Man, Deuteronomy chapter 19 the Bible reads in verse 1 when the Lord thy God
hath cut off the nations whose land the Lord thy God giveth thee and thou
succeedest them and dwellest in their cities and in their houses thou shalt
separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee to possess it thou shalt prepare thee away and divide the coasts
of thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to inherit into three parts
that every slayer may flee thither. So in this chapter we're going to talk about
the cities of refuge and the Bible describes these as a place where someone
could flee from the avenger of blood because in general in ancient Israel
under God's system of law if someone committed murder then that person's
family or friends or whoever had the right to basically just kill that
murderer. As soon as they find him they could just put that person to death if
someone was clearly guilty of murder well then guess what they just die
there's not really the necessity of arresting them imprisoning them having a
trial in clear-cut cases of murder well then they just die to make up for well
let's say someone accidentally killed someone else or maybe they were being
foolish or negligent or they did something wrong that caused someone else
to die but they were not intending to murder that person they didn't have
anything against that person well then that person would be able to flee to the
city of refuge so that they could get a trial right if they flee to the city of
refuge they are safe there it's a safe zone where no one can take vengeance
upon them no one can kill them it's just a totally violence-free zone and they
would be there and then the judges could make inquiry and they could get to the
bottom of the matter and if it turns out that the person did actually maliciously
kill someone in cold blood well then they'll just drag them out of the city
of refuge and put them to death but at least if they're in the city of refuge
they can be safe while the matter is looked into and if it turns out that it
truly was an accident they did not intend to kill that person they did not
commit premeditated murder well then they get to stay there and be safe but
they're not allowed to leave the city of refuge they can't just go live somewhere
else in Israel they have to live in that city until the death of the high priest
and then when the high priest dies then they are allowed to go free so let's
read a little bit about this and then we'll make application with it but it
says in verse number four this is the case of the Slayer which shall flee
thither that he may live who so killeth his neighbor ignorantly whom he hated
not in time past so a modern-day analogy of this is you're driving down the road
and you run someone over and they die well that might be someone that you
don't even know and so you didn't murder them you didn't intend to kill them but
obviously you made a mistake and you accidentally killed someone and their
families met now here's the thing running someone over with the car could
be murder right that could be a way to go and target someone that you hated and
wanted dead and then you could run them over with your car so therefore you
could see how sometimes this has to be looked into and we have to look at hey
was this just an accident or did they actually know this person and kill them
on purpose so what does the Bible say let's go down through this and look at
it it says in verse 5 and here's an example given in verse 5 as when a man
goeth into the wood with his neighbor to Hugh wood and his hand fetches the
stroke with the axe to cut down the tree and the head slippeth from the health
and lighted upon his neighbor that he died he shall flee into one of those
cities and live so you're swinging the axe and the axe head flies off hits your
buddy in the head and he falls over dead we're saying you both went into the wood
you've got axes and one of you dies you could see how people could
misinterpret this and think that you just murdered this guy when in reality
it was an accident so this is the type of situation where you would then flee
to the city of refuge so that this guy's family or friends don't come after you
and kill you so when the Bible talks about the Avenger of blood this is not a
specific person this isn't what someone does for a living this is just anybody
who is out to take vengeance so anybody at any given time could become an
Avenger of blood so it says he shall flee into one of those cities and live
verse 6 less the Avenger of the blood pursue the Slayer while his heart is hot
right so this guy could maybe be so mad that his loved one is dead he's not even
listening to reason he's not even thinking clearly and he just kills you
right away it'd be like if you ran over someone with your car and then their
loved one just grabbed you right then and there and just started just beating
you or even trying to kill you because they're just upset they're reacting
their heart is hot so that's why the Bible saying you know this guy's not
worthy of death and so we don't want the Avenger of blood to overtake him because
the way is long halfway through verse 6 there and slay him whereas he was not
worthy of death and as much as he hated him not in time past so accidentally
killing someone you're not worthy of death right and one of the key
determining factors here is whether you hated this guy in time past so one of
the ways to try to figure out whether something is an accident or it's murder
is that you look at the motive and you look at the fact that hey this guy has
had a history of fighting with this guy or he's been hateful to this guy in the
past then that makes it seem as if he killed him on purpose whereas he hated
him not in time past they were friends there's no enmity there there's no
motive to kill the guy well then he is innocent so he did make a mistake though
and so he has to flee to the city of refuge so that he doesn't get killed it
says in verse number seven wherefore I command thee saying thou shalt separate
three cities for thee and if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast as he had
sworn unto thy fathers and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto
thy fathers if thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them which I command
thee this day to love the Lord thy God and to walk ever in his ways then shalt
thou add three cities more for thee beside these three that innocent blood
be not shed in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance
and so blood be upon thee and so we see in the book of Joshua that when they
actually take over the land they do end up doing six cities of refuge because
they end up doing three in the main part of Palestine on the west side of the
Jordan River but then also if you remember there was Reuben and Gad and
the half-tribe of Manasseh they wanted to inherit land on the east side of the
Jordan River and so Joshua ends up establishing three cities of refuge on
the east side of the Jordan River that way that geographic barrier of the
Jordan River doesn't prevent someone from getting to safety in the city of
refuge so they did end up expanding this from three to six
ok and then he just says in verse 11 but if any man hate his neighbor and lie and
wait for him and rise up against him and smite him mortally that he die and
fleeth into one of these cities then the elders of the city shall send and fetch
him thence and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die
thine eye shall not pity him but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent
blood from Israel that it may go well with thee it's important that innocent
blood not be allowed to stand right God does not like the shedding of innocent
blood and when innocent blood is shed it has to be dealt with has to be atoned
for and so if somebody commits murder they need to be put to death
they should get the death penalty but that's premeditated murder ok whereas if
someone just accidentally kill someone and then that person is killed by the
avenger of blood that's actually a shedding of innocent blood of itself
because if you accidentally kill someone you don't deserve death and then if
someone kills you now they're guilty of shedding innocent blood and that also
pollutes the land now obviously there's some spiritual significance here with
the city of refuge right on the surface we can see that this is a good system
this is God providing a criminal justice system for the children of Israel so
that murder does not become rampant but that people could get the punishment
that they deserve for murder if it's if it's premeditated murder they need the
death penalty and if it's some kind of manslaughter or lesser crime of killing
someone well then the punishment is just that they flee to the city of refuge and
at least they're safe but they do have to be there until the death of the high
priest now if you don't have these kind of punishments crime can become rampant
and violence will abound before the flood this was the problem that there
was a lot of violence in the earth because they didn't have the death
penalty that's why one of the first things when Noah gets off the ark God
establishes the death penalty and you know I saw a documentary a while back
about Indian reservations up in the Pacific Northwest and of course we have
a lot of Indian reservations here in Arizona and one of the big problems on
the Indian reservations is that a lot of times the tribal government is only
allowed to give out punishments of one year in prison that's the biggest
punishment that they can get for any crime and then I know some of the local
reservations here in Arizona it's two years that's the Mac so murder two years
rape two years now if they want to punish someone more than that they have
to bring in the feds they have to bring in the federal government well the
problem is that the federal government sometimes has other things to do and the
federal government has a really high standard of evidence and they might not
always be bothered with it and sometimes especially with things like molestation
and rape they could be a little bit difficult to prove and the burden of
proof is pretty high and it's federal court federal investigators maybe some
time goes by and so what ends up happening a lot of these places is that
a lot of people will end up getting away with murder or getting away with rape or
molestation or getting some kind of a one-year prison sentence or a two-year
prison sentence which is which is absurd and you know obviously there you know
there are a lot of problems with the reservation system I'm not going to get
up here and and and try to go into all that because it's not really relevant to
the sermon but you know just just one thing I'd like to make is you know it
either either either they need need to be allowed to govern themselves or not
and if you're gonna allow them to govern themselves you have to give them the
tools to govern themselves they should be allowed to hand out bigger sentences
you know because how can they govern themselves if they can't hand out a
sentence of more than one year right and I'm telling you there are some really
horrible things I mean the documentary I was watching was was in another part of
the country but man they were talking about how like virtually every kid in
this town was getting molested and there's just all these just predators
and perverts because of the fact that they're not getting punished and you
know what we don't want all of America to get like that and so that's why we
should always support and we should always be preaching a severe punishment
for murder for rape for molestation because if you lower the punishment then
guess what crimes gonna abound you've got to have a serious punishment for a
deterrent and the best deterrent of all is death because 100% of dead pedophiles
don't reoffend and 100% of dead murderers do not reoffend you know it's
a oh death penalty doesn't work as a deterrent well it works for that guy
he's not gonna do it anymore so it you know I don't understand how it could not
work right you know you you commit far less crimes being dead and so that's
just kind of the wisdom of this passage is is you know getting people a proper
punishment for the crime because justice is when the punishment fits the
crime you know and and so it's eye for an eye tooth for tooth hand for hand
foot for foot burning for burning of course a lot of people would say that
Jesus contradicted this and that Jesus was against us that is absolutely not
true because Jesus Christ confirmed the law Jesus Christ said I think not that
I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets I came not to destroy but to
fulfill for I say to you that heaven and earth till heaven and earth pass one
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled and
that's what Jesus Christ says at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount
right right after the Beatitudes that's what Jesus says and then he says you've
heard that it has been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth but I say
unto you that you resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek turn to him the other also you know what the Bible is talking about is
you forgiving people who do you wrong you don't always have to seek justice
you don't always have to write every wrong why because God said vengeance
belongeth unto me sayeth the Lord I will repay and it's and what Christ is
teaching on the Sermon on the Mount he's not telling you that the Old Testament's
wrong okay Jesus Christ is the author of the Old Testament okay because it's the
word of God okay it's the word of Christ it's a Christ is the word made
flesh so to try to pit Jesus against the scripture that he in many ways is the
author of is absurd right and so Jesus Christ is not criticizing or down on the
law or contradicting the law he's just explaining a higher level of
righteousness where you instead of having to write every wrong that's done
against you you turn the other cheek you forgive you let things go you take the
high road and let me tell you something this is great advice first of all it's
godly but second of all it's just a wise way to live your life because I'm
telling you if you go through your life always seeking justice for yourself and
always trying to get what's coming to you and righting every wrong in this
world you're going to be a very unhappy person because this world is filled with
injustice and if you're just going to fix every wrong in this world well you're
going to be a very frustrated person because it's never going to work it's
never going to happen and you know what sometimes somebody does you wrong and
you know what it's just better just to let it go first of all forgiveness and
turning the other cheek is a Christian virtue but second of all it's also just
going to make you a lot happier because you don't just fixate on all the times
that you have to write every wrong you just you just walk away you just move on
you just live your life you just enjoy and just say hey whatever you know that
person stole from me whatever you know I'll be fine God's gonna take care of me
this is not saying that this is the attitude that the that the police should
have or that or that the judge down at the courthouse should have or that the
governor of Arizona should have I mean that that's just but it's crazy right
how people interpret this stuff like like that'd be like if I just said hey
you know Jesus Christ as forgiven my sins officer you know that's not gonna
work right because we're talking about two different things here you know if
someone goes out and kills someone and then receives Christ as their Savior you
know they're going to heaven but I don't think that's going to work in
court to just oh oh you oh wait a minute you believed on Jesus well then case
dismissed with prejudice because you're saved now so you know Jesus blood covers
it all that's not really the way the world works and Christ is not advocating
for anarchy do you really think Christ is an anarchist just coming along saying
no laws no rules no justice no I for I well no he's for justice just not that
Old Testament kind of justice folks the Old Testament kind of justice the only
kind of justice there is the only kind of real justice God's justice and so we
don't want to we don't want to think that Christ is criticizing the law of
God or somehow coming up with a different plan for criminal justice
folks we still need criminal justice even in the New Testament we need the
secular state to have a criminal justice system so that we're not living in
anarchy but in our personal lives Christ is telling us sure it's I for an eye but
you know what if somebody puts out your eye you don't have to demand justice you
don't have to demand their eye in return you have the option to say you know what
I forgive you I'm not gonna press charges right that's all it's saying
it's talking about you forgiving people who wrong you it's not talking about an
anarchist system where we have no punishments but see most of these
liberals that hate the death penalty they're not advocating for anarchy this
is what they would say well no put murderers in prison for 20 years or 15
years well that is not something that the Bible ever teaches in God's law
imprisonment is not a punishment and honestly imprisonment isn't biblical and
imprisoning people for 10 years 15 years 20 years is just a waste of society's
time and money and it does not you know they call it a correctional facility but
you know a lot of these people don't end up getting corrected you're not gonna
believe this but people often come out a worse person than when they went in and
they come out often a hardened criminal and prison destroys a lot of people's
lives and it's really sad how many people are in prison in America we have
more people in prison than any other country in the world per capita and it's
sad because going to prison destroys people's lives and so if people have
committed minor crimes they need a different punishment you know and the
Bible prescribes punishments like a beating or paying a fine or things of
that nature and I guarantee you the people who are in prison right now they
would love to just take a beating and be done just get whipped you know 39 times
and move on with their lives or if they've committed something serious like
rape or murder then they should be put to death that's what the Bible says and
so this this idea of locking people in a cage is not biblical anyway so but but
you know our world just knows so much better than God you know and they know a
lot more than than than God and Moses combined but let's talk about the
spiritual application here with the city of refuge because obviously when reading
the Bible there's a surface meaning but everything in the Bible is pointing us
to Jesus Christ as well and when we're interpreting a passage like this there's
not only one right interpretation it's very rare that any parable or symbol or
figure only has one right interpretation and it's always funny when people argue
about whether this interpretation is right or this interpretation usually
they're all right as long as they don't contradict what the rest of the Bible is
teaching the Bible is often able to be interpreted on multiple levels and there
are lots of legitimate interpretations lots of valid interpretations like for
example we think about the city of refuge who is Jesus in this analogy here
with the city of refuge okay well you know you said the high priest you know
Jesus the high priest right so the death of the high priest actually liberates
you from the city of refuge so you know you're in the city of refuge and it's
when the high priest dies his death in some way atones for your crime and now
you're allowed to go free you know you've killed someone by mistake and the
death of the high priest atones for your crime now you're free right that's a
legitimate interpretation where Christ is the high priest what's another who
else in the story could be Jesus what's another way to interpret it the city
itself right the city itself is Christ you know you've got to get to Christ if
you can get to Christ you're saved right as long as you're in Christ you're safe
that's like a lot of other symbols in the Bible like you know you get on the
ark to be saved there's one door on the ark Christ is the door the ark represents
salvation if you're in Christ you're saved Jesus is our city of refuge right
that's a great interpretation both of those are legitimate what who else could
Christ be in the story here the person wrongfully killed right so you know
Jesus Christ was wrongfully killed okay and basically there's an innocent person
who dies in the story you could even make a case that hey that person
represents Christ I you know that one's a little bit of a stretch but all I'll
allow it I think it's legitimate I think you could build an analogy start with
that as a starting point you could even make the case that the Avenger of blood
is Christ you know because Christ is gonna come back one day and everybody
who's not in the city of refuge is getting smoked he's out for blood and if
you're not in the city of refuge you're gonna die and so you see how there are
lots of legitimate ways to interpret I think all of those are valid and so you
can interpret this a variety of ways but whichever way resonates with you the
most go with it but the bottom line is that this is pointing us to Jesus Christ
and it's kind of easy to see how this could be a picture of Christ because of
the fact that you know you you've done something wrong and the punishments
after you and you run into that city and you're safe right that that represents
salvation through Christ well you know taking that analogy think about this God
said hey you don't want the way to be too far put three of these things right
and from Dan to beer sheba is how God often talks about the whole nation of
Israel and from Dan to beer sheba is about a hundred and forty four miles as
the crow flies so the land of Israel and that's the long way right so Israel is a
lot thinner than it is tall right and so the long way is like 144 miles so we're
not talking about a huge place we're talking about a place that is much
smaller than Arizona and yet you've got three cities of refuge and then hey
let's make a six right if we're gonna talk about the whole thing if we want to
go wide we want to have boom boom boom three on both sides of the river six so
this shows that God wants to make it easy for people to get saved God's not
up in heaven trying to make salvation difficult and try to lock out as many
people as he can no he wants it to be there and that's why the Bible says you
know it's not over the sea that you'd have to go travel over the sea to get to
it it's not under the earth it's not up in heaven but the word is nigh thee
even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe
in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be safe sounds
pretty easy to be saved to me I mean just confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised from the dead and you shall
be saved sounds easy and a lot of people will actually criticize the true gospel
of Jesus Christ and they'll call it easy believism well what do you what do you
want to do difficult repentism because God wants to make it easy he wants it to
be available and so that people would not struggle to get there but that you
know it's it's it's within reach and I believe that salvation is within reach
for everybody you know and it's only themselves that prevent them from being
saved you know the whosoever will may come it's available for everyone and so
if you take that analogy where Christ is a city of refuge then God wants it to be
conveniently located so that people could easily be saved and of course you
could look at another way with the high priest is this you could say well you
know they're they're safe in the city of refuge until the death of the high
priest you know you could look at that as well Christ our high priest is never
going to die and therefore our salvation never ends the city of refuge is always
there for us and we're always safely there ensconced in that salvation
provided by Christ because Jesus Christ liveth forever never to die again he's
already conquered death and hell right so there there are multiple ways of
looking at this and they're all legitimate and we don't want to try to
pit one against another because the Bible is very deep and there are a lot
of valid interpretations there let's go ahead and deal with the last part of the
chapter here it says in verse number 14 thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's
landmark which they of old time have set in thine inheritance which thou shalt
inherit the land in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to excuse me to
possess it don't remove thy neighbor's landmark and and what the Bible is
saying here is that in the olden days before you had GPS coordinates how do
you know which land is yours and which land is your neighbors right where is
that border exactly right and so there would have to be descriptions and if
you've ever bought or sold land before and you go down to the county recorder
who knows what I'm talking about where there's a physical description of the
land right and and you go down there it's mainly old-timers you know but some
young people but you go down there and there's like a physical description that
explains to you verbally what the land is you know I'm sure that eventually
this is gonna become totally obsolete because you just have a GPS coordinate
and a map or whatever but it used to be like you know there's a you know there's
a there's a ridge and there's a mountain and there's a valley and there's a river
and there's a lot you know and there'd be like descriptions of these things and
so there would often be landmarks where basically you would put something there
like a big boulder or something and say hey everything on this side of the
boulder is my property everything on this side of the boulder is your
property and what God's saying is don't move the ancient landmark and the book
of Proverbs talks a little bit about this to people moving the landmark sort
of slowly sliding it over and just giving themselves a little more land you
know by just moving the landmark moving the landmark moving the landmark and
stealing their neighbor's property by moving the landmark right and then we
could take a spiritual application of this as well and say you know there are
certain landmarks of right and wrong that we shouldn't move you know there's
a certain boundary between what's right what's wrong what is pleasing to God
what is this pleasing to God and our society is in many ways moving the
goalposts and we don't want to move that ancient landmark we want to stay with
that traditional view of what is right what is wrong based upon the Word of God
you know let me give you an example you know you look at for example politics
and they're constantly changing what they believe and basically like the
Republicans of today are literally fighting for things that the Democrats
were fighting for 30 years ago and then the Democrats have gotten more left-wing
so now the Republicans are just where the Democrats were 30 years ago like for
example when it came to homos in the military right and and basically back in
the day of Bill Clinton when he first became president he passed a law don't
ask don't tell that was his policy right and this is something that conservatives
freaked out about you know this was Democrat Bill Clinton saying don't ask
don't tell and they're like no what are you talking about right but then you
fast-forward 25 years or something and then the Republicans are like don't ask
don't tell and then the Democrats are like no we want open faggotry open sodomy
and the Republicans are like no we need don't ask so so literally the goalpost
has been moved now I mean I got I got some campaign email from a politician
it was a DeSantis I got this email from and he had like a list of everything
he's gonna stand for and the very first thing he's like this is what I'm gonna
stand for was like a list of things and the first thing was you know we are
going to fight against this lie that a man could get pregnant and I'm just like
you know Wow who'd have thought that that's what gonna be the you know the
first item on the list hey first let's just get this out of the way you know
that a man can't get pregnant well thanks for clearing that up Rick
DeSantis I appreciate that it's like hello is that really where the battle
line has been drawn you know what does the Bible say the Bible says that if a
man lies with mankind as he lies with a woman both of them have committed
abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them
right the Bible literally has the death penalty for homosexuality I mean the
Bible says that homosexuality is abomination in the sight of God right
that it's an abomination that it's wicked you know you have the kings of
Israel I was just reading in my Bible reading or last few days I was reading
about King Asa and King Jehoshaphat they removed all the sodomites out of
the land okay and they didn't do like Fidel Castro where they put him on a
boat and send him to Miami Florida you know they actually removed them from the
planet okay I'm sure some of them did flee into Miami but the point is though
that you know what is the Bible's you know the Bible says that we're not
supposed to tolerate or just think that sodomy is fine and that homos are fine
you know that's where the actual line is drawn in Scripture the line is hey
marriage is a man and a woman for life that's the only kind of marriage there
is the only legitimate relationship is between a man and a woman and two men
burning and lust with one another is filthy and it's vile and it's
abomination same thing goes for two women that's what the actual line is
right there's straight and then everything else is a pervert that's what
the Bible teaches but now we've gotten to the point where we just totally just
okay we've just already just given up on that fight so homos are fine and and and
now it's just you know men can't get pregnant can we at least have that and
the homos are like nope you can't even have that you know now it's just whether
we're gonna teach elementary school kids you know how to be a sodomite or
something like that you know that shouldn't even be what we're talking
about but the landmark has been moved so far you know for example like there's a
thing on the news recently about some some organization and they were
confronting some queer and and and whatever and it was on the it was in the
news and because he was teaching all this whatever filth to young people and
they were saying that he was grooming and that he's a pedophile and whatever
they confronted the guy and it turned into some kind of a violent scuffle or
whatever right this was locally here in Arizona but then what's funny is that
the organization it was called like turning point USA or something who knows
does anybody know what I'm talking about but then the organization they said at
the bottom of the article they said well we're not anti LGBT in fact we have a
lot of LGBT employees we just don't we just don't want this guy perverting the
youth we just don't want him grooming children we just think he's a pedophile
blah blah blah but we're not against homos per se well guess what faith forward
Baptist Church is always going to be against homos per se like it doesn't you
know we're not only against a certain kind of homos or we're all against
certain homos doing certain things we're just against homos why because that's
the ancient landmark and it's not moving we're not gonna we're not just like well
we kind of gave up on that battle so you know no we're not moving the
landmark and so whatever is right is right whatever is wrong is wrong and if
this world goes on to just embrace more it's not like well you know we used to
be against fornication but now we're just glad that it's a male and a female
no fornication is still a big-time sin no it's only one thing that we're gonna
ever accept as legitimate and that's marriage marriage right so just because
we got a bunch of sodomites running around that doesn't make fornication
okay all of a sudden hey we're just glad they're straight we're just glad it's a
man and a woman no we're not it's a it's it's a major sin don't do it you got to
be pure until you're married that's what God expects we're not just gonna say
well you know we've always stood on the King James but you know it just seems
like everybody's going to the modern versions so you know we're just gonna
kind of move the landmark a little bit and just go New King James it's kind of
a compromise why you know why would we do that when the New King James you
know the New King James needs to go they need to get an F for plagiarism they
need a note home to their parents because they plagiarized the NIV and the
New American Standard big-time okay and by the way they're lying anyway because
how can it be the New King James Version when King James has been dead for like
300 some years you know did they resurrect King James did King James
reach up from the tomb and sign it with this dead hand then it's not the King
James Version is it the King James Version is the one that King James
himself authorized and approved and that he was behind King James would be
rolling in his grave about you know King James is probably in heaven I hope he's
in heaven you know he if he if he you know he's up at heaven and he's looking
at the New King James and he is not amused but don't move the landmark right
let's not move the goalpost here you know we need to we need to just have an
absolute standard for right and wrong from the Bible I don't care what
society's doing I don't care how weird things get we're gonna keep serving God
the same way you know and if churches just get super liberal we're not gonna
get like a little bit liberal and kind of meet them halfway we're just gonna
stay the way that we are you know and we're just gonna stay with whatever the
Bible says and so we don't want to move that ancient landmark and don't move the
goalpost all right let's hurry up and finish here it says in verse 15 one
witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any
sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three
witnesses shall the matter be established if a false witness rise up
against any man to testify against him that which is wrong then both the men
but hope between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord before the
priests and the judges which shall be in those days and the judges shall make
diligent inquisition and behold if the witness be a false witness and a
testified falsely against his brother then shall you do unto him as he had
thought to have done unto his brother so shalt thou put the evil away from among
you and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no
more any such evil among you now keep your finger here and go to 1st Timothy
chapter 5 because we have something similar to this in the New Testament in
1st Timothy chapter number 5 and I always find this easy to remember I
always like to come up with kind of little tricks for remembering things
when it comes to where things are in the Bible little mnemonics that can help me
know where to find something quickly and so when I think of 1st Timothy 519
right is the verse that's relevant here 1st Timothy 519 I always think of the
fact that Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible and that it's chapter 19
right so it's kind of like 519 and then boom I can find the pastor I'm looking
for now that is what is called a coincidence okay so don't do not become
superstitious I'm not trying to make you all superstitious okay I'm just saying
like it's a helpful little trick it's coincidence but it's helpful right so
1st Timothy 519 Deuteronomy 19 is just a way to just you know be able to quickly
cross-reference that in my mind and so in 1st Timothy 519 it says against an
elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses and in
Deuteronomy 19 it said you know you don't just believe one witness who's
accusing of sin or crime but that in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall
the matter be established 1st Timothy 5 20 them that sin rebuke before all that
others also may fear now this is interesting because it's very similar to
what we saw in Deuteronomy 19 when it said in verse 20 those which remain
shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you
and so what is being said here I believe is that when it says them that sin
rebuke before all that others also may fear we're talking about a false witness
who accuses an elder falsely should be publicly rebuked so that other people
would fear to make a false accusation and the reason I say that is just
because that's what we see in Deuteronomy chapter 19 so we compare the
two that actually makes sense because if you think about it what's the motive for
accusing an elder it's to try to defame them to try to tear down their character
to try to poison people or taint people against that person right and so you
if people could tell lies about a pastor they could seek to discredit them and
ruin their reputation and then people won't listen to the preaching and
obviously there are some elders who do commit grievous sins that should be
publicly exposed right I mean you know the pastor's out there committing
adultery if he's out there being a drunkard if he's out there committing
fornication or you know if he's into drugs or if he's embezzling funds or
whatever yeah obviously those are serious crimes that need to be dealt
with okay but being a false witness is an equally serious crime and here's why
because what did it say in Deuteronomy chapter 19 it said if a false witness
accuses someone whatever they thought to do to that person that's what shall be
done to them so for example let's say a false witness it rises up and accuses
someone of stealing a cow or something you know and then and then that person
is gonna have to pay like four cows or something right or five cows well if
you're found to be a false witness and that's the accusation that you're making
and you're found to have lied then you have to pay the five cows now that's the
fair punishment for being a false witness whatever now if you were a false
witness accusing someone of premeditated murder and they are actually innocent
you lied about the evidence well then what would your punishment be then death
you know if if someone falsely accused someone of rape what's the punishment
for rape death so what would be the punishment for making a false rape
accusation also death so the punishment for being a false witness could be small
or great depending on what the false witness is lying about what are they
trying to get someone else in trouble for okay that's what we see in
Deuteronomy so if you think about it in first Timothy chapter five their goal is
to humiliate discredit malign an elder well then basically what's their
punishment they end up getting humiliated maligned discredited because
they end up getting rebuked before all so that other people will fear okay that
what this is not saying is that every time an elder sins anything he must be
publicly rebuked before everyone because if so we're gonna have to open this
place up seven days a week so that I can be publicly rebuked every day
because I guarantee you that I sin everyday because even just the thought
of foolishness is sin you know the thought of foolishness is sin now
obviously when the Bible is talking about a sin in this context we're
talking about a big sin a sin that's big enough to be dealt with before the
congregation I mean think about if we just literally just dealt with every
sin in the church all the time we would be we would not it wouldn't be seven
days a week it would have to be days and nights it would have to be 24 7 and we
would just have people lined up and we would never get anything done because we
would just be just you know if 400 people each sin once per day right 400
people in our church and they sin once per day so we got to deal with 400 sins
every day and then some turkeys are you know sin in 15 20 times is just like
good night obviously the type of things that we would deal with with a pastor
publicly we're talking about serious sin we're talking about the kind of stuff
that would get you thrown out of church or something right and we you know we
don't throw people out of church for sinning or else would have thrown out
the entire congregation just today alone okay because again even just thinking
something stupid saying something stupid I mean there's a lot of possible sin to
commit out there my friend okay but things like drunkenness fornication
adultery right these are big things that do need to be dealt with and many of
these things are permanently disqualifying to the pastor right if a
pastor commits adultery if a pastor gets divorced if a pastor is you know
you know you know be just a total drunk or something yeah I mean you know you
that's it game over right and many of these things are permanently
disqualifying and and other things that would be serious enough to get someone
thrown out of church obviously that's the level that we're talking about we're
not just talking about something minor because if so like I said you know I'll
just admit it right now you know I am a sinner you know I sin from time to time
and so do you and so does every single person in this room and anybody who says
that they don't is a liar the Bible says if we say that we have no sin we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us every single person here is a sinner
God uses imperfect people God uses all of us in spite of our flaws obviously
the pastor's held to a higher standard but everybody's held to a certain
standard and obviously we can't hold the pastor to a standard of perfection
because then we're never gonna be able to have a pastor because every pastor
will be disqualified if the standard is held too high and so we have to have a
reasonable standard based on the Word of God and so the punishment here of the
false witness I believe in 1st Timothy 5 is reiterating what we find in Deuteronomy
19 that what they thought to do to the pastor happens to them they end up
getting called out and humiliated and so the Bible said back in and I'll just
close on this one thought if you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 19 because we
talked about how the punishment is whatever they wanted to do to the other
person that's what happens to the false witness right and I said that that could
be something like paying a fine or paying a penalty if theft is the issue
but then I said that if it were something like murder or rape that it
could actually be up to and including the death penalty right well let's see
if that's what the Bible actually supports it says in verse number 19 then
shall you do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother so shall
thou put the evil away from among you look at verse 21 and thine eye shall not
pity but life shall go for life so the Bible specifically even says including
the death penalty that I should not pity don't feel bad back well I know she
lied about being raped but you know no he said die nice enough oh I well okay
he's a false witness he isn't actually the murderer but you know it's like no
that I should not pity life should go for life I for I tooth for tooth hand
for hand but God hates false witness it's a big deal you know and even in our
society a lot of things in our criminal justice system are actually from
Deuteronomy chapter 19 and in the early days of America lawyers literally
studied the Bible they literally studied Blackstone's commentary on the law which
is a commentary on Leviticus and Deuteronomy and they would literally
study that stuff and and I mean court cases would cite scripture you know if
you go back hundreds of years in this country and so you know many things in
our society do come from the Bible like the idea of premeditated murder that's
found in Scripture right hating him in time past lying in wait planning that's
premeditation okay the idea of manslaughter we have this term man
slaughter why is it called manslaughter because of the biblical word the Slayer
right because a Slayer is a person what does a Slayer do a Slayer does slaughter
that's the noun to go with that person the Slayer right slaying is the verb and
slaughter is the noun and so that term manslaughter if I were to accidentally
kill someone is straight out of the Bible here with the Slayer okay and so
this idea of you know not lying and not bearing false witness and it's very
severe penalty for those who lie under oath or commit perjury or lie in court
right the Bible also treats this with severity let's power this up a word of
prayer father we thank you so much for the book of Deuteronomy Lord we thank
you for our church and most of all we thank you for salvation through Christ
thank you that salvation is not hard thank you that it's not difficult to be
saved but that you have put that city of refuge within reach where anybody who
wants to get there can get there Lord and we thank you so much for the free
gift of salvation through believing in Jesus and it's in his name we pray Amen