Amen. So Deuteronomy chapter 17, of course, verse 1, it should be kind of a familiar verse
because if you would keep something there, but go back to Deuteronomy chapter 15,
because this is a commandment that's actually repeated. We see that often in the book of
Deuteronomy that God is repeating himself with some of these commandments, that he's clarifying
things sometimes, he's being more specific sometimes, but he's repeating often some of
the same commands over and over again and for different reasons, of course.
Now, if you're there in Deuteronomy chapter 15, you might recognize the similarity of Deuteronomy
17 1 where it reads in verse 19, all the firstlings, firstling males that come of
thy herd and of thy flock, shalt thou sanctify unto the Lord thy God. Thou shall do no work
with the firstling of thy bullock nor shearing the firstling of thy, nor shear the firstling
of thy sheep. Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God year by year in the place which the Lord
shall choose and thy household. Verse 21, and if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame or
blind or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God. Of course,
that's what we read there in Deuteronomy chapter 17 in verse 1. You go ahead and turn back there
where it says thou shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock or sheep, wherein is any
blemish or any evil favoredness, for that is an abomination of the Lord thy God.
So God is making it perfectly clear within these first, you know, these two chapters that
he does not want his people bringing a lame sacrifice. He doesn't want them bringing something
that is crippled or lame or has some kind of a blemish. And, you know, there's several reasons
for that. And primarily, you know, we can make several applications. One of them is that, you
know, if we're going to give something to God, we ought to give God our best. We shouldn't try to
give God the leftovers. We should always be seeking to give God the best of what we have
to offer. And we'll talk a little bit about that here in a minute. But also, this is an important,
he reiterates this commandment because of the fact that those sacrifices are a picture of Jesus
Christ. In particular, that Passover land that they offered year by year was, you know, a picture
of Jesus. And there's other, you know, also these other offerings are likened unto the Lord in other
ways as well. But that's one of the main reasons. He said, look, you're not going to bring me
something that has a blemish because Christ was without blemish. You know, he had no sin, you
know, but he was made sin for us. That's a picture of Jesus Christ who was the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. So that's why these commandments are in here is that, you know,
one is because they are a picture of Christ. But I think there's also an interesting just principle
that we can learn from this passage. And if you would turn, keep something there, go to Malachi
chapter one, because sometimes we might scratch our heads and wonder why God commands certain
things in the Bible, or why God commanded certain things of Israel in the Old Testament. Why is it
that God did this? And of course, there's always a reason, you know, there's always a very particular
reason as to why God's not just up there doing it for no reason at all, just for filler.
He has a purpose in everything that he does. But I want us to understand this principle that,
you know, sometimes you just have to obey God by faith. Sometimes you just have to do what God says,
because quite frankly, God says, thus sayeth the Lord, like a parent would say to a son, a child,
you know, why do I have to do that? Because I said so, you know, those words that all of us parents
said we would never say to our children when we were kids, you know, we were kids, I'm never
going to say that to my kids. And, and the, you know, it comes so naturally once we become parents,
because I said so, you know, that's why we're doing this. But that's really sometimes an
attitude that we have to have when it comes to the Bible. When God is telling us to do something,
maybe we don't understand why, all the reasons behind why God has certain commandments,
but we need to just obey by faith and understand that sometimes we need to just do things because
God says so. I'll read you from Isaiah, we're in 55, where it says, seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, call you upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon. He says in verse eight, for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither my ways, your ways, sayeth the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
You know, we might read something in the Bible and not understand it. In fact, we might even be
at odds with it. It might conflict with something that we're doing or thinking. We might not
particularly like it, but we need to understand that God put it in there for a very good reason,
and even though we don't understand it, we ought to obey it and practice it because of the fact
that it's God who put it in there, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, higher
than as far as the heavens are above the earth. They're much higher than our ways, and his
thoughts greater than our thoughts, and you know, often if we would just do that, and so many people
when they run into things like that in Scripture, you know, they get offended, they fall away,
they stop living for God. They say, well, I don't like what the Bible says about that,
and they don't implement that in their life. They don't obey in that area, and they're
costing them, but if they would just obey, if they would just step out and obey by faith
and trust God that he knows best, that his ways truly are above our ways, you know,
the understanding will come later. They'll be going to understand why God put that in there
maybe later, maybe years later. Maybe when our circumstances have completely changed,
God then will understand why God wants things done the way he wants them done.
Now, if you're there in Malachi chapter 1, you know, he addresses this particularly. I mean,
this specific commandment that we're looking at in Deuteronomy 17,
this was a commandment that was being disobeyed in Malachi, that they were not offering the best,
and God rebukes them for it, and he says there in Malachi chapter 1 verse 6,
a son honoreth his father and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine
honor? Saying, look, if I'm your father, why aren't you obeying me? Like when the Lord said
to his disciples, you know, if you call me master and Lord, why not do you those things
which I command? You know, he said, you know, you should do the things that I command if you're
going to call me Lord. That's what he's saying here. You know, if I'm your father, if I'm your
master, where's my honor? Why am I being obeyed? He said, and you say, wherein have we despised
thy name? He says in verse 7, you offered polluted bread upon mine altar, and you say,
wherein have we polluted thee? And that you say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.
And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? I mean, did God specifically say
not to offer that which is lame? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil?
Offer it now unto thy governor and see, and will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person,
saith the Lord of hosts? You say, you know what, try giving that to somebody else
that should, you know, demand some kind of earthly respect. You know, if we were to go to,
you know, some dignitary or some leader or some president and offer them, you know,
a pig's head and say this, I got this for you. Here you go. Enjoy. You know, now I will say,
jowl meat is some of the best bacon you can ever get, right? But is that really what they want?
No, they want the best cuts. They want what's, you know, the good portions. You know, that's what God
is saying here. You know, you're bringing me these lame sacrifices, but would you even give
that to your governor? But you're going to give it to me, who's God. And he's saying, you jump down
to verse 11. He says, for from the rising of the sun, even on the going down of the same,
my name shall be great among the Gentiles and every place incense shall be offered unto my name
and the pure offering for my name shall be great among the haven, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye
have profaned it that you say the table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof, even as
meat is contemptible. He said, he said also, behold what weariness it is. And you have snuffed at it,
sayeth the Lord of hosts. And he brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick. Thus
you brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand? Sayeth the Lord, but cursed be the
deceiver, which hath in his flock, a male and voweth and sacrifice unto the Lord, a corrupt
thing. For I am a great King, sayeth the Lord of hosts. And my name is dreadful among the heathen.
So he's saying, you know, in the end there, cursed is the guy who's going to hold back.
Cursed is the guy who's going to has in his flock a male. It's not that they didn't have
the proper offering. It wasn't that they had an offering that would have been acceptable.
It's that they kept that for themselves. It's that they held that back and said, well,
God can just have this. I'll just give him the lame, the blind, the sick, the lame offering,
you know, that doesn't, that isn't as good. And God's saying, am I not a great King? Am I not
worthy of, of the best that you have to offer? So one of the reasons we're trying to get the
point I'm trying to make here is that, you know, we need to obey God because he is the authority.
You know, at the end of the day, you know, we might not understand why God wants the best of
the flock. We might not say, well, is that really fair that God gets to take the best of what I have
to offer? Is it really fair that God, you know, that God wants, you know, my time and my energy
and my resources and my abilities, is that really fair? I, you know, people, you know, often could
go out and do great things in the world and be very accomplished and become wealthy and
attain great accolades among men. And then God says, no, you know, count those things,
but dung and come follow me. And we might be tempted to say, well, is that really fair, God?
Well, is he not a great King? Is he, you know, is he not worthy? Is his ways not above our ways?
Is he not worthy of our best? So sometimes we just need to understand that, you know,
it might not make sense to us why God demands what he demands, but it's best to just obey
because of the fact that he is an authority. He, because, you know, a son does honor the father
because a servant should honor his master. That's just the way things work.
We should obey him as a father, as a dreadful king, as he said there in verse 14.
You know, give God because your best, because God's worthy of your best.
God is worthy of our best and we should offer him the best of what we have to offer. And really,
you know, we know today, obviously we're not going to be, you know, making sacrifices of
of sheeps and rams and goats and all these things. But what is it that we have to offer today is our
time. You know, that's the most valuable thing that anybody possesses is our time because we
only have so much of it. So we should be willing to give God of our time. You know, give God time
in prayer, give God time in church attendance, give God time, you know, for the preaching the
word of God, for soul winning, for studying, for growing in the Lord. We should give the God,
we should give God the best of our time and we should make time for God. So, you know,
that's kind of the principle that we can learn from all this, this first verse here is that,
you know, we should give God our best and the best thing we can give God today is our time.
And this, you know, we should have the proper attitude when we do it too, you know, and even
if we don't understand, even if we don't get it, you know, we should always just understand that
we need to obey God because he is the authority. We need to have an attitude of obedience. And,
you know, it's especially important when we get it, you know, this principle becomes even
more important when we get into these following commandments here in chapter two or verse two,
excuse me, of Deuteronomy chapter 17. You know, that's, that's a good principle to keep in mind
that we might not understand all the things that God demands and commands in his word,
but make no mistake about it. God knows best and he, and we ought to obey him because we're
going to read some things here in these following verses that are not necessarily the most popular
of things to read that are a hard saying. You look there in verse two, it says,
if there be found among you within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee man
or woman that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God and transgressing his covenant
and have gone and served other gods and worship them either sun or moon or any of the hosts of
heaven which I have not commanded and it be told thee and thou has heard of it and inquired
diligently and behold it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel
then thou shalt bring forth that man or that woman which have committed that wicked thing
unto thy gates, you know, he's doing this publicly, even that man or that woman and
shalt stone them with stones that they die. God's calling for the public execution of these people.
He's saying, look, they're doing wicked evil things that I've commanded you not to do and
if you find out about it and you hear about it, and again, he's very careful here. I mean,
look how redundant he is in verse four. If it be told thee, if thou has heard of it
and inquired diligently and it be true and the thing certain, you know, he's not saying just,
you know, you know, do this on a whim, you know, you need to make diligent inquiry
as the Bible says and find out whether this thing is this abomination is wrought in Israel,
that this isn't something you just enter into lightly, but that you find out and you make sure
that this is indeed the case because after all, we're talking about a person's life.
So God's law, you know, whether we like it or not, you know, whether we understand it or not
is to be obeyed because thus saith the Lord, his ways are above our ways, his thoughts are above
our thoughts and God's law, whether we understand it or like it or not, condemns people to death.
There's certain people that God says they are worthy to die and I'm not going to go over all
those things this morning. There's not a lot of them, but there's a lot of them that there are
things that God, you know, he applies the death penalty to for certain crimes. And some people
will have an objection to this. They'll say, well, you know, the Bible says thou shalt not kill.
Who's ever heard that? You know, these people who want to oppose the death penalty. Well,
doesn't the Bible say thou shalt not kill? Well, yeah, it does, but that you're not understanding
the context. You know, you're creating, that would create a contradiction in the Bible for
God to say these people should die, but you shouldn't kill anybody. I mean, God just told
them to kill somebody, but then the commandment says thou shalt not kill. So which is it? And the
Bible clearly says, if you're calling Deuteronomy chapter five, when it goes over the 10 commandments,
as well as Exodus chapter 20, thou shalt not kill. Jesus quoted this law in Mark chapter 10,
and if you would go over to Matthew 19, keep a finger there, go to Matthew chapter 19,
he quoted that same law in Mark 10 and Luke 18. He said, thou knowest the commandments,
thou shalt not kill. That's what Jesus said. Now with saying, with Jesus saying,
you should never put anybody to death. What are you saying is that you should not commit murder.
And when we read the entirety of the Bible, when we, when we read that parallel passage
in Matthew 19, that becomes more clear. He says in Matthew 19 verse 16,
and behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do?
That I may have eternal life. And he said unto him, why call us thou mean good? There is none
good, but one that is God. But if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. He sayeth unto
them, which Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder. You go read that passage in Mark 10 and Luke 18.
He says, thou shalt not kill. Well, hopefully before you've read Mark 18 and before you've
read or Mark 10 and Luke 18, you've read Matthew, right? Cause it comes first and you would know
going into it. Oh, he means murder thou shalt do no murder. Meaning you're going to kill somebody
out of, you know, being vindictive, you know, you're not going to commit, you know, you're not
going to kill it. You're going to kill somebody outside of what God constitutes as worthy of death,
you know? And so again, there is no contradiction here. There is no, you know, God's not telling us
one thing and then telling us another. God's saying, look, you know, you know,
if a man shed a man's blood by man, shall his blood be shed. You know, if we do commit murder,
then we know that happens to be, that happens to be a crime that is worthy of death. That says
those people should be put to death. And here in Deuteronomy chapter 17, what, who is it that he's
condemning to death? He's condemning the false prophet. He's condemning people that would lead
them astray after a false God among their people. He's saying, look, if one of these people come in
and they try to drag you apart, they say, you know, to go worship the sun or the moon or the
host of heaven, which I have not commanded, and you find out about it and you hear about it and
you confirm this, you know, that person is to be put to death, the false prophet, the person
that's going to lead people away from the Lord. So, you know, I've never in this, I'm kind of
shooting from the hip a little bit and I'm really not going to go into it here, but I've thought
about preaching a sermon about, I haven't really studied it out or come to any solid conclusions
about it, but when I read that, it makes me wonder, is God really for the freedom of religion?
When he's telling other people, look, if they bring some false way, put them to death, you know,
it makes you, it kind of makes you wonder if God really is for people practicing the freedom of
religion, as we're so often told. Certainly back then he wasn't, you know, and we understand that
people have to have the liberty to choose for themselves whether or not they're going to believe
the gospel or not, but, you know, does that to say, are we to extrapolate and then say, well,
all religions should be free to practice what they will, you know, that's something to think about.
But what this is really showing us, you know, and again, starting out, I was making the point that,
you know, we need to obey God whether we understand why he says what he says or not,
because ultimately he is the authority, and as we grow and learn, understand, then maybe we'll come
to, you know, later the understanding will come to us and we'll say, oh, that's why God condemns
this. That's why God says don't do this and do do this. But what we learned from this passage here
in verses two through five is that, you know, we are not to be respecters of person in any regard,
and if you would, turn over Deuteronomy chapter 13, because again, this is a commandment that
God is repeating, and Deuteronomy chapter 13, he brings it a little bit closer to home,
you know, because it's really easy to say, yeah, we should put the sodomite to death,
the adulterer to death, we should put the, you know, we should put the false prophet to death,
you know, the rapist should be put to death, and that's right, and that's true, and that's right,
that's what God commands, whether we understand it or not, but it's a little bit harder to say
that when it starts to strike a little bit closer to home, and that's what we would have, if we
recall, God kind of makes clear in Deuteronomy chapter 13 and verse 6 where he says, if thy
brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, these are dear relationships,
or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, he's saying, look, I don't
care who it is, I don't care what kind of a past you have with them, I don't care what kind of
affinity you have with them, I don't care, you know, who it is, you are not to be respective
persons when it comes to this, he says, if those people, even as dear and as precious as they are
to you in your life, or not, you know, relationships are all different, he says, if they come to you
and entice thee secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods which thou has not known, nor
thy fathers, namely the gods of the people which are around about you, nigh unto thee, or far off
from thee, from one end of the earth, even on the other end of the earth, thou shalt not consent
unto them, nor hearken unto them, neither shall thine eye pity them, neither shalt thou spare them,
neither shalt thou conceal them, so you shouldn't take any, have any pity on them, and you certainly
shouldn't be hiding them, you should make the thing known, verse nine, but thou shalt surely
kill him, and he says thou, he doesn't say thou shalt surely have him killed, thou shalt surely
report him to the authorities, which you are to do, obviously, to make diligent inquiry,
but he's saying, look, and we're going to get in here a minute, but thou are going to be the one to
do it, you are going to be the one to do it, thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death,
that's what he's saying there, I mean, it's clear, as known as your face, that those on your face,
that we're not only to not conceal them and not spare them, but that we are actually going to
be the ones that are going to lay hands on them, because whosoever loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me, who other loves, you know, son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me, now we're not saying, you know, that he's not teaching that you're loving God and
to the exclusion of these other relationships is just saying that God's relationship
trumps these, it surpasses these relationships, and that's, you know, that's the way it ought to be,
you know, I can't love my wife the way I ought to love her if I don't love God more than her,
does that make sense? If I don't love this book more than I love any of you or any relationship
that I have in my life, then I can't learn to love you the way this book tells me to,
if that makes sense. He says, verse 10, and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die,
because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the
land of Egypt from the house of bondage. See, that's a hard saying, that's difficult, and it is,
but it becomes more understandable when you realize what that person is trying to do,
trying to steer you away from the truth, trying to bring in a false way that's going to lead
people to hell. That's what happens when people turn away from God and they go after the sun and
the moon and the host of heaven or some other false god. It's not just that they, you know,
have a different religion and that they're just practicing something different, they're practicing
a lie. They're preaching and promoting and supporting something that is going to lead
thousands of people to hell. That's why God wants them dead, so that they will cease to
pervert the ways of the Lord and to cease to pervert people's understanding of the gospel,
and so that other people won't end up in hell with them. It's really, and actually, you know,
once we wrap our minds around it and come to terms with this, it's actually a very merciful thing
that God is prescribing here. He's trying to spare other people's souls for eternity.
Now, of course, you know, God is prescribing the death penalty here,
but it's not that God isn't putting safeguards in place as well.
God put safeguards in regarding the death penalty. We already saw the redundancy there
in that passage where he's saying, look, if it's told, if that was found out,
they'll make certain, you know, you're going to confirm. But look, there's another safeguard here
in verse 6 in Deuteronomy 17. He says, at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall
he that is worthy of death be put to death, but at the mouth of one witness, he shall not be put
to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him. There it is again, whether it's
a dad or a mom or a son or a daughter, whatever relationship, whoever the witnesses are, they're
going to be the first ones upon him. So we actually see a couple safeguards here.
One is that, you know, one person cannot just bring an accusation against another
when it comes to this, this matter of putting somebody to death, because, you know, then you're
using the system. You could potentially use the system as a weapon. If you think about it, you
could come to, you know, you could bring him a horrible, he said this, he did that, you know,
he's going after this God, you know, and none of that is true. You know, you just got some beef
you know, you got some grudge and you just want to see this guy snuffed out, you know,
do people do that? Yeah. I mean, they hire people to go to do this kind of thing.
So God's saying, look, you're not going to use my system to, you know, for the wrong ends. And
he puts these safeguards in them. And one of them is that you have to have at least two witnesses,
he said, or three witnesses. You know, if there's still doubt when there's two witnesses,
if somebody is still saying, I don't know about this, well, then let's make sure we get a third
one in there. And he says, he says, the hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him
to death. You know, it's, it's real easy. And go over Deuteronomy 25, we're going to get ahead of
ourselves a little bit in the book, but that's okay. It's gonna help make the point. It's really
easy for us to just say, well, you know, this person is going to be put to death, and it's
going to be done behind closed doors. We're not going to see it. You know, it's just going to
happen over there. And, and now God's putting a safeguard in here is like, well, if you really want
this, you know, justice served, you're going to serve the justice. And this is another safeguard,
people are going to be a lot more reluctant to abuse this system if they know they're the ones
that are going to have to actually be the first ones to pick up a stone and throw it at a human
being. That's, you know, I get attacked on the rez by a dog and I'm, I'm getting, I throw rocks at
him and I, I miss on purpose. Even a dog that bit me once, I'm still like, yeah, I can't do it. You
know, I can't bring myself to, you know, he didn't draw blood or anything, but, you know, I'm still
that big of a softy, you know, and that's what God's counting on here is that people are, you
know, that are going to go to this extent and bring people to the, to the law and to justice
in this regard. You know, they're going to be people who are going to understand that they're
going to be the ones that are going to have to get their hands dirty and cast that first stone.
Because if someone's, you know, making up something or some false accusation and they know this is how
it's going to play out, that if they get it their way, they're going to have to be the ones to kill
somebody. They're going to, they're going to be much more reluctant to do that. They're going to,
they're going to probably say, well, you know, I don't want to do that. You know, it's like these,
these homos and stuff that they want to try and get, you know, a man of God in trouble or somebody
in trouble at their work, you know, so they call anonymously. They call CPS anonymously.
You know, they're not, they're not going to come to your door and try and take your kids away
themselves. They'll use the government, you know, and the government is, you know, allows that to
happen. That's one of their sermon, but look here in Deuteronomy chapter 25, he says this in verse
one, if there be a controversy between men and they come under judgment that the judges may
judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. And it shall be if the
wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge judge caused him to lie down and to be beaten
before his face. This is that same principle of if somebody's bringing somebody to be tried for
a crime that is punishable by death, they're going to be the ones that carry out the execution.
The ones, the witnesses, the first that heard of it. This is kind of that same principle
of accountability because now it's the judge that has to watch this be carried out.
And you won't, you know, this, you know, being beaten, the death penalty receiving a beating
or a financial penalty are the only punishments in the Bible. You don't see prison. You don't see
jail. It's not there. You might see indentured servitude, you know, people working off debts
and things like that. That's a far cry from jail when they're still out, you know, in the sun and
able to, you know, move about freely and things like that. You won't see jail in the Bible,
but what you do see is this. And what is showing us is that when somebody is given this punishment
of a beating, that he says they have to lie down before the judge. You know, at that time,
the judge says, well, you know what? You're, you're wicked. We've got these witnesses.
You're guilty. You know, the Bible says that you're, in this instance, you know, it's not
a cause unto death, but you're worthy of a beating. You need to lie down and take a beating.
And the judge has to watch it. You know, and that's, the Bible says the law of the Lord is
perfect. And it really is because when you look at our current system, the judge just sentences
somebody to 10 years, 20 years, life in prison, and that person's hauled out of the courtroom
and he never has to think about them again. He doesn't have to see that person rot away in a
jail cell. He doesn't have to see everything that goes on in these prison systems amongst
prisoners. He doesn't have to endure any of that. We're in God's system. He has to sit there and
watch what he just told to be done, be done. He has to hear, you know, the, the rod, you know,
hit the man. He has to hear it hit the flesh. He's got to hear, you know, the pain, the crying out
in pain. He's got to watch the guy get up, you know, and stumble out of the, out of the courtroom
or whatever. He's got to see all that. And what that's going to do is cause him to be,
you know, cause him to temper the punishments that he doles out. He's not just going to be
40 lashes. You know, the guy owes me five bucks. What are you talking about 40 lashes? You know,
he bumped into my car in the parking lot, 40 lashes! You know, he's going to say, well, hey,
you know, let's, it was, he's going to, he's going to dole out punishment that is meat for the crime.
He's not just going to turn into this hothead who just, you know, just wants to sentence people
to life and just ruin people's lives and, and destroy people because he doesn't have to deal,
you know, deal with it. He's got to sit there and deal with it. You know, and if he goes overboard,
you know, it'll probably affect his conscience. If you see some guy get beaten more than he
probably should have been, maybe it'll keep him up at night. Maybe when he comes back to his job,
the next time that comes up, he'll go, oh, I remember that. I don't want to go through that
again. You know, quite frankly, it sounds like a tough job to be that judge, to have to sit there
and go through that. But, you know, that's what God, that's, that's God's system. And then there's
also even further safeguards that God has when it comes to this issue of the death penalty.
If you're there in Deuteronomy chapter 17, where we were looking at verse eight,
and this applies, you know, not just beyond crimes punishable by death. If there was anything,
it says here in verse eight, that was too hard for thee. It says, if there arise a matter too
hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between stroke and stroke,
being matters of controversy within thy gates, no one really can figure out the exact truth,
the exact situation. Then thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God
shall choose. And thou shalt come unto the priests and Levites and another judgment,
unto the judge of those days, that shall be in those days, excuse me, and inquire, and they shall
show thee the sentence of judgment. And thou shalt do according the sentence, which they have that
place, which the Lord thy God shall show thee. And thou shalt observe to do according to all that
they inform thee, according to the sentence of the law, which they shall teach thee.
So he's saying, look, if something comes up that you can't handle locally,
if there's some matter of controversy, something that is too hard for you to figure out on your
own, then you need to go up and go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, you know,
which is where the where the tabernacle was. He's talking about going to the priests and Levites
and going to the judge in that area. This is basically, you know, God's version of the
Supreme Court. You know, we would call this a kind of like a Supreme Court today. You know,
one court rules something and say, I'm going to appeal that. It's not exactly a parallel,
but it's kind of a similar concept, that there's a higher law in the land that can rule on these
things, that there's an extra, you know, there's another layer of judgment. So, you know, if it
comes to a matter of blood and blood, you know, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, you know,
if it's a matter of something where, you know, somebody is going to lose their life for potentially
for crime, and we can't figure out exactly whether or not this guy's guilty, well, now we're going
to go to, we're going to all get up, everybody that's involved, and we're going to go see
the Levite. We're going to see the judge, you know, in Jerusalem or wherever the tabernacle's
at, and he's going to explain to us what to do. You know, God's going to speak through him and
give him discernment and wisdom and understanding. You're getting a third party, you know, somebody
who's not, doesn't know all the players involved, and has the discernment to say, well, this is what
needs to be done. So, again, this is another layer of protection in God's judicial system,
you know, especially when it comes to this thing of the death penalty. You know, people, they go,
oh, I can't believe God would kill people or have the death penalty. Well, he does, and quite
frankly, you know, there's a reason why some people need to be put to death, and it would fix
a lot of things, and probably people would knock off a lot of the stupid things that they're doing
if they had some of these punishments involved. But, you know, it's not like God is just up there
willy-nilly just saying, kill that one, beat this one. You know, God is very careful to make sure
that justice is served, that the wicked is condemned, and that, you know, the just are not,
that the righteous is justified. That's what, God's very careful to make sure that's right,
because God is a God of balance and order and justice and being correct in all these matters.
And, you know, and we see even a form of this today in the local church, and if you would go
to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. What's God doing here? You know, he's handling matters amongst
his own people. You know, he's not calling in the UN to fix the situation. There's no world court,
right, where he's appealing to that. You know, this is something that he's dealing in-house.
And even today, when it comes to certain matters within the church, you know, there are certain
matters that should not be dealt with outside of the church, even that normally other people might
could say, well, that's a legal issue. And the Bible makes it real clear that there's certain
even legal matters that we should not take before the unbelievers in court. If you're there in 1
Corinthians chapter 6, look at this in verse 1. He says, dare any of you having a matter against
another go to law before the just and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints shall
judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest
matters? Now obviously I'm not saying, you know, that there aren't things that could happen in a
church that we're not going to hand over to the authorities. And we have done that in this church.
You know, pedophiles have been turned over to the authorities, and rightly so. You know, if one of
you comes in here and says, hey, I killed brother so-and-so. Sorry. There's going to be a 911 call
made. You know what I mean? I'm not saying we're just not, we're not going to handle it. We're
going to handle everything in house here. But you know, if somebody goes out there this morning and,
you know, brother Martinez gets in his van and just backs right into brother Elmer's car and
totals it, you know, they should be able to work that out right here. You know, we should be able
to make that right and how, you know, obviously insurance and everything would take care of that.
But you know, you would, you would handle that here. And it wouldn't be right for,
for us to go to law with brothers and say, well, I'm suing you. Now does that happen? Yep.
It does. I've seen, I've known churches that have judged or sued each other over a church building.
You know, the church splits and they go to court and they have one faction against another and they
go to a municipal court and they sue each other, I guess it'd be a civil claims court, I don't know,
but over a church building. They can't figure it out. And Paul here is condemning that.
He's saying, look, are you not unworthy to judge the smallest matters? You know, someone rubs some
paint on your door with their car. You can't get that worked out. You got really, you got to go to
court. If you then have judgments of things pertaining this life, set them to a judge who
are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is there not a wise man among you?
And he's saying, look, it'd be better for you to take the person who is least esteemed in the
church and say, oh, it's the guy who has the least seems to have the least amount of discernment and
let him figure it out between you two. Then for you to go to court, because we have to understand
something that when we go to law with thy brother, as it says there in verse six, you do that before
unbelievers. That's who you're asking to sort this out for you. And people think so often that
if they just, well, I'm just going to call the police. We're going to go to court. We're going
to get this settled. Things might not turn out the way you expect. You're not dealing with people who
have the same principles and beliefs. They're not saved. They don't have the Holy Spirit.
They don't care about the things of God. They could turn that thing could go completely sideways
on you and you guys both could end up even worse off. He says in verse seven, now therefore there
is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take
wrong? He's saying it'd be better to put the least that is esteemed in the church. Let him judge you.
And if you can't do that, it'd be better for you to just suffer wrong. It'd be better for,
you know, brother Elmer just walk, drive his total minivan out of here. Then for him to haul
brother Martinez to court, you know, over the matter. That's what he's saying. It'd be
better for you to just suffer wrong and rather to go before a bunch of unbelievers.
He says in verse eight, nay, you do wrong and defraud that your brethren.
Knowing not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor drunkards, nor adulterers, nor feminine,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.
And that's exactly the type of people that you're dealing with when you go to these courts. I mean,
we've all probably seen the YouTube video of the district attorney who got pulled over drunk
driving. The judge who got pulled over, the, you know, the judge who got caught with,
you know, child pornography on his laptop. That happens all the time. That's who you're going to
when you go to law with your brother. That's who you're taking for. Some of the worst elements of
society are people in high places. Just talking to a brother last night, the head of his union
is an open sodomite. You know, the head of the union of Boeing is an open sodomite. And they've
got all kinds of things coming down now where, you know, you can't do mansplaining. They
specifically said, they went to all 40,000 employees and said, you're not allowed to
use King James Bible verses. You're not allowed to put those on any of your cubicles. They
specifically said King James. That should tell you something. They didn't have a problem with
the NIV, I guess. Anyway, I'm going to end up going off on a rabbit trail if I start talking
about that. But he's saying here, look, it would be better to be judged by the least of us in the
world. He's saying, you know, if you can handle it in the house, do it. Now again, certain crimes
should be turned over to the authorities. Because it's now within our power to, you know,
put somebody to death. It's now within our power to do some of these things. That has to be
handled by the authorities. And even if they don't do what needs to be done, it's still their place
to do whatever it is they're going to do. Now notice also, there's even another layer here,
another safeguard, when it comes to these matters of making sure that the righteous
are justified and that the wicked are condemned. Go back to Deuteronomy 17 and look at verse 12.
Because he says, if you recall, he's saying, look, if you can't figure it out, you're going to go,
you're going to go to the judge, to the Levites, to the priests, and they're going to,
they're going to show, they shall show thee and thou shalt observe according to do all that they
inform thee. Verse 11, according to the sentence of the law, which they shall teach thee and
according to the judgments, which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do. He's saying, look,
you can't go there and get there and get their, their take on it and then decide whether or not
you agree with it. He's saying, if it comes to this, or you go to them and they tell you,
this is what you need to do, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline from the sentence, which they
shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. You know, and if it's, and if it turns out
at the end that the wrong decision was made, it's not your fault. It was theirs, you know,
and likely that's, that's not going to be the case. They're going to have the discernment wisdom
to know what to do. And he says in verse 12, and the man that will do presumptuously,
you know, what is it presumptuous, to be presumptuous, to just assume things,
to take things upon yourself that are not yours to take, to be a presumptuous person. And the man
that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister before
the Lord thy God or unto the judge, even that man shall die. So he's saying, look, if you,
if you have a matter you can't figure out and you go to the priest, you go to the judge,
you go to Levites and say, this is what you need to do. And then you act presumptuously and say,
well, I'm not going to do that. Now you're worthy of death. That's what he says right there.
Even that man shall die. He's saying, look, if you know, judgment is going to be carried out
in the land. And when God hands out a sentence, he says, it's not an option for you to say,
well, I don't know if that's right. He says, look, you need to do it. Whatever they tell you
to do, that's what you're going to do. You know, cause it could go the other way. Think about that.
You say, well, that doesn't sound very nice, but what if they went to the judge, the Levite,
you know, the guy, let's say the controversy comes up, somebody's going to lose their neck.
You know, someone's going to swing or you'll get stoned or whatever. And, and we were like,
we, but we can't figure it out. So now we got to go to the Levite and the judge,
you know, and I, you know, let's say I'm judging here. It's just, you know, I'm judging.
And let's say that's the system we live under, you know, and it's been alleged that, you know,
brother Adam, you know, he, he killed brother Fabian. All right. I pick you too. Cause that's
the least likely I'm just kidding. Right. But then, but then it comes out, well, maybe he
didn't. And now we can't figure it out. We don't know either. You know, there's a controversy.
One half is saying he's guilty. The other half is saying, no, he's not, you know, he was,
he's got an alibi, but it's a little shake. We can't figure it out. There's no video evidence,
no forensics, whatever. So now we have to go to the Levites. We got to go to the priest.
You know, but, but, and I'm, and I'm kind of overseeing everything. I'm the,
I'm the judge. I'm kind of overseeing the whole case. And I don't know what the,
what the right decision is here. I'm, I'm confused. It's too hard for me. There's
controversy. I got to figure it out. So now we're going to go see the higher law on the land. Right.
But here's the thing. I'm kind of thinking Adam's guilty because I, you know, I kind of don't like
him. You know, maybe that's a possibility. I just say, you know, I do like Adam, by the way. I love
the brother. Right. But, you know, what if that was the case? Maybe I have a little bit of a bias.
Maybe I'm, you know, got a grudge or whatever, you know, maybe I'm leaning to, well, you know,
let's take this guy out. You know, I think he's guilty. And then we go to the judge,
we go to the Levite and the, the Levite says, examines everything and says, well,
Adam's not guilty. You know, it was somebody else that took out poor Fabian. Right.
And I, and I, but I don't like that. And then we leave and I act presumptuously say, yeah,
I know that's what he said, but you know what? I still think he's guilty. Put him to death.
Now that judge, now that law makes, now that, now we like that law all of a sudden, don't we?
Now all of a sudden that law is not so harsh because now it's protecting Adam.
Now it's protecting the innocent from a vindictive power hungry judge who just wants to, you know,
shed some blood, you know, he just wants to, you know, do, do his own thing, act presumptuously.
So people need to understand that, you know, it's, it's there for a reason,
not just to make sure everybody gets put to death, but to make sure that the righteous
is justified, that the innocent is protected and that the wicked evil people that deserve to die
are put to death. That's what God's system is there to do. That's why all these safeguards
are there. And you say, well, I don't know if I agree with that. I don't like those laws,
you know, but that's what it says. And you know, what good are laws if no one's going to obey them?
What good do I have all these rules if there's nobody there to enforce them?
You know, people run amok. If there's absolutely no, I guarantee you, if they just lifted all
penalties off of murder, if they just said, you know what, murder is legal. You know,
people, they watch, what is that, that all those movies they're making, don't they? Isn't there
a movie about that? The purge or whatever. We're just like one day everything's legal.
It would be like that just every day, you know, murder's legal. You know, I don't like the way
you looked at me. He cut me off. You know, people, it would go crazy. You don't think that would
happen. Come on. Maybe not like the movie where they're doing whatever they do, you know,
putting nails and bats or something. I don't know. People would just go nuts. People would,
they would, they would do whatever they want. That's why God has these laws there to protect
people and not just to, just to be some, you know, you know, just to be mean, you know,
God's just trying to be mean. No, he's trying to protect people and keep them safe.
Now we're kind of going to shift gears here towards the end of this chapter,
but look here at verse 14. He kind of switches here. He talks about this and then he kind of
gets in this other matter about choosing a king. And I think there's, you know, there's another
principle here that we can learn out of this passage in that, you know, that God sometimes
gives, he prescribes things in the Bible, not because he condones of it, but because he knows
but because he knows what's going to happen.
God in the Bible often will prescribe measures that need to be taken in certain instances,
not because he's putting his stamp of approval on it, because he knows that's what's going to
happen. That, that man has fallen, that man has a wicked sinful heart, and then he's going to do
whatever he's going to do what he wants in some instances. And God, so God says, well, you know,
that's not what I want, but if this is what happens, this is what needs to take place.
You know, God's will is not that people should get divorced, but he said, but if they're going
to get divorced, let them write a bill of divorcement. But from the beginning, it was not so.
You know, God, God does not, he calls it adultery to be divorced and remarried. That's what God
calls it. But he knew people were going to get divorced. And he said, and for the hardness of
your heart, Moses gave you this law that if a man should put away his wife, let him give her also a
bill of divorcement. So God made, made certain he put those practices there, not because he approves
of it again, because he knows what's going to happen. And that's what we see here in verse 14,
where it talks about them choosing a king. He says in verse 14, when thou art come unto the land,
which Lord thy God giveth thee and shall possess it and shall dwell therein and shall say,
I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me, thou shalt any wise set him
king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose, one from among thy brethren, that thou
shalt thou set king over thee, that thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy
brother. Again, that's a principle that we even have in the United States, that the president has
to be a natural born citizen. You know, even though Obama, you know, probably wasn't, you know,
that's a whole nother conspiracy that we can unravel some other time. But, but God is saying
here, look, now here's the thing, did God want them to have a king? No. Did God say, hey, I want
you to have a king? And is that what that passage said? When you get in the land, I want you to pick
out, I'll pick out a king for you. God's system was the system of the judges. Always has been.
That's the system that he prescribed for man to have a system of judges. And, you know, we saw
that come to an end in 1st Samuel chapter eight. For the sake of time, I'll just remind us of that
story, that when Samuel was old, his sons were corrupt, and the people rebelled. And they said,
we do not want your sons to be the judges. They're corrupt. We want a king like all the nations that
are around about us, just like God said would happen in Deuteronomy 14. He said, when thou art
coming in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall dwell there, and shall say, I
will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around about me. He's saying, that's where
they got to in 1st Samuel eight, where they finally came to place. We don't want God's system
of the judges. We want to be like all the other nations. We want a king over us. And what did God
tell, you know, and of course, Samuel laments the fact, you know, it bothers him that Israel
is rejecting, not his sons, but rejecting the system of the judges and choosing a king. And
God says to him, Samuel, he says, hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto
thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should reign over them.
Because in the system of the judges, it's not that the judges were the supreme law of the land,
it's that God's law was the supreme law of the land. That the judges were to look in the word
of God and decree the law to the people, that they were to carry out, you know, what God's word said.
Well, when they wanted a king, what they're really saying is, we don't want the judges,
we don't want God to rule over us. That's what God is saying there. When they reject
the system of the judges, they're rejecting me. That's what they're, that's what he's saying.
So God is saying here, this is the principle in verse 14, where he's saying, look, if, if,
when this happens, when you finally do reject me, when you finally say, I'm going to have a king,
we're going to, we're going to do it the world's way. Because God knows, man, God, you know,
is based on his foreknowledge of what man is going to do, regardless of his will. He's saying,
this is how you're going to do it. It's not God putting a stamp of approval. And this is something,
this is a principle that we can learn from this, that we need to apply in other places in
scripture. And, and you can see it again here in verse 16. You know, he says in verse, in those,
in that first passage, look, he's going to be a natural born citizen. He's gonna be one of
thy brethren, and I'm going to choose him. And that's exactly what he did. He chose Saul,
he chose David, and he chose Solomon, and so on and so forth. But you can apply the same principle
of God knowing what man is going to do and prescribing, you know, the methods or how it's
going to be handled when man does his own thing. When it comes to this matter of a king, it also
comes this matter of polygamy, which we've preached a whole sermon about, you know,
recently, he says in verse 16, about the king, he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause
the people return to Egypt, to the end that they should multiply horses for as much the Lord has
said unto you, he shall henceforth return no more that way, neither shall he multiply wives to
himself, that his heart turn not away. And that's exactly what happened to King Solomon, if you
recall, a man who in the beginning of his reign as the king of Israel, had God appear to him twice
and speak directly to him, was turned away by his many strange wives and his elder years
to worship false gods. Now, I don't believe he was doing it because he was unsaved,
I believe he was doing it to appease those wives. But, you know, God is putting the stipulation
here and he's saying, look, you're not going to multiply wives. Now is that saying, you know,
that God, you know, because you'll read elsewhere where people do multiply wives to themselves.
Now is that God saying, yeah, it's good to have polygamy and go ahead and do that.
Just because it happened in Scripture doesn't mean that God approves of it.
God's just saying, look, when this happens, you know, make sure that, you know, this is the way
you're going to do it. This is how it's going to be handled. And when it comes to this, I mean,
God here is condemning polygamy, right? But Solomon committed polygamy, as well as other
kings. David committed polygamy. You know, we read about many men in the Bible that had multiple
wives. Does, you know, people read the Bible and they go, oh, people in the Bible had multiple
wives. I should do that. You know, people also hung themselves in the Bible. Maybe you should
do that. You know, the people did a lot of things in the Bible, that doesn't mean we should do them.
Because, you know, he's condemning it here, but he knows it's going to happen.
And in Exodus 21, I'll read to you for sake of time, he says,
if he take him another wife, talking about if a man takes another wife,
you know, her food, talking about the first wife, her food, her raiment, her duty of marriage shall
not, shall he not diminish. Saying, look, God clearly, from what we just read, condemns polygamy.
The kings were not to multiply wives. Nowhere, you know, God, from the very beginning,
said a man shall cleave unto his wife. You know, singular. That's God's design.
Well, he understands that men have it in their heads that, you know, more is better.
And they want to have a multitude of wives. So they take another wife and God's saying,
okay, well, that's not my, that's not what I want, but you're going to do it anyway.
So when you do that, just remember that the first wife, she's not to be neglected.
You can't, you can't just say, well, I'm trading in for a newer model,
or I'm just going to add another, you know, a nicer vehicle to the garage.
Excuse the crass illustration, right? You know, I don't, I'm against the objectification of women,
but you know, sometimes you got to use an illustration, right? But he's saying, look,
you know, you're still going to, you're still going to take care of the other wife.
You're not going to treat her like a lesser wife.
So again, this is the principle that I want us to see here at the end.
That just because God is telling them how to do certain things doesn't
mean he approves of what they're doing. It's just in his foreknowledge,
he knows that's what you're going to do because man is sinful.
You know, the key word in Exodus 21 is the word if, if he take him another wife.
If, if you go against my will, if you decide not to obey me in this area,
if, not when, not thou shalt take him another wife.
Now let's finish up here. Of course, in the last couple of verses,
these are kind of a more well-known passage if you've been in church very long and
you've ever heard a sermon about, you know, Bible reading or Bible memorization,
you've probably heard this passage where it says, you know, talking about the king,
excuse me, and it shall be when he sits upon the throne of his kingdom,
that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of which is before the priests and
Levites. So he's saying, look, when the king comes into his throne, he's going to take this
book of the law, you know, the five books of Moses, and he's going to hand write a copy of
it for himself. You know, if you, if you're going to sit down and hand write this, this book,
you know, you're going to get familiar with it. That's probably part of the reason there,
because God wanted to make sure they, they read it at least once, you know,
and when you write things out, you tend to focus more on what it is that you're reading.
And it shall be with him, right? It wasn't just to write it out and then set it on a shelf.
It shall be with him and he shall read. That was the purpose of having it with him,
that he would read therein all the days of his life. Why? Because God just wanted to keep him
busy. Because God just likes to give people hard things to do, or God just wants to take up his
time, keep him out of trouble. No, he did. He told him to do that. Why? That he made
that he may learn to fear the Lord, his God. You know, that's a great reason to read the Bible.
And when we get backslid and we get into sin and we get away from God, I guarantee you that person
is not reading the Bible. And when you see the person that's trying to live for God and do what's
right, not saying they're perfect, but I'm saying they're, they're, they're, they're growing,
they're going, you know, they're, they're heading in the right direction. That person's reading the
Bible because they're learning to fear the Lord, their God, just like the King would hear to keep
all the words that this laws and these statutes to do them. Because, you know, when we have the
Bible, it makes you accountable. Ignorance is not an excuse with God. You know, none of us, I mean,
he had to write it out by hand, but do we have that excuse today? This is the, this is the first
Bible that was ever given to me. I've got six more or something like that. I've got a shelf full of
old Bibles. You know, we, we hand out by, we got, we order them by the case in this country.
You know, nobody is with, has the excuse of, well, I didn't know what God wanted.
I was unaware of God's will. Man, the Bible's everywhere. It's the most popular selling book
in history. You know, it's free. It's, it's not even copyrighted. You could go home and photocopy
every page and give it away if you wanted. And you could even sell it. But here's the thing,
you know, we're to be reading in it because of the things, the way it affects our heart.
You know, that's why God wants you to read the Bible. God isn't just trying to get, you know,
get you to read the Bible so that he can just, you know, work on your concentration or your,
you know, your, your, you know, your, your reading comprehension. Although those things
happen when you read the Bible. He's saying, look, that you would learn to fear, that you
would keep all the words of his law. Verse 20, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren.
You know, if we're getting puffed up, if we're getting lifted up, if we're thinking we're better
than other people, we're probably not reading the Bible. Because the Bible has a real,
has a real good way of cutting us down to size. Because the Bible doesn't pull any punches.
You know, it, the Bible says that the word of God is quick and powerful,
sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing into the piercing, piercing even to dividing asunder
of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. We will read the Bible, if we're serious about our Bible reading, we're getting in it,
and not just this, you know, five minute and two minute devotional, but we're getting in the word
of God and really taking it in. Man, God will cut into the heart and start to show us things
about our own selves. We'll start to see ourselves in the scriptures. And you know what it'll do?
It'll humble us. It'll make us, well, you know, maybe, maybe we should cut David a little slack.
I know he multiplied wives and that was wicked, but you know, I haven't done that, but you know,
whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust hath committed adultery with already in his heart.
We'd read things like that. Well, I've never killed anybody, you know, but if we've hated
our brother in our heart, we've killed him. You know, so that's, that's the point here. Why does
God want us reading all the days of our life? To humble us, to cause us to fear. And there's,
there's a big reason to fear because, you know, there's a lot at stake. There's a lot at stake
when it comes to life, you know, and, and especially in societies and in groups of people,
you know, where people are sinful, people are going to do each other wrong. You need to know
how to handle those situations. And, you know, society is so backwards today. You know, justice
is so perverted today. You know, they don't know what to do with criminals anymore or how to,
how to actually dole out justice in society. You know why they don't know? Because they're not
reading all the days of their life in this book. They have another idea and it's costing us.
So that's the message this morning. Let's go and pray.