Alright brethren, we're going
to get started. Take your Bibles and let's turn
to Ephesians chapter 6. Today I want to look at verses
5 through 9 with you. And this is a continuation here
of Paul's practical instruction to the believers. It regards
our conduct as believers. And today, these verses are covering
servants, or employees, and masters, or employers. And so these instructions,
they're given to comfort us. They're given to comfort us as
believers. And we're to hear the Lord's
instruction to us in the spirit. We're to hear it in the spirit,
to receive the Lord's word with understanding, seeking him to
mature us to hear what we need to hear as believers and how
to conduct ourselves here in the world because we do want
to, we seek to minister things that are good and profitable
unto men for the purpose that they would hear the hope that
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so hear this word in the
spirit, remembering we walk by faith, we walk by faith. And
that's how the believer lives. He lives according to or by his
faith, the faith that God's given to him. And so I've titled this
message, Servants of Christ All. Servants of Christ All. We're
all servants of Christ. All that believe are servants
of Christ. And so we come to this word servant,
and the word servant really isn't a bad word for us. Today, we would refer to the
workers as employees. We don't call them servants.
And there is a connotation in which a servant is a slave. They've been taken captive and
are a slave to their captor. But we see in scripture that
believers aren't ashamed to take that word servant in regards
to their Lord. in regards to our Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so, we do well to see ourselves
and to remember, I'm a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
His servant. He's my Lord. Christ is the Lord
of His people. And we see many examples in scripture
where The Apostles, for example, and many brethren who served
the Church were called servants. Paul, when opening the letter
to the Romans, calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ. And at the close of Romans, in
chapter 16, he commends to the Church our sister Phoebe who
was a servant to the church at Sancreia and to receive her,
to receive her and to help her in whatever needs she had because
she's a servant of the church. When Paul and Timothy were writing
to the Philippians They referred to themselves as servants of
Jesus Christ. Epaphras, who's one of you, a
servant of Christ. James, a servant. Simon Peter,
a servant. Jude, the servant. And so we're
servants of Christ. You know, the whole letter of
Revelation which reveals the Lord Jesus Christ is given to
the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in Revelation
1.1, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him
to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.
And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John. And so we that believe that Christ
is our salvation, we're his servants, we're followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we, we do his bidding and
his will as he leads us and guides us and keeps us and teaches us.
And so Christ is their Lord and Christ is Lord of all. He's called
in the scriptures, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. And we're even given a sight
in Revelation, in Revelation chapter 17, we're given a view
of the enemies of our Lord who are making war against him. and
are frustrated because they cannot defeat him. He's the King of
Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. He's not going to be defeated
by his enemies. It says, these shall make war
with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them for he is the Lord
of Lords and King of Kings. and they that are with him are
called and chosen and faithful. So the servants of Jesus Christ
are those that have been called by his grace. We that have been
chosen by His grace and made faithful by the gift of His Spirit
who has made us alive unto Christ and revealed faith in our hearts
looking to Christ our Lord and Savior. So I want us to see ourselves
as the servants of Jesus Christ. We do well to see ourselves as
servants of the Lord Jesus Christ because he's called us to serve
him in humbleness of mind. It's to have a mind that is humble
before our Lord to hear his word. and that we would be used of
him to magnify his grace and to glorify him and to serve him
in all things. And so Christ being our Lord,
it follows that he's Lord of our spiritual life. He's Lord
of our spiritual life and he's also Lord of this carnal life. He's Lord of this life we have
in the flesh. That's because Christ is Lord
of all. He's Lord of all. So we do well
to understand our Savior is Lord of all. Now he says in verse
5, Ephesians 6, 5, Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling
and singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Looking to Christ we see that
our Savior was a servant himself. He was obedient to his Father
and in his obedience he wrought, he worked our salvation. In his obedience he worked our
salvation. He went to the cross. because
that's why he was sent, to serve, to lay down his life. He came
into the world as a servant to give his life for the life of
his sheep, the life of his people, to redeem them, to bring them
to himself. We're told concerning his salvation,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Our God purposed his coming coming
into this world to be our sacrifice, to be our savior. To do that,
he humbled himself. He came as a servant and laid
down his life that we should have life in him, in him. So we see how, as a servant,
he wrought our life. He wrought our salvation. He
delivered us from death and from condemnation. as a servant, he
did that. Philippians 2.5 then says, let
this mind be in you also, which was in Christ Jesus. Let that
mind, let his mind, the mind of a servant be in you, which
was in Christ Jesus, who was sent of God, who took on him
the likeness of this flesh, yet without sin, and served the Father
perfect in all things. fulfilling the law which we cannot
fill, fulfilling all righteousness which we cannot do. But in him
we've satisfied the law and we're pleasing unto the Father and
found faithful to God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're
told in Philippians 2, 7 then that Christ 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." And just reading those words, we're
given a proper view of what it means to be a servant. He was
humble. He gave his life. He was obedient. unto the Father. And he had no
reputation, because a servant lays down their life, lays down
their wants and what they would do in order to fulfill the wants
and desires of the one that they serve. That's what a servant
does, and that's what our Savior did, the Son of God, as a servant,
was obedient to the Father in all things. When he came, he
didn't come and fulfill the desires of His flesh. He didn't come
to make a name for Himself. He didn't come to do His will
according to the flesh. He came and fulfilled the will
of the Father. And that's where He wrought our
salvation and now by His grace He subdues proud hearts of his
people. He subdues our hearts and our
minds and turns us from pursuing our own lusts and passions in
this world to make some temporary inheritance for ourselves and
build something for ourselves in this small vapor of a life.
And he makes us willing in the day of his power by his glory
and his grace. And so he subdues our hearts
and makes us willing servants. And that's because your God is
pleased to use servants, to use the weak things, to use the lowly
things and the things that are despised and treated as nothing. He uses those things to effect
his will and purpose in his kingdom, in the world, to establish his
kingdom. to bless his people, to comfort
his people, to encourage his people, and to be there for one
another. And so our God does this, accomplishing
his will and purpose in the body using servants, using those whom
he's claimed for himself and washed in his blood and provided
everything for. providing all things. It's God
which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So trust Him to bless even the
smallest of details, even in something as going to work each
day and laboring for another person and sacrificing to do
what you're supposed to do. Those small little details, God
is able to bless and to make them effective toward his will
and purpose in the heart of his people. And so Paul says that
we're to serve our employer well with fear and trembling in singleness
of your heart, as unto Christ. And that singleness of heart
meaning here in this sense that it's not with the eye toward
mammon and serving mammon, but with one single eye upon Christ,
knowing that we're his servant, even in our jobs, even in various
aspects of our lives and friendships that we have, we're Christ's.
Don't let your heart be divided. Seek him for a single heart,
a single eye upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the reality is
we don't know how or when he'll use that. And this is true even
if you're not working now, this is true in all the little details
of our lives. We're the servants of the Lord. Just having someone stay at your
house and showing them hospitality and taking care of them, being
mindful and thoughtful of others and doing the acts of kindness
for them. Those are all little things in
which we are being servants of the Lord. Being servants of the
Lord, okay? And so Paul continues now in
verses six and seven, Ephesians six and seven, not with I service
as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of
God from the heart with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord
and not to men. The point that we do well to
hear in this is that we're not to compartmentalize our life
in the sense that, all right, this is my portion for the Lord. On Sundays, I go to church. Midweek,
I go to church. But that's his, and now everything
else is mine. And I use it as I want. And then
we have how we behave and act in services with others, with
brethren. and then how we act in our jobs
with others and how we act with our family or our friends, we
don't compartmentalize it in that sense. We're always the
servants of the Lord. We're never not his servants.
We're always his people, always under his grace. And Paul says
this in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20. He says, what? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with the price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's. So we're at the Lord's possession. Our bodies, right, for all their
faults and the sin that we see in this flesh, it's the Lord's. We're still the Lord's, we're
the Lord's people. And the difference is he gives
us his Holy Spirit. And so we are His purchased possession
and He purchased us. He laid down His life and gives
us His life in us, gives us His Spirit. makes us to know him,
and he does this to reveal his grace in us, that we should testify
and glorify the Lord for his grace to us, for what he's done
for us and the blessings of the Lord, that we should be a kind
of first fruits unto the Lord even here. in these bodies, as
weak as they are, that we, by His grace in us, should be a
kind of firstfruits while we wait for the redemption of our
bodies. While we wait for His return,
we worship the Lord and serve Him as His servants. We live unto Him. And so everything
that we do in this life, it's a testament to the grace of our
God in us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We see his spirit dwelling in
us and moving in us and are constrained by his love. And being constrained,
we're motivated by him. order to bring into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ in service to our Lord."
So our Lord is teaching us. And I think oftentimes when we're
looking at practical passages, We hear it in a way that rejects
it, or we don't want to hear that word. And perhaps some people might
think, well, you're speaking of works there. By talking of
these practical things, you're bringing up works, and we're
not saved by works. Works and what the Lord's doing,
it's very different, what we're speaking of, because the lawmonger,
the one who lives by the law, the will worker and the will
worshiper, that one who is trusting their works, what they're doing
is working on their fruits, on the outward, believing that these
things sanctify the inward. That's works, that's evil, that's
sin. We labor, being constrained by
love, having the Spirit of Christ in us. We are sanctified by the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he bears his fruit in us, and that inward
fruit, which is of him, works outwardly. And that's grace. That's of the Lord. And that's
our hope and our trust and our confidence. We don't work to
improve the inward, because that's that progressive sanctification
that men trust in, believing that something they do improves
and fix and makes better what's inward. No, no, no. It's all
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we come to commands,
another thing that helps us is when we come to commands where
the Lord makes known to us His Word. Think of 1 Peter 1 where
He says, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Be ye holy as I am holy. Many people hear that as a command
to the flesh. And they hear, uh oh, I better
slip my neck under the yoke of the law and get working. And
you over there, come on, let's go, get your neck under this
yoke with me and we're going to labor now and make ourselves
holy. That's works, that's evil, that's
trusting the flesh. But rather, we having the Spirit
here, this is the will of my God for me. Be ye holy as I am
holy, so that in Christ we are holy. And as my profession, as
my confession of the Lord, Lord, save me a sinner, as I see my
confession, Varying from my actions, because this flesh is sinful,
what does that do? Does that make me go to the law
to try and reconcile the difference? No, we have in the spirit, being
made alive, cry out, Abba, Father, save me, a wretched sinner. Have mercy on me. Lord, give
me a heart for your will. Let me desire the things that
you desire because. I find not in this, I see in
this flesh such wickedness, such gross sin, such a, Lord, I need
your grace and your mercy. Wash me in the blood of Christ.
Forgive me, Lord, keep me. And that's what the Lord does.
So you see that it's the inward working of his grace by his spirit
teaching us and keeping us, breathing out, Lord, save me. Lord, keep
me. Lord, thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ who loved me, and gave his life for me, that I
might know you and be saved by you by your grace. It's all finished,
it's all finished. And so we rejoice, it's very
different. One's working from the outward
in, which cannot work, which will not save them, and the other
is by the grace of God keeping us, keeping us. And so that's
what the Lord is teaching us even here because we know The
best thing I can do is be humble and be a servant and lay down
my life. But this flesh doesn't want to do those things. And
so we seek the Lord, help me, Lord. Help me to bear those fruits
of my Lord and Savior. Help me to walk in the spirit.
Help me to walk by faith and trust you in all these things
that you declare in your word because it's good. It's profitable
unto men, but I find it not in this flesh to do it, not willingly. But when you make me willing,
then I have a willing heart. And that's really what Peter
was talking about in 2 Peter chapter one. When he says, and
add to your faith virtue. And to virtue, and to virtue,
knowledge. Having a knowledge and an understanding
of what the will of our God is. And then he says, and to knowledge,
temperance. And to temperance, patience.
And to patience, godliness. and to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness, love, charity, growing in the grace. We can't make that happen. That's
of the Spirit's work in us, but having the Spirit, when you go
to Romans 8, you see that the creature moaning and groaning,
and we not even knowing what to pray for, but the Spirit makes
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. As we
breathe out, Lord, Abba, Father, have mercy on me. And so that's
what the Lord is teaching us here. He's showing us what his
will is, and he's the one by his grace that helps us and that
bears the fruit as it pleases him in him accomplishing his
will and purpose in the kingdom. And so he's, Paul then says,
not with I service as men pleasers, right? You think about the works
that you do for your brethren and those things that you do
in worshiping the Lord and in serving the Lord, do you those
things with I service? hoping that the Lord will reward
you or give you some special grace because you do those things? No, that would be works. Paul describes it in Romans 4.4,
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. So we don't labor in the Lord
with eye service. And in the same sense, when we
go to our jobs and our employers, He's saying don't do things with
eye service just to be seen of men to get a reward, but do it
as unto the Lord. And we don't do it unto the Lord
with eye service, but in thankful hearts and doing that which is
grace has helped us and enabled us to do. And so another thing
to think of is it's not even that our earthly employers are
worthy of our hard labors necessarily, or it's worthy that they should
be profitable and their businesses succeed and have success. That's not why we work so hard. We're working as unto the Lord
with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. And so another thing that's a
blessing in that, when our hearts and minds are set on the Lord,
and we want to serve him and walk in the Lord, when that's
our heart, that can be a great help. Because honestly, if you're
a hard worker in your job, and you work for somebody, you're
going to be recognized usually, especially when others are not
working so hard. And there comes opportunities
as a result of your labors. and if your thoughts and your
mind and your heart is on mammon and on the flesh as those opportunities
come you'll just keep on taking those opportunities such as even
promotions and it's a real thing for for believers to consider
Is every promotion something that I should take? Is every
promotion something that I should go for? Sometimes it's not an
issue, but there are some promotions and certain lines of work that
actually can take you away from the gospel. And no, don't do
those things. You that are the Lord's and that
love Christ, why would you want to Why would you want to leave
the gospel or be removed from the gospel? So those are things
that you don't want to take those promotions. Having your heart
remembering, I'm a servant of Christ, not a servant of this
flesh, not a servant of this world. When those opportunities
come, you can make a wiser decision. Lord, I don't think I want that. I'd rather be an individual contributor
than a manager. And honestly, not everybody's
does well as a manager. You might be a wonderful worker
in that job, and you can do very well in that, and go home happy
and glad, because when you become a manager, there's a whole bunch
of headaches and hassles and hardships that go along with
that, and some people are built well for it, and others aren't.
But especially, especially if it's gonna take you from the
gospel, don't do those things. The Lord isn't leading us away
from his flock and away from his people and away from his
word. He's leading us to himself and serving there. And so Paul
even says to Timothy, he said, but they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. And so that is often why men
work hard to get, just to get. And we ought to be good providers
and want to be providers for our families and to have the
things that we have need of, but there comes a point where
it can take you away from the Lord. and working as unto the
Lord is gonna keep that foot. It's gonna keep you seeking the
Lord and seeking him. All right, then Paul says in
verse eight, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And so Paul's just saying, your
Lord is your provider and your sustainer. He's going to keep
you. He's going to provide for you
and take care of you and your family. Trust him. Trust him. He'll take care of you. All right,
let's move on then to masters now briefly. Masters are also
servants. Sometimes when we do well in
this life, we can get to thinking that we're something when we're
nothing. And so masters are servants also. And it doesn't matter what our
position is. It doesn't matter what our riches
or our influence we too are servants of the Lord, servants of the
Lord. That's why I titled it Servants
of Christ All. We're all servants of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so just because we're something
in this world doesn't exclude Christ from being our Lord. It doesn't mean that he's not
our Lord and that we're not under his rule. He says now in verse
nine, Angie masters do the same things unto them, forbearing
threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither
is their respective persons with him. And so, honestly, the best
thing as a boss, you know, people don't mind tough bosses. People
don't mind a boss that holds them to a high standard. Just be consistent. Just be consistent
with everyone in that same way. And make sure what you expect
is well known and well understood. and then hold each one accountable
in the same way you don't have favorites. Because if you're
consistent, though you're tough, people respect it. They have
no problem with that. So just remember that. But forbearing, threatening,
remembering how your Lord is to you. Remember how he comes
to you in grace and in mercy and peace. That doesn't mean
that you don't have to deal with things as a manager, but be You
don't have to be rude, just be fair and consistent and make
it clear what you need there. Because if they cry out against
you, the Lord hears it too. The Lord will hear their cries
against you and correct you. Just remember that. And remember
that we don't know how the Lord will bless it. We don't know
what opportunities we'll have. As managers do have opportunities
to declare to others their hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in this day, you can do
it without necessarily ending up in HR and getting to talking
to by them. You can declare the truth before
them, but know that your behaviors are oftentimes in that position
preceding what comes out of your mouth later. Your behaviors precede
those. So remember to be honest and
just and right in as much as it lies with you. All right,
and so let me just reiterate that one important thing is that
our Lord gives us instruction. He teaches us. He makes his will
known for his people. And we that remember that we
are the Lord's, it's not that we're working on the outside
to bless or to bring in improvements on the inside. That's works.
That's falsehood. That's untrue and sinful. but
loving the Lord because he's given us his spirit and given
us a heart and made us alive by the spirit. In the new man,
there's a desire, a want to be pleasing to the Lord, a remembrance
that I'm the Lord in all things and I'm his servant. And so that
fruit being born within will present on the outside as the
Lord blesses it, as he enables it. And where we see the gap,
And we all see the gap between our hope and profession in Christ
and what we are in this flesh. That's where the new man, walking
in faith, cries out, Abba, Father, have mercy on me. Bless your
work. Bless it in my heart. Help me
to walk as you would have me to walk. And so I pray the Lord,
bless that word to your hearts, brethren. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your word. Lord, we see how weak we are
and how slow we are to hear and to believe, but Lord, we thank
you for your grace. We thank you for your leading
and your teaching and showing us the things that you would
have us to do in this life, Lord. We thank you that everything's
provided in Christ, that our salvation is secure in him, and
that we're not talking about those things. We're just speaking
of the fruit that you are pleased to bear within your people, that
we would be good and profitable to men in this world, that others
may hear and know the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's in his name we pray and give thanks. Amen.