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[0:00] Deuteronomy chapter 22, we'll read the chapter in its entirety. It's one of those chapters that we cannot break up or kind of pull pieces out of because to come to a proper understanding of it, we need to read it as it was declared.

[0:14] Here you understand that Moses is here expounding the law, seeking to make clear the commandments. Now when he says the law, it's the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. Some Bible scholars, and I think rightfully so, think that the book of Deuteronomy follows these Ten Commandments.

[0:34] You know, you should have no other God besides the Lord your God. You shall not steal. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. It follows that pattern. And with each step, he's making a transition, and he's expounding upon it and saying, well, what does that look like? What does it look like not to kill?

[0:53] What does it look like not to covet your neighbor's wife? What does it look like not to commit adultery? What does it look like to put these things into practice, not just to hear them, but to practice them?

[1:03] And he's seeking to make it clear, and he's making it clear to them in their setting, historically, nationally, where they're going to be living at, among the people they're going to be living among, in the atmosphere and environment that's going to be real to them.

[1:19] Because this is not wilderness wandering law. This is living in a promised land law, right? This is not sojourning and traveling. This is settling down and worshiping and growing and coming together as a nation.

[1:34] Much of what we read in the book of Deuteronomy never transpires, never comes to be. We read last time we were together how if a son is a disgrace to his parents, and he will not listen to the rebuke or the correction of his mother or father, they would bring him to the elders of the city, and the elders of the city are to stone him at the gate of the city.

[1:56] Because he had not only sinned by not honoring father and mother, he had also sinned by being a drunkard and a glutton and being a disgrace and bringing things into the community. And we saw how community takes priority over an individual's rights.

[2:10] How the holiness of the community was more important than the rights of the individual. He didn't have the freedom. Sounds a whole lot like the New Testament when we put it that way, because even in your daily reading, if you're following along and you're going through the book of Corinthians, Paul says, I'm free to do whatever I want, but I'm not going to do it if it's going to cause an offense to someone else.

[2:33] Right? I have liberty. I have freedoms. I can eat anything. I mean, think to us, we're like, oh, that sounds great. But to Paul, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, all of a sudden to be able to say, well, if I want to sit down and eat bacon, I can eat bacon.

[2:45] If I want to sit down and eat anything, I can eat anything. But he said, but it could cause an offense. I'm not going to do it. Because the community is more important than the individual.

[2:56] And the thing that we've seen in the application of the book of Deuteronomy is that our relationship with God, or Yahweh, covenant God, the relationship with a holy God permeates every aspect of our life.

[3:14] Every aspect. Not just bits and pieces, not parts and portions. It's not just the gathering together of the saints, but it's how we live inside our closed doors.

[3:24] How we live as a family unit. How we operate as individuals. How we operate in society and our work. And how we do these things. And he continues this theme on through Deuteronomy 22 and 23.

[3:40] That the relationship that they have with holy God affects every aspect of their life. So with those things in mind, we read the text.

[3:52] Because again, you have to be careful. This is why we preach through text, right? We could take Deuteronomy 22. We could pull it out of the book of Deuteronomy.

[4:05] And we can make it stand alone by itself. And we'll just go ahead and say this on the very front end. We can make Deuteronomy 22 say whatever we wanted it to say. By itself.

[4:17] But to have a proper understanding, we have to keep it in this context. He's expounding the law. Telling them how they're going to look different. How they're going to behave different.

[4:28] How they're going to be seen as different in the land where they are going. How life will be transformed because of their relationship with Yahweh.

[4:40] And it is there that we read this. Deuteronomy 22. You shall not see your countrymen. A little reading there is brethren throughout the text. You shall not see your countrymen's ox or his sheep straying away and pay no attention to them.

[4:54] You shall certainly bring them back to your countrymen. If your countrymen is not near you or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house. And it shall remain with you until your countrymen looks for it. Then you shall restore it to him.

[5:06] Thus you shall do with his donkey and you shall do the same with his garment. And you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countrymen, which is lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them. You shall not see your countryman's donkey or his ox falling down on the way and pay no attention to them.

[5:22] You shall certainly help him to raise them up. A woman shall not wear a man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. If you happen to come upon a bird's nest along the way in any tree or on the ground with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.

[5:44] You shall certainly let the mother go. But the young you may take for yourself in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, a guardrail or a small wall for your roof, so that you will not bring blood guilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

[6:02] You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed or all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of your vineyard will become defiled. You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

[6:13] You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together. You shall make for yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself. If any man takes a wife and goes into her and then turns against her and charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her and says, I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin.

[6:35] Then the girl's father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. The girl's father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he has turned against her and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, I did not find her daughter a virgin, but this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.

[6:52] And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl's father, because he publicly defamed the virgin of Israel, and she shall remain his wife and he cannot divorce her all his days.

[7:07] But if this charge is true that the girl was not found a virgin, they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death, because she has committed an act of folly in Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house.

[7:21] Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, and the man who lay with the woman and the woman, thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death.

[7:40] The girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he violated his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die.

[7:53] But you shall do nothing to the girl. There is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is the case when he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

[8:06] If a man finds a girl who is a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife, because he has violated her, and he cannot divorce her all his days.

[8:20] A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he will not uncover his father's skirt. Deuteronomy 22. I told you it was difficult. So we jump into that text, right?

[8:34] Because this is what God has called us to look at. But I want you to see here a covenant relationship with Yahweh, with God, the Holy God, and its law, standard, its implications upon daily life.

[8:51] I want you to see a concern for public and private behaviors. A concern for public and private behaviors. Because the implications of the law have weighty concerns with them, and they apply to who we are publicly and who we are privately.

[9:12] And they are to be displayed. And I say we, because Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law, right? And he has called us to live in all righteousness. As a matter of fact, every one of the Ten Commandments is repeated in the New Testament except for keeping of the Sabbath.

[9:30] And that's not that we don't need a day of rest, because many of us are guilty of that, myself included, of neglecting a Sabbath rest. It's that we worship on the first day of the week, not the seventh day of the week, as a sign of his resurrection.

[9:45] But every other one is repeated and emphasized. And it permeates all of our life. And it permeates who we are publicly and who we are privately.

[9:57] And here we see a grouping of laws that seem to be kind of disuniting, just kind of put out there and kind of scattered, if you will. Like, here's one, here's one, here's one. Like, what does a bird sitting on a nest have to do with building a wall around the roof of your house?

[10:10] And what does this have to do with the marital relationship and immorality? And what in the world does this have to do with a man's ox and sheep, especially in a land where people didn't have fences? I mean, what do all these things have to do with one another?

[10:25] What is their connection? And really it is how the law affects us and calls us to live with the concern both publicly and privately. And how we are to live with a regard to who God is and what He has called us to be and how He has called us to live and how that public concern will make us look different publicly and how living that way privately will most definitely make us look different than everyone around us.

[10:51] And we see three great truths from this passage in Deuteronomy 22. Number one, we see there is a demonstrated love for one another.

[11:03] There is a demonstrated love for one another. When Jesus was asked, what are the two, or what is the greatest commandment?

[11:15] Jesus gave a very clear answer. Jesus said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Right? And He said, and the second one is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[11:27] And He says, upon these two laws, all the commandments hang. Love God and love your neighbor. And then we remember the question, well, then who is my neighbor? Right? Who is my neighbor?

[11:38] Is it someone who lives right next to me or is it someone who I know? When we go into Deuteronomy chapter 23, we'll see that even the Edomites were considered their neighbors. Even their distant relatives were considered that.

[11:53] But to live out the law in a daily application to the standard that it is called, and this is much like even the Sermon on the Mount and even the teachings we find that Christ teaches all throughout the Gospels, it is to live with a demonstrated love for one another.

[12:11] Because a love that is not demonstrated, a love that is just declared, really is not a love at all. We do pre-marriage counseling, couples are getting ready to be married, and I think even if, I do it even if a couple comes to me and we talk about marriage, and listen, I'm man just as much as you men all are, and we all fall short in this area, and we must admit that because we get so busy and we fall so woefully short.

[12:37] But the reality is this, if I stand up on the day of marriage and I tell my wife that I love her and I never do anything else, even though I have declared that love, if I have not demonstrated that love, that declaration means nothing.

[12:49] James says it this way, what good is it to say you love your brother if you don't help him? What good is it to say you love your brother if you don't give him what he needs? It is to be demonstrated.

[13:02] And here, in specific, the demonstration is this, it's very practical. If you see your brother or your countryman's sheep or oxen walking around, get it back.

[13:16] Take it. And let him know, hey, I've got your sheep, I've got your oxen. I have it here for you. You can't, it says, you can't look at it and see the need and neglect and act like you didn't see it.

[13:33] You can't pay no regard to that. You can't disregard the need because it may inconvenience you. Because let's be honest, catching sheep is inconvenient.

[13:47] Especially one by itself. Some of you in this room have caught my sheep. And it's inconvenient. I believe Miss Keely and Brother Ronnie both ran one of my little lambs all throughout their farm one day.

[14:02] Very inconvenient for it just to come back later. catching oxen is even harder because they're bigger. But you can't look at a need of a countryman or a brother and say, well, it looks like their ox and their sheep is out and then go on about your day because you ought to demonstrate.

[14:23] Now, this is not just those who live near you because it says, what if this countryman lives so far away? Or, what if you don't know him? You can't say, oh, well, I recognize the brand on that animal.

[14:35] That belongs to so-and-so. I'll catch and get it for him. I don't recognize the brand on that animal so I'm going to let it go. It says, even if you don't know him, you must get it. Bring it back to your house. Keep it at your house. That means you have to keep up with it, right?

[14:47] You have to maintain it until they come to declare it and then you give it to them. And it's not only the ox and the sheep, but it's also the donkeys and catching donkeys is no fun at all. And it says, then it's with anything that he might have lost, a robe or anything, anything that he lost.

[15:04] It's not finders, keepers here. It's finders and holders until they come to declare it. It is to live with a demonstrated love for others.

[15:16] These simple acts of inconvenience, these acts of, well, I have to stop what I'm doing right now because here is someone I may or may not know who is in need and I need to stop and help them out.

[15:30] Why? Because my relationship with the covenant God, Yahweh, declares that I should. Not because it makes me feel better, not because I'm happy when I do it, but because who he is to me declares that I should do it.

[15:48] And anything they may have lost now becomes my concern. And even when I'm building a new house, now keep in mind the houses of those days have flat roofs and many times the houses of those days the roof was seen as an extra room.

[16:04] They would have a staircase that went up there and grass would grow them. They would actually mow the top of their houses and in the hot weather they would actually sleep up there. It would be seen as a cooler room or if someone came to stay with you, you'd let them sleep on the top of your house.

[16:17] When building a new house be sure to put a parapet or a guardrail, a small wall around your roof so that no one who came to stay with you would fall off of your roof. Now that's a little extra step to take when you're building a house but you have such a concern for others that you're going to make sure nobody falls off.

[16:37] Because you don't want to bring blood guiltiness upon your home. See the law of God causes people to live with a demonstrated concern.

[16:50] To live differently. To behave differently. To truly love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says this is one of the pegs that the entire law hangs upon.

[17:04] So if I cannot demonstrate a concern for one another, if I cannot demonstrate a concern with my life for the people around me as much as it may inconvenience me or stop what I'm doing then I'm really not applying the law at all.

[17:22] The book of James goes on to say I can't say that I love God if I'm not demonstrably loving my neighbor. So now all of a sudden both of those pegs are removed.

[17:35] And we see this as the commandment. We are to have a demonstration separation of love for one another. Secondly, we ought to have a distinct separation from other people.

[17:51] A distinct separation. Take the law concerning the bird that you find on the way. A bird sitting on a nest and some translations refer to it as a hen.

[18:04] It sounds a lot like a law when you're besieging a city and you're besieging that city and you're encamped around it and you want to build siege words to that city not to cut down any tree that is a fruit tree, right? I mean, why does God care about fruit trees?

[18:18] Why does God care about the birds sitting on a nest? Well, because he's called his people to live with a greater respect even for all creation. Because all of creation testifies to the reality of the creator.

[18:32] And he's telling them even in the small details of your life, you can take the young. I mean, if you're hungry and you need food, then you can take the eggs or you can take the young if you need it.

[18:42] But don't kill the mother because she can have more eggs and more young and you won't stop the cycle of things. It is something that's just going to set you apart. Like, instead of the slash and burn technique in war, you're going to leave the fruit trees because they're beneficial for man.

[18:57] You're going to leave the mother burned because it's beneficial for man. You're going to live with a greater respect for creation because you know the creator. you're going to understand you are stewards of the land, not owners of it.

[19:13] Big difference. You are to steward what God has entrusted to you. And by the way, God absolutely has a right to tell us how to treat animals because he created them.

[19:26] he absolutely has a right to tell us how to treat trees. I know this seems a little like, well, pastor, you're going off the deep end. We're becoming tree huggers and all this other stuff and before we know it, you're going to be doing a commercial with all these sickly looking dogs and offering us t-shirts if we'll sponsor a dog.

[19:43] No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that God has a right to tell us we must be good stewards of his creation because it testifies to him. Right?

[19:53] It declares his greatness. It declares his wonder. And this is what he's telling his people here. You're going to steward the land.

[20:03] You're not going to own the land. You're going to be distinct from the people around you because you're going to treat creation different. And then he goes into this, and a woman should not wear a man's clothing, and a man should not wear a woman's clothing.

[20:16] Now, before we get too legalistic here, let's just go ahead and say this, okay? It really says in the original wording here, that's the Hebrew, that a woman should not wear a man's things, anything a man would wear.

[20:29] So if we want to get really, really legalistic, we have to go all the way back in history and find out everything men would wear, which by the way, I'm sorry ladies, if you're wearing jewelry, you have man's things on. Because the men wore the jewelry then.

[20:41] The men wore the earrings. The men had those signs of wealth. So we're not trying to do that. We're not trying to break it down here and telling you what you can and what you can't wear.

[20:52] Again, take it in context here. Take it in context. The land that they were going to inhabit, transvestitism or cross-dressing, was a common practice of their paganistic worship, okay?

[21:05] Part of their fertility worship. They would switch clothing. A lot of times husbands and wives would. That's one application of the text. God said, you're not going to do what everybody else around you is doing.

[21:16] The other application of the text is this. God recognizes the distinctiveness of gender. And I know it's not very popular and I know it may get me in trouble, but in the beginning God created them male and female.

[21:33] Distinct. Separate. They were born that way. And God honors each one throughout scripture.

[21:45] But God also keeps each one in its place throughout scripture. And he's telling them to ensure that distinctiveness. That distinctiveness.

[21:58] We're not belittling any sin because no sin is more hideous than the other sin. You say, well, it says here that they're an abomination to God. The Bible also says a prideful look is an abomination to God.

[22:10] And a proud heart. He detests those things. Right? So we need to be careful how we categorize sin. Sin finds its place in every individual's life.

[22:23] But we also understand the reality that God recognizes the distinctiveness of the individual. God created me a male. He created me a man and he wants me to live as a man. Right? And he's called me to that.

[22:35] He wants me to be all the man he's created me to be. He's created females that same way. And he wants them to live to that. But he recognizes this here among his people. This isn't something all these issues, these current events around us, it's not.

[22:49] The book of Ecclesiastes really real. There's nothing new under the sun. These things were going on even here among all the Canaanites. These things were already happening even here.

[23:01] There's nothing new under this. So they're distinct in how they appreciate how God created them. They're distinct in that recognition that I am as my wife likes to remind me fearfully and wonderfully made and marvelous all his works.

[23:24] And when he knit me together in my mother's womb, he knew what he was doing as he knit me together in my mother's womb. Right? And we see this distinctiveness. But then he goes on and he says you shouldn't, you don't need to wear clothing of mix, not wool and linen and some say flax.

[23:41] Does that have application to us? No, I mean, I'm not saying it does, but he's telling them you're going to be distinct. Some people say that Egyptian culture, they intentionally blended the fabric together and they paganistic idolatrous worship and that was a part of their religion.

[23:55] I don't think we may be separating it. I think what God is saying here is is that you're unique, you're my people, you're set aside and you're going to be set aside in what you wear as his Jewish people.

[24:09] Because he has a right. He has a right. Everybody else around you may be able to wear just whatever they want to wear, but you're going to wear this. Don't mix your two seeds together. Again, some think the application there is that there was some of the fertility worship was the mixing of seeds and their planting.

[24:26] God says, no, you're a pure people, you're a set apart people, you're only going to plant one type of seed. Does that mean you can't mix your seeds in your garden? No, that's not what that means. Again, don't go to the extreme in this.

[24:37] Take it in its context. God is setting them apart in their society, in their culture, where they're at. He's setting them apart. If you go home and you only plant one seed in your garden, that's not going to set you apart, right?

[24:49] Not right now. Because we're not an agricultural-based society as much as they were then. People would have looked at their gardens and said, well, why didn't you plant this, this, and this, and this?

[24:59] You know, you should have planted this or that, and they said, well, I would have, but Yahweh told me not to. Now all of a sudden you're set apart. We're not going to plant our gardens the way you did because Yahweh dictates every part of our life.

[25:13] And you shouldn't plow with an ox and a donkey. Many people believe that this was a common practice in Canaan because ox and donkeys, you might not have had two. God says, you're not going to do that.

[25:24] You're a pure people. You're a set-apart people. See, each of the, now some, the ox is a clean animal, the donkey is an unclean animal, so there's no mixture of impurities either.

[25:35] But I think what God has declared to them is you're going to be pure throughout every aspect of your life. What you wear is going to be 100%. The animals you're working with is going to be 100%.

[25:45] You're going to be pure. You're going to be pure. You're going to be pure. You're going to be pure. Every area of your life is going to point to your relationship with me. And these things make you a distinct, separated people.

[26:01] See, each of these various laws here, each of these various laws point to that last one. You shall make tassels on the four corners of your garments. What are those tassels for?

[26:11] The book of Numbers tells us. Those tassels were to remind them that they belonged to God. They were set apart for him. And they were to remind them of the law they were called to. Biblical scholars agreed that not only would they wear those during the day, but that cloak, that robe, if you will, would also serve as a blanket at night.

[26:33] So all throughout the day and even all throughout the night there was this constant reminder on all four corners, I belong to God. You know what these various laws are about? You belong to me. I can tell you what animals to work with.

[26:44] I can tell you how you need to plant your garden. I can tell you what kind of clothing you need to wear. You're distinct. You're separate. You don't need to be like everybody else. You belong to me. God's setting his people apart.

[26:57] This is the calling, right? This is the calling. This isn't an Old Testament principle, by the way. The New Testament, we're set apart, set apart, set apart, set apart, set apart.

[27:08] We live out the applications of the New Testament on a daily basis, and it's going to set us apart. And that's okay. That's the point. That's the point, is to look different, to look like the weird guy plowing his field with one ox and a harness over there and the donkey's still tied up in the barn.

[27:28] When everybody else is like, why is he not using both animals? Wouldn't that be better? No, Yahweh told me not to. Or to look like the guy who only wears just the one type of clothing, only wool, not wearing anything mixed with it even though there's an abundance of the other.

[27:40] Or to only plant one type of seed. To live differently. To be distinct. That's who God's called us to be in the land he's put us in.

[27:52] This third thing, which the bulk of the chapter deals with, is not only there are demonstrated love for one another, nor is there a distinct separation of the people. That's all the public displays, right?

[28:03] That's the concerns of the public life. That's who you are, public. Now Moses begins to get a little close and starts going into the private affairs. Again, something that was very common in the land in which they were going.

[28:19] Something very common in the land in which we live. And it is this, the demand for purity in relationships. The demand for purity.

[28:32] He begins to declare here God's high standard of pure morality. And he reminds them in their private affairs of life, they do not have a right to do whatever they want to.

[28:50] Now, just in case we read it and we don't see it, we need to understand that this grouping of laws is there to raise the standard of men and to protect the rights of women.

[29:00] women. It is to set a standard for men that this is how you should live and to protect the integrity and the rights of the women involved.

[29:13] Which was radical in that time. Because too often women were seen as property, not as valuable.

[29:24] sons were a blessing. Daughters at times were discouraging because you didn't have an inheritance to leave your sons.

[29:39] We know the Bible tells us that children are a blessing. Sons and daughters. We know that God in his grace and his mercy ensured that a man who had only daughters, they received inheritance as well, right?

[29:52] They weren't just discounted because there were no sons. So if anybody raised the standard for women, it's Yahweh and Jesus. And we see this all throughout scripture. But he also continues to elevate the demands upon man.

[30:13] And he calls them to live with holiness, morality, and purity. So much so, it says that if a man takes a wife, and then later on he wants to bring shame upon that wife.

[30:27] We're not going to really flesh it out, but you can read it here. And he wants to say, well, she wasn't what she declared to be when I took her in marriage. And she's not pure as she said she was. And the father and mother of that young girl, because a lot of times the word virgin here means maritable age.

[30:42] And they were to go in and they were to take that wedding cloth. No one really knows what that is. And we're not going to sit here and try to split hairs over, trying to figure out what that is. There's some historical argument going back and forth.

[30:54] But either way, they were supposed to produce the evidence that yes, she is or was a virgin when you married her. She's really, the implication here is that the man was defaming her, saying she could be impregnated by someone else.

[31:11] And they were to prove that. And he's bringing shame upon her by declaring her. This is a hideous offense, by the way. This, I told you, this points to Christ, because think of Mary.

[31:24] Think of Mary. Oh, the shame. To say, oh, I'm pure. I was overcome by the Spirit, and I'm pregnant by the Spirit of God. Yeah, right.

[31:35] This man makes this accusation, and if it's found that he's making a false accusation, and they are to beat him and then find him a hundred shekels of silver, you say, well, a hundred shekels of silver, that doesn't sound like much.

[31:47] It doesn't until you realize that's ten years' wages. Whatever you make a year, multiply by ten, is what he had to pay as retribution to her father. Ten years' worth of wages.

[32:01] Double the dowry price, so he would have already paid fifty shekels of silver, which is five years' worth of wages, to marry her, and then he would have had to turn around and pay another ten years. That's fifteen years of pay, and then he can never divorce her.

[32:16] Now, I don't know how well of a loving relationship that will be later on, but he carries the responsibility for her now, because he tried to defame and degrade her.

[32:26] Now he is responsible for her for life, the rest of his life. But if it is found that it is true, if the accusation is true, then there to take her to her mother and father's house, because she had played the harlot, why to the mother and father's house, right in front of their house, because the implication, again, is that the father probably knew about it, and that's why he married her off.

[32:48] And now mother and father aren't going to ever be able to leave the house without the reality of that. And then if two married individuals are found, keep this one in mind.

[33:00] Okay, keep this one in mind. A man that is married and a woman that is married are found in an act of adultery. What does the law say? They are both to be stoned. Both to be stoned.

[33:13] And then if there's a woman engaged, she hasn't married yet, she's engaged, and a man finds her in the city and she doesn't call out, so it just means that she is, she submits to it, they're both to be stoned because he has violated another man's wife.

[33:28] Like, engagement was the same as marriage. To be betrothed was to be wet. If it happens in the country, she cries out, she's no shame, no guilt upon her because she cried out.

[33:41] And then there's a woman who's not found it, that is found it, that wasn't engaged, but she's a maritable age, the man finds her, then he must take on a responsibility, pay the dowry price, and now he's responsible. Each of these walls elevate the standard of purity for men to live with holiness and respect in their relationships.

[34:07] It's a safeguard for the family. It's a demand for the protection of the ladies' rights, for men to behave as they should.

[34:23] It says that a man shall not uncover his father's skirt by going into his father's wife, which more likely is his stepmom. Just in case we think those are Old Testament practices, isn't this what Paul's talking about in 1 Corinthians when he says, I hear even among you that a man takes his father's wife?

[34:44] Paul hands that man over to Satan. Satan. See, again, we can't say these are just Old Testament things because, listen, God has always demanded purity from his people.

[35:04] These point to Christ because the reality is with Christ we find forgiveness for where we fail. With Christ we find forgiveness for our failures.

[35:17] But we don't find the lessening of the standard. We don't find that he moves the standard down. I told you to keep something in mind a minute ago.

[35:31] When a man and woman are caught in the act of adultery, what? Both of them are to be stoned in the city center. You remember an encounter that Christ had with a woman caught in the very act.

[35:45] Remember that? The Pharisees brought the woman caught in the very act. Now, I don't know everything, but I do know one thing. You can't be caught in the act alone. The rapid question is where is the man?

[36:00] Because the law says that the woman and the man both should have been brought to Christ. Most people believe the Pharisees set around.

[36:16] They had no regard for the law or keeping of the law. They had no regard for the lady. They were just trying to catch Jesus in something. What I say, with Christ we find forgiveness, but we don't find the lessening of the standard.

[36:30] Jesus says your sins are forgiven you. But then he also says what? Go and sin no more. Because the standard of holiness is the same.

[36:45] When we come to the New Testament, we don't find heaps of stones falling upon the sinner. We find a cross of a Savior on the hill of Calvary. We don't find men gathered around casting stones because just as Jesus said then, he who is without sin cast the first stone.

[37:03] And the reality is, according to the law, none of us are fit to cast a stone. Every one of us are to be the individual under the heap of stones. But we find a Savior who says, your sins are forgiven, sin.

[37:19] But go and sin no more. Let the high standard and the high calling of God permeate who you are publicly and privately.

[37:34] Because your relationship with him, because of the forgiveness of your sins, not only demands it, but deserves it.

[37:50] He deserves that type of devotion. He deserves that type of commitment. Because before he tells us to sin no more, he declares to us, your sins are forgiven.

[38:07] We read these laws. And we have to, as the man that's praying in the temple, beat our chest and go, woe is me for I am a sinner.

[38:18] Woe is me for I am a sinner. We can't help but do that. The beautiful thing is, is that every one of us are beating our chest saying, woe is me for I am a sinner.

[38:31] Woe is me for I am a sinner. And Jesus stands up and says, I am the judge and you are forgiven. But go and sin no more. Let the standard of God permeate who you are publicly, privately, and influence every aspect of your life.

[38:49] Deuteronomy chapter 22. Thank you. Thank you.

[39:52] Thank you. Thank you.

[40:52] Thank you.

[41:23]  Thank you.