Deuteronomy chapter 17. Let's
begin reading in verse 8 and read down through verses 13.
Deuteronomy chapter 17 and begin in verse 8. If there arise a
matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between
plea and plea, between stroke and stroke, be in matters of
controversy within thy gates, then shalt thou arise, and get
thee up into the place which the Lord your God shall choose."
We know now that that was Jerusalem. And thou shalt come unto the
priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shalt be in those
days, and inquire, and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment. And thou shalt do according to
the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose
shall show thee. And thou shalt observe to do
according to all that they instruct thee and inform thee. According
to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according
to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do, thou
shalt not turn aside, decline from the sentence which they
shall show thee to the right hand, nor to the left. And the
man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the
priest that stands to minister there before the Lord thy God,
or unto the judge, even that man shall die. And thou shalt
put away the evil from Israel." And all the people shall hear
and fear and do no more presumptuously. Now this tells us here in this
passage that the nation of Israel, their civil government was somewhat
like our government is today, our judicial system. They had
local judges and they had steps that you took all the way up
to, we could call it their Supreme Court that they had there in
Jerusalem. If a matter was too hard, they
went all the way up to Jerusalem to the judge there in that day. They do like we do, I imagine.
They did. If we have a controversy in our
family, we try to settle it in our family, don't we? We don't
run to court to settle a family matter. We try to settle it.
If we have trouble with our neighbor, we try to settle it. Then you've
known something about having trouble with your neighbor, and
you settle it if you can. sometimes praying with friends
or at a workplace, and we settled it. But some issues can't be
settled, and that's why they had their court systems to handle
these problems that could not be settled in the family or neighbor
with neighbor. And they were local court systems. They were local magistrates all
the way up to the judge or Levi's where they are at Jerusalem.
Now, it's good to always remember The nation of Israel at this
time was a theocracy. My granddaughter calls it theocracy
because she said theocracy is crazy. Well, it wasn't in that
day. It wasn't with the children of Israel. But it is today, isn't
it? We look at those nations, those
Arab nations today that rule mainly by theocracy, where the
state and the religion is one, and it is theocracy. Boy, theocracy,
if you've got a theocracy in our day. But that day they were
one, the state and the church was one, and all of it was ruled
by the Word of God. Later on by kings, which were
to be instructed by the Word of God, but always by priests
and Levites they were to be instructed. And a serious matter, we are
told here in verse 8, if a matter is too hard for you, in judgment,
then you were to take that matter all the way up to the Supreme
Court. They were to take it all the
way up to Jerusalem. There where the judge of that
day was and where the Levites had understanding. And we're
told here that it was blood and blood. A controversy between
blood and blood and stroke and stroke. Where one was pleading
one thing and another was pleading one thing. And it was a matter
of life and death. And in these matters, these local
judges could determine the guilt or innocence of a person, and
they took it all the way up to the Supreme Court. We have an
instance of that over here in the 19th chapter. Look at Leviticus
chapter 19. This was the case of, remember,
the cities of refuge? If a man had slain another man,
well, there were some conditions upon which he could not stay
in the city of refuge if he was found guilty of deliberately
killing a man. Look how he says it here in chapter
19. Look in verse 4. And this is
the case of the slayer, the man who slew someone and was fled
to the city of refuge. Which shall flee thither, that
he may live, whosoever killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom
he hated not in time past, as when a man goeth unto the wood
with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke
with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth off
from his handle, and lighteth upon his neighbor that he die,
he shall flee unto one of these cities, city of refuge, and live,
lest the avenger of the blood pursue and slay, while his heart
is hot, and overtake him, the way is long, and slay him. Wherefore,
he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past."
But look down now in verse 11. Once they got him there to the
city, then they tried him. Somebody had to determine if
he killed his neighbor deliberately or if it was truly accidentally
killed in ignorance. And if they found him to be a
murderer, then look what happened to him in verse 11. And if a
man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and raise up
against him, and smite him mortally, that he die, and fleeth into
one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send
and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger
of blood, that he may die. Thine eyes shall not pity him,
but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel,
that it may go well So somebody had to determine, is this man
guilty of willfully, deliberately, out of hatefulness, killing his
neighbor, or was it accidentally? And if they found that he killed
him deliberately, then they killed him. And these cases were so
hard to decide because one fellow was saying, I loved him. I killed
him by accident. And his family was saying, no,
he hated him. We heard him fussing before.
He's laying wait for him. So somebody had to determine
the guilt or innocency of these men. And therefore, they went
up all the way to the Supreme Court. There was all kinds of
laws, civil laws, that they lived by. You can read them in the
Old Testament. if a man and woman was fighting.
A man and man was fighting and there was a pregnant woman there.
And they accidentally, willfully hit her and she lost her baby.
Then they had to go to court and stand before this judge,
these Levites, and they had to determine if it was done deliberately
or not and what the consequences should be. Usually these cases
like this is the one that made it all the way up to Jerusalem.
Let me give you this. You probably remember the case
of Solomon. These two ladies had come and
appeared before Solomon. That was this matter here. Solomon
was the judge in those days. And they came and these two ladies
were sleeping in the same house and they had two little infant
daughters, just a few days old. And one of them laid on her daughter
and smothered it to death. And she got up and put her little
dead daughter on the bosom of the woman that had the live daughter.
Well, the woman woke up the next morning and said, oh my soul,
my baby's dead. Then she realized, that's not
my baby. That's her baby. She's changed babies. And she
said, no, I didn't do that. I would never do you that way.
So it went all the way up to Solomon. And he got them there
before him, and the one said, that's my baby. She's changed
babies with me." And the other said, no, that's not supple.
So what would you do? How could you prove the guilt
or innocence? How could you prove whose baby
that was? See how wise these judges had
to be. These Levites had to have discerning
spirits about them. They had to know the Scriptures
and what the Scriptures taught. Well, Solomon said, this is what
we'll do. Bring the sword and bring the
baby. And we'll cut the baby in half."
And the woman said, Oh, my soul, don't do that. Don't kill the
baby. Let her have it. The other one
said, No, let's kill it and divide it. Well, we know now how we
are judged, don't we? They never heard anything like
that before. But Solomon said, Darce the mother. The one that
was pleading to keep the baby whole. So he had to be wise. These men had to be wise. They
were judges. And here in verse 9 of chapter
17, look back in our text in verse 9. And thou shalt come
unto the priests, the Levites, and to the judge that shall be
in those days, and inquire, and they shall show thee the sentence
of judgment." Now, you can imagine how wise they had to be. The Lord chose these Levites. He had His Spirit and His power
was upon them. Look in chapter 18. He tells
us about that. Look in verse 1. The priests,
the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part in
our inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings
of the Lord made by fire and his inheritance. And the firstfruits also of thy
corn, and thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece
of thy sheep, thou shalt give him the Levites. For the Lord
thy God hath chosen him out of all tribes to stand to minister
in the name of the Lord him and his sons forever." Boy, they
had to have some discernment. They had to know the Scripture.
The Lord had to give these men some wisdom to discern and judge
with these people. They had to hear the evidence.
And they had to weigh it out and discern who was telling the
truth and who was in error. And then they rendered a verdict. And you know a person's life
may depend upon it. And I think the Lord is telling
us these things to let us know how important
it is when we stand to render judgment. Our leaders, and we
talked a few weeks ago about our leaders, about the awesome
task that they have, the judges and governors, to render a just
verdict. And it's the same way in the
church, isn't it, when Will and I render a just verdict. Listen
to what he says in Deuteronomy 117. You shall not respect persons
in judgment. But ye shall hear the small as
well as the great. Ye shall not be afraid of the
faces of man, for the judgment is God's." Don't be afraid. Render a just verdict. Now, look over here in the 19th
chapter where we were a minute ago. We've got a little picture
of this. If you'll just think about this,
this will help your imagination just a little bit. more times
than I want to go, two or three times, and that's more than I
want to go. If you've ever had to stand before
the judge in our court system, I'm telling you, it's a solemn
thing to stand there and listen to him talk to you and address
you from the bench, dressed in his black robe. And he gives
us a little picture here in the 19th chapter of how this happened.
When someone bore false witness before somebody else. Look here
in chapter 19 and verse 15. We studied on this just last
week about false witnesses. One witness shall not rise up
against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that
he sinneth. At the mouth of two witnesses
or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established.
And if a false witness rise up against any man to testify against
him that which is wrong, then both the man between whom the
controversy is shall stand before the Lord before the priest and
the judges which shall be in those days. And the judges shall
make diligent inquisition, and behold, if the witness be a false
witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother, then shall
ye do unto him as he hath thought to have done unto his brother.
So shalt thou put evil away from among you." Now, can you imagine? standing here before these judges
and these Levites and you are in your case. And it made it
solemn because he said they stand before the Lord. This is the
power that God Himself had ordained. And when you stood here in this
courthouse, You stood, as it were, before the Lord. These
were godly men, just men who were about to render a just verdict. Can you see yourself standing
there, and you knew in your heart that you were guilty? And here
you're thinking to yourself, are they going to discern that
I'm lying? Boy, can you imagine the feeling,
the awesome feeling, the seriousness of that matter. I tell you, I'd
probably pass out. My heart would be pounding. They'd
probably think, he's got to be guilty. Look at his heart pounding
through his chest. Or imagine you were standing
there, and you were innocent. And somebody was there falsely
accusing you. And here you're standing, hoping
and wondering, is that judge here going to be able to discern
that I'm telling the truth and this man is lying on me? That
would be an awesome thing, wouldn't it? That would be an awesome
thing. And what if you had fled to the city of refuge? Well,
this would be something, wouldn't it? And then they brought you
up to see if you met the qualifications to flee there. And they were
attempting to discern where they were going to give you a refuge
in that place, or if they were going to turn you back over to
the avenger of blood. Man, that's a solemn thing, wouldn't
it? Do you qualify to be here, or do you not? then they determine
the case as you stood there and waited to find out. There are stipulations for us
fleeing to Jesus our Lord and Savior for refuge too, aren't
there? There are conditions by which we flee to Him. He is our
city of refuge. Have you fled to Him? What about the stipulations?
What are the stipulations? There are some men and women
who flee to Him, and they have not met the stipulation. What
is the stipulation for fleeing to Jesus, our city of refuge? You know what the first is? Guilty. I'm guilty. Whatsoever things
the law says, it says to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped, And all the world become guilty before
God. That's the first stipulation.
Guilty. I'm guilty. If a man's not guilty
and he says he's fled to Jesus, what's going to happen when he's
judged? Well, he's going to be found out. Man, you're not even
guilty. You're not even guilty. What's the second stipulation? He's your refuge. You have fled
to Him for your refuge. He alone is your refuge from
the avenger of blood, from the wrath of God, from the curse
of the law, from your sins. And boy, those who were fleeing
to the city of refuge, I'm telling you what, can you imagine? Can you imagine how many that
was fleeing, that tried to find a refuge in one of those one
of those cedars of Lebanon. Can you imagine a man up in Lebanon,
he's going to flee to one of the cities of refuge, and he
sees those big brushy pine trees, cedar trees of Lebanon. He said,
man, there's my refuge. And he climbs up that tree. That
wasn't a safe place of refuge, was it? Imagine how many that
just gave up and hid behind a rock. Imagine how many got in under
the bridge to try to hide. The only safe place was where? The city of refuge. And boy,
I tell you, you never rested. You never relaxed. You couldn't
give up your anxiety until you got inside that gate of the city
of refuge. And a man must not rest. He must not give up until he
finds himself complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Safe in Him,
safe from all harm. But these are the stipulations.
Guilty, guilty, guilty. How do you plead? You know there
are people who say they've come to Christ and they've never been
guilty. Wouldn't it be silly for a fellow
to flee into the city of refuge and fall on his face and they
say, man, what are you doing here? He says, well, I really
don't know. I don't know. I'd just been running like crazy,
and I wore out, and I thought, boy, this just didn't happen
that way, did it? He said, man, they're on my trail.
And he dives in the gate, and he says, I've killed a man. And
he finds refuge, and he finds refuge. But that's what they
judged. They judged to see if a man had
met the stipulation. If he was there legitimately,
and the judges determined it, and if he wasn't there legitimately,
boy, they took him out and they gave him to them in pure blood. Aren't you glad the Lord Jesus
knows? And I tell you, I'm willing to leave the case with Him, aren't
you? Lord, you know. You know. You know why I came
to you. You know why I fled to you. I'm
guilty. I am guilty, guilty, guilty. And Lord Jesus, You're my only
refuge. I don't have another refuge.
And I tell you, He's the Judge, isn't He? He's the Supreme Judge. And He can discern the hearts.
He knows the thoughts. It's open and naked. And I tell
you, I'm willing, and you are too, to just go right there and
lay before Him and say, Lord, You know. You know. You know
all about me. You know what I am. You know
what I've done. And You know what You mean to me. Because
you made it so. And whether these judges justified
their being there or delivered them up, one thing we find out
here in verse 9, that they showed them exactly why they reached
the conclusion that they reached. Here in the last part of verse
9 it says, "...they shall show thee the sentence of judgment."
They'll show you exactly why they reached the judgment in
your case that they did. If they turned you out of the
city of refuge, it's because you didn't meet the stipulations
for being there. Look what he says in verse 11,
what this judgment was based upon. I think this is very important.
Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 11. He said there in the last
portion of verse 9, they shall show thee the sentence of judgment,
and what was that sentence based upon? Look in verse 11. The sentence of the law, which
they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall
tell thee, thou shalt do." According to the law. According to the
Word, the Holy Scripture. They didn't base their judgment
on emotion. It wasn't human emotion, was
it? It wasn't their personal opinions. It wasn't human wisdom. It was the Word. They had to
know the Word to render a just judgment. They had to. They had
to honor God and reach a correct judgment. To the law and to the
testimony. That's where we're guided. To
the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this Word, it's because there's no light in them. Oh, Luther,
you watch that movie about Luther and when he stood there before
those fellows judging him and asking him to recant. Remember
what he said? I read it in his book. This is
exactly what he said. He said, until I'm convinced
by plain Scripture, I cannot, I will not recant. And that's
where these men stood, by plain Scripture. That's the way they
judged. You and I shouldn't expect much
judgment and truth from this world, brothers and sisters.
We just shouldn't expect it. Even our judicial system, we
shouldn't anymore expect. And it's sad to say that. It's
heartbreaking to say that. And some people have come out
of this justice system with their heart wrenched and broken at
the injustice that's been rendered to them. But listen to this.
In the church, And this is true Jerusalem, isn't it? This is
New Jerusalem right here. The church of the firstborn.
This is New Jerusalem. And its citizens and its ministers,
there is no reason why truth and justice should not prevail. You and I know the truth, and
it should prevail. And thank God He has given us
help. on the local level. We can look at ourselves like
the Supreme Court on this local level. We have helps. The Lord
has not left us without helps. Aren't you thankful for the commentaries
that we've got? One man told me one time, he
said, I ain't reading no commentary. I'm sticking to my Bible, bud.
Well, that's a wonderful thing. But you take a man that's too
proud to seek help from other men, He probably isn't going
to get much help from the Bible either, just to be honest with
you. The Lord often sets us under other men, doesn't He? To learn
from other men. We have these helps, these local
helps. But thank God we can appeal to a higher level of authority,
can't we? We have His Word. We have His Word. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
he may be mature, developed in every good thing, every good
work and deed and judgment. He says to the simple, turn in
here and be wise. So we have a higher authority
and sometimes we appeal to these local levels But, oh, we have
to go to the Scripture, don't we? And you know we have a supreme
judge that we can appeal to for wisdom. If any man lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given to him. You and I, as common people,
as common believers, common Christians in the church, We have this supreme
wise judge that we can go to and ask him for wisdom. And brothers
and sisters, I ain't one that believes that he'd leave us without
guiding us and making us wise unto salvation and rendering
us with this ability to make judgments in our own lives and
help others to make judgments in their lives. I just believe
he wouldn't do his people that way. Look at the New Testament.
Look at those poor, ignorant men, those poor, ignorant disciples
that the Lord chose. The Bible said themselves that
they were unlearned and ignorant men. And yet, look how wise He
made them. Look how they ruled over the
New Testament church. Look what judgments they rendered. Look how smart the Lord made
those dumb, uneducated people. Remember Acts 5? when Ananias
and Sapphires tried to deceive the early church and said, we've
sold this land for so much, and they lied about it? And they
come in and here it said, poor old ignorant Peter, and he was
the judge. And the Lord had gave him such
discernment. He said, why have you lied to
the Holy Ghost? And the Lord killed them, didn't
He? The Lord killed them. During Acts chapter 6, there
arose this controversy where the widows weren't being fed.
They're pooling all their money and the widows weren't being
fed. And boy, the apostles said, seek you out these men to make
them deacons, to be over this. And they did. And what a wonderful
judgment that was. Acts chapter 15 is the best example
I can think about. The first sovereign grace conference
we ever had is in Acts chapter 15. There arose some of the Pharisees
and said, except you be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you
can't be saved. And boy, I'm telling you what,
you talk about some heated discussions. Paul and Barnabas. I mean, it was heated. That's
what the Bible says there. You can read it in those first
five verses. There was strong disputation. And they said, let's
go up to Jerusalem. Let's go up to Jerusalem and
settle this matter. Why did they say that? They were
just going back to Deuteronomy chapter 17. That's where the church's foundation
was. That's where the Lord started it at right there. That's where
those apostles were. They went back up there to Jerusalem
and they said, let's settle this dispute. Let somebody render
a judgment. And you know, aren't you glad
they rendered the judgment that they did? Can you imagine what
kind of shape the church would have been in if they hadn't made
the decision that they made there that day? How is a man saved? Is he saved by keeping the law
of Moses? Is he saved by circumcision?
Is he saved by what he does or doesn't do? Boy, Peter settled
it, didn't he? Peter stood up in their midst. And he says, I'm going to render
a judgment here. We believe. Now, here's the Apostles'
Creed. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. We Jews, as well
as those Gentiles. In other words, he said, we're
going to have to be saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, just
like they are. They can't be saved the way we
are. That's not what he said. He said we have to be saved the
way they're saved. And boy, you can see those Pharisees bowing
their heads and going out one by one. I ain't being saved like
those dead dogs, Gentiles. But that was the judgment that
they rendered. And it was a just judgment. It
was a right Judgment. Look at the opposite. Hold you
on to chapter 17. And look over in 1 Corinthians
right quickly in chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. What there is every day, brothers
and sisters, you and I, we need the Lord to make us wise. And
we need to keep our heads in the book and seek His face. It
is our day. But we can sure mess up, can't we? We have to render
judgments. There can grow controversies
among us. It happens. And we have to judge
and we have to weigh these things out. Some things we don't understand. But here's something that was
happening in the Corinthian church. Look in chapter 6 and verse 1. Are any of you having a matter
against another? Go to law before the unjust and
not before the saints? They have no controversy. Me
and Wayne got mad at each other, and I told him, I'm taking you
to court. We're going to court. And here we are, both of us lovers
of Christ, and we're up there before an unjust judge with two
unjust lawyers and an unjust jury, a bunch of lost people,
hacking out our controversy. And Paul said, dare any of you
that believe and love Christ do something like that? And then he says this, and I
don't understand completely, to be honest with you, verses
2 and 3, but look at it. Do you not know that the saints
shall judge the world? I don't completely understand
how that will, but that's what he said. Are we going to judge
them on the day of judgment with Christ? Are we going to sit with
Him in His throne? He said some of you will be,
that's for sure. We may judge them by our lives
lived, what we believe. I don't know, but he said we
shall judge the world. And if the world shall be judged
by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? And look
in verse 3. Know you not that you shall judge
angels? I don't see why we would judge
elect angels, but we will probably judge those ungodly angels, those
fallen angels. The Lord is going to put them
under the feet of his people. If you then have judgment of
things pertaining to this life, set them to judge you are least
esteemed in the church. Look in verse 5, I speak to your
shame. Is it so that there is not a
wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able
to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth to law with
brother, and that before the unbeliever. Now therefore there
is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with
another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer
yourself to be defrauded? Nay, you do wrong and defraud,
and that your brother." That's a shame, isn't it? That's awful
to think that they did that and left the church and went up there
for the unjust judge. about the controversies that
they were having. Absolutely no excuse for that. But that's
what they did. Now, look back over in our text for one last
thing. Here in 10-13. After they had rendered their
verdict, now it was based upon plain scripture. Thou shalt do
according to the which they of that place which the Lord shall
choose shall show thee, and thou shalt observe to do according
to all that they instruct thee, according to the sentence of
the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment
which they shall tell thee thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline
from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right
hand nor to the left. And the man that will do presumptuously,
and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister
there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that
man shall die, and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel,
and all the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously."
Now, it is one thing for us to vary in opinions. Things that
we don't understand. And there's things that we don't
understand. You may be wrong and I may be wrong. Both of us
may be wrong. Because of the lightness or shallowness of our
understanding. That's one thing. But I'm telling
you presumptuous. When it's plain, and a man will
just willingly and presumptuously, out of his own miserable rebellion,
or the lust of the flesh, Disobey what is plainly taught in the
Word of God. Now, that's dangerous. That is
dangerous. I was talking with a man. I told
you about it just a few days ago. I was talking with him. I told him plainly. I said, you
better flee from the situation that you've just got yourself
into. He said, you better do just exactly what Joseph did
and flee that situation now. And you know what he basically
said to me? Thanks, but no thanks. Brothers and sisters, that's
rebellion. That's rebellion against God. And that's dangerous. David
said, Lord, keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins. Being willfully rebellious. That's dangerous. And I don't
know how this man's situation is going to turn out, but I know
this much. God will deal with that man. Somewhere, sometime,
some way. It won't go undealt with. Look over in Hebrews in closing. Look in Hebrews chapter 8 and
verse 28. The writer of Hebrews references
what it was to sin against the law of Moses in a presumptuous
way. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. There are some people, and you
and I have seen them. Not very often, but we've seen
them. And their opinion of grace is
that it gives them a license to live in willful rebellion.
Let us sin that grace may abound. That's dangerous, isn't it? You talk about the strictness
of the law of Moses and it judging people who sinned against it.
You wait until God judges those men who have presumptuously sinned
against Jesus Christ and His grace. And look here what he
says in verse 28, Hebrews chapter 10. They that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. That's
what we're studying about, isn't it? Look at this, of how much
sore punishment. Suppose ye shall he be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified in an unholy
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For
we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense
saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God." I don't assume to know everything that Scripture teaches,
but I know this. Moses' law was strict, and if
you died under that law, you died without mercy, and it was
a horrifying thing. And to bring shame and reproach
willfully upon the name of the Son of God and trample His blood
under your feet is even a more dangerous thing to do. Presumptuously. Presumptuously. God keep us from presumptuous
sins.