I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach. I got looking at this chapter and when I looked at it and studied it over, I felt like the best way to approach these next little phase here and as we get into some of these deeper waters, and when I say deeper waters, I'm going to say this, from the flesh's standpoint, boring, monotonous material. From the Spirit's standpoint, every word of God is pure, and I've committed to preach through my Bible, and I believe that that's why there's been growth, why I'm still excited about what I'm doing. I may not always look excited, may not have the same energy level every service. I mean, my word, man, Sunday I was standing up here and just had this incredible increasing, ridiculous pain in my knee. So bad. By the time I got home Sunday night, it was waking me up all night. I was limping all over on Monday. I thought I tore cartilage in my knee. And then I woke up yesterday feeling about 80% better, and today I'm 90% better. But it was so ridiculous, burning. I could not bend my knee all the way up. I couldn't squat, I could hardly nothing. I was getting in the car like an old man. My wife thought I was dying or something. She said, man, you're not even 40 yet and you're acting like this already? But no, she was actually worried about me because she's sweet. I'm just messing around. But no, man, it was bad. But it happened while I was up here preaching. It just distracted me. you weren't quite high energy yet." Well, you know, I kind of wasn't going to be like, my knee hurts. You know, but I mean, you got to do your thing, you know. But honestly, I am so excited about serving Jesus Christ. I'm so excited about just staying faithful. I'm excited about my family, just where my kids are at. And it's just good, man. We got a good 10 years in front of us, and we're just going to keep going through the Bible and doing it together. For me, it's helping me a lot because I'm studying, I'm getting stuff, digging down. And every service, though, is not always going to be the same. And if I pace myself or I allow God to set the pace, I think we'll be better off. than if I always try to push it. And when we get into here, if I try to push it through these chapters, we're going to miss a lot of stuff. And so I'm going to take a little bit of an approach here, a little more like Wednesday night for the next couple of weeks. I'm sorry, Sunday night for the next couple of weeks, like we go through Proverbs. So I probably won't be preaching at you on Wednesday nights for a little while, but that'll be all right. You come in here sometimes exhausted and don't want to be screamed at. Amen. But with God's help, we'll get some stuff out of here. God, except for Johnny, but he's sick in the head, so we don't let him set the pace. Amen. Just kidding. But no, I mean, God will give you some stuff out of here. And I got some stuff in here that I never noticed that I really was thankful for, some good stuff. So let's go ahead and read here. We're going to read just a few verses, verses 1-11, and we'll try to get through those tonight. I'm going to stop at 8 abruptly, just like we would going through Proverbs, because we're going to do a verse-by-verse thing. Now, these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy in Hebrew servants, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid's servant, she shall not go out as the men's servants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. To sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he had betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish? And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. Let's pray. Father, we love you tonight. Thank you for the Word of God. I thank you, Lord, that nothing in this book is useless. Nothing in this book is insignificant. And Lord, I believe that. And I just pray now that you'd help our whole church to see that. And I pray you'd give us some food for our souls tonight. I pray it'd be refreshing. Lord, I know I'm not going to be preaching, I'm not going to be all wound up, but I do pray that you'd minister to hearts and that folks would be glad that they came tonight. and that there'd be a real refreshing spirit here. We ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. First thing I notice in verse number one, Off to a bad start, a real bad start, because not only here in the first verse are we already politically completely incorrect, and religiously completely incorrect. When I say religiously, I mean like the standard going religion of the day, the modern day religion, the new age religion, is totally against verse number one. So not only are we incorrect that way, but we're going to be real politically incorrect here in just a minute. I'm going to show you Bible. I'm going to give you Bible for what we believe. And with God's help, a fair balance on it all. There's some stuff in here when you start going through your Old Testament that is mind boggling. Man, I mean, you see, I'll just throw an example out there. God tells them to go in there and wipe out the women and the children and everything. Now, that is not an American way. But that's God's way. And people say, well, how could God and why would God, what a bloody God? No, you know what God saw? God saw that, listen, first of all, those children die in infancy, where do they go? Where would they have gone if they'd have grown up in that heathen nation? So first of all, there's a hidden mercy there from God that nobody knows about that's an eternal mercy, and people judge God based on 70 years. Number two, God knows what's going to happen with those kids. When they grow up, you know what they're going to do to the children of Israel's kids? Those kids were going to kill your kids. So God says, when you go to war, wipe them out. You see what I'm saying? But you run across this stuff in the Old Testament and people just so quickly judge God and they close their minds and they say, well, that doesn't make sense. And they don't think it through and run the references and look at the balance on the thing. We're going to look at the truth. We're going to look at the balance on it. And it'll make a lot of sense to you, but this book's going to go completely against your culture, completely against your television, completely against even sometimes the way you feel. And that happens to me all the time. I don't like the way that feels, but it's truth. So the first thing I notice is these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. God passes judgment and declares to Moses what the judgment is and says, Moses, here's what you're to do. You're to go judge people. You know why this is significant? Because everybody nowadays, people that aren't even in church, people that aren't even saved, they always know a couple verses in your Bible. They know Jesus turned the water to wine. Every time. You know what else they know? Judge not that ye be not judged. Every time. Now, you don't know any Bible at all, but you're going to turn to me and go, Judge not that ye be not judged. They have no idea the word judge appears 191 times in your Bible. They know that one verse. They have no idea the word judgment appears 294 times in your Bible. They know that one verse. They have no idea the word judgeth occurs 17 times in your Bible. They know that one verse. That brings the total, the root word judge or judgment or judgeth, the total is 502 times the word shows up in your Bible. You know how many chapters there are in your Bible? Who knows? Chapters, not books, chapters. 1189, 1,189. 502 times the word judge in some derivative thereof shows up. That means every 2.36 chapters. Every 2.36, you know you gotta read four chapters a day to get through your Bible in a year. Every day of your life, if you're reading through your Bible in a year, God has it designed where every day of your life, you're getting one and a what? One and a percentage. of the word judge or something about judgeth or judged or somewhere along the line, every day you're getting judgment. Don't tell me I don't judge. Yes, you do. When you were driving down the road, you saw that signal and it went red and you judged that signal. you hit your brake. That was passing judgment. Because if you just ran through that signal, I don't want to judge that signal, red is negative, I'm just going to assume it's green because I'm a positive thinker. You just plow right through it, you pass no judgment and you died or you killed somebody. We live our lives by judgment. You look at a menu at the restaurant, you know what you do? You judge that menu. You eat the food, you know what you do? You judge that food. You know what you do when you get dressed? I hope you judge your clothes. Does this match or not? That's judgment. People are so weird about this stuff. Judgment is not a negative thing. You know what causes somebody's reaction in their heart to go completely berserk over the Word or being judged? Do you know what it is? It's a guilty conscience. It is proof of guilt. Well, brother, we need to call a deacons meeting. We're going to judge your preaching. Okay, let's go. Okay. Let's talk. Has it been unbiblical? If my conscience is clean, I'm ready. Amen. But if I've been slacking off and not been giving much Bible and doing a lot of opinionated preaching and not showing you verse by verse, man, I'd be like, who are you to judge me? Right? You get hypersensitive over it and there's guilt. You live in a guilty nation. Look at Matthew 7, verse 1. Proof of guilt is the hypersensitivity to being judged. You want to judge me? I'll show you the facts. It never bothers me when I'm right. Amen? Come on, you're the same way, right? But when you're wrong, it's aggravating. Matthew chapter 7 verse 1. Here it is. Judge not that ye be not judged. Shows you the IQ level, you know, they never pick a really hard verse, they always pick the short, Jesus wept, you know, like, good for you. I got a verse memorized too, you know. Here's the problem. Here's the problem. Go back to Matthew chapter five. Verse 1, And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them. This is the beginning of the message that is continued through chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7. This is where Jesus gives the introduction to his message. When they quote, Judge not that ye be not judged, Matthew 7, 1. They are quoting one verse out of a three chapter sermon, pulling it completely out of context and throwing it at you to tell you, you can't say this, that or the other is wrong. Who are you to judge somebody else? Well, I'm nobody. It's God that passes judgment. We're supposed to judge righteous judgment. So this thing is to be judged according to the word of God, right? So we're looking at the word of God. They're quoting this at you. He opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is what? Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that are meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Look at verse 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is what? In the introduction to His message, going through the Beatitudes, what is He preaching? Is he preaching to the church? He's preaching the constitution for the kingdom. This is the kingdom of heaven doctrine. Now, just for those of you that may be newer and trying to put all this together, the kingdom of heaven is coming in the future. It's not here now. It's coming in the future. It's a 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ when he's here on this earth in Jerusalem, set up on the throne of David, ruling the entire world from Jerusalem. That's the kingdom of heaven. It's coming in the future. It's not here now. So Jesus is preaching the kingdom of heaven through this portion. Go over to Matthew chapter 7 and look at the end. Look at verse 28. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, He started in Matthew 5 and He ran all the way through to the end of Matthew 7. And when He had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His what? You know what He has given them in Matthew 7? The doctrine for the kingdom of heaven. Not Paul's doctrine for the church age, the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven. So that's all, the direct application of all of that is the millennial kingdom. What's going to go on while Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning on this earth. How about if you call a man a fool, you're in danger of horror fire. You ever call somebody a fool? All right, guy's an idiot. Guy's a fool. His IQ is in somewhere in the negatives. You're going to go to hell over that? You're not going to lose your salvation over that. In the millennial kingdom, they called their brother a fool, and guess what happens? So you've got to be careful about that stuff. They just throw out a verse and have the wrong application. So for you and I today, are we to be judging or not? Look at James chapter 4. Now, when you're in the book of James, don't forget you're doctrinally dealing with the tribulation period. James chapter 4, verse 11. Speak not evil one of another brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. So he's saying here, don't be attacking your brother's person. Don't attack an individual. Here's where we get messed up in our doctrine, in our application of judgment. Bible believers, a lot of Christians do this. They'll come up on somebody about a sin, a particular sin, whatever, you know, you just pick it, it doesn't matter. It's always a sin that that Christian is not committing. Amen, amen, amen, amen. or nobody knows they're committing, or they don't realize they're committing because it's spiritually done in the heart, not physically acted out. But anyways, and they begin, you are a, you are, and they make it so personal that it really drives people away. You know what we all are? Sinners. We're all sinners. I am a born again sinner. Thank God for that. I found mercy. I had my sin judged at Calvary. Thank God for the judgment that was passed on Jesus Christ, and I traded places with Him. I accepted Him as my Savior. He took my judgment. I took His righteousness. I'm nothing more than a sinner. What sins do I commit? Well, I've lied, haven't you? Oh, come on. I've stolen, haven't you? Oh, yeah, you never sat down on the clock when the boss wasn't looking? You're a thief. Right? Isn't that stealing? He's paying you and you weren't working. You stole. You know, we're all, you've got specific sins you're guilty of. Other people have specific sins they're guilty of. So to point out that that is a sin and it's wrong and you're committing it, that's one thing. To attack a brother over it isn't the right spirit about that. To attack a lost person, how are you going to win a lost person to Jesus Christ if you're attacking them? You know what they always do with me? They always, whatever, I think it's my face. I don't know what my aura, you know? They always come right after me about their sin and they wanna get me to call them a name. Just straight at me and just try to make that the issue. I refuse to allow them to have that win. I always move around that and say, well, that's not really the issue. That, yes, according to the Bible, that is a sin you're committing, but that's not the issue. The issue is that we're all sinners. The Bible says we're all sinners. See, be careful about being too harsh on people. Look at 1 Corinthians 2, though. 1 Corinthians 2. So God's laying out judgments here for Israel, and He's going to take them down through some things and show them some judgments. 1 Corinthians 2, look at verse 15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all what? yet he himself is judged of no man. If you're spiritual, what are you gonna do? Judge everything. Everything. If we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged. My wife and I do this every so often. We just sit down and we talk about how we're doing with the kids. We don't attack each other about each other's faults. We talk about how we're doing as a couple with the kids. How we're doing. You ever judge and evaluate how you're influencing your spouse? It's real easy not to even think about that, you know? It's real easy. It's real easy to gossip with your spouse because they're your spouse and you're just being yourselves and you're free to talk. You ever consider how you're, judge, judge stuff. Judge what's going on, judge the situation. I judge my children incessantly. And it's not like yelling at them, judging them in their face, but I'm watching them, and I'm thinking, I was yesterday sitting on the porch, they were playing in the yard, they were being crazy, hilarious, I mean, I won't even tell you. It was nuts, it was just nuts. And I was watching them, and I was thinking about every one of them, like, cause I'm watching them grow up, and I'm thinking teen years, and I'm thinking personality traits, and I'm thinking what to watch for, and what I'm gonna need to work on, and what I'm gonna need to watch out for. What's that judgment? I need to learn to judge. See, it doesn't always have to be negative. Are you following me? We just bowl through our lives sometimes, every day, doing the same behavior patterns, the same things, committing the same acts, stuck in our cycle, running like a hamster on the wheel, and never get anywhere, because we don't step back and start judging stuff. How am I doing? How am I talking? I didn't mean it that way, but how did I sound? Amen. Look at another verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 5. This one will kind of be a little politically incorrect, but God wrote it. You can take it up with Him when you see Him, if you got the guts. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioner, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now how about that? You were told right there in the church age Paul's doctrine to the church to judge a wicked person in the assembly. If somebody's faithfully attending church, and I'm not talking about somebody coming and just getting started, trying to grow, you know what I mean? That's apples and oranges to somebody faithfully attending the service, and he's committing fornication, and he's just in everybody's face about it, and he's bragging about it, and I'm under grace, and he says, you're supposed to judge that stuff. Why? Because that's our job. Them that are without God judge it. He says, don't company with fornicators. You know the sin that was going on in Corinthians, the guy with his dad's wife, his step-mom or whatever it would be, and carrying that thing on, and the whole church knew about it, and they were all being gracious and turning the blind eye. The guy's a faithful, he's just rubbing his sin in the face of the church. Now, some of you are like, well, I've got struggles in my life. You're not walking around rubbing it in the face of the church, you're struggling. You see the difference? God says, judge that guy. Why? Deal with that guy. Why? Because it's our duty. Now how about that? Over there in James, don't judge a brother. Now in Corinthians, judge the brethren. James' doctrine of the tribulation period. And I think that thing is making it clear that like, look man, we're not trying to say you're a useless human being or that we're better than you. Because that's what they always go to. Every time somebody gets busted, what do you think you're better than me? It's like, it doesn't matter if they're 50 or five. That is like the natural human nature childish response. Do you think you're better than me? No, I'm not judging you personally, but the Bible says we're to judge this stuff. I mean, you know, God bless you. There has to be order in a church. Judgment has to be passed. I'll never forget at the storefront. I mean, praise the Lord. We had a bunch of smokers. Praise the Lord, man. I want to reach people. You understand that? And smoking doesn't, you know, put you in hell. It just makes you smell like you've been there, but it doesn't put you in hell, amen? Okay? So they're standing right outside the front door. And I mean, there'd be like 20 of them. We're going after trying to reach people. I loved it. I just I loved walking through a cloud of smoke to get into the church service because I was out knocking on those doors and trying to reach people, man. It was just invigorating. And I preach hellfire and damnation at them every week. And they keep coming back. Pastor Michael, tell it like it is, man. And we're never going to change. But we love listening to you go crazy. He jumped over the pulpit, you know. I mean, it was just it was just man, it was just something was refreshing about it. It was just cool. It wasn't like, you know, Everybody in their suits on, I think that's great, wear them. But you know what I mean? There was something about it that I love. But it got to a point where some of the kids are going home, wearing around with a cigarette, a crayon in their mouth, a crayon in their mouth, pretending like they're smoking. And the parents are like, what are you doing? And they said, well, the guys at church do it. So I said, hey, I offended half my church, a third of my church. I said, all you smokers, you've got to start going around back. And put your butts in a can and throw them away when you're done. Don't leave them all over the ground. We're renting this place, and we don't need to be making a mess, being a bad... Well, you know what? I'm sorry. I'm not putting you down. You're welcome to come to church. I knocked on your door, I brought you, I answer my phone when you call. Don't be a baby about it. But you gotta get out of the way, why? Because you're affecting the church. Making sense? That's judgment, it's gotta happen. Back in Exodus, wherever we're at, Exodus 21. I'm making fun of myself. See, you can't be too sensitive with me. I forget my wife's birthday and I make fun of myself on the pulpit. All right, verse 2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee, and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. Now we come to some very hot topics. Notice, first of all, it does not say slave. It says servant. What about slavery? The slavery that you and I have seen in our lifetime and you still see going on is wrong. It's absolutely wrong. And the Bible is going to show you that. There was a right way to do this and a wrong way to do it. Notice first of all in verse 2, if thou by a what servant? They weren't going to other nations and kidnapping people and bringing them into Israel and turning other races that they felt were inferior races because they were Jews and the rest of the world's dogs, right? They weren't capturing people and bringing them in and forcing them to be slaves. You realize there's a lot of that going on in the world still? Bible calls them in the New Testament, Paul says in Timothy, talking about if a man, the law is good, if a man use it lawfully, it's made for the ungodly and for sinners, unholy and profane, murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers, men-stealers is in there, perjured persons. It's wrong to steal somebody or to come in at gunpoint, because you've got a bunch of people over here that are in some more heathen tribe or some third world country and they don't have any law and order, and kidnap people and bring them and sell them. Here, he says, if thou buy a Hebrew servant, they're buying their own people. So this thing, according to God, is going to start out on the right foot. The word slave only shows up twice in your Bible. Jeremiah 2.14 and Revelation 18.13. Look at Jeremiah 2.14. If you can't find it, you can just listen. I'll read it to you. But Jeremiah 2.14. Is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave? Why is he spoiled? You know what God's saying? He's talking about judgment. This is Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Israel's in a mess. And He's saying, is Israel a servant? Is Israel an unborn slave? That's one of the two times the word slave shows up in your Bible. Anywhere in there you find God encouraging that? Slavery? Or saying slavery was the right thing? Not at all. Let's go over to Revelation chapter 18. See, people, this is important for you to get a hold of, you guys, because you will run into those agnostic, atheist, hedonistic, or even many of your Christians that don't believe your Bible and just feel like it's outdated and they got this, like, Christianity that's floating around from where, because they don't really believe the Bible, but they supposedly believe in Jesus. It's really a bizarre thing to me. I mean, what's that belief attached to? They don't believe the Bible. And they will tell you, oh, there's slavery in the Old Testament. And you know what that leads everybody's mind to? That leads everybody's mind to the slavery that went on in the U.S. or the slavery that has gone on around the world. That was an unjust type of slavery. That leads everybody's mind right to that, this ogre God in heaven. Oh, you know, the Bible tells people to kill babies. Oh, what kind of a, wow, then they lump them in with Islam. And it's a totally unfair judgment. It's uneducated. They have not educated themselves in the book that they want to criticize. So it's fine if you don't want to believe it or you don't want to study it or you're bored by it or you don't want to commit to church to try to check it out, your business, your soul, you'll see God, you'll spend your own eternity somewhere, your business. But don't judge a book you haven't fully read. That's just ignorance. That's just short-sighted, blind, bull-headed, stubborn, closed-minded bigotry. Amen. Revelation 18, 13. Look down there at the end. It says, horses and chariots and slaves and the souls of men. Not a good context. You know what they're talking about here in this passage. Not a good context. The great city is coming down. It's the mystery Babylon the Great. Where do you find slaves? Oh yeah, slaves are in the Bible. Never in a context set up by God. Servants are. And so look back at Exodus 21 too. Thou by a Hebrew servant, what do you do with him? Six years you work him, six years he shall serve. And in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing. You know what God says? What did God do? He worked six days, right? And on the seventh you rested. God says, you buy a Hebrew servant, you work him for six years and then you let him go and you don't even make him buy his way out. You let him go for free. He served you for six years, you let him go. You know what you could do in six years if you were a poor person who said, you know what, I can't really support, I don't come from a good pedigree, my parents weren't all that, they didn't leave me much and we just have a rough background. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go and I'm gonna There's a good guy over here, he's got a huge plantation and I can work for him for a long time. And I'll go over here and I'll work for this guy for six years. So your room's taken care of, your board's taken care of, you're working on a farm for a guy who's your own nation, serving the same God under the same laws you're supposed to live by. What a great start for somebody who's just starting out. What a great start for a poor guy who wouldn't have any other way to make it. You know what you didn't have in Israel? You didn't have homeless people wandering on the streets. begging the government for a handout. You had people that didn't have a job and couldn't work that could go ahead and be bought as a servant and work on a field and six years is plenty of time to save up a little bit and get a fresh start. See how nice God is? But these people, they look at this thing that God tells them, you buy a Hebrew servant, this is what you're allowed to do and this is what you're not allowed to do. Six years, you let him go free on the seventh year, period, the end. This is what you can and can't do. Look at verse 4, "'If his master hath given him a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.'" Oh, what a terrible God. Now, wait a second. His master did what? Gave him something that belonged to the master. That was not his wife. That was the master's servant. And the master said, all right, you can have her wife. Now, I'm going to show you in a second how God has the thing set up. It's a real test of Him and of His character, the servant's character. His master giving a wife, what happens? He has sons and daughters. What's going on in this time is that he's living off the good graces of the master. The master's supporting that woman. The master's supporting those children. He's a servant. He doesn't have the money to support them. He's like, you know, the deadbeat dad that won't take care of his kids. that you got all over the US. God has a way of taking care of that situation. You know what you always find with the deadbeat dad? You always find a sob story. There is always history and background, folks. A lot of guys wind up in jail for unpaid child support, and it's not for a lack of not trying. Sometimes they're seriously jammed up. They've made such a mess, they're trying to pay everything every direction, they can't keep up with it, they can't keep a good job, they've destroyed their lives. So you know, you go, deadbeat, you support your kids. Well, if you had the mess he had, I have a little bit of compassion. People get messed up, have a little heart. You know, you always look at them like, because why? Well, because we think of the kids, we think of the wife, and that's legit. That's totally legit. God has a system set up here that takes care of all that. And God says, if he gave his servant to you, the wife, and she had your children, then here's what you're to do. The wife and her children shall be her masters. He paid for it all. He supported it all. And he shall go out by himself on year seven. God said if he wants to leave, he can leave. But that woman and those kids were already taken care of. She was already taken care of. The kids came. They were taken care of. He has not proven his salt yet. He hasn't proven yet that he can take care of a family. He hasn't been in the situation. You know what God I think is doing? I think he's looking out for the underdog. I don't think this is God busting up a home. I think it's God looking out for that woman and those kids. He says they're not yours. Secondly, you don't get to walk in somewhere and leave and take with you what's not yours. You guys ever notice nowadays how you sign non-competes? Most everybody signs a non-compete, not a non-compete, but the at-will employment. You don't have to give a two-week notice, most everybody. Or even sometimes when they do ask for a two-week notice, what happens? You go in and you give your two-week notice, and what do they do? Buy. No, you're done. We don't do two-week notices. Oh, what am I going to do? Your problem. Well, I got two weeks till I get my next job. Your problem. I'm going to sue you. OK. Why do they do that? You know why they do it? Because of the character of people nowadays. You know what that person's going to do for those next two weeks? Nothing. And you know what else they're going to do? They're gonna voice every grievance, criticism, and complaint that they've had for however many years that they were there, and then they're gonna strut around for two weeks and they're gonna tell everybody how wonderful their new job is, because of course, I'm not making a mistake, and I did the right thing, and you wouldn't believe the deal I got and the situation I got, and yeah, by the way, I get a $500 sign-on bonus if I bring anybody to the company and they come and stay for more than three months, so you should come too. Anybody get those? You guys know what those are? Yeah. So you know what they do? They say, hit the road, Jack. You don't get to take people with you when you leave. You wanna go, go. You don't get to take people with you. But you live in a nation where the character is so low that they gotta say, just get. God says, when you go, you go, but you don't take, well, that's my family. No, you didn't come by it right. They were here when she was here. When you got here, you're leaving. You want to leave, leave. She stays and the kids stay. Now, ain't that strange? That's harsh judgment. Watch. God has a way of smoking it out, man. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. that his master shall bring him unto the judges, he shall also bring him to the door and unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever." You know what God just did? God made sure that that woman and those kids got a good man. He may never leave them much of an inheritance. He may never have much to leave them. They may never ride around in Mercedes Benz. They may never be able to wear the $500 suits and the $500 dresses, but they got a good man. They got a good dad. She's got a good husband. God smoked him out. God's not busting up a home. He's in a place where he got a wife. God connected him to a good woman and good children. And he loves his, first of all, loves who? The Master. Why would God put the Master first? Isn't that weird? And my wife, and my children. Christian, that's the order. The Master, then the wife, then the children. That's the order. We've taught our kids and we've discussed it with each other from before we had kids all the way to the present. The kids are there because of my love for Grace and her love for me. The kids don't come before the parents. The kids don't come between the parents. They are second to mom and dad. It is me and her. You know, oh, that's just so unfair. No, that makes kids more stable, more happy. And I hope that it'll train them and just brainwash them and just program them to one day when they marry their husband, to keep him first and not let the kids come between them. Amen. They are a byproduct of your love. They're a byproduct of your oneness. They are your oneness. These two shall become one flesh. What do you think that means? Yes, that applies spiritually in your soul and all that stuff. But it also applies physically. God's always more than one dimension to him. But anyways, so... He says this, if he loves his wife, loves his master, loves his wife, and loves his children, and says, I don't want to just go live my life. I want to be here. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall bring him, isn't this weird, to the what? Why is that weird? And he shall bring him to the door, and unto the door what? Anybody remember doorposts being mentioned? What was on them? What do you think happens when you bore a guy's ear through with a drill into wood? You know what happened? There was blood on the door post. And he used to stay for how long? Now, ain't that bizarre? Does anybody get the picture yet? You know who that is? That's your Savior. He could have gone out free. He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set Him free. He could have called 10,000 angels, but He died alone, because He loved His Master, and He loved His Bride, and He loved what She was going to bring forth. And He went ahead, and you know what He was scarred? Forever. He shows up in Revelation, and it says, "...shall look on Him whom they pierced." He shows up, the Bible tells you, over in Revelation, He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. His marks are eternal. He says, when He appears to Thomas, He says, Hey, put your finger in my hand, put your hand on my side. Be not faithless, but believe in His glorified body. After He was resurrected, Jesus Christ still bore the marks of His love for you and His commitment to you. And those marks are now eternal. for you and for me forever. See, there's more here than what meets the eye, isn't there? If a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant, she shall not go out as the men servants do. So He says, treat the girls different than you treat the boys. What's she supposed to do in your New Testament? The woman's to be a keeper at home. Doesn't mean she can't work a job. That is not scriptural. And I could debate that thing and show you all the verses in the Old Testament where she worked and the New Testament where women worked. But the thing is, is that she's to be the keeper at home. My wife has to go into the office one day a week, which is a real blessing. And so she's home four days a week working from the house. And the kids told her yesterday randomly on their own. I don't even remember which one it was, so I'm not selling anybody out. But they said, mommy, it's so much happier when you're here. It's weird when you're gone. She hasn't gone for eight hours. Big deal. But it is weird. It's just something about mom. And so he says, I want the girls treated differently than the guys. The men go out, the women don't. Verse 8, if she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He goes ahead and he decides that he wants to marry her. She's betrothed. She's not become his wife yet. She's in the house. She's learning to do the duties around the house. And he says, you know what? I changed my mind. I don't like her. He says she can be redeemed, bought back. But what? To sell her to a strange nation, he shall have no power. You don't sell her to another country. You don't take this person who is lower in the social status and didn't have the finances and got sold into this situation. She's to be sold only to another Hebrew and treated a certain way that God says they're to be treated, taken well care of. Understand? This is like a king in another country having servants that live in his house. It's not like a beat down slave. It's like somebody that would otherwise not really have a good job. and they're thankful for it. So this girl gets in this situation, he doesn't want her, he goes to sell her. She's to be redeemed. To sell her to a strange nation, they ain't going to treat her right. They're not Jews. Seeing he had dealt deceitfully with her, God says, you ain't treated her right. And I don't like the fact that you committed to her and then said, nah, get rid of her. It's deceitful dealing. It's not fair. Verse 9, if he had betrothed her unto his son, He bought her for his son, arranged marriages in the Old Testament, back in that culture and in that day. He shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. Now, how about that? In-laws are to be treated like their actual family. How much hurt and pain and stress on marriages and stress on children and hard feelings and just, I mean, I don't think of a better way to say it than pain would be cured if we all follow this kind of instruction. You get an in-law, mama treats the daughter-in-law like it's a daughter. Daddy treats the daughter-in-law just like he would his own daughters. You ever notice, man, you can have a family member and they'll be, I mean, just a stinking absolute 100% deadbeat. You know, I mean, strung out on dope, dangerous, coming in at all hours of the day and night, catting around on their spouse. And it's always, oh, he's so struggles. Oh, he just has a hard time. He's a good boy. He just got mixed up with the wrong friends. And so his wife, she tends to be irritable. Hello? She tends to be a little grouchy. Yeah, most wives aren't cool with you catting around on them. They're not cool with you spending the grocery money on dope. Most sane people aren't like, you know, the angels of heaven singing when you walk in all hammered at four in the morning. Oh, my dear darling, I'm so happy to see you. Are you feeling okay? Do you have a headache? What do you need? And the whole family just vilifies her. She drives them to it. That stuff makes me so mad. I just, I got to stop because I got to start getting in the flesh. I want to just never, I got to stop. Okay. God says, deal with her after the manner of daughters. She's somebody's daughter. It's amazing how we'll overlook our blood, our blood's issues. But if somebody ain't blood, or if they encroached on our property, they married my child. Now all of a sudden they can't do anything right. And that is terrible. And what I notice in this is I have a God in heaven who looks out all the time for the underdog. God is not a bully. I get nowhere in my Bible do I ever find a God who is a bully. You got to go to Islam for that. You cannot find that in the God of the Bible. He is not a bully. He is always that protector, provider, looking out for others, taking care of. I mean, look at verse 10. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish? If he do not these three under her, then she shall go out free without money. Three things he says he's to do. So he marries her, and then he's Mr. I-can't-ever-be-satisfied, so he marries another woman. First of all, I'll just touch on this and we'll move on. I'm almost done. In the Old Testament, that stuff happened. Why did God allow it? Because to me, it doesn't seem right. And then you'll run into some idiot, who will say, well, you know, there's, you know, in the Old Testament, men were allowed to have more than one wife and you got your Mormons out there and your perverts out there who have all these wives and they're just using God and using the Bible to satisfy their own wicked, unsatisfiable lusts. And it's wrong. In the New Testament, you're commanded to be the husband of one wife. That's what God wants. God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and all these wives. It's foolishness. Why did God allow it in the Old Testament? Because there were things in the Old Testament, the times of ignorance, God winked at. You know, there's a verse that applies practically to that kind of a situation. Why were there things God winked at? You know, hey Lord, Jesus says, you know, save for fornication, don't put your wife away. Why under the law were we allowed to put her away? God said, for the hardness of your hearts. You were so wicked, you forced God into a situation where God had to make this out, but God was not satisfied with this thing. God is entirely practical. God is more practical than most Christians are. And God's like, I don't like that. I'm not for that. I hate putting away Malachi. God said, I hate that stuff about you, Israel. But I had to make a way to do that as fairly as possible because you're so stinking wicked, you wouldn't love each other and forgive each other and get over it and work it out, right? Now, you live in a culture today, folks, where it has touched, divorce has touched probably every person in this room one way or the other. So I'm not beating up on you about divorce, amen? God's practical, God knew this stuff, especially if it happened before you were serving Christ. Forgive yourself and move on, amen? Amen. I can't stand that stuff. You know, you get in some churches, it's like, if this person has a divorce, they can't sing in the choir, they can't, like, who are you? You know, you're just lucky your wife didn't kill you or divorce you yet, man. You know? It's because of your luck you're going to be so hard on everybody else. I hate that stuff. But God allowed this thing in the Old Testament. He said, Be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth. Trying to multiply a nation quickly. One man having more than one wife. God never set that up. Men were doing that. God was never setting that thing up. You never see God saying, you know, hey, this is great. Go do this, guys. Men were doing it. I believe God winked at it. But I do not believe it has any legitimate application to this day and age. You are to be a type of Jesus Christ and His bride. You are to be one flesh. A man is to be the husband of one wife. And there's no doubt about that in the dispensation you live in right now. Does that make sense? God's winking at that stuff back there because they're multiplying, they're replenishing the earth. Things were different. Circumstances were different than they are today. Amen. Alright, so that kind of hopefully might help you a little bit with some of that when you run into it. What is he to do? If he has this wife, he marries another woman because she's not what he thought she'd be, or he's fallen out of love with her, he's not attracted to her anymore, or whatever his reasons is, he's to do three things. Her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage. Now all the adults in the room know what the duty of marriage is. Corinthians makes it clear, you don't have power over your own body, your wife does, or your husband does. In other words, you do not use your body as a weapon to torture the other person. And boy, have I seen that before. I mean, a woman will just torture him, just use her body and neglect him in that way, and then if he winds up messing up, he is the devil that she spreads to the whole world. Now, I am not saying that's an excuse. Gotta be careful here, because the devil gets in people's heads. I'm never saying that's an excuse for a man to mess up. I'm just saying maybe there's more than one person guilty in the situation. Amen? And God knew that. And God said three things He's to do for that woman if He marries another. He does not take one biscuit away from her. Her food shall He not diminish. I can't afford all these bills. I can't afford to feed both of you. He doesn't give her half portions. He doesn't take one biscuit away from her. Her clothes, he doesn't take one sweater from her. And his duty of marriage, you do not torture that woman because you love somebody else. You know what God's doing? God's always looking out for the underdog, even back here in this system. And if he shall not do these three unto her, he's a deadbeat. Then what? Then she goes out free without money. Now, what are the three reasons you can go out free in the New Testament from a marriage and be right with God? Anybody know? Death, fornication, Jesus said, save for fornication, and departure. If the unbelieving depart, let them depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases. In this situation, he abandoned her while she was still in his house. And God said, she's free. She can go. Now, how about that? Now, what I just preached to you for most Bible-believing Baptist churches is heresy. Because they just say, you know, God hates putting away. Okay. I can show you in the Old Testament what God did to deal with the situation, and God does hate it. And God knew their hearts and knew what the situation was, and God does hate it. I can show you in the New Testament three different passages that show you three different reasons somebody can get divorced and be remarried. If your spouse dies, that's not divorce. You're free to remarry only in the Lord. If they commit fornication, best thing to do is try to forgive. I'm telling you, that's the best thing to do. But if you can't, fornication frees that thing. They already went and married somebody else physically. May not have had a ceremony, but they did physically. And number three, departure. What did they do? They took off. What are you supposed to do? Forever stay single? Because your spouse lost their mind and took off on you? Isn't that interesting? I love the Bible. When you get into the Bible and just let the Bible speak, it answers all the questions. How many of you have ever had your chops busted about Old Testament polygamy? By somebody who is criticizing God. How about God being too harsh? How about slavery in the Old Testament? Does any of that make sense to you? God had that whole thing set up, and that man, as a type of Jesus Christ, could get his ear bored through, and he stayed. Showing his love. And your Savior's woven in there. And we only went through 11 verses of the boring law stuff. I don't find it so boring. I see the heart of God in it. I see the character of God in it. I see a great God that I want to serve the rest of my life. If you've got to bore my ear through, then bore it through. Least I can do is put a little blood on that post after you put the blood on the cross for me. Amen? All right, let's go ahead and be dismissed and a word of prayer. Brother Todd, would you dismiss us please?