destruction or placed under a curse. In fact, if you look at the end of Deuteronomy 6, verse 26, Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it.

You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing. This idea of doomed to destruction. The New Testament picks up this particular verb or word or noun rather in various places in the Apostle Paul. You've probably heard that word.

It's anathema. and anathema means devoted to destruction, anathema means to be accursed, anathema means to be separated to destruction. You see it in Romans chapter 9 in verses 1 to 5 the Apostle Paul lamenting the spiritual condition and state of ethnic Israelites is saying if it were possible I would want to be anathema from God for the sake of my countrymen. In 1 Corinthians 12 he says nobody by the spirit curses Jesus, nobody anathematizes Jesus by the spirit. In 1 Corinthians 16 at verse 22 Paul says if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema, Let him be devoted to destruction. Let him be utterly destroyed. Again, this idea that imprecations are only contained in the Psalms of David is simply untrue. Paul says, if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned to hell in 1 Corinthians 16,

22. And then Paul uses it again in Galatians 1 at verses 8 and 9. If we or an angel out of heaven preaches another gospel to you, let him be anathema. Let him be devoted to destruction. let him be utterly destroyed, let him be cast aside into everlasting perdition. So it's a strong word and that's what Israel is being commanded here. When the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

That's the specific demand by God on the people of Israel when it comes to holy war. They're not to go in and engage in niceties. They're not to go in and politely ask them to leave. No, they're supposed to utterly destroy them. Harmon says, following the proclamation of one God in the previous chapter, the position of one people of God is now emphasized. These verses set out the policy of destruction of the Canaanites and the placing of the curse or ban on them. they were to implement a policy of holy war, or to use a term employed later in biblical history, they were to engage in battles of the Lord. So again, God has promised them the land. But God did not say the Hivites, the Girgashites, the Jebusites, the Canaanites, and the Amorites are going to say, come on in. take our vineyards, take our cities, take our houses, take these wells that we did back-breaking labor in order to produce, you go ahead and have all that and we're going to just leave this land.

That's not how it's going to be. They're going to have to go in and utterly destroy. That's why in various instances through the book of Numbers, while they're wandering through the wilderness there were various skirmishes, there were various battles, that was to train an otherwise agrarian people that ended up for 400 years in slavery in Egypt, that had not known the savvy of warfare, they got some experience in the wilderness. They're going to need that experience when under Joshua they go into the promised land and they are told to utterly destroy everybody there.

Meredith Klein says, the hour of divine judgment having now come, Moses charged Israel with the execution of that program. Every body and every thing in Canaan, which was consecrated to idols rather than to the service of God, must be consecrated to the wrath of God.

Now, if you've ever done any witnessing or testifying or evangelizing or apologetics, perhaps you've met with that objection from people. Well, how in the world could God, if He's good and if He's loving, command the genocide of the Canaanites in Canaan? That's a pretty consistent objection to our religion. Pretty consistent objection to the Bible.

This God, at His behest, the children of Israel were commanded to go into this land, a land that God had given them, and they are told to utterly dispossess the land? They are told to destroy every inhabitant in there? Sounds a lot like genocide. Well, as I reminded all of us last week, it's not the case. that Israel was righteous.

We're going to see that a little bit later in our study tonight, but it was that the Canaanites were absolutely positively wretched. And so in Leviticus chapter 18, in fact, let's turn there because you might meet with this objection concerning genocide of an innocent people. These were not innocent people, they were godless, idolaters, they engaged in gross immorality, and in the context of Leviticus 18, gross sexual immorality. So notice in Leviticus 18, 24, Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.

For the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you. For all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled. Lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Now, brothers and sisters, if you're conscious of the Old Testament, Israel is given this mandate with reference to these various ites in the land of Canaan. As I said, they go in under Joshua, they do a noble job.

At the time of the judges, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. God gave judges in sort of a monarchy fashion. They functioned as kings. They weren't judges that wore black robes and had a gavel and they said, you know, not guilty or guilty off with you to 20 years of prison. No, they were judges that functioned as saviors. They were typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they functioned to defend the nation from foreign oppression.

But then there's this decline. And what happens when they ate the conduct of the Canaanites? The land vomits them out. So the first thing that I would say if somebody said, well, that doesn't seem right, that God commanded genocide of these innocent people. They weren't innocent. They were vile, they were wretched, and they were wicked. Secondly, when Israel degraded themselves and became vile and wretched and wicked, they received the same punishment. So God's judgment is not arbitrary, and it's not capricious.

And then I would suggest, thirdly, that if we've got a problem with what's called harem, that's the Hebrew word that is equivalent to anathema, or if we have a problem with the anathema principle, our problem is bigger than the conquest of Canaan. Our problem is with the very policy of God Almighty. And again, I want to quote Meredith Klein. He says, Many have found a stumbling block in this command to exterminate the Canaanites, as though it represented a sub-Christian ethic. Actually, the offense taken is taken at the theology and religion of the Bible as a whole.

The New Testament, too, warns men of the realm of the everlasting ban, where the reprobate devoted to wrath must magnify the justice of God, whom they have hated. The judgments of hell are the harem principle come to full and final manifestation. So again, the unbeliever who objects to the goodness or the love or the mercy or the kindness of God on the basis of the genocide of the Canaanites is completely out of his element. God acts in justice.

God acts in terms of wrath with reference to those who hate him. The Canaanites hated him, so he raised up the Israelites to be that means of divine punishment on the nations of the Canaanites. And then once Israel takes on the characteristics of the Canaanites, he raises up Assyria, they decimate the northern kingdom, and then he raises up the Babylonians, and they destroy the southern kingdom. And then at the time of our Lord Jesus, He prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, which is actually what happened when the Roman army surrounded the city and destroyed it. So God promised them what would happen to them in Deuteronomy 28 should they imitate the conduct of the Canaanites. It's not genocide against an innocent people. It's God's covenantal faithfulness in terms of promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the fruition and fulfillment of that to Old Covenant Israel at this particular point.

Now, with reference to the policy concerning holy war, you not only have the command to conquer in verse 2a, but then the prohibition to covenanting with them in verses 2b to 5. Notice in 2b. It says, you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.

That's most likely because the next one deals with social alliances. The final one deals with religious alliances. So I take 2B as a prohibition against political alliances. In other words, you don't go to the Girgashites or to the Jebusites or to the Hivites or to the Hittites. You don't say, hey, let's do community together. Let's orchestrate this country together. Let's engage in politics together.

And I think the obvious issue is simple. Israel was a theocracy under the living and true God. Israel was a theocracy under the living and true God. Compromise with pagans meant compromise with pagan deities, which would be political revolution. And so you can't effectively administer a kingdom, a nation, a body politic when there's a division in terms of alliances. So, an old covenant, theocratic nation ruled specifically and directly by God is not to enter into political alliances with the Hibbites and the Girgashites. I just love saying Girgashites, so indulge me, or the Jebusites, you're not supposed to do that.

That's part of the prohibition. Notice secondly the prohibition in terms of social alliance. Verse 3. So with reference to the prohibition of marriage, I want to take just a moment to address something that I mentioned on Sunday night, and then to add another element with reference to this particular passage.

So in verse 3, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. So the prohibition against social alliance, the prohibition against marriage, from an Israelite, Old Covenant, theocratic citizen to a Girgashite. You're not supposed to do that. Again, rival alliances, rival ultimates, rival deities, you're not supposed to do that.

And the reason is very simple in verse 4, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So something that I mentioned on Sunday night with reference to the doctrine of separation. Remember in Philippians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9 I suggested with some of the older commentators that what Paul is doing there is telling the Philippians that they are in a pagan environment, they are in a pagan culture, and they're to meditate upon the things that are true, the things that are lovely, the things that are pure, and they might find common ground even with pagans around them. Why? Because the pagans around them are made in the image of God, they are privy to general revelation, they have some vestiges in their hearts of the law of God written there.

They're not upright, they're not Trinitarian, they're not justified by God through faith in Jesus. But you don't have to separate. You don't have to go live on a mountain. You don't have to withdraw yourself from Philippi in order to be faithful. There are those who have taught a doctrine of separation that is not biblical. And again, I'm going to add to this in just a moment, so please stay with me. This doctrine of separation that is not biblical. In other words, let's go up to Mount Sham and build a commune, and just the members of the Free Grace Baptist Church will live together.

Again, I argue it wouldn't work. I just don't have that much confidence. I'm not the easiest guy to get along with. Just ask my bride. I'd drive you all nuts in pretty short span, I'm sure. But that's not the mandate for the people of God. If you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, I mentioned on Sunday night that Paul does not call for separation even within the most intimate alliances that people have.

Now mind you, this is dealing with an already contracted marriage. This is dealing with a believer or two unbelievers, one of the persons gets converted and then Paul has to deal with that particular issue. So everybody on board, two unbelievers, they get married. and in the midst of their marriage one gets converted and the other does not. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 10 to 16 is dealing with that particular issue. Verse 10, Now to the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord. A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband, and a husband is not to divorce his wife. But to the rest I, not the Lord, say...

Now the reason he says this is because Jesus in his earthly ministry did not address this question specifically. He's not saying that he has less authority than Jesus. He's not saying that, you know, I'm just giving it my best shot here. No, he's dealing with the subject of mixed marriages. Again, converted with an unconverted in an already contracted marriage. So that's the issue he's taking up.

If any brother has a wife who does not believe and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. So in the most intimate social alliance in an already contracted marriage, Paul does not say separate from her and get away. Go live up in that commune on Mount Cham and get away from that filth.

That's not what he says, and that's not what he counsels. The doctrine of separation, as preached in some places, would have us all commies, but in a different sort of a format. And that's not a biblical concept. That is not a righteous concept. Separate. When you're with somebody and they're gonna rob a bank, yes, separate. Well, you gotta hang out with... No, you're gonna go to prison. Separate from somebody who's smoking methamphetamine. You don't hang out with them.

But this idea that the Philippians had to leave Philippi and transpose themselves to another place because they couldn't be infected by the paganism there, that's not Paul's counsel. So that's what's happening there. And then if you look back for just a moment at 1 Corinthians chapter 5, again, this idea of separation wholly And completely, and finally, is not biblical. 1 Corinthians 5, 9, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet, I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

Do you get his argument? You live in a world filled with sinners. You're supposed to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and you're supposed to hold forth the word of truth in the hopes that God most high, through the power of the Holy Spirit, effectually calls those sinners out of darkness into marvelous light. If all the Christians left and we inhabited islands while all the pagans just destroyed themselves, the missionary enterprise wouldn't be very successful.

Paul says, I didn't mean for you to leave, because then you'd have to leave the world. Notice he hones in, verse 11, but now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a violer or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person. It's a different category. When somebody professes faith in Christ and is in a known pattern of unrepentant sin, yeah, you're not supposed to have fellowship with him.

He's supposed to feel the effects of his sinfulness and hopefully be brought to repentance. Everybody get that? I think it's so obvious, but for some reason, it's missed at times. After that sermon, Phil Hutchings sent me a bit from an epistle to Dionysus. I had read this before. It was nice that he sent it, because it spurred my memory. So in chapter 5 of the epistle to Dionysus, this is the manner of Christians. I just think this is very important. probably written in A.D. 150 to 170, so pretty early on at the time of the Christian church. So this is the manner of Christians.

For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men. Nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. but inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct. They display to us their wonderful and confessively striking method of life.

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others. They beget children, but they do not destroy their offspring. Interesting, they're marked off by not destroying their offspring. What characterized the pagans? They destroyed their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death and restored to life.

They are poor, yet make many rich. They are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all. They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified. They are reviled and blessed. They are insulted, and repay the insult with honor. They do good, yet they are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life. They are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks. Yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

That's pretty encouraging, isn't it? They didn't have, you know, you have to wear a sweatshirt that says FGBC. You can only go to these Christian authorized places. That wasn't how it is in the history of the church. Separation from people in sin that may be a contagion to you by all means, but commie living on top of Mount Sham?

You know, private property is so not condemned in the scripture. In fact, there's a commandment given by God to protect private property. It's the eighth commandment, right? You shall not steal. Doesn't that authorize the ownership of private property? Does it not authorize the ability to keep your private property?

You don't dump it all into the communal tray and say, OK, every man to himself. So the doctrine of separation is, you know, crucial at the immediate contagion level, but not at the, if I'm in Philippi and I'm a believer, I got to take all my brothers out of the church and we go to go find a new place, get a new outfit, do different customs and completely, you know, disengage from the world around us.

No, I didn't mean the sexually immoral in the world. I didn't mean the drunkards in the world because then you'd have to leave the world. You'd have to fly to the moon. You'd have to go to Saturn. You'd have to go somewhere else to actually engage in that level of separation.

Now, having said all that, the doctrine of prohibition. The Apostle Paul does demand on the front end that believer marry believer. That's absolutely crucial. In 1 Corinthians 7 at verse 39, when he deals with the woman whose husband dies, he says she's free to remarry, but he gives a very important qualification, only in the Lord. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, you've got that prohibition against unequally yoked. And I don't know that marriage is the first priority in that particular context, but it's certainly an implication, or at least a third or fourth level application of an unequal yoke.

When on the front end, you listen to the Apostle Paul, he tells you, if you're a believer, do not marry an unbeliever. Now, if you're already in a marriage and you've been converted and he says that the unconverted wife is willing or the unconverted husband is willing to stay with you, then fine. You don't have to dissolve that. You don't have to engage in dissolution or divorce. It's why he says the children are holy in 1 Corinthians 7,

14. Again, not therefore bring them to the font and have them sprinkled. No, they're holy in the sense of being legitimate. They're not bastards. They're not illegitimate. They're not outside of God's saving mercy or power or grace. They haven't become unclean things because one of the persons in that marriage got converted. So we need to remember separation, yeah, from immediate acts of sin that can provide a contagion for us, but not from society, not a retreat mentality, not uniforms, and not communal living, and all those sorts of things. That doesn't mean if your brother and your sister and your parents say, let's buy a piece of property and live on that. Go ahead. I'm not condemning that. There's good financial motivations as well to take into consideration. But the idea that we have to so separate from the world because that's what the Bible teaches No, it doesn't teach that. In fact, I'd argue it teaches just the opposite.

And so again, the specific reason for the prohibition against social alliances is found very clearly in verse 4. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods, so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 13. Deuteronomy chapter 13, what you're dealing with in Deuteronomy 13, or what we'll get to, God willing, in about eight years is, no, it won't be that long, is solicitation to apostasy. Solicitation to apostasy, it may come from a false prophet, it may come from your family, it may come from a neighboring city. Those are the categories that I almost said Paul is dealing with here in Deuteronomy 13, but it's actually Moses.

So you've got temptation from false prophets in verses 1 to 5. You've got temptation from family and friends in verses 6 to 11. And then you've got temptation from public apostates or revolutionaries basically in verses 12 to 18. But look at verse 6.

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.

So God recognizes that sometimes a solicitation to apostasy can come from the most closest of alliances. Now turn to 1 Kings 11, where you see this unfortunately displayed in Solomon. 1 Kings 11. Verse 1, But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh. Women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.

Verse 4 is terrifying. I'm sure you're all familiar with Paul's language to Timothy, flee youthful lusts. And we oftentimes associate lust with youthfulness. Probably Paul has in mind, among other lusts, sexual lust. When he says that, I think it's 2 Timothy 2.22. But notice verse four.

For it was so when Solomon was old. You're never safe. I'm not trying to be the harbinger of bad things here, but you're never safe. Every moment of every day on this earth, we need to stand fast. For it was so when Solomon was old. He wasn't a young man who just came into the kingship. He wasn't a young man that was just new, cutting his teeth, marrying women to build up political alliance. That's not it. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

That's a terrifying passage, and it really does illustrate specifically what God is cautioning Israel against in the policy concerning holy war with reference to social alliances, verses 3 and 4. couldn't be clearer, do not intermarry with the pagans. Because if you intermarry with the pagans, it won't be long before you leave the bedroom and you go to her or his shrine. It won't be long before you start singing praises to Baal, singing praises to Asherah, singing praises to Moloch, because you have let your heart be led astray. So that's why God through Moses in Deuteronomy 7 in terms of holy war commands them no political alliances, no social alliances, and of course no religious alliances, verse 5.

But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. Yes, to punish. Yes, to utterly destroy. But yes, also to rid themselves of the temptation. Again, if we didn't have the rest of the Old Testament, but we do.

And we know how often the children of Israel fell into idolatry. Even after Elijah on Mount Carmel and the God contest, Yahweh versus Baal. You would think that would have sealed the fate of Baal worship forever in Old Covenant Israel. It didn't. I mean, if you were there and you saw, hopefully it would have cured you of any Baal worship. But hopefully you would have passed that down. We saw Yahweh get major victory on Carmel. You'd like to think that that would have circulated amongst the people who gave themselves over to Baal, especially Israelites in the theocratic nation of Old Covenant Israel. But Israelites continued in Baal worship even after that.

So yeah, it may sound like a vindictive, punishing, retributive thing, and it is, I'm not going to lie to you, but it's also preventative maintenance. Get rid of those things, because if you don't get rid of them, you're going to be bowing down to them.

God knows people better than people. It's not the case that our holiness is the contagion toward others. It's usually the case that other people's unholiness is the contagion to us. We're not that godly. What does James say? Keep oneself unspotted from the world. Not go spread your spotlessness to every slob out there and make them holy even as you are holy. No. Brethren, we're always prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love.

And so when he tells them to destroy their altars, to break their pillars, to cut down their images, and burn their carved images with fire, yup, it's part of the utter destruction, it's part of the anathema, it's part of the harem, it's part of that policy of judgment upon the godless Canaanites, but it's also preventative maintenance for the going-to-be-godless Israelites that are going to be bowing and praising Baal from whom all blessings flow. Harmon again says, when Israel came into Canaan, the people would immediately be confronted with the whole apparatus of cult worship.

The Canaanites had their places of sacrifice in sacred stones, standing stone pillars that somehow represented a deity. They also had wooden poles which symbolized the fertility goddess Asherah. Out of wood and stone they cut idols of their gods. All these were the outward expression of Canaanite religious belief. Israel had one God, one Lord, who was not to be depicted in any way by idols.

In accordance with the instruction in the Book of the Covenant, Exodus 23-24, these cold objects were to be broken down, smashed, cut down, and burnt, respectively. To leave them where they were would provide constant temptation to the Israelites. So yeah, when somebody says, that's not right, they go in and they, you know, mess with their religious things. Yeah, it is right, because those are competitors to the living and true God.

So God says, smash that. But it's also right, because God loved Israel, and he didn't want them bowing to Asherah. He didn't want them bowing to Baal. He didn't want them sacrificing their children to Moloch. That was preventative maintenance. And then notice, I don't want to shove this in but we'll go ahead and shove it in.

Notice the distinction from the Canaanites in verses 6 to 11. What made them different or why on the one hand is God saying go in and utterly dispossess these peoples from their land they built. What's so special about Old Covenant Israel? What's so good about this people? Well, no, the identification of Old Covenant Israel in verse 6. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. So, the Old Covenant people are described in this language. Holy people to the Lord your God, chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

This is Exodus 19, 5 and 6. This is repeated in Deuteronomy 14, 2. This is repeated in Deuteronomy 26,

18. Intriguingly, you know who gets that title in the New Covenant? the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, why is that? Because Jesus is the true vine, John 15,

1. The vine there representing Old Covenant Israel. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, Israel is referred to as a vine. They're called God's vineyard in Isaiah chapter 5. Jesus picks up that same parable in Matthew chapter 21, the parable of the vineyard, the vine dresser and the vineyard. And so Jesus is the true vine. Jesus is the true Israel of God. The church, by virtue of their union with Him in the New Covenant, are identified as the Israel of God.

They are called as much in Galatians 6.16. They are called as much in Philippians chapter 3. We are the true circumcision. Romans chapter 2, he's not a Jew who's outwardly circumcised, but he's a Jew who's inwardly circumcised. In terms of ethnic Jews, Romans 9, not all Israel's Israel.

What about those unbelieving Jews at the time of Jesus? Abraham's our father. What did Jesus say? Oh, well, you know, that's great. No, if Abraham was your father, you wouldn't be trying to kill me. and you're trying to kill me ergo you're not sons of Abraham. Who's the sons of Abraham? We heard an exposition of that recently in Galatians chapter 3. Who's the sons of Abraham?

Those who by grace believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The very language used here is used specifically by Peter in 1st Peter chapter 2 at verse 9 concerning the new covenant church. Revelation chapter 1 verse 6, these things are predicated of the true people of God. And so, Old Covenant Israel is marked out by God.

Notice, not because they were more numerous, verse 7, the Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. It wasn't because you were the most numerous that God set His love upon you. Look at chapter 9 in the book of Deuteronomy. They also weren't chosen because they were more righteous.

Deuteronomy 9 verse 4, Do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that he may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore, understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. How many more times can he say it in the space of a few verses? It's not your righteousness. It's not your righteousness. It's not your righteousness. It's not your numerousness. It's not because you outnumber Girgashites. No, it's sovereign grace.

And the reason for their election is just that, God's grace. Just like in the New Covenant, just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame. Not because we were holy and without blame, but that we might become holy and without blame. In love, having predestined us unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. You see, it's sovereign grace that makes the distinction between Israelite and Canaanite. It's faithfulness to His promise. It's the demonstration of that faithfulness and of His covenantal graciousness in terms of the Exodus. Look at verse 8. But because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. I mean brethren, again if you've been here up to this point as we've studied through the Pentateuch, there's not a lot commending this people in terms of their righteousness.

What do they do throughout Numbers? They whine, they grumble, they complain. They want to go back to Egypt. You know, we had garlic and leeks and melons, and we had three huts and a cot, and God's brought us out here, and Moses brought us out here just to kill us in the wilderness. Just constantly whining. They would rather be slaves in Egypt, provided they got fed, than free men wandering the wilderness to get to the promised land, a land that flows with milk and honey. They constantly and incessantly whine.

They're going to constantly and incessantly whine as soon as we depart from Joshua. As soon as you get to Judges. I mean, it's not good when we get to Judges. And God willing, we're going to just keep going through the former prophets after we finish the Pentateuch. It is just the reality of it.

I didn't pick you because you were more numerous. I didn't pick you because you were more righteous, because you're not, you're not, you're not, you're not. In other words, how many times does God have to tell them, this isn't the reason why you're my favorite people. You're my favorite people because I want you to be my favorite people.

It's according to His decree, it's according to His good pleasure, it's according to His sovereign grace. Now the implications of their election in verses 9 to 11, the knowledge of God. Positively, verse 9, therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. So the true knowledge or the knowledge of the true God and the knowledge of His perfections. Notice, not just to know that God is God, therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, but His perfections, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

Wright makes the observation in the context of conflicting religious claims for rival deities, In the ancient world, as much as in the modern, such a statement has considerable power and missiological cutting edge. Who is truly God? The one who proves the claim in faithfulness, integrity, committed love, and liberating, ransoming power. The same dynamic throbs through the polemical rhetoric of Isaiah 40 to 48.

God commends himself vis-a-vis his perfections. Know that I am, and know that I am faithful. Know that I am merciful. Preceding that, know that I am angry with the wicked. And following that, negatively, verse 10, he repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

So then on the heels of that, verse 11, we ought to expect it because you're going to see a lot of this as we move through the longest exhortation in the book of Deuteronomy that's about covenant loyalty. How do you express covenant loyalty in the Old Covenant? by obeying God, verse 11. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today to observe them. So in terms of God's perfections, we get a lot of good stuff in this chapter. His faithfulness to his promises to the patriarchs. What he said to Abraham. He moves down the field through Isaac and Jacob. and brings it to fruition here on the plains of Moab. His unconditional election of His people.

Didn't pick you because you were a large number. Didn't pick you because you were righteous. I picked you because I picked you. I loved you because I love you. That's sovereignty. That's graciousness. His love toward His people and His justice to His enemies.

Verse 10 is pretty terrifying. He repays those who hate Him to their face. to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Again, back to the argument or the objection, well, that's not fair. These innocent Canaanites, they're God-hating rebels. They despise the Most High. Isn't it not right with the Most High to despise them back and to punish them accordingly?

He has every reason to. They have no reason to. He gives them breath. He gives them life. He gives them food. He gives them water. He gives them shelter. He gives them a beautiful earth to live on. Everything owing in the heart of the unbeliever should be gratitude, at least at some level. But they hate Him, so He repays him to his face. And then the responsibility of his people, here to engage in holy war, and then to avoid contamination by the pagans.

The problem of political alliances. This is a tough one because we're not in a theocracy. This isn't New Covenant, Free Grace Baptist land. And we are only going to have political leaders who subscribe to Second London Confession. It's a tough one. We live in a non-theocratic, pluralistic society. So I hope that we all pray for those leaders in public office that they would be mindful of their position. As our confession says, they're under God, they're over men, for the glory of God, and for the good of men. And the primary emphasis for civil government, again, I think our confession gets it right based on what we see in the New Testament, they're to maintain justice and peace. That's it. That's really all they're supposed to do.

They're not supposed to feed you. They're not supposed to house you. They're not supposed to clothe you. They're not supposed to educate you. They're certainly not supposed to kill you when they deem it's OK because you're kind of now no longer useful to society.

We have given the government so much authority. No, maintain justice and peace. Punish criminals on the street and keep foreign invaders out of our country. That's it. Just do that. That's a full-time job all in and of itself. Everything else, yeah, it's a bummer.

The problem of religious alliances, we can fall prey to a violation of verse 5 to the degree that we compromise Scripture. Now, brethren, we all have problems when it comes to Scripture. Nobody's an infallible interpreter except the Holy Spirit. We all got problems. Every one of us in our theology, in our understanding of the Bible, all of us somewhere has a bad interpretation. We just do. There's nobody that, yeah, man, that guy's got every jot and tittle. Everything's right. But there's some more grievous errors. There are some things that are coloring outside of the lines in a way that's heretical and damnable.

We need to make sure that we don't have alliances with that, a denial of the triunity of God, a denial of the union of natures and the one person of Christ, a denial of justification by faith alone. What is that? It's a compromise. It's a religious compromise when it comes to alliances.

Brethren, ecumenicism is good, provided it's founded upon the truth. Well, probably ecumenicism, the ism probably tips it in the direction of not good. But ecumenical, having unity together. The early creeds of the church were called the ecumenical creeds. Do you know how those ecumenical creeds all ended? with anathemas pronounced upon anybody who disagreed. You know what ecumenism is today?

Oh, he can breathe and kind of say Jesus, so he must be a believer. Let's let him preach. That's the kind of ecumenism that is very, very dangerous. Compromise on cardinal truth is to breach verse five in a new covenant sort of a way. To compromise on sexual ethics, sodomy was wrong in the old covenant. It's wrong in the new covenant. Homosexuality is condemned through and through. Transgenderism, no. He made them male or female. I know that doesn't sound nice. I know it doesn't sound polite. I know it doesn't sound loving, because I hear about it all the time. But it's what God's Word says.

Either we A, hold to the scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments, or B, we forge religious alliances that make obvious some degree of compromise on things that we're never given license to compromise on. And then I had a whole long list of applications from Solomon and 1 Kings 11, but I'll save that for another time. Social alliances with our children, our grandchildren, we urge them to marry in the Lord. Young adults, we urge them to marry in the Lord. And within those marriages in the Lord, let's labor to have good ones.

You know what I mean? It doesn't have to be a battle. God in his grace and goodness gives you a spouse. Just do what God says in Ephesians chapter five. When you boil it all down and you look at the specific duties and responsibilities and commands, husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Wives submit to your husbands as unto the Lord and honor them.

Well, you just don't understand. I know I don't understand, because I'm a moron. But I do know this much. Those people who take Ephesians 5 seriously and pray for the Holy Spirit and the empowerment to do what Paul says, typically have better marriages. It's been my observation. Those who say, well, you just don't get the contours or the nuances. You don't get what a jerky is. Okay. How about we all work on ourselves and if we're in married in the Lord status, let's function as married in the Lord people in a responsible God honoring way. Well, let us pray.

Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this policy concerning holy war and the good things that we learn in this New Covenant setting. We know that we're not supposed to go to the neighboring cities and utterly destroy the inhabitants. We know, God, from the New Covenant we're supposed to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation. We're supposed to hold forth the Word of Truth. We're supposed to be faithful in our alliances at the social level, and especially religiously, so give us grace and fidelity and perseverance and steadfastness.

May we always contend earnestly for that faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. We ask that you would bless our young people, our children. We pray, God, that they would take seriously the Word of God, that they would hide it in their hearts, that they might not sin against you, that they would call upon the name of the Lord Jesus in their youth, that you would raise them up to marry in the Lord and to bring glory and honor and praise unto you. And we ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, any questions or comments?