Okay, turn with me again to Exodus
chapter 22. Exodus 22. You know, I don't suppose until recently,
even since we began looking at God's law here in the book of
Exodus, that I ever really saw in the law the gracious provisions
that God makes and made for the weak and helpless. Now I know
in the law God deals sternly with the wicked and disobedient.
Men and women today claim that God loves everybody, that Christ
died for everyone in the world, even those that hate him without
a cause. Even those who worship idols. Nowhere in the Bible does it
say so. God loves those who are in Christ. A lot of folks have misunderstood
completely the God of this Bible. As we saw last week, all through
the law, God provided and required restitution, even double. He
required double from one who mistreated or took advantage
of another, and then He provided double for the one that was taken
advantage of. Yes, God made provisions and
He required restitution for the weak and the pitiful of this
world. But if that's all that you see in the law of God, then
you've missed the spiritual application of the elect salvation altogether. The law of God was given to show
God's elect just how holy God is and just how sinful they are.
We've talked about this so many times. The law wasn't given for
us to try to keep in order to obtain some kind of righteousness
for ourselves. The law of God was given to show
us our inability, and to show us our unwillingness to keep
the law, and show us our inability to love God, to depend on Him
for anything. Man by nature will not have God
to rule over him. Man's been sowing fig leaves
together ever since Adam fell in the garden, trying to cover
himself by the work of his own hands. You can't do it. The law was given to show us
who God is. The law of God was given to show
us what God requires of us, and we all know what it is, don't
we? We've been taught He requires perfection, that which we can't
provide. The law of God was given to show
us that we're dead in trespasses and sin, and God's holy justice
requires just that, eternal death. Paul said, what shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. The law shows us that
we're guilty. The law shows me that in and
of myself, I don't have a leg to stand on before God. I had
nothing to offer God. I've come way short of the glory
of God. My sin is against Him and Him
only. And God is justified if He condemned me. All who sin
against Him shall die. That's what this book teaches.
Death is sin's wages. And I tell you, I'm just convinced
more and more every day that not many people really believe
that's so. They don't believe that God is
a God that will actually punish sin. Because for so many years
they've been lied to. And God has been portrayed as
a weak and beggarly God who just wants somebody to love Him. Won't
somebody just love me? It's a shame to speak of God
in that way. You tell men and women about a God who is holy
and who will by no means clear one who is guilty, and they'll
say things like this. I've heard it. Well, your God's
my devil. Well, then you better get ready
to deal with my devil, because that's who you're going to deal
with. You're going to deal with God. A holy God today is foreign
to those in religion. It's just foreign. Religion today
is just racking up crowns of their own making. They believe
that they're going to be rewarded for all their so-called works
of righteousness and holy. Going to get a little bigger
mansion, I guess, with all the upgrades. I don't know. Going
to have a little more gold on your driveway, a little more
pearl on your gates. I had a neighbor of a different
religious persuasion ask me one time where I attended church,
and I know more than got Bible Baptist out of my mouth. He in a snickering way said,
I suppose Baptist can be Christians too. What he was saying was,
you might know God, but not like I do. You might serve God, but
not like I am. You might love God and obey Him,
but not like I have. It's sad, but his wife and his
daughter have to wear their hair a certain way, and they have
to wear certain type of clothes. And I don't suppose, I don't
know, but I don't suppose safe people, safe women can wear makeup. All it does to me is just scream
loudly, look at me, ain't I something? I'm a Christian. Look at me,
I'm outwardly living as God says to. But how are you living inwardly?
It's out of the heart that precedes all those evil things that God
mentions. Well, preachers, shouldn't folks
see Christ in us? People didn't see Christ in Christ. If they had, they would have
never crucified Him. Just the thought of rewards in
heaven, I'm telling you, is nauseating to me. And it goes against the
very teaching of God's grace in Christ. Rewards are a result
of personal work, personal merit, and personal achievement. You
don't have any. Do dead men and women really
think that they've earned, merited, or deserved anything from God
except His wrath, judgment, and death? Christ alone is the believer's
reward. Christ alone is the believer's
crown. Some folks believe they're gonna
have to have a neck brace, I guess, to hold their head up because
the crown's gonna be so full of the jewels that they've earned
and merited. But the only reason that I'll
be in heaven's glory, And the only reason that you will be
is because of what Christ has done for us. Not by works of
righteousness that we've done. No sir. No it's not. Over and over again in this book,
I see that God has made provision for some like me. And when I
say some like me, God is gracious to some like me made to see what
they are. To see that they're weak, that
they're laboring and heavy laden with sin. Those that are desperately
seeking and needing rest. Oh, I need rest. And God's gracious
to give that rest. those whom God has shown to be
poor in spirit, without any righteousness, unable to provide for themselves. Is that you? I see in God's law
where Christ Jesus makes double restitution for His elect and
His chosen people. He took their sin and then He
gave them His perfect righteousness. They received the Lord's hand
double for all their sin. This is the greatest transaction
ever made. God is gracious and merciful
to His people, but outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire
who by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
until the third and the fourth generation. The wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And this is
what God says, friends. This is what His Word declares.
And I'm convinced if a sinner ever truly sees who God is, they'll
want forgiveness, not wrath. They'll desire mercy and not
justice. Justice is death to the one that
sins. I don't want that. But mercy
to some says there's life in Christ. There's life in the ark
of God. Get in. Get in while the getting's
good. Get in before the door's shut.
Christ is the ark and Christ is the door. Oh, I hope, I've
asked the Lord all week that He might be pleased to give us
a glimpse of His grace tonight, even in the giving of the law.
Before we do, we first again see God's wrath, judgment, and
justice against the wicked. In verse 18, We have a law here
which makes witchcraft a capital crime. Look at it. Verse 18,
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Throughout the Scriptures,
there were some who did or pretended to do strange and surprising
feats. Kind of like or much like Pharaoh's
sorcerers and magicians in Egypt. Remember when we looked at that?
Such deceivers. I'm telling you, they lead men
and women away from dependence on God and His providence for
them. In the 28th chapter of 1 Samuel,
you don't have to turn there, let me tell you this story. I
hope you remember it. Samuel the prophet had died and
King Saul, who the people wanted to be king, King Saul had put
all those with familiar spirits, all the wizards and the witches
and all out of the land. And after this, the Philistines,
Israel's biggest archenemy, gathered not far from where Israel was.
And when King Saul saw them, the Scripture said he was afraid,
and his heart was greatly troubled. So he inquired of the Lord, but
the Lord didn't answer him. I think from the study of Scripture
and experience has taught me anyway that when the Lord doesn't
give you any direction on something, It's best not to do anything.
Definitely don't want to do what you think you should. You'll
get in trouble every time when you do that. And that's exactly
what Saul did. You know what he did? He called
for a witch. He called for the witch of Endor
who had a familiar spirit. And Saul disguised himself and
went to inquire of her to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel.
And he did so in order to get some advice on how they should
fight against the Philistines in battle. And Saul's all over
the place. One minute he's in an effort
to please God, he's banning all the witches and wizards out of
Israel, and now he consults one. Saul even said to this witch,
He said, divine or foretell unto me by the familiar spirit. He
knew exactly what he was doing. Hear that phrase familiar spirits. Means a necromancer, a sorcerer,
a wizard or witch who calls on the spirit of one that's already
dead. The word divine or divination
used this way is described as the practice of seeking knowledge
of the future or the unknown by the supernatural means of
those who claim they have the power to do so. The Greek word
for divine or divination here means to determine or distribute,
but only God can do that. So what about horoscopes and
fortune tellers and psychics? Are they really all that bad?
I hear folks say, well, I just like to read my horoscope for
the fun of it. I've overheard some ladies not
long ago in a restaurant talking, and one said, well, my husband
and I went on vacation. We went to see a psychic just
for entertainment and something to do. I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't advise it. Is it really
so wrong? God says it is. In Deuteronomy
chapter 18 verse 10, God commands, there shall not be found among
you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through
the fire, or that useth diffination, or an observer of times, or an
enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer. For all that do these things
are an abomination unto the Lord. And because of these abominations,
the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee." What are horoscopes
and fortune tellers and psychics unto the Lord? Told us right
there, they're an abomination. And God's going to drive them
out from the people of God. Meaning the child of God is going
to stay away from such things as that. You know, God shares
His glory with no one. And God and His law deals harshly
with this kind. Thou shalt not suffer a witch
to live. Period. Nothing else is said.
No provisions made. No hesitation. Just death awaits
us. God makes witchcraft and their
divination a capital crime. Oh, I'm telling you friends,
stay away from it. It's not as harmless as some people think.
And then next we have a law here that deals with an unnatural
abomination. This too is a capital offense
that requires death. Look at verse 19. Whosoever lieth
with a beast shall surely be put to death. Here we see the
depravity and the corruption of mankind. You know, this is
a crime that's so detestable, so shocking and dishonorable
to even human nature. When you hear such a thing, you
just automatically think, who could do such a thing? And the
alarming and unpopular answer from God is, any of us and all
of us, apart from God's restraining grace, Oh, we talk about being
depraved, but I wonder sometimes if we really understand just
by nature how depraved we are. And if that's not so, why would
God have made a law against it? And why would God promise judgment
in order to defer someone from it? When you understand something
of depravity, I'm telling you, you'll understand that man is
capable of anything if God leave him to himself. God made the
judgment that one who did such a thing should be surely put
to death. And then thirdly, we next see
that idolatry is also a capital offense against God. Look at
verse 20. He that sacrifices unto any God,
save or accept unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed. Now as we said earlier, God is
a consuming fire. Even a jealous God. And the Lord revengeth and is
furious. I'm reading this out of Nahum
chapter 1 verse 2. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries. And he reserveth wrath for his
enemies. I wonder how many churches that
verse has been read in recently. Everybody talks about God is
love. God loves everybody. Oh, God
too good to do that. Listen, God is a consuming fire
and He's a jealous God. He's furious with the wicked
every single day. When I read that verse again
today, I'm telling you, I was frightened. Frightened to think
of being the Lord's adversary. Oh, I don't want to be His adversary.
How futile it is to dispute with God, isn't it? You can't win. God always wins. Sacrifices were
to be made to God alone. If you made sacrifice to any
little g God, you'd be utterly destroyed. Now I know we're no
longer under the Old Testament law. We no longer make blood
sacrifices unto the Lord. Why? Because Christ once put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. God's satisfied. God's law is satisfied. It's
finished. The work's done. Salvation is
accomplished. But we do still offer up sacrifices
of praise to God and we do so continually for that's the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to His name, Hebrews 13, 15. And
our God is not going to share those sacrifices of praise with
another. There's only one who deserves
credit for our redemption. You know who it is? It's the
one who redeemed us. And death awaits those who sacrifice
under their imaginary little g gods. So there are three things
right off the bat that are deserving of death in the eyes of God.
But down in the verses before us, God deals with some specific
individuals. And in each of these groups of
people that the Lord protects and makes provision for, we see
a picture, I think, of ourselves who are saved by God's grace.
The first group is called strangers. Look at verse 21. God in his
law says, thou shalt neither vex a stranger, a Gentile, stranger,
nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt,
God causes all His people to remember the pit from which they
were dug. All God's people remember their
bondage to sin in this Egypt of a world in which we live.
We know what it's like to be under the evil taskmasters of
Satan like Pharaoh, Egypt's wicked ruler. And God commands us, He
said, don't you vex, don't you mistreat, don't be violent against
a Gentile stranger. God calls on Israel to remember
where they were when God delivered them. Do you remember where they
were? Do you remember where you were?
We were in Egypt. We were in bondage. We were making
bricks without straw. We weren't getting anywhere.
For 400 years, Israel knew nothing but bondage. And before God saved
us, we didn't know anything but that either. And we didn't even
know what it was. When we were without Christ,
we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in this
world. That's where you are, Ephesians
2.20. But then Paul says, but in Christ
we're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens,
citizens with the saints and of the household of God. John
said, Beloved thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the
brethren and to strangers. So when it's all said and done,
when it's all said and done, God's people understand that
they're aliens, that they're strangers, they're foreigners,
they're dead in trespasses and sin. We're not anymore. Now by God's grace, they're fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household of God. Then
we have a second group of individuals here, actually two, I guess we
group them together, widows and orphans, verse 22. You shall
not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in
any wise, and they cried on to me, I will surely hear their
cry. And my wrath shall wax hot, and
I'll kill you with a sword. And your wives shall be widows,
and your children fatherless. A father of the fatherless and
a judge of the widows is God in His holy habitation." Psalm
68, 5. God made provision for strangers,
and God made provisions for widows, and God made provisions for the
fatherless. In Job chapter 22, the charge
is made against mighty men, speaking of men of power and men of strength. He said, Thou hast sent widows
away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
And that's exactly what the scribes and the Pharisees did in our
Lord's day. And you remember what our Lord
said to them? He said, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses. And these greedy dogs, as Isaiah
calls them, never had enough. It never was enough. Enough was
never enough. They connived and they cheated
these poor widows out of their substance. and they stripped
them bare of their necessities of life. They pressured them
and they prevailed upon these widows to sell their houses and
their possessions and give it all to them. Bless the Lord,
sister. Give till it hurts. You ever heard that? The sad
thing is that still goes on today. Even in this little town. To
the unbelieving, our Lord said, I was a stranger and you took
me not in. He said, I was naked and you
clothed me not. Sick and in prison, and you visited
me not. But to the believing child of
God, Christ said, for I was hungry and you gave me meat. And I was
thirsty and you gave me drink. And I was a stranger and you
took me in. naked and you clothed me. I was
sick and you visited me. Well, I was in prison and you
came unto me." And then the righteous answered him and said, Lord,
when did we see you hungry and give you something to eat? When
did we feed you? When did we see you thirsty and
give you something to drink? When did we do that? When did
we see you as a stranger and take you in? When did we find
you naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick and
in prison and come unto you? When did we do that? And the
king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,
insomuch as you've done it unto one of these, the least of my
brethren, you've done it unto me. By nature we're all orphans
and we're fatherless and our mothers are as widows, Lamentations
5.3. Abandoned as a child in a field,
polluted in our own blood. It wasn't until the Lord said
to me, live, that I began to live. And it was then that God
spread His skirt of righteousness over me and He covered my nakedness.
And it was there that He made a covenant with me and I became
His. I'm a child of the King, did
you know that? And you are too if you're trusting in Christ,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And friends, it was
then that the Lord washed me with water throughly. Totally
clean. God makes eternal provision for
the whittled and the fatherless. For we've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but we've received the spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Daddy, Father, The Spirit of
God bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Someone asked me not long ago, said, hey, you know you're saved.
And all I can say, I just know that I am. I just know that I
know. Because God's Spirit bears witness
with my spirit that Christ has done for me what I couldn't do
for myself. That's what I'm holding on to.
That's what I'm clinging to. And that's enough. That's enough. Then the next group that we have
is the poor. Look at verse 25. If thou lend
money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not
be to them as a usurer. That means a loan shark that
charges high interest. Neither shalt thou lay upon them
usury. That simply means interest on
a debt. Our Lord said, for you always
have the poor with you in Matthew 26. And our Lord also said, when
thou makest a feast, call the poor, call the maimed, call the
lame, call the blind, and thou shalt be blessed. For they cannot
recompense thee. They can't, so God will. Oh, we're to be gracious as God
has been gracious to us. Lord, I want to be gracious.
Don't you? I want to be gracious. We don't
take advantage of the less fortunate. We're to help them and to assist
them all we can. In Galatians chapter two, verse
10, Paul wrote, we should remember the poor, and we should. God
does in his law. God makes provision for who?
Strangers, widows, orphans, and the poor. Well, I see me clearly
in all those categories. God forbids any to afflict these
poor strangers, widows and orphans. There was provision in the law
of God for them. And we should always remember
that strangers to us are still known to God. God said, when
you see them, you remember yourselves. God causes the believer to remember
themselves. Brothers and sisters, that's
grace. That's great. Look at verse 26. If thou at all take thy neighbor's
raiment, and this is talking about bedclothes, as we'll see.
If thou shall take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, or for collateral,
he owes you money and you want collateral, and you take his
raiment, his bedclothes, thou shalt deliver them to him by
that that the sun goeth down. Now look at this, for that is
his covering only. It is His raiment for His skin. It's the covering of His body
to keep Him comfortable and warm at night. He says right there,
wherein shall He sleep? How is He going to sleep? And
it shall come to pass when He crieth unto me, because of His
nakedness, that I will hear, for I am gracious. to the poor man that has no covering. God is mindful. God says, if
you take his raiment, if you take his covering, the clothes
that he wears when he sleeps, the clothes that he rests in,
then you make sure he has them to put back on before the sun
goes down. Don't you make that poor man
sleep without a covering? Don't you deprive him of his
covering? He can't sleep. He can't rest
without his covering. You know, I was thinking today,
that's pretty much what religion does, isn't it? It tries to take
away your covering by telling you to establish your own righteousness. But righteousness doesn't come
by our doing. It never has and it never will.
Salvation is not by works of righteousness that we have done. But, according to His mercy He
saved us. Isn't that so plain and simple?
You see the picture here of our redemption in these verses. God
makes provision for the stranger. Isn't that what we were? Gentiles?
Strangers? Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel? Without God, without hope in this world, He makes
provision for the widow and the orphan and the poor. But this
speaks of our spiritual condition and our spiritual inability. Be of good cheer, for the Lord
is gracious. I hear men and women talk about
common grace. They say that God shows a common
grace to all. Personally, I don't like that
terminology. I understand what folks mean
when they mention common grace. They call it common grace because
God causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good. And God
sends His reign on the righteous and the unrighteous. But there's
really nothing common at all about God's sovereign grace,
is there? God's grace is amazing grace.
It's not common grace. God is gracious to His elect. God loves His people, but He
loves them only in Christ. Nowhere else. That's particular
grace. On the one whom Christ has pity
and love, I'm telling you, He saves. A lot of folks think that
that rich young ruler that came to the Lord was lost. But the
scriptures say that the Lord beholding him loved him. Yes,
I know, the Lord told him, he said, there's one thing that
you like. Go your way, sell all you have, give it to the poor,
and you shall have treasure in heaven. Yes, I know the Lord
told him to come, take up your cross and follow Me. And yes,
I know that the young man was sad at that scene, and that he
went away grieved because he had great possessions. But I'm
telling you, that man was saved. He went away sad that day. But
there came a day that he rejoiced. How do I know? Because those
whom the Lord loves, He saves. God has never loved anyone that
He did not save, and God has never saved anyone that He did
not love. That's election. God's love and
salvation, they go hand in hand. That's love and redemption. God
choosing to have mercy and compassion on whom He will, while hardening
others. God's elect, before they had
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of Him that cometh. You know
what that means? Salvations of the Lord. God saved
that young ruler because God loved him. And God chose him
before the foundation of the world because God saved him.
And there's nothing common about the mercy and the grace of God.
God's grace is particular and it's effectual. He never failed,
Linda. Not one time has He ever failed.
And He says here, for I, the Lord, am gracious. Boy, that's
even better. Not was gracious. Not used to
be gracious. He's still gracious. God was
gracious, I know, in a sense, to all who came out of Egypt,
who went through the Red Sea, through their wanderings in the
wilderness. If you want to call that common grace, go ahead.
But only two men over the age of 20, only two men out of that
original million plus entered into the land of promise. Why
them? They believed God. They believed
God. But it was God that gave them
their faith. Salvation's of the Lord. Has God shown you that
without Christ you're a stranger? But in Christ you're family.
Has God shown you that you have no husband but Christ to take
care of you? Oh, but if you have Him, what
a husband you have. Without God, you have no Father
that will protect you and take care of you. Not spiritually
speaking, we're orphans by nature. We're outside of Christ by nature. We're poor, having nothing to
offer God, but God is gracious. For I am gracious. Best news I ever heard. And that's
our only hope. That He's gracious. Right here
in the middle of giving His law, God says, for I am gracious.
And He is. He's gracious. He still is. He
is to the poor. to the widowed, to the fatherless,
to strangers looking for a home, looking for a city whose maker
and builder is God, He's still gracious. God told Noah, He said,
with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come
into the ark. No ifs, ands, and buts. If God
makes and establishes a covenant with you, you're going to come
into the ark. You're going to come into Christ.
He said, Thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives
with thee. Oh, I got to thinking about that
today, and I just rejoiced. Sinners, come into the ark. Christ
is the ark of God. Come to Him. He says, Whosoever
will, your sons, your daughters, your wife, your husband, come. Whosoever will. Let him take
up the water of life freely. But I heard you say, preacher,
I cannot come. Well, in and of yourself you
can't, but with the command of Christ comes the power to come. So come. If you want to come,
you'll see to it that you can. May God enable you to come.