Go ahead and turn with me if
you would to Exodus chapter 23. Exodus 23 verse 9 if you would please. Also thou shalt
not oppress a stranger. For you know the heart of a stranger,
seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. We had a verse
very similar to this in chapter 22. But those who have been redeemed
by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ here are given this
command. Remember, this is the law of
God, and God says, thou shalt not oppress a stranger. That word oppress means to press
upon. It refers to the pressing down
upon us that's done by the heavy yoke of the law. This is speaking
in reference to one who's unmerciful and ungracious, charging others
with sin. This is speaking of one who uses
the law to condemn another. Men are not judges of the law,
Christ is the judge of all men. But men sure try to put you under
the bondage and yoke of the law. The word oppress means not to
be merciful, not to be gracious, not to be forgiving. Did you
notice here in this verse, verse nine, that it does not say you
ought not to oppress a stranger? No, it says, thou shalt not oppress
a stranger. And you know what? God's people
won't. God won't let them. God won't allow it. And here
in Exodus chapter 23, God gives some motives for the believer
to show mercy to a stranger. A motive is defined as a reason
for doing something. What reason do we have for not
oppressing a stranger? It should be enough that God
says not to. But in His law, God gives us
some reasons here, some motives for our being obedient. The first
motive for showing mercy to a stranger has to do with remembering. God
says you know the heart of a stranger. You used to be one. Seeing you
were strangers in the land of Egypt, he says, you remember
what bondage was like? That's what the Lord's telling
Israel. And God says to His people, you remember what bondage was
like? You remember what slavery was
like? You remember your oppressing
taskmasters, oh Israel? God's law forbids Israel here
to show partiality to those of their own nation. And to be unfair
against a stranger of a non-citizen is against God's law. Why? Because
all men and women alike everywhere should have equal justice before
the law of God. And God will see to it that they
do. Now it's here that we see that God gives Israel these reasons
and motives to deal justly with these strangers. And you're going
to hear this phrase a lot tonight. But God told Israel, for you
know the heart of a stranger. And so do God's people. They
remember when they were in bondage to the law of sin and death.
Do you remember? You know the heart of a stranger.
It's so with every elect child of God. Do you remember when
you were oppressed by the yoke of the law? Don't you remember
what that was like? We can never supply what the
law required. And the law just pressed down
upon us. We felt the holy justice of God. Have we forgotten that we were
dead in trespasses and sin? God says, remember, remember. Hold your place here in Exodus
23, put your marker there and turn with me to Ephesians chapter
2. I was thinking today that very few lessons do we not turn
to Ephesians chapter 2, but it's so rich and it goes along so
well with what we're talking about tonight. The church at
Ephesus was a church made up of Gentiles. It was a Gentile
church. If you'll notice in verse 11
of Ephesians 2, Paul says that ye being in time past, Gentiles
in the flesh. If you look at chapter 3 verse
1, Paul said, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus
Christ, for you Gentiles. I don't know if you figured it
out yet, but Gentiles are not just these tribes over in jungles
that worship stumps and all that. Gentiles is what you and I are.
Gentiles in the flesh. We're Gentiles according to the
flesh. And do you remember what God
considered Gentiles to be? He declared them to be strangers.
Strangers from the covenant of promise. That's what you and
I were before Christ did something for us. So what we are by nature,
we're strangers, we're Gentiles. Look here in chapter 2, in verse
1, Paul writes, and you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins. wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedient, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Look down at verse 12, that at
that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, and what? Strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in this world. Friends,
if you're without God, you have no hope. If you're without Christ,
there's no hope for you. Turn to Acts chapter 15 for a
second, if you would. Acts chapter 15. Peter here is
speaking concerning the Gentiles hearing and believing the gospel.
And in verse 7 of Acts chapter 15, midway through the verse
there, Peter says, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles, that the strangers
by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And
God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them,
who? The Gentile strangers, the Holy
Ghost, even as He did unto us. And put no difference between
us, He said, speaking of the Jews there, and them, the Gentiles,
purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our
fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they."
Do you remember your state and your condition and your guilt
when God saved you? Do you remember the bondage that
sin had you under? We are carnal, Paul said, sold
under sin. There's no greater bondage than
that. Paul explained that pretty well
in Romans chapter 7. We're slaves to sin. It's good
to remember. Years ago, I may even have been
here, but I've heard the story since, Brother Mahan and Scott
Richardson took their wives to an upscale restaurant in Fairmont,
West Virginia. This restaurant had been converted
from a very old, fine home in the area. And as Henry and Doris and Scott
and his wife sat down and looked at the menu, Scott, as he was
well known for doing, caught everybody a little bit off guard.
And he said, you know, I used to live in the attic here. Of
course, they thought he was teasing. God then went on to tell them
that his family was actually so poor. that it got so difficult
for his father to feed him and all his family that Scott's dad
loaned him out, hired him out to this family that lived in
that house and he worked and did things for them just in return
for meals and a bed in the attic. True story. And Henry asked Scott
that when he was that boy that lived in that attic, a poor coal
miner's son, he said, did you ever think living up there in
that attic that one day you would drive up to this fine restaurant
in a fine car and be escorted to a beautiful table and order
this fine food and eat from this expensive china and have the
money to pay for it all? And Scott said, You know, it's
good to remember what we were, and what we are now, and who
made us to differ. You know the heart of a stranger,
friends. Remember, remember what it's
like to be a slave and a servant to sin, and you know something
about that slave heart. Just as Israel was oppressed
by the rule of Pharaoh and his mighty men, sinners are oppressed
by Satan and the rulers of this world. You know the heart of
a stranger. You remember and you know something
about that. Oh may God always enable us to
remember and be mindful of the pit. and the dunghill from which
he lifted us. It's God that raiseth up the
poor out of the dust. Did you know that? Sure you did. And it's God that lifted the
needy out of the dunghill. And shouldn't we want the same
for others? Of course we do. Our loved ones,
friends, and even those that we don't know. Don't oppress
such a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because
we were strangers. Seeing we were strangers in the
land of Egypt. You know what it is to be a sinner,
don't you, child of God? You know what is in your heart
by nature. You know what you are. God reveals
to his people their depravity. And you know, that's a word you
don't hear much in religious circles today, depravity. But it's interesting to know
that the words depravity and depraved are not found in the
Scripture. Not one time. Yet our depravity
is seen clearly in man throughout all the Scriptures. Ever since
the fall of Adam in the garden. The word depravity means morally
corrupt. It means wicked. It means ungodly. It means degenerate. A fallen
man seems to think that he's civilized, but if God take his
hand, his restraint from you, if he take it from you, if he
take it from me or from anyone else for that matter, we are
all capable of the most horrific thing. Often when people see
atrocious crimes and horrible things, they say things like,
well, I'd never do that. If God didn't keep you by his
power, you would. God says to those who've been
divinely illuminated and enlightened, He says, you know, you know the
heart of a stranger. You know what man's capable of.
Sin doesn't come from things. The Pharisees believed that what
they ate could and would defile them. But it's not what goes
into the mouth that defiles a man, is it? But that which comes out
of the mouth. Our defilement comes from within. It comes from the heart. We've
talked about this so many times. A few years ago, we had a man
and his wife come to services here for some time. One day,
he casually asked me if we used grape juice or real wine for
the Lord's table. And I told him real wine, didn't
think anything about it. And he got offended. And his
words to me were, alcohol hadn't touched my lips since God saved
me. I suppose, like the Pharisees,
that man thought that that little thimble full of wine would defile
him. But it's not. It is not what
goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out. And
what comes out is what's already inside, what's already in the
heart. You know the heart of a stranger.
You know something about the fallen creature's heart and soul. God has revealed it to his people.
because they were strangers themselves. It's out of the heart of men
that proceeds evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, blasphemy, pride. These are the evil things that
come from within, Christ said, from the heart. And they are
the things that defile a man and defile a woman. That is depravity. That's what that's talking about,
the depravity that's within us. We're estranged from the womb. We go astray as soon as we're
born, speaking lies. We don't have to teach our children
to lie. It comes natural to them. We
were shapen in iniquity. We were conceived in sin. We're
born condemned. And this is the condemnation.
This is why Christ, the Light, has come into the world. And
we love darkness rather than Him. How could we do such a thing? He tells us, because your deeds
are evil. Deedsburg. Religion has become politically
correct. One who is said to be politically
correct is one who is extremely careful not to offend or upset
someone. Politically correct preachers,
what we have today, a lot of politically correct preachers
say, well you can't accuse people of being depraved. That's offensive
and that's upsetting to those that you accuse of being so.
Well, first of all, I didn't accuse anybody of anything. God
did. And God has never, ever been
politically correct. God is not concerned with offending
someone. God says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Does that offend you? God
says there's none righteous, no, not one. Does that upset
you? God says all of us are gone out
of the way. We're all together become unprofitable. All of us, every single one. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. How does that affect you? After
Adam and his wife disobeyed God, Cain, their first son, the first
man born into this world, he hated God, he hated his brother,
and he committed murder. And he killed his brother, but
he would have killed God if he could have. That's what proceeds
from an evil heart. Now listen, this is so important. In our life before God, if the
motive of our heart is to gain God's favor and God's acceptance
by a work of righteousness that we do, then we've missed it.
We've totally missed it. If our motive is to try to earn
righteousness, if our motive is to try to gain holiness, to
stand before God within the day of judgment, then we're under
the law and nothing but legalists. But if a man's motive is the
love and the grace of God in Christ, if his motive is because
Christ has already made him righteous and holy, and he does what he
does out of love and out of appreciation and gratitude, there you have
a man or a woman that's under grace, and it's God that makes
him to differ. Before God, the motive of the
believer's heart is not what they do, but why they do what
they do. The reason why we do what we
do is the difference of being under the law and being under
grace. Because of God's love, His mercy, His forgiveness to
us. You ever stop and think about
all that God has forgiven you of? Everything. But God is forgiving
and He forgets never to be remembered again, our sin. Oh, and we want
to be pleasing to the One who loved us and gave Himself for
us, don't you? Sure you do. Sure you do. And
here's our motive. To be merciful to the stranger.
Be kind one to another. Forgiving one another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. Even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. May the Lord enable us to
remember. Now, back in Exodus chapter 23,
I want you to look at verse 10. Here we see another motive to
show mercy to a stranger. Verse 10, in six years thou shalt
sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof. But the
seventh year thou shalt let it rest, and lie still, and the
poor of thy people may eat. And what they leave, the beast
of the field shall eat. And in like manner thou shalt
deal with the vineyard and with thy olive yard. Now this is talking
about the seven year Sabbath. For six years, that land would
be sold and worked and tilled. It was broken up and worked over.
Seed was planted. Seed, as you know, it's broken,
it dies, and from it comes life and fruit and harvest. The Son
of God became a man, friends, became flesh and blood so that
He might give His body to be broken, to be tealed, to be worked
under the wrath of God in our place. He died, He definitely
died, the just for the unjust. He's the just one, we're unjust. Christ is the seed that was broken,
the seed that was crushed and killed and cast into the ground. And he himself said this, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. See, Christ had to die to bring
forth this fruit, and child of God, you are that fruit. Of his
own will beget he us with the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, James 118. God
provided the harvest from that ground for six years. That ground
was broken, the seed was planted, the seed was broken, the seed
died for six years. But in the seventh year, the
poor could eat without doing any work. That was true rest. That was true, Rick. They could
eat without working. It was the seven year Sabbath. And Christ is our Sabbath. The
poor that came into that field to glean the seventh year. Such
a beautiful picture of you and I so poor that we couldn't eat. Had no provisions for ourselves. What a picture of us coming to
Christ to partake of Him and rest in Him. There's no work
to do. It's all been done. The land
had already done its work. And in the seventh year, the
land was at rest. The poor just simply came and
they ate out of that field that was at rest. And we come to Christ
who has already finished his work. In Christ, God has provided
everything for his elect so they can rest. He's our Sabbath rest. Then they had the seventh day
Sabbath. Look at verse 12. Six days thou
shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest. They worked six days and then
they rested, picturing what God did in the creation. God created
the world in six days, and on the seventh day He rested. Do
you know why He rested? Was it because God was tired?
No. It was because the work was finished. It was done. There was nothing
left to be done. He finished the work. And Christ
is set down at the right hand of God. You know why? Same reason. The work's finished. It's done. It's over. Jesus Christ has,
past tense, by Himself purged our sins and He's set down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high. It's finished. It's finished. Boy, I love to
think about that. Why did He set down? Nothing
to do. It's already done. Hebrews 4.10
says, for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works as God did from his. We rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the only place to rest.
Christ promises all who come to him will find rest. Isn't
that what he said? Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He said, take
my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest for your souls. That's what we need, soul
rest. He said, my yoke's easy and my
burden's light. Now Christ doesn't tell you to
come to Him and then He takes you to the law to oppress you.
No, He fulfilled the law. He satisfied the justice of God
that was against us. The law was our schoolmaster.
You remember why? To bring us to Christ. The only
reason we come is because we're brought. And it's then that we
see it so. He's meek and he's lowly in heart. His yoke is easy and his burden
is light. And our motive for being loving
and gracious and merciful and forgiving to others is simply
out of gratitude and appreciation to our just God and Savior and
what He's done for us. On the seventh day thou shalt
rest. You could say it this way, in
Christ we shall rest. Now the last part of verse 12
there says, thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of
thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. That word refreshed
means to breathe. To be given breath is to be given
life. Christ compared His Spirit to
the wind. He said, it blows where it wills,
and you hear the sound of it, but you don't know where it comes
from, and you don't know where it goes. He said, so is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. God formed Adam out of the dust
of the ground, and what did He do? He breathed into him the
breath of life, and man became a living soul. That's what this
is talking about, being refreshed. How are we refreshed? By resting
in Christ alone. By God breathing His Spirit into
us, making us, who were dead in trespasses and sin, living
souls unto Him. What constrains us, what motivates
us to be merciful to the stranger? The love of Christ constraineth
us. We are the strangers and Christ became a stranger for
us in order for us to be made joint heirs with Him. Do you
see that you are Gentiles, strangers from the covenants of God's promise? then now you're a joint heir
with Christ. All because of what He's done
for you. Our Lord came and took His people's
place and He became the stranger. He said in prophecy in Psalm
69, 8, I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien
unto my mother's children. Remember, you and I are strangers. Christ is going to refresh all
that belong to Him. And we know the heart of a stranger,
don't we? God revealed it to us. God showed
us what we are. We need help. We need mercy. We need grace. We need forgiveness. Oh, we need perfect righteousness.
Without Christ, we're aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
We read it. Strangers from the covenants
of promise and having no hope and without God in the world.
But those who come to Christ, those who come remembering what
they were, thankful for what they are now, and knowing that
God alone made them to differ, Just like Scott said, they simply
rest in Christ their Saviour. Are you resting? Oh, Lord, enable
us to rest. Enable us to rest. All those
that rest are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. Ephesians 2.19 You see,
our motive for obedience is simply love for the One who loved us
and gave Himself for us. We're not trying to merit, earn,
or deserve salvation in any way. We know it comes only through
the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
you don't know Him in truth as He's revealed in this book, may
God enable you right now to know Him. May God show you first your
need and cause you to cry for Christ. the only one who can
save you. And to those of you who know
and trust in Christ, may God enable you to always remember
from where you came, and to remember what you were, and remember who
and what you are in Christ. You're a joint heir with Christ.
May you always remember that it was God who made you to differ. Love for Christ is the motive,
and it's the reason that we meet together to hear His Word. He's worthy of our study. He's
worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our praise. And
yet so few seem to have an interest. It's concerning and alarming,
isn't it? Oh Lord, please don't leave us
to ourselves. Have mercy and grace upon us
for Christ's sake. Amen.