Scott Brown's sermon, 'Who Shall Enter the Assembly of the Lord,' explores the challenging text of Deuteronomy 23:1-14, focusing on the requirements for entering the assembly of the Lord. Brown discusses the laws concerning emasculation, illegitimate birth, and the inclusion or exclusion of different groups such as Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Egyptians. These laws, he explains, are beacons of light for the protection of both family and church purity. Brown emphasizes the moral principles underlying these laws, fulfilled in Christ, and their applicability in contemporary contexts. He addresses the importance of dealing with secret sins and the need for holiness as God walks among His people. The sermon underscores the idea that while these laws are difficult to interpret, they reflect God's perfect mind and aim to guide believers in righteous living. Brown calls for understanding the general equity of these laws and applying them in moral and spiritual contexts, highlighting that every law is a law of love fulfilled in Christ. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the transformative power of Jesus Christ, who reconciles sinners and presents them holy and blameless before God.

This morning we will be considering Deuteronomy 23, 1-14. He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever. Because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Bior from Pithor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land. The children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then He shall go outside the camp.

He shall not come inside the camp. But it shall be, when evening comes, then he shall wash with water. And when the sun sets, he may come into the camp. Also, you shall have a place outside the camp where you may go out, and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over to you.

Therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you. Lord Father we do desire holiness in our lives. Lord that you would not depart from us. Lord that we would not Defile your name. Lord, that Jesus is our deliverer, is our intercessor.

Lord, we thank you for that, that He bridges the gap. Lord, I pray that You would give Scott clarity on these verses and that You would sanctify us through the preaching of Your Word. We pray this in Your Son's name. Amen. It's always a joy, or it is a joy for me to put this microphone on, an extra one, because it's a direct line into the ears of David Hagen.

So It's always a joy to preach to little David Hagen in the congregation. I love that little boy. I'm so glad they named him David. It's one of my favorite names. Well we have before us a very unusual and difficult text to interpret it.

I want to just make it very plain that this has been a strugglesome text, a bunglesome text, a difficult one. It's made me consider a couple of things. First of all, Let's just acknowledge that this is a difficult passage of scripture to interpret. And I'm confident that as the years pass, that God will help me understand it better than I do today. As I continue to seek the Lord and study His Word, that there will be greater clarity over time, that more connections will be made, and there will be greater understanding.

This is the way of the Lord in our lives. And it's a blessing that he helps us. But I'll have to just be very honest with you. I feel like such a spiritual pygmy, a mental miniature, a hermeneutical lilliputian before this text. And so I just want to acknowledge that first.

Secondly, we need to also remind ourselves that this is the Word of God. It is God-breathed. It originated not from man, but directly from the mind of God. Every word of God is pure. All his ways are perfect.

And every word of it is applicable. And so we have to understand that the tensions that arise in our minds when we come across a passage of scripture like this are really just in our own minds. Because the mind of God is perfect, and because our ways are not, we often find it difficult to wrap ourselves around it with proper understanding. So, You know, and we also need to understand the nature of the law when we consider it. First of all, we need to acknowledge that every law is a law of love.

Secondly, we need to recognize that every law was fulfilled in Christ and illustrated in his ministry. So whenever we read this, we must consider the Lord Jesus Christ and how he clarifies it. We also have to understand that every single law of the Bible is meant to be applied in real life. What does that mean? Does that mean that every law in Israel has a one-to-one application in modern-day America or England or wherever.

Well, we don't believe it does. And the historical understanding of the law is that the law should be applied in its moral principle and its general equity. And the laws given to Israel were given for their blessing. And all of them were meant to be applied in the same way that The law about not depriving an ox, not muzzling an ox while he's trying to tread out the grain, is meant to be applied. And the Apostle Paul applies it in the book of 1st Corinthians where he says that It's also unlawful to steal from ministers who preach the gospel.

They need to be paid. That's how Paul applies that law. It was a judicial law that had a moral principle. There's a general equity to that law. The same thing applies to all of these laws.

As difficult as they are to read and understand how to apply, we ought to be very prayerful to make proper connections to consider what the application might be. You know, one of the exegetical problems, or actually one of the application problems of this text is, well what do you do? It says that you're supposed to treat ammonites a certain way. Well, are there any ammonites today? How many?

You know, do you walk around the streets of Wake Forest and there's the anem... There's an ammonite right there. You know, I'm bound by the Lord to treat him in the way that's specified here. No. How many of you have met any ammonites in the last decade?

You've never met an ammonite in your life. You don't even know how to apply this if you have to meet an ammonite to apply it. So there's a general equity, there's a moral principle in it that has to be understood. These laws are good. We're reciting every Sunday a portion of the Song of Moses.

And the Song of Moses is beautiful. And I love the way that it begins, because it speaks of the beauty and the perfection of the law of God. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. And then Moses goes into this amazing list of imagery that is so beautiful.

Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like showers on the tender herb. Who's the tender herb? You and I, the children of Israel are the tender herb. That's us. We're the tender herb that this shower, this dew, this beautiful help from heaven is coming down upon in order to bless us, to cause us to grow.

Imagine what a shower and a dew-deprived plant is. It's dying. That's what it is. But we need these to keep us alive. We need these laws here to keep us alive, to help us to understand the will of the Lord.

Because there's a moral principle and a general equity in every law of Scripture. If you read Scripture, you understand very clearly that the Apostle, if you read the New Testament, you understand the Apostle Paul definitely is applying the law of God over and over again. He's constantly appealing to the Old Testament to help us understand what those laws in the Old Testament meant. And so he does it, and Moses is giving these laws as well for us to do the same. That the showers would fall upon the grass, the raindrops on the tender herb would come down.

And so here we have this same applicational capability in this passage as difficult as it might seem is before us today. Now the theme of Deuteronomy chapter 23 verses 1 through 14 is holiness And Moses is continuing to explain the Seventh Commandment. He's already explained the sins of immorality that can come upon a family, a father who does not protect the virginity of his daughter and adulterer. The adulterer and the various other expressions of violations of the Seventh Commandment have already been given at the end of chapter 22, and Moses is continuing on to explain other violations of the Seventh Commandment. And so these laws about the Seventh Commandment are beacons of light for the protection of the family.

And we stand in the generation of the dissolution of the family. So these laws are very important. And the laws are a roadblock for an entry of things that would destroy marriage and family. Now, as we turn to chapter 23, these laws are beacons of light for the protection of the church, for the protection of the purity of God's people, because they have to do with purity. They have to do with the separateness.

They have to do with who will and who will not enter the assembly of the Lord, because God is building a holy people. And it matters who will and who will enter the assembly of the Lord, and God is the only one who judges that. So now in Chapter 23, after Moses has spoken of how sexual immorality affects the family, he now speaks of how it affects the church. And so the discussion is expanded to include inclusion and exclusion from the assembly of the Lord. And you have to define that carefully.

And honestly, it's difficult to define. I think it's one of the challenges that we have in dealing with this text. So what is it that would exclude you from the assembly of the Lord? Think of how devastating it is to be excluded from the assembly of the Lord. I think back in my own life, what a blessing the assembly of the Lord has been to me.

How the preaching, the relationships, the helps have been enormous. To be excluded from it would have been such a tragedy. But think of it even on a grander scale. You are before the throne of God and you're being cast out of, you're being cast into the lake of fire and there will be no presence of God. You're deprived of the presence of the Lord because your sin has separated you from God.

So there are a number of levels that you can understand this assembly of the Lord. You know, interpreters have tried to define it. I've read so many of them and I think I still have a lot to learn about what that phrase means. Honestly, I do. But what we do understand from all things regarding the assembly of the Lord is if you love your sin, you will lose the love of God for all of eternity.

So here we find that there are a number of sins that are listed. I have them before you in your outline there. There are five basic sections in this range of verses, in verses 1 through 14. The first is the sin of emasculation, verse 1. He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.

Now this is the first time in scripture this phrase appears, the assembly of the Lord. And he seems to be speaking of the gathered body of God's people. And what kind of gathering of God's people. There are a number of alternatives, but let's just at least establish that there is this category of life called the assembly of the Lord where God's people are gathered together with the Lord Perhaps it's what what Peter was alluding to as he he takes a number of Old Testament Passages and weaves them all together in first Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 where he says, that we're coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also as living stones being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but now are the people of God." Now, if you've read your Old Testament, you know that Peter has quoted the Old Testament many, many times in just this short span, and he continues, "'You who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy, Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of the visitation." So this act of wounding or crushing the male reproductive organ, it's castration is what he's talking about.

It could be self-castration as was often practiced in these days, where one would be so zealous, so passionate to serve their God, that they would actually, you know, do extreme things like this. They were willing to go to great lengths. You know, we understand obviously that cults go to great lengths to serve their God. And they're incredibly passionate about it. And one sign of paganism of this time would be one who had actually crushed his private parts in his religious zeal to serve his God.

And of course, you know, cuttings, various other body modifications are mentioned in Scripture where people do things to their bodies that actually defile them. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and so it should be treated with the honor and respect that God assigns to it. So this is perhaps the sin of syncretism with a pagan culture. And God calls his people to be separate from that pagan culture. And one of the commentaries, Kylan Dalich, says, this law was one of the ordinances intended for the period of infancy and has lost its significance with the spread of the kingdom of God over all the nations of the earth.

So what is it that? Is Kylan Dalich correct in their understanding of this? The idea that God's people are meant to be holy and yet there are things like emasculation that mar the holiness of God's people. What do you do about that? The holiness of God's people is spoken of in a number of different ways all over Scripture in Leviticus chapter 21.

You find the Lord speaking to Moses and He says that a blind or lame or a marred face, any limb too long, a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand, or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye or eczema or a scab, or is a eunuch. No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall come near to make offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect. He shall not come near to offer the bread of God." Now here Moses is speaking about the actual sacrifices and that there's a kind of actual physical purity that was required for that. And this is a picture of imperfections before God.

God cannot stand imperfections before Him. And there's only one way that sinners can stand before God and that is through the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is ceremonial law. This is fulfilled in Christ. Christ made the lame man whole.

Christ made the blind man and the hunchback right again. That's what Christ did to those who are sinners. Figuratively, they are broken men, deformed, dwarfed, all kinds of physical maladies. But the image here is that Christ alone fulfills that. He makes a hunchback stand up straight spiritually.

He takes the one with the defect in his eye and cleanses it and gives him the ability to see. This is what Christ has done. I believe this is ceremonial law. It has to do with the defects, the sins. They are real sins.

It is a real sin to emasculate yourself. It's a picture of only those who are perfect can be in heaven, but only by a perfect sacrifice. Isaiah 56 is another place where this term is used, where this whole idea is referred to, where eunuchs are referred to, those who have been emasculated. Let me read it to you. I think it sheds enormous light on how to interpret this.

Isaiah 56 verse 3, Now, nor let the eunuch say, nor let the eunuch say, I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant." Now, he's talking about eunuchs. They're in this, perhaps in this category. And he's saying, but there are certain units like this who keep my Sabbath and they love me. They may have marred their bodies in their sinful paganism.

But what? Verse 5, Even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant. Even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations." And verse 8 is very important, and it applies to everyone here and these eunuchs spoken of in this text who have sinned against the Lord. Yet, the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather him, others besides those who are gathered to him." This is about being an outcast because of your sin. This is about marring your body and serving pagan gods and doing things that actually can be visible, that actually can be seen on your body. And God says, you're an outcast but you're mine and I take you to myself because you love me. You keep my Sabbaths.

Your heart has turned toward me." So it's a picture of salvation. It is a picture of the sinfulness of sin, but it's also a picture of God's loving-kindness to gather the outcasts. Think of there are many outcasts in scripture who did this. The Ethiopian eunuch is one of them. This happened to Daniel.

Daniel was led into Babylon having been captured and they castrated him. Was Daniel not able to enter the assembly of the Lord? Only by the grace of God. I'm back? Okay, good.

Good. I'm back? Okay, good. Good. So there is the sin of emasculation, a very real sin with a very powerful remedy.

And then we go to the sin of illegitimate birth. Verse 2, the one of illegitimate birth shall not as enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. None of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord. This word here of illegitimate birth occurs only one other place in the entire Old Testament in Zechariah chapter 9 verse 6. And it has to do with isolation, ostracism, and that type of thing.

It's likely that he's talking about the children that are born as a result of the pagan cult prostitution that was being engaged in in that day. The children of Israel often engaged in various defiling practices of the people around them. And so this is perhaps for the prevention of paganism entering into the worship of God. Are these children of all kinds of fornication? Possibly, possibly not.

I don't know. There are different opinions on that matter. Jephthah was the son of a harlot. Rahab was. Rahab was.

There are many illegitimate sons in the world and daughters. What does this mean? What does this mean? We know what Zechariah Chapter 9 means. It means that the enemies of God will be swept away in due time, that the mixed race, the children of paganism, will be swept away.

However, though, even so, even so, in Zechariah Chapter 9, we read words that remind us of the Gospel. I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by him in returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them. For now I have seen with my eyes, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your King is coming to you." What does that sound like? You know exactly what it sounds like.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is just in having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey. A colt, a foal of a donkey. This is the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will cut off the chariot of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem.

The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. This is a picture of both judgment and rejection and also of rejoicing as a result of a coming king. And Paul spoke of it this way in Galatians chapter 4 verse 3, Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out Abba father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Jesus Christ. Wherever there's an illegitimate child, there's an opportunity for eternal sonship. Spiritual, eternal, blessed sonship. Christ adopts, Christ only adopts children. He adopts children who had a father, their father the devil, and he brings them into his own family.

There's this blameable category of illegitimate birth, but the Lord Jesus rescues those of illegitimate birth. Ephesians 1, 4-6. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." And so here again we find the sinfulness of sin and we also find the redemption that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these images of eunuchs and illegitimacy, And there are many, many more in Scripture that teach us about the Gospel.

And they are shadows of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfills all these things. I'm confident there's far, far more here than I understand today. I, I, I, I'll, you know, it's with fear and trepidation, you know, that, that I handle this text. But I do, But I do know this, and we can stand very hard on it, is that when you have illegitimacy, you have an opportunity.

And it's the opportunity that God takes up as He adopts children. There are other things that it could mean, I believe, but it at least is a picture of the adoptive power of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he talks about the sin of hating the people of God and tempting them in verses three through six. The Ammonite and the Moabite that we haven't met quite yet in our pilgrimage. An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

None of the descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Baor from Pithor of Mesopotamia to curse you. Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever." Again a harsh judgment against the Ammonites and the Moabites to the 10th generation. What's the 10th generation? That means forever.

It means longer than long. It doesn't end. The Moabites mistreated the people of God. The whole story can be found in Numbers 22 to 24. And this is judgment against those who hate the people of God.

There is a curse against those who do not bless the Church of God. And we understand, we've already understood already in the first book of the Pentateuch in Genesis chapter 12 verse 3, God says to Abraham that He will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. God will curse the enemies of God. And the Ammonites and the Moabites sinned against God. And they sinned in two ways.

First of all, they did not bless the church as they were traveling on their journey. And secondly, they defiled it through immorality, through temptation and immorality. These should set before us very strong warnings, particularly for those who show themselves as enemies of God. How many of you were enemies of God? All of us were enemies of God.

We were many things. We were dead. We were stinking dead. And we were also enemies. What a double whammy is that?

We were very bad. God's children used to be enemies of God. And we were without God in the world, and we had hostility toward the Church of God. We dishonored the Church, we spoke evil of the church before we were converted, most of us did. And so these Ammonites and Moabites, they saw the work of God, and they despised it.

This is, as someone pointed out in our Bible study on Tuesday, this is equivalent to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And that is rejecting the voice of the Holy Spirit, rejecting the work and the appeals of God to be hard to it. That's what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. It will cast you into hell if you reject the wisdom of God and His call toward you. So these people here did not bless the Church.

The Church. You know, the world attacks the Church in these ways, And always has. You know, first, you know, the world does not treat it well. Maybe ignores it, acts like it's nothing, does not love it, and actually despises it. And then it attacks it through through syncretism like that like the Ammonites and the Moabites did.

They attacked it through sending by by tempting their men by by sending immoral temptations to them. Think of Think of the way that the world is constantly throwing immoral temptations into the church to destroy it. What do you think the internet is for in the eyes of the devil? What do you think these death box televisions are for? They're to pollute and destroy the church by spreading immorality.

What do you think all these defiling songs are for? They're meant by the devil to destroy the church. That's why they're there. The devil hates the church. And the devil would first speak evil of it and then fill it with immorality.

Why is it that the devil's attacks are so strong against the family and against purity in marriage, purity before marriage. Why is it that we live in a generation where men are totally blind to protecting the virginity of their daughters as we spoke of so graphically last week in the previous text. Why is it that people are so easy about watching films and listening to songs that are filthy, and they say, well, it's not that bad? How many times have you heard Christians say, well, it's not that bad? Well, that's the devil trying to destroy the church.

That bad is the devil at work, just like the Ammonites and the Moabites tried to destroy the church through immorality. A little bit here, a little bit there, it seems so winsome and sunny. And it, and, and, but God doesn't think of it that way at all. And so, so here, you know, there are a number of principles that flow out of what is written here, and we've just spoken two of them. But another is, here they are not permitted to help the enemies of God.

They're not permitted to help the enemies of God. They're not permitted to help the Moabites and the Ammonites, not to facilitate them. An excellent example of this is found in 2 Chronicles chapter 19, where the prophet is addressing Jehoshaphat, because Jehoshaphat is considering going into an alliance with Ahab. And the prophet comes to him to speak to him, and he says this, should you help the wicked? Should you love those who hate the Lord and bring wrath on yourself from the Lord?

That's the principle that's here. You do not aid and abet the enemies of God. You do not help the Ammonites. What's the application of this? Well, here's one application.

Is it right for families and churches and nations to help the wicked? Is it right for them to do that? In our nation today, we give billions and billions of dollars to nations who hate God. We give billions of dollars to institutions who hate God. This is wrong.

This is sinful. You know, what the United Nations is doing is a direct hit against what Moses is speaking of here. You do not aid the enemies of God. You don't help them at all. You know, there's much to learn here.

You know, one of the devil's oldest tricks is to pollute the people of God through sexual temptation and to strengthen the enemies of God. Now in this case, God in his kind sovereignty used Balaam's attempt to curse the people of God for good. And God does turn it around, their land becomes the land of the Rubinites. It was not promised. It was extra.

It was given to the people of God. But unless God intervenes, it takes forever. It takes up to 10 generations. And But God can intervene in the life of a Moabite, in the life of an Ammonite. And we know, we have evidence that God intervenes in the life of Moabites and Ammonites.

Who was Ruth? Ruth was a Moabite, and God intervened in her life, and he rescued her. So God does intervene. He does overwhelm the works of the devil. We find Ruth as the great grandmother of David and in the line of the Messiah.

The Lord Jesus Christ is merciful, He can even change an Ammonite and a Moabite. And then fourthly, there's the sin of abhorring those who have helped you. The Edomites and the Egyptians, verses 7 and 8. You shall not abhor an Edomite. Now, do you notice the change?

You have a different attitude toward Edomites and Egyptians than you do Ammonites and Moabites, because they're a different category in relationship to you. So there are various categories of relationships that we should have. There are enemies and there are ways that you treat your enemies. The Lord Jesus speaks of it, and here Moses gives us a principle for how to treat enemies like the Moabites and the Ammonites. But here we have Egyptians, and he starts off, he says, you shall not abhor, for he is your brother.

You shall not abhor an Egyptian because you were an alien in his land. The children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord." So you notice first of all that Egyptians and Edomites are to be treated differently and secondly that they were actually to express friendship to them. He calls them brothers. Doesn't that sound strange? Don't you remember what happened in Egypt?

Egypt, where Pharaoh ruled with an iron hand, what was so good about Egypt? They were enslaved in Egypt. But remember what else happened in Egypt. It was in Egypt that the people of God became a populous nation. They went into, they were placed into a land, it was the best land in Egypt.

And they flourished there, They prospered there. They became a great nation while under slavery, under the protection of God, in Goshen, the best land in all of Egypt. They were blessed there. And also, when they left, They were lavished with gifts from the Egyptians. Their gold, their riches were heaped upon the children of Israel as they asked for it.

An amazing miracle, really. A miracle of blessing from God. But Deuteronomy 26 tells us that it was in Egypt that they became a great and populous nation. They grew up there. Israel became a people.

And were prepared to enter into the promised land after 40 years of wilderness wanderings in that howling wilderness. Often God's people need various stages in their Reformation as God did with Israel. Think of the stages of Reformation that God has had you in all of your life. He's had you in many places, hasn't he? But he's been faithful to you everywhere you've been.

And he's taking you one step at a time. Don't despise the days of your Reformation. God worked there. God used all kinds of things imperfect to help you. These are helps and blessings.

Here, He's exposing this sin of abhorring those who've helped you. Abhorring the scenes and the places where God was working to reform you and begin redemption of you. You can spend your life despising all those things, but here what we find is something different. No, don't despise it. And don't despise those people either.

Don't become the enemies of the people that God used to help you. The ones who taught you. The places that you were, where astonishing things happened. The youth group that you were saved in, give thanks to that. They were slaves in Egypt but they were fed.

Remember when they left? What was their greatest memory? Oh the leeks, bring us back the food of Egypt. They're in the howling wilderness, and they're looking back with fond memories of Pharaoh's strap on their back and the food that they got to eat at the same time. They were forced to work seven days a week in their days of bondage.

Moses says, let's think clearly about this. God was working. Here the punishment is different. They can't be included for three generations. I heard someone say about this, that what this means is that when you bring immigrants into the land, into the assembly of the Lord, give them time.

Give them three generations, and three generations, they'll clean up. It takes three generations. Why? That may be or may not be true. But what we do know for sure is There's a direct rebuke for the sin of abhorring the Egyptians and the Edomites, who were used of the Lord in a certain way in your life.

That's a great lesson, isn't it? To think back on your life, you know, how easy it is to just get bitter about the short ends of the stick you might think you got. But it was the place that God had you. You know, God really desires to have a thankful people, a people of gratefulness, a people who praise him for every step of his sovereign work in their lives. Don't despise the day of small things.

Don't despise the days in Egypt. Don't despise what the Edomites were. They were your brothers. They fed you. You grew up.

You became mature. You were in the land of Goshen. At the same time, God was working. Maybe you can make better sense of why God would say this about the Edomites. This is my best shot at it.

There are probably many other reasons why this is here. And then there are sins of uncleanness when armies go out. Sins of uncleanness when armies go out, verses 9 through 14. Here in these verses we find laws that control two things, morality of the troops and sanitation in the army of Israel. And Moses has already told them when they go out to battle that the Lord will be with them.

And now he tells them, don't be a wicked people when you go out to battle. And As if they were above the law to do what they wish. Often when armies go out, they feel like they're above the law. You think of some of the great sins against humanity happened in wartime When laws were broken, laws of morality were broken, in my mind now are a list of a number of those atrocities that have taken place in our countries and in our world's history. Think of the rape of Nan King.

Think of the atrocities that have been done in the 20th century as a result of wartime. Even our own troops doing things they never should have done. The government of God had not been acknowledged among the troops. Do God's laws apply to the military? Absolutely they do.

Does anyone here think that God's laws don't apply to the military? Do you think that the laws that are being violated today in the military regarding homosexuality and all kinds of things like that. Do you think God has anything to say about that? Absolutely, he does. God does speak to laws for the military.

And here's one example of it right here. God has something to say. What is the moral principle of this law? What is here? We also see armies who were shining stars in this area.

Think of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. This was an army that was completely grounded and governed by the law of God. There was worship. There was actually church discipline and capital punishment for breaking laws of morality in that army. It was an army dedicated to the worship of God.

And they lived by a catechism, a Christian, a historical orthodox confession of faith and a catechism. So armies don't have to be ungoverned, but what Moses is saying is that when the army goes out against your enemies, in verse 9, Do you see that? Then keep yourself from every wicked thing. If, if or when you go out, then keep yourself from from every wicked thing. And, and he, he speaks, He gives an example of a seminal discharge in the night.

If there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night. What is some occurrence in the night? Then he shall go outside the camp, he shall not come inside the camp. It shall be when evening comes that he shall wash with water, and when the sun sets he may come into the camp. Now This is some kind of sin, some kind of sinful occurrence in the night.

You could probably make a list of a number of sinful occurrences that could occur in the night that only you know about. This is the subject of secret sin. This is the perfect secret sin. You think it's only affecting you, but it's not. It requires dealing with God.

David said, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Let them not have dominion over me. There are things done in secret. There are secret sins.

The people of God have all secret sins upon them. And they have to deal with them rightly. Here is something that happened in the night that no one knows about. But it has to be dealt with. It has to be confessed and atoned for in some way.

Paul to the Ephesians said, it's a shame to even speak of those things done by them in secret. There are things, there are sins that happen in secret that are shameful to speak about. And so there are these things, these occurrences in the night that he's referring to here. I passed out before you this leaflet entitled secret sins. Our friend Jeff Pollard put this together a few months ago in the Free Grace Broadcaster, issue 209.

I highly commend it to you. I'll say The same thing to you that Jeff Pollard said to me. He said, Scott, start at the beginning and read it all the way to the end. Don't skip around. I just give you that same encouragement to do it.

And let the Lord work in your life here. Secret sins, what are secret sins? The first article in this work on secret sins is from Obadiah Sedgwick, writing from 1600 to 1658. He says this, because secret sins will become public sins if they are not cleansed. This is why we should deal with secret sins.

And if you suppress them not in their root, you shall shortly see them break out in the fruit. It is like fire that catches the inside of the house first. And there, if you do not suppress it, will make a way to get outside. Then when the lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin." James 1 15. Beloved, remember this, Though the first ground of sin is within the heart, yet the propensity of sin is to come forth into public." He says, secret sins are apt to deceive us the most, therefore cleanse them.

He says, why? Because we do not have that strict and spiritual judgment of inward sins as we do outward sins. Many times we conceive of them as no sins at all, or else slight or venial sins. Sedgwick identifies three kinds of what he calls horrible sins. First, that very sin that you would conceal, perhaps it may be a sin of the deepest eye.

Second, hypocrisy, which is a screen to your sin, a holy cover for an unholy heart and practice. The third is atheism, not formal atheism, but a virtual atheism, as if God were not God in secret, but only public. He says, no man can sin a little sin in secret. It will certainly engender more sin. Charles Spurgeon, in one of his articles in it, says this, this is the killing, aggravation of all sin.

It is done before the face of God. In truth, there are no secret sins, because God sees them all. They are all done before the face of God. All men's secret sins, he says, are printed in heaven, and God will at last read them aloud in the ears of all the world. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things in darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.

Beware of secret sins. These occurrences in the night or in the day, whenever they are, they need to be dealt with and repented of. So please read this. Let's as a church deal with secret sin. It would be a blessing.

What refreshment could come from a whole church that dealt with their hypocrisy and brought their secret sins before the Lord Jesus and confessed them and then stopped doing them. So He deals with sins of uncleanness when armies go out, but there are also sins of physical form in terms of human waste, verses 12 and 13. Also, you shall have a place outside the camp where you may go and you shall have an implement among your equipment. And when you sit down outside, you shall dig it and turn it and cover your refuse." So he now turns to matters of just personal cleanliness and hygiene. Isn't that interesting?

He goes from something that is spiritual and physical in nature, and then he moves to a matter of just taking care of hygiene. It might seem strange, but It's somehow in the same category. Godliness is for every area of life. Uncleanness affects the whole army. And so this is an appeal to take good care of the land and of the way that we might defile the land through our human refuse.

So these laws are designed to protect. They protect the people of God in many ways. You can think of a number of ways that dealing with human waste properly protects people. It is a law of love. It protects people from disease and all kinds of things.

It protects animals, It protects the land, and it allows for a proper and beautiful handling of the land. You know, God desires us to take dominion. As we take dominion, we should be a blessing to the land. And this is part of it. You know, there's an orderliness and an organization and a sort of a taking care of the things in our charge that's implied here.

That we do it in a neat and an orderly way. We're not sloppy and messy and just throw our stuff all over the place. We don't just go and have a disorderly way of anything in our lives, including how we handle our refuse. It should be done orderly and decently and in a clean way. That's a blessing to the people around.

So here we find these sins of uncleanness when armies go out. Isn't it interesting the kind of territory that God covers in His Word? Things you would never think of to deal with on your own. You know, the sin of emasculation, the sin of illegitimate birth, the sin of hating the people of God and tempting them, The sin of abhorring those who have helped you, and various sins of uncleanness. God gives us a number of laws that are applicable.

All of these are applicable in our own lives. And they are a blessing. They are all laws of love. They are all fulfilled in Christ. And they all explain the goodness and the nature and the character of God, all of them.

Even though they're difficult, you have to wrestle with them to understand them because of your fallenness, because of your stupidity, because you're not only a hermeneutical little fusion, you're also a mental and a moral and a spiritual little fusion. And God brings us up as a result of His Word like this. So here, these are all blemishes, these are all judgments and chastisements to all of us to help us learn how to live. The keeping of these laws don't save us, but they certainly do show us how to live. All of it is explained in the last verse of our text, verse 14.

Why all these things? We're given the interpretive key here. You know, Moses, thankfully, he leads us to the sort of the capstone that holds, you know, that holds it all together in verse 14. Four, ah, that beautiful word, four. It helps us to interpret what came before.

For the Lord your God walks in the midst of the camp, your camp, to deliver you and give you your enemies over you. Therefore, therefore, that sweet word that helps us to understand Scripture so well. Therefore, your camp shall be holy, that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you." And That's the point of all of these things that he's said. That God is looking upon His people and He desires a holy people. A people set apart for His glory.

A people who would turn away from every sin, who would run to Him for His grace. All of the illegitimate and emasculated and hateful people of the world would run to Him and repent of their sins and be cleansed. Let me just close by the Apostle Paul's explanation of this whole matter of holiness. Ephesians 3, 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." He explains the transformation in healing that comes when you have been defiled in Ephesians 527, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

And he says to the Colossian church, in Colossians 1 verse 19, For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you who were once alienated, enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight, if indeed, if indeed, you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard. What a blessing it is that we were once not a people. We were the outcasts rejected, but by His grace we are saved. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this amazing set of words that you put before us today. I pray that you would help us to go farther than I've been able to take us in it. In Jesus' name, Amen.