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Sunday school from February 11th, 2018
Let's pray and we'll get started Lord Jesus again as we open up your word. We ask that you would send your spirit. We recognize that your word says that we cannot understand your word apart from your spirit.
So, please let your Holy Spirit guide us direct us so that we may understand it rightly. Understand what we are to believe confess and do we ask all this in the name of our crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. All right before we get started into the lesson were there any questions that percolated up as a result of the sermon. You know that we talked about today. You'll note I took the the story of the Transfiguration a slightly different direction.
Let the the other texts help us understand where the glory of God is. I'm sorry. Sorry. It's the glory where the glory is and You'll note that the glory of God is in the forgiveness of sins and that the glory of God in in our Context now in this life is synonymous with the gospel because the gospel is the proclamation of the forgiveness of our sins.
Because of what Christ has done for us. So were there any questions that anybody might have had as a result of that?
Uh-huh.
Yes now so that's an interesting question. So you take us to the Shroud of Turin which okay There it is not definitive as to whether or not that is a legitimate artifact I am of I am of the opinion after actually spent quite a bit of time just researching it that I think there's a Probability a pretty decent probability that might be legitimate however, the Shroud of Turin I would say technically doesn't have.
Isn't part of the type and shadow work done in there. The burial shroud is a little bit different. Although I will say this Not only is a burial shroud mentioned in scripture, but also there was. There was a face wrapping also that Christ had there was years ago.
The History Channel did a special where they were trying to take the data that's on the Shroud of Turin. That's the best way to describe it. It's actual data because it's not like any other painting out there because when you when you take it into a scanner the you can literally extrude the The body from it.
So what they did is they gave all of that information to a fellow in New York who? Went into it and he's a specialist in 3d renderings and stuff like that. He Extrapolated the data and created a model of what the person looked like from the data from the Shroud of Turin.
Interesting program. I actually talked with a fellow a few months after that Documentary aired and I think the name of it was the face of Jesus or something like that. That fellow is his theology is completely wackerdoodle.
He's a Gnostic but in talking to him about the details of what he went through and stuff like that He actually created a 3d print model up from the data that he got from the Shroud. Very fascinating worth it worth the watch.
But again, technically the Shroud of Turin is not going to be part of that the veil that's referred to then. So the type and shadow is the veil of that Moses had to put over his face. The glory still is actually working in type and shadow and then what what Paul does writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
He takes the glory that's on Moses his face and he transports that into the gospel itself and then the veil then represents unbelief and So those whom the God of this world has blinded their eyes the veil remains over it and until somebody has penitent faith in Christ The glory of the gospel is veiled but to us who believe Paul was saying we are Presently beholding the glory of God Presently now, which is really good news.
So again the glory of God as defined by God in Exodus 34 is The Lord the Lord slow to anger. I mentioned this before worth mentioning again The Hebrew is actually quite hilarious in that proclamation because here you've got this Procession of the glory of God Moses is being hidden in the cleft of the rock and the Hebrew literally says Yahweh Yahweh long of nose.
I Am not making that up. That's the idiom Long of nose it gets translated into slow to anger. But the Hebrew idiom for slow to anger it Depicts God with this ginormous nose who can take in a lot of the stench of our sin before he gets.
But I let and he it's kind of funny because you think of it this way our.
Sin reeks and.
Yet God is slow to anger. He has a long nose which means he has a slow fuse which we're very thankful for but slow to anger abounding instead fast. Love pardoning iniquity forgiving sin. This is the glory of God.
This is his glory. All right any other questions? If not, we're going to continue then with our study. We began a study last week on the seventh commandment, which says you shall not steal. We noted last week that question that Cain asked am I my brother's keeper.
The answer for us Christians is Yes, you are your brother's keepers and you're gonna note last week I gave two big plugs for the government. Two huge plugs for the government because one of the ways we as Christians Fulfill this commandment is with good government supporting good government.
Even Christians saying I'm going to put my my name forward for government positions. A well-ordered government with leaders who recognize the law of God is a Blessing for us. The worst thing the curse is like Chicago politics Where the criminals are running the show and the dead are voting.
It's the weirdest thing.
You know.
Yeah, you know I I heard years ago that that they were trying to strip the dead of their right to vote and there was a whole political action committee Created for those who are vertically challenged.
Can't take away their rights and that's just a bad joke. Anyway, I should give up that just right now.
Yeah.
No, that's bad. So you're gonna note again then here as we look at this seventh commandment. That there are more aspects of it that also will Talk to the need for good government when it says you shall not steal do not think it is merely Don't take things from other people.
It's far more than that because there are so many different ways in which we take away from people their ability to care for their bodily needs and so we'll look at kind of it in its totality as we continue with this.
The question before us is When we fear and love God by looking after our neighbors well-being by helping and protecting improve our neighbors, you know. Different things. What are those things? Well, we need to protect our neighbors earthly possessions.
Consider this text in Exodus 2214 if a man borrows anything of his neighbor and it is injured or dies The owner not being with it. He shall make full restitution. Now I've never.
Borrowed.
Farm animals from anybody. But that still happens to this day people borrowing horses or beast of burdens or things like that. I've borrowed power tools before so if I were to borrow Dwayne's Skillsaw and I decided I was going to be doing a project and I Was working the skillsaw and smoke came out of it and it caught fire.
This text says it's my job to pay for a new skillsaw. That's what it makes perfect sense. You sit there and go but you'll note that our sinful nature would say How long has he had this skillsaw? I mean he's owned this thing for ten years.
How many projects has he used it on he goes ahead and wears it out? I use it once and it catches fire and now I'm the guy who's got to pay for this thing. That's right, he delivered this horse over for me.
I was gonna have it plow help him plow my field and it was already coughing when it got there. But this text says if you borrow anything and it dies or is injured. You shall make full restitution if the owner was with it.
That's a different story. He shall not make restitution if it was hired. It came for its hiring fee so you get the idea. So the idea that think about this way not stealing also involves when you borrow stuff from people.
Have you ever I'm one of these guys? I own a lot of books. I don't know if you've noticed noticed this but I own a lot of books. There are there are people who all over this country have some of my books, you know.
And if you're listening to this podcast, please send them to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Yeah, I in fact I've got so many books missing. I don't I don't even remember who has them it's just this weird thing.
Anyway, we also take care of our neighbor by actually caring about their income and their livelihood. I would consider Philippians 2 in this particular case Philippians 2 Verse 3 says do nothing from selfish ambition or Vain conceit.
I think the NIV has it a little stronger there and I think that's right. Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility count others as more significant than your self. Tell me that's not easy to do right?
You want me to think of everybody is more significant than me. Yes. Well, what about me? Well, their job is to consider you more significant than them. You see you see how that works. We're all it's Christians.
We're diving for the bottom and By considering other people as more important than ourselves. The idea then is this I got your back you got mine. I'm looking out for your needs. You're looking out for mine when everybody considers others as more important than themselves.
Everybody's taken care of. Nobody falls to the cracks. But when you consider yourself better than everybody else, then of course, you would never get your hands dirty or touch the unwashed masses and let their ick get on you because after all you are amazing and is this not what our celebrity culture is our celebrity culture takes human beings and exalts them to little deities and They have all the money.
They have all the prestige and all the news is about the things that they are Doing and of course nobody cares about you because you're nobody but there's somebody why are they somebody because they're good at pretending.
Is that not what makes a celebrity somebody who's good at pretending to be somebody else? Since when did becoming good at pretending make you better than anybody else? But you don't understand.
She is beautiful he. How does this makes my heart flutter? I? Just love the way he depicted such and such a cowboy or yeah.
They're great at pretending. That's what they do and we thank them for entertaining us and looking so sparkly and shiny and clean. While the rest of us, well, we're nobody's. But as Christians, that's not our what we do.
We consider others as better than ourselves. Everybody is better than us. Verse 4. So let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. I need to make a note here and that is not looking at the interest of others the way a gossip does like mrs Kravitz from.
You know, you know, you're spying on your neighbors and being a busybody and reporting to everybody to be a gossip. That's not what this is talking about this is talking about looking after the interests of others like actually physically being concerned mentally psychologically being concerned and Doing something to make sure your neighbor is okay.
End-of-story. And this is talking about in their income in their livelihood. That's the idea and then the ultimate example of this that is held up for us is Christ and the cross. So, you know that not only does the glory of God tell us that we're forgiven the glory of God in the forgiveness of sins in Christ in his humiliation and his incarnation.
And going to the cross then is held up for us as. The pattern that we as Christians follow in this own in this life. We deny ourselves. We take up our cross we follow Christ. I Would argue that considering others as better than yourself is a great way to deny Yourself well if I did that I'd be really busy caring for everybody else's needs.
Bingo. Right. That's the point. I'm gonna give you a example of this from Genesis. You turn with me to Genesis chapter 13. Genesis chapter 13 you're gonna note we have a great example of this in Abram.
This is before he was renamed by God as Abraham. And if you remember when Abram traveled to the land that God told him to travel to. That he brought his nephew lot with him. Abrams the uncle lots the nephew.
One is the elder the other is the younger but watch what Abram does. Abrams very I mean this very Christlike in this account. Genesis 13 verse 2 reads now. Abram was very rich in livestock in silver and gold.
Every prosperity heretic knows this verse and they would argue see Abram was rich. God wants you to be rich, too.
No.
Jesus said do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Do not. Although Abrams rich That does not mean that God wants you to be rich. You may be poor you may have to struggle you may have to work and toil like the rest of us In order to pay your bills.
That's all part of the curse. So he journeyed from on from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the place between Bethel and AI to the place where he had made an altar at the first and there Abraham called upon the name of Yahweh.
And Lot who went with Abram was also had flocks and herds and tents so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together for the possessions were so great that they could not dwell together and There was strife between the herdsmen of Abrams livestock and the herdsmen of lots.
Livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. So their possessions are so great. Their livestock is so great that the land itself cannot sustain both herds. Abrams the older.
Lots the younger. But watch what Abram does he exemplifies this characteristic of Christ as considering others as better than yourself rather than Exerting his right as the elder in the family. Here's what he says verse 8 Abram said to lot let there be no strife between you and me between your herdsmen and my herdsmen.
We're kinsmen is not the whole land before you. Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, I'll go to the right or if you take the right hand I'll go to the left. No, Abram gives the choice to lot Wherever you want to go.
I'll go in a different direction. You get to pick not me you.
Wow Wow.
So a lot lifted up his eyes we saw the Jordan Valley was well watered Everywhere like the Garden of the Lord. Like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zohar this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and So we learned something about that area.
This is in the Dead Sea region South part of the Dead Sea that prior to the destruction of Sodom Gomorrah. This was a lush place. Very lush. This was a high-rent district. This was some primo real estate here.
And so lot chose the primo real estate. But unfortunately, it's in a bad neighborhood if morals are important to you. So lot chose for himself the Jordan Valley. Lot journeyed east thus they separated from each other.
Abrams settled in the land of Canaan while lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom and Now the men of Sodom were wicked great sinners against the Lord. Does that sound like lot kind of snubbed his uncle?
Yeah, it does but not only did he snub his uncle. He actually is snubbing God too because it says that the men of Sodom were wicked and they were great sinners against Yahweh. I'm pretty sure a lot would have known about that already that didn't matter to him.
Let me ask you this question. Have any of you ever had a relative or maybe you've been that relative where you have made some really dumb decisions in your life some really Immoral decisions in your life and Your life or that life of that person that you know went from here into the tank straight into blah and their life blows up.
Our Inclination when they hit that rock bottom is basically to say you made your bed Lie in it. You see your chickens have come home to roost. I don't know why chickens do this when it comes to people's lives.
But when chickens come home to roost in somebody's life our general attitude towards them is. Yeah, got what's coming to you. You sow some wild oats and now look what's happened to you. Uh-huh, you feel vindicated and all this kind of stuff and you're very Cautious in offering help to somebody like that.
Well lots chickens came home to roost in the next chapter. They really did and things didn't go so hot for him. They didn't and Abram rather than basically saying you made your bed lie in it. Keeps the seventh commandment even before it's given.
Let's take a look at chapter 14. We were specifically going to be looking at verses 12 through 16, but I like to get the context here verse 8. The king of Sodom the king of Gomorrah the king of Adma the king of Zeboaim.
The king of Bella that is Zohar went out. They joined battle in the valley of Siddim with Kedolah. Amur the king of Elam title king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar Ariat king of Elessar four kings against five.
The valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits by the way. Those bitumen pits are still there to this day and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled some fell into them and the rest Fled to the hill country.
So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah all their provisions and went their way. They also took Lot the son of Abram's brother who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions and went their way.
Note that the text does not say and Lot got what was coming to him that little upstart snot-nosed kid Who snubbed his uncle and took the best place for his flocks and made him move out in the middle of nowhere's ville?
Finally, yeah, he got it. God judged him and thus perished lot.
Doesn't say that you're gonna note. Abram is extremely Christ like. Watch what happens. Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite brother of Eshcol and of Aner.
These were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive He led forth his trained men born in the house 318 of them and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night he and his servants and defeated them and pursued them to Hoboth north of Damascus.
Then he brought back all the possessions and also brought back his kinsmen lot with his possessions and the women and the people.
Wow.
War is a pretty iffy thing going into battle against a group of kings who had just defeated a Bunch of other kings. That's an iffy proposition. But the Lord gave Abram the victory and with a smaller force and a little bit of cunning and some good strategery.
That's right. He had battle plans that with that God gave him the victory and he rescued lot. Did lot deserve it?
Not at all. And this is kind of the interesting thing about all of these commandments. You are not commanded to only not steal from people you like. You are explicitly commanded by God to not steal from and care for the income well-being and livelihood of even your enemies.
Even people who have snubbed you mistreated you hate your guts or even want you dead. I Like no way, it's true. It's true. It's absolutely true and That's exactly what we see happening here this idea.
And we'll get into some more specific text. So I would like to also kind of point out in this context. Let me kind of take it from a small example like this and kind of expand it out a little bit. Another plug for good government.
Right now the Winter Olympics are going on. I Love the Olympics. I really do so the Winter Olympics are going on and they're taking place in South Korea. South Korea has been an ally of ours for quite a while.
Now you are aware that the Korean people they were occupied by Japan long before World War two started and They were not set free from being under the boot of Japan until we defeated Japan in 1945.
And.
Then no sooner were they freed from the Japanese that the threat of the communists came in and we stood up for these people and Sent our boys to bleed and to die to keep them from being put under the regime of the communists.
Now we didn't fully win that war and North Korea Right now is languishing under a terrible terrible dictatorship. Well, South Korea a country of 50 million people they are our allies and You think about the fact that if it hadn't been for us and our blood sweat tears ammo and.
Sons.
Bleeding and dying for them. Where would they be today? Same with Europe from Nazi Germany. So the question is are you your brother's keeper? Yes, and sometimes being your brother's keeper means that your nation Comes to the assistance of those who are being threatened and oppressed by horrible dictators.
Ideologies or.
Aggressive.
Nations and so we have helped the South Koreans to in fulfilling this commandment by being allies to them and standing up for them and helping them and I'm positive had that regime fallen to the communists We'd be watching the Winter Olympics being played out somewhere else this these next couple of weeks every time you see These Olympics and they take you on these little travelogues throughout Poong Chang and different parts of Korea understand this.
That Those people have freedom today because we helped them to keep it and it cost us something for that and This is a good work. We oftentimes as Americans Sit there and go how is it that we've become the police force for the whole world?
Well in part a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have been a very heavily Christian influenced nation and Part of bearing fruit in keeping with repentance is caring about our neighbors. Even when our neighbors are another nation state or a smaller country we can sit there and say who are these Koreans?
Anyway, we don't know any of them. Why should we help them?
Because there are brothers.
Whether they're brothers in Christ or just human brothers, they are the same flesh and blood that we are. That's why we help. That's why and this is how you keep this commandment. And I think this from Genesis kind of shows that again Abram.
This it's more than just an Abram thing. It's like a geopolitical thing going on here. Let's take a look at some more passages. So we're gonna take a look at some of the connections then. Question is what else is considered to be our neighbors possessions or property today?
As we kind of consider what scripture teaches in this regard. So our neighbors property listen to this May include intellectual property such as ideas writings which can be stolen by copyright violation patent infringements plagiarism and Also music software movies personal information which might be stolen by online piracy computer hacking or identity theft.
So you sit there and you go? Well, you know. Remember that that site was it called Napster? I was just organized. Theft of people's intellectual property. I remember the days back when computers worked using floppy disks and you guys remember and I remember Seeing some of my friends having computer applications that I really wanted on my computer and oh so badly I just wanted to borrow their floppy disk just for like an hour stealing software movies music intellectual property via piracy is a breaking of the seventh commandment.
Those things are not made by the people who make them To be consumed or used or enjoyed for free if you want that application on your computer.
Buy it.
You want to watch that movie? Rent it or purchase it you want to listen to that song? Go to places on the internet where you can legally listen to it. So they'll be reimbursed via ad revenue or go on iTunes or it's something else and buy the song.
Most songs are a buck something a piece I'm sure you can afford one. But there are a whole lot of people and even Christians who do not have any pangs of guilt when they are openly stealing these things from others and When you confront them on it, they'll say things like well those money-grubbing Hollywood executives they don't need the money.
They're all immoral. Anyway, they promote homosexuality. Well, yeah, they do and yes, they are money grubbers, but you do not have the right to steal their stuff period. See that's deflecting by the way.
Have you yet that heavy knows how the technique works? I'm gonna nail you to the wall because you are sinning and then they come up with all kinds of deflections. It's their fault. They don't deserve it.
I'm in the right. No, you're not you're stealing repent. So consider those implications. So question before us then is how does God provide us and others with our earthly goods? Listen to the question.
How does God provide us and others with our earthly goods? I'm gonna ask a question there's a guy who owns a plantation a banana plantation down in South America a Mr. Tali man, telly me banana. There's a guy down there.
He owns a plantation. I want you to tell me how Many people does it take from to make it so the bananas growing in his plantation? End up on your Cheerios in the morning from there to your cereal bowl, how many people does it take a lot.
Bunches, I like what you did there. I yeah, that's that's really good. Yeah. It takes bunches. From the guy who plants the bananas to the guy who? Harvests the bananas to the guy who drives the truck to the dock to the people who own the boat companies that put them on the boat or the airplane and then they Ship out to here they get to a place and then somebody's got to pick them up and distribute them over there.
And finally they make it on to the grocery stand, right? There's a lot of people involved. I Don't know where you buy your bananas clip, but mine are okay. Yeah, we have you considered Hugo's I'm just saying okay but you get the idea how many it takes a ton and You're gonna note God does not cause bananas to fall out of the sky.
That would probably.
Cause property damage. He doesn't cause them to fall out of the sky. They just don't magically appear on the ground like manna. So you're gonna know when you have a banana there were a lot of people involved in getting that banana to you and each and every one of them have Served you in giving you that banana and they deserve their days wages.
For the work that they've done to make it so that you can put a banana on your Cheerios. So everything along the supply chain is big in this commandment. Now you're gonna note all of this begins with God psalm 65.
Psalm 65 verse 9 in particular. And consider what the psalmist writes speaking of God. You visit the earth. You water it. You greatly enrich it. The River of God is full of water. You provide their grain for so you have prepared it.
The first person in the supply chain for everything that's on your table is God himself. Who made the seeds and the plants? Who sends the rain created the soil gave us the Sun? First person is always.
God.
You see it and God intends to feed you. Now with him initiating it the work then is done by us in Fulfilling it. So since he's the beginner God is always the one that feeds you Always. This is why we give thanks.
We thank you Lord for the food that you have given us to sustain us since he has begun the supply chain. Everybody else along the supply chain are people that God has put in place to feed you even if you don't know their names.
Next.
Deuteronomy Chapter 8 we're gonna get our context the whole commandment that I command you today. You shall keep carefully to do so that you may live multiply. Go in and possess the land that Yahweh swore to give to your fathers.
You shall remember the whole way. That Yahweh or God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you testing you to know What was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not?
He humbled you let you hunger and fed you with manna. Which you did not know nor your father's know that he might make you know that man does not live By bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Your clothing while you were in the wilderness did not wear out. Your foot did not swell these 40 years. No, then in your heart as a man disciplines his son Yahweh or God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandment of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.
For Yahweh your God is bringing you into a good land a land of brooks water of fountains of springs flowing out in the valleys and hills. A Land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees Pomegranates a land of olive trees and honey.
It's clearly not North Dakota or Minnesota. A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you lack nothing. A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper and You shall eat and be full and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land that he has.
Given you so again working off this theme scripture is clear that all of these things come from God. He provides the raw materials if you would the plants the Sun the water and Then he continues to feed us through the vocations of other people who serve us by growing these things.
Or harvesting them or digging them out of the earth. That's the idea. Now another thing important to note we've mentioned this already, but the fourth commandment comes into play here and That is is that God provides through us through family members.
The family members so fourth commandment honor your father and mother. God has placed each and every one of us into family units and so there's there's an aspect to this that we have to consider and that is is that We look after each other.
Because we are family. Now the other thing that God does is he gives us jobs and careers. He gives us jobs and careers and these are the means by which we're able to afford the food to put on our table.
So whether it's working in some place like Walmart or working at the University or working as a homemaker. These are all important things that God has given us and it's all part of the ways in which we help each other and keep this Commandment.
2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 is a good place to look in this regard as well. 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 particularly verses 10 through 12. When we were with you, we would give you this command if anyone is not willing to work.
Let him not.
Eat.
Now my grandma used to quote this to me when I would dilly-dally and procrastinate In him and ha about doing my chores and she was visiting and she would do it with a thick German accent. I can't even begin to impersonate it but Me and chores didn't get along when I was a younger fellow.
You know I had lots more important things to do than clean my room or mow the grass or things like that and It would always upset my grandmother when she would come to visit. That my mom would tell me to do something and I wasn't just Johnny on the spot get to it.
My grandma would tell me the Bible says If you do not work you shall not eat and I thought she was a loon and then God gave me children. Now it's kind of a funny way of approaching this but I want you to consider this.
The expectation is because we are forgiven penitent sinners in Christ that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. Our good works are done in our vocations and in the labor and the toil that we do in our vocations.
That being the case the text does not say the person who cannot work shall not eat. No, the person who cannot work. They are our responsibility, but the person who can work and won't. Is somebody who as a Christian you sit there and go really?
You're decided you're gonna spend your day doing what reading Facebook and playing video games and You need me to help you eat. Uh-huh. That's kind of the only exception the person who is a Christian brother or sister who can work and won't.
That person is poor because they are lazy and they are selfish and in that case They're not a charity case. They're not somebody were to care for the way we care for them and say you go right ahead and you're gonna not eat tonight.
We'll see how long it takes for hunger to motivate you to get off your keister. Hunger becomes a big motivator in that sense. It's it's not because they're not poor because of circumstances. They're poor because they don't want to do nothing.
Now I want you to consider then the implications regarding the fact that our Society has set up a safety net financial safety net. There are those people who Literally are abusing that system who can work and won't.
There are people who are living off of the generosity of others who are capable of working and refuse to and They are cheaters. They are evildoers and our posture and Our demand for our government to not permit people to abuse the system people who are capable of working and who won't.
That is different than somebody who can't work. That's a different situation altogether. So you consider the implications politically? This is this is natural law moral law, right? And we all have the law of God in our hearts.
You don't have to be a Christian to say it's wrong for people to cheat the welfare system. Everybody knows that that's theft because it is because the law of God's written on our hearts. So you're gonna know this this has huge implications.
You didn't realize there was that much in there in the phrase thou shalt not steal. The implications are ginormous. And again, I keep coming back to the government because the government is a big part of how this is properly worked out.
The job of the government is to punish the evildoer the person who is taking advantage of our Christian generosity.
Who.
Refuses to work is Somebody that we're not to help. That person should be punished and cut off and once hunger has set in long enough they might be motivated to get off the couch turn off the television to actually go and get a job or Show up at work and actually do something.
You get the idea. Ephesians 4 28 again The thief should no longer steal but rather let him do labor honest labor work with his own hands So that he may have something to share with anyone who is in need.
I want to show you this another piece of this then talking about our families coming back to that topic. Let's take a look at 1st Timothy chapter 5 Talking about Christian charity and talking about Christian good works.
Let me show you the context and then I and we'll drill down into the bigger issue.
So.
First Timothy do not rebuke an older man encourage him as you would a father. Younger men as brothers. Older women as mothers. Younger women as sisters in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows but if a widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn how to show godliness to their own household and To make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
She who is truly a widow left all alone has said her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who is self indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well so that they may be without reproach.
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for the members of his household He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever worse. Now let me explain kind of a context here that will make sense if you look at mark 7.
One of the passages I come to with some regularity. Talking about how the Pharisees are heretics again. The Pharisees believed that God had not only given the written Torah the first five books of the Bible.
But that on Mount Sinai God had secretly given to Moses what was referred to as the oral Torah. Called the tradition of the elders and it was not written down and so they claimed equal authority for both bodies of work, but the tradition of the elders the oral Torah was totally man-made doctrine and Jesus himself literally Refuses to obey anything in the oral Torah.
Refuses to recognize it as authoritative and that's really the spark point of the conflict that we see in mark 7 and there's an Example given in here that is related to what we saw in first Timothy 5.
So let me read mark 7 one the Pharisees gathered to Christ with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem. They saw that some of Jesus's disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed.
The oral Torah of the Pharisees was the body of work that had the command that if you go out into the marketplace and you are in the presence of Gentiles and unbelievers that their sinful ick would get on you and so you required upon entering your home to perform a little religious rite that they had established and Basically, I've the way it works is you have a little basin and a pitcher you take your left hand palm down pour water on it.
Spritz the water off. Switch hands right hand palm down water on it. Change hands left hand palm up water on it. Switch again right hand palm up water on it. Put the pitcher down and say this prayer Lord God maker of heaven and earth.
We thank you that you have given us the command to wash our hands. Amen. Now my mom would have loved this ceremony. You're gonna note it was a ceremonial washing. To make it so that the uncleanness of the Gentiles wasn't brought into your house.
You will not find this ceremony mentioned or subscribe prescribed in the written Word of God. It was in the tradition of the elders. So here's what happened. Jesus his disciples come into the house. Every single one of them at the command and teaching of Jesus skips the little washbowl.
They go right in to the dining room and you can see Peter saying hey John, would you pass me a chicken wing? None of them have washed their hands in the sense and the Pharisees lose their minds. And the reason why they're losing their mind is because Jesus is not recognizing at all The authority of the tradition of the elders.
He's not recognizing at all and by not recognizing it. He's not recognizing their authority because all of their authority is found in the tradition of the elders. It's not found in the written Bible in the written Word of God.
So here's now the spark point. So they saw that some of Jesus's disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed. The Pharisees and all the Jews do not Eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to.
Here's my quip with the ESV tradition of the elders should be capitalized. That's an official title for a body of work. Holding to the tradition of the elders when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions they observe such as the washing of Cups pots copper vessels and dining couches in order to important note here.
The word for washing is the Greek word.
Baptizo.
You'll note so they baptize.
Cops.
Pots copper vessels and dining couches. I would argue if you think the baptism the baptizo means fully immersed that would be a strange ceremony to fully immerse a dining couch and The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus Why do your disciples not eat according to this should be capitalized tradition of the elders, but they eat with defiled hands.
Jesus mixes no words. He doesn't punch to pull any punches. He says well did Isaiah prophesy of you. Hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips. Their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men and You can hear the literally all of the oxygen leaving the room.
Jesus Just threw down and he continues you leave the commandment of God and you hold to the tradition of men. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
Moses said honor your father and mother and whoever reviles father or mother Must surely die. The Greek is must die the death. I love it, but you say If a man tells his father or mother whatever you would have gained from me is Corban.
That is a gift that is given to God. Then you no longer permit him to do anything. For his father or mother thus making void the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do so according to the tradition of the elders mom and dad are getting up in age and We all know how poorly mom and dad treated us.
They're getting up in age and the last thing I want to do is have to take care of them. Who were so awful to me when I was growing up? So the Pharisees come along and say, you know the tradition of the elders says You don't have to take care of your parents.
All that money that you just kind of figure out what it would take. They look like they're gonna live for another five ten years. Two of them no problem. That'll come to this amount of money. Go ahead and just give that to God.
It's Corban give it as a gift to God and and when you give it to God since it's a gift to him. You won't have anything and you don't need to take care of your parents. They're on their own. Isn't that wonderful?
So the guy tallies it up pays the money to the temple. It's now Corban. I'm gonna give this money to God. You see it's a gift to God. I'm sorry mom and dad. You're just gonna have to live on the streets, you know.
It's evil.
It's evil beyond all reason and This is really what's kind of at the heart then of what's going on in first Timothy 5 Where it says if anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially for the members of his household He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
So your parents are getting up in age and They can't afford To take care of themselves Guess whose responsibility it is to make sure they're taken care of.
Yours.
But it's gonna You know how much that's gonna cost. It's gonna cost you your soul. If you don't repent and Take care of their needs you're worse than an unbeliever if you won't care for them. That's that job falls on you and that job is explicitly given to you by God.
Now get out of that.
You see what I'm saying?
That's how strong this is. That's how huge the implications are. Obeying this commandment means recognizing. Your neighbor your relative is your responsibility. We consider others better than ourselves.
We meet their need. Because they have a need. It infects the community. It affects your family. It affects global political politics. It's huge. It's absolutely ginormous, all. Right, we'll pick it up from here next week.