Sermon: Foolish Commitments & God's Guarantee

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If you want to open your Bibles to the Word of God, Book of Proverbs chapter 6.

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Proverbs chapter 6. We're in our series right now at Apologia Church called

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Wisdom from Above. Verse by verse through the Book of Proverbs, God's divine wisdom, how to live in a way that glorifies

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God and be blessed and be on the path of peace and righteousness and light. And so Proverbs chapter 6, starting in verse 1, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself.

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For you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.

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Give your eyes no sleep, and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. Let's pray. God, we come to you,

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Lord, humble before your Word. These are the words of God. These are the words that you've given.

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You've revealed yourself to us. You speak to us, God, in your Word about your nature, about your character, about your loving kindness,

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Lord, about the fact that you don't change. You cannot lie.

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And Lord, we pray that you teach us today, Lord, from your wisdom, how to be like you, how to be wise, how to be honest and truthful, how to keep our

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Word. We pray, God, for the message today that you'd get the messenger out of the way, that you would speak by your

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Spirit today through your Word to your church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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So Proverbs, isn't it amazing? So many of you said that last week's message was an amazing kick in the teeth.

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I love to hear that. And I feel it too, because before the Word is ever preached to the body, it's preached first to the pastor, right?

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Every single time. And so God's Word transforms us. It renews us.

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When we're under the hearing of the Word, in a moment like this, it is light from God. It's the creator of the universe, the creator of the cosmos, condescending to speak, to reveal himself to us, so that we don't walk in darkness, that we're not living a life of chaos and disorder.

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But God condescends, and he loves his people, and he speaks to them. He speaks to them about his own character, about his love, about his law.

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He protects them. And that's what a moment like this is in the book of Proverbs. This is wisdom from above.

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God, we talked about the difference when we started this series, the difference between knowledge, like God imparting knowledge, the fact that Christians can even know something, actually have true and justified belief.

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God actually tells us things so that we can know, because he's the original knower.

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But God also gives us wisdom. This is the skill in applying that knowledge.

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Here's the truth, and here's how you apply it. We have that right now before us. God's telling us how to live in a way that is prosperous, that is blessed, that is protected, that is a place of peace.

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God speaks to us. And so in a moment like this, when you come to a text like this, let's be honest, oftentimes you come to a text like this, and you're like,

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I don't know what that means. And I'm not sure that I'm being tangled in too much of that. I'm not sure why that's very important to know.

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But actually there's so much here that is connected actually to the law word of God, and how we're to love our neighbors properly.

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And let me just say this at the start. We live in a time where so many evangelicals have disconnected themselves from the law of God.

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How do we treat the law in our day, right? Because of a misinterpretation of the gospel itself and the benefits of the gospel, we treat the law today, the law of God, as that old archaic mean thing, right?

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That comes from that really mean God. He just is all about law. He's all about that order and law.

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And so thank God we're relieved of all of that. And now we have now Jesus, the nice and happy God, who we have in the

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New Testament, that he's all about grace and love. So we have sort of like two gods. The real meany God of law of the

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Old Testament, who's all about wrath and judgment. And then we have like this New Testament situation where it's all about grace and love and mercy.

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And God's not concerned with his law anymore. That is a distortion of the Christian message. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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And you don't see that message. You see actually the opposite of it in the New Testament record, where when the

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Apostle Paul, for example, teaches on the gospel and how we are not saved by works, and the law can only condemn us, so you can't go the route of works and law for God to declare you righteous, because you're not righteous.

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You're not good. Nobody seeks for God. In that very section of Romans chapters 3 and 4, the

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Apostle Paul actually says, identifying how a person is justified through faith,

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Romans 3 28, apart from the works of the law, he then summarizes in that chapter, do we then make void the law through faith?

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Right? It's all faith. It is apart from works. The law will just condemn you. So do we now void the law?

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The modern evangelical says what? Yes. Precisely. That's exactly what we do,

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Paul. Paul says no. Actually, because it's through faith in Christ alone, apart from the works of the law, we establish the law.

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Which law was he talking about? The same law that can't save you. The same law that condemns you.

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We actually, through faith, establish the law. And it's amazing because you'll remember fairly recently,

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I had the opportunity to be on the radio show, do a radio debate on the Unbelievable Radio Program with Andy Stanley, large megachurch in Georgia.

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Andy Stanley, the son of Charles Stanley that many of you guys have listened to probably growing up for many years.

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And the debate that we had is related to the thing that he's been teaching and preaching for some time now, and that's that we need to detach or unhitch

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Christianity from the Old Testament. We need to sort of divorce Christianity from the

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Old Testament. That stuff doesn't apply anymore. Those laws aren't relevant anymore. Really, we have a different way of approaching this now.

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And what we've seen now, even in recent weeks, with Andy Stanley's obvious acceptance of homosexuality and his looseness with it, and saying that we have gay and lesbian people who serve

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God better than normal Christians, the average Christian, things like that. We see that actually his perspective on the law of God shows that he was really divorcing himself or unhitching himself from Christianity.

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That's the truth. When we abandon God's law word, we abandon

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God's knowledge and his impartation of knowledge to us about, A, how to love

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God, and, B, how to love our neighbors. I mean, just think about it. Jesus says explicitly in Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 19, in the

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Sermon on the Mount, he says, do not even begin to think. Do not think.

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He didn't say, stop thinking. Don't even let it start in your mind that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.

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I have not come to abolish them, but to what? Fulfill them. That's what Jesus does.

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And when Jesus is asked an important question, Jesus says that the two greatest commandments are, one, to love who?

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God. And two, to love who? And what does he quote to make that point?

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The Torah. He quotes the Torah. Actually, loving your neighbor as you love yourself is from Leviticus.

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It's from the law of God. And Jesus says, who is God incarnate, he says in his ministry, all of the law and the prophets are built upon love for God and love for neighbor.

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All of the law and the prophets are built upon love for God and love for neighbor. So we can challenge the modern evangelical when we come to wisdom literature like this that is based on the law word of God.

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We can say in the new covenant era, where we're clearly at now, we agree on that, there's common ground there, are we required as God's people to love

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God and love neighbor? What's the answer going to be from the evangelical here today? What is it? Yes. Yes.

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Those are really our only two commandments. Love God and love neighbor and that's it. Well guess what?

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You just gave me the entire law and prophets. Appreciate that. Because Jesus says what?

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All the law and the prophets are built upon love for God and love for neighbor. And so in a moment like this, we have wisdom from above.

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God's telling us, here's how you live. Here's how you keep yourself safe. Here's how you protect yourself from calamity.

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So much in the book of Proverbs is exactly that. How do you guard your life from calamity and from destruction?

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Even last week's message about the sluggard. So much about the lazy person, the sluggard, the idle person in the book of Proverbs.

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So much of it isn't just condemnation. It's not just saying to you, you're wrong. It's God speaking to you like what?

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A son. It's in the text. It starts like that. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor.

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And it does it again. Verse 3, then do this my son. This comes as instruction from a father to a child.

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You want your best for your children. You don't want them to get ensnared. You don't want them to be destroyed. So much of our lives as parents is precisely that.

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Is trying to convince our children, no you don't understand. I'm not trying to be oppressive to you. I'm not trying to rob you of happiness.

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I'm not trying to rob you of joy. Like my saying no and my being a shield here in the way is because of my devotion to you.

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It's because of my love and my care and concern for you. That's why I'm saying this. And this is exactly in that vein.

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It's exactly what's going on here. God is speaking to His people. Son, child, listen to me.

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I don't want you to be destroyed. And so guard yourself from the immoral woman. Guard yourself from being a sluggard.

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Guard yourself from the gangs and the ones who love to do violence. Protect yourself from them.

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It only goes one way. And here God is warning His children against surety and security.

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Co -signing for somebody. Right? Getting yourself involved, and I said it here at the front because I think that's the summary, in foolish commitments.

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It's a stranger. You don't know. You haven't been thoughtful. You haven't actually planned ahead.

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You're just making a foolish commitment, and you're putting up security for your neighbor.

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Somebody you don't really even know. And it's going to come back, and it's going to destroy you. God's telling you as His people here, be protective of your future.

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Guard yourself. And if you give your word, you will be required to fulfill it.

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Why? Because that's what God is like. He always keeps His promises. Always keeps

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His promises. And so in verse 1, here we go. In verse 1, my son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger.

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Some of your older translations will say surety. Some of the modern ones will say security.

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It's security deposit. It's really a surety or a guarantee, a promise to pay.

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And what's amazing is that you think about people like, that's just that archaic book. It's just that old book.

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It has no relevance to the modern era. It has all the relevance to everything. But we still do this today, right?

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Security deposits, right? Everyone's familiar with security deposits. Different things. You can have security deposits for renting a car on Toro.

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You could have security deposits for a house. Security deposits for renting a boat.

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When we were on a trip somewhere fairly recently, last year or two, there was a beach.

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We were resting and relaxing as a family. And so I'm kind of terrified, you guys all know this, of the ocean itself.

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Like I go far but not real far because it's dangerous. And my worst fear in the world is if someone like threw me in the middle of the ocean and like drove off or sped off in a boat.

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That would be like, I would just start going under and sucking water. Like it's just, it's over now for me, right?

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But we saw the people, what are they called, where it's like the, is it a paddle bike, you know, where it's like two seater situation.

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It's a little bike that goes out in the ocean. You sort of paddle, you know, look like idiots paddling away in the ocean.

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And we decided we're gonna do that. And so when I went to get it, they required that I actually leave my driver's license, right?

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That was the security deposit. It's my driver's license. And the interesting thing about the security deposit is it's not like collateral.

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That's where you're giving something that's actually valuable. It's the same valuable value as the thing that you're getting.

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A security deposit can be a small amount of money. A security deposit could be something that you own, that you don't want to lose.

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Or in this case, the security deposit was a driver's license so that my life would be very uncomfortable if for some reason

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I decided to take that little bicycle back to Arizona, right?

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If I didn't bring it back. And by the way, my family is evil because I think it was my daughter, yes it was

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Saylor, that told me like, hey jump off and see what it's like and then come back in. And so I did.

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I jumped off and what did she do? She sped off. And I was like, no I need my driver's license, right?

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And but you get the point. So a security deposit can be some money. It's a small amount of money.

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It's kind of like a promise to pay. A security deposit, it's not of the same value as the thing, but it's just something to make you uncomfortable.

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It's something that's a pledge, a promise. That is surety. That's a security deposit and that's ultimately what it is.

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Again, it's not like collateral where say for example you're going to get a loan for something from the bank and the bank says, okay so you want $10 ,000.

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Do you have collateral for it so we, if you default, can collect on it? And you say, actually yeah

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I have like in a bank deposit box I've got like you know $10 ,000 worth of silver pieces.

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I've got $10 ,000 worth of gold. And so the bank says, okay great we'll give you the $10 ,000 loan and we're going to have your silver and gold as collateral.

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So if you default, we can actually take all that and we'll be paid back in full.

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So there's a difference between security or surety and collateral. There's the difference.

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Now when you look at a text like this, this is Proverbs. We're talking about wisdom from above,

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Solomon, but this is in the context of God's dealing with his people in history.

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So the book of Proverbs is written after Moses. Moses has already given us the law of God.

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God's spoken, condescended. He's told us how to love God and love neighbor. And now we have Proverbs.

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It's actually the application of ultimately God's standards, God's truth, and the law of God in many respects.

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And so God's law actually speaks quite a bit about this issue of security or surety.

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So let's go to our Bibles to learn. I'm not going to be able to do this comprehensively in a single message, but here is some to consider.

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Go to Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy chapter 24. And so how many books did

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Moses write? Five. So the Pentateuch, the first five books are Moses' writing.

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We know that from the teaching of Jesus. When he quotes from the Pentateuch, the law of God, Moses gave that.

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In Deuteronomy chapter 24, we're going to start in verse 5. 24, verse 5.

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When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty.

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He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

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We mock God's Word in our day. And you think about the abusive way that our military treats our soldiers, right?

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They don't have these same blessings. They don't have these same gifts. We treat our our modern -day military and our soldiers like they're cannon fodder, essentially.

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Like you're just, they're living in poverty. They're not cared for. No concern is made for things like this when you're married, having this kind of time to be with your wife.

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But there's more. Verse 6, it says, No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge.

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That's surety. That's security. Same word. For that would be taking a life in pledge.

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And the next verse, I just want you to see it. If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die.

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So you shall purge the evil from your midst. So just a couple comments just briefly on these two points.

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I wanted to say this, is I made the first comment in verse 5 about how we treat our military, the concern for family that the government should have, the concern for marriage that the government should have.

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And the verse 7 there, you hear us often talking about it, that's the issue of slavery in the Bible.

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You're going to get this as a challenge from atheists who were ignorant of the Bible. They'll say the Bible teaches slavery, promotes slavery, and what they'll try to do is they'll compare that to something that happened in the 19th century in Georgia or something like that.

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Actually, the abolitionists, the Christian abolitionists in the north and the south, there were actually far more abolitionist societies in the south before the

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Civil War than there were in the north. Christian abolitionists were working in the same vein as what happened in England for the abolition of the slave trade, but guess what?

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One of the main verses those Christian abolitionists were using against the plantation owners.

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Guess what they were using? This verse. From the law of God. God's law forbids man -stealing and enslaving, and it actually says that it is so serious that the person who engages in it deserves to have their life taken.

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So any kind of suggestion the Bible actually condones or accepts anything like that is coming right against what the text itself says.

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Capital punishment. And the abolitionists were actually arguing very forcefully that we needed to abolish slavery immediately because it was an abomination before God.

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We are all of the same blood. This is my brother. This is my brother in Christ.

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And they were arguing it needed to be abolished immediately, and they were arguing that it needed to be seen as such a crime to engage in what they were engaging in that anybody doing it deserved to have their life taken from them.

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And that is straight from the Word of God. Now that text that we need to point to consistently in terms of what should we do with modern -day slavery, sex trafficking, all the rest.

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What should the penalty be for man -stealing and enslaving? What should it be according to God's Word? What? Capital punishment.

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It is such a violation to kidnap and enslave somebody. God says your life is relinquished.

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You've given it up. Do not pity the person who does it. Don't feel sad for them. Establish justice and feel for the victim.

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Feel for the victim. That's how God says deal with it. But right between there he says no one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that will be taking a life in pledge.

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And this has to do with how people actually would make bread, how they would... all my

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Christian moms here that do their daily making of bread. It's like a big thing in our church.

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You guys are delicious bread makers. They survived on that. That's how they made their daily bread, right?

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If you couldn't do it, you would starve. And so the issue here is that if somebody is impoverished, if you have a brother in Israel who is impoverished, who is poor, you couldn't take as a security deposit something that they needed for their livelihood.

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You couldn't engage in what we would call today loan shark practices.

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You couldn't abuse another human being, an image bearer of God, and in this case particularly a brother. You couldn't abuse somebody in the people of God by charging them interest, first of all.

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You needed to do it graciously. But when you took security deposit from them, a surety from them, you couldn't take something from them that they actually needed for their own production or for their life.

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You couldn't do that. You had to respect their honor, their dignity, their worth, and you had to do it graciously.

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You can't take away something that was the actual means of production. You know, for example, today if it was a construction worker or something who needed a loan, who just fell into some calamity, they needed a loan.

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You couldn't say, okay, but what I want as a security deposit is I want all of your tools,

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I want your trailer, and everything you use for your trade, right? Well, how are they, you're telling them basically

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I'll give you money so you can eat for a couple of days and then die because you can't provide for yourself.

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So you could not give a loan in an abusive fashion. You can't take something that was needed for their own production and caring for themselves.

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So the law of God says, love God, love your neighbor. And one of the ways you love your neighbor who is in a struggle, who is in poverty, is you don't try to make money on them.

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If you're gonna give them a loan, you do it graciously and you don't do it in such a way as that you are a loan shark.

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You are abusing their life. You are taking advantage of the poor. God forbids taking advantage of the poor.

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And so you can't be abusive. You can't take away the debtors means of production and surviving.

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Again, this would solve the problem of loan sharks these days and abusive loans that people engage in.

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Loans to the poor or the impoverished had to be gracious, respectful.

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They were meant to preserve the life of the impoverished or poor person and they had to uphold that person's dignity and their honor.

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Next verse. Go to Exodus now. Exodus 22.

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Exodus 22 starting at verse 25. Exodus 22 verse 25.

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Loving your neighbor. If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him and you shall not exact interest from him.

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So this is caring for people who are God's people within the body. They're in need.

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If you're gonna loan money, you don't do it to make money off of them. You don't exact interest from them.

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If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in pledge or surety. There's that surety that you see in Proverbs.

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If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in surety, pledge, you shall return it to him, mark this, before the sun goes down for that is his only covering and it is his cloak for his body and what else shall he sleep and if he cries to me

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I will hear for I am compassionate. You see the heart of God for the person who is poor.

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The person who is hurting. Don't exact interest on them and if they're giving you their cloak like it's a promise to pay,

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I will repay this. They're saying I'll give you my cloak itself. He says you got to take the cloak and you got to return it every night because that is a surety, is a guarantee.

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However, that person needs that to keep themselves warm. They need that to protect themselves from the cold.

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They need that to survive and so you can't be a loan shark. You can't abuse a person. You care for them.

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You try to get them out of the pit that they're in. That's that's the whole reason behind it is you're trying to pull them up and to love your neighbor as what?

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You love yourself and so they're giving the security deposit. Here's my cloak and it's got to come back at the end of the day so that they're cared for that night.

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Now mark it down. It's got to come back. Next, Deuteronomy chapter 24.

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Back to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 24 starting in verse 10.

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By the way, I was thinking this week as you guys get there. I think that I'm fully committed to because I think some people like well it takes too much time.

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You're taking time away from the message so everyone can go through their Bibles and we can just put it up on a screen behind us sort of a thing.

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I don't think I'm ever gonna do that and the reason why is in these little moments where you're forced to open your

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Bible and get to know it and search it is part of actually training you to know your

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Bible. I think a lot of us don't know our Bibles today in many ways like where something is because we haven't spent time traversing it actually moving through it and I think this is the place that instructs you to do that.

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So if it bothers you that we're doing this that we actually go to the text and we take time and we hear the pages then my response is

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I don't care. Just kidding. I care but not really.

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In Deuteronomy 24 starting at verse 10. Another example from the law of God.

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So here and if you didn't know this Deuteronomy. What's that mean? It's actually two words essentially.

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Deuteronomos. It's the second law. The second law. So it's a second giving of the law.

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So you've got like Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is that like the second giving.

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It's more explanation. So you've already seen some of the stuff before in the past in Moses and now this is more explication.

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It's more example. More case law examples to make sure that you are preserving love

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God, love neighbor in every way. Now this I love. This I love. In verse 10 the text says when you make your neighbor a loan of any sort you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge.

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You shall stand outside and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.

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And if he's a poor man you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you.

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And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God. So you have examples given here that gives you a principle and that principle is going to cross geography, geographical locations.

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It's going to cross time. The principle in here is how you actually love your neighbor when they're destitute, when they're hurting and you're supposed to care for them.

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You're not supposed to abuse them as you try to lift them up. And I love this because it is in the

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Word of God so very much and I've got to say we have lost our way today on this particular point.

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And that is the the the sanctity of somebody's own personal property.

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You see that so much in God's law. Give an example, okay? Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, the

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Ten Words, the Ten Commandments. What is one of those commandments? It is you shall not steal, right?

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So the law against theft, taking from your neighbor something that doesn't belong to them, it doesn't belong to you.

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What does it presuppose? That law of you shall not steal presupposes what?

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Is that somebody has something that belongs to them. It is not yours.

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It is theirs. It is delivered to them by God. In God's providence, they own it.

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God's Word has this very heightened sensitivity towards theft and encroaching on somebody's private property.

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God says that's yours. It belongs to you. It does not belong to anybody else.

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To the degree that God also has in the Ten Commandments a word against covetousness.

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You shall not covet. Coveting is not seeing somebody and admiring what they have and saying, man that inspires me.

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Like, you know, little kids in here love baseball, right? Like they get all giddy and googly around like Dennis, right?

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Like because they see him as like a hero. He's amazing at what he does. It's incredible what he does and they want to be like him.

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That's not coveting, right? I want to be like that guy. That's not coveting. Coveting is saying

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I want what belongs to him. I want his stuff. Scripture forbids us to live in such a way as we see somebody blessed.

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We see their stuff and we want their stuff. What's that sound like today?

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Our society, right? I mean you have people today, leaders bragging about like their ideology that like, hey these people are the haves.

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We need to we need to give the have -nots the haves stuff, right? I saw a whole speech from President Biden where he was talking about how we got to tax these successful people and these rich people because like he's like, you know, they have so much.

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Don't you want some of their stuff? Isn't it wrong that they have so much stuff? And the idea was, yeah, I want their stuff.

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Can you take from them and give it to me? That's coveting. It's encroaching on somebody's private property and look at even in this law you have that super high value and respect of a person's property and you should not steal.

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That it even comes into like giving a person a loan that when you come to get the surety or security deposits you don't get to make the choice yourself and come into their property and start seizing stuff.

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You can't do that. What? You have to respect their honor, their dignity, their property.

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Here's what I'm saying. Brothers and sisters, you see the principles that are involved here when you unpack it. There is this heightened commitment in God's law to neighbor and saying

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I must respect their boundaries and their things and even when I'm in a relationship where I'm blessing them and helping them

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I do not get to use that to abuse them. I can't say I'm helping you,

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I'm giving you this loan and so you're gonna do what I say. You treat them like a brother. You love them.

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You treat them equal, eye to eye. You don't get to come barging into their house taking their stuff and starting to take ownership of that person's belongings.

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That person gets to decide. You don't even cross their boundary line. You don't come into their house and take their stuff which is, by the way, you're welcome.

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A gift from the Christian worldview in this country also. What do we have? We have a

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Bill of Rights, right? And we have laws that are on the books that are supposed to be laws from who?

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From our Creator. These are laws not that the government grants. These are laws from the

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Creator himself and one of those laws is the law against self -incrimination. You can't make me testify against myself.

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Where's that come from? Directly from the law word of God and one of those laws also is against warrantless searches and what?

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Seizures. Against warrantless searches and seizures. We don't even respect that anymore, right?

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I mean you have police officers, unfortunately, who completely abuse other citizens by doing things to encroach on their property or into their vehicles without a warrant and it's a violation of this principle in Scripture and that is that you honor a person's private property.

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You protect it. You honor the boundary and you can't just come in willy -nilly to someone's house seizing property or crossing the boundary.

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That is something that is highlighted in God's Word and you can see it, the principle of it, right here.

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That does not belong to me. That belongs to them. I shouldn't want to take their stuff.

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I need to respect their honor and their dignity. Value them in that way and so today we don't do that.

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We have, unfortunately, law enforcement that will go into someone's vehicle or find excuses to go into somebody's vehicle or encroach the boundaries of their own home without a warrant, without a purpose, without evidence, without any of those things and Scripture would give to us a foundation and actually did that protects our neighbors against that kind of violation.

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This past week there was news on somebody who was called the pro -life Spider -Man.

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Now I don't want to take down this man's dignity but you probably saw the story. Pro -life Spider -Man.

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You think, oh yeah, that's a guy that's on our team. He's pro -life. He's doing this for babies. He climbs a building that didn't belong to him, climbed it in a risky way and ultimately you know first responders were there and people were there hoping for his safety.

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Thankfully he was safe but they arrested him, right, and many people were like well why would you arrest him?

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He was just trying to stand up for babies. We can't stand up for babies while we're violating the law because guess what?

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What if pro -life Spider -Man came and was sort of climbing on your house? Would you want someone just random coming to your house climbing on your home, right, doing little parrots and dances on top of your roof, right?

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You would say that's wrong. Would you do it to a private citizen? Would you climb their house in that way? The answer is no.

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Why? Because it doesn't belong to you. That's called trespassing, right? You're kind of doing a breaking and entering situation here.

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You can't violate another person's property and you can't violate a business's property. You have to respect their boundaries.

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One of the things that we say consistently in our work against the issue of abortion is as the people of God we want to make sure that we're still in the midst of a

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Holocaust upholding God's standards. So you know as we've gone out there what do we always say? Don't cross their boundary line, right?

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Don't violate the law. Don't do that. Don't cross over. Don't violate the law. Stay within the boundaries of the law.

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Respect private property even in the midst of a Holocaust. You need to try to do that as much as you're able to do.

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Respect the law of God. You see that operating here. In Deuteronomy chapter 24, this is really amazing, the heart of God for widows.

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Deuteronomy 24, after God gives the rules about pledges and surety and security deposits for your brother, right?

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Don't charge him interest and make sure you respect them. Return their cloak at the end of the night so they have it to keep warm at night.

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God also has a word for how you do this with widows. And in verse 17 of 24 it says this, you shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless or take a widow's garment in pledge.

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But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there therefore

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I command you to do this. So God's law actually has a special word for the widow.

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A special word for the widow and a special word for the fatherless child, the orphans.

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And a word for the sojourner. Don't deprive them of justice. Don't deprive that fatherless child from justice.

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You see the heart of God for the fatherless. Why are we doing what we're doing in the area of abortion? Why are we sacrificing so much?

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Why are we risking so much? Because we know the heart of God when it comes to fatherless children. You do not deprive fatherless children from justice.

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Why are we so forcefully committed without compromise to no partiality, to not accepting compromise as the pro -life establishment has done for years saying kill these kids but not these kids and their bills.

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Why do we reject that? Because scripture says over and over and over again you do not deprive fatherless children justice.

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You don't do it. And so that's why we fight so hard against that kind of compromise. But in this text when it comes to surety and security,

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God says this, you can take somebody's cloak, right? You can take somebody's cloak, give it back at the end of the day so they can stay warm at night and they're cared for.

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Don't take their livelihood from them. But you do not even dare do that to the widow. The widow, take care of her.

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You take care of her. You hold her up and provide for her needs. That's what scripture says.

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God has a lot to say about fatherless children and widows. And so God has a special word for the widow.

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You care for her in a way that you don't others. You actually protect her because of where she's at.

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Especially in this society, that widow could easily starve and die. And so you protect her.

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So the Word of God says you never take the widow's cloak for a pledge.

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Never. It can't happen. Now there's something amazing here. We could do this for days and you're gonna get a lot of this in the book of Proverbs.

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We are gonna go more into economics. Economics, God's law on the ethics of economics and how you actually are supposed to do these things.

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Don't dilute the currency. All those things we're gonna get into all that. But there's actually an economic lesson from God's law word buried into this.

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Security and the neighbor. And what it is, is this. Did you notice the the word where it says, okay, so you've got a brother.

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They're in need. They're destitute. They're impoverished. They're poor. They've got a need. And so what you do is you can take their cloak during the daytime for the security deposit so they can find a way to use the money to make more money to pay you back and get on their feet again.

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That's the goal. Get them back on their feet. Don't charge them interest, but you're gonna need some security that's not just gonna run off with your money.

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All right? Because, you know, believe it or not, there there are some some weirdos in the Christian Church, right?

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They'll take some money and say, yeah, I'll pay you back. And then they're off to a different church and never pay you back. So it's good to have the surety.

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It's good to have the security deposit. But God says do it like this. Return it at the end of the night.

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Well, how about what if the guy comes and says, all right, I need money.

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I'm hurting. I'm poor right now. I really need money. Can you give me some money?

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Can you give me some money? And you say, sure, you know, I'll give you I'll give you a hundred bucks. Great. Okay, but I'm gonna need some security from you that you get you it's a promise that you're gonna pay it back.

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And the guy says, well, you could take my cloak. My cloak. That'll be the security deposit. But actually

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I'm gonna need it all day. I'm gonna need it with me, right? My security is my cloak, but I'm not actually gonna give it to you.

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It's just it'll be with me. Can I have the hundred bucks? And then you say, oh, oh, okay.

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I'll be gracious. I guess I don't really need to hold it anyways. And so that's the security deposit in theory, right?

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But it's on you the whole time. And then that guy goes off to the next Christian and says, hey,

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I'm in a bad spot, difficult situation. I need a hundred bucks. And you know,

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I'll give you my cloak as security deposits. And the guy says, you know, really? Oh, okay. I guess so.

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Here's the hundred bucks. And we'll take in theory your cloak as a security deposit. Now this guy goes off and does that ten times off the same security deposit.

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So this is a deposit for security. And he's now gotten ten loans off of the one security deposit.

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God says you can't do that. Why? Because it's fraudulent. It's lying, right?

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You're getting a bunch of loans on one item. It's fraudulent.

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It's lying to your neighbor. It's deceptive. And it is our modern banking system.

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Fractional reserve currency. Evil. Sinful. Fraudulent.

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Deceptive. Abusive. It's an economics lesson from the law of God.

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God has so much to say about currency, about fiat currency, about banking, and how to do these sorts of things.

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Did you know that if you go into a bank right now, and you give them a hundred thousand dollars, let's just use that number, right?

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You give them a hundred thousand dollars. You say I'd like to deposit this hundred thousand dollars into your bank. Did you know that what they're allowed to do is they're allowed to give out loans nine or ten times more the value of your money.

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Did you know that? So the banks are making money on interest, on loans that they give out, but they're loans that are pretend money.

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Because what they're doing is they're saying okay, a hundred thousand dollars came in. We're gonna give out a million dollars of loans based upon what?

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Based upon a hundred thousand. Where's that come from? It's magic. Where that it's magic, right?

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If you were to ask for a coherent answer as to like why, why ten? Why not, why, why, why nine?

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Why not four? Why not double? There's not a coherent answer. But what they do is they take the same cloak, and they multiply loans off of that, which means the money is all fake.

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It's all fiat. It's all pretend. It's all fraudulent, and what it means also is it can be a total collapse.

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Because, watch this, another economics lesson from God's law in terms of diluting currency, fiat currency, lying fraudulently about what money is there.

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If you took that hundred thousand dollars today, and you place it in your bank, I dare you to go back four days later and say

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I'd like to withdraw my hundred thousand dollars. Are they gonna have it? Did they have it there at the bank?

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They don't. You ever hear about like bank runs? People are terrified of bank runs. Why are people terrified of bank runs?

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Why are they scared? Because if the bank has to actually give you back the money that you put in reserve, the answer is, guess what?

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They don't really have it. Why? Because they've given out a bunch of fraudulent loans off of a single cloak.

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Do you get the point? You didn't know that God's Word had so much to say about money, did you? Okay. Why is it wrong?

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It's fraudulent. It's lying. It's abusive to people. It's not real. It's pretend. The currency doesn't exist, and in the case of the person with the cloak, the reason they're supposed to give it as security to the one loan is because they can't go out and get ten loans off a single security deposit.

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It's dishonest. It's lying to your neighbor. So there is the Word of God on that.

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Next, go back to Proverbs chapter 6. Is this as fun for you as it is for me?

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This is so much fun. Proverbs chapter 6.

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Now note some words here as you look at 6 verse 1 and 2. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth.

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Now note some things here. Stranger, right? If you've found yourself making a foolish commitment for a stranger, it wasn't thoughtful, you didn't think about the consequences, you just put yourself on the line, you vouch for somebody, and now watch this.

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There's a way for your own cloak or your own things to be used as security, and there's a way to actually have somebody else come in as the pledge, as the security.

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It's like a cosigner. It's a cosigner. It's a person who comes in and says,

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I'll be it. I'll guarantee the loan, I'll guarantee to be paid back, I'll be the cosigner.

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And the point here is don't be foolish, don't get yourself involved in a commitment where you may not be able to keep your promise.

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Maybe you don't have the means to do it, but you're cosigning on somebody else, it's a stranger, you don't really know them, you're making a foolish commitment where it's gonna come down on you, and you will be expected to keep your word no matter the consequences.

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And so the word here is if you've done that, if you've been snared by the words of your mouth, if you are lacking sense and wisdom in your commitments, you need to extricate yourself, you need to get yourself out as quickly as possible.

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What's the word here? The implication is that you will be required to keep your promises no matter the outcome.

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Now there's a principle here embedded right in the middle of this. Why is this an important issue, right?

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Why not? Why can't I just co -sign everyone's loans? Why can't I just promise, yeah sure I'll pay, like you have a need, great

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I'll co -sign for you, right? I'm not thinking about the consequences, I don't really know you, I don't know your discipline, I don't know your work ethic, you might be a sluggard, you get halfway, hands in the dish, you always quit,

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I don't know where you're at, I don't know, I don't know your plans for the future, I don't know how hard of a worker you are, I'm just gonna co -sign for you, co -sign for you, all because I love my neighbor.

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I just wanna hook you up, I want to help you out. God says don't be foolish, don't be foolish, that's not wise, that's not thoughtful, that's not planning, that's not how

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I want you to live, you just go co -signing on a bunch of strangers stuff, because it's gonna be required of you whether or not you like the outcome.

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Why? Because the heart of it is this, ready? Here's the heartbeat behind it, it's a consistent theme through Scripture, God cannot lie,

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God can't lie, it's against God's own character to lie, and so the point here is you and I are in his image, if you make a foolish commitment, if you make a foolish commitment, if you co -sign on somebody else's thing, and it's foolish,

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God says you're in my image, I can't lie, you made a commitment, you pay, you owe, you will keep it.

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What do we do today typically with loans in our day, right? You make a commitment, you make a promise to pay, things don't work out, what do we say?

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Ah, tough, can't pay it, not gonna pay it. God says you obligate yourself, you keep your promise, because of the very character of God.

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Do this, go to Hebrews chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 6, by the way did you see my new

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Bible? I love it so much, okay, sorry, Hebrews chapter 6, some of the pages are still sticking together,

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Hebrews chapter 6 verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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We'll get more to this in a second, but here's the point of that text, what does it say about God? It is impossible for God to lie, it goes against his character, it's not like God doesn't lie, because he has a list of commandments above him that are the rules for God, right, he's just trying to follow those rules, that's not why we have the law against lying, lying is a sin for image bearers of God, because it goes against the character of God, he cannot lie, it is impossible for God to lie, so the point of Proverbs is this, look, don't be foolish, don't be unwise, don't go cosigning on loans for people that you don't even know, don't commit yourself to things that you can't fulfill, because guess what, you cannot lie, your father doesn't lie, you will be held to keeping that commitment, why?

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Because God always keeps his, he guarantees it, if he makes a promise, he will see it through, he will fulfill that promise, and so more examples, you could do later, just write down,

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Titus chapter 1 verse 2, Numbers 23 19, more on God cannot lie.

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Next, there are more verses on security and surety and guarantors, cosigners, in Proverbs, go back to Proverbs, and this time look at chapter 11, chapter 11,

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Proverbs 11 verse 15, whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm, but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.

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So the point here, here's again, chapter 6, same thing, stranger, son, if it's a stranger, don't do that, extricate yourself, get yourself out as soon as you can, find a way out of this, you found yourself in an unwise decision, get yourself out of it, in chapter 11, the word is that you will suffer harm, you're gonna fill the consequences, and this word here about striking hands is how we would make a deal, like today, if you and I make a deal, what do we do?

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What do we do? We shake hands, right? It's probably not, I can't imagine like a bunch of Jewish guys like in robes and everyone just like high -fiving each other, right?

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Not really the case, I think, it's more of like a secure handshake, strike hands, you make a commitment, you look in the eye, you make that promise, you shook my hands, right?

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And so that's the striking of the hands, so that the principle is here, you're putting up security for a stranger, you're gonna suffer the consequences, don't be unwise.

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As God's people, think with prudence, be wise, don't put yourself on the line, because you will be required to fulfill your obligations, because God cannot lie, you have to keep your promise, if you strike hands, you're gonna be expected to fulfill your obligation, keep your word, be a man, a woman of your word, no matter the consequences.

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So, you can see in chapter 17, verse 18, same issue with security, recklessness isn't godly or wise,

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Proverbs 22, verses 26 through 27, same issue.

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So again, clearly in Scripture, you have security, right?

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It's different than collateral, it's security, it could be an item, your cloak, right?

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There's rules for how you're gonna care for your neighbor when they're in this situation, but clearly you can also become surety, you can become the security, you're the second party, and you are coming in, ready?

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And you're guaranteeing it, you're saying, I'll come in, I'll vouch for her, I'll vouch for him,

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I'm gonna come in as security and surety, I'll make the promise, it's on me, I'll vouch,

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I'll sign, I'll strike hands, I'll shake hands, it's my responsibility, if they default or they fail,

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I'm gonna pay for the whole thing, all right? Now, God says, if you do that, you better be ready to keep that commitment, don't do it in an unwise way, don't do it for a stranger, you better know what you're doing, it's not wrong to put yourself on the line for another person, but you better know that you have the wherewithal to fulfill it, and you better have that commitment to actually fulfill the obligation, don't do it in a way that is foolish.

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There's an example in Scripture of the Apostle Paul appealing to this very thing, go to Philemon, let's see how, let's, this is where you're gonna see if you know your

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Bibles, I'm not gonna help you, and don't don't look at no table of contents, it's hard to find because it's very short.

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Okay, it's right before Hebrews, all right? That's a big one, right before Hebrews. Now, in this one, the

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Apostle Paul speaks about someone that he loves, Onesimus, and he has a word to the church about his friend.

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In chapter 1, verse 18, well, I'll start at verse 17, it says, so if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

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If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

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Charge it to my account, put it on me. I, Paul, and he's like specifically, it's not, in Emanuel, it's not a person writing on behalf of Paul, like he's dictating, and they're writing it down.

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He says, like, look, I'm gonna put my pen to paper, my hand to paper here. He says, I, Paul, write this with my own hands.

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I'm letting you know how serious I am about this, I love this man, I fully understand my commitments, and I'm telling you, if he owes you anything, put it on my account, charge it to me.

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I will make sure it's paid. I will be the surety. I will be security for him. I'll guarantee it.

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I'll be the cosigner. He says, I write this with my own hands. I will repay it to say nothing of your owing me, even your own self.

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I love the little, uh, right? That's kind of a little jab, like, hey, look, put it all on me.

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I'll take care of him. I love him. Charge it to my account. I'll fulfill the obligations. Like, you know, it's, it's,

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I write it with my own hands. Just consider it, like, I owe you, and you know, you kind of owe me a lot of stuff yourself, right?

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Let me remind you that we're all kind of indebted to one another here. I like that. But the Apostle Paul takes that on, security, cosigning, promising.

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I will pay this off. I will make sure it's done. Now, there's an important principle, an important principle related to this, and this is what we're wrapping up here, guys, the heart of this.

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The principle is, you make the commitments, your security, your surety.

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The Word of God says you fulfill your obligation. Why? Because your Father in Heaven always does His. You and I depend on God all the time not to lie.

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He can't lie. It's impossible for God to lie. It's against His own nature and character. And God's saying, if you've got yourself into a foolish situation, an impossible situation, get yourself out as quickly as you can.

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Find a way to negotiate with Him. Find a way to pull yourself out of the situation. Get out of the snare that you got yourself in.

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Why? Because you must fulfill your obligations. You're gonna have to keep it. Get yourself off that security.

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Find a way out. You made a foolish decision? Get yourself out as quickly as you can. You must keep your promise.

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That is why. There's a popular verse in Psalm 15 related to this issue.

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Go there. Psalm 15. Psalm chapter 15.

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Let's start. The verse we're gonna go to is verse 4, but I actually want to lead in with verse 1.

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Moving forward. Listen to it. Psalm 15. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

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Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly, and does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his neighbor, nor take up a reproach against his friends, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the

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Lord, who swears to his own hurt, and does not change. Verse 4, actually.

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Did you get that? He walks blamelessly. He speaks the truth. And look at that.

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It says, who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt, and does not change.

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They make an oath that actually hurts them. They make an oath. They make a promise in such a way that it's destructive to them, and it doesn't matter.

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They don't change. They keep going. They keep their promise. They speak the truth. And even if they've made a commitment, they've swore an oath that was to their own detriment, and it's their own pain, they're gonna fulfill the oath.

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They're gonna fulfill the promise. It won't matter. That is a righteous person. And that's the point of Proverbs chapter 6.

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You get yourself into a bind. You've ensnared yourself with your lips. You found yourself in a trap now, caught because you vouched for and put yourself as security for a stranger.

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You were unwise. You did something that was wrong. What does Proverbs say? The text says this.

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Here's the word. It says, then do this, verse 3 of chapter 6, my son, and save yourself.

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For you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go hasten and plead urgently with your neighbor.

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Give your eyes no sleep, and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

01:00:01

I think that those images, that symbolism in a way that's coming from the text, speaks rather for itself, right?

01:00:08

You're ensnared. You're trapped. Your life is in danger. Get yourself out quickly. Don't give your eyes any slumber or sleep.

01:00:14

If you find yourself in a situation where you've gotten yourself into a bad relationship, where you've committed to something, you shouldn't have done it, the answer from God's Word is get out.

01:00:24

Find a way out. Go talk to the person. Plead. Negotiate. Get yourself off because you will be expected to fulfill your promises.

01:00:34

The anchor here of this entire text is this. If you give your word, you keep it. If you give your word, you keep it.

01:00:43

If you give your word, you show up. If you give your word, and even if it was to your own detriment and your own pain, you fulfill your obligations.

01:00:53

And the answer is why? Because God does that. He keeps

01:00:59

His Word. He keeps His promise. A word here on how this relates to the gospel is powerful.

01:01:11

Are some of you already making the connections? I hope that you are. I hope that I've done a good enough job just to try to start to, in a way, preliminarily put down the foundations.

01:01:25

God has come into our lives, each of us as His children, as the guarantor, as the one who swears, as the one who comes in and promises to pay.

01:01:40

He does it knowing full well the circumstances. He does it knowing all about us when

01:01:48

He does it. Your past sins, your present sins, your future sins. He does it knowing all about our unfaithfulness, and yet He comes in as surety, as security, as the promise maker, knowing the fallout, knowing the consequences, and that He has the wherewithal to pay.

01:02:09

He has the ability to see it through to the end. That's what God does. Like Paul, Paul to his friends, if he owes you anything, charge it to me like I owe you.

01:02:22

I will pay it off. If he owes you anything, charge it to my account, and I'm gonna pay it.

01:02:27

That's a picture of the gospel. I'll be surety. I'll be the guarantee. I'll cosign, and I will pay the debt.

01:02:35

And brothers and sisters, that is us. We have the debt. Sin is seen in Scripture in that way, like you have a debt that you owe.

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We are indebted, and not only does God forgive us our debts, but God comes in in Scripture.

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He comes in as the God who comes in as surety, as security, as the guarantor to pay it all back, knowing full well about us as He does it.

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He makes the promise to pay. He obligates Himself to cover all of our debts.

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He's the surety. He's the guarantee, and I wanted you to see it in the text. Hebrews chapter 7.

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This is an amazing section. If you haven't gotten another book of Hebrews, I encourage you to do so. So much false religion would be easily refuted just by what we see about God's promises in this amazing, amazing work.

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Hebrews 7, verse 15.

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Here's what it says. Talking about Jesus as the high priest, as Melchizedek, the high priest, it says, this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

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Jesus isn't dying again. He's raised forever. He lives forever to intercede for us. He's not like the old priests who die, new one comes, die, new one comes.

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Jesus is the resurrected Lord. So it is written, verse 17, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect, but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.

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And it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the

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Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

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You are a priest forever. Here's the word, ready? God has made the oath.

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He's saying oath. This is Jesus. He's the priest forever. He's the one to intercede, and it says this, verse 22, this makes

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Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

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What's that word? Security. Security. Guarantor. Jesus is the security.

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He is the guarantor. He is the surety of a better covenant. And this is the

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God who cannot lie. He keeps his promises. He fulfills his oaths. The point here is this, when it comes to this whole issue of security and guarantee and obligations and fulfilling it with godly wisdom, here's what

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God's like. He swears. He comes in to cosign. He comes in as security, and he guarantees it, and he will see it to the end.

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He keeps his promises, which means, brothers and sisters, you and I have a hope that is indestructible.

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It's undefiled. It's reserved in heaven for us. It cannot be broken, because God has sworn the oath, and God comes into your life and mine as his child, and he says,

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I'm the security. I'm the surety. I'm the guarantor.

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I will cover their debts. And what is God saying in his word? It's impossible for him to lie.

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He will fulfill it, which, by the way, yeah, if you're getting it, that kind of sounds like perseverance of the saints.

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That kind of sounds like God's not gonna lose the sheep for whom Christ died.

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That sounds like God's gonna see you through to the end. There's your hope. So you're told, keep your word, keep your promises, don't get involved in any foolish business decisions, don't cosign on something that you're not sure about, because you will be required to fulfill it.

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Why? Because that's what God's like, and that's what he's like in your salvation and mine. He loves you, and he puts himself on the balance sheet, and he says,

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I'll fulfill the obligation. I'll cover it. I have the means, and I have the commitment. I'm obligating myself.

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I'm on their side. I will pay it. There's the promise. And of course, I'll leave you with this, 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22. What does it say about the Holy Spirit within us? The Holy Spirit is given to us as a what?

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Deposit. A guarantee of that future redemption, that hope that we have.

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So this, it's like the Spirit of God's given as a security deposit within every single believer.

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Here's the guarantee. Here's that deposit within you. This future possession, it's all yours, because you belong to me.

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Here it is. I'll fulfill my oath. I'll fulfill my obligation. That's the kind of God that you and I worship.

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And when you and I come to this table in a moment, as his children, trusting in Jesus, when you come to this table in a moment, all of this is pointing to, shouting to, reflecting the

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God who keeps his promises. Because you're coming to a table that Jesus says, do this in a remembrance of me.

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This is my body broken for you. This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, poured out for many for their remission of sins.

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And Jesus says, do it in remembrance of me. I want you to remember, remember what I've paid to purchase you.

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That this is finished. It's a once -for -all sacrifice, able to perfect forever those who draw near to God through him.

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Come and remember. Remember when you come to this table that you've been purchased, bought with a price, his blood was spilled, your forgiveness is now finished, complete, whole, comprehensive.

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It's eternal. And God says, ready? I guarantee it. It's guaranteed.

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It can't fall away. You'll lose your salvation. Are you ready?

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Bold claim here. You will lose your salvation. You will lose your salvation the first day

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God lies. Got it?

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Do you feel that? What's that mean? Can't happen. Let's pray.

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Lord, thank you for your word. Please bless the proclamation of your word. Firm up our commitments to your truth, to our making commitments, making oaths, promises.

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Help us to be men and women of our word and of your word.

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Help us to be like you. Thank you that you've made promises. Thank you that you are the surety, guaranteed.

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We love you, Lord. Thank you so much for this salvation that you've given us. In Jesus' name, amen. This is where we come to the table.