Understanding God's Covenant and Judgment

The Bible is to Deuteronomy chapter 17. I want to begin reading at verse 2. What Moses is doing is setting up for the people of Israel the way by which their society will be organized or structured once they're in the land of promise. Let me interrupt just a minute. I have the attendance thing here. If somebody would fill that out for me. Last week I forgot to mention it and no one else thought about it. It looked like I didn't even have a job last Wednesday night. I want to prove that I did something worthwhile, so I'll count those up. So Moses is talking about how the structure of the nation of Israel is to be set up, how the society is to be organized. He starts with judges, people that sit at the gate and hear the claims of people who are having difficulties. It could be personal relationships, it could be business deals that the judges would be able to settle. And then in the middle of this, and the next step he takes about this is the law court. But right in between the judges and the law court, he introduces a different idea. And he starts by talking about the first commandment, first and second commandment, having no other gods before him. So verse 21 of chapter 16 says, Do not set up any wood and ash or a pole beside the altar you build to Yahweh, the Lord your God. And do not erect a sacred stone for these the Lord your God hates. And don't violate these first two commandments. Have no other God in my place and that's ahead of me. And to build no idols that would represent God. And then after he's finished that, Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep that has any defect or flaw in it that it would be detestable to Him. He talks about giving the very best to Him. Now, these are the commandments that start the Ten Commandments. And they, again, focus on the key ingredient. We would call this the elements that allow a person to become a child of God. Because they are the fundamental part. You give God complete and final authority in your life and you give Him the best. Everything that He asked for. The very best of all that there is. Now, then he starts talking about, again, an example, I think, of how the law courts are to deal with issues that are this important. So in verse two, If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of His covenant and contrary to my command has worshipped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or stars or the sky. And this has been brought to your attention. You must investigate it thoroughly. And we say, when we start off with this, that the Old Testament is beginning to talk about a change in their structure as to how these things relate to society. In this one, for example, he talks about the law of the Ten Commandments is not given just to men, which is true of much of the religion of the middle world over there, Middle East. Where the women are completely outside of any issue that's important to society, in particular, religion. And here he includes both the males and females in this. And some of the teachings of Moses have been inclusive so that all society is subject to the rules that God gives. So he says, this applies to whether it's a man or a woman. If anyone should violate the first commandment, the primary commandment that had been given, that they should have a hearing. They should both be held accountable for what they do toward God. Now, when he describes what it is that takes place, he said, anyone living in any of the towns you have is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and in violation of His covenant. What we're seeing here is a description as to how God sees the world and how His people ought to be able to see the world. And here he draws a great distinction between seeing in a definition of evil. What is evil? He says, if anyone does something that's evil in the eyes of the Lord, this is an important thing for us to grasp because what is evil in the eyes of the Lord is not necessarily what's evil in the eyes of human beings or of societies or cultures. And what is evil in the eyes of people is not necessarily what is evil in the eyes of God. If you look at our own world and you see the culture that we live in, you can get a pretty big fight about some issues in our culture that the world has sort of made a big issue. Homosexuality is one of them. And what the Bible would say is evil, many people in our culture say is good. And what people say in our culture we should do, then the Bible says this is something you should avoid. And so we're in a situation in our own culture where many elements that human beings thinking in their own minds about what's right and wrong would call something evil, whereas the Word of God would call a different thing evil. Now, we're placed in the difficult situation as followers of Christ of being required to see in His Word the truth, the final truth, with no room for compromise for us. It doesn't mean we have to be mean or nasty about the things that we believe, but it means that we have one measure by which we measure what is right and wrong, and it is the Word that God gives us. So when we begin to frame the world, we have to be careful in a culture that's changing its own ideas about what's right and wrong to be attached to the scriptures without fear and with courage. It's not that God wants us to go out and condemn people. It's not that He wants us to make an issue of all these things, but within the confines of what our church is, we must teach the truth, regardless of what our culture sees as right and wrong, because we have one standard. Let me tell you why that's important. What God says is, this is what I say is right, and this is what I say is wrong. If we can't rely on that, then you see we can't live, because we're tied to believing that the one in charge of the world has told us what is right and what is wrong, and it is the basis on which He will judge us. And if you don't understand the basis on which you're going to be judged, it's impossible for you to be prepared for that judgment time. And if the Bible is right in saying that whenever you do something that's evil, you bring upon yourself the wrath and anger of God, then if you don't know what's right and you don't know what's wrong, you'll never figure out why your life is in such a miserable condition. If God punishes sin, that is what He calls evil, if He punishes what He calls evil, and you're headed down a road where you're doing what He says is evil, and He's constantly trying to change you so that He gets you to turn away from that to something else, one of the things He does is allows trouble to come to you. Sometimes He even brings that trouble, so that you'll stop and say, whoa, what's going on here? And in that moment, He can say, what you're doing is wrong. That's how He helps us. He helps us whenever we ask the question, why is all this happening to me? And whenever you ask that question, His Holy Spirit is right there to say, I've been waiting a long time to be able to tell you this, and here it is. In those moments, a person might not believe it, but over and over again, that idea will come to the person, and it's God's way of channeling them back to what is right and good and healthy. God's discipline is always for correction, always for correction. Never does He discipline us because He is mad. He's always trying to bring us back to the place where He says, what I've done is wrong, and I want to do now the things that are right. So what He says is, I want you to understand that if someone brings you in the courts an issue where a person has been found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, this is how I want you to handle it. And He's telling us that this is the way He handles this too. Now, the way God handles our sin, that is doing evil, the way He handles it is the way, is the example for us to be able to deal with it too. And in this instance, it's unlike a church where you don't necessarily have a court of people that bring judgment, but in our own minds, when we look at people around us, this is a guide for us too. And in this pattern, we see the nature of how God deals with people. In this instance, how He deals with people who are doing something that He says is wrong. So, if a man or woman living in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found to be doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, and is in violation of His covenant, now see, He helps us with this too. The covenant that He gives us, these commands that He gives us about what we're supposed to do, are the standard against which we judge good and evil. And if we violate those instructions of God, then they are evil in His eyes. The covenant is the guide that He gives us as to what is good. Paul in Romans is talking about the law, and on Sunday nights we've been talking about this, but he's talking about the law at one time was a negative thing for him because it convinced him he was doing the wrong things. But when the Holy Spirit came into his life, the law then became the law of life. It was now the channel that allowed him to know where it was safe to walk and where it was safe to live. Before, the law made him feel guilty and ashamed because he violated it, did things that were contrary to the law. But he said, in this instance, once the Holy Spirit came into my life, I saw in the law a perfect guide to let me know where I should walk and what I should be afraid of. So I had this straight and narrow road to go down. Now, the covenant, that is the promise that we make, God says, I will guide you, I will provide for you, I'll protect you, but I want you to do all the things I told you you should do. That's the covenant. And we enter in the covenant when we say, I will do what you tell me is the right thing to do. And whenever we make that covenant promise to God, then he judges us based on whether or not we keep it. That's why it's so important for you to learn what the Bible says. It doesn't matter if you don't know what the covenant promise is. If you violate it, you're in trouble with God. It's like getting on a highway, knowing that there is a speed limit, but never being able to see a sign. If you've ever turned onto a road and started driving, and you think, well, this looks like it would be a 65 mile an hour road, but it could be 55 or 35, I don't know for sure. It certainly is an uncomfortable feeling. What God does is to say, here are the instructions by which I want you to live. And if you read this and you know that, then you know how to be able to live in this world without the dangers of violating something that will bring the wrath and judgment of God on you. So God counts what is evil, what he has said in his covenant is evil. He counts what is good, what he said in his covenant that we are commanded to do. So listening to God's covenant and obeying that makes sure that we live within the framework of what God wants. Now, within our own context, we are to see the things that are evil that God says in the Bible are evil. We're to see the things that are good that God says in the Bible are good. You have to be careful about this. Sometimes in our culture, we get to the place where we have things that our culture has told us that's necessarily bad, that the Bible doesn't necessarily say is evil. For example, some people would say in the Bible that you ladies with slacks on are violating the law of God. One time I took a vacation and some guy came and preached in the church and Sunday morning and Sunday night, preached Sunday morning and said ladies wore slacks in the church and that night he preached against people wearing, women wearing slacks. When I got back, they were, women were all mad by this guy. And he just plain out told them, you know, if you're doing this, you're sinning against God and you're doing something evil like this bad. Now, what we have to be careful about is that the things that we see are important are really in the scriptures, because sometimes we pick up things that we think in our own world is bad and God hasn't specifically forbidden those. So we have to be careful to make sure the things we say are critical, really are critical to God. And the things that we're supposed to do are really important to God. For example, Sunday school is not in the Bible. And we have to be really careful that the things we say in our church that we want people to do, we don't attach to something that's really not necessarily a scriptural thing. Now, is learning about the Bible important? Is it in the Bible? Yes. But you see the things we do that would teach the Bible are not the things that the Bible says is critical. It's the experience of learning that's critical. So we look at the Bible and we see here the instructions of God. And we have to be sure that we know the things that he says we shouldn't do. And we know the things that he's commanded us that we do. So that a person is not in violation of what he says is wrong and not in violation of what he's commanded us to do. Here he's focused on worshiping other gods. Now, this is a really difficult place to be. Now, this is a really difficult place for us to focus. Because we have the idea of a God as being something you can see or touch or feel like an idol or a statue. And so we think, well, I don't have that around me. So I'm free from this. But what God is talking about is what they used to statues or gods were or things in their lives that they attributed to the blessings in their lives other than God. For example, for the people of Israel, I don't want you to say that Baal has made it rain and your crops are good because of Baal. See, nobody says that. What do we say? Ellen, if it rains out there, what do the guys say around you? I know. I don't know if I'll ever learn to do the right questions. Who do they get? What do they give credit to? Weather. Luck, the weather. Now, if the Bible says God is in charge of all the weather and he brings rain when it's his choice, who does he want to get credit for that? Him. So whenever you have something fortunate happen in your life, if you're a follower of Christ, you should say, I thank God for that. And if you have some experience in your life that you know is good and worthy, you should give credit to God for that. And when you look at the things that have happened in your life, if you give credit to your hard work, or you give credit to living in the United States, or you give credit to our economic system, then you have something that you give credit to other than God. Whatever you have in your life that you think has provided the good things for you can become between you and God. You exalt that to the place of authority or control. And whenever you say, if it wasn't for my family, I don't know what I would ever do. Well, all of a sudden you've put your family in the place of God. God is the one who gives us meaning and value of life. It's not our family, it's God. And whenever you take anything, your job or anything in the world, and you say, boy, I can't get along without this. You've said, I can get along without God, but I can't get along without this. There's one thing in our lives that is of ultimate authority and importance and significance to us, and that's God. So anything that takes that place of ultimate importance or ultimate significance or ultimate value is what the Bible calls a God. It means it controls your life. It has authority over you. You look to that for the value that's come to you. And you look at the things in your life that you can't do without that seem so important to you. And you have to be really careful that loving your family and loving the people around you, you don't fall into the error of making them more important than God. Now, the people in the Bible times, when they're working here, their prime concern was every good financial thing that came to the Canaanites, they said that God gave it to them. And so when you look at our own culture, you have to say, what is it that people around us say is the source of all of our financial blessings in this country or in our own lives? Oftentimes, it's not God, but it's other things that we see. We have to be careful that we don't fall into the trap of having a fertility God in our own culture that we've made, that takes the place of God's authority and God's goodness to us. So he says, if anybody you find contrary to my command has worshipped other gods, bowing down to them, he means by bowing down to them, giving them authority and respect, looking at those things as if they are the source of what their value is, to bow down means simply to acknowledge that that thing is important and valuable and the source of the blessing that we've received. So if anyone bows down to them, or the sun or the moon or the stars or the sky, many of the gods that they had were gods of the seasons, the sun and the moon. So they saw good times coming when the sun was in a certain position or the moon was in a certain position. I don't know a lot about astrology, so I don't talk about that very much. But there are people in our own culture that look at the paper and see the moon's in a certain thing or I was born under some kind of a sign. All of that's contrary to scripture. You're not the person you are because the month you were born in, you're the person you are because of God. And so we have to be careful to make sure that we don't give the impression to people that we are simply at the mercy of the sun, the moon, and the stars. We're not. You're at the mercy of God alone. And it doesn't make any difference where all those constellations are. If God is guiding your life, he's going to guide it. And he's going to take care of you as he chooses to do so. So don't allow anything in this world to give you the impression that it is controlling your life other than God. Now, if someone does these things and it's been brought to your attention, you must investigate it thoroughly. Now, God doesn't have to worry about investigating whether or not we're doing the right thing thoroughly. He knows. He knows everything we do. But this is a warning to us. Don't listen to stories people tell you about other people. For in the Christian community, if you hear that somebody's done something wrong and one person tells you that, that's none of your business to make a judgment based on that. You have to thoroughly investigate before you make any decision about the behavior of another person being either right or wrong, Christian or non-Christian. Now, in this instance, it's the courts. They're responsible if the charge of violating the First Commandment is brought to one of these courts that he's talking about, either the judges or the law courts he's talking about next. There's an investigation to be made to be sure that the thing that's been told is not rumor but a fact. If it is true and it has been proven that this detestable thing has been done in Israel and it's detestable because it's the breaking of the very nature of the covenant, the first thing that God is the most powerful ruler and subject, we are all subject to him. Take the man or woman that has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. So the judgment is death penalty. And I was thinking on the internet the other day, or maybe I saw it in the paper, where now they're saying that if people are joined with the Al-Qaeda group, and they are engaged in activities that would bring harm to our soldiers or to our country, that now there's a paper written by the government officials that say the drones have the authority to kill any American who is involved in this action that would be traitorous to our country because they're traitors without a trial. Now, the Bible is not suggesting you do this without a trial, but what the point I want to make is, when you say or act or do something as a part of the community of faith that does not allow God to be in control of your life and behavior, you have committed an act of spiritual treason. And the people of Israel were to be pure from this. And so instead of letting someone live in the community who has violated the very foundation stone of what it meant to be a part of the people of God, they had to be eliminated. That's how important spiritual purity is to God. Because living in the community of faith without being committed completely to God gives the impression that commitment to God is not important when it is the fundamental issue of the people of God. So his remedy for this was, if you've taken up living and saying some other God is more important to us than the God of our our nation, Yahweh God, Yahweh God, then you must be eliminated. We cannot tolerate this fundamental violation of God's instructions. The principle is, the investigation has taken place on the testimony of two or three witnesses. A man will be put to death. He's already said this has to do with men and women, so it means the person will be put to death. But no one shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. When people talk about having biblical justice in our country, a lot of the criminals that we execute are executed because of one person's testimony. I saw them do it. The Bible doesn't even allow a person to be executed on the basis of one person's testimony, even if they say they saw them do it. It takes two people. It takes two people. God is so concerned about justice that he's willing to let some people who deserve the death penalty escape rather than have one instance in which a person who is innocent receives injustice. That's a very important lesson for us to get. So whenever somebody tells you a story about someone else, never take their word for it. Never. If something they did bad, contrary to what God wants, never take their word for it and never repeat it. It has to be two eyewitnesses. Somebody tells you a story about something someone did, you say, did you see them? They say, no, but I have on good authority. Ignore it. You only have two eyewitnesses who've seen it before you can accept it as the truth. And what God requires is that we not do anything that's not based on real, honest facts. So he required them to have two witnesses. Now to check that even, you might have two that conspire. The hands of the witnesses must be the first to put him to death. So you take the person outside the city gates, they're going to stone them to death. The two eyewitnesses have to take the stones in their hand and throw them first. You have to believe that what you said is so true that you're prepared to bring the justice. In our system, you see, you go to court, the person's convicted, then they send them somewhere else where somebody's not even involved in this, pulls the chain and they die. What the Bible wants is, if you believe this person deserves to die, if you really think that's true, then you need to be the person who participates in the death. That would put you in a pretty tight spot, you know, to testify. You'd have to believe that it was true above all else. And you might conspire, but are you going to get another person to risk their life because you're trying to get even with the person? It's a check against someone who just does this because they want to get even with another person. Now, if you bring the charges against a person and that person is punished by killing them, and later it's found out that you lied about them, the Bible will tell us in other places, then you are to receive the same punishment that you gave them. If it's false testimony. In other words, you accuse somebody of breaking God's law and they get killed, and it's later found that you made that up and worked it up, then you would receive the death penalty. Whatever you accuse someone of is false, as the false witness, you get the punishment that would have come to them. And then when the two people who've seen this act and have testified to it, throw the first stones and everybody in the communities together into it with it too, because it's not these two people who are bringing the judgment, but all of the community so that they don't stand alone. Now, the community has to believe that what they've been said is true. So all these safeguards that God builds to make sure that no injustice is ever done. What's it mean to us? It means in our relationships with each other, we're to be really, really careful of passing judgment on anyone. You have to see it with your own eyes, or you have to hear it from two people who've seen it with their own eyes. And then if you feel like it's something that's worth being able to pursue, you need to be able to have the whole community of faith with you. And if you can't come to an agreement about it, don't do anything that would be an injustice to another person. God is very concerned about the purity of his people, but he is also very concerned for injustice. And he's very concerned for justice. And every safeguard that he can have, he builds into the system to make sure that no one is punished that doesn't deserve it. Now, in the New Testament, God more or less puts the burden of responsibility on the community of faith to watch each other. But he also accepts the burden of responsibility for punishment himself. He doesn't ask us to live by the Old Testament law, but he asks us to live by the Spirit of Christ within us, so that the process of redemption is the key ingredient in discipline in the New Testament. How can we make sure that this person is brought back to the place of faith? And Paul says, if anybody in your congregation does something that's wrong, you set them aside, you let them know that they're not living that way, and then you do everything you can to bring them back into that life of faith and obedience to me. What the Bible, I think, should leave us with is, God destroys those who are enemies of his kingdom and its work. But his primary concern is redeeming every single person. And the last resort for him is someone who has failed to respond to his call to change, repent, and turn. And, if we refuse to do that, his judgment is harsh and final. God does not just shrug his shoulders at our rebellion against him. He does everything he can does everything he can to redeem us, but he will not look at our evil and sin as if it's insignificant. Let's pray. We know you as a God of great love, Father, but we know that your love does not make you weak with regard to rebellion and disobedience. We know you have a God of great patience, because you wait and you try and you try and you try, but we also know that you don't forget or give up. We know you as a God, Father, who walks with us, but we also know that you do not walk with those who are rebellious against you. Give us a spirit of love for you and those around us, but help us learn to live by the same principles that are a part of your character and nature. In the name of Christ, we ask it. Amen. Has anybody been in the copy room and had these keys? Here they are. There's one for the copy room and one for what looks like your treasure chest.