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The Manner in Which Christ Saves His People (2)
Exodus 3:7-8
Good News From The Redeemer
Sermon by Pastor Daniel Parks
Radio Message #310 ~ March 11, 2000
The manner in which Christ saves His people from spiritual bondage is typified in the manner in which He saves them from physical bondage. A foremost example of the latter is described in Exodus 3:7f. In the preceding message we observed these aspects. I. "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt." II. "I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters." III. "I know their sorrows." We here continue.
IV. "I have come down." Contrary to the opinion of some, the transcendence of God and His Christ does not prevent Him from personally intervening in the affairs of men (e.g. in the rebellion at the tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-7). He is especially quick to do so when the welfare of His people is at stake. Christ therefore, having seen the oppression of His people, and having heard their cry, and having known their sorrows, came down from heaven to their aid in an act of divine personal intervention. He did so for a two-fold purpose.
1. "to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians." They consequently will no longer be in bondage.
2. "and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites." Not only would Christ deliver His people from bondage, but He would remove them to another place. He characterizes their new place in a three-fold manner.
i. It would be a "good" land: "flowing with milk and honey." That is, it would have enough grass to enable their cattle to produce an abundance of milk, and enough bees to produce an abundance of honey, and be fertile enough to more than provide for all their needs (see report of the spies in Numbers 13:21-27).
ii. It would be a "large" land. The children of Israel, having grown to such a large multitude (1:9), would exchange the confining borders of Goshen (about 900 square miles) for a land stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers (Genesis 15:18ff).
iii. It would be a free land: "the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites." Christ would drive out the present idolatrous inhabitants so that His people would live in safety.
All that we have here observed regarding the coming of Christ for the physical salvation of His people is so very typical of His spiritual salvation of them. But, the antitype is far more glorious than its type!
-- "I have come down." Christ came down as God to save His people from physical bondage. But He came down as the God-man to save them from spiritual bondage. "Christ Jesus, … being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:5-7). "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). "God was manifested in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). And, fulfilling the typology, He did so for a two-fold purpose.
1. Christ came down from heaven to deliver His people from their oppressor. They are by nature "in the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:26). "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Christ's people therefore confess to having been "delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of [God's] love" (Colossians 1:13).
2. Christ came down from heaven to bring His people to a better land. That new place is heaven. Christ has prepared it for them, and He will receive them therein (John 14:1-3).
i. Heaven is a good land. It is spiritually "flowing with milk and honey." Everything desired by its inhabitants is in perpetual abundance (Revelation 21-22).
ii. Heaven is a large land. It is immeasurable, providing more than enough room for its innumerable inhabitants (Revelation 7:9).
iii. Heaven is a free land. It is devoid of Satan and demons and every other form of evil and oppression (Revelation 19:19f; 20:11-15; 22:14f). Will you enter therein?
Your servant for Jesus' sake.
Address all questions to pastor
Daniel E. Parks (2 Corinthians 4:5) e-mail RedeemerBC@aol.com
Pastor, Redeemer Baptist Church
2801 Cleveland Boulevard, Louisville, KY 40206 / 502.899-9205
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