More Gospel Connections to Deuteronomy
(Deuteronomy 18:15-19 with John 10:1-30, selected; Deut. 29:18-21 with Matthew 12:25-32)
1. When I first began dating Marylu, she was a waitress.
2. Fortunately, I was brought up with good etiquette, & knew to tip 15% for good service.
3. Now the protocol is 20%, and I try to do that, if the service is good. If not, I leave less.
4. This week, an interesting story broke out of Pennsylvania:
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – An eastern Pennsylvania prosecutor wants charges dropped against a couple who refused to pay a tip at a restaurant where they said they got poor service. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he’s recommending that Bethlehem police drop the theft of services charges…
[The customers] said service was slow and unresponsive and [they] waited more than an hour for [the] food." The police commissioner has agreed to drop charges.(AP Nov. 24, 2009)
5. Perhaps the waitress in this incident was not to blame -- maybe it was the cooks. Either way, she was slighted and tried to teach a lesson to the customer.
6. It may not be wise to slight our fellow human beings, but it is downright foolish to slight God. We slight Him in many ways, but the worse case scenario is apostasy.
Main Idea: Since the Messiah is God’s anointed messenger, embracing contrary religious beliefs after professing faith in Him is inexcusable.
I. The Messiah as Prophet: LISTEN to Him! (Deuteronomy 18:15-19 with John 10:1-30)
A. A Great PROPHET Would Arise
B. Ignoring HIM is ignoring God
The text talks about listening to Him. But this means more than hearing: listening involves learning and then practicing.
Richard DeHaan shares this illustration:
"I read about a man in New York City who died at the age of 63 without ever having had a job. He spent his entire adult life in college. He had acquired so many academic degrees that they looked like the alphabet behind his name.
"Why did this man spend his entire life in college? When he was a child, a wealthy relative died who had named him as a beneficiary in his will. It stated that he was to be given enough money to support him every year as long as he stayed in school. And it was to be discontinued when he had completed his education.
"The man met the terms of the will, but by staying in school indefinitely he turned a technicality into a steady income for life—something his benefactor never intended. Unfortunately, he spent thousands of hours listening to professors and reading books but never "doing." He acquired more and more knowledge but didn’t put it into practice."
[from Our Daily Bread]
C. Jewish Diversity: Was the Prophet also the MESSIAH?
1. John Gill wrote, "Jeremiah, whom some of the Jews have thought to be the prophet Moses spoke of, in (Deuteronomy 18:15) and expected that he would appear about the times of the Messiah" [his source: Baal Hatturim in Deut. xviii. 15. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 127. 4. & 143. 4. Siphre in Jarchi in Jer. i. 5].
2. The OT leaves us expecting Elijah, the Great Prophet, and the Messiah. John 1:19-23 makes it clear that some Jews were expecting a man separate from the Messiah to be the prophet of which Moses spoke:
Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Christ."
They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No."
Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ’Make straight the way for the Lord.’ "
Other rabbis believed that the prophets would be resurrected when the Messiah came. (Lightfoot, Vol. 3, p. 243). That is why some believed that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected.
3. Acts 3:21-23 makes it clear that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy:
"He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, ’The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’"
D. Jesus’ sheep LISTEN to Him
• It is interesting that Jesus used the imagery of a shepherd and sheep. Moses had been a shepherd in Midian. And Moses was more than a prophet, but he also was the shepherd of Israel.
E. Those listen to His voice receive ETERNAL life
• In the Deuteronomy text, those who will not listen are judged (held accountable) by God, but Jesus states the positive result of those who do listen to Him.
(a text from the Apocrypha, I Macc. 14:41, implies that some Jews were waiting for this prophet)
Since the Messiah is God’s anointed messenger, embracing contrary religious beliefs after professing faith in Him is inexcusable.
II. The Unpardonable Sin: Abandoning Faith in the True GOD After Professing It (Deuteronomy 29:18-21 with Matthew 12:25-32)
A. Not about committing great SIN
B. Turning from the true God to FALSE religion
• Webster defines "apostasy" as, " renunciation of a religious faith; abandonment of a previous loyalty."
• Apostasy is not the same as doubt; it is not the same as backsliding, turning away from walking with the Lord for a time; it is saying, "I no longer believe Jesus is the Son of God, I no longer believe that the Bible is true, I no longer believe He died for my sins and rose again. I no longer trust in His work alone for my salvation."
• I have seen several people who made professions of faith & attended HPC take this route over the years, and it breaks my heart.
• The picture is that of a man who is a "sleeper cell" of apostasy. He knows about Yahweh, professes to follow Yahweh, but secretly worships other gods. Note my description: he is among them, but not of them. He has tasted God’s blessings and power, but he has shrunk away from God in his heart and turned to false religion.
• The man thinks he will find safety from God, for he does not think God will punish him because then the righteous would suffer, too. But God promises to single him out. The danger, however, is that the righteous (the watered land) might suffer along with the guilty (the dry land).
C. Note that God is not WILLING to forgive this sin
• We often view God as all grace with no wrath; we view Him as always pleading with us. This is not true.
D. The cause is a BITTER root
• Like pulling weeds; if you don’t get the root, new greens emerge! The root is the foundation, and the root is also hard to remove. We might compare the greens to behavior, but the root to motivation and intent.
E. In Matthew, ascribing Jesus’ miracles to SATAN evidences that root
1. This is the final straw in rejecting the Messiah. The folks in question saw the miracles, they knew they were genuine miracles, so they had a choice: Jesus is from God, or He is from the devil. They hated Him so much they chose to believe He came from Satan.
2. It is not speaking words or cursing the Holy Spirit verbally that happened here.
3. Job 1:5, "When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job’s regular custom.
4. If someone verbally curses the Holy Spirit, that is cursing Him, but not the type of blasphemy Jesus is describing. It is more like this passage in Isaiah:
Isaiah 63:10 Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.
5. Not an instance of defiant sin, but a determined, irreversible rejection of God and His Word and the embracing of another god other than Yahweh…apostasy.
F. In Hebrews, the bitter root RESURFACES
Hebrews 12:15, "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled."
Hebrews 6:4 "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."
G. First John calls this the “Sin unto DEATH”
I John 1:8, 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
I John 3:6 (NKJV) Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
I John 5:16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
H. The truly saved person CANNOT commit that sin
I John 2:19, "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us."
The same is true with Rev. 22:18-19
"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."
