In the sermon 'Laws that Define and Restrict Stealing from God and Man' by Scott Brown, several key points about the laws in Deuteronomy are discussed. The sermon begins by exploring passages that address the treatment of escaped slaves, emphasizing that God's laws provide protections and rights that contrast with historical forms of slavery. Brown also explains the prohibition against charging interest to fellow Israelites, highlighting the importance of community and the suppression of greed. The sermon further examines the exclusion of harlotry and sodomy from Israel, portraying these actions as destructive to love and family. Additionally, Brown discusses the significance of keeping vows made to God, noting the seriousness and spiritual implications of vows. Finally, the sermon touches on the concept of property rights and how God's laws guide the sharing of resources with those in need. Throughout, Brown emphasizes that God's laws are life-giving, promote love, and provide a framework for understanding morality.

The Ruling 23 verse 15 to 25. You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. He might dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he shows within one of your gates. Were it seen best to him, you shall not oppress him. There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughter of Israel, or a pervert one of the sons of Israel.

You shall not bring the weight of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God. For any bough offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. You shall not charge interest to your brother, interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest. To a foreigner you may charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess. When you make a bow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, And it will be seen to you, but if you abstain from bowing, it shall not be seen to you, that which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily bow to the Lord your God, where you have promise with your mouth.

When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill or grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container. When you come into your neighbor's stand is grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's stand is grain. What a privilege we have to have you war, Father. Prepare us our hearts, Father, to receive you war, give us understanding, and help us to love you more and to live you more. Amen.

Are we on now? Oh, okay. Oh, boy. Well, I probably should say a few things so that we can get the sound right here. Have you got it?

I think we're getting close. Yeah, I think we're getting close. Well, I'm constantly marveling in our studies in Deuteronomy, and really, anytime I study scripture, how much I just don't know on my own how disconnected I am from the heart of God, the mind of God, the laws of God. And the reality is that unlike probably everyone in this room, We've made up our own designer God where we have our own designer lives our own idolatries that make us Create the kind of life that we like and so we make God in our image We can't conceive of a God like this or that. It's so hard for us because when we come to scripture, we come up against, well, it's the rock.

He is a rock, and His work is perfect. And all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice. Righteous and upright is He. We come to this wonderful testimony of help to really deliver us out of paganism, out of...from ourselves. You know, Think if we were left to ourselves since we were children, what would have become of us?

Well, God is so kind to us to help us know how to live. And so he's given us these laws, and many of them are included in the book of Deuteronomy. One of the things I think we've been finding as a church is that God's laws are beautiful. They're life-giving. They are fulfillments of love.

Jesus Christ kept every one of them and we can see how He did it. He explains so many of them to help us grasp their fundamental meaning and He actually magnifies the law rather than reducing it and taking it to further proportions than we ever dreamed because he takes it right down into the thoughts and the meditations of our hearts. But the truth is, all of these laws that are here before us today, though they're kind of discombobulating, even though they're different than our own thinking. And as I've looked over these laws regarding the Eighth Commandment, I've realized how different my thinking has often been on many of these categories that he brings up. But the truth is this, all these laws are like raindrops on the tender herb, as showers on the grass, as dew.

And we're the grass, We're the tender herb. We need it. We need this nourishment and this saturation, this fullness of life that God has by giving us the water of life. And I'm so grateful that we're able to do it. You know, God has promised to feed his flock like a shepherd, to gather the lambs in his arms, and to carry them in his bosom, and to gently lead those who are with Yah.

What a wonderful promise that is from Isaiah 40 that we have from the Lord. That He'll take us on, He'll move us forward in His own way as a shepherd. But I'm so grateful for this teaching that's here before us. And what we find here is that God is showing us what stealing is and also contrasting it with what stealing is not. Now we can look to God to determine what's right and wrong in the world and how we should conduct ourselves with our possessions and various other things, whether it be a runaway slave or whether it be what we do with our bodies, what we are able to sell from our bodies, whether it has to do with our brothers and charging interest to them, whether it has to do with fulfilling vows or actually stealing from our neighbor.

What is that like? So all this passage of Scripture outlines many of these things. If you have an outline in front of you, I've identified the various sections that are in here to help us think through, you know, how they're organized. So at the end of chapter 23, there were laws about going to war, laws about physical cleanness and that type of thing. And often in war, there are prisoners, and there are contrary and pagan societies that we're at war against.

People escape in wartime. They were slaves of slaves one place, and then they become what? What do they become in their new nation that they escape to? And so all those things are on the table here. Moses seems to me to be thinking logically.

He's talked about wartime, And now he's moving into, oh, here's something else that can happen in wartime. And he begins speaking of this in verses 15 and 16. Here's another type of challenging situation that people might find themselves in. So In doing so, he's defining what is stealing a slave. And he gives help about how to treat that escaped slave and then implies so much about other issues of slavery.

So verse 15 and 16, he says, You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. He may dwell with you in your midst in the place which he chooses within one of your gates where it seems best to him you shall not oppress him so here is here is a law of Israel that that has to do with handling runaway slaves now you know we have to be careful in interpreting this. Scripture says a number of things about slavery. And here, I think that everything in this passage implies that he escapes from his master in a foreign country, that he's now selecting from your gates, he's in a different place now. If you don't take it that way, it's very difficult to harmonize it with other passages of scripture regarding slavery.

So when we read this, our first reaction is to be disturbed. We might think that runaway slaves, they should always be returned to their rightful owner. And we might think of it as stealing to keep this runaway slave. That's the first thing that I think comes to most people's minds when they read this law. You should give that slave back.

Isn't that what you think immediately when you read this? I mean, you're supposed to give back a cow or an ox or a donkey. You don't keep it. You're supposed to put it back to its rightful owner. And so let's get some of the details of this in order first.

First of all, a slave could escape and would not be forced back. That's for sure. Easily understood in the text in verse 15. Second, he could flee. He could flee from his place.

The language of 15 and 16, I think, implies that this person was not of Israel, but fled to the people of God for refuge. He came somewhere to dwell in your midst. So he's coming to dwell in your midst. I just have to understand that he was not in your midst, and now he is going to dwell in your midst. And I realize the language is difficult to work through, and it doesn't come out explicitly to say exactly what this means.

But again, harmonization with other passages of scripture helps us understand what this possibly could mean. And so we have to understand that there are various kinds of slavery in Hebrew and pagan society. First, there were those who sold themselves into slavery to pay their debts. This is actually compassionate slavery. This is someone who's fallen on hard times, and they become slaves of the one that they owed money to.

And this is the compassion of the Lord. When you completely run out of resources, God gives you the ability, He doesn't throw you in prison, He puts you with someone who will take care of you, who will feed and clothe you. Slavery is an act of kindness in this context. We have bad thoughts of slavery because of American slavery, the abuse of racial slavery that afflicted the world and still afflicts the world. But this kind of slavery in scripture that was found in Hebrew society is a bajillion miles away from the American kind of slavery that we experienced in the first decades of our country's history.

These were making restitution for their debts and they were unable to pay. And these slaves had protections and rights under God's laws. And a number of those protections are outlined in the book of Deuteronomy. And they were protected from abject poverty. They were brought into a house.

They were given a trade. They were not mistreated. And if they were, actually, they could flee for their lives, but A slave could choose here where he wanted to go, and a slave could not be abused. So I think we must assume that Deuteronomy 23, verses 16 and 17, aren't talking about this kind of slave. In Deuteronomy chapter 15, verses 12 through 18, we see that slaves are set free after six years.

In the seventh year, they become free. And they're not set away empty handed. But actually, they're well supplied. They're blessed, they're cared for. They're blessed, they're cared for.

So, what should I do, Ryan? Should I just keep going here? I'm afraid, Okay, so there's blessing, there's care. If the slave wants to stay, Moses says, and if it happens that if he says to you, I will not go away from you because He loves you. Then there are things that you do to keep Him there, and you can do that.

I would just like to suggest that that's the same kind of slave that you see in Philemon 16, where there's a runaway slave, Onesimus, and he was actually his master's brother, a brother in the flesh, and he sent Onesimus back to Philemon to seek forgiveness. That's one kind of slavery. That's not... I don't believe that's this kind of slavery that's in Deuteronomy chapter 23. Does that make sense?

So there's something different. There are various categories of slavery and various rules and regulations and conditions that apply. But there were other kinds of slavery. There were slaves who were prisoners of war, who were residents of foreign and pagan nations. And I would just like to suggest that this makes sense.

Now we've already read about various issues of kind of immigration, who is allowed and who is not allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord and how that works. There are certain kinds of people that were not allowed to be a part of the people of Israel in particular ways. And I would just like to suggest that this law too also helps us understand certain issues regarding immigration. You know I mean my opinion is you know our country's current leadership has lost their brains on all matters regarding immigration. But here's what we find is there is a kind of immigrant that is lawful to bring in.

And perhaps these were abused. They were paganized. They're given names of foreign gods. This is what happens often in pagan nations. They're treated inhumanely, they become a labor force, and they're just the spoils of war often.

And perhaps this is the kind of slave that he is speaking of here in this passage of Scripture. It would be something like Alexander Solzhenitsyn fleeing to the United States, you know, for refuge. It's a different kind of slavery than is often spoken of in Scripture. Now, perhaps this implies that Israel is not obligated to follow the laws of pagan nations. Not being in covenant with them, they don't have obligations.

They have various moral obligations. But There don't seem to be any extradition agreements here, no alliances with these nations to return someone like this. Now what does all this mean? First of all, There's the whole issue of humane treatment of those who might flee into your land of particular kinds of people. But I think in all of the laws of Deuteronomy, in all of the teaching that's here, is a picture of the Gospel.

And of course, how can you even consider the Gospel without thinking of slavery, your bondage to the God of this world, his mistreatment of you, how all of his ways were not pleasant ways. He destroyed your emotions. He destroyed your relationships. The God of this world is a bad taskmaster. And he abuses all those who are in his house, absolutely.

God's house, however, is very different. God takes the slave and he sets him free. And he cleanses him and he gives him a home. And he's free. The reality is All of us are the runaway slaves from paganism.

We were once in bondage. We were in Egypt. And we were under Pharaoh, where there was no grace. There was only the lash. There was no Sabbath.

There was no help. There was no spirit. We were without God and without hope in the world, as was quoted earlier this morning by Joaquin. There is relief from slavery. God gives a way to set the captives free.

Here, there's a kind of captive that finds grace and peace and help. And he's able to live wherever he would like to live. He's really at his pleasure in this. And then secondly, Moses deals with another law, and he's establishing what is stealing from the family. The exclusion of harlots and perverts and their money from Israel, which has to do with the preservation of love and the family, verses 17 and 18.

That's a long heading for a point in a message like this. But let's read what it says very carefully, because Moses uses some very crisp and helpful words to understand, to help us to understand what is rain from heaven, what is good from the Lord. There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel." Now this has to do with the female side of harlotry. Then, or a perverted person, a sodomite of the sons of Israel, you shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God. For any vowed offering for both of these are an abomination to the Lord." Now, Moses begins with an anathema, there shall be no.

So something very powerful is being stated right at the outset and then the first term is a feminine female harlotry and the second refers to men who are perverted and are actually sodomites. And Moses is declaring that Israel will be a different kind of place than the nations. Harlotry and sodomy are not tolerated in Israel. That's definitely clear from this text in contrast to the nations around them where prostitution and sodomy and immorality of various forms are tolerated. Israel is to be a place where this is not tolerated.

And imagine a nation void of harlotry. It would be hard to imagine, wouldn't it? Because these things are so pervasive. Leviticus 19 is really referred here, and here, action should be taken. We also learn here that harlots are also religious too.

They want to bring offerings. They want to use Bible language. We live in a nation today that's really abandoned Christianity, but Everybody wants to be spiritual. Spirituality is everything. Spirituality and harlotry often go hand in hand.

You find people that are well known in the media who speak of their spirituality and their giving and what they do and They use various God words. But the truth is, even though they want to bring gifts to God, they're not accepted. That's the other principle that's here. They're not accepted by God. The harlot that stands up behind a microphone on MTV, and then on camera in the news talks about God and giving things to God and building orphanages.

These gifts are not accepted at all. They're not real and they're not legitimate. And often, you know, these are nice, very nice people. You see them all the time. Sodomites and harlots are often some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

They give the charitable causes. They make sacrifices. They smile at you. Deborah and I went out on a little mini date just recently, and we were served by a sodomite. I'm confident.

One of the nicest servers you could possibly meet. And so they may take some of their profits and give them back to the community. But here verse 18 says, You shall not bring the wages of the harlot or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord your God, or any vowed offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God." So there are so many things to say in these two verses here in 17 and 18. But how is this stealing? How is this stealing?

And in one way, it's stealing in that there are things that cannot be bought or sold. Everybody knows that the common advertising mantra, sex sells, right? It does. Well, it's not supposed to, you know, that it's not right to sell your sexuality. This is one thing that's not for sale.

It's not something that you barter and gain from. That's the principle that's here. Sex does sell, but it shouldn't with you, not with the children of God. People think today that they can do whatever they want with their sexuality. But the truth is that this kind of the work of your body is, cannot be for sale.

And also the origin of the gift matters. The crime against God is committed for these wages. And so there's this other idea of bringing illegitimate money into the church in verse 18. Luther said, all gains by sin are unacceptable by God. You remember a few years ago when Jack Whitaker won $170 million in the Powerball lottery.

And after taxes, it was like $113, 000. And he gave 10% of it to his three top favorite pastors. And they took the money. And it caused a big discussion around the internet. And various pastors were saying, well, I might take it.

And others were saying, anathema, Absolutely. You do not bring unrighteous mammon into the house of God. I think that's the right view, is that you don't do this. You remember this whole thing of using unrighteous funds for spiritual things is an interesting principle. Remember, earlier in the year we were reading of George Mueller, who was trying to test whether God wanted him to be a missionary.

Do you remember this story? And he bought a ticket from the royal lottery, and he won. And he prayed about it. He said, oh, God, if you want me to be a missionary, I'm buying this ticket from the lottery. If I win, I'll go.

And he won. But he wasn't able to go because of other things that were happening in his life. But he looks back on it, and he recognizes how wrong that was, how presumptuous. He went into it so quickly, but he prayed about it. He does say that in his biography.

Read that story again. It's very fascinating. Yes, you can be passionate about it. You can pray about it. But if it's unrighteous mammon, it just doesn't work with God.

And don't bring it into the offering. So money gained from harlotry is not allowed to be received by the church. Now, within this verse, 18, is a very strange statement that you do not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog. The price of a dog. Now what's that?

Would that be selling a dog or from a dog race? What's that all about? What is he talking about? Well, you know, it's code. He uses actually a standard term for homosexual.

He translates the term kelev, which is the word for the male prostitute or the homosexual, into dog. Now, dogs in those days were not domesticated. They were wild beasts. They roved around scavenging, eating refuge, including farm animal refuse off the streets. And what's really interesting about this, especially in a time like ours, is God uses a very derogatory term against sodomy.

Now, we're actually living in a time where it's not only not very popular, in some places it's actually not legal to use derogatory terms for sodomites, for homosexuals, but let's, let's, I just want us to acknowledge something as a church here. And I pray that we would use the words of God regardless of what the consequences might be. We should not fear man, but fear God alone. And the reality is it is appropriate to use derogatory terms towards sodomy. God has done it right here in this passage of scripture.

I don't know how else you can interpret this. It's certainly using negative terminology with sort of profane implications in that terminology. But here, sodomites are referred to as dogs. And what they bring before God does not give them access to God. A gift, when you bring the price of your harlotry, it gives you access.

And there is no access. Access denied for sodomites. Now, unless they're repentant sodomites. Paul says to the Corinthians, such were some of you. Well, these were repentant sodomites who had become revolts at their sin and had become sweetly enamored by the goodness of God.

And they repented of their sin. So God does not hold sodomites out of his church. Categorically, he only holds unrepentant sodomites out of his church. And so here, you know, the means of profit in matter to God, How you bring matters to God. How is this a law of love?

How is this fulfilled in Christ? Well, first of all, it's a law of love because it puts evil out of the camp and it does something to a society. It preserves marriage. It preserves one man and one woman. Joined together in bonds of love and it keeps them together.

You know what it does? It gives a man, someone who will love him all the days of his life. How's that? Rather than an abandonment. It gives a woman, someone who will protect and care for her 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until she leaves this earth.

It gives a woman that, but harlotry deprives a woman of that. Harlotry makes men jumping all over the place, and women have no protection, they have no help or provision or care, no one to love them all the days of their lives. How important it is that we have someone who will take an oath to love us all the days of our lives, because we're often so unlovely. There's always a reason that you can walk away from your spouse if you think about it long enough, and hard enough, and obsess about it well enough, and you can find some reason to be revulsed at anybody in this world. But God says, no, no.

My laws are for the preservation of the family. This law protects women beautifully. It keeps them from, it gives them husbands instead of men who just are moving from one nightstand to the next. And it keeps them from being cast aside. It keeps them from being objects.

It keeps them from being abused. It keeps them from diseases. This is a protection of the family. This is a protection of women. All of God's laws are laws of love.

And you might think, well, you know, sodomy and harlotry are not that big of a deal. No, they destroy love. That's why they're so bad. And God is love. And all of His laws are fulfilled in you shall love your neighbor as yourself." So here it's fulfilled in Christ as well.

Christ is the bridegroom, the pure bride, and He purifies His bride by the washing of the water of the Word through the atoning sacrifice of His own shed blood, through the righteousness that is by faith alone apart from the works of the law. And what Christ does is He takes all the impure children of the world. He takes the harlots, he takes the sodomites and he makes them pure. He makes them white as wool and he puts their sins as far from them as the east is from the west. And he gives them a new name.

They had harlot written over their heads. They had sodomite written on them. Thief, you know, covetor, whatever it might be. And God gives them a new name and a new home for all eternity in heaven. Their hands were stained with sin and now they are washed and cleansed by Christ alone.

And this whole matter of harlotry runs, you know, in scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Physical harlotry and spiritual harlotry are very often mingled in passages of scripture particularly in the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophets are constantly speaking of spiritual harlotry that has its image in physical harlotry and adultery. Jeremiah 5-7 says, How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods.

When I had fed them to be full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in harlots houses." So this is a picture of Israel playing the harlot at this time in history and recorded in Jeremiah chapter 5. And it's a mirror of our great sin. It's a mirror of the sin. And that is harlotry. We play the harlot, we serve other gods.

And the word harlotry is code for lots of other things, lots of other sins that we become ensnared by. And so this law regarding harlotry, it does teach us about the gospel, that there is only one God, only one husband, only one Savior. And there are not many ways to God. There is only one way to God. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.

Here you find the exclusiveness of the Gospel. Particularly, It is excluded. It is excluded for unrepentant sinners. So here is this law about stealing. Stealing from the family.

What does sodomy and harlotry have to do with stealing? It steals love. It destroys love from families. And it deprives a wife and a husband of what God has desired that they would have. And then the third issue that Moses brings up is in verses 19 through 20.

What is stealing from your brother? Charging interest to your brothers and the suppression of greed. So Moses is now continuing to speak about the use of money, and he talks about the charging of interest. Now there's a summary of this in Deuteronomy 15.1 through 11. And now I just want to bring out a number of observations about these verses here.

First of all, this really, this law puts a governor on greed. That if you've ever had a mini bike or a go-kart, you know what a governor is, right? And honestly, who wants a governor on their go-kart? Not me. I never wanted one.

How do you get that thing off of there? That was my question. But a governor keeps the vehicle from going so fast that a child will be killed. In his immaturity, he'll take whatever speed he can get. And it might land him in the ditch or wrapped around a tree and that's bad.

So governors actually can be good, particularly when there are fixed objects, you know, in the region. So governors can be good and, you know, I just I've never met a kid who liked a governor, but today a lot of them, you know, they don't have their skulls split, they're alive and everything like that. But God knows that men need governors and that they often are tempted to hoard money to themselves. God knows that greed causes damage to many relationships. And he knows that men have a tendency to take advantage of one another in business.

This is actually a verse about taking advantage of someone in business. That is your brother. Now as we see in the laws regarding interest, there are different rules for those who are your brothers and those who are not your brothers and what the situation might be. And this law has to do with the charitable interest to a brother and not abusing your brother in this situation of giving something of charity, but exacting an interest which is inappropriate. So this law, it kind of puts a drain plug on greed and taking advantage.

If somebody's in need, and they have a need, and you can get your pound of flesh out of them and by way of interest. That's just the way men's hearts work. The other thing that this law suggests is the idea of community. They're insiders and they're outsiders. We are members of one another.

This is not the same thing as local church membership. But you find the same idea all over scripture regarding the insiders and the outsiders, those who are of Israel, and there are various categories of people that are dealt with. So the relationships in a covenantal community, when it comes to charging of interest, are not meant to make a profit. So this is a way that you don't make a profit on your brothers. You don't give your brother $5, 000 out of charity and then charge him interest on it.

That's the idea. It's what you don't do to your brother. And this brings up the whole issue of usury. Now, when I use the term usury, I think that we should make some distinctions. In scripture, Usury actually meant charging any interest at all.

Today, usury is charging excessive interest. The definitions have actually changed. And so when a credit card company is charging in the mid-20s or 30% interest, Or you get these letters in the mail, we'll send you $5, 000. And then you read the five print. Whoa, the interest rate is like 58%.

That's usury. Well, that's usury In our terms, but not in biblical terms, usury is the charging of any interest to a brother. It's a fascinating study to consider the history of usury. And there's some really excellent, very insightful books about it. So here, this is a law that implies, well, there's a brother in need, and you're going to loan him some money.

You're going to help him out. So that's a legitimate thing to do. It's interesting, a few of us traveled to Amish country. We went to go preach in a church up there about a month or two ago. And you bumped into Amish and Mennonite people who were in the community.

And there's something to learn from these people about the way that they take care of their young families, in particular their young men. They loan them money. They help them. They work with them. They make sure that that young man is successful.

If his farm is lagging, one guy brings over fertilizer. Another guy brings over his horse-drawn tractor, or whatever it is, horse-drawn implement. And God forbid that you should do farming without a tractor. That's my position, and I'm sticking to it. But here you find other communities are a little bit more dialed in and helping one another to establish their families.

We have something to learn, I think, from them. But here the blessings are open-ended and that God protects His people. He protects His people by placing boundaries around them so that they don't take advantage of one another when they're being kind to one another through a gift. And it just reminds so much of the beauty of the Gospel. God is a giver of life.

He supplies. He never subjects us to unreasonable and harmful exactions from us, he gives. The thief comes in to steal, kill, and destroy, but Christ comes and he gives life, and He gives abundantly. This is the heart of God. The heart of God that takes nothing from you, but that pours into you so much that out of your belly comes rivers of living water.

That's what God is. He's the raindrops on the tender herb. He is the showers on the grass. He is the distilling dew on the plant. That's what God is.

He's nourishing, He's cherishing. This is the heart of God coming through, you know, in this law. And He's given mercy that we do not deserve. So it really is a law of love. That's why Paul said in Romans 12, oh, oh, one another nothing except to love one another.

Deuteronomy 15, as I said, you know, one through 11 or 15 or something like that, you know, explains this. But I'll read two verses from Deuteronomy 15. If there is among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Did you notice the geographical conditions that are here? It has to do with people that you know that are in your gates, they're there with you, that, Thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand wide open to him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth." So this is the heart of God, to be merciful and gracious to our brother.

And then in verses 21 to 23 we come to another law regarding vows. What does it look like to steal from God? And What does it look like to make a promise to God and not keep it? So he says in verse 21 when you make a vow To the Lord your God you shall not delay to pay it For the Lord your God will surely require it of you and it would be sin to you. But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you." Because you don't have to vow.

But if you do, here's what you should do. "...that which is gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, which you have promised with your mouth." Now, here Moses uses a word for vowing. It's used fairly consistently, translated the same way in the Old Testament. And generally, and I'm not confident about this at this moment, generally vows are to God and oaths are to man. I think there's a lot to study about this for me.

I think the way that the New and the Old Testaments treat these, use some language interchangeably, and I'm not sure how to make those distinctions. But here are two things that I know. Here are two things we can absolutely jump on with all of our weight. One is that we live in a culture today that really totally disregards vows. People don't understand the seriousness of a vow to God or to man.

So we live in a culture that has set aside all of this doctrine. It's such a prominent doctrine that the two great confessions of faith, the two historical pillars of the communication of biblical Christianity, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Second Line of Baptist Confession, both have pretty long sections on this. I mean, that should just cause us to think for a minute. Why is it that something that doesn't even touch the radar screen of most modern Christians. Why is it that in historic Christianity, it was on the radar screen big time, and they wrote in detail about it?

So I think the first thing I want us to just acknowledge for a minute is that maybe we don't know everything about vows that we should because we live in a wicked and crooked generation that has set aside lots of categories. Perhaps, well not perhaps, absolutely this is one that we're blind to. So as is actually demonstrated by me, because there are many things that I don't understand about vows either. And There are hundreds of passages of scripture that relate to this that you have to work through. Here are some of the challenges of working through some of those.

Which word does God use for vow and oath and swear? What words do they use? That's a gigantic study. But what we do know from this passage is, if you vow, it's really serious. It's super duper serious.

And that might actually be enough to know. That might get you through the next few years. If you can't study every single word in the Old and the New Testament on vowing, if you don't have time for that, well then at least know this, it's really serious and God takes it very seriously. Henry Hurst in English Puritan wrote, I think, to me a very helpful treatise on this matter. He says this, a vow is a deliberate promise made unto God in an extraordinary case, either to do or to omit something.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever done that? Maybe you did it at your baptism. Maybe you did it while you were driving out of car and you just weren't going to take it anymore, you weren't going to do that anymore? You said, oh Lord, I will never have made a vow like that.

He says it's a holy promise whereby we bind ourselves to offer something to God. Psalm 116, verses 12-14 speak of it, What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? Here we have this rendering, this vow. He says, I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

So David, he first of all speaks of what generated the vow, all of God's benefits to him. God was so good that he made a vow to God in the midst of the assembly. He did it because God was good. Now, when was the last time you heard anybody do that? Well, that's what David is saying he did.

He took a vow to God in the midst of the assembly. He did it because God was good. Now when was the last time, you know, you heard anybody do that? Well, that's what David is saying he did. He took a vow to God in the midst of the assembly because of how fantastically wonderful, mega perfect and helpful and good and sweet God is.

That's why he did the vow. And it was all of his benefits. Hurst in his treatise on vowing makes these points, the elements of a vow. One, it is a promise that is made through careful and godly consideration. In other words, they should not be rash vows, they should be carefully considered.

Number two, they're voluntary. Number three, they must be to God alone. Number four, they must be for extraordinary cases. You render the things to God that are God's and the things to man that are man's. There are distinctions there.

He talks about well-composed vows do much to promote religion. Well-composed vows, you know, well-considered vows. And There are so many things that we can speak about here. We can speak of Paul's Nazarite vow. We could go to a number of places in scripture.

We could go to Isaiah, or Psalm 56. I must perform my vows to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you." Psalm 61, 4. For you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

Psalm 61, verse 8. I will ever sing praises to your name as I perform my vows day after day. With David, often the making of a vow is connected to the goodness of God, as we already outlined. Ecclesiastes 5 says, it is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. And Proverbs 20, 25 says, it's a snare to say rashly, it is holy, and reflect only after making vows.

So there should be care and deliberation and caution in making vows. Yet they're entirely appropriate. One of the questions I've had for myself is, Scott, what vows have you neglected? Are there things that you need to come bring before the Lord and stand before the Lord because of His goodness to you? God has been so good to me.

From the days that I was saved, God put a song in my heart and a smile on my face that has never left me. He's been so kind to me. What can I give? What can I vow to Him? And what about us as a people?

Are there vows that perhaps would be appropriate to be made under careful consideration and deliberation? That would be a blessing that would actually promote evangelism, promote the glory of God in the world, that would promote whatever. There are, I've known people who have made various vows in that area. I had a friend at one point, he said, I have vowed before the Lord that I will not let a day pass so far as it depends on me that I share the gospel with someone. And he did it.

Now, there were some days that it just didn't happen because the opportunity just wasn't there. But because of the vow, he sought the opportunity. And there was blessing from it. So there are appropriate vows. Vows should also recognize the sovereignty of God.

You might, I was going to say, you might win the lottery, but you don't want to win the lottery. Don't win the lottery, OK? Let's just say it. Don't win the lottery. Don't try to win the lottery.

That's my personal advice to you. But let's say you fall into enormous wealth and you and you and you and you vow something with that wealth that you can't fulfill because you lost it all or something like that or it was you know it's easy it's easy to lose money so you You may make a vow in your abundance that you can't fulfill because something happened under the sovereignty of God. Maybe God said, I don't want him to have that, I'm taking it away. And now you can't fulfill your vow. It's a reasonable thing to say, well, I'm released from that vow because the providence of God has taken it from me.

So there are pledges, promises, they're binding to God that are between God and man. Read the Westminster Confession. Read the 2nd line of Baptist Confession on it. I think it's very, very helpful, you know, bringing in the language to help us understand what we should do with vows. And then the fifth law that Moses brings regarding stealing from your neighbor has to do with providing food from your own property.

Now here there are a number of I think challenging things for us. Again, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Let me suggest that there's a nuance here on property rights that needs to be considered. We'll talk about that in just a second. But in finder verse 24, when you come into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, But you shall not put any in your container.

When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads of your hand, but you shall not use the sickle on your neighbor's standing grain. Now, there are four elements that are really prominent here in this law. First of all, there's a neighbor. Who is my neighbor? The Hebrew Rudriya most commonly refers to someone who's close at hand, someone who lives next to you.

Or It could mean a friend, but it's someone who is close. And most likely for Moses, it was a permanent resident of the land that they were going into. Remember, Moses is speaking to the children of Israel in the last month of his life, just before they go into the promised land, to have cities that were not theirs, to have vineyards that they did not dig, and have wells that they did not make themselves. So the children of Israel are getting ready to move into a life that's different than the last 40 years in the wilderness. They were just wandering.

Now there's actually a land they're going to. So there are various laws to deal with. They're going into this land. And this is one of them. So there are various qualifications for this condition of having a neighbor.

Now, we know from scripture that there are certain things about neighbors that you need to acknowledge. Here's one, you don't covet your neighbor's wife. That's one thing you don't do with your neighbor. And number two, you don't move your neighbor's landmark in Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 14. There's certain things you don't do as a neighbor.

You don't take out that pin that marks the corner of your land and move it over five feet. That is not something you do to your neighbor. You don't violate his property. So here there's a neighbor, right? And then there's also a vineyard and a grain field.

He sets these two things in juxtaposition to explain two different kinds of opportunities. And so the vineyard and the grain field are there. And this doesn't mean that you can go into any store and just kind of glean and pick up whatever you want from foodline. That's not the principle that's here. It doesn't mean that at two o'clock in the morning, you know, you can't, you can go into somebody's greenhouse and take the strawberries from it.

It doesn't mean that that's what you're saying. Not that kind of gleaning at all. That's something totally different. And so there's a vineyard and a grain field. By the way, Jesus is in a situation where his disciples are picking grain in a grain field.

It's exactly this illustration. And he's trying to teach the Pharisees about the Sabbath. And he takes, he uses this illustration of his own disciple, or the Pharisees captured this illustration of the grain field to condemn Jesus on breaking the Sabbath. And then there is eating. The third element has to do with eating.

And the text says it makes you full. It makes you full. You can eat to fullness. And then there's the method of gathering. Not in a container and not using a sickle.

So what's the principle there? You're not there to gather a whole bunch. You're there to eat. You're there to take care of your hunger. You're not there to go pick several bushels and then go take them to the marketplace and sell them.

That's not what's pictured here. But that you eat them. And like someone said on Tuesday morning, it's all you can eat. It's golden corral. You can just eat as much as you want.

You can't take any away, just like golden corral, but you can eat whatever is there. I think this is one of those great laws of kindness that God has given, where there is something that you have that can be a benefit to someone who's hungry. And you should allow them to take it. You should allow them on your property to take it in an orderly way according to various conditions. So maybe there are actually two issues of stealing here.

You're not stealing if you glean. I think that's one thing. Somebody might think that's stealing, but that's not stealing. You might have always thought that was stealing, But God says that's not. I think this is where God sort of bumps up against our sensibilities in the way that we've always thought.

You might have, maybe you grew up in a place where anytime somebody stepped foot on your property you pulled out a gun. Maybe that was it. Maybe That was your attitude toward anybody. Or maybe you didn't, you had no knowledge of your neighbors and there wasn't a, you know, there wasn't a, you know, a loving relationship that allowed, you know, for these kinds of things to happen. I think that implies love between neighbors and care for them and allowing them somehow on your property.

Doesn't mean that they can do whatever they want. It is your property, and you do govern. I think, are you allowed to restrict this from happening? I don't know. That might be a good discussion afterwards here.

But what we know here is there doesn't seem to be any punishment for the person who refuses to do this, by the way. There are no sanctions against those who don't allow this to happen. So that might inform us about this whole matter of property rights and all this thing. Does this apply strictly to farming? Well, One of the principles that's here is that when it comes to our possessions, we don't actually have unlimited power over them.

That God tells us to do certain things with our possessions. And yes, it is within our boundaries. Yes, it is what we grew. But we don't have unlimited authority over them, that we should be free to let some of it go. I think that's clear in this.

It's a way to help those who are in need. It keeps the owner of the vineyard or the grain field from hoarding. Men who keep everything for themselves contradict the love of God. And you don't have the right to do just whatever you feel like you want to do with your land. That landowners are obligated to understand that everything belongs to the Lord, and He's placed particular demands upon those who own land to take care of those who might be hungry.

So these laws, They define stealing, they restrict stealing from God and man. You see the love of God in all of them, that you find the kindness of God toward someone who has escaped and now can be free in your land and can go wherever he wants. You find the exclusion of things that would destroy love in a family, that would deprive a husband and wife of the blessings that God would give them. That it restricts us from stealing from our brothers by abusing our brothers in business and exacting interest from them, on the one hand being kind to them, on the other hand then causing an unholy obligation. And then stealing from God, not fulfilling your vows, not keeping your promises.

To withhold a vow by breaking it would be to steal from God what you have determined to owe him. And then finally, stealing from your neighbor and by not caring for him in an appropriate way that God has defined. Well, all these laws are laws of love. God's ability to come and upset our understanding of the world is pretty complete, isn't it? That we learn things that we didn't know about property, about interest rates, and things like that.

And the truth is, God has given us his laws to take us further than where we are today, so that he would sanctify us progressively through this work of incremental progressive sanctification. And I pray that God will help us understand these things, and what we don't understand, we'll seek help and study. Would you pray with me? Lord, I thank you for what you've given to us here. We see your love in every every place here in this text.

Your footprints of kindness, Lord, are seen by your laws and we thank you for them. Amen.