In this thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, and I know when we say Deuteronomy 13, a lot of people freak over what he says here about the consequences of idolatry.  Some people almost fear this.  “What if I have to face this in my own family?”  You probably will at some time.  I’ve been walking this way for fifty-something years and I don’t know if I can remember families that have been unscathed.  There is too much in the Scriptures that talk about two against three and three against two, enemies being of our own household.

Are you going to fear God sufficiently that when one rises up in your family, those of you right now who think that you’ve got it together and have not had any problems?  “What’s wrong with those people?  I wonder why this child defected or that child defected.”  Be careful.  The grace of God—aren’t you thankful for it?  Do we have to experience that tragedy?  No.  No.  But are you prepared?  Is your mind made up?  You may have even spoken these words, but is it clear in your wife’s heart and in your children’s heart?  “Do not make me choose between you and God.  I’ve already made that choice”; amen?  “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Do you have that fear?  Can you ask the question that Jesus asked?  As they all begin to pick up and leave Him, He turned to those that He was most intimate with and He said, “Are you going, too?”  He didn’t say anything about, “Oh, please don’t leave.”  In fact, in those same passages, He talked to the church and said, “Listen.  Stop trying to replant what I’m plucking up.”  Amen?

God is holy.  God allows for no leaven at all in our midst.  There has got to be, in the fear of God, a clear distinction between the holy and the profane.  Anything that smacks of idolatry—number one on the hit parade, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  Idols can seemingly be small things with grave consequences.  He then makes this statement.  It’s an amazing thing that He does speak out at this point.