Servant. The perfect servant. Let's read the first six verses
here of Exodus 21. These are the judgments which
thou shalt set before them. If thou buy a Hebrew servant
six years, he shall serve. And in the seventh, he shall
go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master hath given him
a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife,
and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall
bring him unto the judges, he shall also bring him to the door,
or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through
with it all, and he shall serve him forever." He's talking about a servant
here. A man bought, becomes a slave,
becomes a servant. The law of Moses had three parts
to it. There was the moral law. That's
the Ten Commandments. Then there's the civil law. God
had laws set up to how people are supposed to treat one another,
who's going to be the judges, and how people were to be judged.
They had a civil law, like we have civil law. And then they
had the ceremonial law, where the priest would dress up and
do all the ceremonies, and all the riches, and offer all the
sacrifices. They had the three ways that
it was all together. In Exodus 21 through verse 23,
it's mainly about the law. Now here, look what it said in
the very first verse. Now these are the judgments which
thou shalt set before them. These are statues, judgments
which God gave unto Israel to govern their social and their
civil life. And we have laws that govern
our social life and our civil life. And that's why God did
this. And what has it to do with us? Well, because it's a glorious,
glorious picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of His person and
His work. You know, James read it tonight
out of Psalms 40. We talked about the Lord Jesus
Christ thou hast Digged my ear or bore my ear digged it. That's
what he's talking about. They put a hole in his ear that's
what he says God did that to me and and Psalm 40 in verse
6 and our Lord Jesus Christ and that's what we want to look for
here and we have what returned to the servant and the slave
is the type of a perfect servant and Now, who in the world has
ever been a perfect servant? There's only been one, and that's
been the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. God said in Isaiah 42.1, Behold
My servant. Look, this is my servant, my
elect, God's first chosen. Chosen he chose him and then
chose us in him, but he was God's first elect. What was he chosen
to do? Chosen to be the mediator. Chosen to be the Savior. Chosen
to be the one who would die on the cross. Chosen to be the one
to obey God. Chosen to accomplish salvation
once and for all and to honor God in all the days of his life.
And I tell you, God called him in Zechariah 3.8, My servant,
the branch. And He's called His righteous
servant. And He says, My servant, whom I shall exalt at His throne. But I want you to keep Exodus
21. Look in Philippians 2. Philippians 2. We're talking
about our Lord Jesus Christ being the perfect servant. Perfect
servant. Philippians 2. You know, our Master Himself told His disciples,
if you're the greatest, if you're the chief among them, you're
the servant. You be the servant. Well, who
was chief among us? Chiefest among 10,000. That He
became servant. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one
That's above everyone else in this universe and in this world.
He tells us to be servants. Tells us to serve. And then he
turns around and he's the perfect servant. The blessed servant,
the glorious servant, God's servant, the righteous servant. And look
what it said here in Philippians 2.5. Verse 5, start right there. Who let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God,
in other words, He was God manifest in the flesh, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. He said, I am my Father, I am
one. And He did not take anything
away from His Father. But listen to this. And made
himself of no reputation, did not go around bragging on himself
and telling all that he accomplished. And took upon him, listen to
this, the form of a servant. Form of a servant. And made in
the likeness of a man. Took upon him the form of a servant. What condescension, what condescension,
what a coming down. What a coming down. He came down
from the honor and the glory. All the things that they did
for him in heaven. They've done his will and they
glorified him and honored him and his father loved him and
he came from the bosom of his father. And he came down from
honor and glory, where the angels moved in every beck and call.
And he came down here and took upon himself the form of a servant,
came down here to suffer as a servant, and the shame of a servant, the
one who created and sustains the heaven and the earth, entered
into the place of subjection. Subjection. He could say to the
heavens, do this and the heavens do that. He could say to the
sea, stop. And yet, he came down here and
became under subjection as a servant. And the book of Mark, if I understand
it right, says before us our Lord Jesus Christ as the servant.
And he says, Lo, I come to do thy will. And you know the first
recorded words of our Lord Jesus Christ was, when he was 12 years
old his mother and father had left Jerusalem and they were
in a day's journey supposing he had been with them and there's
a lot of folks that will go on their journey supposing him to
have been with them and when he sung that song tonight just
as I am this fear struck my heart that what if I get to the end
of the way and I come to the end and I'm deceived and I'm
fooled That scares me. I do not want to be deceived. I want to know that I know Christ.
And I tell you what, that's what we want to know about who our
Lord Jesus Christ is and what He actually accomplished. I do
not want to miss Him. But the first recorded words
of our Lord Jesus Christ was this. When they came back and
found Him sitting among the doctors and the lawyers, come found Him.
And they said, Son, what have you done? He said, Wist ye not
that I be about my father's business. That's the first recorded words
of our Lord Jesus on this earth. And he says, I came down from
heaven. That's where he come from. I came down from heaven. I left heaven. I came down from
heaven. And I didn't come down here to
do my will. I didn't come down here to do
the things that I will to do by myself. I came down from heaven
to do the will of Him that sent me. That's what He came for. And
His being Jehovah's servant was a perfect servant, a voluntary
servant. Who naturally chooses to be a
servant? Who naturally chooses to be a
servant? Most of us don't. We like to
be served, but we don't like to be a servant. Nobody naturally
chooses that. And how different our Lord Jesus
is from the first Adam. He was given the place of a servant.
You stay here and you tend this garden. You take care of this
garden. And he said, and I'll tell you
there's only one thing I don't want you to do. You're my servant. You're in this garden. Tend it. Take care of it. There's a tree
over there. Don't you touch it. I mean, don't
you eat of it. He didn't say don't touch it,
but don't you eat of it. But he was given the place of a servant,
but he forsook it. Why? Satan said, you'll be as
gods. You'll be as gods. And when you
become as a god, you don't have to serve nobody. Huh? And our Lord Jesus Christ was
God. God. Yet made Himself of no reputation. In fact, when they were trying
to make Him king, He just slipped away from them. He didn't run around talking
about other things. In fact, His brothers said, Oh listen,
if you do all these things, go up to the temple and let them
see you. Let them see all these works
that you do. But our Lord Jesus Christ didn't go around doing
like preachers do today, and church folks do today. Telling
what all they've accomplished, and all the things that they've
done, and all the good works that they're doing, and all the
gifts that they give, and all the prayers that they pray. Our
Lord Jesus wasn't like that. He is meek and lowly. Took upon
himself the form of a servant. Got down here to wait on you
and me. Oh, He laid aside His eternal
glory, and He emptied Himself, and all that most folks saw about
Him was a man. But He emptied Himself, laid
aside His glory, and all that made work His majesty as God,
and took upon Him the form of a servant. And when Satan comes to tempt
him and says, worship me, and I'll give you all this, thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
Oh, listen, I tell you what, if you're hungry, command these
stones to be... Oh, listen, man shall live by the bread, by the
Word of God, and that alone. And I tell you, so our Lord Jesus
Christ, He was a servant, and He served His God, He delighted
in His God. He delighted in waiting on other
people. He delighted in doing what He
would for His Father, for us. And look what it said here in
verse 2. Let's go down through here and look at these things.
If thou by a Hebrew servant six years shall he serve, The service
of the servant. His master had a defined claim
upon him. Six years. Six years. Six years. His master shall have a defined
claim upon him. Six years. And that servant had
a responsibility to that master. And we were to come into this
world and we were to serve our God faithfully, but we did. And we had a responsibility to
God. God who made us and not we ourselves. And our responsibility was to
submit to Him, be under complete subjection to Him, to obey His
will and express in His law when He says, love God with all your
heart, your neighbor as yourself. We should have been under that
subjection. We should have been that willingly of a servant.
But our Lord came down from glory, from the world of glory to this
earth to honor God where the whole human race dishonored Him. Look with me in Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. Our Lord came from
the world of glory to this earth to honor God. to magnify God
and that's why he said in Galatians 4 when the fullness of time was
come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law think not that I've come
to destroy the law and prophets but to fulfill them and we so
dishonored God by breaking all his law we didn't love God we
love ourselves We didn't love, I just read a message, a fella
said, you know, that we're supposed to love one another, that we
would actually die for one another. Now, I hope I never put to that
situation. I hope, you know, said, you know,
we love one another to the point that we'd lay down our life for
the brethren. I hope I don't never have to do that. I hope
I've never called on that to do that. I don't know if I could
do that or not. But I do know this, that our
Lord Jesus Christ, look what he said here in verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
servant, will magnify the Lord. Magnify it. Not just uphold it. Magnify it. Set it out there
in great magnification and make it honorable. And that's what
he did. He loved God and he loved his
neighbor as a servant. God's law was written within
his blessed heart. He delighted to do his will.
He rejoiced to do his will. He meditated in God's law, he
says, day and night. And every demand, every demand
of God was fully met by that one perfect man. And I want you
to understand this, that what our Lord Jesus Christ did, he
did as a man. He obeyed God as a man. He obeyed
the law as a man. He submitted to God as a man.
He's a perfect man. And our Lord is the only man,
the only man, who ever, ever fully discharged all the responsibility
that the human race had to God and to one another. He's the
only one who ever did it. He took what we should have done
and he did it. He did it. Discharged all human
responsibility to God and man. And then look what it says here
now back over in our text. The six years he shall serve and in the seventh year he shall
go out free for nothing. After six years, the master had
no more claim upon him. And seven, of course, in the
scriptures means perfect, means complete, means to be full. His
service was completed. He was free to go. And our Lord Jesus Christ, bless
his name, He served God in such a wonderful way that when he
said let him go, they had to let him go. But our Lord Jesus
Christ completed his servant to his master, to God Almighty. As far as the law was concerned,
our Lord was free to go to glory the moment He fulfilled it in
any way. Look over with me in Luke 9,
verse 28. Luke 9, 28. When our Lord completed
His service to His Master, He could have went back to glory
right then. Look what it says about our Master here in Luke
9. Verse 28. He could have went back to glory. As far as the law was concerned,
our Lord was free to go back to glory. Look what it says in
verse 28. And it came to pass, about an
eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and went
up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and
glistening. just like he was in Revelations
1. And behold, there talked with
him two men, which were Moses and Elias, or Elijah, who appeared
in glory, they was in glory too, and spake of his decease, his
death, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they
that were with him, were heavy with sleep and when they awoke
they saw his glory they saw that glory and the two men that stood
with him and it came to pass as they departed from him Peter
said unto him master it's so good for us to be here let's
make us three tabernacles one for you one for Moses one for
Elijah not knowing what he said now listen to this while he thus
spake a claim of cloud, the Shekinah glory of God, and overshadowed
them. And they feared as they entered into that cloud. Remember
that cloud that come down on Mount Sinai? Well, this cloud
came down right over top of all them being. And there they are,
they're standing, and they feared as they entered into that cloud.
That cloud came down, and that cloud covered them up. And while
that cloud was down on top of them, there came a voice out
of the cloud saying, this, this is my beloved son, hear him. I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ, he should have went back to glory
anytime he wanted to, as far as his obedience to the law was.
But now back over in our text. In the seventh, he shall go free.
When he's completed his service, when he's perfect service, full
service. And look what it says there in
verse three and four. If he came in by himself, he
should go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife should go out with him. Now, Lord Jesus Christ, we're
called the bride of Christ. And if his master hath given
him a wife, well, God gave us to Christ. And she bore him sons
or daughters. We are the children of God. The
wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go
out by himself. Oh my! You reckon you could leave
your wife and children and go out? You reckon our master could
leave his bride and leave his children and go away and leave
them to themselves? Do you reckon he could do that?
And if the servant, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my
master. I love my master. Oh my. I love my master. and my wife and my children,
and I'm not going to go out free. You see, there's only one way
in the world we can have union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Through
His perfections. His perfections just showed our
imperfections. So what he did, beloved, he took
all our imperfections on himself on the cross. And then he turned
around and gave us all his perfections. Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it brings
forth much fruit, much fruit. And so, oh listen, this union,
he had this union with his wife and he had this union with his
children. And we have this perfect union
with the Lord, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. And look
what he says in verse five. And it's, at the service shall
plainly, now listen to what it says, plainly, plainly say. Plainly say. I love my master. I love my wife, I love my children,
and I'll not go out. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He came to this time as Jehovah's righteous servant, He said, Lord,
if it please you, save me from this hour, but for this cause
came I into the world. And our Lord Jesus didn't think
of Himself He said, I love my master plainly. He loved his
father so well, so gloriously, so good. Love doesn't think of
itself at all. He saw that awful hour in which
he was gonna go. And yet, having loved his own,
he loved him unto the end. Love, I love my master. I love, I love him. I love my
master. Love led him to endure suffering.
and undertake the service that would last forever on the behalf
of his people. And then he said, I love my master.
I love my master. Before my wife, before my children. And he done that for the glory
of the Father. I love my wife, I love my children. And I tell you, we're the children
of God. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. We're called the
children of God. And Paul said, I espouse you
to Christ as a chaste virgin. Then watch what happens. If the
servant shall say plainly, I love my master, my wife, and my children.
I'll not go out free. Then his master shall bring him
unto the judges. And the judges are going to have
to hear him say this. Our Lord Jesus Christ before
all the judge of all the earth and us before the judge of all
the earth. He shall also bring him to the door or unto the door
post and take his ear and stick it to the door post like that
right there. Hold it against the door post. Take it all. Everybody knows what an all is.
Stick it to that ear. Stick it to that ear and go all
the way through it until it sticks in that door post. and then pull
it out pull it out and all the door post he said I'm going to be my master
so I'm going to serve him devote myself to him and the masters
will the rest of my life and the door post was a sign of personal
limits you know the door post was a sign of personal limits
it was by the door that family entered in and no one else had
the right to enter in And when he brought him to that door,
he said, this is where you say that you go stay in here. You
will serve me inside this place, inside this home, inside as my
master, as my servant. And remember when I, Lord Jesus
Christ, or God, he says, you know, take the blood and put
it on the doorpost and over the lintel. And when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And look what it says here. And
as long as that servant lived, he carried in his body the marks
of a servant. And he bore his ear through with
an awl, he shall serve him forever. And I tell you, that servant,
as long as he lived, you know that he loved his master when
you see that hole he's in. Every time you see him, you say,
boy, that fellow right there loved his master. He didn't want
to go out free. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ bears in his body
the marks The marks of his death. Thomas said, I'm not going to
believe. He wasn't there when our Lord
first appeared to his disciples. I'm not going to believe. I'm
just not going to believe. until I take my finger and I saw them
put the nails in there. I won't believe until I can take
my finger and put it through the hole in his hands. I'm not
going to believe until I've seen them rip his side open. I'm not
going to believe until I can stick my hand in that hole in
his side. He no sooner said that, no sooner
said it, and the Lord Jesus raised forth his hand and said, Go ahead. Go ahead. Turned his side around. Go ahead, Thomas. You know what Thomas did? Just
like we do. Fall down before him and say,
My Lord and my God. And his master shall bore his
ear through with all and look what it says, and he shall serve
him forever. And our Lord Jesus Christ's service
didn't end when He ascended to glory, ascended to His throne.
As He sits right there, He prays for us. As He sits there, He
intercedes for us. As He sits there, He takes up
our cause. And as He sits there, like He
washed the disciples' feet in John 13, and He still washes
our feet by His blessed Word, and shall serve Him forever.
Even in glory, our Lord Jesus Christ still serves His Master,
and He serves us as He serves His Master. No wonder Paul said,
let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord,
our Savior, the One who loved us and gave
Himself for us. We come in His holy, blessed
name, glorious name, precious name. And we thank You that He
was Your servant, and He served You, and in serving You, He accomplished
salvation for us, and even now sending it to your right hand,
He serves you as He ministers to His elect people in this earth.
God, we bless you and praise you for our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Lord, we love our Master. We love our Lord Jesus, not like
we should, But thank God, not like we will
someday. So Lord, let us bear in our bodies
the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ by his gospel, by his word, by
his truth. And Lord, bless these dear saints
of God as they grow. Bless Dorothy, Bill. Please have
mercy upon Fran and Bill. Patrick, continue to have mercy
on Bruce and Sandy. Bruce and Joe, Lord, we need
you. They need you. They need your
grace. They need your upholding power.
They need your tender mercies and loving kindness. And Lord,
we pray that you'd draw near to them and give them great comfort
in their heart, great comfort in their soul, great comfort
in their spirit, as only you can do. For Christ's sake. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face. will grow strangely dim in the
light of His glory and praise. See you Wednesday, God will it.
Now the wedding will be next