Reasonable and Responsible - Exodus 21:1-36

[0:00] Good morning, everybody. What a blessing. You know, I've been pastoring this church a little over two years now,! But before I was ever called to be a pastor, I loved coming to church.

[0:11] ! I just love being in the presence of the Lord with His people. I love worship. I love that we are privileged. Like, we have this privilege that God gives us that He says, Yeah, I'll receive your singing.

[0:22] Go ahead. And it's like, wow! But He loves it. He inhabits the praises of His people. That's just phenomenal. And it's such a blessing when we enter into praise and then to realize God enters in with us.

[0:35] And then you know that and you sense that. And you're just walking in the reality of that. Love that. You know, we've been traveling with Israel. We are at the base of Mount Sinai with Israel.

[0:46] Camp there as God on the mountain has been speaking forth the Ten Commandments. We took about six weeks to go through the Ten Commandments. And then we finished chapter 20 last week and saw how God, so remarkably, not to Him, but to us, just how He works so remarkably, that it led to the altar, that the law led to a place of sacrifice, led to the altar as God brings His people to this instruction on how to worship Him.

[1:11] Not with idols, not with a specific religion, but as it were, but to the altar. And the ultimate test of our faith is how do we respond to that?

[1:23] How do we respond to the word that God gives from the mountain? How do we respond to the word God gives from the pages of His book? How do we respond when God calls us to come to a place of sacrifice, the altar?

[1:34] That's how we know where our faith is. Our faith is based in our response to God and to His word. You can't have faith and not act upon it, right? We saw that the altar then led to love because Jesus, as He came to the altar, He came to express that love that He has for us through sacrifice.

[1:51] We come because of our sin. He comes because of our sin, but to express that in love. And the law, it established priorities, it set boundaries, it promoted life, it protected love, and it keeps God in view.

[2:05] But as that then comes into our lives, as we now get into the rest of Exodus and then into Leviticus, which is just Exodus 2.0, as God now established this law based off the Ten Commandments, well, this is now going to be the application of it.

[2:20] Okay, well, how do I do this? You know, thou shalt not, thou shalt, and whatever. How do I apply that to my life? Well, that's what God's going to do. I mean, the Bible is observation, interpretation, and application.

[2:31] As I said this last Wednesday, the more I study it, I'm convinced it's observation, observation, observation. We observe, God gave His law. Well, what do I do with that? Oh, He's going to tell me if I would just keep reading, and I'll observe how that's to apply in my life.

[2:45] How do I apply it to my life? Well, if I keep reading, Jesus will tell me. He'll say, hey, this is how you apply this truth to your life. So how do we respond to God's Word?

[2:56] Well, what we're going to see is God responds to His Word. God responds to His Word that He's given for us. We don't have to figure it out. He kind of gives us that roadmap. We're going to see today that it is reasonable and a responsible response.

[3:09] You know, the law is still God's Word. It was written to Israel. It was given to Israel. It's meant for them nationally, but it's still part of God's Word. God didn't say, well, Israel, great, now the church is here. Let's cut out, you know, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.

[3:23] We'll just get them out. You don't really need those. Well, we do, because it is God's Word. And God's Word is good. And God's Word was breathed by the Spirit. So whether it is the law or not, it's still God's Word.

[3:36] Jesus spoke to the apostles. He spoke specific things sometimes to Peter. And yet, so many times when He speaks to Peter, where I'm at in life, it's like, man, that just sounds like He's speaking right to me.

[3:48] Because Jesus says, the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. They're alive. They're not just on the page. So as we go through the law, we can trust that God is going to speak to us based off of who we are in Christ.

[4:00] Not based off our standing with the Mosaic Law or, you know, where are we in the Old Covenant? No, He's going to speak based off of who we are in Christ.

[4:12] So we said that the law establishes priorities. And the priority is always the same. God first and then man. God first and then man.

[4:22] But they will always go together. You can't separate them. Well, I love God, but I don't love men. Or I love people and doing, you know, community service, but I don't have any interest in God. You can't separate the two.

[4:32] The priority of the law is honor God and then honor man. Respect God. Respect man. Obey God. Obey man.

[4:43] Where it's appropriate to obey man. To respect authority. If you honor God, respect God, and obey man, it's God. I mean, if you honor God, respect God, and obey God, it's going to flow into your relationship with people.

[4:55] It has to. Because God doesn't separate those two out. And that's the priority of the law. Well, the issue is we approach the law and we say, okay, the law affects my behavior. The law regulates what I do and don't do.

[5:07] But what can the law not regulate? The law can't regulate my heart. So then Jesus comes and Jesus now says the priority is love. Love God and love man.

[5:19] If you love God, you will honor God, respect God, and obey God. If you love God, you're going to love man, which is to honor man, respect man, and obey man. The authority that he has where it is in your life. In 1 John, John writes and says, If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar.

[5:38] For he that loves not his brother whom he's seen, how can he love God whom he's not seen? In other words, I have this great love for God. You can't see it, but I love God so much. But what you can see, and what I can see and interact with, well, there's no evidence of love there.

[5:52] There's no evidence that I love my brother. But don't worry, the unseen evidence of loving God, that's still there. I love God. Well, John's pretty, pretty harsh here. You know, I would say something like, well, I don't think that's consistent with God's word.

[6:06] John says, liar. John says, you're a liar. That can't be true. And this commandment have we from him. It's a commandment. That he who loves God, love his brother also.

[6:19] As we see in Galatians 5.14, the law, all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I don't remember what section of scripture we were going through. And it was like, Jeremiah 29.11 came up over and over.

[6:31] I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope or an expected end. And it just keep coming up. And I said, man, we're going to have that one memorized. Well, I think this is one of those.

[6:42] There's a few of these as we go through the law, we're going to have them memorized. Because it's just going to keep coming back there over and over. The law is amazing as I've been studying it. You know, growing up in the church and thinking like, well, how do I do these things?

[6:56] God's just about commands. I've got to keep his commands. And the Lord's like, no, it's about love. It all goes back to love. All the law is fulfilled in this one word. Love your neighbor as yourself.

[7:08] The law protects us from that which is unloving. The law cannot, it cannot affect my heart. But what it can do is it can set boundaries to protect me from acting unloving.

[7:18] The law can't influence me to be loving. That's what the new covenant does. The old covenant protects me from being unloving. But when love has come, well, then there's no more need for the law.

[7:30] Romans 13.10 says, love works no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And that's where we get the idea. Love doesn't have boundaries. Love isn't going to work ill to his neighbor.

[7:40] Whoa, whoa, whoa. I need to be protected from your love. You know, let's put up some boundaries. And there's some people like that now. Right? Do we need to be protected from love? Jesus, can we set some boundaries?

[7:52] Don't love me too much. No, I want all the love of God. Right? There's no boundaries. So God has established this accountability with man through the law. A relationship of accountability between God and man and then between man and man is what he's doing here for Israel.

[8:08] But now God sets up protection to that relationship with the law. He places boundaries so that no neighbor will work ill against his neighbor. The neighbor, the one that we are in mutual relationship with.

[8:22] Right? All of the precepts of the law, all of them that are to follow, are simply the application then of that. The Ten Commandments. My responsibility in relationship to God.

[8:33] My responsibility in relationship to my neighbor. All of the rest that we're going to read. And sometimes we'll dive in and point it out. And sometimes you might just see it and I won't say anything. But you'll see how each command that God gives Israel is just an outworking of one of these ten that we've looked at.

[8:49] So. Dive in to verse one. Now these in Exodus chapter 21. Now these are the judgments which thou shall set before them.

[9:02] So the Lord is instructing Moses. Remember the people have all drawn back. They have not drawn near to the voice. The lightning, the thundering from the mountain. They pulled away. So God is now instructing Moses this. He says, Moses, these are the judgments.

[9:14] Literally, this is that which is judged right. But Moses, you are to tell the people. You're to set before them. Place before them the thing that is judged right. Who's the one who judges what is right?

[9:27] God. The voice from the mountain. He's the one who gets to judge what is right. And Moses' job is to do what? Simply to place it before them. Remember the last chapter, Exodus 20, verse 20.

[9:37] I'm sure you all remember that verse. See, there it is. And Moses said unto the people, fear not. This is when they're drawing back. God has come to prove you that his fear may be before your faces and that you sin not.

[9:51] He wants to set before you his fear, his awe, the thing that you're to respect. And what a beautiful, beautiful picture here. What is it God is telling Moses to set before them? The thing that he says will keep you from sin.

[10:05] Moses, give him my word. Moses, just place before them the things that I have judged right. Give them my word, Moses, so they sin not. Now, Moses is not responsible to ensure that they keep his word, right?

[10:20] It's just to give it. Now, there's people in our lives, we'd like to do that. We'd like to ensure they keep his word. You watch as the word has been given to them and they refuse to respond to it.

[10:30] They work against their own good and their own benefit. And it's like, how can I convince you to? Well, that's not our job. And the problem is if we convince them, well, then they can be unconvinced, right?

[10:42] I think about us here. You know, I love coming to the place where God's people meet. You never know who's going to show up. And there's legitimate things going on. We're traveling, we're doing things. But what I love is like, you guys are here because you want to be here.

[10:54] Is anybody forced to come? Kids, keep your hands down. Anybody forced to come here? No, we want to be here. We love it. We delight in it. You're not here to hear me.

[11:05] You're here because God's here and his word is here. Moses would say to the people at the end of his life, at his last sermon, in a sense, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19, he says, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you.

[11:19] It's the witness against you. I have set before you life and death. I set before you blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your seed, your children may live.

[11:30] That's what we say to people. Well, here it is. Here it is. I set before you life and death. Choose life. We can't force them to choose life. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

[11:43] And if you try to make him, you'll just drown him. And that's not going to work either. Moses is faithful to administer God's word, but he was not the source and he was not the determiner of it.

[11:54] Hey, Moses, you know, by the time Jesus comes, the Pharisees will say, well, Moses said and Moses commanded. And Jesus is like, yeah, but where did Moses get it from? You know, we're not the originator of this.

[12:05] We're not the ones who determine it. We're not its source. And sometimes that means saying hard things. Well, this is what God's word says. Well, I don't like that. Well, that's what God's word says. My job is just to faithfully place it in front of you.

[12:19] God's word is not just an interesting option or a mental exercise. It carries with it the accountability to do it. It's not just one voice among many. It's not just a good book.

[12:29] It's not just wisdom. That's all contained in it. But it carries with it an accountability. The knowledge of the word creates responsibility in us. Do we respond to it in faith?

[12:42] Do we not? We have a choice to either believe it, receive it, and respond to it, or to reject it, deny it, and pull away from it.

[12:53] Right? We either believe it, receive it, and respond to it, or we're going to reject it. Our relationship with God is then based upon that response. How have I responded to God's word? Have I believed it?

[13:03] You have to believe it first. Is it God's word? No, I don't believe it. Well, you're not going to receive it. You're not going to receive it as your own. But if I believe this is God's word, then I can receive it personally to myself.

[13:16] And then I respond to it. Don't be a hearer only. Right? Deceiving yourselves. But to be doers of the law. And of God's word, I mean. Jesus in Matthew 7, he's saying that those who come to him, not everyone who comes unto him and says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

[13:34] But those that do the will of my Father, which is in heaven. And then he lists all these good things to do. You know, visit the poor and cast out demons in his name and prophesy in his name.

[13:44] Those are all good things. But there's a problem. He says, I will profess unto you I never knew you. Those who come unto him, they must do his will, the will of his Father.

[13:55] What is the will of God? That we are in relationship to him. Not that we keep rules and regulations. The law is meant to lead to relationship. Because the law leads us to God.

[14:05] So with that intro, that's where God is saying to Moses, Moses, these are the judgments you should set before them. And all that is contained in it. They must decide how they're going to respond to it. They must recognize it's God who's giving this.

[14:17] He determines it. He's the one who is telling them their commands. And now he's going to go into verse 2. And we're going to see, I don't usually throw up the outline here. But I'm going to put it up there.

[14:29] I don't know if we're going to get through all this. I really had to, like, yeah, we're going to get through the whole chapter, all 36 verses. It's a little different today. Keller's got to cut out early because his sister's getting married. All of our worship leaders are getting ready for that wedding.

[14:43] And Keller was the only one available because he's the only guy. So we're not going to end with our usual song. I figured that gives me at least 40 minutes extra. So we might be able to get through.

[14:54] I don't know if we'll get through the whole chapter. If not, we'll bail out gently, hopefully, and land softly. But we're going to go through this section here where God's going to start to, like, lay out the application in these people's lives.

[15:06] And the first thing he's going to cover is service. Slavery, service, and sale. So how do the people relate to one another in this idea of servitude? You have former slaves. They're now free.

[15:17] And he's like, okay, we're going to put some boundaries around this. We're going to show you how to correctly relate to that and not just using your life experience. And then he's going to go into murder, manslaughter, and maiming.

[15:30] What happens if you take the life of someone? Intentionally, unintentionally? What happens if you just harm them? And then he's going to end the chapter, really funny, where he just talks a lot about oxen, ouchies and owners.

[15:43] Where the oxen hurts another ox or hurts someone else. And what is God talking about in all this? Does it really apply to me? Does anybody here own an oxen? No?

[15:54] A donkey? I know someone would like to own a donkey, but no, we don't. How does this apply to me? This is the law, this old covenant. No, this is God's word. So if I respond to it, if I believe it, receive it, respond to it, then God's word, even in Exodus chapter 21, can speak into my life.

[16:11] If you buy, in verse 2, a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve. And in the seventh year, he shall go out free for nothing. We're eventually going to find out that's like the year of Jubilee. We're supposed to let the land rest for a year, every seventh year, and all debts are canceled.

[16:27] But God here says, if you have a Hebrew servant, if you have someone of your own people who's an indentured servant, not someone that you've taken into slavery, we're going to find out later in this chapter that kidnapping is off limits as well.

[16:39] But if you bring someone into your home as a servant, God sets boundaries on that. There are boundaries on servitude for this former nation of slaves. It says, six years you shall serve, and in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing.

[16:54] So the contract can only be for six years. You can't say, well, we got to the seventh year, and you know what? I don't really feel like you've done a great job. We're going to extend this two more years. No, he goes free at that point.

[17:06] All debts are canceled. Jesus would say to the disciples, kind of this idea of authority structure. In Matthew 20, Jesus called unto him the disciples and said, you know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, that they that are great exercise authority upon them.

[17:26] But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, or your servant, the one who serves. It doesn't say, whoever wants to become chief, let him serve.

[17:42] Notice it says, those that are great and that are princes, they act in this way. They act in dominion. No, he says, those, let them be your minister.

[17:53] Find the ones, look to the ones that are the ones that are serving. All right, those are the ones that are leading. So servitude has boundaries.

[18:04] Servitude was to be chosen or by mutual arrangement. This was not something where you could force someone into this situation. It was a limited duration, only six years, and it was highly regulated.

[18:17] As we go through this, we're going to see that even more. God calls us to be servants. He asks us to come into a relationship of service with him. But it's chosen, it's mutual, it's by arrangement.

[18:29] It doesn't force us into it. He's not going to force you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Limited duration? Yes, it is limited. We only have so much time. We only have this life that we're given and then it's over.

[18:41] And yes, we will serve him for all of eternity, but it won't be quite the same. This is the only time in your life where you'll be able to say no to sin. This is the only time in all of eternity where you'll be able to deny the flesh and take up your cross and follow him.

[18:52] Yes, it'll be glorious to be in eternity and to serve him. But now we choose whether we're going to serve this limited duration that we have or not. And it is highly regulated.

[19:04] We don't get to make it up and just decide how we're going to serve. Paul says to Timothy in chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, These things teach and exhort.

[19:33] What's he saying? He's saying, Timothy, you are going to have people in relationship of servitude and master, of employer-employee, of authority and under-authority. Don't focus on that.

[19:45] Understand who you are in relation to each other in the bigger picture. They are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. We all have the same benefit in Christ. It doesn't matter if you're the indentured servant or if you're the owner or the master or whatever.

[20:00] We all enjoy the same benefit. So servitude was to be limited. There were to be no lifelong slaves. In God's economy, a man was to go free once his debts were settled.

[20:11] A man goes free once his debts are settled. In Colossians chapter 2, Paul writes and says, You being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, as he quickened together with you, having forgiven you, loosed your debts of all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

[20:34] In God's economy, a man goes free once all his debts have been settled. And Jesus settled our debt so that we can go free. But if he come in by himself now, into this place of servitude in verse 3, he shall go out by himself.

[20:48] 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, well, that shall belong to her masters, and he shall go out by himself.

[21:00] What's this talking about? So if I'm married and I come and serve, you know, I go with what I came with, but I can't, if I get married and have wife and children, I can't take those. I mean, that kind of seems harsh.

[21:12] No, it's just the law is protecting not only the servant, but the master, right? From doing what? From being taken advantage of. We're not to take advantage of our neighbors at the expense, to our benefit and their expense.

[21:24] So God is just saying the law guards both. I can't say, well, I don't think it's fair that that person's doing really, really well and I'm not, so I'm going to take advantage of them for my benefit.

[21:35] No. No. God's laws, God's boundaries that he says protects that. The New Testament does the same. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 6, Paul says that no man is to go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the avenger of all such.

[21:53] And we also have forewarned you and testified. None of us are to go beyond and defraud. I'm not to use your disadvantage to my advantage. No, in fact, in the body, I'm to use your disadvantage to be a blessing to you.

[22:06] I'm to be a blessing in your disadvantage. If any man rejoice, we rejoice with them. If any man hurt, we hurt with them. But here we see that knowledge leads to accountability.

[22:18] The knowledge that all of a sudden is being given to these people, they're now under accountability. Before this, they didn't know this, but now that they do, it changes the way they are accountable to God.

[22:29] It changes what they now know and what they're going to do with that. I can't say, well, now, I didn't know that. I didn't mean to take advantage of them. I just didn't know. Well, no, as Paul said there in 1 Thessalonians, we have forewarned you and we have testified.

[22:44] And if the servant shall plainly say in verse 5, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free. This is interesting. In the Hebrew here, the phrase shall plainly say is actually the word three times over.

[22:59] Say, say, say. And in the Hebrew, when something is used three times, it is emphatic, emphatic, emphatic. If a servant shall say, shall say, shall say, I love my master.

[23:12] I love my wife and my children. I will not go free. He came for service, but he stayed for love. We are free to love. But love has a cost, doesn't it?

[23:28] 1 Corinthians 13, 4 says, love suffers long. John 15, 13 says, greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. So he came for service, but he's going to stay for love, but that love is going to cost him.

[23:42] He says, I will not go free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door or under the post of the door.

[23:56] And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl. He shall serve him forever. You don't know what an awl is. It's like a sharp pointed piece of metal, the wooden handle. And you use it kind of like for putting holes in leather.

[24:07] And also put holes in leather ears really well too. So he put them up against the doorpost and he pierces his ear and he'd put a ring in it, showing that I have chosen this. And you do before the judges.

[24:18] So they couldn't say, well, he wasn't coerced. Do you want to give up your freedom for the rest of your life for the sake of love? Yes, I want to give up my freedom for the rest of my life for the sake of love. I will sacrifice that. I will be pierced for love.

[24:32] He will bleed for love. And he'll be bound the rest of his life for love. For the sake of the bride and for the sake of the children, he will allow himself to be pierced, to bleed, and to be bound.

[24:46] This prophecy, this idea was prophesied of Jesus in Psalm 40, verse 6. We read, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. Mine ears has thou opened.

[24:57] That literally means to open a hole within all. That's the idea of being that bond servant, that indentured servant for life. Burn offering and sin offering you have not required. What is he saying there? He willingly gives his life.

[25:10] Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire. No, no, he says, I come willingly. My ears are open, pierced for love, bled for love, and bound by love. It's the same word Paul will use in Romans 1, 1.

[25:22] He says, Paul, a servant, that's the idea, the doulos, the bond servant, the one who chooses his service. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel.

[25:33] Paul, chosen to spend the rest of his life for the sake of love and service to the gospel. Once all debts were paid, there's only one debt that remained, the lifelong debt of love.

[25:48] Romans 13, 8, owe no man anything, but to love one another. For he that loves another has fulfilled the law. There's nothing left to owe but love.

[25:58] You can go free, go. No, I'm going to stay. For the sake of the bride and the sake of the children, I'm going to stay because I owed a dad a love. He chose to serve by love, not by debt.

[26:09] John 3, 16, For God so loved the world. He didn't owe us anything. There was no debt that needed to be paid. But for the sake of love, he chose to sacrifice, to give his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[26:23] That Jesus, for all of eternity, not just a lifetime, is pierced, he was bled, and now he is bound, essentially. He took upon him flesh, the form of a man, and he will forever bear those scars of his servitude so that you and I can live free with no debt owed but love.

[26:45] And if a man, verse 7, will sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. What's he talking about? Well, if you keep reading to verse 8, it says, And if she please not her master who has betrothed herself to him.

[26:58] He's talking here about to place into servitude for the purpose and intention of marriage. So, you know what a dowry is? So if you have a daughter, and I've got three, and they're going to be married, you know, my oldest is married to Keller, I'd have to have her bring a substantial amount to convince him that this girl is worth marrying.

[27:23] You would bring the bride price. And part of it was for her own well-being. If something was to happen to him or whatever, she'd have something to fall back on. But I always thought that it should be the other way around.

[27:34] Like, man, I feel like if you want this girl, you need to buy her from me. I'm the one losing. But ultimately, this is protection for women against abuse God is setting out here. God is starting remarkably with the least.

[27:46] He's starting with slaves, servants, and women. Girls, you've come a long way. In this culture, in this society, the slaves are the least, and the female slaves are the least of the least. And God is starting here.

[27:58] He says, all right, here's the Ten Commandments. Now let's establish society. All right, God, who's king? No, no, no. Let's start with the least. Because if you can treat them with honor, respect, and love, then you got it made for the rest of them.

[28:11] So God will not allow his order or his creation to be degraded. He says here that if your daughter needs to go into servitude, great, but she'll not go as the men's servants. She's not a man. You're not going to treat her as a man.

[28:22] Ladies, when you are treated as a man, it just degrades God's order for his creation. It degrades the position he's given you. Peter writes in 1 Peter 3, he says, you husbands dwell with your wives according to knowledge, or at least as much knowledge as you can have of your wife.

[28:40] That's a lifetime thing too. Giving honor unto the wife is under the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.

[28:52] What's he saying there? Men and women are equal. He says it right there. You're heirs together of the grace of life, but they're also ordered. There's an order. And that order does not degrade you, ladies.

[29:03] What does it do? It honors you. Give honor unto your wife as the weaker vessel. She's just a weakling. Now, if you're going to go get water from the well, you take the guy, you take the bucket. You don't take the china teacup, right?

[29:15] That's not what it's for. So when you take the china teacup and use it in the place of the bucket, all you do is just degrade that. All you do is just bring it down. Down to places not meant to be. Ladies, does that mean that you can't work or have careers?

[29:28] I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying if you operate in the place of a man or trying to be in the place of a man because you feel this value there that you don't have and you need to gain that value, you're just the china teacup trying to dip from the well.

[29:41] It's the bucket's job. What's yours? Man, it's to be that precious vessel. Husbands, look at your wives that way. Understand that's who they are and honor them. So in this instance, this father didn't have money for a dowry, for a bride price.

[29:58] So he'd say, hey, you know what? Let's do this. Let's have her enter into servitude in your house with the intention that you will eventually marry her. Or we're going to find out where your son will eventually marry her.

[30:08] Okay, and we'll have this arrangement and we'll be win-win. You'll get a wife and I will get the price for that. But verse eight says, if she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed.

[30:24] So he says, all right, you know what? This isn't going to work out. We're not going to be married. If somebody else would like to marry her, all they got to do is pay me what I have put into this. To sell her into a strange nation, he shall have no power.

[30:36] So you can't sell her outside the family of God, outside essentially the Israel, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her. Ah, well, here we hit our first 10 commandment, which is kind of obvious.

[30:50] Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You've dealt deceitfully with her. You've borne false witness. Your witness to her was false. You said, hey, I'll marry you. Then you broke your promise.

[31:03] Where it says, if she please not her master, the word there is interesting. It says, if she is evil in his eyes, all of a sudden she becomes evil in his eyes. But I think it's interesting, and also in the English, it's translated, please, a man's pleasures may not dictate his treatment of women.

[31:22] And it's interesting, it says, it becomes evil in his eyes. And that's the case. Anytime a man allows his treatment of women to be dictated by his pleasures, it will lead to evil in his eyes, either for him to see evil or even the thing that once he thought was going to bring him such pleasure will become evil.

[31:41] But if he shall not, if it's not going to work out, okay, then she can be redeemed. Redemption is available to set the bride free. I mean, here we are, guys, in the law.

[31:52] Here we're in Exodus 21, and God's just laying out for Israel, and they're like, okay, that makes sense. We'll do that. And here on this side of the cross, we read that the bride can be redeemed from a situation she needs to be set free from, where she's bound in, that she's evil in the eyes of someone.

[32:08] How do I get out of here? And there's redemption for the bride, if the price is paid. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

[32:19] For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. It all comes full circle. Christ has redeemed us from the bondage of the law, from a place that, in a sense, it deceived us.

[32:30] As Paul says, sin deceived me and slew me. The law, I thought, was good, and I said, okay, I'll become subject to it. And I find out all it does is just reinforce this bondage I'm under of sin.

[32:42] And if he's betrothed her unto his son, in verse 9, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. The idea is, if he brought her into his house for the sake of his son, and it's not going to work out, okay, then she's now a daughter.

[32:52] You've brought her into your home. A man is responsible for the woman he brings into his home for life. A man's desires shall not supersede her rights.

[33:06] In verse 10, it says, if you take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall not be diminished. But his desires may change. But his desires do not supersede her rights.

[33:18] He must still take care of her as he has promised. What's interesting, though, you know, we've looked at this in the negative light. What is the positive light?

[33:29] Well, the positive light is that a woman who's in a home where she has no way to redeem herself, she's stuck there, but now she's not wanted. And someone comes and says, I'll redeem you.

[33:42] I'll buy you out. I'm going to redeem you for the sake of my son. And you can come into this relationship with my son. The church has been redeemed out of the servitude that she was in to be betrothed to the son.

[33:56] We have been redeemed out of a situation where it was evil in our eyes. And God paid that price so that he might betroth us to his son. So this man is forever responsible for the woman he's brought into his home.

[34:10] It doesn't matter if his desires change or, well, you know, we don't love each other. Okay, been married for 20 years and you just figured that out? I don't buy that. You're just looking to do what? Live according to your own desires.

[34:21] It's not pleasing in your eyes. And if he does not these three unto her, verse 11, then she shall go out free without money. So if he says, no, I'm not going to, I'm not going to fulfill my obligations to you, then she's free.

[34:33] God will not allow even the least to be defrauded. You will not defraud the servant and you will not defraud the least of the servant. A young maid brought into the home. He that smites a man, and now we move into this next section, murder, manslaughter, and maiming.

[34:50] He that smites a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. So God is establishing for them. It doesn't matter. It could be maybe one of the least of these. It doesn't matter. A life, God values life.

[35:02] And here we have our next Ten Commandments, which is quite obvious. Thou shalt not kill. All right, well, what does that look like, Lord? What about the, I mean, what if there's like a situation where it's like some type of fist fight and oops, he dies, you know, or, you know, what if I just happened to be swinging that baseball bat as he walked by, you know, what about then?

[35:21] Well, God's going to cover all of that. But right from the start, he says, if you smite a man so that he dies, you shall be put to death. Man is responsible and accountable for his interactions with his neighbor.

[35:32] We are responsible. He's not to defraud or seek to advantage himself at his neighbor's expense. You're not going to get any type of advantage out of harming your neighbor. And if a man lie not in wait, verse 13, but God deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint you a place whither he shall flee.

[35:49] We're going to eventually find out that these are cities of refuge and there's this whole beautiful picture regarding that we'll get into eventually. Ultimately, though, there's a refuge for the guilty. And there's a refuge for the guilty.

[35:59] Those who have come under guilt, there's a place they can be to go to refuge. This is intent if he lie not in wait, if he does not have the intent to murder. But the person still has been killed and a life is owed for a life.

[36:15] God is reasonable. He's reasonable. What does the word reasonable mean? Reason, able, ability to read. I mean to reason. Ability to reason or the ability to see the reason of the thing.

[36:28] If I said, that's a very reasonable thing you did. Well, I have the ability to see there's reason in that. I see that that's reasonable. It also means we have the ability to see reason. Responsibility just means the ability to respond.

[36:42] That's what it is. So here we see God is both reasonable but he's also merciful. The punishment fits the crime. The life is owed for the life but he's merciful. Even the law, all the way back here tucked away in the law, acknowledges the heart.

[36:58] God is basing judgment on the heart. He says, if a man lie not in wait, but God delivered him into his hand. God even prevents this idea of overreacting. Like, well, doesn't matter it was an accident.

[37:09] We're going to make an example of him. No, God prevents overreacting by inserting himself into the crime. He says, well, maybe it was just karma. You know, he had it coming to him. But God inserts himself. He says, no, I was there.

[37:21] It's a point unto man once to die and then the judgment. Yes, it was an accident. There was no ill intent. And God looks on the heart all the way back here in Exodus. But if a man come presumptuously unto his neighbor to slay him, or I'm going to premeditated murder, he slays him with guile, thou shalt take from him, thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die.

[37:45] What does that mean? Well, he can run in and grab the altar and say, well, I know, I know, I know I did that and it was really bad, really, really bad. But look, I've repented and now I'm doing spiritual things and I'm in God's presence.

[37:57] Obedience in one area cannot make up for disobedience in another area. You can't. Jesus would say that when he says, hey, if you come to the altar and you there remember that your brother is ought against you, leave your gift and go first and make it right with your brother.

[38:12] You're not going to offset that. What a context now in reading it like this. Oh, so I murdered my brother but I'm going to come and worship at the altar? No. You can't make up in one area for disobedience in another area.

[38:26] God says, no, deal with that first. Take care of that. He that smites his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Here's our next 10 commandment. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

[38:40] He that smites his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. Man, I hope you never hit your parents. What's he saying here? Well, he's saying that God's creation exists by God's order.

[38:53] We can no more work against God's created order than we can his spiritual or moral order. The created order is God brought a man and a woman one man, one woman for life and marriage and that is to be a family with children.

[39:05] We can't work against that. We can't. Well, bless me in this area even though I'm disobedient in this area. He that steals a man and sells him or if he be found in his hand he shall surely be put to death.

[39:18] All right? You can't kidnap anybody. Can't force him into servitude. Man is accountable for that which is wrongfully taken from another. If I wrongfully take away another's rights I'm held accountable for that.

[39:30] This would be that. You can't steal him. That's our next Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not steal. So we, remember when we read that in Nexus 20 you should not kill, you should not steal, you should not commit adultery, you should not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[39:44] It's so fast. It's like, what does all that mean? God says, I'm glad you asked. Here's Exodus and Leviticus. We're going to find out what that means. And then he comes back to the mother and father.

[39:54] He says, and he that curses his mother or father shall surely be put to death. Don't curse your parents. What does curse mean? Belittle or lightly esteem. He who belittles or lightly esteems that which God has highly esteemed, essentially.

[40:11] It's a very serious thing. God takes it so serious that it's capital punishment. God's law takes very, very serious the fundamentals of God's created order. Look at our world today.

[40:23] Look at our society. Look at our nation that has let go, that has loosed the fundamentals of God's created order. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul will write to 2 Timothy and he'll say, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.

[40:39] And one of those perilous times that he refers to is being disobedient to parents. The word perilous means hard to take. These are hard to take times. The Greek root word for that means to let loose or to slacken, to let something go.

[40:56] Well, think of that in context of what we're looking at in Exodus. Perilous times will come. They shall be disobedient to parents because they've let go. They've let loose. They said, you know what? I'm going to lightly esteem what God has highly esteemed.

[41:09] I'm going to lightly esteem this relationship between parents and children and authority. And because of that, what happens? Well, we end up in these perilous times where the things that God highly esteems become something that this world lightly esteems.

[41:23] And then they become highly esteemers of themselves. They're covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, and disobedient parents. God takes very serious the fundamentals of his created order.

[41:35] You're not going to steal somebody. You're not going to kidnap someone. You're not going to force them into servitude. You have no right to them. And you also have no right to try and undo God's created order between parents and children.

[41:45] If a man strive together and one smite another with a stone or with his fist and he die not, but keeps his bed, and if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be let go.

[42:00] Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. That's workman's comp. But he's talking about mutual strife here. So here you have a man strive. What if we're just like going at it and I'm fighting with him and oh, mutual strife.

[42:14] And then once it picks up a stone and whacks him with the stone or with his fist, but he doesn't die. He just goes and he keeps his bed. We can never get off the hook, guys, from being good neighbors.

[42:30] This is kind of a funny section to me because here you're fighting with this guy. You're like, oh, are you knocking him down? And God's like, okay, now you've got to take care of him. What? Yeah, now you've got to take care of him. You've got to pay for his healing.

[42:42] You've got to pay for his lost time as long as it takes until he be thoroughly healed. Well, God, he's never going to be thoroughly healed. I mean, I didn't mean to, but I hit him with a rock and now he can never work again.

[42:54] Guess who's your new BFF? Your enemy. And here we see in the law exactly what Jesus said about loving our enemies. In Matthew chapter five, you've heard that it's been said unto you, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

[43:06] I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Makes sense. Even in the law, here it is. Who am I going to hit?

[43:17] Am I going to hit my best? Well, we were just fighting, you know, and I hit him in the head with a rock. No, he's going to be an enemy. He'll be someone you're upset with. The law protects love, guys. The law protects love and it says, no, no, no, you're not going to do that and leave him.

[43:32] You may not even want to be loving, but the law says you have to treat him in a loving way. The new covenant, love then fills our hearts and Jesus can say to him, to say to us, love, just let love be that which is owed.

[43:46] And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished or avenged, what that means. So he's saying, even the very least, if it's even your servant, someone who seems to have no value.

[43:58] Remember in the Roman culture, the slaves had no value. Servants had no value. They were treated like cattle. And so if you killed one, oh, well, it doesn't matter. If you weren't pleased with one, who cares? But God says, no, no, no, no.

[44:09] Even, this applies even to the very, very least. One's personhood is not diminished by the position or job they hold.

[44:21] Our personhood is not diminished. The guy who cleans out the port-a-johns is just as valuable to God and his kingdom as the head of whatever company. Our job and our position does not diminish the value that God places on us.

[44:36] And it doesn't diminish diminish our personhood either. God will uphold the least. He prioritizes the least. I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor.

[44:48] Says Psalms 140, verse 12. God will uphold the least. And then he says about the servant here in verse 21. He says, well, notwithstanding though, if you've smitten your servant, maybe something was wrong and you needed to do that or whatever happened.

[45:02] And if you continue a day or two, it just means, hey, there's no ill intent. You weren't trying to murder him. He shall not be punished for he is his money. In other words, you already got your punishment because you have your lost wages, you have your lost productivity because you just hit your employee and now you get to take care of him for the rest of his life if he can't walk again or whatever or at least you have to pay for his healing.

[45:26] But the idea is there's no ill intent here and that he will be responsible for him. If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart, the King James says, or she miscarry, and yet no mischief follow, he shall surely be punished according as the woman's husband will lay upon him and he shall pay as the judges determine.

[45:46] Here we have again in the Hebrew another instance of one, two, three words where it says punish. The wording is punish, punish, punish. He shall surely punish, punish, punish.

[45:56] He shall be punished. He shall be punished. He shall be punished. God values life very highly. God holds us responsible for the life of the unborn.

[46:10] There was no ill intent here but nevertheless there were ill results and God holds him responsible for that and he will pay as judged. God is acknowledging all life no matter how big, how small, in the womb, out of the womb, servant, master and he holds man accountable for his part in that life.

[46:32] And if any mischief follow in verse 23, then you shall give life for life. God's law is reasonable, it's understandable, it's readable. You can tell, like, all right, did any mischief follow?

[46:45] This isn't like some made-up lawsuit. Oh, you know, I have damages, emotional or whatever and God makes sure nobody's going to be taken advantage of. There's limited retribution.

[46:55] You shall give life for life, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound and stripe for stripe. That's what he's saying, go get them.

[47:07] No, he's saying that it must be reasonable, it must be limited, the retribution. The law establishes responsibility, establishes restitution, but it limits vengeance.

[47:18] You can't go above and beyond. And then, of course, this scripture, where is it quoted in the New Testament? where Jesus says, says, you've heard that it was said, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you in Matthew 5, that you resist not evil, but whosoever will smite you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

[47:39] Why? Why is he saying that? Why wouldn't I resist evil? Because this is simply the application of Matthew 5, verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

[47:53] You don't have to seek vengeance. I don't have to. Because I've been given mercy. I don't have to look out for my own good. And where Jesus says, well, turn the other cheek.

[48:04] Why? Well, we've just seen the law establishes what? That there is restitution to be made. So, hey, you know what? I'm just going to put myself in Jesus' hands. Boom. You want to hit one cheek?

[48:15] Well, you're responsible for that one. Hit this one too. God's the one who's going to uphold me. And if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish, he shall let him go free for the eye's sake.

[48:29] And if he smite out his tooth, he shall let him go for the tooth's sake. Well, I'd rather lose the tooth, please, and not the eye. But either way, he goes free. But what's the point? The goal is always life. The law promotes life.

[48:40] The goal is always life. It sets boundaries to protect life and love. No one will be taken advantage of under the law. And we're going to run through this last section.

[48:51] We can do it, guys. How you doing? You okay? A couple of you? Yeah? That's good. Oxen, ouchies, and owners. Very interesting.

[49:04] If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall be surely stoned and his flesh shall not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall be quit. She'll be free. She'll be let go. She'll be held unaccountable.

[49:16] Accidents happen. There's no ill intent here. He had no control over it. God doesn't hold him accountable for something that this man had no control over.

[49:26] But why an ox? Why an oxen? We're going to go through this whole section on oxen. Why not sheep or goats or a horse, right? Because the ox represents the wealth and strength of man.

[49:40] In an agrarian society, your ox was your wealth and your strength. And strength is never at the expense of life. Wealth is never at the expense of life. Material gain is never at the expense of life.

[49:52] But it's to be used for the sake of life. So God holds it accountable. He says, no, life is the priority. Always. When Noah comes off the ark, God tells him that he will hold accountable even the animals for the blood of man.

[50:05] And surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it. At the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of a man. So man is responsible if he takes another life.

[50:20] So is the animals. Whoso sheds man's blood by blood or by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. God takes life very serious even with the animals.

[50:33] And so here, if the ox happens to gore a man or a woman and they die, then the owner shall be stoned and the flesh shall not be eaten. There is to be no benefit derived from the death of a man.

[50:46] You're not going to take a benefit from that. Like, well, he died, but at least I got the dead ox to eat. We're going to see that's something that's okay in some instances, but not if a man's life has been taken. There's no benefit to be derived in the loss of life.

[51:01] But if the ox were known to push with his horn in times past, if you got a pushy ox and you knew it, and it has been testified to his owner and he's not kept him in, just let him go out and be pushy, but that he has killed a man or a woman, well, the ox shall be stoned and his owner shall also be put to death.

[51:19] Well, then you're responsible. Why? Because knowledge equals responsibility. You're responsible for what you know. In Romans 10, Paul says, I mean, sorry, Romans 14, he speaks to us about our responsibility and who it's to.

[51:34] He says, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you set it not your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. It's not my place to judge.

[51:46] But it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God in the knowledge that we have.

[51:57] Our account is to God. It's not to one another in the sense of like, I can't be like, well, you should have known better. I'm going to judge you for that. That's God's place to do that. I'm responsible for my accountability and the knowledge that I have.

[52:11] I'm not responsible for yours, just like Moses, right? Responsible to place it before you, but I'm not responsible to ensure that you do that. But what is the responsibility? Well, Israel is responsible to ensure that the law is maintained so that love can be protected and that my neighbor is not taken advantage of.

[52:29] It's the same, in a sense, in the church. I can't tell you how to live your life, but you know what? Man, we're going to protect one another here. We're going to make sure that nobody's being taken advantage of and if someone comes in the church and their whole deal is to just try and take advantage of someone, well, then we're going to, for the sake of love and the protection of love and life, ask them to go find another church.

[52:51] But here's an interesting fact that if you, that did happen, if the animal, okay, the guy didn't kill him, but he knew about his pushy ox and the pushy ox killed someone, and he says, listen, if there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatever is laid upon him.

[53:07] So it kind of makes sense, like, hey, you know what? My ox just killed your servant and he's like, dude, that's rough, but you know, I know you didn't, you should have kept him in, you knew it, so hey, here's the price to pay.

[53:19] Here's the price of the ransom. The one who pays the ransom does what? Purchases life. What if you can't pay the ransom? What if you can't pay the ransom?

[53:30] What if you can't pay the ransom? What if you can't pay the ransom? What if you can't pay the ransom? Well, you know, you know, you pushy ox, it killed my, it killed our neighbor here and he's requiring of you a million dollars. Man, I don't got a million dollars. Well, then you have to be stoned. Oh, can we have an installment plan?

[53:42] You know, when someone comes along and says, well, I'll pay the ransom for you. I'll pay it. I'll purchase your life. The one who pays the ransom purchases life, but then the one whose life has been purchased, who does he owe?

[53:56] He owes the one who's paid that price. First Timothy 2, 5 and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

[54:09] Testified in due time just means at the appointed time he came to do that. He gave himself a ransom for all. The one who purchases the life is owed the life. He owns the life.

[54:22] And yet, how remarkable, Jesus who purchased our lives doesn't hold us in bondage. He says, man, you can stay and serve if you want, if you want to serve out of love. Whether you've gored a son or a daughter, according to this judgment, it shall be done unto him.

[54:36] In other words, a person's size and position or age does not diminish their value. If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give unto their master 30 shuckles of silver and the ox shall be stoned.

[54:50] So, even the very least, the manservant or the maidservant, okay, there is still a price to be paid. But that price is fixed. If your ox that you knew was pushy and it killed someone's manservant or maidservant, the price for a slave was 30 shekels.

[55:04] It was a fixed price. Well, where does that come in scripture? When Judas goes to betray Jesus, he said, what will you give me for him?

[55:16] And the Pharisees said, we'll give you 30 pieces of silver. What does that mean? That was the value they placed on Jesus. He's worthless. He's just like the price of a slave to us.

[55:28] We'll give you 30 pieces the way they looked at Jesus. And if a man shall open a pit or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it and an ox or a donkey fall therein, so here we have a donkey, not just an ox.

[55:40] So if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it or if he knows there's a pit there and he uncovers it, doesn't cover it, he's going to be held accountable for what is reasonable and what he's responsible for.

[55:50] The owner of the pit shall make it good and give money unto the owner of them and the dead beast shall be his. Okay, so if your ox falls in my pit that I should have kept closed and I didn't, then I'm going to buy your dead ox.

[56:07] You're going to get the price of a new ox and I get the dead one. Under God's law, there's no one-sided advantage. Even the person who is in the wrong is not taken advantage of. Nobody will be losing at the expense of another under the law.

[56:24] If one man's ox hurt another is that he die, so then you've got an ox battle going on. Must have been a slow fight. You guys ever seen oxen?

[56:35] They're big, lumbering, they got horns, but if one man's ox hurt another that he die, you know, hey bud, your ox just killed mine. Did he? Yeah, it was like three hours, but I watched the whole thing.

[56:49] Then they shall sell the ox and divide the money of it. The dead ox also shall be divided. So here, nobody's in the wrong. It just, it happens. Two animals fought and gee, that's too bad for you.

[57:01] Yours is dead. Good thing mine didn't die. It looks like mine won. Or well, maybe, hey, yours killed mine, so I'm going to kill yours. No, God is so just and so reasonable.

[57:12] But what's amazing here is he makes it so they both bear the loss and the blessing. It's like, hey, mine killed yours, so guess what? I'm going to sell it and then we'll split the price and we'll split the dead ox and each take a blessing.

[57:28] We're each going to own the loss and we're each going to own part of the blessing. Why? Because God desires relationship above law. He desires relationship above all else.

[57:39] Law is meant to protect relationship and here God is doing so much to encourage relationship. Hey, you're in a fist fight with your buddy and you knock him out cold? Hey, you're going to have to take care of him. You're in a fist fight with your enemy or whatever, you're going to have to take care of him.

[57:54] Boy, I bet as you take care of him, maybe your heart's going to soften towards him. Too bad for you, the ox got killed. No, relationship's the priority. You know what? Why don't you give and why don't you guys split this?

[58:08] Relationship is messy and it's dangerous just like oxen but it's always worth it. I love the Bible so much. Proverbs 14, 4, where no oxen are, the crib is clean, the barn, the stall is clean but much increases by the strength of the ox.

[58:26] Hey, look it. Perfectly clean ox crib. Yeah, but there's no strength. There's no increase. It's messy but there's value in it because of the link.

[58:37] You know what? I don't get any relationships problems. I also don't have any friends but I have no relationship problems. Relationships are messy and dangerous but always worth it. Always worth it and the law prioritizes relationship.

[58:51] And lastly, we did it. Or if it be known that the ox has used to push in times past and his owner has not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox and the dead shall be his own.

[59:03] Again, if you know, if I know I've got a pushy ox and he gets out and he starts pushing your ox around and pushes him in front of a car and your ox dies and then, then it's on me because knowledge is responsibility and then it's going to be ox for ox.

[59:16] But even then, hey, we're just going to trade. I get the dead one. There's still, God still has blessing even in accountability. Man's accountability is always to God.

[59:27] Always. All of the things we just read, these people are accountable to God. Behind it, the heart of God, the morality and purposes that God has for man, we can see in the law that was displayed in the New Testament.

[59:39] But our accountability is to God. That's never going to change. But what man is held accountable to is according to what he's responsible for. I'm not held accountable to something I'm not responsible for.

[59:53] We can put that on each other. We can put responsibility on one another that it's not ours to take. Other churches, not this one, can think it's the pastor's responsibility to do all kinds of things and they hold him accountable to that and he's not doing it and they're like, well, what a terrible pastor.

[60:09] He should be doing this. But it's not my responsibility. Perhaps it's yours. Pastor, I met this person and they're really down on their luck and they've told me the whole story and I brought them for you to do something.

[60:21] Why is that my responsibility? My responsibility is to place before you the knowledge of God's word. Which will then tell you your responsibility to which you're accountable to God for.

[60:34] Responsibility is based upon knowledge and knowledge is based upon God's word. James 4, 17 says, Therefore, to him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Knowledge first.

[60:47] Knowledge is power. No, knowledge is accountability. Knowledge leads to responsibility. So, okay, I'll just never read it and I'll never be accountable.

[60:59] That works. Not really. Because only those under the law can come under the law of redemption. If we're not under the law, we're not under the law of redemption.

[61:12] If we run from the law or attempt to find a way to skirt around it, to come out from under the responsibility of the law, well, we also come out from under the blessing of the law, which is in redemption.

[61:23] Galatians 3, 22 says, but the scriptures concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But you gotta first come under.

[61:35] How did I know sin? Well, by the law. It's by the knowledge of law. I mean, it's by, the knowledge of sin is by the law. Yes, read it.

[61:46] Understand it. Gain in your knowledge. Let the responsibility that comes from there allow God to work in you the accountability that goes along with it. Because now we have a new covenant. So much better. We read this verse all the time, referring to our new character, our new life, our new nature in Jesus, and it's so true.

[62:02] But it applied to the old covenant. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, not just the old me, but also the old covenant. Behold, all things are become new.

[62:17] The law regulates man's conduct and behavior. The matters we've just read about the law. They all matter. And they regulate our conduct and our behavior, but they have no ability to regulate the matter of the heart.

[62:29] They can't. But the new covenant can. So much better in Jesus. Not just the old me, but also the old covenant. Let's all stand.

[62:40] I'll pray and we'll close. So what's left once all debts are paid? What's left once we've been ransomed? Love.

[62:53] Love is the debt that remains. There is nothing left that we owe, guys, but love. Father, thank you so much for redeeming us, Lord. Thank you for bringing us under the law.

[63:03] The law, Lord, that is so reasonable. It declares my responsibility and my accountability. But Lord, your heart is in it. Your heart for relationship and for love.

[63:14] It sets boundaries. It protects. It values life. It raises up the least. And Lord, I don't know where each person's at here, but you do, Lord.

[63:25] Maybe in our own minds and in our hearts, we see ourselves so valueless or so low. Lord, maybe we're struggling with accountability. Maybe we're trying to shirk our responsibilities.

[63:37] But Lord, it's never a good idea to run from the law. It's never a good idea to run from the place, Lord, where we can be redeemed. It's through the law that we have the knowledge of sin, but it's by coming as a sinner to the cross that I fall under what Galatians said, that you have concluded all under sin, that all might come under the promise.

[64:00] Thank you this morning, Lord, for redeeming us. And help us now, Lord, to be those who live by love. The debt that's been owed has been paid, and now it's our choice.

[64:11] Are we going to serve out of debt, or are we going to serve out of love? And I, for myself, Lord, want you to drive that thing through my ear, Lord. For the limited time that I have, I want to serve in love.

[64:24] Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you, give you peace.

[64:37] God bless you. Go in love.