If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Exodus Chapter 21. Exodus Chapter 21. The portion of Scripture before
us is part of our series. And the choice gleanings as we
make our way through the weeks and months to come, I hope that
we will once again revisit portions of Scripture both in the Old
and the New Testament that will do our hearts good, that will
strengthen our souls, that will cause us to see how good God
is to His people, that will help us to understand the privilege
that we have for being children of the living God. We hope that
throughout the course of this series, if you do not know the
Lord Jesus Christ, that you will come to see Him just as gloriously
as we who have come to know Him see him and that's glorious as
he is in his own father's eyes. Exodus chapter 21 verses 1 through
7 is a very peculiar portion of scripture that can it can
create a lot of tension and a lot of anxiety in the heart and the
soul of a person who is sensitive to the subject matter at hand
I want you to know very early on that what we have here in
Exodus 21 verses 1 through 7 is another gospel picture in the
law of God underscoring and affirming the promise that we've read in
Psalm 40 verse 6 and 7. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me, O God, to do thy will. What I want you
to understand is that this portion of scripture in Exodus 21 is
really a very unique portion of scripture that cannot be compared
with anything that has gone on in history past. It is a portion
of scripture that we would identify as essentially messianic. It is pertaining specifically
and exclusively to a work that God has done to redeem his people. However, it is in a framework
that you and I are very much aware of as being human beings
in this world, fallen creatures subject to harassment, subject
to pain, subject to sorrow, subject to afflictions, subject to all
sorts of difficulties of which Well, the people of God are so
faithful that we have a redeemer. We have a deliverer. We have
someone who has decided to bring us out of all of our troubles
and to bring us into a place of favor in relationship with
him in a way that it makes the difficulties of this world a
little bit more bearable. What we have in front of us,
ladies and gentlemen, is what I call a slave master relationship
model. It's a slave master relationship
model. But I want you to understand
that what the scriptures never do is they never endorse, they
never affirm the kind of human slavery that our culture and
our world has experienced for centuries upon centuries upon
centuries. in the state of fallenness in
which you and I have found ourselves. So the first thing that I want
to do as we work through this passage is first and foremost
disavow the utter human slavery, which you and I are aware of
has gone on for centuries in this nation and around this world
and in a lot of ways is still going on today. I don't know
if you know that in many countries of the world, slavery is still
a major problem. And I don't know if you know
that in many parts of the world where they are not experiencing
modern technology and modern thought that slavery is on the
rise in the lives of children and in the lives of women and
in the lives of what would be considered among people who think
themselves superior in their ethnicity, that lower races or
lower ethnic groups are brought into bondage and cruelly used
and cruelly maligned and devastated in terms of their dignity as
human beings because of this vile, vile practice of human
slavery. I want you to know that the Bible
does not promote that kind of slavery. Would you look in Exodus
chapter 21 verse 16 and notice what it says. Oh, now notice
the language, ladies and gentlemen. Notice what it says. And the
person that stilleth a man. Do you see that? Selleth him
or if he be found in his hand, what does the Word of God say?
He shall surely be what? Now that text is very clear about
the kind of slavery that the antebellum South of which our
forefathers were a part of and the North American trade Process
where slaves were brought from Africa and different parts of
the world to help establish this country that text Militates against
that kind of slavery, doesn't it? The Word of God plainly declares
that man stealing and slavery is wrong. It is hideously wrong. It is criminally wrong. It is
morally wrong. It is ethically wrong. It is
spiritually wrong. That kind of slavery destroys
the dignity of mankind. It is the kind of slavery that
we know is rooted in the devil's agenda. to, as it were, mock
God and mimic God in taking control of the masses and controlling
their lives and bringing them into captivity to Him. But the
devil has always failed at seeking to achieve similarities with
God. The devil has always produced
what we would consider very, very flawed facsimiles of the
reality of things. And where you and I are able
to detect these flawed controls of the devil on the part of human
beings, we must recognize them for what they are. They are far,
far, far away from what God has designed. They are far, far,
far different than what God has designed. Human slavery is vile. Human slavery is wicked and wretched
and unacceptable to God. And it should be unacceptable
to every believer. Human slavery should be something
that is abhorrent to us. And yet, we have learned over
the years that when it comes to God's economy in this world
and His providence in this world, what He has chosen to do is work
within the framework of our fallenness to deliver us from our troubles.
Am I making some sense? In other words, if you and I
don't understand that the fall of mankind and the misery and
the pain to which that fall has led us, has for God become a
part of his redemptive purposes, you might just be mad at God
because God didn't deliver us from slavery from the beginning.
But I'm here to tell you, God knows what he's doing. And his
process is worth us appreciating, even if we don't fully agree
with it. Now I've already stated and there are other passages
that very clearly teach us that God does not approve of this
type of wretched, abhorrent practice of men stealing and selling and
bringing people into bondage of this sort that destroys the
dignity of man, the image of God in man, the glory of God
in man, that status by which God made us unique creatures
in his own image and likeness. For such practice denies the
glory of God it denies the glory of God and why wouldn't the devil
want to take a system of control and authority over people and
diminish Diminish their dignity destroy their dignity bring them
down to the level of beasts and use them and prosper in his pseudo
kingdom by bringing them into bondage why wouldn't he want
to do that since it is the essence of of his vile heart to hate
the Son of God. It is the essence of his vile
heart to hate the Son of God. Quite naturally then, the devil
would take every human being and make them such a vile, vile
subject of his whim and capri. that it would be almost impossible
to see the glory of God inside of them. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? I am pressing this home because there has been the
views advocated on both the liberal side and the conservative side
that on the liberal side, well, you know, if you believe in the
God of the Bible, then you believe in slavery because God allowed
slavery in the Bible. Have you ever heard that foolishness?
Well, that's because people don't study their Bibles carefully.
They don't examine the word of God carefully, neither do they
understand God's ways. When you understand God's ways,
here's what you know. Let me share a truth with you
before we get started. If it had not been for the Lord's
mercies, the moment Adam and Eve fail, we would have all been
annihilated. The reason why you and I are
existing today up to this very point is because God has had
an economy in this world since the fall of man that has had
as its ultimate aim our redemption. our salvation, our deliverance. But God has chosen to do it through
the process of the pain of sin and suffering that you and I
are a part of. If God wanted to, he could heal every one of
us instantaneously, glorify us right now, and we would be utterly
free of any kind of psychological, spiritual, or physical bondages. Am I making some sense? Are we
gonna complain to God about that? See the liberal will say the
Bible teaches these types of things and the Old Testament
God is this tyrant who loves to see people suffer I would
beg to differ when you understand God's economy the slavery that
God Tolerated was designed to bring men and women to Christ
and we'll talk about that here in a moment on the side of the
conservative so-called conservative theologians who would argue that
Slavery was one of those methods and works of God by which, you
know, more advanced ethnic groups have had the privilege to help
these poor sacks who are less advanced than them reach a status
of satisfaction and happiness. You have many record of the counts
in the South where they allege that slaves just love to live
with their masters and they wouldn't want it any other way. I'm thinking
what kind of human being on earth would want to just absolutely
be under the control and whim and authority of some other person
just like them so they can't think their thoughts when they
want to, go to the bathroom when they want to, go hither and thither
when they want to. That sounds like prison to me.
Doesn't that sound like prison to you? It doesn't even remotely
resemble the freedom and the dignity to which God is calling
human beings at all. And I would say this, Yeah, there
were multitudes of people who chose to stay under the control
and in the plantations of their superior authorities because
they had no better choice. I mean, you know, if you kick
me out your house and down the road is a bunch of wolves that's
going to eat me up out of self-preservation, I'm going to say, I want to stay
with you. Am I making some sense? But our text is not setting that
kind of condition. Our text is setting a whole nother
condition which is glorious and it constitutes the wisdom of
God. The wisdom of God. See slavery in the time in which
the law was given to the people of Israel was designed primarily
for two things. Primarily for two things. One
is when people became poor. very poor and it happens, right? In our strange providences, some
of us become poor and we are now beholden to the help and
assistance of others. God's economy for Israel during
that Old Testament period was when an individual became poor,
they could sell themselves to a person who had much more than
them, much more wealth, much more property and businesses
for which they could work for those individuals. This was a
voluntary bond servant status. You see the difference? You come
to that individual and you say, sir, I am poor, I am devastated,
I have lost all my, out of either ignorance, naivety, or just bad
business deals, and I need to work for you. Technically, you
became a slave of that individual and you worked for him, but it
was volitional. It wasn't compulsory. You weren't
stolen. You did it because you understood
that this present time, there was no other way for you to pay
your bills. This is all throughout Leviticus chapter 25, all throughout
Deuteronomy chapter 15. This is the context in which
God says, now the poor among you, when you bring them in and
they become your bond servants, now watch this ladies and gentlemen,
you better not oppress them. You better not treat them bad.
You better maintain the same dignity with them that you have
for yourself. And by the way, when their contract
is up, here's the other part of it. It was never a perpetual
slavery. In other words, you didn't own
slaves from generation to generation to generation, unless of course
they wanted to live with you. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And when their time was up, they had a seven-year period, a seven-year
time period. Or they were able to be let go
in what we call the Jubilee period. 49 years, the 50th year is the
Jubilee year. So if a person found themselves
in bondage five years before the Jubilee, at the Jubilee,
they were liberated to go back to their property. In other words,
God set up what we would call a welfare system for the poor,
only they had to work. Now I like that one. I like that
one. We're not going to just give
you free housing and free clothes and free food and you're not
going to just live off the backs of hard-working citizens because
that will make the economy lopsided. Plus, you'll get lazy. So what
they would do is they would work and what God would do was tell
those who were masters over them now when they their time is up
give them Everything necessary for them to go back and start
all over again. Now, that's a good plan, isn't
it? That's the kind of plan we could use today, isn't it? And
that's the construct in which Our message here is taken. I do want you to understand that
this message is annexed are connected to last week's message. You'll
see that here in a moment. What we talked about last week
between Adam and his wife is what we're getting ready to talk
about today. But from a different perspective, because remember,
the message is the same low. I come in the volume of the book
is written of whom? Who is the me Christ? is the
message of the scriptures. And it's the hope of guilty,
hell-bound, needy sinners. Christ is the one here of whom
we are going to speak. But I do want to make sure that
we understand the equity of the Old Testament system, of which
system America tried to derive some of those principles and
apply them. Only the problem is we departed from the God of
that covenant. Now you can't have the covenant
and not have God and expect to be blessed by the covenant. Now
watch, here's the reason why. If you have a covenant construct,
a league with all kinds of propositions and promises of blessings and
also penalties, if you have a covenant and yet you reject the God of
that covenant, then you're going to have to set somebody else
up over that covenant. And the only other people you
can set up over that covenant is man. If you set man up over
a covenant given by God, here's what you're gonna have. You're
gonna have a failed covenant. The covenant cannot work. This
was the mistake Israel made down the line, as we shall see, when
they asked for a king. By the way, what we are dealing
with is a combination between the slave master paradigm, our
model, and the covenant of God, the covenant of God that God
had given to the children of Israel. What you have in front
of you really is a model relationship, watch this ladies and gentlemen,
between a king and his subjects. The king is God himself. This
great king, this glorious king, this sovereign majesty, this
ruler of the universe, As it were, entered into Egypt and
destroyed Egypt and brought out of Egypt a people for himself.
These people became his subjects. Then God gave them a covenant,
a treaties, a law, a rule by which they were to conduct themselves
now that they became his. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Exodus chapter 20, you guys know it. It is that chapter that gives
us the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, doesn't it? Exodus chapter 20
verse 1 you know what it says I am the Lord your God which
brought you out of the land of Egypt with an outstretched hand
and a mighty arm did I deliver you out of watch this bondage
The context then is very much that of a king subduing a nation
and taking the people that were in that nation and making them
subjects to the king. This was a normal process that
took place around the world prior to the coming of Christ and well
into the first thousand years of New Testament history. So
our context is very familiar with the people of that day.
Are you following me? Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen.
You didn't have democracies and free societies roaming the world
until we come into around the 16th, 17th, 18th century of our
present generation. You primarily had monarchies
dominating masses of people and most people only knew slavery,
totalitarianism. monarchs, despots ruling over
them. So the language that you and
I are reading, while it may be sensitive to us who are allegedly
free, would have been common parlance
and basic nomenclature for the people in the time of Moses.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? This wouldn't have been
an issue at all. Everyone would have known that unless you were
a very wealthy person or came from a very prominent family,
all you knew was a kind of slavery. But this slavery that Jehovah
set up, this welfare system that Jehovah set up accomplished two
things. It accomplished helping poor
people work their way out of debt, and it accomplished the
task, and this is in Deuteronomy 15, of punishing criminals. Now,
I like that one too. I would much rather see criminals
who are not just sociopaths working their debt off to society and
contributing to our overall welfare. See, God is wise, isn't he? So
that's the context in which slavery had taken place. Yes, there are
elements of slavery that was taking place at that time of
which God had used Israel as his theocracy, his political
kingdom, his political representative to subdue other nations. And
then the people of those nations would also be brought under subjugation
to the nation of Israel. But God said to his own people,
the laws that I have given you must also apply to the stranger
that comes into you because we will have only one law for the
Hebrew and the same law for the stranger. Watch this now, because
when you were slaves in Egypt, And I brought you out with an
outstretched arm. You were under a heavy taskmaster. And you ought to remember what
it's like to be a slave. You ought to remember what it's
like to be a stranger in a strange land. You ought to remember what
it means to be under the foot. of a tyrant so that when people
come to you because of your fortune, because of the blessings of God
in your life, your job now is to witness to them in your authority
of the goodness of God so that they might come to long for the
very God that you know. Does that make some good sense?
See, that's the context in which this has to be understood or
otherwise we are misinterpreting the passage and we don't want
to do that. We by no means, by no means do
we ever at any time affirm the barbaric, wretched, maniacal,
demonic practice of slavery that is going on in our world. So we need to understand a couple
of things before we move on to our text. One more thing, point
number two in your outline. The reality is we are all slaves
of someone. I'm not talking to a group of
people here that are kind of like referees, you know, judging
an athletic event on the outside of the event, not subject to
the rules or the dynamics of the event. I'm talking to slaves. You and I are slaves. You may
not believe you're a slave, but listen to me. You are a slave
to something. The Bible is very clear to whom
you yield yourself and your members to of that one You become a slave
and Jesus told us very plainly in John chapter 8 Whosoever is
practicing sin is a slave of sin Now I'll be honest and maybe
you can join me if you want to I have never ever in my life
known total freedom Freedom evades me I don't think I could capacitate
freedom in its purest sense. I don't think any of us really
know what freedom is. I think it's kind of one of those
euphemistic statements that we kind of imagine our desire to
aspire to. But in reality, ladies and gentlemen,
you and I are slaves. Do you know that right now on
an everyday level, on an operational level, you are controlled by
powers and impulses that actually cause you to do things that you
intellectually don't want to do? See, I'm telling the truth. Am I telling the truth? I'm free. No, you're not. You are a slave
to the lust of your flesh. You and I are slaves to the passions
of our heart. We are slaves to our long-term
agendas. We are also slaves, inadvertently,
to powers above us and powers that are around us. Try to break
the law and see what will happen to you, Mr. free man or free
woman. Let me show you another law that
you are in bondage to. This building is about 25 feet
high. We can take you up the back latch right now and put
you on the top of the building. And if you're really free, jump.
If you're really free. I can tell you in so many ways
that freedom evades us because we are limited creatures. And
therefore, we should not idolatrize the concept of freedom. We should
understand its aim at driving us to settle with the fact that
we are slaves to something. The question is, to what are
we slaves? Are we slaves to sin or are we
slaves to righteousness? Which brings us to our text.
We have before us a marvelous, marvelous, marvelous expose of
a relationship between a slave and his master. But it needs
to be understood in what I call in point number three, we are
in the middle of a covenant process. You guys got that? We are in
the middle of a covenant process. That means that if we take the
text in front of us, the narrative of the slave demanding that he
wants to stay with his master and all of the reasons why, and
disassociate it from the larger context of covenant, we will
miss the point. There's a covenant attached to
the model of the slave and the master that is critical for us
to understand. The slave and the master is bound
by the covenant because the covenant constitutes, just like we learned
last week with Adam and Eve, the character and nature of the
relationship. The covenant constitutes the character and the nature
of the relationship. I have been talking to you about
it now for about 10 minutes. The king here is God, God, Jehovah. And the subjects in the historical
context are the children of Israel, the children of Israel. And from
God's perspective, the children of Israel ought to be happy as
can be for them to have been brought under the auspices and
covenant of the true and the living God. The picture then
of this man saying, I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I will not
go free. should really be in the heart
of every Hebrew person back in that day. They should have seen
in that model language the blessings of God in delivering them out
of Egypt and bringing them into their own land. Only it's God's
land. I taught us this years ago. You
read the book of Leviticus 25 through 28. God told Israel,
this is my land. You guys are tenants on my land.
Don't act up, otherwise I will remove you from, watch this,
my land. You know how you hear politically
today this integrated ideology of the land of Israel over in
the Middle East? No, that's not Israel's land,
that's God's land. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof and everything that be in it. And do you know
what? Whenever God wants to, he can ship you out of the land
he owns. which is what he had also stipulated
in the covenant as well. We are in the middle of a covenant
process and it's very important to understand what that is. Point
number three, in the middle of the covenant promise, we are
dealing with the king and his subjects and therefore Exodus
20, Exodus 24, seven. And in fact, in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter seven, verse eight, and then also chapter 15, Deuteronomy
changes the language that you have in Exodus where God says,
I am the Lord that brought you out of Egypt. In Deuteronomy,
he says, I am the Lord who redeemed you out of the house of bondage. See, that gives another twist
to it. And what that means is this. Not only did God bring
them out by the power of his own hand, but he redeemed them
by the shedding of blood. Do you remember what God had
said to Israel the night before he brought them out of Egypt?
He says, every one of you take that prepared lamb and slaughter
that lamb and put the blood on the what? Doorpost of the house.
This night I am going to bring you out of Egypt. Remember that? We call it what?
Passover. Passover was a picture of the
atoning work of Jesus Christ, by which in the shedding of his
blood, he would redeem his people out of the bondage of sin. Am
I making some sense? So God reminds Israel over and
over and over again, watch this, not only did I bring you out
by the power of my hand, I brought you out by the shedding of blood.
You know what that means? You are mine by price. You are mine by purchase. I redeemed
you. I purchased you. I own you. Now God can say that about us,
can't he? He owns us. He purchased us. He has redeemed
us. That's the context in which the
language is given to us here in this context. And yet what
the Lord says is after seven years, you can go if you want
to. You can leave after seven years.
Notice what he says in verse three. If he came in by himself,
he shall what? Go out by himself. If he were
married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master
have given him a wife and have born sons and daughters, the
wife and her children are the masters, he shall go out by himself. Isn't that an interesting scenario?
A man goes into servitude for his master. He's broke. He ain't got nothing in his life.
And over the course of the relationship between the master and the servant,
he now has a wife and he has children. He's about to leave,
but he's in the same quandary. Watch this, ladies and gentlemen,
that brother Adam was last week. Same quandary. Remember where
Adam was stuck? He was stuck between a woman rebelling against
her God and his God. Now, Adam could have did option
number one here, which is just go out, but he would have left
his wife to devastation. This slave here could have left
his wife and left his children to the master. But that would
have demonstrated lack of love for that wife and that children.
Wouldn't it have? Here this woman marries him,
they have children, and yet he's walking away. It would have indicated
that he loved his freedom. I want you to hear this now,
we're not there, but we're getting there. It would have indicated
that he loved his freedom more than he loved his family. God
is teaching us some wonderful truths here about how important
covenant is. how important covenant is how
important covenant is see so there are two covenants bound
together here there's the covenant of the slave and the master right
but also inside that covenant is the covenant of what marriage
this man is stuck between two covenants and they are really
two sides of the same coin what is he to do we are stuck in the
middle of a covenant process designed to bring us to the reality
that you and I really need redemption. You and I really need to experience
the redemption that's in Jesus Christ. Point number four, the
uniqueness of the relationship. Why is it that he says over in
verse five, and if the servants shall plainly say, I love my
master, I love my wife, I love my children, I will not go out. What is that all about? Why does
he say I don't want to leave because I love my master. I love
my wife. I love my children. Why doesn't
he say I want to stay because it's a better job. There's a
better scenario. I mean, my master is he's the
most wealthiest man on the planet. And the answer is the same that
we were meditating on last week. Love is the foundation for relationship. Are you guys hearing me? And
the kind of love that God is speaking of in this context demands
that we understand sacrificial love. It is the kind of sacrificial
love that says, I am willing to give up my freedom for my
family. Do you see it? I am willing to
give up my freedom forever for my family. See what the word
of God does is it gradually teaches us these principles of relationship
that drive us to the recognition that there's something wonderful
in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. See,
the picture here is really not so much about Israel and even
it's not so much about us. It's really between the Father
and the Son. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The context is speaking to a relationship between the Father and the Son.
And here's how this goes, ladies and gentlemen. I've been sharing
with our women in biblical theology that God has had three sons in
this world, and you can mark them now. He's had two adopted
sons, and he has one real, authentic, unique, monogamous son. And that
last son is whom? Jesus Christ. The first son is
Adam 1, right? He's the brother that started
all this stuff. Him and Eve. Who is the second
son? The second son is national Israel,
right? Exodus chapter 4 verse 22 says,
bring my son out of Egypt. Now what we got going on here,
ladies and gentlemen, is an interesting account that is teaching us something
about redemptive truth that's critical to your joy and my joy,
and that's this. When God made Adam one, the Bible
says he was called the son of God. You can read it for yourself.
I believe it's Matthew chapter 1. He's called the Son of God.
He was created in God's image. He was created in God's likeness,
right? God had given him authority, dominion, rule, kingship. He had the same kind of sonship
authority by way of picture and image that Jesus Christ has now.
He's Lord over everything, is he not? So Adam was a son of
God. Adam was given a wife. He was
given dominion over everything. Adam was created in a sonship
status, but because of his fall into sin, you know what he became? A slave. A slave. Once Adam fell into sin, he became
a slave, and you and I became slaves with him, and we've been
born slaves ever since. Am I making some sense? Adam
one goes from sonship to slavery and that becomes a model for
all of us throughout human history. And the next son that comes into
view is national Israel. Only when national Israel comes
into view, they come into view with a sovereign God, a sovereign
King, a sovereign ruler dealing with them in the slave master
model. Are you guys able to hear what
I'm saying? So we are moving from Adam 1, who is a slave,
to Adam 2, who is a slave, but both of them, according to God's
redemptive purpose, are designed to move towards sonship status.
So what we are dealing with is a slave to sonship status process
that's taking place right now. Remember what Paul said in Galatians
chapter 3 and Galatians chapter 4? He says, the law is a schoolmaster. Now the law is operating in our
life as slaves. We are slaves under the law.
And that law was designed to do what? Drive us to whom? Jesus
Christ. So in our account what we have
is God plopping down upon national Israel a covenant of law depicting
them as slaves to a master whom they should love. But the basis
of that love should be rooted more than in the fact that God
is able to give us material things and to provide for us a place
to live and to give us a wonderful constitution by which we can
prosper and never ever again be in misfortune. The basis upon
which this servant master status should be predicated is love.
They should discover God's love to them and therefore in response
say, I love my what? Master. I love my master. But you know the history of Israel,
don't you? They did anything but ultimately say they love
their master. When you go through the account
of Israel, you find them again and again rebelling against God's
covenant. You find them again and again
abandoning the true and the living God for idols. Talking about
breaking the Ten Commandments, the first commandment is, you
shall have no other gods before me. You shall not bow down to
them nor serve them. You shall not make any graven
image of anything in heaven or earth or under the earth. I am
the Lord your God and only God you should worship. Israel broke
that law over and over and over and over and over again. Israel
did not, for all practical purposes, love God, did they? They did
not demonstrate what this man in our account demonstrates.
I love my master. Didn't demonstrate it. In fact,
as I said earlier, it was very clear that Israel rejected this
king because in time they told Samuel, listen, We want a king
like all the other nations of the world. You guys remember
that? And you know what God told Samuel? Hey, Samuel, don't trip.
They didn't reject you. They rejected me. Now I'm laying
down some principles before we get to the ultimate point. National
Israel was designated to sonship. But they failed because they
did not recognize who Jehovah was. And they didn't understand
that they were simply being used as instruments by which if they
had followed Jehovah's plan, they would have discovered their
sonship when Jesus Christ came. They would have discovered that
God all along planned on bringing them into a sonship status. Only
that sonship status would not have occurred by their own obedience. It would have occurred by virtue
of Jesus Christ coming into the world. Interestingly then, Adam
1 was under a covenant of words. Adam 2 was under a covenant of
words. How do we know that Adam 1 was
under a covenant of words? Because God said, in the day
that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what?
You're going to die. Now how do you and I know that
we are under that Adamic covenant? We die, don't we? The whole human
race is under that first covenant. And that same covenant of works
was placed on national Israel, wasn't it? National Israel was
told, if you keep all these commandments, you shall live. But God's intention
wasn't for them to try to keep those precepts. God's intention
was for them to be driven to their need of Jesus Christ. Because only Christ, only Christ
could fulfill that covenant. Now watch this. that same covenant
that was given to Adam and was given to Israel was given to
God's only begotten son. Do you know that? See, Christ
was under a covenant of works too. Sorry. Yes, he was. He was under a covenant of works.
And you know what? He loved it. He loved that covenant of works.
You know, when he came, he says, I must work the works of him
that sent me and to finish his work. I must do the will of him
that sent me and finish his work. He says, my watch this, my desire. is to do his will. My delight
is to keep his commandments. My passion is to do the will
of God. This is why we love the gospel
because the gospel shows us the one person in the universe who
not only delighted in his father's will, he was willing to make
himself a slave as we're about to see in order to fulfill it
in order that you and I might be made sons. I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. Which brings us to point number
five. Watch it. The greatest servant
son in the world. Is that how your outline puts
it? The greatest servant son in the world. What is his motive? His motive is love, isn't it?
I love my master. But what was the evidence of
his love to his master? Obedience. Obedience. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one person who actually did love the way God says do love. See,
we like to do love in the emotional gooey sense of talking about
how we feel so wonderful about you, and you know how we, oh
God, we love you, but we never attach love to obedience. And with God, love and obedience
becomes fundamental components. They become tandems. Isn't that
the way he says it? If you love me, what? That's
what the word says. If you love me, obey me. Now
watch this, ladies and gentlemen. There is no one in the universe
that can actually keep that commandment but one. His name is Jesus Christ. The text before us, therefore,
is a gospel text. Now, you know what the gospel
is, right? The gospel is when you and I are set to the side,
made to observe God's work in Christ, being accomplished in
our behalf, so that you and I get the benefits of it. You are knowing
that, you are aware that you are hearing the gospel preached
when it's not about you. when it's not about your performance,
when it's not about your duty. You are hearing the gospel preached
when God allows you to sit on the sideline and watch someone
else do for you what you can't do for yourself. Am I making
some sense? That's how you know you are hearing the gospel. You
are not hearing the gospel if somehow it's partially you and
partially them. We are in the heart of the gospel
now when we see Jesus Christ, not only as God's only son, and
therefore because he loves his father, he came down from glory
to assume our nature and do for us what we can't do for ourselves. But it is absolutely astonishing
because what the son of God did in saying yes to his father's
covenant before the world began, before there was a universe,
before there was anything. He said, lo, I come in the volume
of the book to do your will. This is absolutely astonishing
to me. Are you ready? The son of God
was willing to make himself a permanent slave of his master in order
to have a people in glory with them for all eternity. This is absolutely astonishing.
Point number five, the greatest servant in the world, his motive
is love and his foundation for that love is obedience and his
love, not as a slave, but as a what? A son. In other words,
the level of his love towards his father is not merely rooted
in performance. It's also rooted in nature. He
loves his father because he is the son. And by the way, the
father loves the son. Is that true? This is my beloved
son in whom I am what? Well pleased. See, when you read
your Bible carefully, there is this antiphony between the father
and the son where the father talks about how much he delights
in the son and the son talks about how much he delights in
the father. And if you get it, you get the blessings that come
from it. Here's what I mean by if you get it, this is not about
you. This is about them Are you hearing
me and the different offices of Christ that are designed?
To show us God's scheme of redemption ought to humble us Why on earth? with the Son of God Assigned
assumed to himself the position of a slave His love for his father
for sure but his love for me is absolutely out of my mind.
I can't comprehend why God would condescend and take on humanity,
robe himself in flesh, assume my nature, And the text tells
us in Philippians chapter 2, 5 through 10, though he existed
in the essence and form of God, he thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. But watch this. He humbled himself. He became in fashion as a man. He was found in the form of a
slave. And he did it in order to honor
his father and redeem a people for himself. Now, this is what
blows me away. Not only the fact that he did
it, he chose to do it, but he is permanently in that state.
For all eternity, there will be a God-man in glory. For all
eternity, there will be a slave in glory. For all eternity, there
will be one that we can call Jehovah's servant. Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter
48. Isaiah chapter 49. Isaiah chapter
52. Isaiah chapter 53. Behold my
servant, he shall deal prudently. My servant in whom is all my
delight. The word is slave. Did you get
that? Slave. Slave of Jehovah. Now what did he do? The text
tells us in Exodus chapter 21, these words. Notice what it says.
if he shall plainly say see the phrase in verse 5 if he shall
plainly say I what love my master my wife my children I will not
go free verse 6 then his master shall bring him to the what and
he shall also bring him to the what or unto the doorpost and
his master you know these earrings are wearing your ears you know
what that means you're a slave are you following me Yeah. You
know, we're more Egyptian than we want to admit. We're more
pagan than we want to admit. But long ago, when the ear was
pierced, it meant that you were owned by somebody. Let me show
you something that's absolutely phenomenal. This is why we know
the Bible is about Christ. When that man said, I plainly,
plainly want the world to know I love my master. He had to publicly
demonstrate that by going to two places. One, The city gate. This is where the judges were.
Our word is Elohim. It could be in the presence of
God. I'll talk about that in a moment. But he had to go to
the city gates. You know what that meant? He had to go publicly
to the authorities, to the elders, to tell the elders that he has
officially abandoned all rights of his freedom to be with his
master. And they had to go through the
ceremony of taking his ear and using an awl, an awl is a hammer
and a pierce, to pierce through the ear. And he was to pierce
his ear and nail it to a door. Can you imagine that? Part of his ear is stuck on the
door, indicating his permanent slave status. Now in the Bible,
the ear, carries a spiritual connotation which is worth hearing
and that's this. Faith comes by what? And hearing
by what? The ear represents the first
principle of obedience and it underscores the obedient servant
of God. When he had the right ear pierced,
what he was saying is, I am the obedient servant to my master
and I am a permanent obedient servant. You can read it for
your own in Isaiah chapter 50. In Isaiah chapter 50, the Lord
speaking by the Spirit says, And the Lord hath quickened my
ear. He has opened my ear. He has given me the tongue of
the learned He has caused me to be able to speak a word in
season to those that are weary What that means is Christ's ear
was wide open to his father's will this is why his heart could
say I delight to do thy will in other words he had taken on
a complete submission and Slavery status to his father for his
father's glory Now that was the Old Testament side of it where
he would have his ear bored through at the door, either at the door
of the city gate or at the temple, at the temple. This is where
Elohim comes in at. Some of the Hebrew writers would say that
the slave would be brought before Jehovah. Now Jehovah resided
in a local metaphor in the tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, right?
In the Shekinah glory over the Ark of the Covenant. So he was
brought before the leadership at the tabernacle and he had
his ear pinned to the door. the church so one side he's pinned
to the door of the city the other side he's pinned to the door
of the church but you know what the New Testament says in Hebrews
chapter 10 verses 5 through 10 watch this sacrifices and offerings
you would not but a body you have given me the Old Testament
language of the ear is has his fulfillment in Jesus Christ,
not as it were having his ear bored to a temple or a city door,
but him taking on a human nature. Did you get that? Sacrifices
and offerings you would not but a body you have given me. What
are we saying? We're saying the Old Testament
prophecy of the ear being pinned to the door of the city or the
door of the temple only had its fulfillment in Christ becoming
incarnate Assuming our nature in the moment ladies and gentlemen
He took on our nature as a little bitty boy. He became God's slave
for all eternity in his whole body, in his whole being. Because
in order for him to be obedient to God's command, he had to assume
our nature. We call it the incarnation. Are you hearing me? His body
then becomes the vehicle by which he accomplishes this work. What's
the connection between the door of the city and the ear of the
obedient slave? Are you ready? The city represents
the people of God. I am the city of the living God.
You are the city of the living God. and that slave's obedience
is with regards to that city. The temple is the temple of the
living God. I am the temple of the living
God. You are the temple of the living God. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Here's what we're getting at. When that slave said
to his master, I am yours forever, he was really and truly identifying
with the people of God from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. See, the only way that we could
be the city of God is for Christ to be obedient to his father's
command. The only way that we could be
the temple of God is for him to say yes to his father's will. See, this was bigger than just
the son of God and even his father. That's why the text says, I love
my master. Are you ready? And I love my
wife and I love my children. Before the world began, God the
Father and God the Son agreed to have a people for himself
from every nation, gender, tribe, and tongue, men, women, and children
who would be assumed the people of God because Christ would take
on a human nature. Now when he took on this human
nature, you and I are to understand that the work wasn't done when
he took on this human nature. This is what's so absolutely
phenomenal about the account. The greatest servant and son
in the world His motive is love. The evidence is obedience. Obedience
as a slave. Obedience as a son. All the New
Testament underscores that he learned obedience through the
things which he what? Suffered. Our Savior became obedient
even unto death, even the death of the what? Cross. And all of
this is because he loved his father, he loved his wife, and
he loved his children. And what do we mean by obedience? We mean him assuming a human
nature. We mean him condescending and taking on the form of a man,
becoming like a man, being found in fashion as a man, becoming
a servant, a slave, and him going through the atoning work by which
he made propitiation for our sins in order to bring those
of us who are called of God into fellowship with him by his death
on Calvary's tree. See, for me, I see it as a descent
from glory all the way to the wrath of God and back to glory
again. I see him saying, I come to do
thy will as an absolutely astonishing work of redemption for my soul. I see what Christ did in him
assuming a human nature, making it possible for me, for you,
to actually have fellowship with God by his death, by his suffering,
by his sacrifice, by his becoming a slave in order that you and
I might become sons and daughters of God. After all, as the scripture
says, in the fullness of time, he was born of a woman made under
the law to redeem those that were under the curse of the law.
And as Paul said in Galatians 4, so long As a child is under
tutors and governors, he is no different than a slave. But once
the fullness of time had come, and that fullness of time is
when Christ came into the world, right? When he assumed the human
nature, fullness of time had come. You know what that means?
Ever since the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the
ascension of Christ, and the preaching of the gospel, you
and I have become sons and daughters of God by virtue of his work. I'm a child of God by virtue
of his work. I'm a son of God by virtue of his work. And listen
to me, I am a permanent son of God by virtue of his work. You
know what? I can never ever not ever be anything but a son of
God by virtue of his work. And I'll show you why. Because
when he took on that assignment, he said, I want to be your slave
forever. I will not go free. You know what that means, ladies
and gentlemen? For those of us who are beneficiaries of the
grace of God, we never, ever, ever, ever, ever have to worry
about being rejected by God again. There's a man in glory. His name
is Jesus Christ. He is not only the Son of God,
but he is the slave of God. And because of him choosing never
to leave his father, we being his wife, we being his children,
we will be with him and them for all eternity. All because
of what Christ has done for us. All because of what Christ has
done for us. And as we have in our point of application, this
is what it's supposed to do for you, child of God. What Christ
does for us in the redemption of our soul is really designed
for us to say the same thing that Christ said to his father.
Watch this now. There is no freedom in the universe
to me that would cause me to want to leave my master and my
savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no freedom in the universe
to me that would cause me to want to leave my master, the
Lord Jesus Christ and his family, the church of the living God.
There is no freedom in the universe that would cause me to want to
leave my master, his family and my own family. for anything in
the universe. And I, by the grace of God, am
able to say, as my master said, are you ready? I love my master.
Do you love your master? Watch this. I love my family.
I love my wife. I love my children. And I will
not go free by the grace of God. Amen. Amen.