how I'm going to look at it.
I'm just going to read the first six verses and then go on and
so on and so forth. Again, Deuteronomy 15 verses
1-18. The year of release. This is what it's entitled. This
is the subject matter. Or, the Lord's release. Let's look at verse 1 of Deuteronomy
15. At the end of every seven years, Thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the
release. Every creditor that lendeth ought,
lends to his neighbor, shall release it. He shall not
exact it of his neighbor or of his brother because it is called
the Lord's release. comes to you, borrows money,
he's your brother, he's your neighbor, you lend him money,
and after seven years, whatever he owes, you let him go. You release him. This is the
Lord's release. This is not made up by man. This is one of the Lord's commands. And there were several different,
you know, the year of Jubilee, there's different things, different
sacrifices, but this is one that we're looking at. of a foreigner,
thou mayest exact it again. But that which is thine with
thy brother, thine hand shall release, save when there shall
be no poor among you, for the Lord shall greatly bless thee
in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance
to possess it." They haven't possessed it yet. This is all
pre-Canaan, going into Canaan. If thou carefully hearken unto
the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all these commandments,
which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God blesses thee
as he promised thee. And thou shalt lend unto many
nations, but thou shalt not borrow. And thou shalt reign over many
nations, but they shall not reign over you. We'll look at this
first part. In all three of these subheadings,
verses 1-6, 7-11, 12-18, all these three subheadings, we see
Christ, and we also see the church, the church's conduct, that we
are, the attitude that we are to have one towards another.
So this first section, this is the manner of the release, this
is the Lord's release. You've got somebody who's in
debt, somebody who loaned the money, can't pay it back at the
end of seven years, you let them go. You don't hold them under
bondage. You don't try to whips and biscuits.
You don't do that. You let them go. Now, obviously, we are in debt. We're the debtors. We've got nothing to pay. The
fall in the garden assures us We fell in Adam. And in Adam,
Scripture says, all die. There's no way out. There's no
way out as far as paying back God. We're in debt. We're born in debt. We're born
in trespasses and sins. There's no way out by self. Not
self-will, not self-intellect, not self-wisdom. Christ does
more than loan us He gives us freedom. This is the Lord's release. It wasn't invented by man. Salvation
wasn't invented by man. We can't earn it. We can't merit it. We're the
debtor. We're the debtor. We are his
brother. We didn't know that. That would
be another tie in here. Christ does more than loan to
us. He gives us his righteousness, his holiness, his salvation,
and sets us free. We are released from sin, the
law, and bondage. It's the Lord's release. As I
said, not man's. As we sing that hymn, hallelujah,
what a Savior. Because He set us free. He set us free. Christ is the
preeminent one in all three of these examples. But that first
example, we're in debt. We're born in debt. No way out. And then grace comes through
the preaching of the gospel. He crosses our path with the
word, the truth, the gospel preacher. Somebody who knows the truth,
they speak the truth. We're released. We're released. How does this
apply to the church? Well, to our brothers and sisters,
we ought to do what we do for love's sake, Christ's sake, and
for unity's sake. You know, there was, I can't
remember, I think it was Corinthians, their problem church, they were
taking one another to court. And it's like, don't do that.
Don't do that. Solve this on your own. And that's
what we ought to do. So if we're spoken of directly
here, if we have money, we have a surplus, and you borrow it,
it's okay. Let us not be so exacting on
matters that Christ has set us at liberty. We don't bring one
another under bondage. That's what love does. The second
topic is found in verse 7 through 11. Let's look at that. If there
be among you a poor man, one of thy brethren within any of
thy gates of the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou
shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy
poor brother. But look at this, but thou shalt
open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient
for his need. Isn't that what she wants? Beware
that there be not a thought of my wicked heart saying, the seventh
year, the year of release is at hand, and thine eye may be
evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him naught. See,
you know what they're doing? They're like, okay, the seventh
year is like a couple months away. So I'm not going to give
him that money. I'm not going to get anything
repaid. We are to give and not expect anything in return. But
we ought to take advantage of somebody for that. But this is
the guy that's going to lend. Don't, because for this thing
the Lord thy God shall bless thee and all thy works and all
that thou puttest thine hand into. He's going to bless because
you've been blessed. You're going to bless the brother.
For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore I
command thee this, saying thou shalt open thine hand wide unto
thy brother, to thy poor and thy needy in thy land. Again,
This pictures Christ. Did not our sweet and tender
Sovereign do just this for us? He opened His... I just was reading
somewhere, I think it's Psalms 115. The Lord is mindful of us. The Lord loads us daily with
benefits. He has opened wide His hand. Not only His hand, but His heart
and His actions. The law was against us. Sin was
hard against us. God was against us. We were against
God. But, oh, the love of God and
the person and worth of Christ, Jehovah said, Kidnu, that is,
the Lord shall provide. He provided His Son. And His
Son came and did hold nothing back. Not only did He fulfill
the law, everything in Jot and Tittle is against us, but He
gave us His righteousness. Took away the negative, gave
us the positive. He opened His hand wide. All things necessary for us to
be called the children of the Most High. His heart is for us. Titus chapter 2 and verse 14,
He gave Himself for us. Now I looked at what, getting too many devotionals,
what Philpott said. He gave himself for us. No, I'm
sorry, Tim James. Tim James, quite a bit of difference
in years. Tim James said this, I'd never
thought about this. He said he gave himself everything. He didn't hold anything back.
He gave us his shame. He took upon us, took upon himself
our shame. He gave us his credibility, his
honor, His blessings, His righteousness, His peace, everything about Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in His characters, attributes, His perfections,
He gave Himself. And Tim said he listed a bunch
of things really good for us. He opened His hand wide. No wider could anyone open. And
in verse 9 it says, Beware that thou have a thought of a wicked
heart. There's no way that this would describe our Lord. Ever
thought anything wicked. As in Him is light and no darkness
at all. We are released. Bless God. He
opened up His hand wide. Not for everybody. For a brother. This is specific. It's specific. for his brethren, would be brothers
and sisters in Christ, that his father foreknew, his son came
to redeem them, reclaim them, opened up his hand. From thy
poor brother. Well, we're poor, but we don't
think we are. But we are. We're poor. Secondly,
how does this apply to the church? Surely, we should open our hand
wide in charity towards our neighbor, our brethren. In Ephesians 4,
verse 32, 2 Corinthians 8 says there must
first be a willing mind. That's why we have the plate
sitting back there. We don't pass it. I don't have any problem
with anybody who passes the plate. That's not what I'm saying. I'm
saying if you want to put something in there, you do it. Nobody's
going to say anything if you don't. We open our hands wide. And sometimes
that means being observant because maybe the brother is not going
to say anything. It's a humiliating thing to admit
that you're poor or weak or don't have wisdom. But by the grace
of God, that's why it's a fellowship. Everybody has differing gifts.
You listen. You say, you know, I think I
heard somebody struggling. We ought to open our hands wide.
Give, give not grudgingly, but out of the abundance, or even
little, like the widow, her mite, that's all she had. Christ said
she gave more than, because she gave everything she had. But be willing, and so glorify
God the Father which is in heaven. Now, the last section in verse
12-18 is actually two sections. One stands alone. Verse 15, remember
what we are. Remember where we came from.
Verse 15, And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the
land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. That's purchased,
bought back. Therefore I command thee this
thing. It's like Paul is saying to Philemon, about this slave
Onesimus. He says, I'm not going to say
you do this, but you owe your own life to Me. So it's a little persuasion,
but the Gospel is a persuasive tool that God uses to convince
men of their sin. But we do what we do for one
part is we know what we've been redeemed from. We know what we
were. We know we are no better Anyway,
we're actually the worst of the lot. We're the worst of the lot. And we can look at James 2 and
see this. Matthew 6 and Proverbs 14, just
a few passages. James 2, verse 13. Matthew 6,
verse 15. And Proverbs 14, verse 21 talks
about, you know, remember we are nothing. That's why we can't
boast. That's why we can't boast. Well,
the second section is after verse 16, and it shall be, if this
servant that you've loaned to and he's under your care, say
unto thee, I will not go away from thee. This is an indentured
servant. Because he loves thee and thine house, because he is
well with thee. He's better off with you than
he is without you, and that's a portion. Somebody treats you
better than when you were out on your own, so you stay with
them. Then, this is what the owner
shall do, shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear, servant's
ear, under the door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also
unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise. It shall not seem
hard unto thee when thou sendest him away. If you have to do it,
send him away free from thee. For he hath been worth a double
hired servant in serving thee six years, and the Lord thy God
shall bless thee in all thou shalt do." Now, if this would
have been practiced back in the 1800s, we probably wouldn't be
in the trouble we are today. But, you know, man's greedy and man's
an idiot, like we are. But how does this picture Christ?
Christ voluntarily became a servant. and willingly
put himself under the Father. I love these people. I love you. I'm going to volunteer my services. Though I am God incarnate in
the flesh, I'm going to do the same thing. If He won't go away
because He loveth thee, Now there's love. Christ loved His people
and gave Himself and suffered and bled and sacrificed Himself
voluntarily. That's the beauty of this. There's
volunteers in this country, but most of the time you want to
do something, you want to get paid. Christ voluntarily became a servant
so we could be released or go free by paying all our debt. He willingly suffered, bled,
and was thrust through with an awe, so to speak, when He hung
on the cross. He was thrust through with those
nails. Those spikes. For His brethren. Luke 22 says, He was among us
as one that serves. He's like, the servant is not
above his master. So that leads me into the last
point, the church, we're to be like Christ. As His church, His
bride, His feeble followers, do we not freely, lovingly, willingly
serve Him? And this we do the rest of our
life and the life to come. We're like this. You know what?
I want to stay under your service. I may not have anything of my
own. This servant didn't have anything
of his own. What a picture! We don't have anything of our
own. We call ourselves cars, boats, houses. They're not ours. So when we lose them, I know I'd be upset, but no, it's
God's. He loans us our children. grandchildren,
or spouse, and He can take them when He sees fit. But remember,
we're talking about a loving Savior, a loving Redeemer. But
He knows what's best for us better than we ourselves. But this we
do, we'll serve Him willingly, and I'll put that right through
there, the rest of our lives and the life to come, and we
will owe it all to that free and sovereign grace in and through
the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Always. All glory goes to Him. It must. And we have no problems
with that. The problem we have is we start
hanging on to stuff, my house, my garden, my car, you know,
and then when it breaks down or something doesn't work, It's just loaned. It's just loaned. We have that attitude. We have
that attitude, like one of the older writers said, hang on to
this world with a loose hand, because if it slips, it comes
and goes. And these three, it's the Lord's release. You know,
I got thinking, step back, and our children can understand this.
The simplest thing is, I'm released. Are you released? Do you understand
you're in debt? We're all in debt. Go to Him
and beg, beseech, release me. Release me in the righteousness
of Christ. The Lord's release. Bruce, would
you close this?