DEUTERONOMY 13 HOLD FAST TO GODS COMMANDS2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Deuteronomy 13 Hold Fast To Gods Commands

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. As we look at Deuteronomy chapter 13 this morning, I would begin by asking you the question, what would it take to convince you to walk away from God?

What would it take? What could take place? What could happen? What could be demonstrated that would be significant enough that it would persuade you to turn away from a relationship with God? That's what God is addressing here in Deuteronomy chapter 13. He's addressing some different ways that the people of Israel are going to be faced with. They're going to be enticed by others and

Now, as you begin to think about that this morning, I would encourage you to consider that it's not necessarily so much that

You know, there are some things that we could see a mile away, you know, so I come knock at your door and I say, hey, you want to become an atheist? You know, there's a quick response to that that you would understand, that you would recognize, right? That that's not probably how this would be brought to you or it's not necessarily an enticement to join a cult or something like that, although that is pertinent as well and, you know, applicable to what the Lord is saying here.

But for many of us who've been with the Lord for some time, it comes in more subtle ways and maybe not an all abandoned, you know, abandon your relationship with God kind of call or deception, but oftentimes it's going to come in little decisions, in little areas of our lives, in areas that God has some specific things to say. And sometimes we...

are convinced to walk away from God in that aspect of our life. And we allow things in our lives to deceive us, to lead us astray, and we give that aspect, that part of our life over to things that are not of God. And it's a very dangerous path to go down. And so...

I would ask you to consider what would it take to convince you to walk away from God, either completely unholy, but also in individual aspects of your life, in your devotional life? What would it take?

To convince you to give up your time with God on a regular basis in your marriage? What would it take to convince you to give up on relating to one another as husband and wife in the way that God has called you to and commanded you to? As parents and as employees, as employers, as people within the body of Christ, as people within society, there's all these different aspects of our lives that are really under attack, right?

And there is a deliberate effort by the enemy, by Satan, to get us to give up on walking with God and obeying him in each of those different aspects of our life.

This chapter here, chapter 13, really flows out of the closing verse of chapter 12. In Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 32, God says, That verse in the Hebrew Bible is actually the first verse of this chapter instead of the closing verse of the previous chapter. It goes together. It flows out of this thought.

God has given us his commands. He has laid out for us his word, his instruction.

And in doing so, he is declaring there's going to be some challenges to the instruction of God in your life. You're going to face some decisions. You're going to have some things that come up that will try to convince you and persuade you to let go of what God has said. And so I've titled the message this morning, Hold Fast to God's Commands.

And I want to encourage you this morning to consider that in your life and in the variety of ways that this might be happening in your life, where there is those challenges to let go of things that God has said, but that you would instead hold fast to him. It says in verse four, 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.

Hold fast to the Lord. So I grabbed this image here of this guy hanging on the side of a cliff. Now, I looked at quite a few images of people hanging off the side of cliffs, and most of them had like ropes and harnesses, and like you could see all the safety equipment. I don't know what the deal is with this image. I don't know the backstory to it. I'm assuming there's maybe some kind of ledge underneath so it doesn't actually look as dangerous as it is, but I think it paints the picture for us.

Here you are, and if you don't get too queasy, try to just picture yourself. Here you are holding on to the edge of this cliff. If you let go, you're going to plummet to your death. Here you are holding on. What could persuade you? What could happen? What could be done to convince you? You should just go ahead and let go and experience the damage that comes. That is really what we are faced when there is these challenges to what God has said.

And there is this call and this persuasion, this attempt to get us to let go of God's word. It is really a call to let go and experience some severe damages. And what is it in your life that is an influence, that is that kind of tactic in your life, attempting to persuade you to disobey God? Is there anything that's

seeking to convince you to not do what God has commanded or to do what God has forbidden. And so there's three points we'll walk through here in this chapter as we talk about holding fast to God's commands. The first point is found here in verses one through five that we just read. Point number one is don't let signs and wonders convince you to let go. Don't let signs and wonders. Here it says in verse one,

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. Here God is presenting to us an interesting scenario. One that maybe we're not used to thinking about so much. I mean, we know how to spot a false prophet.

I would say, you know, generally speaking as Christians, we know what the word says about that. In fact, it's in our reading today, if you're going along with us in the Bible in three years, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, God lays it out. He says, look, if someone speaks in my name and says, thus says the Lord, and then the thing that he says doesn't come to pass, that person's a false prophet. And we know that we can identify false prophets or

By that, the things that they say the Lord says, the things that they say will come in the name of the Lord, when it doesn't happen as they say, well, we can recognize then from that that they are not actually from the Lord. They use the name of the Lord. They claim to speak on behalf of God, but they are actually false prophets. But here in this chapter, chapter 13, God's describing a different type of event. Still talking about false prophets,

But actually, they are accurate in their prediction of what is to come. And so he describes here a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, someone who gives a sign or a wonder. He's talking about something sensational, something fantastic, something amazing that is done right before you. And he says, oh, I had this dream about you, Rick. Brother Rick, here's what's going to happen.

tomorrow this event's going to happen and then you were over here and here's what happened and tomorrow Rick begins to experience those things and go, whoa, he really did have a dream about me. And there is this wonder, this amazement, it's a sign or a wonder. And when it comes to pass, what the Lord is describing here then is that false prophet uses the fulfillment of that as leverage to try to convince you

to turn away from what God has said. It's an interesting thing for us to consider. It's an important thing for us to consider because it is very easy for us to be very impressed by the signs and the wonders and to allow those things, to allow those kinds of insights. It is common for people to be overwhelmed by, you know, whoa, look at this prophecy. Look at this dream. Look at this amazing thing that has happened.

Another aspect of this to consider, another way to look at this is some of the emotional things and experiences that we can have. And sometimes we're evaluating things by how we feel or what happened to us. And that is a tool to a false prophet being used to try to manipulate us, to pressure us to turn away from what God has actually said. The reality is that God does not force us

everything that a liar says to become false. So if you're a liar, you're a false prophet, and you say in 20 seconds that light is going to turn red, God's not going to prevent that from happening just to prove that you are a false prophet. That's not the way that God works. And so there are prophecies that go forth. There are predictions that go forth. Some of them are supernatural. Some of them are just, you know, really good guesses.

Some of them are strategic. Some of them are orchestrated. Some of them are influenced by demonic forces. And there are signs and wonders. There are dreamers of dreams. There are false prophecies. Liars sometimes speak the truth. False teachers often speak the truth. In fact, it's often the case that it's like 90% truth and 10% that's false. But that 10% is enough to be a serious issue. False prophets are sometimes false.

accurate. And what the Lord is presenting before us here is we need to think about what is the standard for evaluating truth. It can't just be the fulfillment of a sign or a wonder. It cannot be the miracles by themselves or the experience by itself. There needs to be something more substantial to establish the standard of truth. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way,

This sobering fact is ignored by many Christians in our age, which neglects discernment. The fact is that signs and wonders can never be the evidence of truth or God's hand. Just because it turned out the way that someone said, just because some miracle has taken place, whether real or supposed, that is not enough to determine that it is truth from God. If you

open up the paper and find your horoscope reading for the day, and you go about your day and you find, whoa, it was like right on. That doesn't make it true. And it doesn't mean that you should give heed to those things. You can think about, you know, spiritists and palm readers and all of those things. Those are all things that God has forbidden.

But then there's also things, you know, within, you might say, like the Christian world. And there's false teachings and there's false doctrines. Things that would be used to try to persuade us to lay aside what God has said. And we might wonder, why doesn't God just like force everything that is wrong to be proven false?

It's really for the same reason that God doesn't force us to love him and obey him. God gives us the freedom of choice. You go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and there they had the freedom to choose. They had the whole garden full of trees and abundant fruit, and then they had the one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that was the one that they were forbidden from partaking of. But it was the choice that they had to make, and God gave them that choice and let them make that choice.

And here comes the enemy and the deception that was brought forth and the concepts that were attractive to Adam and Eve. And they partook of the fruit. They made that choice. And God gives us that same choice. We face that same type of choice regularly. And here he tells the nation of Israel, you're going to face that choice and it's a test. In verse 3, he goes on to say, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, but

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. God allows these kinds of decisions and these kinds of situations in our lives as a test. He doesn't shut down every false prophet. He doesn't shut down every false prophecy or every fake dream or everything that is manipulated to use to try to get people to turn away from God. He doesn't shut those down.

And so they do continue to exist and they exist as a test for us. Do I really love the Lord with all my heart? Here God is saying if you love him and are committed to obeying him, then signs and wonders will not persuade you. They will not convince you to turn away from God. And the inverse of that is if signs and wonders persuade you, the real issue at hand is you don't really love God.

If signs and wonders, if great experiences, if huge, you know, like emotional things impact you in a way that you do something that God has forbidden or you refuse to do what God has commanded, the issue comes back to that of you and your heart and your love for God. And that is what is being revealed by these situations. Signs and wonders are not to be enough to persuade us. Now, again, I'm

speaking about these things, and I hope that you understand I'm not talking about situations where, although it applies, you know, but there's that presentation of let's give up on God completely, let's become atheists, or let's join this cult, or that's typically not how the enemy approaches these things. In fact, it's oftentimes, it's things that we might consider as lesser, but

But laying aside a command of God, again, whether it be in a relationship that you have with someone or whether it be an activity that you're involved in, laying aside what God has commanded for any reason, even if it's for a sign and wonder, it's not sufficient. And it is a dangerous thing to do to let go of God's command because, well, there is damage that takes place. If you don't believe me, I would encourage you to go back and review the things that we've been covering on Wednesday nights.

As we've been walking with David through his sin with Bathsheba and the cover-up and the damage that it brought and all of the effects of that sin, there is great damage that takes place when we disregard the word of God. Don't let signs and wonders convince you to let go of what God has said and what God has commanded you to do or forbidden you from doing. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2,

He says, He's talking about the coming Antichrist. And he says, look, when he comes on the scene, it's going to be with power and signs and lying wonders. He's going to amaze people at what he can do. This isn't the first time that that's going to happen.

In fact, if you remember a little bit back, we saw Moses in Pharaoh's presence performing miracles, throwing down his staff and it becomes a snake. And you remember what happened? The magicians of Pharaoh threw down their staffs and they became snakes. And as Moses did signs and wonders given to him by God to do, the enemy replicated those, copied those as a means to deceive Pharaoh.

and to persuade Pharaoh from following God's commands. That is something that is not just for the Antichrist. It's not just for the magicians of Egypt. It is something that we will continue to see happen and will be faced with. There are pressures. There are deceptions. There are lying signs and wonders. There are lying experiences and emotions that will try to persuade us

But the real issue in verse 10, it tells us that they will be deceived because they did not receive the love of the truth. You see, again, the real issue of the heart is our love for God, our love for him and our walk with him. In verse four, he tells us, 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.

He brings it back to the commands of God. You shall walk after the Lord. You shall keep his commandments. You shall obey his voice. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about holding fast to God. We're talking about holding fast to what he says. That is to be the standard in our life. Again, back in verse 32 of Deuteronomy 12.

Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. Hold fast to do what God says. Don't add to it and don't take away from it. And performing signs and wonders, that doesn't give someone authority to add to or to take away from God's word.

Having some, you know, great experience, some really emotional impact, some highly charged, you know, fantastical thing, that does not give authority to add to or to take away from God's word. We cannot set aside what God has said. The word of God and his instruction to us must be the standard by which everything that we receive is evaluated. And this is such a serious issue that for the nation of Israel, God says,

To violate this is a capital offense. In verse 5, he says, Here for the nation of Israel, God says, look,

If there comes on the scene this prophet, this dreamer of dreams, this person who, what they said came to pass, but then they used the influence that they had. They used that reality to try to pressure, to try to deceive, to try to bring people or lead people away from God. God says, you are not to put up with that. They are to be executed, put to death. Now, as we're looking at these things for today, let me just...

Save for the record, God's not calling you to execute anybody as a result of this. As we've been working our way through the law of Moses, I've been reminding you about when it is appropriate to obey an Old Testament law. And we've been revisiting this, and so I hope it's familiar with you. But

We obey an Old Testament law when it's repeated in the New Testament. Now, the subject of false prophets and false prophecies and evaluating those things, it is addressed in the New Testament, but the command to bring an execution is not repeated in the New Testament. There's a call to separation, and we'll see that, but it's presented in a different way. It's not reversed in the New Testament, so we're not saying, hey, if it comes to pass, then believe it, and you can follow it. No, no,

We obey an Old Testament law when God's heart is clearly revealed. And I think as you look at this here in chapter 13 of Deuteronomy, God's heart is clearly revealed. He is serious. Don't let signs, don't let wonders, don't let amazing things or incredible experiences persuade you to disregard what God has said.

Well, the next thing to evaluate in Old Testament law is when it's not restricted to a certain time or context. And as I've mentioned a few times as we've worked our way through these books, God here is establishing in the law, not just the moral law, not just spiritual things, but he's establishing the nation.

And as he's establishing the nation, he is setting up the rules, the governing of the nation, the laws of the nation. And this part of chapter 13 is that kind of thing. He's establishing for the nation as a whole. It was appropriate for them. It was necessary for them to enforce these laws of God, even to the point of capital punishment.

It shows us how serious God is about this issue. Pastor David Guzik says this. He says, So it would be wrong for us to execute heretics today. And so as we look at this, we need to understand the principle, the heart of God is revealed. We still hold to that. We recognize that.

The Antichrist is going to come with lying signs and wonders. We need to make sure that we love God first, we love God foremost, and that we keep what he says. And there is...

Something that needs to happen if someone tries to use those lying prophecies, those lying experiences, those lying dreams, and persuade us from that. But at the same time, we are not the nation of Israel. We are not in that governmental structure. And so verse 5 here, the execution shows us the severity of it, the importance of it, but

you know, not for us to carry out in this exact way. So don't let lying signs and wonders convince you to let go. So coming back to us, here you are on the cliff and you're hanging on. What would it take to convince you to let go? If you're hanging there and I come up beside you and I pull a rabbit out of a hat, I say, look, I can pull a rabbit out of a hat. Go ahead and let go. You'll be fine. Trust me. I'm sure that wouldn't be enough for you to actually let

Let go. And God is saying, apply that same thinking, apply that same idea to your spiritual life. Just because someone can make you feel something amazing, just because you can be shocked and you can be, you know, in wonder at something that someone says or something that someone has done, don't let that be enough to convince you to throw out, to disregard what God has instructed you to do. The prophet Isaiah says it this way in Isaiah 8.27.

The prophet Isaiah says, go back to the word of God and understand if what you're hearing, if what you're receiving doesn't match up with this, then there's no light in them. You are not to receive that. And so if it's some famous,

TV personality that says, hey, I know relationships. If you want to have a good marriage, here's what you need to do. You take that and you go to the law and to the testimony. You go to the word of God and you say, well, they have all these amazing statistics and they, you know, can claim all these things. They have all these, and it's amazing. What? That doesn't matter. Some, you know, lying prophecy, some amazing wonder. That's not enough.

to look at what God says and go, well, but maybe that's just not true for today anymore. You know, maybe that's just old school, you know, and maybe we don't need to follow what God says here. And it's not enough. We need to be careful to guard ourselves, to hold fast to God's commands and not let signs and wonders, amazing experiences and emotions convince us to let go.

Moving on to verses 6 to 11, here we get point number two, and that is don't let friends and family convince you to let go. The danger is not just, you know, far away, these false prophets, you know, things on TV, things on the radio. It's not just those things, but the enemy who seeks to get us to depart from God in many different ways in our lives, he will also apply some pressure using the people that we love. Check out verse 6. It 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, if they secretly entice you saying, let us go and serve other gods which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, or 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, verse 8, you shall not consent to him or listen to him.

Here God gives now instruction, similar train of thought. Again, the idea is these challenges that come at us to try to get us to let go of what God has said. And sometimes that's going to happen, he says, and

through the people that we love. And he lists some examples here of people that we might have these strong bonds with and close relationships with. Your brother, your sibling, someone that you have grown up with, someone that you've known your whole life sometimes will come to you with pressure, with pleading, with requests, with encouragement to let go of something that God has said. He says, or your son or your daughter.

Sometimes this challenge is going to come from your children. And you're going to be very tempted because of the great love that is there, that you have. That little boy, you know, he's looking up at you with his bambi eyes and pleading, Daddy, please. Who cares what God says? Do what I want. Give me what I want. Let's go do what I want to do. Or the wife of your bosom. There she is. She's batting her eyes. Oh, honey, please. Please.

Let's do things my way. Let's do what I want to do. Why don't you forget that? Why don't you let that go? Or he says, the friend who is as your own soul. You have those close friends, those people, oh man, you've known them for so long, such good friends. And sometimes that relationship, that person that you love, the person that you're close with, sometimes that relationship will be used as leverage to try to pressure you into

to let go of something that God has said. The commentator Matthew Henry says this. He says, There is a great temptation here for us because there are people that we love.

And there's a challenge with that because, well, it comes with some influence. It comes with some pressure in our lives to lay aside what God has said. And whether that be intentional on their part or just accidental, you know, it's just, I'm just saying, here's what I want. I'm not really recognizing I'm asking you to disobey God, but here I am asking you to disobey God.

And I think you should do it because you love me and I love you and we're friends and we go way back and you know, you have to do this. And there is this pressure that comes from the love that we have for one another. And it can be significant pressure. It can be a great temptation. But God says in verse eight, you shall not consent to him or listen to him. Don't give in and don't let go immediately.

even if they desperately want you to. Don't give in and let go of what God has called you to and what God has instructed you to do. You're gonna be greatly enticed. There's a great temptation and seduction that is going on here. Again, sometimes it's intentional and sometimes it's not, but our friends and our family sometimes are, well, part of the testing that we experience. And it comes back to the root issue again. Do you love God?

with all of your heart and soul? Do you really love God most? Do you really love God first? Jesus says this also in Matthew chapter 10, verse 37. He says, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. If you love anybody more than you love God, Jesus says, you're not worthy of me.

You're going to put what they want and what they desire and what pleases them before what pleases God. You're going to let their word override God's word. You're going to let them and what they want cause you to lay aside what God says to do what he has forbidden or to not do what he's commanded. We see an example of this in Eli the priest back in the beginnings of 1 Samuel 2.

We see that Eli had two sons and they were wicked sons. But Eli, he refused to bring discipline to his sons. He refused to deal with them. And the Lord sent a prophet to Eli and said, you honor your sons more than you honor me. You prefer them. You would rather not offend them. You would rather not deal with them. You'd rather allow them to do whatever they want to do than to do what I've called you to do.

And you honor them. You prefer them. You love them more than you love me. Again, it comes back to this heart issue. Do you love God first? Do you love him most? If you do, you won't let friends and family convince you to let go of what God has said. And I don't know what kind of challenges you might be facing. And again, many times it might be innocent on their part to

They're not intending to ask you to disobey God. They're not intending to ask you to let go of something that God has called you to. But you know where you're at and you know what it is that God has called you to and you know what God's word says and it becomes a great pressure for you. But you need to hold fast to God's commands even when those you love so much are asking you to let go. It's not just don't let go, don't consent to them. God also says don't protect them.

In verse 8, again, he says,

Again, here, the Lord is emphasizing this is a serious issue. Not only do you not give in and give up on what God has said, but also now don't protect them and pretend like, we're going to pretend like you never asked me to let go of what God has said. We're not going to do that, God says. You're not to do that.

In fact, your hand is to be first in the execution. Now again, we're talking about the nation of Israel, totally appropriate for God to give this instruction. In fact, you know, because God is the king of Israel...

He's establishing their government here. It's not just a spiritual issue here. It's also a matter of treason. I mean, there's some serious things going on there. In the same way, for us in the United States, treason oftentimes is punishable by death. It's a serious issue to pull people away from the things of God. And there's eternity at stake. And so God says, you need to deal with this seriously. But again, for us today, he's not calling us to execution. He's calling us

to separation. He's calling us to deal with these relationships. It's a serious issue to take advantage of the relationship, to use the family bond, to use the love, to try to push us, persuade us, pressure us to giving up on things that God has said. Well, God calls us

to make a distinction in our relationship as a result of that. Think about what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 11. He says, 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 reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5, and the surrounding verses give a lot more clarity as well in regards to this. But he says, look, when you're

connected to someone who is named a brother. They are identified as Christians. They are called Christians. They call themselves Christians, but they're involved in these open sins. They're involved in this lifestyle, this rebellion against God. He says, you're to not even eat with that kind of person. You're to make a distinction and recognize, look, you're in rebellion against God and you call yourself a Christian. That is a serious issue.

And you're to change your relationship as a result of that. See, the issue here in Deuteronomy chapter 13 is not just that someone wanted to rebel against God and, you know, do their own thing. The issue is they're leveraging their relationship. Hey, I'm an Israelite. I'm your brother. I'm your sister. And they're leveraging that to try to persuade you. Now, if someone in Israel wanted to rebel and they moved to Egypt and started worshiping the Egyptian gods...

God here is not instructing, all right, form an assassination squad and go take them out. That's not what God is saying. See, the issue is not so much that this individual wants to rebel against God, but the issue is their influence and they're using, they're misusing that relationship to try to manipulate you away from God. And that is the issue. We're not talking about, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says, look, I'm not talking about unbelievers. You're around an unbeliever.

That's a different whole situation. They might be doing the exact same sins, but they're an unbeliever. They don't know God. They don't claim to love God. They don't claim to walk with God. And so you relate to them differently. He says, look, if we had to go away from unbelievers who did all these things, we'd have to leave this world. That's impossible. But the issue is someone who is named a brother, there needs to be a distinction. There needs to be a separation. Don't let friends and family convince you

to lay aside what God has said. Whether they be your best friend that you've known your whole life, the wife of your bosom, he says, the husband that you love so much, your children, your siblings. Do you love God first? And do you love God foremost? Pastor Dave Guzik says, God never puts highest priority on family relationships. If a family member forsakes the Lord, we are never to follow them away from the Lord. If our family leaves, if our family departs,

We're not to follow with them. There's great temptation because, hey, I don't want to rock the boat. I don't want to. There's going to be some conflict, you know, if I don't give in, if I don't go along. There's going to be some issues. But God says, are you going to honor that person more than you honor me? You're going to love that person more than you love me? So there you are hanging on the side of the cliff and that one that you love pleading with you, please, please just let go.

It's going to be best. It's going to be so amazing. Trying to persuade you, trying to convince you, begging, pleading, yelling, screaming, whatever tactic might be used. God says, don't consent. Don't give in to that pressure. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, Jesus says. Well, finishing it up,

verses 12 through 18. We're not going to really cover all these verses, but just to kind of hit on it briefly. Point number three is don't let society convince you to let go. So you can see how God is addressing the different scenarios. Someone is there on the scene doing miracles, doing wonders, something amazing, you know, brings you through emotional, great, crazy experience, and it's just like, whoa, don't let that, the Lord says, be used to persuade you, to convince you,

to disregard what God has said. And don't let friends and family around you, don't let those relationships be used to pry you away from God. No, hold fast to God and his commands. And now, if the majority, if the whole world around you is against you, or trying to get you to give up on something that God has said, don't give in to that either. Verse 12, if you hear someone say,

Verse 1.

Verse 1.

Here God says, look, if a whole city turns away from the Lord, you need to deal with that. Now, if you're one in the city, it doesn't matter if the whole city turns against God. You are not to let that convince you. Now, we love our democracy. We love the idea of the majority. And, you know, we take a vote and the majority rules. But there is some boundaries to that, some limitations. Just because the whole world...

has voted and agreed just because all the people got together and they're in agreement and we're the only ones who are the oddballs, you know, holding fast to something that everybody else disagrees with. That is not to persuade us from giving up on what God has said. Even if it's extremely unpopular, considered, you know, old-fashioned or outdated or considered whatever it might be considered. God says, don't let society convince you to let go.

And sometimes a whole city is turned away from God. Sometimes a whole nation is turned away from God. The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one, the Bible says. And so God says, deal with that. Don't let that continue. In Acts chapter 4, we see Peter and John stand up to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, and they're forbidden to speak in the name of Jesus. And

They say, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Listen, we have to obey God, he says. And you can deal with, if that's wrong and you're gonna punish us for that, well, that's up to you. But we're gonna obey God more than government, more than society, more than the world around us. Comes back to the question, who do you love most and who do you love first? This morning, we get to close our time together with a time of communion.

where we get to remember that Jesus loved us first. He put us first, and that's why he went to the cross and was there pierced for our transgressions, crucified on our behalf because he loved us most. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross for our sake. And he gave us the bread and the cup as reminders to say, look,

This is what I've done for you. My bread, or the bread represents my body, which is broken, and the cup represents my blood that was shed for you. And what the Lord asks us to do in response, as we receive what he has done for us, is to turn around and love him in the way that he has loved us, to put him first. And that means that we're going to hold fast. Jesus said, look, if you love me, then keep my commands.

A lot of times we try to make a distinction between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And there are some distinctions and some of the practicalities, but the concepts, the heart of God, it's the same. You come to God, not by your works, not by your efforts, but by faith. You receive God's forgiveness. You receive God's mercy and grace by trusting in him and believing him and receiving his mercy and grace towards you. But the command is still,

to follow him, to walk in his ways. And for you and I this morning, as we consider what Christ has done for us, I would invite you to consider, I would encourage you to consider, are there things in your life, pressures and things that are seeking to influence you and get you to give up on what God has instructed, what God has called you to, what God has told you to do, what God has clearly said in his word or what God has personally spoken to your heart? Don't let go.

But love God first and hold fast to that instruction that he has given to you. So Kim's gonna come up and lead us in a closing song and the ushers are gonna pass out the bread and the cup. At any time during the song, you're welcome to partake between you and the Lord as you seek and allow the Lord to examine your heart. Where do you stand? Do you love him first? Do you love him most in the way that he loved you first and he loved you most?

and was willing to go to the cross for you? Are you holding fast to God's commands? There was many things that came against Jesus in the sense of the enemy trying to persuade him to give up on what God had called him to, the Father had set before him. And all the temptations that the enemy brought, the obstacles and everything, Jesus laid aside all of those things to be faithful to the call of the Father in his life in the same way he calls us now.

to lay aside everything else, to put him first, hold fast to his commands, no matter what is brought against us. And so let's take this time to remember what Christ has done, to appreciate his sacrifice on our behalf, to receive his grace and his forgiveness. And you can partake just between you and the Lord anytime. And as you appreciate what he has done for you and you partake, let it also be a refreshing and a renewing of your commitment.

to hold fast to his commands for you. Let's pray and then we'll worship. Lord, we thank you for your word and the exhortation that we need, God. There are great temptations around us to give up. Maybe they might be considered little things from some perspectives, but Lord, what you have called us to, what you have instructed us in, Lord, those are serious things. And you don't use your words idly or lightly, but Lord, these are things that you've instructed us because it's for our benefit.

And there's great damage if we let go and experience the fall. Help us, Lord, to not be persuaded, to not be convinced, to not be deceived by signs, wonders, experiences, and emotions, by friends or family or those that we love, by society and the world around us. Lord, help us to love you first and to love you most as we consider your love for us and what you did upon the cross on our behalf. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Let's worship the Lord together.