In a way of review, last week we looked
at the last two verses of Deuteronomy chapter 16. We were looking at groves. There we found it in verse 21.
Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar
of the Lord thy God which thou shall make thee." There's two views to this particular
verse of scripture and some other that talks about groves. I went
with John Gill and Matthew Henry and C. H. McIntosh and some others,
but there's two views to this and probably both of them could
be right. But I think probably the one
view is correct that I didn't even look at last week. Brother
Wayne mentioned it. But the view that Gil and Henry
and some others had was these were clusters of trees. They
were not to plant clusters of trees. And that's the sense in
which I looked at it last week. C. H. McIntosh had this to say
about these groves being clusters of trees that they're planting
near the altar of the Lord. He said they were carefully to
avoid anything which might lead them in the direction of the
dark and abominable idolatries of the heathen nations around
them. The order of God was to stand out in distinct and unmistakable
separation from those groves and shady places where false
gods were worshipped and things were done which are not to be
named. Matthew Henry had this to say
about it, they made groves the places of their worship, either
to make it secret, and that's one of the ways that I dealt
with it, but that which is true and good desires light, rather,
or to make it solemn, but the worship of the true God has enough
in itself to make it so, and needs not the advantage of such
circumstance. Then, of course, Gil, he went
into history of the heathens, how they planted clusters of
trees to hide their worship. He quoted several of those. But
another of these views, and I didn't look at it last week, and you'll
see most of the versions agree with this view. These groves
were idols. I still can't pronounce the Hebrew
word for that. Asheroth? Is that it? Asherah? Some say it was short for Ashtaroth,
the goddess of the Onassian nation, the heathen goddess, that they
made them and dug a hole and set them up, literally set them
up. Sometimes they would set them
under trees. And this could very well be the
right view of this, but that asks the question, why would
the children of Israel, bring a false god, an idol, and set
it up next to the altar of the Lord. Why would they do that? Why not just do away with the
altar of the Lord and set up their idols? What you and I don't
want to forget about these Jews, they were just as ignorant and
just as sinful by nature as the Gentiles were, and sometimes
more so Because what they tried to do by setting up these idols
next to the altar of the Lord, seemingly to me, they wanted
to integrate the two. They wanted to profess to worship
Jehovah, and yet all the time they set up their idols. And
you see them doing that. They went off into this. The
Bible says in Jeremiah, they feared the Lord and worshipped
their idols. Now that's where you try to integrate
both together. And I don't know of anybody that's
been more openly guilty of that than Catholicism. Because while
they profess the name of Jesus Christ as the one mediator between
them and God, who do they sit right alongside Him? Mary, the
cold matrix they call it. And when they pray and say the
rosary, it's, Mary, the mother of God, pray for us sinners.
What is that? But setting Mary alongside Jesus
Christ, the only mediator, and of course they do that with all
their silly orders and the lighting of candles and selling of indulgences
and everything else. They integrate the two. When
we were down in the Yucatan, one of our missionaries there,
I saw things there that shocked me concerning Catholicism. I
asked Walter Gruber about it. I said, man, that's open idolatry. And he said, Catholicism will
adapt to what the people want. They will adapt and integrate
the worship of God with all these idols. They don't care. And seemingly,
that's what these groves were here. They were set in this idol,
these groves around Order of the Lord. That's the first thing
that we looked at. And we also looked, number two,
at chapter 17 and verse 1, and we looked at the sacrifices offered
to God. He said there in verse 1, Thou
shalt not sacrifice unto the Lord thy God any bullock or sheep
wherein is a blemish or any ill-favoredness, for that is an abomination to
the Lord thy God. And we didn't say very much about
this because we often We talk about Christ being the sinless
sacrifice. And we glory in Him, don't we?
We marvel at Him offering Himself, a sacrifice to God for us for
a sweet-smelling Savior. And why is the sacrifice that
Christ offered to God a sweet smell to God? Because it was
a perfect sacrifice. It was a holy sacrifice. There
was no blemish in it. No ill-favoredness in all His
will. Everything He willed to do as
a man, He submitted His will to the will of His Father in
Heaven. And He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will. Yea, Your law
is within My heart. I delight to do Your will, O
My God. All of His sacrifices. His offering
was without any blemish or ill-favoredness. In the volume of the book it
is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will. And may God give
you and I grace, and He'll take grace. May He give us grace to
delight with all our hearts to do His will. There's something
that you and I desire more than anything in this world, and that's
to have the mind of Christ. and the Spirit of Christ. To
all that we do, honor God with all our hearts and with all our
souls and with all our minds. The Hebrew writer says in chapter
13 and verse 15, by Him, by Jesus Christ, by His intercessions,
by the mercy of His person, by His blood, by Him let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit
of our lips, give Him thanks unto His name." The sacrifice
of praise. And how did David say he would
offer the sacrifice of praise? With all my heart. But you know what? You know what
it's going to take to worship God with all our hearts, to serve
Him with all our hearts? It's going to take the Spirit
of grace. That's what worship's about,
ain't it? It's about worshipping in spirit. And nobody ever worshipped
God at all. And nobody ever worshipped Him
with all their hearts and give to Him the worship and service
that He desired, except He is possessed and influenced by the
Holy Spirit. I want more of the Spirit, don't
you? I do. All of us do. We want more of
the Spirit of the Lord. Now we go on to chapter 17 in
verses 2 through 7. Let's read it together, beginning
here in verse 2, Deuteronomy chapter 17. This is a very important
study. If there be found among you within
any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you, man or woman
which has wrought weakness in the sight of the Lord thy God,
and transgression his covenant, sinning against his covenant,
and hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either
the sun, or the moon, or any of the hosts of heaven, which
I have not commanded. And if it be told thee, and thou
hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and behold, if it
be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought
in Israel, Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman
which hath committed that wicked thing unto thy gate, even that
man and that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they
die. At the mouth of two witnesses,
or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put
to death. But at the mouth of one witness
he shall not be put to death. And the hands of the witnesses
shall be first upon him to put him to death. and afterward the
hands of all the people, so shalt thou put the evil away from among
you." Now, this is an extension of chapter 13 and verse 6. Look
back over there just for a minute. We looked at this one time before,
but this has just a little bit different aspect to it in our
text tonight. But look in chapter 13 and verse
6. This also is dealing with idolatry.
If your brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter,
or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thy own
soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods,
which thou hast not known, thou nor thy father, namely the gods
of the people, which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or
for all from thee, from the one end of the earth even to the
other end of the earth, Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor
hearken unto him, neither shalt thou eye pity him, neither shalt
thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely
kill him." And he goes on to say that you have to be the first
one to lift up the stone against him. So our text tonight is sort
of an extension of that, but it deals with getting evidence. Back there it deals with just
them being guilty. And you're putting them to death.
But here tonight, we're looking at collecting the evidence to
make sure of one's guilt. And there's a short little phrase
here in chapter 17 in verse 3, which is very instructive to
you and me, and I think it will keep us not only from idolatry,
but it will keep us from all kinds of errors. Look here in
verse 3. and have gone and served other
gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the
hosts of heaven." Now look at this, "...which I have not commanded."
How do you and I worship? How do we serve God? There is
only one way to worship God. By what He has commanded. See why it was wrong? I have
not commanded it." If we have no other instruction in all the
Word of God to teach us that the worship of idols is sinful,
God says, I have not commanded it. Don't do it because I have
not commanded it. I was reading, I won't tell you
his name, poor fellow, but he was a Presbyterian, a popular
Presbyterian. I've read him at depths. But
he helped to covenant theology. The baptizing of infants. And he was trying to use every
argument against baptizing infants that he could think of and then
out-argue it. And he reached a place where
he couldn't out-argue himself. And finally, the last argument
he had was this. The Lord didn't tell us not to
do it. The Lord didn't tell us not to baptize infants. Well,
if he didn't tell you not to do it, then you best not do it. That's a good argument not to
do it, isn't it? The Lord didn't say to do it, so don't do it.
Isn't it very clear in the Scriptures who is to be baptized? And it's
not infancy, is it? In Acts chapter 8, where the
eunuch said to Philip, Here's water. What hinders me
from being baptized? And here's what is commanded. Here's what is required to be
baptized in water. Here's what the Holy Ghost commands. It's so plain. If you believe
with all your heart, you may be baptized. That's the criteria,
isn't it? Belief is prerequisite. to baptism. And when the dear
Presbyterian said God didn't command us not to do it, really
He did. He did. But this is so instructive. If
God doesn't command us to do it or not to do it, then go by
the authority of His Word. John tells us to keep ourselves
from idols. And you know one of the reasons
he had to give us that instruction? Because idolatry is so easy a
sin to slip into. We don't do it maybe with our
bodies. We're not going to bow down to some stump. But how easy
it is to set up an idol in our mind. Here is what the law says. Here is what the covenant says.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And to have another
god before you that you love more than him, that you serve
other than him, that's idolatry, isn't it? It may be our imagination. It may be something that we do
or we give our time to. But if it's rather than him. There was a dear old Puritan.
Boy, the Puritans, they watched against idolatry. But an old
Puritan, he was a poor man, but he finally was able to buy a
cow. And when he got that cow, that
was all he talked about, his milk cow. He told them one day, he hadn't
talked about his cow for a while, and they want to know what happened
to your cow. And he said, Oh, I had to sell
her. And they said, Why did you sell your cow? He said, She kept
coming into the pool pit with me. And they didn't know for
a while what he meant. But when he came to the pool
pit, he couldn't get the cow out of his heart, out of his
mind. He loved his cow. So he sold the cow. You say,
Bruce, that's crazy. It is until you've done. You
may not have a cow that you've set up, but it may be somebody
else. Or it may be something else.
Or it may be yourself. It may be something. But John
gave us this exhortation. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Keep yourselves from those things
which God hath not commanded you to do. And seek to do those
things by faith which he has commanded us to do. And our text
has to do with proof against someone who has committed idolatry. The charge was so serious and
the consequences were so awful that it had to be proved beyond
doubt. He says here in verse 3, And
have gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the
sun or the moon, or the host of heaven, which I have not commanded.
And notice verse 4 very carefully. And it betolth thee. It betolth
thee. Somebody has borne witness to
it. And you've heard. You've heard of it. And you've
inquired diligently. You've taken diligent search.
And behold, it is true. The thing is true. And the thing
is certain that such abomination has been wrought in Israel. Notice
the words there that he uses when you read that carefully.
This is so serious that you had to make absolutely certain that
the man you're bringing charges against was true. It had to be
true. I like what C. H. McIntosh says
about this verse here. Here's what he says, and let
me quote him. The entire subject of evidence claims the serious
attention of the reader. Let his position be what it may.
We are all prone to rush to hasty conclusions, to take up impressions,
to give place to baseless surmises, which means imaginations running
wild, and we allow our minds to be warped and carried away
by prejudice. All these have to be most carefully
guarded against. We need more calmness, more seriousness,
cool deliberation informing and expressing our judgment about
men and things, but especially about men. Forasmuch as we may
inflict a grievous wrong upon a friend, a brother, or a neighbor
by giving utterance to a false impression or a baseless charge,
we may allow ourselves to be the vehicles of an utterly groundless
accusation whereby the character of another may be seriously damaged.
This is very sinful in the sight of God and should be most jealously
watched against in ourselves and sternly rebuked in others.
Whenever anyone brings a charge against another behind his back,
we should insist upon his proving or withdrawing his statements
where this plan adopted We should be delivered from a vast amount
of evil speaking, which is not only most unprofitable, but positively
wicked, and not to be tolerated." Now, here was the situation these
Jews found themselves in. On one hand, there was abomination
being wrought in Israel, and what honest man or God-fearing
man could tolerate that? What Jew that loved the Lord
could tolerate open idolatry? None of them could. But here
was the other situation that they found themselves. On the
other hand, it must be proved that they were worshiping contrary
to the covenant and the Word of God. And this had to be done
by two or three witnesses. Notice here in verse 6 again.
At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he
that is worthy of death be put to death, but at the mouth of
one witness he shall not be put to death. And the judgment was
to be based upon the transgression of the covenant. You notice that
in verse 2. Was it to be a baseless charge,
or in my own mind I think they're committing idolatry, but in the
last portion of verse 3, It says that they have wrought wickedness
in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing the covenant. So they had to know what the
covenant commanded, and then they had to say, this person
is walking contrary, he's doing contrary to the covenant or commandment
of our Lord. There's two things you're given.
in verses 6 and verse 7 that protected the accused against
some false charge. The first one you'll notice there
in verse 6, it couldn't be only one witness. It couldn't be one
man that rose up and brought this charge, but it had to be
two or three witnesses. Now that gave some protection
to a false charge, didn't it? You had to get two or three people,
and maybe sometimes you couldn't find two or three people that
was willing to violate their conscience and bring a false
charge against a man. It couldn't be just one man.
And then the second protection that the accused had was verse
7. And boy, this was a good protection.
If you and two more of your friends accused somebody of idolatry,
when this man was stoned, you had to be the first one stoned.
Boy, if you brought false charges against the man and you took
up a stone and you looked at him and knowing just about the
stone of man that you falsely accused, that would be difficult
to do if you had any conscience left, wouldn't it? So the Lord
put this in here to protect a man from being falsely accused. But
you know even this didn't stop the wicked Jews from false accusations. They even used this commandment
to justify the killing of innocent people. I want to give you three
examples of this right quickly. If you'll take your Bibles and
turn to 1 Kings. Old Deuteronomy 17. Turn quickly
to 1 Kings. Just turn over to your right.
1 Kings 21. This is a very familiar story to you that reads your
Bible. 1 Kings chapter 21. This is where wicked king Ahab,
who had a wicked wife by the name of Jezebel, and they had
a godly man in their kingdom that really lived next door to
them. And he owned a vineyard. His name was Naboth. And Ahab
looked at this vineyard. He wanted it so bad. And because
Naboth wouldn't sell it to him, wouldn't give it to him, he came
home one day and he was tempting for his father, and he was so
sad. And Jezebel said, what's the matter with you? And he said,
Naboth's got a vineyard over there, and I want it, and he
won't sell it to me. And she said, just rest yourself, I'll
get it. I'll get it for you. And here's the way she got it.
Look in verse 5. But Jezebel his wife came to
him and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad? Why ye eat
no bread? And he said unto her, Because
I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy
vineyard for money, or else, if it please thee, I will give
thee another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give
thee my vineyard. God had given him that vineyard.
He ain't going to give it away. And Jezebel, his wife, said unto
him, Dost thou govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread,
and let your heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard
of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's
name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto
the elders and to the nobles that were in his city dwelling
with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim
me fast, and set Naboth on high. among the people, and set two
men, sons of Bilal, before him, to bear witness against him,
saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king, and then carry
him out, and stone him, that he may die. And the men of his
city, even the elders and the nobles, who were the inhabitants
of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, and as it was written
in the letter which she had sent them. They proclaimed it fast,
and set Naboth on high among them, And there came in two men. Why two men? That's what the
Word said, wasn't it? At least two witnesses. That's
what the Lord Jesus Himself said. And sat before him, and the men
of Bilal witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence
of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king.
Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him with
stones, that he died. And they went to Jezebel, saying,
Naboth is stoned and is dead. And it came to pass, when Jezebel
heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said
unto Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the
Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money. For Naboth
is not alive, but dead. And this act brought the judgment
of God upon Ahab and Jezebel. Let me give you another example
over in the book of Acts. Look in Acts chapter 6. Another familiar incident. This
is where Stephen had begun to preach to these Jews. Acts chapter 6 and look in verse
8. Acts chapter 6 and verse 8. And Stephen,
full of faith and power, and he also said he was full of the
Holy Ghost, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the
synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and
them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they
were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Then they suborned men, that is, they hired false witnesses,
men who were willing to take a false oath, which said, We
have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against
God. And they stirred up the people,
and elders, and the scribes, and came unto him, and called
him, and brought him to the council, who set up false witnesses, which
said, This man seetheth not to speak blasphemous words against
this holy place, and against the law." False witnesses. False
witnesses. And you know they stoned him.
But let's look at Probably the chief of them all, no doubt.
In Matthew chapter 26. Look at this one, Matthew chapter
26. Look in verse 57. You think ungodly men aren't
willing to use the Word of God for their own wicked ends? Well,
they are. This is when the Lord Jesus was
taken from the garden. Matthew 26, verse 57, And they
that had helped have laid hold of Jesus, led him away to Caiaphas
the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
Now, this is the chief religious people. And Peter followed him
before off into the high priest's palace, and went in, and sat
with the servant to see the end. Now the chief priests and elders
and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put
him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses
came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses. Why two? That's what they required. One come up and they said, we
can't accept you, buddy. I wish we could. I wish we could
accept it. But you've got to be two of them.
If you can find a buddy that will agree, bring him back. Well,
finally two men came in and said, this fellow said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. And
the high priest arose and said unto them, Answerest thou nothing?
What is it which these witness against thee? And Jesus held
his peace. And the high priest answered
and said, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. And he said unto
him, Thou hast said, Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter you
shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, coming
in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his
clothes, saying, He hath spoken blaspheming. What further need
have we of witnesses? Behold, we have heard his blaspheming. What thank you? They answered
and said, He is guilty of death. So the very law that God had
set up and the way to prove the guilt of man in a just manner,
these men used to justify their own wicked end. Let me quote
C. H. Macintosh again on this verse.
Religion without conscience or the fear of God is the most degrading,
demoralizing, hardening thing beneath the canopy of heaven. most terrible features is seen
in this, that men under its influence are not ashamed, neither are
they afraid to make use of the letter of holy scriptures as
a cloak wherewith to cover the most horrible wickedness." Well,
I don't know how much clearer it could be in the Word, but
I tell you, fallen man, this don't care, does it? He don't
fear God. So he don't care to use God's
Word to justify his wickedness. We see it all around us, don't
we? So there's one way we look at that, not to bring unfounded
charges. But let's look at it now quickly
in this way. What if the charges was true?
What if after they had searched diligently and the charges was
true? Well, I'm glad we don't stone
people today, aren't you? Can you imagine the nerve this
took? We dealt with this a few weeks
ago when we looked at chapter 13, but the nerve this took.
I mean, somebody followed a friend or followed a neighbor out and
saw him worshiping some idol. Maybe in some secret place for
fear that he'd get caught. It must have been in secret.
It couldn't have been too openly because they had to search diligently
to make sure it was true. But can you imagine following
that man and watching him worship that idol? And go back and tell
a couple of your friends or two people of reputation and say,
I want you to come. We need you as witnesses. This
is bad. And boy, you go out there, your
heart pounded. There you see him bow before
this island. Man, your conscience is fricked
and you think this is awful. Because you know what you've
got to do. And then you go back and you bring charges against
him. Then he comes up and you tell him what you saw him do. And then you have to go out and
pick up a stone. And there that man is down on
his knees, bound. And you've got to aim at his
head and, boy, pound a stone at his head. Wouldn't that be
awful? Brothers and sisters, I am just glad that we don't
do that today. I'm glad that we don't have to
do that today. But why would they do it? How
could they possibly bring themselves to do that? Well, here's one
reason. Because they love this covenant
God. I mean, this wasn't something
done out of malice. This wasn't some trumped-up charges
like we saw in those false religions. This had happened, and it had
been proven. And they stoned those people,
not out of animosity, but it was out of love to their covenant
with God. It was because they loved the
truth. That's why they did it. That's
why they did it. Jealous, wholly jealous of His
Word and of is worship. You and I don't stone false professors
today, but when it's clearly seen, when they finally make
evidence what they are and who they are and what they've done,
I tell you what we do do. We don't stone, but here's what
we do do. We take sides with God against
them. We do, don't we? Paul said, if
any man draw back, if he draw back from Christ, if he draw
back from faith, if he draw back from the Gospel, my soul shall
take no pleasure in him. A man or a woman that you took
pleasure in before, and you went sweetly into the house of God
with them, thinking that they were children of God, and you
trusted them, But boy, when they left Christ, when they drew back
from living by faith upon Him, when they left the Gospel, your
soul has no pleasure in them. You cannot take sweet pleasure
with them anymore. My soul, the deepest recess of
my being, takes no pleasure in them. The sweet fellowship that
we had is gone. We've had that the half a year.
I think someday, if I keep thinking about this, someday this is what
I'm going to do. I probably won't call any names.
I don't want to hurt any feelings. But I may go through some people
because it's imprinted in my heart like it's been written
with an iron pen. The people who have left this
worship. Not for another congregation
that was more convenient for them to go hear the gospel. But
they've left this congregation because of the truth, either
out of some lust of the flesh or going after some false doctrine.
They've left. And someday I may just get them
all together and tell you why they left. Some of you ask me
about this one and that one anyway, and I may just do that someday.
And it breaks our hearts when this happens. But I tell you
what we do. We take sides against them. We take sides with our
Lord Jesus, don't we? I tell you, when Jesus betrayed
the Lord Jesus, the disciples, the apostles, didn't go weeping
after Jesus, did they? They sure didn't. He's a betrayer. He's a betrayer. If a man wants
to get on your bad side, let him try to molest your wife.
He's got a fine on his hand, hasn't he? And let a man misuse
our Lord and our Savior and bring shame on His holy name. I tell
you, better get him on our bad side right quick. Right quick. Paul said this, "...if any man
that is called a brother be a fornicator, a covetous, an idolater, a railer,
a drunkard, extortioner..." Don't stone him. You've got no right
to do that now. "...but with such a one know
not to eat." You shouldn't be allowed to sit and eat with you
in the Lord's supper. And he said this, "...if any
man obey not our word by this epistle, Note that man and have
no company with him, no intimate company, that he may be ashamed. Brothers and sisters, you and
I don't need to hang around rebels that call themselves brothers.
We just don't need to do it. Don't take them as your intimate
companions. What kind of light is that? What's
people going to say? Don't do this, Paul said, that
they might be ashamed. And I tell you, on the Day of
Judgment, the saints will say to men who are sentenced to eternal
damnation, they have the judgment of Jesus Christ pronounced against
them. Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire. And you know what the saints
will say? Against their own dads? Against their own husbands? Against
their wives? Against their children? You know what the saints will
say? The Scripture bears witness to this. Hallelujah! The Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. And just because we don't stone
them today is no sign that we don't oppose them. We do oppose
them. If we've got the evidence and
it's been proved, we oppose them and we stand against them. We
do that. And why do we do it? This is
why we do it. All because we love and reverence
Jesus Christ and His gospel. They say, well, you're just so
hateful. No, I tell you, we love you more than false preachers
do. We do. That's why we're telling you
the truth. You take it as hate. You take our warnings and our
concerns as hate. But we look upon you and we tell
you the truth and we warn you and we reprove you because we
love you. But the world will never understand
that. But how could they do it? How could they stone someone?
They loved the covenant God, bud. You remember that time when
such and such turmoil was in the camp and the Lord was ready
to bring judgment This harlot had come from one of the other
countries. This man had brought this harlot
in and got in the company of Israel to lay with her. He was actually in the act of
laying with her. One of the priests, I forget
which one it was now, took a spear about him and went in the tent
and jabbed it through his back and through her belly and pinned
them both to the ground. And the Scripture says, because
he was jealous. He was jealous of the honor and
glory and worship of God. Lastly, why did they do it? How could they do it? It answers
that here in the last part of verse 7. It was a deterrent. It was a deterrent. Look what
he says in verse 7. The hands of the witnesses shall
be first upon him to put him to death, And afterwards, at
the hands of all the people, so shalt thou put the evil away
from among you." It was a deterrent. I mean, you see somebody stoned
for idolatry today, and you're out not to go out and worship
one tomorrow. And what happens if we let evil run among us? What's going to happen if I as
a pastor don't watch and keep a check? What if we let open
and profane sin come in here and those who profess Christ
discontinue on in it? What if we allow false doctrine
to come in? Leaven, leaven, that spread. What if we allow that?
Well, it will just keep on spreading. Paul said, Them that sin, rebuke
before all that others may fear. There is a deterrent to falsehood. And that's sometimes checking
it, putting a check on it. It's a deterrent. It's a deterrent. So shall you put evil away from
among you. That was a good study. I enjoyed
that study. A lot of good instructions in
it. May the Lord give us grace to
receive these instructions.