Masters give unto your servants
That which is just and equal Knowing that you also have a
master in heaven Now this is a very simple straightforward,
I would say verse of scripture The apostle has admonished servants
in chapter three, verse 22, where it says, servants, obey in all
things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service
as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Servants obey your masters. And
now that's, we usually reserve the word master for something
a little more than a boss at work, but that's what it's talking
about, servants. employees and bosses. And now
here in this verse, masters are reminded of something that it's
kind of amazing that we tend to forget. We have a master. We have a master. And the fact
that you and I are servants is a great reason to be good to
servants. But also, look who our master
is. How can we have any excuse to
be an evil master or an overbearing or cruel, unreasonable master? Our master, we know what a righteous
master is. We know what a gracious, Mastery
is we know what a perfect master looks like By God's grace We
know what forgiveness is we We've by God's grace been able to contemplate
the fact that he knows us and As I've said many times The Lord's
not naive about what we are and who we are what we're capable
of and And so knowing all of that about him and about ourselves
in that relationship, we know that our relationship to the
Lord is more than that of master and servant, although we hopefully,
like Paul, delight in the fact that we can say I'm a servant
of Jesus Christ. But the Lord also said the servant
doesn't know what his master's doing. I haven't called you servants, but you're my friends. But this on the surface of it
is a clear and plain, relatable exhortation. So in whatever situation that
you are in authority over somebody else, this applies clearly to
parents. It applies to people at work. You may not be the boss, but
you might be a boss. But we understand by God's grace
something about that relationship and we're exhorted regarding
that. Remember that one centurion that said, Lord, I have a master
and I am a master. And I know that if you just speak
the word, my servant will be healed. That's grace. That's
understanding that only the Lord can give. And so understanding
that again, and I'm gonna do something this morning that I
hardly ever do. Y'all be in my witnesses. On
this I rarely use a verse of scripture as a springboard to
sort of kind of talk about something else. I like to expound The verse
that we're looking at and pretty much only that until we move
to the next verse, but The reason I want to do this now is because
all of the verses that we've been seeing lately look back
in chapter three And let me let me state it plainly this this
verse think about how This applies to right now. I probably should have titled
this message Right Now. But what I did title it is Doctrine
in Doing. Because, well, we'll talk about
it in a minute, but look at what we've been looking at. Let's
just start in, I don't know, verse 12 of chapter three. Put
on therefore as the elect of God, as those whom God chose
from before the foundation of the world and with loving kindness
drew us to himself. As that person, as an object
of the free and infinite grace of the God of heaven and earth,
put on you holy and beloved ones, God has He has cleansed you,
He's washed you. You're holy and loved by Him. Put on a heart of mercy, of mercies, put on kindness,
put on humbleness of mind. That's right now. That's today. Kindness, meekness, long-suffering
for bearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have
a quarrel against any, that's today. That's up to date. If you have a quarrel with somebody, even as Christ forgave you, do
that. That's not unclear, is it? Are
you gonna come up with an excuse not to do that? Well, this is
different. No, it ain't. It deliberately
doesn't give you examples here. It doesn't matter what it is. If you're a worm, how can you
be mad at somebody for being a worm? And above all these things, put
on love because that's the bond. Love is what makes all of these
things one thing. Remember that. Let the peace of God rule in
your heart. You know, that's a doctrine that
we believe. And you could write that out
and say, this is what we believe. We believe that Christ made peace
between us and God by the blood of his cross. What is that doing
in your heart right now? What has that got to do with
your emotions and your desires and your attitude right now? I think I'm gonna change the
title to right now. That's what I want us to talk
about now. And I'm not saying that you should live for now.
I'm saying you should live for him now. There's a big difference. So you see where I'm going with
that. We've seen this over and over.
Servants, obey your masters in all things, verse 20. Fathers,
provoke not your children to anger, verse 21. This is today,
this is tomorrow. You see what I mean? I mean to not only expound the verse, I
hope, honestly and in a Christ-honoring way. We know what forgiveness
is, don't we? We know what we are. We know
mercy and encouragement. We know what it is to be lifted
up. We know what it is to be spoken to kindly when we deserve
a lot worse than that. So can we be masters? Can we
have some authority from God responsibly by His grace and
by His exhortation, by His teaching? All of that should make us good
masters. That knowledge, that doctrine, that understanding, it'll puff us up if we don't
have any love, but combined with the love of God should have brought
in the heart now. It ought to make a new creature.
It will make a new creature. Now again, to speak more broadly
on all of these exhortations in Colossians three and four,
we've been mentioning throughout this a phrase from Titus chapter
two, Well, we've been seeing these
things, and I wanna say a little more on that this morning, and
that'll be it. Titus chapter two, I was gonna
read the whole thing this morning, but I don't think we'll do that.
I wanna remind you of the language that talks about adorning the
doctrine, adorning the doctrine. If you read Titus chapter two,
maybe later, and notice, how it speaks of doctrine and behavior
and how they're connected vitally. In the verse we're expounding now,
though we are expanding it in pretty broad terms, it teaches
us to be good to those who work for us based on the truth of
God's sovereignty over us. the truth of his long suffering
and kindness and mercy and grace toward us. It's the doctrine
of who he is that makes us who we are. It's his power, his spirit
that makes us who we are. But you see what I mean by exhortation
of his knowledge and the understanding of him, we're motivated and empowered,
given grace. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. Us believing
that God is God is not just, you know, a lot of people think
that God is just like a benign grandfather of some kind. It's
just like looking, you know, to bestow blessings on all of
his children all the time. He may bestow a big whooping
on you as his children, but believing that God is God and not just a grandfather doting
upon us all the time ought to affect our behavior and our attitude
in common earthly matters. And speaking of common earthly
matters, here's what I want us to be reminded of this morning. I'm afraid that, you know, we
know this too, we're not of this world. This world is not our
ultimate home. We're passing through this world.
But I'm afraid that being true, that we sort of see this world
as just a throwaway. We sort of see this life as just
kind of a throwaway. None of this matters. And there's
a sense that that is true. But let's consider why the Lord
hasn't taken us out of here yet. Why did he pray in John 17? Lord,
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Why did he specifically
pray? And listen to the rest of that.
John 17, 15, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out
of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them through thy truth. What makes us different from
the world? We know him. The truth, the gospel, the gospel. And listen to verse 18 of John
17. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. It's not
a throwaway now. It's gonna be over before long.
It's all gonna be forgotten. All the things of this world
are gonna be forgotten now. It's not a throwaway. When our
Lord wraps all this up and takes us all to be home with Him, we're
going to be the perfect among the perfect. Think about that
with me. We're going to be holy among
the holy. Everybody's holy. Everything
is perfect. Everything is glorious by virtue
of His glory, His beauty. Everything is glorious and perfect. And you can't beat that. You
can't beat that. But for a little while, for a
few little years down here on this earth, it is our lot to honor the one who has loved
us and redeemed us, to honor him in the face of evil. You'll see that throughout the
scriptures now here and there. in the very face of evil. He's given us of his
spirit in this world. And the fruit of that spirit
is everything that's contrary to this world. There's a reason
he did that. There's a reason he left us here
like that. There's nothing like light shining
in darkness. Now you think about that. There's
nothing like light shining in darkness. Now, does that mean
when it's all light, am I saying there's nothing better than light
shining in darkness? No, I'm not saying it's better.
I'm saying there's nothing like it though. There's nothing else
like it. Where will that happen in glory?
Light shining in darkness. He said, you're the light of
the world as we reflect. And he shines forth his glory
by means of us, through us, by his spirit in us. Where's that
gonna happen in glory? It's gonna be better then. There's
no question about that, but it won't be like this. That's what
I'm saying. This is not a throwaway. This is something. I don't want to get above my
pay grade here, but this is something special. This is a precious thing. This is a big deal. Now, right
now. For one thing, the Lord's sheep
are not all in the fold just yet. Is that what the Lord's
doing down here now? Is that a throwaway? Don't just buy time until it's
all over. I get in that mode sometimes. I'm just hunkering down. Anybody
else? Ah, this world will beat you
down, won't it? But we have a master that is
righteous and gracious and perfect and lifts us up and speaks kindly
to us when we deserve to be beat. We get in that mode, just hunkering
down, but let's not just buy time here until it's all over. Yes, we're weathering the storm
in the rock of ages, but there's something that goes
on in the hearts of God's people that's precious right now. In a world of darkness and evil,
God shines his light. And may we, you don't hide it under a bushel,
do you? You just don't hide it. Light shining in darkness. There's
nothing like it. And that's what this is now.
I know, as I said, it's not gonna be worse then, but it won't be
like this. Time will be no more, but right
now, the Lord says, redeem the time. Not just wait till it ends. Go and preach. Is that worthwhile? Why don't
the Lord just wrap it up? Why don't He just take all of
us home? All of His people that know Him now and that ever will
know Him, just take us home. That wouldn't be a bad thing,
would it? It's not the best thing, though, or the Lord would have
done that. Go and preach. Love one another as I have loved
you. Our brother read about the love
of God and how we, how can we go around saying I love God when
we hate his people? See 2nd Corinthians 8 7 see that
you abound in this grace also This is right now stuff See that
you love one another with a pure heart fervently See to that see
to it See then that you walk circumspectly
not as fools but as wise. Brother Jack used to give an
illustration, walking circumspectly is like a cat walking across
a wall with broken glass on top of it. He sits his paws down
deliberately, carefully in a certain spot. Walk like that through
this world. Not as fools, but as wise. Be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And as at the end of
Titus 2, if we would have read that, you would be having it
in your mind right now. But at the end of Titus 2, it
tells us how that all of this is what it is because of who
Christ is. It talks of us serving him, obeying
him, living for him, who gave himself for us. that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works." That's right now. He died for that reason too. I've never read one of those
bodies of divinity that talked about the doctrine of, of being
zealous of good words. They just don't talk about that.
That's fine. I like what they do talk about.
I read them and I love them. Who God is, let's study that.
Let's examine that. But I'll tell you this, here's
who he is. He gave himself for us to redeem us, to purify us unto himself. And for right now, that we might be zealous. Zealous for Him. Zealous to speak
of Him, go and preach. Zealous, be ready to give an
answer, to give a reason for the hope that lies in you. Be
zealous to forsake not the assembly, of yourselves together. Be zealous to love one another
and to abound in the grace that God has given us in the support
of his ministry, who gave himself for us. Remember John 15, five,
turn over there with me. I haven't had you turn. Let's
look at John 15, five. This is very familiar. But I believe the scriptures
that are most familiar to us are the ones that we need to
examine the most carefully, because you may just let it run through
your mind rotely, like me, too many times and not, it's easy to miss something when
you've got something memorized, doesn't it? John 15, five. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. It points out very
carefully now, okay, he's the vine, all the life is in him. A branch may have life in it,
if it's connected to the vine. If not, no life. He that hath
the Son of God hath life. He that hath not the Son of God.
Could there be a simpler illustration? But not only do we abide in him,
he abides in us. That's how there's fruit. That's
how there's fruit. The same bringeth forth much
fruit. For without me, you can do nothing." You notice how when
the illustration is complete, Vine branches fruit. The first
thing after that that he says, what does this show? Well, it
shows that, boy, look, we can go around doing great stuff.
The first thing it shows is that without him, we're worthless,
we're dead, we're lifeless, we're fit to be burned. That's the
first thing. For without me, you can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and
is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned. If you abide in me though, I
added obviously that word though, but you see what that's saying.
If you abide in me on the other hand, and my words abide in you,
You see, again, it's the doctrine. Doctrine and doing. Maybe I won't
change the title. But that's right now though,
ain't it? If you abide in me and my word, my doctrine, my
gospel, the gospel is not just dead letter. It's a living spirit. It's a
well of water springing up. And when I say it, I mean him. It's not a stagnant pool, it's
a river. You shall ask what you will and
it shall be done unto you. And how many times have we thought
about that now? I can just ask for anything,
you know, the Lord's like a genie, you know, or something. What's
better than getting everything you could possibly want? What's better than that? What
could possibly be better than that? There's something a whole
lot better than that. There's something a whole lot
better than that. Because we don't know what we need or want,
but he does. We need him. By his grace, we
want him. But also because of what we are
by nature, we want a lot of stupid stuff too. Oh, so much better than getting
everything you want is having Him, and in Him, everything there
is that's good, that's right, that's beneficial. I mean, look at verse eight, though,
let's don't miss this. Herein is my Father glorified. Does this sound like a throwaway
to you? Herein is my Father glorified
right now, that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. In every passage in the scripture
where our conduct as believers is spoken of and admonished,
we see how that it all depends on Christ and God's blessing
on us in Christ. Look with me at this beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful passage of scripture, Philippians 2.14. I've never really seen this before. Philippians 2.14. This is what I'm talking about,
light shining in darkness. Philippians 2.14, do all things
without murmurings and disputings. How prone to that we are. We
murmur about things all the time. Sometimes, you know, it comes
out as a joke, but who was it that said a lot of truth is spoken
in jest? We murmur. And disputings, always
got a problem with somebody. What murmurers and disputers
we are. But look, do everything without
that, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God,
without rebuke. I'm thankful for God's rebuke. And if he uses somebody to rebuke
me and it's God is in that, I'm thankful that that happens, but
I don't wanna be rebuked all the time. I'd rather, you know,
the Lord show me, guide me. Teach me that way, oh Lord. Guide,
direct. But look at it, without rebuke,
in the midst. You see where we are? Right now,
we're in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. In a world of evil and darkness
and guile, corruption, Do that now right here. A light shining
in darkness now by the grace of God. And how are we gonna
shed? Holding forth the word of life,
the gospel. Not just from a pulpit. You may
never stand in a pulpit. You may never be in a pulpit
even to sing a song. Hold forth the word of life. Be doers of the gospel. that I may rejoice in the day
of Christ that I've not run in vain, neither labored in vain. God
help me. I don't want it to all be for
nothing. And I guarantee you, 99% of what we pursue in this
life is nothing. Isn't that beautiful? In the
midst, in the midst of darkness, Can we quit murmuring and disputing
for a little while in the midst of a world that does nothing
but hate on God and rebel against Him and defy Him in every way
they can. But now look back up at 13. Did
I have you turn over there? Philippians 2 14 Shine now be blameless and harmless
the sons of God without rebuke in the middle of a crooked and
perverse nation But look at verse 13 for it is God Which worketh
in you that's where this all starts it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do and His good pleasure in the
middle of a wretched vile black world God's working in us right
now That's so beautiful You're not getting any glory You're not gonna get any of it
are you and neither am I Do you want any Anybody want
any glory here today? Not unto us, O Lord, not, not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory because of your mercy. Because
of the mercy you've had on us, we want you to get all of it.
Because of your truth, because of your blessed gospel, the glorious
gospel of the blessed God. We want you to get all of it
by your grace. You're gonna get it anyway, aren't
you? We like it like that. Turn with
me to Romans chapter 12, and we'll just look at this. We could
go all through the Old Testament and the New on this, couldn't
we? Right now, God. What was it Paul
said, or I forget exactly where it is, but he said, to him be
glory, both right now. Let's don't forget that part.
We're going to glorify him forever, and I'm so glad about that. I'm
ready for that. But how about right now? Verse one of Romans 12, I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service, set apart unto God in this wretched
world, in the middle of it, in the middle of it. I'll tell you
this, he prepares a table before us in the very presence, in the
face of our enemies. We sit and have everything that
we want or need. in the presence of our enemies. Can we honor Him in the presence
of His enemies? Well, the Lord knows, doesn't
He? If He gives us life, we will. If He gives us the heart, if
He gives us grace, if we abide in Him by His grace, if He works
in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now, don't
blame it on Him when you're dead. That's your fault. But if we have life and are able
to, by his grace, worship him, honor him, serve him, that's his fault. I beseech you by the mercies
of God, not by the thunderings of the law, but because of his
mercy do this. because of what he did for you,
do this. Because of his precious blood,
that even when you were yet a sinner, a vile, wretched, godless sinner,
he gave himself for you. For that reason, present your bodies a living
sacrifice. That just makes sense, doesn't
it? That's what it says in the text there. That's your reasonable
service. Where are you gonna go? Who are you gonna give glory
to? Who are you gonna serve? Seeing that he had mercy on your
wretched soul. And don't be conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed. I want
us to look at a couple of words here before we close. Be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. By the mercies of God, Be not
conformed to the teachings of this world. Be not conformed
to the attitude of this world. Be not conformed to the ways
of this world. Be not conformed to the will
or the sway or the passions of this world, but be ye transformed. Transformed is the same word
used for when the Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured before
them on the mount. That's not something you're gonna
muster up, is it? That's something God's gonna
do. Be ye transformed by the renewing. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
transformed, the very grace and glory of God was seen in his
face. You know what renewing means?
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It means a complete
renovation. That's the exact wording of Strong's,
a complete renovation. If we took a picture of this
building now and had a picture of it when we first moved into
this building, you wouldn't know it was the same building. No
way you'd be able to tell. There's been a complete renovation. Oh man, has the Lord done that
for us? Be ye transformed, present your
bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God. How? By the mercy, by the mercies. And it says that you may prove
that, you know what that literally means? That you may prove what
is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God that you
may recognize and approve. In other words, agree with. Recognize
what God's will is and say, that's my will too. That good, God's will is good. If your will ever contradicts
God's, yours is bad and acceptable. What we want, what we desire,
unless it is exactly what God wants and desires, it's unacceptable. It can't happen that way. You
just realize that. It can't happen your way. It's
gonna happen God's way. That's what's right. That's what's
acceptable and perfect. Why would you want, people say,
well, if prayer didn't change God's mind, then there ain't
no use in praying. If prayer changed God's mind,
then this world needs to shut up. Don't you dare pray. Perfect will of God. May God
be gracious to us in this. Be transformed. Be what you are
in Him. Don't be conformed to this world.
Not what you would be if He left you to yourself. Be what you
are in Him right now. Recognize His will. People say,
well, we're just trying to do the will of God. You have any
idea what God's doing? He's glorifying his son. That's
what he's doing. He's not trying to save the world. Really not. It's not all about
numbers. If it is to you, then that'll
affect every method that you employ. It'll be all about just
getting people in. You know what gets people in?
Lies. It's not about that. That's not
what God's doing. That's not the will of God. He's
glorifying his son if nobody comes, if nobody shows up. If the gospel's preached, Paul
said, that's a win. If everybody dies and goes to
hell, it's a win. And if God saves somebody, it's
a win. Is that what Paul said? Am I making that up? It's a saver of life unto life
to some and death unto death to others, but it always is a
victory. It's a sweet smelling savor of
Christ unto God. And then to everybody that knows
him. Well, the Lord help us. May he
be gracious to us. In these things right now. And forever.