Deuteronomy chapter 23. We've been studying here in the
23rd chapter about some, we've been seeing some principles that's
taught here in the Word of the Lord. And some of these things,
even when we're going to look at tonight, may seem like they're
somewhat petty and small, but really they're not. I have sometimes
said, sometimes in the Lord's Word when we read it, we may
come upon some of these things that may seem petty and small,
but you know when small things are left undone, it leads to
big problems, doesn't it? So these things are very important.
We are going to begin tonight to look around verse 7. Moses was about 120 years old.
at this time. And they were on the northern
most parts of the wilderness, just on the southern border,
ready to go into the land of promise. They were going in there
to Jericho, crossing the Jordan into Jericho. And Moses was given
these last words. This was the second generation.
The first generation had wandered in the wilderness until all of
them died. But these two men only got to go into the land
of Canaan. Moses himself did not get to
go in. It was not long after, just a
few days after he finished writing this book that the Lord called
him up to Mount Nebo. up in the mountains to Mount
Pisgah. We sing about that song, don't we? From Mount Pisgah's
lofty heights, I view my home and take my flight. That is where
Moses went up and saw all the land of Canaan, the promised
land. And then he died. He died and
left the children of Israel to go over into the promised land.
And he begins here in verse 7. Thou shalt not abhor that Edomite,
or he is thy brother, thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because
thou wast a stranger in his land. The children that are begotten
of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their
third generation." Now, we see another principle here, but I
remind you of the one that we looked at last week. They weren't
to abhor the Egyptians or the Edomites, These other people,
the Ammonites and the Moabites, they were never to let those
people in to the congregation of the Lord. And we saw last
week the principle that that taught. It was because they were
enemies of the Lord. And I'll say again, the little
things, the things that may seem so small to us, sometimes are
big things. What if they had not obeyed the
Lord's voice? And what if they had opened their
doors to these Ammonites and these Moabites? You know, the
Ammonites and the Moabites, they envied the children of Israel.
They hated them, but they envied them. And when they got an opportunity,
they wanted to come in and be among them. You remember when
Ezra was coming back out of captivity, him and the men coming back to
build the temple? And these Ammonites were in the
land. They came in and tried to populate
the land of Palestine while Israel was in captivity. Ezra came back
to build the temple and these Ammonites came around. They were
the same ones later on that was mocking Nehemiah building the
wall. And they came in and they said
to Ezra, let us help you build the house of the Lord. And he
said, you fellows have got nothing to do with building this house. You're the Lord's enemies. And
the Lord's enemies can't love the Lord. They can't worship
the Lord. They can't serve Him. And they wouldn't let them. The
Ammonites hate them for it. But you know, you bring the same
principle right over to the New Testament. And there was a man
that Philip had baptized him. He was Simon, the sorcerer. He used magic. And he made a
profession. Philip baptized him. And when
the apostles came down, he saw that by putting on of
their hands, they had the gift of the Holy Spirit. By putting
on their hands, God had gave them such a gift that they could
give the Holy Ghost to people. And he said, I'll give you money
if you'll give me that gift. And remember what Peter told
him? You don't have part nor lot in this matter. Your heart
is not right with God. And he told him to repent, didn't
he? So it's the same way in the church today. We can't always stop tares from
getting among the wheat. And the Lord even warns us, don't
try to pluck up the tares with the wheat, or you'll pluck up
the wheat with the tare. Don't try it. You be careful. You preach the gospel. The Lord
does the separating. But even when the enemies of
the Lord get in the local church and they come in among the Lord's
people, you know, they still can't serve the Lord. They still
can't love Him, can they? They can't fellowship with Him.
No enemies of the Lord can. Reconciliation must come about. That's where the cross comes
in. Christ has made peace and this
reconciliation must be received. A new heart must be given. A
new spirit must be given. We are children of Abraham, aren't
we? By faith. And who was Abraham? He is a
friend of God. And all his children are God's
friends. Every believer can worship the
Lord. They can serve the Lord. They
can love Him. But the enemies of the Lord can't. They just can't. It's impossible.
That's what the principle we saw last week. But we come here
now to these Edomites, and boy, they caused the Jews a lot of
trouble. But he tells them here, don't you abhor an Edomite. And he gives the reason for that,
because he is your brother. Now you remember who Edom was.
He was Esau. He saw Jacob was twin brothers. Remember how they came out? The
elder shall serve the younger. And boy, a feud started there
with those two men. Jacob really started it because
he deceived his daddy and got the blessing. He told his brother,
If you'll sell me your birthright, I'll give you some of my potty.
And he said, He deceived me. He deceived me. And then Esau
took a vow that I'll kill my brother. When my dad dies, I'm
going to kill him. And the feud started. Now they
sort of got it settled, those two brothers did. They went to
a separate race. But I tell you, their descendants
had trouble, boy. And it wasn't so much the children
of Israel as it was the Edomites. They hated the children of Israel.
But the Lord tells them here, and He has to remind them earlier
than this when they first came out of Egypt, He said, Don't
mess with the Edomites. Don't bother the Edomites. I've
given them this land and don't you bother them. Why did He have
to tell them that I want? I bet you anything, I bet you
even Moses and Aaron and all those captains wanted to invade
Edom. Because they didn't like them.
They just had a feud. You know, sometimes, if this teaches us
anything, sometimes, boy, in the family, sometimes among relatives,
when a feud starts, it can really hurt, can't it? I remember when
my step-grandmother, my dad's mother, died. I was down at my
dad's house when she died. And one of her friends, a relative,
a close relative and a friend, they had had a falling out. And
she called my dad to talk to him, but she couldn't even talk.
I sat there and tried to listen to her, and she just bawled.
And she said, we had a division between us, and we never did
get it settled. And why is that so bad? Well,
because it's family. Because it's relatives. And you
see more of your relatives than anybody else, usually, don't
you? And when you have a falling out in the family, boy, it's
tough. It's tough. Don't abhor the family. Try to keep peace in the family.
Sometimes the Lord invades a family and saves almost the whole family.
He does a lot of good in families. Try to keep peace in your family. And if some member of the family
is being mean to you and treating you harshly, then take this advice. Don't abhor them. Keep peace
with them if you can. Go out of your way to keep peace
with them if you can. That's one of the things I saw
in that. But the last portion of verse 7, He's speaking also
of the Egyptians. Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian,
because thou wast a stranger in his land. Here's a good lesson
I think in this too. Last week we studied about those
coming out of the world. They come to the Lord Jesus and
He saves them from their sins and those who are still in the
world, They don't like them anymore. They sort of abhor them, and
all of us probably have experienced that, haven't we? Peter said
they think it's strange that you don't run with them to the
same excess of wrath. But here, it seems like here
we have the opposite lesson. Here, Israel who came out is
now told to not abhor those who stayed. Don't be mad. Don't be angry at the Egyptians. I don't know why they... You
know, Israel should have had nothing but pity in their hearts
for the Egyptians anyway. Do you know that? Israel had
the Living God. He loved them. He chose them. He redeemed them. He brought
them out. And He led them into this new land, a new life. What did these Egyptians have?
Man, all they had was their garlics and their leeks and their flash
pots and their pyramids to look at and brag on, but they lived
in the wilderness, the deserts. They had no hope of a better
life. Why would you get mad at them? Why would you possibly
abhor that Egyptian? You should pity them, shouldn't
you? Probably should have tried to get as many as you could to
come out with you. but no reason to abhor them and
get mad at them. And who made the difference? They couldn't look back at the
Egyptians and look down their nose at them and say, I'm better
than you are, couldn't I? Why did they come out anyway?
It's only because the Lord loved them and the Lord brought them
out and redeemed them. That's the only reason they come
out. He put a distinction between Egypt and Israel. And they weren't
any different by their nature than the Egyptians were. So instead
of abhorring them, they should have pitied them. And you know,
isn't that a good principle for us to live by as Christians,
as believers? We can't look down our nose at
anybody, can we? We warn people. We encourage
people to come out of their sins to the Lord Jesus, but to get
mad at a lost man because he can't understand. to get mad
at a lost man because he won't come out of his sins? Man, he's
not Egyptian! Only the Israelites came out
because God called them. So we've got no reason whatsoever
to be aggravated at lost people and to hate them and to scream
at them. Hold that right there and look
how Paul explained this to Titus. Look over in the book of Titus,
over in the New Testament, Titus chapter 3. I think sometimes we talk to
people that we say, you know, we're blue in the face talking
with people, and we get upset with them sometimes. We get aggravated
with them because, you know, they won't come to the Lord.
You talk to them and tell them you think they're seeing, and
all of a sudden they start talking crazy again. But we have to be
so patient with lost people. And remember, brothers and sisters,
we didn't come out ourselves until the Lord called us. Look
here what he says, and Paul was talking about this very thing
in Titus chapter 3 and verse 1. Look at this. Put them in
mind, put the believers there in Crete to be in mind, to be
subject to principalities and powers, to obey the magistrates,
to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man. To be no brawlers, don't be arguing
and debating and fussing and cussing, but be gentle, showing
all meekness unto all men. On what basis? Well, this, for
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish. We were disobedient. We were deceived. We were serving
diverse lusts and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy and
hateful and hating one another. Now we were in bad shape ourselves,
weren't we? Just as bad as everybody else, weren't we? Children of
wrath even as others. What made the difference in you
then? What made you come out from that?
What made you come to the Lord? Who made the distinction between
you and that person that never has come out? and may never come
out. He tells us in verse 4. But after
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
especially to you. He has appeared to you, Hatton. Now listen, listen. Verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
which He shed, He poured out on us abundantly through the
Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace
we should be made ours according to the hope of eternal life."
Here is what made the difference. Look what he said. His kindness
was manifest to you and towards you in calling you. His love. In verse 5, His mercy. In verse
7, His grace. That's what made the difference,
wasn't it? You can't point to yourselves, brothers and sisters,
and take any credit whatsoever for being different than somebody
else who is still lost. You just can't do it. You have
to say with David, Lord, not to us, but unto Thee, be all
the glory to Thy Name forevermore. It's to you. So how could the
children of Israel abhor a poor Egyptian? They had no cause to,
did they? No cause whatsoever. Now look
back at our text again. In verse 9, look in chapter 23
of Deuteronomy verse 9. Verses 9 through verse 14 has
to do especially with soldiers, soldiers preparing for war. And
when the host, the military, goes forth against thine enemies,
then keep thee from every wicked thing. Now, here was the soldiers
going out to battle. They were waiting to face off
with a battle. And he tells them, especially
in this time, keep yourself from wickedness. Especially at the
time of battle, keep yourself from wickedness. Now, boy, you
that's been in the military, I never have, but I've read some
books on it and seen some documentaries and things, and boy, you've heard
the old saying, he can cuss like a sailor. And there's some vile
language and some awful, awful evil deeds that can be done,
especially during time of war. All of us are familiar with that.
tells the children of Israel, these soldiers, it's important
to keep yourselves from wickedness, especially when you're getting
ready for battle. Now, why was that? Well, these
weren't just ordinary soldiers. The children of Israel prepared
for war, and they trained for war. They were good soldiers. But they did not depend upon
their skill and ability to win battles. The walls of Jericho
fell down. How did they do that? They didn't
touch those walls with anything, did they? By faith the walls
of Jericho fell down. The Lord fought their battles
for them. The power of the Lord ran their
enemies and chased them out so often. The Lord gave them the
victory. And that's why He was warning
them here about when you go out to battle especially, don't grieve
the Lord by your sin. Be careful. It's him that will
fight the battle for you. Be careful in your battles. And
boy, I tell you, they come back. They come back not long after
this. Remember when they went up to
fight Jericho and it fell down? And the little community of AI,
they said, let's send a couple hundred soldiers up there and
take it. Be no problem whatsoever. And they went up there and AI
whipped them. And Joshua fell down before the Lord and he said,
Lord, what's happened? We're running from before our
enemies. And the Lord said, There's sin in the camp. Remember that? Achan had not kept himself from
wickedness. Now wasn't that something right
after he told them this? Not long after he told them this,
this happened. And they had a good example that
the Lord was grieved and He turned them over to their enemies until
repentance came. And that's a good lesson for
us, isn't it? Because you and I are in a battle too, brothers
and sisters. And it's not just a one-time battle. It's not just
for a while. And it's not with flesh and blood.
I think it would be easier if it was. I mean, I'd work out
and I'd get built up and I'd carry me, you know, I'd start
packing like some people in here do. And nobody mess with me. But it's not a battle like that,
is it? It's not a battle like that. The weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. What do we wrestle against? We
wrestle against principalities, against powers, wicked spirits
in high places. And here's what you and I should
do. Since we're in this continuing battle, we have to be sober and
diligent and vigilant all the time, don't we? I tell you, when
you face the enemies that we have to face, an ungodly world,
the frowns of this world, we're in the weakness of this body
that we're in, we have to be careful all the time, don't we?
We have to watch for sin and watch against sin all the time. I tell you, it's tough. The battle's
tough anyway. But I tell you, it's really tough
when we have to stand with sin and guilt on our conscience.
It makes it really tough then, doesn't it? The devil's hard
enough to face anyway. But boy, when you've deliberately
sinned, when you've not confessed it to the Lord, and you're carrying
that guilt on your conscience, man, it's almost unbearable.
Hard to win a battle, isn't it? But we have these precious promises
that should encourage us. Let me, if I can remember this,
and here's a good... You know, here's the difference.
Here's the difference. We don't do these things to be
saved. We don't do these things to stay
saved, but we do these things because we're children of God.
And we have these precious promises to encourage us, and here's one.
It's a covenant promise. Know you not that you're the
temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have of God? You're not your
own. You're bought with a price. And here's the promise. I will dwell in them. I will
walk in them. And I will be their God, and
they shall be My people. Isn't that a precious promise?
Therefore, what do we do in the light of this? Boy, we're told
to be careful. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing,
I'll receive you unto Myself. I'll be a father to you, you
shall be My sons, you shall be My daughters, saith the Lord
God Almighty. And listen to this. Having these
promises, brethren, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit. Be careful. Be sober. Be vigilant. Paul said it like
this in Hebrews 12, didn't he? Laying aside every weight and
the sin. What do these weights and sins
do? They easily beset you. looking unto Jesus. That's what
we're always doing. These things that hinder us,
these weights, these sins, we lay them down and we look unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. That's the way
we'll continue our life in this world until it ends and the battle
is over. We'll be in a battle every day
of our life. Take heed, therefore, He says.
Take heed and keep yourself from wickedness. Now look back at
our text again in verse 10 and verse 11. If there be among you any man
that is not cleaned by reason of uncleanness that chances him
by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp. He shall not
come within the camp. But it shall be when evening
cometh on, he shall wash himself with water. And when the sun
is down, he shall come unto the camp again. Now, this is an amazing
thing here. The Lord of Glory, the Eternal
God, would condescend to speak such detailed information about
these things that are really embarrassing. And I have tried
now for probably the last month to think how I'm going to teach
these two or three verses because I don't know how to, especially
in a mixed multitude of children here, This is something that
really is, well, it's just embarrassing to talk about. If you read the commentaries
about it, all of them are in agreement. You may find one or
two that talks here when he talks about that which chances him
in the night, about having bowel movements in your sleep or your
kidneys moving. But all of the commentaries agree
that it's involuntary ejaculation, what the Scripture calls spilling
of the seed, of the man's seed, in dreams or in the night. Now
see how embarrassing this is? But isn't it amazing that the
Lord of glory would condescend to speak about such things as
this in the Scripture? Why would He even do this? We
can see the important things but stoop to talk about something
like this. But doesn't this tell us that
every aspect of the lives of these men and women, God knew
it? Aren't you glad that in the embarrassing
details of your life, He knows it? He doesn't turn His back
away in shame. and says, I don't want to hear
about that. I don't want to look at that. That's your problem.
I don't want anything to do with it. Every detail of our lives,
even the embarrassing thing, He's right there talking about
it. Deals with them. He knows where we're at. It's
just amazing to me as I read this. These poor soldiers watching, had their weapons ready,
watching for the enemy. ready to face off with their
enemy. Then this happens to them of a night. They get up the next
morning and realize it and they are embarrassed. And they have
to go outside the camp all day and then that night, the evening
late, they come back in after they have washed themselves and
washed their clothes. What can you and I learn from
this? I know this speaking here of
ceremonial uncleanness. I realize that. They had to wash
their clothes that evening and wash their flesh and come back
in the camp that evening. But this shows us that since
the fall, since the fall of Adam, we have these natural infirmities
that can afflict us and some infirmities that even are sin
in us. I was listening to a pastor,
a one-time priest, And he was talking about, he just sort of
opened up and told something. I probably wouldn't have told,
but he said, he said, I'm just going to be honest with you.
He said, I had a bad dream last night. And he said, it was so
vulgar and it was so lustful. He said, all I could do when
I came to myself, just roll out of the bed and start praying,
Lord, forgive me. Please forgive me. And his wife
woke up and said, sweetheart, what's the matter? And he said,
I've had this awful dream and I'm just asking the Lord to forgive
me. She said, what was it about? He said, I'm not telling you.
The Lord will forgive me. You may not. But the Lord knows. And there's enough sin in us
that we can't help. That chances us of a night. That by the time we find out
about it, it's too late. I don't know what poor Adam,
well, he wasn't poor before he fell. I don't know what it was
like being there in that garden without any sin. I have no idea
what that means. But he never had these infirmities
like you have and like I have. He never had these infirmities
that sometimes are so vile and can be so sinful, even things
that chance a man and a woman in the night. Somebody says it's possible to
commit sins, and by the time we realize that we've committed
them, we've done enough to damn us.
By the time we realize we've done them. You know that under
the ceremonial law, There was a sacrifice that had to be made
for the sins of ignorance. If a man has committed iniquity,
though he wished it not, though he was ignorant of it, yet is
he guilty and must bear his iniquity, and he had to bring a sacrifice.
Aren't you glad the Lord knows us? And the more we find out
about ourselves in things like this, the more we realize how
vile we are, the potential we have without even knowing it
to be able to stop it. If I see a temptation coming,
I can avoid it. If I see one on my heels, I may
outrun it. But boy, when I've already done
it before I realize it. The Lord said this, and I love
this passage, and probably some of you have memorized this passage
over in Psalms 103. He has not dealt with us after
our sins or rewarded us according to our iniquities. He can see sin in us when we
can't. But He has never rewarded us
according to them, has He? A lustful dream? How shameful
and how sinful it is! But you can't stop it. So He
says, I've not rewarded you according to what you deserve, but I tell
you, He rewarded somebody else, didn't He? Somebody bore the
shame. Somebody bore the guilt. And
it wasn't you, and it wasn't me. It was the dear Son of God. And now he turns to you that
believe in him. He turns to you, his people,
and he says, I'm not dealing with you as you deserve to be
dealt with because I've dealt with my son. I've dealt with
him. And then he turns right around
and he makes this wonderful statement. He knows our frame. He remembers that we're just
Dust. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
the cause of God's lovingness, the cause of His mercy to us,
the cause of His grace for us is not found in ourselves. We're
vile, aren't we? We're dust. I mean, look at the
dust around us. That's all we are is dust. Go
out this spring and remember that and get you a big handful
of it and look at it. That's what we are. And He knows
that. And yet He loves us. And yet
He saved us. And yet He's forgiven us. Now
I don't know about you, but that utterly amazes me. I just can't
get over that. I can't get over the amazement
of that. He definitely knows us. He knows
what can happen even in the night when we're not aware of it. But look here, let's go on just
a little further. Look back here in our text again. Look in verse 12 and verse 14. Thou shalt have a place also
without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad. He is
still speaking to the soldiers. They are in their camp waiting
for battle. Thou shalt have a paddle upon
thy weapon, and it shall be when thou wilt ease thyself. They
went out for a battle movement. that thou shalt dig therewith,
and shalt turn back, and cover that which cometh from thee.
For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to
deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee. Therefore
shalt thy camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee,
and turn away from thee." Now we can learn two lessons from
here. First one, we can see a practical lesson here. A very practical
lesson and that's one of sanitation. The children of Israel were like
no other nation and it's because the Lord made them this way. We saw a few months ago probably
now, some of you may remember this, even in their buildings,
remember when they built their houses and they had the flat
roofs? Remember what they built around
the edges? Remember that little fence? where nobody could fall
over the edge and they often slept up there and ate up there.
This was, they were safety conscious. They were sanitary people. You've seen, if you've never
been to some third world countries, boy I tell you there are some
countries you go to and you realize why they call them third world
countries. And they talk about the disease
there and everything. Well, there's a good reason why
there's all kinds of disease there. Open sewers. Here's what Matthew Henry said
about this, about the practical aspect of this. He said filthiness. Now, he's not talking about a
cluttered house. He's not talking about a floor
that just needs vacuuming, or he's not talking about a sink
full of dishes, or your garage is piled up. He's not talking
about that. He is talking about filthiness. Filthiness is offensive
to the senses God has endued us with, prejudicial to the health,
a wrong to the comfort of human life, and an evidence of a careless,
slothful temper of mind. Nobody should ever be filthy,
especially a Christian. Filthy. We're not talking about
dirty. We're not talking about clutter.
We're talking about filth. I tell you, when the Gospel comes
among some of those third world countries, one of the first things
they do is start cleaning the place up. They start covering
the open sewers and the disease stops coming so rampant. But
here's another lesson. Here's a spiritual lesson. Also,
we can learn from this, and it may seem just a little bit crude,
but this is just the way I think about these things. It is this,
just as the vile, stinking refuge that comes from the bowels within
the body and is full of disease must be covered, all of this
must be covered for sanitary purposes, so there is that vile
and stinking sin that comes from deep within the natural heart
that must be covered or God in His holiness will turn from it. Listen to Mark 7, verse 22, the
Lord Jesus speaking, and here is what He said, ìThat which
cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For that which is within,
out of the heart of men,î listen, now you think waste is stinking,
You think waste from the bowels is stinking and repulsive. Listen
to this waste and look where it comes from. Out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murder,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, that
evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all of these things come from
within and defile the man. All of this comes from the natural
heart of man and defiles it. I like the way Moses put this,
that which cometh from thee cover up that which comes from thee. And you know something? Everything
that comes out of our natural heart, everything that it can
produce is the equivalent of human waste. It can be called
a bowel movement. Now, that's crude as it can be,
but the Scripture confronts us with these things. from the top
of our head to the sole of our feet, we're full of putrefying,
stinking, running sores. And that's all we can produce.
And it comes from the uttermost being of a man. The heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That means
it can't be healed. It can't be cured. And it's equivalent
in God's eyes. or more so, exceedingly more
so, as to human waste would be in our own eyes. It has to be
covered up. What is it then that a man must
have? He's got to have a new heart.
Boy, he's got to have a new heart in him. Whatever comes out of
us has to be covered. We have to have a new heart and
a new spirit to worship Him, to love Him, to know Him, and
everything else that's of us All of this sin has to be covered. It must be covered. Don't you
thank God that there is something that covers it? Wayne taught
us in the fourth chapter of Romans not long ago, blessed is the
man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose transgressions are
covered. The blood of Jesus Christ washes,
it covers from sin. And he told the Thessalonican
church, the church there in the third chapter of Revelation,
he said, By me, white raiment, that you may be clothed, that
the shame of your nakedness do not appear. So we are vile. Old
Luther said, Next time the devil comes to you and says you are
vile, agree with him. You are worthy of hell. Yes,
I am. I am awful. The half has never
been told. But Jesus Christ is my charity. That's what Luther said. Tell
it. Jesus Christ has made atonement for my sin. And His robe of righteousness
that He worked out Himself clothes my shame. And His blood washes
me from all my sin. Tell the devil that. And cleave
to him for that. Are you bad in your own sight?
Do you appear as a vile movement sometimes? Let's be crude about
it. Don't you appear that way? That's an awful way to say that. Job said, I'm vile. That holy
man that God said, I see no fault in him, Job said, I'm vile. I'm
vile. But not in Christ. In Christ
he's accepted. In Christ he's justified. In
Christ he's robed in a pure righteousness. Two more verses and we'll close.
Oh my goodness. Let's look at these two verses
right quick. Verse 15 and verse 16. Thou shalt not deliver unto his
master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He
shall dwell with thee even among you in that place which he shall
choose and one of thy gates where it lacketh him best. Thou shalt
not oppress him." Now, this was a slave that was being abused,
probably from some heathen. It wasn't a slave that loved
his master. If he loved his master, he'd
never left him. If he loved his master, he'd tuck that ear and
bore a hole in it and say, I'm staying with my master. I love
him. I'm going to serve him. It wasn't a slave that just had
a little spat with his master, or he'd have been told to stay
home. Remember when the angel sent Hagar back home to Sarah
and Abraham? You go back home. You just had
a little breakup. It's all right. Go back home. This was a man
that had been oppressed. He had been abused. He had been
beaten unjustly by his master. And he fled. from some of the
heathen countries and he fled to the land of Israel. And the
reason they often did this and the reason the enemy soldiers
often gave up to Israel, because everybody heard that the Israelites
loved the Lord and they were a merciful people. So boy, everybody
that was in trouble, they fled there to the land of Israel.
It was a city of refuge that country was. But this was a man who was oppressed,
afflicted, tormented by his master. And he went there. And when he
got there, the Lord instructed them, Don't you oppress him?
And wherever he wants to dwell, you let him dwell. Man, wouldn't
that have been something? You went from a slave, you went
right into amongst these people that you got to pick the place
where you wanted to choose. Well, we see a good picture in
that, don't we? If a man is sick, If a man is sick and tired, I
mean, he's just tired. He said, I'm not going to dwell
here anymore. I'm tired of sin having dominion
over me. I'm tired of living under the
oppression of Satan. He's a taskmaster that I've come
to hate. And when a man comes, it ain't
just a little falling out with Satan and sin, but he's had it. And he said, I want a new master.
I want a good Master. And he escapes and he flees to
the Lord Jesus Christ. What does the Lord Jesus do?
He receives him, doesn't He? He receives him. And He won't
oppress him and He won't let anybody else oppress Him. He's
delivered from that. Has He ever oppressed you? Has
the Lord Jesus ever oppressed you? Ain't He been a wonderful
master? Ain't He a gracious? Don't you love His service? And when a poor old slave gets
there and he's freed from the dominion of sin, he's freed from
the tyranny of the devil, and he says, Lord Jesus, I'd
like to dwell in heavenly places. Well, you've got it. And he lets
him dwell in heavenly places in Christ. And if he says, I
want to dwell in the Father's house, you know something? You'll
get to dwell there too one day. He'll dwell in the Father's house.
Wherever he chooses, the poor slave can dwell there because
he's not a slave anymore. And we're told here the Lord
Jesus will never give him up. Oh, the devil comes sometimes
and he thinks, I'll get him back. I'll get him back. He never will
though. Lord ain't going to give him
up. Lord's going to have to cast him out before the devil gets
him again. And the Lord said, I'll never cast him out, didn't
He? I'll never cast him out. And that word there means for
no reason, for no cause. He that cometh to Me, I will
in no wise cast him out. Never will cast him out. The
devil's never going to take him back into His service again,
to make him His slave again. What good principles these are.
Lord willing, we'll take up here next week in verse 17.