Turn to Exodus chapter 2. Exodus chapter 2. I'm going to read three verses, the
last three verses. Starting in verse 23. We'll finish
up chapter 2 tonight, Lord willing. I don't think we ever finish.
That's a misstatement. We never finish up anything,
do we? We just barely scratch the surface. And it came to pass in process
of time, God's providence, that the king of Egypt died, and the
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. And they
cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning.
And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel, and God had respect. He knew. Look over there in the
margin. He knew them. He knew this group. He knew this
group of people. They were His covenant people.
They were His promised people to Abraham when He promised They
are a type of the church. He knew them. He had respect
under them. Now, the title of the message
is this. Bondage. Bondage. Freedom is something that people
want. It's something we want dearly.
We want freedom. Many have given their lives for
freedom. and for our freedom. Millions
have fought wars to protect our freedom. But are we ever really free?
What is it to be free? We know this as believers. We know to be free is to be free
from sin. from the condemnation of it,
the guilt of it, the dominion of it, the power of it, to be
free from the curse of the law, to be free to worship the Lord
Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth. That's free. That's free. We have come here tonight and
we've come here as believers to freely, freely worship the
Lord Jesus Christ, willing and wanting to do it. Great God enabled
us to do it. What we're doing tonight, we're
doing freely. And we're doing it because we've been set free.
Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Now it says, it came
to pass in the process of time. Time is a process. This has to do with providence.
Time is a process and time processes. Every purpose of God is processed. God has appointed a time for
every purpose, it tells us in Ecclesiastes, under heaven. There's a time for it. And in
the process of time, it will be accomplished. God will accomplish
His purpose in the process of time. And it says it came to
pass. Remember God told Abraham over
in Genesis 15? Let's go back over to Genesis
15, instead of me trying to quote it. Look back here in Genesis
15. In verse 13, God said unto Abram,
Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict
them four hundred years. They were actually there four
hundred and thirty years, but their affliction was about four
hundred years. There were thirty years there where they were just
having a good time. In the last 400 years, it wasn't a good time. They were under heavy affliction.
And they shall afflict them 400 years, and also that nation whom
they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come
out with great substance. So, it came to pass, as God said
to Abraham, your people will go to a strange land, they will
serve them, and they will be afflicted. And after 400 years,
I'm going to bring them out." And He does. God is good for
His Word. He's good for His Word. We can
count on everything that God has spoken in His Word. You can
open this book, and you can any way read in it, and take Him
at His Word. Take Him at His Word. I've said
this before, probably several times. But the one Scripture
that says, He that cometh unto me, I was no wise cast out. I hung on to that and hung on
to that and hung on to that when I first heard the Gospel. Lord,
You said, You said that he that comes to You, You'll not cast
him out. Take him at his word. That's what faith is. Faith is
just simply taking God to what He said and believing He'll do
just what He said. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, and that He is what? A rewarder. He'll give you what
He promised. Lord, you said you'd give forgiveness.
I've come for forgiveness. You'd give mercy. I've come for
mercy. You'd give cleansing. I've come for cleansing. You've
got to believe that He'll give it, that He's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. He'll give what He's promised.
Take Him at His Word. His glory, His name is at stake. He's at stake here. If He did
not fill one portion of His Word, just one portion of it, He had
just shot His glory. It's gone. It's gone. He said over here in Isaiah 55,
look over here in Isaiah 55. Oh, I'd love to get this across. It's
so helpful in times of trouble. Take Him at His Word and rely
on Him. I tell you this, I'm just a sinful
man. I mean, I'm just a human being,
sinful man. But if somebody actually takes
me at my word, I'm going to do it. I feel the
pressure to do it. But God's not under pressure.
But how much more God? If I feel that way, how much
more God who's holy and just and will do just as He said?
Now, in Isaiah, what did I say? Look in verse 8. Let's start at verse 8. For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. So you
and I shouldn't get upset when we don't understand. When we
don't understand it, just realize we don't understand, but He does.
And my thoughts, then your thoughts, are higher, much higher. For
as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returns
not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it to bring forth in
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.
So whenever it rains, and it's snowing, don't complain, there's
a purpose in it. That's so you and I can eat. So that the earth,
it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall
my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
to me void, empty, useless. But it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I have sent it." Take him at his word. He said, my word will
not return void. You trust me. I'll do just what
I said. And it'll happen. It will happen. Now God has been preparing Moses.
We looked at this last week. He's been preparing Moses for
the task of delivering Israel out of Egypt. You see, Moses,
when he was 40 years old, came into his heart to visit his people.
God evidently had revealed to Moses himself. He'd revealed himself to Moses,
and Moses was going to be the deliverer. And so Moses goes
out, and he kills an Egyptian, thinking by this, that Israel
will understand that he's the deliverer. Like I told you last
week, Moses learned in Egypt is not going to be the deliverer.
It's Moses taught of God on the back side of the desert. It's
Moses who has learned what hardship means. That's, you know, somebody
that can identify with the people he's leading. And that's so God
has prepared Moses for the task of delivering Israel out of Egypt.
Now, keep in mind, as we go through the Exodus here, that Egypt represents
the world. And Israel represents God's people
in this world. And how he's going to deliver
them out of bondage. That's why he delivers us out
of bondage. Now it says the king of Egypt
dies. Everything is now ready. God, by his providence, has brought
everything to this point. Nothing by accident. We know
that. We know that. Nothing by accident.
A bird doesn't fall to the ground without, he said, your heavenly
Father's hand being in it. That's what he means. So everything's
been brought to this point. The children of Israel are ready.
Moses is now ready. The 400 years are now ready to
expire. God said 400 years. You see,
Moses was 40 years old. He stayed on the back side of
this desert for another 40 years. Around 40 years. Because there's
another 40 years on that 400 that had to be accomplished.
It's not 398 or 399. It's 400 years. So now that's
ready. Israel is ready. Moses is ready.
The time is ready. It's time to deliver. Every birth
has a time. Every birth. Now it's time. It's time for Israel to be delivered
out of bondage. And we have a description of
Israel here. And this best describes them. And this best describes
all whom God saves. Bondage. We are in bondage. It says, the children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage. Bondage is when you are kept
by something or someone and you cannot get free. You cannot get
free. And bondage best describes us.
And notice here what this bondage caused them to do. It says, there's three things
that happened with them. While they were in this bondage,
they sighed, they cried, and they groaned. You know what it means to sigh?
You ever do that? You ever just sigh? That's what it means to sigh.
In the dictionary it says this, is to let out a deep, audible
breath, as in weariness or sorrow. They sat in weariness and sorrow. They were beat absolutely down. It is something that you do when
there is no let up of trouble. Remember, they were under taskmasters.
And the trouble just kept coming. Just kept coming. And they sighed. And they cried. They cried. That means they called out. That means they shouted. They
shouted. It means they roared. Over in Psalm 22, the Lord said,
I cried in the daytime. Cry, shout out, roared. They
not only sighed, but they put words to their pain. Put words
to it. And they cried. They cried. And then they groaned. You've
sighed. You've let out a deep breath.
And you've cried out of the pain. And then you've groaned. To groan is to make a harsh sound. It says the Lord groaned. I'll
read you that here in a minute. He groaned. Everything that you
and I have experienced, He experienced. We sighed, He sighed. We cried, He cried. We groaned,
He groaned. Everything we experience, He
experiences. That He might be touched in all points as I preach,
as we are. But it is to make a harsh sound
under sudden or prolonged strain. That's what it is, to groan. And this describes every one
of God's children. Every one of them. Not one of them come down You
see these people, they get them to walk down an aisle, and you
can see them laughing and smiling. I tell you what, when God is saving
a sinner, that sinner, he's under bondage. He sighs, he cries,
and he groans. He finds his children in bondage,
that means slavery. That means servitude. And that's
what we are. We are in bondage to sin and
the law. There's the two types of bondage
that we experience. First, sin. We were born in sin
and shaped in iniquity. That's how we were born. That's
how we came into this world. Sin rules our life. We go about
trying to fulfill the lust of our minds and of our flesh. It
rules and controls us like a master. You say, I'm not going to do
that again. Well, the day goes by and it
whistles. And like an old dog, here we come again. Sin, under bondage of sin. We have a sinful nature that
is not capable of loving God and doing good in the real sense
of that word. Under the bondage of sin. We
are slaves to our depraved nature. And when God wakes us up, we
realize it. We realize it. That's why Paul,
I read Romans 7, Oh wretched man that I am. Oh wretched man that I am. There
is nothing good, he says, in this flesh. Nothing. Look over in Ephesians 2. This
is us by nature. In Ephesians 2. And you, happy
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past
you 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 disobedience, 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 everyone else." Slaves to sin. Slaves to that depraved nature. Then there is the bondage of
the law. The law has a rightful claim on us. It has a rightful claim. You
see, sin, because of sin, we can do no good. But the law demands
perfect obedience. And since we can't give it, it
has a rightful claim to us. It has a rightful claim to our
lives by nature. The law has a rightful claim
to it. It demands our perfect obedience to its precepts. Do
and live. Don't do and die. That's what
the law says. That's what it says. Now, in trying to serve the law,
we find it to be bondage. Sin is bondage, and we find the
law to be bondage. Look over in Galatians chapter
4. Paul says, Now I say that the
heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant,
though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the fathers. Even so, we, when we
were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, and that was us. that we might receive
the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son did an heir of God
through Christ, how be it then, when ye knew not God, ye did
service unto them which by nature are no gods? But now, after that
ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire
to be enbonded? Turn back to this touch-not,
taste-not, handle-not, the ceremonies. He said, why do you turn back
to that which had you under bondage? You've been set free from it.
And Christ was being set free. He said, now don't turn back
to it. How many times, we'll see this as we go through Exodus,
did the children of Israel want to go back to Egypt? Every time
they stumped their toe. They'd stumped their toe and
they'd just like, oh, we should have stayed in Egypt. Their clothes
did not get old, their shoes did not get old, and just a little
bump in the road and it's, we won't go back to Egypt. We'll
go back to bondage. We just read here in the last
couple of weeks how they were under severe servitude. Rigor,
it said. Rigor. And how many times we will see
they wanted to go back under bondage. Under that kind of rigor. human nature or something else. But we're under the bondage of
sin and under the bondage of the law. Now, it takes God to
bring us to the place where we spiritually sigh, cry, and groan. Look over in Matthew chapter
5. You say, boy, it's so painful. So painful. Look in Matthew 5, verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn.
They sighed, they cried, they groaned. They were blessed. Now how in the world can you
say they were blessed? Well, I'll show you here in a
minute. I'll show you in a minute. But it takes God to bring us
to sigh, spiritually sigh, cry and groan, because until then,
we are dead in trespasses and sins and we like where we are. Before they sighed, before they
cried, before they groaned, they were having fun They had fallen
into idolatry. They loved everything about Egypt.
They were happy being in Egypt. They were happy with the world.
I'll tell you what. I'll tell you the truth. I was
happy with the world. I was not looking for the gospel
when I heard it. I was happy just doing what I was doing.
They were happy in Egypt for 30 years in the land of Goshen,
the land of plenty. Had everything taken care of. But now listen.
Let me read you this. I read you this last week. Psalm
105, verse 25. He, God, turned their hearts,
the heart of the Egyptians, to hate His people. You see, He's going to break
this thing up. He's going to set a difference between the
Egyptians and the Israelites. But in doing it, He's going to
put His people under bondage and He's going to deliver them
with a great deliverance. And guess who's going to get all
the glory? God is. God. When this thing's all over
with, we're going to give Him the glorious doing to His name
like we ought to now. He turned their hearts to His
people to deal subtly with His service. He did it. God turned
their hearts because He's going to deliver His people out of
bondage. See, until God wakes us up, we
don't know what a mess we're in. Do we? We don't know what
a mess we are. Until God Almighty gives us eyes
to see, ears to hear, and then all of a sudden you see you're
in the pig pen like the prodigal son. You think, man, how did
I get here? Well, but you notice in verse
24, here's the blessing. They sighed, they cried, they
groaned, they were in bondage, And God. That's like Ephesians
2. But God, who is rich in mercy.
There are four things that happened here. You see, they sighed, they
cried, they groaned, they were in bondage. It says here, God
heard, God remembered, God looked, and God had respect. They were a blessed people. They
didn't know it. They didn't know it, I tell you. First, God heard
their groaning. He heard what they could not
put into words. He heard that groan. He didn't
hear the groan of anybody else on the earth. Not in the way
He heard theirs. He heard their groaning. He listened
to them. They had His ear. They had His
attention. He heard. He heard. The Word of God says, cast all your
cares upon Him for He careth for you. And it takes us so long to do
it. David said, O thou that hearest
prayer. If we really, really, really,
really, really comprehended how that God hears our prayers, we'd
pray a lot more. O thou that hearest prayer. God heard. And I'll tell you
this, God hears everyone that's in bondage. Bondage. God hears them. I'm talking about spiritually.
Spiritual bondage from sin and death and the law and the terrors
of the law. The groaning. And this is God
remembered, listen, God remembered what? His covenant. Not theirs. Not theirs. God remembered His
covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is a covenant
God. Everything He does, He does by
covenant. Man, you'd think we'd be a lot more interested in the
covenant. Because everything He does, He does by covenant.
And God made a covenant with His Son concerning the multitude
of sinners to save. And for Christ's sake, for Christ's
sake, He remembers His covenant of mercy and grace and He hears
our groaning. He hears our groaning. He will
hear, He will be their God and they will be His people. God
is faithful to His Son, faithful to His covenant, faithful to
His people. Therefore, He will hear, He will hear our groaning
and remember His covenant. Turn over to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Let's see. Let's look in verse 27. Also, I will make him my firstborn. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ.
higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him." Him. Not them. Him. Everything we have is in
Him. God remembers that covenant because
of what He made with Him. You and I are part of that covenant.
This is, His seed also will I make to endure forever. That's every
believer. and His throne as the days of heaven. If His children
forsake My law, have you ever done that? And they walk not in My judgments,
if they break My statutes and keep not My commandments. We
did that the day we were born. We came into this world speaking
lies, born in sin, shaven in iniquity. Then will I visit their
transgressions with a rod and their iniquities with a stripe.
Nevertheless, My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from
whom? Him. The Lord Jesus Christ. If it
depended on me and you, we'd be gone. We'd be gone. He says, I'll not take my lovingkindness
from Him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant. My covenant. It's one He made. And if He made it, it can't be
broken. This is God's covenant. Will I not break? How many times
have you and I, we stumble, fall, sin, and I mean, just you name
it, we do it. But God says, my covenant, I'll
not break it. You take my word on it, I'll
not break it. Nor alter the thing that's gone
out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David, I will not lie unto Jesus Christ. His seed shall endure forever
in his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever
as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven." Now, Sheila,
pause and think about this one. Give some thought to this. God
will save, God will forgive every one of his children time and
time again for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. And then it says, God looked.
Looked upon the children of Israel. He looked upon them. You know
this word, looked, has the same meaning as in Genesis 22a where
it says, Jehovah, Jireh, the Lord will provide. Same meaning. The Lord looked. The Lord looked
and the Lord provided for them. He looked upon the children of
Israel. He looked in pity. He looked in favor. He looked
in mercy. He looked in purpose. He looked
as a father looks to his children. That's how the Lord looks to
us. And then God had respect. He
had respect. He observed them. That means
He cared for them. He knew them. He knew them. He regarded them as a father
regards his children. God has respect to you. God has
heard you, He's remembered you, He's looked upon you, and He's
had respect. Can you imagine that? He had respect to worms like
us. Now in closing, everyone whom
God saves, He saves out of bondage. And they know it. They know it. He saves out of the bondage of
sin and the bondage of the law. Curse of the law. Everyone that
cries out of bondage is heard. He heard them. He hears every one of His children
when they cry out of bondage. God has a people that went into
bondage through the fall of Adam. And God through His Son has brought him out of bondage. Whom the Son sets free, He is
free indeed. God has set us free in His Son.
He has satisfied the law by the substitutionary work of His Son.
As I said, Christ felt everything He took away. We cried, He cried. We sighed, He sighed. We groaned,
He groaned. And then by regeneration, a new birth, a new nature, wherein
sin shall not have dominion over you now. Before it ruled you,
but you are a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says, sin shall not have dominion over you. You have been brought
out of bondage. And someday we'll know the fullness
of that meaning. Someday. You know, we grapple
with sin now, we still struggle. As Paul said, which I do, I would
not, that I do that which I... I mean, you know, he just sounded
like somebody schizophrenic. But he wasn't. Just somebody
with two natures. An old nature and a new nature.
And that's a real conflict. But that's a real battle also,
it's a real battle. He's bringing his people out
of bondage, out of Egypt. They sighed, they cried, they
groaned, God heard, God remembered, God looked, and God had respect.
Now what more do you want? What more? Okay, bye.