Deuteronomy chapter 15. I want to read the first 11 verses
for us, if you want to follow me along there. Deuteronomy chapter
15 and verse 1. At the end of every seven years
thou shalt make a release. Now my center reference says
here, remission of debts. And that's what that word release
means, remission. Every seven years you shall make
a remission of debts. And this is the manner of this
remission, this release. Every creditor that lendeth ought
unto his neighbor shall release it, shall cancel the debt. He
shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother because it
is called the Lord's release. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact
it again, but that which is thine with thy brother, thine hand
shall release. Except save when there shall
be no poor among you, for the Lord shall greatly bless you
in the land which the Lord your God giveth you for an inheritance
to possess it, only if you carefully hearken unto the voice of the
Lord your God. to observe, to do all these commandments
which I command you this day. For the Lord your God blesseth
thee as He promised thee, and thou shalt lend unto many nations
that thou shalt not borrow. And thou shalt reign over many
nations, but they shall not reign over thee. If there be among
you a poor man or one of your brethren within any of your gates,
in your land which the Lord your God giveth you, you shall not
harden your heart, nor shut your hand from thy poor brother. But you shall open your hand
wide unto him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need
in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought
in your wicked heart, saying, The Sabbath year. The year of
release is at hand. And your heart be evil against
your poor brother, and you give him nothing, naught. And he cry
unto the Lord against you, and it be sin unto you. Thou shalt
surely give him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you
give unto him, because that for this thing the Lord your God
shall bless thee in all your works and in all that ye put
your hand into. For the poor shall never cease
out of the land. Therefore command I thee, saying,
Thou shalt open your hand wide unto thy brother, and to thy
poor, and to thy needy in the land." Now that's reading out
of the King James Bible. You may not recognize some of
that. This fellow called me one day and he said, I don't know
who he was. He sent me an e-mail. I don't
know how he got my e-mail address, but he sent me an e-mail and
he said, Pastor Crabtree, I love your preaching, but I wish you'd
get a King James Bible. I sent him a note and I said,
Brother, I'll read you out of a King James. That's all I use.
But sometimes I'll look over the V's and the Vals and the
Kuddist and the Wuddist, and I just pronounce them in our
language today. But I do use a King James Bible,
and it's the only one really we use here. Chapter 15 here
is concerning three things. I read to you the first thing
about the remission of these debts. A poor man's debt has
been forgiven. And then there in verses 12 down
through verse 18, we will look at probably next week, it is
said in Hebrew, man or woman free that had to sell themselves
to you as slaves. If you got in debt, bad. and
you couldn't afford your house and your property and your equipment,
you could sell yourself to your neighbor. And after certain years,
they had to release you. And what a blessing that was.
And then the last portion of this chapter has to do with the
Lord commanded them to give their firstborn as a sacrifice. Every firstborn male belonged
to the Lord, and they sacrificed it to the Lord. And then here
in chapter 15, in verses 1-11, we just read to you about this
law here. Some of these laws were burdensome.
Man, all the laws. I can't even begin to count. I don't know how many laws the
Jews had to live under. But there were an amazing number
of rules and regulations and ceremonies and feast days and
new moons that they had to observe. And sometimes this was a great
burden upon this nation. The Hebrew writer says that it
was an imposition. It was imposed on them at the
time of reformation of all things. And Peter said, in Acts 15, he
told those Pharisees, he said, you're trying to put a yoke.
back upon our necks, which neither we nor our Father was able to
bear. So in that sense, all of these
rules and regulations of ceremony, there was a sense in which it
was a terrible burden for the children of Israel. But then
there was a sense also in which these things were a great blessing.
My, what a blessing the Lord had made these things to them. Consider three or four things
of these ceremonies and sacrifices. Every morning and every evening.
They had the sacrifice of the lamb. The Lord was always calling
their hearts back to Himself. And every morning, everybody
come out of their tents. Some came around and stood around
the fence while they saw the priest take the lamb and burn
him for sacrifice. The morning offering. They all
came out of their tents. Those who were sick or couldn't
walk or whatever that stayed in their tents, they lived by
faith knowing that the smoke was going up from the morning
lamb being offered. Every evening they offered the
lamb. They started their day with their
thoughts going to the lamb that took away the sins of the world.
That night before they went to bed, they went to bed with this
thought, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
The Lord gave them that ceremony of sacrifice. to draw their hearts
to Himself. And then there was the weekly
Sabbath. Every Friday evening, as the sun was going down, they
ceased their work and rested. And that was typical to them,
and those who believed it and those who understood it knew
that that was typical of the rest that Jesus Christ entered
into when He finished His own work. What did He say upon the
cross? It's finished. He said the same
thing that God the Father said when He finished the creation.
He ceased from His work and rested the seventh day. The Lord Jesus
ceased from the work of redemption. It was accomplished. And He rested. And that's what the seventh day
was about, wasn't it? The rest that the children of
God was to enter into. And it was also typical of that
eternal rest. Thou remaineth the rest. of the
children of God. Isn't that what we're looking
forward to? We're looking forward to that eternal rest, aren't
we? When we can cease our labors and rest for all eternity. And
then once every year the Lord would give them the Passover.
Every year they remembered the Passover. They stopped their
work. They came together to sacrifice.
And the Lord drew out their memory and their affection for where
they used to be. where he brought them from. And
where was that? Bondage. Egyptian bondage when Pharaoh
ruled over them. And they sighed by reason of
that bondage. Then every 50 years there was
a jubilee. A jubilee every 50 years. Everything
was completely restored in the jubilee. If you had lost your
farm, if you had had to sell your farm, your land, your machinery,
your cattle, whatever you had to sell or you lost to somebody
else, 50 years, it was all restored. And isn't that a wonderful thought
to think that we're living in a world that's full of sin, full
of wretchedness, full of disease, that nature is blowing things
around, devastation. But you know there's coming a
time when everything is going to be completely and thoroughly
restored. Jesus Christ is reigning as we're
here this evening. Our blessed Lord is reigning.
And He'll reign until He has restored everything. And that's what the Jubilee was.
Looking forward to that time. And then the third year of tithing.
We looked at that just a little bit last week in chapter 14. Every three years they would
bring their tithes, and every city would bring all their tithes,
their cattle and their wheat and all of their vegetables,
all their fruits and all their harvest. They'd bring the tithes
of that, and they'd bring it into the gates of the city, and
the Levites would come, the ministers that had no inheritance, had
no land, they would come. The widows would come, the orphans
would come, the stranger would come, and they'd have a feast.
They'd have a feast. Every three years they would
have a feast. And you know what that points to me? That points
to a day, brothers and sisters, that's coming when all the children
of God shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself shall serve us. will eat in the kingdom of God. And then we come here to this
blessed release, the remission. And he tells us there in verse
1, Every seven years thou shalt make a remission of debts. Every
seven years this happens. And he tells us in verse 2 the
manner of it. Look what he says in verse 2.
This is the manner of the release. Every creditor that lendeth off
anything to his neighbor, shall counsel the debt. He shall not
exact it of his neighbor or of his brother, because it is called
the Lord's release." And this is the way it happened. If you
were well-to-do, you had plenty of money, plenty of property,
and your neighbor fell on hard times and he needed some money,
you loaned him the money. And he couldn't pay you back.
It wasn't that he didn't want to. He couldn't. He was poor.
He was in poverty. He owed you that money for seven
years. Oh, when it come to the end of
that seven years, you wrote him out a note and said, all's forgiven. All is counsel. I counsel my
debt. It's counsel. We used to have
a running credit. I don't know if any of you ever
did this down in Tennessee, the old stores. Everybody had credit. Everybody had credit. This is
one of the things. When my dad used to pay his bill, he'd go
up and pay it, and he'd put cancel. Cancel. Underline it a couple
times. Cancel. If he wouldn't cancel, he paid
for it. But this is really, this is really canceling the debt. A remission of the debt. Forgiving
what was owed. And the Lord was teaching His
people here, the blessed privilege of having fellowship with the
Lord and causing the debtor's heart to sing for joy. You want to be a partaker, as
he said, with me? You want to be like me? I'm going to teach
you to be like me. I'm going to confirm you to my
image. I love to hear the debtor's heart sing for joy. So I want
you to be like me. I want you to cancel debt. Can you imagine a man in debt
for $10,000 to his neighbor, or some friend, or some fellow
Jew? And it comes to that time, and he's worried, he's self-sick
about it. You're worried about debts. This generation don't
worry much about debts. But I bet some of you older people
do. I mean, if you owe somebody some money, and you think you
can't pay it, that weighs on your heart, doesn't it? Can you
imagine a man that owed $10,000 to his neighbor or friend, and
he had worried himself sick about it, and his friend came over
and said, listen, it's all forgiven. It's all canceled. Can you imagine
how he whistled and how he sang and how he was filled with joy?
Because his debts were canceled. That's what this is about. If
the lender had the heart and the attitude and the spirit of
the Lord, then when it comes time to cancel his debts, then
the lender and the borrower would rejoice together. And that's
what the Lord is teaching them. The deep blessedness of being
like their gracious Lord and freely forgiving all. That's what He's teaching in
this passage. How freely does the Lord forgive
you? That's what He's teaching here. Freely forgiving all. Here's
this poor man. And he's ran up this large debt,
and he has nothing to pay. What will I do? What am I going
to do to him? What did the Lord teach them
to do? What does the Lord do Himself? He forgives, doesn't
He? He forgives. He counsels their
debt. That's what He's teaching. I
want you to look at a couple of passages of Scripture. I want
you to look over in Micah, M-I-C-A-H. If you have a few Bibles, it's
on page 1009. If you don't know where it's
at, don't be embarrassed. Go over in the front of your
Bible and look for the book of Micah. I'll be honest with you,
some of these minor prophets, I have to do that myself. It's
on page 1009 if you want to look at it. Micah chapter 7. You remember
when the Lord went into a Pharisee's house to eat lunch with him? And there came this sinful woman
in and got down at his feet and washed his feet with her tears
and dried them with her hair. And that Pharisee said, if this
man knew what kind of woman this was, he'd have no business with
her because she's a sinner in the town. And the Lord told him, This example about forgiven,
forgiven debts. And he said, Simon, let me ask
you a question. Let me tell you a story to ask
you a question. He said there was this man, he had plenty of
money, and he had these two debtors, two men that owed him. One owed
him 500 pence, and one owed him 50. But neither of them had anything
to pay. And He frankly forgave them both. What does that word frankly mean?
It means freely. He freely forgave them both. When the Lord forgives a debt,
what kind of attitude does He forgive it in? Now look here
in Micah. He's going to tell us. He's going
to tell us how He passes by a transgression. In Micah chapter 7 and look in
verse 18. Who is a God like unto thee? that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,
he retaineth not his anger for ever, and look at this, because
he delighteth in mercy. Why does he pass by transgression? Why does he pardon iniquity?
And let's be honest, just pardon it over and over and over. Why
does he keep forgiving us our sins? If we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us. What attitude does He do
it in? He delights to do it, doesn't
He? He delights to do it. That's
what He's teaching here in this ceremony of forgiving these debts. No matter how much in debt your
neighbor is to you, when it comes to seven years, forgive him,
cancel the debt. And when they did that, what
were they doing? They were being like their gracious Lord. Being
like their gracious Lord. Look in another place. Look in
Matthew, all over to your right. Look in chapter 5. What would be the reward for
a man for giving his neighbor all this debt? You know, we say
sometimes, well, you know, we look and we talk about this and
we think, well, that'd be so easy. Would that be easy, somebody
owing you $10,000? Would that be easy? We look at it, we think
it's that way. What would be the reward of forgiving
a tremendous debt to some poor man? You know the greatest reward
would be knowing that your lack your Father in heaven." Wouldn't
that be a great reward? Knowing that I have something
in me that resembles my gracious Lord? That's reward enough, isn't
it? And that's what our Lord Jesus
taught us here in Matthew chapter 5. And look in verse 43. You have heard that it hath been
said, you've heard they've said it, you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy. But I said to you, love your
enemy. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate
you. Pray for them that spitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the children
of your Father. What is it about the children
and the Father? They have characteristics of their dad, don't they? They
resemble their papa. That you may be gracious like
your Father is gracious. that you may be merciful, that
you may be loving, that you may be forgiven like your Father
which art in heaven." That's why they were to forgive tremendous
debts, all debts. He was drawing their hearts to
be like Himself, to confirm Him to His image. When the Lord Jesus went out
to find one of His sheep that was lost, Remember when he found
it and he put it on his shoulders and he was bringing it back to
the fold. I don't know if he scolded that
sheep. I don't know how he treated it
when he first found it. But I tell you, when he put it
on his shoulders and headed home, you know what the Bible says?
He was rejoicing. And he called his friends together
and said, Come rejoice with me. I have found my sheep. I have reconciled my sheep, I
have forgiven my sheep, I have had mercy upon my sheep, and
I've done it with great delight, great rejoicing. And that's the
attitude they were to forgive their fellow man this day, just
like the Lord forgave them. Ain't that amazing? That's amazing. That you may be just like your
Father who art in heaven. Are we just like Him? I ain't going to get up here and
brag to you. I'm telling you, I have trouble. I have trouble. Don't we fall so short of being
like our Father in Heaven? Hasn't sin just brought us so
low and defaced His image in our hearts? We long for the day
that we'll be conformed perfectly to His image. That's what we're
longing for. Here's what C. H. McIntosh said.
He says, Alas, alas, the poor human heart is not up to this
lovely mark. It is not fully prepared to tread
this heavenly road. It is sadly cramped and hindered
by low and miserable selfishness in grasping and carrying out
the divine principle of grace It is not quite at home in this
heavenly atmosphere. It is but ill-prepared for being
the vessel and the channel of that royal grace which shines
so brightly in all the ways of God. We are just not too good
of lights to the world, are we? And it is because we are just
not too much like our Father in heaven, like our God. Lord, make us like Yourself. Work in our hearts to make us
just like You. In giving and in forgiving and
our dealings with one another and our dealings with the world,
let us be just like You. Confirm this to your image. But
we're not yet. And I'll tell you how we know
we're not. He knows we're not. And look at the cautions back
in our text. Look at the cautions that he
gives them back Deuteronomy chapter 15. He'd have never went on and
said this if he knew they were perfectly perfect as they should
be. So look what he says in verses
7 through verse 10. Somebody may say, well, I'm a
believer. I'm justified. Nothing else concerns
me. Well, listen. If you're concerned
about living the Christian life, You're going to have to have
grace. You're going to find yourself at the throne of grace. You're
going to find yourself at the throne of mercy to obtain mercy
and find grace to help in the time of need. A renewed heart,
a heart that's renewed by grace, still has to obtain daily grace
if it's to walk and reflect the beauty and the glory of God in
Jesus Christ. We do need grace, don't we? We
do. There's nothing like grace, one
man said, that exposes the hidden evil of our hearts. Well, grace will do it. Grace
will do it. When you start talking about
being like Him, that's when we'll see the sin and the selfishness
in us. When I want to be gracious like
Him, when I want to be loving like Him, When I want to be generous
like Him, that's when I feel this heart of mine rising up
and showing its selfishness and its depravity. If I compare myself
to most of you, I come out pretty good. When I compare myself to
my wife, it's bad on me, wifey, it's bad
on me. But you know, comparing ourselves
to one another, we're pretty good, aren't we? But when we
compare ourselves to our Lord, our Master, We don't come out
too good, do we? We don't come out too good. This
cancelling of debts was a gracious cancellation. The poor man had
nothing to pay his debts with. It had to be a gracious cancellation. It had to be all freely forgiven. Would this creditor cancel the
debt? I'll tell you what settled the
issue. Would he cancel it or would he not? I'll tell you what
settled the issue. Did he have a tender heart like
his Lord? Did he have an open hand like his Lord? Or did he
have a hard heart and a closed fist? That determined the issue. That's what he tells them here
in verse 7. Look at it. He gives them this caution. If
there be among you a poor man of one of your brethren within
any of your gates and your land which the Lord giveth thee, thou
shalt not harden thy heart Nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother."
See the caution? Why such a caution? He knows
us, doesn't he? He knows us. We're still being
conformed. But we haven't reached no state
of perfection yet. We're still being worked on.
To give and forgive and to be gracious and merciful like our
Lord Jesus Christ, we must be renewed in the very depths of
our being. And even when we are renewed,
we have to watch the uprising of our old nature and our selfishness
and keep ourselves near the fountain of divine love. What will keep
us from turning away a brother in need? Compassion. If a man
see his brother have need and he shuts up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwells the love of God in him? If we want to
be compassionate and graceful and merciful as our Lord is,
then stay near that fountain of love. Love covers a multitude
of sin. Love is never rash. It's never
harsh. It burns all things. It bleeds
all things. It's the fountain of love. Jesus
Christ is our best example, is He not? If you and I would be like Him
in these things, then we must be always looking to Him. If
we don't want to be caught and trapped with a hard heart, then
look to Him who has a tender heart. If we don't want to be entrapped
with a closed fist, then look to Him who has a wide open hand.
What kind of heart does our Savior have? We're told, aren't we? I am meek and lowly in my heart. We read of the gentleness of
Christ. Oh, the giving Christ, the gracious
Christ. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus. Though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, and how
much more when he lays down his life for his enemies. Oh, that's
the heart we want, isn't it? And this is the hand we want,
too, a wide-open hand, just like our Master. I don't know if anybody
ever come to Him with a legitimate need, an honest need, and He
turned them away. Do you? The Bible says He shall
supply all our need according to His riches in glory. He never
had any poor person come to Him and shut his fist and say, No,
I'm not giving it. He can. He can. And he's our
example. Hard heart and a closed fist. And look in verse 9, something
else he cautions them against. Beware that there be not a thought
in your wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the seventh
year of release is at hand, and thine eye be evil against thy
brother, and thou givest him naught. And he cried to the Lord
against you, and it be sin unto you. There's two things here
that he cautioned them against. One was a wicked thought. A wicked thought. Where does
sin come from? The heart doesn't. A wicked thought. Some man said, boy, we've got
to watch our mouths. Boy, I know it. We've got to watch our hands. We've got to watch our feet.
But you know what we've got to watch more than anything else?
Our hearts. Our hearts. Wicked thought so often produces
a wicked deed. If we'd watch our hearts and
give all diligence to our hearts, we'd escape having to repent
over doing wicked deeds. The thought of your heart. Look
what happens. Look how they talk themselves
out of giving. It started with a wicked thought. Brothers and sisters, if we'd
watch our hearts, we'd be so much better off. As soon as some
wickedness showed itself in our hearts, repent of it, ask the
Lord for grace to put it down, rule over that, But if you start
dwelling upon that wicked thought, I'm telling you what, before
it's over with, there'll be a wicked deed involved somewhere in there.
He warned them, didn't He? Lest there be a thought in thy
wicked heart. Exposes something else here for
them to be careful of and caution against, and that's selfish motives. Selfish motives. I'd have thought
this same thing, and you would too, if it took grace to keep
us from not thinking this. A man comes and says, Brother,
I'm in bad shape. I'm ready to lose everything.
I need a couple hundred dollars to get me by. You say, well,
let me think on it and I'll talk to you in the morning. And you'd
go back in and sit down and you'd start thinking, now next year
is the seventh year. And if I give him $200, I just
know he's not going to be able to pay me back. And you talk
yourself out of doing it. Well, here was the trouble anyway.
What was his motives in giving? Was it just to get it back? See,
we want the best of everything, don't we? The man said, we want
our cake and eat it too. That's what they were wanting.
They were wanting the praise for giving to start with. Oh,
that man is so generous. But then they wanted to be paid
back, you see. That's the wrong motive, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus said this, He said, even to your enemy,
if a man would borrow from you, lend to him, hoping for nothing
in return. How does the Lord forgive us? Freely does He. Does He hope
for anything in return? What are we going to pay Him,
except our praises? Except our praises. Love your enemies, and
do good, and lend, hoping for nothing. And your reward shall
be great, and you shall be the children of the highest." He
says that again. For He is kind unto the thankful and to the
evil. And the Lord Jesus said, When you make a feast, call the
poor, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they
cannot recompense thee. And he's teaching them here,
what a blessing if some poor neighbor comes to you and says,
I know tomorrow is the seventh year of release, but I need $100
tonight. And you take it out of your pocket
and say, brother, this just delights me to give this to you because
I know you can't pay it back. That's the spirit that he's teaching
them to give in and forgive in. Don't forgive somebody their
debts with the attitude, I'm just going to wait and see if
you live up to it. Do we ever do that? I'll forgive you, but
does the Lord forgive us that way? Does He forgive us and say,
I'm going to hold this against you and wait and see if you live
up to forgiveness? He doesn't do that, does He?
He doesn't do that at all. When the Lord Jesus calls a gospel
feast, who does He invite? The poor, the diseased, the helpless,
Why does He do that? Because they can't repay Him.
And He loves it. He loves helping people that
can't repay Him. What glory is He going to get
from people that can repay Him? Therefore, the Apostle says,
as you have opportunity, do good unto all men, but especially
those who are of the household of faith. And this is the very
way that God does it. And this is the way that we show
His image is being formed in us. You want to be like Him?
Then imitate Him. Imitate Him. Verse 10. Look at this.
They're cautioned against this. This last caution. Look at this.
Thou shalt surely give Him, and your heart shall not be grieved
when thou givest it unto Him, because that for these things
the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in
all that thou puttest thy hand into." Given and forgiven with
a grieved heart? What does that prove? Absence
of grace, doesn't it? The absence of grace. Why were
they grieved? I can give you probably three
reasons why a man would have been grieved. He probably said,
I've worked hard for this. And now he's asking me to give
a portion of it away. That's one thing that would grieve
a man. I don't want to. It grieves me to do it. I've
worked hard for it. The second thing that may have
grieved the man was this. The one he was given to or forgiven
was not worthy in his own eyes. He's just not worthy. And the
third thing that may have grieved him was this. He may have thought
within himself, I'm going to give myself to poverty. I'm going to be poor. The last portion of verse 10
gives a remedy for all of this and more. For in this thing the Lord thy
God shall bless thee in all thy works and all your ways. He's going to bless you. If you've
got anything, you may have worked hard, brothers and sisters, I
don't deny that. If you've got anything, you've probably worked
hard to get it. You've probably been careful. But I tell you,
work as hard as you can. And be as careful as you can.
You still ain't gonna have anything if you don't give it. Ain't that
the truth? And we get too careful and too
conservative and too stingy, He may take what He's given us
away. Whether it's grace in our hearts
or material things, the reality is, it's the Lord that gives
it. It's the Lord that gives it. As far as a man being worthy,
if the Lord waited to see if we were worthy, He'd forgive
us nothing. He'd forgive us nothing. Therefore, give and forgive and
do it cheerfully. And don't do it grievously. Don't
forgive anybody grievously. Don't let it grieve you to be
merciful to anybody. Don't let it grieve you to forgive
anybody and don't let it grieve you to give to those who need. Don't do it with grief. Have
you ever read that passage that says the Lord loves a grievous
giver? I never have either. I never have either. What does
it say? A cheerful He loves a cheerful giver. Why does He love a cheerful
giver? Because He sees His image in
you. That's what it is. You're like
Him. A cheerful, cheerful giver. James says, If any man lack wisdom,
let him ask the God that gives to all men liberally. That means with an open hand.
With a wide hand. He gives so liberally. And He
upbraids not. That word means He doesn't rail. He doesn't accuse. He doesn't
bring your past felons up. He gives to all men liberally
and upbraideth not. And it shall be given to Him. What do you need? What do you
need? Do you need grace? Do you need
mercy? Do you need forgiveness? Do you
need your debts forgiven? What do you need? What do you
need? Go to Him. And take this promise to a God
who gives to all men liberally. Liberally. And He upgrades none. And the Bible says it shall be
given you. Are you stupid? Are you ignorant? Go to Him that gives wisdom.
Ask of Him wisdom. To understand. To go out and
to come in. And He'll give it you. And He
won't hold any past against you. And he won't wait until you fail
to take it back. He won't do it. Now let's close
with this. What qualifies a man to have
his debts forgiven? He had to be qualified. Everybody's debts weren't forgiven.
If you were a rich man and you went to ask for your debts to
be forgiven, that would have lacked you. Man, you've got as
much money as I have. What are you talking about? I
shouldn't have loaned you the money to start with. You worthless
rat. Go home. I ain't forgiving you
nothing. Pay me your debts. What qualified a man to have
his debts paid? One thing. You said it, John.
He had to be poor. Isn't that what he said? If there
be a poor man among you. A poor man. What qualifies the
Lord to forgive you and to forgive me? When He sees we have nothing
to pay, when He sees we're in poverty, that's when He forgives
us. You've got something to give
Him and it's changed, don't go to Him. He won't take it. Can you imagine a man owing $10,000
to his neighbor and taking an old broken down milk cow and
say, I've come to pay my debts? That'd be about what it was if
we went to the Lord and said we brought something. What can
we give Him? Contribution? Can we offer Him
any contribution? Any work of our hands? Nothing
can with it. We have to be poor. And if you're poor, and you have
nothing wherewith to purchase your forgiveness and to obtain
mercy, then just go naked, go blind, go lame, go bankrupt and
say, Lord, I've come to be saved. And I don't have anything but
the praise of my lips. And if you'll forgive me, if
you'll give to me, I'll praise you the rest of my life. That's
all I've got to offer. Poor. Poor. What qualifies these men for
the blessings? Well, the same thing. Poverty. Poverty. If there was a poor
man by you, he was in need, then you Give him the money. You give him what he needs. But
if he's rich, you don't give him nothing. If he's poor. What qualifies a man for the
blessings of God in Christ? Spiritual poverty. That's it.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. He has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith. God has a tender heart for poor
men. He has an open heart for poor men. If you're poor, if
you're poor, you've got to be poor. He sent His dear Son into
this world and told Him if He found any poor and broken spirits
to be sure and bind them up and heal their broken heart and give
them everything that they needed to get through this world. and
arrive safely on heaven's coast. I want one more scripture to
read to you if you want to turn with me. Luke chapter 4, and
we'll close with this. The Lord Jesus came to the synagogue. They gave him the book of Isaiah.
He began to turn the pages, opened it up, and found the place where
it was written. This is what he read, Isaiah
61, verses 1 and 2. Look in Luke 4, verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captive, the recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty those that are bruised, and to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Oh, may the Lord make
us all just like Him. We've got a gospel. Let's go
preach it to the poor. Whatever the Lord has given us
in the way of grace and mercy and possessions, let us be ready
to relieve whoever we can and do it graciously. for his school.