I want to draw your attention to verse 19, and I will use this as my text for this morning. When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee and all the work of thine hands." The verses before us today take us to a harvest field somewhere in the land of Israel. The day is drawing to a close, and the work of harvesting is almost done. The wagon is piled high with sheaves. It has been a very productive day. The oxen are straining at the collar to get to their stalls. The labourers have been in the field from daybreak. It's been a long day. They are tired. They are weary. But now that the field is clear, it's time for them to go home. They are thankful that their work for the day is done. Tomorrow will soon come, bringing with it another harvest field and another day of intense labour. They start for home, but the farmer pauses for a moment to survey the glean field one more time before he retires for the day. And in the distance, something catches his eye in the corner of the field. Standing still in the golden sunset is a solitary sheaf, described here as the forgotten sheaf. His first instinct is to go back and fetch it until God steps in and overrules by reminding him of a higher law. For God says, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. And these verses before us today teach us something about God's gracious provision of grace. for us people. We all need grace, every child of God in this congregation. If you're not yet a believer, you need grace as well. The grace of God and salvation. We're living in difficult times, trying times. And we need to rely and depend more and more upon God's grace. And this portion is all about God's grace. because God had his eye upon the forgotten sheaf, and God has his eye upon you and his eye upon me." The people were to do a number of things. This was God speaking to them. They were to remember. They were to remember something. God gave them a reminder. Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, verse 22. And these words are found in verse 18 as well. And there's something here that's been emphasized. And when something is emphasized in the Bible, it's there for a reason. God does this for a reason. You may be asking, what is that reason? And the reason is simple. Because we so easily forget. and we need to be reminded. When you think of the Lord's Prayer, the Lord taught his disciples to pray, but he taught them it twice. Slight variations. You think about the Ten Commandments. They were given twice as well. The first time, God revealed those to Moses, and then he threw down the tablets, and he had to go again. So God taught his disciples to pray twice, And God gave us commandments twice. Lest we forget, we need to be reminded. They were to remember two things. Where they had been. They had been in the land of Egypt. And what they had been. Thou wast a bondman. So they were to remember their slavery. And they were to remember their salvation. Or a slightly different way to look at it. They were to remember their ruin and their redemption. Now it's a time for us to think as we contemplate the harvest and look around and see the bountiful supplies that God has given to us. It's good for us to reminisce and reflect on what God has done for us, where we once were and where we are now in Christ. Remember the story of Levi? Well, he was a sinner. He was a tax collector. That word Levi means joined. Levi was joined to a sin. Until they met with Christ, the Lord saved them, changed his heart, gave him a new name, called him Matthew. That means the gift of God. And thank God for the gift of God that delivers men and women who are joined to their sin and sets them gloriously free. Let me ask you the question, have you been redeemed? Has the Lord liberated your soul? Have you made preparation for the great harvest at the end of the age, the end of the world, when the great judge will come to reward his people and to judge the ungodly and the unconverted? Child of God, look back to those former times and your unsaved days when you had no time for God or the things of God until God in his mercy intervened by grace and brought you to the cross milled at your hardened heart, and gave you that faith to repent of your sins and believe the gospel and the trust in Christ for salvation. Oh, happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. Can you say that this morning? Then when you think of where you are now, I am redeemed. Oh, praise the Lord. My sins are gone. They're under the precious atoning blood of the Lamb. I'm not what I used to be. I may not be what I should be at times, but I know that a change will come, maybe in the not-too-distant future, when I will be perfectly conformed to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, when I get home to see the King in all of his glory. Aren't you glad you're going home, child of God? Aren't you glad that there's a father in heaven waiting for you, that the elder brother is there, having gone on before? And he's with us during the pathway of life, those troublesome pathways, those difficult pathways. When problems and trials and difficulties come, when tragedies come, when the wheels come off the chariot, it isn't good to know that the Lord's with us. I am the Lord, I change not. And we are assured of his presence with us where he says, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. Israel's past oppression in Egypt serves as a continual reminder to be generous to the less fortunate. For Israel had been a stranger in a strange land, yet God had mercy upon them. We need to remember what we used to be. and how the Lord saved us. Now, when we look around and see the things that are happening today, some terrible things, we may get impatient when we see images on our TV screens about the young people doing this and that and the other thing. We can be very harsh. But when we think about it in this light, there go I but for the grace of God. It's compassion, not being a judgmental person. It's showing compassion. That's what I used to be like. Nobody would prevent me from doing these things until God stepped in and changed the heart. That brought about the revolution. That brought about the change. Grace, God's grace. We need to be praying. that God will take a dealing with these individuals we see. When we think about it, some of them have been brought up in godly homes. Many a broken heart is felt right across this province when they see the TV screens, all that was taken up in the Holy Land, and they can see their loved ones there. Oh, let's pray that God will mend those broken hearts by bringing their children and sons and daughters to faith in Jesus Christ. That's something we need to pray for all of our children, by the way, too. That God and grace will come. So they were to remember their past and they were to remember where they were at the present time. That word remember appears a number of times in the Bible. I think, for example, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Don't forget that. When you come to the book of Hebrews chapter 4, you find the word rest. It appears many times in that fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews. But the one that is found there in verse 9 is a different word altogether. It's translated from a different word. It's found there, rest. But in the margin of my Bible, remember that portion, there remaineth a rest for the people of God. In the margin of my Bible, it is a keeping of a Sabbath. There's something that remains from the old dispensation, from the old covenant era. It's the keeping of a Sabbath, the Lord's day, first day of the week, a day to remember God. Ulster, to a large degree, has forgotten this. Some of God's people, too, have forgotten this. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In Corinthians, the Lord reminds us of something else. Less doing remembrance of me, we're to remember his death, not only his day, but his death. We're to remember the Sabbath and to remember the sacrifice. And I would encourage you to look to the sacrifice today, the lamb for sinners slain. and put your faith and trust in him today. Before you leave the service, get right with God, right now, in the pew, where you are seated. Call upon the name of the Lord, and be reconciled to God, and get rid of the past. Get up under the atoning blood of the sacrifice, and rejoice in Christ, who is our Sabbath, who is our rest. There's a rest to be found in him, that you can't find anywhere else. It's found in the blood of the cross, in the person of God's dear son. So there's good reason for us to remember the Sabbath day. There's good reason for us to remember the Lord's death. Now, they were a people set apart by God. There were people rejoicing in God's mercy and God's goodness. They were now free, liberated to worship God and to serve God. The blood had been applied. They'd exercised faith. They came out with a mighty hand. They marched out in ranks of five. Five in the Bible is the number of grace or saved by grace through faith. And that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. So these lost souls became liberated souls. And when we get liberated by the grace of God, then we have a compassionate heart for those who, too, are lost in sin. When you read the opening chapter of the book of Exodus, chapter 1, you read about the burdens that the people had and the bondage that the people had and the bitterness that the people had. Until the time they were redeemed, God set them free. And they were never to forget how God sent a man called Moses, how God smoked the enemy, and how God saved the people. Now, we can apply this, can we not? We have a glorious picture in these things. we can apply these things to Christ, who smoked the enemy of souls, the devil, at the place called Calvary, through his work on the cross, and he saved the people by that atoning sacrifice. The message is nothing but the blood, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. In the Old Testament, we read of a baby called Moses, who was found in an ark, In the New Testament, we read of a baby, Jesus, who was found in a manger. Both were preserved from the wrath of the king, Pharaoh, and Herod. And both were born to be deliverers of God's people through the sacrifice of the lamb. Do you see that? Moses introduced the first Passover. But Christ is our Passover, according to 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. And we should never forget that we were born men in Egypt, the Egypt of this world, and that we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And as a result of that, we should have compassion on others. There's the reminder to the people of God. Then there is the responsibility of the people of God. When thou cuttest down thy harvest, it shall be for the stranger and so on, for the widows and the poor. And God was teaching His people to be considerate for strangers, for the fatherless, and for widows. And this is a marked characteristic of this book. This was something God was teaching His people to do, to show compassion for the less fortunate. Four times we are reminded of God's care for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widows, 17, 19, 20, and 21. So the farmer, was to leave some gleanings for the poor during the harvest. He was not to clear the very corners of the fields. He was to leave the gleanings when reaping the grain. He was to leave some olives when beating the branches. He was to leave some grapes on the vine. This would give strangers and the orphans and widows opportunity to gather food for themselves in a dignified way. rather than having to be forced to beg for their food. God is merciful. We were beggars, and he bestowed grace upon us. He didn't condemn us. He preached his word to us. He showed us the ugliness of our sin, but at the same time, he brought before us his mercy in the person of Christ. He didn't cast us off. He could have done so. No, he showed mercy. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Can you remember how he dealt with you? He broke you, he melted you, he dealt with a stubborn heart, that rebellious spirit. And he then gently brought you like a child to the foot of the cross, there to behold a bleeding sacrifice. My Lord and my God, I am redeemed. I know it only too well. So God, in his mercy, teaches us to be compassionate. I think this is illustrated in the book of Ruth. Remember, Ruth, she was a Nilean. She was a Moabites. And God, in his grace, dealt with her through the witness of Naomi. And we're told that they came to Bethlehem, Judah, at the beginning of barley harvest. The barley harvest was the time of the Passover. It was the time of the Feast of Firstfruits. And the Passover speaks of the redemptive work of Christ, his death, and the firstfruits speak to us of his resurrection. So we have a wonderful picture of Ruth The Moabites, a stranger to grace and to God, being brought to God through the merits of the Passover lamb and through the death and burial and resurrection of Christ, typified in these feasts. That's the only way to approach God. There is no other way. For Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What was the first thing that Ruth did? She went out into the harvest field to gather the sheafs that had been left unpurposed by Boaz for her. Do you see the picture? God teaches us to be considerate, to be compassionate on others, the way he has shown compassion on us. You think of that little book of Ruth, I love to preach from it. I preached on it a number of times. In chapter 1, Ruth is far from God, or from Boaz. She's a type of Christ. If we're taking Ruth as a type of the sinner, she's far from Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. In chapter 2, she's in the field of Boaz. You see, there's the drawing power. Naomi says, go out into the field. Go into this man's field in particular. So the Spirit of God is working, you see, far from Boaz. Then, in the field of Boaz. Then, she's found at the feet of Boaz. In chapter 3, cast your garment over me. Assume the responsibility of kinsman redeemer. Cover me with your garment. This is not a figure and tape of how Christ deals with the sins of his people. He covers his people with a robe of righteousness when he becomes their kinsman redeemer. And then in the fourth chapter, where do we find Ruth? She's in the family of Boaz. So she's come a long way, far from Boaz, in the field of Boaz, at the feet of Boaz. Now she's in the family of Boaz. Do you see the journey God in grace has drawn her from Moab? He's drawn her to Bethlehem, Judah. He's drawn her to Boaz, who's a type of Christ. That's the way the spirit of God wrought in your life and my life, child of God. Through our resistible grace, he brought us. He made us willing in the day of his power. And we're in the family of God today. It's interesting to read in our text about a sheaf in the field. The Bible refers to a sheaf or sheaves about 15 times. And the Spirit of God uses four different Hebrew words. And the very first reference to a sheaf is in Joseph's dream in Genesis 37, verse 7. And he said, we were binding sheaves in the field. This is him revealing the dream that he had. And lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. Now, I don't know if you've ever thought about this before, but that solitary sheaf represented a person. It represented Joseph. And the other 11 sheaves represented his brothers. And this literally did take place, as you know, from Genesis chapter 43, when the brethren came down and they bowed down before Joseph. That was the fulfillment of that prophetic word. But that's a foreshadowing of Christ, the beloved son. You think of Joseph, keep Joseph in mind as I mention these few things. A beloved son rejected by the brethren, sold for silver, cast into prison. That place of death, but was raised by God and exalted to the right hand of the king of the land. Do we not see Christ here? God's beloved son, rejected by his own brethren when he came, sold for 30 pieces of silver, cast into the prison of death, but was raised by God and exalted to sit at God's right hand there to intercede on our behalf. When you get down, and you feel lonely, and you feel that everybody in the world has forgotten about you, remember this. There's one in heaven who cares for you. There's one in heaven who knows all about your tears and your heartbreak and your sorrows. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. Jesus knows all about your struggles. He will lead and guide till the day is done. So when you feel that way, remember this. God did not forget about the forgotten sheaf. He will not forget about his people. He cannot forget about his people because we're in union with God through Christ. We're in him, except that in the beloved, and God bestows his blessings upon us, covenant with Christ from all eternity. He bestows those blessings upon us through Christ today to enrich us. So please, remember him when the going gets tough. Joseph, then he became the savior of Egypt. and he opened the storehouses of plenty. What a wonderful picture of Christ in providing salvation for sinners. He threw open the storehouses of God, and in the time of famine, when the people came to Pharaoh, what did he say? Go to Joseph, and the message of the New Testament is go to Jesus. He has accomplished the work. He's opened the storehouses of his grace, and he lavishes grace upon those who come to God through him. He casts none out who come to him as the Spirit of God draws them, not one. Another significant reference to a sheaf is in Leviticus 23, an important part of the ritual at that time associated with the harvest was for the people to bring a sheaf. Just the way you brought your goods here today to acknowledge the hand of God, they brought the first sheaf of the harvest to the priest. And then the priest took it and waved it before God. There's Christ raised from the dead. The lamb has been sacrificed in the Passover. Now he's alive. And here's this person, and the merit of his work has been weaved before the Father, and God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Christ and his death, Christ and his resurrection, Christ and his ascension. He shall weave it before the Lord. God cares for the poor and the needy. by providing for them in the field. God is gracious, and God is merciful. I could go on and say many, many more things, but my time has moved on. I've got to come to the conclusion now. So there's the reminder to the people. And then we have looked also at the responsibility of the people. And then finally, there is the results for the people. God says in verse 18, And in verse 22, I command thee to do this thing. These words, again, are found twice, verse 18 and verse 22. Something, again, has been emphasized. The harvest law regarding grapes and the olives and the grain was not optional. It was a command from God. And associated with this command is the promise of blessing, that the Lord thy God may bless thee and all the works of thine hands, verse 19. And that word simply means to declare blessed. And it appears for the first time in the book of Genesis, as many things do. Genesis 1, 22, God blessed them. That's a reference to the animal life of sea and air. The message was be fruitful and multiply. The evening and the morning were the fifth day, verse 23. I've mentioned this before. Five is the number of grace. God's blessing is associated with God's grace. You can only experience God's blessing through God's grace. The Lord promised then to bless. The next time bless is mentioned in the book of Genesis in chapter 1, verse 28, it's associated with man's creation on the sixth day. Six in the Bible is the number of man. Man who experiences God's grace is a man who has been truly blessed of God. And if you have experienced God's grace, you are someone richly blessed by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And the word is, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. He gives more grace with the passing of time. So the Lord promised to bless the generous farmer Mr. Martin may have spoken about farmers earlier on. I'm complimenting the farmers. So take that good word away with you. The preacher that came after Mr. Martin talked about the generous farmer. Of course, the farmers are generous, and he knows that too. And it's appreciated very, very much. The Lord promised the generous farmer that his work would be in thine hand Obedience to God's command would mean blessing for them. The message is, trust in the Lord and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus today but to trust in the Lord and obey. Now, the people of God receive natural blessings. And these are things that God sends upon all mankind. the air we breathe, the sunshine that helps things grow, the rain, the water for bodies, and so on. And God provides all of His creation. He's not a God at a distance. He's a God up close who's made provision for all the temporal needs of mankind in general. God has blessed His creation, and now creation blesses us. Isn't that a wonderful thought? that what we have before us is the evidence of the blessing of God. God blessed creation in the very beginning. Man has perverted the ways of God, and now creation blesses us, and we say to God, be the glory, great things he had done. Where would we be without the carrots, and the cauliflowers, and the potatoes, and the Brussels sprouts? Sprouts. Where would we be without these things? These are things we take for granted. The apple, the plum, the orange, we take these things for granted. But this is just God's blessing, the evidence of God's blessing, because God blessed creation and now creation blesses us. God blessed the Sabbath day and it became a blessing to Israel until the leaders turned it into a tedious burden. Because of God's covenant with Israel, his people had a unique relationship with God. And God had promised them that they would be blessed in their harvests. Blessed in their harvests. There's the governor who was an American evangelist. One said, you have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it. Let me say it again. You've not really learned the commandment until you have obeyed it. God has blessed us, and he wants us to be a blessing to others. The Lord said to Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing. And God has blessed us, child of God, with tremendous blessings. One author wrote, we are channels of blessing, not reservoirs. Joseph was a blessing to all the people that he ever came in contact with. There was evidence of blessing. And the secret of that, the Lord was with Joseph. I wonder, can people see evidence of God's blessing in your life and my life? Remember that night at Peniel? He had been away for 20 years. He's the Old Testament prodigal. He's on his way home. Following the command of God to come home, he comes to Ben Neil. He's afraid. He's afraid of meeting Esau. And that night, when he was alone, Jacob was fighting against it until the breaking of the day. And then the Lord came and touched the hollow of his thigh. And the battle came to an end. Remember what Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And then the word says, and he blessed him there. What was the evidence of God's blessing upon his life? Let me show it to you. I'm going to show it to you now. It was a limp. You may say to me, can you really expect me to believe that a limp can be a blessing? Well, that's what happened that night at Peniel. God gave Jacob a limp. And as a result of that, it changed his walk with God and before the people forever. You think about that. God gave Jacob a limp. And next morning, the children would have been there seeing their father coming, limping along. Papa, what happened to you last night? Oh, God blessed me. The rest of the people in the caravan, what happened to you, master? Oh, God blessed me last night. He's limping away. God has blessed me. And for the rest of his day, people knew that Jacob's life had been changed because of that limp. Be careful what you ask for when you ask for a blessing. But I know that God came and touched Jacob that night. God blessed him, and he was never the same again. So there's a reminder to the people, thou wast a born man in the land of Egypt. That's what we used to be, child of God. But now we're free. Now we've been redeemed. That brings us then to the responsibility of the people. Thou shalt not go again to fetch it. Be thoughtful, be considerate, be compassionate in others. And the best way we can do that is by showing them Christ. by bringing to them the grand and glorious message of the gospel. Christ died for sinners. And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Hallelujah. There's mercy for the believing sinner. There's mercy for the repenting sinner. And it's found at the cross. It's found in a person. It's found through the blood of the lamb. be justified today through faith in Christ, repent of your sins, believe the gospel, leave cumber, free Presbyterian church, changed by grace, so that when you go home today, those who are not here, those who may not attend church may say to you, what has happened to you today? Well, I got saved today. The Lord broke me and saved me today. And then, there's the results for the people. I have commanded thee to do this thing, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus today, but to trust in the Lord and obey. So, farmer, the next time you see a lone sheep standing in the corner, I trust that you'll remember the message, remember the teaching of the message, God never forgets. God sees everything. And God knows everything. And he knows you. Right now, where you stand, may you stand with him through Christ. May God bless you.