All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Colossians 3. Colossians 3. This is a word to masters and servants. When we read masters and servants, in the Lord's day and in the
Old Covenant, under the Old Covenant, it applied to folks who were
were owned estates and had servants and mistresses under them. I mean, servants under them and
one that would serve the mistress of the house. In our day, it includes employers
and employees. It includes those in authority
and those in subordinate positions under those in authority. But
here's the word, our Lord says, Colossians 3 verse 22, servants
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, those
that are in this earth. We all have somebody in authority
over us. Not with our service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do
it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that
of the Lord you shall receive the reward, and the reward is
the inheritance, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive
the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.
But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he
hath done, and there's no respect of persons. Masters, give unto
your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also
have a master in heaven. Now, when we consider precepts
in the scripture like this, we should always remember there's
no precept given in the word of God whereby we can make ourselves
righteous or holy and accepted of God. No sinner is made righteous
or holy by our obedience. We're made righteous by the obedience
of one, the Lord Jesus. And he is our holiness. Is the
law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For had there
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
would have been by the law. But scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ, by
his obedience, might be given to them that believe. So, what
made you and I to be the Lord's servants and him to be our master?
The grace of God, the sovereign electing grace of God, Grace
of God working in our heart made us to know Christ is our master. God our father chose us, his
son is our master, and we his servants. And it's what he did
for us to save us that is our motive, our constraint to obey
these precepts that he's given us. And that's so with every
gospel precept. First of all, let's remember
this, all God's elect, Just like every other sinner, all God's
elect come into the world servants, the slaves of sin. We all came into the world slaves
of sin. The master of every person as
we're born into this world is the devil. We are slaves to our
sin nature and we're slaves to sin. We can't fix that. You know Ephesians chapter two,
verse two. It said, in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air. That's the devil. The spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conduct in times past in the lust of our flesh,
under the dominion of our sin nature, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Men like to boast of their free
will, but our will is bound by our nature. We can only do what
our nature dictates. By being conceived in sin in
our mother's womb, we come forth with a sin nature, therefore
we can only sin. That's all we could do by our
first birth. Our sin nature was our master,
and we were servants to our sin nature. Can the Ethiopian change
his skin? Can the leopard change his spots? He said, therefore, may you also
do good that are accustomed to do evil. We could not change
what we were. a rag, and you soak that rag
in oil, and you try to clean something with it, and you just
gonna get everything you touch dirty. That is a sinful man trying
to make himself righteous and holy by his works. He's polluting
everything he touches. A sinner can become religious.
He can become religious. The devil loves for a sinner
to become religious without Christ. It sounds like this, I accepted
Jesus into my life. It sounds like this, I made Christ
Lord of my life. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
12. Matthew chapter 12. The devil will permit a man to
put away outward sin so that a man thinks he's kept the law.
A man thinks he's made himself righteous and holy thereby, but
the devil's still his master. The Lord Jesus declared this.
Look here, Matthew 12, 43. Matthew 12, 43. The Lord, I'm sorry, I think I wrote the
wrong scripture down. All right, yeah, Matthew 12,
43, that's right, Matthew 12, 43. He said, when the unclean
spirit, talking about the devil or the other fallen angels, when
the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through
dry places seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return
into my house from whence I came out. And when he has come, he
findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. The devil's never
really left. This is just an illustration.
The devil's never really left a man. He's changed into an angel
of light. A man cleans up his outward acts.
and becomes religious. Verse 45, then goeth the devil
and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than
himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state
of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also
unto this wicked generation. This worst state of a man that
he's talking about is a man who becomes religious without Christ. He thinks that he's righteous
and holy by his works. He thinks that he's done all
this by his will. That's the worst sin there is. It's even worse than immoral
sin. That's how the last state's worse
than the first. His worst state is religion without
Christ. He puts confidence in who his
earthly father was. He puts confidence in his outward
religious ceremonies, going to church, on a day of the week. He puts confidence in his outward
law-keeping and his outward good deeds. His confidence is that
he did all this by his will, but this man is in a worse state
than the immoral, obviously immoral sinner, because this man thinks
he's saved, and yet he's lost. He hates And if you preach Christ,
he hates Christ. Murders in his heart toward Christ.
He will not hear the salvation is of the Lord alone, apart from
his works. The scribes and the Pharisees
are the example. Look at John 8. John 8. And look at verse 38. The Lord
was speaking to the scribes and Pharisees And the Lord said,
I speak that which I've seen with my father, and you do that
which you've seen with your father. They answered, said unto him,
Abraham's our father. See, they put confidence in who
their earthly father was. Jesus said to them, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. If you
were chosen children of God, as Abraham was, you'd do what
he did. He believed the Lord. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that hath told you the truth, which I've heard of God.
This did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be
not born of fornication. That's what they were saying
against Christ, accusing him of. They said, we have one father,
even God. Jesus said to them, if God were
your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God, Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not
understand my speech, even because you cannot hear my word? You
are of your father the devil, and the lesser your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and a bold not
in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he's a liar and the father
of it, and because I tell you the truth, you believe me not.
Now, every one of God's elect were in that state. We were,
the devil was our master, had the rule over us, our sin nature
was our master, we were the slaves to sin. Some of us were so irreligious,
just in immoral sin, some were in this worst state of sin, being
religious without Christ. But that was, that's the state
of all God's elect, right there, just like every other man. Now
secondly, it's by the grace of God, by the grace of God. You see that because if we were
left where we were, that's all we would have ever been. It's
God the Father choosing whom he would before the world began
and sending his son. And here's what's so amazing
and wonderful about the gospel. The son of God came down and
became a servant with God as his master to save his people. The Lord Jesus came to destroy
the works of the devil. He came down to deliver his people. That's what he came for. Way
back in the garden, this is what God declared. The Lord declared
this to the devil. He said, I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. In order to accomplish
this deliverance, In order to accomplish it, our master, the
son of God, first took the form of a servant. We're talking about
masters and servants. He came down, took the form of
a servant. Paul said to Philippians, he's
equal with God, and yet he made himself of no reputation and
took upon him the form of a servant. He came to represent all God's
elect as the one servant of God to whom God looked. representing
all his elect. And he became a servant and was
made in the likeness of men and been found in fashion as a man.
He humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the deaths of
the cross. See, our master, our heavenly master, our Lord, he
knows what it's like to be a servant. He knows where we are, being
a servant, because he's been a servant. He became the servant
of God the Father, and he did it to save us that Christ might
be our master, our Lord, and we'd be his servants. Go with
me to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. He took
flesh like the children of God. He didn't take flesh like all
men. He took on the seed of Abraham,
that is God's elect, And it says here, Hebrews 2.14, for as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Scripture calls the devil the
accuser of the brethren. This is one reason the Pharisees
were always watching others and accusing them of sin. That's
what that kind of religion's all about, watching others and
finding fault with them, because it's of the devil, the accuser
of the brethren. But by the Lord Jesus putting
away the sin of his people, now the devil has nothing with which
to accuse us, nothing. He tries to accuse us to God,
he has nothing. Matt Romans 8 says, who is he
that will lay anything to the charge of God's elect? The devil
can't. It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, that's
risen again, whoever lives to make intercession for us. There's
a wonderful example of this in Zechariah. Jude talks about it. Joshua the high priest, it says
the devil came before God to accuse Joshua the high priest
using the law of Moses, accused him of breaking the law. And
it says, and the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuked thee,
O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this a bran plucked out
of the fire? And here's how Jude talked about
it. People totally misunderstand this word of Jude. They think
that he's talking about Moses' physical body. He's talking about
what happened. when the devil came using the
law of Moses to accuse Joshua, the high priest, to God. He said,
Michael, the archangel, that's Christ, Michael, the archangel,
when contending with the devil, the devil disputed about the
body of Moses, not his physical body, the law, he was using the
law to accuse Joshua to God. You can read this in Zechariah
3, but this is Jude 9, he said, And yet Christ does not bring
against him a railing accusation. Christ doesn't operate like the
devil does. He doesn't accuse. He has every
right to accuse, because we're all sinners, but that's not his
way of saving his people. He didn't accuse the devil, but
said the Lord rebuked him. He interceded for Joshua with
the Lord. This is a brand plucked out of
the fire. Now look here at Hebrews 2.16, Verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. That's what
Christ accomplished. He's our faithful, merciful high
priest. And he came down and became a
servant and went to that cross, bore our sin, bore our curse,
submitted to be charged and condemned before the justice of God, and
died that death we owed. And he reconciled us to God.
He made us righteous before God. He knows what it is to be a servant. Verse 18 says, for in that he
himself has suffered being tempted, he's able to succor them that
are tempted. One, he's our faithful and merciful
high priest to God. He reconciled us to God. But
two, he knows where we are. He knows what it is to be a servant.
And he's able to succor us. That's an old word that means
to help and to bring aid. That's what it means. You know,
when Christ walked this earth as the servant of God, scripture
says, God poured upon him the Holy Spirit without measure.
Our Lord knows what that, he's experienced that as a man. And
he's able to send the gospel to each of his people and teach
us that gospel wisely, in spirit and in truth, and pour upon us
the Holy Spirit, cause us to be regenerated, give us faith
to trust him, make us willing in the day of his power. He gives
you a new nature. And that new nature now, your
new man is in bondage to your new nature. He can only do what
the new nature said. And that new nature is holy.
And that new nature is righteous in Christ. And so he made us
willing to believe Christ and trust Christ. And when we go
through anything we go through in this life, as servants of
our master, because he's been there and he's been tempted in
every way we've been tempted, yet without sin, he is able to
give us aid and grace and mercy and instruct us and keep us and
teach us, and he's really doing that for his people. Our Lord
is really in each of his people, really with us at all times and
promised, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. He knows everything about what
it is to be a servant. He became a servant, redeemed
us, made us righteous before the law of God, and reconciled
us to God, and then came and caused us to be born anew, and
made us his servants, and he our master. Now go back with
me to our text, and let's see this as it refers to Christ and
to us. Colossians 3, verse 22. You that believe the gospel by
God's grace, obey in all things your masters according to the
flesh, those that are over you in this earth, not with eye service
as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God, and whatsoever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. knowing
that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance,
for you serve the Lord Christ. Now look at Christ. Think about
Christ, what I just declared to you. As the servant of God,
that's what Christ did for us. That's what he did for his people.
See, you'll never do that in perfection. Tell me if this is
not so. You got a new man, you got an
old man. Tell me if this is not so. In your new man, you want
to obey That one who's over you in the flesh, you want to obey
him. That's your heart, the new heart the Lord's given you. You
want to do that, and in your new heart you do. But tell me
this, if you're ever corrected by a police officer or somebody
in authority or whatever, is there not a part of you that
rebels against that authority? Is there not in your flesh, in
your sin nature, is there not still that rising up of rebellion
that would just totally rebel if it wasn't for the grace of
God. See, we can't ever look at these precepts and think we've
kept them so that we can come to God by them, because sin's
mixed with everything we do. But our Savior did this in perfection. He didn't serve the Father with
our service as men-pleasers. You know what that is? That's
the fellow that's on the job, and he's loafing off and doing
nothing until the boss rounds the corner, and then he pricks
up something and acts like he's been working the whole time.
Christ did what he did, serving God, his master in singleness
of heart, fearing the Lord and not men. Christ did all heartily
as to the Lord and not men, and he did it in perfection, in perfection,
and he's our perfection before God. Concerning the reward, Christ
knew In this earth, it was God who was making his way for him
in this earth. He knew that, as a servant. Remember,
I love that in John 6, where he said, all the Father gives
to me will come to me. There's a sense in which the
Savior, as the servant, as he walked this earth, he trusted
the Father to draw his people to him. He sent me to be his preacher.
and he's under shepherd, but I'm trusting the chief shepherd.
I can't draw men to hear the gospel. I'm trusting him to do
it. That's what he did when he walked
this earth. He knows that. And that goes
for you at a job or whatever, too, or anything in this life. He will make the way. He will
give his child the promotion at the job. He'll make sure the
government sends sends you your social security check, he'll
make sure that you're taken care of. That's the reward in this
earth. Whatever you need, he's gonna
provide it. And then in the end, he is our reward and glory. God
our Father and our Lord Jesus is our reward and glory. And
he'll seek to it, we have that. So he tells us to serve our masters
in this earth the same way. Serve Christ our master in singleness
of heart. When you see your boss, you know,
I'm not merely serving him, I'm serving my master in heaven,
I'm serving my Lord Jesus. And he's gonna see to it, I receive
my promotion, whatever it is, and he gonna give me glory in
the end. Verse 25, but he that doeth wrong
shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there's no
respect of persons. We don't wanna disobey those
in authority, but if you do, do correct you, fine you, give
you a ticket, whatever, know that it's the Lord who is correcting
me. It's the Lord that's correcting
me. He's not gonna condemn you. He's not gonna cast you out of
his presence and no more longer receive you as righteous and
holy in Christ. No, he won't do that. We're always
gonna be righteous and holy in Christ and accepted of God But
what he will do is those he loves, he chastens. And he'll use men
to do that. And the same goes for the believer
who's a master in the earth. Colossians 4.1, masters given
to your servants, that which is just and equal, knowing that
you also have a master in heaven. I think about Philemon, he was
a master, Onesimus was his servant. And Onesimus didn't know the
Lord. Philemon did, Onesimus didn't. Onesimus stole from Philemon,
and ran away. But the Lord directed his steps
and ran him straight into Paul. Paul's in prison. Paul preached
the gospel to him, and the Lord saved Onesimus. And Paul writes
a letter, sends it by the hand of Onesimus back to Philemon.
And Paul said, now you receive him now, but don't receive him
like you did before. He said now, not now as a servant,
but above a servant, a brother beloved. especially to me, but
how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
He's your brother. The same goes for a servant with
a believing master. Look at 1 Timothy 6. This goes,
if you're a servant, you have a believing master. 1 Timothy
6, Paul said in verse one, Let as
many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters
worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine
be not blasphemed. There's our motive. And they
that have believing masters, let them not despise them. You
have a believing master, let them not despise them because
they're brethren, but rather do them service because they
are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things
teach and exhort. One more thing I want to show
you, 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. What if there's somebody
in authority over you, and they're not sanctified of God, and they
do you wrong? They do you wrong. Well, 1 Peter
2.18. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also
to the froward. They're not good and they're
not gentle. For this is thankworthy if a
man for conscience toward God, knowing you're serving your heavenly
master, endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is
it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it
patiently, but if when you do well and suffer, you take it
patiently? This is acceptable with God.
See, the trial of faith is not loving those that are lovable.
The trial of faith is loving your enemy. Trial of faith is
suffering wrongfully and yet trusting the Lord. And remember,
Christ was perfect and He suffered. As far as men go, they were wrong
to put Him on that cross and what they did to our Savior.
What did He do? What did He do? Look at this, verse 21. Even
here unto where you called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. When you suffer wrongfully, remember
you have a heavenly master over that earthly master. Commit your
cause. to him, who his own self bare
our sins in his body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should
live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, for
you were a sheep going astray, but are now returned to the shepherd
and bishop of your soul. You know, there were some early
believers, and they thought that because of what they now were
in Christ, they should leave the calling they were in, that
God had put them in when he called them to faith. Some that thought
they were married should leave their spouse who was an unbeliever.
Some that thought they were servants should run away from their masters,
and all of this. And this is what the Lord said,
1 Corinthians 7.20, let every man abide in the same calling
wherein he's called. Art thou called being a servant?
Care not for it. But if thou mayest be free, use
it rather. But here's what he would have
us remember. It doesn't change your calling in this earth when
God calls you, but it does change who you are now before the Lord. Listen, he says, for he that
is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man. Remember
that, free in Christ. Likewise, also, he that's called
being free, he's Christ's servant. You're bought with a price. Here's
the point. You're bought with a price of
Christ's precious blood. Be not the servants of men. You know, when we get upset with
a man and we're complaining about a boss or we're complaining about
the police officer and we're rebelling against him or whatever,
you know what we're doing? We're making ourselves the slaves
of men. We're serving men. When you remember
Christ is your master, and you go on and serve heartily with
singleness of heart to the Lord, knowing the Lord's gonna provide
for me in this earth. The Lord is the master over that
master. He's ruling his heart. Now you're
serving the Lord. Now you're not serving men. When
we get upset and we think we're really rebelling against a man,
you know what we're doing? We're being the servants of that man.
You let that man make you his slave. When you rebel against
a man, You trust Christ to deal with anybody that's over you
in this earth, and you do whatever they've given you to do heartily
to Him, and you're free. You're His servant, and He'll
provide for you in this life. That's exactly what He's telling
us. You're bought with a price. Don't be the servants of men.
When you fear a man, you make that man exalted over Christ. He said, sanctify the Lord. Let
Him be your fear. Reverence him, not give a man
that power. No, Christ is the power, he's
the master. And he'll provide you, and he'll
make you free in here. He'll make you free in your heart.
You may be suffering outwardly, but you'll be able to bear it,
because he'll make you free in your heart. You'll have peace
in your heart with God. I'd much rather be under some
man's lashing tongue and rejection and trying to condemn me and
slander me and know I have the peace of God and I'm free in
Christ and Christ will never let me go. I'd much rather be
in that than be free from a man's slander and be pleasing to men
and know I stand under God's condemnation. I'll take a man's
slander any day. What's a man? What's a little
tyrant of a man that thinks he's something? He's nothing. God's
got him in his hand. And know where I'm his and I'm
free and I'm righteous in Christ and accepted of God and I'll
never, he'll never forsake me. I'll take that any day over the
other. So in our heart, whatever, if
you're in a position of authority over men or if you're under authority
as a man, you're no longer serving a man. We serve the Lord Jesus
who bought us with his precious blood. He's our master. He's
ruling the one in authority, and he's ruling the servants,
and we're serving him where he is. Let's go to him. Lord, thank
you for your word. Thank you for keeping us ever
mindful of what you've done for us and keeping the motive of
our heart to serve you in faith and love. Keep us mindful of
this every day. When things go bad against us
in this earth, keep us remembering you're ruling it and you're our
master. Thank you, Lord, for salvation
free. Thank you for salvation paid
entirely by the price of your blood. Lord, we beg you to keep
us continually and never let us go. In Christ's name we ask
it, amen.