No. 75 - SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS 101 By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, April 08, 2006 Good morning, brethren! Today we are going to study economics, and we are going to study it from the Bible perspective. I want to start with a little bit of background from economics that you would see operating out in the world and some of the theories that we operate by in the economic system that we have of buying, selling and trading. There was once a man by the name of Adam Smith, and he lived in the 1700’s. He wrote a very famous book called The Wealth of Nations. He is considered the father of modern economics. The main thing that he is remembered for is coming up with a model of how a free-market economy works in which he said, “Rising tides float all boats”. But for this “invisible hand” to work properly, the market must be unfettered. It must be what we call a free-market economy so that people can buy, sell and trade goods and services. When you are allowed to do that within a nation or a group of nations, what happens is amazing because as the goods and services are traded back and forth and money begins to flow, everybody in theory gets richer. Everybody improves their lot in life. Even those less fortunate have more opportunities for work. If the system is generous in nature the way it should be in benevolent capitalism, those who are getting richer can afford to help take care of those who are less fortunate. But the engine that drives the economy is the free-market system that allows people to buy, sell and trade among one another. In our local county years ago we were told that every dollar that came into our county would exchange hands and roll over seven times before it left. This was very important while we were in a low spot in our economic activity. Those in charge who were trying to run our economic development office felt we needed to attract more tourist dollars and more business. They said every time we attract one of those tourist dollars into our area, it is going to exchange hands within the local businesses seven times. This would create more jobs, giving more economic activity to everybody and thereby lifting everyone’s boats. If you look at the world at large today, the wealthiest nations are the ones with free-market economies. The system, by and large, started with what we call modern Israel, which were the descendant nations of ancient Israel. They are the English-speaking nations of the world. If you look at the world, the free-market system really flowered and took off in the United States, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and those English-speaking countries of the world. They started this idea of unfettered capitalism. Let people go and let them use their imaginations, their skills and their education. Give them the freedom to own property, and let them do what is best in their own lives to support themselves and their families. Let’s see what happens when we do that. And wow! It took off, and the United States and England became extremely wealthy. More and more nations saw that economic model working and opted into the system. Now you see many nations growing in wealth. It is not always the nations that have the most natural resources like Canada and the United States. Once a nation learns that a free-market system works and they abide by that, they benefit whether they have natural resources or not. A case in point would be Japan, which is a very small island nation with very little in the way of natural resources, yet no one would argue today that they are not poor. They are one of the wealthiest nations per capita on the face of the earth. How did they do it? They did it by adopting the American, Canadian and modern Israel type of model of a free-market system and buying, selling and trading among themselves and among the nations of the world, thereby lifting the boats throughout Japan and making all their citizenry wealthier. So the system works. It has been proven that it absolutely does work. We need economic activity. If the economic activity stagnates like in the Great Depression and people put fetters on capitalism and try to block the free-flow of goods and services throughout the earth, a depression results. All the people’s boats settle down lower, lower and lower. Economic activity stops, so therefore the people become poorer. We have seen through the cycles of the last 150 years that when it is working well and unfettered, it does magnificently well. When we put too many tariffs and too many fetters on the economic activity and too many impediments to global trade, everybody’s boat starts to go down. It can lead to a very dire situation. We want to take these principles and apply them to the Church. We want to apply them to what we need to do spiritually. Therefore we are going to call this sermon “Spiritual Economics 101”. I think you will be surprised at just how much the Bible has to say about buying, selling and trading among one another and what this buying, selling and trading really is. TREASURE AND PEARLS We are going to start by turning to Matthew chapter 13. In verse 44 Jesus Christ was telling His disciples: “‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.’” So the kingdom of heaven is like when you stumble upon a treasure hidden in a field, and you realize it is a magnificent treasure. It is worth so much that you will trade anything you have to obtain that field. Also in Matthew 13:45 it says: “‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.’” It is as if a person is out there in the market place looking for pearls (it could be diamonds or rubies or whatever). They stumble upon the one that they know is the most beautiful pearl, or the most beautiful diamond they have ever seen. They say to themselves I am willing to trade all my other jewels and riches to obtain that pearl. Of course, the pearl is the kingdom of God. PARABLE OF THE TALENTS If you drop to chapter 25 in Matthew, just flipping over a few pages, we will read the parable of the talents. We can see Jesus Christ compares the kingdom of heaven in a little different sense. Read Matthew 25:14-30. Much has been said about this parable of the talents over the years. We can obviously see the talents are a type of money, but what is it? It is not just physical money. We have often said it is what we do with our physical talents in life, but obviously this is spiritual because we are talking about the kingdom of God. Of course, the man who traveled to a far country is Jesus Christ, leaving His riches in the hands of those who are His servants. He was departing and letting them buy, sell, trade and work with those talents that He gave them (the spiritual gifts that He gave His servants). Of course, Jesus Christ eventually is going to reap where He did not sow. Eventually the entire world, we are told, will be partaking in the Millennium. The entire world will have access to the Holy Spirit. That will not be in this dispensation of the Church when Jesus Christ is actually sowing and actually depositing His talents with people and seeing what they will do with it. This one man Jesus Christ correctly discerns is lazy. He is not just afraid. That person is the person who in life does not want to overcome and grow in character. He does not want to utilize the talents and the riches that God gave him. He is hiding his faith and the things that he knows he ought to be doing and not doing anything with it. He thinks he is just going to go back to Jesus Christ and say I stayed faithful. I did not deny the faith. I never turned my back on Christianity. I just did not do anything with it, because I was afraid of You. But Jesus Christ will say no you are not just afraid. Everyone should have a fearful respect of Me. You were lazy. You did not want to overcome. You did not want to work on your problems. You did not want to grow in holy righteous character, therefore, you bore no fruit. You did not multiply the riches I gave you. Of course, Jesus Christ says this is a form of wickedness. He said you could have deposited that with the bankers. You could have gone out into the world and worked very hard. You could have said I have a hard time sharing the truth with people. I have a hard time speaking. I have a hard time with possibly shyness or whatever, but you could have gone and worked with the physical talents and the mental ability you had. Then you could have given what you produced to those who could do something. It is like putting it in the bank where they can do something with it on My behalf and turn what abilities you have into spiritual growth. But the man did not even do that. We see a concept here in God’s economy of buying, selling and trading and even calling His wealth something that can be deposited in the bank that can earn interest. It is a very important concept, and it is a type of an economy. A PHYSICAL ECONOMY AND A SPIRITUAL ECONOMY You and I are engaged in two economic systems. We are engaged in a physical economic system which is the one that Adam Smith talked about. In that system we have to get up in the morning and go to work. We cannot be lazy. We buy, sell and trade in the open market so that we can support ourselves, our families and the nation we are a part of. This is what we do physically. It requires overcoming laziness. It requires a certain amount of get up and go and a perseverance to do the job that we have to do. As Church members, we are also part of a spiritual economy. We are part of both. How we coordinate these two and put them together is very, very important. You really cannot have one without the other. You cannot have a spiritual economy without properly partaking of the physical. That is because we are physical people. To grow in holy righteous character is not just overcoming things like our temper, for instance, or smoking. It is not the things that are physical in nature. It is also our works. We all know people who are less fortunate. We all know people who are in and outside the Church who are having difficult times. We see on the news people who are struggling around the earth under tremendous problems and difficulties. God wants to see if we are going to help by our physical effort, for faith without works is dead! Are we going to help the Church get this good news out to the world? Are we going to help people in dire need around us by alleviating their suffering a little bit with the fruits of our labors that we can share with them? We really have to meld these two economies to get it right. We have to. It is the way it works. We are part of a world economy, and we are responsible to be good citizens of that economy. We are also part of God’s economy. You do not need to turn to them, but you can look at some scriptures in your Bible that you are very familiar with. II Thessalonians 3:6-10 says we must work. We must provide for our household. In I Timothy 5:3-8 we are told that if we do not provide for our household, we are worse than an infidel. This means we are worse than someone who does not even have the Bible knowledge and truth. We are worse than the lazy people out in the world because we have the knowledge of God plus the opportunity to partake of the physical economic system that Adam Smith was talking about. So we have to provide for our families, and we have to provide for God’s Church and work. We have to bear fruit by developing holy righteous character. We are going to continue to unearth this spiritual economy in the Bible. We are going to dig a little deeper into it and find out the different ways that it works, so that we can participate in it as soon as possible. We are going to find it in some unusual places in the Bible, perhaps places we never realized God was talking about a spiritual economy. The first place like that is Ephesians chapter 1. Please turn to Ephesians chapter 1. OUR INHERITANCE Ephesians 1 has a lot to say about an economic system. We are going to start in verse 1 and read to verse 7. We see that redemption (the concept of being forgiven our sins) is part of the riches we have obtained through Jesus Christ. We are not personally preordained to have anything, but there are a certain number of positions, as we saw in Matthew, that are predestined. It is our job to try and grow in holy righteous character. We need to grow in the riches that will help us fit the positions that have been predestined. Continue in Ephesians 1:8. “…which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence…” These riches are to abound in us. Continue reading verses 9-12. Here we talk about an inheritance. Obviously an inheritance is something that is grown through hard work. When we have a physical inheritance on the earth, it is passed down from grandma and grandpa or mom and dad. It is because they worked hard to put together enough wealth and property and enough riches to form an inheritance. It did not just happen. It was by a lot of work in previous generations. We were told that we can partake in an inheritance. Continuing in Ephesians 1:13. “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” That says a lot in verse 14 because this guarantee (which is a bit of the Holy Spirit we are sealed with at baptism) is also a sign that we will some day partake in a much larger inheritance. That is, if we hold true to our side of the covenant (the agreement). It starts with the purchased possession. What is the purchased possession? It is us! After Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed His blood, He was looking for a body to work through. He purchased us when we agreed, through our covenant at baptism, to become part of His purchased possession (part of the body of Christ). He said if you allow Me to use you as part of My body to get this job done, I will give you a bit of a guarantee. It will be like a down payment of what you will someday have in huge measure. That is spiritual blessings and spiritual power. He said I am going to give you just a little bit, but it will be a guarantee of an inheritance to come because you are part of My purchased possession. That is what Jesus Christ was talking about in Matthew 25 when He said I am going to a far country and disperse My goods and riches among the people who say they want to work with Me. I will disperse My riches among them, and then I want them to go out and buy, sell, trade and grow in interest. I want them to produce more riches for Me so there will be an abundant inheritance that someday you can all share in. THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS ECONOMY I want to specifically zero in on verse 10 of Ephesians 1. Let’s reread verse 10. “…that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him.” What is this dispensation of the time? We are going to define those terms as they are found in the Greek in the original writings. Dispensation is the Greek word oikonomia. It sounds much like economy. This is one of the words we get the word economy from in the English today. It comes from another word called oikonomos. So let’s define oikonomia and oikonomos. Oikonomia means the administration of a household or estate, specifically a religious economy. Now we understand when this word in English is called the dispensation of the times, in Jesus Christ’s mind (the person who was inspiring these words to be written) He says that this is the administration of My household or estate in the form of a religious economy. That is what dispensation means. Oikonomos means a house disperser or distributor, a manager or overseer, an employee in that capacity, by extension a fiscal agent or treasurer. Figuratively it means a preacher of the gospel. Now we see that when God says I am going to leave My riches with you, He says I am going to leave the gospel of the kingdom with you and that is why I kept showing you in the parables that the kingdom of heaven is like an economy. The kingdom of heaven is very important. It is My riches to give to you that you are to turn around and preach by word, deed and by our example among one another and among the world. By doing so you are an employee that I have brought as a purchased possession to be a manager. You work for Me as a manager of My household and My estate. If you are diligent, you are building a huge inheritance for yourself. When you multiply all the people given this responsibility (all the predestined positions), you are making an inheritance that will be an enormously wealthy household that will be of benefit to the entire universe someday! That is what is in this word dispensation of the times. The word dispensation or oikonomia is a compound of two words: oikos which means a dwelling place, by implication a family, more or less related, and nomos. Nomos means to parcel out food, especially for grazing animals. It means to parcel out food, specifically the law and its proscriptive usage, recognizing the law of Moses and also the gospel. So oikos means a person in the family distributing food to others (grazing animals like sheep). We are all sheep in God’s pasture. When we parcel out spiritual food, we are partaking of the oikonomos. We are people in God’s family parceling out food, specifically the gospel and understanding the law of Moses, in order to benefit the entire Church and mankind. That is what he is saying here. Referring to the economy of the fullness of the times, what is the fullness of the times? At the first Pentecost back when Christ was resurrected and when the apostles and the one hundred and twenty were present in the upper room, they received a bit of the treasure of God (a bit of the Holy Spirit). It formed a tongue of fire that descended upon them. It ignited the love of the truth and guided them from that point forward because they had a bit of the Holy Spirit given to them as a guarantee. They could now go forth from that first Pentecost and buy, sell and trade. To this day (seven Church eras later), we are still descendants of those who first received the Holy Spirit as seeds, who have followed in lock step season after season after season, growing and producing fruit within the body of Christ (within the Church of God). In this way we partake of the fullness of the dispensation of the times. We partake in our era of an economy that has now been going on (a free-market spiritual economy) for the past two thousand years. We are nearing the end of the fullness of the dispensation. That is an exciting time because it is at the end of the fullness of the dispensation that Jesus Christ returns and disperses the inheritance. He says to the servant, what did you do in your life? The servant has the opportunity to show Jesus Christ, just like a little child. When you give a little child their first dollar or you give them a new toy to work with (maybe building blocks or something) then a little while later the child comes and says look mommy and daddy what I did with what you gave me! In essence, that is what it is like when Jesus Christ returns. We are going to run up to Him and say look what I did with what You gave me! If possible, we want to be able to say we have doubled it! In another place Jesus Christ says go forth and bear fruit thirty, sixty or hundred-fold. It would be nice to give Him a hundred-fold increase. Each of us has the opportunity to buy, sell and trade with the riches that Jesus Christ gave us to start with. We need to look at some other scriptures now to describe this economy so we can participate in it better in our lives. We want to understand the economic principles that Jesus Christ has outlined as spiritual principles in this religious economy (the fullness of the dispensation of the times). We want to relate it to our lives today because we are alive today. We need to buy, sell and trade among ourselves. We cannot do it with the Christians who have gone on before. We can take the knowledge that they recorded and the experiences they recorded and build upon them, but it is up to us today to use the wealth that we have been given. There is no book that I can find more about this economy than Luke, so we will be turning to Luke quite a bit now for the rest of the sermon. Turn to Luke chapter 7. Read verses 36-39. Of course, Jesus understood what this man was thinking. Verse 40: “And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ So he said, ‘Teacher, say it.’” Continue reading Luke 7:41-50, and I want you to notice we are talking about creditors and debtors here like an economy. HUMILITY AND FORGIVENESS We see here the first way that we are going to talk about participating in an economy is an exchange of forgiveness, and it starts with humility. We have to realize we are sinners and humbly ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness. There is a lot of information here for that Pharisee. The Pharisee thought he was pretty good. He was not a horrible sinner. He felt he was pretty righteous so, therefore, he did not think he needed forgiveness. He did not treat Jesus Christ with the respect due the king of the kingdom of God. He did not give Jesus Christ the humility that he needed to show Jesus Christ, so that Jesus could see this man’s heart was in the right place. No, instead he was very judgmental of the woman. In his own mind, he thought very little of her humiliating herself like that in front of this Man, but being a filthy person to even come up to talk to a teacher like that. The Pharisee was a teacher of the law as well. He would not want that woman touching him. He thought, no, do not let someone like that touch me! So he said if this other Man (speaking of Jesus Christ) was a prophet (a teacher in God’s eyes), He would not let such a woman touch Him. But Jesus Christ said wait a minute. You have things backwards. She knows she has a big debt that needs to be cancelled. We are getting the concept here of an economy. This woman knew she owed a huge debt for the sins in her life. The Pharisee had done better in many respects in his life. He had not committed the same number of sins, but we know the wages of sin is death whether it is one sin or a thousand sins. It does not matter. He was under the same condemnation. He probably really did have less to repent of, but because he could not do it and could not humiliate himself, he received no forgiveness. This woman asked for and received forgiveness, and it was counted to her as love. She loved Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ loved her. Therefore, the debt was cancelled. The hard-hearted Pharisee could show no love and mercy, so he received no love or mercy. We need to learn that an exchange of forgiveness is one very big way to participate in a spiritual economy. The more debts we forgive, the more debts we will be forgiven. That is why in the model prayer (typically called the Our Father) we ask forgive us our debts as we forgive others their debt. Christ was saying in the model prayer you better keep in mind that you need to forgive others, because the measure that you use to forgive others is the measure that We will use to forgive you, meaning Him and God the Father. REPENTANCE There is another way to participate in this economy and it is by repentance. This woman also showed a repentant attitude. We are going to look at another scripture that shows that as well. That woman wanted to change, and that was counted to her as a good thing. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 15, verse 8: “‘Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!” Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’” We have to mine this scripture. This little episode here that Jesus Christ was showing in this parable has to do with ten silver coins which is money, and it has to do with repentance. What is it that we have to repent of? We have to repent of breaking the law which is sinning. Therefore, this woman had ten points. She understood the Ten Commandments. She possessed them in her life. She had an understanding of them and had a willingness to be obedient to them, but in some way she lost one. Whether she became a liar, whether she became unfaithful to her mate, whether she was sinning in some other way like stealing, we do not know which of the Commandments she lost sight of. But she lost sight of one of the Commandments. She realized I am missing one of these coins. I am missing something in my life, and I need to repent of this. She lit a lamp (the Bible). She went and searched the word of God. She said I have to find out what I need to do to get back to God. We have Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread creeping up on us here very shortly. That is what we need to do. We need to examine our lives in the light of the Bible and in the mirror of God’s law and see where we are lacking. We need to find it and grab hold of that coin again. There is great rejoicing in heaven when we do that. So this is participating in the economy and growing richer again, because when we lose sight of the law and repent, we gain that silver coin back. We are buying, selling and trading with a full deck, so to speak. When this woman repented, she made great joy in heaven because as a woman also we are picturing being one of the ten virgins and being one of the lost ten tribes. It extrapolates out into many areas. Each of us as part of the body of Christ is part of the bride of Christ, so we are pictured as a woman whether we are male or female. So the second way to participate in the economy is to repent. OBEDIENCE The third one is to show obedience. Luke chapter 17 shows us how to be profitable for God. Read Luke 17:5-10. Jesus Christ is saying if we want to become really profitable to God, we have to go beyond the minimums and beyond the basics. Keeping that one talent hidden in the ground or the silver coin buried and then saying God I knew You were going to be harsh so I am giving You back exactly what You gave me is, in effect, saying to God I am going to do for You the minimum. I am going to go to Church as often as I can. I am going to quit smoking, swearing or drinking. I am going to do the minimum things that You require (keeping the law and the testimony), but I am not going to do those things which I know go beyond the law into the spirit of the law. In other words, mercy, gentleness, kindness, love. These are the things that go beyond the step by step requirements to be a Christian. This gets into those areas where we can really grow wealth and really become something in God’s eyes that is useful to Him. We have so much time in our life to buy, sell and trade, and then it is over. We have to use our lives wisely and go beyond the minimums. We have to show mercy towards one another, compassion towards one another and love for our family and for the family of man, starting with the body of Christ. Luke chapter 19 explains this concept in more depth once again. Luke 19, verse 11: “Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Therefore He said: ‘A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants…’” (the ten virgins or the ten tribes) “‘…delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, “Do business till I come.”’” Look at that concept. It says “do business”. Continue reading Luke 19:14-17. Now we are getting the concept of the inheritance that Jesus Christ was talking about. Read verses 18-27. That is austere and harsh, but the way around it was very simple. Do something with the riches God has given us. Buy, sell and trade in the areas we just talked about. Be obedient beyond the minimums in sharing, love, mercy and forgiveness, and help each other by canceling debts. When we hold a debt against one another because someone offended us, we are both poorer for it. When we forgive each other, we are both richer for it. This is the spiritual economy that we are partakers of. GENEROSITY We also do these things by the physical blessings we receive from God because when we see someone among us who is struggling physically and we assist them with physical things, we are gaining spiritual blessings as well. We can work in both the spiritual economy and physical economy and grow our inheritance. If we do very little with it, we are going to find that those who do it the most successfully will receive more. Why is that fair? Because they are capable of handling it. Someone who is very good at dispensing forgiveness in the kingdom of God is fulfilling the role that Jesus Christ came to do. Christ is in the forgiving business. That is what He did for us. He died and shed His blood so we could be forgiven. So those of us who are really good at forgiving, He says I want them to receive the big inheritance. They can handle it. But those who cannot forgive among the body of Christ and who cannot let go of grudges, take it away from them. They are wasting our riches and wasting our talents. To give a part of the inheritance to that person would be condemning those individuals whom they rule over (the five cities or the ten cities). If we are very stingy with forgiveness that means the people who we rule over in the kingdom of God forever would be under a very harsh, very judgmental ruler. God says I am not going to do that. We are in the forgiving, loving, merciful business. Satan is in the accusing, judgmental, grudge-carrying business. These are two opposites. They are two different economies. We want to be obedient and go beyond the minimums. Some of the ways we can do this, of course, is by complying with the minimum requirements which are like tithing and offerings. God says you need to tithe on your growth. We must tithe on the growth in our physical blessings. Turn to Matthew 23:23 We do not want to dwell on this because this is very, very basic; but in this day and age, many have lost sight of this basic understanding, thereby allowing ourselves to slip into a form of selfishness. It is a lack of sharing. Speaking to the Pharisees He says in Matthew 23, verse 23: “‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.’” Christ said the big issues are mercy, faith, kindness and gentleness not like that Pharisee, Simon, who was judging that poor woman who was a sinner. Being compassionate toward one another is what is important. These are the big things because this is love. Love covers a multitude of sins we are told. He says do not let the little things go either. You need to do them both. How do we teach the world to love? How do we teach our fellow man to love? How do we share if not by our physical wealth being shared in the first place? It costs money to have sound systems. It costs money to put out books and magazines. It costs money to send tapes around the world. It costs money to do many, many things. If we do not receive money and we think this is all just spiritual and God will provide somehow, we are missing an opportunity to partake in the economy. It takes participation in the two economies. It takes us working in the physical economy properly using our physical wealth the way God intended, combined with the spiritual economy that makes us fully compliant with both. This way we grow in the inheritance that God wants to give His people when He returns. As we said a little earlier, we have just so much time in our life to do this. We start with our Passover when we accept Jesus Christ at baptism. We covenant with God, and from that point in time we are participating in both economies. From that time whatever we have left to live, we need to take those minas (those talents and those silver coins) and buy, sell and trade among each other, helping all of the boats raise up. As we buy, sell and trade in forgiveness, obedience, kindness, love and mercy, all of our boats go up higher and higher and higher. Our entire body politic or body of the Church gets wealthier. We impoverish each other when we judge one another, withhold forgiveness, withhold of our physical blessings and carry grudges. When we do these things, we are all getting poorer because the exchange of goods and services has stopped! It is like our earliest example from Adam Smith. When a dollar comes into a community and keeps turning around, everybody in the community goes up. Our community is this congregation. The greater extended country or community is the body of Christ scattered around the world. As we buy, sell and trade with one another, all of our spiritual boats are going up. We are not just limited to the body of Christ. We have our families that we can do the same thing with and the world, so that we can be a good example to those out in the world. When we do these things, we gain incredible wealth and build a huge inheritance. A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD Let’s go back to Luke now in chapter 21. As I said, Luke has so many examples of this spiritual economy. It is quite a concentration in Luke. Luke 21, verse 1: “And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury…” This is in the temple. “…and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So he said, ‘Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.’” Christ noticed something here that was taking place in the temple, and He used that as an example to teach the disciples. Rich people were coming in, probably Pharisees and Sadducees, and putting in rather large offerings like we do on the holy days. But this poor widow came in who really only had two mites (like two pennies or two dollars) to her name. She threw the whole thing in there. What God is telling us here is He has an extremely level playing field in His economy. He is not looking at how much physical wealth or how much time we have left in our lives, or what station we hold in the Church. He says it is fair. You give percentage-wise. If you noticed, all of those parables we talked about were percentage-wise. He gained a hundred fold. He doubled here. He tripled there. It is what you start with and how much you grow with it. It is not how much wealth you have. Therefore, Jesus Christ is very fair. Each of us can grow just as much as a very rich person or a very smart person who came into the Church. So this could be talking about mental ability, too. Somebody can come into the Church who has tremendous gifts, an Einstein and super brilliant. If they are lazy, do not study the Bible and do not try to grow in character, they are wasting it. One of us could be of limited intelligence. I have known people with a third and fourth grade education who I could see had grown immensely in the riches that God started them off with at baptism. So it is not a matter of intelligence. It is not a matter of wealth that one is born into. It is what we do with our time and our resources. Luke chapter 12 explains the same concept. MONEY CAN BE AN IDOL Read Luke 12:22-34. It is the same concept but more into it this time. Jesus Christ is explaining it is where your heart is. That is what I am looking for. I am looking at where your heart is. We withhold and we gather and gather and gather and never are satisfied. We can be always worried about the future. And at some point you say I want to retire. I want to have a huge retirement. I do not know what kind of health I will have. I want to have enough clothes. I am worried about this or that. I want to build a fortune. God is saying that kind of a fortune can be stolen from you. You may not even live long enough to have a great retirement. He says why don’t you take some of those alms (which means offerings) and share it in ways that would benefit the rest of the body of Christ and indeed our families and the world at large. By so doing, you would be building a treasure in heaven that nobody can steal, nor rot take away nor moth destroy. He says do these things and you are building real wealth. You are participating in the spiritual economy and the physical economy that Adam Smith talked about. Read Luke chapter 18, verses 18-21. Here is a person who has kept the Ten Commandments. Luke 18, verse 22: “So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.” In the first example in Luke chapter 12 Jesus Christ said give alms (give an offering). To this man He said to sell all. There are two reasons. God knows we are not to sell everything we have and impoverish our family, but He was offering this man something you and I cannot have. This man could have been one of the disciples. He was offering him discipleship! This was huge. He could see in this man that he did keep the Commandments of God. He was a decent man. I believe in the other gospels that cover this Jesus Christ said He even loved the man. He could see this man was really sincerely trying to do what was right. But he loved his money so much he had an idol in his life. He did have an idol in his life. Jesus Christ said I see one thing left that you could do. If you could do this, you can have a discipleship, and you will inherit something huge in the kingdom of God. The man could not do it. So Jesus Christ is very perceptive. He could see the one thing that was holding this man back from really growing. He could do the minimum, but when God asked him to do what would really produce wealth, this man balked. He could not do it, for he was very wealthy. DEMONS AS MOTHS Now I want to look at the concept of moths and rust by turning to Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus Christ is speaking. Read Matthew 6:19-21. What are these moths that are breaking into a treasure? If I am not satisfied with having a couple of suits to come to services, and I want a closet full of beautiful suits (or some ladies who want an abundance of really beautiful clothes way beyond what they actually need), Christ says the moths can get into those garments. Once they get in there, they eat holes in them. You get a nice wool suit and hang it up in the closet and come back and put it on next year, it will have holes in it. What has happened? When the light goes on in our lives (the lamp that is representative of the Holy Spirit) and it is glowing brightly, there are moths that gather around us. They do this because as we go through the spiritual economy, we are growing in wealth, but we are also putting together garments. These garments are the righteous garments of the saints. Jesus Christ says you store up garments with Me, and moths cannot get at them. But in our physical lives, as soon as the light of the truth goes on in our lives, we have all experienced how Satan goes right there! His demons and his moths gather around our light, and they want to get in our house. When they get in our house, they start to destroy our clothes, which means they start piling debt on us. We start sinning; we start falling down to temptation. As we do these things, we are incurring debts. We are putting holes in our righteous garments. Jesus Christ says do not put your wealth where moths can get at them. Put them were I can store them for you and hang on to them and give you an inheritance some day. It is the same with rust. We can put together riches that corrode with rust. Sometimes people invest in fine art or their home. They will put lots of money in their home and have a beautiful home. What happens after twenty years? The home starts to deteriorate. Art work starts to deteriorate. Things start to deteriorate. You always wanted to own a Lamborghini. The salt starts working on it and rust starts working on it, and pretty soon you have put a lot of effort and money into something that is full of holes. Like we say in the Upper Peninsula it is a combination of the two: rust moths. Rust moths eat your car up. These moths can eat our garments up and destroy our linens. That is a bad thing. That is one of the reasons why we are called sheep. We are supposed to put forth or bear wool for Jesus Christ every year. As a grain field, we produce flax and we produce the things that make linen because that is where linen comes from. Both flax for our linen and wool for our garments can be eaten by moths. Stored up physical treasures can be destroyed by rust, and thieves can take it. But if Jesus Christ is holding it for us in heaven and brings it back as part of an inheritance, nobody can touch that! Let’s get confirmation for this by turning to Revelation chapter 19. CLEAN GARMENTS FOR THE BRIDE Read Revelation 19:5-9. We see that the righteous acts of the saints are the things that we did among each other. It is the buying, the selling and the trading in the full dispensation of the times, participating in both the physical and the spiritual economy. These righteous acts of the saints get stored in heaven. Jesus Christ numbers them until we have a full garment. It will be a beautiful garment that we can wear at the wedding. It would be as if today a bride did not care and just went to a second-hand shop and bought a dress full of stains. She went home and wore it around the house for a few months before the wedding. She ate and drank with it and never got it cleaned. Then she goes to the wedding day and her dress is full of ink spots. Moths had eaten into it, and it had holes. We would say what kind of a bride is this? That is the same thing Jesus Christ is talking about in the spiritual sense with His Church. We need to have righteous acts of the saints that give us a full beautiful garment. We need to keep washing our lives with the blood of the Word (the blood of the Lamb) so that we keep our garments clean, bright and ready as the bride of Christ. That is why Ephesians 5 talks about the same concept. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians 5. It is speaking of husbands and wives and marrying here. Jesus Christ is going to marry a bride, and she will be ready. We are not going to read the whole section on marriage, which starts with verse 22 how husbands are to love their wives and how wives are to love their husbands. Let’s start in Ephesians 5 verse 25 and read to verse 33. Within our marriages and within the body of Christ (which is the flesh and the bones of Jesus Christ where He is dwelling today), we have the opportunity to help each other wash. We help each other by washing one another’s feet as we do at Passover. We do this by buying, selling and trading, forgiveness, compassion and mercy. We practice this in our families. We practice this within the body of Christ. Thereby, we are enriching the body, getting a beautiful inheritance for the whole body and also getting a bride ready without spot or blemish. We need to do this by constantly asking Jesus Christ to forgive us. He says I will forgive you, as you forgive others. Therefore, if we want to be fully forgiven and have a clean garment, we have to practice these things daily in our lives now. A CONGREGATION OF LOVE We need a congregation to have a healthy economy, just like you have to have a town or a nation that can buy, sell and trade. If I was by myself understanding these things, I could not do much. I have to have you to forgive me and me to forgive you. I have to have you to have mercy with me and for all of us to help be an example to the world as to how we love one another. Jesus Christ said they will know Me by your love for one another. It take more than one. We have to have a vibrant economy, and that requires a congregation. In that congregation we must love one another. Turn to John chapter 13. John was considered the apostle of love, and he had much to say about love. Just like Luke had a lot to say about a spiritual economy and doing business with one another, John knew that a proper love for one another was where it was at. Read John 13:35-38. He said love one another. Right now, Peter, you cannot handle this! But some day you are going to learn these things. By Peter’s example and the apostles’ example, in their day and age, they were selfish and did not know it. As we learn more about ourselves and how we have to change, we realize it is by our love for one another that we truly do let the world see where Jesus Christ is working. Peter went on to repent and to grow and to be a fine example with books in the Bible that he has written for us to learn from. We have things also that we have to overcome and grow, thereby learning to love one another and be an example to the world. The bride of Christ is the firstfruits. We are going to be His wife when He returns. Let’s see what Proverbs tells us about the virtuous wife (the virtuous woman). Now that we have put all of these different concepts of the economy together, there is a lot that we can see that Jesus Christ inspired in the Old Testament in Proverbs 31 to talk about His bride (the Church). He is speaking to the Church, the affianced bride of Jesus Christ. Picture us and what it is that we need to do to participate in the spiritual and physical economies. Read Proverbs 31:10-31. Brethren, we need to be like the virtuous woman, seeking wool and flax and working with the spindle. She shares with the poor. She looks for the needy. We need to be an example to the world of how to properly care for the household of God and our personal households. By doing these things, we are building wealth in the eternal kingdom of God. It is a huge inheritance in which we can be a blessing to mankind forever, if we are found to be among those who have held fast and done well in buying, selling and trading in an economy that God has set up for us to grow in wealth. THE ECONOMY OF LIGHT The firstfruit harvest is coming to a conclusion very soon, brethren. We do not have that much time left. We need to get busy participating in both the physical and spiritual economies and taking advantage of the wealth that God gave us at baptism. We are in an economy of light, and we are opposed to the economy of darkness. Anytime Satan causes our wealth to erode either by rust or by moths or like a thief stealing into our minds, and makes us grow hard, we are participating in the economy of darkness. It is the opposite of God’s economy. We are part of the economy of light, of beauty, of God’s marvelous ways of mercy, love and compassion. We want to store up silver and gold that is wonderful. We want to store up precious jewels that are wonderful in our character and give God plenty of flax and wool to work with. We want to give Him plenty of righteous acts to enable Him to weave us a beautiful wedding dress for that day that is going to come sooner than we realize. We have to be ready. We have to be taking advantage of every day that we have left. Let’s now go and conclude with Matthew chapter 25. It is the parable of the ten virgins. We can now see how this pertains very much to our lives today. Read Matthew 25:1-13. I say to you, go buy, sell and trade with one another while we can participate in the full dispensation of the times, the full religious economy that we have been blessed to be a part of.