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Amen, so Deuteronomy chapter 24 starts out right out of the gate dealing with a topic that quite frankly isn't a very popular topic to preach on in a lot of churches today because of the fact, and of course that topic is divorce, because of the fact that there's so many churches today that have divorced people in them. This is one of the harder things about preaching is that often you're going to preach as a preacher, and this is a good lesson for anybody who wants to be a preacher, is that if you're going to preach the whole counsel of God, you have to learn to put people's feelings aside and just preach what the Bible says. Because there's a lot of people today, a lot of preachers that want to get up and go around these kind of touchy issues out of fear of offending or hurting somebody's feelings. Now a preacher should never get up and go out of their way to hurt somebody's feelings. That's never my intent to get up here and to preach something that's going to make somebody upset just for the sole purpose of making that person upset. As preachers, and the reason why we come to church is we want to come and be edified, we want to grow, we want to learn new things from the word of God and be made better Christians for having been here. As a preacher, that's what we want for people that are under the sound of our voice is that they hear the word of God and they would make changes in their life, they would learn things, so on and so forth. When we preach on topics like this, like divorce, it's important that people understand that the preacher is never out to get the divorced person in the room. A lot of times when we're guilty of something, we've made this mistake, whatever it might be, and the preacher starts to preach on it, we feel like, oh, this is directed at me. That's not true at all. That's why it's so important to preach on this topic. I'm preaching tonight on this topic for the people that have not been divorced. I'm not trying to jump on anybody or make anybody feel bad or hurt anybody's feelings. If that happens, I'm sorry, but I have a job to do. I have a job to preach the whole counsel of God. That's for the sake of the people that have not made that mistake of getting divorced. We don't want them to make that mistake. Those that are married now, we want them to stay married and understand that divorce is a very serious issue in the Word of God. It's not something to be taken lightly, and this world makes light of it today. You can go down. There's a sign practically on every corner in some parts of Phoenix, and I'm sure here as well, that advertise your $200 divorce lawyer. It's real easy to get the no-fault divorce. The world makes light of it today. You could also ... Just divorce is made light of. It's called an affair now. It's not something that's ... It doesn't have the shameful connotation that it used to have. That's why the divorce rate has gone through the roof in this country. That's why we need to preach on it. That's why a preacher should get up and learn to put people's feelings aside and just preach what the Bible says for the sake of the people that have not made these mistakes so that they can be spared the heartache that comes when we don't do things God's way. Anybody whose heart is right with God, even if they're divorced in here tonight, they want this preached. They're probably thinking, I wish I'd heard this before I made the decisions that I made in my life. I did it ignorantly when I ended up getting divorced. I didn't understand all these things. If that's you and if your heart's right with God ... I'm not saying because if you're divorced tonight that you're somehow in a perpetual state of sin, that it's impossible for you to be right with God now. I'm not saying that. We confess these sins. We forsake them. We move on with our lives. I'm not saying a divorced person can't be used mightily to do great things for God. You can still serve God with your life and be used of God. Your life's not over just because you're divorced. It's just that the Bible addresses it, and it addresses it very head on, and it has some hard sayings that are not popular in the world today. It would be unbecoming of me as a preacher to not preach it the way the Bible says it. All that to just kind of preface this going into it, because I don't want people to feel like I'm just jump-picking on them. I'm not. That's just not ... That's not me, and anybody who knows me knows I'm not that way. It says here in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 1, he says, when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house, and when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. Here the Bible is giving the one excuse for which a man is allowed to divorce his wife. This is the only place where the Bible says, in this instance, it is okay for a man to divorce his wife, and it's a very particular set of circumstances. What it is is because it says there, when she hath found no favor in his eyes ... Now, that doesn't mean he marries her and finds out, well, she can't cook. She burns the muffins. She finds no favor in my eyes. She doesn't pick up the socks off the middle of the floor when I leave them there. She expects me to do laundry. It's not some petty grievance that sometimes people have with one another. What this is, it says there, he hath no found favor in her eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her. It's not talking about she doesn't take a bath. It's not that. It's talking about there's an impurity, morally speaking, within her that she has been physically active prior to their marriage. He's not finding her a maid. That's the example we saw back in Deuteronomy chapter 22, when a man would go in unto his bride and find her not a maid, not virgin. Then he was able to return her back to her father and say, I was under the impression, she was a maid. I'm finding out on our wedding night that she's not. That's a very narrow window that that man had an opportunity, if he wanted to do so, to divorce that young lady. That's the uncleanness there. He's saying, look, when he finds out that this is the case, she's been deceptive in this area. We read about that in Deuteronomy 22. There's been some deceit. He's thinking he's getting one thing, he's getting something else. In that instance, he's allowed to write a bill of divorcement and take her back. It says in that case that when that happens, then she is able to depart out of his house and go and marry another man. We have an example of this. If you keep something in Deuteronomy 24, go over to Matthew chapter 1. We'll see an actual example of this played out in Scripture in the case of Mary and Joseph. It says in Matthew chapter 1 verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So Joseph is in this predicament where he's going to be getting married to Mary here, the Lord's mother, and she's, of course, found with child. She's pregnant. And Joseph knows he didn't have anything to do with that and is assuming, as a man naturally would, I'm sure his first thought was not, oh, this must be the Savior. He's thinking, what you been up to, Mary? And he's saying, look, and it says there, because of that, then Joseph, verse 19, being a just man, the Bible's saying what he was doing was right, that he was perfectly within his bounds to do this, that he was allowed to put her away. Not being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily. So putting away, that's another word for divorce or to separate from her. So that's what he's saying there. So again, he's just because he's putting away, why? Because of uncleanness that has been found in her. Now if you would, go over to Matthew chapter 19. And Jesus, he clarifies this, and he addresses this directly in Matthew chapter 19, verse 3. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? Now, did Moses command that? This goes back to his question. Their error here is because Jesus, in line of questioning, have you not read? He didn't command that. He said, Look, if this is something that needs to take place, write her a bill of divorcement. They're taking it another way. He says, Why then did he command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put it away? He's saying, Look, Moses is saying, Look, this is an option that's there. He's not saying this, you must do this. If a man finds some uncleanness in her, he has the option to do this. It's not he must do this, right? And he says there, in verse eight, He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, suffered you to put away your wives, saying, he suffered, he allowed it, he put up with it. And why was it that he suffered it? Because of the hardness of your hearts. Putting away this person that he's saying, that this man is saying, I love you, I want to marry you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And then he's putting her away because of this reason. Now albeit, this young lady should have probably said, Hey, this is who I am, I'm not, let me be honest and upfront with you. But anyways, he's saying here, Look, he's suffering to put away your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery. So I mean, the Bible just could not be any clearer here. That if you get divorced, and you remarry, you're committing adultery. If you as an, maybe even an undivorced person, marry somebody who is divorced, you are committing adultery. In God's eyes, he's saying, you know, that person has been joined together as one flesh with somebody else. And just because they're divorced, you know, that doesn't make that doesn't in God's eyes is not nullifying that, except it be for the sake of what fornication. And a lot of people, I've heard people say, Well, you know, I'm going to divorce my husband or my wife, because they committed fornication. Look, married people cannot commit fornication, it's not even possible. Fornication is something that takes place outside of marriage. What happens when a person is unfaithful to their spouse? That's adultery. That's not the same thing. So when a man is putting away his spouse, you know, this woman that he's just married for fornication, it's because he's not finding her a maid because she has been fornicating prior to their wedding night, prior to their consummation of the wedding. That's a very rare circumstance. That's a very narrow window that God allows for. And that's probably, you know, by and large, not the reason anybody is getting divorced today. I mean, a lot of people get married, get excuse me, divorced for a myriad of reasons, right? She can't cook. She doesn't pick up, we can't get along, you know, these petty reasons, or, you know, finances. Money is another big one. People fight, people get bitter, people, at the end of the day, you know, I don't want to preach a whole, this isn't a marriage sermon, but, you know, at the end of the day, a lot of times it's just for selfish reasons. People just get selfish, each side gets selfish. They're only interested in what's best for them and not the other person. You know, bitterness and resentment comes in and next thing you know, they go in their own ways. It's not for this reason that God allows, where he says, look, if it's for fornication, if it's for this one thing, you say, well, I don't know about that. I don't know if, you know, if that's really true. You're telling me that if I as a divorced person go and marry somebody else that I'm committing adultery? I mean, is that not what it says? I mean, how else do you interpret that? So he goes on here, go back to Deuteronomy chapter 24, Deuteronomy chapter 24, he does allow for a window of reconciliation for divorced people. You know, God's not saying if, you know, people get divorced, that's it. What he is saying, he's saying if they go out and get married to somebody else, they're committing adultery. And look, if you've already done that, if you've already gotten divorced and already gotten remarried, you know, because there's a strange teaching out there now that says, oh, you know, if you want to get right with God, you have to leave your second spouse and go get remarried to your original spouse to be right with God. Where the scripture says completely the opposite. I mean, look here in verse three, and if the latter husband hate her and write her a bit of a divorcement and handeth her and sent her out of her house, or if the latter husband die which took her to be his wife, her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to wife. So when a person gets divorced, you know, if she gets divorced from her husband and goes out and marries another man, you know, that's it. Like she's not to go back to him at that, the other husband at that point. And he goes on and says, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance. So God feels very strongly about this. You know, not God doesn't call everything in the Bible an abomination, you know, that's a very strong language. Whenever that word is used, we should probably give extra heed to what is being said and make sure that we are never found guilty of this. So he's saying, you know, she's not allowed to go back, but to her original husband. So that window closes for reconciliation when a divorced person gets married to another person. Now, if people get divorced and they stay unmarried while they're divorced, and let's say they, you know, they were maintained lines of communication, they managed to come to some agreement and they are reconciled. That can happen. You know, if you're divorced from your husband and you're divorced from your wife, the best thing that's possible is that you can be reconciled to that original spouse and to not marry another. But you know, everybody's got to kind of make that decision for themselves. You know, if that's something that's even possible, a lot of instances, that's not even something that's on the table and that's something that is on a case-by-case basis. So again, you can see how this is kind of a subject that maybe a lot of preachers would rather just not even address, right? Because when you start to bring this up, it gets real quiet and awkward and nobody likes it. But here's the thing. This needs to be preached that marriage is for life, that divorce is not an option, and that if you get divorced, you are to stay unmarried, according to the Bible. And if anything besides reconciliation is adultery in God's eyes. And that's a hard saying, but that's what it says. So here's some advice for the unwed today, because that's really who I want to help with this preaching, you know, is the unmarried people, the people that one day are going to be married, okay? Know who you are marrying before you marry them. Know who you're marrying before you marry them. Talk about real things that matter in life. Find out what that person's values are before you marry them. Don't talk about child rearing after you're married. Don't talk about your religious beliefs after you're married. Don't wait to find out if they're saved or not until after you're married. You should be talking about all manner of things. I remember when me and my wife, you know, we dated for, I'm going to get in trouble, at least, I think, a year, right? Well, it's just been wedded bliss ever since then. Everything else is just a blur. Right? Yeah, she agrees. But you know, I know for, it was about six months, I believe, that we were engaged for, somewhere around there, six months. Is that right? More? Less? More? Eight? Was it a year? Ten years. Year and a half. Wow. Sold. Man. Yeah, sold. Sold. The lady in the turquoise. When is that light blue? I don't know. Anyway, so that's even better. That helps my point even better. We're coming up on 10 years, folks. I got more gray than when we started out, so I get to have a little bit of a moment up here. But the point being, you know, we had a year and a half to get to know each other. You say a year and a half, that's a long time, right? But you know what? We had a lot of time to talk about things, see each other in different situations. She's got to see me lose my cool when I got stuck in the alley behind her mom's house in my little Ford station wagon in eight inches of snow, and she got to see what, oh, he does have a bit of a temper sometimes. She got to see all that before we got married. She got to know who I was. She got to know a lot of good things, too, and vice versa. That's my advice to people who are not married yet. You want to get married, and sometimes people, they get married so fast, and then they end up getting... I've known this to happen to people. Even in good Baptist churches, they get married so quickly, and then they get divorced just as quickly. They had the first fight, the first argument. She goes running back to daddy's house, and that's it. It's all over. And by the way, that's a good point right there. When people get married, in-laws should stay out of that marriage. When a dad gives away his daughter at the altar, she's no longer yours. She belongs to that man now, and he belongs to her. The mother-in-law can stay out of the business, too, and we should never, as parents, I think it's just really bad advice to tell your children, oh, if things don't go right, you can always come crying back to me. I've heard it said, and I agree with this statement, that when my daughters get married and I give them away, they're no longer my responsibility. They're no longer my concern. Of course, I'll be there to help them, give them advice, if it's something that is my business, if it's practical, but if it's just them crying, coming back, he yelled at me, he told me what to do, he told me I had to obey, or he expects me to stay home and raise... Whatever it is, some stupid thing, I'm going to say, go back to your husband. Don't come crying around here. You belong to him now. You've taken these vows to one another. That's just, that's bonus, okay? But get to know the person you're going to marry before you marry them. Don't wait to find out life's most important questions, and find out you don't have these most important things in common. Belief in God, child rearing, child rearing's big, by the way, how you're going to raise your kids. People often don't think about that. Schools within the house, hey, are you okay with staying at home and raising the kids? Sure, are you okay with going out and being the sole provider? What about education, how are we going to teach these children? What church are we going to go to? Talk about all these things before you go to the altar. Take your time, there's no rush. There's plenty of time to enjoy marriage after the vows are taken. And here's another bit of advice, go into marriage understanding that divorce is not an option. Do you think we ever sit around, me and my wife, and contemplate, well, I wonder if maybe divorce is something that, never, it's not even mentioned, it's not even brought up. It doesn't even enter my mind that, hey, if this goes bad, we can just get a divorce. And a lot of people, that's how they start out with their marriage. They get the prenuptial agreement, right? If this doesn't work out, I want to protect my finances and things. You're starting out on the wrong foot if you're going into marriage thinking, well, if it doesn't work out, we can always just get divorced. So that's advice for the unwed. Now just some advice for those that are already divorced. Be reconciled or stay single. That's what the Bible teaches. That was what God would have you to do. To either be reconciled to your original spouse if you haven't remarried already or stay single. I'll tell you what, it's a lot easier for me to just get up and say that than for you to actually do it. But that is what God wants. And it's my job to say it. And you do with that what you will. But that is my stance. Because that's the biblical stance. That as a divorced person, if they decide to get remarried, that is adultery. I don't condone of it. My blessing is not upon it. And don't come to me expecting me to say I'm okay with it because I'm not. So now what about people that are already remarried? Simple. Stay married. Don't make that mistake again. Keep your vows to your spouse that you've already committed yourself to and don't make that same mistake. The Bible is real clear about this. You say, I'm still not sure about that. Maybe that's just your opinion, Brother Corbin. I'll read to you from Mark 10, chapter 10, verse 11. You can read it yourself later if you're still shaky on this. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And then he goes the other way with the woman. And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married unto another, she committeth adultery. There's no gray area here. And I know I'm kind of parking it on here, but it needs to be preached because I've heard Baptist preachers get up and maybe not from the pulpit, but they go to people individually and say, hey, you know what? I think it's okay for you to get remarried because that first person you married wasn't in God's will. Look, that's not what the Bible teaches. That's man's wisdom. The Bible could not be clear on the subject. And it needs to be driven home so that those that have not made this mistake don't do it because that's a very difficult thing to have to live that life. Now, I'm not saying it's impossible and I'm not saying you can't still have joy and peace and contentment and be used of God along the way, but it's certainly in some areas going to be more difficult than otherwise needs to be. So let's just move on here. Go down to verse five in Deuteronomy 24, verse 24. He says here, when a man taketh a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall be charged with any business, but he shall be free at home one year and shall cheer up his wife, which he hath taken. Now, this does not mean he is not going to work. Some people read that and go, oh, I don't have to work for a year as a husband? Well, how are you going to support yourselves if that's what it means? We go to our wedding, we have the registry and everything, we get some gifts, but it's usually just enough for the honeymoon. You're not going to live for a whole year on everything that comes in on the wedding day, right? It's not saying he's just to sit around and loaf for a year and have her bring him sandwiches on the sofa. It's what it's saying there is he shall not be charged with any business, meaning he's not going to be, you know, the king isn't going to come and conscript him to go to a war. Remember when we read earlier in Deuteronomy, he said, if any man hath taken a wife and hath not known her or had betrothed not have taken her, you know, he used to go back before another man take her. It's kind of along those lines. Look, we don't want people going off to war who just got married, you know, to go home and to what? Cheer up his wife, which he hath taken. And this is really important, you know, I think this is showing us something about marriage too. This is showing us something that, you know, the early years of marriage are precious, you know, and they're very unique. You know, if you're going to be fruitful and you're going to multiply, like God says, you're going to bear children, you know, as long as every, you know, you're able and God gives you, you know, the fruit of the womb, which is his reward, the Bible says, you know, and you start to have multiple children over the years, you know, they're very different from when you don't have children, right? They're a lot quieter and it's a lot, it's a time for you to just kind of really get to know each other and spend time with each other. It's a very precious time in a person's marriage is what the Bible, I believe that's what the Bible is showing us here and saying, look, it's more important for the guy to stay home and cheer up his wife and be with her and spend this time with her because it's such a unique time in their life that's going to be gone. When the children come and the other responsibilities come, you know, that time, that season of life has passed and you're not going to get that back again. And he's saying it's more important for you to stay home and enjoy that together than to go fight some war or to go, you know, hauled off by, to go build some road or build a wall or, you know, be charged with by the government, be conscripted to go off and to be employed by the king. So you know, that's really showing us that, you know, these early years are important and that we don't want to waste them. Also it's showing us that, you know, what, what's the purpose there is that the, what makes those years so precious, you know, early on in the marriage before the kids and everything is that, you know, you have that companionship. That's when you can really develop that friendship. You can develop that companionship. You can really, you know, establish a very strong relationship with your spouse in those early years that are going to see you through the tough times. You know, you're going to get to know each other and hopefully that that's the goal here and you're going to have that close companionship and be able to spend that amount of time together. That's going to bring you through those times when quite frankly, maybe you don't see each other as much, you know, because, you know, obviously there comes a time where dad's just got to do what dad's got to do. You know, he's got to work the 50, 60, maybe more hours a week just to put food on the table for the, you know, the kids. He's got to work, get up early and come home late. You know, he's got to go out of town and do this and do that. And there's just, you know, maybe you're not going to see each other as much later on in your marriage. And then if you've never had that, that those early years, that early companionship, that could be a real strain, you know, and it's showing us also that we as men, you know, we should also understand that it's important that we cheer up our wives, that we spend time with them, that, you know, we're around, that we just don't, obviously, again, dad's got to do what dad's got to do sometimes, and moms need to just understand that. But we shouldn't, sometimes men, we have to step back and say, well, do I really have to burn the candle at both ends right now? Or can I find some time to just stay at home and spend some quality time with the wife and kids? Because it's important. And family is important, too. The Bible says, whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. You know, it's a good thing to find a wife, you know, and you have God's favor, the Bible says, if you do, and it's a very precious relationship. It's something that, you know, we need to, this, our society just is not putting the premium on like it needs to, like God's Word does, and where I believe we're suffering as a result. We'll move on here, that's, we got quite a bit to go through here. But it says there in verse six, he kind of, again, Deuteronomy, these last chapters, sometimes it's just five verses about this, and then one verse about this, then a few more verses, and one verse, you know, it's a lot of just rapid fire things that he throws at you. But he gets into taking pledges and things like that in verse six, no man shall take the nether or upper millstone to pledge, for he that taketh a man, for he taketh a man's life to pledge. So he's saying, what in the world is he talking about? Well, back then they would have these, you know, these mills that they would use to grind out, you know, the, grind out flour and things like that. And, you know, just kind of reading this, I'm guessing, you know, the nether and upper millstones were probably key components of that, you know, that setup. And if you took one of them, probably nothing worked, you know, and he's saying, look, if you take these stones as a pledge, you say, hey, you know, I don't have the money to pay you, but I'll have it next week. Okay, well, I'm going to take your nether or upper millstone with me until you have the money. Well, you've just taken that way, that guy's way to, you know, make food, to make bread, to, you know, maybe he was selling it, you know, you're taking away a man's, he taketh a man's life to pledge, right? So we should never, you know, hold people to, you know, to these old or, you know, basically it's coming down to practically extortion, you know, where I'm going to, you know, I'm going to strong arm you until I get my money out of you, you know, you owe me money, you know, I lent you money and you need to pay me back, so now I'm going to break an arm. Well, now I got a broken arm, I can't go to work to make you money, you know what I mean, it's that kind of a thing. So there's that, then in verse seven, of course, he says, if a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of them, or selleth them, then that thief shall die, and thou shall put away evil from among you. So he calls them a thief, you know, God does not put the death penalty on stealing. But when it comes to this, he does. You know, not every guy that steals something, you know, if he steals a piece of bread, you know, that's not the death penalty, he shall pay fourfold, you know, that's the law there. So when he's stealing a man, when he's stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, when he's, you know, he's getting involved in human trafficking, basically, is what this is, he's saying that person is worthy of death, right? I mean, what if we started doing that today? What if we started busting these, you know, human trafficking rings, and then the people that were running them were put to death? You know, you're probably less likely to get involved in that kind of a practice if you knew it could take, cost you your life. So that would apply to the slave trade system. And then let's jump down to verse eight here. He says, take heed in the plague of leprosy, that thou observe diligently and do according to all that the priests and Levites shall teach you. So in Leviticus, God just spends like chapters talking about leprosy, you know, if the spot be white and rising, and if the hair in it be yellow or white or black, or if it, you know, and he goes into this detail about what the, they were supposed to go to the priest, the priest would look at the scab or the boil or the plague that was in the person's scalp or forehead or flesh, and he would look at it and he would look at God's word and he would make a determination, you know, and God's not saying, so he's saying, look, you need to take heed and do according to all that the priests and Levites shall teach you as I commanded them, so shall you observe to do. He's saying, look, they're the ones that are authority on this, you know, there's not, you can't just go to your neighbor and be like, does that look like leprosy to you? And they're like, yeah, you're good. You know, you had to go to the authority and have him check you out. And you had, and what he's saying there is like, look, what he's showing us is that God put certain people in authority and they make the call on what's going on and nobody else, you know, and I believe that's kind of what is tied in there when he says, remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam, by the way, after that you were come forth out of Egypt. And if recall Miriam, she, Miriam and Aaron challenged Moses at one point, you know, and they say, are not all God's people holy, you know, you know, and basically they were trying to, you know, take leadership from Moses. They wanted to be in his position, you know, and God was saying, what God is saying here is like, look, he puts people in authority who he wants, and it's not up to us to take this thing upon ourselves. And what happened to Miriam as a result? Well, she got leprosy, you know, she was judged. So God's saying, look, you need to obey the authorities that are put over you. You know, you need to respect the decisions and the judgments that they give out according to his word. You know, and that's an important thing for people who are in authority to remember that, you know, they don't just shoot from the hip. They just don't make up rules as they go, they don't teach for doctrines, the commandments of men. And again, they can't, you know, preacher just can't get up and preach his preference and say, no, you will have to do that, because this is the way I like things. You know, it's got to be biblical. It's got to be, hey, this is what the Bible says. And that's a really great, you know, it's great that God sets that up that way, because one, you know, as a preacher, you know, or an authority even in your home or wherever, if you're doing things God's way, it kind of takes the, you know, the burden of blame off of you. If somebody has a problem with it. We were talking about this on the way back from soul winning. You know, if a preacher just gets up and says, thus sayeth the Lord, and somebody, I don't like that, you know, and they get a burr under their saddle over it, you know who they have the problem with? Not this guy, with the Bible. That's who they have a problem with. So it's great, you know, that God sets that up that way. And he says, you know, you shall do all that the command, the priests, Levi shall teach you, as I commanded them, right. So they're just the mouthpiece for what God has told for what God wants, you know, they're just repeating what God has said. He says in verse 10, when thou dost lend thy brother anything, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge, thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend his pledge shall bring out the pledge unto thee. So he's saying, so again, you know, this is getting into property rights, you know, God deals with this a lot. God's all about private property, and people being to have a home to call their own, that every man is the king of his own castle. And that, you know, people aren't allowed to just come into another man's home and starts, you know, going through the stuff and, you know, looking for the thing, you know, or they had to respect this man's property, you know. And he's saying, look here, you know, when you've lent something to somebody, and you want to get it back from them, you don't just get to barge into their house and say, hey, where's that at, you know, give me that, I'm taking this. He said, you have to stand abroad, let them know you're there, and why you're there, and he'll bring it out to you. And you know, how would this apply today? Well, this would kind of call into question the repo industry, wouldn't it? And you have to go, hmm, you know, is it really biblical for you to just back up, you know, that tow truck to somebody's car in the middle of the night and yank it out of their driveway? Maybe that would explain why a lot of people get really upset when that happens and open fire on tow truck drivers. You know, that's happened. I mean, when I worked in locksmithing up in Mesa, and I worked at a shop, I knew several tow truck drivers that worked in repo, and they, man, did they have some stories. One guy, he came down there, and he had retired, he said, yeah, I quit after I got shot in the back nine times for taking a car. I'm not saying that's right, that guy had a right to just, you know, I don't believe you have a right to just shoot people over stuff. You know, we'll stand your ground. Well, you know, it might be the law, but is it biblical to just shoot people over things? You know, but that, you know, if they observe this, you know, the repo guy might be, you know, it might be a less dangerous occupation to have. You probably wouldn't get as many cars back, right? But you know, that was just kind of a thought. I haven't read that. But he's saying, look, you don't have a right to just barge into somebody's house and take what is, you know, might be rightfully yours, or they owe it to you. You know, you still have to respect their property and their space. And really, excuse me, this is probably a good place to kind of, you know, here's a tip. You know, you say, well, well, it's his stuff, you know, he lent it to him. Why can't he go get it? You know, it belongs to him. Well, that's just what the way God says, you know, because maybe that guy's not going to take it too well. Maybe it's for your own safety that he says, hey, stand abroad and let him bring it to you. You know, if you just barge in there, he might give it back to you over your head. You know, oh, were you looking for this thing? You know, it might be for your own safety to stand abroad and not just go barging in there. So here's something. Don't lend what you aren't willing to lose permanently. That's a really good rule to have in life. Don't lend things to people that you aren't ready to just kiss goodbye forever. And boy, have I learned this the hard way. I used to be the guy that, you know, you would come to if you needed a tool. When guys find out that you have a full set of Craftsman tools, you got, you know, all you got a 250 plus set of sockets, you know, and three quarter, five eighths, you know, you've got metric, you got standard, you got the five star, the seven star, you got, you know, you got all the tools. Boy, when it's time for them to fix something on their car, hey, I think Brother Corbin's got that set of tools. And I used to be like, yeah, you could take them. And then I'd go to work for my car and we all know what would come up missing. That 10 millimeter. Am I right? It's always the 10 millimeter or the eight millimeter, right, because of these commie cars that are being built, right, that are American made with these metric, you know, screws and things like that. And I remember just being like, oh, I'm fine with people borrowing my tools. But when I started getting them back and finding out, man, I need that tool and it's gone. And I have like three people in mind that have borrowed these tools since I last used them. You know, it's hard to not start harboring some resentment like, hey, can you just put, I'm glad to lend it to you, but can you put it back? So that's what I learned. And it was about that time that I actually heard Pastor preach, hey, don't lend what you aren't willing to lose. So you know what I started doing? Someone called me up to ask me to borrow tools and I said, nope. You know what happened? They went and got their own tools. And you know, it's funny, I was, I was, I used to just stew about that 10 millimeter because I had to go buy another one. And just, just recently, this happened years ago. And then just like a month or two ago, I'm going, I went just fine. They went through all the tools and reorganized them. And I pulled that drawer out, out of the Craftsman toolbox. And there it was on the bottom like, man, he didn't lose it. You know, I've been a stingy jerk with these tools for no reason, right. I had found it. But I think that's, you know, a good way to look at this, read these verses and, and understand that, you know, if you lend something, you know, just because you lent it doesn't give you the right to just strong arm people, to disrespect, you know, their, their sovereignty, their property, and to just treat them however you want. And that being the case, you know, maybe if they're not going to give it back, maybe you should just not lend things that you're not willing to not see again. So he goes on in verse 12, and he says, and if the man be poor, thou shalt not keep his pledge. In any case, thou shalt deliver him the pledge again, when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee. So you know, maybe a poor guy, you know, he says, Hey, I don't, I don't have what you need. I don't have the money to pay you. Here's my raiment. You know, here's my coat. I mean, we, hey, we read that and go, what's the big deal, you know, go get another coat. We've probably got several of them hanging in a, in a closet somewhere. But that's because we're not, you know, we're living in a day where coats and clothing is just being mass produced. Back then, you know, your raiment was expensive, you know, it was handmade. A lot of, it wasn't just, you know, a machine didn't put the fabric together for you. And then it wasn't just, you know, cut out and sewn together, you know, en masse in some sweatshop in China. You know, these clothes were handmade by locals there. It took a lot of work and effort. So, you know, clothes were very expensive, very valuable. So if I, as a poor man said, I don't have anything to pay you, but I promise I will. Well, give me a pledge. How do I know you're going to pay me? Well, here, take my coat. That was a big deal for me. You know, especially if I was poor and I needed that coat to stay warm. And God's saying, look, if the guy that you're taking a pledge from is poor, you better not keep his coat. You can hang on to it during the day, but you better bring it back to him at night and give it back. And it has some compassion on him. And he says, why? That he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee. You know, you don't want that guy shivering through the night, cursing your name and resenting you, because God's going to be the one that hears it. And God will avenge. And it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God. You know, it's a very merciful, you know, God's more, more than God just wanting, you know, wanting to make sure everybody gets what's back that's owed them here on this earth. He's more concerned with people being compassionate one to another. You know, it's more important if it came down to me getting back the 50 bucks or the 100 bucks or the 1000 bucks that I lent to somebody or showing some compassion and maybe even salvaging a relationship, you know, I'd rather have that than the money. I'd rather have a person not curse me or despise me over money than to sit there and just, you know, get some, some carnal temporary thing back. You know, God's more concerned with compassion than he is you just getting what's owed you. Now, is it right for a person to borrow money and not pay it back? No. The Bible says that the wicked borroweth and payeth not again. If you borrow, you should by all means be paying people back. But those of us that have lent shouldn't just be like, where's my money? Give me your coat. I'm going to come in there and get it. You know, that's a wicked attitude. That's not righteous. But if we have the right attitude of, hey, you know what, you know, here's some more time. Hey, I'll stand abroad. I'll give you some space. Let me know when you're ready. Here's your coat. You know, don't put yourself out. You know, don't, don't break yourself trying to pay me back. That is going to be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God. You know, and God just might make it happen that he'll pay you back some other way. Maybe this person never pays you back, but you show mercy and grace and compassion and patience with that person. And God just says, all right, I'll, you know, put that in my account. I'll pay for it. And God could pay you, you know, tenfold more, you know, because of the righteousness that you are showing before him. And, you know, really what it's showing us here is that we shouldn't take advantage of people's desperation. You know, it's a wicked person who just wants to, you know, take advantage of people who are down and out, you know. I think a great example of that in today's society would be your payday lenders. You know, your paycheck lenders. Those people are the scum of financial institutions. There I said it. You know, and it's usually, you're probably, it's already kind of starting off in a bad breed as it is when you get into the lending of any type. But if you're the people involved in the payday lending that are running those places, I mean, they're taking advantage of just poor people. You know, it's no coincidence that you find those places in the poorer parts of town, folks. You know, I'm proud, maybe there might be one here and there, but I don't think I've ever been in Fountain Hills and seen that up in Phoenix. I don't know what a fluent community it is down here in Tucson, but do you think there's a payday lender right next to the liquor store on every other corner? I mean, you go to some places in some of these poor communities, it's like liquor store, gas station, liquor store, payday lender, title loans. People who are hard up, people who are, you know, whether it's through their own fault or not, are poor, are desperate, and just start, you know, have themselves taken advantage of. You know, God doesn't want people to be people who are just oppressing one another financially and taking advantage of one another's desperation. He says in verse 14, thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor or needy, whether it be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, and neither shalt the sun go down upon it, for he is poor and seteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. So he's saying, look, if you have a hired servant who's poor, and he says, look, I really need this money today. I can't wait till payday. I need it. You know, I have to go eat on this money. God's saying pay him. You know, and I've had more than one employee, Christian employee, who's come to me and said, hey, you know, I pay on a weekly basis, but if you're ever in a desperate situation, just let me know. I'll cut you a check right now. I'll hand out cash. I'll get you paid because of this verse. You know, and here's the thing. If I'm working for you, and I'm counting on the money I earned today to feed myself, and you're like, no, payday is on Thursday, payday is on Friday, payday is, you know, whatever day of the week, you have to wait until next week. You know what I'm going to do all week? I'm going to be, what does it say there? I'm going to cry against the end of the Lord. Lord, this guy, you know, look what he doesn't understand. Look what it says. God's going to go, I know. And what is it going to be? It's going to be sin unto thee. It's going to be sin unto that person. So the day labor folks got it right, don't they? You know, the place you can show up, work that day, get paid that day. That's a biblical model there. Says in verse 16, the father shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. And you know, we could apply this spiritually. You know, every one of us is accountable for our own sins. You know, spiritually speaking, you know, we all have to get our sins paid for. You know, we're all, God's going to hold every single individual accountable for their sins. You know, how many times we knock on people's doors, do you know if you're going to heaven today? Oh yeah, my dad was a preacher. I got an uncle in Chicago who was a Baptist preacher. I'm good. You know, my aunt was a deacon. Oh, okay. Okay. Praise the Lord. I'm glad you're on your way. That's how people think. Well, they're not thinking is, hey, no, you're actually accountable for your sins. The sin of the soul that sinneth, it shall die. So we're all accountable. He says in verse 17, thou shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor the father this, nor take a widow's raiment to pledge. But thou shall remember that thou was upon men in Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed the offense. Therefore I command thee to do this thing. When thou cut us down thy harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shall not go again to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, and that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. When thou beatest thine olive trees, thou shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. So of course, you know, he's talking about getting the olives out of the tree. It sounds like the way they would do it. In Michigan, they had cherry trees and they would shake them and they didn't have to go over the boughs again. I mean, they got like every cherry out of that thing, but he's saying, look, they would go and they got ripe and they would beat those boughs and just try to shake those olives out. You know, you're only go over it once, you know, give it a good, get as much as you can, but don't get nitpicky and try to get every sink, squeeze, you know, blood out of a rock when it comes to this type of thing. Saying, look, leave it there. Leave the sheaf that you forgot in the field behind. Don't be, you know, leave the few olives in the tree that you didn't get to fall out that weren't ready to fall. Just leave them there. And he goes on and says in verse 21, when thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shall not glean it afterward. It shall be for the fatherless and for the widow. He's like, don't go over it again. If you miss something, leave it there. Why? For the poor people of the land. And, you know, this is a really good system that God has here. You know, this beats, you know, getting, what is it, EBT or whatever. This is better than going out to your mailbox and having the government hand you money. I would rather have this than them taking money out of my paycheck to give to some poor, you know, lazy loser who doesn't want to work. I'd rather have them, this system, because that person who's poor and doesn't have any, you know, they have to work for it. They're leaving the sheaves left in the field. You know what that means? The poor person has to go into the field and pick it up themselves and bring it home and do something with it. They have to go to the olive tree and go find the olives and pull it down. They're at least working, you know, with man's system where we're just like, oh, here's money. You know, just go stand in line once a week or once a month or whatever it is at the financial aid office. I don't even know what these things are, but, you know, where they just give away government money, you know, they show up. I used to I used to drive by this place in my way to work that did that. And there'd be people just lined up that one day of the week to get their free money in their pajamas. Couldn't even have enough decency to put on clothes and stand out before God and everybody in public to get a handout. That's not working. And the Bible says if a man doesn't work, neither should he eat. That's what it says. You know, and that's God's system is make them work for it. I mean, you'd feel better about yourself as a poor person. Maybe, you know, you'd be like, man, I don't have anything. I'm poor, you know, whatever, for whatever reason. But at least I can go out and take care of myself and I can put in a hard day's work doing it. You know, I can go out and pick these these grapes that have been left over. And not only am I going to fill my belly, but I'm actually going to have a sense of self-worth that I actually did something today to put food in my own mouth. So that beats man's system any day of the week, as far as I'm concerned, because, you know, it's benefiting that person, you know, physically, but also spiritually. They're getting a sense of working. And you know, it's teaching those people that own the grapes, that own the olive yards, that own the fields, to not be stingy, scrupulous people who just want to, you know, there's more to life than just getting every bit of profit out of everything that you possibly can. And that they could leave a little bit, you know, be a charitable person, leave a little bit for some others. So again, you know, this chapter goes over a lot of things, you know, some real just all of it very practical, you know, talking about how to help poor people, you know, help them to eat, you know, not holding on to people's pledges, not holding on to people's money, not going and taking things that might belong to you and violating other people's private property in the process. I mean, these are just real practical matters that God covers, you know, we go, well, this isn't the most exciting, but this is life, you know, that's what I love about the book of Deuteronomy. It addresses just actual real life situations and scenarios. There's real principles that we can apply to society and would benefit from it. You know, and of course, it talks about, you know, marriage and divorce and all these things. These are practical things that are going to help you in your life. So don't come to, you know, the study on Deuteronomy on a weekly basis going, oh, great, you know, Deuteronomy. You know, I can't even write it, let alone listen to it. I can't even spell that word, you know, and then I have to listen to the preaching. You know, if you listen and read this book, you know, you're going to look at society and go, man, God's way is so much better. And what I love about it is that when the millennium comes, a lot of Deuteronomy is coming right back out. Oh, how's Jesus going to run things? Right here. And you know what, it's not going to be a Congress that votes on it. It's not going to be up for debate. It's going to be rule with a rod of iron, God's way, period. So let's start learning it now. You know, if we're going to rule and reign with Christ in the millennium, like the Bible says, and we're going to go out and enforce God's law, well, Deuteronomy is what you're going to be enforcing. You know, these Old Testament laws, you know, this is law school tonight, folks. You want to be God's lawyer in the millennium? It's time to start learning the law now. Okay. So, you know, hopefully we got something out of that tonight that we can apply to our lives. And let's meet back again next week. Let's go ahead and pray.