In his sermon titled 'The God Who Does Not Steal,' Scott Brown explores Deuteronomy 24:16 through 25:4, focusing on four laws that reflect the character of God and His commandments against stealing. The sermon emphasizes personal accountability for sin, justice for the disadvantaged, humane treatment of offenders, and fair compensation for labor, drawing parallels between these laws and God's righteousness, mercy, and provision. Brown argues that God's instructions are sufficient for all areas of life, encouraging believers to apply these principles in family, church, and societal contexts. He stresses that God's laws are designed to bless rather than deprive, contrasting God's nature with the destructive tendencies of human systems and Satan's deceit. The sermon also highlights the importance of understanding moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws in interpreting Scripture and urges a return to God's ways as a path to righteousness and abundant life.

Deuteronomy 24 verse 16 through 25-4 Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin. You shall not pervert justice, do the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget the sheaf in the field, You shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward.

It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the Judge will cause him to lie down, and be beaten in his presence according to his guilt with a certain number of blows. Forty blows he may give him, and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be humiliated in your sight. You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. The Heavenly Gracious Father, thank you for your Word, thank you for your Law, for your instruction that you have given us so that we may know how to live and live righteously, live in a way that is pleasing to you. And the Heavenly Father, that you have given us instructions on how we should have relationship both with you and with the men around us.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your Word. Dear Lord, we just pray that you would fill Scott today with wisdom, with your Holy Spirit, and with power, and that you would put your words in his mouth, and that our eyes and our hearts and our minds would be open and that we would learn and that we would repent and that we would look up to you and seek your face. In Jesus name, Amen. Here we are, we're back in the book of Deuteronomy And in a text that brings us four wonderful laws that have been so struck by the beauty and the goodness of the law of God, how life-giving it is and how appropriate it is. It seems very appropriate as we have ended our studies in the book of Malachi, that now we're in the book of Deuteronomy, The last exhortation in the book of Malachi was what?

Remember the law of Moses. During that 400 year period of silence, the intertestamental period, the people should remember the law of Moses, and so should we here today. So in this text, there are four laws. If you have an outline in front of you, you'll notice that the fourth got slipped off the page somehow, but I'll hit it. The first is a law for understanding accountability for sin and families.

That's verse 16. And then the second law is a law to preserve justice for the stranger and the fatherless and the widow. And the third law is a law to save men from abusive humiliation in chapter 25, verses 1 through 3. And the fourth law is a law to provide double honor. And so these are the laws before us today.

Now, one of the most common objections of people before they come to faith or even Even after they come to faith and they see a matter of obedience that God has called them to engage in The objection that we have in our hearts is, how can this be good for me? God is, I'm gonna be deprived. If I obey this, I'm gonna lose something. If I obey this, something will be deprived of me. Instead of understanding the fountain of blessing that God is, instead of understanding that all of His ways are pleasant ways, that all of His paths are peace, instead of understanding that He is the Good Shepherd and He gives life to His sheep, Instead of that we think God steals.

God will steal from me. And the truth is that God does not steal. These laws are expositions of the commandment that thou shalt not steal. And some others as well, as you will be able to see. But God never steals from his people.

He might discipline them for his own good. He might withhold something. He might take something away. But he does it, though, not to steal. He does it in order to bless.

And that's the great distinction between our God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the devil who comes to what? Kill, steal, and destroy. And the wolf steals, but God gives. And the truth is we may we may rob God but God will never rob us. God has never robbed me all the years of my life as a believer when I turn to him in my early teens.

God has never robbed me of one single thing. He's only added. He's done with that great song says, He giveth and giveth and giveth again. That's what God does. So this passage stands in sharp contrast to the robbery of the devil and our robbery of God and his giving to us, his good laws.

These laws are about theft. These laws are about how one might steal from another. So the first thing I just want to speak about by way of introduction is just the nature of God's laws. They are good laws. Psalm 25, verse 10 says, "'All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.'" And even in the Song of Moses that we've been reciting over and over again here on Sunday mornings, he is a God of truth and without injustice, righteous and upright is he.

He's like rain on the grass. He nourishes, he feeds, he waters so beautifully. In contrast, we realize, you know, the devastating effects of the work of the devil. And so these laws make any nation or community a wonderful place to live. And they just show us the kindness and the goodness of God towards sinners.

They lead us to repentance. Paul, to the Romans, He said, it's the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance. You know, that's what led me to repentance when I was a young man. I saw the kindness of the Lord. I saw it.

And I repented. And I'm so grateful that the Lord showed me His kindness. And so the first thing that we need to consider as we move back into Deuteronomy is that all his laws are good. This introduction that I'm engaged in right now is sort of recalibrate us to move back into the laws of Deuteronomy. So I'm going to say a few things to remind us of particular points we've made over the last year and a half, but I just sort of want us to make a transition in getting back into the book of Deuteronomy.

But the first thing we need to recognize is the nature of God's law, and that is it's a wonderful law. And then I'd also like to review questions to ask when reading the laws of Deuteronomy. There are nine questions that you should ask whenever you read a law of God anywhere. Of course, there are around 500 commands in the New Testament. You should read those commands in the same way that you read the commands of the Old Testament.

You should ask many of these same questions, but particularly when you're in the law of Moses, These questions are expressly important to ask. So I just want to review them here. I've listed them in your outlines. And then we're going to work through these actually in each of the laws that we deal with here this morning. So the first question we need to ask is, what does this law reveal about the heart and the character and nature of God?

Every law says something about God. So whenever you read this in your family or personally or even here this morning, you should ask, what do I learn about God from this law? Because God reveals His heart and His nature, His character, His intentions. They're all revealed there. And so that's a very important question to ask of all the laws of God.

Secondly, what kind of law is it? Is it moral? Is it ceremonial? Or is it judicial? Of course, the way we understand scripture is that every moral law prevails for all of time.

But the ceremonial laws were abrogated by the Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfilled them. That's why we're not slaughtering bulls and goats today, is because Jesus Christ fulfilled all of those ceremonial laws? And then is it judicial? Is it a law for the nation?

And the way that we understand that is that God gave judicial laws, which as the second line of Baptist Confession says, expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general equity only being of modern use. In other words, the exact law may not be necessary to apply today. But the principle of that law is very important because that law was given because it's a holy law. It's a good law. Paul said the law is holy, just, and good.

And so there's something holy, just, and good about every moral, ceremonial, and also judicial law. If you don't understand that, you get very confused in reading the law of God. And then we also have to ask who is given the responsibility to carry it out. Like, here's some examples. If it's a law regarding the punishment of murderers, it's the civil government who has the jurisdiction to carry that out.

The Bible doesn't promote vigilantalism, where people do whatever they want to do and they get mad. But there are authorities ordained, established by God, that have jurisdiction over certain areas. The family doesn't have jurisdiction over murderers. The family has jurisdiction over other things. Same with the church.

The church doesn't murder people. God never gave the sword to the church. But he did give it to the civil government. So we have to ask whose responsibility is it to carry these things out? We know that the task of teaching children is always fathers.

It happens in the home. So we have to ask who's given the responsibility to carry this law out. And then next, How is it fulfilled in Christ? Because the Lord Jesus says that He's fulfilled all the law. He's a living picture of it.

He sums it up. He shows what that law meant. And so we have to ask, how do we see Christ fulfilling this law? Don't ever read a law of Moses without thinking of Jesus. It would short circuit the whole picture that God has provided for us.

So A law of Moses should just jet you like a fast-moving missile to Jesus Christ to see how he dealt with it or how he perhaps lived it out. He's constantly quoting the law of Moses. So we have to ask how is it fulfilled in Christ. And then next we need to ask how does it explain love. Because we know from Galatians chapter 5 verses 13 and 14 that the whole law is summed up in love your neighbors yourself.

Every single law is a law of love. If you read a law and you think, ooh, I don't like that, you should ask yourself, how have I slipped so far away from a Biblical vision of love. There's something wrong with you and not that law. Because you do not love the way that God loves. Your thoughts are not His thoughts, and that's our big problem.

So instead of pride and rejection and trying to skirt around a certain law of Moses, you should ask yourself what great sinners we are when we read things like this. So how does it explain love? And then next, how does it reveal sin? How does it reveal sin? Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 45, He says, don't think that I shall accuse you before the Father.

There's one who accuses you. It's Moses. So Jesus is making it very clear that Moses' law is intended to reveal sin, to show you what a great sinner you are. He said, if you believe Moses, you would believe me because he wrote of me. That's what Jesus says.

Jesus says that Moses wrote of him. Why? Because Jesus does the same thing that Moses does, and that he reveals sin. Jesus is constantly revealing the sins of those who are around him, and that's exactly what the purpose of the law is. The purpose of the law is definitely to make you, on the one hand, a wise and understanding people, but it also is designed to make you know how hopelessly lost you are in your sins that you cannot keep the law of God, it's impossible.

And so it drives you to the cross, it drives you in desperation, realizing how absolutely ridiculous it is to have any pride for keeping any part of the law, because the truth is you can't even keep one law. So how does it reveal sin is another very important question. And then next, what's the applicability of the law? Because all the laws of God are meant to be applied in real life. They're not just intellectual categories that we ruminate about and talk about whatever controversial subject that might come into our minds.

They're actually meant to be put into practice. So, all of the laws of God, and I want you to be very careful to listen to what I'm going to say here, because this is missed so often. All of the laws of God are meant to deal with my conscience. They're meant to train my conscience. Because we have corrupted and seared consciences that need to be, they need to be nourished.

First they're washed and then they're nourished. But this nourishment with the washing of the water of the Word happens by reading of the Law. And you learn something about your life and what you need to do that you're not doing. And they should deal with your conscience and they should raise the quality of your conscience. We are born into this world with a fallen nature, and then we ruin our consciences through sin and running from God.

And then He saves us, and He gives us His law to begin to train up our consciences again, as the writer of Hebrews so eloquently states there. And then we should also ask, what happens when this law is ignored? What happens when it's ignored in the family, or in the church, or in the government, or in the broader society? We should always ask ourselves, how do we go off course when this is ignored? And then finally, the last question.

How will this be used to transform me into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because every law is intended to be a transforming force in a believer's life in order to make them into the image of Jesus Christ. This is one wonderful purpose of the law. Now The apostle Paul made this very clear in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, where he says that before you were converted, there was a veil that was just upon you and you couldn't understand. You remember what that was like.

When you would read the Word of God, it seemed like gobbledygook. You couldn't really understand what it meant. But then when you were converted, it just came out in all of its beauty. You loved the words and you were attracted to them. You wanted to read those words because the veil was taken away from your eyes.

Paul says that when you read the law of Moses and you're not converted, it's like there's a veil. There's a veil in front of your eyes, and you just can't see anything at all. But when you're converted, the veil is taken away. And when that veil is taken away and you read the Law of Moses, He says, you're transformed from glory to glory, because you're beholding with unveiled face the image of Jesus Christ through the law. Whenever you read the law, please understand, you are seeing a vision of Jesus Christ.

And thankfully we have His physical life and His words and the stories of all the things that he did to help us coordinate all these wonderful things that we see. But what a blessing it is that we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Spirit of the Lord. So these questions are important to ask whenever we read the law. Now that we're making our re-entry back into the law of Moses, I just wanted to recalibrate. I know you've heard this before, but I wanted to repeat it again just to help us understand the importance of the law and how we engage in it.

And then there's also thirdly an interpretive principle that I want us to remember, particularly in this passage of Scripture. The interpretive principle is this, Scripture is sufficient for all things. Deuteronomy proves this as well as any other book in the Bible. Does the Bible just speak of matters of theology and salvation, or does it also speak to hosts of other practical matters that we face all the time in this world? The answer is absolutely yes, it does.

And in Deuteronomy 24 alone, there are many signs of the sufficiency of Scripture here. Of course, Moses is expounding on the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal. And so the first two laws in Deuteronomy 24 deal with this. You know, it speaks that Scripture is sufficient for remarriage after divorce. That's verses 1 through 4.

Scripture is sufficient for your first year of marriage. How's that? Some of you are in your first year of marriage. Verse 5 is for you. It's the sufficiency of Scripture, at least one piece of truth for you as you engage in your first year of marriage.

It's scripture is sufficient for that. And so Moses is explaining that scripture is sufficient for many, many areas of life. In verse 6, he says, he makes it clear that scripture is sufficient for making loans and collateralizing those loans. In verse 7, he says that scripture is sufficient for defining and evaluating what human trafficking is. In verses 8 and 9, It's sufficient for regulating the authority of the Levites in handling certain kinds of diseases.

In verses 10 through 13, it makes it very clear that Scripture is sufficient for matters regarding borrowing and lending. And then in verses 14 and 15, those of you who have hired anyone lately, Scripture is sufficient for prompt compensation of the poor. So the Bible is sufficient, even though it's assumed by so many not to be sufficient for areas like this. In 24, 8, and 9 there is the story of Miriam. You know, Scripture is sufficient to understand what libel and slander is, the treatment of a debtor and all these kinds of things.

But now when we get to verse 16, we find even more explanations of how sufficient Scripture is for other areas of life. And so we're entering into this next section of Deuteronomy 24 with the principle of individual responsibility and the sin of stealing the dignity of a human being by having a false understanding of their guilt. And that takes us to verse 16. Okay. There we go.

How long did that take to re-enter Deuteronomy? I don't know. 20 minutes or something like that. So let's let our eyes now fall on verse 16 and we'll begin to move through this text. So first of all we see a law for understanding accountability for sin in families.

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin." Now there are so many things that can be drawn from this one verse. One is, it assumes something about your family and mine. Sin. This is the greatest problem of a family.

It's the greatest problem of every individual. And that is, sin runs in families. And Specifically, you might have a wicked father, sin running in a father, and you might have sin running in a son, or the children in that family. This is a reality. Don't be surprised when you see sin running in your family.

The wheels have not come off, but you'd better go put them on as quick as you can. But here, Moses is setting the record straight for the assignment of guilt from one generation to the next. And there's much to learn about accountability for sin, there's much to learn about God, about family life, and things like that. But, simply stated, Deuteronomy 24-16 forbids a man or a family or a state to punish families for family members for sins that someone else in the family committed. We know it's true that children are known either for their sinfulness or for their holiness.

We were talking about this last night and my daughter Blair quoted Proverbs 20, even a child is known by his deeds whether what he does is pure and right. So let's just work with some of the things that are here in this text, the implications of this text. Number one, responsibility for sin is personal. This law protects from an evil tendency to punish families for what one member of the family did. And so Moses is explaining false ideas of guilt.

And I would just like to suggest that what's the focus here really is the punishment of this. It sounds like it's the civil government punishing someone for someone else's sin. But I think the principle is for us, for a number of areas of life. We can think about this principally, that it works that way in families, in churches, in regions, in nations, among, if you want to call them, racial groups. There's really only one race in the world, so I don't want to get confused by that.

It's the human race. But it reveals sinful responses when sins are committed and it establishes blame where blame belongs. We live in a society that wants to put the blame on someone else. It was my father's problem. I sinned because...

You fill in the blank. I'm having this problem because my boss is mean. I'm having this problem because my wife henpecks me. That's my problem. No, that's not your problem.

Your problem is your problem. And this passage places responsibility of sin not on the guy or gal next to you, but on you. And so there's this laser beam focus on accountability for sin. And, you know, it helps us think about all kinds of historical matters. For example, There are many times in history when whole families were killed for fathers crimes or whole tribes were killed because of one person's sin.

In Hammurabi's law code, a very corrupt and unbiblical law code, allowed the killing of children for fathers in fractions. For example, in Law 229 and 230 in Hammurabi's Code, it says that if the builder builds a house and it collapses and kills the owner of the house then the builder is killed but if the house collapses and kills the son then The son of the builder is killed. And that's the code of Hammurabi. That's not this law here. That's a corrupt law.

God's law is that fathers are not punished for their sons. And it's interesting that there are a number of ways that this is applied even in our own day, in our own legal system. The modern laws that bar testimony from family members comes from this principle of law here. Now, there are many examples of this in scripture if you go to 2 Kings chapter 14 King Amaziah as wicked as he was obeyed this law It happened that as soon as the kingdom was established in King Amaziah's hand that he executed his servants who had murdered his father. So he executes the servants first, but the children of the murderers he would not execute.

And it says there in 2 Kings 14 that, quote, he did What was written in the book of the law of Moses which commanded saying? Fathers shall not be put to death for their children nor shall children be put to death for their fathers but a person shall be put to death for his own sin." Amaziah, as evil as he was, was quoting the law. He broke the law all over the place, but for some reason he obeyed this law. This was the blessing of the Lord on these children, you know, that this man remembered this law. The second example is found in Ezekiel chapter 18.

And here Ezekiel tells a very fascinating story. He weaves it with some length that we really can't cover here this morning for time. But the word of the Lord comes to Ezekiel and there's an exposure of a proverb, an evil proverb that was being used in Israel. And the proverb went like this, the fathers have eaten the sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. In other words, your fathers were sour and your teeth being set on edge is their fault.

That's kind of the thrust of the proverb. It was the assignment of guilt to a father for a son's evil. And the Lord says to Ezekiel, don't ever use this proverb again. Stop saying that. Stop saying that.

And he says, because all souls are mine, this is in Ezekiel 18, 4, all souls are mine, The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul that sins shall die. Again, Ezekiel focuses the guilt to the individual, not the family. And then Ezekiel tells this, he gives examples. First, an example of a righteous father in verses 5 through 9.

This is a father who walks in the statutes of the Lord. And then he has an evil son. In verse 10, if he begets an evil son who is a robber or a shedder of blood or does any of these things and does none of these duties. Anyway, he has an evil son. And then he says, that evil son, his blood will be upon his head, not his father's head.

So if your son's here and you have sin in your heart, don't blame your father for it. It's your fault. And then lastly, in verses 14 to the end, he speaks of a good son who had an evil father. This happens sometimes. Some of you had evil fathers and you've turned to the Lord and now your desires are totally different.

This is you here. You had an evil father, but you now are a son who has fled to the Lord. You saw the sins of your father, verse 14, and you considered it and you don't do it likewise. And that's this wonderful turnaround. It's kind of a generational turnaround that he speaks of here.

But then Ezekiel says, the soul that you send shall die, the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the Son. And so then he says in verse 21, but if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall surely not die. And then the outcry comes, you know that that Ezekiel sort of Demonstrates he says yet you say the way of the Lord is not fair So now God is being accused of not being fair. And God says, no, I'm fair, you're not fair. Alright, that's just sort of a summary of it.

It's a very fascinating passage. And he ends up, he says, I have no pleasure in the death of the one who dies, says the Lord. Therefore turn and live." So when Moses is using this principle of personal and individual guilt, It opens up really the whole gospel, the sinfulness of man, and the call to repent and to live, to have life and to have life everlasting. And so here, the Lord is found as one who is just. He does not steal.

He does not steal from his people. Now there's an important qualification to make if you go to Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 9 you You read that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generations, to those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep His commandments." Now, is that a contradiction? We've just read that fathers aren't accountable for the sins of their sons nor vice versa. Now, Moses in the Ten Commandments says that iniquity is visited for all these generations. How do you, what do you, does the Bible's contradictory, right?

No, the Bible's not contradictory at all. Moses in the Ten Commandments is speaking of the social impact of sin, the consequences of sin. There are always consequences of Father's sins, but sons do not bear the guilt of those sins. Those are two separate things. When Moses is speaking here in Deuteronomy 24, he's talking about judgment for the sin.

In Deuteronomy chapter 5, he's talking about the way that sin does run in generations. But yet, the grace of God overwhelms all of that. So, There are so many examples in scripture where God punished families of those who sinned. Eli's sons, Nadab and Abihu, the whole families were swallowed up. The sons of Korah, they were swallowed up.

You see Achan's family judged for Achan's sin. David and Bathsheba's illegitimate son. The accusers of Daniel were flipped over the wall into that place of lions. Saul's sons were put to death. Well, these are examples of God doing this and one of the men I think insightfully registered his interpretation of this is that God is sovereign.

God judges righteously always, But man is not given the same judgment. He doesn't give us that same judgment as he reserves to himself to judge and actually to kill sons and daughters and whole clans if he desires. God has a certain jurisdiction and we have a certain jurisdiction and this law shows us how to operate within it. So, you know, so what does this law reveal about the heart and the character and the nature of God. Well, God calls sinners to repent.

What kind of law is this? Is it moral or ceremonial or judicial? It's moral and it's also judicial. It's both. Who's given the responsibility to carry it out?

It's the state, but individuals are responsible to think rightly about it. How is it fulfilled in Christ? Well, Christ is a Savior. He died for the sins of sinners. Because the soul that sins shall die, and there's only one remedy for that, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Christ places Himself as the fulfillment of this law. How does it explain love? Well, it extends love to a father with a rebellious son. How does it reveal sin? Well, it exposes misjudgment of sin and it also exposes rebellion against God's laws when we prosecute a father for his son's sins.

You know, what's the applicability of the law? Well, it's a law that issues a call for mercy toward fathers with rebellious sons. It's a law to protect love within the family and it quells generational bitterness and even racial grudges. Here's something maybe closer to home to everyone here. How many of you, has it ever happened or have you ever seen it happen?

When someone in a family sins against you, and then you're bitter against the whole family for the rest of your life. How many times have you seen that? That is condemning Lots of people for the sins of one. So this principle helps us to think rightly about how we treat people. And I dare say this is a great temptation of all people to have one person sin and then you assign that sin to maybe it's a whole church, maybe it's a whole family, maybe it's a whole company, maybe some of you need to repent even right now today of your unrighteously holding people to account who did not sin against you at all.

And I've done this myself many, many times. But let's have a time of repentance. Let's cleanse the well. Let's let the grace of Jesus Christ flow and stop holding people into account that did not sin against you. Now, of course, those who did sin also deserve something from you to forgive those who have persecuted you, to give them a cup of cold water, to give them bread to eat if they're hungry.

So we have responsibilities to those who sin against us. But this is a wonderful law. It destroys class warfare and this madness of racial cleansing that you see where whole peoples are wiped out. And this is what happens when this law is ignored in society. It hampers evangelism.

It gives, if there's a certain sin in a society, then all the people are somehow, You know, you're so angry with them you can't speak to them about the gospel because you have hatred toward them. Somebody does something to you and you're standing in front of one of the siblings or one of the other family members and You can't breathe the love of Jesus Christ to them. You can't evangelize because you're so locked up in your bitterness. So it has many, many, many applications. But here's what we need to understand.

God does not steal. He does not steal from the Father who has a rebellious son. But God, He giveth, He giveth, and He giveth again. This is the whole thrust of these laws here. That God is a God of mercy and grace.

And he restricts theft from one another. Here's the next law. A law to preserve justice for the stranger and the fatherless and the widow. So now we're moving to a whole other world here And he begins in verse 17 with four really important words. You shall not pervert.

You shall not pervert justice, he says. So that's the category that he's dealing with. And here, this is a law of protection for the stranger and the fatherless and the widow. Now, I want you to notice, and please look in your Bibles on this to see it, there are three parts to this law. First, in verse 17, the law is stated.

And then secondly, the reason and the motivation for this kind of behavior is given. In other words, you're a slave in Egypt, so you shouldn't treat people like that. And then thirdly, it shows how you do it, how you carry it out in everyday life. There are many details from verses 19 to 22. So first of all the law is stated in verse 17.

You shall not pervert justice due to the stranger and the fatherless or the widow. So what kind is it's a law to preserve justice. Now you can either preserve or pervert justice. And Moses uses the word pervert in order to give a strong contrast to the will of God. And he's saying, do not pervert justice regarding these three.

Now today we see significant perversion of justice to the fatherless and the widow and the poor. And we put in large programs where nobody knows anyone who's receiving the gifts, and where there's no work done in order to receive it. Our whole current welfare system is, I believe, a beautiful example of perverting justice. It perverts the way that justice should be given to the poor, to the fatherless and the widow and the stranger. And there are two sins.

One is perverting justice and then taking a widow's garment in pledge. Those are the two sins. So what we find here is God is declaring His nature and His disposition, and it's a common thread throughout Scripture where God's heart of mercy is full toward these three kinds of people. And they are mentioned in this kind of triplicate category over and over in Scripture. And the reason is given in verse 18, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.

For the Lord your God redeemed you from there, therefore I command you to do this thing." So the whole reason why Moses is bringing this is because he's saying, look, Remember what it is like in Egypt. Don't treat those people, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, the way you were treated in Egypt. So he's drawing a contrast here. And redemption from Egypt is mentioned twice in this little section, verse 18 and then also in verse 22. So this is a big deal.

We could probably spend the whole time talking about this whole matter of what it meant to be a slave in Egypt and how you were treated. Remember there was no Sabbath. It was just, it was a terrible kind of experience. But he's saying, remember that you were a slave in Egypt. And then he gives the details for how to carry it out in everyday life in verses 19 through 22.

And so let's just talk about this. You know, who is this law addressed to? Who is this law addressed to? Who is the one responsible? Remember, this is a question we should always ask.

Who is given jurisdiction for this obedience that we see? And what we find here is it's not addressed to the civil government, but it's addressed to individuals. And it exalts individual responsibility in a community. How do you deal with the problems of the poor? One family at a time.

That's the way that God has established it. He doesn't give this job to the civil government. He gives it to families who know people who are having trouble. And so that means that we should have our eyes out for those who are having trouble. And we should employ them and we should set aside some of what we have in order to help with that problem.

And he speaks from verse 19 to 22, all these details, reaping the harvest of your field. And if you have olive trees and vineyards and things like that, you set aside some. So families that just hoard and eat everything to themselves are violating this principle here. Because God is giving the responsibility for the care of the fatherless and the widow and the stranger to families. And of course it implies here that they have land but I don't think it I don't believe it requires that you have land in order to to fulfill this but what he's saying you have you have resources given to you as a family, do not consume them all for yourself, but make them available and make excess available.

Also notice is that the help is not served up on a silver platter. Those who are in need come and they have to work to get it. They have to pick it. Now it's harder, it's harder work to pick from a picked-over field, isn't it, than from a rich lush field that's not been picked over yet. So it actually causes labor to be exerted and actually more time, at least in this case.

But the poor here in this passage comes and works somewhat for the provision. And so this is generosity toward the poor. We pervert justice to the poor, the fatherless, and the widow today because we bypass this principle that's here. And So, you know, our whole personal welfare system, impersonal welfare system, is in complete rebellion against this law. And it destroys, it destroys the social fabric, because it violates the ways that God has established.

Whenever you violate a law of God, you've got to collapse down the road coming, every time. Because God doesn't steal from you. He only adds to you. So, what does this law reveal about the heart and the character and the nature of God? Well, It shows God's compassion for the poor and His way of provision.

What kind of laws is it? Is it moral or ceremonial or judicial? I would just suggest it's moral. It's something that families should do. Who's given the responsibility?

The family. How is it fulfilled in Christ? Well, Christ provides for His people. He says, therefore, do not worry about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink or your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

And then he says, look at the birds of the air. I'm going to provide for you. Christ has promised to provide. Christ is so good. He doesn't steal.

He's a provider. And he says, which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his lifespan? You know, this whole matter of being deprived of things that you need or you think you need, the answer is always in Christ. Christ comes and He makes promises to His people that He always keeps. How does it explain love?

Well, It shows how God expresses love to those who are in need, and then He asks families to do it. How does it reveal sin? It reveals the sin of hoarding and having nothing left over to give. How is it applied? It should help us think more clearly about our responsibility to our neighbors.

We live right now in a world where neighbors don't even know each other. Many neighbors don't even see one another in the kind of communities and neighborhoods that we live in. So somehow We have to go after our neighbors. There's a family in this church who hadn't seen their neighbor, I think it was like for a year or two. And the wife saw the neighbor just got a glimpse and they wheeled the car around.

Wait, let's go, let's go see the neighbor. You know, You have to go see your neighbor in this society. It's hard often. You have to go out of your way. But it reveals that we have to work to know who our neighbor is, perhaps.

What happens when this law is ignored in the family, in the church, and the government? Well, it really shows us the bankruptcy of our whole welfare system, because it is a complete contradiction to everything that's here. Yes, it does provide, but it doesn't provide in the way that God has said to provide. Our governments of the world like to create laws that have absolutely no reference point in Scripture at all. People like to pull laws and practices out of their own creative juices.

They think something because of the disposition of their lives, they think they're smarter than God, so they create laws to govern nations and churches and things like that. Francis Schaeffer called this Fiat Law. In other words, you just create it. God created the world by fiat. Let there be light.

That's fiat creation of light. But men do that too. Here, I think I'll do this. I think I'll create this law. And that's what men do.

And when men make laws by fiat, They make humanistic laws, manly laws, man-centered laws, laws of men, conceived of in man, growing in man, qualified by man, and then carried out by man. What you have is a law of man. And that's what you have here pictured in this whole discussion of how do you take care of the poor. Interesting though, where is hope for the poor placed? Where is the hope for the poor?

Is it in a gigantic rock and roll concert to raise $50 million? Is that the hope for the poor? No. The hope for the poor is placed in families that will take one another, take care of one another. And so there you have it.

So, and then you have next, we now turn to chapter 25, and there's a law to save men from abusive humiliation. 25.1 through 3, if there's a dispute between men and they come to court. Now, this is a law that tells us how to punish evildoers. Now, I want to take this apart piece by piece. So, look at the text here.

First of all, notice there's a dispute. There's a dispute and then there's a court case and then there's a ruling. Now, understand this happens not just out in a field, willy-nilly, however anybody wants it to happen. It happens in an orderly fashion where there are witnesses and there's a judge. And there's a judgment and that judgment is carried out and it's a by-to-by.

So that's kind of the scene. Then Secondly, notice it's determined that the wicked man deserves to be beaten. Yes, beaten. And now, beating has fallen on hard times here in America. We hardly beat people anymore.

But actually God is for beating. I think God likes men to be beaten from time to time. If you don't like the idea of beating a man, then you don't like God's solutions for things. Now I don't personally like the idea of beating. So I'm recognizing how sinful and short-sighted and off course and relativistic that I have become as a result of living in this world.

I'm culture bound. I'm a sinner. I have so many problems like this and this is this is one of them I do not like this verse, but I don't like it because I'm a sinner But we've already read in Deuteronomy 22 18 that if a man who falsely accuses his wife of adultery he should be beaten Wow When was the last time that ever happened in America? But so a man deserves to be beaten. Thirdly, there's a judge.

The judge watches the beating. He gives the solution, the retribution, and then he watches it. He has to be there to watch it. And it's also swift judgment. It's not 20 years in solitary confinement.

It's not going and hanging out on death row. It's not going in and lifting weights for 24 months with a bunch of reprobates and then get out. God's solutions are totally different than this whole bankrupt prison system that we have today. And then, fourth, the beating needs to be measured. Did you see the words there?

Measured according to his guilt, okay? In other words, they're not all, the beatings aren't all the same. There are some get longer beatings, some get shorter beatings because the crimes were different. You know, if you go up to Williamsburg, Virginia, you know, and walk the streets there, you can see the stocks, you know, and the whipping posts, and you can have your picture taken inside of the stocks, and they would put people in the stocks and they would sometimes beat them, or sometimes people would throw tomatoes and things like that at them and spit on them and saying mean things about them as they went on. But, so, there's this measurement of guilt, and then there's also a limitation of the number of blows.

Did you notice that? No more than 40. There has to be a stop to it. You do not beat him as you please. You don't beat him until he comes under submission.

There's a certain number of blows, and that's it. And you can't just go off and creatively figure this out once you've established the number of blows. There's a predetermined end to the punishment. And sixthly, the maximum is defined. Now, the Jews, interestingly, took the 40, and they made it 39, because they wanted to account for losing count they didn't want to over beat someone if you know how it easy is to lose kids that is that 16 or 18 what were we oh wait I don't know We're gonna try to keep the law of God.

So the Jews backed it down to 39 to cover for the lack of ability to count. You know I used to be in the electronics industry and we would deal with Hundreds of thousands of electronic components that went on circuit boards, hundreds of thousands. I'll never forget, we had one of our customers, a guy from IBM, he said, one thing I've, my great conclusion from my career at IBM is this, No one can count. No one can count. And you can't even count 40 blows out and get it right.

So the Jews unrighteously back it down to 39. And Matthew Henry says that the execution was usually done with a whip of three lashes. So often what would happen is that the three whips in the lash would be counted as three. So one blow could be counted as three. So What they did is that they had 39 lashes, 13, 13 stripes, 13 times 3 gets you right where you need to be, at 39.

So that's what the Jews did. So the maximum number was defined and then seventh, the reason for the limitation is given. Humiliation, so that you don't humiliate him. Now the humiliation obviously is not the kind of humiliation that hurts his pride. Okay, because you know, one, one, he has to lay down on the floor, I think that's humiliation enough.

And then the judge starts, he watches his beating. The humiliation, I believe, is that humiliation is about harming this man, beating him into insensibility, beating him until his bodily functions are no longer operating this is the kind of humiliation it's this excessive you know rancorous evil you know destruction of a human being is what he's talking about. You know, men are not to be treated like dogs, says Matthew Henry. And this is the law against torture. And, you know, we went to Romania several years ago and we went to a medieval prison.

And we walked into this prison and I had a bunch of young men with me and there were all these, you know, racks and all these, you know, tools, implements of torture that this medieval government was exerting on people. They're just terrible, horrible, horrible tortures. And I walked in there and I wanted to talk to these young men about what the Bible says about punishment. And I said, what's wrong with this picture? And most people, they couldn't figure it out.

But what was wrong with this picture is that these are ungodly, wicked ways to deal with people's sins against society. And one of the problems with modern man, and this man, and everyone in my family, is that we think we're superior to God in many areas. And, you know, our present government thinks they're way smarter than God. We think that we're smarter than God. We believe that the product of our own brain is superior to the mind of God.

We think that we're more compassionate than God. So we read the Word of God and we think God is a monster. He couldn't mean what he plainly said. Or we think that we're more innovative than God. We think that we can create a more beautiful system than God.

Something more appropriate that's contextualized, just right. And this is one of the wicked things that we have upon us, is that we think we're smarter than God in punishment of criminals. It's interesting, there's a great scene in Acts chapter 23. We read this just this week. I was amazed that our family was just reading in this chapter, Acts 23, where Paul is looking at the council, and Ananias has one of his men strike Paul in the mouth.

And then the Apostle Paul says God will strike you you white washed wall and but what Paul said Paul said is that for you sit in judge You sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?" Paul was saying, hey look, you whack me in the mouth, that's contrary to the law. You're not allowed to punish me that way. That's what Paul was saying. The Lord Jesus said a very similar thing in John chapter 18, where the same thing happened, where the high priest did the same thing. And the Lord Jesus says to him, he says, why do you strike me?

Why do you strike me? I believe Jesus was calling him back to this text in Deuteronomy that speaks of how one should be punished. You know, the Apostle Paul recounts his suffering. He was whipped five different times with 39 lashes. He was beaten with rods three different times, pummeled with stones one time.

But the Apostle Paul was beaten this way that is spoken of here. So what does it reveal about the heart of God and His character? God has mercy. He even has mercy on a criminal. What kind of law is it?

Moral, ceremonial, or civil? It's a civil law. Number three, who's given responsibility to civil government? How is it fulfilled in Christ? Christ took the punishment for all of our sins, and He's merciful.

How does it explain love? It's an example of the mercies of God to keep us from being killed from things that we deserved. If we were truly punished in this world for the things that we've done, it would not look well. How does it reveal sin? It shows the sin of cruelty.

How is it applicable? And it's applicable in that it shows us how much we need to be regulated by God and not let our passions and our creative juices take us away, you know, into places we shouldn't go. You know, what happens when this when society, you know, turns away from this law? Will you create prisons and torture chambers and things like that? You have waterboarding and all kinds of creative things that people do to try to get something done.

How will this be used to transform me into the image of Jesus Christ? It shows me the beauty of Christ to withhold His wrath from me, because Jesus Christ took all the wrath that I deserve. He took the beating. He took the blows. He took the scourging for us.

He fulfilled this law on the cross. And then finally there's a law here to provide double honor in verse 4. And again we see as we've seen so many times, God does not steal. God does not steal from his people. He gives, he gives, He giveth and he giveth and he giveth again more grace.

And here is another one that's like it. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Now the principle here is that animals are not to be robbed. That We should treat our animals well. Proverbs 12.10 says, a righteous man regards the life of his beast, but even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

So it's right to treat animals well. And we don't, you know, it's sinful to just snuff out animals' lives. It's sinful when little boys often do this to any kind of animal. And they do it just for the sake of killing and this is something that should be avoided here. A righteous man regards the life of his beast.

So kindness is due to animals in the same way that is given to people. That doesn't mean that we don't slaughter animals and eat them. We're actually, you know, obligated to do that. This is the way that God, you know, has given for us to eat. But these words are quoted twice in Paul's letters.

You might think, well, what, what, what, We don't have any oxen today. So what do we do about this? Well, Paul tells us how we deal with this law. It's quoted in 1 Corinthians 9.9 where Paul makes an argument that in the same way that a soldier is paid, in the same way that a person who plants a vineyard should receive the fruit of the vineyard, in the same way that a person who plants a vineyard should receive the fruit of the vineyard in the same way that a person who tends a flock should have to increase so so should a minister of the Word of God be compensated for it And so the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, beginning of verse 3, begins a whole discussion of this matter. He says, don't we have a right to eat and drink?

Don't we have a right to bring a wife along and and and have her be supported in it? You know whoever goes to war gets paid for it Why why not the men who are going to war in the realm of spiritual things also be paid for it and? He says if we've if we have sown in spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? So he's saying that those who sow spiritual things should reap material things back. That's what Paul says in verse 11 in chapter 9.

And then he says in verse 13, do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar. Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel." So that's what this law means. Paul is interpreting the law. Those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. And then Paul also quotes it in his letter to Timothy, in 1 Timothy 5, verse 17, where he says, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. So there are elders that are worthy of double honor. Pay and honor are used interchangeably here and that the value of the work should determine the pay. That's what Paul is speaking of here. The Lord Jesus speaks of this principle in Matthew chapter 10, verses 9 through 10.

He says, Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper for your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals. For the worker is worthy of his food. The idea is he should be able to go out without anything and be provided for along the way.

That's the idea. And then Galatians 6, verse 6 teaches the same thing. Let him who has taught the Word share in all good things with him who teaches." The sharing of all good things are material things that he's speaking of. And there's a section in the Second London Baptist Confession that explains this in detail. It summarizes by saying, pastors are required to give constant attention to the service of Christ in His churches.

They are to be engaged in the ministry of the Word and prayer, and to seek the welfare of men's souls as those who must give account to the Lord. It is therefore imperative that the churches to which they minister should give them according to their church's ability. Not only all do honor, but such abundance of this world's material good as will enable them to live in comfort without the need to entangle themselves in secular employment and which will suffice to enable them to exercise hospitality toward others. Such an arrangement is required by the law of nature itself and by the express command of our Lord Jesus Christ who decreed that quote, they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel. So that's the second line of Baptist Confession.

So What kind of law is it? Is it moral or ceremonial? It's a moral responsibility to take care of those who labor in the Word of God. Who is given the responsibility to carry it out? It's the Church.

How is it fulfilled in Christ? Christ said, I will never leave you or forsake you. In my Father's house, there are many mansions. Christ has provided an eternal domain for those who love Him. How does it explain love?

It's because it's an act of love to pay for those who labor. How does it reveal sin? It reveals the sin of some churches that intentionally desire to keep their ministers humble by squeezing them. Maybe you've, I've run into people who expressly believe that's the job of the church to keep the minister humble by not paying him very much, but it exposes the sinfulness of that kind of behavior. And then how applicable is it?

Well, it gives the church guidance for at least one way in using its funds. And what happens when this law is ignored in the family or the church or the government? Well often you have churches that are weak because they don't receive the attention to instruction that is helpful. If men have jobs that are overwhelmingly demanding and they're not able to give adequate time to the word, maybe they shouldn't be elders, but the reality is if you've talked to bivocational elders, you know how difficult it is, how time consuming it is. So often you have weak churches because of this situation.

So here we have these laws, these wonderful, wonderful laws. They all speak of how good God is. God does not steal, He gives. And He calls His people not to steal either. That we ought not to steal from a father who has a rebellious son, nor should we steal from the stranger or the fatherless or the widow by perverting justice, or We should not steal from a man by beating him into insensibility.

And we should also not steal from ministers who labor in the Word of God. This is the heart and nature of God. Isn't God so, so good? The devil comes to kill and steal and destroy, but the good shepherd, he takes care of all of his sheep, because he is so kind. And he said, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

So while it might be true that you and I might rob God, God does not rob you because of His goodness. Isn't that a blessing? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these laws that you've given. We pray that you'd help us to understand them well and live by them and correct any lack of understanding that we might have and there are that I might have even communicated today.

In Jesus name, amen. Thanks for watching!