1-11-26 - You Were Aliens In The Land Of Egypt

So this morning, we're gonna be back in Deuteronomy 10 where Moses exhorts Israel and how they're to treat the foreigners that are going to be in their new land. And it's sort of a a a strange thing if you think of the people who are already living there as the aliens. But I think that's the first group of people that were being referenced. It wasn't the years later people coming in after Israel was established and flourishing, but those first who lived there. He's gonna be they'll be instructed in how to treat them.

There's a lot of discussion in our day and in our circles about how Christians ought to think about and interact with the foreigner, the immigrant in America. This sermon is not going to address those questions politically, but it's meant to help us as Christians orient to the question as Christians. Later in, this quarter, we're gonna be taking a couple of weeks in Sunday school to talk about, immigration and Christians and how we ought to interact with that or think about it, what we can be sure about, what we can have grace for differences on. We're gonna talk about that more in detail on Sunday school. And so as we sit under the preaching of the word this morning, as we receive the word, I don't want you to filter it through your political ideology.

We all have difference of opinions. I'm sure. This there there's there's never been a group of people this large who all agreed about about it. Our place as Christians is to follow and to submit to scriptures teaching as we receive it this morning without seeking to explain away the disagreements we have with it. And as you read scripture and as you get to know yourself better, you're gonna find places where you're like, well, I don't know about that or that's not talking about me.

What if it is talking about you? What if exactly what you don't want it to say is exactly what it says? I'm not saying that to sort of backhandly or passive aggressively tell you what every Christian must think about immigration policy or how to address it politically in our country. As I've already said, that's not actually the goal of this sermon. So I'm trying to make a point now of saying, don't hear what I'm not saying.

I'm talking to you as Christians. I'm not talking to you as Americans. I'm talking to you as Christians. I'm talking to you as Christians. I'm talking to you as Americans.

I'm talking to you as Christians. I I'm saying it because I want you to hear what God says without unnecessarily taking umbrage at things that I didn't say and don't care to contend about right now. There are things in scripture that, we wouldn't have to strain to find, the exhortations we receive to be disagreeable to us. And we would attribute that to our sins, not to the wrongness of what was being said. Husbands were told to love their wives and lay down their lives for them as Christ has done for the church.

What husband is there who can't say that's difficult work and my flesh fights against it? And yet the command of the word of God is true and the weakness and the failure lies with me. Or wives be subjects to your husbands as to the Lord even if he's disobedient to the word. Do you bristle at it? Do you say, but but but but but our flesh does fight against the commands of scripture at times, and it's our duty to recognize that it would be sin for us to reject the commands of scripture on that basis that we don't like them.

And so the same thing is true with our text this morning. We have to listen to it, and we have to accept what is unquestionable as the truth. However, it sits with us. That's what submission to God looks like. And so what I mean to tell you is the things I'm gonna say this morning, I'm convinced of because I think they come to us from the word of God.

That doesn't mean it's easy for me or I'm like, I think that is that that is just as smooth and clean and easy. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm convinced that the things we're gonna talk about, I'm gonna say this morning, actually are what this text teaches and that we need to hear it. And so my hope this morning is that God will enlarge our hearts and grow our love and our care for the aliens in our midst. Whatever it is that our political leaders decide to do with regard to immigrants or immigration policy.

Which is to say that the application of this sermon is not political, but spiritual. It's aimed at at how we as Christians behave in our daily lives toward people of of, who who weren't born here. It is not about what I think our national leaders ought to do to address immigration policy and reform it or enforce it or any of those sorts of things. That is a separate conversation. Okay.

Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 17 through 20? For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and he shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. Egypt.

You shall fear the Lord. You shall serve him and cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Now you may be seated.

So our text begins with a statement about the authority and the supremacy of our God. Moses begins by setting him up as the authority above all other authorities, the God of gods, the lord of lords. He is great. He's mighty. He's awesome.

When the Israelites were in Egypt and as they were leaving and the plagues were were being poured out for the first few plagues, do you remember what the Egyptians were able to do? They were able to replicate them. Right? Their their magicians and their conjurers were able you know, Moses came and said, this is what's going to happen. And then they were able the magicians of Egypt were able to to to do the same thing, to replicate it.

But there came a point in the plagues where the magicians and the conjurers were not able to perform what Moses said was going to happen by the hand of the Lord. Why? Well, because of what our text says here. The Lord our God is a God of God's Lord of Lords, great, mighty, and awesome above all other gods. Whatever whatever, strength or power exists, it's not as great and strong as god.

The land that the Israelites were heading into, the land of Canaan was a Galilean full of gods, lesser gods, false gods, idolatrous gods who were inferior to the Lord your God. And so from the beginning, I want us to see one of the things we learned from this is that the things that are that the Bible says about God are true, and he is greater and more mighty and powerful than any other God, any other religion, any other idea or conception of who God is or or what God's like or what he requires of his people or will do for them. Our God's the true God. The great and the mighty and the awesome God. And those who don't believe in him aren't gonna agree with that.

And that's as it should be. What sense would it make for them to for someone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ to testify to and believe in his authority over all creation and his supremacy above all other gods? It's it's it's it's it's it's it's they're mutually exclusive. To believe these things is to be a Christian and to say, I really do believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that no one will come to the father except through him.

No one will go to heaven. No one will have peace with God, the true God, and enter into his rest except through Jesus Christ. However nice of a person, however sincere of a person, however hardworking, however long suffering, whatever is true of them or we think is true of them, if they don't come to the father through Jesus Christ, they cannot come. They will not come. He will not have them.

And so Moses' statement here is an exhortation to Israel not to turn aside to fear as they had in the past, but to trust in the Lord. You know, when they came up to the land forty years previously and they they they sent spies in and they came back fearful, what were they afraid of? What's that? Giant. The giants.

There's Nephilim. And the fact is, if you saw Nephilim, you'd probably go, you know, like WEMBI, but built like me. You know? Like, it'd be it would be a spectacle, and whole bunches of them. For them to be afraid of those giants, what else had to be true with regard to their God?

They had to believe that their God was not able to overcome that giant and to give them that land. Right? We saw big scary guys and we decided we were gonna lose. So we shouldn't go fight them. Why?

Because we can't. Because you can't, Lord. And that's pretty awful when you say it in those terms, but that is where they were at. And that is what they were judged for. And so Moses restates that their god, our god, is a god of gods, lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome god.

Greater, mightier, and more awe inspiring than anything else and anyone else. Consider, as we talked about last week, regarding our sins and how they get a hold of us and how we we fall into them. Consider how that would change if you more fully believed that God was the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God. How would that change your life if you believe that more than you do? I mean, if you believed it perfectly, you would be the most peaceful contented person ever existed.

And so to the extent that you aren't a peaceful contented person, this is at least part of the problem. Is that you don't trust that God is great and mighty and powerful. You've got your Nephilim that you're scared of. You're sort of like the to change the time frame. You're sort of like the the the armies of Israel up against the Philistines going, well they got Goliath.

We're just gonna stay here. Why did the little shepherd boy with his sling and his stone go up against Goliath? What was it that he believed? That God was great and mighty and how was it that these these uncircumcised Philistines would defy the God of heaven and earth? So David, he believed this.

And there he went after Goliath. And there all his brothers and everyone else in Israel sat and waited and worried and were angry. They were angry at him. His brothers were angry at him. You just came down here because you wanted to see what was going on.

It's like, no. Dad told me to bring you some food. But did you hear what he said? Why are what are you doing? What would happen to your worry if you had faith like David?

If you believed what Moses proclaims here about our God, the great, the mighty, the awesome God. What would happen to your anger at the injustices and the and the and the hurts? How much more honest could you be with yourself about yourself If you fully rested in the greatness and the might and awesomeness of God. He had delivered them from Egypt. He led them through the wilderness and provided for them.

He protected them as they moved through, the the land of Edom and came up preparing to cross over. And he's done all that stuff in the past and has also promised to deliver them from all the inhabitants of the Canaanites. Those who live there at the time are referred to in this passage as the aliens in the land. And they're gonna be removed. I mean, at some point, it's hard to to get with that program and believe that that's true.

It's like, seriously, how in the world is this gonna go? And yet there it is. Did the Lord do it? And he did it. We have the benefit of looking back on this.

And so he's the supreme authority. He's the God of gods, the Lord of lords. And then at the end of that verse, it tells us something about his character. And we can we can presume from it being the thing we're we're told he's he's great, he's mighty, he's awesome. And then we're given just not not a complete picture of his character, but but but a highlighted section of his character.

And we say these are the things that are most, beautiful or most the best articulation of his might and his greatness and his awesomeness. And what is it that it we're told? We're told that this god does not show partiality or take a bribe. As the supreme authority of heaven and earth, its creator, its sustainer, This is his character. And therefore, this ought to be the highest character trait or objective that anyone who's raised up to lead should demonstrate.

Lack of partiality and unwillingness to be partial and and and integrity not taking a bribe. That should be top of the list. Top Top of the list. Justice can't show partiality. And so if you think of lady justice, what is the imagery of her?

Her eyes. What's what's up with her eyes? Lady justice is blindfolded. Why? Because of this.

Because the highest virtue in the in the greatest necessity of those who would execute justice is that they would not show partiality and that they wouldn't take a bribe. And so for justice to be executed, it must be blind. It must be impartial if it is to be true. So here's a question. Why do we desire partiality in the name of justice?

Isn't a lot of our disagreements and frustrations that we have our preferences and we want preferential treatment given to our what we agree with? But isn't that partiality? Isn't that injustice? Wouldn't we want the case decided on the merits instead of the influence? We all have our reasons for why we prefer partiality.

We have to submit our thoughts in this area to this question. If God does not show partiality and this blindness with regard to it is the principal quality of a just ruler, why is it so important to us that partiality be shown to us? Do you remember last week when the Lord chose Abraham Israel? Do you remember what it said beforehand about how he had made all these things and done all these things? And he he was he was, he lacked nothing.

He didn't need them. And then it says, nevertheless or yet, he chose you, your fathers, and you after them. And I said to you last week that that statement was meant to humble us and to bring us down to to take away this idea of partiality. That there's something in us that that singles us out and raises us up, and God says that one. Who was Abraham or Abram before God chose him?

He was just a man. He was just a Chaldean. That's all he was. That's it. He's just he was just a he's just a man with a family, with a wife, and with wealth, and with things.

He had a distant family and no kids. He's just a man. Now much is attributed to Abraham later on. His faith primarily. But when he was chosen, he was nobody.

And so we have to learn to this truth that god doesn't choose the way we choose. He doesn't see the way we see. He's just where we demand or prefer or are unjust. You know how clear your thoughts get when you're frustrated with your spouse or your kids? It's like all of a sudden the clouds clear out and you know exactly what they did, why they did it, what they thought.

Like, it's it all is just very clear now. And you're and you're and you're and there's no question in your mind that you're wrong. Have you ever been wrong in one of those moments? Have you ever found out later from May maybe from your from your spouse, you know, some other some other thing you didn't know about the kid or some part of piece of context or maybe you jumped to conclusions? Have you ever been wrong?

I've been wrong. So why was I wrong? Well, it's because I didn't come at the situation impartially. I came in, judgments a blazing. Knowing just what was going on and why.

I didn't come in blindfolded saying, okay. I don't wanna know which kids did it. Because as soon as I know which kids did it, all the context of that kid and their personality and their a like all that comes in. Like, wait, two of the kids had a problem. Which which which I I knew you you know?

It's not blindfolded, is it? Up until recently, the joke in my house was that Amos was the favorite child. He's lost that status even in his former accusers. He never does anything wrong. Never tell him he's wrong.

It's like, no. That's not true. Partiality is the thing I'm trying to get us to see. It is it is so deeply ingrained as you don't even we don't even realize when we're doing it. And even we think we're coming and being objective.

We're so full of crap. We're not being objective. We have our opinions. We have our our priorities. We have our preferences.

We have our weaknesses. We have our blind spots. Not the good kind of blind, but the bad kind of blind. And it really does affect us. And so we have to ask ourselves, is what we want justice?

Or do we just want what we want? And do we say that we're being objective when we're really just spinning a tail to justify what we want? What does scripture say regarding partiality? Here, it says that that the Lord is is not, partial. But what else does scripture say about it?

It consistently warns against partiality and gives us examples of, when it's shown. I'm gonna read to you four passages. There are many more that deal with partiality. But here's a, a sampler. Deuteronomy one seventeen.

You shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man for the judgment is God's. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it. This is Moses setting the courts of Israel.

Second Chronicles nineteen seven. Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be very careful in what you do, for the Lord our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe. Job thirteen ten, he referring to the Lord, he will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality. Romans two eleven is probably the most straightforward for there is no partiality with God.

And James two nine, if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. As I said, there's many more verses that fill out this issue of partiality and the sinfulness of it. Sometimes that partiality is in the context of government. Sometimes it's in the context of the church. Sometimes it's being shown toward the wicked.

Sometimes it's in the context of the church. Sometimes it's being shown toward the wicked. Sometimes it's partiality for your own benefit. But in every instance, it's condemned because it's unjust. And God himself is just.

It's the principle, marker of his character in this text. For justice to be just, to be true, it may not show partiality. Now, why am I talking so much about justice and partiality? Well, because the next verse says, for he executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and he shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. Now we're familiar with the orphan and the widow.

Right? James says pure and undefiled religion is this, that you visit the orphan and the widow in his distress. We're given those things as being sort of the pinnacle of Christian faith and love is that you would act in these areas or toward these people groups, the orphan and the widow. But here in this passage, there's a third a third category put on a plane with the orphan and the widow, and that is the alien. Execute justice for the orphan and the widow, and he shows his love for the aliens by giving him the alien food and clothing.

So let's take a time. Let's take time and look at the verse. What does this text say he does for the orphan and the widow? It says he executes justice for them. He ensures that they are taken care of.

This is what we see as an example in the book of Acts. When there are widows who are disputing about not being fed, what happens? The apostles say, we have to appoint men to attend to this, to see to it that justice is done. But we can't be distracted by it, so they appoint deacons. There was an accusation of of injustice.

And And they said, okay. We're going to get men together, and they're going to see to it that these widows are taken care of. We're not told anywhere in scripture that there was a dispute to be settled about which one of the sets of widows was in the right or in the wrong. The goal was to see that justice was done toward them and that they were fed. And so we have the institution of the deacon so that justice could be executed.

But what does our verse say that the Lord does for the alien? It doesn't say that he executes justice for him, but rather that he shows his love for the alien. Are justice and love mutually exclusive? Are they are they worlds apart in terms of difference? Can something be just if it is loving?

Can something be loving and just? So why not just say he executes justice for the orphan, the widow, and the alien seeing to it that they all have food and clothing? You do realize that, like, what were the what was it that the orphans and widows would need? Most likely, the thing they needed was food and clothing. Right?

But he just says he executes justice for them. But then with the alien, he says that he loves them, and he gives them food and clothing. And so if justice and love are not mutually exclusive, why does Moses describe them differently? The reason that justice is used with the orphans and widows is that no one in Israel was going to argue that their orphans and their widows should be left to starve and go naked. They were Israelites after all.

But the alien, now that's a different story. Scripture describes the care of the alien under another term, love. God loves the alien and he sees to their care because the people wouldn't have had the same disposition or inclination toward the alien. And so one thing we learn from this text is that this sort of trouble that we have between the races and peoples, it's at least as old as when Moses said this. It is not new.

And one of the things that also means is that none of the things that we think is original. Not one thing we think is original. Not on any wherever you come down, you are not having an original thought. This has been this this trouble has gone on forever. How do people interact with other people who aren't like them?

And whatever your answer is to that question, I wanted to first be a Christian answer. And the Christian answer is to emulate God who loves them. Whatever shape and form that love takes, your your answer takes, you need to be able to say, I believe this is a loving answer. Not just a just answer, not just it's what's deserved, but it's loving because we're told here that god is loving toward them, toward the alien. And yet, I'm not arguing that everyone that you come across is to be seen and treated without any distinction in every circumstances.

The difficulty with partiality is that there are times when God actually commands his people to show partiality. And so on the one hand, you're not supposed to be you're not supposed to be unjustly partial. And the vast majority of the partiality that we exhibit is unjust. And yet, scripture doesn't teach us that we should be so unaware as to deny reality. So where are we supposed to show partiality?

Where are God's people supposed to show partiality? Well, they're supposed to prioritize the people of God. Scripture teaches us to show partiality first toward God. So you could argue from this text earlier when when Moses says that our God is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome. Therefore, you ought to show partiality toward him over any other god.

You ought to prefer him and follow him, fear him and serve him above any other god. He is not their equal. I thought we weren't supposed to show partiality. You're not unless you're supposed to. And scripture often presents us with these tensions.

But Christians ought to prioritize and show partiality in favor and love and and commitment to their God above all else. How else do the apostles in the face of persecution say, we must obey God rather than man. What are they doing? They're showing partiality to whom? To God.

Why? Because he's the great and the mighty and the awesome God and they can't submit themselves to someone else. So they should so Christians ought to show partiality to God over any person or any people group. You remember that Jesus says, he who loves his father or brother or mother, and he gives all of these close intimate relationships. Anyone who loves him more than me is what?

Not worthy of me. What's he saying? Don't you show partiality to them over me. I'm the top of the heap. Your commitment, if you're my people, is to me first.

Come what may, whatever comes. Me first. After all, we're told he's a jealous God. Jealous for his glory, jealous for the good of his people. Therefore, his people ought to show partiality toward him.

We're also supposed to show partiality to other believers. We're told to do good to all men, especially what? To those who believe. Is that just? To loving?

Is it easy? It's not as easy as you think you might think it is. This is the difficulty of it all. Let's look at another example of an a a case study, if you will, of how to treat the alien. Our text says that he gives food to the and clothing to the alien, gives it to them.

Right? Like, free of charge. Here you go. But Joseph, back in Egypt at the beginning, knew there was a famine coming, knew that there would be no food. And so he stored up all of the grain so that when the famine came, there would be reserves to so the people wouldn't suffer and they wouldn't die.

And then when the people come to Joseph, unable to sustain themselves with no food of their own, they come to the government for food. What's Joseph do with them? Does he turn them away and say, sorry about it. That's your problem? Nope.

Does he just open up the door and say, go on and get what you want? What did he do? He sold it to them. Right? They didn't have their own grain, but they had wealth.

And So they so they had to buy it. Right? But God says he gives to the orphan. He gives to the alien. And this starts with Egypt, and then the famine is spread and it's great.

So eventually, you've got foreigners coming in. Now, I'm sorry. This is our food. You can't have any. Would that have been just?

Shouldn't Egypt prioritize Egypt? What did Joseph do? Sold the food to his brothers that he didn't, you know, he didn't know before they knew. Right? But sold the food to the foreigners, gave it to them.

And so the giving by saying that that that it's given to them, I don't mean to say that it's given for free. I mean, it's given at all. How many of us would have looked at that as Christians if they had just said, no. Sorry. You're on your own.

If you if that's on you, sorry about your harvest. Like, but we we store it up for us. Go on your way. Would you have looked at that as an unjust answer for one nation to give to another? It actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

Egypt first. Right? But that's not what they did. They sold it. What happened when the people didn't have money?

Then they just gave it all away. What'd they do? What'd you say? All of a sudden they've got to like give up their land. And like become you can say it, slaves.

Like they gave became indentured servants. They gave their for food. They gave their land and then were working to cultivate that land to replace the food that they had gotten ahead of time. They basically were borrowing. They're like, we need food now, and we're gonna work this land next year, and we're gonna replenish what we took.

But we're giving up the rights to the things that are gonna grow next year because we need food now. It's government overreach. You see, like, I'm not am I crazy from, like, just observing, like, is this how we think the government should work as Christians? I'm not talking about policies. I'm not actually saying this is this is what America should do.

I'm just saying, can you look at this example and be like, what would you have said if you were starving and you were from another place? What would you have said if you had the grain houses and they were coming to you? Get out. Maybe what you said, but you ought to question whether it's biblical. And so Israel is to care for the alien.

Now here's a crazy thing that happened in that story with Joseph. We could've I've been looking at this story as a as a as an example of an economic or political sort of nations and how they relate. Question. Why did God tell Joseph years before the famine that the famine was coming? The reason that God told Joseph years before the famine was coming, that the famine was coming was so that he'd store up the food.

Nope. I mean, he did do that, but that wasn't the end. Why? Well, so that his people would have food. That's also true, but not the point.

What happened to Israel after Joseph and his brothers were reunited? Can we say that his their reunification was one of the reasons? God created an like, who could have written the story except God? He he made an he made a circumstance where Joseph sold into slavery as opposed to being killed, who rises up, is told about the famine, prepares for it such that his family later would come. They would eventually be reunited and then settled together in the land.

Was that good for his for for Joseph and his family? Was it good that they settled in Egypt? No. Depends on which part of the four hundred and thirty years we're talking about. At the beginning, yes.

At the end, I can say from my part, I wouldn't have wanted to live in Egypt toward the end of their captivity. They were slaves. But you do remember that God promised to Abraham before Joseph, before Jacob, before any of that. That the land that Abraham was walking in, this land that they're about to go into, he says, your people are going to come to this land, but they're gonna go and they're gonna be captors. They're gonna be captives.

And he told them for four hundred years, and then I'm going to rise up. The great and mighty God's going to rise up, and I'm going to deliver them out of that land. I'm gonna bring them to this land. So the reason that Joseph was told that sold into slavery and all of this happened was so that the words that God promised to Abraham would come to pass. And God would be proved to be faithful and mightier than pharaoh or any other God.

So was it good that Joseph gave food to the foreigner? It was. And so we have to learn to ask ourselves these sorts of questions. And we have to question our assumptions because we're not always right. However strongly we feel about it, that doesn't make us right.

A strong feeling doesn't make a right feeling. Feeling. We may look at that and say, well, that was an extraordinary circumstance. But from a political or, standpoint, I think it's terribly bad policy. And we live in a very different world and there's a lot there's a lot to actually talk about.

Isn't there? If we wanted to have the discussion, there is a lot to talk about. But this is a part of it as a Christian. You can't say like, oh, well, get out. Yeah.

That doesn't have anything to do with what I think is a Christian today. Actually, it should because you're a Christian first. And it's gonna cause you some friction like what I'm talking about. And it's hard to sort your way through it Because who in the world at that time could have seen what God was doing hundreds of years after the fact when they were living in it? They couldn't.

But man, we all think we know what's gonna happen. If if this happens, then that's what's that's the only thing that's the only outcome. Dan told me a meme. Does you know what's funny? I saw a meme.

It says, when man tells god his plans, god just laughs. Many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord directs his steps. Like, there just has to be some foundational humility at every point in our lives where we say, I have all these thoughts and all these ideas and I really am convinced of them. And I may be just flat out wrong. So I think the thing, and I believe the thing, and I pursue the thing while realizing I may be wrong about the thing.

I'm working with what I've got, and so is everyone else. These things are complex and we need patience as we sort through them and discern the governing principles that ought to guide our hearts. But if we were to say, well, that's how God treats the orphan, but we are not God. The next verse just smacks that right down. So show your love for the alien for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Moses reasons with Israel that they ought to treat the aliens well because they used to be aliens. You know how scripture reasons with us, what do you have that you didn't receive? What do you have that you didn't receive? What privileges do you have that didn't come to you as a kindness of God? And why do you think that because you have it and someone else does it, it's doesn't.

It's an indication that you're better than them or more loved than them. That God prefers you. If you didn't prefer Abraham because of who he was or Israel because of what they had done, why do we as their spiritual descendants forget that? What do we have that we didn't receive? Land of Egypt.

Any of us. But we were foreigners to the kingdom of God and to his grace. We were once not a people or a part of his people, but now we are. And when we forget that, we're lost. We ought to love the alien, says Moses, because God loved the alien, and we used to be aliens.

And so looking at John's epistle where he says we love because he, the Lord, first loved us, we ought also to infer not only are we to work in the same category of love, but that we are to love the things he loves and to love the way he loved. And so if he loved the aliens and provided them food and clothing, what ought we to do? Is that not what the good Samaritan did? Even the rob the man who was robbed, even his countrymen were too busy to be bothered, But the good Samaritan wasn't. Our love is supposed to reflect the same priorities of God's love.

To be clear, I'm not talking about what I think our immigration policy as a country should be. I'm talking about how you as a man or a woman or a child interact with the people that you see on a daily basis. That's what I'm talking about. For a number of reasons. One, you have all the influence over that interaction and none of the influence over the other.

Precious little influence. And so if you find in your heart that you despise a class of people, that you are cold toward them, that you feel hatred toward them because they're a stranger, then I want to say very clearly to you, that is sin. It's possible for you to want a good immigration policy in our country that's actually enforced and to show real tangible love to the foreigner in your day to day life. The two are not mutually exclusive. And so you ought to remember who you were, and what you were, and what God plucked you up out of.

So that you know how to orient to the word those who are not like you. In Luke's account of the sermon on the mount, it says this. This is Luke six twenty seven to 36. He says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you.

And whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the most high for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Be merciful just as your heavenly father is merciful. And so this whole sermon is about how you interact with real flesh and blood people. And what you think about them. The themes that were in Deuteronomy 10 are in this passage in Luke six. Clothing, food, enemies.

And all the same details are in both passages, instructions about how we as Christians ought to treat them. Love them, feed them, clothe them. You shall fear the end of our text says, you shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and cling to him. You shall swear by his name.

And so to conclude this section, Israel is exhorted to fear, to serve, to cling to, and to swear by the Lord. These are the themes that we covered last week, but it's helpful for us to be reminded that our whole lives as Christians ought to be governed by our devotion and our commitment to the Lord and to his commands. Above anything else, The things I'm saying to you are much simpler than figuring out what's possible politically. That's never going to be resolved. If you got everything you want, it wouldn't be resolved.

It'd just be a different set of things to have to deal with. But these things, we as Christians need to settle into our hearts And they need to govern our desires in other places. And I'll tell you, these things are not settled in the hearts of America. On any side. But it needs to be settled in the hearts of us because we're God's people.

It ought to be settled that we're going to fear God come what may. That our our singular goal is to serve him and to cling to him and to swear by his name. Whatever the cost of that is to us or to our children. And if we don't do it, we might as well just snip this part those parts out of the Bible and not expect our kids to do it. The example you set for them matters.

And so is the heavy sermon. It's leaning hard on us. But is it what have I said have I gone beyond what the text says? Then don't brush it off. Our ideas about everything, about marriage, about children, about money, about health, about wealth, about politics, about immigrants.

Because we're Christians, it must reflect scriptures teaching on those topics. And that will make you stand out in our country in this day. They're not common things. If we're discuss want to discuss policy positions, that's fine. Men of good conscience will end up in quite different places regarding what we think would be best.

But if we're discussing what the Bible requires of each of every one of us as regarding how we treat the people that we live among, there's much less room for disagreement. And so any conversation that we have on the in this area needs to be humble and reasoned from scripture before it's reasoned from logic or expediency or history or political theory. Scriptures teaching has to be preeminent. And that being said, you'll argue with other men who make their arguments from scripture and you won't agree about it. And so we need a double helping of humility.

Seek these things. Love God, prefer him over everything else. Second, prefer God's people over everything else. And then Lord help us to sort out how to be faithful in every other area of our lives so long as we're here. Let's pray.