Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. I have really enjoyed this Ephesians
series, and I hope you have. It's been a blessing to me. Now,
last time we were here, we saw the Lord's exhortation to the
servants. Let's read it again, because
this time we're going to be looking at the masters. It has to do
with the servants. So let's look at this. Verse
5. He said, Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh, with fear and with trembling, in singleness
of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye service, as men
pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of
God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the
Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any
man doeth." And he just told us what a good thing is. What
he just said is what a good thing is before God. He says, "...and
knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, The same
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Now, we talk to the masters. And you masters do the same things
unto them, forbearing threatenings, knowing that your master also
is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Now Paul is writing here to believers. You know that from the first
chapter when he spoke to those God the Father chose in Christ.
He's writing to believers. Truly only a believer born of
God can do what he's saying here. Now both the words here that's
translated masters in verse 9. He says you masters and then
he says knowing that your master is also in heaven. Both of these
words are translated from the same Greek word. Masters means
one in authority. It means one who has power of
making decisions over others, over others who serve. He has
power and authority to control others. Now, it's not the same
word that's used in other places in the Scripture where Christ
is called master. The places where Christ is called
master, sometimes it means teacher, sometimes it means rabbi or guide,
In our text, the word that's translated master, it's the same
word right up the page there where he says, with good will
doing service as to the Lord, as to your master. It's that
word. It's where Christ is called Lord.
That's the word. Now, as it applies to a believer
in our day, when it's speaking here of masters and servants.
During Paul's day, it was talking about masters and slaves. And so a believer who's been
saved by God's grace and he hears what Christ tells him and he
sees what Christ has done for him, it's going to be hard for
him to keep slaves like he did before. And this, the grace and
mercy and love of God slowly rooted it out because believers
couldn't do it with a good conscience. But now if it applied to slaves
and masters, masters and slaves, then you know it applies to us
in our day. It applies most commonly in our
day to an employer or a boss who has employees working under
him. or if you in your workplace have some level of authority
and you have people under you, they're your servants, you're
their master. That's how it's used here. It
applies in any case, anywhere where someone has authority over
another who's serving them. Certain instances in the church,
there'll be where some will have some authority and others will
be helping, doing something and they serve them. But it applies,
whatever the case, to the one who has the authority over those
who are serving. Now, the point here of the text
is teaching us that every believer who is a master is to govern
their servants justly, to govern them equally. Just like he told
the servants to do to you, he says, now you do the same to
them. Do justly to them. Do that which is equal to them.
right to Him. And He says, and do it forbearing
threatening, not having a harsh yoke on Him, not being a binding
yoke on Him, a heavy load on Him. And He says, and you do
this knowing that you have a Master which is above you. And His name
is Christ Jesus the Lord, your Lord, your Master. So in order
to understand the three important points here, there's basically
three points in this verse, and to understand these points, we're
going to look at Christ and how He is Lord over His people. Now, first of all, Christ is
just and equitable. He's the just and equitable Lord
to his people. He says there, you masters do
the same thing to your servants. In Colossians 4.1, he says, do
that which is just and equitable. That's what he means. That's
what he told the servants to do to you. And he says, now you
do the same to them. And then Christ, the master, forbears
threatening his servants. He doesn't put a heavy load on
us. He doesn't bind us with a heavy burden, a heavy load. And then
Christ the Lord shows no respect of persons to us. He doesn't
show favoritism. He doesn't promote one because
he likes him a little better than he likes the other one just
because of his person or his personality or something like
that. He doesn't show respect of persons at all. Now, first
of all, we're going to take this second point that I mentioned
first, because I want you to see this first. It says, you masters, do the
same things to them forbearing threatening. Christ forbears
threatening to His servants. Now, we're all who called of
Christ, we're servants to Him. We're in His kingdom, we serve
Him. We're in His house, we're His
servants. We serve Christ Jesus the Lord. This word, forbearing,
threatening, the word forbear means to loosen, to loosen. Your marginal reading, if you
have a King James translation, will say moderate. But the word
really is loosen. And the meaning here is earthly
masters are not to rule their servants with rigor, with hardness,
with harshness, but they're to do it with gentleness and kindness
and moderation. What he's saying here is loosen
the yoke, make it light, make it easy, make it bearable. That's
what the Lord has done for us, isn't it? Isn't that what our
master in heaven has done for you and I who believe? When we
were the servants of sin, we were under a heavy yoke. Look
over at Exodus chapter 1. We were under a heavy yoke, the
bondage of Satan, the bondage of sin, the curse of the law,
and we couldn't free ourselves from that. We were just servants,
slaves to Satan. Now look here. It's pictured
in Pharaoh's treatment of the children of Israel when they
were in Egyptian bondage. This was a picture of all God's
elect right here. And this was our case under the
devil's power, under our sin nature that we couldn't free
ourselves from, and under the curse of the law. Here's what
the case was with us. Exodus 1, 11. It says there,
they did set over them taskmasters. Taskmasters. That's a different
kind of master than we're talking about. A taskmaster was a slave
driver. That's what he was. Taskmasters
to afflict them with their burdens. He says in verse 13, the Egyptians
made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. That means
in bitterness and in bondage. And he says in verse 14, they
made their lives bitter with hard bondage. bitter with hard
bondage. And then he says there, he says
there, all their service, it didn't matter what it was, all
their service where in the end they made them serve was with
rigor. You see, they made them serve.
They forced them to serve. They drove them to serve. And
they did it rigorously, harsh and hard upon them. Now brethren,
that was our case. That was our case. We were driven
by sin. We were driven by Satan. Driven
by our guilty conscience. There are folks sitting here
right now that I guarantee you, they wouldn't dare admit it.
They wouldn't admit it because one of Satan's tools is to make
you feel like you're free. I'm free. I'm free. And that's just proof a man is
a servant of sin. But when it comes to sin, A man
can't not stop it. He can't help himself from thinking
the thoughts he thinks. He can't stop himself from doing
the things he does. Go in the places he goes. He
can't stop it. Oh yeah, I could stop it if I
wanted to. You don't want to. You want to
do what you're doing. You're driven to do it. And you're
made to do it. You have to do it. Look here. Christ heard the cry of his people.
Exodus 3, 9 says, says toward the children of Israel, it said,
Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel is
come up unto me. I have also seen the oppression
wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. You see, our heavenly master
is the omnipotent God, the omniscient God. He's all-seeing, He's all-knowing,
He's all-powerful. And so, He sees the oppression. He takes notice of oppression
in this earth. And he delivered Israel. He came
to them. He sent them Moses with the gospel
and a lamb, and he worked miracles, and he brought them out of there.
And he did all of that in that land. If you look historically,
that happened, brethren. And he did all of that using
all that he used in nature. He did that to picture how he
frees every individual chosen child of God who makes up his
Israel. He's true spiritual Israel. He's showing you how He does
it. He heard and He came and set us free. And then when He
brought them out, He brought them out. Picture of a believer
being brought out of sin, being brought out of the world, being
brought out of his rebellion. And he brought and he gave them
his law at Mount Sinai. And you know what they did? These
very ones who had been made to serve with rigor and hard bondage,
they turned around then and took God's law and began to whip and
bind and yoke their own brethren in the camp of Israel. Isn't
that sad? The Lord said, I look for judgment. Judgment. That's what he tells
you. Keep judgment and equity. He said, I look for judgment,
but I beheld oppression. Oppression. Robbing them of what's
justly theirs. Oppressing men. He said, I look
for righteousness, but I beheld a cry. That's what he saw when
he looked in Egypt. Now he sees it in his own people,
in Israel, in the camp of Israel. Brethren, let's don't be guilty
of that. That's what he said. And there
are some folks in this world in our day who've heard the gospel
of Christ. They've heard the gospel in truth.
They've heard it preached and claimed to be redeemed by His
grace and brought out from the yoke of bondage. And they turn
right around then and take the law of Moses and yoke their brethren
and whip their brethren and bind their brethren. and make them
serve with rigor. There's a whole lot of pews being
filled right now this morning that if it wasn't for preachers
using the Sabbath day to yoke and bind and make them serve,
make them come to church, the folks wouldn't be there. And
in fact, in their heart, they're not there. And the second one
that they love to use is tithing. Tithing. You gotta tithe. They
want you in the seat, and they want you to give your money.
That's the two things. Tithing. And if it wasn't for
that, that's taskmasters whipping people on the back, they wouldn't
be doing anything. They wouldn't be doing anything.
Let me tell you something. God's people don't tithe, brethren. That's a tax, is what a tithe
was. We're not under the law. God's
people give. They give willingly because they
want to because they're constrained by the love of Christ. And they
give sacrificially. They give above 10%. They give
because they want to. They know their Lord's going
to provide. That's what it is to be set free, brethren. So
he's telling us in our text, don't be guilty of this in the
workplace. In other words, don't come to
the services and be a child of God's grace on Sunday and then
go out there and be one of Pharaoh's taskmasters in the workplace.
because that's legalism. That's just like what men are
doing in churches when they're oppressing folks with the law. There's no difference. It's the
same spirit. Our covenant-keeping master promised from eternity
that he's going to deliver his people from that. He promised
God from that oppressive yoke of bondage. He said in Isaiah
54, 13, All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And great
shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be
established. He says you establish that which
is just and equal. And he says my people are going
to be established in that which is righteous. That which is just,
that which is equal. And he says thou shalt be far
from oppression. Far from oppression. And he says,
for thou shalt not fear. And he says, and you'll be far
from terror, from being terrorized and whipped. He said, for it
shall not come near thee. That's what he says of his people.
So when the time came that it was time for the Lord Jesus to
deliver us from the bondage of the law. When the time came. Remember Psalm 12? It says, for
the oppression of the poor. for the sighing of the needy.
Now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him." That word oppression, it's not the
same word, but it carries the same meaning as what he's telling
us in our text when he says, forebear threatening. Loosen
the yoke. Don't oppress. Don't press them
down with this heavy yoke and make them serve. Don't do that, He's saying. Don't
do that. Christ came to deliver us from
that. He loosened the rigorous yoke of bondage, the threatening
of the law and of the justice toward us for our sin. He took
it off of His people forever. You know what a yoke is. You
know what a yoke is, don't you? You know that thing that you
put over two horses, or I mean a two oxen, they'll put that
over and it yokes them, it holds them, and it binds them in there
so that they pull. That's a yoke. Well, we were
in a yoke like that. We were the yoke of the law and
our sin and Satan's bondage. We were in a yoke like that.
But when Christ came, Christ set His people free from that.
When He took the place of His people and He bore that heavy
yoke Himself and the whip of the law and all the violent threatenings
and the rigor of the law, He bore every bit of that for His
people. And so, He satisfied justice. He took it off. Now,
when He comes to you with this gospel, Look at Matthew 11, verse
26. This is what our Master does.
Does He come and He threaten? Does He come and He lay big burdens
on you? Now, here's what He does. Look
at this. Matthew 11. This is our Gospel right here.
Look, Matthew 11, verse 29. Or verse, let's begin at verse
28. He says, Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden. Are you Are you accustomed to
hearing your preacher lay works on you and lay all these things
on you and these guilt trips on you and all of this heavy
burden that you have to do? Christ said they do that. They
lay all these burdens on you and they won't touch one of them
with their finger. Christ said, are you laboring and heavy laden?
Is your sin burdening you down? Are you laboring to try to work
out a righteousness, to try to do something, to offer to God,
to get a reward from God, or to get God to recognize you or
help you out in any way? That's labor. That's rigor. That's bondage. He says, come
to me. Come to Christ. I will give you
rest, He said. That means he's saying, I'm going
to take you away from all that labor and all that burden. Now
look here, he says, take my yoke upon you, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. Learn of me. Learn from Christ
teaching you and learn about Christ. And he says, for I'm
meek and I'm lowly in heart. And you shall find rest for your
souls, for my yoke is easy My burden is light. You see that? Why is His yoke easy and His
burden so light? It's because He does everything
involved in this work for His people. You see, there we are. We're not willing to even come
to Him and learn of Him. And He, in His great power, in
His great grace and love for those that He has already redeemed
from this yoke, He comes to you and He makes you willing Come
to Him in your heart to actually give you the spiritual ears of
that new heart He's given you and your spiritual attention
and your eyes. He makes you come and makes you
willing to come to Him and to learn of Him, to hear Him teach. And just think of this. He doesn't
come and He doesn't threaten and put harsh burdens on you. He comes in meekness. He comes
in lowliness of heart. He comes easy to be entreated,
easy to speak to. He comes more like a servant,
more like a child than he does a master. That's how he comes. And he teaches his people. You
know, servants, I mean, masters in the workplace, where you have
your employees and everybody, that would be a very just and
equitable way to deal with your employees. is to come to them
in meekness and lowliness of heart and teach them the gospel. That's what our Master did to
us. You know, you think how high above all our Lord is and yet
and how lowly we are in our sin and yet He came to where we are.
and lowliness and meekness of heart and taught us this gospel.
Patient with us. We're still to this day so boneheaded
and so hard-headed and stiff-necked and it's hard to get us to understand
anything. Philip, I've been with you this
long, but he just continues to teach us in such kindness and
graciousness. And our master revealed in us
that he redeemed us from that heavy burden. He made us to understand
that He redeemed us from that yoke of the curse of the law.
He made us to see He did it by being made a curse for us. And
now we're justified freely by His blood. He made you to see
the reason that burden's light, my burden is light and easy,
my yoke's light and easy, is because I've taken the heavy
burden away. I bore that for you. Masters, there'd be another
good way to show what Christ has done for us. You got one
of your servants, he's got this heavy burden and this heavy load.
He's got all this work he's got to do. Go bear it. Go take it upon yourself and
take it off of him and show him. You know what? This is just what
my Savior did for me. I had this heavy burden, this
heavy load and He came and took it off of me. This is our first
number one thing that has to do with being just and equal
and forbearing threatening is to teach men the gospel. And
a person that owns a business or has employees under him is
in a perfect position to do it. Perfect position to do it. I
realize in this day and time, folks don't want to hear it.
And you can't speak the truth to everybody and you shouldn't
try to. If men are casting pearls before the swine, don't do it.
But if there's a door open and there's an interest there, look
for an opportunity to do it. I remember one time there was
a young man in the church in Tennessee. And I was at the barber
one day getting my hair cut. And I looked up and this fella
came in. And when he got time to go, we spoke, said hello.
And when he got time to go, I just went up to the counter. And when
I paid to go, I paid his too. And I told the person at the
counter, I said, when he comes up here to pay, I said, I want
you to tell him these exact words. Tell him the substitute paid
it all so that you're free to go. And so she looked at him
like I was crazy, but that's what she told him. And he went
home and had a talk with his dad, told his dad about it, and
his dad I had a long talk with him about the gospel. Look for
a way. Look for something like that
to teach people this Word. And then our heavenly Lord freed
His servants from the heavy yoke of our sin nature. How did He
do that? He took over as Master. He took
over in our hearts as Master. The Lord, the Master, Paul said,
is that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, There's liberty. He frees His people. We couldn't
believe Him. This is what our sin nature did.
We couldn't believe Him. We couldn't bow to Him. We could
come down off our high horse. We couldn't let go of our works. We couldn't do anything like
that. And He made us willing to let
it go when He became the Master of our heart. That's what He...
The Lord of our heart. Our Master frees His servants
from the oppressive yoke of sin's dominion. We couldn't be freed
from sin. We were just like an old pig
with a hook in his nose and it was pulling us around wherever
we go and driving us wherever it wanted us to go. But he came
to us and he said, sin shall not have dominion over you. You're
not under the law, you're under grace. That's a divine promise. That's a way for servants, for
masters to be just and equitable to their servants. Whatever you
promise them, do it. Do everything you promise them,
because that's what Christ has done for us. All the promises
of God are yes and amen. There's no maybes, there's no
ifs, there's no dependent upon me. They're all yes and amen,
because Christ is doing them all. And so, whatever you make
a promise to your servant, fulfill that promise. And if he has an
opportunity, he asks you, why are you so faithful to fulfill
every word you say to me? I don't even like to be late.
I don't like it. I know that I can't help it. Sometimes I am. And I don't like
it though, because the minute, the minute I'm late, the second
I'm late, I've lied to somebody. I told him I was going to be
there at such a time. I didn't do it. And I hate it because
my, Heavenly Father in Christ has never let a promise slip.
Nothing. He's fulfilled every one of them.
Every one of them. Our Lord promises us that He'll
continue to keep us free. And He does it by sending the
message, like He's doing right here. And He speaks through the
message. And He speaks into our hearts.
And He says to us, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made you free. And don't be entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. It's not whether you're or keeping
the law, you're under the law, you're not under the law. That's
not what matters. What matters is a new heart that
He's made, a new creature, a new creation that's constrained by
His love, that wants to serve Him willingly, that's resting
in Him. This is what matters. This is
what matters. And as our Lord promised, when
He does this, we find rest to our souls. True rest, heart rest. Before, you might find a little
bit of a little bit of your conscience would be sued. And that's a lot
of what false religion is about. I was in it. I know what it is.
You who believe, you were in it. It's about getting guilty,
feeling guilty and feeling like you've done this wrong and that
wrong and your conscience is burning. You've got to do something
to soothe that conscience. So you do some works and do a
little more works until finally you feel kind of good about yourself.
And that old shouting, yelling, tormenting conscience, it's soothed. It's quietened just a little
bit. And that pride of thinking, oh
boy, I've really done, my good's outweighing my bad now. God hates
that. That's the worst sin there is,
self-righteousness. He hates it. But this right here
is rest to your soul. This is heart rest. This is true
rest, brethren. because His yoke is easy and
His burden is light. He makes us His servants. He
makes us servants of righteousness. Men are not free. You're going
to be the servant of sin or you're going to be the servant of righteousness.
When you talk about free will, free from what? Free from what? Free from God? Is that what you're
going to be free from? No, you're going to be either
the servant of sin or the servant of righteousness. Either one. If you're the servant of sin
and you're in a prison cell, what men call free will is a
prisoner that can get up and walk across this little six by
six cell and go over to that side of it. They say, see there,
I'm free to do what I want to. Yeah, you can. All you want to.
You can dance a jig, whatever you want to do within the confines
of that little cell. And that little cell is your
sin nature. You can't bust free from it. You can't get out of
it. You can't do anything. else but what your sin nature
dictates. A cow can't do anything but eat grass. Why don't he go
and go walking down the highway and looking for what the buzzard's
looking for? It's not his nature to do it. It's not his... Nobody's
stopping him, but it's not his nature to do it. Why isn't a
buzzard out there grazing with the cows? It's not his nature
to do it. Why isn't a sinner bowing down
under the sovereign free grace of God, under that gospel, and
worshiping and praising God rather than being in free will works
religion? It's not his nature to do it. He can't feed on that. Why isn't a believer, under that
message, feeding on that which is death? It's not his nature
to do it. He can't do it anymore. Not his
nature. not his nature. You have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear. You have received
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, since
Christ has given us all this and taken us out from under that
yoke, now here is the second thing. Is he just and equitable
to you? Has he been just and equitable
to you since he came and called you by his grace and brought
you under his lordship? Tassie, is there anything you've
needed or anything you've lacked or anything that even for a minute
it wasn't done perfectly and right and for your good and His
glory? Never. Never a minute. Everything
has been just and good. He says there in our text, Ephesians
6, 9. He says, Now you masters do the
same things to them. The same things that he told
them, which in essence was this. He said, Servants, you give your
masters that which is just and equal. And so he says, now you
do the same things to them. I got that from Colossians 4.1,
because he said in Colossians 4.1, Masters, give unto your
servants that which is just and equal. That's what he told the
servant, and now he tells the master, now you do the same thing
to them. You see, he puts the servant and the master on the
same level, and binds them by the same law. And that law is,
you do to them what you want them to do to you. That's the
law. Now look, has Christ given us
that which is just and equal? Has He done it? Indeed He has. His commandments to us aren't
grievous. They're not grievous at all. This is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
grievous. They're not grievous. This is the commandment. Here
they are. There's two commandments. They
can be summed up in two heads. Here they are. Number one, that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Is
He just and equal in that? Well, He draws you to Him. He
gives you life. He gives you faith. He gives
you repentance. He gives you an understanding.
He gives you everything you need to believe on Him. And when you
believe on Him, is He just and equal in what He does for you
when you believe on Him? That believing on Him, here you
had all the law that the law was given to show you your sin.
Here you got all the law to show you that you couldn't keep any
of that. You couldn't do any of it. And moral, civil, ceremonial,
you couldn't keep it. Just couldn't keep it. And he
says, and Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. When
you come to Christ and believe on Christ, Paul said in the end
of Romans 3, we've established that whole law. We've established
that whole law. How? Believing on Christ. Believing
on Christ. Because He did all that for His
people. He did it all. And then He says
here, so that's just and fair, isn't it? That's fair, isn't
it? I like that. I think that's just
and equitable because He gave the law everything it demanded
for His people. And then He says here that when He did it, or
the Scripture says when He did it, He made us the righteousness
of God in the Lord our righteousness. That's what we needed. Okay,
you got a servant. And for that, what he's saying
to you is, when that servant's going to serve you, you're going
to have to, as a master, you need to give that servant everything
that he needs. Everything that he can, so he
can do his job, do what you'd have him to do, and do it right. You need to provide him with
the tools. You need to provide him with everything he needs.
Has Christ done that for us? For a believer, he's given you.
You need to be righteous. He's made you completely righteous
in Him who is our righteousness. We need to be holy. He's the
sanctifier and He's our sanctification. He's made us holy in Him. We
need to be brought out from that curse of the law. He's our redeemer
and He's our redemption. And then we need to have some
wisdom, some understanding to know this gospel. He's our wisdom. We have the mind of Christ that
we might know Him and follow Him. He's given us everything
we need to serve Him. And then, did He lay grievous
burdens on us? Once He did this and brought
us out, and He said, now serve Me, didn't He load you up with
some unjust, unequal, heavy burdens then? No. By the grace of our
Lord Jesus, how do we love our brethren? He said, believe on
Me. He gave you everything you need
to believe on Him. And then He gave you all of this, righteousness,
holiness, redemption, wisdom, everything through faith in Him. And then now He says, now love
your brethren. Now what's that yoke about? Is that heavy? Is
that a grievous yoke? Is that unjust and unequal? No,
it's light and easy. Here's what He says. Look at
Ephesians 5.1. He says things like this, Be
ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor." Isn't that light? Walk as dear
children, as simple little children following their father. Walk
in love. And then he says in verse 22,
Ephesians 5.22, Submit yourselves. This is believing
wives. Submit yourselves to your own
husbands. How? As unto the Lord. As unto the Lord. Then he says,
verse 25, Believing husbands, love your wives. How? Even as
Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. You
see what I'm saying? It's not grievous. It's not unjust
or unequal. It's easy. We only do it by His
grace. Look here, Ephesians 6, 1. Believing
children, obey your parents. How? In the Lord, for this is
right. Look at verse 4. Fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath, but bring them up, nourish them in
the nurture, in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. in
the bringing up of the Lord, in the chastening of the Lord,
and in the admonition of the Lord. Look here, verse 5. Servants,
believing servants, you employees, be obedient to them that are
your employers, them that are your bosses, according to the
flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart,
as unto Christ. You see how easy? Look, now believe
in masters, do the same things to them for bearing threat and
knowing that your master is also in heaven. You see, we have a
good master. We have a good master. He's freed
us from the yoke of bondage and he's given us a light and easy
yoke. Rest in me and love one another. Rest in me, he said. Trust me to deliver you to God
without spot and without blemish. Unrebukeable. And he said, and
just love one another. love one another. And he says,
give your servants that which is just and equal and forbear
that heavy yoke of bondage and threatening. Now, here's the
last thing. There is no respect of persons
with our heavenly master. There's no respect of persons.
He says in verse 9, know that your master also is in heaven.
Neither is there respect of persons with him. Now, one of the early
translations read this. It said, Know that your master,
both theirs and yours also, that is, your servants and yours also,
is in heaven. You see, he reminds the master
of the equality of the servant and the master before the Lord.
That's humbling, isn't it? You get your promotion, you get
your leg up at the job, and you think you've really got something
now, and folks have to listen to you and do what you say and
all that, and the Lord says, before me, y'all are equal. You're equal. Somebody gave this
illustration. They said, We're like a group of family, large
family, friends and family, and we started on a journey. And
that's what we are, believers. We're pilgrims, we're on our
way to the city whose builder is God. And on our way, we got
We got all different things we gotta care for, and somebody's
gotta go ahead and scout out the way, and somebody's gotta
cook, and somebody's gotta keep the books, and we got all these
different things. And so, we delegate it. We say,
all right, well, this one over here, they can do that. This
one over here will do that. And these three, they'll answer
that one. And then these three over here, they'll answer that
one. And we set up this whole little arrangement here. And
as we're traveling, that's the arrangement. But we always have
to remember, when we get to the end of the journey to where we're
going, we're taking all that off and we're going to all just
be right back on the same footing again. And that's what he's saying
here to us. Realize that all the time while
you're going through this world, that before God, you're just
wearing an office right now. You're just wearing something
that you think makes you different from another, but it don't make
you different before God at all. Now, look here. Look here. Remember
this. Our Lord didn't choose us based
on any good in us. He didn't respect our persons
when He chose His people. That's not the case at all. And
now, in Christ, He says there's neither Jew nor Gentile. Race
has nothing to do with it. He said there's not bond or free.
It doesn't matter if a man's in prison or if he's free. It
doesn't matter if he's a low servant and he has some menial
labor job or if he's some ruler ruling a nation. It doesn't matter.
That doesn't matter before God. It doesn't matter if he's rich
or if he's poor. This is what matters. Christ
is all. Christ is all. And He's in all.
That's what matters. Our Heavenly Master showed us
by His great work of redemption. When He heard our oppression
and He came, He showed us by that that He hates robbery and
oppression and all unrighteousness. God hates it. He hates it. Christ
takes notice of those who oppress and pervert judgment. Look at...
I want to show you Ecclesiastes 5. Ecclesiastes 5. I got two
scriptures I want you to see. Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 8. You
know, you look around this world, do you see men perverting judgment
and justice? You see it everywhere. You see
it on Capitol Hill. I mean, we got such a messed
up system right now that I don't think it'll ever get fixed. I
mean, lobbyists and it's just whoever's got the money. That's
a respect of persons. That's showing a respect of persons.
It's not justice. It's not what's equal. It's not
that which is right. It's who can pay me. That's what
it's about. That's who I'm going to respect.
The person that's got the most dead president. Now look here.
Ecclesiastes 5.8. If thou seest the oppression
of the poor, In violent perverting of judgment and justice in a
province, marvel not at the matter, for he that is higher than the
highest regardeth." Who's higher than the highest? Christ is Lord
of lords. He's master of masters. That's
who He is. He said, and He regards, and
there's higher than they are. You see these high lofty places
and you think, how could that ever change because there's not
but a handful of folks in the whole world that's above that
office. Oh, there's somebody above that office. And he regards
it. He regards it. But Christ doesn't
judge as a man judges. Now that means this. He won't
condemn a man who's a servant simply because he's a servant.
And he won't acquit a man who's a master simply because he's
a master. He won't condemn a servant because he's a lowly servant
and he won't acquit a master because he's a rich master. You
see, it's not our person before God. Face, place, race, that's
not what Christ respects. It's obedience from the heart. Do you know the first mention
of the word respect in the scriptures is when Abel, with Abel, God
had respect to Abel and his offering. Why? He obeyed God. He came with
the blood of a lamb showing his his sin and his need of Christ
Jesus his substitute. And God had respect under that
obedience from the heart. Now look what our text says.
He says here's what a good thing is before Christ. Here's what
a good thing is before Christ. It doesn't matter who the man
is. It doesn't matter where he's serving what position in life
was stationed in life. Here's what makes a thing a good
thing. Look at verse 6 Ephesians Ephesians 6, 6. He says that
he serves as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God
from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord
and not to men. That's what makes it a good thing.
Knowing this, that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. It doesn't matter if he's bond,
it doesn't matter if he's free, it doesn't matter if he's a servant,
he's a master. A good thing is good only by
God's grace. Now hear me now, a good thing
is good only by God's grace. God gives you the heart, God
gives you that singleness, He gives you that good will, He
gives you that desire to serve as unto Christ. And it says,
and the same shall he receive of the Lord. That means when
He gives you good and provides for you, it's all a fruit of
grace. It's grace that did it. Just
like it was grace that made you do it, The reward is of grace,
too. It's not something we earn, but
it's all of grace. If we don't know that about ourselves,
we don't know ourselves. What Rob prayed, if God takes
his hand off you, you're like a car out of line with a man
holding on to the steering wheel, driving down the road. As soon
as he lets his hand off that wheel, it's right in the ditch. That's
me and that's you. It's by grace. But now, believer,
you take a wealthy, powerful master or ruler of this world,
and he might pervert your cause. He may pervert and oppress you
and all that because you're in a lowly position. But you remember
this. Christ won't. Christ regardeth. And He doesn't look at the respect
of the person. He looks at the person who's
obeying Him from the heart, that heart He's given. But if wrong's
done, Whose fault is that? It's the flesh. We get all the
credit. You want to glory in something?
You glory in the wrong. If wrong is done. And that man
is going to receive from Christ too without respect to persons.
They said in Colossians 3, He that doeth wrong shall receive
for the wrong which he's done. And there's no respect to persons.
Here's what that means. The rich, wealthy, dignified
master who's unjust, he won't be overlooked by Christ because
of his position in this life. If he'd be not Christ's servant,
Christ won't give him... He'll give him the same in this
life. And sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. And he
just keeps on being unjust and being harsh to his servants and
withholding their wages. He'll give him the same in the
world to come. Behold the hire of the laborers
who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by
fraud. You keep back their wages and
they've worked for you, they've reaped down your fields. He says,
but it cries unto me. And he says, and the cries of
them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth, that Lord of hosts that controls everything at His disposal.
And he says, be patient therefore brethren, you're oppressed, What
he's saying here is, don't stop doing it from the heart. Don't
stop serving. If that master withholds your
wages at the end of the week, you serve him that much better
next week. Because the Lord notices, the
Lord regards it. He's not going to let it go unchecked. And He's not going to let you
go unprovided for. He says, Be patient, therefore, brethren,
to the coming of the Lord. Isn't it a comfort to know that
there is one who is a master, the Lord of the house, who's
ruling his house, his people, and he can't be bought, he can't
be bribed? You know, they say every man's
got a price. And as far as I can tell, that's
true. You offer somebody enough, you
got them. Not this one. Not our master.
He can't be bought. He don't look at... Now, so you're
reminding us, brethren, that if you're in position of power,
that you're not exempt from chastening simply because you're a master.
So he says, when you get that promotion, he says, now you treat
your servants justly and equally. Don't look on their outward appearance.
Don't give one a promotion because you've got a good relationship
with them or because they're pretty. And then this one over
here is wealthy, and so you promote them, and you think, well, they
might help me out or something. And you've got friendship with
this one or that one, but you don't have it with the other
one. He said, don't show them respect to a person. Don't do
that. Don't do that. Pay them what you owe them and
all that. I read you that out of Job. I
won't read it to you again. Job said it's a heinous crime
to show respect for. A heinous crime. And he said
that what shall I do when God rises up? And God calls me to
the judgment seat and He says, Son, what are you doing? Why
are you treating this lowly servant like this withholding his wages.
Biped overlooked him for this other fellow to give him a promotion
when he was next in line. Why did you do that? What are
you going to say to him? We don't have anything to say
to him. We don't have anything to justify ourselves. It's wrong. And he made that servant just
like he made you. That's what he's saying. So he
says this, Speak ye and so do as they that should be judged
by the law of liberty. He shall have judgment without
mercy that hath showed no mercy." That's another good thing for
a master, you know, if you got an employee, done something wrong,
he deserves judgment, he says, show mercy, show mercy. He that shall have judgment without
mercy. I feel for folks. I see folks
all the time, you know, well, that's not right. They should
give me this and that and blah, blah, blah. I ought to have this
and that's not right. They're doing me that way. And I think
now when that table's turned and you're wanting that strict
justice You don't want to come before God wanting strict justice.
Not of standing on your own. You want mercy. He says, rejoice
in mercy. Rejoice in mercy, not judgment. And do it as a free man. Not
using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the
servants of God. And you know what the next word
is? Honor all men. Honor all men. Treat them all
with respect the same. That's right. We're all just
sinners in need of grace. That's what we are. And all of
His people are just sinners saved by grace. So we don't have anything
to boast about. We are what we are by the grace
of God. I pray He'll bless that. Let's stand together. Thank You for Your Word. Thank
You that You've been a just, equal Master, taking that grievous
yoke off of us and giving us this light and easy yoke. Lord,
what a pleasure it is to be a servant of Christ. What a joy it is to
be among His people in His house, to be under the yoke of our blessed
Master. We pray, Lord, that you would
free those servants that you've loved from everlasting that are
yet under the bondage of the law and serving under preachers
that are yoking them and binding them. Bring them, draw them to
your feet, Lord, and give them this free mercy and free grace
that you've purchased for your people. Make them to rest in
you make them to enjoy Worshipping you and enjoy serving you because
they've been made willing by your grace Lord, thank you. Give us we ask you in Christ's
name. Amen