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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/the-commitment-of-a-hebrew-servant-applied-to-the-christian/
Book of Exodus, please, in chapter 21. Exodus 21, verse number 1. Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou by a 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 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 awl, and he shall serve him forever.
The book of Romans, please. Romans in chapter 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Finally, 1 Corinthians, please. Chapter 6, verse 20.
1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. I trust this word will tie in together with our previous two messages about the glory of God and about a heart and a devotion for our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'd like to look at this Hebrew servant here for especially the younger people and the older ones, I guess, as well. I'd like to look at him in four ways I've never really considered it before. I'd like to look at a time that came, a time that came.
He served for his years, his time had come, and now it was time to make a choice. I'd like to look at the test of appreciation, the test of his devotion, of his love toward the master. I'd like to look at his true confession, who he was going to serve.
And finally, the testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ, testimony for him. You young people, as you're growing up, you're looking at older ones and you're wondering what is it to be a spiritual Christian?
You'll wonder what it is, that how do these people know what they're supposed to do in their life, and so on. And you'll read Romans 12 and one and it'll scare you to death. To present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is your reasonable service.
And you'll wonder what that means and how does that affect me and how am I supposed to present myself a living sacrifice? Well, we're going to look at that in just a moment through this Hebrew servant.
There is a time that is coming. For some of you that are older, you've had that time. And I would like to say this, if the time ever comes when you have to make a decision on who you're going to serve, if the thought never crosses your mind, if there's never an unction by the Spirit in you, maybe you should examine yourself whether in the faith.
There are many today that have never had their hearts challenged on who they're going to serve. They profess to be saved and yet they go out and they live their life all for self. And they never look back and they never turn back.
And there's never a time that comes in their life when they're challenged who they're going to serve. A time that come. You see this man, he had been bought with a price. Maybe he had committed a crime and he had to pay the fine or maybe he was sold into slavery to pay a debt.
It really doesn't matter to me today but this man was a servant. He was entirely at the beck and call of his master for these years. And in the seventh year, he shall go out free for nothing. A time that is coming.
He would serve day by day. He would get to know this master. He would get to know the character of this man. He would grow to appreciate this man and his strong points. He would grow to admire this man and he would grow to understand that this man loved him.
This man that's going to stay. And the time comes. His master had given him a wife and the Lord had given him children. And in the back of this man's mind is the time is coming. Maybe he was given a wife just for the sake of illustration in the early years.
And then one child comes along and maybe possibly another and maybe even a third. And all the time in the back of his mind there's this haunting question. The time is going to come. What am I going to do?
The time is going to come where I'm going to have the choice to be set free and leave my master and leave my wife and leave my children. The time is going to come. What am I going to do? This is the question for my message for you today.
The time is coming. Dear Christian, who are you going to serve? It may not be seven years. It may be today. It may be in this afternoon's ministry or it may be tonight in the gospel or it may be tomorrow or it may be any moment at any time.
But when the Lord calls, what are you going to do? I used to look at Romans 12 and one and I didn't like that verse. I was just a teenager when I was saved and there was lots of things in my life that I wanted to do.
There were places I wanted to go. There were things that I wanted to do. I wanted to make some money. I wanted to get married and have a family and I wanted this and I wanted that but the focus was all on me and you know what I'm talking about.
But just remember that there is a time that is coming. It comes for everyone that is saved. Who are you going to serve? You see this man, he had an unquestioned liberty that was coming to him. He could go out absolutely free for nothing.
He could go out and he could live his life and he could enjoy his life and he could, if it were possible, he could never look back and go out and do his own thing. So he had the liberty to do it. He would have come to know that his master was unrivaled.
There was no one like his master. There was no one that he had ever seen like this man and you'll understand that the master is speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ and you're going to come to understand, I hope, before I'm done, that the focus isn't on the servant in this passage but the focus is on the master.
The master. Yes, it's the servant that has to make up his mind who he's going to serve. But when we think of Romans chapter one, it is a reasonable service. There shouldn't be much thought even given to it.
It shouldn't take all of our energy and all of our efforts to come to this conclusion. So here's the man. He served his time. He's got to choose. So he goes to the judges and he says, I'm going to stay.
I'm going to stay. Would have been quite a day, wouldn't it? Here's a man who gives up all of his liberties and he goes before the judges, the authorities, the gates of the city there and this is going to be done formal.
It is going to be done right. And he says to these men, he has to plainly say it. He has to speak plainly. And that is something that I think most of us struggle with sometimes is speaking plainly. And so he goes to the gate and he says to these judges, no, that's not what he says.
That's not plain speech. He says, I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I will not go out free. He says it plainly. And I can just see the judges there and they say, are you sure? Yes, I'm sure.
Do you realize this is for the rest of your life? Yes, I realize this is for the rest of my life. Very well then. And the master would take him and bore his ear through with the awl. Then the next day, another man comes, goes to the judges.
Same master it was the day before. And he says, I love my master, my wife and my children. I will not go out free. And the judges are like, this is peculiar. This is the same master now with two different servants that are going to stay.
Very well then, take him to the door. And the next day and the next day. And you get the point. Pretty soon it's going to be this. The focus now is not on these servants, for there are many. And the focus isn't on these men that have decided to stay.
The focus is on the Lord. It is on the master. And all of a sudden the whole place is understanding this. Something is unique about this master. Something is precious about this man. Every servant that he has stays.
The time comes and they stay. The time comes and they will not go out free. And then there's one that comes and they go out free. It was okay to do that. That was their prerogative. That was their choice.
But this is the question. What's the matter with that servant? What's going on here? He must not realize that he's not going out free. What his master's all about. He must not understand the care and the compassion and the love that his master has toward him.
You see, the focus is on the master. Presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. We are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirits, which are God's.
And so the time came and then there was a test of appreciation. Isn't that really where it's at? It's the test of the heart. Look what my master has done for me. When was the last time you looked back in your little life's experience?
You got to the moment of your salvation and you thought of it like this. Look what my Lord has done for me. I hope that happens on a minimum every single day. The test of appreciation. He says, I love him.
I love him. I can't go out free. I appreciate this one so much. I'm going to live my life to the glory of my master. The test of appreciation. How is it in 2019 that we plainly say that we love our master?
What is it that Christians do in 2019? There's not a door to go. There's not an all to pierce through the ear. What is it that we do? I'll give you three very simple things. The first thing is that the Lord Jesus says that if you love me, you'll do.
John 14, 15, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Do you love him? Keep his commandments. Now, is that hard to do? Is that a struggle for us to do? He says, keep them. Just simply obey. If you love me, obey my commandments.
He's not giving us the 10 commandments to try to fulfill for our own righteousness. He's giving us these simple things of believer's baptism, of gathering to his name, to obeying the truth that we know.
Dear young person that's just newly saved, I say this to all young people that are newly saved. Just obey what you know. Just obey what you know. Love him. Do what you know, what is right to do. Keep his commandments.
And he says to Peter and John, John 21, if you love me, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Has that ever smitten you? That there is one of God's people and they need help and you can't take the time to help them?
Or maybe it's not, the affection isn't there to help them. And he tells Peter this, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Can we plainly say that today? To have an intense interest for the people of God, to feed them?
I'm not talking so much with physical food, although if that is needed, absolutely. But feed them with the word of God. Give them something for their soul. Give them something to go on and to grow on.
And he tells Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Love the brethren, 1 John 4, 21. We know that we love him because we love the brethren. I understand that we're an odd bunch. It's just the way we are.
But he says, love the brethren. Just love them. Liking them would be even better, but love them anyway. Love the brethren. He plainly said, I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children. He spoke clearly, he spoke boldly, he spoke consistently.
He didn't change his tune. And there I see that man go away from that post with the hole in his ear. An absolute delight. Absolute delight. Best thing he ever did. Best thing he could have ever done. Because you see, when he became a servant of the master, he had everything that the master had.
How well do you know the Lord Jesus today? Do you realize what you have when you have him? Do you understand the spiritual blessings in heaven and the heavenly places? Do we fathom in any little measure or any little way the things that we have that accompany our salvation?
The things that are absolutely real, the things that are absolutely eternal, even the temporal things of life, the things that we have when we have him. I dare say this servant, he understood a little bit of the master and the things that he had.
His needs would be met. And he shall supply all our need. Shall he not? Every need would be met. Nothing would be lacking. Everything would be provided. And all he had to do was do what he was told. Do what he was told.
You see, that was his job. He was a servant. He was to do what he was told. The test of affection. The tests, or the total commitment. Total commitment. How committed are you today to the Lord Jesus? Remember, there's a time that came.
How committed am I to the person of Christ? How committed am I to the word of God? How committed am I to the assembly of God's people? God's assembly. God's house. Total commitment. 100 committed. That was this man.
Do you think he was ashamed of it? Do you think he walked down the street doing his errands and doing his business for the master and he covered up his ear? Not that he didn't want to hear the filth of the street, but do you think the man was ashamed that he had a hole in his ear?
Wasn't a shame. He loved his master. He wanted to live his life for the glory of his master. It didn't matter to him what the master asked him to do. He was totally committed to doing what the master wanted him to do.
And he was totally committed to doing it with all of his heart. 100 devoted. 100 with all of his heart. And so he was available. The time is coming. Are you available for the master's use? The time is coming.
Are you anticipating the master's use? Total commitment. We struggle with this, don't we? We really do. A man once prayed for those that were on their sickbeds at home and were on the couches of wellness many years ago.
How committed are we to gather with our Lord Jesus Christ? Possibly the simplest thing that we could do for him is to meet with him where he is. You say you love him, but you don't want to be with him.
Hope you're never in a relationship like that. Oh, we love our master, but we love the other things more. Oh, we want to serve the master when it's convenient for us, when we can work it into our schedule.
That wasn't this man. This man was all for the master. Day or night, 24 -7, he was his, and he loved every minute of it. Presenting ourselves a living sacrifice. So he says that I love my master, I love my wife, I love my children.
You see, he understood they were better off there too. Those of you that are married and have children, you'd think the same way. The best place for me is with the master. Why? Well, not only does he take care of my daily needs, but I want my children to know him too.
I want these little ones to grow up, and if all they end up being in their lifetime is servants for the master, that's the best place for them. Never mind the great job and the great responsibility, and those things have their place, but if my wife and my children, should something happen to me, there they are, and they're in the care of the master, and there they are.
They're learning the master, and they're growing to love the master, and the time will come, and they might just say like was said before, I want to stay here too. Do you think the master would keep them on?
Oh, plenty of work to do. Plenty to get done in the master's house. Plenty of work to do. And so there he is, he loves his wife, and he loves his children. He says, I will not go out free. I will not do it.
Time has come. I've got a poem, or some poems here I wrote down, or some sayings I've appreciated this week, and it struck me. One is from Amy Carmichael, I'll just give you a couple lines of it. It says, give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments tire, the passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod. Make me thy fuel, flame of God. What does that mean? That means all for him. Jim Elliott, well-known missionary. A few lines from him, he says, God, I pray, light up these idle sticks of my life, and may I burn up for thee.
Consume my life, my God, for it is thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like yours, Lord Jesus. Father, take my life, yes, my blood, if thou wilt and consume it with an enveloping fire. I would not save it, for it is not mine to save.
Pour out my life as an oblation for the world. Blood is only of value as it flows before thine altars. These were real people. What did they decide? I love my master. I will be a living sacrifice. I have been bought with a price.
I will glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which are God's. God help us. The time has come.