Deuteronomy 13:1-5 Bible Study | Episode 892

March 11, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 Bible Study | Episode #892891

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 13. Deuteronomy, chapter 13. It is been a rough week last week with my father in law passing away. And so we had the funeral on Thursday. So we missed the Bible study on Thursday. But we are back in Deuteronomy. And it's a tough chapter, really. It is a tough chapter because it's called, you know, it's title is Dealing with the Apostates. Now that's not the title in Deuteronomy, but. But that's the title we give it in our modern English translations. And it is a rough passage because it deals with those who are very, very close when they enter into the promised land. And it's kind of difficult to make that tie off that we normally make. And we can most of the time quite easily make our understandings of the Old Testament being a picture of the New Testament. But I think I can do a pretty good job about this. I think I can do a pretty good job of letting you kind of see the understanding that you need to get from this in a spiritual sense and be able to bridge that gap and tie off the Old Testament truth to the New Testament understanding so that we can live. Now let me read it to you because that'll make it more understandable why it's difficult if your brother, the son of your mother, you're the son of your daughter, the wife of your bosom. So we've got your brother, your grandchildren, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is your own soul, secretly entices you, meaning you have a friend that's closer than a brother, secretly entices you, saying, let us go and serve other gods which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. What he's saying is if somebody says, let us go and do stuff that is outside of God's plan, his design, his revelation to them, he says, which you've not known, neither your fathers of the gods, of the people which are all around you, near to you, and far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent. What he's saying is it doesn't matter where this idea comes from, whether it's somebody that's really close, whether it's somebody that lives in the land that you're in, or whether it's some far off understanding, some far off idea that comes from another nation. He says, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor you spare him or conceal him. Notice it is saying, have nothing to do with him. Okay, but you shall surely kill him. Your hand shall be the 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. Now, what's interesting about this passage is it comes along while on Sunday morning we're dealing with the woman called in adultery. And so you have this understanding of stoning that's taking place, the death penalty by killing someone with rocks. It is in stark contrast with Jesus's dealing with the woman caught in adultery. But there is a big contrast here. The contrast here is that in this case, he's talking about dealing with those who. Who would lead you to worship other gods, who would lead you away from the worship of God. In the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, he's dealing with someone who is caught breaking the law and not living by God's holy covenant with his people. Now you go, well, what's the difference between two? Well, there's a pretty big difference between the two. One of them is found in the New Testament as a important idea and understanding that we are not in the business of condemnation, we're in the business of restoration. That is a very important understanding that we're not under the law. The law gives us insight into God's holiness and insight into how we should live. But the truth is, you live by the Spirit, and the Spirit leads you to live a holy life by the law. And so you're not living by the law at all. You're walking with God, and God is leading you into righteousness. In a personal relationship by the Holy Spirit. Not teaching you to live by a code, because a code does not work. We know that. And we know that God gave us the code to show us that it was impossible to do it on our own, that we needed that personal touch and that personal power by him. In this situation, it is someone who is trying to lead you astray. And we see a similar idea in the New Testament when scripture teaches us to anybody involved in deep sexual immorality or really what we would call paganism, have nothing to do with them, don't even eat with them. And that's what God instructs us to do with those who claim to be a part of the faith and yet are wavering so far from it that their lifestyles would indicate that they're not people of the faith at all. Now, remember, we're not in the business of trying to figure out whether or not they're born again or not. What we're in the business of is staying away from those who, in their heart and in their mind, are separated from God and they're walking in darkness. We're people of the light, and we're to walk in the light. And the passage in John that deals with the woman caught in adultery ends with that. He is light, and in him there's no darkness at all. And so we're to walk in the light and be the light as he is the light. And that's D.C. talk song also, which is a fun one to remember back 20, 25 years ago. But as you're kind of thinking through this and studying this. This idea of not having anything to do with those who originally claimed to be believers and now have strayed from that path, and they're now walking in a path of paganism, or gone after the world or chased after the things of this world. It reminds me of a character in the New Testament named Demas. And being mentioned in the Bible, I think, is a really huge thing. And. And Demas is mentioned three times. The first time he's mentioned, Paul calls him a faithful servant, that he's bit with him, and he calls him a faithful servant. The second time chronologically he's mentioned in scripture. I'm not talking about as far as how the books are laid out, but in the chronology of the Bible, meaning, you know, dates. The second time he's mentioned is he. Paul just says, demas is with me. So you've got Demas as a faithful servant. Then you've got Demas is with me. And then the third time he's mentioned is Demas has left me for he loves this present world. And that is a sad illustration of how someone who chases after other gods, chases after the world, chases after things that. That have nothing to do with the spiritual and have nothing to do with the kingdom eventually end up. Well, they end up in destruction. They end up in pain and suffering. And so this passage is about that too. But the problem is that the infection of that, allowing those who chase after other gods, those who chase after things that are theologically wrong, the problem with it is they are an infection. They're infection into the body of Christ in the New Testament, they were infection into the people of God in Israel back then. And in Israel, God says, stone them, get rid of them. Have nothing to do with them. In the New Testament, God says, separate yourself from them. And those are two different things, but yet the same principle. And I think that's how you draw the distinction and how you tie this off to the New Testament. There's a clear mandate that we live godly lives. And you would say, well, that means living by the law. And I would say, yes, that means that our lives would reflect a exact representation of God's law. Now, the methodology by which you get there are two different ways. One of them is trying, trying to become a Jew and live by the Old Testament law. The second way is to live by the Spirit and let the Holy Spirit teach you how to walk with God. And those are two different things. Those are two totally different things. And one of them leads to failure, just like the consistent and regular failure we see of the Jewish people from the time they were given the law until the time Jesus was born. And the other one leads to the life and hope and joy and peace and walking in the power and the presence of God and seeing the blessings of God poured out on us. Those are two different things. Two totally different things. And so when we're studying these things, you need to begin to try to look and see, okay, where are the parallels that we see in the New Testament? Where are the things that we can tie off and kind of see the principles that work? And then how should we live? Well, how we should live is we should live by the Spirit. We should not walk in darkness anymore. We should walk in the light that is Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And we should not have anything to do with those who claim to be believers and yet walk in darkness. Now, that's kind of where it's at. That's kind of where the scripture in the passage is at we should walk in the light as he is in the light. And the way we do, that is live by the Spirit so that you do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Notice, living by the Spirit tell you not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Not living by the law and so understanding that and walking in that teaches us how to live and that's. That's how we should do.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.