Deuteronomy 15

If you would, turn over to the Book of Deuteronomy. For those of you who are new to us or this visiting, I have been going through the Book of Deuteronomy a little at a time. Once a month, I'll take the sermon time and use that as a Bible study. We're going through the Book of Deuteronomy. In my preparation, I've used the Preachers Outline and Sermon Bible Commentary as well as the Bible Illustrator. From previous times, you remember that Moses was inspired to write the Book of Deuteronomy as a series of three sermons. He realized the children of Israel were going to go into the Promised Land, and he also realized God forbade him to go into the Promised Land. So Moses had a need to prepare the people to go into the Promised Land. So we've got the historical purpose here of the Book, where Moses is trying to ready the generation to enter the Promised Land. But we've also got some Christian living things we want to take a look at. Even though Deuteronomy is in the Old Testament, it is very much a book for our day and age. The Book of Deuteronomy was written to teach God's people how to be victorious in their walk with God. That's certainly something all of us want to be, is victorious in our walk with God. To be able to conquer the enemies, the trials, the temptations that confront each of us on a regular basis. Secondly, the Book of Deuteronomy was written to stir God's people to rededicate themselves. These people that Moses is now talking to, their parents died in the wilderness because of their rebellion. So this group of people now need to rededicate themselves to renew their commitment to obey God and to keep the covenant that God has made with them.

We've now gotten to the place where we're in Deuteronomy chapter 15. So if you'll turn over there. Deuteronomy chapter 15.

You may look at this chapter as a lot of Old Testament economics. And yet I would tell you there is a rich subtext to this chapter. Subtext is an underlying theme. It's a message that can be inferred indirectly as you take a look at it. Or another way of looking at it, there are different layers of understanding as you and I look at Deuteronomy chapter 15. It's a chapter about economics. It's a chapter about the heart. I've broken this chapter down into four sections. Let me give you those four sections and then we'll analyze each of the sections. Verses 1 through 6 would be one section. Verses 1 through 6. And here you see a law of generosity to debtors. A law of generosity to debtors. Verses 7 through 11. You've got the law of generosity to the poor. To the poor. In verses 12 through 18, there is the law of the releasing of slaves. The law of the releasing of slaves. And in verses 19 through 23, the law of giving all the firstborn to the Lord. So four major areas in that chapter. Now, a little bit of chapter overview. You know, brethren, poverty is real. Our government is striving to eradicate poverty for as long as we've had a government. And yet, over the last number of years, the poverty levels in this country are increasing. As well to do as we are as a nation, I know the economy is not well, but compared to the rest of the world, we're all rich people compared to the rest of the world. And yet, even among us, there are those who are very much impoverished. A number of things can cause poverty, as you're well aware. Whether it be lack of education, health issues, age, accidents, loss of a job, economic recession, depression, divorce, desertion, all those sorts of things. And take a look now, again, as an overview. Chapter 15 of Deuteronomy, verse 11. Chapter 15, verse 11. For the poor will never cease from the land. The poor will never cease. Now, that's an interesting statement to make in a chapter that was designed to eradicate poverty. Deuteronomy chapter 15 was designed to eradicate poverty in an ancient. And had it been followed, had what we see here in chapter 15 of Deuteronomy, had the Israelites followed this, they would have eradicated poverty in the land.

So, why is it that we have so many impoverished people in Israel? Well, it's because they didn't find...unfortunately. As Israel was wont to not keep the seventh-day Sabbath as they should, they also didn't keep this annual seventh-year Sabbath, a sabbatical year. And so, chapter 15 is going to talk about a year of release, a sabbatical year that would come once every seven years. And marvelous things were to be done in this year. And as I go through this, again, you're going to think, well, this is just a lot of physical things, physical economics. But there is a tremendous spiritual message below all of this we need to understand. So, let's get into the book. And after I go through the chapter, I will give four major lessons to be learned from this chapter. Chapter 15, now, verse 1 and 2. At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release of debts. And this is from the release...and this is the form of the release. Every predator who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it. He shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord's release.

Now, think about that for a moment, folks. How would you like it if this coming Feast of Tabernacles started a year of release? And all those credit card bills you've got, take them. Bill a bonfire with them. Your amorous payment, that goes away. Grant payments, no more. The 30 bucks you owed to Uncle Louie, uh-uh, that's gone.

Basically, what you're looking at is every seventh year, you've got an economic reset. An economic reset. Now, there are various...over the course of mankind's history, there have been various philosophies on how to eradicate poverty. This is God's method. This is God's method on eradicating poverty. Now, as we look at verse 1 and 2 here, there are a number of things I want to bring to your attention. As you are well aware, in Genesis chapter 2, God established the weekly Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath was established so that we could honor our Creator, so that we could rest. And yet God also instituted the sabbatical year, because the land needed to rest. The land needed to recharge its batteries. People wonder, is God white? Is God black? Is God yellow? Is God red? No, God's green. We've got a green God. Our green God likes things that are natural, and the way He created them, the way He designed them. He wants us, this earth to replenish itself, and to be able to produce, and to produce abundantly. So every seventh year, they were to have the sabbatical year, or this year of release. The farmers would not use their land, the land would be able to renew itself, and so on and so forth. And so just as God wants us to rest every seventh day, there's a spiritual analogy here where God wants the land to rest. And there's some other beautiful things that we're going to see here. In this year, well, in the seventh year, I shouldn't say in this year, but in the seventh year, the slaves would be released. That's something to be rejoicing as well. So there's a number of things here. But let me give you some of the purposes, as I was thinking about it, of the year of release. There's a number of them. I've already made mention of number one, to give the land a year of rest.

To give the land a year of rest. Now, why don't you think about something? I made mention that there are underlying spiritual issues here.

You've got this year of release every seven years. So, year seven, year fourteen, year twenty-one, year twenty-eight, keep on going. Then you've got year forty-nine.

We don't grow anything. What do we do in year fifty? What is year fifty?

Jubilee! We don't grow anything that year. It's not a typical year. Two years back to back. The forty-ninth and the fiftieth year. So what does that mean for God's people? Something called... it starts with an F. Faith. We're going to have faith that God is going to produce for us. That God is going to allow us to live.

So this is not just some physical thing for people who are long dead. This is something where, you know, we want God to revive for us in our day and age. And people say, well, you know, God requires things that are just so hard. No, He doesn't. Now, Satan wants you to think He requires things that are hard. But God will be there for you. It's a matter of faith. So that's the number one thing that we learn. The second thing we learn is that in the seventh year, the poor are allowed to go out into the fields and collect whatever they want to. You know, every year when the people would be harvesting in Israel, they were not to take all their harvests. They were to allow the corners to stand so the poor can take the corners of the fields. Well, now the whole field is there. Whatever grows of itself. The field, the orchard, whatever happens to be vineyard, they can go in and take whatever they would like.

Again, there's some spiritual principles there we're going to talk about after we've gone through the whole chapter. About compassion, about our heart. Also, a third thing that takes place, let's put a marker here in chapter 15. Let's go to verse 31. Something very special took place at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Do it around in chapter 31, verse 10.

And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time, in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God, in the place which he chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women, little ones, the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord God, and carefully observe all the words of this law. And that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess. Now, every year they were supposed to read a portion of God's law. But on this special seventh year of release, they were to go through the whole of the law, in portions. And we don't know how they did that. And frankly, when the scholars think about the law, they don't know whether we're talking about the whole Torah, are we talking about just the Book of Deuteronomy, are we talking about bits and parts of all of it? Those things, you know, are lost to history. We don't really have a comprehensive understanding of it, exactly. But here we see that they are to read the law. The law. And so this is a tremendous benefit to God's people. It's not just a physical thing. On that seventh year, there's tremendous spiritual issues that need to be dealt with. Let's go back now to chapter 15 of Deuteronomy.

Perhaps you're thinking in your mind, verse 1, at the end of every seven years, there is this release. What exactly does that mean? Does that mean that all of your debts are totally forgiven, forever? Or does that mean that all of your debts are put on a one-year hold?

The church has come down on the side that we believe, as a church, that this means that your debts are just completely eradicated. But I'd have to be, to give you the other point of view that so many scholars have, they feel at the end of seven years, everything is just put on hold for one year.

There are reasons to believe that. One of the reasons would be because we have a year of jubilee. If all of the debts are eradicated, then there's no reason to have that 50th year, in the sense that everything is being obliterated by the 50th year because it had already been taken care of. So, people can argue the case either way. But no matter what, if right now somebody said to Randy and Mary, don't pay any of your bills for a year and just take all that money and sock it away. After that year is over, I'm sure there are some bills we could pay pretty good time. Just get rid of them. So, either way, it's a tremendous blessing for the people of God. Let's move on to verse 3. Do you want to read 15 verse 3? Of a foreigner you may require it, but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother. As we saw when Israel left Egypt, God did make a division between Israel and the rest of the world, partially to teach the rest of the world to look to Israel, that there was a difference. Of course, God loves all people, and certainly all people would have an opportunity down the road in their own time. Verse 4. Except when there may be no poor among you, for the Lord will greatly bless you in a land which you Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. So God says, I'm going to give you these tremendous blessings, but there is a string attached. There is a requirement. And the requirement is you have to obey me.

Verse 4. For the Lord your God will bless you just as he promised you. You shall lend to many nations. Now, that's true of America today, isn't it? We lend to many nations. But unfortunately, something else is also true of America. That is, we are the largest debtor nation in the world. We're a rich, vibrant nation, but we're also the largest debtor nation. He says, you shall not borrow. Well, I think China has some claims, some of our money, do they not? You shall not borrow. You shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you. So here you see tremendous blessings that God says will come to the nation if they obey Him, and if they keep all these laws. Now, obviously, they didn't keep the seventh-day Sabbath. They weren't keeping the yearly of the seventh-year sabbatical Sabbath, and they went into national captivity as a result. God was very upset with them because they did not obey. I want to go back to verse 4, though, because there's a statement made here that some of you might have caught. You're talking about this eradication of poverty, and then verse 4 says, except when there be no poor among you. The inference is that there would be poor among them.

Verse 7 says, if there is among you a poor man of your brethren. Well, if we're eradicating poverty, why all this discussion about poor people? Verse 15. As we talked about earlier. Or verse 11, I should say. For the poor you will never cease. So, if this law is supposed to eradicate poverty, why is there this discussion about poor in the land?

Put your finger here, and let's go over to 1 John chapter 2.

1 John chapter 2.

And verse 1. 1 John 2, 1. By little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. You're going to notice it keeps on writing. And if anyone sins.

So, the whole concept that Moses is writing about and John's writing about is, God has an ideal for us. But God is also a realist. Just as God realized we would sin, God had a pretty good idea we were not going to keep the 7th day Sabbath or the annual Sabbath. And Israel did not. Okay, so verses 1 through 6 talk about God's law of generosity to debtors. Let's take a look at the next section. Verses 7 through 11.

Which is the law of generosity to the poor. The law of generosity to the poor. Chapter 15, verse 7. If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates of your land, which Lord your God has given you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother.

So this is something that God always wants us to keep in mind, whether we're reading Old Testament or New Testament. God is always looking at the heart. And as you and I look at the Scriptures, we must always keep in mind, again, no matter where we are in the Scriptures, God has an overall plan. And His overall plan is that our heart be right with Him. And certainly as we're taking a look at people who have need, tremendous need, God says, well, how are you going to relate to those people of need? Are you going to be hard-hearted? Are you going to be soft-headed? Now, you and I don't want to be hard-hearted, but we don't want to be soft-headed either. We want to be so hard-hearted, we won't give a nickel to anybody under any circumstance. On the other hand, we don't want to be soft-headed so that we give to people to our own hurt. We've got bills to pay, we've got family to take care of, so we've got issues to deal with. So what basically God wants us to have is a balanced approach. We see that as we continue on through the section here. Verse 8. But you shall open your hand wide to Him willingly. Open your hand wide to Him willingly. What does the Scripture say in the New Testament? God loves a cheerful giver. He doesn't want somebody going to a brother with some help and saying, Here, God made me do it. I really don't want to give this to you, but you know, if I want to be in God's kingdom, I better give it to you. No. You shall open your hand wide to Him willingly. But notice, lend Him. Notice that word, lend Him. Sufficient for His need, whatever He needs. So here we've got a situation with some pump priming.

For those people that can repay, God says, give them a loan. And brethren, this is wisdom for us today. You may have family members. You may have friends. You may have anybody who'll come to you and say, Co-sign a loan for me. Or can you lend me some money? You know, that happens with some frequency, especially in the hard economic times we're living in. Well, a godly principle here, we can lend people money if you think they're able to repay. And you lend that money to them. In some cases, because you think that the person has fallen on hard times and it's not their fault, I mean that they were just a victim of bad circumstances, they were dealt a bad hand of cards, there are times you just simply give them the help as an outright gift. And God respects it. And that doesn't mean you give them everything they need. You may give them a portion of what they need. You give them what you can give them. God doesn't want people to think that we are never to give to the poor. There are times when that is needed. And some poor simply, you know, they might be handicapped, they might be unemployed with no hope of any nearby employment coming their way. They may have age issues, health issues, things beyond their control. We want to be open-hearted to them and soft-hearted to them. Not soft-minded, soft-hearted toward them. We'll get to more about blending in a moment. Verse 9, Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year that your release is at hand, and your eye shall be evil against your poor brother, and you will give him nothing, and he will cry out to the Lord against you and become sin among you. Verse 9 is to the schemers. So the people will say, well, you know, isn't it interesting he's asking for money now? Because if I give it, this is six year out of seven, if I give him money now in that seventh year, he doesn't have to repay me. So basically it's a gift. And people will think, well, you know, I'm not going to give him anything. He's strategizing here. I'm not going to have any of that. Well, that's where you have to ask God for wisdom. You know, again, we don't want to be hard-hearted, but we don't want to be soft-headed either. So we ask God for wisdom as to what we should do in those circumstances. Obviously, we want to err in a side of mercy. We want to err in a side of giving, but we want to be foolish. Some of the worst things that can happen to people is when we give them things that they shouldn't be having. You know, those of us who are parents, we've probably all been guilty as parents of giving our kids things our kids shouldn't have had at the time. But our hearts were melting, and we just wanted to give them something, and sometimes it works to their hurt.

We don't want to do that. Verse 10 talks about motivation. Motivation. You shall surely give to Him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to Him. Now, God loves the cheerful giver. God wants you to have a merry heart when you give. Because for this thing, the Lord your God will bless you at all the work in which you put your hand.

So He'll bless you for all of that.

So the whole concept here is the idea that we want to be able to help when we can help. And there are times when we shouldn't help. We have to be very careful to make sure we know which times are which. Okay, starting here in verse 12 and going through verse 18. We have the law of the releasing of slaves. Now, I'm not going to talk here about slavery in general in Israel. That's a whole different subject. You know, in our culture, in our history here in America, the concept of any kind of slavery is abhorrent to all of us.

But there were times in Israel where people sold themselves into slavery. And we'll get into that just right now. So I'm not going to try to cover the whole subject, but just what this chapter here pertains to. Sometimes in Israel, when the person's poverty was such that he simply had nothing.

He had no prospects of getting much of anything. He couldn't feed himself. He couldn't clothe himself. He couldn't keep a roof over his head. He didn't have money to pay his debts. He didn't have any money at all. He was really in the red. Under such circumstances, Israelites sometimes were forced to sell themselves into slavery.

And basically what they would do is go to their creditor and say, I can't pay you. I will become your slave. I will become your bondservant until my debt is fully paid off. When it's fully paid off, I go free. And that's what is happening here. So starting here in verse 12. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

I think it's important to note that this is not necessarily coinciding with the year of release. People can sell themselves into slavery any number of years. But after six years of servitude on the seventh year, whether it's year of release or not, they are to go free. Verse 13. And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed.

Empty-handed. You shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your refreshing floor, from your wine-press, from what the Lord has blessed you with. You shall give to him. Now again, brethren, when we think about the example of Israel coming out of Egypt, when they left Egypt, they left with a high hand. They spoiled the Egyptians. And again, we've got the idea here in verses 13 and 14 of some pump priming. You know, the person who had to sell himself in a servitude to pay off their debts, if the debts are paid off, but they've got no income coming in, and then on their own, well, very quickly they'll go back to being a slave again.

So we've got to break that cycle. The God says the way we're going to break that cycle is they've paid you your debt. You give them some seed money to start out in a new life. Give them what they need to start out on a new life. And brethren, we're going to see where that has spiritual significance for us. We were slaves to Satan. God released us from our slavery.

And God gave us something very precious as we started our new life. He gave us His Holy Spirit. Verse 15, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and, Lord, your God redeemed you, and therefore I command you this thing today. And if it happens that He says to you, I will not go away from you because He loves you in your house, since He prospers with you, then you shall take an owl and thrust it through His ear to the door, and He shall be your servant forever.

Also, to your female servants, you shall do likewise. Now, again, I'm not trying to discuss all the rules for slavery in Israel, but God had rules for slavery for Israel. And, again, in our mind we feel the whole thing is abhorrent, but we understand that God had His reasons. People were going to do this anyway, so God has to give them guidelines. One of the guidelines is that slaves were to be very humanely treated, not like the history in our nation, but humanely treated, to the place where somebody would say, you know what, I have worked for you for all these years, and it's been good.

You've given me good living conditions. You've given me good food. You love me. You respect me. I am going to... I want to stay with you, because my life will be a lot better under your care than any place else. And so if that's the case, then it says here, you should take an all in verse 17 and thrust it through his ear. That sounds barbaric, doesn't it? And yet, if I were to ask for a showing of hands of the ladies here, who've had their... they can put a nice earring through their ear, who've had their ears pierced, probably a number of you've had your ears pierced.

That's all this is talking about. Now, it sounds really dramatic to take a nail to a door, but basically their ears are being pierced. I don't know if they had to wear an earring or something to signify that they are going to be forever in this situation or not. But that's all we're talking about here. Verse 18, It shall not seem hard to you when you send them away. Now, this is if the person doesn't want to stay with the family.

It shall not seem hard to you when you send them away free from you. For he has been worth a double-hired servant in serving you six years. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do. So, it's like a double-hired servant. Now, what does that mean, where this person has been like a double-hired servant?

Well, had this servant not served during his six years, the debt would have been entirely lost. The difference between the debt lost and the debt recovered by the labor, plus the fact that this person was a slave, can work many more hours than normal, means that they basically have gotten back twice what they would have gotten.

So, in God's eyes, this was very much a good thing under the circumstances. Again, this is how God takes care of the poor. God doesn't say to people, you can't properly take care of yourself, so let's give you handouts. No. That's not God's way. God says, if you don't work, you don't eat. That may sound harsh, but that's God's way. Again, we've got extenuating circumstances on people who are handicapped, and they can't work, and we make allowance for that. Okay, let's go to the last section.

This is verses 19-23, and then again, we'll give four major lessons learned in this chapter after that. But in verses 19-23, we have the law of giving the firstborn to God. Now, behind what we have in these verses here, there's a concept. And the concept is that God owns everything. And as creator, God has the perfect right to claim everything. But here, God is only claiming the firstborn. But just like God owns everything, and He only claims 10% from you, we don't give God tithes, we pay God tithes. That tithe is God's. We're not being generous by giving Him His tithe. That's His. We pay Him. We give offerings.

We pay tithes. And so God owns everything. But He's only requiring here the firstborn. And there's lessons to be learned here. Just as when you and I pay our tithes to God, what does God do with that? Does God need money? Does God have a mortgage payment on heaven? I don't think God's got a mortgage payment on heaven. No. God takes the money that we pay, our tithe, and what does He do? He basically gives it back to us.

We've got a paid ministry. We've got the websites. We've got our literature. We've got all these things that have been a tremendous help for you over the years. Paying for church halls and the like. Let's get into this. Verse 19. All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock shall be sanctified to the Lord your God. Be sanctified means to be set apart. So the firstborn are set apart for God's use.

You should do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor share the firstborn of your flock. So from birth, the firstborn were counted as special. They were set aside for God's purpose. They couldn't be used for any other purpose. In a God's eyes, they were very special. Now, we're going to get to this concept regarding our sacrifice of the God in just a couple of minutes. Verse 20.

Now, what does verse 20 sound like to you? Sounds like the Feast of Tabernacles, correct? At the Feast of Tabernacles, you take those animals and you make sacrifice. For example, the Peace Offering, you're allowed to eat of the Peace Offering. The Priest will offer the sacrifice. The Priest eats of the sacrifice, but then so does the offeror eat of the sacrifice. And that's one way they are fed. Verse 21.

Obviously, there's a physical meaning there, but there's also a spiritual meaning there. And our service to God, our service to God must be as pure as we can make it, as unadulterated as we can make it. We don't want to give God defective, shoddy service. We want to give God the very best. Just as these first things represented the very best, our service to God should be the very best. No matter what we do, if we sing, it should be the best we can sing. If we serve in other capacities, the very best we can do in those capacities. Verse 22.

Ultimately, it refers to Jesus Christ and His shed blood, and the life that we have through His shed blood. Okay. So we've gone through chapter 15. We're not going to go any further. We're not going to go to chapter 16. But we do want to go back now and take a look at some salient spiritual lessons that God has for us in this section of Scripture. Let's begin, however. I'll put a marker here. Let's go to Genesis 1.

Again, as we're reading the Scriptures, any Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, any Scripture we're reading, we always want to look for the subtext. We want to look for the meaning under what may be just the obvious. There are various levels. There are various strata of meaning. And as you go through the Old Testament and see the various things God asked Israel to do, there was a purpose. God is a great teacher. And what is it that God wants us to understand? Chapter 1 of Genesis, verses 26 and 27. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Then he goes on about having dominion and rulership over various aspects of the earth. Verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them male and female. He created them.

Whenever we see things like we see in Deuteronomy chapter 15, we realize, okay, those are lessons to be learned and help us to become more like God. How do we become more like God by reading Deuteronomy chapter 15? What lessons are there for us to learn? You know, we're not Israelites. We don't have this kind of economy anymore. We don't have slavery and that sort of thing anymore. What do we learn as modern-day Christians from Deuteronomy chapter 15? Lesson number 1. Lesson number 1, and this is taken from these first six verses of chapter 15. And that is that God wants us to love the disadvantaged. Love the disadvantaged. You know, when Jesus Christ was asked what were the two great laws, one was to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and being, and the second was to love our neighbor as ourself. And certainly, God's word is clear. We are to take care of the poor. We have a responsibility for our brothers and sisters in the flesh. We're not to deliberately set lower wages if we're an employer. We're not to steal their wages. We're not to be the kind of person who rules roughshod over people economically.

And it was interesting, over in Ann Arbor today, the sermonette dealt with Rockefeller and how Rockefeller establishes wealth. And it was an interesting sermonette in that as a family man, Mr. Rockefeller was quite a very good family man. But when it came to business, business came first. And there were some practices that he got into that made a lot of people upset and angry with Mr. Rockefeller.

We don't want to be like that in business. If we're going to be business people, we're going to be good Christian business people. Again, we're not going to be hard-hearted, but as a businessman, we're not going to be soft-headed either. There's a right and there's a wrong way to conduct business. Let's take a look at James 1.

When we're looking at those first verses there of chapter 15 of Deuteronomy, I said it was the law of generosity of debtors to the disadvantaged. Let's take a look at what God says here in James 1. Of course, James is Christ's half-brother, apostle, headquarters pastor in Jerusalem, James 1, verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows in their trouble, to be there for the disadvantaged, the orphans and the widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. That's a pure and undefiled religion before God is. That's a lesson that God wants us to learn. It's certainly a lesson we see in Deuteronomy chapter 15.

Turn, if you went over to Psalm 82.

Psalm 82 and verse 3.

Psalm 82 and verse 3, where it says, Defend the poor and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and the needy. So once again, here we see love toward the disadvantaged, love toward the guy or the girl who just doesn't have what the rest have. To be compassionate of heart. Deuteronomy 15 is a message about the human heart. Now we're to love those who don't have what we have.

Matthew 19 and verse 21.

Verse 16. Now behold, one came and said to him, Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I might have eternal life? He said, Why do you call me good? Now, wasn't Jesus Christ good? Yeah, Christ was good. That's not the point. The point was, this man didn't know who he was talking to. Christ is beyond good. He's God in the flesh. And so the man had a problem with orientation. He didn't know who he was referring to, who he was talking with. No one is good but one. That is God. Well, Christ was God. That's the point. You're not just talking to some guy off the street. I'm God! That's basically the idea here. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.

Now, starting the first weekend in August, as I may have mentioned, I want to go through a series regarding the Sabbath and people who would have the various critiques as to why we should not be keeping the Sabbath.

Somebody gave me a study paper from our former association. It's an eight-page study paper with very fine print. It was regular print, probably 16 or 20 pages long. It's nothing but, here's why I don't keep the Sabbath, here's why I don't keep the Sabbath, here's why I don't keep the Sabbath, and it's just an X number of pages of that. Well, I'm going to take and go through that page by page, phrase by phrase, and it's going to take probably three Sabbaths.

And say, here's what the critics say about the Sabbath, but here's the proper response from the Word of God. Here's what they say, here's what God's Word says. I'm going to start that first of August. Probably run three Sabbaths. But one of the points I want to make here is in verse 17, people say, well, we believe in grace. Well, so do we. Everything you and I do is by the grace of God. Our breathing, our hearing, our vision, certainly everything spiritually is of the grace of God.

But people will make the mistake and say, well, it's grace, and that's it. There's nothing required. Here a person comes to Christ and says, what do I do to have eternal life? Christ didn't say, well, wait a minute, it's just a matter of grace. He didn't say that. No, he said, keep the commandments.

There are requirements. There are things for us to do. Verse 18, then he said, in which one? He said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear a fault of witness, honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbors yourself. And so here we've got a listing of the commandments that deal with loving our fellow man. The young man said, to him, all these things that I've kept for my youth, what do I still lack? Verse 21, if you want to be mature, if you want to be perfect, if you want to have the frame of mind to enter the kingdom, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, come and follow me.

Now, again, brethren, as we've properly taught over the years, this is not telling all Christians at all times that we've got to sell everything we've got and give to the poor. That's not the point. The point is, this is very specific for this gentleman. He was, in some ways, keeping the commandments that dealt with loving his fellow man. But there was a God he had that wasn't the true God, and that God was Mammon. That's why Jesus Christ says, well, you know, you need to get rid of that God, so sell what you've got, and then you can come and properly follow me.

But here we see, for our understanding, as we take, again, various levels of understanding and apply this what we saw there in Deuteronomy chapter 15. Here we have an open-hearted individual who should have been wanting to, if he said he wanted to be in the kingdom of God, be willing to do what Christ says here. Of course, that is also true for us. So the bottom line here is point number one, a love toward the disadvantaged. A second overarching spiritual lesson to be learned from Deuteronomy chapter 15, we saw in verses 7 through 11 in Deuteronomy 15 where we would have generosity to the poor.

Well, here is a lesson to be learned in that section. Love means helping the poor help themselves. Love means helping the poor help themselves. Remember we talked about gifts, we talked about loans. God's way is that we are never to indulge the poor by giving them license to continue to be poor. That's not God's way. God's way is that he wants everybody to work, to work hard, to earn a living.

Now again, I don't want to have to keep on qualifying this. We do have people who have various handicaps, they can't work, we understand that we help those people. But if we got somebody who is able-bodied and won't work, that's a different matter altogether. God does not indulge laziness. God does not indulge slawfulness. None of you in this room were given anything. All of you in this room, you worked hard all your life for what you have.

You understand the value. You understand the beauty of hard work. There are so many lessons, so many good things about hard work. But if we just say, well, we will just give things to people, we hurt them. I think I've told you in years past the story, it's supposed to be a true story.

A little boy saw a cocoon that was on a table in his house. He saw the butterfly trying to come out of this cocoon. I'm going to help this butterfly, because the butterfly was really struggling. It just seemed he couldn't get out of that cocoon. So the little boy took a pair of scissors, and he snapped the cocoon, and the little bug came out, the little butterfly came out real quickly, and he thought, I did really good by that.

The little boy walks out and comes back the next day. The butterfly stole it on that ledge, on the table there. It didn't move. How they moved it, it moved a little bit, not much. It came back later the same day, and it stole there! Why? When that butterfly is trying to get out of the cocoon, it's struggling, and in the struggle it's pumping those wings, and as it pumps those wings, it pumps the liquid out of those wings so it can properly fly.

But if the liquid has never pumped out of those wings, and it's only got one shot to do this, if it's not pumped out of those wings, when it comes out of that cocoon, the wings are too heavy and it can't fly. So even though the little boy thought that he was helping the butterfly, he was hurting the butterfly. And, brother, even though you think he may be helping somebody by giving them something, sometimes that means we're soft-headed. We sometimes should give things to people to their herd.

Probably all of us as parents, at one time or another, as we've been parents, we've probably given something to our kids, we probably shouldn't have done. They come to us, they're beautiful children, we love them, our heart melts when they're asking, and we give them something, and it turns out badly, sometimes. So God's way is that we take a good, long look and make a determination with God's help with wisdom. Does this person need a gift, or does this person need a loan? God is quite clear about that.

Let's take a look at a couple of scriptures where God doesn't mince words. Over here in 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 3. Now, again, a little bit of background to the church, to this gospel, to this message here, this epistle to Thessalonica. Paul's dealing with really new people. And when you're dealing with really new people, you've got to be real careful. You can't always come into a new group of people and give them the strongest message because they may not be able to cope with that. They may have issues with that.

As we say in the ministry, you give them some of the hay, but you don't give them the whole cart. This was true for the people there in Thessalonica. They were concerned that Paul may have been in his ministry for the money, not all the people, but some of the people, some loud members of the congregation. They thought maybe Paul was in it for the money. And so Paul thought, well, if that's what they're thinking, I'll take that away from them because I don't want them to be stumbled because they think I'm in it for the money.

So I won't collect tithes from this group. And over and over again, Paul would talk to the people there in the church in Philippi and say, you know, I'm trying to work as a tentmaker. I'm doing a pretty good job, but from time to time I needed some extra money. Could you help me out? So the brethren in Philippi would send Paul some money. Now you may think, well, shouldn't these people in Thessalonica been taught about time? Of course. And they were. In time, when the time was right, God began to work with them and teach them the things they needed to know.

And Paul even refers to this section I'm about to go through about what his needs are and the fact that he has the right to request money from them. So let's take a look at the second Thessalonians, chapter 3, starting here, verse 7. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge. He wasn't looking for a handout, but worked with labor and toil night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.

Now, verse 8 is talking, he says, he worked night and day. He's talking about he took a day job. Paul was an accomplished tentmaker. And back in that day, when tents were much more prevalent than today, that was a pretty good occupation and made some pretty decent money. So Paul was doing his job as being a tentmaker during the day, and then he was proclaiming the gospel at night. He had a rough schedule. And when he says he didn't want to be a burden, that's a reference to tithing.

He didn't want them to get the wrong idea. He wanted him to get the proper idea about the gospel. That was key in his mind. That's what he wanted them to get first.

We'll worry about the money aspects of things later. We'll get to that, he thought, but down the road. Verse 9, not because we do not have authority. So Paul there is alluding to the fact, you know, I've got perfect right to ask for tithes from you.

That's God's way. He's not going to do that. Not because we do not have authority to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we recommend we command you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. If he won't work, don't eat.

Very clear. That's how God works. You know, and again, if a person's able-bodied will not work, well, then they should not eat. That's God's way. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Those who are such, we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. So, again, love means helping the poor to help themselves.

You know, there's the old phrase, where we don't want to give somebody a fish. We want to teach somebody a fish so they can help themselves. That's exactly what we want to do. 1 Timothy 5. Just a page over. A couple pages over. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 8. 1 Timothy 5. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Pretty clear language. This is what God expects. God works hard. Christ works hard. He wants us to work hard and to learn from the hard work. Can we move on to the next section in Deuteronomy 15, verses 12-18? Verse 12-18 in Deuteronomy 15 talked about the release of slaves. There certainly is a tremendous spiritual lesson to be learned here. Lesson number 3 is that God's grace brings freedom. God's grace brings freedom.

The Israelites were given release from Egypt. It was by God's grace they were given freedom. In chapter 15 of Deuteronomy, the slaves, after six years, were given freedom. And in that freedom, they were told they would receive something to get them started, to get them going, to break that cycle of poverty. Well, let's take a look at Romans 6.

Because you and I, we stood before God as great debtors. You and I stood before God as slaves. We were slaves to Satan, slaves to this world, slaves to our own vices. And yet, when Jesus Christ gave his life for us, we were freed from that slavery. Romans 6, verse 6, Romans 6, 6, It says, Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. No longer slaves of sin. We have been given freedom. We drop down to verse 16, same chapter. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You are that one slave to whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? So all slavery is not bad. The Apostle Paul continually referred to him as Christ-bond slave, Christ-bond servant. And we certainly want to do, you know, Christ and God, they're the ones we serve. We drop down to verse 18, Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Remember the example there in Deuteronomy 15, where the people didn't want to leave the household because it was such a good household? Well, here we've got an example where we are now slaves of righteousness. We want to be a part of this household. So there are tremendous lessons to be learned. We're going to start with verse 22 of Romans 6. But now we've been set free from sin, and become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life.

God's grace brings freedom. God's grace brings everlasting life. As we are the slaves to a beneficent God. A loving, holy, righteous, beautiful, powerful God. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 19. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 19. You remember from Deuteronomy chapter 15, that when the slaves were to be set free when they left, that the slave owner had to give them liberally from his possessions. Give them some seed money, so to speak, to start them out so they would break that poverty cycle. Notice what God does to us. We were slaves. We have been set free. But God also gives us something to start us off in life spiritually.

Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 19. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. We've spoken in weeks past, Lee made reference to it in a sermon today, that when we became members of God's church, when God wrote our name in that Lamb's Book of Life at the time of our baptism, and laying out of hands received God's Spirit, God has given us not only physical attributes, but God has given us spiritual gifts. We all have at least one spiritual gift, and that's the gift of God's Holy Spirit.

Most of us have many more gifts than that. Just as the slave was to get something from the slave owner, God gives us things to start us off spiritually in life. What are your gifts? As I look at your faces here, some of you are very good at discussing things.

You're very good at making things plain. Some of you have good business sense. Those are physical things that can be used in God's work. We do need tithes and offerings. Some of you know how to make a buck. That's good. Others of you know how to encourage people. There are some of you here who know how to sing. There are some who know how to play the piano. There are any number of gifts that you have as a group of people. God has given you these wonderful things that you don't go out empty. He wants you to give those things out to your brothers and sisters. Let's finish by looking at the very last section of Deuteronomy 15, verses 19-23.

In that section we looked at the offerings that God was given, the firstborn of the flocks. The lesson I derive from that is this fourth point, that we are to give God the very best we have. That's an overarching spiritual lesson that we get from that last section of Deuteronomy. We are to give God the very best we have.

We are to go through life and say, Well, Father, I've got problems, I've got issues, I'm not going to really work on those issues, so here's what I'm going to give you, take it or leave it. God doesn't want that kind of approach. He wants us, we take it, we have these times where we're analyzing ourselves at pass-over time and so forth. We see we've got our various issues, God shows us our issues, our conscience teaches us that we've got issues. God says, Okay, now what are you going to do about that?

Are you going to give me the very best you have in terms of overcoming? Or are you just going to let things kind of slip and slide and maybe we'll get to it? Are we going to be slawful in our overcoming, or are we going to be diligent in our overcoming? And that, brethren, is something for each and every one of us to think about today. Where we are at in giving our God our very best. Romans 12 Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves a living sacrifice.

You know, in Deuteronomy 15, they were to present an animal as a sacrifice. Well, no, we're presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice. And Deuteronomy 15, the sacrifice had to be good without defect. It had to be the best they had. That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So here we've got this tremendous spiritual sacrifice. And, brethren, I just leave it to you. You know, you might want to resurrect the sermons I gave years ago, where we went through the five different sacrifices you see in the Old Testament. Five different sacrifices. How do you stack up with each of those five different sacrifices? The burnt offering, where it shows total dedication to God. The meat offering, which was actually a grain offering, which shows a relationship that we have with our fellow man. The peace offering, which shows how we've become at peace with God and man. You've got the sin offering. You've got the trespass offering. Both of those two offerings deal with our sins. One in a general sense, and one in a more specific sense. You know, when you and I think about sacrifices to God, we think about our sins, we think about Passover, we think about only those two sacrifices, the sin offering and the trespass offering. But God had five major Old Testament sacrifices, and only two of the five dealt with sin. The other three didn't. The burnt, the peace and the meal, they didn't deal with sin at all.

So we have to ask ourselves, in light of those sacrifices, what is our sacrifice like? How clean, how pure, how lack of defections is our sacrifice to God. Last scripture for today, we'll be ending early today. Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians chapter 3.

Notice the Apostle Paul here in his words.

But what things were gained to me, these that have counted loss for Christ. Yes, indeed, verse 8, I have hound all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ. King James says, I count them as dung. So here we've got a perspective. I want to conclude with this section of scripture because we see here a man who has recalibrated his thinking, who has taken stock of where he needs to be, and says, you know, I've analyzed my life, and here are the important things. And I want to give God the very best. So, brethren, as you and I think about what we've examined today in Deuteronomy chapter 15, let's ask ourselves the question, and only you can answer that in your heart and mind, and me and my heart and mind, and that is, are we giving God our very best? Are we living according to what we see there in Deuteronomy chapter 15? Are we making sure we don't have a hard heart? Are we making sure we don't have a soft head? We don't want either one. But we do want to have the right kind of heart that serves God and our fellow man.