Deuteronomy 18–20

Good evening. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Would you stand up and join me in prayer? I want to welcome those online that are joining us, too.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have together this evening to worship in song and to study your word. Father, in the times we're living in, we look to you, Lord, and trust you, knowing that you are in control, Lord. We thank you that you look after us, Lord. And we thank you for that. You're worthy of all of our praise, Lord, at all times, Lord.

We thank you. We look to you, and as we yield ourselves to you, we can reflect you, Lord, as you've said, be that your light so shy that you may glorify your Father who is in heaven and be salt. And so, Father, we have life eternal. As your word says, if we have the Son, we have life. We have life eternal. If we don't have him, another thing. We thank you, Lord, that through the work of the cross,

resurrection, and ascension up to the right hand of the Father, the unmerited favor that was bestowed upon us as we are saved by grace, we thank you for that gift. It's a gift we can't work for. Praise the Lord. Father, now bless Pastor Ryan as he comes up and teaches your word. Let it do its work in each heart tonight. May we be built up and edified in the faith.

And do your work, Lord, by your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you all.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18. Deuteronomy 18.

Well, as has been noted, we're reminded that Deuteronomy is the second law. It's the rehearsing of the law. And that's what Moses has been doing with the children of Israel, is he has been rehearsing for them what God expects of them when they move into the promised land. And so, we've been following this. Through and as we come to chapter 18, there's about three things that he'll address in this chapter.

He'll address priests, spirits, and prophets. And so, I'm just going to summarize verses 1 through 8 for you because a great deal of time has been spent by Moses presenting this. And that's that they were to take care of the Levites. Remember, the Levites did not have their own inheritance within the land. God was their inheritance. But that didn't mean that they still didn't have things that they had to take care of.

That they didn't still need to feed their families. And so, verses 1 through 8 are the reminder that they're to take care of the Levites, to make sure that that priesthood is taken care of. And as we move into verse 9, Moses begins dealing with some of the issues that they may face as they move into the land. In particular, occult type of issues. And so, we pick up in verse 9 of chapter 18.

And this is what it says. When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate, the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire. One who uses divination, or one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For those nations which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

So, he next addresses an issue that I think is actually pretty pertinent for the day and age in which we live. He deals with, with occult-like practices. Of course, like many of the things he tells them to watch out for, he reminds them, first of all, that when you enter the land that the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable practices of those nations. And as he talks about these detestable practices, he'll explain them in just a minute what some of those practices are.

But I think that there's a really good lesson here for us because he says, don't learn to imitate those things. I think when it comes to things of the occult, things of a satanic nature or cultic nature, sometimes there's a curiosity within all of us, right? We're kind of in a month right now where that becomes a real curious thing for people. And I'll talk about that in just a second.

But that curiosity is something that we should always be aware of because it could end up leading us into occultic-type practices. And it's amazing how many of those things will weave themselves into things within the church. I've been cleaning out my office this week because it sort of blew up. A little bit. And so I've been sorting through some papers and I have a file that's on stuff like this

and the things that have mixed into the church, ideas that have mixed into the church that are somewhat occultic in nature. And so we have to be aware of those things, be aware of them so that we don't learn of them and imitate them because he knew it would be our nature. He knew it would be the nature of the children of Israel to find themselves curious, learn a little bit about it, and then find themselves going, gosh, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. It doesn't seem that bad.

What would be the big deal if we mixed a little bit of this into what we're doing? I think it might help us know God better. He knew that potential was there, so he warned them against it. Matter of fact, he said, there shall not, first of all, be found anyone among you who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire. That, of course, is the worship of Molech.

The way that they worship Molech, one of the main ways is Molech was a God that had its hand, his hands outstretched, and they would heat his hands up white hot, and they would lay newborn babies on the hands of Molech. We would call that infanticide, but they called it worship. Actually, we wouldn't call it infanticide today. We would call it choice. That's what we'd call it today.

And we would mask it in the idea that actually that's someone's choice, and we shouldn't take that choice away because after all, you don't understand the circumstances that they're involved in. Well, what I do understand is that God seems to think this is one of the most difficult things in the world. It's one of the most detestable practices that a person can take part in. So detestable that this is at least the fourth time I've seen him bring it up in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

And when God repeats himself, we should always pay attention to it because it's something important for us to focus on. He says, there should not be anyone like that among you. No one shall be found that way among you, nor anyone who, and he lists a handful of things. He says, nor anyone who takes part in witchcraft or Wiccan. It's kind of amazing to me how much that is.

That is a big thing today that there are entire sex of people today that have gotten very into this sort of thing. As a matter of fact, I've actually a few years ago, we went to a wedding. I will tell you whose wedding it was, but one of the ladies that was there was a self-proclaimed Wiccan or witch. I don't know what it is when you're a female. I guess, I guess you're a witch at that point in time,

not because she was a very unhappy person, but because that's actually what she considered herself to be. Actually, I think she considered herself to be a goddess, but the same idea was there. And it's amazing. And she started telling us about the little sect of people that she was involved in out in California. And that there's a bunch of these people. Matter of fact,

she has a podcast where she explains to people how they can become that themselves. And so there's, there's been a real resurgence of witchcraft and, and, and the occult like practices in our culture today. And then he goes on to say, nor should there be any astrologers or he, he goes into like palm readers and fortune tellers. And, and I think that as believers in Jesus Christ, we shouldn't get into the whole aspect of astrology and trying to tell the future.

And then he goes into on to talk about sorcerers. And of course the word sorcery in the Hebrew can also be the word pharmakia or drugs. It warns us against illicit drug use. And I know that that's one of the big things that that's big in culture today. Not only the use of marijuana, but there's actually a guy running, I believe it's in Pennsylvania that thinks that we should legalize heroin.

And it seems to be that that's what, one of the things that the Bible speaking against there, because we know that the use of drugs opens people up, not only to do really dumb things, but also opens people up to demonic oppression and possession. He says not to use mediums, those who would contact the dead or those who would conjure up the dead. Perhaps your translation says necromancy, because that's exactly what that is. The calling up of the dead.

Perhaps you would use a Ouija board or something like that in our day and age to do that. Again, I'm struck by how much, all of these things have taken their role in culture. Once again, I'm struck with how much they've taken their place in culture in pop music. One of the things that you find is that even amongst a lot of R and B artists right now, there's a great deal of witchcraft mixed into a lot of the music, a lot of the album labels, a lot of their music videos.

Matter of fact, on the MTV music awards a few years ago, uh, the, the, uh, the entire performance was a seance, uh, seance that was taking place. And so all of that's getting mixed very much into pop culture. And whether we realize it or not, all of our kids are starting to pay attention to that sort of thing. And it's a pretty big thing. And now we're right here in the midst of the month of October.

Now I've never been a big fan of the month of October for a lot of reasons, partly because I was a groundskeeper growing up. That's what I've always done. And this is usually the time of year where the lawn stopped growing. That started happening in July this year. So it's not been as big of a deal in October. Uh, but, but that's usually when all that takes place.

But also I just have always noticed since I was a little kid, the demonic oppression that you can feel in the month of October. Does anybody else ever feel that? And it's because we're coming up on Halloween and I know I'm going to touch on a subject that not everybody agrees with me on. That's okay. Um, I've never been a big fan of Halloween because if you think about it,

what does Halloween celebrate? Halloween celebrates death. Where did death come from? Death came from sin. Now there are those out there who will say, no, no, Ryan, you don't understand. Halloween actually started with the church. No, it didn't. It did not start with the church. They can try to say all that they want to, that it started with the church. But that is one of those things that Constantine did when he mixed together a pagan holiday

and tried to make it a Christian holiday where they celebrated the saints, all saints day. But really Halloween is a day that celebrates the dead. Have you noticed if you have any kind of streaming services, what are the featured movies? In the month of October, it's all about death, mayhem and serial killers. Have you noticed that? Why? Because the month of October celebrates death.

And I think that it's something that we as believers in Jesus Christ need to pay attention to. Does it mean that if you allow your kid to go trick or treating or sacrificing them to the devil? No, I don't think so. But I do think that if we celebrate the holiday, it does start to teach our kids that maybe the whole. Satanic things really not that big of a deal and something that we don't need to pay attention to.

I just think it's something that we as Christians need to be aware of. It needs to be between you and the Lord because all these things like that need to be between you and the Lord. But God seems to be pretty serious about the way that he handles things of the occult, things that have witchcraft and and things like that that are involved in it. So he says you should be aware of those things.

As a matter of fact, you shall, as it says in verse 13, be blameless before the Lord your God will now that he's dealt with that some of the things that they'll see when they come into the land he tells them about the coming profit knows what it says in verse 15 says the Lord your God will raise up for you a profit like me from among you from your countrymen. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in horrible on the day of the. Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God.

Let me not see this great fire anymore or else I will die. The Lord said they have spoken. Well, I will raise up a profit from among their countrymen like you and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name. I myself will require it of him.

Now he tells about this profit that's coming now. I believe that when he gives this statement about the profit that's coming as many times you see in Scripture. There is a partial and a complete fulfillment of the profit God would throughout the nation of Israel's history raise up profits. He would raise up men who would speak the message of the Lord and speak what the people needed to hear and the people were required to listen to that message from the Lord.

However, I think the fullness of what Moses is. Referring to here is actually found in Jesus Christ notice some of the things he says about this prophet. He says he will be a prophet like me. Well, what are some of the things that Moses did well Moses represented the people to God and Moses represented God to the people Moses was able to do miraculous things and Moses was a deliverer.

That's what this profit that's like Moses will be like the second thing we take note of is that this profit will come from among your countrymen. In other words, he will be one of you. The third thing that we take note of is that this profit will always speak God's words. He will always speak the words of the father. Number four. We take note of the fact that this profit will be an intercessor between you and God.

Notice what it says in verse 19. Excuse me in verse 16. He says this is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God on the day of the assembly saying, let me not hear again. The voice. Of the Lord, my God, let me not see the fire anymore. I will die and the Lord said they have spoken well that was when Moses became the intercessor between the people and God and that's exactly what this profits come will be and then of course number five we find that you will be accountable for everything that you hear from this profit with those things in mind.

We realize that this profit is none other than Jesus Christ himself who was like Moses only better. That's what the book of Hebrews tells us who was. From among the nation of Israel because he was one of their countrymen. He was he did speak forth God's word as a matter of fact he says I can only say those things that I hear from the father. We find that he was an intercessor between us and God and all of the people were accountable for everything that he said.

Moses said listen there's going to be a lot of weird spiritism that goes on with the nation that you're moving into but there's a prophet that's coming. Moses said listen there's going to be a lot of weird spiritism that goes on with the nation that you're moving into but there's a profit that's coming. Moses said listen there's going to be a lot of weird spiritism that goes on with the nation that you're moving into but there's a prophet that's coming. Moses said listen there's going to be a lot of weird spiritism that goes on with the nation that you're moving into but there's a profit that's coming.

And that prophet is going to speak the truth and he's the one that you should really listen to that was why when first of all John the Baptist came along all of the religious leaders said are you remember the question are you the prophet he said no no I'm the one who's just declaring make straight the way of the Lord Jesus was the prophet he was the one who would speak forth that truth to the people and so he makes this this prophecy of the coming savior of the coming leader. who would represent man to God and God to man ultimately. But then in verse 19, he warns them against false prophets. He says, it shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, excuse me, I will require it of him.

But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously, verse 20, in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, how will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously.

You shall not be afraid of him. He says, how can we identify these false prophecies? He says, listen, if somebody rises up and claims to speak in my name, but doesn't really speak, speak forth my word, they're acting presumptuously. Now we talked about false prophets once, right? A few chapters ago when he said, listen, if somebody, one of your countrymen comes along and whispers in your ear,

let's go worship other gods. We know that that's a false prophet. And on the testimony of two or three witnesses, that false prophet shall be put to death. But now we see a second false prophet that you need to pay attention to. And that's not someone who is trying to lead you away from God, but somebody who is speaking presumptuously on behalf of God. Who begins saying, thus saith the Lord,

and starts telling you things that maybe don't quite line up with what God's word has to say. Don't listen to them. As a matter of fact, a false prophet like that should be put to death. You know, in the world that we live in today with a good number of what I would call false prophets that are going around claiming, thus saith the Lord. I wonder what would happen if we instituted this today.

Now listen, I don't think we should, okay? I don't think we should go around putting false prophets to death. There's a good number of people that would not survive this test. But I just wonder if God started acting like he did in the Old Testament with false prophets, I wonder how much fear there would be within the body of Christ. Remember what happened to Ananias and Sapphira?

Remember that story when they lied to the Holy Spirit? What happened? The moment they did, they dropped dead. And what happened to the church? The whole church, the whole church, the whole church feared God. But then what else happened to the church? And their numbers were added to daily. Why? Because there was a purity in the church at that point in time. And sometimes I wonder if all of those men and women

who are out there saying, thus saith the Lord, only it's not really what it says in the Bible. I wonder if God dealt with them this way. How much longer they would continue saying, thus saith the Lord. I always get nervous when a revival comes to town and one of the people speaking at the revival refers to themselves as prophet so-and-so. I always think, gosh,

I wonder if they've read that part of scripture. Now, I'm not saying that the gift of prophecy isn't for today. I absolutely believe that it is. I feel like there's people that have spoken words of prophecy over me. And I've seen this play out in a very real sort of way. But I do think that we have to be careful. Be careful about that. Be careful about this kind of thing.

I heard somebody say one time, but what if prophecy is like another gift and you just have to grow into it? You know, like maybe you're off a few times in the beginning, but you just have to grow into it. I said, that's the most dangerous statement I can ever imagine someone making, right? Well, maybe I'll just grow into the gift of prophecy and I'll just start saying, well, thus saith the Lord, I think, right?

Like, is that how you'd start that situation off? I don't know. Anyway, he warns them against that sort of thing and says, well, how do we know? How are we supposed to know if it's a false prophet? He says, well, if what they say doesn't come true, they're a false prophet. Seems pretty basic. I could put it to you in a really New Testament fashion too. A prophet's going to be known by their fruit.

A teacher's going to be known by their fruit. A man or woman of God is going to be known by the fruit that they produce. And if there's no good fruit, then we have to start asking if that's the Holy Spirit really at work there. And so he warns them against this because he knew that's what would begin to take place. Well, as we move into chapter, 19, again, there's three things that we see.

We're going to see refuge. We're going to see landmarks and we're going to see testimony. Notice what it says in verse 19 or chapter 19, verse one. It says, when the Lord, your God cuts off the nation, whose land, the Lord, your God gives you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the Lord, your God gives you to possess.

You shall set aside three cities for yourself and you shall prepare the roads for yourself and divide into three parts the territory of the land, which the Lord, your God will give you as a possession so that any manslayer may flee there. Now, this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously. As when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood and his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies. He may not be able to cut down the tree, but he may flee to one of these cities and live.

Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in the heat of his anger and overtake him because the way is long and take his life, though he was not deserving of death since he didn't hate him previously. Therefore, I command you saying, you shall set aside three cities for yourself. If the Lord, your God enlarges your territory, just as he has sworn to your fathers and gives to you all the land, which he promised to your fathers, if you carefully observe all this commandment, which I command you today to love the Lord, your God, and to walk in his ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself besides these three. So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land, which the Lord, your God gives you as an inheritance

and blood guiltiness be on you. But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies and he flees to one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die. You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel that it may go well with you. Of course, we come again to the principle of the cities of refuge.

God says, when you go into the land, and I think that that's a great statement that once again is made in the book of Deuteronomy. He doesn't say if you make it into the land that the Lord, your God is promising you. He says, when you go into the land, because in God's mind, it's a foregone conclusion because he knows that he's already delivered the land into their hands. He says, when you go into that land, you're going to set aside these three cities.

That way, if in the case of an accidental death, the avenger of blood won't take them out. In the culture of this point in time, if your brother was killed, then it was your job as the brother or the closest family member to take out whoever killed your brother or your close family member. It was a godfather sort of a situation, right? And so that was kind of the way they lived at that point in time.

And so to protect those who accidentally killed someone, not had hated them in advance, they provided these three cities so that innocent blood would not be shed in the land. Of course, if someone was guilty of murder after it had been shown to be the fact that it was truly murder and not manslaughter, then they were to be killed. They were to deal with the murderer. We've seen that principle in the book of Genesis shortly after the flood, that life is so valuable that if you take the life of another in a premeditated murderous sort of way, then your life is required of you.

Now, in this, we see an interesting example of Jesus because these cities of refuge were for those who were seeking safety from judgment, but those seeking safety from judgment could only find that refuge in the city of refuge if they were what? If they were innocent. Jesus is our city of refuge. He is our great place of refuge because not only does he provide shelter from judgment for the innocent, but if you're anything like me, he's provided shelter from judgment for the guilty.

As a matter of fact, Jesus is ultimately our greatest city of refuge because he's refuge, for those of us that are guilty in these situations. I was reading recently in Psalm 107. If you want a great Psalm to read through and just really meditate on, read Psalm 107 because Psalm 107 takes you through a bunch of scenarios of the nation of Israel where they found themselves guilty, where they had fallen into slavery or they had fallen into the hands of their enemies because of the sins that they had committed. But there's a repetitive line that goes throughout the book of Genesis that goes throughout Psalm 107.

And this repetitive line that goes throughout Psalm 107 says this, and then they cried to the Lord. That's my favorite part. And he sent his word and he healed them. That's a repetitive line that goes throughout that entire Psalm. And as I was kind of meditating on this section today, I thought, what a perfect picture of Jesus as our place of refuge. That when we find ourselves

in that place of judgment because of sin, when we find ourselves in that place of the guilt over sin, what do we do? We cry out to the Lord and he sends his word and he heals us. What is Jesus referred to as? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Isn't that an amazing truth about who Jesus is in our lives? That he is our place of refuge.

He is our place. He is our place of refuge from the coming storm. He's our place of refuge for the coming judgment. He's our place of refuge for the guilt that sometimes weighs us down so heavily. He's our ultimate place where we find refuge. That word refuge is a great word. I actually use this word a lot in funerals that I do because I talk about the fact that God

is our place of refuge in that time of great grief because that word refuge just literally means shelter. And for those of us that live here, I know that's a great word. In Kansas, we know a lot about shelter because we've been through tornadoes and once real Kansans stop staring at the tornado coming at them and they realize, hey, that's coming straight from my house. We know exactly where we're supposed to go.

We're supposed to go to the place of shelter and that's who Jesus is for us. Matter of fact, in the Psalms, it tells us that God is our refuge and strength of very present health in time of trouble. And right now, whether you find yourself in a place where you just know you're guilty or whether you find yourself in a place where you just can sense the coming storm, I want to encourage you, find your refuge, find your shelter in Jesus because he is our greatest place of protection and he wants to hide us under his wings. But I also want to give us a warning.

And John Corson was so good to point this out in his commentary. He said, Jesus is that ultimate place of refuge, that ultimate city of refuge for us because he welcomes even the guilty. But he said, you know what? Once you found refuge in Jesus, you cannot now begin to use that as a cloak for unrighteousness. Because you know what? Sometimes we have a tendency to do

as believers in Jesus Christ. We go, I'm in the city of refuge. Jesus has accepted me. But then that old flesh rears its ugly head and we slip back into that place of guilt again and go, that's okay. I'll just go back to my city of refuge. And he was so good to point out that we cannot use God's grace as a cloak for unrighteousness because that turns God's grace into licentiousness.

And our flesh is so good at this. Our old flesh that we have is so good at convincing us, that's okay. You can just run back to Jesus for shelter. Do whatever you want to do right now. He says, you can't do that. Once you have found your refuge in Jesus, listen, just stay in Christ. Well, he goes on from there in verse 14 to make sort of an out of place statement,

but I think it's a good one for us to pay attention to. It says, you shall not move your neighbor's boundary mark, which the ancestors have set in your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land, that the Lord your God gives you to possess. Now, this verse almost doesn't even fit here, right? Every commentator agrees. It feels like an odd place for Moses to throw this in,

but it must've been on his mind. But let's understand what it means, both in a physical sense and listen, in a spiritual sense as well. You see, the way that they marked off territory at that point in time is they would use stones. Stones would mark that off. Well, if you wanted to add to your property a little bit, what would you do? Well, I'd go out in the middle of the night

and I'd start, slowly but surely, inching those stones over, right? And I'd go, there's the edge of my property. One thing leads to another. I have three quarters of an acre more than I did before, right? That's moving the ancient boundary stones. That's moving the ancient landmarkers, right? I think now they call it eminent domain, but you know that's a whole different story too, right?

That's moving the ancient boundary stones. He says, you shouldn't do that. Listen, it's a good principle for us to live by in life is that we should not, but try to take that which is not ours because that's exactly what he's talking about there. But you know, there's a spiritual principle that goes along with this too. And that spiritual principle is this.

God has laid out the boundaries for our lives. They're spiritual boundaries. And outside of those boundary stones is what we call sin. But do you know what we like to do? We like to move the boundary stones. We call it being progressive. We call it changing with the times. And as we change with the times, we go, that's probably not as big of a deal as it used to be, right?

That's probably not as big of a deal as it used to be. And pretty soon we've moved the boundary stones. You know what happens the longer that we move the boundary stones? Pretty soon we're ordaining homosexuals. You know why? Because we've moved the ancient boundary stones. We have to understand something, believers. We have to understand something, those of us that are part of a conservative Christian church.

Those boundary stones didn't move overnight. We didn't get there overnight. We got there by slowly but surely moving the boundary stones. But listen, before we start condemning everybody else in the world that does what we consider heinous, I have a question for you. In your life, where have you moved the boundary stones? What do you now accept in your life

that when you first started walking with Jesus, you would have said, no, I can't do that? What sort of areas is there compromise now where at one point in time you would have stood strong and said, no, that's the farthest. I can go and I'm not going to go any further. What areas have you moved the ancient boundary stones? Because you know what? It may start off with cheating your time card.

It may start off with looking a little bit longer than you should have. It may start off by continuing the conversation a little longer than you should have. It may start off with those things, but one thing is going to lead to another. And pretty soon you're going to go, I can't even find the boundary stone anymore because I've moved it so far. That I've completely lost my way.

And listen, if you've done that in your life, if you've begun moving those boundaries so far that you're going, man, I have fallen into full blown sin in my life. Move them back. It's as simple as that. If you've been moving them, bring it back to where, Lord, what do you really want for me in this area of my life where I feel like I've slipped into sin? He'll always show you, right?

The problem is not that God won't show us. The problem is will we obey once he does? And once he shows you, this is where it needs to be. This is where your boundary is. And it's time to move those boundary stones back and start living, listen, as holy men and women that God has called for us to be. Because having boundaries is not legalism. Having boundaries is holiness.

And having boundaries is what God calls us to do. So he makes this little statement kind of in the middle of this. Well, now we move on. And he starts to talk about testimony. Notice what he says. A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed. On the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed.

If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in the office in those days. The judges shall investigate thoroughly. And if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

The rest will hear and will be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you. Thus you shall not show pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Okay, we discussed this a little bit last week. A single witness is not good enough to put someone to death, to convict someone of a crime. There needs to be at least two or three.

A good rule to live by and one I think our justice system should be served by. But then he goes on to expound upon this a little bit more. He says, if a malicious witness arises, in other words, if someone, if somebody comes up who's giving false testimony just because they don't like you or just because they want to cancel you or you name the thing or just because they have a short little video of you, then a thorough, and I love that word, a thorough investigation needs to take place. Both of them should stand before the Lord.

But if it's found that the malicious witness is actually a false witness, you should do to them exactly as they intended to do to you. In other words, punish them the way they felt like you should have been punished. Again, I think a lot of people would be putting their phones away in our current culture. I think a lot of people would quit posting videos on social media that only tell half of the story in our current culture.

I think a lot of people who are crying foul in ways that they shouldn't would change their story a lot in our current culture if once they realized that their false testimony would land them in the exact same position that they thought they were going to put you in. We have some real issues with this in our culture right now. We have some real issues with half-truths being told, with only a portion of the story being told, with trial by videotape, trial by Facebook video, trial by Instagram video. We have a real issue with this in our culture right now.

And people aren't being held accountable for it. And that's the real problem is that false testimony comes up and people aren't held accountable for it. And it's an unfortunate thing because here's what happens in the world that we live in today. Is that if you're brought up on trial for something because someone falsely accused you, whether you win or not, you've lost.

Because your name is now smeared throughout all of the community. And it's an unfortunate truth of the world that we live in. But I want to give a little bit of hope to us because though it seems like there's just no good way out of some of these things, listen, God sees. Because who was to be the ultimate arbiter of this? It was to be the Lord, right? They were supposed to come and stand before the Lord.

If you're falsely accused of something, and I tell people this all the time, if you're falsely accused of something, you need to understand the truth of Psalm 37. That God is able to bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. That's what we're told in Psalm 37. Listen, it may be on this side of eternity. It may be on the other side of eternity. But ultimately the truth will win.

And ultimately God will bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. It's an area where I've had to learn to rest in when people accuse me of things. It's an area where all of us need to eventually find that if I do my best, if I am obeying God and doing what God has called for me to do, then let people say what they're going to say and I'll let God fight my battles. And so he says, he says, listen, that's what should be done and you should not hesitate to carry out justice when justice needs to be carried out.

Now in chapter 20, he gives us the laws for warfare. Notice what it says. When you go out to battle against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. When you're approaching the battle, the priest shall come near and speak to the people

and he shall say to them, hear O Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid or panic or tremble before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies. He says, when you go to battle, the enemy is going to be bigger and stronger than you.

Now that's not the most encouraging statement you could ever make, but it is the truth. And brothers and sisters, when we go to battle, our enemy is bigger and stronger than us. We need to know that. All of this, I claim, victory. Listen, we need to be careful about that kind of thing, right? Because we have a really big, strong enemy. But listen, our enemy is not bigger and stronger than God.

Because though it may be more than we can handle, it's not more than he can handle, right? I think the VeggieTales put it best when they said, God is bigger than the boogeyman. He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV, right? I mean, that's a funny song, but it's absolutely true. That's who God is. He's bigger than all of the battles that I face. Listen,

they're all too much for me to handle. I hate that statement where people are like, God will never give you more than you can handle. Are you serious? Getting out of bed is more than I can handle. And God gives me that every day, right? God's always going to give me more than I can handle. Because in my flesh, I can do, what does scripture say? Nothing, right?

But it's not more than God can handle. And as I face the things of life, I'm reminded it's too much for me, but it's not too much for him. And he promises to be with me, right? Right? I've started using this as an example in funeral services that I do. I did one. It was a really hard one here a few weeks ago. Kind of messed with me a little bit. And as soon as I found out about the death and kind of how tragic it was

and almost shocking it was, the Lord sort of gave me a little kid's poem. Perhaps you know it. And I've started sharing this at services. So if I do a service that you're at and you hear this again, just bear with me. But it goes like this. There's a kid's poem. There's a poem that says we're going on a bear hunt. We're going to catch a big one, right? And then it goes on to describe the barriers.

You have big claws and big teeth and fur and all this kind of stuff. And so they're going on the bear hunt. And then the little kids, every little kid's favorite part. So, Oh no, a deep cold river. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. We can't go around it. We have to go through it. And I always equate that to grief. But you know what? That's the way it is with any battle that we face.

It's bigger than we can handle. And you can't go over it. And you can't go under it. And you can't go around it. You have to go through it. Well, how on earth can I have any hope in my life when I know I have to go through something so difficult? Well, God makes a promise in the book of Isaiah. He tells the children of Israel, he says, when you go through the river,

I will be with you. When you go through the fire, you will not be burned because I am with you, declares the Lord, your God. Brothers and sisters, you can't go around it. You can't go over it. You can't go under it. When you're facing the battles of life, you got to go through it. But as you go through it, he's with you and he's bigger than the battle. And so he says,

you're going to face these things and you're going to find that you're fearful, but don't be fearful because God is with you. But then he says, you got to choose the right army to fight with. The officers, verse five, shall speak to the people saying, who's the man that's built a new house and has not dedicated it. Let him depart and return to his house. Otherwise he might die in the battle

and another man would dedicate it. Who's the man that has planted a vineyard and has not begun to use its fruit. Let him depart and return to his house. Otherwise he might die in the battle and another man would begin to use it. Who's the man who's engaged to a woman and has not married her. Let him depart, return to his house. Otherwise he might die in the battle

and another man would marry her. The officer shall speak further to the people and say, who's the man that is afraid and faint hearted. Let him depart and return to his house so that he might not make his brother's hearts melt like his. And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people.

Listen, when we face the battles of life, you better decide who you're going to fight with. Do you notice he sent a bunch of people home? Why? Because some were distracted by the things of the world. Some were distracted by relationships. Some were distracted by their fear. Why did he say to send all those people home? Because they don't need other soldiers around them

that are going to distract them. They don't need other soldiers around them that are going to pull them down. They're going to pull them back. They don't need other soldiers around them that aren't going to have their back. That aren't going to be ready at a moment's notice to give their life for the brother that's next to them. Because they're distracted by the things of the world

or they're distracted by their fear. Brothers and sisters, as we're facing the battles of life, choose the people you fight with. Choose your army well. You should surround yourself with brothers and sisters who are not distracted by the things of the world, but that are going to continue to have your back and push you forward. We have a church with a good number of people in it,

but that doesn't mean everybody is going to be the ones that you get in a foxhole with. You need to be the ones that you get in a foxhole with. You need to be the ones that you get in a foxhole with. You need to be the ones that you get in a foxhole with. You need to be the ones that you get in a foxhole with. You need to be the ones that you get in a foxhole with.

You need to learn who your close people are that are going to continue to build you up. You need to find your group of people that will be the right army for you to fight with. I would love if it was everybody in the church, but I know that we're all different. And each of us needs a little bit of a different army around us. He says, choose who you fight with.

Now, this also reminds us of something. Because if you get rid of all the people that just built a house, all of the people that just planted a vineyard, all of the people who are engaged, and all of the people who are fearful, what did you just do to your army? You just shrunk it, right? Why would you do that? Why would you shrink an army? Well, who does God need to fight the battle with?

He can win with a few, or he can win with a lot. But what I tend to find with God is God is less concerned with the size of the army, and he's more concerned with the heart of the army. He's more concerned with those who have the right heart. Let me give you the illustration. The greatest illustration, of course, is Gideon, right? Remember when God called Gideon in the book of Judges?

If you don't know the story, I'll tell it to you real quick. When God called Gideon, Gideon was hiding out because the Midianites is who they needed to fight against. The Midianites had taken over the children of Israel because they had fallen in sin. And there was Gideon hiding himself while he was threshing grain. Typically, you thresh grain on the top of a mountain so that the wind will blow all of the chaff away.

He was in the bottom of a valley where there was no wind. Why? Because Gideon was El Skirdo, right? And so the angel of the Lord comes along and says, I'm calling you to serve me. And, of course, Gideon does the whole fleece thing, finally decides he's going to serve. He says, first thing I want you to do, go tear down the idol of Baal that's in the middle of the town.

And so Gideon, like the great man of strength and courage that he was, went in the middle of the night. And he tore down the idol. And everybody's like, who tore down Baal? And everybody's like, I heard it. Everybody's like, I heard it. Everybody's like, I heard it. Everybody's like, I heard it. Everybody's like, I heard it. Everybody's like, I heard it was Gideon.

So then God goes, now, choose an army. Now, the armies of the Midianites, about 135,000. So Gideon calls an army to himself. And about 30, I think if I remember correctly, it was 32,000 guys show up. That's still nothing compared to 135,000. And God says, too many. And Gideon's like, I don't think so. I'm no soldier, but it feels like we're still outnumbered.

Nope, you have too many. I know the heart of the people. You'll claim the victory for yourself. And I don't remember who he sends home first, but he sends a bunch of guys home first. Gets down to about 22,000. God says, still too many. Sends a bunch more home. Gets down to about 700. He says, still too many. Go down and drink water. The ones that drink water the way I want them to, they can stay.

The ones who don't drink water the way I want them to, send them home. He gets down to 300 guys. And of course, at that point in time, God says, perfect. Now I'm going to be the one that gets all the credit. Why? Because God's not concerned with the size of the army. He's concerned with the heart of the army. And may I say, that's the way it is in your life.

God is not concerned with how great you are. God is concerned with how great your heart is. With how true your heart is to him. Because that's what God likes to do. He likes to choose the weak things of the world, whose heart is true to God, to confound the wise. That's why God puts people like me. That's why God puts people like me. That's why God puts people like me.

That's why God puts people like me as pastors. He's like, it's going to be funny. Because no one would expect it. No one saw that coming, right? And so, that's what he does. But you know, it's true of churches too. God doesn't work through the churches with all of the best everything. God works through churches whose heart is for God. And I'm so blessed with the people that go to this church.

Because of the people that go to this church, I see people whose heart is for God. And that's the way God moves. And so he says, Now there's some more rules to pay attention to. He says, When you go into battle, Verse 10, When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. If it agrees to make peace with you, and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it

shall become your forced labor, and shall serve you. However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it, with the edge of the sword, only the women and children and animals, and all that is in the city, all that spoils, you shall take as spoils for yourself. And you shall use the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.

Thus you shall do to the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. Only in the cities of these people that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything alive that breathes. You shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hittite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things, which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the Lord your God. And so he gives them the rules for what warfare looks like from far away, when they're attacking cities far away, and what they look like when they're near.

But now there's one last rule that God gives that's kind of interesting. Notice what it says in verse 19. When you besiege a city for a long time to make war against it, in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its cities by swinging an axe against them. For you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man that it should be besieged by you?

Only the trees which you know are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down, that you may construct siege works against the city that is making war with you. Until it falls. Again, this is kind of an interesting rule that God makes for them. He says, when you're besieging a city for a long time, don't just clear cut every tree that's around you. If there are trees that are not producing

any fruit at all for you, you can cut those down. But if there are trees that are producing any sort of fruit, even just a little bit, leave those trees, because you can eat from them, because they're producing fruit. It's a really wise thing to do. It's a really wise thing to do. It's a really nice thing for them to do because eventually the city is going to fall

and it's going to be really nice for them to have trees that are producing fruit. Correct? And so he lays out this sort of ecological rule for them to take care of the land and not just completely destroy everything. But you know, I think there's one more small little spiritual principle that we can pay attention to here. And we'll close up with this. Principle is this.

We as believers in Jesus Christ have one job and one job only. And that's to bear fruit. And any amount of fruit that we're bearing is a good amount of fruit. And if we see the trees around us are bearing any sort of fruit, even if it's not very much, don't cut them down. We as believers in Jesus Christ have a tendency to eat our own, right? And when we see a tree that's not bearing

very much fruit, what do we tend to do? Well, we don't tend to take care of it. We tend to cut that thing down and to cast it off from us. To sort of treat it pretty bad and push it away instead of giving it some time. Some patience. I'm reminded of a parable that Jesus told. Jesus told the parable of a fruit tree that wasn't bearing very much fruit. And the landowner said,

cut it down. But the gardener came along and said, wait, let me first of all dig around it and fertilize it and water it. And then in another year, if it still isn't bearing fruit, then I'll cut it down. The Lord has always spoken a great deal to me through that parable. And I'm reminded of a parable that Jesus told. I'm reminded of a parable that Jesus told.

Because there have been times in my life where I've not borne very much fruit. And I have felt like surely God should just cut me down now because there's not very much fruit. And in those times in my life, God has always reminded me of that parable. That parable of the gardener who says, let's not cut it down just yet. Let's instead take really good care of it.

Let's tend it, dig around it, fertilize it, water it, give it all of the care that it needs and see if we can't get it to grow some fruit. And brothers and sisters, there's going to be believers around us sometimes, even in our own church, that aren't going to be bearing very much fruit. Don't just go cut them down. It's the easy thing to do. We can cut them down with our words.

We can cut them down by ignoring them. We can cut them down by shunning them. We can cut them down by condemning them. But rather than cutting down those trees, what if instead you started pouring into it? You see that brother or sister that's not bearing very much fruit because they haven't been coming to church as much. You can tell they're not in the word.

Matter of fact, they're starting to let some words slip out of their mouth that they maybe never would have before. Instead of cutting them down, instead of condemning them, why don't you start pouring into them? Why don't you start reaching out to them? Sending them that message with a little devotional in it. Asking them if you can pray with them. Really encourage them in the things of God.

Because brothers and sisters, all of us are going to come to a point at some point in time in our lives where we're not bearing very much fruit. And rather than cutting each other down, what if we took time just to care about each other? Because that's kind of what he says here. Hey listen, you see those fruit trees? Don't cut them down. They're bearing fruit.

And that fruit is exactly what I'm looking for. Amen? Father, we come before you and I thank you for the time that we've had in your word tonight. Lord, so many good things in the book of Deuteronomy. We praise you that you are that exact same way with us. Lord, you are that gardener who says, let me just pour into them a little bit. And so Lord, give us eyes to see the brothers and sisters that are around us

that need to be poured into. Lord, give us the humility to admit when we are the brother or sister, that needs to be poured into. And is willing to reach out for help. Lord, continue to fashion us into the men and women of God you've created for us to be. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.