Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleThe Willing Servant
Bible TextExodus 21:1-6
Synopsis This judgment or statute shows us how Christ brings his people to not need any law like this at all to make us willingly serve him—we do so from the constraint of Christ’s love for us because he is such a good Master. Listen
Date11-Nov-2018
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: The Willing Servant (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: The Willing Servant (128 kbps)
Length 50 min.
 

Series: Exodus

Title: The Willing Servant

Text: Exodus 21: 1-6

Date: November 11, 2018

Place: SGBC, NJ

 

We saw in Exodus 19-20 a type of God using the law to bring his elect to behold our sin in the face of God’s holiness to bring us to cry out for Christ the Mediator.

 

Then God declared they could only come to God through a blood sacrifice sanctified upon the altar—picturing the only way a sinner can come to God.  We come through faith in Christ the Lamb whose blood put away the sins of his people and made his people righteous by establishing the law on our behalf.  We come through faith in Christ our Altar who sanctifies us and makes all our worship and service accepted of God.

 

Next, God begins to give judgments (civil statutes) to Israel.  These judgments typify the Lord Jesus Christ.  These statutes show us how Christ served God for his people and established the law for his people. 

 

The first of these judgments is concerning the servant.  God provided civil laws for men who fell into debt or committed crimes.  They could be bought as servants to pay off their debts.  But God also provided laws governing how long their masters could keep them serving and when they were to be set free and how they were to be treated and provided for.  We see two things in that: one,  we see what a gracious, good God we have and, two, we see how sinful natural man is that we needed laws to make us to do what God commanded. 

 

Proposition: But as we see in our text, this judgment shows us how Christ brings his people to not need any law like this at all to make us willingly serve him—we do so from the constraint of Christ’s love for us because he is such a good Master.

 

Exodus 21: 1: Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.  2: If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.  3: If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.  4: If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.  5: And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

 

Subject: The Willing Servant

 

First and foremost, this servant, who loved his master and loved his bride and children so much that he voluntarily made himself a servant to his master forever, typifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The first five books of the Bible written by Moses along with all the prophets, even all the scriptures, are concerning Christ Jesus the Son of God.  On the road to Emmaus, after Christ had arisen from the dead, he opened the scriptures to two of his disciples, Luke 24: 27: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.  We have seen that all the scriptures speak of Christ haven’t we: we saw Christ in creation, in the animals God slew to make coats of skins for Adam and Eve, the woman’s seed, Abels’ offering, Noah’s ark, in Joshua, on and on and on and now, in this willing-bondservant we see the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

CHRIST WILLINGLY BECAME GOD’S SERVANT

 

Exodus 21: 2: If thou buy an Hebrew servant…

The Hebrew servant in our text initially became a servant involuntarily through some fault of his own.  But the Son of God from the beginning voluntarily took the form of a servant.

 

Philippians 2: 5: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

 

As he promised in covenant with the Father in eternity, when the time came, the Son of God—God of very God, equal with the Father—willingly took the form of servant.  God said he would do so in the prophets,

 

Zechariah 3: 8:…behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.

 

Isaiah 52: 13: Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

Isaiah 53: 11: He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

 

Then when Christ walked this earth, he said,

 

Luke 22:27: For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

 

When he took the form of a servant, it was voluntary.  Emphasize the word “give” in the following verses.

 

John 6:51: I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

 

Joh 10:15: As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep….18: No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

 

Ephesians 5: 25: Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.

 

Our Savior illustrated his willingness to serve us unto the death of the cross that night he washed the disciples feet.  Oh, believer, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.  Don’t you want to serve Christ your Master by serving your brethren in the earth?  I ask the Lord to enable me to serve him and serve you in whatever way he would have me to do it.  It is not through the hearing of the works of the law but through hearing of his work, like we see pictured here, that we are made willing servants of our good Master!

 

CHRIST SERVED FOR HIS PEOPLE

Exodus 21: 2: If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve:…

 

The Hebrew servant sold himself because of poverty or crime so he was to serve for six years.  Six is the number of man—the number of incompletion and failure.  Therefore, six years was the length of time God said a man was to be in servitude (Rev 13: 18).  That pictures us—we sold ourselves because of our crimes and our poverty.

 

But Christ came willingly to serve in place of his people to establish the righteousness of the law for his people before God, which none of his people could ever do!

 

Daniel 9: 24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

 

Matthew 5: 17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

From his birth throughout his days as he walked this earth, the righteous Servant served God the Father, his Master, perfectly without sin.  In everything he did, he was about his Father’s business.  He healed the sick, fed the hungry, established his church, fulfilled all that was written and kept the law perfectly for his people.  Christ was the obedient servant of God, even unto the death of the cross.

 

CHRIST WOULD NOT GO OUT FREE

 

Exodus 21: 2…and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.  3: If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.  4: If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.  5: And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

 

In the seventh year—the number of perfection—the servant had an option.  He could go out free.  If he was married when he came into servitude then his wife could go out with him.  But if his master had given him a wife and she had bore him children during his time as a servant then the wife and children must stay with the master.  But the servant had the option to go out free.

 

When the soldiers came to arrest our Savior and Peter cut off the soldiers ear, Christ told Peter, “Don’t you know that I could go out free?”

 

Matthew 26: 53: Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

 

But look what he said next

 

Matthew 26: 54: But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

 

God the Father whom he served had given him “a wife and sons and daughters.”  In eternity, God gave him his elect bride, the church, God’s elect sons and daughters.  If he had gone out, without going to the cross, he would have gone out by himself.  But the willing, righteous Servant said, “I love my Master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free!”  Christ loved God the Father perfectly: with all his heart, soul, mind and body and strength and he loved his bride—all God’s elect children—as himself.   So he would not go out free 

 

Oh, “the love of Christ that passeth knowledge!” Brethren, aren’t you thankful that “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end!”  (Jn 13: 1)

 

So what was done next?—"Then his master shall bring him unto the judges.” Though the earthly judges Christ faced were crooked unjust judges, the service our Substitute accomplished for God and his people was in accordance with the perfect righteousness of God, the Judge of heaven and earth.  The innocent Lamb of God was made to bear the sin of God’s elect so that when God poured out justice on him, it would be right!  The chief manifestation set forth on the cross is not the innocence of our Substitute—though in himself he remained holy, uncorrupted—the chief manifestation set forth on the cross is the righteousness of God.  (Rom 3: 26)  If a man thinks it is right for a judge to punish the innocent then let him maintain that Christ was not really made sin but merely treated “as if”.  If a man thinks it is right for a judge to clear a wicked man then let him maintain that Christ did not really make his people righteous but God merely treats us “as if.”  But if a man knows it is right for a judge to only punish the guilty and only clear the righteous then let him maintain, as the scriptures plainly declare, that “he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

 

“He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post;”  Everything Christ accomplished was done openly publicly for all to see.  God commanded that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word must be established. ( Mt 18:16)

 

“and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul;”  His master opened his ear and marked him so that everyone knew he was the willing bond servant of his master.  Our Lord Jesus, the righteous servant of God, himself, gives the best commentary on this:

 

Isaiah 50: 5: The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. 6: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7: For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. 8: He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. 9: Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

 

Christ was God’s obedient servant as he bore the sin of God’s elect and the curse due unto our sin, until justifice was satisfied for all his people.  Then he cried, “it is finished!”  All the debt his bride and his children owed to God was paid in full.  He made full restitution to God on behalf of his people.

 

“and he shall serve him for ever.”  Since Christ highly exalted God, God highly exalted him by raising him from the dead to reign forever.

 

Philippians 2: 8: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

 

CHRIST SERVES AS MASTER OF HIS PEOPLE

 

Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is Head and Master over his church.  He is bringing this word to each of his people in spirit and in truth.

 

He comes to us who sold ourselves into the slavery of sin, where we were served in bondage for 6 long years and finds us incomplete, frustrated, and in bondage!   But through this gospel he declares the 7th year has come—the year of jubilee.  The Spirit declares in our hearts that because Christ paid it all—we are free to go out free without money or price. 

 

Not only this, when the master set his servant free, God’s law demanded the master must do something else.  He must provide all things for his servant.

 

Deuteronomy 15: 13: And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: 14: 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.

 

Isaiah 40: 1: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2: Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.

 

Christ not only paid our debts, he robed us in his eternal righteousness, eternally justifying us.  He not only sanctified us by his one offering on the cross, by the Holy Spirit he creates a new man in us which is perpetually, eternally holy.  By Christ’s double gift, we can never come into debt again!

 

When he reveals this, every true believer says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:”  In accordance with God’s holy law, before the just Judge, with an open confession of Christ before all, we declare that Christ has opened our ear and we are willing to serve him forever!  “I am his and he is mine!”

 

When religious men hear us declare that we are not under the law in any shape, form or fashion they do not understand.  But as the apostle Paul clearly declared and as we see pictured in our text, Christ makes us willing in the day of his power by his love for us.  Therefore, all who believe on Christ serve him, not by the restraint of law but by the constraint of his love, not because we have to but because we want too.  He is a good master and serving him is not a burden at all.  His love and goodness toward us has made us his WILLING bond servants.

 

John 8: 36: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

 

Amen!