Turn to Leviticus chapter 24.
Leviticus chapter 24. I will not read the chapter first,
but I will probably read much of the chapter. My title, as
most of you probably already know, and again, I will mention,
if you are not getting my text about my Sunday morning messages,
then let me know, because I don't have your number, or I don't
have it right. So let me know if you're not
getting them. The title of my message is this, Brash Sin, Brutal
Justice. Now consider the place of this
third historical event. And the third historical event
I refer to here is this half-breed Israelite. And that's what he
was. I'm not saying that to be mean. It's just what he was. His daddy was an Egyptian, and
his mama was an Israelite. He's a half-breed. And this Israelite
slash Egyptian fella began to blaspheme the name of the Lord.
And there are only three actual historical events recorded in
Leviticus. We're recorded the historical
statements of God giving it to Moses, but we're never in Leviticus
given it when Moses gave it to the people. You have three historical
events recorded. And again, this is not by coincidence. Mason, I'm sure there were a
lot of other historical things took place during all this time.
But the spirit in his wisdom being God knows what to give
us at the right time. So consider the place of this
third historical event, this blasphemer, if you will. Blessed
and sweet rest of worship is spoken of in chapter 23, is it
not? Sabbath rest. six or seven, whatever
it really is, glorious feasts of worship of God. Think of it. And then you come to 24, and
we, excuse me, began by reading pure olive oil on the 12-pronged
lamp. That's in chapter 24, verses
one through four. Pure beaten olive oil. And it's
to light the lamps, and there was really only one lamp, but
it had 12 different spots. So you have the sweet, blessed
worship and rest. You have this olive oil and the
12-prong lamp. You have 12 loaves of weekly
bread with frankincense on it in chapter 24, verse five through
nine. And then in chapter 25, if we
jump forward just a bit, you have the beginning of jubilee.
Jubilee. Everybody's free to their debt.
Isn't that something? If you had to give up land before,
you got your land back. Isn't that amazing? And yet,
in the midst of all this glorious worship, a blasphemy shows up. Isn't that odd? Isn't that odd? And yet, in the midst of all
this glorious worship, we have these words. Verse 10, and the
son of an Israelitist woman, whose father was an Egyptian,
went out among the children of Israel. And this son of the Israelitist
woman and the man of Israel strove together in the camp, and we
are not told what it was about. We don't know whose fault it
was or who started it, do we? We're not told. And there are
reasons why we're not told. One reason is because, as I've
said to you a hundred times, if we were told exactly what
it was, we'd be prone to say, well, I ain't never done that.
You understand what I'm saying? Well, at least I ain't never
done that. Now you keep that in mind. But here this half-breed,
that's what he was. I don't realize that's not politically
correct, but I don't care. And the Israelitish woman's son
blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And Moses said, lock
him up. They put him in jail, basically. They put him in jail to see what
the mind of the Lord was. And you know what the mind of
the Lord was? Bash his head in with rocks. Yes or no? Verse 23, for the sake of time. If you read it, you know the
context. And Moses spake to the children of Israel that they
should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp and stone
him with stones. That'd be one thing if he just
stopped there. But what does it say? And the children of Israel
did as the Lord commanded Moses. So I don't have to be told anymore
what they do. They killed this boy. With rocks. Brash sin, brutal justice. Whether you're a recipient of
this brutal justice or you're the dispenser of this brutal
justice, this is brutal. Do you imagine what it's like
to have to take up a rock and bash it up against someone's
head? Huh? If you thought about that,
do you feel that holy? And yet that's what they were
commanded to do by law. By, wait a minute, moral law. This is not sacrificial law. It was moral for them to do this
because God said do it. And then we have these people
say, well, I don't believe we're under the ceremonial law, but we're
still under the moral law. Then why don't you bash them
blasphemers' heads in? Come on, why not? You can't claim this
ain't a part of the moral law of God, can you? Anyone who wants law as their
standard of living? Think of it. The other two historical
events, you have Aaron and his sons being prepared for the priesthood.
But then you have Nadab and Abihu. But at least God killed them
boys. Right? Now God's telling the Israelites,
you kill this boy. You see what I'm saying? It starts
with the glory of God's high priest, the priesthood. And then
we see me and two men, two young men, defiling that priesthood.
God kills them. Wouldn't it have been, I'm sure
every Israelite would have felt a lot better. Maybe still feel
sad, but it felt a lot better had God just killed this boy
like he did in Deir Ezzorah. But he didn't, did he? By law,
he said what? Kill him. Kill him. And yet, as I thought about this,
there's a lot of lessons here. There are people who will mock
our God, and in doing so, they will do it toward us. Because
Christ said, if the world hate me, they're gonna hate you. Just
live with it, deal with it, and thank God for it. And that's
hard to do sometimes, but thank God for it. Because if the world
loved you, the world loves you, you're in trouble. you're in
trouble. So there's a lot of lessons we
can take from this, I understand that. But think about, this was
a historical event, only one of three recorded in the whole
book of Leviticus. And not only was it tough on
the recipient, he died. But this was tough on his, how
do you think this mother felt? Huh? Are you that holy that you
say kill my son? Huh? Let's go kill my boy. I'm holy, huh, you feel that
holy? And yet I read in God's word,
a man inspired of God, so I know what he said was true, who was
before a blasphemer. You remember that? A man well
known to all of us. He's our apostle, he's an apostle
to the Gentiles. Go on now, but he said, who was
before what? A blasphemer! Isn't that mind-boggling? For the unregenerate, it's a
conundrum they can't get over. For the unregenerate church members
out here who've made their decisions for Jesus, who decide to join
the church and straighten up and start living for the Lord,
that's a conundrum their mind can't get over. Saul of Tarsus said, but I obtained
mercy. He didn't earn mercy. You don't
earn mercy. You don't demand mercy. That's
the height of folly. You offend even another fallen
human and you demand they show you mercy? You'll probably never
get it. You come and you beg for it. You know what I mean?
You beg for it. But yet he said, who was before
the first thing he mentions? Now if he was a blasphemer, and
go back and look at who Saul Tarsus was, he was a law man.
A God's law man, a Sinai law man, was he not? A law-abiding
God's law man. He was willing to give his all
to his religion. And his religion had the right
background. And yet he called himself a what? A blasphemer. Now, if that's true of him, what
about me and you? What about me and you? I ain't
never been a blasphemer. Well, you're deceived. Because
if you've ever mocked God's son even one time, and how do you
do that? One way is by not bowing down before him. As Lord, you
are a blasphemer. And yet, he says, who was before
a blasphemer, but I obtained mercy. What? This don't sound
fair. Well, but Saul was a Jew. Chapter
24, verse 22, ye shall have one manner of law. So that means
it's all connected. You don't have two or three different.
There's not moral law, ceremonial law, sacrificial law. There's
one law. But look, it's more than that.
You shall have one manner of law as well for the stranger,
as for one of your own country, full-blooded Jew, this applies
to him or her too, right? For I am the Lord your God. Being a Jew had nothing to do
with it. John the Apostle is clear, when it comes to mercy
from God, it has nothing to do with your background or your
family line or your family tree, Jew or Gentile. Jew or Gentile,
has nothing to do with blood, has nothing to do with the will
of the flesh, it has nothing to do with the will of man. Now
that shuts down free will as any avenue of hope before God.
Does it not? Well, it has nothing to do with
man's will. Man has a will, but it has nothing to do with that
will. Well, but Saul, he must have sought after Jesus. According
to Acts chapter nine, verse one, the very moments, just hours
before his actual conversion, it says, and Saul, yet breathing
out threatenings. Yes, sir. Now, this song, I love this song.
Show pity, Lord. Oh, Lord, forgive. Let a repenting
rebel live, but no one will ever repent till God Almighty conquers
their heart, mind, and soul. It just will not happen. Well,
Saul was seeking after Jesus, all right. He was trying to find
every one of his disciples he possibly could and having them
at least locked up in prison. Some of them were being killed.
What's the answer to this conundrum? You don't have to turn to it,
I'm gonna read it to you. What's the answer to this conundrum? For he saith to Moses, this is
God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. The only answer is God's absolute
sovereignty over all things. He can demand the stoning of
one, a blasphemer, and yet show mercy to another, the same kind
of blasphemer. So then it, that is His grace,
His mercy, His favor, His compassion, forgiveness, all of it, so then
it is not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Another verse down, verse 18,
therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy? But it doesn't
stop there. And whom he will, he hardeneth. That is God. Any less than that is not the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Our Lord himself referenced this
text. Did you know that? On the Sermon
on the Mount. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter
5. He quotes just a part of this
chapter. And I realize it's mentioned
in Exodus, it's mentioned in Leviticus, it's mentioned again
in Deuteronomy, but it's the same truth. Now let me read it. Let me keep
on moving on here. Our Lord referenced our text,
Leviticus 24. Matthew chapter 5, verse 38. Are you there? If you're not,
follow along. Listen. Ye have heard it hath been said. An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. We'll go back and look at Leviticus 24. It's right
there, isn't it? Now who gave that to Moses? The
Lord. Who is the Lord? Jesus right
here who's preaching this message. It was Jesus who gave this to
Moses. Look, but I say unto you, now there's so much I could say
here, but I don't have time for all that. But I say unto you
that ye resist not evil, But whosoever shall smite thee on
the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man
will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have
thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee
to go a mile, go with him too. Go the extra mile. You ever heard
of the extra mile? That's where that phrase comes
from. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would
borrow of thee. Turn not thou away. You've heard
that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate
thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them
that curse you. Do good to them that despitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your
father which is in heaven. For he maketh his sons rise.
On the evil and on the good he sendeth rain, on the just and
on the unjust. For if you love them which love
you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more
than others? Do not even the publicans so?
And then listen to this next phrase. Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Much can
be said from this. Three questions. Anyone here
doubt the wisdom of this instruction? Anyone doubt the wisdom of this
instruction? This is good instruction. Is it not? Anyone here refuse to endeavor
to walk in this instruction? You refuse. I didn't ask you
if you had a hard time doing it, but you refuse. I'm not gonna
do that. Then you're not the children
of the Heavenly Father. Do you hear what it says? But
here's the third question. Anyone here in your walk and
in your endeavors, are you as perfect as the Heavenly Father?
Anybody? Anybody here as perfect as the
Heavenly Father? Well, he talked about maturity.
God ain't mature, God's God! This is talk about real, bonafide
perfection. and it's embodied in the person
of Jesus Christ. Who did he love? Us. What were
we? Enemies? Blasphemers? But it's more, for any true sinner. Now we're all sinners, but I'm
talking about a true sinner. I'm talking about that sinner that's
been convicted by the power of the Spirit of God. That God Almighty
has invaded their space and come in and done something to them.
for any true sinner. Brash sin and brutal justice
find their ultimate culmination only in the sinner's substitute.
You see what I'm saying? Hope you see where I'm going.
Christ is my only hope. Do you hear me? I'm a blasphemer. I deserve to be stoned to death.
Right? We have an account of something
very similar. This woman caught in adultery. Now it wasn't blasphemy
per se, but caught in the very act. So there was no doubt as
to her guilt or not. Caught in the act. And the law
says to do what? Kill her with rocks. That's brutal
justice. Right? But what did Christ say?
Okay, whoever of you is perfect, whichever one of you has no sin,
get the first rock and start bashing their brains out. Now
folks, Don't you try that with a mob. You don't got the power
to carry out what you hope to accomplish by your words, but
our Lord did, and he made every one of those men from the oldest
to the youngest walk away. Just walk away. And he said,
where's your accusers, woman? And remember, all this time,
he was stooped down. He wasn't standing over her. He was stooped down on the ground.
He says, woman, where are those that accuse her? Hath no man
condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. He said, she's caught in the very act.
The law says kill her. She should have been killed and
went to hell, right? The Lord said, neither do I condemn
thee. And that's what really matters.
You hear me? Now I thank God that you folks
don't condemn me. But if you did, that don't mean
anything if God don't condemn me. But if you're an old sinner
like I am, and God showed you mercy, you'll say, I don't want
to condemn him either. And you better hope other people
treat you that way too. But you better hope God treats
you that way. Because God has mercy on whom
he'll have mercy. Or he may harden you. Christ is my only hope in his
perceptive obedience. He obeyed the law, not only in
its letter, but in its actual intent. He is the only one, Joe, that
can hate perfectly and love perfectly at the same time. I can't do
that. There's times when I think, well,
I've got that hatred the psalmist spoke of, and then I realize,
whoa, that may be a little misplaced. Maybe some self-righteousness
in that. And there's other times I think I'm just this miserable,
unbelieving wretch, and God'll give me just a little strength
to believe Him and rest in His Son. But He's my only hope in
His preceptive obedience. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. But Christ is my only hope in
penal subjection. He said, I gave my what? My back
to the smiters. Ain't that talking about a coat?
What'd they do? They stripped his coat off him.
And what did he do? Demand it back? He laid his back
bare. Did he not? Did he not? He said, I gave my what? Cheek. They hit him like this. They
banged him like this, and they bit in his face. They platted
a crown of thorns upon his head and they didn't just stick it
up, it platted. And I can see the blood ran down into his what?
His eyes. Talk about an eye for an eye.
If anybody had the right, Mason, they brought in men who lied
about him and knew what the charge was against him. Do you remember
what the charge was against our Lord? Blasphemy. Somebody says,
well, they were lying. Yeah, they were lying. But God
Almighty was carrying out this work because he was standing
in for some blasphemers. Isn't that glorious? You could read that in Matthew
26, 63 through 68. Christ was falsely accused of
the very thing I'm guilty of. He blasphemed me, and he suffered
as the blasphemer. Did he not? Not just at the hands
of men, but at the hands of his holy father. The father, I can't
explain it, but he turned his back on the son, and the book
tells us it went dark for, what was it, three hours? Am I right,
somewhere around that? It went dark, right at midday. And Christ no longer seen the
face of his father, who he was one with. Why? Because he was
hanging there as a blasphemer. So I see that justice is satisfied. Is it not? The blasphemer wasn't
let go. God didn't say, well, I love
you so much, just let it go. No, sir, he didn't let it go,
did he? He punished the blasphemer. He punished the blasphemer in
the person of his son. Blasphemy is what they accuse.
But who did Christ suffer for in this penal subjection? I'm a sinner. I'm a bonafide
sinner. I'm a real sinner. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool sinner.
And I can't help it. But I want to be better. But
I can't help it. When I would do good, evil's
present with me. And when I'd quit doing evil, that evil rears
its ugly head. See God's word on this matter
of Christ's preceptive obedience and his penal subjection. Philippians
chapter two. You know the amazing thing is,
I understand why people get bored. Because we just preach the same
person over and over and over and over. And if you're not regenerated,
you're gonna get bored with Jesus Christ real quick. You will. I understand why they are like
they are out there. I used to be one of them. You
know, thank God all of a sudden, my want to's changed. But look
at what it says, Philippians two, verse five, and remember,
this is not just a doctrine, it's not just an event that happened,
though that's glorious, it is a doctrine, and it was an event,
and it's the only event by which God saves sinners. But let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This is a tall
order here, ain't it? Now look, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal of God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and he was a perfect servant. Wasn't he? He healed probably
thousands of people that didn't deserve it at all, didn't even
ask for it. Right, now some people asked
for it, he gave it to them. Other people had, even the mob
of 5,000 plus, whom Christ knew would walk away in just a few
moments, he still fed their bellies the day before. Did he not? Gave them food to eat. Let this
man be in you as also in Christ, to be in the form of God. Thought
of God, robber to be equal to God, but made himself of no reputation. Took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled himself. This took an effort because he's
God. He said, I could summon, what'd
he say, legions? 12 legions? Thank you, Joe. 12 legions. How many is it, 12,000? What is it? Whatever it was.
45,000 of angels. and they would have removed him
from that cross had he willed it so. But he humbled himself. He was taking the smite on the
cheek. He was loving his enemies in a way that you and I will
never love somebody until maybe we appear fully in his likeness
one day in glory. Look, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, and this was a torturous death, was
it not? He didn't get to do like Jacob
did, just close his eyes, turn his head toward the wall, go
to sleep, did he? They beat him so bad, just physically, just
think of the physical what he went through. They beat him so
bad you could not recognize who he was. Is that what the book
teaches? They pummeled him, and then add
insult to injury, spit on him. then blindfolded him and hit
him with reeds. Who hit you? Huh? Became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore? He earned this spot
too. Not only is he intrinsically
this mason, he earned this glory we're about to hear about. Wherefore,
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, of things in earth, and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess, and sometimes
this word swear. This is a confession we're talking
about. and confess that Jesus Christ is what? Lord. Amen. To the glory of God the
Father. Amen. Does this arrest your heart
and mind? Yeah. Or does it bore you? There
you go. Is it something you just have
to come here and hear about? That's it. Or is it just enough I'll just
sit at home and listen to tapes? Yeah. Watch out. Watch out. Watch out, does this arrest my
heart and mind? Even more than that, does Christ
arrest my heart and mind? Have you ever been arrested by
Jesus Christ? I'm not asking you if you believe
what Chapel believes. I'm saying has Jesus Christ ever
come to you in all of his authority and stopped you in your tracks
and said, now you will believe me, you will serve me, and you've
got no other option. You do so in spite of yourself.
You do so even when you fall in sin flat on your face, but
you still worship Him. You still worship Him. You see,
it's only in Him that brash sin and brutal justice find full
satisfaction, especially for blasphemers. Roy Junior, would you close us
in prayer, please? We've got here.