Series: Exodus
Title: I Am Gracious
Text: Exodus 22: 21-27
Date: February 10, 2019
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Exodus 22: 21: Thou shalt neither vex a stranger,
nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22:
Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. 23:
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely
hear their cry; 24: And my wrath
shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be
widows, and your children fatherless. 25: If thou lend money to any of
my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer,
neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. 26:
If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it
unto him by that the sun goeth down: 27:
For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin:
wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that
I will hear; for I am gracious.
In each of these people that God protects, we see a picture of you and I
who are saved by God’s grace: strangers, widows, orphans and the poor. God protected them in his law. God told the children of Israel to remember
themselves when they saw them. But the
law did not constrain the natural children of Israel to obey. They treated all four of these groups with
cruelty. It was not politically
advantageous to do otherwise—no one cared about these people.
Yet, God, by the Holy Spirit, makes his child remember ourselves when we
see these four kinds of people—or people in any downtrodden condition. It is
because these four helpless kinds of people picture us, God’s elect, while we
were dead in sins. We were the helpless
stranger, the widow, the orphan and the poor.
But God saved us by his grace.
Why?—v27:…FOR I AM GRACIOUS.
Proposition: The motive for
God’s elect in all our dealings with one another, and with all men, is because God
has been gracious to us.
In all our dealing with one another, in all
our dealings with others, when we see someone in this condition, we should remember
this was our condition. Be gracious to
them, as God was gracious to us
THE STRANGER
Exodus 22: 21: Thou
shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the
land of Egypt.
A stranger was a Gentile—anyone from outside
the nation Israel. God told the children
of Israel, particularly his elect in Israel, do not vex a Gentile stranger, nor
oppress him. The reason is because you
were vexed and oppressed when in slavery
to Pharaoh and his taskmasters. Who made
the difference? God says, “For I am gracious.”
God’s grace is not common. God delivered the children of Israel but God
was showing grace to his elect among the children of Israel. The non-elect make benefit from God’s works
but God is only being gracious to his elect.
God gave them all this law but his
elect among Israel heard it spiritually.
God told them be gracious to the Gentile stranger for I was gracious to you. They
did it, not merely because it is law, but they were constrained by God’s love
toward them in being gracious to them.
You and I who God chose and redeemed are
Gentiles. God tells us the same thing.
Ephesians 2: 11: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision
in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14: For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us; 15: Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law
of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain
one new man, so making peace; 16:
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby: 17: And came
and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18: For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19:
Now therefore ye are NO MORE STRANGERS AND FOREIGNERS, but fellowcitizens with
the saints, and of the household of God;
We were strangers, without Christ, without God,
without hope. The natural children of
Israel never obeyed the law. They
treated Gentiles as dogs and cruel.
But God was gracious to his elect then and
now and “now in Christ Jesus ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” It was by God’s sovereign electing grace. It was by God’s effectual redeeming grace. It was by God’s irresistible regenerating
grace.
Therefore, God says that in all our everyday
dealings with sinners, remember they are strangers to God. They are in the same condition we were in. Self-righteous religious people that once
kept some of you in bondage are in bondage themselves. They are strangers to God. So God commands us to be gracious to them
constrained, not by law, but by the truth that God is gracious to us.
Hebrews 13: 1: Let brotherly love continue. 2: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
God was gracious and took the heavy burden
off us. We are to take the burden off
the stranger physically and spiritually.
In our day, the liberal folks say so we
should allow folks coming from the south into this country. But God had laws for a Gentile stranger to
obey to enter Israel. We have laws to
enter this country. All the strangers
entered Israel according to God’s law—all foreigners at Ellis Island entered
legally. Then, once the stranger enters
legally, God’s people are more than willing to help
strangers—foreigners—constrained by the grace and love of God.
After I had finished my message, I heard a civil rights activists
making his arguments against Christianity because Christ told us to “turn the
other cheek”. We could put all white
people in chains and make them labor in fields and put all folks of any color
in power and the same thing would happen that has happened throughout the Bible
when one group held power over another—injustice. It is because the problem is the heart. If this world was as zealous to promote the
gospel as they are to make protest signs and deal with the problem on the
surface there would be true change because God changes the heart. But God only does it through the gospel of
his grace!
THE WIDOW
Exodus 22: 22: Ye
shall not afflict any widow,
A true widow in scripture was one without a
husband, without children, without extended family to care for her. Christ knew who his elect bride was when we
fell. But from our viewpoint, we were the
widow. When we fell in Adam, spiritually,
we became without a husband, without son or daughter, without any family to
provide for us. We were spiritual widows.
I will not labor this point since we looked
at marriage several times in the past week.
But God the Father chose us by free grace, not based on anything in us
and he did so before the world was made.
He betrothed us, the bride, to Christ our Husband. Our Husband came and paid all the debt we
owed--redeemed us from all iniquity.
Read Hosea at your leisure. We were Gomer, the harlot. Christ is Hosea, Savior. He provided for us while
we were dead in sins. Then he made us
behold our sin. Then he made us see he
redeemed us from off the slave block. Christ
said to us, “Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and
thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee” (Hos 3: 3). His grace makes us never leave him again.
THE ORPHAN
Exodus 22: 22: Ye
shall not afflict…fatherless child. 23:
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely
hear their cry; 24: And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the
sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
When we fell in Adam we lost God as our father
as far as we could see. We had no mother, no sister, no brother. We were the helpless, oppressed orphan God
speaks of throughout scripture. There
was none to plead the cause of us orphans like as there was none to do so in
Israel. They oppressed the orphan and
vexed him. But the helpless orphan had
no one to deliver him and help him.
Yet, God, by his grace alone, called us and
revealed that God is our Father and Christ our Everlasting Father. Now, we cry, “Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed uupon us that we should be called
the sons of God” (1 Jn 3: 1). Now we
have a mother-the church of God—“Jerusalem
which is above is the mother of us all.”
Now we are in the family and household of God, with innumerable
company of brothers and sisters—we are in the household of God—"of whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named.”
We had the protection of God the whole time
and we still do. God says to any who
would harm us, “If thou afflict them in any
wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath
shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be
widows, and your children fatherless.” So
God says to you and I saved by grace, “Be
gracious to the widow and the orphans as I was gracious to you.”
James 1:27: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is
this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world.
Isaiah 1:17: Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
We do this first with
the gospel of Christ—spreading it throughout this world. If we can help any physically we relieve
their temporal affliction. But most of all tell them about Christ our
Husband—about God our Father.
THE POOR
Exodus 22: 25: If
thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to
him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. 26: If thou at all
take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that
the sun goeth down: 27: For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for
his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth
unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.
We “sold ourselves for nought.” We had no
covering, no raiment—no righteousness.
First thing God must do is make us see we are
guilty, bankrupt, owing a debt we cannot pay to God. Our creditor was God himself and his divine
justice. We had no raiment to cover the
shame of our nakedness before God.
Oh, but by God’s grace—the very one we owed
this great debt to—he provided us with his own garment of righteousness. Christ did not charge us usury. He replaced our worn out, tattered, filthy
garment with his new, spotless robe of righteousness made by his own perfect
obedience unto death. Then he graciously
forced us to call out to him for mercy. God
says, “it shall come to pass, when he
crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.” And it came to pass that when we cried
unto God, he heard us.
He showed us Christ was made a curse for us
and redeemed us from the curse of our creditor—the law. He brought us to mourn for Christ as one that
mourns for his only begotten son—we cast all our care on him. Before the sun went down, God said, “Bring forth the best robe—the robe of my
Son’s perfect righteousness”—and he clothed us. And why?
Why did God show all this kindness to us? God says, v27, “for I am gracious.”
Brethren, God saves by grace alone, apart
from our works. God’s elect are the
very most helpless among society: strangers,
widows, orphans, too poor to pay one thing.
God made us fellowcitizens, no more strangers. Christ became our faithful Husband who shall
never die. God is our faithful Father. Christ blessed us with the unsearchable riches. ALL BECAUSE GOD SAID, “I AM GRACIOUS!”
Believer’s ought to be the kindest, most
loving, most helpful people on this earth.
They are! Brethren, is there any
downcast, needy sinner in this earth in whom we cannot behold the spiritual
condition we ourselves were in before God?
God says, “Now, you be gracious,
for I am gracious.”
Psalms 145:8: The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to
anger, and of great mercy.
The grace of God makes us see ourselves in
those downtrodden, oppressed, needy sinners.
His grace makes us cease taking advantage of those in need but to be
gracious. Grace freely bestowed on us makes
us cover the sin of our brethren, instead of expose it. Grace unmerited makes us bear their burden,
instead of give them a heavier burden by our backbiting. Grace unchanging makes us restore in the
spirit of meekness, rather than empty them with a Pharisical eye. “If so
be that we have tasted that the Lord is gracious” then how can we be anything but gracious.
How good God is to lead us by love rather
than law! This is not the letter of the
law but the spirit of love—faith which
works by love. Our motive is God has
been gracious to us! Therefore, our
light and easy yoke is “be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph
4:32).
Amen!