Deuteronomy 22:1-12

well good morning morning welcome to coffee and devotions this morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 22 the first 12 verses we're going to talk about the miscellaneous laws not to be confused with Mississippi laws miscellaneous all sorts of kind of odds and in type laws so we're going to have some coffee we'll pray into God's word some coffee can't tempt you huh that's okay that's okay someday you'll grow up and be wise she just kicked me under the table you're so mean hey didn't you didn't you read hold on hold on yesterday I talked or two a couple of days ago I talked about Exodus 21:15 where if a child strikes their parent they should be stoned okay let's pray God thank you so much for this day thank you for time it's SP together thank you for your word Lord we pray that your Holy Spirit would teach us that we would understand Lord we pray that we would have wisdom in how to apply these things to our lives and that we wouldn't do it with the spirit of legalism but Lord that we would know who you are and we would walk in your ways in Jesus's name amen all right Deuteronomy chapter 22 there's 12 verses why don't you read verses 1 through 7 and I'll read 8 through 12 sound good okay you're going to fall asleep before you do it s 1 through 7 and I'll have read 8 through 12 you shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and hide yourself from them you shall certainly bring them back to your brother and if your brother is not near you or if you do not know him then you shall bring it to your own house and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it then you shall restore it to him you shall do the same with his donkey and so shall you do with His Garment with any in any lost thing of your brothers which he has lost and you have found you shall do likewise you must not hide yourself okay so let's go ahead and talk about that what do you think that that law was about if you if you see a Str sheep or goat or anything you don't just be like if they've done something bad to you in the past you don't just be like yeah right so there's kind of two things you might be tempted to do right let's say it was Mr M's cows you could be tempted to take it yeah you could be tempted to take it or leave it alone if you take it it would be stealing stealing if you leave it alone what could happen to the animal it could die it could die right it could get in trouble and are either of those loving options towards your neighbor no right so this is a very practical section good what about verse four can you read verse four uh you shall not see your brother's donkey or his Ox fall down along the road and hide yourself from them you shall surely help him lift them up again okay so what's this one talking about if this animal falls on the road you don't just be like we'll have fun with that yeah right you stop and you help you stop and you try to help this is one of those uh difficulties you haven't seen me do this because I got little kids in the car and it's a little bit different but before I had kids in the car you know what I would do I'd always have a toolbox in the trunk of the car and a jack just in case I when I was driving down the road if I saw some I could stop and help them so Mama asked me to be a little bit more careful with that because I would just pick up people and be like yeah let's go get some gas and go help them he's like Brian you have three kids in the car now you don't know these people they could hurt us right so now I'll still stop and ask sometimes and sometimes they don't want to help now there's not even enough room in the car yeah now there's not even enough room in the car right we just keep adding these kids right but the point is you see somebody needing help what's the loving thing to do help them good you want to do verse five mhm a woman will not wear anything that pertains to a man nor shall a man put on a woman's garment for all who do so are an Abomination to the Lord your God okay what's that talking about we shouldn't wear bre yeah right so there's there's kind of General clothes that are expected for boys and general clothes that are Ed are girls right and so don't mix up this this separation between the Sexes right should Daddy start wearing uh eyeliner and fingernail polish should I come to church in a in your mother's dress nah no right the world's going to tell you oh this is so outdated this is so wrong why do you think God would give us why why would it say for all who do so are an Abomination to Jehovah your God why do you think that's an Abomination because the Lord made them separate yeah right the Lord made them male and female the Lord's the one who who's done this right so just like it's an Abomination to the Lord to not love your neighbor that was in the first four verses so it is to not follow God's ways with who he made us to be all right you want to read six and seven if a bird nest happens to be along before you along the way in any tree or on the ground with young ones or on with young ones or eggs um the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs you shall not take the mother with the young you shall surely let the mother go and take the young for yourself that it may be well with you that you may prolong your days okay okay so you're walking along the way you see a nest what do you see in the nest a mom and babies okay what are you not allowed to do you're not allowed to take the mom yeah right you're not allowed to take the mom why not why would God say not to do that um could it could it hurt the population yeah right and so this is one of the ways in which I think God shows us environmental stewardship are we allowed to do with animals and the and the creation whatever we want is it ours no no we've been entrusted with it right God gave us the Dominion mandate he told us to make the garden beautiful right to cultivate it I think he's given us work to do in with the environment but we're not to just act like we can do whatever we want with it actually when people uh don't pay attention to stuff like this that's why animals into up some sometimes that's why some animals get hunted to Extinction that's why if daddy wants to go hunting for let's say a deer what I have to get before I go hunting for a deer license I have to get a license right I have to get my hunting license but then I have to buy something do you know what I have to buy a tag right so they asked estimate how many deer are in the area and then they say okay how many deer can be harvested from this area but we don't want to go too low because what could happen you could destroy the deer population right and so there are people who are always trying to kind of be stewards and and keep things under control good all right let's go ahead and keep on going verse eight when you build a new house then you shall make a parit for your roof and you may that you may not bring guilt of Bloodshed on your household if anyone Falls from it right so this is like if you build a house you got to build a banister around the roof oh man this the Deacon send here we don't have a banister around our roof why do you think it would say you have to have a parit or a banister around the roof what do you think they did on their roofs back then people would climb up on the roof to either sleep where it's cooler or yeah take baths do their laundry right so it was actually a living space was it pitched like our roof no right our our roof is it flat flat yeah our roof is pitched right has angles does anybody live up or do anything on our roof no or at least they shouldn't well yeah they shouldn't right but do we have a back deck and what's around our back deck a a banister these stairs going down from my office there's a banister why do you think God says that there's supposed to be a banister nobody gets hurt yeah right you don't want somebody to fall and get hurt right would be that would that be loving to your neighbor no no no it would be negligent okay here we go verse nine you should not sew your vineyard with different kinds of seeds lest the the yield of that seed which you have sown and the fruit of your V Vineyard be defiled all right what do you think this is getting at actually there's a few here I'm going to read 9 through 12 together because they're all kind of tied together ready uh the verse 10 you shall not plow with an ox or a donkey together you shall not wear a garment of different sorts such as wool and linen mixed together you shall not or you shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself why do you think God would give kind of odd laws like that you can't wear cotton that has polyester in it you if you're going to wear clothes you got to have tassels on the bottom of your clothes if you're going to plant a field you can plant soy but you better not plant uh you remember the the pilgrims how they they planted the corn and then they also had in the corn they had what was at the bottom beans and P pumpkins right why would God say you're not supposed to do that CU they're different yeah because is well they're different right but the point is the Israelites were supposed to be different right so how they harvested or how they planted their fields and the clothes they wore and how they put their animals together right they were supposed to show that they themselves were different so this is one of the things we find in the law right we're reading through the law right now we in the reformed world we talk about three different types of laws we have moral law like the Ten Commandments do not steal do not murder do not commit adultery you know those ones right those are moral laws and then you have civil laws stuff we just just read right or sunry laws miscellaneous you got to build a banister around your roof y yeah right that that was for their society right but then there's also ceremonial laws and those ceremonial laws were meant to point to something religiously for them and so as we go through the law we're trying to figure out okay which which of these are ceremonial which of these are moral and which of these are miscellaneous so we're we're TR of wrestling through those three different types of laws and this is one of the places we find that because we find general principles uh the Westminster Confession of Faith calls that General Equity right you got to love your neighbor right Jesus says what sums up the two laws what are the two greatest Commandments you shall love your neighbor good you shall love the neighbor as yourself that's the second greatest commandment but the first greatest commandment is you shall love the Lord your God good you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself right and so when we look at it we're trying to figure out okay how do we classify these because are you under the law in the same way the Israelites were nopm who fulfilled all the ceremonial laws God I mean Jesus yeah Jesus did there's a reason why you're able to wear cotton polyester when you you go to the gym because that ceremonial law was meant to show outwardly that you were set apart how do you show that you're set apart now by having the spirit of the Lord in you yeah and then walking in accordance with that Spirit right so my question is why do we read the law at all why are we even reading Deuteronomy doesn't this seem old hat then is it just history just to learn and then forget later sometimes it can convict you and help you yeah right does does a law is it if the law is used lawfully for what it's used for it drives us to Jesus doesn't it because sometimes you perfectly look like you're different from the world sometimes you love your neighbor as yourself yeah sometimes we mess us up don't we sometimes we don't even want to be different yeah sometimes we don't even want to be different we want to just want to be like the rest of the world right but it convicts us and it shows us our need for Jesus it also does instruct us how we can live the general principles of it but it shows us how good God is that even though we fail at these things does he forsake us no pretty good news huh I don't have a best verse for this there's so many different things in here maybe you can underline all of them what do you think what if what are you going to walk away from here with main application or main thought about Christ what do you think calling for you what is what is it for you probably that um the Lord has um set us apart in the spirit okay you ready to pray all right let's pray father thank you so much for this day God we pray that when we're convicted by the law that it would lead us to Christ as a school Master Lord we pray that you would please give us your spirit that we would not walk according to the sinful desires of our flesh Lord but we would walk before you in Holiness Lord thank you for this time together please let us love you and follow you in Jesus's name amen may the Lord bless you may you love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength and may you love your neighbor as yourself I'll see you next time bye bye bye