FBC Morning Light – March 25, 2023

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. This morning we're in Deuteronomy chapters 13 and 14, and we're going to be concentrating on chapter 13. In chapter 13, we have a warning of what we'll call apostasy, meaning leaving the faith, coming from the encouragement of three different groups of people.

False Prophets and Dreamers of Dreams

Starting in verse 1, it says,. So that first group are people that claim to be prophets or dreamers of dreams who have special knowledge revealed to them about your circumstances or something like this.

If they are leading you astray, leading you away from God, and trying to convince you to worship or follow after some strange teaching, you are not to do it. The second group, starting in verse 6, 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, 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.

Family Members Who Lead You Astray

There's the second group, family can lead you astray. Say a son or a daughter starts going to some place that does not teach the word. Do not follow them in that regard. I'm not saying to break off fellowship with them or anything like that yet, unless they're under church discipline, but don't follow after strange gods just because your family member does so.

People in the Community Who Entice Others to Idolatry

And then finally, in verse 12, it says, 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.

Again, now this is just people in the community. This is a movement to not follow the Lord your God. So we got this coming from three different areas. We have it coming from people who claim to be prophets or dreamers of dreams.

It can come from family members. It can come from people in the community. And the exhortation is still the same in each case. Do not go after them. Well, how does this apply in our day and age? In our day and age, I firmly believe the enticement of people who claim to be prophets or family members who follow someone who claims to be a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, or even people in the community who claim to follow dreamers of dreams and prophets and these things.

Testing Claims by Scripture Alone

They oftentimes have strange doctrine that is not biblical doctrine associated with what they do. I don't want to get into the details of necessarily who these people are, but some of the things they teach are not scriptural ideas.

The idea that you can become God or that you are a little God is prevalently taught amongst these people. It is heresy. It is wrong. Flee from that teaching. Do not be enticed by that teaching. I am reminded of the words of John MacArthur in this regard.

The signs and wonders that some people claim to have and claim to have from God, the question that John MacArthur says is, why would God give such amazing gifts to people who have such bad doctrine? I am paraphrasing.

Let me also paraphrase Dr. Stephen Lawson, who we just finished studying his book on the book of Philippians. He says the following, if it is new, it is not true. If it is true, it is not new. When you have someone coming to you claiming a fresh work of God and a fresh knowledge of this or that, keep this in mind.

If it is new, it is not true, meaning this. If it is not found in scripture, it is not true. You do not have to follow someone who claims to be God's anointed. Yes, you can speak out against what they teach, even though they claim to be God's anointed.

God's anointing is God's anointing. It is not claimed by people. It is what God does. So let me finish with this. How is it that we are to know whether or not when someone makes a claim to these things, whether it is true or false?

It must come from our understanding of scripture. I do not mean you individually. I mean us together as a church to test those things as to whether or not they are true, whether or not they match up with scripture.

Let's keep these things in mind on this day and let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the encouragement from your word to not follow after strange gods, to not follow people who may have tremendous signs and wonders, but who contradict your word we are not to follow.

Help us to walk faithfully with you this day. It is in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.