THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Deuteronomy chapter 19, and we continue with our corporate reading of the scriptures. And this afternoon, beloved of Jesus Christ, we're going to be reading together chapter 19.

My goal is to give you a brief overview of this chapter with Christ in the center of whatever meditation we might have. We're going to read this chapter together and there are brothers going to be bringing the sermon to us, the words of God in the sermon. So let me pray for us so that the Lord might bless the reading of the word, might prepare our hearts for this brief and short meditation in this chapter, and prepare our hearts to receive the word that our brother has prepared also in the sermon. So let us pray together and let's prepare our hearts for the reading of this chapter. Lord Jesus, we come before you.

Truly, Lord, as we have just said, show us Christ. That whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever meditation of our hearts may be given from on high, Lord. What are the words of men? What are the meditations of men? What are the thoughts of men?

What is the wisdom of men? Nothing can be built upon the wisdom of men. Help us, O Christ, that we will be built upon the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, that we will be built upon the power and a demonstration of the Holy Spirit, that our faith may not stand in the wisdom of men, but in you, O Lord. Help us as we are going to read this chapter together. Help us, Lord, in the meditations that we will have together.

And Lord, give me freedom in my mouth, and I pray, Lord, that also the brethren will have freedom as they receive the word. And help us, Lord, to see you, that you will be exalted in our hearts. Help us to die and to enjoy our death as the life of Christ increases in us. We come before you knowing that it's only your word that can build us up. So we ask, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit you may help us and be with us.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Very good, beloved of Jesus Christ, dear souls. We're going to be reading together Deuteronomy chapter 19. And what I want us to do is just simply to meditate upon the severity of the justice of God. and the gospel.

From this chapter that we are about to read here, Deuteronomy chapter 19, what I want us to do is meditate upon the severity, if you want, the strictness of the justice of God, and then perhaps if the Spirit allows us just to connect that to the gospel. The severity, the strictness of the justice of God and the Gospel. And as you will see perhaps there in your Bibles, and if your Bibles have different titles, I want to address that, that justice of God, the strictness or the severity of the justice of God, from that instruction that Moses has given to the people of Israel concerning the cities of refuge and also the genuineness of Witnesses you see there that there's we're speaking about the justice in Israel, but the justice of God the severity of that justice of God and then connecting that to the gospel through the cities of refuge and and also the genuineness of witnesses when there was a dispute among the people of Israel. So, having said that, let us approach now the Scriptures together, and let us seek together, I hope, by the help of the Spirit, the justice or the severity of the justice of God, the strictness, if you want, of the justice of God and the Gospel in Chapter 19 of the Book of Deuteronomy. Let us read together word by word, paying attention to each one of them, and let us read in the Spirit and by faith so that we will be edified together as a community.

This is Deuteronomy chapter 19, written from the English Standard Version of the Bible. When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God has given you, and you dispossess of them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, You shall set apart three cities for yourself in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. You shall measure the distances, or build roads, and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any man's lawyer can flee to them. This is the provision for the manslayer, who, by fleeing there, may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in the past, as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swaying the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and live.

lest the avenger of blood, in hot anger, pursue the man's lair, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. Therefore, I commend you. You shall set apart three cities. And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he has sworn to your fathers and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers, provided you are careful to keep all his commandments, which I commend you today by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways, then you shall add three other cities to these three. lest innocent blood be shed in your land, and the lawyer that is given you for an inheritance, the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

But if anyone hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and attacks him, and strikes him fatally, so that he dies, and he flees into one of the cities, Then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that he may be well with you. You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God has given you to possess. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses shall a charge be established.

If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot. And this is the reading of the words of the Lord.

My dear soul, my dear brother and sister, as I said, we continue by God's grace with this series of teachings through the Old Testament, starting in the book of Genesis. And now we found here ourselves in chapter 19 of the book of Deuteronomy. And as we have progressed with all of these studies, one of the things that we have learned is that scripture testifies to itself. that the source of all blessing, the source of prosperity for the soul of a person is the scripture itself. The word of God is the only source that a man or the people of God can go to to obtain any type of blessing or any type of prosperity or any type of true fellowship with God.

The Bible says that the man who meditates upon the words of the Lord. Thank you, bro. The Bible says that the man who meditates upon the word of the word of the Lord day and night is like a tree that is planted by the rivers of waters that will bear fruit in its season. That is the power of the word of God. Testify from the very beginning of creation until every single promise that the Lord has given to men will come to fulfillment.

That is the power of the word of the Lord. And Moses, knowing that the life of the people of Israel dependent upon the truth of the scriptures being rooted in their hearts, is very concerned before they make it into the promised land and before Moses passes away. in instructing the people of Israel with all of these glorious revelation of the law of God that God is given by his spirit to Moses. He's speaking about every single aspect of the practical life of the people of Israel once they make it into the promised land. And many of those aspects and many of those things we have spoken about and we will continue to do as we progress until the end of this book of Deuteronomy.

One of those very important aspects of these instructions that Moses is given to the people of Israel, if you remember, was the important instruction of the allocation of the land that each one of the tribes was supposed to have once they make it into the promised land. There are 12 tribes and 11 of those tribes were supposed to receive an allotment. They were going to be allocated with a piece of land that was going to be their inheritance. God, their father, was giving them an inheritance, a piece of land, and that piece of land was supposed to be passed through the generations. It was so important to the point that in verse 14 of the chapter that we have in front of us, we are told that the people of Israel were not supposed to move the borders of the landmarks of those pieces of land that they were supposed to be passed through the generations.

Each one of the tribes, each one of the clans, each one of the families will have an allotment of land, and that was meant to be passed through the generations, and that's how land is inherited on this earth. The Lord is sovereign upon all the earth, and the Lord is the one that gives the land to people, and that's what happened with the people of Israel. Of course, we know that there was a special case among the tribes, and that is the case of the tribe of Levi. The Levites were going to serve in the temple, right? And because of that, the Levites were not going to receive a piece of land, per se, because the Lord is my portion, the Levites would say.

But then, you know, David will say the same, and we will say the same, that the Lord is our portion. The Levites will not have a piece of land to pass through the generations But rather, the Levites had this glorious privilege of being the servants of the tabernacle and later of the temple. And what they will pass through the generations was not a piece of land, but will be the service that they were doing to the Lord. So that only the Levites through the generations will be the ones who were supposed to serve the Lord. But, of course, the Levites, being human beings and being people who needed a place where to dwell and where to live, they did need a place where to have their cities and where to have their families and where to have their cattle and where to have their things.

Right? That is something normal. So Joshua chapter 20 or 21, perhaps in verse 41 or 42, says that the Levites are going to receive actually 48 cities. 48 cities of all this land that the people of Israel were going to receive. These Levites, who did not have an inheritance of land per se, they were going to receive 48.

48 cities where they could dwell, where they could have their lives, where they could have their families, and so on and so on. Six of those 48 cities were meant to be cities of refuge, which is what we have in our chapter. If you remember, before they crossed the Jordan River, there were 2.5 tribes that decided to stay on this side. You might remember that, right?

Three cities of refuge out of those 48 cities given to the Levites are going to be on this side of the Jordan. What is this? This is east, right? The east side of the Jordan. And three more cities are going to be given on the other side of the Jordan, which is on the west side of the Jordan.

And this is what we have here in chapter 19. Even we are given in verse 8 and verse 9, the promise that the people of Israel keep the commandments of the Lord, that if they obey, they love the Lord with all their heart and they obey all these commandments, that the Lord will even give them three more cities of refuge to the Levites on top of those cities that were already allocated to them. We don't know that that actually takes place, because as we know, the people of Israel disobey, and they are going to actually go in exile, and that will actually never happen. They will have three cities on this side of the Jordan, and then three cities on the other side of the Jordan. Cities of refuge.

Six out of 45 cities allocated to the Libyans. The purpose, as we have spoken about the cities of refuge in the past in the Book of Numbers, was that if a person unintentionally killed another person, then that person, according to the words that we have just read, he did not deserve to die. So he will flee into one of those cities of refuge. Why? because the relative or the friend or the family member of the person whom he killed unintentionally could be taken by passion and desire to take the life of the person who killed his brother or sister or whoever.

Then the Lord provided, hence, these cities of refuge, three in the East and three in the West, so that the man who unintentionally killed a person will be able to go and hide himself in that city. Now, the death of the person who was killed unintentionally will just not be left like that, because if you remember what we explained in the book of Numbers, the atonement for the death of the person who was killed unintentionally will be the death of the priest of the city of refuge. Whenever the priest of the city of refuge will die, then the death of the person who was killed unintentionally will be atoned for. I feel that I'm speaking very fast. It makes sense, what I'm saying so far?

Okay, very good. So the death of the priest in the city of refuge will be the atonement for the death of the person who had been killed unintentionally, and then the person who killed that person unintentionally now is free from his guilt, if you want, and now he can depart from the city of refuge. Brothers and sisters, my dear friends, the system of the justice of God, perfect from every single perspective, not only just and given to those who deserve, you know, punishment, punishment, but also protecting the one who unintentionally killed another person and making a way so that justice will be served. Perfect. The book, perfect.

The God of the book, perfect. From every perspective, each one of His words, each one of His thoughts, each one of His meditations, each one of His intentions, each one of His desires and His affections, perfect. In the depths and the highs and the width, perfect. The God of the book, our God, our Savior, our Redeemer, completely perfect. Yet His justice is very severe.

Nobody can escape the justice of the Lord, the one who opens a way for a person to be saved. He's the one also that is going to come to judge the living and the dead. The one who opens a way for this lost sinner to find salvation when they did not deserve. It's also the one that is going to come and not even the mountains are going to be able to hide people from his wrath. There's not going to be a place of darkness or underground or in the mountains or under the ocean or even in another planet where a person can go to hide themselves in the justice of the Lord.

He knows it all. He has witnessed every thought. He has seen every intention of the heart. And he is the one who holds the perfect standard of justice by which every single soul is going to be judged. Every single soul that has ever lived and existed will come before the Lord to give an account for the things that they have said, that they have thought, that they have done.

And even those things are a secret to them that abide in their hearts and in their minds. What a fearful God, the one that we serve. What a fearful thing is to fall into the hands of this God. What a fearful thing is to be exposed in entirety and completely, that the heart will be open and exposed to the one who knows it all, to the one who has this ability to go into the depths of our souls and to tell us even of those things that we have forgotten. What a terrifying thing.

And the justice of the Lord is terrifying, because the justice of the Lord is an attribute of who our God is. God is just. He is a righteous just. As I have said, He knows it all, and there's nothing that will escape. That is what Apostle John says in 1 John chapter 1, that He's faithful and just.

that is righteous. And the righteousness and the justice of the Lord is fearfully manifested in the fact that he will give to each one according to their deeds. He is going to give to my soul. He is going to give to your soul. Children, he is going to give to your soul according to what you have done.

perfectly. This is how the justice of God is manifested and is revealed. But the justice of this God is also so glorious and so perfect that when everyone should be sent into hell because of the many sins that we have committed, this God has made a way so that those who are lost in their trespasses will find a way of forgiveness, not only through not through a system of obedience or a system of just fixing the things that we have done wrong, but rather through the son of these God who is just and judge and righteous. His name is Jesus Christ, the Lord of my soul, the one who died upon the cross to set me free from the sins and the wrath that I deserve and the wrath that you deserve, my beloved brother and sister. This is the way that God has made so that this just wrath will not come upon us.

And what a picture we have here in these cities of refuge, because in these cities of refuge, brothers and sisters, The Lord, through Moses, says to the people of Israel, you're going to go into the land and you're going to build these cities and make sure that these cities are located through the land. Make roads so that people will be able to arrive to those cities. And then when the person who has an intentionally committed a sin will find a place where he can rest and find security. Make sure that you build three on this side and three on that side. And if you obey me, and if the land extends, make sure that you have the right to build another three cities of refuge.

So as you extend in your territory, everyone will have the opportunity to flee from the wrath of the avenger that is pursuing them to take their life. My dear brother and sister, Christ is, of course, a much better city of refuge, because it's not only for the person who has unintentionally committed a sin, but all the sins that we have committed, even high-handed, against God, and all the blasphemy, and all the things that we have done in our hearts. Jesus Christ is a much better city of refuge, in which we can find rest, not only in the moment in which we are saved, but through our Christian life, The burden of the law and the burden of guilt and the burden of Satan at many times coming and speaking in our ears of the sins that we have committed and the inability that we have in and of ourselves to find peace and forgiveness. Then we have that city of refuge in the person of Jesus Christ. The high priest.

These are the walls that have been built, not by the hands of men, but these are the walls that have been built by God himself. Open the gates so that the righteous people, the righteous nation may come in. That is the people of God coming into Judah, coming into heavenly Jerusalem that has come down from heaven from Zion, entering into the daughter of Zion. not by virtue of the might or the power of the good deeds, but rather because of Jesus Christ opened that door that we will be able to enter there and have forgiveness of our sins, not only in the moment that we start and believe, but through our life as Christians. And there are perhaps two things.

I have said nothing of what I had planned to say, but there are two things that I want you to see here from this chapter, and from the justice of God as it was manifested there in the Old Testament, and then perhaps if the Spirit allows and helps to connect that with the New Testament. The first thing that I want you to know, not only from this chapter, but in general, when we think about the justice, the severity of the justice of God, not only in the Old Covenant, but also in the New Covenant, is that Death is the primary instrument by which God applies his justice. Death is the primary and ultimate instrument by which God applies, executes his justice. When it was in the case of unintentional sins that could be forgiven, then the people of Israel were supposed to come with their sacrifices, to lay their hands upon the animal, then the guilt will be transferred upon the animal and the animal will have to experience death. because death was the primary instrument by which the justice of God operated.

And if there was a case of intentional sin in which there was no atonement for that, then the person who committed that sin had to pay before God with his life. The wages of sin is death. Everyone will experience that. You know that you will experience the judgment of God in your flesh? The body that you have, you have been inserted in Jesus Christ in your soul, your spirit has been inserted and you have the promise of being resurrected.

But every day that is passing, you are closer to experience death. And that day is the execution of God, of God's judgment upon your fallen nature. So when that judgment is executed, then comes the glorious promise of the new covenant, and you're given a new body, and you're given a new presence before God, not with a fallen body that receives the judgments of God, but rather just to be with a God who is going to weep and remove all of our tears. Sin will be no more. Dead.

We hold our days as if they were in our hands. Oh Lord, teach us to count our days. Your life can be taken after I have spoken this word. My life can be taken after I have spoken this word. Death, how good we will do to our soul.

If we will know death better than we do, if we will meditate more upon death than the pleasures of this temporal life. Because when you have a realization of what death is, and the system of it, and the strictness of the severity of the justice of God, then your only hope is to turn your eyes to the one who is life. Where else can we go? As we sang, that those are empty words. Where can we go?

Only to you have the words of eternal life. When death is seen with our eyes, in the spirit, in the heart, then the only one who can provide this is the Lord Jesus Christ. of the judgment of God coming upon this flesh, that independently of the days passing, independently of our bodies just perishing, we have this hope. Eyes closed, immediately open to behold the beauty of the one who sees like flame of fire, the one who pierces the heart with his words, and to say, and to hear his voice for the first time. Come, faithful servant.

Come, faithful servant. All tribulations have passed. All the difficulties have been taken from your shoulders. Now come, faithful servant. Oh, Lord, depart from me.

I'm a sinner. Not anymore. Sins have been removed. His sins have been taken. My son, my daughter, I gave my life not only to forgive you, but to convert you entirely in myself, united to myself, so that you will be in continuous fellowship with me.

Second thing that I wanted to show you from chapter 19 of what we have here is just perhaps in the last verses. Pay attention to the horrendous responsibility that the people of Israel had when it comes to the application of the justice of God. Horrendous responsibility that they had. Every time that injustice was committed, The justice of God was to be manifested in the land, not through God. It was to be manifested through the people of Israel.

And the expectation was that the application of the justice of God in the land was 99% perfect? No. 100% perfect. The expectation is, I have given you my law. I have given you my commandments.

I have given you my instructions. Now go and live in this land, and when seeing is committed, You are responsible to apply the standard of justice to perfection. So we read in verse 18, or let us read just from verse 15, speaking of the genuineness of witnesses. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses shall a charge be established.

Something that we have spoken about in the past already. Verse 16, if a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in the office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, Then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. Speaking to the people, that is, you should apply justice. So you shall purge the evil or the evil person from your midst, like not just temporarily, just clean a little bit, but purge, cleanse from your midst the evil person and the rest shall hear and fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

Your eye shall not pity. Oh, Lord, I'm so sorry. I don't want to bring this judgment of yours upon my brother who has seen against you. Was that the expectation of the Lord of the heart of the person? No, you shall not pity.

Your heart should be so taken by the holiness and the righteousness of God that an offense that is committed in the midst of the people of Israel is to be not only repelled but actively opposed and actively judged, like the saints that have the two edges over to destroy chains and judges and to remove the sin from among them. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." Horrendous responsibility. Because the people of Israel could sin for the sin that was committed among them or for not dealing with the sin as they were supposed to deal with it. If there were sin, that is one sin.

But if the people of Israel did not execute the law of the Lord according to the expectation of the Lord, sin that is treasured up, so that when the wrath of the Lord will come, there will be no excuse. There will be no Josiah's revival that will change the mind of the Lord so that Judah will not be taken by the Babylonians. There will be no effort, there will be no prayer, there will be no supplication of a king that will remove the judgment of God upon these people who have not followed the word of the Lord. This book is the only source of blessing, prosperity, and true fellowship of our heart with the Lord. And our submission to what is written in the book is what actually gives us genuine life and fellowship with the Father, so that we will behold the severity of the justice of God.

by the light of the glory of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when our souls is just so tempted to condemnation and to guilt because of the unrighteousness that indeed dwells within us, we will be able by faith to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and to know that what he did upon the cross is completely sufficient to cover the rest of our sins, so that when we will behold the wrath of God as he's poured upon the world, even when he comes, that we will be able to have peace and glory in our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that He is the one that has not only forgiven us when we were initially saved, but He is the one that has given us the promise that He is the one that will keep us, sustain us, and give us of His life, that when we will be overwhelmed in fleshly fear by the darkness of the world, our hearts will not grow cold because of the wickedness of men, but rather will be moved to their knees to be in the presence of the Lord, say, Lord. Be with me and take me to your presence, because apart from your mercy and your glory and your condescension, I'm taken by the darkness of this world. Apart from your mercy and apart from your favor, my mind is easily taken captive by the things of this world, by the affairs of this world, by how much money I have in my bank account, by what is gonna happen with my work, by what is happening with my body, what is gonna happen to my family, what is gonna happen to the church, oh Lord. Give me a glimpse of the cross so that I will see the severity of your justice, not only upon me, but upon Jesus Christ, taking the punishment that I deserved. People within the sound of my voice have experienced that generally.

People within the sound of my voice have not experienced that generally. Where is your soul, my dear soul, my dear person? Where is your heart when I speak to you about the glories of forgiveness upon the cross? Where is your being when I speak to you about the wrath of God coming? Are you indifferent and cold and so dull that now you are okay with the pleasures of religion?

Are you so cold and indifferent that you are okay to tick a box but attending church and doing this and that? who are you indeed taking captive by the beauty of Jesus Christ and your peace is only found in him. Come to him, my dear brother and sister. He is the city of refuge, not only once, but all the time. the city of refuge for our souls, the city of refuge in our fears, the city of refuge for our darkness, the city of refuge when we're broken, the city of refuge when we're down and when we're on the floor.

He is the city of refuge. His name is Jesus Christ. And you, my dear sinner, who know there in that chair or within the sound of my voice, who know that you are lost, rejecting the gospel, rejecting the treasure from heaven, come to Christ. There might not be tomorrow. Amen.