Ephesians chapter 6, and let's
read the first nine verses in this chapter. It says, children, obey your
parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and
mother, which is the first commandment with promise. that it may be
well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling,
in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. 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, the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same things
unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also
is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him."
The Apostle Paul is giving instruction for children, fathers, servants,
and masters. And in the last chapter, which
there was no chapter division, it's really just a couple of
sentences before. He's writing this letter, and
about two sentences before, three sentences before, he gave instruction
to husbands and wives. But he said in verse 32, if you
look at chapter 5, verse 32, this is a great mystery, But I speak concerning Christ. He said in this instruction that
I'm giving to husbands and wives, I'm actually declaring the mystery
of Christ. I'm declaring the mystery of
godliness. The mystery of what Christ did for his church. I'm
preaching the gospel. And two sentences later, his
declaration hasn't changed. What he is trying to teach and
tell, it hasn't changed. He gave instruction for husbands
and wives to teach us Christ. And he's about to give instruction
for children, fathers, servants, and masters to teach us Christ. First and foremost, that is the
reason for the scripture. When we see something in the
scripture, and this is important, I'll give a little side note
here. When we see something in the scripture, we can take it
at face value and learn from it. But if we don't see the gospel
of Christ in it, we've missed it. We've missed it. I'm hearing a lot of things from
different ones who will call in. We get a lot of response
from our TV broadcast. And that's the one thing that
I hear the most. Well, what about this? And what
about that? If we don't see Christ in it, we missed it. We've missed
it. So He is teaching us Christ. Christ is always the object. Christ is always the motivation
for the things that we do and the way that we strive to be. Every exhortation is for Christ's
sake, all because of what He did. All right, now look with
me at chapter 6, verse 1. It says, children, obey your
parents. Let's begin by beholding the
obedience of the Son of God to the Father of God. Alright, the
obedience of the Son to the Father. Hold your place right here and
go over to John 6. John 6 verse 38 says, Our Lord said, For I came down
from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that
sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me. that of all which He hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. He said, I did not come to do
mine own will. I came to do my Father's will.
I came to obey and fulfill His will. Look at John chapter eight. John eight verse 28 says, then
said Jesus unto them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of
myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. He said to his father, I delight
to do thy will. I delight to do thy will. As
he fell to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating
as it were great drops of blood, he said, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. That's perfect obedience. That
is perfect obedience. All right, flip back to Ephesians
6. Verse 4 says, And ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath. That does not say in wrath. He did not say provoke not your
children in wrath, in your own wrath. He said to wrath. Provoke not your children to
have wrath come from them. Provoke your children to love.
Provoke your children to love. Let's behold how the Father provoked
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to love. Look at Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 4 says, But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. In order to apply love to us,
He quickened us together with Christ. He united us with Christ. Go over to Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 8 says, but God
commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. For God so loved the world. Thank
God not just the Jews only. If you're not a Jew, you're a
Gentile, you're a heathen, you're of the world. Thank God he did
not only love the Jews, he loved the Gentiles too. God so loved
the world. Sinners out of every tribe, nation,
kindred, tongue, and people, every generation. For God so
loved the world, He gave His Son. And His Son said, Greater
love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his
friends. The Father provoked, and the
Son loved." Oh, how He loved. In the story of Lazarus, when
Lazarus died, Mary and Martha, and the Lord waited before He
came, And he was dead already, and he asked them, where have
you laid him? And they took him to Lazarus's
grave. As he stood there looking at the tomb, it says, our Lord
started weeping. And all those that stood around,
as they watched him standing there weeping over that tomb,
they said, behold, how he loved him. He loved. Go with me back to
Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 verse 5 says servants
be obedient to them that are your masters. Let's take just
a second and behold the servant. God's servant. Turn over to Isaiah
42. Isaiah 42 now the heading at
the top of my page says the office of Christ This is the office
of the Lord Jesus Christ God the Father said in Isaiah 42
verse 1 behold my servant Whom I uphold mine elect he said I
choose him He is who I choose. We are only chosen in Him. Outside of Him, we're not chosen. He said, I'm happy with Him.
Behold, He is my elect. Behold, my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect in whom my soul delighted. I have put my spirit upon Him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break and the smoking flax shall he not quench till
he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. Now verse four says,
he shall not fail. I love that. Nor be discouraged. nor be discouraged." We get so
discouraged and his disciples were so discouraged. Always they'd
see something happen, just all of them so discouraged, not him.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in
the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. That's the
servant, that's the servant of God for His people. Isaiah 40
says He's going to lead, He's going to feed, He's going to
gather His flock like a shepherd. Behold the shepherd
and the servant for the sheep. Alright, go back to Ephesians
6. Verse 9 says, And ye masters,
behold the master. He said, you call me master and
Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. He said, all power is
delivered unto me. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue
shall confess that he is master and Lord. Every one of them.
Every one of them. But what did the master do? What
did our great master do? Verse 9 says, And ye masters
do the same things unto them. He humbled himself and became
a servant for the sake of unworthy subjects like us. He served us,
a servant for us. All right, so now in return. in return, in a loving response
to our great Master and everything that He accomplished for us in
obedience to His Father, out of love as the great servant
for salvation. In a loving response to our Master,
this is how we are exhorted to be. And I always want to make
it clear, we're not trying to earn salvation through this.
This is written to tell us how Christ earned it for us, and
that's what we just saw. This is a loving response to
salvation for Christ's sake, all right? This is how we're
exhorted to be. Verse 1, chapter 6, verse 1 says, children, obey
your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Now, our younger
children, they're not with us. I thought about bringing them
in. I thought about the older ones. I thought they need to
hear this. But the Lord laid something on
my heart with this, and this is for us. All right? They're not here, so I want to
say something to all of us who have children or may someday
soon have children. This is critical for us young
parents to understand, and maybe I can still be included in the
young parent category. This is critical. Our Lord said
children are to obey their parents. He said this is right. All right, now this is what we
parents must understand. Children must be taught this. Children must be taught this
and it's not easy. It is not in their nature naturally
to obey. It's not in their nature to obey. Sometimes after going around
and around with them. And those who have children or
have recently had young children, you know what I'm talking about.
After going around and around with them, you start to wonder,
what's wrong with you? Why won't you just obey? Why
on this earth won't you just obey? It's not in their nature
to obey. They cannot be left to themselves. Well, just leave them to themselves.
They'll figure it out. They cannot be left to themselves and expected
to obey. They must be taught. They must be taught. They must
be taught from the Word. They must be taught from the
pulpit. They must be taught from their
parents. They must be taught that this
is the will of the Lord concerning them. This is what God says is
right. And this is right. This is right. We live in a day when it's becoming
widely accepted that disciplining a child is wrong. That's what the world thinks
now. Disciplining a child. You can go to jail for it. Not
just wrong, illegal. We live in a day when it's becoming
widely accepted that it negatively affects them. That it stifles them. It only
brings psychological harm to them. God says the opposite is
so. The exact opposite is so. And
only God is right. Only God is right. Let God be
true in every man a liar, no matter how many PhDs he has.
There are men and women out there with PhDs on top of PhDs on top
of PhDs that are trying to tell us, hey, don't do that. Whatever
you do, don't. Only God is right. Only God is
right. Now there are some parents who
provoke their children to wrath because they discipline their
children in wrath. And it's just a lot of hollering
and a lot of screaming and a lot of slapping and that is not God's
way of discipline. Our God has never instructed
us to discipline our children in a harsh, cruel way. We discipline in love. That's
how He disciplines us. I'm so glad He disciplines us
in love. Never does He cause us to believe
He doesn't love us. Never. Now His discipline is
firm. His Word holds true. He said,
My Word shall stand. But it's in love. And that will
provoke our children to love. Disciplining in love provokes
our children to love. We don't ever want to treat our
children or discipline our children in a cruel way. But this is what
our Lord said. And we need to be prepared for
this. We need to believe this and expect this. This is what
he said. If we spare the rod, we will spoil the child. Our children have been commanded
to obey their parents. That old thing of because I said
so, that's a good phrase. Once you have children, you're
going to hear a lot of this right here. Why? Because I said so. That's what God says to us. Because
I said so. So they've been commanded to
obey their parents and we parents are commanded to teach our children
to obey in love, in a loving way. Verse 2 says, honor thy
father and thy mother which is the first commandment with promise
that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long
on the earth. There's no age limit put on that. All right, there's no age limit
attached to that. Clearly, we are to honor and
respect and reverence our parents when we're young children, especially
in our teenage years. We are to honor them. We're to
reverence them. But that commandment does not
go away. Even in the prime of our adulthood,
our parents will come to a place where they need us. They will
come to a place where they are more feeble than they used to
be and they will rely on us. And the commandment is children
take care of your parents, love and provide for your parents.
I knew a woman years ago who had to take care of her mother.
Her mother was getting up in years and becoming more feeble
in a lot of ways. And this woman was constantly
put out with her mother, just constantly, just treating her cruelly, disrespectfully,
just mean, hollered at her, humiliated her, sarcastic toward her. And I used to watch her do that
and think, my goodness, this woman gave her all to you. And
she did, she was a good mother. This woman was never mistreated
by her mother. She just got the upper hand on
her and she lost all respect for her. This can happen amongst
believers. Brethren, these things ought
not be so. No matter what age we are, children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Let's honor
our fathers and our mothers that it may be well with us. And the
end of verse three says that thou mayest live long on the
earth. Obey your parents, honor them
that you may live long on the earth. This is all I'm going
to say about that. Our God has said that man's days are numbered. We have an appointed time to
die. We cannot pass. We cannot pass. People talk about, you know,
if you do this and live this healthy way, it'll extend your
life. No, it won't. We have an appointed time to
die. We cannot pass. If our God has said that, then
it's so. That's so. I believe that. Whether
I believe it or not, it's so. But thank the Lord. He's given
me faith to believe that. Our God has said right here,
and He said in Exodus 20, that honoring our father and our mother
is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with
us and that we may live long on the earth. If God said that,
it's so. I cannot explain that. I cannot explain it. I don't
understand that. I honestly don't understand that.
But if God said it, it's so. By faith, we're not going to
throw out one thing that our God says just because we believe
another thing that our God says. Faith believes God. Faith believes God. Our God does
not lie. He does not write with trickery.
Whatever he said, he means. And faith believes him. Faith
believes not just what it can understand. Faith believes God,
and if that's what he said, then it's so. All right, verse four
says, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but
bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We've
already covered that in the sense that love provokes to love. But another thing we can see
in that verse is this. If we provoke our children to
the things of this world, If we encourage them and provoke
them to the things of this world, provoke them to the point that
they're given to the things of this world, then we are provoking
them to the wrath to come. Let's provoke them to the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. Let's provoke them to be under
the gospel. We have a lot of young couples
in here. And if the Lord is gracious,
He will send children in the years to come. Provoke them to
Christ. Provoke them to His Word. Provoke
them to be under the Gospel at all costs. Verse 5 says, 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. It's the way of the flesh to
want to do as little as possible and get the most out of it. That's
how this flesh is, as little as possible for the most reward. I'm not trying to be mean or
insensitive or anything like that, but the average employee
is a lazy employee these days. It is so rare to find someone
who will go above and beyond what they're called on to do.
I mean, give it their all. That is so rare. Brethren, let's
be that rare thing. I want to encourage everyone
here, every man here, every woman here, Whatever our hand finds
to do, do it with all your might. Do it with all your might. I
need to study this word with all my might. Not cut corners. All my might. You need to work
your job with all your might. While others are telling you,
now you better slow down. You're going to work yourself
out of a job. People say that so much. And what they mean is
if there's nothing left to do, they won't keep paying us. Let's slow productivity down.
Let's creep this thing along. Who cares about the company?
Whatever it is that you do, if you work in a carpenter shop,
work as though the Lord Jesus Christ is across the bench from
you. What kind of example do you think
He was? What kind of worker do you think
He was? That's what His hand found to
do. And how do you think He did it?
Verse 5 says, 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. 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 man, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Some men won't do anything unless
the boss is looking, and it's because they don't believe they're
going to get a reward from it. Just do it. Just do it. The Lord will take care of you.
Verse nine, and ye masters do the same things unto them forbearing,
threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither
is their respective persons with him. Bosses, treat your employees
like you would like to be treated. Forbearing threatening. Don't
get business done by constantly threatening. I used to work in
a place and hanging up in the break room, there was a sign.
I guess one of the managers thought it would be funny to hang a sign.
And it said, the beatings will continue until morale improves. Now they were joking, thankfully.
But bosses, if God has called you to be a boss, be a good boss. Be a good boss, be a kind boss,
be a generous boss. As unto the Lord, knowing, he's
watching. He said, it's been given unto
you, now you give. Through this word, the Lord is teaching us
and conforming us to the image of Christ. Christ is an honorable
man. He is an obedient, humble, loving,
kind man. And that makes me want to be
one too. And I know it makes all of His people want to be
one. As He is, we desire to be. So Lord, teach us. Teach us and
conform us. More to His image. May He do
that. Alright, you're dismissed.