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Man, Deuteronomy chapter number 21, there's a lot of great stuff in this chapter and so I'm going to go as quickly as I can to make sure that I get to all of it. But starting out in verse number one, the Bible reads, if one be found in the slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it lying in the field and it be not known who had slain him, then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth and they shall measure unto the cities which around about him that is slain and it shall be that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take in heifer which have not been wrought with and which is not drawn in the oak. And we'll continue in a moment, but the idea here is that someone's been murdered, a body is found and no one knows who the murderer is. And the main takeaway from this passage is just that God takes murder very seriously and he will hold people accountable for the innocent blood that they shed, but he will also hold a city or a state or a nation accountable for the blood that they allow to be shed. You know, if we just sit back and allow innocent blood to be shed around us, then God will hold us accountable as a people, as a nation, right? And we think about different times in the Bible where everybody suffered because of the sin of one person. You know, you think about Achan stealing the accursed thing and then the whole nation of Israel is under the judgment of God. This is why we need to make sure that we don't allow garbage into our home, that we don't allow horrible sins to be going on in the church. And you know, obviously what our nation does is out of our hands, but we should at least speak out against the wickedness and at least not participate in it or somehow green lighted or say that it's okay or support those who are guilty of it. God takes the shedding of innocent blood very seriously. And so when this dead body is found, they measure and they figure out which city is closest to the dead body. And that's the city that's going to be responsible to make this right with the Lord. And so it says that they're supposed to take this heifer and the elders of the city, verse four, shall bring down the heifer under a rough valley, which is neither cared for nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley. And the priests, the sons of Levi shall come near for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him. Of course, that's a major theme in the book of Deuteronomy. So you know, we have to be reminded once again of the importance of the centralized worship at Jerusalem, that the Levites are doing their job, that the priests are doing their job, and that everybody's not just doing their own religion, their own way throughout the nation. By their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried. Look at verse six, and all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley and they shall answer and say, our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. So everybody's saying, look, we don't know who killed this person. We didn't do it. And not only that, we don't know who did it. Okay. Because if they know who did it, and they're not going to point out who that is, then that would make them guilty as well. So they have to say, hey, we didn't know about it. We didn't do it. We didn't have anything to do with it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou has redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge and the blood shall be forgiven them. Now look, if this is the process that they have to do to be innocent of the blood and for it to be forgiven them, that means that if they don't do this process, then they're held accountable for the innocent blood that is shed in their land. So if a city is just the site of a whole bunch of murder and bloodshed and nobody cares, nobody checks into it, nobody tries to stop it, nobody investigates it, then God will punish that whole city. God will hold them accountable for that. By doing this, according to verse nine, so shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when thou shalt do that, which is right in the sight of the Lord. So by killing this animal, that is a substitutionary atonement showing that, hey, you know, we can't kill the murderer. We should be putting the murderer to death, but instead we're putting this heifer to death as a substitute. Now obviously we know it is not really possible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins. Obviously an animal can't stand in for a human. So then how does this work? Well, ultimately the heifer here is picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jesus Christ has died for all of our sins. And so that's where the forgiveness ultimately comes from. The forgiveness comes from Jesus Christ dying on the cross 1500 years later. But at the time they killed the heifer to symbolize that. And of course they're washing their hands over the heifer. That is also a foreshadowing of the fact that Pontius Pilate is going to wash his hands at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we look at this passage, we need to realize that our nation today, America is guilty of a lot of innocent blood, right? Not just murders that are committed and let's face it, but people who commit premeditated murder in America are not necessarily put to death and going to prison is not going to make an atonement for the innocent blood that is shed in the land, right? Blood has to be shed. You know, the Bible says who so shed his man's blood by man shall his blood be shed in the image of God made he men. And so there are a lot of murderers today in America that are not put to death and that brings a blood guiltiness upon the whole land. Not only that, we have the abortion Holocaust that has taken place over the last several decades in America. Think about all those babies that have been aborted, even including horrific things like partial birth abortion and late term abortions. Obviously all abortion is murder no matter when it takes place. But if you want to talk about literally shedding blood, I mean actually murdering a child right before it's born. This is something that has not only happened in America, but it's literally been sanctioned and allowed and even financed by the government because they are financing places like planned baronhood and so forth. And even we have financed abortion in other countries by donating to Planned Parenthood and other organizations in other countries that carry out abortion, okay? So there's just garden variety murder and then there's abortion. And then not only that, but let's face it, the United States has also killed civilians during both wartime and peacetime. And so the US military has killed civilians, unfortunately. God has innocent blood that has been shed and God is going to hold us accountable for these things. And this is why the judgment upon the United States and upon this world in general is inevitable. It cannot be avoided. It is literally impossible that America not be severely judged someday. Now let's say that we turn our hearts unto the Lord and we're serving God zealously and we're winning a lot of people to Christ. And what that can cause is a delay in the judgment. So for example, when it comes to the Old Testament nation of Judah, the children of Judah had committed all kinds of innocent bloodshed while Manasseh was their king. And God said, I will not forgive that innocent bloodshed that was shed in the days of Manasseh. But then when you have a godly king Josiah come along, God blessed the nation under Josiah and he delayed the judgment until after Josiah's generation. But he said the judgment's coming no matter what. And ultimately when the judgment came, even though it was many decades later, after Josiah's reign, God said that it was still going back to punishing the stuff that happened in the time of Manasseh because that innocent blood had to be dealt with. You know when you read the book of Revelation and you just read about all of the horrific judgments that are going to be coming upon this earth someday when God pours out his wrath upon this planet. And you wonder, why is God pouring out his wrath? Why is he killing like a third of the people on the planet? I mean billions of people are going to die when the events of the book of Revelation take place. It's just the reality of the word of God. Unless you're one of these people that just wants to kind of disregard the book of Revelation and say it's all figurative, it's all just, you know, symbolic, I don't believe that for one second. You know I believe God is dead serious when he says that he is going to pour out his wrath upon this earth and bring all kinds of environmental destruction and all kinds of both natural and supernatural judgment and billions of people are going to die. And you wonder, you know, why is God so angry? Why do they need to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb? Where is this anger and wrath coming from? It's because there's this accumulation of just innocent bloodshed and wickedness that needs to be punished and judged. And that's one of the things that this passage really illuminates is the seriousness of shedding in innocent blood. That if they find a dead body in the field, they can't just shrug and say, hey, we don't know. I mean they have to all very solemnly, they have to all one by one say we didn't do it and we're going to make an animal sacrifice. They have to go through this process to make it right because even one person who's innocent being murdered is a big deal on the side of God and it requires all this song and dance because it's a big deal because it's important in the sight of God. So let's move on to the next subject of this chapter in verse number 10 it says, when thou goes forth to war against thine enemies and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands and thou takest them captive and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a desire unto her that thou wouldest have her to thy wife, then thou shalt bring her home to thine house and she shall shave her head and pare her nails. Now if you remember last week in Deuteronomy chapter 20 it talked about how they were not supposed to kill the women and children in typical warfare situations. They were to kill the men but then they would take the women and children as captives and so among these women that are taken captive there might be a man who wants to marry one of these women. Now when we read this it could be a little bit shocking to us just living in 2023 America because our culture is so far removed from this but if you stop and think about these things whether we're reading about you know this situation where they have the POWs and the guy's going to marry one of them or when you get to the part about a guy having two wives what you have to understand is that these are just the realities of the world that we live in. It's not that God condones of a lot of the things that go on in this world or a lot of the situations that people put themselves in but rather it's that God is actually trying to do what's best for people that are in these situations. You know in a perfect world when the children of Israel got into a beef with one of these nations that nation would be able to make peace with them and there would be no fighting in the first place and everybody could survive and everybody could live happily ever after but just the reality of the world that we live in there's going to be warfare there's going to be violence people get killed prisoners are taken and so forth. The reality is that all throughout the world there are people who have two wives now is this God's will absolutely not in fact it is a downright sin to have more than one wife period because God has commanded a man to cleave unto his wife singular they too shall be one flesh and so God only condones of marriage between one man and one woman. Polygamy is unbiblical it's sinful it's wrong but it happens it's a reality it exists in this world and it always will exist of course in the Muslim world this is institutionalized but throughout many parts of the world this is practice it's wrong but when God gives rules about how to handle having two wives he's just facing the reality of there's a guy with two wives so what are the rules how does this work legally right I mean think about if you're running the government and you're in a country where polygamy is going on you have to have some way to deal with people with two wives because it's a situation that exists not that it should exist but it does exist and if you stop and think about it you know if a guy has married let's say a guy has married two wives some heathen dude and we win that guy to Christ right this is just kind of a thought experiment okay we get on an airplane and we go to some messed up place and we find some dude with two wives and we win him to Christ he's saved now and now he understands okay the Bible is my final authority not the Quran or whatever he was trusting him before and he switches over to the Bible and he reads the Bible and he realizes hey I'm only supposed to have one wife that doesn't change the fact that he has two wives and he's stuck with those two wives because that's what he did he married them he made vows with them legally he's married them he's not just going to be like eeny meeny miny moe and so look people get themselves into messed up and sinful situations and a lot of times they're just stuck in that situation and at that point you just have to make the best of it and do what you can and figure it out but I wouldn't tell that guy hey you know decide by morning which of these has to go you know he's just going to be married to both and he's not going to do it he's not going to add a third he's going to teach his kids to only have one I mean what else can you do at that point you know a lot of the sins that you commit are permanent what do you do right you just you make the best of it you move forward you serve God and obey him going forward okay that's a little bit of a digression I just wanted to kind of explain that concept but let's get into the nitty-gritty of this you know why is this the way it is now first of all when I want it when I sit here and explain why it's not because I feel like I need to defend God because I don't it's not for me to stand in judgment of God and decide why I'm just helping you understand the reasoning but whether we understand the reason or not it's God's Word God's right we're wrong end of story but I will explain why not because I'm defending God because God doesn't need to be defended he's just right and doesn't matter what I think or what you think but just to maybe open your mind a little bit to this is that you know typically if they are fighting against another nation that is far off from them those people probably speak a different language than they speak right I mean chances are they're not going to speak the same language there were a lot more languages in the ancient world than there are now because we've become a little more homogenized where like right now in North America everybody pretty much speaks two languages English and Spanish because Canadians don't count no I'm just kidding but anyway you know pretty much English or Spanish they're little pockets of Native American languages immigrants that speak other languages and so forth but I mean the vast majority of people speak either English or Spanish right but think about in the past parts of the world where you have all these different little tribes and in an area this size there could be hundreds of languages or how about before the Europeans came to North America the indigenous people they all speak one or two three languages no they speak thousands of languages right and so in the ancient world you've got a lot more linguistic diversity going on and so chances are if they're going to a distant place and warring they probably speak a different language think about how when you read the Bible and other countries are invading Jerusalem there's a language difference like I was just reading in my Bible about rapshaki coming with the Assyrians and besieging Jerusalem and they're telling rapshaki hey don't speak in the Jews language you know speak in your Assyrian language we understand it because they didn't want the people on the wall to understand why because the army that's invading and the people who are being besieged speak two different languages and so stop and think about it if they're killing all the men and they've got all these women and children somebody has to take care of these people somebody has to give them a life and they don't know which way is up they might not even know the language of the Hebrews and so if a man sees among the captives a beautiful woman and he has a desire under her and he decides to make her his wife if you stop and really think about this logically in the ancient world he's probably doing her a big favor because that's better than her just becoming somebody's servant right because otherwise she's probably just going to become somebody's slave or somebody's servant and so becoming a wife is actually probably her best case scenario you say well it's not that romantic well you never know maybe it could be romantic right we don't know maybe it was love at first sight you know maybe they both look at each other like you know look on the bright side and so he says you know you see this woman that you bring her into your house and then look at verse 12 shave her head and pair her nails what is this about you know why would he shave her head well because of the fact that a lot of these nations that they're fighting against could be unsanitary in the way that they live their lives because if you study the Old Testament law there's a lot of sanitation a lot of cleanliness and other nations might not necessarily be practicing these things and so this is a cleansing process get rid of lice or whatever and basically shave her head cut the fingernails so she has to kind of go through a purification process before she can be taken in to his home or sorry before he actually gets physical with her obviously she's coming into his home right away he's caring for her and she's given one month to bewail her father and mother it says in verse 13 she shall put the raiment of her captivity from offer and shall remain in thine house and bewail her father and her mother a full month and after that thou shalt after that thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband and she should be the wife so what is God trying to accomplish here is is God being mean to this woman it sounds to me like God's actually protecting this woman again this woman's in a bad situation it's tragic it's sad it's a bummer to be her but again that's life God's not the one who did this to her okay man's strife and and violence did this to her man's sinful decisions did this to her she's in this situation and so God is actually looking out for her by saying hey don't just take her home and just throw her on the bed and just you know whatever he's saying you know take her home she gets cleaned up shave her head you know deal with the sanitation issue and give her a month to just kind of figure out which way is up bewail her father and mother let her be sad let her acclimate let her get over the loss of her loved ones and so forth and then after that month you'll go in unto her and be her husband and she will be your wife it says in verse 14 and it shall be if thou have no delight in her then thou shalt let her go whither she will but thou shalt not sell her at all for money that should not make merchandise of her because thou hast humbled her now here's the thing we don't want to misunderstand the word humbled here because sometimes the word humbled can have to do with intercourse I don't think that that's what's going on here I think just the process of bringing her home shaving her head and chopping off her fingernails and changing her clothes is probably what's being referred to by the humbling and this thing of if you don't delight in her this is probably during the one month period that she's living in your house and you kind of realize wait a minute you know when I first looked at her this seemed like this was going to be a good idea but I've been living with her for the last three weeks and I'm starting to realize that no I don't want to be married to this woman I don't want to be with her okay so that's one possible interpretation I think that's the most likely situation and that it's saying hey you've humbled her you've humiliated her you've put her through this process and then put her out of your house so you have to just let her go free at that point you know if you're not going to help her out let her go free but you can't sell her or make merchandise of her in any way another possible interpretation that you could take is that basically he does go to consummate this and he finds some uncleanness in her or some kind of an STD or something you know that would be another possibility here less likely but possible in light of other things we're going to read later in the book of Deuteronomy and so either way God is looking out for this woman by saying hey you know there are limits even though this is a prisoner of war even though she's lost her freedom even though she's a POW you know there are limits to how you can treat her and so what he's actually doing is actually giving her rights so that she is not mistreated because think about what if this law didn't exist because you know some Christians would be a lot more comfortable if this chapter just weren't in the Bible you know and there are probably a lot of churches in America that probably existed for like a hundred years and they've never read these verses literally in the whole hundred years of their existence because a lot of Christians just you know they just kind of stay away from this stuff but you know I'd rather just look at all the Bible all scripture is profitable all scriptures give my inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine what if this were not in the what if this weren't here well then if this weren't here you'd have a situation where basically they're just grabbing these POWs enslaving them abusing them selling them to other people mistreating them you know this is a better scenario what God's trying to provide here as a lesser evil okay so it says here that it shall be verse 14 if thou have no delight in her thou shalt let her go whither she will let her go where she wants you have to just let her go free but thou shall not sell her at all for money thou shalt not make merchandise of her because thou has humbled her if a man have two wives again never God's will always a sin but a reality that exists in our world and especially existed that back then if a man have two wives one beloved another hated and they have born of children both the beloved and the hated if the firstborn son be hers that was hated then it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated which is indeed the firstborn but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he hath for he is the beginning of his strength the right of the firstborn is his so God is saying that when it comes to inheritance there's not supposed to be any playing of favorites where oh this is my favorite wife so her son is gonna get the double portion he gets the birthright and not the actual firstborn now of course this is a little bit ironic because of the fact that if we read the book of Genesis we have Jacob who is married to two wives right Leah and Rachel and of course which one's the beloved Rachel Leah is the hated the firstborn is from Leah Ruben he ends up not getting the inheritance and not being the firstborn and guess who ends up getting the double portion of the inheritance well the son of the beloved the son of Rachel Joseph does now of course there are other reasons for that because Leah's children disqualify themselves in terrible ways and so that's why Joseph ends up getting the double portion but in general the Bible is saying that's not the norm that's not the way it's supposed to go and that's not the way it's gonna go going forward you know if they have two wives the firstborn is the firstborn and so again what's he trying to do here he's basically protecting the wife of lesser status protecting the hated wife and protecting her rights not condoning having two wives he's just looking out for the underdog here and it says in verse 18 if a man here's another verse that Christians sometimes like to forget exists if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and that when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and under the gate of his place and they shall say unto the elders of his city this our son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he is a glutton and a drunkard all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die so shalt thou put away evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear now this is something that's often misquoted and abused by atheists atheists will claim that the Bible tells you stone a disobedient child that's not what this is saying stone a disobedient child that's not what this is saying first of all let's talk about the fact that this is a disobedient child every child is disobedient this and is here's my question is this even a child because if he's a glutton and a drunkard I mean is this just some eight-year-old drunk 10-year-old alcoholic 12-year-old alcoholic I really doubt it we're clearly talking about an adult we're talking about an adult son okay maybe an older teenager okay but we're definitely not talking about a little kid we're talking about somebody who has grown up and they've been disciplined and disciplined and disciplined and trained and taught and chasing and they are just incorrigible they just cannot be fixed they just can't be reformed well then they don't just stone their disobedient child no they take this son that is completely incorrigible he's total trash he won't go to work he's a drunk he's a drug addict whatever derelict loser won't work refuses to obey they give him a whipping it means nothing to him he's just incorrigible they take him down to the elders of a city so it's they're getting a second opinion here they're taking the elders of the city and the elders of the city are like yeah you know we're glad you're finally bringing him down here because we've been kind of thinking the same thing because think about if they brought a son down there that's a normal guy or that maybe just has a few problems then the elders of the city are gonna talk them down and say hey wait a minute you know maybe you guys are just failing as parents here and maybe you just need to relax because you're freaking out over some small things here no they're bringing him to the judges they're bringing them to the elders of the city and making the case look we have tried to train this kid we have tried to teach him he's a drunk he's a glutton he will not obey he doesn't respond to correction you know he's reprobate in a sense and they shall say to the elders of the city are this our son is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey our voice he's a glutton and a drunkard and all the men of his city shall stone him with stone so you can see there's a consensus here this guy's trash let's get rid of him all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he died so shalt thou put away evil from among you and then here's the real important reason why this needs to happen and all Israel shall hear and fear people need to realize hey you don't just act however you want you don't just disregard and disobey your parents and just think that you can act and live however you want because if you push it too far with your parents you die and then hopefully they only have to do this once or twice and then word gets around the message gets out and then it can just become a threat that would scare some people straight okay because it would probably rarely actually need to be carried out okay and again what are the atheists getting wrong about this passage is that this is not a child it's clearly a grown young man okay and he's not just disobedient but he is just severely severely damaged here he will not do right and there's no way to fix him and you know what there are some people that are just they can't be fixed and you know again all scriptures profitable for doctrine why why is it that Christianity today just thinks that everyone can be fixed can you explain that to me because that's not what the Bible teaches and that doesn't seem to be what this passage indicates is it that hey everybody can be fixed there's good in everyone everyone can be reformed give everyone a chance you know no the Bible talks about some people that have been given over to a reprobate mind and like and what's funny about this is that fundamental Baptists universally acknowledge that if someone during the end times take the mark takes a mark of the beast they cannot be saved it's over for them they're done also if an unsaved person which is the only person who would ever do this blasphemes the Holy Ghost then that person's done the Bible says this person has no forgiveness neither in this world neither in the world come so apparently blaspheming the Holy Ghost is an unpardonable sin right so if an unsaved person blasphemes the Holy Ghost they're not gonna get saved later they're done that's why the Bible says in John chapter 12 therefore they could not believe because God had hardened their heart and God had blinded their eyes so they could not believe now the Calvinist will come along and just say oh God just pick certain people and they can't believe because God didn't pick them that's garbage God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world whosoever will may come but if a person rejects God or commits one of these unpardonable acts like blaspheming the Holy Ghost or receiving the mark of the beast then this person could get to a point where they can't believe this isn't complicated folks people pretend it's complicated people pretend not to understand what I'm preaching right now because they just want to pretend like I'm preaching something else but they're just lying because what I'm saying isn't complicated okay let's make it real simple everybody who believes on Jesus Christ is saved no matter what amen whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Jesus said him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out point number one everybody this isn't complicated real simple every single person who believes on Jesus Christ will be saved well what if someone's up yes well what if it yes what about that yes anyone who truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved if anybody goes to hell it's because they have not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God that's who's going to hell and that's the majority of people unfortunately but everybody who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved anyone who in the future believes in Jesus will be saved it doesn't matter what they have done they will be saved you say well how does that work for someone who has blasphemed the Holy Ghost here's how it works not complicated someone who has blasphemed the Holy Ghost God gives them over to a reprobate mind God blinds their eyes God hardens their heart and they can't believe and they won't come to Christ because they have been hardened they have been darkened they have been given up they have been given over now okay let's review if they believe in Jesus would they be saved no matter what they've because you just it's just it's just there's no strings attached if you put your faith and trust in Christ you're saved so why aren't these people saved well what if they blaspheme the Holy Ghost and then believe in Jesus doesn't exist everybody understand it doesn't exist because the whole point of them not getting forgiven is the fact that God blinds their minds darkens their hearts right God actually gives them over to a reprobate mind and so therefore they're not going to believe if they did believe they'd be saved just like everyone else does everybody understand it's not like people have committed a certain sin and now all of a sudden they they believe in Jesus and cry out to Lord he's like nope can't save you you did so-and-so doesn't exist every believer is going to heaven if you have all of your faith and trust in Christ right now as your personal Savior and you believe Jesus the only way to heaven and you believe you're going to heaven 100% because of what Jesus did his death his barrel his resurrection you're going to heaven I don't care what you've done I don't care what you've said I don't it's just a fact everyone who believes on Jesus is saved and those who have not believed they are under God's wrath does everybody understand so far it's not complicated point one anybody believes is saved point two there are certain things that you can do right certain sins that you can commit where you're done and how does this actually work it's that these people don't end up believing they don't end up coming to Christ because their heart is hardened by God okay it's sort of like where Eli rebukes his two sons and then the Bible says that Eli's two sons didn't hearken unto Eli because God wanted to destroy them you know if God gives somebody up if God gives somebody over to a reprobate mind well then you know he hardens their heart he darkens their eyes he blinds their minds that's why the button look otherwise pray tell explain to me what the Bible means in John chapter 12 somewhere in the neighborhood of verses 38 through 42 therefore they could not believe because God blinded their eyes and darkness it's right there in the Bible it's in the book of John for crying out loud and that's not the only place it's all throughout the Bible we could we could look at Romans 1 we could look at the sons of Eli we could look at Pharaoh God hardened Pharaoh's heart why because Pharaoh had already rejected God of his own volition and then ultimately God hardens his heart but first he hardened his own heart and then God hardened his heart now what are these things that would cause someone not complicated tonight is it this is like this is like bottom shelf stuff this is like easy level one you know this this you know what if we were skiing right now this would be a green circle this is not even a blue square let alone a black diamond people are out there acting like this is a double black diamond doctrine this is a green circle what are what are the things that the Bible talks about what are some things the Bible talks about that would cause someone to go off that cliff where God would say that's it you're done you're you're you know you're it's over for you well we already talked about a few didn't we and I don't think our fundamental Baptist brethren would disagree with any of these blaspheming the Holy Ghost that one's kind of a no-brainer how about this adding to or removing from God's Word the Bible says if any man adds to the words of the book of this prophecy then I will add to him all the plagues that are in the book of Revelation right and he says if any man will take away from the words of the book of this prophecy then I'll take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book and again this is not it's impossible to lose your salvation that's talking about an unsaved person tampering with God's Word and losing their opportunity to get saved their part is removed from the book of life the place where their name would have been is gone there's no chance for them to be saved right oh if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost you'd lose yourself no because no it's saved Christian with the Holy Spirit living inside them will blaspheme the Holy Ghost no saved Christian with the Holy Spirit living inside of them will add to or removed from God's Word they might commit all kinds of sins they might go out and get drunk fornicate commit adultery and commit all kinds of horrible things murder steal whatever but then you know what they're not gonna do they're not gonna blaspheme the Holy Ghost they're not gonna take the mark of the beast and they're not gonna add to or remove from God's Word those aren't things that a saved person is capable of everybody understand so we got three so far right adding to or removing from God's Word blaspheme the Holy Ghost or if you happen to be living in the end times receiving the mark of the beast I feel like I'm missing one I feel like there are four things is there a fourth thing that I'm missing what's that I mean I mean I'm talking about just concrete things where the Bible just explicitly says if you do this you're done well you know what we don't even need four because I'm a preacher and things come in threes three points in a poem amen all right so three points is fine so let's just let's just say there's three three things right everybody got it now notice something that is conspicuously absent from this list what did I not say is an unpardonable sin that makes you a reprobate homosexuality and you know what you know why I didn't say that because it isn't on the list because the Bible does not teach that being a homosexual makes you a reprobate no that is not what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches the exact opposite of that the Bible teaches that being a reprobate makes you a homosexual but yet we have people out there lying and claiming that I teach that oh if people commit a homosexual act they can no longer be saved I've never taught that here's what I've taught no normal person commits homo acts no normal person wants to commit a homo act okay normal people are horrified by those things and when you see a man burning with lust toward another man that is not natural how did he get that way he's been given over to a reprobate mind and the Bible says in Romans 1 that when people are given over to a reprobate mind they're given over to vile affections so being a homo doesn't make someone a reprobate rather people are homos cuz they're reprobates they are reprobate first homo second don't don't turn this backwards and again just right over the head of every fundamental Baptist who lies about me right I mean does anybody else can because I don't think anybody in this room is confused right now I think everybody in this room gets it that it's it's it's it's hating God blaspheming God adding to or removing from God's Word receiving it's those type of things that make you a reprobate being a homo is a symptom it's not the disease it's a symptom right the disease is being given over to a reprobate mind being a homo is the result of that okay and look we all as men in this building we all have a sinful nature we all have a tendency to sin we have to work hard to try to live right you have to work hard to deny self and take up our cross and follow Christ because we have a sinful nature and guess what there's no sin that has taken you but such as there's no temptation that has taken you but such as common to man so we all as men we're all dealing with the same struggles and guess what fornication is a temptation for men right adultery is a temptation for men right stealing is a temptation what but you know what's not a temptation for men being intimate with another dude because being intimate with another dude is so gross and horrifying nobody's desiring that everybody's grossed out by that everybody thinks that that is horrific we'd rather literally eat feces than to be intimate with another man it's too gross okay and so here's the thing about that is that how does a how does a person get the point where instead of being like 90 some percent of the population where they're grossed out by that and where they don't want to engage in that to being that they're burning in lust for that something happened now the world will tell you oh they're born that way baloney science has already proven that to be false common sense proves that to be false the Bible doesn't teach that no they're not born that way they're given over to a reprobate mind they're given over to vile affections and then you have men burning lust for other men it's all right there in Romans 1 this is not a Romans 1 sermon so I'm not gonna sit here and go through Romans 1 with you right now but I'm assuming that a lot of you already know Romans 1 otherwise go home and listen just go on the faithful word website and listen to a sermon with reprobate in the title or Romans 1 in the title and and listen or or or you know what maybe you and the Holy Spirit can just read Romans 1 and leave me out of this and you're gonna come up with the same thing because that's what it says it's literally what the text says so you don't even need my help but I'm glad to provide it and so you got you know you've got people out there now look let me just let me just say this and you know I don't like to talk about this subject but it needs to be talked about because of the fact that we're living in a day where this is front and center for a lot of people because it's being crammed down our throat and there's a there's a homo agenda that's being pushed and so we need to we need to understand this subject we need to know how to deal with it let me say this you know I do believe that it's possible for especially young people especially kids because think about kids growing up in today's world with all the weird garbage that they're being exposed to as children I mean the school system and the media is exposing all this perverted filth to them and you know what I guarantee you that is screwing up their minds like permanently screwing up their minds in many cases so let's say you have a kid who grows up and he's being just abused and corrupted and perverted and he's got a school teacher telling him hey you might be a homo and confusing him and twisting up his mind before he's even gone through puberty you know and and then and then he's all confused and and and whatever look obviously it's possible for someone like that to perhaps experiment with something or commit some kind of a homo act and that doesn't make them a reprobate it's it's super sinful it's gross it's wicked if they're caught doing it the Bible said they should be put to death but again who is a reprobate according to Scripture the reprobates are the people who are burning in love men burning lust toward men women burning lust toward women and so these these people that are identifying as homos saying like I'm a homo I'm attracted you know what those people are a Romans one reprobate and they cannot be saved and so you're wasting your time trying to reach these out and proud homos for the gospel because they're already given over to a reprobate mind they're reprobates they're haters of God if they believed in Christ they'd be saved but they won't because they hate God it's kind of hard to believe in Jesus while you hate the Lord and don't even want to remember that he exists everybody understand and so look when I'm if I'm talking to a teenager and they claim to be a homo I take it with a grain of salt because a lot of teenagers are just confused right now and a lot of times if you talk to that teenager it'll turn out they've never even done anything yet they're just their mind has been warped by our society and so you know I try to give the benefit of the doubt to young people and I'll give them the gospel and and try to talk them out of that and try to talk them you know but but but a grown adult who's just out there identifying and saying that they're a sodomite well you know don't cast your pearls before swine and don't give that would solely under the dogs right I mean that's a different story you know what's so funny is that you know the old IFP gets so mad at me for this doctrine for teaching this and they you know oh and and I love what Pastor Mejia said he you know cuz he used to go to a church that they were kind of persecuting him over this doctrine and here's what he said to them he said well what is it I know you don't like what I believe but what is it that you actually want me to change about what I do or my like like how is this affecting my practice like why does it even matter like why does it matter like what am I not doing that I should be doing because you know what the truth is that our church has accidentally witnessed two more homos than the old IFP typically does on purpose because we just witness to so many people and not everybody wears a sign that says hi I'm a homo hi my name is faggot you know most people aren't wearing that sign and so you know this this doctrine is overhyped as far as like oh this is a bad doctrine Pastor Anderson's claiming that these people can't be saved what we all believe that people who blaspheme the Holy Ghost can't be saved amen we all believe people who add to and remove from the Word of God can't be saved amen we all believe that once somebody takes the mark of the speech they can't be saved so is this some new doctrine to us we all believe in it they just don't want to apply the fact that being a homo is a symptom of the reprobate mind according to Romans 1 that's the part that they don't like well I don't care whether they like it or not it's in the Bible and you know I know there are people in our church that disagree with me on this doctrine and they think homos can be saved and you know what I say to you I say you go out and get as many homos saved as you want good luck with that just don't bring them here because I don't want these filthy predators these child molesters around my children but you go out there and you win homos to the Lord to your heart's content and you have my blessing to go out there and and just preach unto the homos all you want just as long as I don't have to do it because I don't like wasting my time and I don't like disobeying the Bible when it says not to cast your pearls before swine not to give that which solely unto the dogs you go do what you want I'm not trying to tell you what to do just don't you dare bring homos here and don't bring ex homos here because once a homo is always a homo now unless like I said unless it was just somebody who's just confused or you know they dabbled in something because they were confused or they were drunk or on drugs and got confused and they they got abused and whatever you know I get that but I'm talking about somebody who's like man I lived for three years as a homeless like it's like get the hell out of here you freak I've been preaching this way for 18 years 2006 download it sodomite reprobates 2006 everything I'm saying right now is in that sermon right you you think that like I'm just gonna all of a sudden stop preaching this because our society has changed homos are filthy disgusting evil they're predators they're reprobates the Bible says that they should be executed and the Bible also says that they have been given over to a reprobate mind and that they hate God and that they don't even want to retain God in their knowledge it's all right there in Romans 1 and so you know I'm not I make no apology for that and if you come back in 50 years God willing I'll still be here 92 years old and I'll be preaching it with no teeth and I'll still be preaching it but the message will still have teeth even if I don't and so I was a little bit of a rabbit trail but you know sometimes we just need to be reminded of these things because of the fact that we're constantly getting brainwashed by our society oh poor little faggot no he hates God he hates the Lord he's under the wrath of God he got that way by hating the Lord and rejecting the Lord and not even wanting to retain God in his knowledge all right beloved verse 22 it says if a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be what hang on a second can I see your Bible for a second I wasn't sure if I have a typo or if I'm just if I've just been reading this wrong just make sure here I'm just doing due diligence here just just relax yeah okay I was just making sure it wasn't a typo he be to be put to death okay just kind of a strange grammar but we can handle it just making sure I wasn't seeing double up here if a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be to be put to death and thou hang him on a tree his body shall not remain all night upon the tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is a curse of God that thy land be not defiled with the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance now the great thing about this and I'm just about done but this this rule seems a little odd you know on its face like why is a guy who's hanged on a tree cursed by God right because this guy is committed to sin worthy of death he's been executed and then he's hanged on a tree after being executed and the Bible just says well at the end of the day take him down from the tree now I can think of some just reasons for this right away like first of all number one you know we don't necessarily just want to have corpses hanging out for weeks or you know it's like it's time to move on let not the Sun go down on your wrath so take the guy down from the tree let's move on I get the rule I mean the rule makes sense like hey you want to put somebody on public display as a so that others may hear and fear you want to display a corpse okay let one afternoon's enough buddy and then let's take it down and we see this carried out in Scripture a few times where people are executed and their bodies are hung out on a tree but the interesting part here or the surprising part is that it says he that is hanged is a curse of God that's interesting why would there be a curse from God on those who are hanged but this ends up being extremely important in the New Testament because Jesus Christ when he died on the cross the Bible says that that was basically tantamount to him being hanged on a tree and so what the Bible says is that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written curse it is everyone that is hanged on a tree so what's interesting about this is that the curse of the law and I already preached on this back in my Galatians series so I'm just gonna give you a super quick review of it and then we'll be done because it's such a great truth from the Word of God is that the curse of the law is cursed be everyone that continueth not in all the words of the book of the law to do them the curse of the law is that if you don't do all the commandments you're cursed now all of us have broken God's commandments we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God so we would all be under that curse of cursed be everyone that continues not in all the words of the book of the law to do them but the reason why we are not cursed is because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law so by virtue of being saved and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ we are no longer under the curse of the law we're not under the law we're under grace and so the Bible says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us now in order for Christ to be made a curse for us so that he could redeem us from the curse of the law he would have had to have not continued in all the words of the book of law to do them but of course Jesus Christ did continue in all the words of the book of law to do them because Jesus never said Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin and so Jesus would not normally be under the curse of the law but you know what the law got Jesus on a technicality I mean Jesus went through his whole life perfect never sinned hundred percent perfect hundred percent perfect adherence to the law followed the law to a T but then ultimately through no fault of his own he is hanged on a tree and now he is subject to the curse of God and this is why the Bible says he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and so when Jesus Christ died on the cross obviously all the sins of mankind were placed upon Jesus right all of my sins all of your sins it was as if Jesus had done those sins when he hung on that cross but also not only did Christ bear upon himself the sins of the world he was also hanged on a tree which makes him a curse for us so that he could redeem us from the curse of the law and this is important to both Paul and Peter because in the book of Acts and in the epistles of Paul and Peter they keep talking about Jesus being hanged on a tree which is you know that's not really what you would think of the cross as a tree would you you'd normally think you know he's hanged on the cross he died on the cross why does Peter keep saying you hanged him on a tree why does Paul keep saying you hang he's hanged on a tree what the point is to call this verse to mind as prophetic about Jesus Christ how can I sit here's a riddle how can a sinless man be under the curse of the law how can a sinless man become a curse for us how can a sinless man be a curse of God well by being hanged upon a tree and so it's almost as if this verse this law this obscure law exists simply so that Christ can become a curse for us and again this is not taking away from the fact that Christ of course bear in his own body our sins upon the tree as the Bible says it's not an either-or it's both right Christ bore our sins on the tree but he was also made a curse for us simply by virtue of being hanged on a tree of course Jesus never sinned but he became sin for us he who knew no sin became sin and so he actually experienced the wrath of God so that we don't have to so that we can be saved and go straight to heaven let's prioritize that word of prayer father we thank you so much for Christ's death on the cross Lord and we thank you for this passage which has some difficult things in it and some easy things in it Lord and I thank you for everyone who comes out on a Wednesday night to learn your word I pray that something in the sermon tonight was edifying and helpful to those that are here and that we would all continue to read our Bibles and grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his name we pray amen