Back to Exodus chapter 21. I read and re-read chapters 21 through 23, and it gave me these civil laws to Israel. And when I first started reading them, you know, some of the things jump out at you that's a little repulsive. Why would you give a law like that? It says over in, let me see, one of the verses here, it says that whosoever lieth with a beast shall be put to death. Isn't that repulsive? You know why he gave that? Because it's gonna happen. That's exactly why he gave it.

But I want to preach the gospel from these scriptures here that I read and we'll look at as time goes on. But as I began to read this and I began to realize the message that's in these scriptures, I thought how God called Abraham He gave Abraham a son, Isaac. And Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. And Jacob had the twelve patriarchs. And then they go down into Egypt, they go into bondage. And there they multiply into a nation, a great number. And God brings them out and He develops them into a nation. A nation of sinners But they're HIS, they're HIS, but they're still sinners. They're not any better than anybody else, are they?

We see that in the fact that the Passover Lamb had to be slain for the firstborn in Israel. God killed the firstborn of Egypt, didn't He? But the firstborn of Israel had a substitute in the Passover Lamb, that Lamb had to die. If that lamb had not died, been slain in their place, they would have died because they weren't any better than the Egyptians. You know, everyone whom God saves is a sinner, isn't he? Just a sinner. That's all we are, sinners saved by grace. If God has saved us, that's all we are.

But a nation of sinners cannot be without civil laws to govern them. These laws, and let me make this very clear, these laws are not given to obtain life by. is to deal with one another by it's civil laws that's what it is it's civil law we had the moral law given the ten commandments we have the civil law and then we'll have ceremonial laws we'll see those laws given as we go through exodus but in these laws we see the holiness of God and we see the corruption of man because of the laws that are given

And I want to be careful that we don't just skim through these chapters and miss the beautiful portrait that we have of the character of God. I don't want to miss that. Here in these civil laws given to Israel, we see God whose wisdom is unsearchable and whose goodness and mercy is infinite. You'll see this as we go along. We meet the God of heaven and earth who governs all things.

Now think of the immenseness of God, the greatness of God, the glory of God, and yet He stoops down to settle the matter of a borrowed garment. He takes notice of a borrowed garment and how that's to be dealt with. Now let that sink in. He takes notice of a servant who is harmed. That's amazing. We meet God who governs all things and yet He stoops down to take notice of a missing tooth. You get that? A missing tooth. And he says, if you knock out a manservant or a maidservant's tooth, you let them go free for their tooth's sake. God noticed that. That's amazing. Nothing goes unnoticed with God. Nothing. Nothing goes unnoticed with Him.

And these scriptures teach us two great truths.

FIRST THE LAWS REVEAL THE CHARACTER OF GOD. WE SEE THE TRUE CHARACTER HOLINESS OF GOD ALMIGHTY AND WE SEE THE LOST CONDITION OF MAN TO HAVE TO HAVE SUCH LAWS. TO HAVE TO HAVE SUCH LAWS THAT SHOWS US OUR LOST CONDITION. WE DON'T NEED THOSE IN GLORY DO WE? WE DON'T NEED THESE IN GLORY. Because there's one law in glory, love. We love one another. I have said to Vicki before, I said, you know, when we die and the Lord takes us to glory, we'll love each other for the first time like we ought to. We'll love each other as we ought to. We'll love God as we ought to. We love Him now, but not like we ought to. We all fall short on our love of God and love for one another.

That's why I often pray, Lord, enable me to grow in love towards you because I know this, if I grow in love toward God, I'll grow, I will grow in love towards you. You can't grow in love toward God and not grow in love toward one another. His children, His creation, it's not possible.

If we see God, listen, if we see God as He is, And we see ourselves as we are. You know what that's going to do? If God really makes this known to us, it's going to make us run to Christ. It's going to make us flee to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our city of refuge. Because I'm guilty. You know the law is spiritual. To offend in one point of the law is to break the whole law. And when I realize what I broke God's law, it makes me flee to Christ. It makes me thrilled that salvation is all of grace. None of me. It's all of grace. From Alpha to Omega. From beginning to end.

Now let me say a few things here concerning God's law and God's justice and mercy before I get to verses 1 through 6. First we see in the reading of this that I've read to you, we see God's perfect justice revealed. If you want to understand the justice of God, you've got to take a good look at these laws right here given and listen to them. Listen to them. How many times did we read this? Thou shalt die, thou shalt kill him. God's justice is unbending. It's unbending. You know, our Lord said this in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Did it pass? No. Because it's not possible for God to save me and let anything go. To let Christ to make it easier on His Son.

HE SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON, BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, ALL WHOM HE SHALL SAVE. AND HE BORE THEIR SINS, AND HE DIED FOR THEIR SINS, EVERY ONE OF THEIR SINS. I got a lot of them, more than I'll ever know in this life. I can't even begin to realize how many sins I got. I have a sinful nature. Paul said that I would do good, evil is present with me. At which I would do, I don't do, and at which I would not do, I do. As such is the warfare of a believer.

But here the Lord, listen, here the Lord lays out laws of absolute, now listen, fairness. Boy, this is one thing that's going to be glaring, is how equitable and fair the justice of God is. Tooth for tooth, hand for hand. Does that sound harsh? And does it sound harsh? It's not harsh, it's equity. It's equality is what it is. It's justice.

Now listen, it's justice without favoritism. That's hard to find in this land, isn't it? But it's justice without favoritism. God is no respecter of persons. When sin was laid on His Son, What did he do? He held him to a cross and he was put to death in the flesh. He spared not his own son. He didn't spare him. It's justice without favoritism.

This is justice where the poor have the same rights as the rich in God's justice. It's where the influential cannot tip the scales in their favor. They can't do it. And bribery has no place here. Because as we read on through this, he says, you don't take a bribe. Don't you take a bribe. Okay, here you are, you don't take a bribe. You see the balance here is perfect. Every case is weighed with divine accuracy, every case. Every wrong receives an answer. No one can say under God's law, I didn't receive justice, I got cheated. No, no, not under, did you hear when I read this? No, everybody is going to get divine justice, equality. That's what it is, the laws show us that God cares about justice down to the smallest jot, down to the smallest detail, down to the losing of a tooth by somebody slapping, you know, he slapped his handmaid or his manservant and he lost a tooth. God said, you let that man go free, you let that woman go free, you let him go free.

He cares about stolen animals. He cares about accidental injuries. He cares about restitution. He tells us over there in chapter 22, verse 12, And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner. That's exactly what Jesus Christ did for us. He made restitution for us in every way. Every way. He made fairness. He cares about fairness. The way we deal with one another, balance, equity.

If God cares about these small things, oh my, how much more does He care about the wounds of the heart? Luke 17, verse 2, If you offend one of My little ones, listen to what He says, If you offend one of My little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea. And that he should offend one of these little ones, the least offense.

You know, whenever Paul was persecuting the church, he was putting them in prison. You know, he held the coats of those who stoned Stephen. And the Lord struck him down on the road to Damascus, and he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? You touch one of God's children, you're touching God. I'm telling you, you're touching God. You touch one of my, you know, I got two sons and I got my grandchildren, you touch one of them, you touch me. It hurts me for anybody to touch them than it would be for them to touch me. I'd rather they hit me or touch me than them. I could take it better than I could the other way around.

How much more does God care about the injustices we suffer? Don't think he doesn't notice. Don't think he doesn't notice, he sure does. We serve God whose justice is perfect, never corrupt. His justice is never corrupted and it's never confused, never. And this being so, we can trust the justice of God, we can. Even though we may not see the fulfillment of it in our lifetime, God said, VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY. I'll pay, you may not be alive when he does it and somebody offends you or does some harm to you. You may not see what God does to them, but I tell you what, he's gonna do it. He said vengeance is mine, I'll repay. Because what I'll do will be absolute justice and it'll be right. See, mine won't be right, there'll be a whole lot of sin in what I'm doing. But God does it for justice and for justice sake.

Do we really believe, as Abraham said, the judge of the earth shall do right? The judge of the earth shall do right. Now I just said we see God's justice in this, we see His holy character in this, now we see the depravity of man exposed in these laws. If these laws show us the glory of God's justice, they also show us the depravity of the human

Why did God forbid certain actions? I already answered this once. Why did He forbid certain actions? Because we're going to do them. That's why. You see, where there's no law, there's no transgression. But God gave us the law. He gave these civil laws that these things may be judged and taken care of. These laws exist as boundaries to put in check the outward acts of depravity. You've got to put it in check. If God did not sovereignly put in check the acts of depravity, we couldn't live in this world. We couldn't live. If we were repulsed at some of the crimes mentioned in these scriptures, it's only because we haven't seen the depths of our own heart.

You see, the law, if rightly understood, is like looking into a mirror, isn't it? It's like looking into a mirror. We haven't seen our own hearts. It's like Hazel, over at 2 Kings, he meets Elisha. King Benedad of the Syrians was sick, so he sends his servant, Hazel, to Elisha. And Elisha goes and wants to know if he's going to recover. And Elisha just, he's silent for a while until the point where he's ashamed. And then he weeps. And Hazel said, what's wrong? What's wrong? And he said, he's going to recover, but here's what you're going to do. And I mean, he tells him what all he's going to do. And Hazel says this, is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing? And you know what, over in 2 Kings 8, verses 12-13, you can read it, read it when you get time. He did everything Elisha said he was going to do, everything.

But when Elisha told him what he was going to do, he said, Do you think I'm a dog that I would do that? Absolutely. Absolutely. Peter said, Lord, I won't deny you. I had no way. They will, you know, these others will deny you, but I'm not. And before the rooster crowed three times, he denied him. Or before the rooster crowed that morning, Peter denied him three times. He did exactly what he said he wouldn't do. Oh, brother, have you seen your heart? Have you seen your nature? It's what we got from Adam. It's what we got. It's why we need salvation, to be all of grace.

You know the laws that God gave, listen here, in 1 Timothy 1. Paul says, knowing this, that the law was not made for a righteous man, that's not why the law was given, it was given because of that murderer, that thief, how to deal with him. The law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy, for faint, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, for manslayers, and it goes on. That's why the law is given. That's why it's given. And these statues show us that even the most upstanding person carries within themselves this depraved nature. It just takes the right situation to bring it out. That's all it takes.

The problem of sin is not outside of us, it's not out there, it's in here. My problem, 99.9% of my problem is not out there. It's in here. It's right in here. Scripture says we are morally sick from head to toe. No soundness in us. We don't merely commit sin, we are sin. WE ARE SIN. Isaiah 1.6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Brethren, that's me. And Jesus Christ died for this mess. I can say that. He died for this mess. What a mess! But what a Savior! What a Savior!

But this does raise the question. It's the question of all questions. How can such a creature ever stand before such a holy God? How can that be? How can the corrupt stand before the incorruptible? How can the guilty stand before the judge of all the earth? You know where that answer is found? In the gospel. It's where the answer is found. It's where it's found. Here's the marvel of marvel, as deep as man's sin is and as deep as his ruin is, God's love is deeper than the stain has gone. Don't we sing that song? As dark as a man's guilt is, a sinner's guilt is, Christ's blood can make that sinner whiter than snow. You take the worst person you've ever heard of, God through the blood of Christ can make that person white as snow. There's a wide gulf between God and the sinner, but the cross bridges that gulf. Just like that ladder went to heaven and was on earth, Christ is that ladder. Christ is that ladder.

God descended to the depths of our condition in order to raise us to the height of His glory. He hath made Him to be sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21 HE HATH MADE HIM, HIS SON, TO BE SINNED FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN, PERFECT, KNEW NO SIN. HE HATH MADE HIM TO BE SINNED FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN, THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM. That's all of God. That's on Him. All of it. And now through the Lord Jesus Christ, God looks upon the believing sinner and declares that sinner, no matter how vile his life has been, righteous. He is the Lord our righteousness.

And now we come to the Hebrew Servant. Let me deal with these first six verses and I'll move along as quickly as I can. But nowhere is this love more beautifully pictured than God has for the sinner in these first six verses. Here's the scene. In Hebrew man, a Hebrew man or woman, is in debt. He cannot pay his debt, he owes this man a debt and he can't pay it, he's so poor he can't pay the debt. So what does he do? He sells himself to that one he owes, he sells himself to him. Now this is not slavery as we knew it in this country where men were kidnapped And men and women were kidnapped and sold for profit. Look over in verse 16, here's what should have happened to them. In verse 16, And he that steals the man and sells him, or if he be found in his hand, put him to death. Now that's what God says about that. This is a servant, a Hebrew servant, who so broke and so poor, he has hired out himself for his debt to that Hebrew brother he owed. That's how that is.

And then as a servant, he's to serve six years. See how God has mercy in this? We're going to see this here in a minute. He's to serve six years. The seventh year, he goes free. It doesn't matter how much he owed. It doesn't matter if he owed $100 he couldn't pay it or owed $10,000 he couldn't pay it. The seventh year comes along, he's free, the debt's gone. There's no debt, there's not a penny owed, not a penny, he's free. No debt, no obligation, no holding on. But if you go over to Deuteronomy, we don't have time right now, but over in Deuteronomy 15 verses 12 through 14, you know what it says? He's not to go out empty. He's to go out with plenty. You go and you're cheap and you're goats and you just give him what he needs and you send him back out. Don't you send him out empty. Isn't that merciful? That's not cruelty, that's mercy. This man owed a great debt he couldn't pay, and for six years he served, and then the seventh year he goes free. That's what the year, Jubilee?

But he's to go free, free, free, free. But you notice something here in verse 4. If his master, and this sounds hard when you first read it. When you first read it, it sounds a little hard. If his master gave him a wife, And he had children, he could go free, but they had to stay. Now if you don't understand the gospel, this is harsh. This sounds harsh. Who owns what you have? Who owns my wife, my children? Who owns them? God does. God does. And if He wants to take them, He's not going to ask me if He can. The Sovereign doesn't do that, does He? He says in Psalm 24, The earth is the LORD's, the fullness thereof is they who dwell therein. Everyone's mine! Everyone's mine! The Gospels are in this. They're all mine!

But something happens here. He's set free, He has no obligation. Now if he came in with a wife, he left with her. Whatever God gave him, whatever the Master gave him, belongs to the Master. Paul says, what do you have that you didn't receive? You see, everything I have, the Lord Jesus Christ has given me, God's given me in Christ.

But here's what happens, he looks at his Master, he looks at his wife, he looks at his children, And he says in verse five, I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I don't want to go out free. I don't want to leave. I love you. I love my wife, my children. I don't want to go out free. He's not forced to leave. And here's what happens. He walks to the doorpost. His ear is pierced through with it all. They take his ear. I'm going to say the bottom part of it. I don't know, but they take his ear. They take an awl and they put it right through his ear. I thought, why the ear? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Has God digged your ear? The Lord said in Isaiah, Mine ear hath he digged. That means put an awl through.

But he walks through that door post and his ears pierced. He bears, listen, he bears the mark of love and lifelong service. He chooses permanent servitude for one reason, one reason, I love. I love my... Peter what? Do you love me? Feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed them. It's a servitude of love. Paul calls it a labor of love.

Now this servant, now here, this servant is a picture of Jesus Christ. If we miss this, we just completely miss the gospel. This is a picture of Jesus Christ. God said in Isaiah 42, 1, Behold My servant. Christ said, I am among you as one who serves. I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He's a servant. Our Lord, listen, our Lord dwelt eternally in the bosom of the Father. He had infinite glory, He had infinite love, He had infinite joy, and there was no obligation, no obligation that required Him to leave heaven. No necessity compelled Him but one thing, LOVE. LOVE FOR THE FATHER, LOVE FOR THE FATHER'S WILL, MY MEAT IS TO DO THE WILL OF HIM THAT SENT ME, LOVE FOR HIS BRIDE, LOVE FOR HIS BRIDE, LOVE FOR THE CHURCH, LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN.

Listen, the church, the children, his children, they were the ones in debt. Now here's the beauty of this story, they were the ones in debt, he wasn't, He wasn't. He came down, He took the form of a servant, which it says in Philippians 2.7. He took their debt. You know, just as a man assumes the debt of his bride, the Lord assumed her debts. Listen to 2 Corinthians. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, Yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich."

We have no idea how rich we really are, do we? Infinitely rich. Someone said if you can count it, you're not rich. In Christ you can't count it. We are infinitely rich in Christ. There's no number you can put on that. No number. And because of His love for the Father and the love He has for His bride and His children, He went to the cross. He went to the cross and you know what happened? They bore a hole through His hands, His feet, and His side. And He bears, He will for eternity bear the marks of love. for us. Thomas, stick your finger in my side. Stick your finger in my side. Oh, my soul. He bears, he bears, he bears those marks because he loved us. He gave himself for us. There could be no question of his love for us. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end.

Oh, that servant looked and he said, I love my father. I love my master. Christ says, I love my father. I love my bride. I love my children. And he took our debt and took it to the cross and was nailed to that cross. The Hebrew servant, he gave up his freedom to be with the one he loves. I don't know, I'm just going to surmise here. When Eve took that fruit, and I'm not going to try to make anything out of this, but this is something that I have to think. When she took that fruit and she came to Adam, I just wonder if he thought, oh, oh honey, Oh, and he loved her so much, he went ahead and took it also. I don't know. I don't know. I know his love for her was perfect. Because he knew no sin. And boy, when she took that, it was just like, oof. But here's the real problem. He couldn't save her. He can go down with her, but he couldn't save her. He couldn't bring her up. I just have to think it may be something of that happened when he saw what she did. He loved her so much.

This is why the scripture says the love of Christ surpasses all understanding. This is love that surpasses understanding. But here's a question for us, and I'm going to close. If that wife and the children, his children, if they loved him for such a sacrifice, to go have his ear bored, they didn't give him no anesthetic to take the pain away from it. How much more ought we to love Christ? How much more?

Listen, even in these ancient laws we see the wisdom, the fairness, and the goodness of God. We see God who is just, yet tender, firm, yet merciful, holy, yet gracious. We see the gospel in these. Every statute reveals His character. Every ordinance reflects His heart and every judgment reveals His glory. Can you see that? Has God shown that to you? In these chapters, it is not merely a legal code written out. It is a window into the character of God. God has opened Himself up to us. It shows us the God of perfect justice and boundless mercy and love. It shows us ourselves fallen, guilty, and needy, and it leads us to Christ, the Servant who gave everything for us. Isn't that a beautiful story?

Well, if you don't understand the gospel, that's harsh. I mean, it sounds harsh. It's not. It's just equity. That's what justice is. It's equal. It's not showing favoritism. It's God being God. But God, I don't know if I gave you the, did I give you the title? Let me go back. The God of justice and mercy. The God of justice and mercy. All right.