Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130324.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
A. The Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 4:44-5:21
2. The Second Command: Uncompromising Obedience To Scripture's God
(Deuteronomy 5:8-10)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    A great push exists today to compromise in the spiritual realm:

    (1) Karl Ritter's article, "Pope Francis Reaches Out To Jews" on the March 15, 2013 huffingtonpost.com web site reported "Pope Francis" pledged "to continue to strengthen the increasingly close ties between Catholics and Jews."

    (2) David Liepert's article, "Saint Francis Of Assisi And Islam: How the New Pope Could Bring Muslims and Christians Together," on the same site on March 14th held "Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's decision to choose the name of Francis as pope has profound significance to Muslims . . . St. Francis . . . encouraged Christians to emulate them in prayer and prostration, and to join Muslims -- and others -- in service to all despite their different religions, and he specifically told his followers not to try and convert them."

    (3) Even some influential evangelical leaders are promoting fellowship with Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Church:

    (a) Evangelical and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer had his article, "Why evangelicals should care about new pope" in the March 18, 2013 USA TODAY, p. 8A that claimed evangelicals and Catholics alike "attempt to fend off the federal government's increasing attempts to conscript churches into advancing its objectives against their consciences," so "they need to remain allied . . ."

    (b) The christianpost.com web site ran the March 17, 2013 story, "Louis Palau: New Pope Francis A Friend of Evangelicals," reported that "Evangelist Louis Palau, who knows and has prayed together with Pope Francis on several occasions, called the new leader of . . . Catholics a friend of evangelicals . . ."

    However, in college, I once played my trumpet as special music at a large meeting where Mr. Palau was the speaker, so his remarks create a question I must ask: "Since Louis Palau, has repeatedly prayed with Pope Francis, and since I once prayed with Louis Palau before playing my trumpet as special music at a large Missionary Conference in Central Bible Church in Portland, Oregon where Mr. Palau spoke, should I seek to modify Nepaug Church's stand against fellowship with Roman Catholic Churches and lead Nepaug Church into interfaith meetings with Roman Catholic Churches?!"

    To prepare for this sermon we then ask, "What does God think of spiritual compromise, and why?!"

    Need: "What does Scripture's God say on spiritual compromise? Why?"

  1. In Moses' general Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32 call for loyal obedience to God in the suzerain treaty format of the book of Deuteronomy, he repeated God's Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
  2. The CONTEXTUAL FOCUS where God reminds Israel he had delivered her from Egyptian oppression (Deut. 5:6), affecting all ten commandments (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 272), reveals WHY Israel should be MOTIVATED to HEED them.
  3. Thus, the SECOND commandment against making, bowing before and serving images (Deut. 5:8-10) was meant to GUARD Israel from COMPROMISING with PAGAN RELIGION to keep her from sliding further into APOSTASY and its OPPRESSION:
    1. The second commandment that prohibits the forming of any images of entities in creation and bowing before and serving them must differ from the first commandment's prohibition against idolatry itself, Ibid.
    2. If we then view Israel's history for the answer, we note this second commandment was made to lead Israel to avoid compromising with paganism so as to guard her from fully developed apostasy and what we found before in this series was the oppression of paganism:
      1. When Moses stayed long on Mount Sinai and Israel urged Aaron to make her new gods to go before her, he formed a golden calf and said, "These (eleh) be thy gods (elohim) who brought you up out of the land of Egypt," Ex. 32:1-4; Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 128)
      2. Then, Aaron established a feast day to Jahweh, the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3:13-14; Ex. 32:5; Ibid.
      3. Well, the golden calf, a "young bull," recalled Egyptian pagan idolatry (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Ex. 32:4), and since Aaron referred to multiple gods, he had COMPROMISED in combining the worship of Egypt's bull god with Israel's Jahweh!
      4. God saw this syncretism as idolatry, and told Moses He wanted to judge Israel (Exodus 32:7-10), but Moses interceded to deliver her.
      5. Five hundred years later, fearing his subjects in the Northern Kingdom would abandon him were they to travel to the Southern Kingdom of Judah to worship at Jerusalem, king Jeroboam copied Aaron's deed, forming golden calves and pronouncing what Aaron had declared: "Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," 1 Kings 12:25-28 KJV.
      6. Jeroboam went further than had Aaron, setting up a non-Levitical priesthood and feast day to compete against Judah's feast to keep his people from God's temple in Jerusalem, 2 Kings 12:29-33.
      7. This move opened the door to full apostasy: Israel's later king Ahab and wife Jezebel worshipped the pagan god Baal (1 Kings 16:29-34), and God in time judged Israel for such idolatry by the invasion and deportation of Israel to distant Assyria, 2 Kings 17.
      8. The Southern Kingdom went apostate also led by compromise: pagan altars were first brought into the courts of God's Jerusalem temple and used alongside the worship of God (2 Kings 16:10-16). In time, men followed false gods there over the Lord, turning their backs on God in His temple to worship the sun, Ezekiel 8:15-16.
      9. God thus also sent Judah into Babylonian Captivity for her sins of idolatry, Ezekiel 8:17-18; 2 Chronicles 36:14-21.
    3. However, in grace, even God's warning in the second commandment against such COMPROMISE in SYNCRETISM highlights His GRACE opposite the oppression of pagan idolatry, Deut. 5:9-10:
      1. In giving the second commandment, God warned that He visited the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hated Him, Deuteronomy 5:9. This does NOT mean God judges children for their parents' sins, for Ezekiel 18:1-32 strongly counters such an idea, teaching that God deals blessing or judgment for INDIVIDUAL righteousness or sin! So, if a child hates God as does his father, God judges him, Deut. 5:9!
      2. Yet, stressing His grace, God said He shows loyal love (hesed, Ibid., Kittel, p. 271; The. Wrdbk. of the O. T. , v. I, p. 305-307) NOT JUST unto the third and fourth generation as He does in judging, but unto THOUSANDS of GENERATIONS of them that love Him, Deut. 5:10! (The New Bible Com.: Rev., 1970, p. 132)
Application: May we (1) trust alone in Christ alone for salvation versus compromising Christ's Gospel, John 3:16; Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 4:12. (2) May we align with Scripture's God, not compromising with that which is unbiblical in living, to enjoy His great blessing!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 We raised a question in our sermon introduction that we need to answer, namely, "Should I as your Pastor seek to lead Nepaug Church to modify its stand against interfaith fellowship with Roman Catholic Churches due to Louis Palau's fellowship with and praise of Pope Francis since I once prayed with Mr. Palau before playing my trumpet as special music at a meeting where Louis Palau was the speaker?" We answer this question by way of Scripture as follows:

(1) Galatians 1:8 commands us: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." This last word, literally "anathema," was "accompanied by excommunication" in the Early Church, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Galatians 1:8.

(2) The false gospel Paul countered in his Galatians epistle was that salvation was by faith plus the work of circumcision, Galatians 5:1-2. That errs according to Ephesians 2:8-9 where we read we are saved by faith without works. Thus, any gospel that directs us to trust in Christ plus do works [like water baptism or speaking in tongues as in parts of Protestantism or like the sacraments as in Catholicism] is a false gospel to be rejected to the point of excommunication.

(3) Of note, in the Second Vatican Council, "pope John XXIII, who called the first session, and pope Paul VI, who presided over the later sessions, as well as several prominent cardinals and theologians, took care to emphasize that no changes would be made in the doctrinal structure of the Church." (Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 1978, "Preface to the Fifth Edition", p. x)

(4) Accordingly, since the Roman Catholic Church still unwaveringly holds to the gospel of faith in Christ plus the works of its Church sacraments, it holds to a false gospel that the Apostle Paul directs in Galatians 1:8 we reject to the point of excommunication!

(5) Thus, I must resist evangelical leader Louis Palau's influence for us to fellowship with Pope Francis and Roman Catholic Churches in obedience to the uncompromising GOD of the BIBLE!



May we stay UNCOMPROMISINGLY loyal to the GRACIOUS God of Scripture, refusing to compromise with any false spirituality, that we might fellowship with God for blessing.