1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word, as we begin the Season of Lent on this Ash Wednesday with our sermon series entitled, “Set Free: The Gospel in Exodus,” is taken from Ex. 2:23-25, it’s entitled, “The Good News of a God Who Hears & Answers Cries,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. The people of Israel were on their knees. Years of slavery and hard labor in Egypt had worn them down. An order from Pharaoh that any infant son they bore was to be cast into the Nile had laid them low. So, out of the depths they cried to the Lord (Ps 130:1). We heard in our text from Exodus, “The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help” (Ex. 2:23b).
3. And those cries didn’t simply go away. Like all the prayers of the faithful, they rose like incense to the throne of God. The Lord heard them—and was attentive to their cry for mercy (Ps 130:2). As we heard from Exodus, “Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning” (Ex. 2:23c–24a). Much like a caring mom or dad when they hear the cry of their young child, especially at 2 a.m., when you know sleep is over, but love gets you out of bed anyway. The Lord doesn’t turn a deaf ear to the cries of his children. He hears. He cares. And he can be trusted to respond with the best interests of his children at heart.
4. So when the Lord heard the people of Israel calling out to him, he responded as their dear Father. As Moses recorded here in Exodus 2, “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (v 24). To say that God remembered isn’t to say that he had forgotten. It means that God was now going to take action on what he had remembered all along. In this case, when we read that God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it means that God decided the time had come for him to act on the promises he had made.
5. A covenant is a binding promise, and 600 years before Israel’s misery in our text, God had bound himself to Abraham with some truly great promises. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were very old and childless, but God had promised them descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. He also promised a land for his offspring to possess. And, most importantly the promise that through him all nations would be blessed. That blessing to all nations would come through one particular descendant of Abraham: the promised Savior.
6. God had made those great promises to Abraham and had then repeated those same promises to Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob. But, at the time of the events in our reading, more than 400 years had passed since the time of Jacob—and while Abraham’s descendants had grown too numerous to count, if you had tried counting them, you would have been counting slaves, not citizens, who were living in a foreign land.
7. The time had come for God to put into motion the next step in his plan for fulfilling all his promises. As we heard at the conclusion of our reading, “God saw the people of Israel—and God knew” (Ex. 2:25). God saw his people and knew what they were going through. He knew the time had come for their deliverance. Most importantly, he knew the time had come for the next step in his plan of salvation, which would bring deliverance for people of all nations.
8. In the coming weeks, we’ll be hearing more about how God set about fulfilling his promises. But, when we hear that God remembered his covenant, we know that we can put a check mark next to his promises as being fulfilled—because our Lord is a God who always keeps his promises. Unlike the projects on my to-do list, which sometimes stay there a little too long.
9. Like the Israelites in Egypt, we fall on our knees before the Lord tonight. The disappointments, pains, and pressures of life in a fallen world can be tiring. The struggle with sin can be wearying. We may not face the same kind of slavery the Israelites did, but the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature certainly do their best to enroll us in their service. We might not be bound in Egypt, but is it really any better to feel like we can’t escape the control of things like pride, impatience, impure thoughts, a love of possessions, or a need for people’s approval? And, many of us are bound to our phones, our schedules, and our pride—sometimes all at the same time. So, like our fathers and mothers in the faith, we cry out to the Lord. Even when we don’t know how to put our prayers into words, the Holy Spirit prays for us, carrying our sighs and groans to the Father (Rom 8:26), who hears and understands.
10. The Lord hears your voice. His ears are attentive to your cries for mercy. Every word you pray here. Every word you pray in your car on the way home or in your bed tonight. Every word you’ve said to your Father in heaven from childhood to this day. God hears and cares about every word—and the sighs too. He hears, he cares, he understands—and he remembers. He remembers your needs—and, more importantly, he remembers his promises to you.
11. For the God who made great promises to Abraham has made great promises to you. And the God who kept his promises to Abraham can be trusted to keep his promises to you also. The Lord had promised Abraham that he would have numerous descendants who would be given a home, and that through one particular Offspring all nations would be blessed. God fulfilled all those promises to Abraham. And in fulfilling the greatest of those promises, the promise of a Savior, he also established a new covenant—a covenant with you.
12. In the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophets of a day to come when he would establish a new covenant with his people. The chief blessing of that covenant was summarized in these words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:34). That is God’s gracious promise with you and with all who share the faith of Abraham—that is, all who share Abraham’s faith in the promised Seed Jesus who, in the fullness of time, did come from Abraham’s line.
13. Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He came in fulfillment of the promise to bring blessings to all nations. He came to bless you. He came to grant you the forgiveness of all your sins and eternal life in the promised land of his kingdom. In his steadfast love and mercy, Christ took your sins on himself, bore them on the cross, and there made full payment for them. He has blotted out your transgressions, washed you from your iniquity, and cleansed you from your sin (Ps 51:1–2). And in exchange for your sin, he covers you in his righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). He isn’t counting your trespasses against you (2 Cor 5:19)—for, with those sins of yours taken away, God remembers them no more.
14. Again, when we hear in the Bible about God remembering, that means he has decided to act on his memory. When God says that he remembers your sins no more, it means that he has determined not to act on your sins. God has determined not to judge you for your sins. Your sins have already been fully dealt with on the cross of Calvary, where Christ took the judgment for your sins upon himself. Your forgiveness has been sealed in Jesus’ blood—the blood of the new covenant, poured out for you, the blood you receive at this altar. You can be sure that God will remember to remember your sins no more.
15. We heard earlier from Moses that “God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” God sees you today as well—and God knows. He knows what you are going through. He knows your struggles. He knows your sin. But he knows that your sins are fully atoned for—for in Christ, you are forgiven and set free. And because your sins have been atoned for, no longer separating you from him, he answers your needs in all those struggles. If the Lord were keeping a record of our sins, who could hope to stand before him? But with him, on account of Christ, there is forgiveness (Ps 130:3–4a), for God Has Heard Your Cries and Has Answered Them in Christ Jesus. May his name be honored and praised forevermore (Ps 130:4b), for with him, steadfast love and redemption are yours (Ps 130:7)—and just as he promised, he remembers your sin no more. Amen. Now the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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