Clean Transcript

The Christian & Debt - Part 4

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• Leviticus 25, and let's begin reading with verse 23. Leviticus 25, verse 23: "The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me. And all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor and have sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. If the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it, then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it, that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of Jubilee. And in the Jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession." Now skip down to verse 39: "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant, but as a hired-servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee."

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• "And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to his own possession of his father shall he return." Skip down to verse 47: "And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family, after that he is sold, he may be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem him, either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that is nigh akin unto him or of his family may redeem him, or, if he be able, he may redeem himself."

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• "And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of Jubilee, and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of the years according to the time of the hired servant shall it be with him. If there be yet many years behind, according to them, he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but a few years unto the year of Jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his year shall he give him again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him, and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of Jubilee, both he and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are servants, they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt."

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• "I am the Lord your God." Now, we've covered several basic principles as we've looked at the Christian in debt. Let me give you, just very quickly, by way of review, these principles again. First of all, remember that debt is not encouraged in the Bible. It is always spoken of in negative terms. It is condemned and not commended.

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• Secondly, the Bible teaches that if we are forced to borrow, if we are in an absolute strait, then the Word of God tells us that it must be in an emergency situation, a real, what you and I would call, life-threatening situation. Thirdly, if we're forced to borrow, if we're forced to go into debt, it should be from a believer, from a brother. In fact, the Scripture teaches us that we're to be compassionate one toward another. And the fourth principle is this, that when we are forced to borrow out of necessity, out of emergency, it is to be a charitable loan that is at a 0% interest, so we are not allowed, in the Word of God, to charge each other interest. And then last week we looked at this principle, and that is when we borrow, it is to be on a short-term basis only. Now, I tried to answer the question last week: Why was there a six-year limitation on debt?

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• And I gave you several answers. First of all, because debt is servitude.

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• Secondly, because we are not to mortgage our future for present gratification. Thirdly, I pointed out the fact that we need to learn frugality and discipline. And if an individual has not learned that in a six-year period, probably he will not learn it. And then fourthly, I pointed out that when the man was released, it was in a sabbatical year, which meant that he must once again be frugal and responsible because nothing was planted that year.

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• And then it threw him into an entire dependency upon God. And then, of course, fifthly, I pointed out how that sin and slavery are connected with death.

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• Now, today, I want to begin with what I'm going to call long-term debt. So let's ask this question: Was there such a thing as long-term debt in Israel? And the answer is yes. Now the question is, was long-term debt encouraged? And the answer is emphatically no. In fact, I'm going to show you today that long-term debt was connected with humiliation and disgrace. In fact, it was a downright disgrace to be involved in a long-term debt arrangement. Now, according to the Scriptures that we just read out of Leviticus 25, a long-term debt arrangement occurred when a person did one of two things. The first one was this.

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• When he leased his land to another. You could lease your land to another for a period of up to 49 years. I'll explain this in just a moment. So that is a long-term debt arrangement in one sense of the word because what happened when the man purchased the land for that length of time, literally leased it is what it was, you would be given the money up front, but yet the man to whom you leased your land had absolute control

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• of it then until the year of Jubilee. You got nothing else after he gave you the up-front money.

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• Secondly, the man that had leased his land for 49 years could fall into poverty again, and then he could lease himself, or his services, for another 49 years up to the year of Jubilee.

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• Now, let me make this very emphatic. The last two messages I dealt with charitable loans. When we discuss this long-term debt arrangement today, I want you to understand this has nothing to do with charity. This is business. This is commerce. So we're not talking about a business debt or a commercial debt. The person who fell into this category was not a candidate for a charitable loan.

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• Now the year of Jubilee occurred every 50 years. Let's go back to Leviticus chapter 25 and begin reading there with verse 1. "And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord, that is, every seventh year. Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord, thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you, for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in the land shall all of the increase thereof be meat."

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• So anyone could eat that sabbath year, that which grew of itself. They could not go out and harvest, but anyone could go out and gather enough to eat. Watch verse 8: "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. In the day of atonement shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land, and you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof, and it shall be a jubilee unto you, and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you. You shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it by vine undressed. For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy unto you.

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• You shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee, you shall return every man into his possession. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buyest aught of thy neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according to the number of years of the fruits, he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price thereof, for according to the number of the years of the fruits that he shall sell unto thee. You shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, for I am the Lord thy God." So this jubilee year then occurred every 50 years.

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• A Hebrew that was in trouble in the Old Testament, in great financial difficulty, could lease his land to another Hebrew, or even to a resident alien, for a period of time which would be up to 49 years. Now I want you to remember that the land could not be sold. Look down Leviticus 25 and verse 23. God says, "The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine."

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• "And you are strangers and sojourners with me." So no one had the right to permanently transfer ownership of that land to someone else. That land could be leased for 49 years, but on the 50th year, it returned to the original owner. It went back into the family's possession. So the land then could be merely leased for a maximum time of 49 years. At any time thereof, the owner could redeem the land.

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• Look at it in Leviticus 25, beginning there with verse 25. "And if thy brother be waxen poor, and have sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if any man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it, let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it, that he may return unto his possession." So, if I lease my land to Doc, say for 49 years, and Chester happens to be my uncle, and Chester says, "You ought not to have done that. I'll get the land back for you." He could redeem it for me, but of course now I'm in debt to Chester. You see what I'm saying?

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• But at least it would still be in the family now. It would not be out of the family. Or if I was able, I could redeem the land back after a period of time myself. So if no one redeemed the land, if I was not able or none of my family were able, at the year of Jubilee it went back to the family according to verse 28. He says, "But if he be not able to restore it unto him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of Jubilee, and in the Jubilee it shall go out, and it shall return unto his possession." Now, this transaction of leasing the land or selling the land temporarily for a period of 49 years was what you and I would call strictly business. Why?

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• Because nowhere in the Word of God does the Bible say that I have a moral obligation to lease your land. I'm not morally obligated to rent your land for 49 years. So if I did so, it was strictly a business proposition. Look in verse 15. He says, "According to the number of years after the Jubilee, thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according to the number of the years by fruits he shall sell unto thee." Verse 16, "According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price thereof." So a man is going to get more money the first year after Jubilee, if he leases it for 49 years, than if he sells it, say, at year 25, when there's only 25 more years, or 24 more years until the year of Jubilee. Now, if I'm going to lease your land, I'm going to have to do some thinking. I'm going to say, "Alright, now, I've got 25 years left on this land.

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• That means I'm going to reap the fruits for 25 years, but some years may not be as good as others. I'm going to have to take that into consideration. There may be a year of drought. There may be a year of bad seed. There may be a plague of locusts. So what I'm going to have to do is come up with a figure that I could live with and that you would agree to if I'm going to lease your land for a certain period of time. So therefore what I'm trying to say is this is strictly a business proposition. I'm taking into account the fruits of the field. I'm taking into account if I lease this land, I want to make a profit. I want to earn some money. At the same time, the poor man who is leasing me his land is being capitalized. That is, he's being given money up front that now he can do with whatever he wants to do. So this was literally business for both parties. Now, so a man then that had his family land, he could lease it up to 49 years.

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• So let's suppose the man leases the family land, okay? So he's gotten some upfront money. Suppose now, after a year or two, he has been very unwise, very irresponsible, and the money that he has gotten for his leased land is now gone. And he's in poverty again. Well, in this instance then, he may lease himself in the same way that he leased his land up to a period of 49 years. In other words, what he is doing is actually selling his labor up to the next year of Jubilee. So the man would actually sell himself into servitude unto Jubilee. So in this time now, he is recapitalizing himself by selling his labor.

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• Look in Leviticus 25, beginning there with verse 39. Leviticus 25, verse 39. He said, "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant, but as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee," watch, "and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee." Now, isn't that interesting? You remember in the charitable loan, you remember that?

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• The man served for six years maximum, and the seventh he went free. Here's a man that can lease himself and his labor for 49 years. That's long term.

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• Now, note if you would please that God says in verse 39 and 40 that this man could not be compelled to serve as a bond servant. He said in verse 40, "But as a hired servant and as a sojourner." So the man then that has sold himself into long-term servitude had to be treated then as a hired servant. Well, you say, how do you treat a hired servant? Well, look in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 13. 19 and verse 13. Here's what God says about a hired servant.

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• "Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning." What do you do with a hired servant? You pay him daily. You pay him daily. That's a hired servant. So, if I tell Anna, "You come and clean our house, and I'll give you 25 bucks," and she comes and cleans the house, I don't say, "I'll give it to you next week." No, no. I give it to her as she does that work on a daily basis. Now, a hired servant was to be paid on a daily basis.

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• He could not be defrauded or oppressed. Now, what does that mean? That means the selling of this man's servitude once again was a business arrangement. What if I gave him all of his money up front? That means I would not have to pay him a daily wage. Or if I gave him part of that money up front and included a daily wage. You see what I'm saying? It's got to be a business proposition. This has to be between the man who's buying the service and the man who's selling the service. You've got to also consider if I'm buying Don's labor for the next 49 years, surely there's going to be some days he's going to be sick and unable to work. And surely there's the possibility he might die before the 49th year. So if Don's used to making $50,000 a year, I'm not about to say I'm going to give you $50,000 for the next 49 years and multiply that time up front. No, I'm going to knock off some money because I know he's going to be sick some.

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• He's going to want to visit family some. He's going to want to do other things. So I might come back and say, "I'll give you half of that, and I'll throw in a few bucks each day as well." You see what I mean? So this then is basically a business arrangement.

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• Now, let me show you something else. God said he should be treated as a hired servant in this long-term debt. He could not be treated as a bond servant. Well, look in the book of Exodus chapter 21. What does that mean? It means then that I cannot discipline him as I would a bond servant. See, you could whip a bond servant. Look in Exodus chapter 21 beginning there with verse 20. He said, "And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money." So now, if I've got a bond servant and he's surly and won't work, I can take him and whip him. But I can't do that to a hired servant. So for a hired servant then, I can't whip him. What does that mean? That means in order to make this man fulfill his word and that he's going to give me the work for the next 49 years or 20 years, whatever it's agreed upon, I'm going to have to cut his money up front and probably give him a daily wage included so I can say, "If

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• you don't work, you don't eat. I don't pay you." Or the only other alternative that I would have is I could take him to the elders of the city. You remember Deuteronomy chapter 21? Here was the son that was a drunkard and rebellious. The parents couldn't do anything with him. They took him to the elders and the elders had him stoned to death.

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• Now this was not some little 12-year-old boy. This was a grown man, a grown son.

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• Now, although I might not have the power or the authority to whip a hired servant as an individual, that does not mean that the elders, corporatively speaking, or the government, speaking, would not have that authority. Surely if the authorities could put someone to death for rebellion, they could certainly whip somebody for refusing to carry out his end of the contract. So the man then either had to say, "I'm going to give you a wage, a daily wage plus some upfront money to encourage you to do your work and if you don't work I'm not going to pay you that day," or I've got to deliver you over to the magistrates and let them figure out what needs to be done with you because I don't want to lose money on this deal.

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• So the man then that had leased his land and then turned around and leased himself would be lower down in the Hebrew social order. Now, you see the Hebrew who was sold into slavery to pay a charitable loan, he was morally obligated to pay that charity loan back. There was no interest on it. The man that had sold himself into slavery to pay that loan back was treated as a laborer, and he was treated as he was worth twice as much as a hired servant. Go back in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15. Watch what God says. Deuteronomy chapter 15 and look at verse 13. Deuteronomy 15 verse 13. In fact we'll read verse 12, "If thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years.

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• Then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee, and when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress. For that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him. And he says, 'And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt. The Lord thy God redeemed thee, and I command thee this thing.' And it shall be, if he said to thee, let's see, that's not the verse I want. Oh, verse 18. 'And it shall not seem hard to thee when thou sendest him away free from thee, for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee in serving thee six years. And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.' Now, the interesting thing is this man that has served six years, it's counted worthy of two times what a hired servant gets. And God said he's not to be sent away empty, and he only remained in bondage up until the sabbatical year.

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• And what he had not worked out was simply forgiven him. Now, the man who sold himself into long-term servitude will sit away empty. Look in Leviticus chapter 25 and let's begin reading there with verse 40. Leviticus 25 verse 40. He says, "But as a hired servant and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee," not a double hired servant, but just a hired servant. "He shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and the possession of his father shall he return." So the man then that sells himself into long-term servitude returns back to his land empty.

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• He is not given anything as he leaves. Now, to demonstrate what you and I would call the ultimate disgrace of long-term debt, look in Leviticus 25 and verse 47. That ultimate disgrace was when a Hebrew sold himself to a sojourner or a stranger in the land. Verse 47, "And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger, or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family." So here are some folks now that are non-Israelite, they are not Hebrews, they have come into the land, they have settled there, they've given some acknowledgement probably of the covenant in some sense of the word, but they're living there and these strangers or these sojourners have gotten rich. And the Hebrew has gotten poor, and now he sells himself to this resident alien, to this individual who's living there in the land.

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• Now, let's ask a question. Why would a Hebrew sell himself to a resident alien, to a stranger, and not to another Hebrew? Seems to me like I'd rather work with the brethren than with a stranger. Well, you've got to remember, first of all, that every Hebrew was morally obligated to help the poor brethren with what you and I would call these charitable loans. Now, if I'm morally obligated to help a poor brother with a charitable loan, which is a short-term thing, and I help one or two of the brethren, then that is going to cut down on my capital.

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• I don't have as much. Secondly, I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus chapter 25, verse 44. If Hebrews were interested in long-term service, they could just buy pagans and never have to let them go. Look in Leviticus chapter 25, verse 44. God says, "Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be the heathen that are round about you. Of them shall you buy bondmen and bondmaids.

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• Moreover, the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they beget in your land, they shall be your possession. And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for possession, they shall be your bondmen forever. But over your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor." So if a Hebrew really wanted a permanent slave, he could buy one that he didn't have to let go in 49 years. Moreover, all the children that were produced by that slave would then be the property of the man who had bought him.

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• They would be slaves as well. So very clearly then, a resident alien had an advantage over the Hebrews. An economic advantage. Why? Because first of all, he was not morally obligated to give a zero percent charitable loan. He was a stranger. He's a sojourner. Secondly, undoubtedly, maybe some of his family or some of his friends had been purchased and were the permanent slaves of some of the Hebrews.

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• And folks, let me tell you something. Sin and envy being what they are, no doubt those resident aliens wanted some Hebrews to work for them just to show the Hebrews, "Well, I can buy you." Let me show you how this works. The whole Leviticus 25. But turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 11. 1 Samuel chapter 11. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 11.

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• Here is a story relating Nahash the Ammonite. Let me show you how this thing works. By the way, it works the same way today. "Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for reproach upon all Israel. And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days respite that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel.

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• And then if there be no man to save us, we will come out to you." Now look what happens. Nahash comes up and surrounds Jabesh. Very clearly the people are unable to defend themselves or if they fight they realize there's no way that they can win. And so they tell Nahash, and remember Nahash is an Ammonite who's a perpetual enemy of the Israelites. So they said, "What we want you to do is make a covenant with us and we'll just be your servants." And that's pretty good, don't kill us, we'll just serve you. Ah, he said, "The only way I'll do that is if you let me thrust out your right eye." Well, why would he want to pick out the eye of their servants? Seems to me like if I'm going to have a servant, I'd rather him be able to see well than just see partially. Here's why.

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• He said, "That I may lay it as a reproach upon Israel." You tell me how great your God is, and you tell me how big your God is, and you tell me how sovereign your God is, and how your God can protect you. What happened to your right eye? You follow me? So what he wanted to do was reproach not just Israel, but Israel's God. And undoubtedly, these resident aliens would jump at the chance to get them a Hebrew servant. Let me tell you, you know, there is a black commentator.

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• His name is Walter Williams. Walter Williams. I got so tickled at him. I believe he's the correct one. He said, he was talking to some black folks, he said, "More people get upset because white folks have little black boys, the statues of them out there fishing or holding the door for them." He said, "And you get so upset over that." He said, "That is absolutely stupid." He said, "What you need to do is get out and get you a job and work and buy you a statue of a little white boy fishing, or hold the door for you." Isn't that right? Now, you see the envy, what I'm talking about?

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• Why complain about the Hebrews having pagans as perpetual bondmen? Why, I can get one for 49 years myself. That's almost perpetual. I mean, let's face it, a man that sold himself was probably in his 20s or 30s anyhow for 49 years. That's lifetime, brother! So, these resident aliens then probably wanted to get these Hebrews.

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• Now, why would God allow this? That's a good question. Why would God allow this? Because these resident aliens, who have a competitive edge economically speaking, would get as their servants the improvident, irresponsible, undisciplined Hebrews. What does that tell you? That is telling you that God is using these wretched aliens as His chastening rod. What He is telling you is this: If you're not faithful, if you're not responsible, if you're not accountable, if you don't discipline yourself, if you don't learn to be frugal, if you don't learn to control yourself, you're going to end up in slavery yourself to a pagan. Look in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy chapter 28.

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• I want you to see part of the curse. This is the curse, part of the curse, for being disobedient to God, for being unfaithful to God. Here it is, Deuteronomy 28 verse 43. God said if you don't obey Him, He says, "The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high and thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to thee and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head and thou shalt be the tail." Hmm.

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• Let me tell you something, folks. God does give negative sanctions in time as well as positive sanctions. Let me say that another way. God curses as well as blesses. And being in servitude to a stranger was just a notch above being in servitude because you were a criminal. Being in servitude, listen to me, for a long period to a resident alien was basically a disgrace. You were announcing to everybody, "I can't handle money. I'm undisciplined. I'm irresponsible.

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• I don't know what the word frugal means." Maybe you're announcing that you were disobedient to God. So high debt and long-term debt was to be avoided if at all possible. High debt and long-term debt testified to the sanctions of God against those who were irresponsible. So a Hebrew man then, if he was irresponsible, could not only lease his land, but he could lease his services to a brother Hebrew if he found one. If not, he could go then to the resident alien. And to be a servant of a resident alien was disgrace and humiliation.

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• Now, let me ask you a question before I try to make some applications this morning. You say, "Well, I understand that charitable loan, Deuteronomy 15 and other passages, and that fellow got a charitable loan at zero percent interest. And if he was unable to pay it back, well, he could work it out up into the sabbatical year and then it was forgiven. Why could not this man, who has leased his land for 49 years or up to 49 years, why would he not qualify for a zero interest charitable loan and serve only six years?" Well, let me try to answer that like this. The answer has to do, I believe, in several areas. One of them is a legal area regarding inheritance, another is a theological answer. You see, the man who borrowed at zero percent interest and was unable to pay it back, and thus became a bond servant for six years, and freed on the sabbatical year, that man had not leased his land. He still had his land. In other words, here was a man then that had property to return to.

  #52 | 38:38 to 40:21 | cleaned

• He was a man who was not so present-oriented that he was willing to put his property up as collateral. He understood that he still had a future. He understood dominion. He understood that his bond service was going to be a short period of time. He was willing to risk bond service for a short period of time for a zero-interest loan, but he was not willing to risk his land and his testimony and his family for a long period of time. The man who'd leased his land for 49 years, the man who'd used his land as collateral, was already on the downward road. I mean, it was not his for 49 years, and because he was so improvident, because he had leased out his land, he was not someone qualified then for a zero interest loan because he had already proven he was economically incompetent. He had gotten the money for his land and blew it. It was gone.

  #53 | 40:22 to 41:41 | cleaned

• Now the only thing he can do is to sell himself into long-term servitude and let somebody else take care of him. You follow that?

  #54 | 41:43 to 41:59 | cleaned

• Now, let me make just a couple of applications this morning. What is a long-term loan for us today? What is a long-term loan for us today? Let me ask you one more time. What is a long-term loan for us today? Now, most of the long-term loans today are not 49 years. Most of them are 30, okay? Some may be 40, but mostly 30. Now, what is a long-term loan for us?

  #55 | 42:00 to 42:35 | cleaned

• And the answer is exactly the same as it was in the Old Testament. A long-term loan for us is capitalizing ourselves in the present by selling future labor and future services. You say, "But wait a minute, Brother Weaver. Wait a minute. Bond servitude is technically and legally banned in this country. A man cannot be sold into slavery in America." Oh? Well, tell me about it. What does Proverbs 22 and verse 7 say?

  #56 | 42:35 to 43:08 | cleaned

• "The borrower is servant or slave to the lender." You go into a long-term debt arrangement, what does that mean? It means you spend thirty years of your life working to pay somebody else. I don't care what the legal definition is. I don't care about the technicality. The truth of the matter is, you are his servant until you pay him off. Your money is not yours, it's his.

  #57 | 43:09 to 43:35 | cleaned

• Because you sold your future for the present. Another interesting thing is this: Long-term debt is to be avoided. Why? Because it's associated with the curse of God in Deuteronomy 28. God said the stranger will get high above you and you'll be low. Isn't it amazing that most of the time when you and I, as Christians in general, get involved in long-term debt, it is not with other Christians. It's with the strangers. It's with the pagans. It's with those who don't give a flip about us or our God or His work or kingdom. So there was a long-term debt in the Bible.

  #58 | 43:37 to 44:49 | cleaned

• But it was that which brought humiliation and disgrace. What does that teach us? It teaches us that we've got to learn not only to be frugal and disciplined and responsible, but we are to be a future-oriented people, in the sense that we're not a present-oriented people. It's true that we're alive in this day and hour and in this time. But let me tell you something, folks.

  #59 | 44:51 to 45:36 | cleaned

• The world does not revolve around us. If we are never able to get America back in my generation, I want it to be gotten back in James' generation, or Anton's generation. You see what I'm saying? We work for the future, we plan for the future, and you can't work for the future and plan for the future, consuming everything in the present. That's why God says twice in the book of Proverbs, "A prudent man perceiveth evil and hideth himself.

  #60 | 45:39 to 46:19 | cleaned

• But the simple pass on and are punished." So we have to be a future-oriented people and not just a present-oriented people. That's why the Bible ministry is so exciting. You know, it doesn't matter if some of those men to whom we send those Bibles into prison abuse the Bibles. That really doesn't matter. Do you realize one of them could get a brand new Bible and take it and throw it away? Guess what?

  #61 | 46:20 to 46:51 | cleaned

• God's going to have somebody pick it up somewhere down the line. That's the great thing about books. They last. And somebody's going to get some use out of them sooner or later. We've got to be future oriented. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your love, thank you for your grace and mercy to us. We pray, Lord, that you would teach us your eternal principles, and Father, may we apply them in our lives, and may they ring true in our lives, and we follow them.

  #62 | 46:51 to 47:35 | cleaned

• In the name of Jesus Christ we ask, amen.

  #63 | 47:36 to 47:39 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T17:44:41Z