Prayers for the Persecuted Church (5/30/2011)

5/26/11 Pakistan (WorthyNews) Suspected Islamic Militants Attack Pastor and Family; Son Injured-
Christians in Pakistan remained concerned on Monday, May 23th, over the situation of Pastor Paul Ashraf and his family after a report that they narrowly survived a drive-by-shooting by suspected Islamic militants in Punjab province, seriously injuring their eldest son. "Pastor Ashraf was in a van with his wife, Rubina Ashraf, and eldest son Sarfraz Ashraf, on April 27th when two unidentified men on a motorbike opened fire" on their car, said the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), an advocacy group closely following the case. "Miraculously, he survived the shot to the face and was released from MAYO Hospital after just one day," CLAAS told Worthy News.

Pastor Ashraf leads two large congregations in the towns of Kashmore and Sadiq Abad, CLAAS explained. Additionally, he is a noted Christian writer and poet who, with his wife, runs a flourishing free high school for children of Christian families in Lahore city, Christians said.

CLAAS said that Pakistani Christians had urged prayers. "Please pray for us as we support Pastor Ashraf and his family in their legal case, and please pray that God will protect them from further harm," the group said.

There has been growing concerns about Islamic attacks against minority Christians in Pakistan following the March assassination of the cabinet's only Christian minister, Shahbaz Bhatti. In leaflets left at the scene at the time, terror group al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban Movement in Punjab province claimed responsibility. They blamed the government for putting Bhatti, an "infidel Christian," in charge of an unspecified committee. Full Story

Pray that Sarfraz, eldest son of Paul and Rubina Ashraf, will recover quickly after the brutal drive-by-shooting by Islamic militants.
Pray that the Pakistani authorities will arrest and prosecute the attackers and that they will protect Christians from Islamic terrorists.
Pray that CLAAS will successfully support the Ashraf’s in their legal case and that God will intervene in their protection from harm.

Pray that the Muslims will repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

5/25/11 Algeria (ICC) Seven Churches Forced to Close in Algerian Province-
Algerian authorities ordered the immediate closure of seven Protestant churches in the province of Béjaia in early May and demanded that the Algerian Protestant Church Association (EPA) eventually close all churches under their authority throughout the country.

A written notification dated May 8 and addressed to the President of the EPA demanded the closure of seven churches in Algeria’s Béjaia province, located 200 kilometers east of the capital Algiers. The notification was reportedly ordered by Hamou Ahmed Touhami, the president-appointed wali (or governor) of the Béjaia province, and signed by Police Commissioner Ben Amar Salma. A follow-up statement released by the local police department on May 22 further stated that all Protestant churches in Algeria must be closed. “I, Mr. Ben Amar Salma, the High Commissioner of the police in Bejaia, have informed Mr. Mustapha Krim, the President of the EPA … to close down all worship places around the country once for all; the places which are used now and the places which are under construction … The authorities will make sure that the order will be obeyed, otherwise severe consequences and punishments will be applied,” the statement read.

According to the notification received by the EPA, the churches are to be closed permanently “for exercising religious worship other than Islam without authorization or the compliance of the National Commission for Non-Muslim Religious Services.” Full Story

Pray that the Algerian government will create an environment that creates safety and stability while also upholding the Algerian Constitution which states that freedom of creed is inviolable.
Pray that the believers will ardently worship God and proclaim the Gospel through the leading of the Holy Spirit with courage and prudence even in the midst of the tormenting Algerian authorities.




5/23/11 China (MNN) Prisoner Released in China-

After two years, a Chinese Christian has finally been released from prison. Yang Caizhen, along with her husband and four other Linfen-Fushan church leaders from Shanxi Province, were sentenced to criminal detention from two years up to several years on November 25, 2009.

The church leaders were arrested for organizing a prayer rally on September 14, 2009--the day after 400 military police raided the church's grounds, seriously wounding 30 believers and destroying 17 church buildings. The leaders were accused of "gathering people to disturb the public order" for organizing the prayer. Full Story

Pray that Yang Caizhen has been released from prison.
Pray that Yang would heal physically and emotionally.

Pray that the Lord would continue to speak through all of these Christ followers, in or out of prison.

5/20/11 Nigeria (OneNewsNow) Muslims react with violence to new president-
“More than 300 churches have been burned down in Northern Nigeria,” says Rocha. “Hundreds of people have been killed, including Christians and Muslims. They even attacked and killed and destroyed the property of Muslims who voted for the Christian candidate.”

Thousands of Christians have been forced from their homes and are now in refugee camps as well, he shares.

“The government has deployed the security and they also promised to investigate the latest violence -- and we hope they will take measures to ensure that these things will not occur in this situation because it's one of the bloodiest times for the people in the northern part of Nigeria,” Rocha states.

International Christian Concern (ICC) has recently launched a drive to raise funds to help feed refugees until they can return home and rebuild their lives. Click here to learn how to help. Full Story

Pray that the Nigerian government will arrest and prosecute the beastly murderers and that it will protect its people, including Christians, from harm.
Pray that all the victimized Nigerian Christians will be comforted and strengthened by God and that they will remain devoted Christians.

Pray that the Gospel will spread with saving grace and power and that there will be many lost souls that will come to faith in Christ.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--"God Has Come to Test You, That You May Fear Him"

As I was reading this passage again this past week a couple of things came to mind. Let me read the passage for you and we’ll talk about them. Exodus 20:18-21—18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." 20 And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. The people have heard God speaking with Moses. They heard the thunders and saw the lightnings. And they were afraid. Many people today are not afraid of God for one simple reason—we can't see God. These people saw God—although He was veiled by the smoke that sat upon the mountain. They heard Him speak. They may not have heard His voice, but they heard the noise created by His voice. And they were afraid. In the Scriptures, when many of the people God spoke to heard Him speak, they were afraid. It’s only natural. When Saul of Tarsus was traveling to Damascus, He saw the risen Christ, and he hit the deck and buried his face in the sand. When Moses heard God speak from the burning bush he would not look upon that bush. When Jesus appeared to a fisherman named Simon bar-Jonah and caused him to bring in such a huge catch of fish that it nearly broke his nets, he fell on his face and cried out “Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord!”
But the one thing these three episodes have in common is these men bowed their faces because they knew they were not worthy of being in the presence of God and they feared with a godly fear. Many of the people at the bottom of Mount Sinai, however, were afraid to approach God because they knew they were sinners but they didn’t want to be reminded of that fact. Now, if you recall, God had told Moses back in Exodus 19:24—"Do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them." This reminded me of something. Turn back towards the front of your Bible, to Genesis 2:16-17—"16 Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Same kind of scenario—don’t eat of that tree or you will die; don’t come up the mountain or you will die. Now listen to Genesis 3:8-10—8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." Again, same scenario—the realization of one’s sinfulness makes them want to hide from God. Adam was made in the image of God. Before this incident he had enjoyed being in the unhindered company of God. But, once he has sinned, and realizes he has sinned, he hears the voice of the LORD, and now he does not want to talk with God because he knows that he has sinned.


And because Adam sinned, that sin is inherited by every single human being who will ever live. And now, man now needs a mediator between himself and God. Man can no longer simply speak with God. But, between the time of Adam and the time of Moses, God chose certain men that He would speak through, starting with Abraham, then it was Isaac and then Jacob and so on until Moses and then the high priest and we’ll get to him sometime down the road.


Now, turn to the book of Acts, chapter 2. Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost. He is preaching to several thousand devout Jews who (are under the impression that they) are righteous because they are (under the impression that they are) keeping the Law. But Peter convinces them otherwise; he spells out, from the OT Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ of God, the only chance they have for salvation, and now they realize they have killed Him. And listen to what happens in Acts 2:36-37—"36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" We have murdered the Messiah—now what are we going to do? The response these men gave, when confronted with the fact that they were sinful men and had slain the one Mediator between God and man, was very similar to the response the people gave when they were at the bottom of Mount Sinai, and they heard God speaking. These men have seen that they were in the same condition as these people in Exodus, who thought that God was going to destroy them. Now they're thinking “Is God going to destroy us?”


BUT—God is speaking with these people, not to destroy them, but to save them. Flip back to Exodus 20 and listen to what Moses tells the people. Exodus 20:20—"Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." We should have the fear of God before us—it’s better than having the fear of God on us. And this fear of God is not simply a “healthy reverence”—when the writers of the Holy Scripture tell us we should fear God, they mean we should fear God. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 10:28—“Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell.” The word Jesus uses there is the Greek word phobeo. We get the word phobia from it. What is a phobia? It is a fear. We should FEAR God. Deuteronomy 6:1-2—“1 Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.”


BUT—We are not to fear God with a fear that simply makes us slaves to a list of commandments that we try to obey so we don’t get a whuppin’. We are to fear Him with a fear that leads us away from those things which He says are sinful, and are therefore eternally damaging to our soul, so that we may enjoy His rest when these bodies go into the ground. Adam Clarke said it like this—

“Fear not - Do not fear with such a fear as brings consternation into the soul, and produces nothing but terror…but fear with that fear which reverence and affection inspire, that ye sin not - that, through the love and reverence ye feel to your Maker and Sovereign, ye may abstain from every appearance of evil, lest you should forfeit that love which is to you better than life. He who fears in the first sense can neither love nor obey; he who does not fear in the latter sense is sure to fall under the first temptation that may occur.”

If we fear God just because we are afraid of going to Hell, then we will be slaves to our own fear and we will be miserable because we will be so afraid of God that we will not know how to love God. But we don’t love God because we fear God—we fear God because we love God. One cannot fear God if one does not love God. The world that does not know God does not fear God. Romans 3:18—There is no fear of God before their eyes.


Now, someone who knows Scripture may say “Well yes, but doesn’t it say that ‘perfect love casts out fear’?” Yes it does. But what exactly does that mean? The passage in question is 1st John 4:17-19—17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. Now, the key to this passage is verse 17, Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. What John is talking about here is fear of the final judgment of God. If we love Him, we will not fear standing before Him on Judgment Day. That is the fear that perfect love casts out. And how do we know if we love God? 1st John 2:3-5—3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. And it is that perfected love of God that casts out the fear of God’s final Judgement.


And guess what? That brings us back to Moses. Exodus 20:20—"Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin." God gives the commandments to Moses; Moses gives the commandments to the people. Why? So that they may keep God’s commandments, in order to perfect the love of God in themselves, so they will not have to fear God’s judgment. We don’t keep the commandments in order to love Him. We keep His commandments because we love Him. Just like obeying your parents isn't what makes you love them; rather obeying your parents is something you do because you love them.


So, let’s move on. From here, we see the commandments applied to everyday situations. God has told the people “You shall do this” and “You shall not do that.” But now, He’s going to get into some more specific areas of the application of these commandments. Exodus 20:22-26—22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. 24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 26 Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.'” Verses 22 and 23—real simple. God is simply repeating what He commanded in the first two commandments.


So what about the verses about building altars? Well, let’s start with Exodus 20:24—“An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen.” Again, real simple. Any altar that was to be made for the purpose of making sacrifice to God was to be made of earth. Just take some dirt, pile it up and that’s your altar. Because what do we human beings have a tendency to do once we get a design in our head for something? We think we have to "improve" on it. Lowe’s, or Home Depot, one of the two, had a commercial where these folks vow that "I will not turn this simple project into putting a new addition onto the house." We do that. We say “That’s a good idea—but I can make it better.” And in this case, we would be trying to improve on the ideas of God. Which is why He goes on to say, in Exodus 20:25—“And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.” God knew, when He gave this command, that man has the tendency to want to outdo his neighbor, even in matters of religion. We see that every year around the month of December. Don’t we? Richard’s Christmas display uses 200,000 lights, so Bo has to make his Christmas display out of 210,000 lights. Then Tim has to use 220,000 lights. And then Pastor Phil has to make a display out of 300,000 lights. And what happens—whether it’s Christmas lights or building and altar of cut stone—is it becomes a competition to see whose design is better. Another thing to think about—where had they been living for the last 400 or so years? Egypt. What were they doing in Egypt? Building monuments to Pharaoh. Cutting stones to build temples and altars. To a man.


Now, not only does the cutting of stones build up pride in men, it also has a tendency to make sin look pretty. These altars were a way of reminding the people of their sins, and if they started decorating them in any way then what would happen is they would not be reminded of how ugly their sins were. And sorry, but I'm gonna preach here for a moment. If there’s one thing I can't stand to see, it’s going into a store and seeing “decorative” crosses. You know what I'm talking about? Somebody will fashion a cross to hang on the wall, and the woodwork or the metalwork is real intricate and it’ll have little fake gemstones in it, and they look real pretty. I can't think of anything that is more offensive to God and Christ than that. Using a cross as a decoration. Making it look pretty. Making a cross look pretty takes away from the cross. The cross was not pretty—it was ugly. It was where Christ died. It was where God punished all of our sins in the body of the Son that He dearly loved—pouring out upon that dear Son all of God’s holy, burning wrath because of our sins—and we use it as a decoration and make it look pretty? Somebody may say “But that’s where God showed His love.” And it’s also where He showed His wrath, and His hatred for sin. But we make it all nice and pretty so we don’t have to feel too bad about it. OK, I'm done preachin’.


Exodus 20:25—“And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.” Jonathan Edwards—

“God's altar was to be very plain and very low, so that they might have no occasion to go up to it by steps. The heathen greatly adorned their altars with the curious works of their own hands, and worshipped in high places, and built their altars very high, thinking hereby to put great honors on their gods, and make their services very acceptable to them. But God lets his people know that their seeming adorning, by their own art and handy work, will be but polluting, and their recommending themselves by their high altars will be dishonoring themselves.”

Now, last part. Exodus 20:26—“Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.” Again, back to Genesis 3:9-10—9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." If we remember Noah, after the ark came to rest, he was in his tent and he was drunk and naked and what did Ham do? Genesis 9:22-23—22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. Habakkuk 2:15—“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness!” Nakedness is always condemned in the scripture. You’ve got some people who will ask “Where does the Bible say that pornography is wrong, or that strippers are sinning?” Well, now you know a few places. We even have instructions for modesty in the NT. 1st Timothy 2:8-10—8 I desire that…9 women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, 10 but, which is proper for women professing godliness.


The reason for the injunction against a raised altar is simple—at the time, most people just wore simple, flowing robes, and if you had to go up even a few steps, it didn’t take much for your—uh, you know—to become exposed. So God prevents this by commanding that any altar be built on the ground so that one would not become exposed. We will see down the road that God gave instructions for the design of undergarments for the priests to make sure that didn’t happen. Next week we will be talking about slaves in ancient Israel and the commands concerning them, and why they were actually quite fair.


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--"You Shall Not Covet"

Last week we talked about lying. We talked about the fact that every single human being tells lies. But there was another point I wanted to make that I didn’t have time to get to. We lie. That’s all there is to it. Not excusing it by any stretch of the imagination, just making my point. We lie—but God doesn’t. And even more to the point than saying God does not lie, it is closer to the truth—the whole truth—to say that God cannot lie. We see this in several places in Scripture. Numbers 23:19—God is not a man, that He should lie. Titus 1:2—God, who cannot lie… Hebrews 6:18—It is impossible for God to lie. 1st Peter 2:21-22—21 Christ…22 who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth. We lie for one of two reasons: 1) if we don’t we will get in trouble; or 2) things didn’t work out the way we planned and we have to come up with some excuse as to why we screwed up. But God is never in trouble, and God never screws up. So God never has a reason to lie.


But the main reason it is impossible for God to lie is quite simple: He is perfectly righteous. He possesses neither the desire nor the ability to lie. Lying is a sin; it is a product of our fallen nature. God does not have any desire to sin because He does not possess a human nature. He is God; He is perfect in every way. In fact, He hates sin, and many times the Scriptures call Him the God of truth. For instance Deuteronomy 32:3-4—3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness to our God. 4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He. Psalm 31:5—Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. Isaiah 65:16—He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth. Everything that is true is true because God says it is true. Because He is the source of all truth. Everything that is a lie is a lie because it comes from Satan, who is the father of lies. But in God, as James says, there is neither variation nor shadow of turning (James 1:17).


So now we come to the last of the Ten Commandments. Let’s read it first, and then we’ll discuss a little. Exodus 20:17—“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.” To understand what God is saying here, let’s define what it means to ‘covet’. There are, actually, two ways one can covet something. We can covet in a good way. Webster’s dictionary has this definition: “To desire or wish for, with eagerness; to desire earnestly to obtain or possess; in a good sense.” One example from the NT is 1st Corinthians 6:10 (KJV)—But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Other places this same Greek word is translated “be zealous for” or “earnestly desire.” But the prohibition in the Ten Commandments is against coveting in the negative sense. Webster’s: “To desire [in an excessive manner]; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a bad sense.” Hebrews 13:5—Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. 1st Corinthians 6:10—Neither…thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. When God says “Thou shalt no covet” He’s forbidding us from setting our mind on what our neighbor has and desiring it so badly that we will do whatever we have to in order to obtain it—no matter how unethical, illegal, immoral or hurtful it may be.


A good example of this is King Ahab. 1st Kings 21:1-3—1 And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, "Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money." 3 But Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!" Naboth was not being stubborn or hateful in saying this. The reason he would not sell this was actually rooted in the OT Law. He inherited this particular land from his father. And according to the Law, in Numbers 36:7—The inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Keil and Delitzsch—

“Naboth refused to part with the vineyard, because it was the inheritance of his fathers, that is to say, on religious grounds (חָלִילָה כִּי מֵיהֹוָה), because the sale of a paternal inheritance was forbidden in the law (Leviticus 25:23-28; Numbers 36:7). He was therefore not merely at liberty as a personal right to refuse the king's proposal, but bound by the commandment of God.”

So King Ahab went away sad, and said to himself, “Well, I guess that’s that.” Well, no, not really. Queen Jezebel got involved, and made sure Ahab got that piece of land. Skip down to 1st Kings 21:11-13—11 So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people. 13 And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him; and the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, "Naboth has blasphemed God and the king!" Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died. This is the covetousness that is forbidden in this 10th Commandment. The kind of desire, or lust, or craving, or call it what you will, that leads a person to go above and beyond acceptable means of obtaining something. A desire/longing/craving that leads a man to take sinful actions to get that thing he wants.


So if that’s what coveting is, what is coveting not? Is it wrong to drive by a house and say “Wow, what a pretty house, and a nice location! I’d like to buy that some day!” Or, in my case, “Ooh, a ’78 Cutlass! That’s purty!” Is it wrong to hope that that person sells that piece of property, or that ’78 Cutlass someday? No. That’s not coveting. Let’s think about this for a moment. If, by wanting to buy something that belongs to someone else, I am coveting, then I'm guilty every time I go to the store to buy a loaf of bread. Because the loaf of bread on that shelf belongs to the grocery store, and I want to buy it. It’s when the desire for that thing leads to sinful thoughts and/or actions that it becomes coveting. Adam Clarke—

“He breaks this command who by any means [attempts] to deprive a man of his house or farm by taking them over his head, as it is expressed in some countries; who lusts after his neighbor’s wife, and [attempts] to ingratiate himself into her affections, and to lessen her husband in her esteem; and who [attempts] to possess himself of the servants, cattle, etc., of another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner.”

So there’s the difference. Just like we saw last week that the difference between lying and being mistaken is a matter of willfulness and intent, so too here the difference between wanting and coveting is the stirring up of sinful thoughts about gaining that thing. And of course, when it comes to the neighbor’s wife, even wanting her in any way is sinful. Matthew 5:27-28—“27 You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”


The next thing I want to point out is this: If we look at the Ten Commandments, and if we think about it, we notice that the 10th commandment addresses something different than the first nine. What is it? Well, the first nine commandments deal with actions. The 10th commandment deals with what John Gill calls “The inward motions of the mind.” This is a commandment that deals with our thoughts. This was what the Pharisees didn’t realize—they didn’t get it. They were so busy trying to change people’s actions that they didn’t understand that they were sinning in their own thoughts. And this was the real purpose of the Law—not simply to make people righteous based on what they did and did not do. Fact of the matter is, using the Law to change people’s actions could never make any of them righteous. Galatians 3:21—Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. What he’s saying here is kinda the flipside of “There is no law which can give life; therefore, righteousness does not come by the Law.” He told Peter, in Galatians 2:16—“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”


As we saw when we started this journey many months ago, the purpose of the Law is not to show us how “good” we can be—the purpose of the Law is to show us how sinful we really are. And not only are our actions sinful, our thoughts can be equally sinful. Romans 7:7—I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." We don’t realize that just because we don’t do things to wrong our neighbor doesn’t mean we don’t offend God. Even the thoughts we have and keep to ourselves can be counted as wrongs against God. And even having this Law cannot stop someone from coveting. Just like it can't stop a murderer from murdering or stop a thief from stealing, the commandments in the Law cannot stop a sinner from sinning. Even the apostle Paul realized, after he was delivered from bondage to this Law, that as strong as this Law seems, it is actually rather weak.


OK, you don’t believe me. Think of it this way—you can go out and buy a door that is 2” solid steel. The strongest steel on the planet. But if you mount that door on a frame made of Swiss cheese, then it won’t be any problem to knock that door down because it is mounted on a weak frame. Well, you could think of this Law in much the same way. Yes, the commandments are strong, but trying to pin your hopes of keeping this Law on the ability of your weak human flesh is just as silly as mounting that steel door on a Swiss cheese frame. Romans 8:1-4—1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do—what could the Law not do? It could not make us righteous—what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh—the Law cannot save us because we cannot keep it. Every time we try to keep that Law we fail and we fail miserably. We don’t even come close—what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh—The Law does not save us—the Law condemns us. But God condemned sin in Christ. He punished our sins by sending His Son to bear the penalty of our sins in His body on the cross—what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit—because, as Christ hung on the cross, He took the penalty we deserved, we are now counted as having fulfilled every single commandment of the Law if we accept Christ’s payment for our sins. Not just our outward actions; not just the times we steal and lie. But also every time we break this Law by our thoughts—every time we murder by hatred, and every time we commit adultery with our thoughts.


When you get home today, see if you can do this: go back through your life and count up every single sin you have ever committed, going all the way back to when you were an infant. Who thinks they can do it? YOU CAN'T! But God can! Psalm 90:8—You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. Hebrews 4:13—And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Every single time we ever had even an impure thought, God knows it. And every single person who dies apart from Christ will have every one of those thoughts used against them when they stand before what is called the Great White Throne Judgment, where God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ (Romans 2:16). Think about it. If God counted even one of our sins against us—just one—we would be worthy of eternal Hell. So if He counts every single one, altogether, against us, as the Psalmist said, Psalm 130:3—If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? BUT—for those of us who do know Christ, Psalm 32:1-2—1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalm 103:11-13—11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. Jeremiah 31:34 (also Hebrews 8:12)—“No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”


Before we wrap this all up I want to point out something. If you look at the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods besides Me”, and the last commandment, “You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s”, if you think about it you realize that all of the other 8 commandments are rooted in these two. Every sin we commit is because either (A) we want to serve a god other than God (and that god we want to serve is usually ourselves), or (B) someone else has something we want and we will do whatever we have to do to get it. The root of sin is that just like our old master Lucifer, we want to be God. Isaiah 14:13-14—"13 I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." We make graven images to worship, we treat God’s name flippantly, we profane His Sabbaths, we disrespect our parents, and we take others’ lives because we think we have that right—we think we are God.


We covet what other people have, so we lie in order to get it, we kill in order to get it, we commit adultery with the woman we want, or we just flat-out steal it. James 4:1-2—1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. We don’t ask God for what we want because He may not give it to us. Or, we do ask Him and He says “No.” So we say, “Well, I know better than God does, so I'm gonna get it some other way.” For some people, that means calling out to Mary or some other dead saint or an angel. But listen to this promise from Christ Himself, in Matthew 7:7-11—“7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” He will give us what we need, even if we don’t know we need it! Like, for instance, one to save us from our sins!


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law----- "You Shall Not Bear False Witness"

A couple more points I want to make about stealing. Suppose I sell you a gallon of gasoline. But my gallon isn't really a gallon; it’s about 99% of a gallon. That’s not a big difference per gallon, but if you add up the number of gallons I sell, I'm making a ton of money by shortchanging people. And, I'm really stealing from you, because I'm giving you less than what you're paying for. The National Institute of Standards and Technology—which used to be called the Bureau of Standards—is located in Gaithersburg, MD. They have the official one pound weight. They have the official one quart container. They have the official inch; they have the official pint; they have the official liter, they have the official—well, whatever measurement, whether it’s a foot or a centimeter or a ton, that official measurement is there. When you go to fill up your gas tank, look for a little sticker on the gas pump. That means that the NIST has gone to this gas station, with their one gallon container, pumped gasoline into that container and determined that the gas station’s one gallon is the same as their one gallon.


This reminded me of a verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 20:10—Differing weights and differing measures, both of them are abominable to the LORD. When Proverbs was being written, merchants didn’t have digital scales. They used a balance weight. And some of the more unscrupulous merchants, when they were selling something by weight, they would make a heavier weight but they would make it look like a lighter one. In this way they could make the buyer think they were getting more than they really were. The buyer didn’t know any better. Just like we don’t know, when we pull up to the gas pump, if we've pumped 20.657 gallons or 20.642 gallons. We take it for granted that the amount on the little display is what actually went into our tank.


Finally, this whole Law that we’re looking at. Every time we sin we are stealing. We are robbing God of the glory that should be going to Him. Because He deserves our unhindered, undivided worship every single second of our lives. But we humans are sinful creatures, and because we are born with a nature that wants to put us on the throne instead of God, we deprive Him of the worship He deserves and we give that worship to ourselves. But, because God wants us to give Him glory, He does not destroy us the first time we sin. Otherwise, the human race would cease to exist. Isaiah 48:9-11—“9 For My name's sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. 10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.” God is patient with us, and gives us a chance to repent and give Him the glory He is due.


When the people of Israel built their golden calf, and God was about to destroy them, Exodus 32:11-14—11 Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: "LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" 14 So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. God was going to wipe the people out and start all over and make a new nation from Moses. But listen to Moses’ plea: he didn’t pray “Oh LORD God, that would be such a human tragedy to wipe all these people out!” He saw things from God’s perspective and prayed that God would not give His enemies a reason to ridicule Him. And because Moses prayed that God be glorified through these people, God withdrew His anger and spared them.


In 2nd Samuel, when David slept with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed, the prophet Nathan pointed out the consequences of David’s actions. And he didn’t say that the worst thing that came out of it was that “Poor Uriah is dead” or “Poor Bathsheba is a widow.” 2nd Samuel 12:14—“By this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme.” Every sin we commit robs God of the glory, the honor, the worship, the obedience we owe to Him.


So, now let’s transition into our next commandment. If we were to list the three commandments from the Ten that every single person has broken, we could probably include the commandment “Honor thy father and mother.” Every child, no matter how cute and fuzzy-wuzzy they are, at some point in their lives every child refuses to do what their mom or dad tell them to do. The other commandment everyone has probably broken is the one that says “Thou shalt not steal.” We’ve all taken something that doesn’t belong to us. The third commandment that we’ve all broken, at least once in our lives, is the commandment that we find today, Exodus 20:16—“You shall not bear false witness against you neighbor.” Now the primary focus for this commandment is to prevent people from giving false testimony about someone in a matter of law. When someone takes the witness stand, you put your hand on a Bible, raise your right hand and the clerk asks you—what? “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” And of course, everybody who takes that oath always tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth, right? Yeah, right!


There are some who claim that this commandment only covers perjury—bearing false witness in a courtroom-type setting. But, we see in Leviticus 19:11—“You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.” Well, not only does this commandment have that purpose, to persuade a person to tell the truth in court, but the general application here is against lying anywhere about anybody at anytime. Now, before we get started, let’s define what we mean by the word “lying.” According to Webster’s dictionary, a lie is

“A falsehood uttered for the purpose of deception; an intentional violation of truth. Fiction, or a false statement or representation, not intended to deceive, mislead or injure, as in fables, parables and the like, is not a lie. It is willful deceit that makes a lie.”

It’s simple: if I tell you something that is not true, and I know it’s not true, that is a lie. However, if I tell you something that is not true, but I believe that it is true, then that is not a lie. So, with that said, let’s look at lying. What was the first lie ever told? “Hath God indeed said?” (Genesis 3:1). Which is why Jesus called Satan “A murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). Every lie that has ever been told was started by Satan, and they all spring from that first lie. And it was because Adam believed that first lie that all mankind has been plunged into spiritual death—that why Jesus called Satan “A murderer from the beginning”, because he persuaded our father Adam to go against the will of God and brought death into this world.


Well, with that said, let’s look at a couple types of lying. First, perjury. In the OT Law, there were strict guidelines for dealing with perjury. For one thing, if someone was accused of murder, there had to be more than one witness. Today we would call this “corroborating evidence.” Numbers 35:30—“Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty.” This was a necessary safeguard against malicious uses of the Law. That one person could be mistaken, thinking he saw who did it; he could be prejudiced against the accused. So rather than stake the life and death of a person on the perhaps-faulty testimony of one person, at least one other person had to bring accusation. And there was a severe penalty if you committed perjury. Deuteronomy 19:15-21—“15 One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. 16 If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, 17 then both men in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. 18 And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, 19 then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you. 20 And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” If you testified in a murder trial, and you lied about the accused, and you were found out, you and the accused stood before the judge and if they determine that you lied, then guess who got the death penalty?


What better deterrent to the people to not bring false accusations against one another than to see that if you are found out, you will be given the same punishment which would have been given to the accused. Matthew Henry—

“If the crime he accused his neighbour of was to be punished with death, the false witness must be put to death; if with stripes, he must be beaten; if with a [financial penalty], he was to be fined the sum. And because to those who [did not consider] the heinousness of the crime, and the necessity of making this provision against it, it might seem hard to punish a man so severely for [speaking] a few words, especially when no mischief did actually follow, it is added: Thy eye shall not pity, The benefit that will accrue to the public from this severity will abundantly [make up for] it: Those that remain shall hear and fear. Such exemplary punishments will be warnings to others not to attempt any such mischief, when they see how he that made the pit and digged it has fallen into the ditch which he made.”

Now, there is an episode in the Bible of two witnesses who couldn’t quite get their stories straight. Matthew 26:59-61—59 Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, 60 but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward 61 and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'" Of course, that’s not quite what Jesus said. We find what this fellow was referring to in John 2:18-19—18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?" 19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Jesus did not say that HE would destroy the temple in Jerusalem, but rather that these Pharisees would destroy THE temple—His body. Now, what the judges should have done at this time was to dismiss these men as false witnesses. But they don’t—a fact which shows that they weren’t really concerned about upholding the Law, but they just simply wanted to get rid of Him.


Now we are going to move away from the courtroom and into everyday life. How many people in here have never told a lie? If you didn’t raise your hand, then you just lied. Everybody has lied. But we live in a society that doesn’t really think lying is such a bad thing. Watch one of Ray Comfort’s “WOTM” videos, where they talk to people on the street, and he will ask them if they ever told a lie. See if any of them say “No.” They can't—everybody lies. But that’s the problem—we human beings don’t want to feel bad about ourselves, so in order to lie with a clear conscience, what do we tell ourselves? “Everybody does it.” In fact, I remember watching him talk to one fellow, and he asked this man “Have you ever told a lie?” the man said “Yeah.” When Ray asked him “You know what that makes you?” And instead of saying "It makes me a liar," the guy said “It makes me human.” And ya know, without knowing it, he hit the nail right on the head. We’re humans, and because we are humans we lie. Now, does that make it OK, just because “Everybody does it”? I wonder how they'd feel if “everybody” punched them in the face, if that would be OK. So let’s talk about the different kinds of lying that take place on a regular basis.


First, gossip. James 3:2-5—2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! How does a forest fire start? Does an entire 100-acre tract of forest just go POOF! All at once? What do you need in order to start what could be potentially the largest forest fire in all of history? A little match! Next thing you know, 500,000 acres are on fire. James goes on to say, James 3:6-9—6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Ever hear the phrase "do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Next time you hear someone gossiping, ask them "do you praise GOD with that same mouth?" Proverbs 26:20—Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. What happens when you put wood on a burning fire? It gets bigger and hotter. Take the wood out of there, what happens? The fire goes out. A fire needs fuel. A rumor needs someone to tell it and someone to listen. When someone goes around gossiping and backbiting and sniping about people, eventually hatred springs up, and hostilities boil over until it's too late, and no one wants to talk to each other. But take the gossiping backbiter out of the scene, and everybody realizes what was really going on, people apologize to each other, and become friends again. If you don’t believe me, listen to Proverbs 22:10—Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; yes, strife and reproach will cease.


So that pretty much sums up lying. There are all kinds of other areas we could talk about, but these are the most common. Next week we will look at the last of these Ten Commandments, one which, in fact, is the root of why we need the other nine. That reason being covetousness.


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law----- "You Shall Not Steal" (part 2)

One excuse that some thieves make is this: that the victim either left their front door unlocked or they forget and left their keys in their car. In fact, in a stroke of “genius”, the Tennessee Court of Appeals just recently ruled that a woman was responsible for a car thief crashing her car and injuring other people. Knoxville News Sentinel, 12/10/10—

“The Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit against the city of Murfreesboro and its police department over a wreck that involved a fleeing stolen vehicle that crashed with a car carrying three people. But the higher court reversed a decision by the circuit court of Rutherford County and said the suit against a man who left the keys in the car before it was stolen should continue.”

Uh, no. It is not the car owner’s fault if someone steals their car—whether they left the keys in it or not! The only fault lies with the thief. One person at the Knoxville New Sentinel website hit the nail on the head—

“Just because keys are left in a vehicle is not an open invitation to steal what does not belong to someone else. The thief still has to take what does not belong to them in order to possess the car long enough to do the damage this thief did, and the thief is solely responsible for their actions. The thief is the one that broke the law and crashed into an auto carrying three other people.”

Just like dropping that $20 bill on the sidewalk. It’s not yours—leave it alone!


As we talked about last week, tax collectors—or as the KJV says, “publicans”—tax collectors in Jesus’ day would make the IRS look like a charitable organization. They would collect not only the taxes that the Roman government ordered, but they would impose their own “taxes” on the people, and collect above and beyond what the Roman government demanded. So when John the Baptist was baptizing in the wilderness, it says in Luke 3:12-13—12 Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." John was not telling them to not collect taxes. He was telling them to only collect what the Roman government required. Now, while we’re talking about taxes, let’s talk about taxes. People who are required by law to pay taxes—if they do not pay their taxes, they are stealing. There is a famous incident where the Pharisees test Jesus about the issue of taxes. Mark 12:13-15—13 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. 14 When they had come, they said to Him…“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” That is what a lot of people ask these days. “I don’t think I should pay taxes, so I just don’t pay them.” Or they get paid in cash “under the table” so there’s no evidence. The tax that is in question was called the “Head Tax”—once a year, the head of the family was to pay one day’s waged to the Roman government. Now, think about the mindset of the Pharisees. There was a tiny speck of truth in their opposition to paying this tax. After all, this was one way that pagan Rome paid for the construction of temples to pagan gods, and it also supported the very Roman army that was oppressing them. So, they had kind of a good reason for not wanting to pay it.


BUT—this wasn’t the reason they posed this question to Christ. Look back at Mark 12:13—Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. They took this legitimate concern and used it as a way to try and trip Jesus up in His own words. But, Jesus let them know that we are to submit to all government, and says this about taxes, Mark 12:15-17—15 But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it." 16 So they brought it. And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." 17 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Depending on your translation it may say “denarius” or “penny” or “copper coin.” At any rate, what they brought him was a coin which was equivalent to one day’s wage at that time.


Look at that little phrase—“Render unto Caesar That which is Caesar’s.” Jesus is saying “That denarius belongs to Caesar—so give it to him.” Now, if Jesus commanded His people to pay what the government of a wicked government like Rome commanded, then we have no excuse for saying “Well, yeah but the taxes I pay go to programs I don’t agree with, so I'm not going to pay it.” It doesn’t matter whether you agree with what the government does with that money, we are obligated to pay your taxes. Christ teach this. The apostle Paul taught that within the context of the fact that all government is appointed by God. Romans 13:1-2—1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. And Romans 13:5-7—5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.


There is another area of theft I want to talk about. That is when we steal from our employers. I used to work at Pepsi, and there were a couple of fellows—OK, I was in the same boat with them—that would sneak out cases of drinks to take home, which we were not allowed to do. What do you think our excuse was? How do you think we justified what we did? “We’ve earned this.” Or, “They don’t pay us enough” or something along those lines. The problem with that line of thinking—other then the fact that what we did was stealing—is the fact that no one was forcing us to work there. If we were unhappy with our jobs, we were more than welcome to find employment elsewhere. But if we stayed voluntarily, we were, in effect, agreeing to work for the wage they were offering. Listen to Colossians 3:22-25—22 Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. 23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. The men that ran Enron and AIG and Goldman Sachs into the ground while they walked away with millions—will God punish them? Absolutely. But He will also punish the lowly servant that is an unrepentant thief stealing from his boss.


Jesus Christ Himself teaches us this same principle in Matthew 20:1-16 in the Parable of the Vinedressers. The greater point Jesus is making is that whether someone gets saved as a child or they call on Christ on their deathbed, everyone who is saved will receive an inheritance in the Kingdom of God. The smaller point is this—if you agree to work for a certain wage, for a certain job, then you can either work for that wage or go home. Just because you don’t like how much you're being paid does not give you a right to steal from your boss.


Another principle this parable brings out is part of the reason people steal: they think God hasn’t given them enough. Although they may not realize it, they are saying within themselves “God hasn’t given me all I want, but He has given it to someone else.” What that means, of course, is that, if I'm the thief, I feel like God needs a little help balancing the account between what I have and what that other person has. But listen to what the owner of the vineyard says. Matthew 20:14-15—“14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” How much of the universe belongs to God? Psalm 24:1—The earth is the LORD’s and the fulness thereof. It all belongs to God. And if He wants to allow one person to have more than you, then that is His right. He owns it; He can do what He pleases with it. Wealth itself is not inherently evil. It’s our attitude toward wealth that can be evil. 1st Timothy 6:10—The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.


Now, we’re gonna take a side road here for a moment. The heresy that is the prosperity “gospel” is rooted in the love of money. It is rooted in the belief that You deserve to be wealthy and that you can command God to give you wealth. One of Kenneth Copeland’s most famous quotes is when he said, "As a believer, you have a right to make commands in the name of Jesus. Each time you stand on the Word, you are commanding God to a certain extent, because it is His Word." And what are these people commanding God to do? Give them more stuff. We’ll talk more about that when we get to covetousness.


Now, let’s finish up by looking back at the provisions in the Law for the poor and the traveler to glean from the corners of fields. We looked at two of those provisions last week, Leviticus 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 23:24-25. There is also the passage found in Deuteronomy 24:19-21—“19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.” I tend to believe that all these commands had more than one purpose. One, of course, they provided for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. BUT it also allowed for two of Jesus great-great-great-great-grandparents to meet.


Long time ago there was a farmer in Bethlehem, and his name was Boaz. A young woman named Ruth came to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law, and they came to Boaz, who was a distant relative. Ruth 2:8-9—8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them.” And then he goes and tells his servants to leave a little something for her when they reap. Ruth 2:15-16—15 And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her." Eventually Ruth and Boaz get married, they have a son named Obed; Obed has a son named Jesse; and Jesse begets 8 sons, the youngest being a boy named David. Mary and Joseph were descended from David, and that Jesus was born of Mary. So God used this command to leave gleanings for the poor to bring together two of Jesus’ ancestors.


Ruth 4:13-17 (KJV)—13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son. 14 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. I want to stop right here and briefly introduce a principle from the Law known as the provision of a “kinsman redeemer”, and we’ll skim a little more about that next week. Well, Boaz was Ruth’s “kinsman redeemer”, while our “kinsman redeemer” is Christ, as we see in Hebrews 2:11-12—11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying, "I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise." Any way, Ruth 4:15-17 (KJV)—15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him…17 and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Of course, this is King David, of whom both Mary and Joseph were direct descendants. Their genealogies are recorded in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Matthew traces Joseph’s ancestry and Luke describes Mary’s. All because a poor widow and her daughter-in-law were allowed to glean stubble in a wheat field. See now how this Law is pointing to Christ? It was because of the many provisions for the poor that two of His ancestors came together. But all this OT stuff is so boring, isn't it!


Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.