Would you turn with me to Exodus
Chapter 2? Let's read verses 23 through
25 of Exodus Chapter 2. I've entitled this message. Sighing. Crying. And groaning. Verse 23, And it came to pass
in the process of time, 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 unto them. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 4,
the second beatitude, blessed are they that mourn. You know, that almost doesn't
make sense, does it? It doesn't sound to me, if you're mourning,
that you're very blessed. But our Lord says, Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And I hope that
by the end of this message, we'll understand what the Lord meant
by that. And that we will experience the
comfort of it. I want to be comforted by the
Lord. Desperately. And I want it to be his comfort.
He's the only one who truly can comfort anyone who truly mourns. Verse 23, And it came to pass
in the process of time. I love that language. Time is
a process. Where everything that God determines
comes to pass. Isn't that neat? It came to pass
in the process of time. It's called God's providence.
The process of time where everything God determined in eternity comes
to pass in time. Now, to me, this is awe-inspiring.
It is comforting, and it's exciting. The Lord's in control of everything,
and I'm excited to see what He's going to do, aren't you? It came
to pass in the process of time. I love the language of scripture.
It's filled with such majesty. And it came to pass in the process
of time that the king of Egypt died, this same king whose intention
was to kill Moses. Well, his lust was not gratified. He was in the Lord's hands and
the Lord in his own time killed this king. That wanted to kill
Moses. And we read in verse 23. That
the children of Israel. Sighed. By reason. Of the bondage. And then we also
read as we look down in that passage of scripture where they
cried. And where they groaned. Three words used to describe
them at this time. Sighed. Crying and groaning. Mourning, crying
out in anguish, groaning, unable to do anything about their problem. If they could do something about
it, it wouldn't be that big of a problem, would it? If they could have
just delivered themselves from this, they could have handled
it. But they were in a predicament that they had absolutely no control
over. There's no way they could deliver
themselves. And they sighed, they cried, and they groaned.
Now, what was the reason behind their sighing and crying and
groaning? Well, look in verse 23. The children
of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage. They sighed by reason
of the bondage. Look back at Exodus chapter 1,
beginning in verse 11. Therefore, they did set over
them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they
built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Ramses, but the more
they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and
they would grieve because of the children of Israel. The Egyptians
made the children of Israel to serve with rigor and they made
their lives bitter. with hard bondage in mortar and
in brick, in an all manner of service in the field, in all
their service wherein they made them to serve was with rigor.
Now, these people had miserable, miserable lives. And this had
been going on for hundreds of years. They were in utter bondage. They were slaves, confined to
back-breaking slave labors, building the pyramids, building the cities.
And they cried for bitterness. because of this hard bondage
that they were under. There was nothing they could
do to get themselves out from under this bondage. All they
could do was sigh, cry, and groan. And this sighing and crying and
groaning represents something. It represents bondage. Bondage. Now, if you're in prison, you're in bondage, aren't you?
If you're in prison. Now, if you could open up the
door and walk out, it wouldn't be bondage, would it? If you
could just walk out whenever you wanted to, but you're in
bondage when you're stuck in a place that you can't get out
of. There's nothing you can do to
release yourself from that bondage. Now, these blessed people that
mourn, that our Lord speaks of when He says, Blessed are they
that mourn. There's a reason they're mourning. They're mourning
over this thing of bondage. Very much like Peter bound by
two chains in Acts 12, 6. They're bound by two chains.
Every natural man, every believer, every believer knows this. You're
bound by two chains. You're bound by the bondage of your nature
and you're bound by the bondage of the law. Those are the two
chains you're bound with. You're bound with the bondage
of your nature, your sinful, evil nature, and you're bound
with the bondage of the law. Now, first, you're bound with
the bondage of a sinful nature. Now, what do I mean by that?
Bound by a sinful nature? Well, it means simply this. You
personally cannot not sin. Is that simple enough? You personally
cannot not sin. If you could not sin, if you
wanted to, it wouldn't be bondage, would it? If you could just choose
to be holy. I'm not going to sin. I'm going
to be holy. I'm going to be perfectly obedient.
If you could do that, it wouldn't be bondage. But you find yourself
to be in bondage to a sinful nature that you can't escape
from. You can't just walk out of it. You can't just decide
I'm not going to be this way. You know, the very idea of free
will is ridiculous to somebody that has some understanding of
the nature. It's just ridiculous. Your will
is chained to your sinful, evil nature. And people who believe
in free will do not believe in either total depravity or free
grace, do they? Not at all. They're like the
Pharisees in John chapter 8, who said, we were never in bondage
to any man. I think it's almost humorous
when they say that. When they said that, they were under the
bondage of the Roman government. And they were in total bondage.
They were slaves to him, but they said, we're not in bondage
to any man. Now, when you're in bondage to
sin, that means is all you do is sin. Now would that describe you? All you do is sin and you cannot
not sin. All you do is sin and you cannot
not sin. Now that's what it means to be
in bondage to sin. Escape from this, you can't throw
these bombs off. All you do is sin and you cannot
not sin. And the person who really believes
this about themselves, you know what they do? They sigh. And they cry. And they groan. It's not something they're indifferent
about. It's not something that they say, well, you know, they
use that as an excuse for the sin. Not somebody who really
believes this. If somebody really sees themselves to be in bondage
to sin, to where they can't do anything but sin, that's all
they do. They can't not sin. They can't just up and, well,
I'm going to quit this. I'm going to stop being this. No. That
person under this burden sighs and cries and groans. Their sin is a burden to them. They know something about what
Paul meant when he said, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? It's a living death to them.
It's not something they're indifferent about. They don't use this as
an excuse to sin. No, they sigh. They can't even
express. They sigh. They cry out. And they groan, the bondage of
a sinful nature. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be, so them they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. And every believer has some understanding
of that, and only the believer has some understanding of that. Now, the other form of bondage,
the bondage of sinful nature, and this bondage that a believer
is under is also a bondage to God's holy law. God's holy law has dominion over
a man. God requires of me perfect obedience. He requires of me that which
I cannot perform, but He still requires it. He's God, and it's
right for Him to do that. He's holy, He's glorious, and
He requires of me perfect obedience, and I'm under that He requires
of me that which I cannot do. He requires of me that which
I cannot do. And that is bondage. You can't free yourself from
that demand. You know, salvation by works. And that's what the
bondage of the law is. Salvation in some way conditioned
upon something you do. Your salvation somehow is dependent
upon you doing something. What miserable bondage that is. Because the plain fact of the
matter is, is whatever it is that's required of you to do,
or me to do, we can't do it. We can't do it. If salvation
is by law, I am in trouble. What bitter bondage salvation
by works is. Now notice what he says at the
end of verse 23 in Exodus chapter 2. He says Israel sighed by reason
of the bondage. Oh, they were in such trouble.
They were in such turmoil and they cried. I don't even know
if they knew who the Lord was or if they were even crying to
the Lord. They just felt miserable. I don't know if they realized
that their cry was coming up to the Lord, but it says they
sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried. And look what
it says next. And their cry came up unto God
by reason of the bondage. Why did it come up to God? By
reason of the bondage. Wherever there is bondage. Now this is a wonderful, wonderful
statement. I believe it is. I really believe
it is. So you listen real carefully.
Wherever there is bondage, God liberates. In every case, wherever there
is bondage, God sets free. Now, if you can set yourself
free, if you can help yourself, if you have a free will and can
be saved any time you want to be, the Lord won't help you. He won't help you. He won't touch
you with a ten-foot pole. He only responds to those who
are in bondage, and that is precisely why the Lord said, Blessed are
they that mourn, that sigh, that groan, that cry over this bondage,
for they shall be comforted. You see, he only sets free those
who are in bondage. Turn with me for a moment to
Luke chapter four. Luke chapter 4. This is when
our Lord announces his public ministry. And we read beginning
in verse 16 of Luke chapter 4. And he came to Nazareth where
he'd been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And
there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah,
and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was
written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, those who have nothing. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance, liberty to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach, to declare the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of
jubilee. That is why He came. Now, if
the Son shall make you free, what does our Lord say? You're
free indeed. John chapter 8, verse 36. Now, how is it that He makes
us free? You can only have an appreciation
of this if you have some understanding of bondage. Now, if you have
an understanding of bondage, you'll have an appreciation of
this. Now, if you don't understand bondage, if you, I just don't
understand what he's talking about, if it doesn't make sense
to me, well, you won't understand it. God's got to teach you. I
realize that. I can't teach anybody this. Only God can teach you
this. But if God teaches you of your bondage, listen to how
our Lord delivers us from bondage. First, by delivering us from
the bondage of the law. Now, how does he do that? How
does he deliver us from the bondage of the law? And the law is bondage. To have to do something in order
to be saved, to have to be able to come up with something, that's
bondage. Well, how does he deliver us from the bondage of the law?
By answering every one of its demands for us. Now, when God
saves somebody, He does it in a way that honors His holy law. He said, don't think one jot
or tittle of the law shall in any wise be abrogated. It's all going to come to pass.
Now, here's what our Lord did in saving his people and delivering
them from bondage. First, he kept the law for us. And he suffered the penalty of
the law against sin. Every sin I committed was placed
upon him. It became his. He suffered. And
now what does the law have to say to me? Nothing. You see, the law is
only for the unrighteous, isn't it? You know, a righteous man,
a holy man doesn't need law, does he? What do we have locks
on doors for? For crooks. If there weren't
robbers and thieves, we wouldn't need anything like that, would
we? The law was only made for the loyalists and the disobedient.
Christ Jesus answered all the law's demands. And now when God's
holy law looks at me, God's law sees me as a good, righteous
person. Law doesn't have anything to
say to the one who's good and righteous. And that's what every
believer is in Christ Jesus. He answered all the demands of
the law. And I'm free from that bondage.
And I'm not speaking disrespectfully of God's law. I love God's law,
but it doesn't have anything to say to me. I'm free from the
law, free from the law of a happy condition. Jesus hath bled and
there is remission. I love being free from God's
holy law. It has nothing to say to me.
He set me free from the bondage of the law by answering all of
its demands, and he set me free from the bondage of an evil,
sinful nature by giving me a new nature. by giving me a holy nature,
a nature that was not there before, a nature that actually loves
God, a nature that actually believes the gospel. He gave me a new
nature. Now, it is a good thing to be
in bondage. You know, this sighing and crying
and groaning, our Lord said, Blessed are they that mourn.
God's blessing is upon you. Well, how can it be a good thing?
Because he always sets the prisoner free. If you're not in bondage,
it works against you. He'll not help anybody who can
help himself. He won't. He won't have anything to do
with you. But if you sigh and cry by reason of bondage, he
hears that cry and is moved to help you. He's the great liberator. You know, you can't liberate
somebody who's not in bondage, though, can you? You can only
liberate that person who is in bondage, so if you know something
about this bondage. This is a good thing. Actually,
that's the mark of his mercy on you. Now let's go on reading
back to our text in Exodus chapter 2. There are four things the
Lord was said to do for those who cry in their bondage. Verse
23 and came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt
died in the children of Israel side by reason of the bondage.
And they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of
the bondage and four things God has said to do. 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 unto them."
Now first, it says, He heard their groaning. He heard their
groaning. It's a blessed thing to groan.
It's a blessed thing. You know, there can be people so indifferent
So just bored, and then there's people who groan. It's a blessed
thing. It's a blessed thing. He heard,
and that means much more than simply hearing the audible sound.
He heard with the intention of doing something for them. That's
why he heard. Now, why? Why was God going to
do something for them? Look at verse 24. And God heard
their groaning and God remembered his covenant. with Abraham and
with Isaac and with Jacob. This is why God heard their groaning.
He remembered his covenant. God is a covenant God. Now, go back to Genesis 15. Let's look at the covenant he
made with Abraham. Then let's look at the covenant he made
with Isaac. And then let's look at the covenant he made with
Jacob. Genesis 15, verse 1. After these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Look at verse 6.
And he believed in the Lord. Verse 5, rather. And he brought
him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the
stars that you be able to number them. And he said unto them,
So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord,
and it was counted to him for righteousness. And God didn't
say, if you do this, then I'll make your stars, your seed like
the stars and stand by the seashore. So, no, he said, this is what
I'm going to do. This is God's covenant with Abraham. Look down
in verse 12. And when the sun was going down
and deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo and horror of great darkness
fell upon him, and he said unto Abraham, know with 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. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out
with great substance." Now, he's telling him, Abraham, 400 years
before what we're reading about in Exodus took place, that's
going to take place. God says, this is what I'm going to do.
This is His covenant. Look in Genesis 26. Remember,
it's the covenant made with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Verse 2, And the Lord appeared
unto him, Isaac, and said, Go not down into Egypt, dwell in
the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and
I'll be with thee, and will bless thee. For unto thee and unto
thy seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform
thee oath, which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And I'll
make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven will give
unto thy seed all these countries. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham obeyed my
voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and
my laws. Look in Genesis 28. And this is the covenant to Jacob.
Verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba
and went toward Haran, and he lighted into a certain place
and buried there all night because the sun was set, and he took
up the stones of that place and put them for his pillows, and
he lay down in that place to sleep. He's fleeing at this time,
scared to death. fleeing from Esau. Esau said
he was going to kill him. And he dreamed and behold, the
ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I'm the Lord God
of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon
thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy
seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread
abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to
the south, and in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee at all places whither thou goest, and will
bring thee again unto this land, for I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I spoke enough to thee." Now there's
God's covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And
all this represents is the covenant of grace. Turn with me for a
moment to Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Now, this covenant
of grace is the covenant that God made with Christ. And this
is my hope. This is what David was talking
about. It went right before he died. In 2 Samuel 23, verse 5,
when he said, Although in my house be not so with God, yet
hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things
ensured. God is a covenant God. He makes
promises. And this covenant, it's a unilateral
covenant. It's not conditioned upon me
doing my part. He says I'm going to do it, and
it's done. That's the way God's covenant works. It's the covenant
of grace. Now look here in Psalm 89, beginning in verse 27. This is the covenant he made
with Christ and everybody Christ represented. Psalm 89 verse 27,
And I will also make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant
shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to
endure forever. That's talking about me and you.
And his throne as the days of heaven. Now if his children forsake
my law and walk not in my judgment, if they break my statutes and
keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, My
loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my
faithfulness to fail. Notice it says it won't take
it from them, it says him, because we're in him. My covenant, verse
34, will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of
my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie
unto David. 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 this is
the unconditional covenant of grace. Even if these children
do break God's law, which you know we've done, he says, I'm
not going to remove my covenant from them because they're viewed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now our Lord, when he walked
upon this earth, he did so as a representative of those in
that covenant. That's what he was doing. When
he kept the law, he was keeping the law for somebody. When he
died, he was dying for somebody. When he was raised from the dead,
he was being raised from the dead for somebody. The unconditional
covenant of grace. And God heard these people. He
heard their groaning because of this covenant that was made
before they were ever even born. Now, I want to show you an illustration
from the scripture that gives us some idea of the importance
of God's covenants. Would you turn with me to The
book of Joshua, Chapter 9. This is a beautiful, beautiful
picture of how God always keeps his covenant, Joshua, Chapter
9. Now, do you remember the story of the Gibeonites? Now, this
is when Israel had gone into the promised land and God told
Joshua and all the Israelites, You're going to destroy and defeat
all your enemies. And they did that. And there
was some people in Gibeon, the Gibeonites, that they heard about
this. And they're not very far away.
And they hear how Joshua was killing everybody and Israel's
killing everybody. And they're scared to death. They think that
we don't want it to happen to us. So they use deceit and fraud. They get old moldy bread, they
get real dirty clothes and they come up to the children of Israel
and they say we've come from a long way off because we've
heard what God is doing through you and we want to make a league
of peace with you. We want you to have mercy on
us. We don't want you to hurt us. Now look how far we've come
in order to do this. They were neighbors and they deceived the
children of Israel. What they used was deceit. But
that's how they came trying to get mercy from Joshua. Now look
in verse 15. And Joshua, he doesn't know they've
deceived him at this time. Joshua chapter 9 verse 15. And
Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let
them live. And the princes of the congregation
swear unto them. Now that league is the word covenant.
They made a covenant. And it came to pass at the end
of three days after they'd made a covenant with them that they
heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them.
And the children of Israel journeyed and came into their cities on
the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Shepherah, and Baroth,
and Kerjath, and Jeram. And the children of Israel smoked
them not because the princes of the congregation had sworn
unto them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation
murmured against the princes. They were upset about this. But
all the princes said unto the congregation, We've sworn unto
them by the Lord God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch
them because of this covenant. We may not touch them. This will
we do to them. We will even let them live, lest
wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swear unto them.
And the princes said unto them, Let them live, but let them be
ewes of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation. as
the princes had promised them. That's what they were sentenced
to do. Now, look down at verse 27. Joshua made them that day
ewers of wood, drawers of water for the congregation and for
the altar of the Lord, even unto this day the place where he should
choose. Now, something happens in chapter 10 that's very interesting. Look in verse 4. There's five
kings that says come upon me and help us that we may smite
Gibeon. These are the people who had deceived Joshua, but
Joshua went into league with them. We're going to smite Gibeon
for he had made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
They wanted to kill them because of this. Now look at verse 12.
Then spake Joshua to the Lord, and the day when the Lord delivered
up the Amorites before the children of Israel, This is what they
did to protect these Gibeonites, who had deceived them, but they'd
entered into a league with them and a covenant with them. Look
what God did. Then spake Joshua to the Lord
in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children
of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou
still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Agdalon. The
sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written
in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the
midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
There was no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord
hearkened unto the voice of the man, for the Lord fought for
Israel." Now I want you to see that Israel was fighting for
the Gibeonites. Why? Because of that covenant. Now
the Lord heard. The Lord heard their groaning
because of the covenant that he had made before they were
ever around. A covenant that we read about
in Genesis chapter 15. He heard their groaning. Now
back to our text in Exodus chapter 2. He heard their groaning. He remembered
his covenant. Look what it says next, verse
25. And God looked upon the children of Israel. Now, this is the same
word that is used in Genesis chapter 22, verse 8, where it
says, Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will see to it. The Lord will provide. You remember in Genesis 22 when
Isaac is walking up the mountain with his dad and he says, here's
the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb for the burnt offering?
He said, my son, God will provide Himself. a lamb for a burnt offering. Now here's the hope of somebody
sighing and crying in bondage. God provides what you need. He provides liberty from the
bondage of the law by answering all of its demands. He kept it. He paid the penalty and now the
law doesn't have anything to say to me. And He provides liberty
from the bondage of an evil nature by providing a new nature And
look what he says, last God looked upon him. He provides for them.
And God, this is just an amazing, amazing statement. God had, what's
that next word? Respect unto them. Now, there's only one way this
can be understood. with the Lord Jesus Christ. Child of God, when the holy God
of glory looks on you, he has respect. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? God respects me? The God of glory respects me?
That's hard to get hold of. Well, it's not hard to get hold
of if I'm united to Christ. How much respect does God the
Father have toward His blessed Son? You think of the respect the
Father has toward the Son. He says to the Son, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. A sector of righteousness is
the sector of Thy kingdom. Oh, the respect the Father has
to the Son. Believer, that is how much respect
the Father has to you. As He is, so are we in this world. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. How can I be delivered from bondage?
Now, this bondage that we sigh and groan and grind, it's not
something, thank God, it's not something we stay in. If I thought
I'd be in this bondage forever, I'd be utterly in despair. How
is it that someone can be delivered from this bondage, bondage to
the law, bondage to an evil nature, by God hearing their cry, by
God remembering His covenant, You know, David said over in
Psalm 74, he said, have respect to the covenant. Can you pray
that prayer? Have respect to the covenant. Remember that covenant. Don't
have respect to it. I'm delivered by God providing
me what I need to make me free. And I'm delivered from bondage
by God knowing me in Christ. And I tell you what, it's liberating
to me right now. It's liberating. Sighing, crying
and groaning, truly blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
I hope that gives us a little bit more understanding of that
Beatitude of our Lord. Let's pray together.