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Sermon #2055 Miscellaneous Sermons
Title: God’s Slaves
Text: Leviticus 25:35-55 Subject: God’s Purchased Slaves Date: Tuesday Evening — February 26, 2013 Tape # BB-12 Reading: Merle Hart and Bobbie Estes Introduction:
I have come here to call you to the most ennobling, honorable and honoring of all things. I am here tonight recruiting slaves. I am calling upon you to voluntarily put yourself into slavery, taking the Lord Jesus Christ as your Master (Matthew 11:28-30).
(Matthew 11:28-30) “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Let’s go once more to Leviticus 25. Since the Lord God has redeemed us, since he has saved us by his grace, he claims us as his slaves (vv. 42, 55).[1]
(Leviticus 25:42) “For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.”
(Leviticus 25:55) “For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”
Read this chapter carefully, and you will see that the Lord claimed rule over the children of Israel, dictating to them what they were to be and do in all things. He claimed the rule of their property, their families, their time, their money, their affections, even their attitude toward one another and their enemies.
And it is only reasonable that we consecrate ourselves to him as voluntary slaves, devoted in all things to him.
(Romans 12:1-2) “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
The Holy Spirit tells us exactly what this slavery is in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
(1 Corinthians 6:9-11) “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, (10) Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (11) And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20) “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (20) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Blessed Fact
Here is a blessed fact. — “Ye are bought with a price!”
“Ye are bought.” — This is that idea of redemption which modern heretics dare to style “mercantile.” The mercantile redemption is the scriptural one, for the expression, “bought with a price” is a double declaration of that idea.
“With a price.” — How great the cost! How great the sacrifice!
(1 Peter 1:18-20) “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (20) Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”
How can we measure the price of our redemption? Measure it in the light of —
Our body and spirit are both bought with the precious blood of Christ.
I’m redeemed, by blood divine! Glory! Glory! — Christ is mine! All to Him I now resign! I have been redeemed!
Blessed Loss
Here is a blessed loss. — “Ye are not your own.”
We read in Deuteronomy 26, — “Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God…And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people!” How honored we are to avouch that the triune Jehovah is our God, declaring by our baptism and our confessed faith that we are his, chosen, redeemed, called, and devoted by faith to him. But how indescribably blessed it is to have the triune Jehovah avouch that we are his! As soon as the sinner looks to Christ in faith, trusting him as his only Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption, he has within him God’s own avouched assurance that he is God’s! The blood of Christ sprinkled on the heart, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost gives assurance that “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon 6:3). It is this avouchment, that we are God’s property, that was confessed in the tithes of the law and is confessed in the free, voluntary gifts of God’s saints in the house of God week by week. Look at Deuteronomy 26:116-19 for a moment.
“16 ¶ This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. 17 Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: 18 And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; 19 And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.” (Deuteronomy 26:16-19)
Blessed Slavery
Here is a blessed slavery. — “Your body and your spirit, which are God’s.”
Blessed Responsibility
Here is a blessed responsibility. — “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 10:31) “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
(Colossians 3:12-17) “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (13) Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. (14) And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. (16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Glorify God in your spirit.
Let us daily seek his grace, that our God may give us wisdom and grace day by day to honor him, to honor the gospel of his grace, and to bring no reproach upon his name, his gospel, or his church. Compel me, by the sweet, irresistible constraint of your Spirit, my God, to “have a perfect balance and just weight, a perfect and just measure” in all my dealings with men in this world.
Blessed Example
Here is a blessed example of what it is to be God’s slave (Isaiah 42:1-4). Our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own darling Son voluntarily became the Servant of the triune God, that he might save us by his grace.
(Isaiah 42:1-4) “1 ¶ Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.”
Yes, Jehovah’s righteous Servant is God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Exodus 21:5-6; Isaiah 50:5-7; Psalm 40:6-10; Hebrews 10:5-14; Philippians 2:5-11). · The Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily became his Father’s Servant to redeem and save his people (Isaiah 50:5-7). · He is that One to whom the law of God referred in Exodus 21:5-6. The bond slave who refused his freedom because he loved his master, his wife, and his children was typical of our Savior. · In the covenant of grace, before the world began, the Son of God voluntarily made himself his Father’s Servant, because he loved his Father, and his chosen family.
It was in this capacity that he spoke in Psalms 40:5-10. Hebrews 10:5-14 explains that the words of our Lord in Psalm 40 referred to his obedience unto death as our Substitute, by which the Lord of glory obtained the everlasting salvation of his chosen. Our great Savior came into the world in the fulness of time to fulfill his covenant engagements as Jehovah’s Servant. And when he had fulfilled those covenant engagements, his people were redeemed, sanctified, and perfected forever by his finished work.
(Hebrews 10:1-14) “1 ¶ For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.”
“7 ¶ Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
This is the basis of our Lord’s exaltation and glory, the means by which he obtained the monarchy of the universe as the God-man, our Mediator (Psalm 2:8; John 17:1-5; Romans 14:9; Philippians 2:5-11). And this is the basis of my appeal to you. — Volunteer to be God’s slave forever!
(Romans 11:33-36) “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (34) For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? (35) Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? (36) For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
(Romans 12:1-2) “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Amen!
Don Fortner
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Pastor Fortner’s
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[1] This passage is not to be read as an endorsement of slavery by God. Rather, the Lord God used that which was the custom of the day to teach us the gospel of his grace. The Word of God addresses men and women where they are. He does the same thing in 1 Corinthians 11, using the customary veil of the day as a symbol of a woman’s modesty and submission to her husband. That passage no more requires women to wear a veil in public worship than this passage teaches us to practice slavery.