Would you turn to Exodus 20? I'm sorry, Exodus 21. Now, These are the judgments which
thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant. Six years he shall serve. And in seven. He shall go out
free. For nothing. If he came in by
himself, he should go out by himself. If he were married,
then his wife should 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 an awl. And he shall serve him forever. Lord, we ask that you'd be our
teacher for Christ's sake. We wait on thee. In Christ's
blessed name, we pray. Jesus came to die for sinners Lost in a world of sin He freely shed His blood to save
them And by His blood we freely enter
in The two things that I know The
two things that I know I am a great sinner And Christ is a great Savior Jesus came to live for sinners. He kept His Father's law perfectly. And by His grace, His righteousness
He gives. to all the Father gave Him from
eternity. The two things that I know, the
two things that I know, I am a great sinner. and Christ is a great Savior. Jesus rose again for sinners,
showing to my heart He's all I need. And when in life's short journey
I stumble, Lord, save this wretched sinner is what I plead. The two things that I know, the
two things that I know, I am a great sinner. and Christ is a great Savior. Jesus lives on high for sinners. He lovingly ordains each step
we take. Sinners saved by grace are His
children. And He's in our hearts with every
move we make The two things that I know The two things that I
know I am a great sinner And Christ is a great Savior I know those two things. Isn't
it wonderful to know that? Tell you what, if somebody knows
those two things, they know everything. There's nothing else even needed
to know. I've entitled this message, The
Bond Slave. Exodus chapters 21 through 23
is what some people call the civil part of the law. You've
heard of the moral law, the civil law, and the ceremonial law.
They'll say the Ten Commandments. the moral law, all the laws regarding
society are found in chapters 21 through 23, and then the ceremonial
laws regarding the feast days and the sacrifices and so on
are found after that. Now, the civil law, if you want
to call it that, God's law is one law, and I don't even know
whether it's wise to, as a matter of fact, I know it's not wise
to separate it. It's one law. But it begins with his house
servants are to be treated. And if you would take the time
to read Revelation, Exodus chapter 21 through 23, it deals with
intentional and unintentional murder. It deals with laws of
restitution, laws of compensation. Even what happens if somebody's
ox escapes and damages your property? What has to be done to compensate
for that? And many other things that would
happen in daily life. There are laws regarding the
protection of strangers that you can't, or foreigners, how
you're not allowed to oppress them. And if you would read Exodus
chapter 21 through 23, there are two things that are striking.
First, the character of God. How just he is. This is such
a perfect law. How holy he is. How wise he is. How merciful he is. Oh, his mercy. How caring he is. He cares about
somebody's property being damaged and how it's to be compensated. The Lord is so caring. You know,
the Lord said this about God the Father. The Lord Jesus said,
there's not a sparrow that falls to the ground without your heavenly
Father. He didn't say without your heavenly
Father knowing it. He said without your heavenly
Father. Isn't our God glorious? The law is a reflection of the
beauty of God's character. But the law also tells us something
about the character of men. Well, what's it tell us about
the character of men? Well, how sinful men must be that a law
like this is needed in the first place. This lets us know about
what we would be if God did not give this law, what society would
be, how men would abuse and torture one another. Remember this, the
scripture says the law was not made for a righteous man. Righteous
man doesn't need a law. It was made for the lawless and
disobedient, for sinners and ungodly, for unholy, for murderers
of fathers and mothers, for man-slayers, for men-stealers, for purging
persons, and if there be any other thing that's contrary to
sound doctrine. That's what Paul tells us. The law is for bad
people. It's not for, quote, good people. And the law gives us some idea
of the character of sinful man. Now, he begins with the law concerning
how you were to treat a Hebrew slave. And if that law was obeyed,
a Hebrew slave actually had a very good life. Now, some people would
say, well, does the Bible teach slavery is okay? No, not really.
But it deals with men as they are. For instance, divorce. There's
laws regarding divorce. And the Lord tells us God gave
us these laws because of the hardness of our heart. If all
men were holy and you didn't have sinful men, you wouldn't
have to have laws like this. And there's laws regarding the
treatment of servants. If we didn't have this law, it's
hard to know how cruel men would treat servants. Kind of like
a labor union. If men were perfect, would there be any need for a
labor union? No, the employees would do their employers right,
wouldn't they? They'd give an honest day's work for an honest
day's wage. And if the employers were righteous
people, they would compensate and treat their employees well,
wouldn't they? You need things like this for fallen nature,
for sinful human beings, and that's what the law tells us. So, this is not saying slavery
is okay and we ought to be having it today. Obviously, it's not
that. It's dealing with the character of man as he is. Now, when a
man couldn't pay his debts, he had to become a slave. in order
to pay him. Let's say he owed money, he couldn't
come up with the money, he had to sell himself into slavery
in order to pay those debts. And that was the law. Now look
in verse 1. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set
before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, one who couldn't pay
his debts, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he
shall go free. for nothing. The seventh year
he was to be set free, and there's a lot of mercy in that, isn't
there? He was to be set free, and he wasn't to leave broke
either. Turn with me for a moment to Deuteronomy chapter 15. Look
how kind and merciful God's law is in this thing. Deuteronomy
chapter 15. This law is being spoken of again
here in Deuteronomy chapter 15, verse 12. And if thy brother,
an Hebrew man, or in Hebrew woman be sold unto thee, and serve
thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free
from thee. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou
shalt not let him go away empty. Thou shalt furnish him liberally
out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress,
of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt
give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman
in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Therefore
I command thee this thing today. And it shall be, if he say unto
thee, I'll not go away from thee, because he loves you and your
house, because it's well with thee. Then thou shalt take it
all and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall
be thy servant forever, and also unto thy maidservant thou shalt
do likewise. And it shall not seem hard unto
thee when thou sendest him away from thee. You're not going to
resent all you give him, for he hath been worth a double hired
servant to thee in serving thee six years, and the Lord thy God
shall bless thee in all that thou doest." So you see, this
was really a lot of mercy in this law of a servant. He was
to serve six years. He was to be set free after six
years. And on that, when you set Him
free, you're to give Him everything to set Him up in life. I'm sure
people probably resented that. Some people did, but that's what
God commanded them to do. And it's the gracious, merciful,
right thing to do. Now back to Exodus 21. If He came in by Himself at the
end of that six years, if He came in by Himself, he shall
go out by himself. If he came in married, then his
wife shall go out with him, if he had a wife or any children
also. They leave with him after those six years. If his master
hath given him a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters,
let's say he met somebody during that six year period, his master
gave him a wife, and he had children by that woman, and they were
married, and they had a family. If it happened during that six
year period, The wife and her children shall be her masters
and he'll go out by himself. He can't take his wife and children
with him. They stay there as the servant of his master. Verse
five. And if the servant shall plainly
say. I love my master. I love working
for him. I love being a servant. He's
good to me. I love my master. And I love my wife and I love
my children. I will not go free. I don't want
to be free from this. That would be bondage to me to
be set free. I've got it made. I love where
I'm at. This is where I want to be. I
love my master. I love my wife. I love my children.
If he says that plainly, there's no doubt about it. Then verse
six, his master shall bring him under the judges. This is done
publicly. And he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the
doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an
awl." Now, this is not like getting your ear pierced. This was a
painful thing. An awl was very, like a big fat
nail, just driven through your earlobe. And I'm sure it was
very painful, but it represented something. It meant something. You had a perpetual mark in your
ear that said, I love my master. I'm not a servant because I have
to be. I'm a servant because I want to be. I am a bond slave. And when you would, when you
would see a man with his ear bored through, you knew that
this man was a man who had a very good master. That's what you
were struck with. See that fellow out with that
hole in his ear? And you say, that man must have
a good, kind master. It's the master who was glorified
in all this. Now, in these six verses, we're
given a beautiful portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and a beautiful portrait of the believer. Now, the first application
of this is Christ himself. Let me show you that from the
scripture. Turn to Psalm 40. Verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Now, this is quoted in Hebrews
chapter 10 as being the words of the Lord Jesus himself. Every
psalm is messianic. Every psalm is the Lord speaking
first. That's always the first application, without any exception
to that rule. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Look at this next sentence. Mine
ears hast thou opened. Mine ears hast thou, the word
open literally is digged out. An all had been placed through
his ears. And notice it says ears. Claire
and I were talking about this yesterday and he pointed that
out. I didn't notice that ears is in the plural. You know, the
Lord Jesus Christ, when this was done, there's only one ear
that was done to, but when it was done to him, it was done
to all his people. All of his people have bored ears in this
sense. There's a mark in the ear. Sacrifice
and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me, I delight. to do thy will, O God, yea, thy
law is within my heart. So this is obviously first to
be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's the one
who had his ear bored through with it all. Now, Christ, the
son of God, equal with the father, is the servant of God. He's truly
the servant of God. Listen to these scriptures. Isaiah
42 verse one, God, the father says, behold, my servant whom
I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. Isaiah 52, 13,
my servant shall deal prudently and he shall be exalted and extolled
and very high. Isaiah 53, 10, My righteous servant
shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now how
often throughout the New Testament is Christ presented to us as
God's servant? Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but He made Himself
of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and
was made in the likeness of men. He truly is the servant of God. You remember when the disciples
were having an argument over which one would be the greatest.
And the Lord said, the one that's going to be greatest, the one
that's going to be chief, let him be the servant of all. You
want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, you be the low man
on the totem pole. You'd be the servant. You'd be
the menial one. That's the one who's greatest
in the kingdom of heaven, the servant. You remember when our
Lord washed his disciples' feet. I think that's so incredible
to think about that. I mean, here they are with their old
dirty feet and the Son of God bends down and washes their feet,
leaving them an example of how they are to do. He truly is the
servant of God. Now, He served out his time by
honoring the law of God. He spent his six years, six being
the number of a man, he spent his six years keeping the law
of God perfectly. And after that, he was free. Only Christ had the choice as
to whether or not he would die. Nobody else has that choice.
Well, what about people who commit suicide? I mean, they chose to
die, didn't they? Well, yeah, but they're going
to die anyway whether they commit suicide or not. No man can get
out of death, but the Lord Jesus Christ had the choice. He wasn't
a victim. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up again. This commandment, if I received
of my father, he was totally willing in what he did. Now he
served his time by honoring the law of God. But after that, he chose to do what he did. He said, I love my master. I love my wife, my church. I
love my children, the individual believer. I will not be free
from them. The point behind this is to teach
us that what He did, He did freely, willingly, and voluntarily. When He went to the cross, He
did so because He wanted to. He said, I delight to do thy
will. Everything he did, he did voluntarily. We read that passage in Psalm
chapter 40, verse 6 through 8, where he said, I delight to do
thy will, O God. Now, he said concerning his father,
I love him. The love there is between the
father and the son. That's the greatest love there
is. There's no way that we could even describe that great love. His delight was to do His Father's
will. He became obedient to death,
even the death of the cross. He said, I love my master. I
love my father. I love my wife. I love my church.
I'll not leave her. I'll not leave her. I'm not going
to go off free and leave her behind. And the example I thought
of was Adam. Now, the scripture doesn't point
this out, but I think there's some truth
to it. What Adam did was wicked when he ate the fruit. It was wicked, there's no doubt
about that. He was disobeying God. But I think this element
was also there. He looked at that woman who ate
that fruit and he said, I'm not going to leave her. I'm going
down with her. I love that woman and I will
not be separated from her. Now that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ said regarding His church. He said, I love my church. I'm not going to leave them.
I'm not going to go off, I'm free to do it, but I'm not going
to leave them. I'm going to go down with them. What He did,
He did completely voluntarily. He said, I love my children.
I think that refers to the individual believer. Believer Jesus Christ
could not be happy. Could not be complete. without
you." Now, that's hard to believe, isn't it? That's hard to get
hold of, but it's the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
be complete without you. Now, once again, the reality
and power of union with Christ. You see, when He looks at His
bride, when He looks at the individual believer, when He looks at His
church, He looks at that one who is beautiful to Him. altogether
lovely. That's how glorious the Lord
Jesus Christ makes every one of His people. I have in me,
Christ in me, the hope of glory. I have in me that which draws
out the affection of the Son of God. He sees me and I'm lovely. And this is true regarding every
one of His people. I can't leave them. You know,
I couldn't leave I couldn't do it. I couldn't. I know apart
from the grace of God I will, but I'm just saying the way I
felt, I couldn't do it. Well, he feels that way infinitely
more. I will not leave. So he willingly had his ear bored
through. When he walked through this world
as the suffering servant, he did this willingly. He was no victim. And when He
went to the cross for me, He did so willingly. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor. Now can you get
hold of that? When Christ went to the cross, He had your name
on His heart. He knew exactly what He was doing
for you. Isn't that amazing? You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became
poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. He set His face
like a flint to go to the cross. That's why He came here in the
first place. And I think this is interesting. It was His Father,
it was His Master who bore His ear, a hole through His ear. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He hath put him to grief, and now he is the true servant
of God forever, and we are his people forever. Isn't that wonderful? He's the willing, loving servant. How voluntarily, how willingly
Christ had his ear bore through for me. Should we do anything less than
be willing servants? Now, this obviously is a beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's also a beautiful picture
of the believer. Now, by our sin, we sold ourselves
into slavery. And our six years are served,
six being the number of man. Adam was created on the sixth
day. You know that number 666 in the book of Revelation? Man,
man, man. That's the number of the beast.
It's the mark of man. Man's failure, man's sinfulness,
man's weaknesses. Failure upon failure upon failure.
That's the mark of the beast. It's the mark of man. Six years were served and then
Christ, God's servant, set us free. We're set free. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. Now, you know it was Him that
made you free, don't you? You didn't have anything to do with
it. I mean, as far as your experience goes, it had nothing to do with
you. It's what He did for you, and
what He did set you free, and now you are free. You get to do what you want to
do. Now, we don't believe in free will for a second, but we
believe everybody does exactly what they want to do. Free will
is ridiculous. It's just ridiculous. Your will
is controlled by your nature. There's no such thing as free
will. God doesn't have a free will. In that sense, He can't
lie. He can't up and decide to lie, can He? Because His will
is controlled by His nature. Free will is a non-entity. It's
an absurdity. There's no such thing. We don't
believe in free will for a second, but we certainly believe that
men do exactly what they want to do. Yeah, I do what I want
to do. You do what you want to do, don't
you? You can't say the devil made me do it. If you sin, you
did what you wanted to do. You can't blame God. If you serve
the Lord, you did what you wanted to. You want to serve the Lord. We do what we want to do, nothing
more, nothing less. We're not forced to do anything
against our will. We do what we want to do. Somebody
says, why does he do that? Because that's what he wants
to do. That's why. Why come He didn't do that? Because
He didn't want to. People do what they want to do,
don't they? You know, not believing in free
will doesn't mean we don't believe people don't do what they want
to do. But Christ has set me free. He set me free from the
guilt of sin. I don't have any guilt before
God. Now, this is hard for me. This is a hard thing to get out
of. I feel guilty all the time. Matter of fact, I can't I'm not
aware of ever not feeling guilty. I've even heard people say, well,
I don't feel guilty. I just trust Christ. Well, I
trust Christ, but as long as my flesh is in it, I always feel
guilty about something. But I don't have anything to
be guilty about. Christ put away my sin. I have perfect righteousness
before God. I've been set free. I've been
set free from the power of sin. God gave me a new nature. I've
been set free. Being set free. You know what
I say? I love my master. I love my wife and children.
And I don't want to be free from him. Being set free. Now you listen to this real carefully.
Being set free, I owe nothing. I am free. Stand fast in the
liberty where with Christ it made you free. Being free, the
greatest freedom I have is to be totally His servant. I don't
want to be freed in the sense of not being His servant. I don't
want that. I say plainly, I say plainly,
I'll not go free. I don't want to be free from
Him. The greatest freedom I have is to be totally His servant. To be able to say with David,
truly, truly, truly, I am thy servant and the son of thine
handmaid. I don't want to be set free.
My only freedom is being His servant, and anything less is
bondage. You see, we follow Christ willingly, willingly. Psalm 110.3 says, Thy people
shall be what? Willing. You see, God changes
the willer, doesn't He? He changes the will. So what
we do, we do freely, voluntarily. Thy people shall be willing.
in the day of thy power. It's God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do is good pleasure. You will it and you
do it. I know it's God working in you,
but you will it and you do it. Paul said, for to will is present
with me. It's present right now, to will.
I would, as God is my witness, I would never sin again. I would be without sin. That's what I want. Now, how
to perform that, which is good, I don't find it. But the will
is present with me. God's people are willing. You know, the Lord looked at
His disciples once, and 5,000 people had already left, and
He said, will you also go away? You know, the Lord's not going
to have an unwilling servant. You fellas want to leave? Everybody
else is leaving. There's a door you can go to
if you want to. Will you also go away? There's the door. I
love Peter's answer, Lord. To whom shall we go? Back to the law? All that does
is condemn us. Back to the world? That's what we want saved from.
Where would we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the
son of the living God. Now, we say plainly, I love my
master. Now, we all have a master. You
know, Bob Dylan wrote a song one time some years ago, and
it went like this. You have to serve somebody. And indeed you do. He said it
may be the devil and it may be the Lord, but you've got to serve
somebody. Everybody has a master. You have a master. Now, somebody
that God has saved, Christ is their Lord and master. You know, He really is the Lord
of my life. He's my master. I know who your Savior is by
who your Lord is. He's my Lord. He's my master. And I say this plainly. I say
this publicly. I love my master. And there's never been a worse
servant. And there's never been a better master. I love my master. I love his person. He's God. He's the man Christ
Jesus. I love His attributes. I love His sovereignty, the fact
that He controls everything and is the first cause behind all
things. I love His justice. He's always just. I love His
wisdom. I love His love. I love His meekness. I love every attribute of my
blessed Lord. I love my Master. I love His
salvation. I love His offices. I love the
fact that He's the prophet. Truly He is the Word of God. I love His priesthood. If He
represents me before God, I'm saved. Anybody He prays for must
be saved. I love His priesthood. I love
His kingship. I love King Jesus. I love His
royal sovereignty. I love His reign. I love His
righteousness. I love being saved by His righteousness.
I love having His righteousness as my righteousness. I flat love
that. I love His precious blood that
makes me pure before God. I love His grace. I love His
mercy. I love my Master. Peter, do you
love me? Lord, You know all things. I can't fool You. You can see
right through me. You know all things. You know
that I love Your person. I love my master and I love his
people. Like Ruth, we say, whether thou
goest, I will go. And whether thou largest, I will
launch thy people shall be my people. And by God, my God, there's
a real and genuine love between the people of God and it's the
cords of love that causes a believer to willingly serve Christ and
His people. Any other cord will someday be
broken. It won't last. If you serve for any other reason,
it won't be a continual service. Something will cause you to quit
serving. Something will cause you to go back. But oh, the cords
of love, the love of Christ constraineth me. I will not go free The only way
I can truly be free is being his servant forever. And this is how every believer
feels. Are you a bond slave? A willing bond slave. Bond slaves have a mark in their
ear. Faith cometh by hearing. And
hearing by the word of God. Their ears have been opened.
They hear the gospel. The Lord said, My sheep hear
My voice. I know them and they follow Me. Their ears opened to the Word
of God and closed to everything else. It is, isn't it? You're
open to the Word of God, aren't you? Anything God says, you believe
and you're completely closed-minded to everything else. That's the
way it ought to be. Our ear has been opened by the
grace of God. Question. Will you not follow Christ? Without any conditions. At all hazards. Is he not worthy? Of complete. And undying devotion. He is, isn't He? I'm looking
at some people who really believe He is. Will we not follow the
Lamb whether so ever He goeth? Now, this mark in our ear, what's
it say? We have a good Master. We have
an infinitely good Master. We love being His slaves. We love being his servant. Now I say plainly. I'm a bond slave. Of Jesus Christ. I will not go free. Don't want
to. I love my master. I love his people. And I will
not go free. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you and praise you that you were
pleased to make us thy servants. Lord, what a high, holy and heavenly
calling. And Lord, more than servants,
sons, sons and daughters of the living God. Lord, how we thank
you. And Lord, let us bear this mark
in our ear. As we walk through this world
saying that we love our master and we love his people and we
do not want to be free from him. Because he, you're so altogether
glorious. Now, Lord, will you, by your
grace bore the all through each ear here, according to your will
in Christ's blessed name, we pray. Amen.