Seeking now the help of God, let's turn in his word to that passage of Old Testament Scripture from which we were reading. That's Exodus 21, and we'll take our text in verses five and six. Exodus 21, and taking our text in verses five and six. Let us hear again the word of God. 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 door post and his master shall bore his ear through an all, and he shall serve him forever. I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out three. What do you love most in the world? What holds you captive? Who is your master? Here is a servant, but a servant trapped by love. You know, slavery in Old Testament Israel was a very institution from the cruel and racist institution which was known in the transatlantic world some centuries ago. It was a regulated part of the judicial system of Israel. There were no prisons. Instead, an individual convicted of a lesser crime, a non-capital offence, could instead be delivered for their crime into slavery, strictly speaking into indentured servitude, a bound period of service to a master. a sort of hard labour, I suppose we would describe it as, but one in which the rights of the individual were still protected by legislation. And we see some of that legislation even before us in this chapter here. It was also an economic institution as well. An individual who had become a prisoner of hopeless debt could deliver themselves from debt by actually selling themselves into this indentured servitude. In other words, selling for a lump sum their indentured labour for a period of time. But in either case, the key point about this slavery was it was temporary. This was not a permanent status. This lasted for six full years, six full years of slavery. And then the seventh year came, which was the year of jubilee and freedom was proclaimed and the servant could go out free. He could leave behind his old life bound and subject to his master's will and could go where he pleased and could work as he chose and earn the fruits of his own labour. And indeed he was not to go out with his hands empty, but like Israel going out from Egypt and from the captivity of all, he was to go out with some token of his master's gratitude in his hand for the service that he had given over the preceding six years. So we see that it is a system that commends itself to our sense of morality as something that is reasonable, that is appropriate. It is not imposed upon us or upon our society, but it is a reasonable application of the relevant commandments of God's word. But in the law, provision was in particular made for this case. for the individual who didn't want to go out free, for the one who loved his life and who was content with it. I love my master. I love my wife that I have married during my period of servitude. And I love my children who have been born during my period of servitude. I am content to live like this. And so the provision that we have in the text before us was given to provide a system whereby that individual could choose to be a servant of love. It's a striking incident. It speaks to us in various ways. The Jubilee, of course, applies to the Gospel, doesn't it? The proclamation of liberty, deliverance to the captive, the preaching of liberty and of freedom. And of course, that's what Christ does. He preaches deliverance for those that are bound. He preaches the captivity, the manacles of sin broken off and a new life of righteousness and of holiness that is open before us. So the Jubilee speaks to us of the gospel. And in that sense, there's a very solemn warning here. What did you love? What holds you captive? There's some here tonight, perhaps, who must say within their own hearts, well, this is me. I've heard the sound of the Jubilee. I've heard the offer of Christ and the offer of liberty. And I've seen the door standing open but I've said I love my sins and I love my master of this world and I love the corruptions of this life and I do not wish the freedom of Christ. I want the captivity of sin and of Satan because I love him and it appeals to my nature. And so you've closed your ears to the gospel and you've indicated your choice is to continue a servant of sin, a servant of love. What a fearful thing if that is you here described and if this is your condemnation that liberty was offered but that you loved the chain But there's another application as well to these words, and it is to Christ himself. In Psalm 40, verse six, we have a reference to this institution, that boring through of the ear with the all, it's brought out beautifully in the metrical version, Psalm 40, verse six, no sacrifice nor offering, it's thou at all desire, my ears thou bore, sin offering thou, and burnt, it's not required. The Lord's not requiring offerings from us. The Lord requires obedience, but obedience from a loving heart, from a willing heart. And so the psalmist says, mine ears thou hoard. I am a slave of love. I love to serve my God and he has my heart. And so the psalmist can go on to sing, to do thy will. I take delight, O thou my God, that art, and so on. It should describe the Lord's people, shouldn't it? To be such servants of love. But these words are especially applied to Christ himself. For in Hebrews chapter 10, these words are actually given into the mouth of the Lord Jesus and are directly tied to his love for his own people. I'm reading now Hebrews 10, verse five. Wherefore, when he, that is Christ, cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. You might notice the verse is quoted slightly differently in the New Testament scripture. Not my ears thou bore, but a body thou hast prepared me. Sometimes the quotations of the Old Testament scriptures in the New Testament are not precise, exact quotations with speech marks, as it were, as we might find written in a book today. Rather, they are general summations of the teaching. So there we find the New Testament writer, inspired, of course, by the Spirit of God, who teaches us that the meaning of that, mine ears thou bore, indicates a body thou hast prepared me. In other words, Christ was not merely a willing servant, a servant of love, a servant giving his service freely, but that was the whole purpose and reason for his very existence, his very being as the God-man is as the servant of love. It is love that called Christ into this world. It is love that kept Christ in this world. And it was love that brought Christ to the cross and made him fulfill that great work upon it. From beginning to end of his life, these words were true of Christ, my ears thou bore, to do thy will, I take delight, O thou my God, that art. Friends, I want to speak to you this night of that servant of love. I want to speak to you who are this night servants of sin, servants who love their sins and who choose their sins and who are perhaps not resisting very hard their captivity to sin. But I want to speak to you of another servant of love. I want to speak to you of the love of the mother of souls. And I want to touch your heart with the wonder of Christ's love. That is our subject this night, the servant of love. And I want us to see how this institution prophesies Christ. So firstly then, let us see the choice of love. The choice of love. Looking again at verse five. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. So the motives for this choice are very clear and plain. He chooses captivity because he loves. It is not the compulsion of the law that keeps him in captivity. It is his love. It is his free choice arising from his love. Specifically, I love my master. That's placed first because, of course, it is fundamental. If he merely loved his wife and children, but hated his master and hated his life of service and longed and groaned for his freedom, then he would go forth into freedom and would work and work and labour and labour until he had saved up enough money to buy back, to redeem his wife and his children out of slavery. The only reason he would choose to continue in servitude is if he loved his master and his wife and his children. Here was one who loved the master and so he chose to stay with him. Think of Christ, what love he had for God. Knew ye not that I must be about my father's business? He said at the age of 12. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work," he said to the woman of Samaria. And it was that love, that love for God that carried him through the awful experience of the Garden of Gethsemane. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. What love he had for the master. But it's more than that, not just love for the master, love for the wife, what love Christ has for his bride. The wonderful thing is that he sees us not as we are in the flesh of all our sin and guilt and unfitness and unworthiness, stain, as the apostle puts it, sold under sin. He sees us as we shall be. He sees us glorified, purified, sanctified eternally. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee but love in the Savior's view of his church. And so it was that love that carried him to the cross. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He loved his wife, he loved his children. Christ loves each one of his own people individually. We who are parents know how different our children are. how different they are in character, how different they are in attitude, how different they are in their capacities, in their different gifts, in their different responses to us. And yet how precious each one is. To have more children is not to dilute your love, to divide it out more and more, it is to multiply your love. It is to acquire more and more of these relationships of intense love and delight in one another. Christ has this love for his own. What a delight he has in his beloved children. Behold the children whom thou hast given me. what compassion he has for them, and having that compassion, he desires to be with us. So it was with the servant, he would not be parted from his master, he would not be parted from his wife, not even so long as it took to earn her redemption, he would stay with her. He would not be parted from his children, no, not to miss so much as a year of their lives. I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I will not go out free. And so Christ made his choice. His free choice. We speak a lot about free will in this world, but of course, in the strict sense, no one has free will. Absolutely. Our wills are bound and trapped. We are sinners. We are sold under sin. Sin has its manacles about our minds and our hearts. And unless grace comes in, we are bound and trapped by it forever. Not trapped by some external force, trapped by our own personal, individual love for what is wicked. But Christ was not so. Christ, considered from eternity, had absolute and true free will, for he is God. He is the I am that I am. There was no compulsion on the son to be our savior. He is God. It was his will to do so and to be so. It was true free will, free choice, out of love that made Christ. the servant of his own people. It was love. Ask of me and for heritage, the heathen I'll make thine. Christ had to ask. It was his choice, his will. And so he willed and covenanted with God to be the surety of his own people. There was a safeguard. Verse six, then his master shall bring him unto the judges. This couldn't simply be a private transaction between master and servant. That would of course be open to abuse. There would be the danger of the master compelling the servant to agree. So this must be before the judges in a public place, in a courtroom where there could be no compulsion, where the man could speak freely and declare his mind, he would stay. his free choice. And so it was with Christ. He was free and it was love that compelled him to the cross. Is it not a wonderful thing to read in the Gospel of Matthew his gentle rebuke to his disciples? Thinkest thou not that I could not pray to my Father which is in heaven and he would presently give me more than 12 legions of angels, but a word from Christ, and he would be surrounded by angels, not men to defend him. But no, he would not utter that word. He loved his own too much. He loved, and so he was, and we say it reverently, but he was a servant of that love. He was, as it were, bound, willingly, but bound, by that love to the death of the cross. It was the choice of love to go to Calvary. The choice of love to taste the Roman centurion's whip. It was the choice of love to be pierced through with these nails. It was the choice of love. to suffer and to die. Oh, can we not marvel, can we not wonder at such love? And when you consider such love, then what do you choose this time? As the issues of life and death are set before you, as you hear that death is approaching for every one of us, and after death, the judgment. That eternally there are but two destinations, and by nature we are on the broad road heading to the eternal destruction of a conscious hell forever. And that unless we will repent and receive the love of Christ in our souls, that will be our fate, each one. But praise God, the gospel comes. the jubilee trumpet, proclaiming life, proclaiming freedom, proclaiming liberty, liberty to the captives, freedom for those who are bound. What will you choose? Will you choose to have this man to reign over you? Or will you continue to love your sins? Are they really worth that much? Are they really so precious to you? that you would choose sin rather than such a saviour, that you would choose the world rather than such love, that you would choose your present companions leading you into foolishness and into iniquity rather than an eternal God who has given himself for his own. Will you have this man? to reign over you. Will you go free this day? Or will you say, I love sin? So firstly then, the choice of love. But secondly, the cost of love. The cost of love. Verse six, 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. Now this aspect of the institution was very important. It was a further safeguard. Lest anyone lightly, unthinkingly agree, oh yes, I don't mind staying on in this captivity, only to change their mind a few months later. Lest anyone take it lightly. It had this painful cost. attached to it, this painful, bloody ceremony that the master would bring the slave back to the door of his house and would bring him to the door post and would then hammer through his ear and all a metal instrument that would cut through that ear and forever leave it permanently mutilated. permanently marking him out as a servant of love. So that no one would take it lightly, so that no one would act rashly, this aspect of the institution was commanding. The cost, it would cost pain, it would cost blood, it would cost a time of temporary distress while a wound heal it would cost. How much greater the cost of our Saviour's love. Have you marveled at that cost? Have you wondered at what He endured for His love? Consider how He proved it. He came into this world. That is miracle itself. He who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, filling the vastness of the universe, possessing the attributes of eternity and immensity and omniscience and omnipresence, that he would choose to walk as a man, to be bound to the passage of time, to be bound to one space, to be bound to a life in this world. And that, as the Catechism says, in a low condition, made under the law, that he would live as man. That is marvel itself. And yet his reply is, his answer then to the Lord, these were my words, I come, behold and see. Oh, he accepted that cross. He was tempted, and the temptation of Christ was fearful indeed. Oppressive, 40 days in that wilderness, without the necessities of his body, without support from man, at the mercy of Satan. there to be troubled and to be tormented, there to have the very limits of his endurance pulled by that merciless tempter. And yet in all that experience, he endured. To do thy will, I take to life, O thou by God that art. Though there was a cost to his service, but he paid. And then at the last, to face death itself, to endure such affliction, such agony, to endure, yes, the pain of body, and that is fearful enough. To human nature, pain of body is a terrifying thing. But oh, how much worse, pain of soul. How much more awful that wrath which he prophesied. As he learned to sing, Psalm 22, Psalm 69, as he learned to sing these words, so he learned what he must endure. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And yet love compelled him to bear that cost. to endure to the end. Consider the significance that it was the ear that was pierced through. There does seem to be a symbolic significance to that. The servant was to be a servant forever, so it was his ear that was marked. The ear, as it were, was symbolically open. ever open to hear the master's voice. You hear the command. You are not your own. You are bought with a price. That's the symbolism. The ear, therefore, is marked. He is the master's. He is his forever. Think of the symbolism of Christ, pierced not in his ear, but his hands, and his feet, and at last his body itself. The spear entering in at his side, plunging deep into his torso. And forthwith there came blood and water. The blood signifying life. The water signifying that his heart had been pierced. As the pericardium was ruptured, so the water flowed out. And so blood and water flowed. to indicate how thoroughly and deeply he had been pierced that life had been, that life had gone, that it was a dead body that remained. His whole life given, not merely his ear, not merely his service, but his life, That was the cost of his service and he gave it willingly for his own. Well friend, how do you respond when you hear of such love? Does it move your heart? Are you touched with some wonder as you think of the sweet compassion of Christ for his own? As you think of what he was willing to go through that his people might live? That though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich. Does that make you wonder? Oh, it should, friends. It should. You know, I think we would find it beautiful. Can we not say as the Lord's people that we would find this love beautiful even if we were convinced that we had no part in it, that there was nothing for us in Christ. Yet would it not be beautiful to think of such love for undeserving sinners? And when in faith we are enabled to come and to believe in the Lord Jesus, and when we discover and are assured that that love is for us, and that he is faithful that promised, that water flow for our pardon and for our cleansing, that we are in his purpose of salvation, that we are in that heart of love, that we are his eternal inheritance. Is there not in that the sea of joy unspeakable and full of glory? My friend, will you have this man to reign over you? One final aspect to draw out of this incident. We've considered the choice of love. We've considered the cost of love. Thirdly, the mark of love. His master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. So the ear would be thereafter permanently mutilated. That would be a wound so extensive that it would never heal up. The ear would never be restored to its former condition. Permanently and forever, that individual would publicly be marked as a servant of love. It declared to all who saw him his love. that he had chosen this servitude. Come to Christ and think of the marks that he bears. In the first place, he bears a human nature still. Christ is still true man, though he is exalted at the pinnacle of heaven, though all power and authority in heaven and on earth is delivered to his hands, though he sits at the right hand of God. Yet he does so in a true human nature. Yet he is man. And so as man, he is exalted to that state. His very nature proclaims him to be this servant of love. But of course, in a more specific sense, he is marked We can show this from his appearances to his disciples, that even in his resurrected state, he bore the marks upon his hands and upon his feet and upon his side of what he had endured. For Christ, these are the battle scars of his victory. I don't believe that we shall be scarred or marked in eternity. I believe that we shall leave behind forever the wounds of the disabilities of this life, because these things are the fruits of our sin. And so they will be left behind here forever. But Christ bears these wounds because they are the proof of his triumph. They are the substance of his plea before God for his own people's salvation, and so we have him described in Revelation as the lamb as it had been slain, still bearing the evidence of what he had gone through, for that is the evidence of his great triumph, of his purpose, and of his work, that he is the servant of love. Can we not marvel that there is such love in our God, such love in our Saviour, such love for sinners in the Lord Jesus? Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Can we not marvel that this is eternally his name? He is He is still Savior. He is still the hope of Israel. Can we not marvel that it is so? He bears the marks forever. The person, the evidence, the name of Savior. So come to this Savior. Find in this servant of love mercy for you, deliverance for you. What a fearful thing to say, I will not have God's savior. I will choose sin rather than that. Maybe you say to me, well, I'm not saying no forever. I'm just saying not yet. A little more of the world, a little longer of this life. The sad thing is, when does that end? When will you be softer to the gospel than you are now? Do you think you'll be softer next year or next decade? I fear quite the reverse. Can we not see even from our own experience that there's a hardening in sin as men and women continue? If you feel anything this night, If you hear anything that draws you, then go home and get on your knees and beg the Lord to do a work of grace in your soul. Seek him with all your heart, because apart from him you are lost forever. Without his deliverance, that captivity to sin continues and endures. and you go into the lost eternity bearing upon your body the marks of sin. What a fearful thing to enter hell as one who has heard the gospel. What a fearful thing to enter hell marked as one who chose this and who loved this There's millions in hell who've never heard the name of Christ. Millions who've never heard a sermon. Millions who lived and died under atheistic communist regimes or under dark, heathen, as part of dark, heathen countries to which no missionary had yet come and had yet reached the truth. They lived and died in ignorance of the way of life. and how fearful to enter amongst them marked as one who loved this. We're told that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, some of the vilest, blackest sinners, that the surface of this world has ever been contaminated by, yet it will be more tolerable for them. Hell, the judgment, than for those who heard Christ preach for three years. How many years have you heard sermons? How many years have you seen godly example set before you, maybe even in your own family, maybe even in your own household? How many years have you closed your ears to the Word of God, even as you read it? How many years have you said no, not yet, as a preacher wrestled for your soul? How many years have you said no, even as people who loved you prayed for you to be softened? Even as they groaned over you, you would not groan over yourself. What will your hell be if you enter with such a mark upon you, a servant of love to this? May it not be so. Flee to Christ now. Flee to him while there is time. flee while you hear a word of invitation, while you hear of the jubilee and of the door open and of the chains loosed and of the power of God to deliver you from that captivity and to grant you the will to leave sin and to turn from it and to turn unto righteousness with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. You say in your own heart, well, there never was a sinner like me. Well, there never was a savior like Christ, and he is able, and he's saved worse and darker than you. Come to Christ while yet there is time. Come to him who loved his own so much that he gave himself for them. Do not continue in this foolish unbelief. Do not continue in this stubbornness of love for sin. because it will deceive you and it will slay you and it will gloat over you for all eternity. Love him who is worthy of your love. Love the Savior who is love itself. Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. and there is none else. Amen.