to deal with. And there are some
things tonight that I think are very, very pertinent. Of course,
it's always, the scriptures are always pertinent, always need
to be dealt with. But you remember last week we
talked about some men's sins going beforehand. Their sins
are so bad, and that their sins are so bad that God sees them,
we all see them. And they go before the judgment.
And some men are so hypocritical and hide their sins so well that
they'll follow them afterwards. And then that's the way that
good works are. Some people, it's obvious that
they've got good works, and God blesses them. They're very, very
kind, tender, and loving, and do wonderful things. And there's
some good works that are so secret that God knows them, that they've
been done in secret, and the Lord will reward them in that
day. Then the apostle comes down and there's four things in these
verses that I want us to see that's for our learning. And
their instructions about servants are those who work for other
people. You know, those who work for
other people. Second thing is false teachers,
false teachers. And then the third thing he does
is he advises us to contentment. And then he fourthly exposes
the sin of covetousness. And just look at that first verse.
Let as many servants, and that's what they talk about, this is
people that work for somebody. Let as many servants as are under
the yoke count their own masters, masters worthy of all honor,
that the name of God and his doctrine be not blackfamed. Every
believer, if he works, for a living has someone he has to work for.
Has to work for. They're under their authority.
And that's why it's called under the yoke. You're under somebody
else's authority. If it's the boss or it's the
government. And I'll tell you, you know,
if you're in the service of somebody, you're working for somebody,
They've bought a business or something like that, and they
hire you to go to work. They hire you to go to work for
them. And so you're working, everybody is working for somebody
else. Even if you got your own business,
your own business, whoever you go into their home to do some
work for, they're the boss. They tell you what they want,
they tell you what they're willing to pay for, and they're telling
you how long you know and what they desire. And they're the
boss, they're the boss. And if the fellow you're working
for is a believer or an unbeliever, that don't make any difference.
Whether they're kind or unkind, that doesn't make any difference.
Whether they're good-natured or they're just an old ill hornet.
But the believer, God's people, They're to respect them, to honor
them, obey them, obey them. And that means when they tell
you to do something, you do it. You don't argue with them, you
don't debate with them, you don't ask them why they want you to
do it. And when you hire on, give them a good day's work.
You know, Over in 2nd Timothy, it talks about proloning. Proloning. Proloning means to pretend there's
something wrong with you. You're killing time. You're robbing
from somebody. Now, in the military, they'll
court-martial you for proloning. You act like you're sick all
the time or something's wrong with you all the time, and they
send you to every doctor there is, and they can't find anything
wrong with you, they're gonna say either get to work, get on
the job, do what you're supposed to do, or we're gonna court-martial
you and put you out. Don't they do that, James? And
that's what he's talking about here. And you know, you give
a good day's work. If somebody hires you, they offer
to pay you a certain amount of money for so many hours a day,
you give them that day's work. And I tell you, you respect.
You respect them in the words that you say. You respect them
in gestures that you do. You know, don't wait till they
turn their back and give it that, you know. No, no, don't do that.
I mean, you know, they're your boss. And they deserve your respect. And don't, you know, even in
your words and in your gestures. And I tell you, don't be careless
on the job. Just don't be careless. Because
I, you know, and here's something else. If a professed believer,
if a professed believer, is lazy, sorry, rebellious, disobedient,
disrespectful, careless in what they're doing on the job. You
know an unbelieving master, you know what he'll say? Well, is
this their religion? You know that the Word of God,
the gospel be not blasphemed? Is this their religion? Is this
the gospel they preach? Does their God and doctrine teach
them to rebel against authority? To destroy the order? That there's
a boss and then there's a hierarchy in business. There's a hierarchy
in the job. There's a hierarchy in places
where people go. And I think believers makes the
very best employees of anybody. And let me, I'm gonna give you
an illustration. I remember a young man. And he was one of these
fellows that sent other people out to go to work. Well, they
needed somebody to help at this one particular place. Didn't
have anybody, so he went. And when he got there, they told
him to empty the trash can. He worked there for several days.
They said, empty the trash can. He emptied the trash can. Answer
the phone while we go to lunch. He answered the phone. Run off
so many copies. Whatever they told him to do,
he went and done it. They went to the trash cans.
Whatever they call him to do, they've done it. You know what
they did after he'd done that about two or three weeks? They
hired him. And you know right now he's a
boss. Right now he started out as a
temporary employee and done what he was told. Never said anything
about it with a smile on his face. I'm working for these people. And I'll tell you what, if you'll
work and do what you're supposed to do, somebody will notice it
sooner or later. And that's how people that work
for themselves, that's how they get jobs and get jobs ahead because
they've got a reputation. They build up a reputation. He's
a good worker. They do good work. You can depend
on them. They'll be there when they say
they'll be there, and they'll do what they say they'll do. Now that'll work, won't it? That'll
work. But everybody's working for somebody.
Everybody's working for somebody. If you're working for yourself,
you're somebody, and you're gonna take care of what you got. You're
gonna take, I want you to look over here. Look over here in
Colossians chapter three. I want you to see this for a
minute. In verse 22. Going along with the same thing
here. You know, it's like when a policeman
stops you. You know, you don't argue with
that policeman. You know, everybody's under some
authority, sooner or later. And you don't argue with him,
whether he's, you know, you're under the yoke. If he says you're
going 70, yes sir, I was. You know, you deserve a ticket,
yes sir, I do. Don't argue with him. You know, yes sir, no sir. Freedom with respect, and that's
the way we're supposed to do. And it's a sad day in which we
got so many young people, they ain't got no respect for their
self or nobody else. But look what he said here in
Colossians 3.22. And then he talks about servants,
he's talking about people that work. Back in those days they
had a lot of slaves and they called them servants. Obey in
all things, all things, your masters, according to the flesh. The person you work for, you're
working for them in your flesh. And don't do it with eye service.
Don't wait till they're looking at you, and act like you're real,
real busy, and quick as he turns around, you sit down on the five-gallon
bucket, wait till the boss gets back. But look what he says,
that all know in single-ness of heart, You got a single heart
when you go there to work. And fear in God. God's watching
you. You're God's child. And whatsoever you do, do it
as heartily as to the Lord. You're working for another man,
but Christ is really your master, and not under man. Knowing that
of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance,
for you serve Christ. And if you serve Christ, you'll
be a good servant of other people. And so that's what we're talking
about. Now let's go back over here and go to verse two. And they that have believing
masters, they that have believing masters, let them not despise
them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because
they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit or the
partakers of the blessings of Christ. These things teach and
exhort. You see there where it says,
you know, because they are brethren. If you have a master and he's
your brethren, and he's your brother in Christ. Now this is
something that people, they take advantage of relationships. But
when you're working for a man and he's a brother, he's a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And some people think that makes
me equal, makes them equal to one another. And that they, it
takes away the authority and takes away the dominion. And
so since they're brothers, I don't have to pay attention to him.
But that's not true. That's not true. No, no. You
know, actually a believer, if he's serving under another believer
and employed by another believer, he should even show greater respect
and have a readier and more willing obedience, subjection to them,
to the authority of his brother, making his place easier. Just
because a man's a believer, that don't mean that he can't be the
boss. You know, Richard Pennington, oh, he was a wonderful man. And
he owned a company called Penco and had lots and lots of people
working for him. Joe was a boss, a big boss for
a man that had hundreds and thousands of big, huge jobs. And he was a believer. But here's
the thing about it. Just because you're a believer
and you're working for a believer, that don't make you say, well,
I don't have to pay attention to him. He'll let me get by. No, no, he's the boss. And if
he's a believer, show him exceedingly more respect. Make his life as
easy as you possibly can make it. And just, you know, subject
yourself to him and his authority. And I tell you, make life easier
for him, and it'll make life easier for you, and it'll make
it more pleasant for him, and more pleasant for you on the
job. And then he says there, because they are faithful and
beloved. Oh my, if you gotta, you know,
let's give thanks for faithful, beloved, and believing bosses.
They're partakers of the grace of God, that's what he's saying
here. Don't use, never, never use your spiritual relationship
as an excuse for taking advantage, but use it rather as a reason
for more, more and better dedicated labor to the person you're working
for. You know, that's a, and these
are things that, I don't know, you know, believers ought to
be able to, to give a really, really good... They don't want
God to be dishonored. They don't want their reputation
to be dishonored. They don't want the doctrine
they teach to be dishonored. They don't want people to say,
well, them folks up there at that church, half of them, they
ain't worth nothing. But you know, that's not the
way we're to be. That's not the way we're to be. Even in our
everyday life, God made us to be productive. And you know,
when he created Adam, he put Adam in the garden, and he says,
you tend this garden. You take care of this garden.
He gave him something to do. And God intended for us to be
productive people, to just not sit around, twiddle our thumbs,
and be lazy. And you know, I'm going to tell
you what I, I'm going to quit talking about this. I'm going
to tell you something that I believe. I believe when we get to that
new heaven and that new earth, we're in dwelleth righteousness.
I believe we'll all have things to do that'll keep us busy. But here's the thing about it,
there won't be no work in it, and yet we'll stay busy. There won't be no effort in it.
Because you know there won't be no curse, there won't be no
sin, there won't be no, it'll be perfect. And yet, Adam tended
the garden. We're gonna be tending that new
garden, that new heaven and earth. Oh my, well, it got down here
then in verse three. So, you know, Paul said, you
take these things that I've just taught you and the things up
to this time, you teach these things and you exhort people
to do these things just like I'm doing tonight. I'm teaching
you and exhorting you. And then he said in verse three,
if any man teach otherwise, Anything that I haven't taught you, teach
different than what you've been taught. And consent not to wholesome
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness. And what the apostles
doing here in the scriptures does condemns all those who don't
agree and teach the above things about how we ought to be as people
working for somebody else. And what he's saying, you know,
some of these false teachers, they despise authority. There's
people that utterly and absolutely despise authority and dominion.
And let me show you that over here in 2 Peter. Look at 2 Peter. There's people, you know, we
see it on the news sometimes, you know, you see these anarchists
going out. They despise dominion. These people attack policemen
and attack people, you know, because they despise authority. They despise somebody having
dominion over them. But here in 2 Timothy, 2 Peter
2, look down at verse 10. Chiefly them that walk after
the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, listen to this, despise government. That means they don't want nobody
to have dominion over them. They're presumptuous, they're
self-willed, they're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. They'll speak against God, speak
against their boss, speak against the government, speak against
everybody that has any authority over them. Any authority over
them. And I tell you, he says here,
you know, and he said, they encourage people to disobedience. There's
people that encourage people to be disobedient to their parents,
to their masters, be a disobedient to the government. You know,
I, A fella told me the other day,
a woman told her son three different times to do something. He told
her no, no, no, and the third time he told her to shut up. What would you do if one of your
children told you to shut up? You'd have to go to the dentist
to get teeth put in. I used to tell mine, I'll put
a knot on your head, you have to tiptoe to scratch. And I mean to do it. Listen,
but that's what people are doing now. They try to find out what
they can get by with. And when a parent, when a child,
they have this disobedience to parents. I just can't hardly
bear that. And you take somebody that has
a boss, and they stand and argue with their boss. and fuss and
fight with their boss. When I was in the Marine Corps,
if they told you what, get up at a certain time, you got up
that time. You had so long to shave, you had so long to do
something, and then you had to be up, standing out there, waiting
on the boss to come by, the sergeant or the gunner or whoever it was,
you had to be standing there waiting for him to come by, and
you had about five minutes to do what all you're supposed to
do. And yeah, you get out there and start telling him, I ain't
gonna do this, that, and the other. you're going to jail. But I'll tell you this, and that's
what, you know, and that's what he says, you know, that they
teach otherwise and commit sin not to wholesome words. The gospel
of Christ is wholesome. It's about grace and faith and
meekness and temperance and gentleness and kindness and forbearance. And oh my. But I tell you what,
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrines of Christ,
they're in agreement with us honoring God and honoring one
another and honoring, and it promotes peace in our homes.
It promotes peace everywhere we go. It leads to faith. The
doctrine of Christ does. And that's according to godliness.
I mean, listen, when we're talking about godliness, we're talking
about we're conscious of God. When we do something, we're conscious
of God. You know, when we go out to do
something, we're conscious of God, that Godliness. We think
about God. We want to obey God. We want
to honor God. And so it leads to faith and
humility and patience and all the things we owe to our fellow
man, much less brothers. Look over here in Titus. Go back
to your right and look in Titus chapter two. You know, back when I was an
employee, when I finally got a good job, I wasn't a good employee. Of course, I was just a dumb
kid. I was a man, but I was just a
kid. But look what he said here in
Titus chapter 2 and verse 9. exhort service to be obedient
unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things,
not answering again." See, don't argue with them, don't debate
with them. Not prolonging, and that word prolonging means to
still to pretend, to act like something's wrong with you, but
showing all good fidelity, showing all good faithfulness, that they
may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. You
do what you do that you may make the doctrine of Christ pretty. Make it pretty. All right, let's
go down here to verse four and five. But that man, that doesn't
consent to these wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
according to his doctrine. It's according to godliness.
If he teaches otherwise, look what it says about him. He's
proud. First thing about him, he's proud.
Knowing nothing. Don't know anything. but doting
about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife,
railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt
minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness,
from such withdraw thyself." The first thing about a false
teacher and false religionists is the first thing you'll notice
about them, they're full of pride. Oh, they're so proud. They're
full of pride. If somebody don't want to take
instruction and be under anybody else's authority, they're full
of pride. But the gospel of the grace of God, do you know what
it does? It produces a spirit of humility, a humbleness. And
I tell you, but the doctrines of men works Self-righteousness,
works religion, self-righteous. You know what it does? It fills
the mind with pride. Vanity. Thinking so highly of
themselves. I remember recently, and I used
this up when I was up last week preaching. There was a man that
he goes to a free will Baptist church. And he told me, I don't
know how many service he hadn't missed in so many years. But
anyway, he had been real, real sick. And I sat talking with
him. He was telling how sick he had
been. And I said, boy, and he was setting up, able to set up.
And I said, boy, the Lord sure had mercy on you, didn't he?
You know what he said to me? He said, mercy didn't have nothing
to do with it. I was just determined. I was just determined to get
well, to get better. Is that pride? Is that self-esteem? Is that self-righteousness? That's
about as, you can't get more false than that. Can't get any falser than that.
And oh my, and then it says they're proud knowing nothing. You know
what, they don't absolutely know anything about spiritual things. Don't have a clue about spiritual
things. They don't know anything, they know nothing about the gospel
of Christ. They don't know nothing about
the gospel of grace. They know nothing about Christ
and his blessed grace and his righteousness and his blood.
And now I listen to hear what they, and they make, they have
all kinds of questions. Questions. You know, strife and
disputes and strife over words and laws and foolish, unanswerable
questions. I got a letter from a fellow
the other day. I mentioned it to you. I've got to deal with
him tomorrow if I can. But anyway, God's number one.
No, no, no, no, no, uh-uh. You know, in people, in one thing
that he did, he was making, out of some Burlington articles sent
to him, he found fault with the way some words were in it, and
the way they were used. So he wants to find out why would
you use these words? one of the articles, he said,
why would he say this? And then he picked up one on
John Chapman, why would John, what about this right here? He's
making a man an offender for a word. Doting about, he questions,
questions. And all of my, I remember a man,
Every time I was around him, every time anybody else was around
him, whether it was Henry or Scott, me or anybody else that
was ever around him. If he'd come to this services,
he would ask you. And he had three questions that
he asked every single time he got around a bunch of people.
He asked this, what constitutes a church? What constitutes a
church? Well, the Lord said, wherever
two or three are gathered together. And the second thing he is, how
do you know you're called to the ministry? He was a preacher
for a few years and he quit, made a few million dollars, and
decided he won't get back in the ministry. But anyway, he said, how do you
know you're called to the ministry? Well, and the third question
is, What does baptism mean in Galatians 3.27? As you have been
baptized into Christ. What's that baptism? He asked
those three questions everywhere he went. And then he always,
always brought this up. Do you believe in the impeccability
of Christ? Anybody knows what that question
means? That means the impeccability of Christ. That means when he
was tempted, Was he able, if his temptations were real, was
he able to sin during those temptations or was he impeccable? Well, the scriptures tells us
plainly that he's harmless, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners.
That he is sinless, Perfect, holy, righteous. When you've
seen Him, you've seen God. But those are questions that
they just ask. It's like they ask about creation. People ask all the time, which
comes first, the chicken or the egg? Which comes first, the tree
or the acorn? How's that egg? Listen, God created
everything starting with, and everything comes from whatever
God created. Ain't that right? He created
the mail and he created cash. Now we got cows and bulls all
over the country. He created chickens. I stop up
here and buy me four or five dozen eggs every once in a while. You know, people ask these stupid
questions. I heard a fellow say one time,
some of y'all may remember this. Somebody while the preacher was
preaching, preaching for justice, he said, where did Cain get his
wife? And he just kept preaching. He
hollered out again, where did Cain get his wife? He asked him a third time, where
did Cain get his wife? That preacher had a little sense.
He said, well, if she suits him, she suits me. I said, I'm going to leave you
right there. If he's happy with her, I'm happy
with her. How are you going to answer a
fool like that? But that's what he's talking
about. These guys, they just want questions and argues, and
you know this is the thing they do about the scriptures. You'll
tell them something the scripture says, but they'll say, what about?
You'll say, God's elected, but what about? God's sovereign,
but what about? Everybody's got a what about?
Well, there ain't no what abouts with God. We're just going to
take it as it is, and I ain't asking them no questions. But
oh my, and you know their ministry provokes envy, isn't that what
it says? Envy and strife and jealousy
and that railings, that means arguing all the time, arguing,
arguing all the time. Quarrels, dissension, and then
look what it says, evil surmising, that means they got, they're
suspicious of people, they're suspicious of people. And oh
my, Oh, he says, they're perverse disputings of men. Their minds
are corrupt. They're perverse in the things
they talk about, corrupt minds. And oh my, there's been a lot
of people, broke a lot of fellowship over words and things that they
surmised that somebody said, but they never questioned it
before. A lot of people's lost a lot
of fellowship over that. But then he says this, and from
such, supposing that gain is gotten, from such withdraw thyself.
Oh my. You know where the grace of God
is? It promotes peace in our home,
peace here in the church, peace between the boss and his laborer. Even in the neighborhood, you
know, you want peace. But oh my, withdraw yourself
from these men who are contentious and quarrelsome, always disputing
and railing on one another. They're all envious and anger,
and they're full of anger. They're destitute of the truth
of Christ, and they don't have the Spirit of God. And it says
there, they suppose that gain is godliness. They suppose that
religion and Christianity are a source of profit. And most
places it is, it's a money making business. It's a money making
business. Or they think it's a means of
personal gain. There's churches, and there's
churches around here. If you was there, you know what
they'd tell you? Now our budget is going to be
this much money this year. It's going to be two million
dollars. And if you're a member of this church, we're going to
give you a card, And this is what everybody needs to give
to get to that $2 million. And everybody has to make a pledge
that I'm going to give this much every week or this much every
month. And if they start coming short of that $2,000,000, say
they're $300,000 off, you know what they're going to do? They're
going to get on you, they're going to bother you, they're
going to aggravate you, they're going to tell you how God will
bless you. If you'll just come up, give us some more money.
They suppose it gains Godliness. And you know what Peter said?
Peter says, you know that they make merchandise of your soul.
That's all you are, is a merchandise to them. You're just a profit
to them. And they serve themselves in
their self-assent, making merchandise of men's souls. But then look
what he said here. And I know this is so. I know
this is so. Shirley and I talk about it all
the time. One thing I can tell you is that I am very, very,
I've been content for years. I've been content with my life
for years and years and years. I've been content with it. But
godliness with contentment is great gain. To know God, to know
Christ, have a new true knowledge of God's grace in Christ, shows
us if it's manifest in our hearts, manifest in the fruit, gives
us a peaceful disposition. We want to live to the glory
of God. We love to come to worship with the Lord's people. And I
tell you what, that gives you great contentment. To have God,
oh my. His grace is sufficient. His sacrifice is sufficient.
His love and presence is sufficient. Christ is all we need. And you're
talking about great and abundant gain is to have Him and be content. Be content. I am very, very content. Somebody's talking to me today
and said, hope you have a good service there. I said, I can't
imagine being anywhere else doing anything else. And I tell you
what, I'm content with where I am, who I am, what I have,
and what I do, and with the people I know, and the people I fellowship. I'm as happy as if I had good
sense. In fact, you know, I really,
truly am content. You know, if you say, well, I
need a new car, does that mean you're not content? No, no, no,
that don't mean that at all. But we're talking about this
relationship we have, because we're content. I'm very content,
ain't you? I'm peaceful, huh? I'm peaceful. Our Father, oh, our blessed Lord,
our God, In the name of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, the very
lover of our souls, the one who loved us and gave himself for
us. Oh Lord, that the life we now live in the flesh, we live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself
for us. God bless these dear saints and
God bless our dear sisters that are frail and are weak and would
love to be with us but are not able. And Lord, we pray for your
great blessings upon them. Encourage their hearts, encourage
their souls, encourage their bodies, and heal their bodies,
make their bodies stronger. Lord, thank you for these that's
come out tonight. God, bring glory to yourself
through us and through all of us for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. All right. Good night and
God bless you and see you Sunday, Lord willing.