So there in Deuteronomy Chapter 27,
of course, keep something there tonight,
but go ahead and turn over to Romans Chapter 4 as well.
When you get over to Romans, keep something there.
We're going to come back to Romans several times this evening.
But what we see here is Moses leading the children over into Israel,
into the promised land, and he's telling them when they get there,
they're going to set up these two great stones upon these mountains,
and one of these stones would have the curse and one of these stones would have
the blessings that they would write the law upon these stones rather.
What it's showing us here,
first of all, is that the law is something that is a burden to us.
These stones were supposed to be,
imagine carrying a stone up this mountain.
That probably wouldn't have been a very easy task, especially back then.
They didn't have all the diesel heavy equipment to
just put it on a flatbed and truck it up this mountain.
This would have taken a lot of work to do this,
and it shows us that there's a burden involved here with the law.
Now, if you're there in Romans Chapter 4,
Romans Chapter 4, look at verse 19 where it says,
''Now we know that what thinks so ever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified in his sight,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin.''
So that's what they were supposed to write upon these stones,
was the law.
Of course, we know from Romans and other passages as well that the law is what condemns us.
It's the schoolmaster that brings us to Christ.
As Paul said, ''I was alive once,
but when the law came,
sin revived and I died.''
It was the law that condemned him.
What he's doing here is he's setting up these stones,
and these stones are a picture of the law.
That's why he said there,
''He shall set up great stones right upon them all the words of this law,
in Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim to bless,
and Ebal to curse.''
So these laws were on great stones,
and what is it showing us here that they were large and they were easy to see.
He's saying, ''Look, write them upon these great stones,
and they're going to put them up on the mountain so that everybody could see them.''
That was the purpose of it.
So then when they get over to these two mountains,
they could look and everybody in the congregation will be able to look at
these stones and see the law that was written upon them.
What I think that's showing us is that our guilt as human beings is obvious.
If we go out door knocking and knocking at people's doors,
and trying to win them to Christ and preaching the gospel,
it's very rare that you run into somebody that doesn't admit that they're a sinner.
At least admits that they've told a lie.
Now, I have had that happen.
I've knocked on somebody's door,
and I said, ''Well, we've all told a lie.''
She said, ''Not me.'' After a little bit of conversation,
it was pretty evident that this individual had a few screws loose as well.
So generally, everybody in the world,
it's pretty easy to convince them that they're sinners.
We don't have to look very far in this fallen world to see the effects of sin.
We don't even have to look that far in our own lives and in
our own hearts to see how we ourselves are sinful people.
I believe that's what this is picturing in the Bible when God is having
him set the stones up on these two great mountains with the law written on them.
He's saying, ''Look, everybody's going to see it and
recognize the fact that they've come short of the glory of God.''
It's showing us that our guilt is obvious.
If you look there in Romans Chapter 2,
go back a few pages in your Bibles to Romans Chapter 2,
God says that these things are even written on our hearts.
That man, even without the use of these physical stones,
is convicted in his own heart of his sin.
It's obvious even just from your own conscience.
If you look there in Romans Chapter 2 verse 14, it says,
''For when the Gentiles which have not the law,''
so they don't have these things written down.
They don't have a physical book that they can open up to that has all these commandments.
They didn't have these stones set up to remind them of their own sinfulness.
It says that they have not the law,
but they do by nature the things contained in the law.
These having not the law or a law unto themselves,
would show the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the mean while excusing or excusing one another.
We could see that everybody has an understanding that we are sinful.
It's very obvious, and I believe that's what the Bible
is pointing out here or what it's illustrating.
But it says there in verse 4 in Deuteronomy,
again, just keep something in Romans.
It says there in verse 4 that these were to be set up in Mount Ebal.
That's what he said there, ''Therefore it shall be,
when you should be gone over to Jordan,
you shall set up these stones which I command you this day in
Mount Ebal and thou shalt plaster them with plaster.''
So again, just showing you that there was this great burden,
that this was something they had to put a lot of effort into.
In this chapter, we only talk about the cursing.
But in other chapters, we get more into what was written as far as the blessing,
what was pronounced, the blessings that were pronounced.
But what's interesting is that whether you're talking about
either the curse or you're talking about the blessing that was pronounced,
that both of them were set up on mountains.
Both of these stones were taken up to the mount and set there.
One mount was a picture of the curse,
and one mountain was a picture of the blessing that came through the law.
The law does condemn us,
but also the man that liveth in them,
he shall be justified.
If we do live according to the law,
God will bless us for that.
We understand we don't do that to go to heaven,
but if we keep these God's commandments,
if we love the Lord and we strive to live as he would have us,
then we know that we also receive a blessing.
What I want to point out is the fact that they're both on mountains,
meaning this, that it takes effort to do either one.
People get this notion or idea in their lives that if they just cast off the things of God,
that if they don't listen to God or man,
they just do their own thing, whatever feels good,
that somehow that's a liberation or somehow that's not going to take a lot of effort.
But the Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard,
and that if we choose to go up that mount of cursing where we're fighting the law of God,
we're going against the word of God,
there's going to be a lot of difficulty and trials and
tribulations that come with it through living a sinful life.
We understand that, but we also have to understand that
even when we're going in the path of God's blessing,
when we were trying to keep the law,
keep the commandments, live godly in Christ Jesus to walk in newness of life,
that also is an effort.
That also is an uphill battle even as much as living a sinful wicked life is too.
So I think that's the picture there too,
the fact that they're both set up on mountains.
Showing us that either way you want to live your life,
if you want to live a wicked sinful life, it's going to be hard.
If you want to live a life that's blessed and used by God,
it's still going to require effort on your part.
You're still going to have to exert some energy in order to attain that.
Now, if you would, turn over to keep something in Deuteronomy,
and just go back to Romans real quick though.
So we see that the blessing,
it came from Mount Gerizim,
and the cursing, it came from Mount Ebal.
So here's another picture here in the Bible,
the fact that these two things are different,
that they're far apart from one another,
that they're separate, that works and grace cannot be mixed.
So we see first of all that the blessing,
it came from the opposite Mount,
Mount Gerizim, he said in verse 11.
So we see also that the law is not only a curse,
but it's also a blessing.
So if you look there in Romans chapter seven,
look at Romans chapter seven,
and go to verse seven.
We saw first of all that there was this curse that came from Mount Ebal, right?
In the Bible teaches us that there is a curse involved with the law.
That if we are to be justified by the law,
we're fallen from grace, the Bible says in Galatians.
It tells us that whosoever shall keep the whole law yet
offended one point is guilty of all.
So we understand that there's definitely a curse that the law
brings to us because of our sinful nature,
but there's also a blessing that comes from Mount Gerizim.
Look at the law, excuse me,
Romans chapter seven, verse seven, it says,
what shall we say then?
Is the law sin? God forbid.
Yeah, I had not known sin,
but by the law, for I had not known lust,
except the law had said,
thou shalt not covet.
But sin taking occasion by the commandment,
rotten me all manner of concupiscence,
for without the law sin was dead,
for I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died,
and the commandment which was ordained unto life,
I found to be unto death.
So is it God that made the law death or is it us?
It's us. Because when we sinned by one man,
sin entered in the world and death passed upon all men.
We know that by one man, Adam,
we all have inherited this fallen nature.
But that's not the fault of the law,
that's the fault of our own sinful nature.
So it is ordained unto life, but we find it unto death,
for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me
and by it slew me.
But he goes on and he ends there and says,
wherefore the law is holy,
and the commandment holy and just and good.
So we don't ever want to get this out of kilter view
of the Old Testament or the law specifically.
And this is something that's prevalent today
in a lot of churches.
They just want to discount the law,
they just want to just say, well, that's Old Testament,
none of that applies today, we're all in a grace.
There's now therefore no condemnation
to those which are in Christ Jesus.
But that same verse goes on and says,
to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
So even as Christians, as saved born again people,
if we do continue to walk after the flesh,
we will suffer the chastisement of Christ or of God,
that we're going to be punished
for our misbehavior essentially.
So we don't want to get this view of the law
out of balance or out of whack.
We want to make sure that we're not just getting
this dismissive attitude,
because as we read all the things there
at the end of the chapter there of Deuteronomy 27,
there's a lot of things today that we would probably say,
yeah, it's still a good idea
to not do a lot of those things.
And we'll get into that here in a minute.
So what I'm trying to lay down right now
is the fact that look,
the law is a curse and a blessing at the same time.
The question is really,
what mount are you going to climb in life?
Are you going to go after the mountain of cursing
where the law is just nothing but a condemnation to you?
Or are you going to try and climb
that hill of God's blessing?
You're going to go up that other one
where you strive to keep the law
and God blesses you for it.
We keep something in Romans there.
And what I think this is also showing us
when the fact that God is separating these two mountains,
he's saying, you know, you got this one mount here,
the curse and the other mount with the blessing,
is that the curse and blessing,
they're coming from two opposite mountains.
They're coming from opposing mountains.
And what's that showing us is that they cannot be mixed.
You know, you cannot have works and grace at the same time.
If you're there in Romans 11, look at verse six.
It says, and if by grace, then it is no more of works.
Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace.
Otherwise, work is no more work.
I mean, the Bible cannot be any clearer.
We all know Ephesians chapter two, verses eight, nine.
For by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works.
But how many people are out there today
that have this notion that somehow,
oh, yeah, it's all by grace,
but we still have our part to play as well?
They say, oh, yeah, I know Jesus died,
was buried and rose again,
but I also have my part to play in salvation.
Well, I think God's showing us these two mounts.
He's showing, look, there's the curse
and there's the blessing.
It's works or it's grace.
You know, and we understand that, you know,
the Bible makes it perfectly clear
that nobody can work their way to heaven.
It's not by being good enough.
So what is he saying here in Romans 11?
Look, it's one or the other.
It's either grace or it's works.
But it can't be the strange, you know, mixing of the two
that every false religion in the world tries to do.
I mean, that's what all religions that are out there,
essentially at their core,
what you find is some kind of works.
They're all work-based.
And really, that's what makes true Christianity different
than every other religion in the world
is the fact that it's saying,
look, you have nothing to do with it.
You have absolutely no part to play in your salvation
other than to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he has done all the work for you.
So I think that's what he's kind of illustrating
or that's another picture of the gospel
that we can see here, that we have two different mounts.
We have the law being a curse
and we have the law being a blessing.
It's either grace or it's either works.
It's one or the other.
And, you know, we could turn to several different passages
and see that throughout the scripture.
If you're there in Romans,
just go back to Romans chapter three.
Romans chapter three, I'll begin reading in verse 21.
Romans 3, 21 says,
"'But now the righteousness of God without the law
"'is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
"'even the righteousness of God,
"'which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
"'unto all them that believe, for there is no difference.
"'For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
"'being justified freely by his grace
"'through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
"'whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
"'through faith in his blood,
"'to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins
"'that are passed through the forbearance of God.'"
So we see again, just over and over again,
and we could go through so many other scriptures
that just show us it's not by works, it's by grace.
But there's so many people today that don't understand that,
that they don't have a clear understanding of this.
And that should really, you know,
help us to understand the importance of what we're doing
when we're sharing the gospel with somebody.
You know, you're bringing the light
of the gospel of Christ to them
and you're opening up the word of God
and you're showing them the truth,
that they cannot be saved by their own works,
that they have to put all their faith in Christ.
And so many people do not understand that today.
That's why, you know, what we do is very important
when we go out and we win souls.
Now, if you're there in Deuteronomy,
we'll look here at verse 14,
keep something there, Deuteronomy 27.
In verse 14, the Bible says,
"'And the Levites shall speak and say
"'until the men of Israel, with a loud voice,
"'Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image,
"'an abomination on the work of the hands of the craftsman,
"'and putteth it in a secret place,
"'and all the people shall answer and say, amen.'"
So what is he talking about here?
Is now he's getting into, you know,
the specific things that God is cursing.
Of course, this isn't an all-inclusive list.
You know, there are many other things
that God calls abominations, that God calls a curse,
that will bring a curse upon you.
This is just a few examples that he's going over.
And one of the first ones he's touching on here
is what we would call idolatry, the worship of idols.
And what I want to point out today is that
he says there in verse 15,
"'Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image.'"
Now, that's a really important word, any.
You know, because we have a whole group of people today,
you know, in several different religions,
you know, Buddhists, you know, the Hindus, the Catholics,
the Greek Orthodox, you know,
we could probably think of several other ones
that actually worship or pray to or venerate
these actual statues.
You know, anyone that's ever been in a Catholic church
knows that's the case.
I mean, you walk in there and it's just idols everywhere.
And of course, Catholics are not completely ignorant
of what the Bible teaches.
You know, this isn't the first time a Baptist preacher
has gotten up and called out the Catholic church
for their idolatry.
So they've definitely crafted some, you know,
very clever arguments or some real cute ways
to try to get around this.
But at the end of the day, they'll say things like,
well, you know, we're not worshiping the statue of Mary.
We're just showing some very serious respect here.
You know, we're just showing our love and admiration
for the mother of Christ.
No, you are bowing down to them.
When you're bowing down, when you're praying to them,
that is a form of worship.
That's what they're doing.
And, you know, regardless of what reason,
they're setting up these statues
and carrying around on their stretchers
to the streets of, you know, we've all seen that,
you know, where they have this big ornate statue of Mary
and they got, you know, a bunch of guys carrying
or there's flowers everywhere.
For whatever reason, they do that.
The Bible says right there,
they shall not make any graven image.
Not one, not any.
Not your statue of Mary, not any of your, you know,
your supposed saints that you pray to.
They were not to make any of them.
And, you know, even if they're being used
as the Catholics, I'd say,
well, we're just using it in religious worship.
Well, God said don't make any.
You know, period.
At the end of the, you're just not allowed to do it.
And they have several different objections.
And, you know, in Exodus chapter 20,
I'll read to you from verse four.
It says, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above
or in the earth beneath
or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.
They're saying, oh, we're not worshiping them.
You know, yeah, we bow down to them.
Yeah, you know, you go into the donut shop, you know,
and the Hindu or the Buddhist back there,
you know, I've seen this, you know,
has their little Buddha or their, you know,
Hindu god on the table and literal, you know,
cup of coffee and a donut offered under the idol.
You say you're making it up.
I've seen it, friend.
It's out there.
They'll take you up to the one up on 35th Avenue
and the 17 rainbow donuts.
They've got it there, you know.
People do that.
They say, yeah, but you know, we're not worshiping them.
We're just, you know, we're just venerating them.
We're just respecting them.
But God's saying, look,
you're not to bow down yourself to them or to serve them.
You know, serve the donut to the next customer.
You eat the donut.
Don't give it to the idol.
You know, he said, for I, the Lord thy God,
I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children under the third and fourth generation.
So right there, God's showing why he takes
the sin of idolatry so seriously,
because he is a jealous God.
Because all that worship that they're giving
under this fault, this, you know, this porcelain image,
this molten image, this piece of wood, you know,
is something that should be given to God.
And God is jealous for that praise.
I mean, it'd be like any one of us who have children.
We go in, you know, and if there was another man
that, you know, present and our children
started to call them dad.
Say, oh, started calling them dad.
I started thanking them for the clothes on their back
and the food in their bellies
and the roof over their house.
You know, any father who's providing
would be upset by that and say, no, that's my,
I deserve that respect.
I deserve that praise.
I'm the one who's provided all these things.
Don't give it unto a stranger.
Don't give it unto someone who's not doing those things.
And that's exactly what's going on
when people get into all this practice of idolatry.
When they start to worship Mary and pray to Mary.
You know, Mary doesn't hear you.
She doesn't hear you.
You know, she's not this mediatrix.
There's one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus.
That's it.
And all that praise and worship
should be directed towards God
because God is jealous for it.
And he says, you shall not serve them.
He said in Leviticus 26,
you shall make no idols nor graven image.
So I don't care what reason they're making it.
I don't care what cute little argument they have
to try and tiptoe around this.
He just says, don't even make it.
So as soon as you make it,
you're already breaking God's commandment
when it comes to this thing of idolatry.
He's saying, don't even make it.
So, you know, I don't care what the purpose is
behind making it.
Once you make it, you've broken God's commandment.
God says, don't bow to them and don't even make them.
And, you know, people will say, well, you know,
that's not what the Catholic church is doing, you know.
And when I originally wrote this,
it was written for an audience in Tucson
that was actually much closer.
So forgive the scale of these pictures tonight.
But does that look like it's just me showing,
the Pope just showing respect
to the statue of supposed baby Jesus?
When you're taking, getting down on an E
and bowing down to it,
or how about this one,
where he's got, you know, his little incense here
that he's burying onto this ornate statue of Mary.
This is just him showing respect.
This isn't worship, folks.
That's what the Catholics will tell you.
If that's not worship, I don't know what is.
I don't care what you call it.
That looks like worship to me.
What about when you're kissing it?
When you're putting your mouth on this thing
and giving it a big smooch?
You know, that is not, you know,
or you're kissing the knee of the little baby Jesus.
But they want us to just look at that and say,
oh, that's just, you know, religious worship.
They're just using it in a religious service.
That is worship of an idol.
That is idolatry in any way you cut it.
And it doesn't matter,
even if you wanted to call it something else,
they've already broken the God's commandments
when they made this.
When that thing rolled off the idol factory line
down at Idols R Us,
they were already in sin
before they even burnt any incense
or kissed any knees or passed it around
for a bunch of dudes in dresses to give it a kiss.
You know, I wonder if that's gonna be kosher
with the social distancing now.
You know, how are they kissing the idols?
Are they sanitizing it after each kiss?
I don't know.
But that's not just casual, you know,
observance or respect or something like that.
That is straight-up idolatry is what we're looking at.
So, you see, God here,
he goes into several things about the curse of the law.
He deals out all these curses.
You know, and God, you know, often, I believe,
in the Scripture, puts things in order of priority.
You know, maybe not always, maybe that doesn't apply here.
I mean, you know, he's gotta lay it all out there
one way or another, but he starts out with idolatry,
and then it kinda gets, there's some things
that are further down the list that are pretty bad, too.
But one of the first things God brings up is idolatry,
and God brings up idolatry over and over and over
and over again.
Now, he talks about, you know,
the one that probably popped out was bestiality, you know?
He says, if you do that, you're cursed.
But that's not something that I think is prevalent in society,
and that's not something that God hammers a lot
in the Scripture.
He does touch on it here and there.
But idolatry is just something he hammers in over and over.
Why is that?
Because as you saw a moment ago, that's what people do.
There's just something in man that is just religious by nature
that if that part of him is not directed
towards the true and living God,
he will direct it towards something.
Whether it's his own mind, his own vain imagination,
or an actual physical idol.
So I think that's why God, you know, laid it out there first
and hammers that in the Scripture about idolatry
and keeps bringing it up over and over again to them.
But keep, you know, going further into this chapter here,
what we want to keep in mind, I kind of alluded this earlier,
is the fact that, you know, we don't want to develop this
we're-not-under-the-law philosophy.
I mean, think about it, which is, as I mentioned earlier,
very prevalent in churches today.
Let's say, you know, we're in honor of the law,
we're under grace, you know, all things, you know,
are profitable and not all things edify us.
This kind of, you know, this kind of mentality
that's very dismissive of the Old Testament
and the things that are written.
And that's really kind of dangerous ground,
and it's really very irrational,
it's very illogical when you start to think about
the things that are actually written in the Old Testament.
I mean, some of the things that we just read tonight.
Would we really want to develop this,
it doesn't, that's Old Testament towards some of the things
we read here tonight?
I mean, it goes on about incest and bestiality
and all these other things.
Should we just say, oh, hey, you know,
we're not under the law anymore.
We're all under grace, so have at it.
You know, of course not.
No rational human being would say that.
No normal, you know, functioning individual
would be okay with that.
But that's exactly what they're saying
when you develop that attitude.
They want to pick and choose, they want to say,
oh, well, you know, we're not under the law
when it comes to these other sins.
You know, we can drink and fornicate
and so on and so forth.
These things that might be able to come
more naturally to us, right?
But you can't pick and choose.
You can't be selective about what you're gonna dismiss
and what you're going to adopt from the Bible.
It's not just this a la carte kind of buffet-style
Christianity that people are promoting out there.
It's the whole enchilada, you get the whole thing
when you're talking about the Bible.
So, where was I at here?
So yeah, we can't just sit here and pick and choose
what it is that we want to believe.
And this is a real dangerous attitude that's out there today.
People want to have this, you know,
have it my way kind of Christianity.
And they want to say, well, something, you know,
this is all done away, you know, these things don't matter.
You know, it's okay to go ahead and, you know,
do these things that are written in Deuteronomy chapter 27.
I mean, is that the kind of attitude we're gonna have?
Of course not.
But does that mean that all things apply
from the Old Testament?
Of course not.
I understand that there are very specific things
that God does away in Christ, but they're very specific.
God, you know, specifically talks about them
in the New Testament.
If you're there in Romans chapter 14,
or Romans, go to chapter 14, if you kept something there.
Bible says in Hebrews 7,
"'For the priesthood being changed,
"'there is made of necessity a change also of the law.'
"'So yes, there is a change of the Old Testament law,
"'and those things that pertain
"'to the priesthood specifically.'"
You know, God still has the same view of bestiality,
and incest, and sodomy, and drunkenness,
and all these other things that we read about
in the Old Testament.
His mind hasn't changed.
You know, it's Jesus Christ the same today,
yesterday, and forever.
Well, the things that have changed,
He specifically spells out in the New Testament,
and it's things that pertain unto the priesthood,
or the Sabbath days.
You're there in Romans 14,
people are always going on about,
you know, you gotta keep the Sabbath.
We're always getting these emails,
and I always see comments online
where people say, hey, you're in sin.
You're not observing the Sabbath day.
And he says in verse five of Romans 14,
one man steemeth one day above another.
Another man is steemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
So God is not putting an emphasis on the Sabbath.
In fact, you know, Jesus didn't keep the Sabbath.
In fact, Jesus broke the Sabbath, if you recall.
That's what the Pharisees were getting upset with him
about in the New Testament.
You know, when he went out and he, you know,
began to pluck the ears of corn,
and him and his disciples ate.
You know, that was done on the Sabbath, you know?
And that's a whole nother sermon right there.
If you would, go over to Colossians chapter two.
Actually, go to Galatians chapter one.
Galatians chapter one, the Bible says, you know,
there are things that are done away from the Old Testament.
But you know what?
Lying with your father's wife, and with your mother-in-law,
and you know, all these other wicked things,
that's not it.
Those things are still in force.
And so is the vast majority of the law.
So this idea of this philosophy of this is all gone away,
that all these sins that God was against
in the Old Testament, he's now okay with.
That's somebody leading you up the wrong mountain.
That's somebody leading you up the mount to God's curse,
where they're just gonna lead you right up,
you know, doing all those things that God hates and detests,
and bringing God's curse and chastisement upon your life.
That's why it's important to understand this.
The Bible says in Colossians two, and I'll read to you,
it says, and you, being dead in your sins,
the uncircumcision of your flat,
hath he requickened together with him,
having forgiven you all trespasses,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,
and having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Let no man therefore judge you in lying with a beast,
or kissing your grandma,
or looking on your parents' nakedness.
Is that what he said?
No.
He didn't say, let no man therefore judge you
in anything out of the Old Testament.
That's not what he said.
He said, in meat, in drink, or in respect of an holy day,
or of a new moon, or the Sabbath days.
When God takes something out of the Old Testament,
says, this no longer applies to you,
he spells it out very clearly in here.
And so, and here's the thing,
does the New Testament have to repeat
everything we just read in the Old Testament?
Is that what Christians need today?
Do they need a whole, just a whole nother utterance,
just another complete, what's the word I'm looking for?
Do they just need God to just repeat himself again
in the New Testament?
Or was the Old Testament good enough?
Why don't you just go read that?
So God already said it once.
I mean, the Old Testament's pretty long.
Do we really need another volume
to reread the same things over again
that God doesn't want us to do?
Of course not.
Now, if you're there, keep something in Galatians.
I'll read on here in Deuteronomy 27.
He said, cursed be he that seteth light
by his father or his mother, and the people shall say amen.
Now you say, what does that mean?
I don't know.
Do you have any thoughts about what that is?
I have some thoughts.
I'm not entirely sure what that means by that.
I have an idea, but I don't want to just float things out there.
So that's a verse I've always read and wondered about.
So just being honest, going verse by verse,
that's my take on verse 16.
I don't know.
Is that all right?
So verse 17, he said, cursed be he
that removeth his neighbor's landmark,
and all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way,
and all the people shall say amen.
That's an interesting one that's in there.
It's one of those laws or the cursings
that God puts upon people.
You have to read that and you think to yourself,
who in the world would ever do that?
Who in the world would ever lead the blind out of the way?
But people do this kind of thing, don't they?
I mean, I remember there was this viral video years ago
of this kid at some high school or junior high or something
just wailing on some blind kid.
And then some other kid had enough decency
to just cold cock the other kid, blindside him, and said,
dude, he's blind.
What are you doing?
And they knew he was.
So people are out there.
They'll take advantage of people that have a disability,
whether they're going to physically assault them.
It reminds me of the story of my stepdad
used to take me to these softball games.
He was part of these little softball leagues.
And we'd go to these softball games,
and there was this blind guy that would sell candy.
And he had a little table out.
He had all these boxes of different candy bars.
And you could go out and give him some money.
And I remember my stepdad saying, hey,
don't try and pull anything with him.
He could tell what bill you handed him by the way it feels.
And I was a kid, the candy bar was like $1
or something like that.
Or if you try to get multiple things,
maybe add it up to $5, and you'd be like,
well, I'm just going to give $1 and tell him it's $5.
He's blind.
But he told us, hey, he'll just feel the bill.
And he'll know whether or not you handed him a $1 or a $5
or a $10.
Of course, we were kids, pretty gullible.
We're like, wow.
We didn't try and test it out.
And I think the guy kind of put that out there.
Because maybe it's just my imagination as a child,
but I remember him taking that money and feeling it like that.
I don't know.
But hey, would somebody think to do something like that?
Well, why would you need to tell a kid not to do that?
Of course, they think of these kind of foolish things.
Would somebody really cause the blind to wander out of the way?
Would somebody set a stumbling block for their brother
to fall over?
Yeah, these type of things happen.
Look at all the other things we read about tonight.
I mean, God's not just putting filler in the Bible.
But really, I think what we could take this verse here,
verse 17, or verse 18, rather, and apply it spiritually.
There's a lot of people that are doing it spiritually.
You might not see people leading blind people out of the way,
causing them to wander out of the way physically.
But I think we do see a lot of it spiritually.
The Bible tells us that the lost, that the God of this world
had blinded the minds of them that they believe not,
that they're spiritually blind.
They can't see.
They need someone to open the gospel and preach it to them
and help them to understand the Holy Spirit has to get involved.
They're not just going to come to these things on their own.
In the meantime, they are blind.
And there's a lot of false prophets out there
that will cause them to wander out of the way, that
will take advantage of them spiritually,
just as much as somebody might take advantage
of a blind person physically.
And what we would call those are false prophets today.
And we see this type of thing all the time.
I mean, the devil, he's great at this.
This is his whole shtick.
This is what he does.
He sets up.
He knows that these people are blind spiritually.
They're groping in the dark.
They're trying to find their way to truth.
And he's got ways to just lead them out of the way
so that they don't find the truth.
Lead them down this path.
Lead them down that path.
He's got all of his tricks, all of his different ways
of just leading people and causing them to wander.
And he uses false prophets is what he does.
And if you're there in Galatians chapter 1, look at verse 8.
He says, but though we are an angel from heaven,
and I don't know what the Mormons don't understand
about that, and they'll say, oh, we
received our writings from an angel from heaven.
Well, you know what?
You've got a different gospel.
And the Bible is very clear here.
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.
Let him be accursed.
That's strong language that God's using there.
He goes on and doubles down and says in verse 9,
as we said before, so say now I again.
If any man preach any other gospel unto you
than he have received, let him be accursed.
God hasn't changed his mind when it comes to people
that are going to lead people out of the way,
that are going to cause the blind to wander.
He's saying they're cursed.
And as much as we would curse the individual who
would set a snare for someone who's physically blind
or take advantage of someone who's handicapped,
we should curse the person that would preach lies and heresy
and lead people out of the way spiritually.
It's actually worse when you think about it.
People can at least maybe recover physically.
But if you cause someone to go out of the way spiritually
and they die and go to hell,
there's no coming back from that.
That's a permanent thing.
So let these people be accursed.
And we're all familiar, I'm sure, with the book of Jude
and the strong language that's used there.
He said, but though we or an angel from heaven preach
other than a gospel, well, I know it's copied there.
But he's saying, look, these people that preach that,
that they are reserved under the darkness of darkness forever,
that God is going to punish these people severely,
these false prophets.
And that we are to call them accursed.
That's why I have no problem calling these false prophets
out and calling them for what they are
and telling people sternly when it needs to be.
Of course, you have to use discernment.
But often we have to tell people, look,
you're being led astray.
And if you continue to believe what you believe,
you are going to hell.
And if it's someone who's preaching lies and heresy
and these things, if they're the one that's actually
leading people out of the way,
those people deserve to be called out for what they are.
Lying, damnable, false prophets
unto whom the darkness of blackness is reserved forever.
That they are going to have their part in a lake of fire
and that's where they belong for what they've done.
They're often reprobate.
But I think that's something we can apply spiritually.
Now let's move on here in the chapter.
It says in verse 19,
cursed be he that perverted the judgment of the stranger,
fatherless and widow.
And all the people shall say amen.
Now if you were with me in these other chapters,
we went into that more about having righteous judgment
for those that don't have deep pockets.
That's something that is really wrong
with our judicial system today.
I mean you could literally get away with murder
if you get the right lawyer and you have enough money.
You can get away with a lot of things in this world today.
God's saying, look, cursed be the person
that perverted the judgment of the stranger.
Verse 20, cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife
because he uncovered his father's skirt.
And all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast
and all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with his sister,
the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother
and all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law
and all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be that smiteth his neighbor secretly
and all the people shall say amen.
Now what's interesting as we're going through this,
he's saying and all the people shall say amen.
He's saying, look, there's no gray area here.
You're either gonna agree with God and his commandments
or you're not.
There's not like, well, I like this about the law
but I don't appreciate this so much.
It's all or nothing with God.
It's all or nothing with the Bible.
He's saying, look, all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be he that taketh reward
to slay an innocent person
and all the people shall say amen.
Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words
of this law to do them and all the people shall say amen.
So he's saying, look, if you don't confirm these words
that are written, all of them, then you're cursed.
And that's where people really need to be careful today,
especially even under the umbrella
of what's called Christianity today.
They need to confirm all of these words,
not just the New Testament,
not just the portions of scripture
that tickles their ear or makes them feel good,
but all of the things,
whether they rub the fur the wrong way or not.
And the illustration that I've said often,
if the Bible's rubbing the fur the wrong way,
the cat needs to turn around, is the expression.
We can't sit there and just demand God
deal with us on our terms.
And if we're gonna have this attitude
that's gonna pick and choose from the Bible
what we do like and what we don't like,
the Bible says you're cursed.
That's actually bringing a curse on you.
That's you saying to God that you know better than he does,
that your ways are higher than his ways,
that the ways of the Lord are uneven.
But God looks back and says, no, your ways are uneven.
My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
And it doesn't matter, often we read things in the Bible
and they might offend us, they might strike us
or take us aback, but you know what?
They have to be included.
They have to be accepted for what they are.
And we have to just step back and by faith understand
that these things are written for our admonition,
that these things are there for our own benefit.
Imagine a society that would allow people
to just do these things that are written here.
That if everything was just, there was no limits.
I mean, it would be a wicked, wicked society.
And we already see that taking place.
People are pulling back from living righteously
or keeping righteous laws and see how far
it's already taken us.
So we can't have this attitude of pick and choose
in the Bible, it's all or nothing with God.
And here's the thing, you say, well, some of the things
that I read in the Bible or hear the preacher say it,
they offend me.
Well, you know what, I don't think you love the Bible then.
I don't think you could say I love the Lord and I love God
and I love what's written here if it's offending you.
You know, and the Bible says that great peace have they
which love thy law and nothing shall offend them.
You know, when people hear preaching
or they read something in the Bible and it disturbs them,
it takes away that peace, they need to step back
and ask themselves, do I really love the Bible?
Do I really love thy law?
And here's the thing, people grow up without the Bible,
without knowing it.
They're being taught philosophies and ways of living
that are contrary to God.
So it's kind of a natural reaction when you first get
in church or you first start to read the Bible
or hear preaching that preaches the whole Bible
that, yeah, there might be some times you're gonna go,
whoa, the Bible says that?
What you have to understand is that when that happens,
you have to make a decision, am I gonna love that
or I'm gonna allow that to bring a curse upon me
by despising it?
You know, our attitude should always be,
let me love your law.
And if we're struggling in that area,
I would admonish us to just get down on our knees
and start to pray, Lord, help me to love your law.
Help me to love all of it.
Help me, let me delight in all of thy righteous commandments
because what we don't want is the curse of God in our life.
We want the blessing, but that takes effort.
We're gonna have to pursue that.
We're gonna have to get our hearts right often.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for these folks
that came out tonight.
Lord, I pray you bless them and to keep them safe,
keep us all healthy.
And Lord, I pray that you would help us
to continue to serve you.
And Lord, we thank you for the Bible.
We thank you for all the things that are written in it,
Lord, the things that might offend others
or even ourselves sometimes.
Lord, help us to always be people that are malleable
when it comes to your word, that if we find ourselves,
Lord, contrary to it, that we would change,
that we would change our attitudes, our actions,
our behaviors, the way we think.
Lord, help us to always love your law
so that nothing in it might offend us.
We pray these things in Christ's name, amen.
All right, thanks again for coming.