THROUGH THE BIBLE - Deuteron..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Brothers and sisters, by God's grace, we continue with this endeavor that the Lord has given us from the very beginning of this church that we have started to read chapter by chapter from Genesis chapter 1 with the goal and with the desire not only to understand and to comprehend the development of the history of the story of redemption, but also to have an understanding of how the Lord Jesus Christ is the center of all the scriptures. And by His grace, we started in Genesis chapter 1 and now we are here in chapter 15 of the book of Deuteronomy.

And what we are about to read, if I can get your attention, my dear soul, What we're going to read here is once again an exhortation off Moses as he's preaching these burden to the people of Israel as they're about to enter into the promised land. He continues to preach and He continues to exhort the people of Israel, giving them different exhortations of things that they should apply, and things that they should follow, and instructions that they should be very careful to submit themselves to, once they make it into the Promised Land. And chapter 15, of course, is not going to be the exception to that preaching of Moses. And what we are going to be reading here together is basically two different things. Even perhaps chapter 15 in your Bibles may be even divided into those two sections.

I'm not sure if that is the case. But if we were going to summarize this chapter 15 in two different points or two different questions, the first question would be, how are the people of Israel to deal with the poor once they make it into the promised land? Why are the people of Israel, the covenant people of God, what are they to do? How are they going to deal with the poor once they make it into the promised land? That is the first thing that this chapter is going to answer.

And the second thing that this chapter that we are about to read is going to answer is what is the people, what are the people of Israel going to do with the male that is the firstborn among the animals. Two different questions that this chapter is going to answer. The first one is in relation to the poor. What are they supposed to do with the poor? And as we are going to read now in detail, the answer that Moses is going to give or the exhortation that the Lord gives to the people of Israel is that once they make it into the promised land, they are to provide for the poor and They are to provide for the poor from the heart, with an honest heart, they are to provide for the poor.

And also that they are to be merciful to the poor in that they are going to forgive their debts every seven years. What are the people of Israel supposed to do with the poor once they make it into the promised land? They are to provide for the poor and they are to forgive their debts every seven years. And what are the people of Israel supposed to do with the male, the firstborn among the animals, the simple answer to that is that they are to consecrate the first, the male, the firstborn of the animals, they are to consecrate that. We are going to read that in much detail here in Chapter 15.

So I'm going to invite you to with reverence before the Lord and faith, knowing that the scripture has been given to us for our edification, that we will be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read together Deuteronomy Chapter 15 in light of those two points. What are the people of God supposed to do with the poor and also with the first born of the male of the animals? This is Deuteronomy chapter 15. Let's read together carefully the word of the Lord.

At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it off his neighbor. his brother because the Lord's release has been proclaimed of a foreigner.

You may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother, you shall release. Your hand shall release. But there will be no poor among you, for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance to possess. If only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I commend you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as He promised you, And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

And you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. If among you one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God has given you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and let him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care, lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart. And you say the seventh year, the year of release is near and your eye look gradually on your poor brother and you give him nothing. And he cried to the Lord against you and you be guilty of sin.

You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake, for there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I commend you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold or given to you, he shall serve to he shall serve you six years and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor and out of your wine press.

As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I commend you this day. But if he says to you, I will not go out from you because he loves you and you and your household, since he is well off with you, then you shall take all and put it through his ear into the door. And he shall be your slave forever.

And to your female slave, you shall do the same. You shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you. But at the half cost of a high worker, he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do." Second section, verse 19.

all the firstborn male that are born of your herd and flock, you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor sheared in the firstborn of your flock. You shall eat it, and you and your household before the Lord your God, year by year at the place that the Lord will choose. But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has any serious blemish, whatever you shall not sacrifices to the Lord your God. You shall eat it within your towns.

The unclean and the clean alike might eat it as though it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water. This is the word of the Lord. My dear soul, my brother and sister and friends who are with us here in this room or within the sound of my voice, those who are online.

As I said to you, my desire was to share from this chapter a couple of things. First of all, I wanted you to see here how the people of Israel were supposed to deal with the poor once they make it into the promised land. And the answer to that question is that the people of Israel were supposed to provide for the poor in the land once they make it into the promised land. And if they were providing for the poor every seven years, what is called the sabbatical year, they were to release or to forgive the debt of that which they have given or lent to the poor. They were to release that debt.

The people of Israel were expected to have a heart that was going to support one another and they were going to forgive the debt every seven years. As I said, the second main important point of this chapter was that the Lord is expecting that the firstborn of the male of the herd and the flock was supposed to be consecrated in Jerusalem at the temple every single year. So the first born of the male was supposed to be taken to Jerusalem to the temple and to be consecrated and then that to be eaten by the household. If the animal was with a blemish then they were not supposed to consecrate it because it was not ceremonially acceptable before the Lord but they were supposed to eat it only. My desire from these two things, and primarily the first point that we see in chapter 15, Beloved of Jesus Christ, is to point your soul to the glorious faithfulness of God in keeping His covenant for the salvation of your soul.

What I want to do is direct your heart, direct your soul, direct your mind to the glorious faithfulness of the God of this universe in keeping His covenant with the ultimate purpose of the salvation of your soul. Whoever you are within the sound of my voice, if by grace through faith you have been inserted into the person of Jesus Christ by the mighty power of the gospel, then under the authority of the scripture, what I want to show to you from Deuteronomy chapter 15, The first portion of this chapter is God's glorious faithfulness in keeping His covenant for the salvation of your soul. And what I mean in simple words is just the divine commitment, the commitment of God. in eternity, for the keeping of his faithfulness in the salvation of your soul. Let me bring you to the New Testament to explain my point, and then I will show it to you in this chapter.

If you come with me to Titus chapter one, please come with me to Titus chapter one. And in Titus chapter one, I will show you from the New Testament what I desire to share with you from what we have read in Deuteronomy chapter 15. Titus chapter one. I have said, brother, sister, dear soul within the sound of my voice that what I want to do under the authority of the scriptures and I hope by the help and assistance of the Holy Spirit is to show to you the faithfulness of God in keeping his covenant for the salvation of your soul. That from Deuteronomy chapter 15.

And that faithfulness of God, that commitment of God for the salvation of your soul is very well explained here in the first three verses of Titus in chapter number one. Here the apostle basically is going to tell the church and the new covenant believers that the purpose of his ministry is the edification of God's elect according to a promise of eternal life that God gave before the foundation of the world. Let us read together these three verses in Titus chapter 1. It says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect under knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began, and at the proper time manifested in His Word through the preaching, with which I have been entrusted by the command of God and our Savior."

That is the word of the Lord. Now, brother, sister, I want you to see here what the Apostle Paul is doing. He's basically telling that for the sake of God's elect, he has been chosen to be a preacher of the word of God. And the proclamation of that word of God is this hope of an eternal life that they have God's elect. which God has promised, it says here, before the foundation of the world, before the ages began.

eternal life that is the hope of our eternity that God has promised before the ages began before everything was created the heavens and the earth between before men was created between before everything was created God promised that there was going to be a eternal life. And the proclamation of the message of eternal life is for the edification of God's elect here, according to the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Now, my dear brother, my dear sister, we are to think very carefully about these words because we are told here in this text, first of all, that God promised before the ages began that there was going to be eternal life. And that is for the church, for God's elect, for the people. And second, we are told that God does not lie.

So if we were going to summarize everything that has been created and everything that has been done, we could say that what we see with our eyes, the creation that we see, the days that pass, is just simply us seeing how God is working out the fulfillment of that promise that he gave before the foundation of the world or before the ages began. He said that there is going to be eternal life and he gave that promise and God who cannot lie will bring that promise to fulfillment. Now why is this very important? This is very important because this shows us God's faithfulness for the salvation of your soul if you are in Jesus Christ and also shows us that there's absolutely nothing that can happen in creation that will prevent God from bringing to fulfillment that promise of eternal life. Absolutely nothing can happen in creation that will oppose the fulfillment of God's promise in bringing eternal life for God's elect.

Even the unfaithfulness of God's people. The first place where I want to call your attention is just simply to creation. God created everything in six days. Then He created Adam and Eve upright and without sin. He gave them this commandment.

If they eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will die. They ate of it. They disobeyed the commandment of the Lord. Indeed, they spiritually died. Up to that point, the Lord could have brought fullness of judgment.

That could have been the end of absolutely everything that has been created. Because they disobeyed the Lord. But God was so committed to bring the promise of eternal life for God's elect, those who were chosen in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, that he did not only allow creation to continue and to go day after day, spiritually dead, but he allowed and continued to do, but he came out of the garden to have communion with those who have fallen and those who had committed unrighteousness against him. He was so committed to the fulfillment of this promise of eternal life that even the unfaithfulness of those who were created upright and righteous was not going to be an obstacle or a challenge to the fulfillment of that glorious and very important promise. The disposition, the divine disposition of God in the garden is that you should not eat of that fruit.

You should not disobey. But even with the disobedience of those who were created, God created or God designed a way in which he was going to bring the promise of eternal life to fulfillment. We have exactly the same pattern in Deuteronomy chapter 15. If you come with me, return to that chapter, please. And I will show you how exactly the same desire of the Lord and exactly what happened in the garden is what is happening also here in Deuteronomy chapter 15.

the garden God said to Adam and Eve that they were supposed not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they were supposed to remain in obedience if not judgment was going to come and judgment indeed came and it was a spiritual judgment but even in the midst of decree and carry out a way to allow a sinful and rebellious people to endure through the days. Why? Just for the purpose of the salvation of the soul of Christ's people. Here in Jeremiah chapter 15 we have God's desire for God's people once they make it into the promised land. Pay attention to verse 4.

It says, let's just read from verse 1. At the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release, that is, you will forgive the debt, right? And this is the manner of the release or the forgiveness of the debt. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed, the forgiveness of debt.

Then it says in verse three, of a foreigner you may exact it, if that's how you pronounce that word. Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release it. Now be with me here. First thing that I want you to notice is that there is a distinction. There is a distinction between the foreigner and the people of God, those who are going to make it into the promised land.

And as I said to you, this chapter is teaching us how we're supposed to deal with the poor once they make it into the promised land. The poor is the one that was going to come to the brother and said, I have need. Please give me of what you have and what the Lord has blessed you because I am in need. And then the brother was supposed to provide for the poor. And every seven years, they were supposed to forgive or to release the debt.

But here we have the divine intention or prerogative, I think is the word that you have in English in verse four. It says, but there will be no poor among you." It's a statement. It says, there will be no poor among you. And he's going to qualify this statement, this desire of God for the people of God once they make it into the promised land.

There will be no poor among you. for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance to possess. That is, in the land nobody is going to be a poor. Why? Because the Lord is going to bless you and then he's going to give the qualifier of God's blessing for the people of Israel in the land.

It says, if only You will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as He promised you. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you." You see it here, brother, sister?

The promise and the desire of the Lord for the people of Israel once they make it into the promised land is, you will have no power. There will be no poverty among you. Because if you fully obey the commandments of the Lord, then the promise of God will come upon you and you will be prosperous. Everyone in the promised land will have what they need. will be so much the blessing that will come upon you because of your strict obedience to each one of the commandments that you will give to the nations and you will rule over the nations that was the divine prerogative for the fulfillment of the promise but then we have two ifs seven if among you one of your brothers should become poor Lord, what are you doing?

Are you contradicting yourself in the scriptures? You have just said in verse 4 that there will be no poor in the promised land. And then it says in verse 7, if among you one of your brothers should become poor, and not even that, in verse 12 we see this, if your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, The Hebrew brother or the Hebrew sister will sell themselves in slavery to their brothers because they were rich? No, because they were poor. Even in verse 11, we're given that statement.

For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I commend you. You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. Do you see what is happening here? The commandment, the intention better of the Lord is there's not going to be poor in the land.

Only if you strictly obey all that I have commended you. If you follow it strictly, each one of the instructions that I have given you, then you're going to receive the blessing of this covenant. And the blessing of that covenant is that there will be no poor and you will be so rich and so blessed that you are going to be the source of blessing for other nations. But at the same time, the Lord says, I know that you will disobey. I know that you will not fulfill the commandments, that you will not follow the commandments that I'm giving you, and hence there will be poor.

And when there is poor, the poor person among you, this is how you are supposed to act. Adam and Eve, you are not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But when they disobeyed that commandment, the Lord in His commitment to allow that everything will continue outside of the garden, He came with them outside of the garden. And now the Lord comes to regulate the fallenness of the humanity that He had initially created. In the same way that God regulates with law given to these people of Israel to Regulating, if you allow me to use the word twice, they're in unrighteousness.

Why would God do so? Why would God allow his people, not only to disobey as they will disobey, but to continue and to continue in disobedience and even the Lord will give them laws and regulations to regulate their disobedience. Well, so that the judgment of God will not come upon the people of God in fullness. And they will disappear. And the story of redemption will come to an end.

Because Israel was only a step in a whole purpose that had started before the ages began. He promised eternal life. the foundation of the world and there was nothing that was going to take place through time that was going to oppose the fulfillment of this promise of eternal life given to his people not even the unfaithfulness of those who profess to be people of God so that under the covenant given to Moses there will be a man who will be born under the law this covenant preserved and kept no because of the faithfulness of the people of Israel but besides and despite of the unfaithfulness and the unrighteousness of the people of Israel so that a man will be born under the law will be born under this mosaic covenant a man who was not only a man but a man who was God himself coming down from heaven from eternity past to whom the promise of eternal life was given so that he will come as the Israelite indeed The One that is pure and without sin and imperfection. And He will fulfill not only the requirements of the Mosaic Covenant. But more importantly the requirements that the Father had given Him before the ages began.

Not only to fulfill that on behalf of the people of Israel. Those who by faith will receive Him as Savior. But on behalf of all people who have ever been created. That is God's elect. have been chosen before the foundation of the world in Jesus Christ and though to those people God select the faithfulness of God will be demonstrated so when we see brother and sister my dear soul Every single failure of the people of Israel under the Old Covenant.

And every single manifestation of God's grace and God's mercy in allowing the people of Israel to continue and to continue. And not only that, but all the regulations that God gives to the people of Israel for them to preserve and be kept as a nation. The purpose of that is not only that Jesus Christ will come and be born in the people of Israel, but that by the establishment of a better covenant, your soul will be saved. God could have easily brought everything to an end with the sin of Adam and Eve. If he executed the fullness of judgment, and if he did not allow time to continue, he would have been completely just to do so.

He could have brought fullness and the completeness of judgment upon the people of Israel, and then through them, through the nations, and then come to an end with everything. He could have concluded everything before you were born. But God gave a promise of eternal life, and he cannot lie. And in that promise that God the Father gave to the Son, there was not only a church in a collective sense given to the Son, but every single person of God's elect your soul, your name, your heart, your being, if you are in Jesus Christ. That is, that not even the unfaithfulness of those covenant members will be able to oppose the glorious fulfillment of this promise of eternal life that God has given before the ages began.

Why? It's only because God is able? It's only because God is God and He's able to do all of these things? Yes, in a sense. But more than that, it's just because there was a man.

who came in the likeness of your flesh, who came down, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but in the appearance of men, came down, not only as God, but also a representative of your soul, to fulfill all the requirements that God had for him, that we could never ever fulfill, so that we will be the recipients of this glorious promise of eternal life, And even though we are amazed at the might and the power of God in all of these things that he has done through history, we are to be more amazed and impacted and taken and transformed for the person of Jesus Christ, who is not only the one who received the promise of eternal life, but as I said to you, he is the eternal life that God's elect received by the Holy Spirit. So then we can have absolute certainty that even though we continue to walk through this pilgrimage, we can have absolute certainty that not even the unfaithfulness of my heart will go and oppose and challenge the faithfulness that God has had in His Son to bring my soul to the consummation of eternal life, and that the mercy of God is clearly manifested. That if God was going to count anything of my works, or anything of my deeds, or anything of my thoughts, or any of my words, that if God was going to take into account any of your efforts, then that would be the end of the promise of eternal life. But my salvation, your salvation, rests upon the fact that in eternity past, God who knew you in Christ, God who knew the sins that you committed, the sins that you are committing, and the sins that you will commit in Jesus Christ, is separated unto himself by people, so that in the end, he will give unto himself. And everything, everyone and everything that has been created will praise God because of the glorious fulfillment of eternal life.

Amen.