Alright, let's turn to Ephesians
chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. We'll begin reading in verse
5 and we'll read down to verse 8. Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh. That means those
that are your earthly masters. With fear and trembling, in singleness
of your heart as unto Christ, not with our 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, the
same shall he receive of the Lord. whether he be bond or free. Now, every person in this world
is a servant. Every person in this world is
a servant. Every believer is a servant.
Whenever we're lost in our sins, we're servants of sin. And whenever
God saves us, we become servants of righteousness. Everybody is
a servant. We're all a servant. We're either
serving sin or we're serving God, serving righteousness. And
then there are voluntary servants. A voluntary servant is someone
who commits themselves to the service of another. Joshua was
the servant of Moses. Elisha was the servant of Elijah. And then there's a hired servant.
This is how many of us, most of us are servants. You're a
hired servant. A hired servant is an employee.
You're serving for a wage. Almost everybody here is an employee
serving for a wage. And then there are some servants
under the Law of Moses were working off a debt or they were making
restitution for theft. And it was all kind of stipulations
in the law. Even when this was the case,
God protected a servant. He made it so that the master
had to follow certain rules and had to be good to a servant.
And he had many ways that the servant could be redeemed from
his debt. The near kinsman, for example.
Picture Christ, our near kinsman, who comes and redeems his people
from all our debts. Then there was a willing bond
servant. That's the one you've heard me
speak of it many times. I've preached from it before.
I think I'm going to preach from it again soon. He was the one
who he served, but when his time came that he could go out free,
his master was so good to him. He didn't want to go. He wanted
to stay and serve his master because he loved his master.
That's a picture of a believer. We're made willing by Christ
to serve him. We want to serve him. And then
there were servants to kings. They were counselors and confided
in and trusted in. Did you know sometimes even servants,
a master would leave them their inheritance? They were treated
well. And then there were slaves. This
is a lot of times what we think about when we think of a servant,
a slave. That's somebody that was captured
or bought involuntarily and forced to serve. I mean, Joseph is the
first one mentioned in Scripture who was a slave in bondage, captured
and forced to serve. He was that kind of a servant,
a slave. And that's oppression. And God
hates it. God hates oppression. of every
kind. And that kind of a slave pictures
what we were in our sin. Slaves to sin. Oppressed by sin. So our text here, our heavenly
master gives the believing servant instructions on how to serve
our earthly masters. That's what he's telling us here.
So for you who are employees, he's teaching you how to serve
your employer. And the principle applies to
all these kinds of servants, though. Now, here's what we're
going to see in this. Servants, God's believing servants,
are Christ's free men. We're free in Christ. And we're
to serve the masters that we serve below as unto Christ above. Now, like we've done with all
these exhortations, the way we're going to see The truth of this
exhortation is we're going to go and look at Christ. And we'll
see how Christ served. Now, Philippians 2, you're familiar
with it. I've read it to you many times.
But it tells us Christ was a servant. Christ was a servant. Let me
read this. Philippians 2, 5. Let this mind be in you. Here's the mind. that our text
is teaching us to have. Let this man be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Now first of all, why did Christ,
who is the Son of God, God the Son, equal with God, why did
he take the form of a serpent? Why did he do that? Well, every
elect child that God the Father gave to him in eternity fell
into sin in Adam, and we became the servants of sin. Thankfully,
God gave a people to Christ, and so Christ was our near kinsman. He came to redeem us. He came
to set us free. He came to take us out from under
that bondage. This is what Romans 6, 17 says. God be thanked. You were the
servants of sin. You were the servants of sin.
It says, and when you were the servants of sin, you were free
from righteousness. You had nothing to do with God,
nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with righteousness whatsoever. You were just serving sin. That was our case. And we were
bound, brethren, by the curse of the law. The law said it had
us bound. There was no way we could free
ourselves from that curse. We were the servants under the
law, and we were slaves to our sin nature. We couldn't free
ourselves from our sin nature. We'd have to create ourselves
anew. We'd have to give ourselves a
holy nature. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing?
It's impossible. We couldn't do that. And our
master, while we were in that shape, was the devil. That's
the case with some of you sitting here. Listen to this. Christ
said, when a strong man, armed, keepeth his palace, his goods
are in peace. And you know who the strong man
is? It was the devil he was speaking about. And when the devil was
keeping his palace, he had you and me, who were his goods, held
in peace. He didn't have to worry about
anybody taking us. We couldn't free ourselves. But
that's why Christ came. Christ took the form of a servant
to free his people. Listen to John. He that committeth
sin. Here's what that means. He that
hates God, He that hates Christ, he that hates God's brethren,
he that will not heed God's command, he that sins is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. That's why he came.
It was a must. You see, we owe God righteousness
that we couldn't yield. We owe righteousness. And Christ
came, our kinsman redeemer came, to pay that debt. He came to
live a life of perfect righteousness, which his people couldn't live.
We owed the law the wages of sin, which is death. And we couldn't
pay eternal death to the law and yet live. There just wasn't
no way we could do it. But Christ came to pay that debt,
and because He's eternal God in human flesh, He could pay
that eternal debt and bring us out of that subjection and out
of that bondage. He came to conquer death for
His people, and He did. Our Savior came so that we could
free ourselves from our sin nature. He came so that through His blood
and His righteousness, the Holy Spirit can now create us anew
in His blood, like we saw last week. Through this gospel being
preached, through the Holy Spirit bearing witness in our hearts,
He sprinkles that blood on our conscience to purge our conscience
from dead works to do what? Serve the living God. To make us servants unto Him.
And so He took the form of a servant. He took the form of a servant.
And when He came into this earth, that's what He was doing. For
as much then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood,
He partook of the same. It says, 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. Now when you think about that
and you think about all that Christ did, why don't men everywhere
bow to Christ and adore him for what he's done? Because we see
Christ by nature. Men see Christ by nature as just
this lowly poor leader of a little band of fishermen, just an insignificant
nobody. But you see, the problem with
us by nature is we see things wrongly. We don't see things
right by nature. Look over at Luke 22. Luke chapter
22. When's the last time you heard
somebody You know how a mother and a father,
if their son or daughter graduated from college or they got them
some big job and they're making lots of money and they got a
high position, they'll figure out a way to work it in a conversation
so they can brag about it, bring it up, talk about it. You ever
heard one try to work into a conversation that their child has got some
poor, lowly, insignificant position? You just don't hear that. Why? We see things upside down. Look
at this. The Lord said there, He said,
if you had two people sitting at a table, one was serving and
one was being served, He said, people of this world look at
that and they think the great one is the one sitting at the
table being served. Now look at what the Lord said
in verse 26. But you shall not be so. But he that's greatest
among you, let him be as the younger. And he that's chief,
let him be as he that doth serve. For weather is greater, he that
sitteth at meat, or he that serveth. He's not he that sitteth at meat.
That's what the world would say. He said, but I'm among you as
he that serveth. That's why the world doesn't
look at Christ. If he'd have come as a king of
kings in the first time he came, men would have said, oh yes,
this is the one, we want to be our king. But he came as a servant. And men said, we don't want to
have anything to do with that. It stings man's pride. Look at
Matthew 20. Matthew chapter 20. Look at verse
26. He said, Whosoever will be great
among you, let him be your minister. That means let him be the one
who ministers to you, serves you. And he says, and whosoever
will be chief among you, let him be your servant." You see
what he's saying? He's saying, do you want to be
great in the Lord's house? Do you want to be chief among
the Lord's people? He's saying this is how to be
the least and serve. That's what God says is great.
Look here. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. He said in Luke 9, 48, He that
is least among you all, the same shall be great. The same shall
be great. You think about how Christ saved
us, brethren, by taking the form of a servant. Doesn't that make
you want to be a servant? That makes me want. God, make
me a servant. Make me great by making me the
least. Make me great by making me just
not have to have the center of attention, not have to be exalted
over anybody. Make me great by making me content
to just serve your people. That's what God says is greatness. That's what he says is greatness.
Now, for our second division, I want to apply our text to the
Lord Jesus to see how he served. We're going to look here now,
when it says, you serve as unto the Lord Jesus Christ, we're
going to change that, looking at Christ, how he served unto
God the Father. Alright? So that part of the
text will change. But now as we look at this, we're
looking at Christ as the example of a servant. And he is the preeminent
example that you can find. He is preeminent in being the
best example you can find. But when you're looking at this,
remember this is how Christ is our righteousness. You're not
going to be accepted of God, and I'm not going to be accepted
of God because we read this and decided, okay, I'm going to try
to be the best servant I can be. That's not how we're going
to be made righteous and holy. No, no. So Christ is our righteousness. He's our sanctification. These
are not exhortations of law. These are exhortations of grace.
So when we read this, we have to remember, not only is Christ
the preeminent example, we're seeing here how He's our righteousness.
All right? First of all, while He walked
this earth, Christ served God by being obedient to those who
were earthly masters. Look at verse 5. Servants, be
obedient to them that are masters according to the flesh. Now this
is amazing if you think about it, because we know that Christ
is God over all. He's God over all. But when He
walked this earth, He took the form of a servant, and He did
so by submitting to earthly masters. Who were His masters when He
walked this earth? God is Father, and His law was His chief master.
And then civil rulers who God put in place were his masters.
And he was even serving his people. We just read there, he said,
I'm with you as one who serves. I'm serving you. He washed his
people's feet. And that was to show us a picture
of what he was really doing overall. He was washing us from our sins.
So while Christ served, he was obedient to these servants. And
then, while Christ served under earthly masters, He served with
reverence and diligence. Look at verse 5. Servants, be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh
with fear and trembling. That means with reverence and
diligence. Christ Jesus was obedient to
His earthly masters with humility. He was obedient to them with
respect. He referenced them. He gave them
honor. He gave honor where honor was
due, as the scripture says. And he did so with trembling,
that is, with diligence, so that he was very careful not to offend
them. That's how he served. And he
teaches you and I who believe, you do the same thing. That's
how we're to serve our masters in this earth. And then look,
while he served under earthly masters, he served with a true
heart. Verse 5 says, servants, be obedient to them that are
your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling. And it says, in singleness of
your heart. Now he did it as unto God his
Father. with singleness of heart. Christ
served his earthly masters, it means in sincerity and in truth,
in uprightness of heart. He wasn't a pretender. He wasn't
a hypocrite. He was serving them in singleness
of heart. He was true. He was upright. He was being honest. He was being
sincere. Everything he did when he walked
this earth, serving his masters, he did it with singleness of
heart. You know, a double-minded. I was just talking to you earlier
about being double-minded. It's the opposite of being single
of heart. Single of heart means, I'm doing
this for him. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do it right. I'm going to do it with reverence. I'm going
to do it honoring him. I'm going to do it careful not
to offend him. I'm doing this for him. That's
what it means. A wavering man is one that says,
I'm going to do it outwardly, but inwardly, he don't really
want to be doing it. That's wavering. That's a double-minded
man. The Lord said when he served,
and the reason he did it this way is because though he was
serving an earthly master, he was serving God, his Father,
who put that earthly master where he put him. Oh, if we could remember
that. Remember that. Remember when
Pilate was speaking to him, and he said, you couldn't have any
power whatsoever, except it was given you from above. And he
said, that's why Judas, who delivered me to you, that's why his sin
is so great. Because he's sinning against
God. He's sinning against God. But
you see there, he served, even then, he didn't open his mouth,
he didn't revile, he didn't, because he was single of heart
toward God. to serve God, and God put those
men there. He put them there. He said, Let every soul be subject
to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers
that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the
power resists the ordinance of God. You see, if the Lord had
rebelled against Pilate, he'd rebelled against the Lord, against
God, who he served, and he didn't. He didn't. He submitted because
he was submitting to his father. Even though those men were unjust
and they were wrong and their hands were wicked, he was submitting
to his father. That's how he tells you and I
to serve in this earth. That's hard, isn't it? Because
we want to defend ourselves and we want that which we think is
right to be done. And sometimes the way God brings
right about and that which is righteous is through that which
is unjust and wrong. And we have to submit to God
and wait on Him to bring that to pass. That's hard. That's
hard. We have to flee to Him for grace
to do it, don't we? Remember what the Lord said to
Samuel when He sent Samuel to anoint David? He did this with
singleness of heart. The Lord said this. He said,
don't look on his outward appearance. Because the Lord, He don't look
at men like men look at men. The Lord looks on the heart.
That's what matters with God. Our outward conduct matters.
But what God's looking at is the motive. The motive. A good motive can make a bad
work better. You know that? You might not
do the work right. None of the works we do are going
to be done in pure, perfect, holy righteousness. But it's
the motive that makes them accepted to God, when the motive is to
honor and glorify Him. And God looks on that motive,
on that heart. That's why we had to be given
a new heart. Because we don't have a new heart.
We don't have singleness of heart by nature. We just don't. We have to be given a new heart.
And that means that our conscience has got to be purged. We've got
to be made to serve the Lord. And when you have a new heart,
a new nature, when God makes it, whatever God makes, it's
holy. His incorruptible seed is how this new nature is born.
And He said this, "...whosoever is born of God does not commit
sin." That doesn't mean in our outward man that we're carrying
around, we do. But in the inward man that God
has made, we don't sin. Why? Because His incorruptible
seed abides in us. And when He's made something
incorruptible, that means it can't be corrupted. It can't
sin. Everything God makes is that
way. And so we had to be given a new heart so that in our new
nature, we serve God with singleness of heart. And every believer,
you may see them at times when they're like Noah. or when they're
like Moses, or when they're like David. You may see them sinning,
but there is a new heart in them. that never sin. There's a new
heart that never ceases believing God, never ceases loving their
brethren, never ceases obeying the Word of God because they're
one. Christ is in them and Christ is moving them and motivating
them and keeping them. And that new man has got singleness
of heart to God. Do you understand that? Now then, look here. When Christ
was in the earth, he served under earthly masters and he didn't
serve in pretense. Look at verse 5. Servants, be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh.
With fear and trembling and singleness of your heart, he served under
God his Father, not with eye service as men pleasers. I don't
like working with a person who's a man pleaser. I don't like that. Because you end up doing all
the work. You've worked with them, Art, probably. A man pleaser
is one that when the boss is around, oh, he's doing everything
and first one to jump and doing everything the boss says do.
And when the boss leaves, he's the laziest one of the bunch.
And don't do a thing. You end up doing everything for
him. We got other names for him too. But God calls him a man
pleaser. He's a man pleaser. That person
is pretentious. He's hypocritical. He's not really
serving. Of course Christ didn't serve
that way. He's without sin. He said, I must be about my Father's
business. He's the only one who ever served
God in honesty, in perfection, never ever Was there one moment
or one word or one deed that was spoken or done by him that
was not needful? Everything was done to the furtherance
of making his people righteous and calling out his people and
glorifying God. He didn't do anything that was just useless
and worthless. Everything, everything served
a purpose. He's the only servant that ever
served that way. Only one. Christ served wholeheartedly
and cheerfully while He served. Look here now, verse 6. He said,
Not with our services, men pleasers, but as the servant of the all-knowing
God. That's how He served. That's
who He served. Doing the will of God from the
heart. with good will doing service
as to the Lord and not to men. It means, one, he served heartily. He did the will of God from the
heart. In Colossians he said, whatever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord. He did it with all
his heart. And then it says here, with good
will doing service as to the Lord and not to men. With good
will means cheerfully. Cheerfully. You know what he
said in Psalm 40? Look there with me. Psalm 40.
You remember this. Psalm 40. Verse 7. He says, Let me get there. I turned to
the wrong place. Psalm 40, verse 7. He says, Then said I, Lo,
I come, and the volume of the book is written to me, I delight
to do thy will, O God. I delight to do... That's what
good will means. He delighted to do the will of
God. Yea, thy laws within my heart.
And he tells us here what he delighted in. that which Christ
delighted in and wholeheartedly served God in was to declare
the righteousness of God, to declare the faithfulness and
loving kindness and truth of God. Look what he says here,
verse 9, I've preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. I have
not hid Thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared Thy
faithfulness and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. God manifest His
righteousness. You know where He did it? In
Christ. God manifest His faithfulness toward His people. You know where?
In Christ. God manifest His salvation of
His people. Where? In Christ. God manifest
His loving kindness toward His people. Where? In Christ. And
God manifest His truth toward His people. Where did He do it?
In Christ. in Christ, from the very first
message that our Lord Jesus Christ, He served the Lord wholeheartedly
and cheerfully in the very first message He stood up and preached.
It was not a burden to Him. It was not sorrowful to him to
have to do this. He didn't have to be persuaded
to do this. He stood up and he declared that
God saves by divine election. That was the first thing he stood
up and preached. He declared all these things, the first message
he preached. He said, I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land. There
was a host of widows in Israel, he said. And he said, but unto
none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of
Zidon." That wasn't a city of Israel. And he said, unto a woman
that was a widow, he said, and there was many lepers in Israel
in the time of Elias the prophet. In Israel, there was all these
lepers. Surely God's going to save all those elect lepers in
Israel. They weren't all elect lepers
in Israel. He sent them to one elect leper in Syria. Name, name. Sent him there. First thing he
stood up, he declared the righteousness and the loving kindness and the
truth and the salvation and the righteousness of God. That's
what he stood up and declared. And he didn't fail. What would
make him such an obedient servant and so cheerful to do the will
of God in the earth? He said, it's my meat. It's my
meat. It's my life. It's my sustenance. It's everything to me. It's to do Thy will, do the will
of Him that sent me and finish His work. That's my meat. Is
that your meat? Just think about that. That's
my meat. That's my life. They brought
him bread and said, here, we got you some bread, Lord. He
said, I've got bread to eat that you don't know anything about.
My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. That's my meat. You know what happens when God
writes the everlasting covenant of grace on our heart? This is
what happens. Thy words were found, Jeremiah
said, and I did eat them. That's what happens when God
writes his word on your heart and reveals the gospel to you.
His words are found and you eat them. They become your meat. And you know what happens when
you do that? He said, Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of my heart. You become cheerful. and delight
to do His will. It's the joy and the rejoicing
of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. When you get that news, there's
no bad news. I'm called by the Lord's name.
I'm called by His name. That's better, He said, than
having sons and daughters. That's better than any fruit
you and me could produce, to have the name of the Lord. That
means I'm His. I'm His son. I'm His. I'm in
His house. I'm His. I'm the one He's going
to give the inheritance to. And therefore, wherever we serve,
brethren, when we're serving, no matter what capacity we're
in, we can be lowly and we're content because we have the unsearchable
riches of Christ. We own everything. He owns a cattle on a thousand
hills. Guess what his children own? Everything he owns. We're
joint heirs with Christ, brethren. That's why we're content. Paul
said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased
and how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I'm constructed both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound
and to suffer need. And during those days when the
Hebrew believers were servants to the Romans, they were servants,
you know, the Jews were servants to the Romans and bondage to
them when Christ came. And then there was other kinds
of oppressive forms of slavery that existed too. And when those
believers were called by the Lord and given a new heart and
He became their rejoicing and they began to rejoice in Him,
they thought They should be freed in a temporal way too. But they
shouldn't be slaves anymore because now Christ has set them free
spiritually. Look what he said, 1 Corinthians
7. This is important because this is what he's teaching us
in our text. 1 Corinthians 7, look at verse 20. Verse 20, let every man abide
in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being
a servant? Care not for it, but if thou
mayest be free, use it rather. He's saying if you end up being
free, use it. He said, because, but he said
don't, you don't have to try to become free, you know, and
rebel to be free, because he that's called in the Lord being
a servant is the Lord's free man. And likewise, also, he that's
called being free, he's Christ's servant. You're bought with a
price. Be not ye the servants of men. You see, brethren, whenever we
get low and down and feel bad because we got a low position
in the world, and we're last on the ladder, or we just got
this lowly position to serve in, a job, you know. When we look at that and we feel
disappointed and discouraged because of our low position,
we're serving men when we do that. Because men don't want
that. Men want to be higher. They want
to be running the show. They want to be over people.
And he's saying here, that's being a servant of sin. That's
being a servant of men. But he said, it don't matter
what position you're in. It don't matter where you're
at. You could be in prison, bound in prison, and you're Christ's
free man. He said, so don't know that,
that that's who you're serving, and not be servants unto men.
And if you're free, you're Christ's servant. You see what he's saying?
Look here. Brethren, let every man wherein
he's called therein abide with God. No matter our place in this
earth, no matter how lowly our position, no matter where we
are in this earth, we abide in the Lord Jesus. You and I who
are called by His grace, we abide in the Lord Jesus. And you know
what the Spirit of God said? Rejoice in the Lord always. We got reason to be cheerful
and rejoice always in the Lord. It don't matter my position,
I'm in the Lord. Our outward condition might cause
us some sorrow, because it might be hard or our master might be
unjust or something like that. But this is the truth of the
matter. He says, Paul said, we're sorrowful, but we're always rejoicing.
He said, we're poor, but we make many rich. He said, we have nothing,
but we possess all things. You see what a believer is? A
believer is a... He's a strange character. We're
sorrowful, but we rejoice. We're poor, but we make many
rich. We have nothing, but we possess
everything. King Naaman's wife. This is somebody we overlook
in scripture. You know why? Because she wasn't
high and mighty. But King Naaman's wife had a
little maid. A maid who was an Israelite girl. She was a servant. And she was
a slave. She wasn't hired. No, no. They
came to where she was and they stole her out of Israel and took
her, the army took her into Syria and forced her to serve Naaman's
wife. She was a slave. But you know
what in her heart she felt? She felt what Joseph felt in
his heart when he was made a slave. Remember what Joseph said? He
said, it was not you that sent me hither, but God. I'm telling
you, that'll give you contentment. Wherever you're at, if you know,
it wasn't man that put me here. Oh, I got overlooked for that
promotion, and I didn't, if this one had not said that, and that
one hadn't have done that, and I could have done this better,
I'd have got... It's God that put you there. It's God that
put you there. That'll just take all that confusion
and just erase it and make you go, OK, this is alright. God
put me here. I'm where God put me. Where was
Christ when He walked this earth? He was where God sent Him. That's
where He was. And that's what this little maid
had. She had this in her heart. And so you know what she did?
She served cheerfully right where God put her. She served with
her whole heart. She was obedient. She was reverent.
She sought not to offend. She served with singleness of
heart. And when God opened the door, I know she did that. Because
when God opened the door for her to speak and declare the
truth of God, she did it. She was ready. You see, when
you're all mad about where you're serving, and you're blaming this
one, and you're blaming that one, and you're all confused,
and confusion is filling your heart and your mind, you're going
to miss out when God opens the door and says, now, here's why
I put you here, is to declare the truth. And you'll miss it,
sure as the world. You'll walk right past that open
door. but when you're cheerful and content and serving God,
when He opens that door, you say, ah, this is right, this
is why He put me here, right here. And here's why He put that
little maid right where He put her. It says, it says, the Syrians
had gone by companies, that means their armies, and they had brought
away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and
she waited on Naaman's wife. And it said, and she said unto
her mistress, you remember Naaman was a leper, She's sitting there
serving one day, cleaning, washing, mopping the floor, whatever she's
doing, and Naaman's wife's over there weeping because her husband's
a leper and he can't be cleansed. And that little cheerful maid
said, this is just why God put me here. And she went over there
and she said this, I would God that my Lord, my King, were with
the prophet that is in Samaria. For he would recover him of his
leprosy. She said, that's God's man. That's my heavenly master's man. And if my earthly master could
go to him, he'd be healed. God of healing, my savior of
healing. And one went in, look at this
now, the Lord blessed that cheerfulness and he blessed that wholeheartedness
and that singleness of heart and that reverence and honor
she gave to her master, serving where she was. God blessed that
so that when this little maid spoke, how many times do you
think they ever listen to this little maid say a word? She's
just a maid. She's just a slave girl, a little
slave girl from Israel. Nobody looks to her for any guidance
or any word. But she spoke that word, and
you know what happened? It says, And one went in and
told his lord, he went and told the king, saying, Thus and thus
said the maid that is of the land of Israel, And the king
of Syria said, go to, go, I'll send a letter to the king of
Israel. This little maid, sitting on her knees, mopping the floor,
turns around and says to her master, if my master was with
that God's prophet, he'd be healed. And God blessed it to go into
the king's oval office. And the king, from that king,
went to another country and went into that king's oval office.
and ended up, when it was all said and done, God healed her
earthly master, Naomi. That would have never happened
if God hadn't have done it. He blessed it. He blessed what...
He honored her because she honored Him. You see that? That's what
I'm saying. Now look here, that's what He
said, lastly. This is the whole point of the
whole message. This is what God's doing. Look here. Christ served
God without letting His lowly position hinder His service.
Because He knew that God doesn't look on a man's person or position. He's not a respecter of man's
person. But He gives that which is just
to the lowest of the lowest. God does that. Look at this,
verse 8. Knowing that whatsoever good
thing... Ephesians 6, 8. Knowing. Here's
why we do all this. Knowing 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 what his position
is in the world. Now the point of this is this.
Men are not just. Men are not just. They disregard
the lowly. They'll give something to somebody
in a high position and they'll disregard the lowly. But he said
here, God's just. So if you're in a low position,
he says, look to how Christ served. Look how God regarded the Lord.
And you serve in that lowly position because God's going to give what's
just without a respect of persons or position. He's going to give
what's just to every man. He's going to give what's just.
And He said here, you do good, He's going to give you what's
just. The same. Good. And in Elvin Colossians,
He said, But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which
he's done. There's no respect of persons.
There's no respect of persons. You see, God's just. That's how
He honored that little maid. When our Savior was the lowest
of the lowest of all men on the earth, He hung naked, beaten,
Spat upon Shame on that shameful cursed cross. That's the that's
that was the lowest place of any man on the whole earth Right
then that's where he hung and God Regarded that good thing
that he was doing in glorifying God and saving his people from
their sin God regarded it And God gave him what was just. What
he was doing in that lowly position was highly exalting God. And God highly exalted him. That's
right. And that's what he's saying here.
Just like that little maid in Israel, she honored God. And
God, without looking at her position in the world, without looking
at what men look upon, He regarded that lowly servant and He gave
her that which was right. That's what God does. Our God's
just and He's right and He does what's right. Now turn to Matthew
17 real quick. I'm going to show you something.
We're going to be dumb. Was all Christ's masters good masters?
Were they all good masters while He walked this earth? No, they
weren't all good masters. Some were evil, unjust. but he submitted to them too.
Look here, Matthew 17, 24. It says here, I'm going to skip
some things to just get through it more quickly. Matthew 17,
verse 24, he says that there were those that collected the
tribute, that is, they collected taxes. And it says, they came
to Peter and they said, does not your master pay tribute?
He said, yes. And when he was coming to the
house, Jesus prevented him. That means, when you read the
word prevent scripture, it means he went before him. The Lord
began to speak before Peter could open his mouth and say what the
tax collector had said to him, because the Lord knew what the
tax collector said to him. And the Lord prevented him saying,
What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom or tribute? Who do they collect taxes from?
Of their own children or of strangers? Peter said unto him, of strangers. And Jesus said unto him, and
then their children are free, aren't they? And that's unjust. That's unjust. He was showing
they're unjust. They don't tax their own children,
they just tax strangers. But look at this, notwithstanding,
notwithstanding, lest we should offend them. You see that? That's the trembling, that's
what the word trembling means, reverence and trembling. Lest
we should offend them. Now watch this, go thou to the
sea and cast a hook and take up the fish that first cometh
up and when thou has opened his mouth thou shall find a piece
of money that taken given to them for me and for thee. Why
did he do it that way? Because by making that fish bring
the money, he was showing he's Lord over all. He could do with
any man what he wants to. He's the master. But even to
an unjust master, he submitted himself to that unjust master.
Do you see that? Because God put that master there. Now look at this, Matthew 18.
At the same time, in God's providence, at the very same time, this was
on purpose. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus saying, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? That's what he was showing when
he said, he showed I'm the greatest, I can make a fish bring the taxes
to me. But I'm going to submit to this
unjust master because God put him there. Now look at this.
They said it was the greatest. Jesus called a little child unto
him and set him in the midst of them. And he said, Verily
I say unto you, except you be converted, and become as little
children. You shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this
little child, the same is the greatest in heaven." And Peter
got the lesson. Look over at 1 Peter 1, I mean
1 Peter 2. Let me just read this. Peter
got the lesson. Here's the lesson that the Lord's teaching us in
our text. This is the lesson of the whole
text right here. Servants, verse 18, servants,
be subject to your masters with all fear, with all reference,
not only to the good and gentle, but also to the fraud. For this
is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering
wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults you shall take it patiently?
That's what glory is there in that. But if when you do well
and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable
with God. For even here unto where you
called, that's what you were called for. 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 judges righteously.
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that
we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. That means should serve him who
is our righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. You
know what the Lord did whenever he was, when he was, justice
was taken away from him and these unjust civil rulers were making
a mockery, their court was a mockery and they were fixing to take
him to the cross. This was his prayer. Judge me, O God, and
plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man, for Thou art the God of my strength. That's
our prayer. And here's what he said after
it was all said and done. Thou has maintained my right
and my cause. Thou sat us in the throne, judging
right. Thou has rebuked the heathen.
Thou has destroyed the wicked. Thou has put out their name forever
and ever. You see, God does right. That's
the point. Just submit to God. Serve Him. Serve your earthly masters as
serving God. Because God's going to do right
for us always. And you know what? You can preach
a message and preach and serve God better than an apostle. the
man who goes to work and does his job like what we've seen
here, wholeheartedly with a single heart, reverencing his master
and serving him not as a man pleaser, but truly serving him.
Obedient. That man who's got his bumper
sticker that says, smile, God loves you, and he wears his religion
on his sleeve, and he just wants everybody to ask him, and he's
always trying to make you feel worse and make himself look better,
he ain't bearing witness to Christ. That man that keeps his mouth
shut, and goes in and does his job, and is cheerful, and does
it wholeheartedly, that's the man that will make his master
go. What makes you this way? What makes you be this kind of
employee? And there's that little maid's
door open. And you can tell him. You can tell him. See, that's
what he's saying. That's what he's saying. I pray
he'll bless that. All right, let's stand together. Father, thank you for your Word
and for showing us everything in Christ our Savior. We see
righteousness and faithfulness and truth and loving kindness
and mercy and everything we need to know we see looking at Christ.
And everything that we need we have in Christ. Lord, thank you. What a righteous, holy servant. Lord, we thank you. We pray that
you'd make us to follow in his steps, make us so that we can
suffer wrongfully and take it patiently and know that whatever
comes our way, you're doing it, you're ruling, you're in charge,
and you're going to do what's right for us. Without any respect
to our lowly position, you're going to do it because it's right
and it's just. Thank you, Father, for being
such a holy and good Heavenly Father, being such a good Master. We pray these things in the name
of our Master and our Lord, Christ Jesus. Amen.