Practical Laws for the Land

Good evening, y'all. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Would you stand with me? I want to welcome those of you who are joining us online. Welcome.

Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this opportunity this evening to come and worship in song and study your word. Oh, Father, we thank you for your word that is a lamp unto our feet. We want your word above your name even, Lord. It's so important that we spend that time feeding upon your word. Just bless tonight, Lord, we pray. I want to lift up youth group and bless that time as Rachel and Tristan as they lead and

bless the children's class too and the nursery and all that's going on tonight, Lord. Be glorified. And we thank you. Bless Ryan as he teaches, Lord. We just give you praise, Lord.

Take two. Fingers got in the wrong place. Lord, you loved us so much, you sent your son, Jesus, to die for us, Lord.

You left us comfort. Your Holy Spirit leads and guides us, Lord.

We ask tonight you would fill us afresh, Lord, as we spend time serving you, fellowshipping with one another, experiencing your love.

Just bless our time, Lord. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you.

Good evening. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 21. Deuteronomy 21.

As we come to chapter 21 tonight, we really come into a lot of more various kind of laws. As a matter of fact, a lot of these are just simply what I would call practical laws for the land. They're not feasts. They're more just, hey, this is how you should live when you're living among people. And so that's what we look at, first of all, here in chapter 21, verse 1.

It says this. If a slain person is found lying. In the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess, and it is not known who has struck him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked, and which has not pulled a yoke.

And the elders of the city shall bring. Shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. The priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of the Lord. And every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them.

All the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken. And the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken. And every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them. All the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken.

And they shall answer and say, Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. Forgive your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O Lord, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people, and the blood guiltiness shall be forgiven them. So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. And so the first of these practical laws.

What he brings to us is the practical law of what to deal with, of what to do in the case of an unsolved murder. If there's a body that is found somewhere, or whether it's a murder or whether it's an unsolved death, if there's a body that's found, then this was the way that God wanted them to deal with it. Figure out which city is closest, and whichever city is closest, they will, if you will, bear the burden of that unattended death. And there was, of course, a way that was to deal with it.

They were supposed to take a heifer, and they were to break the neck. And then the elders of the city were to make a vow, and the vow was this, we didn't have anything to do with the death of this individual. It was a vow of innocence that they took. However, a life was still ended, and so they would wash their hands over the head of that heifer whose neck had been broken to say, this was not our fault.

And so it says, in that way, they will be forgiven, and the land will be cleansed of any sort of trespass. Now, what strikes me in this first little section is this, and that is, God always has something to say about any sort of innocent blood that is shed. As a matter of fact, throughout the Old Testament so far, we have seen just how important life is to God, that if blood is ever shed, that it is dealt with in such a way so as to cleanse the land, because multiple places in Scripture, it says that the blood of the innocent cries out from the ground. And it's a good reminder of just how important life is to God, because God is the author of life.

Therefore, when life is lost, God takes note. Even if nobody else takes note, even if nobody knows what happened, God still takes note of every life that is lost, because every life is valuable to God. And so he says, that's the way the church will handle it when there is an unattended death, so that God will still find justice. And what's been done. Now we move into a section on domestic relationships, as well as prisoners of war.

Notice what it says in verse 10. It says, When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you take them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her, and would take her as a wife for yourself, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head, and trim her nails. She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity, and she shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month, and after that you may go into her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. It shall be, if you are not pleased with her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes, but you shall certainly not sell her for money.

You shall not mistreat her, because you have humbled her. Now this first subject that he deals with, if you don't know very much about this, you don't know very much about Eastern culture, this is a little bit of a shock to the ears of us in a Western culture, who just don't live this kind of a lifestyle. I would imagine as you were reading this, you thought the same thing that I did. Well gosh, that just sounds like a shocking thing to do no matter what.

But if we understand Eastern culture of that point in time, you realize that first of all, prisoners of war had no rights. Second of all, in that culture, women had no rights. And so what God does here is he provides actually a protection, not only for a prisoner of war, but he provides an extra protection for a woman. They never left the men alive in those kinds of situations, because they wouldn't have wanted them to rise up and raise an army to eventually revolt against them.

So if you found a woman that you were interested in, he said, this is what you need to do. You bring her home, and for 30 days, she does everything to cut off the past culture. Everything from before is cut off from her life. And if at the end of 30 days, you find that she pleases you, and she's content to live there. And you take her as your wife. But if you find that that's not something that you're content with, and she doesn't

please you, then you need to send her along the way. But I want you to notice how they're supposed to send them along. They're not supposed to sell them. And they're supposed to treat them kindly. You see, this is the protection that God provided. Because he elevated the status, not only of a prisoner of war, but he elevated the status of a woman to being someone who was on an equal playing field as a man.

And so he says there should be kindness and protection. That is offered in that particular situation. He, if you will, set limitations on what was already being done in the cultures around them. And so he goes on from there to discuss another domestic situation. It says in verse 15, If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and

the unloved have born him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then it shall be in the day. He wills what he has to his sons. He cannot make the son of the loved, the firstborn, before the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn. But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has.

For he is the beginning of his strength. To him belongs the right of the firstborn. Now he comes to another, what I would call a touchy subject in the Bible, right? He says, If a man has two wives. Now before we go any further, I want to address something that I feel like I've addressed before, but I don't think this is something that you can address enough times when covering

the Old Testament because of what most people do to like to attack the Bible. They say that the Bible was in favor of polygamy. That's actually not true. God sets a limitation on an activity that was already taking place, and he sets rules and regulations upon it. The Bible is very clear about what God's plan for marriage is. The God's plan for marriage is for it to be between one man and one woman for life.

But it also shows us a display of humanity because when humanity doesn't follow God's rules, there are always consequences, unintended or not, that go along with that. And one of the unintended consequences that would go along with someone who would choose to marry two wives is that naturally something was going to happen. He was probably going to marry two wives. He was probably going to love one more than the other, which is why this is such a bad idea.

And so he says, if that happens and you find that the son of the unloved is actually the firstborn, then you are not to remove his rights of the firstborn because he is the son of the unloved woman. In other words, you need to make sure that you follow the rules properly as far as the law of the firstborn is concerned. You shouldn't show favoritism. You shouldn't show favoritism based upon how you feel about one wife over the other.

Now, I would venture to say that none of us in here are married to more than one woman at a time. At least I hope not. If so, then let's talk afterwards and figure out how we can make that a better situation later. However, there's two things that I think are important for us to pay attention to in this. One is what I brought up already, and that's God's plan for marriage.

And God's plan for marriage is so important because I think that one of the greatest things that's being attacked in our world today is biblical marriage. It's being attacked in a handful of different ways. It's being attacked, first of all, because people have made marriage disposable in the world that we live in today. We've made it incredibly disposable and said, you know, a commitment's not really all that important.

Commitment, who needs it anyway? She doesn't make me happy any longer. He doesn't make me happy any longer. Let's just go on and move about our lives. That's one way that marriage is somewhat under attack today and somewhat being marginalized by culture today. Marriage is being marginalized by culture today because it seems like infidelity is not as much the exception as it is the norm, it feels like, anymore.

It feels like that's just kind of something that happens. I'm always amazed at how many different TV shows and movies show that those kinds of relationships happen as often as they do. And I go, man, is no one faithful anymore? But that's another way. Marriage is being attacked today. And then, of course, what you and I would probably consider the biggest way that marriage

is being attacked today is it's being redefined. It's being redefined based on gender and sexuality. And we know that those things are taking place. And so when we look at this, we're reminded of what God's plan for marriage is. And, of course, that covenant of marriage, as we know, is reflective of God's covenant with us. But I think that there's something else for us to pay attention to.

Well, I don't think any of you in here. If you're married to more than one person at a time, there is the potential that mistakes have been made, divorces have happened, and there are multiple marriages. Not at the same time, but multiple marriages have taken place no matter what. And we're reminded that what God says in the midst of this is that if that's the case, if you're married for a second time, then the rule of the way that you handle everything, your own kids, your stepkids, her stepkids, the way that you handle that should always be treated with love and kindness.

Because you know as well as I do that when there is an additional marriage that's been added to the mix, you're divorced and you're now remarried, oftentimes what guides our decisions about our ex-spouse is oftentimes bitterness and anger. And sometimes that can flow into every other family relationship. And what God reminds us of here, what Moses reminds the children of Israel here is, that love is what should guide all of those decision-making processes. Well, he goes on from there to deal with more family relationships.

Notice what it says, verse 18. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to him, then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his house. Then they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and he will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.

And then all the men of the city shall stone him to death. So you shall remove the evil from your midst and all of Israel will hear it and fear. Man, am I glad my dad did not put that into effect when I was a teenager. Otherwise, I would not be here today because I was a stubborn and rebellious teenager. But that brings to our minds what God actually intends with this,

because we must understand what the language states. Because the language of a son here is not talking about a kid. It's really not even talking about a teenager. It's talking about a young man who is at the point where he's making decisions for himself. Someone who is of the age of accountability and has come to a place where his life is so rebellious, not only against his father, but also against his mother.

Not only against his parents, but rebellious against the things of God that something has to be done. His rebellion has spilled over to a place where he's almost gone too far. So at that point in time, I believe after multiple confrontations, they seize him and they take him to the elders of the city. And the punishment's very clear. They're to stone him to death.

Now, I don't know how often this actually took place. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say, based on stories that we read, we read in the Bible of guys like Samuel who couldn't keep control of his sons, of guys like the high priest Eli who couldn't keep control of his sons, quite frankly, of King David who couldn't keep control of his sons. I would venture to say this is one of those laws that was oftentimes overlooked. But when we think about those great men of God, when we think about Eli, the priest, when we think about Samuel, the prophet, when we think about David, the king, we are reminded of something.

And this is a word for all of us. As parents, and especially us as fathers, rebellion is something that should not be tolerated in the home. And it has to start at a very early age. And I fear sometimes that that's not the order most parents follow any longer when it comes to kids. I know it's something we have to fight. I remember my mom telling me when I was in my early twenties and my wife and I were starting to talk about having kids.

She said, Ryan, there's one rule you have to live by. If you don't break their will before the age of five, you'll fight it for the rest of your life. And that was something we have honestly tried to do with our daughters. Have we done it? I don't know. We're doing the best we can. I call them out on their rebellion when I see it. I call them out on their garbage when I see it.

But as husbands, as fathers, as parents, we can't put up with rebellion in our kids. And I fear oftentimes that in homes in the United States of America, and in homes in the church, the kids are the ones that are running the houses. The kids are the ones that are in charge of the houses. And if there's one thing that God is very clear about, because he says it in scripture, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

So for all of us as parents, we have to remember that if we, as we talked about last week, have moved those boundary stones, then it's time to move them back. And listen, the hardest thing about having to be a parent or any other kind of a leader is to have to tell people no, is to have to be the bad guy. Because as I've said before, you're the villain in someone's story the moment that that happens. The moment that you have to be the person that says, I have to say no on this, whether you're a parent or a leader, then all of a sudden you become the bad guy because nobody understands what it's like to be in leadership.

Your kids don't understand what it's like to be a parent and to think beyond just the next two hours of their life. But it's still an important thing that has to happen. Because sometimes the best word that our kids can ever hear is the word, no. Because whether they realize it or not, kids crave boundaries in their lives. Because those boundaries are the greatest way that they can spell love.

Because they know my parents loved me so much that they held me back from the evil that the world has to offer. I know for me personally, I've gone back and thanked my parents for the things that they would not let me do, for the things that they would not allow me to go do. Because I'm not going to lie, when I was a kid, sometimes I just thought that my parents were the fun haters. I just thought that they were the fun killers.

But now I look and I go, man, it's almost like they kind of knew what they were talking about. And this is the rule that I tell my daughter. I'm like, listen, until a boy knows my parents know what they're talking about, he's not worth talking to because he's still an idiot. Right? And even once he knows his parents know what they're talking about, he's still an idiot.

He's just an idiot on the right path now. Okay? So that's what you got to pay attention to. But this was how they were to handle this. Because rebellion is something that God hates. Then as we move into verse 22, there's an interesting spot here that is a law that actually tells us a little bit about Jesus. It says, if a man has committed a sin worthy of death,

verse 22 of chapter 21, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day. For he who is hanged is accursed of God, so that you do not defile your land, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. Now we need to understand what he's talking about here, because the way that the Jewish people carried out capital punishment was not through strangulation. It was not through hanging like what you and I would think of.

They always carried out capital punishment through stoning, right? Through stoning them to death. So what does he mean when he says, if you hang, if someone has committed a sin that's worthy of death, which by the way, he's mentioned a good number of those. If someone has committed a sin worthy of death and you hang them on a tree, so why would they do that?

Well, they would be hung up there as some sort of a warning. This is what happens when you commit this sin. Interestingly enough, this is right after the part about rebellion. Right? So if you have rebelled against God's law and your body's hung there as a, hey, this is what happens when you rebel against God's law, they shouldn't be left there overnight. Matter of fact,

they should be buried that same night so that you don't defile the land. Why? Because cursed, and I prefer the New King James on this, because cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Now this was the law they were to live by, but it's interesting because if we were to, and I think I would like for you to go there, if we go forward into the book of Galatians, matter of fact, go there with me, Galatians chapter three, go all the way to the New Testament, about three-fourths-ish of the way through the New Testament.

Come to Galatians chapter three, and I want you to look at verses 13 and 14. Chapter three, verses 13 and 14. It says this, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, quoting Deuteronomy, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Isn't it amazing that you and I have committed a sin that's worthy of death? As a matter of fact, the very sin nature is something that is worthy of death. But Jesus, because he did not want us to experience the curse of the law, which brings death, became a curse for us, and he not only figuratively became a curse for us, by sin being laid upon us, but even according to the law, he became a curse for us, because he was hanged on a tree. And as he was hanged on that tree, he became for us the curse of the law, because he took on our death.

Isn't it beautiful that in the book of Deuteronomy, he literally lays out the picture of the gospel for us, that Jesus bore the curse that rightfully belongs to us? And I have found that one of the greatest things I can keep doing in my walk with Jesus Christ, is to go back to reminding myself that Jesus took the curse of the law for me, so that I could experience the blessings of grace through him. The blessings that come through the Spirit because of faith. He became that for me.

And I find that if I ever begin to forget that Jesus took that curse for me, it's usually because I forget I'm still so deserving of death. That there still, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. That the only thing good about me is Jesus. But once I remind myself of that truth, it gets my heart and my mind back in order, so that I can put my focus back in order.

So that I can put my focus back on Jesus, who became that curse for me. And so he goes on in chapter 22 to give more of these laws. Notice what he says, you shall not, chapter 22 verse 1, you shall not see your countryman's ox or his sheep straying away and pay no attention to them. You shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. If your countryman is not near you

or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it, then you shall restore it to him. Thus you shall do with his donkey and you shall do with his garment and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them. You shall not see your countryman's ox or excuse me, donkey or his ox falling down on the way and pay no attention to them.

You shall certainly help him to raise them up. So he gives this law which essentially we could sum up with one word. We could sum up this next law that he gives with the word love. You should care about your neighbor. Therefore, if you see one of his animals that's lost, you either A, figure out a way that you can return it to them or B, you hold on to it until he comes looking for it.

You shouldn't just say, that's not my problem. That's what we all like to do, isn't it? We see something that's happening and we go, but that's not my problem. That's not my job, right? That was my favorite phrase that I used to hear from people when I worked in construction. They'd always say, but that's not my job, right? One of my favorite pictures that I ever saw hanging inside of a break room

was the winner of the It's Not My Job Award. And there was in the middle of the road the, of course, two yellow stripes going down the middle of the road which are pretty typical. But do you know what was underneath of those two yellow stripes in the middle of the road? A dead raccoon that they had painted over the top of because somebody said, my job is to paint the stripes.

Moving the dead animal is not my job. Well, when it comes to our neighbors, it becomes our job, right? Let me give you a little for instance. My daughter was the perfect picture of this the other day. In the positive, not the negative. Sunday afternoon, I'm over at my mom and dad's house watching the game. My dad and I both lamenting the loss to Buffalo. If you're a Buffalo fan,

I don't want to hear about it. Anyway, we're lamenting the loss of the Chiefs to Buffalo. And my youngest daughter comes up to the door and she has a dog in her hands. And it's not one of ours. And she says, Dad, I found this dog. It's roaming around and I don't know who it belongs to. So there you have a choice, right? My daughter made the right choice because she saw someone's animal roaming around

and she didn't say, not my problem. What'd she say? I want to help this dog. That's exactly what he's talking about here. So we do the whole take the picture of it, post it on Facebook. Turned out it was one of our neighbors. We got it back to him. That's exactly what he's talking about right here. You care about your neighbor. And I love that my youngest daughter has that concern.

She has that compassion in her heart to say, hey, there's something in need. I'm not just going to look the other way. I'm going to take care of it. That's the idea. In our world, too many people want to look the other way and say, that's not my problem. That's not my issue. Oftentimes this can happen in the world around us of hurting people. As we see people caught up in the things of the world,

we see people caught up in the addictions of the world. And what do we all want to say? Oftentimes as Christians, we want to say, not my problem. I didn't end up in that situation. I'm not the reason why they're in that situation. Which is why I always tell people, don't turn your heart away from the people that are hurting. Allow it to hurt your heart too.

Because that's what it's doing to God. Because the more hurt that you see, you know what we have a tendency to want to do is just turn it with more. I can't take any more. Anybody feel that way sometimes? Anybody feel like I can't take any more of the hurt that I'm seeing in the world right now? You know what God says? Take just a little bit more. Because I don't want you just to turn your heart away

from the people that are in need around you. We're to care for our neighbors. This is, if you will, and expounding upon what it says in the book of Leviticus, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so he gives this command. Next we move into verse five. And verses five through 12 are really laws of purity. Notice how it starts off. A woman shall not wear a man's clothing,

nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing. For whoever does these things is an abomination, an abomination to the Lord your God. You know, I always hear the same thing from people. The Bible's pretty outdated, and it really doesn't address any of the issues today. The Old Testament is super outdated and doesn't address any of the issues of today. Boy, if we were ever addressing an issue of today,

it would be this one. Because God's pretty clear here about the way it's supposed to be. It says a man shall not wear a woman's clothes, nor should a woman put on a man's clothing. Now, we have to understand something. Everybody dressed pretty similarly at that point in time, right? They all wore robes. They all wore very similar clothing. And yet, there was a difference in what women wore

and what men wore. It's kind of like today. There's a lot of churches out there that say women should not wear pants. They should always wear skirts. Because the Bible says, a man shall not dress like a woman, and a woman shall not dress like a man. I don't think that's what it's talking about. I don't think it means that women always have to wear a skirt. I think it means that

women's and men's bodies are cut very differently. Therefore, women should wear women's clothing, whether it's pants or whatever. And men should wear men's clothing. You see, God's pretty specific about gender identity. After all, in the beginning, He made them what? Male and female. And this is an issue we're really facing in our culture right now. As a matter of fact,

I'm in the middle of a chapter of this book, and I highly recommend this book so far. It's called, Being the Bad Guys. And it's all about how we, as Christians, have become the bad guys in culture, because we're telling the truth about morality according to what Scripture has to say. And right now, I'm in the chapter where he's talking about gender identity.

And he says, you have to understand, Christians, the issue that we've had is we made gender identity a side issue and not the main issue. Because in culture, it's the main issue. It's almost a gospel in and of itself. You see, the bad news in the gender identity world is that you were restrictively assigned a gender when you were born. That's not the true you.

The true you needs to be set free to be who you really are. And now the gospel of this culture says, you now can be who you really are. Because there are hundreds of gender identities. As a matter of fact, there was an article that came out, in the UK Guardian, this has been several years ago, that I think said there were 168, if I remember correctly, according to the book, it was somewhere in that general range, different genders.

And this is what continues to happen in culture. But here's the problem. Here's the issue we're dealing with, is that we have an entire culture of young people who are incredibly hopeless, because they've been given everything in the world that they want, forever. I want you to think about it. What do you have to look forward to? They have technology that you didn't dream about

when you were a kid. They have technology that I didn't dream about when I was a kid. I remember one of my teachers telling me in high school, they said, 60% of the jobs, in the next 20 years, we've never even heard of, because of the rate at which technology is growing. And you know what? I'd agree with that. At the time we're like, because I wasn't that creative,

how could we not have heard of the jobs that are coming up? Did anybody think you could ever make money videotaping yourself doing the most moronic things in the world, and become a millionaire because of it? Did anyone think that you could unwrap toys on a video? And the thing called Ryan's World, which BT dubs, I should have come up with Ryan's World and trademarked that a long time ago.

Did anyone think you'd ever be able to do that? No! And so, the culture today has everything in the world at their fingertips. And yet, there is unhappy and hopeless as they've ever been before. And so, as they're in this place of being hopeless, more than they've ever been before, they're searching for identity. And someone tells them, your problem is, is that you

don't understand your real identity. You have been restrictively put in a box of either being male or female. And I want to broaden your horizons and tell you there's a whole lot more out there than that. And now what we're seeing happening in culture is, not only is this being stomped all over, but it's being completely ripped out of the hearts and minds of young people.

I assume most of you have probably heard about the transgender show that took place down in Dallas over the weekend that lots of kids ended up being exposed to some pretty heinous things. And it's become quite the national news story. We have Hulu, that's what we watch our shows on right now. And there's a show going on right now, and I haven't seen an advertisement for a while, but it was called Transgendervania, or something along those lines.

It was supposed to be transgender Halloween show. And you're going, what is wrong with culture today? Well, what's wrong with culture today is that, well, the Bible's antiquated and we don't need anything that it has to say. Meanwhile, God makes it very clear exactly how we should handle things. He says that's an abomination to the Lord. And we as Christians need to

understand something. We need to understand that these folks need hope. They already feel condemned. They need to be told the truth. But along with that truth of what the Bible says, they need to be given the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So he makes very clear exactly how that's to be handled. A woman shall not wear a man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing.

Verse 6. If you happen to come upon a bird's nest, I like verse 6. Along the way, it's a nice switch. In any tree or on the ground with young one's eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall certainly let the mother go. You may take her for yourself in order that it may be well with you,

that you may prolong your days. I really have nothing there. Verse 8. When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, and you shall not bring blood guilt on your house if anyone falls from it. Now again, most of us don't hang out on the roof. Maybe you do, but most of us don't. But the roof of Jewish houses at that point in time was sort of the front porch.

It was where they would hang out in the evening on top. And so he says you need to make sure that you put a parapet wall. If you don't know what that is, it's a half wall that goes all the way around the edge of the roof. So that there's a protection. So you know, hey, there's a wall there. I bet on the other side of that wall is the ground, and that's gonna hurt.

This is, if you will, love for your neighbor who comes over and you don't want him to accidentally step off of the roof. He says, put a parapet up. Then he goes on to say, you shall not sow your vineyard, verse 9, with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed which you have sown in the increase of the vineyard will become defiled. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together. And you shall make for yourself tassels on the four corners of your garments with which you cover yourself. The idea of those first three with not mixing things together is that the pagans of that day felt like there was power in the mixing of different things together. There was a spiritual power that they could have for the growth of seeds and different things like that and so he says don't mimic the pagan customs that are around you and of course the tassels of the garments have to do with remembering the law.

He then goes on to discuss some laws of morality in verse 13. He says if anyone takes a wife and goes into her and then turns against her and he charges her with shameful deeds publicly defames her and says I took this woman but when I came near her I did not find her a virgin. Then the girl's father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. The girl's father shall say to the elders I gave my daughter to this man for a wife but he turned against her. Behold

he has charged her with shameful deeds saying I did not find your daughter a virgin. But this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity and they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city so the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him and they shall find him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl's father because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel and she shall remain his wife. He cannot divorce her all his days but if this charge is true that the girl was not found a virgin then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father's house and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly by playing the harlot in her father's house. Thus you shall purge

the evil from among you. There are certain sections of the Bible I wish didn't exist and this is one of them. But I think you get the idea of what he says here. If there's a false accusation that's made or an accusation that when he married her she wasn't really a virgin then the parents are supposed to produce the proof that she was a virgin and if they can prove that she was then he has to pay a hundred shekels if not she has to get dealt with to put away the sin.

Then we move on to verse 22 it says if a man is found lying with a married woman then both of them shall die. The man who lay with the woman and the woman thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man and another man finds her in the city and lies with her then you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and you shall stone them to death. The girl because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall

purge the evil from among you. But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged and the man forces her and lies with her then only the man who lies with her shall die but you shall do nothing to the girl there is no sin in the girl worthy of death for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him so is the case when he found her in the field the engaged girl cried out but there was no one to save her. If a man finds a girl who is a virgin who is not engaged and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver and she shall become his wife because he has violated her he shall not divorce her all his days the man shall not take his

father's wife so that he will not uncover his father's skirt. I'm going to sum all of those things up with this one statement God takes purity very seriously in the same way that marriage has one rule and one rule only one man one woman for life so sexual relationships are the same way again these have been so cheapened in our culture they have been so cheapened through the jokes that we tell they have been so cheapened through the movies that we watch they have been so cheapened by telling girls that they are only worth one thing and one thing only and that is for what they can give to a man and it's an unfortunate truth of the world that we live in brothers and sisters the only way that we can bring this back is by first of all each of us living

a pure life because it's really hard for us to stand in it's really hard for us to stand on the moral high ground when we are not living on the moral high ground but the other thing that we have to do is we have to begin to treat people with the respect that they deserve that means as men we need to be careful what we do with our eyes because people notice when you take that longing glance women need to understand the value that they have there's a reason why Paul says that a woman should be clothed with the virtue that comes from God I hear it said over and over again there's a real movement that women shouldn't be modest men should control themselves no women should be modest too you know why women should be modest

because you're worth more than what your body says you're worth more than what your body shows and I think the best thing that we can do is teach you young women that and as we teach young women that we don't tell them listen we don't want you to stumble your brother no we tell them you're worth more in the eyes of God than what your body has to offer to a young man and that's what we need to be teaching these young ladies not shaming them for the way that they dress teaching them that they are worth more than that teaching them that they are of high value to God and they should be of high value to men of such high value that they're to be respected but dads grandpas, uncles it starts with us it starts with us respecting the women that are around us

and so he gives these commands for purity and now as we come to chapter 23 he talks about the laws for the assembly he says no one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord none of his descendants even to the tenth generation shall enter the assembly of the Lord no Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord none of their descendants even to the tenth generation shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor to curse you nevertheless the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam

but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you you shall never seek their peace or prosperity all your days you shall not detest an Edomite for he is your brother you shall not detest an Egyptian because you were an alien in his land the sons of the third generation shall enter the assembly of the Lord he put some restrictions on who's allowed to enter the assembly men who are emasculated are not allowed to illegitimate children Ammonites and Moabites not allowed to enter the assembly and we find ourselves going gosh that just seems so harsh but we forget that God is a holy God and he has holy restrictions he has holy restrictions for us so what does that mean for us

that I have some of that impurity in me well we have been purified by the blood of Jesus Christ that is our entrance into the assembly we have been made holy because of the blood of Jesus Christ and of course he tells them no Ammonites or Moabites because we remember the story of Balaam that took place there and of course the Edomites and the Egyptians were allowed after the third generation he goes on to say in verse 9 when you go out as an army against your enemies you shall keep yourself from every evil thing if there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission then he must go outside the camp he may not reenter the camp but it shall be when evening approaches he shall bathe himself with water

and at sundown you may reenter the camp you shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there you shall have a spade among your tools and it shall be when you sit down outside you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement man every poop joke in the world I'm going through my mind right now since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you I'll try to cast all that out therefore your camp must be holy and he must not see anything indecent among you or he will turn away from you and so of course those just have to do with the aspect of holiness we'll address that as we kind of wrap up he says you shall not hand over verse 15 to his master a slave

who has escaped from his master to you he shall live with you in your midst in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him you shall not mistreat him now this is kind of an interesting law that he gives because the nation of Israel should be a place of sanctuary for those who are in need and that's what he tells them that they are to be if there is someone who runs to you as a slave don't deliver him back over to his master be that place of sanctuary for them be that place of safety for them and it reminds me of what we are to be as the church because we as the church are not to be not to be a sanctuary full of saints but to be an emergency room for sinners we are to be the place where anyone

no matter how far they've fallen into sin we are to be a place where they can come and find refuge because we teach them of the refuge that they can have in Jesus Christ listen we don't expect them to continue to live in that slavery but we accept them and love them and be a place of refuge for them if I was to say I have one goal for us as a church it's that we would become the most loving church who is so welcoming of people who portrays the holiness of Christ but also portrays the love of Christ to those who need refuge because they have found themselves in the deepest of sin so he says that's who you are to be as the nation of Israel he says none of the daughters of Israel verse 17 shall be a cult prostitute nor shall any of the sons of Israel

be a cult prostitute you shall not bring the hire of the harlot or the wages of a dog which is a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God for any votive offering for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God again God's pretty clear about what holiness is and what holiness is not why does he say this because this was the way that many of the foreign cultures worshiped their God was through cult prostitution and so he says that shouldn't take place and as a matter of fact any ill gotten gain should not be brought as an offering to the temple he says you shall not charge interest to your countrymen interest on money food or anything that may be loaned out in interest you may charge interest to a foreigner but to your countrymen

you shall not charge interest so that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess the idea behind this law is that if somebody finds themselves falling behind in bills falling behind in debt and they take out a loan from you to pay off their debt if they're your brother you're not to charge them interest this is not if you are a car salesman this doesn't mean that when you loan money you're not allowed to accept interest this is the loaning of money for the paying off of debts that's being spoken of here someone who has found themselves fallen on hard times and you say I'll just spot you a hundred as long as you pay me back a hundred and twenty that's the idea here

it says of a foreigner you can doesn't mean you should but it means you can but for your brother you're not to charge them any kind of interest it says when you make a vow verse 21 to the Lord you shall not delay to pay it for it would be sin in you and the Lord your God will surely require it of you however if you refrain from vowing it would not be sin in you you shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised it's kind of similar to what Jesus said in the book of Matthew when he said you've heard it said that when you vow you should always pay it he says but I tell you not to make a vow kind of like it says right there in verse 22 if you refrain from vowing

then you can't screw up in not keeping the vow he said instead let your yes be yes and your no be no be people of your word when you enter your neighbor's vineyard verse 24 you may eat grapes until you are fully satisfied but you shall not put any in your basket when you enter your neighbor's standing grain you may pluck the heads with your hand but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain and of course the greatest illustration of this law is when Jesus and his disciples on the Sabbath day were walking through the field and they found themselves hungry and so what did they do they reached out and they grabbed some of the grain that they had gathered in their hands and ate some of it the Pharisees had a hay day with it

but that's the idea if you find yourself hungry and you're walking through a field you can take a little bit of it you just can't harvest it and put it into a basket and so we wrap up there in chapter 23 now as I was thinking about all of the things from these three chapters I was reminded of two things and I want to wrap up with this because I believe that these three chapters speak to us two things number one they speak to us about loving our neighbor if you think about it so many of those can just be put into one blanket law you should love the people that are around you you should care about the people that are around you and that of course brings up a question in my mind that I have to ask myself and I'm going to ask you

are you loving your neighbor oh well I tell people I love them all the time that's not what I said are you loving your neighbor because loving your neighbor means that you're going to go outside of your neighbor and love yourself a little bit because did you notice that sometimes when he talks about loving your neighbor it's not just what you don't do it's what you do it's the things that you pay attention to about your neighbor it's the things that you look at for your neighbor and say hey I see that this is an issue or this is an area where you have a need and I'd like to step up and help out in this need are you loving your neighbor because so much of the law can be summed up with just that one phrase love your neighbor as yourself

but then there's a second thing that I see and it's really what we see in chapter 23 and that's that God is a holy God and God expects holiness from his people it's funny because usually once you start talking about holiness among the people of God especially among New Testament saints they'll always use one word that's legalism it's legalistic for you to say that I need to be holy in my life no because that's what Jesus says that we are in the Bible in the New Testament that we are set apart unto God that we are holy and we are to live lives of holiness we were having a discussion yesterday with some folks about false teachings that are going around today and somebody said I don't know if you'd call it a false teaching or not

but it seems like holy living is not how we would encapsulate a lot of the lives of Christians today they claim one thing when they're at church and they claim it maybe even when they're out in public they just don't match it they don't live holy lives it's like it's not really all that important to them and I thought you know what that's exactly right and there actually is a heresy that lines up with that there's a false teaching that lines up with that you know what that false teaching is it's called Gnosticism you say right I'm not a Gnostic aren't you though see the Gnostics taught this they said your spirit is holy your body is not so as long as your spirit is dedicated to God as long as your soul is dedicated to God as long as your body

because your body is unholy and it can never be holy so it doesn't matter fulfill the needs of the body as long as your soul is holy you see we have another name for that it's called licentiousness it means I get to do whatever I want to as long as I confess my sins to God and my soul belongs to Him and too many believers in Jesus Christ live an unholy life while claiming to know a holy God while claiming to know a holy God and Jesus Christ says that that's not the way our lives are to be as a matter of fact Paul tells us that we should surrender our lives lay them on the altar he says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice oh here's that word holy and acceptable to God

which is your reasonable service brothers and sisters if God dwells among us and we're told that we are in the temple of the Holy Spirit therefore He dwells among us then doesn't God want our temple to be clean then doesn't God desire of His people holy living and so as we think about these chapters while some of these may not be things that we deal with on a daily basis the two things that really stick out to me are things that we do deal with on a daily basis are you loving your neighbor and are you living a life that is holy because that's what God desires of us amen Father we come before you and I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this evening Lord I thank you that it's always so good to convict us

and so good to draw us near to you and so Lord I just pray that you would continue your work in our hearts and in our lives that you would draw us close to you and Father that holiness would flow through us Father that we would sow to the things of the Spirit so that of the Spirit we would reap life and peace Father we thank you and we praise you in Jesus name, amen be blessed