Deuteronomy chapter 21. I want
to read my text this morning. It will be Deuteronomy chapter
21 verses 10 through 21. And I will give some explanation
that is historical context or you might say doctrinal context
as I read this passage. Deuteronomy 21 verses 10 through
21. When thou goest forth to war
against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them
into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive. Now this
is only of some, because some were wiped out completely, but
some were taken captive. And seest among the captives
a beautiful woman. and hast a desire unto her, that
thou wouldest have her to thy wife. Now, I must stop and say,
I don't think the woman is going to be greatly pleased with this.
Do you? But this is one of God's commandments. Then shalt thou bring her home
to thy house, and she shall shave her head, and pear, or that is,
trim her nails. She shall put the raiment of
her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and
bewail her father and mother a full month. And after that,
thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall
be thy wife. That is, the marriage was to
be physically consummated. That's what it's talking about.
And it shall be. If thou shalt have no delight
in her, how happy she must thou really be. And it shall be, if thou hast
no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go, whither she
will. But thou shalt not sell her at
all for money. Thou shalt not make merchandise
of her, because thou hast humbled her. That's one command. Here's
another. If a man have two wives. Is that
what it says or not? Now it doesn't command the man
to have two wives. It just says if a man have two
wives and one beloved and another hated. Is that what it says?
Yeah. and they have born him children,
that is both, both the beloved and the hated, and if the first
son be hers that was hated, then it shall be, when he maketh his
sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the
son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated,
which is indeed the firstborn. Now you get it. He's got two
wives. He really likes one, he don't like the other. That's
just the way it is here. But the one he doesn't like very
well is the one who had the firstborn son. The firstborn remains the
firstborn no matter what the man thinks of the woman. Okay, let me just go on. But
he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn
by giving him a double portion of all that he hath. For he is
the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is
his. That's the second commandment
we have here. Here's the third. If a man have a stubborn and
rebellious son. Now, not just a stubborn son,
because if that were the case, and we were all under law, we'd
all be dead as sons. But a stubborn and rebellious
son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice
of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will
not hearken unto them. Then shall his father and his
mother, now this is God's commandment, lay hold on him. Why? Because
he ain't gonna want to go. That's what it says, does it
not? Lay hold on him and bring him unto the elders of his city
and unto the gate of his place and they shall say unto the elders
of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will
not obey our voice and here is a particular problem he has. He is a glutton and a drunkard. He is living off of them and
has no regard for their authority over him. and all the men of
his city shall stone him with stones that he die. Not just a couple whacks. Not
just a couple thumps on the thighs. Or maybe on the bottom side.
Take up stones and you beat him with those stones. You throw
those rocks at him till he die. You see it? Till he die. So shalt thou put evil away from
among you and all Israel shall hear and fear. Note God does not say and all
Israel will then begin to obey. But they're gonna hear and they're
gonna fear. Now, when I first read through
this, probably weeks ago, if not months ago, I, of course,
was reading through the whole book. And as I got to these three
commands, I thought, what am I going to say when it gets to
that? But of course, I quickly passed on by that and went to
where I was at the particular time. This is my title, as those
of you who get my text every week are aware. Are these, here's
my title, are these three complicated commands? Are they? Are they
really three complicated commands? Now some of you maybe, as I did
myself, was wondering, maybe you wondered when I sent you
the text. I wonder how is Christ found in this text? He is found
in this text in at least two ways. One, he is the one who
was giving Moses this law. He's actually in the text. Matthew chapter 12, Matthew recorded
our Lord and our Lord said this, the son of man, so he's talking
about himself, the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath. So he gave the command of the
Sabbath day. He is indeed the voice of God. When Moses heard God speak, it
could be none other than Jesus Christ speaking because he is
the word of God. And when God speaks, even when
He speaks through prophets or preachers, it is the Son of God
who says these words. He's Lord of the South, He is
there. But there's another way in which He's there. The very
fact that He is so conspicuously absent makes me know, oh God,
if He's not in this text, I'm in trouble. If his person and his grace is
not the foundation for my hope, when I read these three commands,
my heart condemns me and will not let me go to the unregenerate. And I suppose I should stop for
a moment and explain that. Now, you here probably know,
others probably know, but some may not. There are probably some
so-called churches, places that profess to be Christian that
never speak about unregenerate and regenerate. Did you know
that? They never speak about people
who are unregenerate or people who are regenerate. They don't
really care about that stuff. What does it mean to be unregenerate?
It means that God Almighty has never moved upon you in free,
sovereign, saving grace. You are still where you are,
and you are only what you are as you were born in Adam into
this world. A regenerate person still has
that unregenerate old man, but a regenerate person has been
created, and there is a new man, and that person has been conquered
by God Almighty. But to the unregenerate, God's
law is complicated. I understand why some people
say what they say and believe what they believe and think what
they think when they read some of these Old Testament commands.
I understand why, you know? Why I understand? Because I'm
a fallen man too. Because I'm a sinner too. Now
they don't realize that's why they feel this way. But unregenerate
men, when they read God's commands, they think this, who does God
think he is? Who does God think he is? God's
law is complicated to the unregenerate, even archaic to the unregenerate. It's not refined, especially
like we are in our day. But let me tell you something,
I often wonder, are we as refined as we really think we are in
this day? We do a lot worse things than
a man that's got two wives today. I'm not throwing down on the
earth. There are some people that have more than one wife
today. There are some wives who have more than one husband in
some tribes in Africa. I'm not throwing off on that.
But let me tell you this, our Lord came along and said this,
and he wasn't talking about plural marriages. He was talking about
divorce. He basically said this, God's
original ordination is one man and one woman, and the two, not
three, the two shall be made one flesh. And that is God's
ordained way. And that lets us know that plural
marriage does not truly honor God any more than divorce honors
God. And if you're here and you've
been divorced, I understand your plight, but it's a sin. It's
a sin. It's a sin, but I found out my
spouse was unfaithful. Well, there's your fornication,
wrote into the law, right? But you remember what Christ
said about it? The reason Moses gave you that law, that you had
the right to put away a wife because she found out she was
unfaithful before you were even married, was because of the hardness
of your own hearts. Isn't that what our Lord Jesus
Christ said? That's what he said. Somebody says, well, but that's
just archaic. Dare I say it, the unregenerate
person even thinks that God's law is barbaric. Hmm? Barbaric. Well, if it is, if it is, God
is barbaric. Because this is God's holy law. Most of what is called Christianity
today is trying to apologize for God. At, now I don't even
like to use it, at best, at worst, they're denying who God really
is. They're denying who God really
is. God's law is what? I'm not gonna read it because
of time. 2 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul calls the law this.
It is a letter that killeth. It is a letter that killeth.
It is, it is the ministration of death. It is that law that
is written and engraven in stones. So that lets us know it's the
Ten Commandments as well, right? The Ten Commandments, and he
calls it the ministration of condemnation. Sadly, the unregenerate
person reads this law and all they see is complication, archaic,
even barbaric. Ah, but the regenerate man or
woman reads this law and says, woe is me. Woe is me. Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians
3 that to every heart that's not turned to the Lord, a veil
is over their eyes. They can't understand this law. When Moses is read, a veil is
over their faces. The law, my brothers and sisters,
still shows me my inner corruption in Adam. It still condemns my
flesh. it still condemns my flesh. The unregenerate, I'm not gonna
explain that again, but the unregenerate, they read the law and their corrupt,
twisted minds demand of God that he have the same sense of their
morality, the same sense of their fairness, the same sense of their
emotionalism, the same sense of their religion. Am I telling you the truth or
not? I am telling you the truth. This is the way it is. Fallen
man, that includes me and you outside of Jesus Christ. Apart
from regeneration, we're the same way. We read these laws
and we think, but God should be more like me. That's what
we really think even when we don't say it. I'm quite a moral person. When
I did anything, I only did it to myself or others who like
to do it too. I wouldn't try to get anybody that didn't want
to do it to do it with me. You ever found yourself justifying
yourself through that? Oh, how quick we try to justify
the flesh, even after God saves us. When somebody says something
that just pushes your button, we automatically try to justify
the flesh. Why? That's called corruption,
depravity, sinfulness. Hear what God says, turn to Psalm
chapter 50. Here's what, hear what God says,
Psalm chapter 50. Joe, Paul, myself, and a few
others. When we stand in a place, a public
place like this, we seek to declare who God is, as he is, without
apology. Even, Mason, if I can't make
it always fit together in a nice puzzle, that once I've put all
the pieces together, we get this sweet little beautiful picture.
Hear what God says, Psalm 50 and verse 16. But unto the wicked,
who are the wicked? Of course, most people think
that's that child molester down there. Well, that's true. or
that's that old drunk underneath the trestle, sleeping on a piece
of cardboard with an old rag and a bottle of wine in his hand.
Well, that may well be true. But who is the wicked? The wicked
are the unregenerate. The wicked are the unregenerate,
and they may even be moral people. but they're still wicked. But
under the wicked God saith, what hast thou to do to declare my
statutes and that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
Who are you to take my word and tell me what it ought to say,
what it ought to be, what it ought to do? That's what he's
talking about. Seeing that thou hatest destruction
and casteth my words behind thee. We know better than God. Isn't
that what the unregenerate are in effect truly saying? Oh yeah. When thou sawest a thief, then
thou consentest with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. So verse 16 lets us know this
is the unregenerate. They may be moral or immoral,
they may be sensual or they may be religious, but they're still
called wicked. Verse 18 lets us know this. They
decry, they decry. Think about it. Let me give you
an example of it. There are some today who decry. Now you get
angry with me whatever you want because you don't know where
I really stand. I'm just gonna give you what's going on. Today
there are some people who are decrying denial of access into
the US is cruel. Cruel, you gotta let them little
babies cross that border down there at the south. You got to
or that's cruel, that's mean, that's heartless. And them same
people stand for the murder of little unborn babies by the thousands. That's what God's talking about.
You talk your talk. You say God's so mean, God's
so hard, but you look at yourself. and he's talking to me by nature. He's talking to you by nature,
and you out there by nature. That's right. That's right. Thou givest thy mouth to evil,
and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against
thy brother, thou slander'st thine own mother's son. Think
about what he's saying. You come from the same loins
and the same womb, and you sit there and dog him like he's bad.
You're from the same stock. Huh? As the old preacher once
said, an apple don't fall too far from the tree. And let me
tell you, I've been guilty of it. You point your finger at
your rebellious children, they come from your loins. They come
out of your belly, mothers. There's your happy Mother's Day
message. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silence. And God often does. I mean, people
think, well, if that was bad, if it was really bad, God just
come down and stop it. No, no, no. And I kept silence. There
it is. Here's the thou thoughtest that
I was altogether such and one as thyself. but I'll show you
different one day. I had lived that, but that's
what he goes, I'll show you different one day. I pray God he shows
me in this day and not in that great day to come. I pray so. Listen to Isaiah 55, what God
says in Isaiah 55. I must move along. Isaiah 55
and verse six. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous men his thoughts. Forsake his way.
If your morality is your way, then get rid of your morality. If your immorality is your way,
then forsake your immorality. I don't have more, look, the
unrighteous man has thought, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon, and that's a promise if you forsake your way. But
then look, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are
my ways your ways, saith the Lord. That's why you gotta forsake
all of our ways. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Moral or immoral, sensual or
religious, consider these words of the old gospel preacher. We
must repent of our sins. That's what we do. We must repent
of our sin. That's what we are. And we haven't
commenced to repent yet until we repent of our best deeds. And that is the truth of God,
folks. That's the truth of God. You
have my title, Three Complicated Commands? Yes, complicated and
unfathomable to some. I'm not trying to, I didn't preach
this, and I didn't start to teach this, and try to help everybody
just understand God, because we cannot. Our whole way of thinking
and being and doing is opposed to His absolute holiness. We are truly indeed, as we are
by nature, as we are by nature, a stench in God's nostrils. We are that rotting carcass you
smell as you go down the road, heated up in the hot sun. And
it just makes your innards want to revolt. Yeah. You've heard, you've heard, you've
got my title, Three Complicated Commands. Yes, it's complicated
to some, but death and life are complicated and they're incompatible. This law was about a bunch of
dead people, spiritually speaking. Even though it was given to a
covenant people. You know, they say there were millions of Jews,
of Israelites in this day, But there were very few true believers
amongst those hordes. Amongst those hordes. And it's
sad to say, but it's probably still the same thing today. Most
churches are probably filled with unregenerate people. And
that includes this little small group here that there are some
who maybe think they got it. And they've never been given
it. And Paul, and Joe, and myself this week, try to preach the
same God, the same gospel, the same Christ, just waiting on
God to open an eye, and open an ear, and open a heart. Now,
here's my subject. The difference between law and
grace is immense. It's immense. You know, we talk
about law and grace not mixing, and we often get it up like this.
Yeah, man, it's like this. You understand what I'm saying?
We do this, but that really don't represent it. Mason, I can't
even stretch far enough to get him away. The difference between
law and grace is immense. Compare law to grace. Paul said
this, Galatians 3, 21 through 29. I'll summarize. For if a
law could have been given which could have given life, then verily
righteousness should have been by the law. But the law cannot
give life. It's not a way of life. It is
a way of death. It is death, death, death, condemnation. And if you read the law and you
don't see that, you got a blinder over your face. A blinder over
your face. Compare justification before
God. Galatians three, and I want to read that one real quick.
Galatians chapter three, listen to what Paul says. Verse 10,
for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. to the law curses, right? For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continue of not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified
by the law, and here's the big in the sight of God. We may justify
ourselves by trying to conform to some of these laws, and do
pretty good at it, but we're talking about in God's sight.
In the sight of God, it is evident the just shall live by faith. So you don't even walk by the
law. You live, you don't live by the law, because the law has
to do with death and the flesh. And the flesh can only walk contrary
to God. But we live, for the just shall
live by faith, and the law is not a faith. But the man that
doeth them shall live, but Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law. I read those three laws and I
say, I'm guilty of them. And if I had a son that was a
rebellious, gluttonous drunkard, I would not want him killed with
rocks. But God said to do it. Yes or
no. Aren't you glad Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law? Huh, aren't you glad? Do you,
do I want the holy God to deal with me strictly by the law?
If you do, you're blinded. You got that veil over your face.
You're blinded. You don't see what God's law
says. Not only do you not see what it says, you don't see who
God is because that law flowed from the heart and mind, person
and character and perfections of a thrice holy God. I, with Job, need a daisman,
somebody to step in the gap. Because when I read this law,
I find out there's a big gap between me and God. And I need
a daisman, someone that can lay his hand on me, as one preacher
has said, and not be defiled by touching me. And somebody
else who can lay his hand on God and not be destroyed, and
that person be a man. Only the God man could do that
and then bring me to God in himself. There's a days man. I with Benjamin
need a surety. Benjamin was in a straight, remember
that? Where was the cup? Where was
Pharaoh's cup? In Benjamin's sack. Somebody
said Benjamin wasn't guilty, didn't make a flip. Joseph said
he was. Did he not? Because it's in your
sack. I need one to stand, to sit,
to work, to believe, to serve, to obey, to strive on my behalf. All the while, I still want to
stand, and sit, and work, and believe, and serve, and strive. But I can't do it as God demands
it, even in my Christian life. Even in my Christian life. Oh, Christ. Oh, God's Christ, the law giver. My only hope is you satisfied
that law on my behalf.