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Sermon on Deuteronomy 20, the application of the sixth commandment by Rev. Rhys Demman
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As we prepare to look into God's Word together, let's bow our heads, and I will pray. Father, we are a small congregation. By no means the most wise. By no means the most powerful. By no means the most beautiful or the most wealthy.
We are low. We are nothing much, except that we are Yours. We are Your people, Your servants. We are ready to hear Your Word. We are ready to receive Your instruction. Lord, I pray that You would be with this congregation as they hear the Word and its application.
I pray that they would be ready to receive it. I pray for those who are ready, that You would bless them. I pray for those who are not ready, that You would make them ready. Lord, we thank You for Your Word, which is able to instruct us in the will of God.
Through it, we can understand more of the character of God. Lord, help us to worship You for who You truly are. Not who we want You to be, but for who You are. Help us to be humble as we look at Your Word.
Help us to be thankful as we receive from Your hand. All of these things we ask in the name of our Savior, Jesus the Christ, Amen. Once again, we've been going through the book of Deuteronomy. And as we've been progressing through this section of the book of Deuteronomy, we've been looking at the application of various laws of the Ten Commandments.
We spent some time looking at the Fourth Commandment on the Sabbath. We spent time before that looking at the Third Commandment on idolatry. We have just recently looked at the Fifth Commandment. Honor your father and mother.
And now, we are in the Sixth Commandment. You shall not murder. The Lord, speaking through Moses, is seeking to help us understand the right application and understanding of the law that says, you shall not murder.
We ought to recognize immediately, it is quite obvious, that when the Lord says, you shall not murder, He is not saying, you should never ever kill anyone under any circumstances. That's not what He's saying.
The Lord is speaking to the individual. He's speaking to you and I. And He is saying, you shall not murder. But, as you go through the book of Deuteronomy, you find many places where killing is actually commanded.
The Lord commands that if a person violates this or that principle of the law, that they should be killed. And you can find it in Leviticus, in Exodus, you can find it in Numbers, you can find it in Deuteronomy.
Of various times where the Lord says, if a person does this, then you shall put them to death. Most recently, I believe it was, we were looking at prophets. If a prophet proclaims to you a false message, then what are you supposed to do with that prophet?
Well, you're supposed to take him out of town, and you're supposed to stone him with stones until he dies. So the prohibition against murder is not a prohibition against the killing of any person at any time.
The Lord has given bounds by which people are to be put to death. And it actually began at the time of Noah. At the time of Noah, the Lord commanded that any man who sheds the blood of another man, by man shall his blood be shed.
So there is a just and righteous time when God's people should take a person's life. Now God has appointed a civil magistrate. He's appointed authorities like judges in the land. And those judges, as the civil authority, are given the authority and the right to carry out this commandment.
You and me, as individuals, and the church, I would say, is not given that permission. The priests were never told to go out and kill people. Except maybe in one instance I can think of, the golden calf, where the Levites were called on, and Eleazar, the son of Aaron the high priest, killed two people at once.
Actually I think that was a different incident. So maybe there's a couple of incidents. But once the people came to the land of Israel and established themselves and established a government, individuals and the clerical class were not called upon to carry out the sentence of death.
That was put into the hands of the people corporately, and only under the direction of judges. So the people were responsible. The witnesses who rose up to accuse someone of wrongdoing, their hand was to be the first against the condemned.
And the people would join in. But it wasn't to be any time someone was upset, they would just drag a guy out of town and start throwing rocks at him. It was only allowed under the rules of judgment before those who had been placed in authority as civil rulers.
God is not at all for the wanton destruction and killing of mob rule. God is not an anarchist who thinks that justice should rest in the hands of every individual. God does believe in government, specific kinds of government, but government nonetheless.
There is to be judges. And those judges are to act in accordance with the law of God. They are not to go beyond the law, and they are not to remove the law of God. They are to abide by the law of God.
And so this idea that the Bible teaches pacifism is just not true. It's not true in the Old Testament, it's not true in the New Testament either. I brought this up last week, but in Romans 13, the Apostle Paul says that the civil magistrate bears the sword for a reason.
And swords, like I said last week, are not disciplinary. They don't smack people with them and then send them home. They use the edge of them to kill the wicked. That is the idea. Our government has guns, and they're supposed to have guns in order to put down criminals.
Now, whether they do a good job of that or not, we all know that they don't, but that is what they are for. That is why the government has guns. That's why police officers are supposed to carry weapons.
It's so that they, acting as an arm of the civil authority, can end the life of the wicked if need be. We also know that the Lord is not prohibiting all killing, because in Deuteronomy chapter 20, he tells them what they're supposed to do when they go to war.
How they are to go to war, and what that's supposed to look like. So he begins by speaking to them about who is called upon to go to war. Now, there's actually several passages in the law, in the Torah, which speak to this idea of who is called upon to go to war.
And not all of them are listed here in Deuteronomy chapter 20. One that I will mention briefly is that no man under the age of 20 was allowed to go to battle. It was only for men who were 20 and older.
In Deuteronomy chapter 20, we have the people being called on to go to war, and then we are given a list as to who is accepted from going to war. First, though, he says when you go to war against your enemies, you're going to have moments where you see the forces arrayed against you.
They are going to be larger than you. They are going to be more impressive than you. They are going to have things like horses and chariots. And you are not going to have those things. Not to the same degree as your enemies.
They are going to have larger armies. And when you see them, you shall not be afraid of them. God actually commands the men of Israel not to be afraid. That fear is something that these men should be able to overcome.
By trusting in God, fear can be overcome. If you are a fearful person, if you are a person who struggles with anxiety, and it seems like everybody these days does struggle with anxiety, but if you are a person who struggles with real anxiety, where you are fearful, you lay awake at night thinking of all of the things that could happen, all of the bad stuff that could go wrong, all of the ways that your life could fall apart.
If you are the kind of person who is constantly fearful about the future, you can overcome that fear. And we know you can because God commands these people to overcome their fear. And the men who are in this situation are in a much more scary situation than you or I probably have ever been in.
They are about to go into a battle with sharp things against other people with sharp things, and only one army is going to win. And if the enemy wins, the men of Israel are going to be killed and their families are going to become slaves.
And you have probably not been in that quite of a fearful situation. You have probably been in some pretty fearful situations. But what I am speaking to is this idea of laying awake at night, worrying about the future and worrying what could happen.
The cure for that is faith. I know it is really easy to say that up in front of you in a pulpit. But the more that you trust the Lord, the more that you give things over to Him, release things into His hands, trust Him for the outcome, the more you get into the Word, the more you take it into your heart, the more you receive it, the less fearful and worried you will be in your life.
So the men were to go to battle and they were not allowed to be afraid. And when they drew near, the priest was supposed to come forward and speak to the people. And he was supposed to exhort them to courage, be strong, fight with vigor, do not panic or be in dread of them.
Why? Because the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you the victory. See, the reason that we can overcome our fear is because we are not alone. We are not stuck by ourselves laying down in our beds at night.
We are not alone. We have One who stands with us, who fights with us, who actually it says goes before us. God is not standing behind you saying, good luck. God is not standing beside you saying, I'll fight beside you, I'll fight with you.
No, God is going on ahead of you. God is taking the first blows. God is attacking the enemy first. He is bringing down the wicked. He is bringing down the forces that are arrayed against us. And so don't be in dread because there is One who goes before you.
The Lord goes before you. If you're the kind of person who's prone to anxiety, laying in bed or wherever you are, and you're fearful about the future, remember that God goes before you. Christ before me.
Then the priest and the officers are supposed to speak to the people and they're supposed to excuse certain men from participating in the battle. They were to ensure, the officers were responsible to ensure that God's law was kept.
And they were supposed to look for anyone who was not wholly committed to the cause. Anybody who might have things that would hold them back from giving their full might and strength to the battle. God is well pleased to have a large number of men stay home so that they may devote themselves to worthy causes.
God does allow that and does see it as acceptable. So not all of the men were to go out and fight. He brings up any man who has built a house and has not had a chance to dedicate it and to live in it.
He brings up those who have planted vineyards but have not yet had a chance to enjoy the fruit. And he brings up any man who has betrothed a wife, who's gotten engaged, but has not been able to actually marry the wife and to take her home and enjoy her.
These three groups of men are men who have not yet had a chance to enjoy the fruit of their labor. To enjoy the good things in life. A man who has gotten engaged to a woman but has not had a chance to go home with her has not fully enjoyed the fruit of God's reward.
He has maybe experienced good feelings and love and good conversation, but he has not enjoyed the sexual union that marriage offers. Same with a man who has planted a vineyard. He's put all of this work into planting this vineyard.
He has devoted himself to its success. And maybe he is even seeing the sprouts come forward, but he's not yet had a chance to actually take hold of the fruit to make it into wine or to enjoy the produce of his land.
A man who has just built a house and hasn't even had a chance to move in yet, hasn't even had a chance to enjoy what he's done. These three men have not been given the rewards of life. Because God has created life to be good.
God has created the world to be a good place to live in. And we are given all kinds of good things to enjoy. And the reason that men who haven't enjoyed it yet are exempt from fighting, I think there's two reasons.
The first one is that God loves us and wants us to be happy. God really does love His people. And He wants us to enjoy our lives. To enjoy the good things. And if young men are not given the fruit of their labor and the enjoyment of life, it makes death all the more fearful.
So that's the first reason. Death becomes more fearful. But I think that the second reason that the Lord exempts those men is because they won't be able to keep up with the men who do have those things.
A man who does have a wife, who does have children, a man who does have a vineyard and has enjoyed its fruit, a man who has a home and has lived in it and has dedicated it, is going to be a hundred times more fierce than a single man who has none of those things.
A single man who has none of those things will be filled with all kinds of testosterone and vigor, but he will not be as committed to the cause as a married man who has things to protect. And so, the Lord holds back these people to make room for the men who actually have a stake in what is about to happen.
If this enemy comes into our land and kills us, he is going to take our homes, he is going to enjoy the fruit of our vineyards, and he is going to take our wives. And we are not going to let that happen.
The single man is excited at the idea of battle, but he doesn't really have anything to fight for in the same way that the married man who is established does. And so, they are held back. And I think in the Lord's wisdom too, He is holding them back so that if and when there is a battle and the battle is lost and Israel loses, there is still a large number of men at home who can raise up a defense against the oncoming horde.
So if there was a battle, the people of Israel died, and now you have this group of, let's say it's Edomites who is coming and they are going to assault the cities, there is still a large number of men, and some of the most virile and energetic men, who are able to stand opposed to the advance.
The next group of men that is not allowed to come to the battle are those men who are afraid. And so, there are going to be times where the Lord commands them not to fear, and for one reason or another, they are not going to be able to overcome their fear.
And so, the Lord says, we are going to send those people back to their homes, because fear is contagious. And if we don't send them home, then he is going to stay and he is going to make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.
This is actually, I think, really important. And maybe I'll pick on the women for a minute, because I love you. But women love to chat, and they like to talk about all of the problems that are going on.
And they like to I was going to say complain, but complaining is not something that is exclusive to women. But I found that women tend to complain in clusters, and often times discontent is spread through often times, it's a Bible study, that discontent is spread through women by the complaining and the bickering of other women.
I'm picking on the women, but I've also seen it a lot at a job site among men, and Adam is nodding, because he and I have talked about this a lot, is that you go to a job site, a construction site, and you ask people, how's it going?
And for the next 45 minutes, they're complaining about all of the problems that they could fix, but they won't, because they're too chicken to fix them. That being said, I also want to remind everybody that fearfulness, complaining, bitterness, and whining are all contagious.
If you are the kind of person who really likes to talk about all of the problems and to complain about them, you are going to spread it to other people. This is why you really should be careful who you're following on Instagram.
I know it's kind of like a silly thing almost to say up at the pulpit, be careful who you're following on Instagram. But there is so much content out there of people who are just complaining about everything.
And they complain about their husbands, and they complain about their children, and they complain about their bosses, and they complain about their mothers, and they complain about their mother-in-law.
I mean, that one I understand. No, I'm just kidding. But there's complaining, and there's bitterness, and it spreads. And it's wicked. And the Lord knows this, and so He says, anybody who is fearful, get them out of there.
Because a fearful man is going to talk about all of the things that he's fearful about. And he's going to melt the heart of others. I read a statistic a while ago that a woman who has a friend who has some sort of diagnosis, like diagnosed with severe anxiety, or diagnosed with ADHD, is something like 300 times more likely to be diagnosed with the same thing.
Because these things spread. They spread. If you are friends with, and spending a lot of time with people who are complaining and whining all the time, you are going to be more prone to complaining and whining.
If you are with people who are anxious all the time, and are talking about how anxious they are, and talking about all the things that are going wrong, and talking about all of the problems that they have, and they just have problem after problem after problem, that is going to be contagious.
It's going to spread to you, and you're going to find one day that you wake up, and you're talking about your problems all the time. You're complaining about everything all the time. So be careful. Don't be with people who are going to do that.
Don't be with the whiners and complainers. Avoid the whiners and complainers. Or, if you can't avoid them, exhort them to stop with the whining and complaining. Especially if you're with people, family members, let's say, who have 10 ,000 problems, and have had 10 ,000 problems for the last 25 years.
Exhort those people to change. To fix their problems. To do something about it. Don't just complain for the sake of complaining. Don't just complain about everything, and say, well, there's nothing I can do about it.
I'm just going to complain. No, if you have a problem, work on it. Just pick one of your problems, and fix it, and then move on to the next one. Don't become this fearful, faint-hearted man who melts the hearts of your fellows.
Or woman. Man or woman. I think it's everybody. I was going to pick on women, but I can't. Because everybody does this. I do it. I think Forrest told me a quote a long time ago that was, never be caught complaining even to yourself.
Which I think is a really good quote. Never be caught complaining even to yourself. Because, man, we can be so self-controlled and not complain to other people. And in our hearts, we can be me, me, me, me, me, me, me, whiny, whiny, whiny.
I can't believe that this is my life. I can't believe I have to do this. I can't believe that I have to do that. And we see our friends, and we're like, hey, how are you? How are you doing? Oh, I'm good.
And in our hearts, we're going, I can't believe I have to do this. I can't believe. I can't believe what he did. I can't believe what she said. We are not to be this way. Because even if this is only happening in our hearts, it does still become contagious.
It still festers and bubbles over into other people. And the people that it bubbles over into the most are our children. Grown or little. If you are the kind of person who's constantly complaining in your own heart, you are going to find that your children follow in your footsteps.
So, don't be that kind of person. Now, I've exhorted you from this passage, and I do want to cover the rest of it, and I'll try to do it quickly. Verse 10 onward is actually speaking to the Israelites about their wars against non-Canaanite nations.
So the people of Israel were to come into the land of Canaan, they were to butcher and slaughter all of the people in the land of Canaan, but they were not necessarily to kill every person who was living there.
They were supposed to destroy the Canaanites. This is verse 17. The Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. That's who they were supposed to destroy. They were to go to all of those towns and their surrounding villages, and they were to kill everything that was alive in those towns.
But, there would be many peoples who lived kind of in the outskirts and the surrounding areas that they were not necessarily having to butcher and destroy in the same way that they were to destroy the Canaanites.
They were peoples that could be made peace with. And so, it says, if you go against one of those cities that doesn't belong to the condemned ones, then offer peace, and if they won't take it, then you can attack them and destroy them, but they're not to be, they're not to destroy them in the same way that they destroyed the Canaanites.
They were to have restraint. Once again, I talked about this last week, but once again, the Lord commands restraint for His people. We are to be restrained. We are not to be reactive. We are not to go overboard.
We are to hold ourselves back and to be controlled. And so, it said, when you come to this land, when you come against this city, you destroy the men and you take everything else. But, when you come to the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, you don't leave anyone alive.
You don't take their plunder. You don't take their animals. You don't take their people as slaves. You wipe them out. And the reason is that they may not teach you to do according to all of their abominable practices that they have done for their gods.
And furthering this idea of restraint, that this is verse 19 to the end, or verse 19 and 20, he prevents them from going scorched earth. They are not allowed to go into a land and cut down all of the trees and devastate the entire place.
They are to hold themselves back. If there's a tree that could be eaten from, if there's an apple tree, don't cut down the apple tree to make siege works. Don't burn everything just for the sake of destruction.
Be restrained. So, I wanted to spend most of my time on the beginning of the passage because I think that for us, it is the most applicable. We are at war. We are at war with the forces of darkness. We are at war with our enemy.
And we are at war with our own culture. And if we are compromised, we will not be effective soldiers. And so, I exhort you that if you have these hang-ups, if you have this fearfulness, this anxiety, if you are compromised, if you are spending time with people who are constantly making you afraid and bringing you down, watch out.
Watch yourself. That you don't become like them. Don't allow yourself to become fearful. Don't allow yourself to become anxious. Resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Remember that our God goes before us to fight for us.
And so, don't fear. Don't complain. Don't allow any of these sins to overwhelm you. If you have problems, fix them. Don't just complain about them. And if you, if your spouse is complaining all the time, exhort your spouse to fix the problem.
And if it's a problem they can't fix, tell them, then stop complaining about it. If your children are complainers, that is a time to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Why are they complaining? I know why my children complain.
It's because I am a complainer. And that is not acceptable for us. It shows that we don't trust God. And it shows that we're not willing to do what it takes to repent of our sin and to fix our problems.
It's rebellion. Let's bow our heads and pray. Father, we are so prone to attempting to sit on Your throne to try to be God of our own life, to be in control. And then we complain when we fail and when things don't work out the way that we want them to.
Lord, help us to trust You. Lord, if there are people here who are struggling with their fear, with anxiety, Lord, bless them. Bless them with the peace that passes understanding. Help them to see that You go before them.
Help them to trust in the Lord. Lord, for those of us who are complainers, who complain in our hearts, and who even complain out loud, help us to repent and forgive us, Lord. Give us the strength to be like the men of Israel, to be without fear, to move forward, to fight the enemy with no fear.
Lord, this can't be done unless You help us. So we do ask.
In Jesus' name that You will help us, Lord. Amen.