Text: “When thou blindest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, he defiled. Thou shalt not plow with an ox and on as together. Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts as of woolen and linen together. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.” (Deut. 28:8-128The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 9The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. 10And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. 11And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 12The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. (Deuteronomy 28:8‑12)).
AS AN amplification of the last verse in the above text, let us turn to Numbers 15:37-38,37And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 38Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: (Numbers 15:37‑38) where we read: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue.” The Apostle Paul has set us the example of drawing spiritual lessons from some of these Old Testament regulations for which, otherwise, we might not see the need in our day. When he treats of the support of Christian ministers, he goes back to Deuteronomy to find a text. He selects one that we might think had no real application to the subject in hand—a very peculiar text indeed, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” We might naturally ask, What has that to do with the question of the support of a minister of the gospel? But Paul uses it, not to teach consideration for the toiling creatures who so patiently serve man, though this is clearly emphasized in Scripture, but rather to show us our responsibility to care for the temporal needs of spiritual laborers, in order that they may be free to carry on their work without anxiety as to earthly things.
We read in the Book of Proverbs: “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruet” A man who had been converted gave his testimony to that fact at a public meeting. When he got through his wife stepped up, and said. “My friends, if any one here questions my husband’s testimony, you should come out to our farm. Before he was converted, every cow, every horse, and every dog on the place would run away from him because he was so vicious and would beat them so cruelly; now, all the animals run to him.” The man’s whole attitude toward the creatures of the farm was changed. But the Apostle Paul says that this was not written just for the oxen, but for our benefit. The oxen treading out the corn is a beautiful picture of the servant of Christ—beating out the soul-nourishing truth of the Word of God in order that He may pass it on to us. Now think of the ox treading out the corn, and reaching down every now and then to pick up a bite for himself. God says, that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Too many churches forget that. They are quite content to have the servants of Christ minister the Word year in and year out, and are not concerned in the least as to how they are cared for. They are like the deacon who prayed, “Lord, bless our minister; keep him humble and we will keep him poor.” The Apostle’s use of that text suggests many texts applying to bygone conditions, which, after all, have a hidden suggestion for us.
These five verses in Deuteronomy prove this in a remarkable way. “When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.” The roofs of the Hebrews’ houses, as the roofs of many Oriental houses today, or the roofs of the Pueblo Indians or the Mexicans of our own country, served as place of social intercourse, where the families gathered to visit. The roof answered the same purpose that our living room does; in fact, the Hebrew could have well called the roof his parlor, a place of communion and fellowship. Samuel took Saul up on the roof and talked to him; he put food before him and bade him eat. The roof also was a place of, prayer, for we read that the Apostle Peter was praying on the roof of the house when he received the vision of the sheet which was suspended from heaven—a picture of the mystery of the Church. Sometimes we go too far in saying that the mystery of the Church was revealed only to the Apostle Paul. The “all manner of beasts” represented the Gentiles’ right to the Gospel, afterward made expressly clear to Paul. God said, “when you build a new house you are to put a battlement around your roof.” What for? Lest anybody should fall from thence. But here is a Hebrew who says, “I don’t think a battlement will fit in with my plan of architecture. Besides, my wife and I are both elderly people. There is no danger for either of us. I will make a roof with a straight edge without any battlement.” Before long some neighbor comes to visit them. They have a child of tender years, who, in running and playing about on the roof, comes too near the edge and goes over. Why did God order a battlement about the roof? Simply for this reason: the battlement afforded protection for all. This man is held responsible for the death of the child. The battlement may not always be for your own sake, but for the sake of other people. Does it not emphasize the New Testament words, “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself?” A great many things that we, as individuals, think we could do with impunity would wreck the Christian life of somebody weaker in faith. The fact that he sees us do something which he fears is not right or consistent with a Christian profession may lead him to do the same thing, but his consecration does not stand the strain —worldly things soon overcome him an his testimony as a Christian is lost. You can see, therefore, that your example was not right. An evil example has doubtless been the cause of much backsliding. In the eighth chapter of First Corinthians we read of meat being offered to idols. Paul says that the Christian should not eat such meat if it would offend a weak one; we should do nothing to offend one of these. But, you say, “I can take that nice, tender steak. I can eat it and enjoy it even though it has been dedicated to the idol, for I know an idol is nothing but a mere lifeless image.” “Yes, I know,” says Paul, “but somebody else might drift away from Christianity if he saw you do it. Ruin not him for whom Christ died.” We should live for others; we should willing to sacrifice much in order to help others, and not mislead them.
“Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds; lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.” Seed? For us, that means the Word of God. We have been entrusted with the Word of God, holy and free from error. Thou shalt not use divers seeds. I want to warn you against dabbling with false cults. Some think they must be up to date, so they read everything and study everything that they can get their hands on in order that they may be well read. Often doubts are instilled in the mind in regard to great truths of God’s Word, all because the vineyard has been sown with mingled seed. Here was Elisha preparing a meal for the sons of the Prophets. Finances were not too abundant, so he sent them out into the field to gather some greens for dinner; by mistake, they gathered some that were poisonous. One of the students was a good taster, and it happened that, before they ate, he reached down and tasted DEATH in the pot. Elisha was informed of the fact, and the greens were omitted from the menu. One spoonful proved that death was there. Some people think you have to go to the bottom of the pot in order to really test out what is in it. Someone says, “I believe in investigating; I can get a little good out of everything. I look into all religions and I find a little good in all of them. I listen to this one and that one and I can get a little good from all.” Suppose we admit that. Our digestive organs might be able to assimilate stewed or boiled sawdust and possibly get a little nourishment from it, if there is any. But what a fool I would be to eat sawdust, when I could get good oatmeal porridge! Why not give yourself that which you know is nourishing? “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with mingled seed lest it be defiled.” That is why the Apostle wrote: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Have you ever noticed in some preaching an absolute lack of definiteness? I was in a school recently where a man talked very indefinitely. At the close of his message, a youth asked me this question, “Is he a modernist or a fundamentalist?” I had to answer, “I do not know.” There was nothing absolutely wrong, yet he did not say anything that any modernist could not have approved; it would not have killed a fly; it didn’t amount to anything. Preach the truth in its simplicity. Don’t get off on other lines.
The next verse is a warning against the unequal yoke. “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.” When the Apostle wrote, in 2 Corinthians, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” he must have had this passage in mind. An ox and a donkey, unsuited to each other, together—a stalwart old ox and a donkey, an unequal arrangement. Why? The ox is a clean beast, used for sacrifice, and the ass is an unclean beast, a type of the natural man. That is the trouble with all of us; by nature, we are just stubborn donkeys. The donkey nature will come out in us sometimes, even after conversion. We may say that the ass is a type of the sinner, the man in his natural condition; the ox is a picture of the servant of God. “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.” How far does this go? It touches every relationship in life. A Christian man has an opportunity to buy his way into a well paying business. It means partnership with an ungodly man. How long does he do business without feeling the yoke galling him? They are not fitted to work together.
Such an arrangement generally culminates in the backsliding of the Christian—unless he breaks away. Some think that this does not apply to fraternal relationships. Often when I finish preaching, men will come to me and shake my hand in all kinds of strange ways. Belong to a fraternal organization? I belong to the greatest one on earth! The church of the living God is a wonderful society— a secret society of the mysteries that the world knows nothing about. Why have I not joined human fraternal organizations? Several Scriptures have kept me out. I am to take the Lord Jesus as my example. He said, “In secret I have said nothing.” I have to follow Him. Then there is this question of the unequal yoke. And God has said, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” We belong to the light. What place have we in the secret lodge room?
Then there is the question of church fellowship. The bane of the professing church is its effort to get numbers. Get the people into the church and afterward get them converted — build up a church membership. Where, in God’s Word, do you read of the apostles of our Lord trying to get the unsaved into church fellowship? Where in the Word do you read that you must get the unregenerate in the church first, and then do them good afterward? Ordinarily it works out as in the case of the boys who caught young linnets and placed one on one side and one on the other side of the canary. They told their mother that they had caught them young and placed them there by the canary so that they would learn to sing as did the canary. The mother was rather dubious, but she didn’t say anything. A few days later the boys rushed to their mother and cried, “Mother, our canary is chirping like a linnet.”
The linnets never learned to sing as the canary, but the canary lost its song. Christians become exceedingly worldly by association in church fellowship with the worldly. Be sure people are saved, and then lead them on into Christian fellowship.
This applies also to the marriage relationship. I never can understand how a real Christian can contemplate entering into the most sacred of all relationships with an unsaved person. Some seem to imagine that once married, they will be able to lead their partners to Christ. It generally goes the other way. After the honeymoon the unsaved one says, “I am not going to church any more or have any more of that religious cant in my home.” The unsaved one is usually the stronger. The other one has already disobeyed Christ, so he has not much spiritual strength by which to stand. An old Puritan divine once said, “If you marry a child of the devil, you can expect to have trouble with your father-in-law.” “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.”
Here is one that will come home to us, for it is about clothes. “Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sort, as of woolen and linen together.” Isn’t it strange that God would not allow his people to wear mixed clothes? It was all right to wear linen and woolen if they were different garments, but not one in which the two were mixed. I want to call your attention to the word “garment” in this verse. In the Bible the word is used in two ways, meaning both clothing and behavior. Also in our English language, as well as in the Bible, garment and behavior are the same word; we have “habit” in clothing and “habit” in behavior. There are walking habits, riding habits, and bathing habits. We say, “That young man has a very evil habit,” or “a good habit,” meaning, of course, good behavior. Clothing then represents behavior. We speak of someone’s garments always being white. What is that? Behavior. “Fine linen” is the righteousness of the Saints. The bride has made herself ready by righteous behavior. The sinner’s righteousness is as filthy rags, just like old, defiled garments. Now God says to you and to me: “You are not to be people of mixed behavior, very pious and godly in the classroom and thoroughly worldly and carnal outside; religious in church and very frivolous and foolish in the world—not to have one behavior in one company and another in another company” Remember, wherever you find yourself, that you are there to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Take Lot for an example. Lot wore garments of linen and woolen. When with Abraham, he was very saintly, but in Sodom there was not much difference between him and the crowd. He was thought so well of, in fact, that they elected him a judge. They never would have made Abraham a judge.
Let us think for a moment, on worldly pleasures. No Christian who is walking with God is troubled much concerning them. In the first place, the world doesn’t want them around. Gypsy Smith, the great evangelist, in a sermon one night, danced across the stage, and then said, “My friends, I can dance as well as any of you, but since the day I was converted, nobody has invited me to a dance or to the theater.” Why hadn’t they? Because they knew from the day of his conversion that he was out and out for God! Your conversion has killed your chances with the world. Can’t you hear some worldly friend saying, “There isn’t any use asking her. She will throw gloom all over the party, talking about our souls. Imagine her getting you into some corner and saying, ‘Is your soul saved?’ “If you wear the right kind of garments, you will never be in style with the world.
Now we will look at the positive side of this question. “Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.” “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringes of the borders a ribband of blue.” (Num. 15:37-3837And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 38Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: (Numbers 15:37‑38)). The Lord Jesus undoubtedly dressed that way. But why the ribbon of blue? In order “that ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.” God says to his people, “You are to be characterized by heavenly-mindedness in all your ways.” Are you always careful to have the ribbon of blue? Do people realize that you belong to heaven? Our citizenship, you know, is in heaven. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” The Israelite had this band of blue around the lower edge of his garment (he always wore long flowing garments), so that right down to the very lowest place where the garment nearly touched the earth he wore that which showed he belonged to the God of heaven. Where you and I come closest to the world, we are to manifest the heavenly character. Can you say, “For me to live is Christ?” Who lives Christ? One who wears a ribbon of blue!
It has been told how, years ago, the Crown Prince of France, was put under the care of an English tutor. The Dauphin was of royal blood and his tutor was of ordinary strain. It was unthinkable that a commoner should attempt to punish one of royal blood, and yet the prince was often as obnoxious as he could be; he made life as difficult for the English tutor as possible. In despair at last, hardly knowing how to control his royal pupil, the Englishman had a purple rosette made, and the next morning at the appearance of the prince, he said, “I want to pin this on your coat.” “What’s that for?” “That is the royal color. It is not permitted me to punish you for any disobedience of the rules, but whenever you misbehave yourself, I am going to point at the purple.” Then one day the prince acted in an ungentlemanlike way; he was naughty. The tutor stopped, pointed to the purple, and immediately the prince colored and said, “I beg your pardon.” It was the appeal to the purple, reminding the Dauphin that rank imposes obligation. God gives us an appeal—it is an appeal to the blue. We represent heaven. The world judges our Lord by us.
“You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day
By deeds that you do, by words that you say.
Men read what you write, whether faithful or true—
Say, what is the Gospel, according to you?”