Exodus 21 in your Bibles this morning, chapter number 21. Again, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here once again at Ambassador Baptist College. And each time I come, I'm just so thrilled with what God is doing in this place and honored to be here in chapel. And I love Dr. Beal, he's such a precious friend, exemplary Christian, and to so many of the faculty members through the years, been able to become good friends with them. Always so thankful for Dr. Spencer and his influence in my life and our church. And through the years, we've had a number of ambassador students come up to our church and minister, and each one has been a blessing to our church. Four years ago, God led Mike Estill to our church, and boy, he has been such a blessing. And then this past May, we were able to hire him full-time. He's working with our young people in our church. He's gonna help me this morning, so if he'll come on up here, and he's gonna be my master in just a few minutes. He's been waiting for that for a long time. And we're so thankful now that he has a wife, Charity, and she's such a blessing to our church. My wife and I love her. Our church loves her and loves them. I guess about every week of my life, and he could verify this, validate this, every week of my life, someone asks me while we're on visitation, is that your son? And I don't know if it's because I look older than what my age is, or he looks younger than what his age is, but I always say this, that he's not my son, but if my son turns out to be like him, man, I'll be one proud dad. And I love Micah and thank God for the opportunity I've had to be able to be in his life and he in my life, and now to have charity as well. Exodus 21, if you're able, let's stand for the reading of the word of God. We're gonna start reading these verses, and you're going to think that I'm in the wrong text, but I'm not really in the wrong text. I think there's a great truth. How many of you believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God? I believe that. I believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Word of God. I believe that Exodus 21 is just as much God's Word as John 3, 16. I believe it is all profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so Exodus 21 has something for us today, and I hope by the end of the chapel message that you'll remember some of the words therein. Exodus 21, verse one. The Bible says, now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have 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 the King James Bible and the King James language, that adverb. The servant doesn't just say it, the servant shall plainly say, I love my master. Would you say those four words with me? 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 awe, and he shall serve his master forever. If you mark phrases or words in your Bible, I'd like for you to mark these four words. We don't see the word love much through the Pentateuch, but it's right here. I love my master. And I wanna preach on that here this morning. I love my master. Let's pray. Father, we do love you. I thank you for loving us. And Lord, really the only reason I love you is because you first loved me and you proved it on the cross of Calvary. I thank you that when I was a sinner, that You loved me and You bled and died and suffered for my sin debt. And now, Lord, I pray that You'd forgive me of my sin, cleanse my heart. I pray that You'd fill me with the Spirit of God. I pray that You'd bring to my mind the thoughts that I need to think and to my lips the words that I need to say. And I pray above all that the Spirit of God would be the real preacher today, that He would speak to my heart and to each one of our hearts. And Lord, I do love You. I thank You for being my master. I thank You that I could be Your bondservant. And Lord, I give you my ear. I want to serve you for all the days of my life, and I pray that I would do that efficiently and effectively. I pray again that you would speak to us. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for standing. You may be seated. Again, you read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, especially Exodus, and you read some of these civil laws that God gave forth for the children of Israel, and if you're like I am, you read them, and sometimes they become monotonous and laborious, and you're reading through these and you're thinking, how can it apply to my life? Several months back, I was reading through these civil laws in Exodus 21 and trying to understand how this all was and what this civil law meant. And as I was reading it and studying it, the Spirit of God began to speak to my heart. And boy, this passage came alive. The Holy Spirit illuminated my heart and my mind, and he blessed my heart from it. And so let me try to explain here what happens. I'm going to have Brother Micah come up here and illustrate this with me. I'm a simple man. I like illustrations. And hopefully all of us will be able to understand how this operates. And so let's say that Brother Micah loans me some money. Let's say that he loans me $10,000. How many would agree that would be a good thing to loan Brother Bixler is $10,000? All right, hand it over here, $10,000. And so I cannot repay that loan. I cannot pay that $10,000 off. Maybe I pay $1,000 or $2,000, but we see here and in parallel passages that if I could not repay, if I could not pay off that loan and repay him, then I would have to offer myself as a servant, as a Hebrew servant, to this man as a master. We see that. It's a civil law there in that old Levitical economy. And so, I would offer myself as a servant for six years to pay off that loan, to pay off that debt. And so, I become his servant. Boy, he would love that, wouldn't he? I would become his slave, his Hebrew servant. And so, the law said this, we just read it, that if I became his slave, I would work for him for six years. If I came in as a single man, then I would depart as a single man. If I came in as a married man, then I would depart as a married man. If I came in as a single man, but he gave me a wife, then from that wife, from that marital union, I had children, then after six years, the seventh year, I could go free, but my wife and my children would now belong to him. I have three children, and so in my mind, I'm imagining, seventh year comes, I'm a free man, but now Stephanie and Melanie and Alyssa and Andrew, my three children and my wife, would belong to him, and so now I'm in a predicament. I have to choose between family and freedom. Would it be better to be a free single man or to be a married bondman? Now remember that. Is it better to be a free single man or a married bondman to this master because I would have to serve him for the rest of my life? And so freedom or family. Faithfulness to my master or freedom. And I have a choice to make. And so hopefully you're understanding. And so let's kind of act it out here a little. Brother Micah loans me $10,000. I am not able to pay that. I come to Brother Micah and I say, I'm not able to pay the $10,000. I will be your Hebrew servant. And he says, all right. And so I begin to serve him. And for six years, I begin to serve him. As I serve him, one day I'm serving in the field and perhaps plowing the field and perhaps harvesting the crops and so forth. And he says to me, he says, Joel, I have a little place now for you to stay. And so now I have this little place. Let's say it's over here, this little house that I can stay at. Now, listen, who owed who here? Did he owe me? I owed him. I don't deserve to even have a place to stay, but the good master's been so good to me. Not only did he loan me the $10,000, and not only did, once I could not pay that $10,000, he allowed me to work for him for six years, but now he has furnished me with a place to stay. Now I have a roof over my head. Now I have clothes on my back. Boy, he's a good master, isn't he? Well, one day I'm out in the field, let's say I've been working for him for about a year, and I'm out in the field, and I get done working in the field, plowing the field, maybe harvesting the crops, and I come back to this house that he has furnished me with, and when I get inside the house, I open up the door, and there's a woman in my house. And I say, what are you doing here? And Stephanie says, oh, the master knew you were a single man, and so he's not only furnished you with the house, he's furnished you with a wife. And man, I look at her, and she looks at me, and we get married. Now, wait a second. Who was the one that owed whom? I'm the one that owes him, but the good master has given me a house. By the way, we have a good master, my friend. He's given me a house to live in, and now he's given me a wife. How many guys know that's a good deal? How many single guys know that that's a good deal? How many married guys know that? You better raise your hand if you're a married guy. And so now, whoo, hot dog. I mean, I'm working for this guy, but he's giving me a house? He's giving me a woman? And then, a year or so later, I come home from working out in the fields. I've been plowing through the fields and harvesting the crops, and I come home to my house that the good master's given me, and to my wife that the good master has given to me. That's what the text says. And my wife says, guess what, Joel? We're gonna have a baby. A baby. And so then Melanie is born. Now, again, who was the one who owed whom? I owed him, but now the good master's giving me a place to live, he's giving me a wife, and from that union, I have Melanie, and then I come home a couple years later, and now I have Alyssa, and then I have a knucklehead, I mean, I have a son by the name of Andrew. Now in our text it says sons and daughters. My wife and I stopped at daughters and son singular. Six years has transpired. Man, he has been a good master. I owed him $10,000 and he gave me a place to stay. He's given me a wife. And from that marital union, now we have three kids. But now it's the seventh year. Remember, if I came in as a single man, how did I go out? Talk with me. If I came in as a married guy, how did I go out? Married guy. But if I came in as a single guy, and he gave me a wife, and from that union kids, how would I go out? I go out as a single man, and he gets Stephanie, Melanie, Alyssa, and Andrew. And I want to tell you, in our family, he would get the good deal out of that. And so my wife says, hey, Joel, in the fine print, you know wives are really good at the fine print. Joel, it's the seventh year. Oh yeah, I know. You know what that means? Yeah, I get to be a free man. But if you're a free man, Joel, then I stay here and the kids stay here with Master Micah. Boy, that sounds good, doesn't it? Master Micah. So boy, I'm working in the fields and I'm thinking, I don't have to pay the $10,000 back. I've worked it off. Now I can be a single man, but I could be a free man. But on the other hand, man, he is a good master, and now I have a wife, and now I have children, and so I've got to decide a married bondman or a single free man. Listen, my friends, it's really not a choice, according to the text, because I plainly say I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children. I will not go out free. And so at that point, guess what Master Micah does? He takes me to the judges. And so Brother Hamby, he's a Judge Hamby here. And then they take me over to the doorpost. And I tell you, he's been looking forward to this for a long time. He gets an awl in his hand. And he takes the flat part of my ear And he bores a hole through my ear. And that means now I am not just a slave. No, no, no. I'm a bond slave. I am bonded to my master. Does your Bible say forever? Not just for the rest of my life. Not for the year. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Isn't that what the song says? Now I'm bonded for him forever. And I walk around the rest of my life with a hole in my ear. I already have a hole in my head, now I got a hole in my ear. And when my kids grow up and Andrew says, dad, why do you have a hole in your ear? I said, let me tell you the story. I love, I plainly say, I love my master. I love your mom, and I even love you kids. And so I gave my ear to the master and said, I'll serve you forever. Now, some of y'all see where I'm going with this? Let me give you the outline. Thank you, Brother Micah. I wanna give you three thoughts about the servant and the master. I'd like for you to write these down. I love my master, number one, the servant had a good master. That's what he says here again in our text in verse 5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master. You see in verse 4, the master gave him a wife and from that union he had sons and he had daughters and he had a good master. And so you and I should plainly say, I love my Master, I love my Lord, I love my Kurios. And when people say, why do you go to Ambassador Baptist College? Why do you stay in the same church pastoring? Why do you stay in evangelism? Why are you a missionary on a mission field? Why are you serving God as a teacher in a Bible college? We say, I'll tell you why, because I plainly say, I love my Master. You see, there was a day when I owed the Lord a lot more than $10,000. Is that right? I owed the Lord a great sin debt that I could never pay. I was on the oxen block of sin. The Bible says in Psalm 51 in verse 5, And in sin did my mother conceive me. Isaiah 53 in verse 6, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. I was born a sinner. I chose to sin. I had a sin debt that I could not pay. I was on the auction block, and thank God the good Master came down, was born of a virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, and He died on the cross for my sin to redeem my sorry soul. I want to say, I have a good Master this morning. And He hung, and He bled, and He suffered, and He died for my sin and your sin. He paid a debt that He did not owe, because I owed a debt that I could not pay. And 1 Corinthians 6, 19 says 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? For ye are bought with the price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Peter 1 tells me that I'm redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but verse 19, with the precious blood of the Lamb of God. I thank God I was on the auction block. I owed my master a lot more than $10,000, but he died in my place and he suffered and he bled. I want to tell you, I have a good master. And I don't wonder why young people are serving the Lord. Hear me, I wonder why any young person, after the Lord has redeemed us, why any young person would not want to serve that kind of a master. I'm saying, I plainly say, hey listen, if I had a thousand lives to live, I'd give every one of them to my master because he's been so good to me. Do you all feel the same way about that? I mean, I'm the one that owed him. By the way, the Lord doesn't have to be reconciled to me or you. You and I have to be reconciled to Him. He never wronged me. He never wronged you. You and I have wronged Him. And yet, He suffered and bled and died for your sin and for my sin. He's a good Master. He didn't have to give me anything, but He saved my soul. He redeemed me. I'm reconciled to God. And by the way, He gave me a place to live and some clothes on my back. Oh wait, it gets better than that. Not only do I have this place to live right now, but if I read John 14 right, He's preparing another place for me right now. And He's coming back to get me. And I have to scratch my head and say, wait a second. The Lord did not owe me. I owed Him. And yet, he would give me a place to live, and he would give me a pulpit from which to be a preacher, and a church to pastor, and clothes on my back, and then for me, he gave me a wife, and he gave me three kids. I'm telling you, this morning, we have a good master. And I don't know about you, Romans 12, I love that word reasonable. It just seems reasonable to say to him, I give my life lock, stock, and barrel. No strings attached. Lord, my life, I give my body to you. I present it as a living sacrifice. I'll go wherever, I'll do whatever, I'll be whatever. You want me to go to Ghana or Japan or Lenore, North Carolina? You want me to be an evangelist or a pastor or a preacher? I give it all to you because, boy, you've been a good master to me. And I want to plainly say this morning, I love my master. I hope you do as well. Number one, I see the servant had a good master. And we have a good master, you and I. Do you ever meet up with anyone that will say to you, I tell you, if you're a Christian, why do all these bad things happen in your life? And almost trying to minimize how good our God is. My oldest daughter's 14 years of age. She just had another surgery slash procedure two weeks ago, actually today. And she's had so many surgeries, I've lost count of how many she's had. And she has a lot of special needs. And I've had people through time, you're serving God and you're pastoring and you're preaching. Why did God give you such a daughter with such special needs? And I say, don't question the goodness of God around me. Because I was on that slave market of sin, and man, he reached down and saved my soul. I have a good master. And I'll plainly tell everyone in all the world, I love my master. Number one, the servant had a good master. Number two, would you write this down? The servant had a great motivation. He had a good master, he had a great motivation. Because in verse five, he doesn't just say plainly, I love my master, but he also says, I love my wife, and I love my children. I will not go out free. Boy, he had not only a good master, but he had this great motivation because it's nice being able to go home to your home and there's a wife there. And all married people said, Brother Micah said, and I have children. Man, last night I had a free night. We were out there playing football in the backyard. I love being a dad. And so I have a great motivation. Before you and I fornicate, adulterate, or get any other sin, we gotta remember, I have a good master, but I also have a great motivation, and that is this. Man, God's not only given me a master, He's given me a wife, and He's given me three kids. And I know for many of you, you're not there yet, but hopefully, prayerfully, you'll be there someday. And God will give you a spouse, a Christian spouse. And from that marital union, God will give you children. And before you live your life and say, I'm gonna do what I wanna do and go where I wanna go and be what I wanna be, I need to say, my good master has given me this great motivation to serve him. And that is not only the fact that he saved my soul, but boy, he's loaded me with a lot of benefits. Namely, I have a good Christian wife. And I have three kids. And boy, love is a great motivator, isn't it? And so, I've got to choose. Walk the road of the world, or walk the master's road? Be a single, free man that can do whatever I want to do, or be bonded to Christ. But if I'm bonded to Christ, well, He gives me a lot of good benefits along the way as well. I don't know about you, I think I'll plainly say I love my master. Let me give you number three. Number one, the servant had a good master. Number two, the servant had a great motivation. Number three, the servant had a graven mark. A graven mark. That's what 6 says. 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 I love this phrase. I underlined it in my Bible. And he shall serve him. That's the master. Not just for his life. No, no, no. It's much higher than that. He's going to serve him forever. The Hebrew servant had a graven mark. He permanently chose to stay and to serve his master forever. You know, when I was 14 years of age, would you look here a second, when I was 14 years of age, I heard a preacher, an evangelist, Barry Webb, and he preached the Word of God. I couldn't tell you what he preached, but I know God was knocking at my door. He was speaking to my heart. How many know that that happens? And I walked down the aisle to the altar and I said, Lord, I'll give you my life. After all that you've done for me, it's just reasonable for me to put my life, my body, as a living sacrifice on your altar. In essence, you know what I did when I was 14? I said, Lord, here's my ear. Didn't Paul say that? I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Lord, here's my ear take your spiritual all by the Holy Spirit of God and drive a hole in my ear because I want to tell you You have me not just for the rest of my life. You have me forever And it doesn't matter where you want me to go or what you want me to do with my life I give you my ear Doesn't it seem like after all he's done for us that all of us could at least give him our ear doesn't that make sense? By the way, I've regretted a lot of things in my life. I've never regretted giving the Lord my ear If I had a thousand ears, I'd look like a really weird guy. But I'd give every one of them to him. And say, Lord, drive your spiritual hole in my ear because I am yours. I'm bonded to you forever. He's such a good master. You know what the other interesting part was when I went to Bible college? I noticed this tall, dark-haired woman And she had a hole in her ear too. And I realized, Stephanie gave her life to God and said, I'll do whatever God wants me to do. And I tell you, when God gives you men another, when you are a man and God gives you a woman and she has a hole in her ear, and you get to serve God together as bond people, that's a good life right there. And then the two of you hold your hands together and say plainly, I love my master. and it is a privilege to serve him forever. Again, now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. I read Revelation 22, it says there, his servants shall serve him forever. We're gonna be serving the Lord for all of eternity. Boy, he's a good master, isn't he? I hope this morning you'll plainly say, I love my master. By the way, Satan's a cruel taskmaster. And this world is a place of bondage. And the devil's a liar and the father of it. And he'll say, don't go to ambassador. You have those rules and you have those convictions and you have those standards and you'll never be free. I want to tell you, I would rather be a married bond man to Jesus Christ than be a single free man to this world any day of the life. In 1851, Austin Gardner was a missionary, 57 years of age, young man as far as lifespan. And he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island, there at the southern tip of South America, if you're familiar with that geographical map there. When explorers found missionary Austin Gardner's dead body that died of disease and starvation, they found a diary nearby. And in that diary, it recorded hunger, thirst, wounds, and much loneliness. In fact, the very last entry that was in his journal were these words. With trembling, shaking hand were these words scribbled out in that diary, and I want to read them to you. Now again, this is a man that died of disease and starvation, only 57 years of age. The world would say, what a waste of a life. These were his last words, his last entry. I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God. Now friends, I've come to tell you, If a man that died of disease and starvation with shaking, trembling hand could write these words, I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God, then who am I and who are you to ever question that good master that God's given us? And so this morning, I want you to plainly say, not I love my preacher, but I hope you do love him. Not I love Brother Beal, but I hope you do love him. Not that I love my mom or my dad. I hope you do love them. But my friend, the chief motivation is this. I love my Master. And I am overwhelmed with the sense of how good He has been to me in my life. And to think that He has put me in the ministry. And He's given me a house. And He's given me clothes. And He's given me a wife. And He's given me three kids. I want to testify. He is such a good master and Lord and Curios. And at age 41, and a man that's been preaching for 20 some years and in the ministry 19 years, pastor in 12 years, I wanna say, don't look at the ministry as a drudgery. Man, it's a blessing to serve such a good master. And I hope you'll plainly say this morning, I love my master. Would you say those four words with me? I love my master. Father, I thank You for this passage. It was so obscure to me. But Father, I thank You for this civil law. And for the greater truth that we come, the full form, not just the seed form, but the full form that is developed out of it. Lord, that I'm a debtor. And that I cannot pay that debt back to Thee. That sin debt is too large. for me to pay in human merit. And I thank You for grace. I thank You for the unmerited favor of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that You would die in my stead, in my place. Thank You for the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. Thank You for propitiation that You satisfied the wrath of a holy God so that I could be reconciled to Him. And Lord, after You have done that for me, Lord, it's only reasonable for me to say, I give you my life. Lord, whatever you want, I give it to you. And I plainly say to you, Lord, I love you. You do not need me, but I sure need you. And I've not always been good to you, but Lord, thank you, you've been good to me. Lord, I love my wife, I thank you for her. I love my kids, thank you for them. And I love serving you. Thank you for that great privilege and honor. And Father, I pray the Spirit of God right now would write on the tables of human hearts, of listeners hearing my voice, and I pray after what you have done for them, that the goodness of God will lead them to repentance, that the goodness of God will lead them to give their lives to you. Lord, I pray we'd remember these four precious words. I love my master. I pray again you bless this sermon. Seal it to our hearts in Jesus' name.