(Exodus) Exodus 23:1-11

Over in chapter 23, Thou shalt not raise a false report, put not thine hand with the wicked, to be an unrighteous witness. Be careful what you say. And God had a law concerning that.

Did you know that a gossip, friends, is as bad as a murderer? Inhumans are a thief, are an adulterer, and yet today the gossiper gets by. God had a law for this, you see. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.

This would put you out of the marching business and protesting, friends. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. I was very much interested in meeting a very attractive young fellow.

You would call him a hippie. He was a hippie type. And I asked him why he did all this, and he said because he was trying to find his identity.

We got a lot of people trying to find out who they are, and it's too bad they lost their baby tag somewhere along the line. But he said that he wanted liberty and freedom and was protesting. Well, fine.

I said to him, but how much liberty do you have? I asked him about his dress, and he said that was the expression of it. I said, well, there just happened to be about 10,000 of these folk dressed just like you are. Would you dare dress differently than they dress and run with them? Would they accept you? And he said, no.

Well, I said, you don't have much freedom, do you? You've got to dress like they dress. I said, you see, you don't have the liberty that you think you have. And I said that when they protest, you have to get in line and protest, don't you? He said, yes, he did.

And I said, then you don't really have much freedom. Don't follow a multitude to do evil. Neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment.

This is a very good law to read today. God is very much up to date, is He not? Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. May I say to you that judgment should not be swayed toward the rich or toward the poor.

Judgment and justice should be exercised. You know that the Romans depicted justice as being a woman, that is, it must be tender, but also blindfold, no respect of persons, and a sword in one hand, which means that when the judgment is handed down, there'll be the execution of the penalty. But in the other hand are the scales, and it'll be fair.

That's the thing that needs to be exercised today in our midst. Now, God gives them again this law concerning the Sabbath day and the sabbatic year. Verse 10, Now, we'll find out when they go into the land, God will go over this with them.

We'll get that in the book of Leviticus, this matter of the Sabbath day, the sabbatic year, and the year of Jubilee. And I'll reserve until we get there to go into detail concerning this. This is very important, and you'll notice He gives it in a very brief way here at the beginning, but He'll go into detail concerning this later.