An Honest Child of God

Many scriptures in the Bible foretell of the transforming of human beings into the divine children of the God family. In order for humans to be chosen for that wonderful blessing, they get to live a short life here on earth. And this short life is very short. When we're young, we think it's going to go on forever. But the more you look around at some of the historical landmarks or some of the things that God has made, natural attractions like the Grand Canyon or various falls or various forests or national parks, begin to realize that the people that discovered and set up those places are long gone.

The people that built those buildings haven't been around for generations. And here we think of them as part of us and part of our environment and that which inspires and we almost make a claim to these things, only to find them start slipping away as we, too, only have a short time on this earth. As you live your life, God assesses you as to whether or not He's going to choose you to be one of His children.

And Jesus Christ came with the most important job to make it possible for those called, whenever the Father just determines to call them, will have an opportunity and He will be able to do all that's possible and everything necessary to make it possible for everyone to have a great chance at eternal life. And then it becomes our responsibility. Let's go to Psalm 15 and see who God will choose because He tells us. Psalm 15 is not very long and in it, under inspiration, David tells us who the family of God is going to choose to join them forever.

Beginning in verse 1, Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? What he's saying here is who may live there, dwell there, abide there. Who's going to live where you live? Who may dwell in your holy hill? In that mountain, that special kingdom of God. Who's going to live there? And then in the next four verses, we are told, He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart, who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend, and in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fears the Lord.

He who swears to his own hurt and does not change, he who does not put out his money to usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. Now, it seems like a lot of things there. A lot of things to remember. Should we make a list? Should we make a list and have a sermon on each one of those topics?

And then just really start drilling them in and check off the list? See if we're going to qualify? Is that the intent of this passage? Is that what you and I should do? Actually, what David is referring to here is the law, the Pentateuch. He's giving just a few samples out of the law, and those who are law-abiding, law-minded, godly in the sense, because their laws from God's mind, the very laws he lives by, are going to join the family of God.

Those who are like-minded with God, in a genuine sense, are going to be part of that family. David here is talking about the law. Let me ask you a question. Do you love the Pentateuch? Ever ask yourself that question? Because when he said, I love your law, he's referring to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. He's referring to the instructions and the directives.

That's what he had. Let's go to Psalm 119, verse 97. We'll take a look at this verse first. Psalm 119, verse 97. He says, Oh, how love I your law. Now, I've told you before, when I was a child and read that verse, I thought, this guy's nuts. Because my world was all about rules and laws that I didn't like. And I knew whatever it was my dad or the church or anybody else said was going to get in the way of whatever it was I wanted to do.

And David said, Oh, how love I your law. I thought, wow, that guy's nuts. Now, that's changed over time, but it didn't change in a flash. It didn't change when I was baptized. Coming up to baptized, I realized that what I was doing was wrong, that I was wrong. The mentality I had was going the wrong direction. And really, that had to end. But I didn't love the law of God at that point.

I would say that after being married and having a child and being in the ministry, I didn't love the law of God. I would still look at that passage and say, do I just love the law of God like David? I'd say, you know, I'm not there. That was one special man to really love the law. I'll tell you today that I love the law of God. Now, what happened in the inner meaning 35 years is what you call growth. It's called spiritual maturity. It's a lot of things that transpire, that you learn lessons from, that you experience.

You get a little burned, or you watch other people get burned. You see how the law of God is applied. You apply it yourself, and you come to see it as the solution for everything. And you can really come to love the law of God. So when David here had made a lot of mistakes, you know, David didn't love God's law as a kid. Oh, he killed Goliath, but he didn't love God's law. He sowed a lot of wild oats out there.

But by the time he writes this psalm, he has come to love God's law. And he said, it's my meditation all the day. So what about this? Do you love the law? Do you know what the law is? Do you read the law? Or are you one of those New Testament people that just hang out for the grace, the love and the grace, and the easy stuff? Maybe go back to the psalms once for a little solace if you're having a bad day.

But here we bump into something entirely different. We've just found out the people who are going to be in God's kingdom keep the law. They are law-abiding people. And now David says, man after God's own heart, I'm one who loves the law. Let's go down to verse 113. I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.

Do you know anybody that was double-minded? Well, you know David was double-minded. All you've got to do is go back and read Psalm 51, and there he is repenting over terrible things. Because yes, I'm your man, I'm your king, and I'm righteous, but I'm going to go have some sin over here at the same time.

That's double-minded. Do you know anybody that has carnal human nature and also is aspiring to have godliness in their life? Could be sitting in your seat or standing here giving your sermon. But we come to the point where we hate that about ourselves. Paul said, that which I want to do, I don't do. I'm double-minded. That which I preach about and I stand for, that's what I don't do.

And I hate that. Have you come to hate double-mindedness? Are you really genuine about God and His law? Let's go down to verse 163. I hate and abhor lying, but I love your law. Psalm 165 through 168. Great peace have those who love your law. You know when it really comes down to it, no matter what chaos goes on in the world, no matter what structures the nations will have, or even what structure the church may have someday in the future, as times or prophesies do, get very turbulent and lots of persecution. A person here who loves God's law will have great peace.

They'll know where to walk, won't they? They'll know where to go. They'll know what to do. And even the people who didn't even know God until the great tribulation begins, we see in Revelation, so many people come out and live God's law during the tribulation, and even give their lives that they're impossible to number. It's just called the innumerable multitude. There are just too many of them to number. So people can have great peace, confidence, assurity, who love God's law, and nothing causes them to stumble, it says here. Lord, I hope for your salvation, and I do your commandments.

My life keeps your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts, I keep your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. Now what we find here in David's life is the genuine article at the end of the life. We've seen him come from one thing, go through some learning and some growing, but at the end of his life we see him the real deal.

And consequently, Jesus Christ said he's going to be in the kingdom. Society today is not about that. Society today is kind of like me as a carnal kid. It's about me. It's about getting, about having, about doing. It's about me and about mine. And we humans, as a race, are unabashedly greedy. You know, we're just coming off of one, you know, just bulk up with the greed, just go crazy with the greed in an economic meltdown. And somebody last week said, oh, I think the economic meltdown might sort of be simmering.

Oh, and now the greed's starting up again. Everybody's jumping back in. Oh, can we be greedy again? Great! The stock market has risen a thousand points and last a little while, and everybody's ready for another round, you know? Humanity encourages what's called dishonesty. Dishonesty is a word that can be applied at many different levels, and we're going to look at that today.

About a falsehood, about a fakeness, about something that's surface, about one who kind of schmoozes to sell, to get, one who appears to be something in order to have the upper hand. But what about being the real deal? What about being one like Jesus Christ or David, or like those who are going to be resurrected, because they were the real deal when the tips were down, and during their life they were chosen by God as being, oddly, who are you? Ask yourself this question. I ask myself the question. I don't like the answer sometimes, so don't be surprised if you don't like your answer back.

Who are you? Are you the genuine article? Or are you a clever fake sometimes? Ezekiel 33, verse 31, has a passage that's, I don't know, it's kind of intrigued me for the 35 years that I've served in the ministry. I've applied it to others. I've seen it happen. I've seen individuals come and go. I've applied it to myself at times. It's a very insightful passage, the one verse. It's talking about, you know, people come, come, come hear the Word of the Lord. Okay, so here we are. We're all here.

We're hearing the Word of the Lord. Ezekiel 33, verse 31, So they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Now there's a lot of truth in that statement. See, with our mouth we can say, Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm loving. I'm serving.

I'm with you. But where's our heart? Pursuing our own self, self-promotion, self-gain. That's what this life is all about, you know, with a carnal human nature. It's getting all you can. One with the most toys wins, whatever. Have we come to repent of that and say, you know what?

It's really God's law that I love. I don't think any of us fully have. Maybe you have. I haven't. I'm trying. I'm wanting to be there. I think I am. If you ask me, I'll tell you I am. If I ask myself, I'll tell you I am. But sometimes there are times when something comes up and I think, you know, what I thought or what I said or what I did showed me that I'm not really as genuine, as honest, as forthright in loving God's law and living in love as those that God's going to have in his family.

And the wonderful thing is, each day I get to pray, ask for forgiveness and try again. And I love that about God, that you get to learn a little bit and this growth over time takes place gradually. And hopefully at the end of the day we're able to say, you know what? I am more about God than I was about myself or am about myself and I'm growing in the right direction. But are you a true Christian, as we say?

What is a Christian? A Christian is an interesting term. It is one that's been developed over time. It just means Christ-like. In other words, like our Savior. Are you trying to be like Him? Are you trying to grow up and think like Him? Are you taking on His mind, His attributes? How important is being honest in that sense? The real deal, the genuine article. How important is that in your life? The temptation for dishonesty is always there because with dishonesty you can get more. I'll tell you right now, you can get a lot more by being dishonest.

By being a dishonest Christian, a dishonest husband, a dishonest wife, a dishonest child, a dishonest friend. You stand to gain a lot more as a dishonest salesman, a dishonest employee. But selling yourself as the real deal. Convincing people that you're something you're not.

And that temptation is always there because it's a way to gain advantage for oneself. Now the question boils down, what do you want to be? Do you want to be honest and give others the advantage to get what they want? Or do you want to be dishonest and have the advantage to get what you want? That's what honesty and dishonesty really boils down to.

Who do you want to have the advantage? Because the honest person will be at a disadvantage. The one who is honestly, genuinely following God's law, honestly, genuinely loving others first, is going to be at a disadvantage. In every situation, the other person will always benefit. It's love away from self, after all. So we have to ask that question. And then we have to examine who God is going to bring into his family.

We're to come out of this world's ways and the mindset, the mindset that Jesus said of the devil is that there is no truth in him. He is not what he says he is.

Satan is selling stuff, and it's false as false can be. No truth in him. We can fall into the same mentality that the societies that he influences have. Dishonest, positioning, you know how to position yourself. If you're going to go into a meeting and you're going to go into maybe a job interview, or you're going to go into a certain situation with a client, there are books written on how you can get the upper hand. What you should wear, what you should say, what you should do. And you can get yourself all prepared to go in and get from that situation. Is that what we find Jesus Christ doing? Was he sort of sharpening up and getting ready to go do some maneuvering and some positioning? Or was he going for something else? You know, advertising is commonly dishonest. It's not always dishonest. Some advertising is very honest. But advertising has an opportunity to have additional gain by being dishonest. And there are many ways of doing that. One is overstating, inflating, or misinforming, misrepresenting. Advertising can do those things. And therefore, perhaps have an advantage when it comes to somebody buying something off a shelf, taking it home, you open it up and, oh, this is not as was described. Do you ever advertise yourself or something in a dishonest way? Do you push yourself over and advertise or try to get others to think of you more highly than you are? I'll give you an example. A few years ago, I had an airplane, the first airplane that I had ever owned. I was pretty excited. After being a pilot for 30 years, I finally got to own an airplane. Now, this is a fantastic, fabulous airplane. It didn't run when I bought it, but it had wings and a tail and a motor. It was almost perfect. I spent some time and some enjoyable days, some other scary days, getting that thing fixed up and taking it on its first flight up in the mountains of California, flying it out of a canyon back here. Those were some terrifying days. But as time went on and the plane got better, I remember Riehl Knudsen and I took it and flew it out in the desert around here one day, and I got him to fly it. We had a good time, and it came time to sell that plane one day. I wrote an ad for a paper in the National Magazine to sell planes, and I talked about my plane. Somebody here in the state called up one day and said, Wow! I'll buy your plane for cash. He was the first guy to call. I'll pay you cash. Just fly that plane over here. Oh, and it was kind of a sad day in a way, but a happy day in another way, because I had another plane by then. Now, I flew that plane across the state. I remember the enjoyable flight along I-10. My wife had left some time before, and I flew out over the desert and found the interstate, and then crawled past all the cars, kind of low, and said, Ha! There's my wife. And I wagged the wings at her and flew off over the mountains to the destination and landed. The buyer came out, and there's the plane.

He said, he looked at that plane, he looked inside, he looked around it. I won't buy that plane. I was speechless. I didn't know what to say. Maybe he's going to take advantage of me. I said, Well, that's my plane. I think it's a pretty nice plane. He says, I don't. He says, I wouldn't own that plane. I said, Well, why not? He says, Well, I'm wanting to restore it back to brand new factory condition. I'm looking for a plane, you know, that's all good and sound and everything. And he said, That's not it. I said, Well, I thought it was a pretty nice plane. First plane I ever owned. And he said, No, no, no, no. That's not. So I said, Well, wow. Here I am, a minister. And I write up my plane. And this guy is saying, Oh, no. He's got cash coming out of his pockets, but I'm not getting any. So I asked him, I said, Would you do me a favor? I said, Would you tell me through your eyes what this plane is? And I'll re-advertise it, honestly. I'll re-advertise it as it really is, through the eyes of a buyer. And he says, Yeah, I'll do that for you. So I got out my pen. And he began to describe the plane from a guy who's been in the business, you know, for years and years. Now he just wants a plane to retire with. So he told me all the stuff from his viewpoint. And I thanked him. And now he's in Far Flung City with a plane. And my wife drove up, and I said, Well, honey, it's like we're going to have to fly to Yuma and have services and then fly at home from there, because I can't just leave it. So we kept the circuit going. And it was an enjoyable flight, actually. Flew down the Colorado River, got to see where that thing went all the way down through various places and finally into Yuma. And got to fly it all the way home. I ran another ad. And this ad, I wrote it up just like the man had described it. You know, so-so this and so-so that and kind of this isn't so good and that isn't so good. Got another call. This time a man from Florida. So I'm going to fly up there and buy your plane. Whoa! I told him on the phone, I said, You're coming from a long, long way. And, you know, don't you have planes there in Florida? Because, you know, this is a long way to come and not like it. He said, I don't worry about it. He says, I think it's just what I'm looking for. So he flew up there, picked him up. I'll never forget, you know, all the way to the airport. I'm thinking, Oh, no. This guy sees the plane. He's going to say, I can't believe you brought me a whole year from Florida. So pulled up the airport and walked out there and I said, Well, this is the plane. He walked around. He looked up plane. He looked under the plane. He looked in the plane. He looked at it again. He turned around, looked at me and says, Exactly as described. I'll take it. I'll never forget those words. Exactly as described. That's all he said. And he gave me the money and he flew it back to Florida. Had a safe trip home. You know, that taught me something. That taught me something that we can see things through a lens of whatever lens we see it through. We can be all excited about ourselves or think of ourselves more highly than we ought. But through the reality of the Word, we can see ourselves in a true mirror of God's Word. And God can show us what our nature is. And if we decide, you know what? I want to be the real genuine article here. Then we have that opportunity.

There's a television personality and also an author named Susie Orman. And she wrote a book this year called Action Plan. It's about finances. But in this book, there's a few comments or a few quotes that I would like to make. Because it's all about another version of honesty. And she's brutally honest about this. And I thought just the way it smacked you around a little bit, it was good to hear. She talks about the economy and the meltdown that's been going on. She says, we had lenders making loans that borrowers couldn't afford, borrowers happy to get a mortgage that they couldn't afford, and Wall Street egging on lenders and borrowers, telling us that it was all okay. We had banks irresponsibly hand out multiple credit cards to anyone with a pulse, regardless of income, and consumers all too eager to play along. It was a wild, drunken party of dishonesty and greed on a national scale. Is that what we are about? Is that what we as the begotten children of God, candidates of the God family are to be about? Again, question. I asked this of myself. I asked it of you. What do you stand for? Do you stand for personal gain with compromise and flexibility, if needed? Whatever it takes. Personal gain with compromise and flexibility. Personal gain. As long as I get money, well, maybe I can pay my tithes, maybe I can't. Maybe I can serve God, maybe I can't. Maybe I can lie and cheat and steal, or maybe I can't. Maybe I can be honest or maybe not, whatever. At the end of the day, I'll always repent, and maybe I'll make some money. You know how that works. I'll be dishonest. I'll look this way and I'll pretend that I'm this way, and give everybody the impression that I'm this way. I'm not really that way, but maybe I can sell some guy or some gal on me, and then I'll have them hooked. Then they can't get out of it because we have a contract. Or do you stand for honesty, truth, and godliness in every situation at any cost, no matter what? That's the lesson of James, the first chapter. Let's go back to James 1. It's a really good look here because this is towards the end of the New Testament period. It started out with a lot of miracles, a lot of wonderful, inspiring times. It started going then through a lot of Roman domination, a lot of persecution, a lot of religious persecution, a lot of people breaking off into other groups. And now James is going to talk about, hey, who out there is the real deal? Who's really with the program? He says in James 1 and 2, success isn't about getting stuff and being happy. No, he says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. See, this life really is about growing, and growth comes through trials and adversity. Count it joy if you get into adversity and persevere or at least grow in that. Verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. That's what this is about. It's about perseverance. The testing of your faith produces perseverance to keep going through the trial as the genuine article or to clean up and become the genuine article. Verse 4, but let perseverance have its perfect work, its complete work, that which it's intended to perform, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. In other words, when it says perfect, you fulfill the purpose for which you were created and called. You're not going to be perfect, but you desire it, you're trying to do it, and therefore God will graciously accept you into His family as one who is doing the very best that He or she can with His help. And therefore, come on in, I'll make you the rest. I'll create you perfect. Verse 12, blessed is the man who endures temptation, perseveres through temptation.

For when He has been approved, wow, when God says, you know that person has been through a lot of tough times, a lot of situations, and he didn't fall for the satanic, greedy, self-fake, manipulative, lying, dishonest way to get himself out, He will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Verse 18, of His own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth. You know, there's nothing dishonest in this book. There's nothing misleading. There's nothing oversold. There's nothing that's not accurate. It's all here. And you can trust it. It's the only set of words on the planet that you can trust. And He says He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures, first fruits of His family, of His children. Verse 21, Therefore, because of these things, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness, teachability, the implanted word which is able to save your lives. Verse 22, But be doers of the word. This is where, you see, the last sentence is really the summation of it all. Be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. Can we sell ourselves and deceive ourselves that we're doers of the word? Yeah. Oh yeah, I thought about Mary Lou this last week. That was nice of me. I mean, call her to the writer, didn't help her, didn't care to talk to her, but I thought of her. That was nice. You know how it goes? We can deceive ourselves by being hearers. Oh, that was so inspiring. I heard that sermon 20 times, and I was so inspired by that. I just had to take a nap. No, no, no. You know, it's not the hearers of the word. It's the doers of the word. And if we're hearers only, we deceive ourselves. We come and we sit as the people, and we listen as the people, and we're inspired as the people, and we go away, and we don't live it. We don't do it. We're not honest. We're not really the forthright, vibrant lovers of the law. Some are dishonest with themselves about their spiritual condition, as this says, deceiving yourselves, but we can deceive ourselves that we're something we're not. You've seen probably American Idol. I've seen one or two of those shows on TV, where they go out into the cities, and they have people come in that want to be stars. And you know, the guy comes in there. He's going to sing. They go, oh, you know, the look. Oh, oh, it's painful. They're going through pain. The guy's singing off-key. He can't hold a tune. He's singing, no, no, you know, it's just terrible. And then as they say, no, stop, please, I can't endure this anymore. Thank you, but go away. You know, the guy, look at the guy. He's offended. What? What are you saying? You guys deaf? It's me. I have a golden voice. And it just happens over and over. You know, we can deceive ourselves, and we think that, wow, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. It's like our financial state. My finances are pretty good. Saw a movie on TV about, you know, the poor in some part of the world, and then I looked around. I'm doing fine. Yeah, I'm doing fine. Looking good. I'm going to get paid, I hope, this week. If I do, everything's going to work out well again for two more weeks. So in Susie Orman's book, The Honest Way Out, she says, if you have a credit card balance that will remain unpaid at the end of this month, you are participating in your own brand of dishonesty because you're living beyond your means. You're dishonest with yourself. If you have no emergency savings fund, you are not being honest about all the possibilities that life will throw at you. If you keep spending, even though you have unpaid bills, this is a huge slice of dishonesty.

Just think about where all this dishonesty leaves you. If you don't get your act together, you will be in more trouble than you can imagine. Again, this is just a little slice out of the financial way. Here she is talking about dishonesty and how dishonest we are. We say, well, I don't know. I thought I was just fine.

How's your marriage? Maybe Suzy Orman wrote a book on marriage. Do you think you have a good marriage but you haven't talked to your wife in a day or two? Or how about your spiritual life? Do you think you have a good spiritual life but you haven't prayed recently or haven't taken any time to spend with God's Word? You could just start taking aspects of our life and using these same words to them.

Then she goes, there is a way out. Honesty. Honesty with yourself, with your spouse, with your children. If you are ready to face up to what you can honestly afford, you can turn this around. But you have to be willing to get honest about every facet of your life.

I read that some months ago and I plucked that out and I saved it and started it and been thinking about it.

You know, how genuine are you and me? We're all in this together, you know? How, as individuals, on a very personal level, how honest and genuine are you as a potential child of God?

In all areas. Now, this is an open test in that you get to take it again tomorrow.

And tomorrow, hopefully, your grade will be better than you gave yourself today.

But then you get to take it again on Monday again, and Tuesday, and Wednesday. See how this works. Godly management of our life is about bringing in His ways, His laws, and developing His mindset. Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 26. Suze Orman was talking about money. Let's go back and talk about money just for a minute before we leave that topic. Deuteronomy 26, verse 11 and 12. We'll see here how money and a child of God is out of step with society. They're just going to be out of step. Deuteronomy chapter 26 and verse 11.

Here God's going to talk about His annual festivals.

And about giving gifts. We're just going to talk about first fruits and tithes here. First fruits of the land. Verse 11, So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you, and your house, and the Levite, and the stranger who is among you. This is giving.

And then sharing what you have left. Verse 12, When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year, in the year of tithing, what this is, is in seven years, the third and the sixth year, you set aside 10% of your income. And who is it given to? Given it to the Levite, the stranger, the traveler, the one you don't know, the fatherless, the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled. See, this isn't what I don't think you're going to find it in even Susie Ormond's book. Make a lot of money so you can give it and serve and help others.

That's not human's mentality to give and to serve and to help others. Now, with this third tithe, this law is still in effect right along with the first tithe that we give to God and the second, or the festival tithe that we are commanded to save to take to the feast. We don't touch those monies. The third tithe is very much in force. It is something that will always be in force, so far as I know, until God says it's not. However, we find that in our particular society, that all of those individuals mentioned are being funded by you when you pay your taxes.

In fact, more than that, if you calculate what third tithe would be over a seven-year period, it would break down to about 2.6% a year. You're paying 7, 7.5% of Social Security taxes, which is going to all of those who are retired. You're paying probably another 7.5% because your employer is having to pay that, so you're paying 15% right there to begin with. Plus, your other taxation that goes to social welfare systems within the state.

So, you know, in the entire church, I believe there are only 30 people, 30 widows who receive regular monthly assistance. In the entire church, why is that? Well, because all of us are paying much more to support theirs and almost everybody else's needs when it comes to food, clothing, housing, various utilities and other expenses that they have. And there are so many social benefits that the government has created that you and I are paying probably 20% of our income towards those things.

And so therefore, we are more than meeting the first tithe, even in the third tithe years, the twice and seven, we're meeting that. The United Church of God is saying, look, assess this yourself, assess it in your situation, whatever it is, and if you feel that you are already meeting that or exceeding that, you don't have to pay it again. I just mention that because some people say, well, United Church of God doesn't believe in third tithe anymore.

Oh, yes, we do. Yes, we do. And this policy has been used for many decades, going back to countries like Sweden, Denmark and other areas where taxation runs at 60% and all the social benefits and all the medical and funding and everything else is provided for the citizens. So I just mention this in passing, though, but we see here the purpose of the tithes, and if you go to where it talks about the festival tithe, you'll find that the purpose of that is to share it, to give it, to make others' lives good.

There's so many proverbs that talk about, remember the poor with your money, with your funds. Let's take a look at some of the law here that Paul, the Apostle Paul, called holy, just and good. The same law that David said, oh, how love I your law. This is the law that the Apostles had, the only law that the Apostles had during their ministry. Let's start in Deuteronomy 18 and verse 9.

Deuteronomy 18 and verse 9. When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. Sound familiar? Here's some, I don't know, 3,500 years later or so. We are in a land that God said He would give the descendants of Abraham because He was a righteous man.

It's a type of the original land of Canaan that the physical Israelites inhabited. You shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. We are to come out of this world, we're told, in the New Testament. Come out of her, my people. And we're supposed to live as honest candidates for the kingdom. Fourth-right children, real children, not playing games, not living in Sodom, claiming to be a Christian, you know, but being a Sodomite and, you know, sort of playing the little games.

Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 16 now, verse 18 through 20. Deuteronomy 16 and verse 18. Just take kind of an overview of some of the law. It says, You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people. Now how shall they judge? With just judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. Here comes a friend. Here comes a family member. Here comes somebody who is male or female. See? No partiality. Nor take a bribe. For a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the word of the righteous.

You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Now they were going to inherit a physical land. We are being promised a spiritual promised land. The same law applies. Go to chapter 19, verse 21. Well, let's just go to chapter 19.

It says, first of all, these cities of refuge. This is the case, verse 4, of a man-slayer who flees to a city of refuge, that he may live. Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in the past, as when a man goes to the woods with his neighbor to cut timber, swings a stroke, the head slips off the handle, strikes his neighbor so he dies. Here's an innocent man. Now can human nature work off of that one? Oh, yeah. I don't like old Freddy over there. I'm going to loosen the head of my axe. Line it up. Here we go. And so, you shall separate these cities.

However, verse 11, If anyone hates his neighbor, lies and waits for him, rises against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send him and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die. Verse 13, Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. Just one lesson of honesty, of being really true with judging.

Verse 14, You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark. Now what does that mean? Well, you know, Freddy and I, we have a border between us. And my cow needs a little more room, so I built a barn.

But I built the barn at night, and it's one foot over the property line. What should I do? That barn took all night to build. I'm just going to move the marker one foot. Freddy will never notice. It's just a foot. You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, and your inheritance which you inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

And so on and so forth. Chapter 20. If... It says here, when you take other individuals during warfare, and you go on to Chapter 20, 24, there are certain things that you have, like verse 10. When you go out to war against your enemies, and you see verse 11, among the captives a beautiful woman. Aha! And you desire her, and you would take her for your wife. Then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.

She shall put on the clothes of her captivity and remain in your house. She shall put off her own foreign dress and put on your own local clothes. And she shall mourn her father and her mother for a full month.

Now, this sounds pretty good if you're just the guy who's... Ah! Cool girl! Bring her home! Wait 30 days. Ah! I can now marry her! Now, that works pretty good for you. Just put yourself in her shoes. Let's go back. Here comes marauding bandits from afar, you know, enemy. Killed my mom and my dad, and now he's drug me by the hair, and now he's cut my hair off. And now I don't even have my own, you know, ethnic garments on. I've got some foreign garments on.

30 days go by. Ah! Here he comes again. How's she going to feel about him? I don't know. It just says, You may now go into her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. Verse 14, And it shall be if you have no delight in her. She gives you a little static over what you've done. She doesn't really love you for some reason, after just 30 days. Then you shall set her free, but you certainly shall not sell her for money.

You shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her. You know, there's a lot of dealing in kind of honest and thoughtful ways that goes into the law.

In verse 1 of chapter 22, You shall not see your brother's ox or sheep go astray and hide yourself from him. My neighbor, this guy doesn't know anything about oxen handling and sheep rearing. And, you know, he's just such a buffoon. He's kind of lazy, too. And, oh, look, there's an ox in the ditch over there, upside down. He's stuck. Wow! Just serves him right. You know? Is that a loving brother? Is that a loving, thoughtful, godly type of person? No.

So there are so many things, you see, that the law teaches us that shows us the mentality of God. In chapter 23, verses 15 through 24, You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. If a slave comes to you and this slave has run away, why do you think he ran away? Well, probably his master was not a nice person. And now, if you give him back, what do you think that guy's going to do to him? Don't do that. He may dwell with you in your midst in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it seems best to him, and you shall not oppress him.

There are things of honesty. There shall be no ritual harlot or a perverted son. This gets into some perversion. But you do not bring the wages of these things, these deeds, into the house of God. Another way of looking at this is, you go get a business contract that's shady, and it's a little bit dark, and it's a little dishonest. Don't come bring your tithes from that and give it to God. Don't bring a bountiful offering to God. You've got people out there crying and dying because of what you did.

You've got people whose savings accounts are emptied, and people who are now going without or being put out of their homes, and you say, oh, I've got my pie here. Let me give some to the church. Let me give some to God. No, God doesn't want that. God doesn't want that. It's not about money. Verse 19, You shall not charge interest to your brother, interest or money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. To a foreigner you can charge interest, it says, but not to a brother. In other words, you don't take a person who is in need. Somebody comes up and says, you know what? I can't eat. I just can't live right now. I can't pay my bills. Will you loan me some money? Now listen to what's being said. Will you loan me some money? Is this person in a position to take a loan? No, they don't have any money to pay. So why would you make them a loan? If you did make them a loan, and it's fine, that's what they want to do. If you did make it a loan, would you then charge them interest? I'll tell you what, I'll give it to you just 10%. So if you have no money, you can't make payments. I'll give you this loan and all you need to do is pay me 10% annual interest. What does that sound like? Is that love? It's different than when you go to the bank and they're begging you, Please, please, you know, give me your money and I'll pay you interest for it. I'm begging you. I'll give you this thing free. Here. I'll give you this if you open an account. A little different, a little different situation. That's the foreigner here. I like this part. Verse 24, when you come into your neighbor's vineyard, Vineyard is where vines are growing and grapes are hanging. You may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure. You think, wow, that sounds like a good deal. And the guy who owns the vineyard says, I don't know about this one. Well, how many grapes can you eat? I mean, really, how many grapes can you, if you really chow down on grapes, how many can you get down? There's going to be a limit there, isn't it? But you shall not put any in your container that's going on. Don't do that. Verse 25, when you come into your neighbor's standing grain, come into the wheat or the barley or maybe they didn't have corn back then, but whatever, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle. Have you ever eaten wheat? You know, grains of wheat? Kind of interesting. Do you want a little bit? Crunches? Cracks? You can eat a little bit of that stuff. But don't take a sickle to it and haul it off with you. So there are many things like this. Let's go to chapter 27, verses 9 and 10.

Then Moses and the priests said to Israel, This day you have become the people of the Lord your God. Therefore you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God and observe His commandments and His statutes. It's an obedience and observance of these.

That's what God really wants. Verse 14 of chapter 27, The Levite shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel. Here's just another kind of like Psalm 15, sort of another general thing, kind of an overview of the law that these people are now going to agree to. It's not only these things, but this is the concept here of the law.

He says, Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molted image, an abomination to the Lord, and all the people shall say, Amen. Verse 16, Cursed is the one who treats his father or mother with contempt, and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark. Cursed is the one who makes the blind wander off the road.

Verse 19, Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Cursed is the one who lies with someone other than his wife. Verse 24, Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly. Verse 25, Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent son. And verse 26, Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law. So there's just kind of a glimpse of the law and some of the principles involved in it.

The apostles were an example of honesty. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7, too, Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have cheated no one. They were the real deal, the apostles. The mentality of God's children we can find in Philippians 4 and verse 8. Philippians 4 and verse 8. This is what we need to be about, brethren. This is what you and I need to be thinking, being. Not just, oh, those are nice words, but really being.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, the King James Version says, honest. Whatever things are just, the Greek word there means righteous. Whatever things are pure or sacred, whatever things are lovely, they are acceptable, they are pleasing. Whatever things are of a good report, things well spoken of. If there's any virtue, the Greek word there means moral excellence or moral goodness. If there's anything praiseworthy that people would say, wow, that's wonderful. Meditate on these things. David meditated on the law of God day and night, and those things are what the law of God are about. That's what you and I need to be about.

We need to be the real deal. We need to be an honest child of God, which is the title of the sermon today. An honest child of God. In conclusion, God gives humans a brief physical life. During our lives, He determines who will be His children. I'd like to conclude by reading Isaiah chapter 33 verses 14 through 17. Isaiah 33, beginning in verse 14. This really shows the two mindsets and shows ultimately what will become of the two in the times ahead.

Isaiah 33 verse 14. The sinners in Zion are afraid. David said, great peace of those who love your law. But the sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. What's a hypocrite? One who appears to be something, but they're not.

They're selling themselves and thinking of themselves, but they're not the genuine, truthful, honest thing. Then the question, Who among us shall dwell with a devouring fire? That means is, who among us shall remain or continue? That's what the Hebrew word here means from Isaiah. Who's going to go through all of this stuff? The devouring fire. Who among us shall remain or continue with everlasting burnings? This kind of harks to what Peter said in 2 Peter 3 chapter.

You know, the earth and the heavens are all going to be dissolved and burn up. Who's going to survive that? That's the question here. Verse 15, here's the answer. He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, He who gestures with his hands refusing bribes, He who stops his ear from hearing bloodshed and shuts his eyes from seeing evil, He will dwell on high.

His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. Bread will be given to him. His water will be sure. The bread of life. The water of God's Holy Spirit. And finally, verse 17, your eyes will see the King in his beauty and they will see the land that is very far off in God's Kingdom.

So, brethren, as future children of God, let's endeavor to be one of them because they are growing to live honest and truthful and forthright lives before God now. They're not perfect, but they're devoted to that. They despise their carnality and they genuinely desire the mentality of God and living his law. So as you live each day, choose to be one of the honest and forthright children of God.