From Ephesians chapter six this
morning, I want to talk to you about what's right. What's right? In this epistle, Paul has described
the God who we're talking about now. We're talking about God. who elected a people before the
foundation of the world, loved them with an everlasting love,
and chose them in Christ. You remember, you know the language
of Ephesians chapter one. Adopted us, redeemed us, didn't
try anything. Redeemed us with his precious
blood. The sovereign, gracious, almighty God that saved sinners
like you and me. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he
would tell us what to do today? He has. Everybody's always saying,
well, I wish I knew what God wanted me to do, you know. He's
told you. You just didn't like what He
said. How many times did He say to the people, I told you, I
told you. Well, He's told us His word. But we don't think much of it.
When God says, this is what's right, it doesn't even get anybody's
attention, really. Maybe it will His people, maybe
it will Maybe our ears will perk up when we hear God say, this
is what's right. And it's not real complicated.
It's not difficult to understand. And this is a continuation, verse
one there, is a continuation of the teaching of chapter five
on the order of authority God has established. How many times
does he say submit? Submit. Submit to authority. This goes all the way back to
chapter five, verse 21. Look at that. submitting yourself
one to another in the fear of God. In every case, in every
relationship where submission is right, render it. All authority that God has established. And He's told us to prefer one
another to ourselves, that we're all to submit to one another
in love, but also, wives, submit to your husbands. That's just
right. Because it's right. And this is what he says here.
He says specifically this is right in chapter 6 verse 1 children
obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. All of this
is what's right. In the relationship of husband
and wife. There's there's God's order in the home with parents
and children. There's order And through this
whole passage, we're going to see in chapter 6, we see God's
orders. You see how this is a continuation of that? God has established
authority. You know why? Because it reveals
to us and causes us to experience His authority. The authority
of parents in the home is God's authority in the home. That man
who understood something about authority. That's how he knew
who God was. That's how he knew who Christ
was. He said, I know something about authority. I have bosses
and I am a boss and I know this. All you've got to do is say the
word and it'll be done. You see how that works? When
you submit to God's authority in the home, In the city that
you live in in the country that you live in in the church that
you worship in Everywhere God's authority is it teaches you who
he is and it honors him in that All authority that God has established
is to be submitted to Because it's right There doesn't need
to be any other reason for it Because God said it's right the
God described in chapter one. I So it's right. And the phrase
in the Lord here, obey your parents in the Lord. I want to get this,
these phrases and things defined so we can get right to the meat
of it. In the Lord, not that this isn't the meat of it, but
in the Lord now here is the same as the phrase in 522. Listen to it. Therefore, as the
church is subject under Christ, so let wives I'm looking at 24
verse 22. Well, I've submit yourselves
under your own husband as unto the Lord in the Lord You say
it's the same thing not not exactly the same wording, but you'll
see a pattern here He says as unto the Lord in the Lord and
in verse 5 of chapter 6 Servants be obedient to them that are
your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling
in singleness of your heart as unto Christ You see what he's
saying? In the Lord, for His honor, because
He said so, because He's the one that said it's right. Under
Him, with consideration to Him, acknowledging His authority in
the authority that He's established in this world. In the Lord, unto
the Lord. Chapter 6 verse 7, with good
will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to man. You're
doing it to men, but don't do it and think, well, you know,
that man's not worthy of anything. Doesn't matter. God said, do
it as unto the Lord. Because He said so, for His glory,
He's the example in it, and He's our motivation in it. That's
what this phrase means. You see that pattern throughout
all of it. As an example, he did always those things that
please his father. Always. And the one that did
that said, now you children, you obey your parents in the
Lord. As our motivation in this, he
loved us even when we had our conversation among the children
of disobedience. And he gave himself for us in
that while we were yet sinners. And so as Paul said in another
place, we reckon that if he loved us that much to die for us, we
ought to love him enough to live for him. In fact, Lest we think now that we've
moved away from speaking of Christ and God and His sovereign salvation
through Christ and by the redemption that's in Christ. And now we've
started speaking about ourselves. Lest we think that now. Oh, Chris,
you're not talking about Christ anymore. You're talking about
us. Wait a minute now. Let me show you Him in every
verse of this passage. Every verse. Every verse. And say this one more time now,
in the context of this gospel and its teaching, even when we're
talking about us, we're talking about Him. You look at it here.
I'm not making it up. Look at verses 1 through 9. All
nine of them. Children, obey your parents in
the Lord, as unto the Lord. Because He said it's right. It
has everything to do with Him, doesn't it? Look at verse 2.
Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment.
Why? Because He said so. He commands it. And He adds a
promise with it. Verse 3. That it may be well
with thee, that thou mayest live long on the earth. That's what
God said. That's the very Word of God right
there. That it may be well with you. It's not just about us and
what we're supposed to be doing. This has everything to do with
Him. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but
bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Lord's not just getting honorable
mention here. This is about Him. What we do,
how we behave, how we conduct ourselves has to do with Him
directly. Servants be obedient verse 5
to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear
and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ
If when you're on your job Working for who you work for may be the
worst reprobate you ever met in your life If your relationship
there doesn't have everything to do with Christ It's just not right is it It
can't be right unless it's As unto Him. Not with our service as men-pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the
heart, when you're on your job. Did you know you're doing God's
will down there? You don't usually think of it
like that, do you? But we need to, because this
is right. With good will, verse 7, doing
service as to the Lord and not to men. Verse 8, knowing that
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive
of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And you, Master, do
the same things unto them forbearing threatening now. Why? Because you have a Master too.
Don't you ever forget it. Don't you ever forget it. knowing
that your master also is in heaven, and neither is there any respect
of persons with him." Oh, isn't that... And children now? Children first.
This says, obey your parents in the Lord. For how long, you
know? Until I'm how old? Well, as long
as they're your parents and you're their child. Wouldn't you say? If you're a child of a parent,
listen to what they say. Take heed to what they tell you.
It's for life, isn't it? As long as they are your parent
and you are their child, and remember the wisdom of this.
Remember the wisdom of it now. Not only is it right, it's just
smart. It just makes good sense. Who
are you going to listen to in this world? Because you're going
to listen to somebody. Your friends? Somebody else's dad? Who are
you going to listen to in this world? Who are you going to obey? Are you really going to follow
your heart? That's what the world tells you, you follow your heart.
I don't recommend that. I just don't recommend that,
because you see, your way is not God's way. And God said,
my way's right. So what does that make your way? Now here's somebody, a parent,
a mom and a dad, here's somebody who has been through everything
you've been through. I know you don't think they have,
but trust me, they've been through it, haven't they, Linda? They've
been through it. They've been through it. They've done it. They've made
every mistake that you can make. There ain't no new ones. They're all the same old ones,
I think. And we've made them. And here's somebody that wants
nothing more than to steer you right. I like God's way, don't
you? God has set this up real good. Here's somebody who wants nothing
else in this world more than they want to steer you right.
Nothing. They love you more than life
itself. Do you see the wisdom of God's way? It's just right,
isn't it? Now your boss, he may not give
a hoot about you. Probably don't. A police officer
or a judge, probably not going to care that much about you.
You're still subject to them under God. When God gave you a daddy and
a mama, He blessed you greatly. Listen to them always. Always. I understand that when you get
married and you have your own house, that that relationship
changes a little bit. It changes in some important
ways. But you're still their child. And they're still your
daddy. They're still your mama. And
as long as that's true, obey Him. It just makes good sense
and it's right. Honor your father and your mother.
This is right. And let me say this about that.
He said, for this is right, not for they are right. They may
be right, they may be wrong. It's always right to obey Him.
We need to understand that God is running things. Oh, but what
if they're wrong? Everything's gonna be a disaster.
No, because the God who sits on the throne said it's right
for you to obey Him. Now, there's exceptions to everything,
pretty much, isn't there? There's gonna be godless, reprobate
parents that are gonna tell their children horrible things. That's
why it says in the Lord, if you can't obey them as unto the Lord,
Then you can't obey them. You just can't. Find somebody. Find somebody that knows God. That's a parent. If you can. And trust them. Obey them. Sometimes your parent
is not your parent. That's rare now. That's rare.
But that can be. You know what I mean by that?
It's not for they are right. It's not it's not because you
think they're right. It's this is right. And don't miss the important
promise mentioned in this next verse honor your father and mother
which is the first commandment with promise. We talk about that
promise in a minute, but this here honor thy father and mother
goes beyond mere obedience Whether they've told you to do something
or not do something or not honor them Obedience is included but
also respect and cherish them and do right by them Always now
always This is God's commandment and his promise comes with it
His promise comes with it that it may be well with you You know, we were talking about
something here not long ago, and I told you now, if you insist
on your way, you are defying the God that controls everything.
He decides who lives and who dies, who prospers and who don't.
He decides everything in your life. You're gonna make your
plans, the scripture says, but the Lord's gonna direct your
steps. That's who you're defined when you do things your way.
And the God that tells you this is right, do this, says if you
do it, you're gonna have a good life. Is that what he's saying? It'll be well with you. And still, nobody much cares.
Do you know what's being said there? God is telling you, you
honor me by honoring those who I have put over you and put you
under as my authority in your home, and I'll see to it that
you have a good life. That's a pretty good promise,
wouldn't you say? I kind of like that. All right now. And this honoring now, this that
it may be well with you, this is more than just, you know,
mama knows best and daddy knows best. So if you do what they
say, it'll be well with you. There's a lot of truth in that.
But this is a lot more than that. This is God Almighty who determines
what comes up every time a paradise is rolled, the scripture says.
This is God Almighty who turns the hearts of men in his hand
as the rivers of water wither, so ever he will. Everybody who
ever makes a decision that will affect your life in any way,
their heart is in the hand of this God. God who will direct
every step you take. This is Him saying, submit to
my authority, obey the parents that I gave you to guide you,
to nurture you, to discipline and protect you. Submit to them,
honor me by honoring them, and I'll see to it that you have
a good life. Did I miss something here? And if you look up one day, and
your marriage is a complete disaster, and your finances are a disaster,
and your hope for the future is non-existent, and you don't
know where to turn, don't you dare say, where are you when
I need you God? I've got a nephew that's doing
that right now. God ain't the one that's lost. God, where are you? He ain't
the one that's lost. You're the problem. You're the
one that forsook God. What do I do then? Do what you
didn't do before. Submit. That's what God said is right.
Submit. And you're not gonna do it. I
can tell you that right now. You're not gonna do it. Until God saves
you. You're just not gonna do it.
It's gonna be clear. As Paul said one time, a man's
gonna stand up and tell you, just as plain as day, and you're
not gonna hear it. Until God gives you ears to hear,
and can say of you as he does all of his dear disciples, blessed
are your ears, for they hear. You got to lose your life now
so you can find it. Well, what's this got to do with
salvation? You're gonna have to lose your life so you can
find it. It's your way or God's way in salvation and tomorrow
when you go to work. It's your way or God's way. And
God's gonna have to bring you to the place where you submit
to Him. Because that's what submitting
to your parents is. It's submitting to God. Find somebody, if you're in that
place where you're laughing, and I don't know who will hear
this, if it's even being recorded this morning, but if you hear
this and you find yourself there, as I just described, find somebody
that knows what God said, and listen. Listen to Him. And do what God says do. Submit
to His Son. And everything else will fall
into place now. This has to do with submitting
to him. Paul said, the problem with my
countrymen is that they're going about to establish their own
righteousness before God. They refuse to submit to Christ,
who is the righteousness of God. They will not do it. And what
do you mean? How do you get that, Chris, from
children obey your parents in the Lord? Serve your masters
as unto the Lord. You can't submit as unto the
Lord until you submit to the Lord. You don't even know what
it is. It's all the same thing. Don't
we understand that? Submit to Him as God's righteousness. That's what Paul is saying to
the Jews. Submit. It's not your way. It's not I'm
doing the best I can. It's not my good outweighs my
bad. There's only one righteousness
and it's Christ's. And you must have it before God.
And the way that happens is to submit to Him as the righteousness
of God. Own Him as your righteousness.
Put Him on, the Scripture says, like that best robe. that you
can't appear before God without. Christ is our righteousness.
Submit to him as your sin offering, as atonement for sin. Quit trying
to make up for your sin. You can't do it. Submit to the
Lord Jesus Christ as the only atonement that God will receive
for your sins. Christ is forgiveness. Christ
is life. This is the message of Paul's
exhortations here. Christ is preeminent in all of
your relationships. You behave in those relationships
the way he said to. He is your example in all of
them. He's the reason for all of it. Of him and through him and to
him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. And it's
that, or I'm going to do as I please. Very simple. And that's true
in salvation. It's true in every day you live
thereafter. And remember in these lessons on authority and
submission, there's a message to those who are to submit. That's
clear. Wives submit. Children obey. Servants obey, as unto the Lord. But remember, the ones who are
in authority are reminded, too, who's really in authority. If
you have any authority as a dad, as a teacher, as anything, you got it from Him. The shepherd of the church. is
an under-shepherd. We have one shepherd. We have
one bishop of our souls. We're all, if we have any authority,
we're given that authority by God as a father, a mother, a
husband, a boss, a teacher, any kind of civil authority that
you have. You're responsible before the Lord to exercise that
authority in love and honesty and according to what's right.
Don't take that lightly. Let's look at it again in verses
4 and 9. You fathers, don't you provoke your children to wrath.
Don't abuse the authority now that God is giving you. Don't
abuse that. There's a right way to discipline
children. There's a wrong way. I've seen them both. I've done
them both. Don't browbeat your children.
Don't beat them down and make them feel like garbage. And don't
be making... Now they're going to be mad when
you tell them right things. But this is talking about deliberately
provoking. You know it's going to make them
mad. Provoking them to do that. But bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. The word love is not in that
verse, or is it? The nurture and admonition of
the Lord. How does the Lord nurture us
and admonish us tenderly with kindness? Sometimes it hurts,
doesn't it? But we never doubt His love.
Never. And then verse 9, and ye masters
do the same things unto them forbearing threatening. You know,
there's in business, even smart business people, you know, they
know that there's two different ways to govern, to run a business. One of them is make them so scared
of you that they're afraid not to do their work. And the other
one is make them actually want to work for you. You know which
way is right? I do. Don't be a tyrant. Don't rule in fear and threatening. You can do that if you want to,
if you want to fail. Oh, but I know a lot of successful businesses.
You might want to reconsider your definition of success. You see, God has a definition
of success that might be different than yours, doesn't it? Your master is in heaven. God's way is prosperous and right
and good. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Just imagine for a second. I
know this is hard. Imagine how it would affect the
economy of this country. If everybody led and worked as
unto the Lord. If they knew the Lord and worked
that way and ruled that way. Can you imagine how this economy? You know what's wrong with this
economy? Everybody wants something for nothing. They don't care
about what they do. Everybody does a horrible job
at what they do. And those that are in authority
abuse that authority. I can go through the drive-thru
at a fast food restaurant and order one thing and it'd be raw.
How about you? You know why? I just don't care. There's no accountability. There's no honest desire to just
flat do a good job. Oh, I beseech you, young people. Obey. Submit. Do what's right. This is the word of God now. But we do. Look at the way things
are. Nobody cares about anything.
Nobody has any honor. And we wonder why everything
is a disaster. Quit wondering. It's obvious. Have you ever wondered if Christ
is all? If of Him, and through Him, and
to Him in all things, And what does he have to do with everyday
stuff, like work and all the problems that I face every day? If you don't know, you just haven't
much thought it through. You see, in all of these relationships,
in everyday stuff, what happens at home? What happens on your
job? You can't even go out to eat
at a restaurant without it having to do with Christ. Don't treat
your waitress like a dog. They're working for you, aren't
they? While you're sitting at that table. Remember, your Master's
in Heaven. I can tell you in experience,
I won't take the time to do it, but don't do that. Don't claim
to know the Lord and treat those under you like garbage. Don't do that. God says you're
alive. You see what I'm saying? It all
has to do with Him. All of it. If your relationship
with your spouse is not as unto the Lord now. Husbands love your
wives the way He loves. How are you going to do that
if you don't know Him? Wives submit to yourself, to your husband,
as the church unto Christ Himself. Your relationship with your children
now. If you don't think about Christ
as you're raising your children, if you're not ruled by Him and
don't have the awe and respect of Him to obey Him in these days,
you're not a daddy according to His definition. He's just
using the name. Church members and everybody,
the pastor, If it doesn't have everything to do with Christ,
it's going to be a mess. And that's why it's a mess. That's
why. As I said, don't even treat your
waiter or waitress badly, because that has everything to do with
Him now. The way we conduct ourselves.
And if you are a waiter or a waitress, Way on that table as though the
Lord Jesus Christ was sitting at that table. Is that what this
is teaching or am I making it up? If the Lord, if he was running
out of tea, what would you do? It's not complicated. And let
me just remind us of this in closing. Your behavior now, your
behavior Your conduct in this world has nothing to do, what
you do and what you don't do has nothing to do with your relationship
with Christ. With establishing that relationship,
with the strength of that relationship, your righteousness before God
is Christ. I want to be clear about that.
This book is clear about that. I have no righteousness of my
own, and I'm not going to be able to come up with one, and
you're not either. Okay? We have a relationship with Christ
because of his grace, because of his free grace, and because
of that relationship, because he loved us and gave himself
for us, we're perfect in the sight of God. So let me say it again. My relationship
with Christ has nothing to do with my behavior. My conduct in this
world has nothing to do with my relationship with Christ.
That's not why He loves me. But I'll tell you this, your
relationship with Christ has everything to do with your behavior. That's what Paul is teaching
here. It has everything to do with it. In all of your relationships,
in all of your roles, in this world. Who Christ is to me and
who I am to him has everything to do with that. And if we can
just take that simple lesson from this today, I believe it
will be of help. Let me say it again. My behavior has nothing to do
with my relationship with God. But if I am His and He's mine,
that'll have everything to do with the way I conduct myself
in this world. It's His work in me. It's His grace being lived by
His people. The fruit of the Spirit being
born. And He exhorts us to this because we're so prone, aren't
we, to our way. May the Lord lead us and teach
us to honor him in everything. Let's pray.