Does anybody have a cough drop? That probably wouldn't help you,
would it, Jay? She's had a cough all day long.
She forgot to bring her cough medicine. Here in Deuteronomy
chapter 24, and we come down here to verse 10. Let's read verse 10 and verse
11. We'll go through this whole chapter
and then we'll come back and look at it from different aspects.
Look in verses 10 and verse 11. When thou dost lend, now these
things are sort of self-explanatory. When thou dost lend thy brother
anything, money for instance, thou shalt not go into his house
to fetch his pledge. if he puts some sort of collateral
down, maybe a dresser or a chair or something for a loan, you're
not allowed to go into his house to fetch it out. Thou shalt stand
abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shalt bring out the
pledge abroad unto thee. And then verses 12 and through
verse 13. We saw up there in verse 6 that
you weren't allowed to hock your the millstone. Remember that?
You weren't allowed to take that to the pawn shop because that
was your life and the life of your family. Now, he tells us
in verse 12 and 13, they weren't allowed to keep this pledge overnight. If a man be poor, thou shalt
not sleep with his pledge. In any case, thou shalt deliver
him the pledge again, when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep
in his own raiment, and bless thee, and it shall be righteousness
unto thee before the Lord thy God." Now, we don't know what
all this included. It sounds like here it may have
been a night garment of some kind, but it could be bed coverings
or anything. We don't know, but they knew,
didn't they? They knew what this was. And then verses 14 through
verse 15 has to do with paying the hard servants and paying
them on time and a proper wage. Look in verse 14. Thou shalt not oppress that hard
servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren
or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gate. At his day thou shalt give him
his hire, his wages. Neither shall the sun go down
upon it, for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it, lest
he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."
Now James wrote about these fellows, didn't he? This has always happened. He said, you've kept back the
price of those who are working for you. You've held it back.
You've not paid them. And they've been crying to the
Lord about it. And He said, the Lord of Sabaoth,
the Lord of Hosts, is going to hear them. You're going to be
in trouble. And that's what this is about here. This has happened
in this world for as long as there's been a world. And this
in verse 16, it has to do with the civil magistrates. Look at
this. The father shall not be put to death for the children,
neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers.
Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. Now this has
to do with the civil magistrate, the judges. Some man had committed
a crime worthy of death. If the father had did it, you
weren't to blame the son. If the son did it, you weren't
to blame the father. That's sort of a prejudice in
all generations, I guess. If a father has a sorry son,
you know, they look down on the father, don't they? Blame the
father. May not have been his fault at all. If the son has
a sorry father, who do they blame? The son. As you read the book
of the history of the Jews, you see a lot of good kings that
had some wicked sons. And you see a lot of good sons
that had wicked fathers. So there's no sense judging,
especially when it came to crimes. In verses 17 through verse 22,
this is concerning the treatment of those that are at disadvantage,
and he mentions three groups here. He mentions the stranger,
he mentions the follower, and he mentions the widow. Now first
he gives the negative aspect, what not to do. Be careful that
you don't do something with these groups that are at disadvantage.
Look in verse 17. Thou shalt not pervert the judgment
of the stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take a widow's raiment to
pledge. But thou shalt remember that
thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed
thee. Therefore I command thee to do this thing. First of all,
it was something they weren't to do. Don't oppress people that
are at disadvantage. Don't pervert judgment. Don't
do this. And then he goes on in verse 19 through verse 22.
He gives them a positive aspect. What to do. It's not enough not
to do evil. You must do good. So he deals
with both of these things. Look what he says in 19 through
verse 22. But thou shalt remember, in verse
19, when thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast
forgot a sheave, they forgot a little stalk of their wheat
in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall
be for the stranger, and for the fatherless, and for the widow,
that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine
hands. If you forget a little shock of wheat, don't go back
and get it. When thou beatest thine olive
tree, thou shalt not go over the bogs again. It shall be for
the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou
gatherst the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward. It shall be for the stranger,
for the fatherless, and for the widow. And thou shalt remember
that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command
thee to do these things." How can we look at these practical
things this afternoon and help us? How can we look at it and
profit from these things? Well, let's look at it from three
different aspects. First of all, how good this would
be for society in general to adopt these things. Not to oppress those who are
at disadvantage, especially the orphans, and the widows and the
strangers. Now there are some countries,
if you go and you're not a citizen there, and they can bribe you
or put you in jail, they'll do it. You go down to Mexico, certain
places in Mexico, and you better be careful because they put you
in jail. You may not get out of there. Somebody's going to
have to have some money. There was a time, not anymore,
they've stopped it, but remember when Romania had all of their
orphans They had so many of them that they just put them in these
squalors. And Americans and the French and Germany, a lot of
people from different countries was adopting those little orphans. You saw down in, I think it was
Argentina and maybe Chile too, they had entire towns that was
being taken over by 8 and 10 and 12 year old kids. I don't
know if you've ever seen a documentary on that or not. It wasn't safe
to go out in public. It is dangerous. It is dangerous
for society to oppress people. Not to care for the orphans enough
to get them off of the street, provide education for them, for
whatever reason they're orphans. A lot of times there are so many
different reasons, sickness in poor and third world countries.
But you notice where poor people and widows and fatherless and
so on are depressed, you know what it leads to? Poverty and
crime. It leads to poverty and crime.
We go both directions, don't we? We go that direction where
we have a welfare state. That's no good. We know that
don't work. That creates lazy people. And
then we go to the other side where there's legitimate poverty.
There's those who are at a disadvantage, and that's what he's talking
about here. He's not talking about those kids that the parents
have just let them go and everything. The parents ought to be held
accountable for that, but legitimate people who are at a disadvantage. That's the first thing. I think
society in general, they tell me, and I don't know how much
this is true, I think a lot of it is, when our country was established
in the Constitution, they got a lot of the principles for that
from the Bible. And I think that's good. I think
that's good. These principles that Israel
lived under as a nation is good for any society. And boy, it
would be good for this one. Here's what the wise man said.
Righteousness, a civil righteousness, exalteth a nation. But sin is
a reproach to any people. That's where we're headed as
a nation. We're losing our civil righteousness. And when we lose
that, we can expect poverty and we can expect violence. Secondly,
here's a good rule, here's some good principles for the church
also to remember this. Remember those who are poor.
Remember those who are at a disadvantage. We have this from the Lord Jesus.
You always have the poor with you. You always have the people
that are at disadvantage. Remember them. Remember the poor. When Paul and Barnabas was ready
to go preach to the heathen and Peter and James and John was
ready to go to the Jews and preach to them, Peter said, Paul, I've
got only one request. I know you're as clear as you
can be on the gospel. You're clearer than I am. But
he said, I've got one request. Remember the poor. Remember that? And Paul said, I'm always eager
to do that. Remember the poor. And you know
the church, that's a blessing for the church, isn't it? There's
always people who are at a disadvantage. Remember the poor. But thirdly, here's what I want
to dwell on this evening as we look at this. I want to look
at it this way in a spiritual aspect. Look at these things
from a spiritual aspect. And I want to look at it like
this. In the Bible there are two ways, there are two methods of seeking righteousness before
God. Two methods that people, just
two in all the world, from the time Adam fell to the time the
last child will be born in this world. There's only two methods,
two ways that men seek righteousness from God. One is what we call
a gospel righteousness. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's the power of God to salvation
to all that believe. For therein, in the gospel, is
the righteousness of God revealed. That is the way God makes men
righteous. It's revealed in the gospel.
That's what Paul said the gospel was. And he said it like this,
to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, that is obedience to the law, but my own obedience,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. That's a gospel righteousness,
and we'll look at that in just a minute. But there's another
way. that the Bible talks about men seeking righteousness, and
that's the righteousness that's sought by works, by a person's
own personal obedience. We sometimes call this the righteousness
of the law, and that's what the Scripture calls it. But the reason
I want to look at this is found in this text that we're in, in
verse 13. Look at this. Look at this. In any case, thou shalt deliver
him the pledge again, when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep
in his own raiment, and bless thee, and look at this, and it,
it, the deed that you just did, shall be righteousness unto thee
before the Lord thy God. Now, I want you to look at two
or three more places with me. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6.
It's just a little bit clearer over there in Deuteronomy chapter
6. In other words, this is a righteousness that they had even before God
by what they did. And he's a little bit plainer.
Look in chapter 6 and verse 23. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and look
in verse 23. And the Lord brought us out from
the fence, that He might bring us in to give us the land which
He swore unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to
do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good
always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. And it shall be our righteousness."
Look at this. Here is our righteousness. Here
is our standing before God. If we observe to do all these
commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded us. Now, what kind of righteousness
is this? It is a righteousness that is based upon their own
obedience to God's commandments. Look at another place. Look in
Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18. When you look in the Bible, you
see these things all through the Bible. You see the gospel
righteousness and you see the righteousness which is based
upon a man's own personal obedience. Look in chapter 18 and look in
verse 1. Leviticus chapter 18, look in
verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speaking to the children of Israel, and said to them,
I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land
of Egypt wherein you dwell, shall you not do? And after the doings
of the land of Canaan which I bring you, shall you not do? Neither
shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do my judgments and
keep my ordinances to walk therein. I am the LORD your God. You shall
therefore keep my statutes and my judgments which, if a man
do, he shall live in them or by them. I am the LORD. How does life come under this
covenant here that he is talking about? By doing. If a man do
these things, he shall live by doing them or because he does
them. Now Paul quoted this verse and
I want you to turn over to Romans chapter 10. Look in Romans chapter
10 and look in verse 1. Let's look all the way back in
verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. You mean
Israel was lost? My goodness, who was more religious
than Israel? But they were lost, weren't they?
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. But look
at this, not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. For Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them." Now, if a man is going to work out a
righteousness, by his own obedience that God will accept him in,
I'm telling you, he's going to find that's a difficult thing
to do. And here's why. He's got to do everything that
God requires him to do if we keep all of these commandments. That's difficult, ain't it? I
mean, it goes beyond difficult. I've said a lot of times, boy,
if you're going to keep the law for righteousness, you're going
to have a ---- I've told people this, and these northerners don't
know hardly what you're talking about when you say you've got
a rough road to hoe. My dad used to plant acres and
acres of corn down in Tennessee, and he'd go to work, and he'd
put us kids with a hoe, and all that corn fell out. Twenty acres
of corn, hoeing it out with a hoe. And the last one there got the
corn down over the hill and that is where all the grass would
grow. And buddy, you would spend a long time getting through that
rock. It was tough. That is what it is if a person
is seeking to be righteous by the law. It is tough. He that
doeth these things, all of these things, he shall live by doing
them. Man, that's a lot, isn't it?
It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these
commandments. There was different times people
came to the Lord Jesus and they made this statement, Master,
what must I do to have eternal life? And here's the way He answered
one of them. He said, What's written in the
law? How do you read the law? He said, well, it's this, thou
shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your
mind, all your soul, and all your strength, that includes
the whole man, doesn't it, and your neighbor as yourself. And
he says, you go do this and you shall live. Should we ever tell anybody that?
Yes. If you're seeking to know what
good thing you can do yourself, then here it is. And boy, that's
a task, ain't it? To love God with all your heart,
all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength continually,
continually from the grave, from the cradle to the grave. Go do
this and you shall live. The Lord told Moses one time
about the children of Israel. He said, Oh, that there were
in them a heart. That's our problem, ain't it? That's our problem.
We need a new heart. There was another man that came
to the Lord Jesus and asked Him almost the same thing. He said,
Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And
the Lord Jesus said, Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't
kill. Don't bear false witness. Honor
your parents. And He said, All these things
have I kept from my youth up. Do I like anything? What do I
lack still? Remember what the Lord Jesus
said to him? You lack one thing. Yet lackest thou one thing. And
that is the way the law is. If a man is dependent upon his
obedience, it has to be a perfect obedience, and it always shows
us, you lack this. And when we hustle around and
try to do that, it says, now you lack this. Now you lack that. That is the way the law is. We
don't have the ability, brothers and sisters, to satisfy its holy
and just demands. Paul said the law is spiritual.
It reaches the heart, the motives of a man. But he said, I'm carnal,
sold under sin in my very fallen nature. One thing thou likest. One thing thou likest. If a man
is seeking righteousness and life by his own obedience, it
must be a perfect obedience. and it can't be obedience to
my preferences or my personal convictions. It must be obedience
to what God demands in His Word. If we keep all His commandments,
then we'll be righteous, all of His commandments. Did you and I ever know before
that if someone gave you collateral on a loan, that you couldn't
go in his house to collect it? I never had heard that until
I read it here. But if a man is going to be justified and
made righteous and have life by his own obedience, he has
to know that, doesn't he? Before we do all things, we must
know all things. Paul said this, he quoted this
from Moses, Cursed is every man who continueth not in all things. which are written in the book
of the law to do him. And he said in another place,
Peter said to the Pharisees, why tempt you God to put a yoke
upon the Christians' necks which neither we nor our fathers were
able to bear? Why did he say the law is a yoke
that we can't bear? For this reason, it requires
too much of us. It requires a perfect obedience
and we can't render that. Paul said, Stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and don't be entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. He said, I tell you that if you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If you be
circumcised, then you are a debtor to do what? The whole law. Christ has become a no effect
unto you, he said. to you who are justified by the
law, you're falling from the whole principle, the whole system
of grace. So those who are under the law,
those who are seeking by their own obedience to be righteous
before God, they're seeking life by their own obedience. They
have no interest in Christ or the covenant of grace because
these things won't mix, will they? They're just as distinct
as daylight and dark. Oil and water. You shake them
up together and you think you've got them mixed up, but when you
stop shaking, one goes to the top and the other goes to the
bottom. There's a definite distinction. And the Lord in our text was
given all these principles for them to live by and instructions.
And He said, This is your righteousness to keep these commandments. Now, the gospel righteousness.
The gospel righteousness. I tell you, when you look at
the law and what it requires, it's just requirements. And when
it shuts you up under your guilt and your inability and your sinfulness
with no way out, boy, that's when you appreciate hearing that
there is a gospel righteousness. There is a righteousness that
God requires and that God has provided in Jesus Christ. and
the righteousness that he will receive, a gospel righteousness. It is talked about like this. His name shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. David said a lot of things about
Jesus Christ. He is my shepherd. He is my rock.
He is my fortress. He is my high tower. Listen to this, "...surely shall
one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. In the Lord shall
all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory." Made righteous
by a person. Isn't it amazing? Luther said
that you're a poor sinner upon this earth and you have the righteousness
of one who is in heaven. He never got over that. And I
haven't either. Have you, Wayne? Never got over that. I just can't
get over that. Especially when I'm down. Especially when I see
all the spots and blemishes and rips and tears in my own garments. To think that this garment is
on me, given to me, imputed to me, the righteousness of one
who is in heaven, a righteousness that cannot change, it thrills
my soul. I can't hardly get over it. Listen
to what Paul says, Of Him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus,
whom of God is made unto us righteousness. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Wayne is ready to get on this
in the fifth chapter of Romans, but turn over there and let's
just read this. Look in Romans chapter 5 and
look in verse 19. Look what the Apostle is saying
about this. Romans 5, 19. For as by one man's disobedience,
Adam's disobedience, one man, one sin, were many made sinners,
so the same way by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Can you imagine the wisdom of
Jesus Christ that He knew everything that God required? That's amazing. You and I don't know hardly anything
that God required, but He knew everything. Can you imagine the
will and the love that He had to do it all? He never forced
doing His Father's will. Thy law is within my heart. I love it, He said. And He obeyed
it perfectly. And listen, He didn't do that
for Himself. He did it for everybody who believes
in Him for this righteousness. And you can't work to get it.
You don't even get His obedience by working to get it. You know
how we get it? by simply receiving it, believing
Him for it. Look what He says in verse 17.
For by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they
which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. We talk about life being a gift,
salvation being a gift. Righteousness is a gift. He was brought in by somebody
else, worked out by somebody else. It resides in this glorious
person in heaven and it is received, it is given to us who believe
in Him as a gift, as a gift. Look in chapter 10 right quickly
back to where we were and look in verse 6 when Paul had quoted Moses and
said, The man that doeth these things shall live by them. That's
the righteousness which is of the law. But look in verse 6,
"...but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this
wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend unto heaven?"
You don't have to go up to heaven. You don't have to bring Him down
again. Who shall ascend to the deep? That is, to bring Christ
up again from the dead. He's already arisen. He'll never
die again. What saith it? The Word is near
you, even in your mouth and in your heart. It's near you. What
is it? The Word of faith which we preach,
that is, if thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in your heart that God has raised Him from
the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. He does not work to get it. He
does not merit it. He does not deserve it. He believes
in Christ to get it. That is a gospel righteousness. That is a wonderful thing. In this matter of justification
with God and righteousness in life, all must be graciously
given us. It is all graciously given us. We may not dwell enough on this.
Some say we dwell on it too much. But I tell you, in our day, there
is such ignorance of gospel righteousness. There is such ignorance of the
law and what it requires and how far-reaching it is. And in
our own hearts still, we who are converted and know the Lord,
there is still this thing that wants to lean to this self-righteousness. And we just have to keep hearing
this over and over and over again. Luther's congregation asked him
one time, some of them said, why do you just keep preaching
Christ just ever-serving? He said, because you keep forgetting
Him. You keep forgetting Him. And we're that way, aren't we?
I marvel that you're so soon removed from Him. Now, thirdly, and in closing,
my last point. I'm going to sneak up on something. at a conference, and I was talking
about this, our rule of life and so on, and about the gospel
and righteousness given to us so freely, and one man met me
before I ever got out of the pulpit. Well, how do you live,
he said? If you believe that, how do you
live your life? If you believe a gospel like
that, how do you live your life? Well, I'll be honest, I have
some trouble. I'm just like everybody else. I'm not going to tell you
I'm going through this world and I'm not having any difficulties. I believe this gospel and I'm
just free from all trials and temptations. I'm not. This is
a world of death and sin and temptations and trials. I have
struggles myself. But I tell you this, brothers
and sisters, and I've seen this in the Bible and I've seen it
in the experience of God's children. Nobody should live any better
and nobody will live any better towards his fellow man in dedication
to God as those who believe the Gospel that I've just presented
you with. You take these three blessed
graces. We talk about faith, faith that receives this righteousness,
the heart faith that believes unto righteousness. You know
what that faith does for the heart that has it? It purifies
it. Peter said, God made no difference
between the Jews and the Gentiles purifying our hearts by faith. Look at the Bible and the men
that had faith. Look what it caused them to do.
Faith has this wonderful effect upon the heart. It purifies it. Paul said, I live by that faith. Well, if a man can manage to
do that, I'm telling you, you won't beat a life. You won't
find a man more loving. You won't find a man more generous
and a man more gracious than the man that lives by faith in
the Son of God. And hope. Somebody quoted this
the other day about hope, what hope will do for a man's heart.
And Peter said, what manner of people ought we to be since we
look for such things? the destruction, the burning
of this world and a new heaven and a new earth. What manner
of people ought we to be? Well, John tells us. John said,
Now are we the sons of God. Yet don't ye appear what we shall
be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him. Isn't that a wonderful hope?
Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even
as he is pure. I'm telling you, if you're looking
for another world, If you've got your affections set on things
above, and you're hoping for that life that's above this sorry
life that we're living now, I'm telling you, that hope will affect
how you live. And love? Love will affect you. Paul said,
this is the fulfilling of the law. Owe no man anything but
to love one another. For he that loveth another has
fulfilled the law. Now you can take these graces.
that comes out of this gospel righteousness, faith, hope, and
love, you can take these things back over in our text in Deuteronomy
chapter 24. And how do you think that would
affect the way you lived and treated people? You think if
you knew someone had pawned you his stove and the poor man said,
You've got to take my refrigerator too because we're in bad shape.
I've got four kids and I can't even feed them. Just take my
stove and refrigerator and give me a couple hundred dollars."
And then you find out that that poor man doesn't have a stove
to cook for his children, doesn't have a refrigerator to hold a
gallon of milk, and here you've got his refrigerator and stove
in your pawn shop, what would you do? It gets down to where we live, doesn't
it? I'll tell you what you would
do if you were possessed of this saving faith and this love and
this hope that purifies the heart. You tell some of your help, let's
load that refrigerator up. Let's get that stove back to
this man. Yeah, he owes me a couple hundred dollars and maybe he
can pay me, but I'm not letting his wife and kids starve and
not have a place to cook the meal. How would that make you
feel if you have the love of God in your heart? He that's
born of God is born of love. He that loveth is born of God.
He that don't love is not born of God. These things go deeper
than just commandments, don't they? Boy, they go to the heart
of a man. If you thought you oppressed
a stranger, there are some people, and we know some of them, if
you're out here and you run into a stranger, you don't care how
you treat him because you'll never see him again. But boy,
if you've got this grace in your heart, you just can't do it. If you talk to him very long,
you'll be telling him about the Lord. You'll be good to him. and see an orphan somewhere,
well, you wouldn't mistreat an orphan, would you? Not if you've
got these graces in your heart. You wouldn't. That's how you
treat the waitress that's waiting on you. You ever see somebody, boy, just
because you had them at a disadvantage. I've sat down with some people,
and I'll be honest with you, I knew when I went to dinner
with them, it's going to be embarrassing. Because they sat down, would
you get me this? Well, bring me back this. This
just ain't right. Can you take this back and do
something else with it?" And so picky, and they about run
that poor waitress to death, and they get up and leave fifty
cents behind. How do we treat people who are
at a disadvantage? That's what this is about. But
we don't do anything to establish the righteousness. Then somebody
says, well, what do you do it for then? And that shows right
there they don't understand the grace of God. They just don't
understand what it will do when the Lord gives you the righteousness
that's He as Himself. He gives you the grace. He puts
these holy principles within that you can live by. And boy,
the way it shows itself too is how you treat those who are at
disadvantage to you. I mean, Scott Richardson. Some of you know Scott. Barb
sat under his ministry for years. He was up preaching for us one
time and they asked him to go out to preach in a little town
out west of here out on 36th, the Orrin Kittle. If you go up
36th, there in Sulfur Springs, you'll go by the Orrin Kittle.
I said, I'll have him there. I had him there 7 o'clock that
morning. And we sat down. The place was full of men. I
mean, it was full of men. I didn't know anybody but the
pastor. He wasn't their pastor, but he was the pastor. He'd set
it up. And me and Scott sat there before service started, and boy,
you could tell. These guys didn't know very much
about God's grace at all. You could tell whether he was
talking Got Scott sort of stirred up. And they were running this
poor waitress to death, just running her to death. And they
had a little bowl that they had sitting there in the middle of
the table. It was about 25 or 30 men there. And they had everything
from pennies, pennies on up the quarters in that bowl. And Scott
leaned over on me and he said, Bruce, he said, those who are
trying to earn their salvation, they give copper. and they give
nickel and they give a little bit of silver. But He said, those
who have been given salvation, they give green. And He pulled
out His wallet and got a five dollar bill out and put it on
top of all those pennies and nickels and quarters. But that's
what grace will do for you. It's a whole new life. It's a
life that we never knew before. It's a salvation, a righteousness,
a life eternal. that is given to us, and it makes
you live in such appreciation of Him who saves you from your
sins, that you just love people. You love people. I hope there's
a blessing in the way we looked at that. May the Lord bless it
to your heart.