Deuteronomy 24

I have used the preacher's outline in the sermon Bible commentary in preparing the sermon today. Incidentally, we're going to be going to Deuteronomy chapter 24, continuing our series on Deuteronomy. I am skipping Deuteronomy chapter 3, and I'm doing that for two reasons. One, I feel a need to move a little more quickly to conclude this book. And secondly, when you take a look—I'm not going to take the time now—but if you take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 23, very few of the laws that are there are applicable to the church today.

In a number of cases, they say, this kind of a person or that kind of person cannot be a part of the assembly of Israel for 10 generations. Well, that's not what Jesus Christ would say today. We are a group that believes in forgiveness and so on and so forth. The rules back in those days were a little more stringent. And so, since we need the time and so many of those laws just don't pertain, we're going to skip chapter 23. We want to go right to Deuteronomy chapter 24.

Deuteronomy 24, if you're writing something across the top of your paper, would be this. Deuteronomy 24, laws that protect relationships. Laws that protect relationships. Now, these laws are very applicable today to a New Covenant, New Testament church, New Testament setting. Now, as for our newer people, our visitors, the reason I'm going through Deuteronomy is because it shows how God's people can live victorious lives. Firstly, and secondly, the book was written to disturb God's people to rededicate their lives, to renew their commitment to obey God. And the reason I selected Deuteronomy is because both of those things are always relevant to God's people.

How to be victorious in our living and making sure that we continue a frame of mind where we rededicate ourselves and renew our commitment to obey God. That's something that's always the case. Deuteronomy is a series of sermons given by Moses. As you're aware, the children of Israel are across the Jordan River, right across from Jericho. Jericho may be one of the oldest cities ever built. They can look across the Jordan River into the new, into the Promised Land. They see Jericho a real fortress. Moses realizes he can't go with them into the Promised Land, so he wants to prepare the people as they go in.

We've gone through one of the three sermons he gave. That's the first five chapters of Deuteronomy. We're coming to the end of the second sermon, which goes from chapter 5 through chapter 26 of Deuteronomy. This section we're in now talks about what God expects from Israel. Now, the background of chapter 24 is that God expects and wants His people to have a solid society. And to have a solid society, we need good and healthy relationships.

No nation can survive without healthy relationships. So this chapter deals with how those relationships are built, principles that people can use to build those relationships and maintain those relationships. So let's get right into it. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 24. I may be a little slow in turning today. The last time I used my old Bible, I could pull out large sections like old hair. And I got to the place where it just was untenable to use that, so I bought a new Bible.

And you know how that is when you've got a new Bible. Pages stick together. If you find me turning a page and reading some other chapter, it's not that I'm having a senior moment. The pages are sticking together. Okay, chapter 24. The first five verses talk about protection of marriage. Protection of marriage. Marriage is the building block of society. I was recently reminded that I've not covered that subject in a long time. And so, probably after the first of the year, I want to give maybe at least a two-part series on marriage. Next Sabbath, Mary and I will be visiting her relatives over in Wisconsin, so we will not be with you.

Then, of course, the last week or so, we'll be in Cancun. So, there'll be a little bit of absenteeism by the Deus Andros family. But once we get back after the first of the year, I want to start a series on marriage. At least a two-part series and go through some things. But this is very important. Let's take a look. Let's read the first five verses in total, and I'll go back and review the meaning here. When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, when she is departed from his house and becomes another man's wife, if the latter husband, the next husband, detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her as his wife, then the former husband, the first guy, who divorced her, must not take her back to his wife after she has been defiled.

For that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin into the land which Lord your God has given you as an inheritance. When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business.

He shall be free at home one year and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

Okay, a lot of things there. A lot of things happening here. You remember Jesus Christ in the New Testament was talking to the people and he said, because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses wrote that you could have divorce, but from the onset that was not what God wanted to have.

Let's take a note. Let's put a marker here. Let's go to Genesis chapter 1 and take a look at what God does want us to have in terms of marriage. This is very important, especially in our society today, brethren. This is very important. It's important that you and I know how to discuss with people.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Notice the very first chapter of Genesis. We see that God makes two models of human beings. One a male, one a female. We've got Adam and Eve.

We don't have Adam and Albert. We've got Adam and Eve here. Okay. Then God blessed them and God said that then be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea or the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

So we talked about in a prior sermon, God has created mankind for the purpose of learning how to properly rule, to have dominion. Now we go over to chapter 2 of Genesis chapter 2.

And we'll kind of cut to the bottom line here, verse 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So this is what God has ordained from the very beginning. He's ordained a fruitful relationship. One man, one woman.

And they shall be together as husband and wife. Now we live in a society where people want to make test cases of everything. And this is something for us to be praying about. It may well be. You know, we are a tiny little group compared to all the various religions in America. But it may well come to the place where somebody notices we've got a very large imprint, footprint on the internet, and we may have a gay couple at some point in the future want to make a test case at the United Church of God. And they may say, Mr. Alessandro or whatever pastor is in the area, you know, Adam and Albert here, they want to get married, would you perform our marriage?

And, you know, that's, that's, you know, we can smile about that. But in one sense, it's not a funny thing. Because they could turn us into a national, well, these people are homophobes.

These people, you know, they're not fair. And so this is something we need to understand. You know, I chair our fundamental belief amendment committee. Any changes that they're going to be coming through the church will be coming through me. Right now, we've got one amendment to our Constitution that is very much needed. I, my committee, myself, my committee have endorsed it. We're passing it along to the doctrinal committee for their review, will be then come to you for you to take a look at. Then the ministry, three quarters, have got to accept this. But one of the things that we do not have in our governing documents is a discussion about marriage between one man and one woman. We've taken that for granted as a church. We can't take that for granted anymore. And so one of the things that these three men who put together this amendment talk about, about how marriage is between one man and one woman. It's endorsed by God. It's the only relationship of that nature endorsed by God. So we need to appreciate this. And we need to know how to explain this to people because sooner or later you're going to have a friend, maybe that's already happened in your life, somebody who worked with somebody in a neighborhood who comes and says, what's your view on? And they talk about this issue. And this is an issue that is relevant for our day. Now going back to, let's go back to chapter 24 of Deuteronomy.

Give you a little bit of background here. Here we see in verse 1 of chapter 24 where a man, he says he finds no favor in the eyes because he's found some uncleanness in her, in the woman.

Now notice this doesn't go bad, this doesn't go both ways. It's pretty much a male-dominated type of society where, you know, he finds something he doesn't like in her. And there may well be something she doesn't like in him, but the verbiage doesn't explain that.

But it got to the place in Jesus Christ's day where a man can sit in a group setting like this, and man can look at his wife, among other people, and say, I'm going to divorce you. And that was it.

Totally cut the lawyers out of the deal. No lawyers involved. Just looks at his wife, says, I'm divorcing you, and that would rank for a divorce. And it was any reason under the son a man could say that to his wife. And so it got to the place where divorce was so prevalent, it was such a whimsical thing that Christ had to make the statements that he did.

Now we, as you and I go through the scriptures, we see that there are two major reasons why God says, Jesus Christ says, the Bible says, that we can have a divorce. Two major reasons. We've got this as a study paper. You go to members.ucg.org and you can read the study paper for yourself. Two reasons. One is Porneo. Porneo is a very broad thing that talks about sexual deviancy.

It would include adultery. It would include any and all types of sexual misconduct.

Some people are wired the way that they find their mate has been fooling around and they've been unfaithful and so forth. Some people could, even though it's hard, some people can live with that. They can forgive that. Other people can't. They simply can't. And the ministry can't force somebody to simply accept that. So if that is the case and we would try to work with a relationship, if it can't be repaired, if Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again, we would allow divorce in a situation like that and for a person to remarry in a church. A second reason for, again, I can go ahead and give, and I have given sermons on this. We're just giving an overview here. Summer statement. The second reason is when the unbeliever is not pleased to dwell. When the unbeliever is not pleased to dwell. Now, there can be any number of reasons for this. It's not like Days of Christ time where somebody just says, well, I want to divorce you and that's it.

What we're looking at here is a habitual misconduct by the unbeliever, such as immorality, criminality. You know, maybe you got married to somebody and maybe become a drug dealer or something like that. So, immorality, criminality, addictive behaviors, abuse, desertion, willful desires, not providing for the family.

Somebody simply refuses to get work, refuses to provide for the family. It's not a matter that the unbeliever says, well, I don't want to live with you anymore. By the actions of the unbeliever, we see they don't want to live anymore with the with the believer. But that comes from the unbeliever, not from the believer. There's a third classification. It's not really part of what we say a divorce, although it may take a divorce in our setting, in our civil setting to get it. But that would be fraud. This happens from occasion where, growing up, let's say you grow up in a household where somebody is alcoholic, and you vow to yourself, I would never, ever marry an alcoholic. And then you're dating somebody, and this person hides that from you. You get married, and you find out all along this person is a weekend drunk or something like that, and you never knew it. God never bound that marriage. God would set that marriage aside as fraudulent. And there's reason for divorce there.

So, through all of this here, Moses realized that people are carnal, they're human, they don't have God's Holy Spirit. And because of the hardness of their heart, he allows for divorce. Unfortunately, people take this in a way that was never intended, and they become very loose with the way this is written. Now, verses 3 and 4, we're talking about the husband giving her a certificate of divorce, sends her out, and then he can never have her back. The reason behind that is, God doesn't want people playing games, where people are just marrying, remarrying, marrying again, and it's just kind of switching back and forth. It's chaos, especially when children are concerned. And so, God doesn't want that sort of thing to be taking place. And so, that's why that is written the way it is. Verse 5 is a way for God to protect the marriage relationship. When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business. It's not clear there if that means civil business, business of the state, or if that means the man just simply doesn't have to work.

I don't know how that would be done if he has to save money so he can take a full year off to be with his wife, or if that's something that the community would bestow upon him as a gift from the community. I don't know how that would work. But the idea is a man and a wife, a man and a woman, get married, and he stays with her for a full year. I think you can appreciate how that would strengthen a marriage relationship. That first year is a very difficult year for new couples.

A lot of growing pains getting used to one another and so forth. This would help lessen that challenge where people could have a full year to work on their marriage and make sure things are going properly. It is interesting, a little bit of a side note there. After this is from the Jameson Fawcett and Brown commentary, I want to quote here. It says, it is somewhat remarkable that the same rule was put into practice by Alexander the Great in his expedition against Persia. After the Battle of Granicus, he, as his men were retiring to winter quarters, he proclaimed to all the soldiers who had married that year that liberty was granted them to return home to Macedonia and pass the winter in society with their wives. So Alexander the Great, he didn't give a full year off, but at least he said, well, we're not at war. We're going to winter quarters. You guys go back home to your wives. You stay with your wives. And oh, by the way, Sergeant so-and-so will bring you back. What is time to go back to war again? So it was interesting.

Right now, a lesson to learn about these first five verses in Chapter 24.

The lesson to be learned is that God gives us marriage to help us prepare for our spiritual marriage. God gives us marriage to help us prepare for our spiritual marriage.

What do we learn as married people with the beauty of marriage? We learn remarkable things that, you know, it's not that singles can't learn this, but certainly married people learn it in great abundance, or at least should learn it in great abundance. Love for one another. This is something that is learned and in great abundance in a marriage relationship. Leadership. Not just husband leading the wife, there are times a wife has a leadership role in the marriage, as I've explained in the past. If I led our, you know, if I led Mary in terms of decorating our house, it would not look like it looks right now. Obviously, she takes the lead when it comes to decorating a home and giving all sorts of advice regarding the home and meals, that sort of thing.

And so both in the marriage, both husband and wife exercise leadership roles in different capacities. Submission. And again, it's not just the wife submitting to the husband, although that's true. There are times I submit to Mary and what, you know, she thinks is best.

She appreciates that. She appreciates many times. I ask her opinion. Sometimes I'm wanting to send out a letter or say this or that in a sermon. And I say, you know, I'm thinking of saying this. She says, well, that sounds kind of hard. That sounds a little tough. And so, so we kind of either throw that whole thing out or tone it down quite a bit. And so, you know, in that regard, I submit to what she thinks would be best in the circumstance. Wisdom. In a marital relationship. Wisdom is to be gained in working with another person very closely. Working together in harmony. Working together in harmony. Every marital relationship is going to have its issues.

Every, you know, every marital relationship will have, you know, a shining, glorious rainbow moments. And then every relationship will have, when do we get out of this cave type of a moment? And so people have to learn together to work in harmony. Looking out for the best interests of the other person. You know, when you're by yourself, it's easy to say, well, here's what I'm going to do. Well, maybe my wife doesn't want to do that. You know, maybe she has other plans, probably much better plans. So, you know, we're always looking out for the best interests of the other person. All those things and so many more are lessons that marriage helps us to learn. Helps us to be better people. Men are better. Men were more well-rounded.

I was talking to, you know, we put the message on the hotline in Ann Arbor about pushing services from 1030 back to 230. So I called Brian McGuire. I said, but Brian, we need to do that. And Lori's already, I think, in Oregon with her family for Thanksgiving. And so after I had called Brian to discuss that with him, he called me back and said, well, you know, Lori's in Oregon. And I don't know where my list is. Lori's got the list. So I don't know who to call. I said, well, you know, call Keith. Keith Hobbs got all the lists and who calls who. And so, you know, there are times where we're really hamstrung if our wives are not around. We can be a pretty poor-luring group of people without our wives. And of course, they know that. And they love to remind us of that from time to time. Let's take a look at Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19.

Verse 6 through 8, And I heard as a word the voice of a great multitude is the sound of many waters and the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.

Oh, brethren, marriage teaches all of us who are married how to be more ready. It's a tremendous instrument in the hands of God to help us become more ready.

Verse 8, And Torah is granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So just as we as the bride of Christ need to learn so many lessons to be married to Jesus, the same thing is true in a physical relationship with husbands and wives as we give to one another and serve one another and love one another.

Okay, so let's now go back to chapter 24 of Deuteronomy.

And look at other laws that are there to protect relationships. We see in the first five verses protecting marriage. We're going to combine verses 6 and verses 10 through 13, those two sections. And this is talking about protecting people's livelihoods and protecting people from loan collectors. I'm going to connect these two. Protecting a man's livelihoods. Take a look at verse 6. No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in a pledge, for he takes one's living in the pledge. Now the concept here is that there are times when people have to get loans, take out loans. And whenever you take out a loan, the person is going to give you the money, they want collateral. They want collateral. And so the idea here, biblically, is you don't... there's certain things you can ask for, but there are certain things you don't ask for.

For example, in our day-to-day, a mechanic wants to take out a loan. You cannot take the man's tools from him as collateral. He needs those tools. And that's what we've got right here. You can't take a baker or somebody and take away the millstone. He needs that as a tool to do his job.

And so the idea here is, in no situation do you put somebody behind the eight ball by taking away something they need to feed their family, to take care of their family, to put bread and milk on the table for the kids. And so here you've got a common sense rule by God the Father Jesus Christ about how this should be done. Now we go over to verse 10 through 13. Now this is verse 6. It's talking about a man's livelihood. Now we're talking in a similar manner about loan collectors.

Verse 10, when you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get the pledge.

You know, the feeling of God is quite simple. All of us are created in God's image. And that means that every human being, whether they're rich or in this case, if they're poor, well, they've got to ask for a loan. God tells people, look, if you're going to extend a loan to this individual, you don't have a right to go into his home. That's his castle. You stay out of his home.

You respect his privacy. You respect the fact that he's an individual made in God's image.

And you give him the respect that he's due. Verse 11, you shall stand outside of the man to whom you yet lend, shall bring the pledge out to you. And if the man is poor, you shall not take his pledge overnight. Now the idea there is, maybe this person is so poor, the only thing they've got is the clothing on their back. There may be some things that they have, the necessities they need for their daily living. And so the idea is, if you're going to take a pledge, he's going to show you in good faith he's willing to work with you. He will give you whatever for a short time. But because he is so poor, you can't keep that overnight. So again, the whole idea here is working with people in a way that's good for them, even though they are disadvantaged people. Don't take disadvantaged people and make them even more disadvantaged, is what God is getting at here.

Verse 13, you shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you, and shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God. So here we see God demanding compassion for the poor person. He wants the poor to have personal privacy and dignity, not to be oppressed. He wants the poor people to be treated with respect. Now, there's a spiritual lesson in all of this as well. A spiritual lesson to be learned in verses 6 and 10 through 13 is that from the very beginning, God always wanted us to practice the golden rule. The golden rule is not just a New Testament, New Covenant construct. The golden rule, loving our neighbors as ourselves. These are principles that are biblical-wide, Bible-wide. It's always been the mind of God. People who want to make the Bible fighting against itself, the Old Testament against the New Testament, that's not in the mind of God. The mind of God is we love our neighbor. We are wanting to preserve the privacy and dignity of our neighbors, even when they're in a disadvantaged situation. To put a marker here, we'll go over to Matthew 7 and verse 12.

Matthew 7, 12. Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. So in my Bible, this is red lettering. Jesus Christ is referring back to what we would call the Old Testament. He says this has been a rule, this has been a law, this has been a construct that we've had from the very beginning. It's a matter of love. So there in verse 12, we've got the golden rule. Matthew chapter 19. And verse 19, Matthew 19, 19.

Where it says, Honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So notice in that verse, you have a discussion about one of the commandments, honoring your father and your mother, which shows that the next phrase is also equally weighty. Honor your father and your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now in a church, we spend a great deal of time about loving our neighbor. And that's what we should be doing. But brethren, also notice something. There's nothing wrong with you having a proper, a proper love for yourself.

Now too many times we as carnal human beings, or people who've got carnality in us, who've got God's Spirit in us, but we've got carnality as well, too many times we take that to an extreme. But taking it as in a balanced way, there's nothing wrong with you properly standing up for yourself, having self-respect, having dignity. When the Apostle Paul was wrongfully thrown in jail, and they wanted to let him out the back door, he says, Oh no, you come and you open the front door and you walk with me out that front door. There is a certain respect we can have for ourselves. It's not being vain. If we do it properly, and we want to do it properly, we want to do it the way God would have us do it. So these are the lessons we find as we look at that section of Scripture. We'll go back now to Deuteronomy chapter 24. I see I'm fighting the clock, but we did start a little bit later. So it'll be my excuse if I go over a little bit later.

Matthew chapter 24 and verse 7, protection against kidnapping. Now you may think, well, what in the world? I'm never going to kidnap anybody. What relationship has this law to me?

Well, let's take a look at it. There's principles involved here. Verse 7, if a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die and you shall put away the evil from among you. So here we've got a capital offense worthy of the death penalty.

Now, how does this relate to you and I today? You and I have never kidnapped anybody. We're not about to kidnap anybody. But how does this relate to you and I? Brethren, think about it for a moment. What does the kidnapper do in the process of taking somebody? What is done?

Well, one of the things that is done is the person who's being kidnapped is abused.

So we don't want to be in a situation where we have an abusive relationship with somebody. If we're abusing somebody, mentally, verbally, emotionally, physically, we're no better than a kidnapper. A kidnapper dehumanizes the victim. We can do that with our tongue. We can do that with the roll of our eyes. We can do that with the inflection of our voice. That is something that we can do to dehumanize somebody, make them feel like a total village idiot.

We can put people at personal risk through what we do on our job. If we do slipshot work, we're working on the auto line or whatever, and we're not careful with what we do. We can put people's life at risk. The kidnapper takes away from his victim the ability to make choices.

That's another way of saying that the kidnapper controls people. Can you and I become a victim?

Can we control people? Over the course of my ministry, I've met many people in God's church.

Many people who have been controlling people. Maybe they feel they had to be that way because of the way they were brought up. Maybe their parents are very controlling people.

Too many times, people come into the church and we drag society with us. If we're alcoholic, we drag that with us. If we had other issues, we drag that with us. If we have marital issues, we drag that with us. If we have control issues in our family, we may drag that with us.

The kidnapper controls his victim. Only you can answer in your own heart and mind if you've ever been accused of being a controlling person. The kidnapper breaks the hearts of the family of the kidnapped person. We can take actions where we break people's hearts. We've got to be very careful.

When we examine what kidnapping does to the victim, there are a lot of things you and I can be thinking about in our own hearts and minds that may well apply to us. There's a spiritual lesson to be learned here. We must never hijack somebody else's life. We can hijack your life by character assassination, by respectability and ineliation, through gossip, through being a controlling person, trying to take people's voice away, their free moral agency away, by just trying to run their life for them. We're not talking about little children. We're talking about one adult to another adult. We must not try to hijack somebody else's life. We may love people. We may think they're making awful choices, but they are adults. They need to be responsible for their own lives.

And we just simply can't go ordering them around because they're an adult now, and it's up to them.

Deuteronomy 30, one verse here. Deuteronomy 30, verse 19.

You know, God could live our lives for us. He can make us into robots, but He doesn't. He gives us free moral agency. Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life.

Now, He's not forcing them to choose life. He's giving them a set of choices.

There's nothing wrong with us giving people we love a set of choices, but especially when they're adults, there comes a point where that's all we do. We give them choices, and it's up to them to choose. That's what God does for us. He gives us choices. He says, no, you choose. I'm not going to run your life for you. You've got to run your own life. Okay, we go back to chapter 24 of Deuteronomy.

Verses 8 and 9, we see protection from infectious disease. Protection from infectious disease.

Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse 8, take heat in an outbreak of leprosy that you carefully observe to do according to all that the priests, the Levites, teach you, shall teach you, just as I've commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt. Brethren, notice here that Moses didn't actually go over the laws concerning leprosy or skin diseases. He encouraged the people to follow what the priest told them to do.

Now, this is important on a number of levels, because today the ministry works in the same capacity as the Old Testament priests. Now, we don't do sacrifices, physical sacrifices, but we're here to teach the people of God. And there are times in our life when things are where there's counsel that is needed, you go to, in this case, they would go to the Levite, they would go to the priests. In our day-to-day, you go to the ministry.

I've got an issue. I've got something I need to discuss. It has to do, perhaps, with sin. Leprosy in the Bible is a type of sin. When you think about what leprosy did, leprosy was a part of the flesh. Sin is a part of the flesh. Leprosy would go deep into the flesh. Sin goes deep into our hearts. Leprosy would deform and disfigure and hurt and maim. Sin does the same thing.

So what we're seeing here in verse 8 and 9 is the need for people to realize that there is a ministry there to be consulted. Not to be consulted about every last little thing, like we used to do back 30, 40 years ago. That was ridiculous. That bordered on control of the ministry over the membership. In some cases, it was control. We don't want that.

Now here, verse 9, it talks about Miriam. What was Miriam's problem? Miriam's problem was one of presumptuousness, where she thought, well, Moses is in charge, but there's no reason why Aaron and I can't be in charge. And so the leadership must not be presumptuous. We talked about this when we were going through and discussing about the governance of God.

The ministry must not be presumptuous, but also the members must not be presumptuous.

The members must not be... Nobody should be presumptuous. Well, I've been in the church 30, 40 years. I don't need him. Well, maybe you don't, but maybe you do.

So we've got to be very careful about that. So a spiritual lesson to be learned here, physically, is the law of quarantine. I don't know how many times more true in other churches, not so true in Detroit, but more true in other churches I've pastored. People will come and they're sneezing, they're sniffling, they're coughing, they're hacking. They tell you, well, don't come too close. I've got the flu. And I'm thinking to myself, brother or sister, what in the world are you doing here? Do you know what a cough does to Mr. D? He gets a cough and he's gone for eight weeks at a time. I love you, but I don't need this. Get out of here.

Now, that's what I like to say to them. I don't say those things. But people should know better. People say, I've been in a church all these years. Practice the law of quarantine. We love you, but we don't love your cold. We don't love the fact that you're cacking in our face. We don't love the fact that you're sneezing at your hands and you want to shake mine. Don't like that. Just don't like that. We don't care for that. But also, brother, on a spiritual note, there is a law of spiritual quarantine. Now, this is harder. We see it there in 1 Corinthians 5, where people felt they knew better than God. There was a person committing all sorts of sexual sins in the congregation. They thought that they were being merciful. Well, we'll let that person in there.

Well, brother, there's a difference between being forgiving. There are times when people go from being forgiving to being permissive. We don't want to be permissive. It's not a matter of being merciful at times. It's a matter of being permissive. People in 1 Corinthians 5 were being permissive. You're not permissive with sin. Sin's got to be dealt with. Let's take a look at Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. There are times when people simply have to be told, you know, we've tried working with you, we've tried working with you, but it's not working out. You need to stay away from our people. You need to stay away from church. Now, that sounds harsh. In one sense, it is harsh. What did Paul tell the person there in 1 Corinthians 5? He said, I'm delivering you to Satan. I'm turning you out away from the church and the community because you don't want to work with us. Romans chapter 16 verse 17. I urge you, therefore, brother, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. There's a shunning process, depending upon the circumstances.

People who cause the vision, people who have contrary doctrine, people who have all sorts of sins they want to bring inside the congregation, and they want people just to be accepting of their sin. We all, brethren, are sinners. We all understand that. But it's one thing to be working on an issue and come to church and say, well, the church is a hospital for six people, which it is.

But it's another thing to come to church and say, well, I've got this sin. I don't care about working on it. And who are you to say something to me about the fact I've got issues? I remember so clearly an individual who felt it was their responsibility as a man to sample every woman he put in the church. And I said to him, what are you doing? He said, well, we've got to find out if we're compatible. I said, we don't do that in the church. Well, who are you to say that to me?

Well, I'm your pastor. That's who I am. Well, I'll start attending over there. Well, no, you won't. I'll call that pastor. Where do you go? I will call the pastor and say, here's a fellow who feels he can sleep with every woman he wants to. Now, that's an attitude we're talking about, brother. That's an attitude that needs to be quarantined. It's not somebody who says, well, you know, I've got an issue with looking at things that I'm really working hard on. I'm fasting and praying. That's one thing. Yeah, well, you come to church, but somebody who's got that other, I can do whatever I want to. And who the blank are you? Well, that's not something we're going to put up within God's church. Okay, let's go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 24.

We've already covered verses 10 through 13. Let's go to verses 14 and 15. This is similar to what we had read earlier. It's a protection for the poor worker. Now, some of you are thinking here in the Detroit area, ah, God is a union man. God is a union man. Protection for the poor worker.

Where's Walter Ruther when you need him? Let's take a look at this here, chapter 24 verses 14 and 15.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. Each day you shall give him his wages and not let the sun go down on him, for he is poor and has set his heart on it, lest he cry out against you and to the Lord, and it be sin to you. Notice God's discussion here. It be sin to you. Not just politically incorrect, but sin to you. Better than back in the Bible days, it was a common practice for workers to be paid on a daily basis. That's not so much the norm today. But what the principle here is that workers need to be paid on regular intervals. Every worker, you know, you as a worker, you're expecting to be paid once a week, once every two weeks, something like that. Well, why? Because you've got bills to pay, correct? You've got responsibilities to take care of. But if your employer says, well, you know, I had a, you know, you're working construction, had a bad week, can't pay you this week. And because the guy says, well, we just had a series of bad luck, you know, I'm not gonna be able to pay you for a couple months. That doesn't go because that guy's got house payments to make. He's got food for the kitties, that sort of thing. He needs to be paid on a regular basis.

And so the idea here is make sure that people who've got limited resources, you're taking care of them properly, taking care of them properly. Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14 and verse 13.

Luke chapter 14 and verse 13. But when you give a feast, then invite the poor and the maimed and lame and the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. So here you see Jesus Christ saying, support those with limited resources. Brethren, we need to do that as well when we're talking about the poor and needy in our society. The church still teaches third tithe. You know, some people wondered, well, whatever happened the third time, have we done away with third tithe? No, we've never done away with third tithe. Third tithe is still applicable. We have told people that third tithe is to the needy and not from the needy, that if you're going to tithe first tithe for the work, second tithe for the feast, third tithe for the poor and the helpless, if you do that and it's going to cause you to lose your home, well, then you don't do that. Now, we have a number of people in our the congregations that I pastor currently who tithe three tithes. They're able to do that. They feel like at least break even. I can do that. Now, let's say you can't do that. Does that absolve you of all responsibility to the poor? Well, of course not. You can do service projects. You can volunteer to work in various places as a volunteer, community service. The church has a number of things that you can do if you want to, you know, you're afraid to give to various charities or fear that the money won't go to the intended people who need the help. You've got LifeNets.org. That's something that Mr. Cubic started many, many years ago. You go to that website. If you don't go to lifenets.org, you go to victorcubic.com and see all the various things we do around the world to help the poor and the needy. We've got goodworks.ucg.org. We're doing a number of things for disadvantaged peoples in different parts of the world. People who, in some cases, maybe they need a well drilled for their community. And it's not just God's people who are helping, we're helping everybody who lives in that community. And we're drilling a well, or we're building a church building, or we're doing building a road, or things of that nature, or a portion of a road. So these are things that we need to appreciate to help and support those with limited resources. Okay, going back to chapter 24, and again, I'll take you just a few minutes over time here, to chapter 24, verse 16. Here we have protection of justice.

Protection of justice. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children.

Nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin.

For his own sin. The law is very clear. True justice and compassion for everybody.

We don't just automatically tip somebody and yank them and say, well, their dad was a bad guy, he's a bad guy, we'll punish him instead of punishing the dad. No, everybody is punished for their own character. Everybody must be, you know, taking care of along those proper lines and not just grabbing people up and doing things to them.

I'll, you know, she might want to put down exit or Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 14, verses 12 through 20.

I think I read that. Well, let's take a quick look at this. Ezekiel chapter 14.

verse 12. The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out my hand against it. I will cut off its supply of bread and send famine on it. I'll cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver on themselves by their own righteousness, says the Lord God.

Now, starting in verse 14 and going through verse 20, that phrase is repeated three times.

Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, now why are those three men named? Because they're considered, apart from Jesus Christ, who is perfect. These three men are considered the three most righteous people who have ever lived. Noah, Daniel, and Job.

But it says here, even if those three men were in the land, they would deliver only themselves.

So the point is, God looks to the individual.

There is person, the Bible talks about personal accountability, and that's what this section is talking about. Protection of justice and personal accountability. You and I are each individually accountable for our choices. We are accountable for our actions. We can't always be saying, well, the devil made me do it. Society made me do it. I didn't get enough maple when I was a kid.

I didn't get enough prima wheat, and so therefore provers made me do it.

No. You are responsible for your choices, your actions. You're responsible for your responsibilities.

People can say, well, society's been hard on me. Well, society probably has been hard on you, but still, God expects you to own up to your own situation. You're accountable for your own relationships, for your own mistakes, all of us, for our own limitations, for our life's goals, all of it. We've got personal accountability before God.

Going back to chapter 24, Deuteronomy, there's a 17 and 18. I'm getting close. I can smell that good food cooking there. The smells are wafting out this way, and my stomach is churning. I'm looking forward to eating as much as you, but just a little bit more. Chapter 24, verses 17 and 18, protection of the defenseless. In every society, you're going to have those who are defenseless. This is a protection for them. Verse 17, today you proclaim to the Lord your God that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, that you will obey His voice. So here we've got something that's predicated on this, verse 18. Also, today the Lord is proclaimed to be a special people, just as He promised you that you should keep all of His commandments. So again, the whole idea here is to be merciful to those who need mercy, to show that to all the various ones who need it. I think I read the wrong section.

I did, didn't I? Well, personal accountability here. Can't escape that one, can I? I was responsible for turning to the right scripture. I turned to the wrong scripture. Delisandre, the dog of you. Okay. Let's see what verse we got. 17 and 18. Okay. You shall not pervert justice due to the stranger, the phylus, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do the same thing. So here again, you've got people who are relatively defenseless, and God says we should be there for those people. Now spiritually, brethren, as I was reading this, I was thinking about another group of people, and that is our mercy toward the uncalled.

You know, over the time I've been in the church, I've had a number of people talk about, they, you know, I've actually had people come to me and say, I can't wait to the second coming of Jesus Christ. And all these people on the face of the earth, when God does all the beat them, bust them stuff, and all these prophecies come, and things start landing on people's head, and things, earthquakes, they're going to get theirs. I'm thinking to myself, man, I don't want to be under your control in the kingdom of God. You know, this whole idea that, yeah, you know, they're going to get theirs. Well, aren't we all sinners? I mean, if God gave us ours, we wouldn't be breathing anymore. Right? So I think there is a lesson here to be learned about being merciful to the uncalled, to realize that, you know, people, if God has not called them, if God has not worked with them, God does not expect the same thing from them that He does from you and I. That's not the mean that normal human norms don't apply. Hitler is a monster, no matter what the context, we understand that. But, you know, when you take a look at, I take a look at some of the family members in my family, so my aunts and uncles and cousins, they're really nice folks. Now, they don't, you know, they, so they do things I wouldn't do, but God's not called them yet. When I think about the way they serve and give and love and share, they're wonderful people. Wonderful people. And so I've got to make sure that, you know, I don't just always say, well, they're not called. Well, that's not their fault. It's not their fault they weren't called yet. So just as God has shown compassion on us, we need to show compassion on the rest of the world. Okay, lastly, chapter 24 here of Deuteronomy verses 19 through 22. When you, this is a protection for the food supply for the underprivileged. Protecting the food supply for the underprivileged. Verse 19, when you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheep in the field, you shall not go back to get it, and shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the bowels again. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your venue, you shall not clean it afterwards. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this thing. And so the idea is to the farmers, don't try to get every last grain of crop, every last olive, every last grape, leave some for the disadvantaged, leave some for those who don't have the land you have, who are not as prosperous as you. This is the law that God wanted them to appreciate. Because in every society, even though God wanted Israel to be a land of plenty for everybody, the people are going to be people. Which means that there's always going to be some who are very prosperous and some who aren't prosperous at all. That's just the way of things. You can't outlaw, you know, as much as we would want to in this country, to outlaw poverty, it's not going to happen. That's not the human condition. There's always going to be the poor among us, and Christ said so. But we learned, and this is the last lesson to be learned here, we learned several important things that God wants from the poor and the disadvantaged. It doesn't say the farmers to get all those produce, do all the work, and give it to the poor. No, the poor had to work to harvest their own food with their own hands.

That work gave the poor a sense of purpose, a sense of fulfillment, a sense of satisfaction.

Now, in that sense, this, you know, what we have here is God's view of a safety net, but it's not just a handout. It's something where the people had to work and do themselves.

Those who had the ability to give were to leave things in the land so people can get it, but the farmer wasn't supposed to just harvest it all and give it away. People needed to learn to work, to harvest their own food, to eat what they got with their own hands.

And that, what this does for the people is it protects them from humiliation and shame.

And unfortunately, in this country, we've tried to provide health, you know, very safety nets, and we want to do that, but we've done it in such a way where I think we have humiliated people, ashamed people, and not allow people to be able to have a sense of purpose.

So, you know, God's way works. Man's way doesn't. So, brethren, today we're taking a look at Deuteronomy chapter 24, Laws Protect Relationships. If we take these laws, if we were to obey these laws, our community, our country would be much better.