Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 Morning, village church east. It was good to see you this morning. Welcome to worship here at village church east. My name is Cray Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at, uh, at village church east. And I'm glad to see you this morning. Uh, I want to welcome those of you that are online. Welcome to our services morning. Uh, we wish that you were here with us, but, uh, we do everything we can to make sure that you experience worship with us this morning as we do our services together, including comedian right at the end. So if you're home and you're not used to doing communion with us, uh, there'll be a nice, nice, a nice thing for you to get used to, uh, the way that we do communion during this time of, uh, of COVID, which hopefully we'll be out of soon, right?
Speaker 0 00:00:48 Everybody's gone. It'll never stop. I want to, uh, I want to tell you that we're starting a new series today. Uh, we are actually back to access and when the staff sat down and we talked about what we would be doing for, uh, when we would be starting this new series, it happened to land on today, which happens to be mother's day. So, first of all, happy mother's day for all of you moms out there, happy mother's day. I noticed that my wife put in a plug for all of you kids that have moms, uh, that you should be doing something for your moms this morning. So especially if your last name is Jarvis, you'll definitely want to, you'll want to take that little cue there. Uh, but I hope all your moms have a wonderful mother's day. It is a very special gift to have moms, uh, that, that, uh, bend over backwards, their whole lives.
Speaker 0 00:01:38 They do more than they are required to do very often. And they leave behind a legacy that they will never fully appreciate, uh, until they get to glory. And so I am, I'm excited to be able to wish you all a happy mother's day. Thank you for all that you do, especially like my wife said, for those of you that help other mothers with their children, you are huge blessings as well. And we in the church, uh, especially Beth and I in our, in our situation, as we, as we do church stuff, we've always had moms that have come up afterwards and taken our kids for us and watch them for us so that we could mingle and meet with church folks afterwards. And every single Sunday, uh, there, there were a handful of people, some in very particular, uh, that mean the world to us because they were like moms to our kids when we needed them most.
Speaker 0 00:02:27 And so some of you do that and I want to say, thank you to you too, because you are amazing, amazing individuals. So back to the series, now we are starting a new series. We are back to Sinai and I have to tell you, I think I was the one lone voice on the staff that said, I don't think this is a good idea to tackle the Sinai thing on mother's day, we should be doing mother's day stuff, right? While we're not going to. So I got out voted. We are back to, we are at Mount Sinai. The children of Israel have just been rescued from Egypt and they're now receiving the law. The good thing about today is we are going to be dealing with a subject. We're actually a couple of different subjects that are knee deep into our culture today. These subjects, if you don't understand them from a biblical point of view, you can easily get lost in the vernacular of popular culture of modern day culture.
Speaker 0 00:03:28 And so I'm going to help you this morning, hopefully weed out some of the wording that we are receiving from our culture, so that we can look at these things for a biblical mindset. The Hebrews are at Sinai. They are about to receive the legal rules for developing their nation. Now, before I lose you completely altogether, if those of you that are not called Brent, uh, that are not interested in legal stuff, uh, let me tell you this, uh, this sir, this message this morning has an awful lot to talk about us in our culture today. In fact, Jesus, when he gets to the new Testament, refers to a lot of these laws, even in the sermon on the Mount, the longest sermon we have from Jesus and the way that he did it is he said, you have heard it said, but I say to you, he clarified what some of these laws actually meant because Jesus was always going to the heart of the law.
Speaker 0 00:04:28 Why do we have these laws? Why was Israel given these laws? Now, the one thing that Hebrews had to do is they weren't a nation. They were just slaves. They were rescued from Egypt. They were always oppressed, beaten, down vulnerable. They were the most vulnerable in their society and they were oppressed because they were Hebrews. Now Moses comes in, brings them out of Egypt. He says to Pharaoh, let my people go. And now they get to Sinai. And God says, I am going to make you into a nation, but in order to be a nation, you must have laws. And these laws must be agreed upon in order for you to function in a reasonable legal system. And so we've called this series decisions. We're an Exodus 21 to 24. And all of these Hebrews are going to have to make a decision that they are going to allow themselves to be under this new legal system.
Speaker 0 00:05:32 These verses, as we go through them are written up a little bit radically because they're kind of like the Proverbs. If you know the Proverbs, they're kind of like, uh, th th they're kind of disjointed. There's a lot of good stuff, a lot of good meat in here. Uh, but they don't necessarily go from one verse right to the other. So there are four major themes that we're going to talk about over the next four weeks. Here's what they are protect the vulnerable that's today, decide to protect the vulnerable. Number two, decide to be a good neighbor. Number three, decide to steward the things that we own properly. And number four, decide to give God the main part, the main structure in our lives. No society is built by God that will leave a group of people vulnerable. Let me say that one more time, because that's where we're at today.
Speaker 0 00:06:22 No society that is built by God will leave any group of people vulnerable. All right, before we go any further, would you pray with me, father? We're about to look into some, uh, culturally challenging themes. Uh, these themes are going to strike at the heart of some of the words we're used to hearing in our culture. And I pray that you would give us hearts to receive what you have for us in your word, help us to filter those things that we believe in are being help us to filter them through the truth of your word. So you be our teacher. We are your student lead us into all truth as your holy spirit. It's his job to do and help us to listen well and walk out. I walk away from this time, learning something new, being reminded of something great. And remembering Lord that it has just been really good to be in the presence of our God. Thank you for giving us this time this morning. And thank you for your word in Jesus name. Amen. I pray. Amen.
Speaker 0 00:07:30 We're the most vulnerable in society while in this Hebrew society, the most vulnerable at the top of the list would be slaves. Now they're all slaves from Egypt. And so all of them have an idea of what it means to be a vulnerable slave. So we're going to talk about slavery today. Now that got your attention, didn't it. We're going to talk about slavery today. All of these vulnerable people in society. Here's the list in case you're wondering slaves, the poor, the economically vulnerable women, orphans, refugees, abused people, and the unborn God deals with all of these groups of people. When he begins to give the law to the Hebrew people, to his new Hebrew nation, God's justice is about justice for everyone, not just some it's about understanding that we are all created in God's image. We all have value. We all are important to God.
Speaker 0 00:08:28 And because of that, we are important to one another and society should be caring for the oppressed, the vulnerable society. A social oppression is what these Jewish people, these Hebrews now have only known as they were in Egypt. They were oppressed because they were different because they were Jewish because they were Hebrews. They were oppressed the most powerful nation on the earth. At the time, the Egyptians are pressed them and chose to oppress them because they wanted to do more in their society, off the backs of the slaves. And if these Jewish people, these Hebrews did not learn how I proper society is structured. They were doomed to do the same thing. It's all they knew. You know how that goes, right? If you grow up only knowing one way, it's really difficult to hit that switch and click it so that you do something different.
Speaker 0 00:09:27 These Jewish people only knew slavery. They only knew they only knew one group is suppressed. So the other group can succeed. That's all they know. And God says, I did not call you out of Egypt as slaves so that you can have more slaves. In fact, the Hebrew people were not allowed to have slaves. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, well, Craig, that doesn't sound right. I read a lot about slavery in the Bible. Ah, good. I'm glad you have. We need to understand. There's such a thing as diligent theology, and there's such a thing as sloppy theology, sloppy theology opens the Bible, looks up the word, slavery, tears out a piece of, of, of, of the Bible and sticks it on the wall and says, see, God says slavery is okay. And that's why we should believe in slavery as well. That's sloppy theology, proper theology, diligent theology is looking in God's word and finding out what he says about these kinds of things.
Speaker 0 00:10:28 All right, these guys were doomed to repeat the kind of social oppression that they were used to unless God restructures their minds and restructures their thoughts on all of these things. So this is a historic occasion. This is like, this has never been done before. There's never been a society like God is about to create. You've heard of a Judeo-Christian ethic. You've heard of that term. The Judeo-Christian ethic is called the Judeo-Christian ethic because there's no other ethic like it on the planet. It is the Jewish Christian ethic that began in Exodus chapter 21. This is where we get this from. This is where it started. And so God is about to give them a brand new way to structure a nation. No one has ever done this before. This is completely brand new, up to now. Social oppression is the best the world had to offer one group succeeds while other groups are oppressed. And in fact, almost every nation that does not operate under a Judeo-Christian ethic, operates under an oppressive society. It's important to understand this. As we live in this culture today, communism, tribal warfare, all of these things, Islamic rule with Sharia law, all deals with an oppressive society. The Judeo-Christian ethic is completely different, completely unique.
Speaker 0 00:12:05 Now, if we left our left this all up to ourselves, we would not naturally fall back on a Judeo-Christian ethic. We would not naturally fall back and say, yes, everything I read in Exodus 21 to 24, sounds reasonable. I think I'll do it that way. It does not work that way with us. Everything in a seeks to go in a different direction. Uh, let me give you this illustration. I was driving on the road the other day and some person that God loves and I need to struggle to love. Cut me off. He was, he must've. I was doing, I was easily doing 65, maybe 70. I'm doing that. And he flies by. He had to be doing like 9,500 miles an hour, just flying by note. No signal light. Hey, listen. If you live in Illinois, there's a little button. There's a little lever on the side of your car.
Speaker 0 00:12:56 And if you hit it up, you can go, you can show the person behind you. You're going to go to the right. If you hit it down, it'll show them that you want to go left. All right. So just in case, everybody does not know that it's called your signal light, use it. Okay. This guy, 95 miles an hour. I swear. And he's flying. And he just, he nearly clips my front bumper because he's just weaving in and out of traffic. You know what came to my mind. I really struggle on the roads in case you don't know this by now and you should, uh, I thought to myself, I hope there's a cop around the corner now, do you ever, do you ever think that? Do you do? Oh, good, good. I'm not the only person like that in this congregation. Good. I just thought to myself, I hope he gets mad that can't wait to see him get pulled over by a police officer.
Speaker 0 00:13:43 Cause I've gotten pulled over for doing 40 in a 35. So this guy he's definitely gonna get a ticket. Right? And I drove down the road and I was looking for him and he never got pulled over. There was not, not a cop around, but you know why? I thought that because we live in a Judeo Christian work, we have agreed as a society. We will drive 65 or 70, whatever it is, we will drive the speed limit on the highway. We've all agreed to that. And if we don't do that, we will get a ticket. Well, we might get a ticket and we might get away with it, but we should get a ticket. Just like that guy. Should've got a ticket. We should get it. We agree to that taxes. Why do you pay your taxes? Because the IRS is the most populated part of our governmental system.
Speaker 0 00:14:26 Did you know that they have more employees than any other part of the governmental system? Do you know why? Because they want their money. The IRS will come after us. If we don't pay our taxes, why do we pay our taxes? Because we have agreed as a society that we will submit to whatever the tax law is. Now we can complain about it and we can run for office so we can do away with it. But ultimately we agree. These are the taxes that will pay. In other words, in our society, in the society, in which we live, we intentionally surrender ourselves to the laws that are above us. That does not happen in an oppressive society. In those societies, you are penalized based on whatever laws the government decides to make for you. What does it say in our constitution, by the people, for the people, something like that, right? This is the difference between those of us that live in a society Judeo-Christian ethic society. And those of us that do not so that when we pay our taxes, we can know we fund the national Institute of health research that awarded $5 million over 10 years to research. If college students drink more beer on game day than any other days, just so you know where your tax dollars are going.
Speaker 1 00:15:47 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:49 The Judeo-Christian ethic is about justice for all to make sure no one group is vulnerable. And the thing that makes this culture in which we live this Judeo-Christian ethic work is Christianity and Western nations have led the way in compassion who built the hospitals. Christians did, who founded rescue missions in decaying, inner cities who founded orphanages. Where did they start? Who founded soup kitchens who started sent missionaries around the world to teach children and adults to read and to write who found a charitable societies, taught literacy, worked tirelessly to end slavery campaign for equal rights ended child labor. This was all done by Christian Judeo,
Speaker 1 00:16:32 Ethics,
Speaker 0 00:16:34 Men and women who understand the sanctity of life, understand the need for everybody to be equal justice for all because every person is valuable. All right. Okay. This is where all of that began at Sinai. In this day. When the children of Israel were there receiving the laws, this is where all of what we understand and take for granted. This is where it all began. And so they had to make a decision. And the first decision they had to make is they had to decide that they were going to be a just
Speaker 1 00:17:11 Nation.
Speaker 0 00:17:13 They were going to decide that they did, that. They were going to be a just nation. This new nation needed to provide laws on how to treat one another, how to provide equal justice for all. And God comes up with this idea of justice. In fact, there's two words for justice in the Bible. One is mishpat. That means to make things wrong. In other words, if you've done injustice to somebody else, you must do fat. You must do something to make that right. Somebody slips on your sidewalk and breaks their ankle. You are responsible to make things, right? Your cow gets out of the gate and wanders onto the highway. And somebody hits your cow and gets hurt. And their car gets damaged. You are responsible because you didn't keep the cow in your gate. I understand. So this is, this is what mishpat means. It means justice based on making things right, that you allowed to go right long in society. The other word is Zeke. And that means our willingness to follow laws. We agree together as the decrease, I agree that we are going to follow these laws. If my cow wanders into the highway, somebody hits it with their car. Then I am responsible to pay for their damages.
Speaker 1 00:18:25 Now
Speaker 0 00:18:26 All of that is an introduction to what we're about to experience here at Sinai. Here's where here's where some of the here's where some of the differences come in. How many of you have heard of the word? The phrase, social justice you've heard of social justice. Social justice is not this. They are two different things. I want to take a few minutes this morning. I know it's a little different than we normally do on a Sunday morning, but because of the culture in which we live, we need to really understand what terms we're working with. Social justice is the best the world has to offer, but it is not biblical justice. There are two separate things. Over the past decade, diversion of justice seen in the Bible in the version of justice, seen in society have taken drastic turns from each other so that when you say social justice, and I say, biblical justice, they are not the same.
Speaker 0 00:19:29 They might've started the same way 10 years ago, but they are not the same thing today. Sometimes this can look compassionate, social justice can look and passionate. It can even look godly, but it is not the same thing. Our world has taken this term, social justice, and now they own it. We have a better term. We say biblical justice, social justice and biblical justice are both seeking to it. Address a problem. Both of them seek to address a very real problem called injustice. We need to deal with injustice in our world, but there are many ways to deal with it. Injustice. According to the world is anything that reduces
Speaker 2 00:20:17 Or allows
Speaker 0 00:20:19 An inequitable outcome. That's what we, that's what the world calls, injustice. Anything that does not leave something equal is in just the emerging social justice solution is redistribution. I want to make sure that you over here that are being oppressed are taken care of by you over here that are oppressing. Social justice has determined redistribution of power, wealth, and opportunity is the way to deal with injustice. You following so far, there's a major problem with this and that is this. This is never taught in God's word anywhere. This is not in the old Testament and it is not in the new Testament. Nowhere scripture. Does it say everybody gets an equal outcome. You did. Did you know that? Nowhere in scripture, never in the new Testament was this advocated as a social solution for the poor. And God had every opportunity to deal with the poor because Jesus dealt with the poor on a regular basis.
Speaker 0 00:21:32 I mean, they were, in fact, Jesus said, you'll always have the poor with you. That's going to be a natural part of life. Social justice is the best that capitalism can come up with. Here are some definitions of social justice. The United nations defines it this way. Social justice may be broadly understood as the fair and compassionate distribution of fruits of the fruits of economic growth. Sounds familiar, right? We're used to these kinds of terms. Here's another one. This is the national association of social workers. They define social justice this way. It is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Social workers, aim to open the doors of access and opportunity for everyone. Particularly those of greatest need. Again, these are, these are terms. These are kind of phrases that every one of us goes. Yeah, that, that is what people are saying nowadays.
Speaker 0 00:22:29 That is the familiar understanding of social justice. Here's another one. This is from the center for economic and social justice, social justice imposes on each of us, a personal responsibility to cooperate with others at whatever level of the common good that we participate. The equality idea, social justice and biblical justice are not defined the same way. When God talks about justice in society, he uses none of these kinds of terms. None of these kinds of terms, social justice is the best that our world has to offer. Now you're probably thinking yourself, okay, Craig, what is the difference? Like I'm so used to hearing social justice definitions that I don't think I can really understand the difference between what God says is just in society. And what society says is just so I've made up a little chart for you. All right? Here's here's your chart.
Speaker 0 00:23:33 All right, I'm going to try and stand in the middle and do this right? Social justice upholds some of the people, the dignity of some people at the expense of other people, which side is social justice on this side. Okay. Social justice upholds the dignity of some people at the expense of other people, biblical justice, upholds the dignity of everybody at the expense of nobody. Social justice tries to make things better by hurting one group of people or punishing one group of people so that another group of people can benefit. Biblical justice looks after everyone equally. No one is hurt to elevate another social justice elevates only some groups in a society. Biblical justice elevates every group in society. Social justice is the version of fairness, promoted by people who are seeking common ground. Biblical justice allows God to be God and society to prosper hand in hand. If you want to believe in God, you can. If you don't want to believe in God, you don't have to either way biblical justice works for every person, regardless of they believe in God or not.
Speaker 0 00:24:54 Social justice leans on equality. Through defining victims. Biblical justice leans on him. Quality through assigning value value to each person and value in every circumstance. Okay? You see the basic diff this difference between the two is one upholds, the dignity of the human being all human beings, whether you're rich, whether you're poor, whether you're black, whether you're white, whether you're an immigrant, whether you are born here, biblical justice supports the dignity of every human being social justice promotes only the dignity of a few at the expense of others. Social justice needs a victim. Social justice needs an oppressor. Biblical justice needs. None of that. You tracking with me this'll change your life. Galatians three 27 says this for as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Verse 28 says there is neither say it with me church. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
Speaker 0 00:26:05 There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for you are all. We're all one in Christ. Jesus, you see that there, it doesn't matter where you're born. It doesn't matter how much you got in the bank. It doesn't matter what caste system. If you were born at the top or you were born at the bottom, you are not dependent on society to give you how you, your value comes from God. There you are a believer or not a believer. Whether you love God and have pledged your life to serve him or whether you hate God and couldn't care less. If, if, if he was, uh, banished from society, you have value because you are in the image of God, whether you know it or not.
Speaker 0 00:26:47 And that's the difference between the two quality is a foundation of who we are because we are made in the image of God. Not because of anything else. Not because you've got money. Not because you've got the right skin color. Not because you're, you're in with whoever's in the president's office today. And he's got an affinity for you and not an affinity for anybody else. It depends on none of that. Don't you get tired of the media, telling you what Hilda die on Lexi. Don't you get tired of the media, telling you who you should hate. Next. That is all based on social justice. And that's all the world has to offer. It's the best they can do because they see injustice, just like we see injustice, God deals with it differently than society deals with it. God upholds the dignity of the indivi society needs a victim needs an oppressor.
Speaker 0 00:27:42 So if you feel like your society has called you to be the oppressor. Now, you know why you live in a world where social justice is the best the world has to offer. Biblical justice has these following convictions. Number one, every person is worthy of dignity, despite their behavior, despite what they do in the evenings, despite how they behave. Even despite their criminal activity, every person has value. Why? Because God can change any person. Anyone, every person has value. Every person is worthy of dignity. They are worthy to be loved. They are worthy to be respected there. Where did we cherish? Because they are made in the image of God. Number two, God has affection for every person. I encounter everyone. Number three, every person can experience the transformation power of Jesus Christ. Right? Have we seen that in our lives? I've seen that in, in my life, power and influence are good gifts, but they must be used in love without partiality.
Speaker 0 00:28:48 Doesn't matter how much you own use it with love and no partiality. The government, not the church has been given the sword to deal with legal justice. We believe that to our core, the church is not the theological ruler never was intended to be in scripture. That is not what a Judaic ethic a belief system is built on. Sin has broken into every human institution. Doesn't matter what it is. Sin erupts, all institutions. I always say sin corrupts from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot. Everything it touches. It destroys and ultimate justice. Lastly is coming at the second coming of Jesus Christ. This, these, these are the guiding principles. Everything's backwards. These are the guiding principles of what it means to be holding upholding biblical justice.
Speaker 1 00:29:44 Listen,
Speaker 0 00:29:45 The church is where we're supposed to find our dignity, our equality, our love that God intends for us to find. We are supposed to exhibit that here in the church first and foremost, because God deeply cares about those who cannot protect themselves. He sets up laws. And so the first group of people that are oppressed, that he talks about are slaves. It is the very first group on the list. Why? Because these Hebrews have only known slavery. And so he breaks into this topic first out of the gate in Exodus 21. And he says, listen, slaves. I am talking to you a bunch of slaves. You are free. Now this is what slavery was to you. And we'll never be again. So let's talk about this again. Not as lazy theologians, the Bible uses the word slavery. God must be bad. The Bible must be bad.
Speaker 0 00:30:49 Now let's look at what he actually says about this. Shall we Exodus 21 verse one. Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years. And in the seventh, he shall go free for nothing. Isn't that great? He'll go free for nothing. If he comes in single, he's going to go out single. If he comes in married, his wife's going to go out with him no matter what these slaves that God talks about, what she does, these slaves are vulnerable. They're at risk. When we think about slavery, the first thing we think about is abuse. This is not what the Bible is talking about. When the Bible talks about slavery, Egyptian slavery was abusing, abusing a group of people because they were ethnically different. This is not what the Bible is talking about. Where the Bible talks about when it talks about slavery is
Speaker 1 00:31:44 Someone in debt. Did you know that
Speaker 0 00:31:49 Slaves are people who have, who have either through means of their own by borrowing too much money or because life has been difficult to them. They found themselves in economic
Speaker 1 00:32:03 Disparity. And
Speaker 0 00:32:05 So they must needs enter into a slavery kind of relationship. The word for slave in Hebrew is evid, which literally means worker. So don't think about slavery. I know this is very difficult for, for those of us that live in America, where, where slavery is, what it is to us. Think about slavery as paying off a debt. You can only be a slave. If you number one, volunteer, or number two, a court, you to be a slave. Why? Because you owe a debt, you cannot pay financially. So you have to work it off. It's like, if you go to a, uh, a restaurant and you order your food and you reach for your wallet and realize you left it at home, what do you got to do?
Speaker 0 00:33:00 Wash the dishes. I don't think that ever happens, but that's what we, that's what we think, right? You gotta wash dishes. You have pay for your food, right? This is the same deal. You couldn't be a slave unless it was ordered by the court, or it was voluntarily. You had a debt that you could not pay and you had to work it off. Now listen, whether or not you owe a million dollars or a thousand dollars after seven years, what happens? Yeah, you're free. Does it sound like slavery at all? To me, does it after seven years, your debt is paid. If you come in single, you leave single. If you come in married, did you leave married?
Speaker 1 00:33:46 And
Speaker 0 00:33:46 You should also know there's a thing called the year of Jubilee. Do you know what? The year Jubilee is? The 49th year. That's seven sevens on the 49th year. Everybody's freed. So if you hired a work well, if you had somebody that went into debt to you, the 48 year, they would be freed the next year. So lenders were very careful not to lend too much money as it got closer to the year of Jubilee, because they will lose money. You see? So this is a understood way of living in this society, where people have agreed. We will live this way. If you owe a debt, you cannot pay because you, your life went down the tubes or you borrowed too much money. You had to work that off. And after seven years you went free and it was the year of Jubilee. Everyone goes free. Is that cool? God takes care of the oppressed. This also tells me another thing, because every one of us have faced financial difficulties. Every one of us, some of them, we brought on ourselves. Some of them just because life deals bad cards.
Speaker 0 00:34:59 This tells me that God cares about us. Even if we make it bad choices, God takes care of us. Is that great? He weaves it into the law self. What do you do when somebody wrecks their lives? Because of the consequences, you treat them with dignity and respect. You don't push them further into the ground. You give them a way out, work off your debt. And if it's not worked off by the seventh year, it is according to God, you go free. God creates a context that can restore people who have made bad decisions, a knife into a where they can respect themselves again, where they can find dignity. Again, God gives them ways to be free. This has nothing to do with ethnicity. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin. When you talk about slavery and scripture, it is not what we think about in America. Okay? Not the same thing. In fact, the Hebrews were not allowed to have slaves. Slavery is bad. Everything that we have dealt with in American society, where we have, have dealt with slavery and the repercussions of slavery, those were bad days for America. And by the way, it wasn't Justin in America,
Speaker 1 00:36:15 It was all over the world. I mean,
Speaker 0 00:36:17 Slavery was the, was the chosen thing for a long time in our world. In some, in some areas, slavery is still a thing. Did you know that? You want to hear a lot about that, but in some areas, slavery is still a thing and nobody cares. There's nobody really cares
Speaker 1 00:36:35 Or else you'd know more about it.
Speaker 0 00:36:38 You see the one in debt, the slave was vulnerable, but if you were a slave in avid, you still had laws. You still had the law on your side. Isn't that great. The laws still applied to your master. Interestingly enough, the slave got no wages for his work. His master must treat him as a part of his family. And his master could make decisions for his children. Like he was the father of them. In other words, he had to make decisions that prospered the children. If they were born into slavery, while that debt was paid off, the mat, the master of the house had to act to those children like a grandfather or father doesn't sound like slavery at all. To me, does it? Why does God legislate this? Because he knows the natural pull of the heart is to steal away the dignity
Speaker 1 00:37:32 Of the human being.
Speaker 0 00:37:34 And if you've got somebody that owes you money, somebody that's in debt to you, the natural pull of our sinful nature is to abuse them and not treat them well. So God legislates, all of it. God protects
Speaker 1 00:37:47 The vulnerable. Even when you do dumb things,
Speaker 0 00:37:53 Even when we make bad decisions, your wife goes with you, your children, by the way, children had to also help pay the debt. So if you did have children, when you went into slavery, you could bring them into the household and they had to work too. Isn't that great? How many of you think that's actually a good idea? Your children would also have to work to pay your debt. This shows incentive to be responsible with your borrowing. You get it. Who wants to live a life like this? Nobody. So be responsible. See how this is like a, a really
Speaker 1 00:38:25 Smart law.
Speaker 0 00:38:27 This was preventative behavior to keep people from going in debt with one another. Do you realize that credit card debt is out of this world astronomical days and the credit cards, they'll just keep lending you money. Why? Because they want you to pay the rest
Speaker 1 00:38:40 Of you or life that is wrong. That's wrong.
Speaker 0 00:38:49 Treatment of the persons who own the slave was of such quality by the way that sometimes the slave wanted to stay. Did you know that in verse five? But if the slave plainly says, I love my master duke, do you get the idea that this isn't really slavery? Like we're used to talking about in our society? Look what it says. If the slave says, plainly, wait a minute. I love my master and my wife and my children. I will not go free. Then his master shall bring him to God and he shall bring them to the door at the doorpost of the house. His master shall bore his ear through with an all. And he shall be his slave forever. You ever see those big holes in people's ears. That's what you look like. If you were a slave in the old Testament, if you owed somebody money and you decided you want to stay with us and you would take their name and you would become a part of their family, you would choose to stay. Isn't that great? This is this. This is the kind of relationship that somebody had when they owed somebody money. The master had to treat them certain ways and they may decide they want to stay. Maybe life has been so hard for them. They can't make it on their own. Now they have on options. They can stay with this family.
Speaker 0 00:40:03 Never we're about buying people to victimize them and work them to death. That's what Egypt did. They were not allowed to do the same thing, unless you're thinking Craig, you're just trying to make it sound better than it is. It still says slavery. Let's keep reading the Bible. Shall we look in verse 16, whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be what church
Speaker 1 00:40:30 Killed.
Speaker 0 00:40:31 You. Buy somebody to put them into slavery. You die. Now, do you get the idea that slavery in this day is not what we're talking
Speaker 1 00:40:40 About in art? Okay. Yeah. Me too.
Speaker 0 00:40:44 No slavery trafficking of humans. Why? Because every life
Speaker 1 00:40:49 Has dignity. It doesn't matter what financial decisions
Speaker 0 00:40:53 Or what life has done to you. You have dignity. Women are next on the lift list. When a man sells a daughter as a slave, he shall not go out as the male slaves do. Why is there women particularly talked about? Because in this society,
Speaker 1 00:41:07 Women were vulnerable.
Speaker 0 00:41:09 A father has a daddy cannot pay. He might actually bring his daughter in and you use her to pay off his debt. In this day and age, it was all arranged marriages. It's not like today, but I think it should. Don't you Beth. I'd like to go back to arranged marriages. I have a few in the hopper I might want to tap into, but in this day it was all arranged marriages. A could go to somebody. Maybe he owed money to maybe he didn't know money to, but a father would give a daughter to somebody else and he would, he would have to pay a dowry to that individual. This was a way that he could get out of debt and also get a good husband for his daughter. This is not slavery. This is arranged marriages. A female worker could become a wife of the slave owner if agreed upon by her father. And to tell you the truth, female slaves had way more rights than even male slaves in verse eight. If she does not please her master who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to foreign people. Since he has broken faith with her. In other words, the master who has the daughter that are, they're going to have a marriage relationship. He can not sell her
Speaker 1 00:42:22 To get more money.
Speaker 0 00:42:24 In fact, that's really looked poorly upon that. Girl could be redeemed by somebody in that family's household. You know this because you know, the story of
Speaker 1 00:42:37 Ruth
Speaker 0 00:42:39 Ruth was in the same situation. She could be redeemed by somebody in the household. Boaz was way down the line, but he wanted to redeem her. So he ended up redeeming her. He bought her as his wife. That's the story of Ruth. That's what this verse is talking about. Verse nine, if he does ignites her for his son. In other words, if he looks at this woman and says, I'd like for her to be my son's wife, he shall deal with her as a what church he's. She's a part of the family. She has dignity. We are not moving pieces around so that we can get
Speaker 1 00:43:18 Our lives. In order,
Speaker 0 00:43:20 She was acquired to pay off a debt maybe, or uh, to the slave owner son. The slave owner must treat her like his own daughter. In fact, the Bible, I don't have time. There's so much on this, but I don't have time to do this, but there's another verse coming up where he says, uh, the slave owners responsible to feed her Clover and treat her like the husband of his son.
Speaker 1 00:43:40 He must treat her like family.
Speaker 0 00:43:42 If he did not uphold his end of the bargain, he must set her free. And the debt is erased. Verse 11. If he does not do these three things for her, feed her Clover and treat her like a part of the family. She shall go out for what church,
Speaker 1 00:43:57 Nothing.
Speaker 0 00:43:58 She shall go out with nothing and there's no payment of money exchanged. Then we have the unborn verse 22 when men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out. But there is no harm. The one who hit her shall surely be fined as a woman's husband shall impose on him. And he shall pay as the judge determines. In other words, the fetus's vulnerable church. If there's ever a time in our world's history where the fetus is vulnerable, it's not back here. It's today. We kill more babies this year than in every war. Americans have been in up to
Speaker 1 00:44:34 This 0.1 year,
Speaker 0 00:44:37 We kill more fetuses. Now you may be thinking what Craig now you're on political topics. Nope. God wrote this long. Before we ever had political topics. This was written in scripture long before America ever decided to make abortion a political topic. Abortion is not a political topic. It's a God topic. He writes the rules. If a pregnant woman is costed and the child is born, but no one is hurt. Then the husband can Sue the person who hurt the woman. And the judge will determine what needs to be paid if the baby is born, but nobody is hurt. There's still a fine to be paid, but it gets worse. Verse 23. But if there is harm, if there is harm, you shall pay. What does it say? Church? I'm sorry. Where's the verse 23. When a man strive together, note, next one. But if there is harm, then you shall pay. What
Speaker 1 00:45:35 If there's harm to the fetus? You will pay life for life.
Speaker 0 00:45:41 Where does life begin? Church? I didn't write it. God did. It's not that hard to figure out. Really. I saw an interview with Barack Obama when he ran for the first time as president, he was interviewed by a pastor in California, really nice fella interviewed by this pastor. And the pastor asked him, he said, what is your view on abortion? When does life begin? And Barack Obama said, that question is above my pay grade. That was his response church. I can, could you put that verse up one more time? That's that doesn't require a pay grade at all. It's right there for anyone to read. If you strike a woman and the child dies, that is in the womb, does God that God call that a fetus
Speaker 1 00:46:28 Or a life. That's a life
Speaker 0 00:46:31 You want to know where life begins. Just go to scripture. It's really not that hard to figure out. If there is harm, you shall pay life for life. Eye for eye tooth for tooth hand, for hand, foot, for foot burn for burn wound for wound Stripe for Stripe, biblical justice means whatever was taken unjustly from you has to be repaid. If you strike a woman and the baby dies, you die. How would that change our society? The next group are widows and orphans. Verse 22, you saw not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will burn and I'll kill you with the sword. And you believe God is so gracious. I'll kill you with a sword and your wives shall become widows and your children become fatherless. Do you know how God feels about widows and orphans? Pretty strongly. I'd say widows are vulnerable. Orphans are vulnerable. Don't take advantage of these people. If you abuse these people, God will make you fatherless. God
Speaker 1 00:47:40 Will make you lifeless. The next group is the poor.
Speaker 0 00:47:45 If you lend money to any of my people who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him. You shall not exact interest from him. Church. Have you lent money and asked for interest from people from those you've lended to apparently in Jewish system here, you're not allowed to do that. In fact, I would also argue there's verses in the new Testament where we shouldn't do that. Either you lend money to somebody, you don't, you don't charge them interest because when you charge them interest, what do you do? You oppress them and you're not allowed to do that. So there's nothing wrong with lending money. Please understand when you lend money, there's nothing wrong with lending money to each other. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you lend money to somebody who's poor, you don't charge them interest. You don't stick them further in the hole
Speaker 1 00:48:31 They're already in. Jesus
Speaker 0 00:48:34 Said, if you lend expect nothing in return, that's a good policy. Basically. Overall number 26. If you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down for that is only covering this as cloak for his body. What, how else is he going to sleep? If he cries to me, I will hear him for, I am compassionate. In other words, if you take the cloak off, somebody's back, make sure they have it before they go to bed, because God is actually interested that they have a good night's sleep. You believe that God is so concerned about the vulnerable. He wants him to sleep well at night, compassion rules a day. The last group is the refugee. You shall not oppress a Sojourner. You know, the heart of a Sojourner for you are sojourners in Egypt. As you grow as a nation, people will come flocking to you. They won't look like you. They won't speak like you. They won't act like you be nice to them.
Speaker 0 00:49:27 Treat them as though they have dignity because the refugees were vulnerable. Don't treat anyone like a second-class citizen. In other words, church uphold the dignity of the poor uphold the dignity of those who are in debt and their households uphold the dignity of the human being born or still in the womb, uphold the dignity of the ones that are dealt crummy cards in life. And the ones that are dealt really good cards in life. Uphold the dignity of those who can't repay you like Jonathan, who smashes my car up, uphold the dignity of all these people, because the heart of the natural human being is to oppress one group at the expense of another social justice builds on that. In order for Ray to raise up one group, another group must suffer. That is not biblical justice. All lives are valuable. All lives are equal. Our decision we make is to mirror the heart of God in society. We decide we want
Speaker 1 00:50:36 To be God to those around us.
Speaker 0 00:50:39 Micah wraps us up nicely for us in Micah six, eight. He has told you, oh man, what is good? And what the Lord requires of you, but to do justice, to love kindness and to
Speaker 1 00:50:50 Walk humbly with your God just too quick. So what's, I want me to do communion.
Speaker 0 00:50:56 Number one, be aware of the justice ideologies that negate the power of God don't fall for the world's view of justice, because it sounds like the compassionate thing don't ever take. Anyone's word for it. People are making up all kinds of wonderful phrases and all kinds of wonderful words to get us on board with their ideology. Don't buy it, compare everything to scripture. Don't help create a world where we're constantly needing to find victims and villains. Social justice is the best of the world can come up with, but they always need an oppressor. One person always said to me, said to me, some people always need a villain. It's very true. Biblical justice requires soul searching. It requires much more personal accountability. If you want to read more on this, by the way, here's a book that you could grab. It's actually an audio book.
Speaker 0 00:51:56 It's pretty good done by a guy named his name is Vodi Bolcom. He's actually a very good teacher. It's called fault lines. Um, it's about, uh, I forget how long it is, but you could, you can purchase this off, off of, um, uh, whatever social media you have, Amazon or whatever it is. And you can listen to this in your car. Pretty good, pretty good resource. If you, if you want more explanation, more understanding of what social justice is versus biblical justice. Christians don't need the world to define what justice is for us. We know what justice is. Follow God's plan. And number two, seek justice in your spheres. Don't need jerk back from the real needs around us, just because the world messes up the definition of justice. There are people being oppressed. There are people, there are people with, unfortunately treated very unjustly in our world.
Speaker 0 00:52:50 Relationships must be restored. People need Jesus. We need to help the hungry and the poor. This is why my wife and I actually began a organization that we work with called case for students. We, we bring in these students from international locations and we bring them in and we give them a opportunity to go to school and to be with a Christian home, be in a Christian home and experience a little bit of American life over a short term period, two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, we actually started this and now that COVID hit, we haven't done too much of it. But our heart is to make sure that we are able to treat everybody equally giving equal opportunities to all kinds, kinds of different people, no matter where they were born or what kind of situation financially or otherwise, they're in bottom line. There are some spheres that exist outside of our control. Some spheres, we cannot work in. You turn on the news. There's things that you cannot, you just can't make the situation better because you don't have the resources. You don't have the personality, you just don't have the money to do it. So I think where we need to come down to let's remember to pray for those that are treated unjustly in our world because there's a lot of them. There's a lot of them
Speaker 1 00:54:03 Here in Chicago.
Speaker 0 00:54:06 I don't know if you know this, but we have one of the highest human trafficking rings right in our area right here in Chicago, right in our area here. And we there's, sometimes it feels like we're so helpless. We can't do anything about it. Sometimes we can at the Bartlett campus, they started a thing called rehabs daughters. And what they do is they provide a phone bank and they open it up. No, uh there's there's no, uh, there's no repercussions. There's no judgment. There's no nothing. They open it up and people can call in and they can tell them anything they want. They can tell them as much about their situation or as little about their situation as they want to. And, and they are able to have somebody they can talk to with no judge, they want help. They can immediately get help. And, uh, I've been pleased to see our government. Uh, actually they seem to have stopped doing this, but there was, uh, a couple of months in a row last, uh, last year where they were just breaking up. These child trafficking rings, left and right, um, Epstein, uh, whether he killed himself or didn't kill himself. Uh, according to God, that's probably a good end for him. Um, and there needs to be justice for those individuals that are treated that way. Some of those things, we can do some things about some of them. We simply we can't,
Speaker 1 00:55:22 But we can pray.
Speaker 0 00:55:23 You got brothers and sisters around the world that are being oppressed because of their faith in Jesus Christ, uh, in North Korea. If you're, if you're caught with just three words of God's, God's word on you, they'll take you from the street. Your family will never see you again. They'll put you into concentration camps. They do horrific things in these concentration unions. Exactly the same as what they did in Nazi Germany. That's going on today in Syria, persecution of the church. Uh, now with the rise of Islam, again, the Sharia law, there's going to be way more persecution going on in the mix it'll east, um, it's our world. Our world has injustice. As long as the, as as many papers as you can put on your desk, you can fill it up with injustice and some things we can help with. And some things we can't once in a while, we'll go to, um, feed my starving children. I want to shout out for John who helps with our youth program. They've gone up there a couple of times. Uh, John and, uh, and, and, uh, the whole family actually has,
Speaker 1 00:56:23 Has done that. Um,
Speaker 0 00:56:25 But they go up there and they fill these boxes and send food, uh, to kids around the world that don't have anything to eat. Our churches supported that, listen, there's all kinds of stuff that you can do. And some things you can't help with. Some things you can. I have to tell you, I know I'm way over time. I don't care. Uh, I have to tip because this is deep in my heart. I have so many of my friends that are social justice advocates that tell me who I should be marching for on the street, but don't give one dime to help anyone on the planet. Get out of their situations. I'm tired of hearing people preach to me about how to get people out of their unjust situations, who don't lift a finger to do anything themselves. I'm tired of it. And so church, I want to advocate for biblical justice.
Speaker 0 00:57:18 Let's not jump on this social justice bandwagon because it looks good because a lot of people are doing it because it seems to uphold the right group of oppressed people. That's not what we're about. We're about upholding the dignity of all people. Some of the most generous people I know are generous because they got cash and they give it to all bunch of different organizations. There's one lady I worked for when I was in college, she had, she had this incredible mansion she'd lived in. I think I've told you the story before. And when I quit, when I, when I graduated, she said, Craig, you may think that we have a lot of money. She said, we try and give away more than we actually have. They supported individ three individual missionary families solely themselves. They are constantly trying to take what God has given to them and give it to others, filter it through. Listen, don't buy into what the world is selling. Don't buy into societal justice. It is a fancy name wrapped up in a very pretty package. Delivering oppressed and victims are oppressive people and victimize people. This is not the way
Speaker 1 00:58:28 That God intended. All right, that's my soap box.
Speaker 0 00:58:33 If you're like me, then hopefully this message has just been an encouragement to you this morning. Just to be able to define terms a little bit.
Speaker 1 00:58:40 Um, somebody forces you to be one way, um, at the expense of canceling you, um,
Speaker 0 00:58:51 They are the oppressor and you are the victim. Put it in those terms, do what God would do. Help the oppressed lift up those who are fed injustices and for God's sake, pray,
Speaker 1 00:59:03 Get on,
Speaker 0 00:59:05 Get on the, the, uh, the computer and figure out who we'd be, need to be praying for. You know, we pray for our brothers and sisters around the world all
Speaker 1 00:59:11 The time. We'll keep on doing that. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:59:14 Let's, uh, let's pray actually for the injustices in our world and we'll go right into community and father, give us, give us the ability to have your mind, give us the ability to have your eyes and your heart, to those around there's injustice throughout our planet, throughout our world today. And we, we need to, we need to be the voice, your voice, your heart, your hands. We need, we need to lead the way in lifting up injustices
Speaker 1 00:59:42 And trying to make things right,
Speaker 0 00:59:45 But not by starting an organization or joining an organization where we need oppressors and victims, but by doing things your way, so teach us father how to treat every person with dignity and respect. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. We come to communion today. We finished our services with communion. The reason we do is because, uh, yours truly and all of us in this room and everyone at home are on the same leaky boat. We are, uh, reminded daily that we cannot do enough things to impress God
Speaker 1 01:00:17 It'll never happen. We need help. Uh,
Speaker 0 01:00:20 If there ever was a victim, uh, in this world, it was Jesus Christ. He was the only one worthy of never dying. He lived perfectly, he was God incarnate and he voluntarily died so that we could be free. If it were up to us, we would choose sin every time. You know this, because when somebody cuts you off on the highway, your first response is not. I need to learn to love that person. That's not typical, right? We need help to learn how to have the mind of Christ. We need to be reminded how to do that. Jesus Christ gave his life because every one of us were born into sin and we choose to love sin more than God. And because of that, he provides us with a way out the juice that we drink is a representation of his blood that covers our sins, the cracker that we eat as a representation of his body that he gave so that that blood could flow perfect life so that we could have his righteousness.
Speaker 0 01:01:18 And when God looks at us, he doesn't see us as sinners anymore. He sees us as sons and daughters of his own. So if you're at home and, uh, you would like to join us, we encourage you to do so. Grab some crackers or goldfish or whatever you got in the kitchen. And some, some juice of some kind, uh, bring it out. And, uh, let's participate in, in this communion time together, nothing magic happens. There's nothing magical in the, in the substance that we take. It is simply a reminder to us that we all need Jesus, right? We all need Jesus. So if you're here this morning and think to yourself, I'm not in the right place to take communion. That's probably a good place that you're in right now. If you would just pray to God, I'm going to give you a moment, pray to God and just ask him, what does he need to do in your life to make you more of image, an image of Jesus Christ. This is your opportunity to do that. And then when you have a chance to take communion, do it as a celebration of what God continues to make you into, continues to do in our lives. God is good. So let's, uh, let's take a moment and we'll, um, spend some time personally, just with ourselves, uh, between us and the Lord. Would you bow your head and just give him thanks for something this morning.
