"THE PIERCED EAR"
I. THIS WAS THE LAW FOR A HEBREW SLAVE.
A. They were to serve for six years, and in the seventh year they were to be set free.
1. They were not to send them out with just the shirt on their back but were to provide for them liberally.
2. They were to remember that they were once slaves in Egypt.
B. The exception. If he declares I do not want to go away from you because I love you and your house, I enjoy being here.
1. You were to take an awl and with it bore a hole in the lobe of his ear against the door post of the house.
2. A gold ring was usually placed in the pierced ear and the person would then become a slave for life.
3. The golden earring meant that they were a slave by their own choice.
II. I DESIRE TO MAKE THREE APPLICATIONS TO THIS LAW.
A. You were all at one time slaves to sin.
1. Through the work of Jesus Christ you have the opportunity to be set free from the bondage of sin.
a. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels that He might suffer death and that through His death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
b. Jesus paid the price to redeem you from your bondage to your flesh.
c. Paul wrote to the Romans: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof for you have been crucified with Christ in order that sin should no longer rule over you.
2. There are some however that say, "I love my master, I love the life of the flesh, I love living in sin." They have no desire to be freed from their sin.
a. They are in danger of having God's offer of pardon being withdrawn from them and will become slaves to sin forever.
b. God said that His Spirit would not always strive with man.
c. Paul wrote the Romans about such people: NIV Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts; to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever to be praised, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
d. Jude declared of them:
Jude 1:10 They speak evil of those things which they know not: and what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! for they are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, they gorge themselves without concern: they are like clouds without water, driven by winds; trees whose fruit has withered, they are twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Like the raging waves of the sea, their shame is cast up like foam; they are wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
B. Looking at this law from a Christian standpoint, we are slaves by choice.
1. God does not force us to love or serve Him. I serve Him by choice. I say, "I love my Master, He is very good to me, He takes care of all my needs, I enjoy serving Him, this is a good place to be."
a. I want to become His servant for life.
b. Paul, James, Peter and Jude at the beginning of their epistles called themselves bond slaves of Jesus Christ.
c. I am quite ready to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life.
d. The converse of that is if He is my Lord, then I am His servant.
2. It must be acknowledged that you must serve somebody.
a. The issue is not if I want to be a servant or not, but who am I serving, Jesus or Satan?
b. Jesus said that no man can serve two masters, for you will love the one and hate the other, you cannot serve God and Mammon, but it does follow that you do serve God or Mammon.
c. You might examine your life today and ask the question, "Does Jesus reign in my life?" or are you being ruled by your flesh?
d. We see so many today ruled by their passions.
e. To be ruled by your passions is to ruled by Satan.
3. Paul asked in his epistle to the Romans:
ROM 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
a. Adam and Eve were serving God until they obeyed the suggestion of Satan to follow the passions of their flesh and eat of the tree that had been forbidden by God.
b. The fruit was so attractive to the flesh, so they yielded to their fleshly desires and ate.
C. In the Psalm we read this morning, as the psalmist prophesied of Jesus he said:
PSA 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened (Bored) burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then I said, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
1. When Paul wrote to the Philippians he said:
Phl 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
a. He took on the form of a servant.
b. Was obedient unto death.
2. Jesus declared:
JOH 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
3. When Jesus and His disciples were passing through Samaria, they came to Jacob's well at the outskirts of the village of Shechem. The disciples went into the village to buy some meat for lunch and Jesus tarried at the well. Presently a woman of Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus gave to her the water of life. When the disciples returned with the food they offered it to Jesus, he refused to eat saying:
JOH 4:34 I have meat that you know not of for My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
4. In
John 5 Jesus said: I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
5. When it came to the critical hour when Jesus was facing death on the cross, He said to His disciples:
JOH 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? but this is the reason I came. To come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified [it], and will glorify [it] again.
a. This is one of the three places where God broke his silence concerning His Son, Jesus.
b. Here, at His baptism, and at the transfiguration.
c. All three were associated with the obedience of Jesus to the will of the Father.
6. The night before His crucifixion He had gone to Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples to pray. Matthew tells us:
MAT 26:36 Then Jesus came with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then he said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as You will. And when He returned to the disciples, and found them asleep, and He said to Peter, What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." 7. There is a picture of
a true bond servant. He was so committed to the will of His Father though it meant much pain and sorrow, He was willing to obey. The path that I have trod, Has brought me near to God, Though oft it lead through sorrow's gate, It's not the way I'd choose, for in my way I might lose, The joy that yet for me, awaits. Not where I wish to go, nor where I wish to be, For who am I, that I should chose my way? The Lord shall choose for me, tis better far I know, So let Him bid we go, or stay.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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