Slaves, obey your earthly masters
with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would
Christ, not by the way of eye service, as people pleasers,
but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to
man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive
back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. Masters,
do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that
he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there
is no partiality with him. Now, depending upon the year
that your ESV was printed, it may say the words bondservant.
And if you have a different version of scripture, you may see the
word bondservant or servant or slave. In the Greek there, there
is a word or a variation of the word doulos or diakonos. English translation of the word
is the word deacon. And it doesn't mean someone who
serves, it doesn't mean someone who sort of works for somebody,
it means someone who is owned by another, which is a slave.
It's property, if you will. And so here, and everywhere you
see the word servant or slave, like Ephesians, Philippians 2
and other places, the diakonos, doulos, and variations of that
word mean slave. Not in serving in the context
of someone who just sort of serves another, but one who is bound
to another and has no choice in the matter. A slave is a slave. And when you see here, what we
have a tendency to do is we see, OK, Paul has said submitting
to one another out of reverence for Christ. Chapter 5, and then
he says, then husbands or wives, submit to your own husbands in
all things in the Lord. And then he says, husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church. Then he says, children,
obey your parents. Fathers, do not exasperate or
provoke your children to anger, but train them up in the admonition
of the Lord. Now he says, slaves, Obey your
earthly masters with fear and trembling." And so, it may seem
strange to you that Paul comes from church relationships and
submission, through husband and wife, submitting to the husband
in all things as to Christ. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church. Children, obey your parents,
for this is right. A picture of Jesus in obedience
to the Father is right. See, there's the picture here.
Don't lose it. Don't lose it. Don't forget what
we've done the last six weeks. It's got to stay there. You've
got to take it, like when you're blending colors, and you've got
to take a little bit. You've got to keep taking that,
or you won't have it. So keep it there. Keep pulling
it in to what you know and what you learn. And all of a sudden,
out of the blue now, he says, slaves. Well, let's talk about
slaves. Because in our culture, we think
of slaves as the founding essence of who we are as a country, as
a nation. This country was built on the
back of black slaves. This land that we have now, which
is free, was established under the labor of slaves taken from
the African continent. Slaves. Europeans could not have
done what they did without slaves. And so when we think of slaves,
we think of that. And then we think of the emancipation of
slavery leading up to the Civil War, and then Reconstruction
that did not happen in the South because the South was left to
rot by the federal government. And even up into 1992, There was division upon racial
lines in Evans County. There's still divisions upon
racial lines in Evans County, but it's not to the degree that
it has been. So there's a lessening of the
us versus them mentality. And I say this because we all
have an idea of what Paul is meaning here. Like I said a few
Tuesday nights ago when I say evangelism, and we've got this
nice little thing that we think it is. And we miss it. Like when
we all know what chocolate cake is, and when we go to put it
in our mouth, we know that it's supposed to taste a certain way.
And when it doesn't, it's not right. The other day I was at
Hoodies, and I had a sandwich, and I was drinking Diet Pepsi.
I was just getting tired of that, so I decided to get sweet tea.
And I went, and I got sweet tea, and I'm sitting there, and I'm
talking, and I drink the tea. And for two seconds, I'm like,
what is this? This is gross. I was expecting
Diet Pepsi, and tea came into my mouth, and so what my mouth
tasted, what my brain thought, contrasted and conflicted, and
two trains came together in my taste buds, and it voided the
sweetness of the tea, and it eradicated the idea of Diet Pepsi,
and I'm like, somebody has to put a toilet water in my cup.
I mean, this is gross. And then I drunk it again, realized
it was tea, and it tasted great. And so what we'll do when we
hear the word slave is we'll think about what we know in the
heritage of our country. And we'll forget about even considering
what Paul's actually talking about here. Paul's not going
through and saying, let's talk about this, let's talk about
that. Oh, by the way, now that I think about it, let's talk
about this. Here, Paul is talking about the home. And slavery, by its very existence,
is a is an extreme reality of depravity. Slavery, in every aspect of it,
whether it brought about good or not, is wicked. Men are not
property. But here, in Ephesus, they were. And so just as children were
hearing the sermons and the teaching of Paul, so were the slaves in
that home. And so the relationship of the
home was husband and wife and children and slave. Or slaves. Don't miss this. Don't miss this. Slavery, by design, is that there
are some people who believe they have the right to own others
as property. That is wicked. The Bible rejects
that. The Gospel rejects that. Scripture
shows us and history proves to us that out of slavery is a display
of depravity. So then, if that's true, And
that here in this Roman culture, and I'll help you see in just
a minute, there are slaves now being taught to. Slaves. He didn't
say, masters, tell your slaves to obey. He said, slaves, obey
your earthly masters. Children, obey your parents. Wives, obey your husbands. Church, obey Christ. So all of these people were part
of the family of this day. How big was slavery in Rome? The Roman Empire covered the
world. It touched everything. And everywhere
that was not Rome, where Rome touched, those people were enslaved
to Rome. There were people who were enslaved
to Rome in almost every part of the world. It is estimated
that in this time, when Paul wrote this letter, there were
60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. And you might think,
wow, that's a lot of servants. I'm not talking about servants.
Yes, they were slaves. But that was the lowest issue
of slavery. Those people who helped in the
home, who helped with children, who helped with food and preparation
of meals, who helped with gardening or whatever they did then. Those
were servants for the home. But they were slave servants.
There's a difference in service and slavery. That's why I don't
like the translation of servant. It's a slave. These people were
owned. They were property. They had
no rights. They had no recourse. And if they dared to speak a
sigh against their home or their owner, they would be crucified
on a cross. And Paul's talking to them. And not just servants in a home,
but administrators of business. They weren't. They weren't free.
If you owned the business, everybody who managed the business was
your slave. Your treasurer was a slave. Your
salesman was your slave. Your manufacturer was your slave. They were your slaves. You owned
them, and they were ruled by you. And if you owed a debt to
another man, you could give him your slaves as payment. The same thing happens here in
America, where slave people bought from their own people, slaves. Where did they come from? Europeans
didn't conquer people and snatch them out of their land. Europeans
went to Africans and bought their own people from them. That's how slaves came to America.
That's how slaves, as the Roman Empire conquered and they would
take possession of people, they would own them and they would
sell them to other nations. Like cattle. And these slaves were not just
servants, but administrators, managers, cooks. Farmers were slaves. You may
have owned the farm, but those who did the work in Rome, you
owned them. They managed it all. They sold
it and collected the money, but they were your property. Sixty
million slaves here. Executives were slaves. Everyone
who taught in the schools were slaves. They were not free. They were not sophisticates who
fought and were owned free. They were slaves. They were owned. Mostly by the government. I would
say that sometimes it's not changed much. You say, well, that's weird. That's different than what I
think about slavery. Yes, it is different than what you think
about slavery because it's different. All doctors were slaves. Doctors did not have their own
practice. They were owned. They were slaves. They weren't
prestigious and edified and honored. They were slaves and they killed
you or they died. Do your job, slave, or I'm going
to kill you. But you have a disease that can't
be cured. Well, you're going to die if I die. Very much like the slaves of
the medical community of Nazi Germany. There were no free doctors
there. They were all slaves of Germany. Some of the greatest medical
discoveries in the world came from that. Was it right? No. It was not right. So what's happening
here is now Paul is teaching to slaves. And he does not say,
slaves, run and rebel and be free. He doesn't say that. He
doesn't say slavery is wrong. He tells us other places slavery
is wrong. But the Gospel doesn't come to make social justice an
issue. The Gospel may produce social justice in the hearts
of God's people, but the Gospel in itself is not about social
justice. If you are a child of God and
you see injustice against people, you should stand up against it.
Then why did He not say, oh, run slaves, rebel, for Christ
has made you free. But what did He say? Slave, obey
your Master. See, the Gospel demands us to
understand that slavery is real. Why would Paul mention slaves?
Because they were totally ignored. Me and my household are saved.
And Jesus is my King. And what are you doing? Get out
of my way. Do you see that? Why is it so hot in here? Slave!
Turn on the air! Why are you listening to this
teaching? This isn't for you, slave. Go outside. And Paul says,
no, the slave is a part of the family as much as the child and
the husband and the wife. And so I need to talk about that.
It's important to see how the Gospel affects such issues. We read that. I don't want to
see your hands, but how many times have you read that and
you've never thought about the reality of slaves being part of the family?
But that's what Paul's talking about here. It's black and white. Read it. Take the 6 off and start
reading in chapter 5, verse 18, and read all the way through
the end of verse 9 and 6. But don't stop there. Just think
about it. Here's the family. Here's the
family of God, and then down then to the picture of the gospel
through that which is temporal to the shadow of the gospel.
We've got husband and wife and children and slaves. That's the
family. There we are. The Gospel demands us to understand
that slavery is real, and that it's active, and that the truest
power of this Gospel is not to remove slavery. That would be
awfully powerful. But the truest power of the Gospel
is not to remove slavery, but to let slavery be as unto Christ,
to the praise of His glorious grace. Friends, there is nothing
more glorious than that. I would suggest to you that it
is more glorious that a slave worship Christ than a slave be
free. There's a greater power there. And that a master who owns a
slave treat him as a son rather than he set him free. And we'll talk about why they
didn't set him free in a minute because it would have been a
death sentence for them. It would have been a death sentence not
only for that slave, but for most slaves. But the Gospel does work into the removal of slavery. Friends, slavery still exists
in so many places. Wickedly. Now there's not only
just slavery unto service and economic issues, but there's
slavery unto debauchery and sexual slavery and drug slavery and
people trading children right in the United States. One of the largest Sex trades
in the world is in the U.S. In the suburban United States.
Just look it up. Why is it all over the news?
Because we don't want that press. Turn to the BBC. Turn to Al Jazeera. You'll see it. They'll show you
the truth. The Gospel is actively removing
slavery around the world. And this is good. Listen to that. It's good. The gospel affects
the diminishing of slavery. And that's good. But it does
so ever so softly. I would say as we get started.
than anyone who in history, and oh, I'm going to hurt your heroes,
I'm sorry. Anyone in history who has used Christ or the Gospel
to condone slavery is as far blind and lost as they can be. It's one thing to be ignorant.
It's one thing to be wicked. Anyone who defends slavery through
the Gospel and through the Word of God is at best weak and infantile
in their faith, or at worst, totally reprobate. Those are
my thoughts. And I can prove it with Scripture.
And anyone who thinks it is right to enslave another human being
has not been born again, or they have been completely lied to
by someone who's taught them wrongly. Please hear that. Well,
who would think that would be? Many, many people think that
way. Many who call on the name of
Christ think that it would be a better society if we had slaves. Christ's example of submission
to the Father points us to the reality that
God has made man an out-of-man woman and given her to Him. And the two shall become one
flesh. And no man can separate that. And so in that, now we
see the dignity of humanity in the face of what we call Imagio
Dei. In the image of God. breathed into Adam the breath
of life, and gave him being." And the Scripture says, as God
speaks in the pen of Moses, let us make man in our image. So whether slave or free, or
saved or lost, man or woman, all human beings are created
with the dignity of God in their being. And no man is greater than another.
No race is greater than another. No economic class is greater
than another. I will tell you that Jesus says
that woe to the rich man, for it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven. And His disciples say, what? Then who can be saved? And praise be to God for what
is impossible with man, for it is impossible with man, is possible
with God. Christ shows us in His submission
as a human being to the will of the Father. He came to seek and save lost
humanity. There's a reason human beings
have dignity. And it's because they're made
in the image of Christ. Whether they are embryos in the
womb or 99 and useless to the betterment of society, they are
dignified creatures in the image of God. That's why abortion and
infanticide and euthanasia of old people is wicked. And church, I honestly believe
that you need to be discerning when you cast a vote as American.
And you need to make sure that you're not voting for murderers
and rapists. You better know what you're doing.
Ignorance is one thing, but now you know. Jesus becomes a slave. And He becomes obedient unto
death. Yes, even death on a cross. And
He says that slaves are no longer slaves, but they're brothers.
For these are my brothers. My sisters. If you think of Philemon, I want
to use this as an introduction. I don't really want to read through
it, but it would be good for us to see what Paul says to Philemon
as he's talking. Well, let me just tell you the
story. Philemon was a Christian and Onesimus was a slave owned
by Philemon. And Philemon Onesimus steals
from Philemon and then runs for his life, both
of which are capital crimes. Paul meets Onesimus in his attempt
to escape. Paul finds, doesn't know that
he's there, but runs into him, gets to know him. And God, radically,
through the teaching of the Gospel, saves Onesimus. And now, he who
was a refugee, and still is a refugee, by running away, which is a crucifiable
offense, a capital offense, if you run away from your slave
master, you die. If you steal from them, you die.
So he's double dead. And Paul finds him. And God saves him. And then in
the conversation, Paul learns by listening and talking and
discipling Onesimus that he is owned by Philemon. Well, Paul
knows him. Paul knows Philemon. And Paul says, I'm going to write
a letter to your master. And I'm going to tell him to
treat you as though you are me. And so Paul writes Philemon. And one of my favorite verses
of verse 6, it says, as I pray, That you may, by sharing of your
faith, this is a paraphrase, you may have a full understanding
of all good things that are in Christ. And he tells Philemon
to not only forgive him, but to treat him as a brother. As
though it were Paul coming back to him. Now he did not say free
him. Because had Onesimus been freed
by Philemon, Onesimus would become a refugee to the state of Rome.
For Philemon didn't have the right to do that. Then he would
have to deal with Rome. As long as he's a slave, Paul
tells Philemon to treat Onesimus as a brother. So the slave stole
and he ran, and that produced death. And then Christ saved
him from eternal death and gave him life. And then Paul writes
and said that he, though a slave, is more of a brother. Treat him as you would me. Some people might say, well,
Paul is condoning slavery. No, he's not. 1 Corinthians 7.21,
what does he say to the slaves of Corinth? If you're a slave
and you can be free, be free. But wherever you are, whether
free or slave, be what? Content. He tells Timothy, 1 Timothy 1,
verses 9-10, he says that slave traders are godless and wicked. So he's not saying slavery is
good. He's saying Christ is better. Now, the reality of this text
creates a little confusion because we all seek after, and most of
us are seeking after, Where does the application come in such
things? Well, oftentimes we think, well, in my job, I'm sort of like a
slave and my boss is sort of like a master. Not at all. Not
at all. Not at all. This is not talking
about employee and employer. Can some of the principles apply?
Yeah, you shoot them off to the left and cock them sideways one
time and yes, they apply theologically. But literally, they have nothing
to do with it. This is not a system of free
commerce. This is not boss and employee or manager and subordinate. This is someone who owns the
other person and can do with them as they please. So Paul's saying, if one is still
a slave in Christ, that slavery status is of no consequence,
for now that slave is a prince of God. So whether he's a slave on earth,
He's inherited the throne of heaven, if you will, in Christ
to be the body of the head who is Christ. So he sits at the
right side of the Father as the body of the risen Savior. Do
you see that? So that slave, Philemon, is the
body of Jesus. You're a master. Treat him as
such. For he is probably the hand as
you are the toenail. In James 1, verse 9, it says
that there are people, men of humble circumstances. And I believe
that slaves are of humble circumstances. Poor people are of humble circumstances. But he tells them to take pride
in their high position. Slave, one who is owned as a
piece of property, take pride in the high position that you
are a joint heir with Christ to the things of heaven. Take
pride in that. Now the parallel could easily
be drawn, and it will, and it should, in that we who were once
dead in our trespasses, we were slaves to the flesh, slaves to
sin, and slaves to death, are now not free, but slaves to righteousness. So even the earthly slave, not
free, is a slave unto Christ, no longer unto His Master of
this world. And that's what Paul starts to
say here. And Scripture points out something
that is not to be ignored, and that this is a family issue,
and that the family ultimately points to what? The church, the
gospel, the reality of God's people being one in Christ. So now slaves were certain individuals
in the home, They're no longer seen as slaves, but as brothers. They're no longer seen as property,
though they are, but family. They're no longer to be looked
at as things that could be sold, and they're not supposed to be
seen from their legal position. Well, from a judicial standpoint,
they're not supposed to be seen as property, but they're supposed
to be seen as the justified in Christ. Is that not the same
thing Christ has done for all who are in Him? God looks at
us, our full Heavenly Father, and He sees not the condemnation
of our being and of our sinfulness, but He sees the righteousness
of Christ given to us by grace through faith. And now God looks
and He sees a justified saint, not a wicked sinner crawling
through hoping to make it. So you might say, well, then
why? If we see them as siblings in Christ, then why not just
fight to make them all free? Well, think about that for a
minute. 60 million slaves freeing themselves
in Rome would be rough. Do you think Rome would take
nicely to that? Do you think Rome would take nicely to 20
in Jerusalem coming out and saying, I'm free? They allowed Saul to
eradicate Christians. because of Stephen's sermon. If one man can preach and cause
all heck to break loose, do you not think twenty or thirty slaves
in one city becoming emancipated would not turn the sword against
everybody? The law prohibited slaves to
be free. Even in our country, when slaves
were freed in some parts of this union, they had to have papers.
And a black man, even free, if he'd bought his freedom or been
emancipated in the northern states, no matter how he was free, he
still had to have papers proving he was free. And if the papers
weren't there, or if they took him and threw him away, he would
become a slave again under the law. And even those who were
free could not speak freely. They could not speak to a white
man without another white man with them. Usually his prior
owner being his spokesman. It was probably much the same
way here. And so the issue in itself would
be very dynamically opposed to the spreading of the gospel and
the planting of the church. It would have become a civil
rights movement, not a gospel movement. And yes, in history,
there are times for that. Praise God for the civil rights
movement. Praise God for people like Martin
Luther King who spoke out against unjust treatment. Praise God
for a Constitution and a government that allows equality under the
law. And it was unjustly not applied
to people because of the color of their skin. Praise God that
God grew people up to start out fighting against that. But at
this point in history, that wasn't the cause. And friends, I would say that
we always need to be mindful of people who are in need of
being emancipated. But what good, what does it say?
What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose
his soul? Let's fill that in in this context. What good does
it do to free a slave that goes to hell? What emancipation really
matters? Freedom of one's choice and right
to do and live the American dream or freedom of one's own destruction
under the wrath of God and sin in Christ being free. That's
the emancipation I want to see. And that's the emancipation Paul
wanted to see. The life of the slave was in
danger had they just been emancipated. The Lord Jesus in the Gospel
was a cause that was too precious to put secondary. And the fear of rebellion would
have brought certain wrath against the people of Rome and the Roman
Empire. And so let's look now, after
the introduction is out there, let's look at this text. And
let's see two things. One, the Gospel power for the
slave. And two, the Gospel power for
the master. And then we'll culminate it with
a closing thought. First, the Gospel power for the
slave. Slaves, obey your earthly masters
with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would
Christ, not by the way of our service, as people-pleasers,
but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not man,
knowing that whatever good any man excuse me, knowing that whatever
good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether
he is slave or free. So let's look at that. The command
of the slaves is to obey your earthly master. Now, that's a
simple command. We've spent a lot of time in
submission and obedience and learning what it means. Obey
your earthly masters. But there's an attitude or a
heart. See, here's the thing. Sometimes
we go, well, what is it that I'm supposed to obey? Everything. It's like the wives. Well, in
what ways am I supposed to submit? In everything. Well, what about
that? Yep. What about this? Yep. Well,
what about when my husband tells me to do something that's ungodly?
No, don't obey that. You don't disobey God by obeying
your husband. But you obey your husband, you
submit to your husband, and thus you're submitting to Christ.
Husbands love your wives. We even see Peter talking about
the wicked husband and telling the wife to be quiet and submissive
and obey him. So that maybe through her submission,
God would use it to bring him to faith. It's a misnomer that
the devil perpetrated that says only obey people who are godly,
only obey masters who are godly, only obey husbands who are godly,
only obey parents who are godly. Obey them. Romans 13 Paul says to obey the
governing authorities. Do you know what the governing
authorities of Rome were? Wicked people. So how did we get America? The throne gave us the right
to do it. So we did. We exercised the right that was
given. A whole other sermon. Obey your earthly master. Not
just in the things that you do. Not just do this, do this, do
this. But the attitude of your heart is how you obey. Obey your
earthly masters with fear and trembling. Have you ever been
so scared that you shook? It's not a good thing. It's a
bad thing. There's only a few times that
that has happened in my life, but it was when I thought either
me or someone around me was about to die. It's the only time I've
ever been that fearful that I shook. And I have been that fearful
several times in conversations with people who reject the gospel.
And I can't help myself, but I shake. I shake. When the blindness of depravity
just pushes Christ out, not just inquisitive or just can't get
it, but just I don't care. I don't want it. It horrifies
me. So we ought to fear and tremble. The scripture says, not to fear
man, but fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell. And in Hebrews, we see that we
have not come to the tempest. We have not come to that mountain.
We have not come to that place where the Jews cried out, you
read last Sunday, that no more instruction be given to them,
that even if an animal touched the mountain, that it should
be stoned. But we have come to what? The festival gathering
of angels and the celebration. And we've come to Jesus, the
founder and the perfecter of our faith. But yet, obey and in your obedience
do so with fear and trembling, knowing that this is your Master
who holds your life in His hand. And with the stroke of a pen,
you will die on the cross. Obey that Master out of a heart
of knowing that He holds all that you are. And there's nothing
you can do about it. Friends, there's a picture of
how we ought to approach worship. But for Paul, he's saying, you
slaves, obey your masters that way. And then he says, not just
out of fear. Don't lose that fear. Know who
it is that you are obeying on this earth. Earthly masters.
See the contrast he does there. I'd love to have a whiteboard
and teach this like that. And he says, with a sincere heart. What does that mean? A sincere
heart. As you would Christ. Not by the
way of our services, people pleasers, but as slaves of Christ doing
the will of God. So let's break that down. We
obey slaves. You obey with fear and trembling,
knowing who you obey. And secondly, you do so with
a sincere heart. And that means that the heart
is not divided. You're not doing it. underhandedly
or indirectly, or you're not trying to manipulate the circumstances
a little bit, but with the fullness of all that you are and all that
you desire, you're obeying and it brings you joy. It's not divided
in your soul. You're not begrudgingly obeying
and finding joy someplace else. In obedience to Christ, your
joy is being a slave to your Master. Obey! The old dance to Charleston,
back in the 30s, you know that one where you kick your feet
back to them and the kid in play made it their dance. And I don't
even know what they do. Call it the drunk man. I don't
know what they call it. But I bet you if some slaves
heard this that day, they were great dancers in their own way. They were excited. They were
thrilled. They were rejoicing. They saw. The power of the gospel. And
they went, wow, I'm not a slave anymore to him. I'm a slave to
him. I'm no longer owned by that man,
though he thinks he does. My master owns him. That's what's
happening. And so, with sincere heart, not
divided, as unto Christ, who is the master of all, So I am
a slave and I'm in Christ and I'm no longer obeying you. But
I'm obeying my King. When you tell me to do this,
I'm doing it because Jesus told me to do it. And then, sort of
inside, you don't know me anymore. It's a self-vindicating thing,
but it's with a pure heart. And there's a fear and trembling
there. It's not a prideful thing. But it's that humble, like James
says, that humble circumstance. Take pride in high places. It is beautiful. Jesus came not
to be served, but to what? Serve. And to, what's the last
part of that text? And to give his life as a ransom
for many. The king of the masters of the
world came to be a slave, not to be served as the master, but
to be a servant. as the Master, to give His life
as a ransom for many, Mark 10. And in Philippians 2, that He
came and is obedient, slave unto death, even unto death on a cross. Jesus, the God of all the universe,
came and subjected Himself as a slave to the very people who
sticked their fist in His face and hung Him on a cross and hated
Him. So that's verse 5. Now verse 6. Not by the way of
eye service, as people pleasers, But as servants of Christ, doing
the will of God from the heart. So let's talk about that for
a minute. Not as I service. Men pleasers. Put that together
there. And let's see what that means.
Not just to be seen, obeying in front of your slave, to be
the best slave so that your master is up. That's my best slave.
Look how good he serves. Look how good she serves. Look
how good he manages my business. Look how good she handles my
home. Look how good. He said, slaves, don't work that
way to gain favor from your masters on earth, but work as though
you were doing it until your master in heaven. So slaves, don't work so that
you'll be noticed and praised by your earthly master. Don't
bring accolades on yourself. Don't bring the praises of man. But work and serve in the eyes
of your true Master. And the Reformers had a lot of
Latin phrases and one of them, Quorum Dei. In the face of God. And friends, we live our life
in the face of God. And Paul's telling his slaves,
serve in the face of God. Unto God. Don't do it that your
masters see you. Do it that your true God sees
you. With an undivided heart, do it unto Christ. I think we could all use a dose
of this message here in the American church. Another sermon. And as we serve not to please
earthly masters, we, verse 7, or slaves, rendering service
with a good will. A good will. With good intention. With the utmost of affection. With good will. doing best for your earthly master
unto his profitability. Not smearing over the top with
a coat of cover-up and the job isn't done. So can we apply principles
to our jobs, to our lives? Yes. But keep in mind, this is
talking to slaves. Doing the will of God from the
heart. In Romans chapter 12, for those of you who weren't
here Monday, Tuesday night, we talked about the will of God,
knowing the will of God. And I showed you in Scripture
that God's will is seen in several places and ways in Scripture.
First is that God's will is seen in His decretive will, the decree
of God, the sovereign will of God that he has purposed before
the world began. And this will is not known, nor
can it be solved. You can't you can't know it is
hidden and God will not reveal it to man. But after those things
take place, we see it. Remember Tuesday? OK. And then
there's the preceptive will, that thing which God prescribes
and commands. And that's the will that we as
people in this world live in. And it's not hidden from us.
It's plain as the nose on our face. It's like driving down
the road and we see a red light turn yellow or a green light
turn yellow. We slow down because we know we will have to stop.
God's Word and His will for His people is clear in Romans 12. Appeal to you therefore, brothers,
believers, By the mercies of God, to present your bodies as
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual act of worship. Do not, the negative command,
be conformed to this world. Why? Because John says the world's
passing away, it's rotting, it's dead and decayed, and we don't
love it. But, the positive antithesis,
but be transformed. How? By the renewal of your mind. how you have learned Christ,
how you meditate on the Scripture, how you intimately involve yourself
in the worship of God in spirit and in truth through the power
of His grace by His Word. If you're powerless, it's because
you don't have the Word in you. If you don't know the will of
God, you haven't read the commands of God. That's the will of God. Obey the commands of God. Matthew 28. All authority of
heaven and earth has been given unto me. Therefore, go, as you
go, make disciples by teaching them everything I've taught you.
Teach them to obey it. The will of God is to obey the
Word of God. Period. Point. Done. If you've been spending
your whole life trying to find the will of God for your life,
I just gave it to you. That's it. There's no secret.
But where am I supposed to go? How about where you are? Obey
God. And as you walk to the next place,
obeying there. And every step in between. Obey the Word and
the will of God, for this is your spiritual act of worship.
So as you slave, serve your heavenly Father and your heavenly Master
with good will towards your earthly Master, who's really not your
Master. But don't forget that He is,
but He's really not. Do it by obeying the will of
God, which is to obey your earthly Master. It's not that complicated,
but we really complicate it. And by the rule of your mind,
that by testing you may discern, discriminate, what is the will
of God? Good, acceptable, and perfect. So now, We see that slaves are to obey
their earthly masters, which is the will of God. And that by doing so, they do
render that service with goodwill toward their earthly masters
as it were Christ and not to man, knowing verse 8 of chapter
6 of Ephesians. We're back there. that whatever
good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether
he is slave or free. You're going to think, my gosh,
we've got a whole other verse. It's okay, it goes fast. In John 13, let me show you an example of
what Paul's talking about. Where am I going? I'm going back
to get to John. In John 13, Listen, follow along with me.
Now, before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that
His hour had come to depart out of this world of the Father,
having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to
the end. During supper, when the devil had already put into
the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray Him, Jesus, knowing
that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that
He had come from God and was going back to God, He rose from
supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel,
he tied it around his waist. And he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the
towel that was wrapped around him. And he came to Simon Peter, who
said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? He's rebuked Jesus. And Jesus answered him, what
I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
See, there's the sovereign That's the will of God. There's that
decree that they couldn't see, and then they saw it afterwards.
And Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. And Jesus
answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no share with Me. Now, Jesus was not talking about
His feet. Evidenced by what Peter is about
to say. Jesus is saying, If I do not cleanse you with My righteousness,
you have no share with Me. And Simon Peter said, Lord, not
just my feet, but my hands and my head too. Wash me off. If
that's the case, wash me. Wash me. It's like when they came back
in John 4 or John 5, who gave them something to eat? He says,
I have food that you know not of. If you tear down this temple,
John 2, I'll build it again in three days. What's he talking
about? You must be born again. How am I supposed to get back
in my mother's womb? And Jesus said to him, the one
who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet,
but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every
one of you. For he knew who was to betray
him, and that's why he said not all of you are clean. And verse
12, when he had washed their feet and put his outer garments
and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what
I've done to you? Listen carefully, church. This is going to close
it up right here. You call me teacher, and you
call me Lord, and you are right, for I am so. Excuse me, I messed
that up. For so I am. That's what it says. If I then, your Lord and your
teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash another's
feet. See, this isn't a practical application
that Jesus has given them. It's a theological wow. 4. I have given you an example
that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I
say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger
greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things,
blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you.
I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled.
He who ate My bread has lifted his heel against Me. I am telling
you this now before it takes place. And when it does take
place, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you,
whoever receives the one I send, receives Me. And whoever receives
Me, receives the one who sent Me. So now we've got an incredible
problem for these people. Why did Jesus wash their feet? Because they were dirty. They
needed washing. And there were no slaves there. If I went into your home in Palestine
in the first century, that's where Jerusalem is, by the way,
and you didn't have a slave to wash my feet, I would be offended
and not ever Come to your house again. It's a bad thing. But
because of disciples, there was turmoil. They weren't up there
in a social environment. So there was no slave. So nobody
got to wash their feet. Now why did the feet have to
be washed? Because they're nasty. So what? Keep them under the
table. There was no table. Their feet
sat next to the bowls of food. I don't care how clean your feet
are. Keep them off my food. But in that day, you washed your
hands because you touched your food with it. You washed your
feet because your feet touched the food too. And so everybody's
feet is right there next to everybody else's hands. Wash your feet. There was no slave there. So
none of those people thought to themselves, well, there's
nobody here to wash me. I guess we'll just eat with dirty feet.
So was Jesus washing feet because it needed to take place for the
cleanliness of their food? No. And the only person who would
ever wash feet would be someone who was a piece of property.
And now Jesus, the God of all the universe, becomes a piece
of property and washes the feet of the disciples. And He's saying
to them the same thing He said to the mother of James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, when they said, Who's going to sit at your
side in glory? Can it be one to the left and
one to the right? And he says to them, it is not
for me to decide, but my Father in heaven. But I will tell you
this, he who is first shall be last in the kingdom, but he who
is last shall be first. And Jesus was last. And Jesus
was the greatest slave. And Jesus was the God come down
from heaven to save wicked men. And He is the preeminent One,
exalted to the right hand of the Father, to whom all glory
is due, to whom all praise is due, to whom all honor, all wealth,
all everything. But yet He became a slave. So slave, the will of God is
for you to obey. the God who came to be a slave
for you, for the goodwill of your earthly master, as fully
unto Christ with joy, for it satisfies you to the fullest. You're not serving man. Church,
when you serve each other, you're not serving man. And when you serve and you do
as unto Christ, to these, then whatever you do here comes back
to you. Now, we like to take that and
manipulate it, but let's use Scripture to answer Scripture
and not philosophy and culture to answer Scripture. And let's
do this. We've only got a few minutes. I promise it will come
together. In Matthew 25, starting in verse
31 through down to verse 46, we see Jesus saying, when the
Son of Man comes into His glory, He will separate the sheep from
the goat. And the sheep on the right and
the goats on his left. The right being a place of respect
and esteem. The left being a place of cursing
and destruction. And he will say, They will say,
why have we been put here? And He'll say, when you didn't
feed me when I was hungry, and visit me when I was in prison,
and tend to me when I was sick, and give me something to drink
when I was thirsty, and give me food when I was hungry, you
did not do it. To the least of these, when you
did not do it. And they'll say, well, when did we see you? When you
did not do it under the least of these, my brothers. You did
not do it to me. And then the righteous will look
at Him and say, when did we ever see you hungry and thirsty and
naked and sick? And He will say, when you did
it unto the least of these, My brothers, you did it unto Me.
Slaves, Paul says, when you serve your Master with the fullness
of just worship, you worship Me. And you do the will of God. And Jesus says in Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 7, verses 21-23, He says these things, Not everyone who
says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven,
but He who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven." And so what we learn there, just
like John 3, is it's not about our profession of faith that
makes us saved. It's about the absolute perception
of the reality of the Gospel in power in our lives that matches
that profession. I'm in Christ, and you see that
I am. I'm a slave, I'm saved, I serve
my Master. I'm a wife, I'm saved, I submit
to my husband. I'm a husband, I'm saved, I love
my wife. I'm a child, I'm saved, I obey
my parents. I'm a father, I'm saved, I train
my children in righteousness. I'm a slave, and I'm saved, and
I obey my Master. You see that? That's what Paul's
doing. And He's saying, if you don't, or you hesitate, you're
lost. You honor Me with your lips,
but your hearts are far from Me, because your actions come
from your heart. And Jesus also said, out of the
overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. You can't hide the truth
forever. Brothers, by the mercies of God,
present your bodies as living sacrifices, which is your spiritual
act of worship. By grace, you have been saved
through faith, not of your own doing. This is the gift of God.
For you are Christ's workmanship, created, what? In Christ Jesus, to do good works
which God has prepared beforehand for you to walk in. Ephesians
2, 8, 9, and 10. Don't skip the verse 10. It's
mostly important. Because it talks about works
and then what the works are. So don't skip it. Just don't
be good Calvinists and throw it out there and then stop. Leave
the rest of it. Be good Biblists. Be good Baptists. Be good Christians. Think the full counsel of the
Word of God. So here, why? So that we cannot boast is not
of your own doing, so that no one should boast, but it is a
gift of God, and you were created in Christ, by Christ, for Christ,
through Christ, unto Christ, to the praise of the glory of
Christ, to do good works which God had created beforehand for
you to walk in. The good soil where the Word
of God takes root and multiplies is a good soil that God has toiled. The one who comes to the light
in John 3 does so so that it may be clearly seen that their
words, faith, repentance, obedience, love, affection, worship, all
of these things, it is clearly seen that their words have been
carried out in God. That's what the end of the discourse
with Nicodemus says. Don't miss it. So he who serves Christ is in
Christ. So then, the Christian who loves
shows Christ's work. The Christian who submits to
each other shows the work of Christ. The Christian church
who submits to the leaders of the church shows the love and
the work of Christ. The church who submits to the
Word of God shows the work of Christ. The wife who submits
her husband shows the work of Christ. The husband who loves
the wife shows the work of Christ. The child who obeys shows the
work of Christ. You see it? It's the third time
I've done that today. The slave who serves shows the
work of Christ. And nobody looks at us and goes,
what a great guy. They look at us and they go,
The still Jesse's. That's my God. What a great Christ. And so at the very last of this,
it says, Masters, do the same to them. So all that I just said,
you do. And stop threatening. Because you know, knowing, that
He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven. Coram Deo. He sees you. He knows you. And
He knows who you are and what you do. There is no partiality
with Him. And we could go to James now
if we wanted to. And we could deal with that. So, Master, stop threatening.
What is the threat? Do this or I'll... If you don't
obey me, I will... Speak back to me again and watch
what happens. Don't threaten. Now I can make a really good
parallel for anybody in authority, they ought to treat those underneath
them in the same way. Paul's talking specifically about
slaves and masters. But I would say that in some
sense, because of the transcendent doctrinal stuff that we learn
in Scripture, we need to apply that. Fathers, do not provoke
your children to anger. Don't threaten them. There's
a difference between a threat and a consequence. A consequence
is a clear expectation of what will happen and disobedience.
You don't have to tell them. Show up. Husbands, you can't threaten
your wives if you don't obey me. What are you going to say?
What threat could you possibly impose? None. And so Paul is saying to these
slave masters, you have no way of threatening them. You can't
do anything to them. Because anything you do to threaten them
is not of Christ. So it's like he's a free man
living in your house you've got the papers to. And He serves you because
that's His role. That's His responsibility. That's
His place that God has placed Him. And He will serve you and
you will love Him as a brother. A slave has no defense, but Christ
is his defender. Friends, we have no defense before
God, but Christ is our defender. And Paul reminds them, remember,
God is your Master. And God is your Slave's Master.
And there is no partiality with Him. The Scripture says that
God is no respecter of persons. Jesus came to seek and save the
lost. Jesus preached that God gives
grace to the humble, but what? Opposes the proud. The other
way around. He opposes the proud, gives grace
to the humble. Jesus says that a shepherd, the good shepherd,
lays down his life for the sheep. And so, church, where do you see this making
sense in your life? We've been commanded to live
this power. We've been equipped to live in
this power. And when we don't, it makes a
mockery of the Scripture. A mockery of Christ. A mockery
of the Gospel. To say I can't live in this is
to say Christ didn't save me. No. In our power, what we do
as we work and serve is unto the reflection of what Christ
has done. It doesn't count for righteousness.
It proves it. So why should there ever be a
church that's disunified? I don't know. Why should there ever be a marriage
that's worthless? Why are we in turmoil so often
in our hearts and minds? Why don't we fret and worry over
every little thing when the God of all the universe has saved
us in Christ Jesus and promised to provide every need that we
have? How many hairs fell out of your head today? You don't
know. God does. How many sparrows have
fallen to the world since we've been in service in the last 90
minutes? God knows. So we have a mighty God with
an amazingly powerful Gospel that says Christ has saved us.
unto righteousness with power. But you know why we see so little
power in the church? Because so often times when we're
studying Ephesians, we just study bits and pieces. Here's a little
plug for expositional preaching. Friends, you couldn't get everything
you've gotten in the last 55 sermons of Ephesians without
going through the whole thing. No man can pick out what needs
to be preached out of this text. You just need to preach the whole
thing. And oftentimes, we come to chapter 6, verse 10. Finally,
y'all have been looking forward to that word for a long time.
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Live this way. God has saved
you this way. God has empowered you this way.
I'm praying for you this way. Now live this way. Walk this
way. Come. Show the world. Show the enemy. Show all the cosmos the power
of Christ in you. And walk worthy of the calling
to which you've been walked. Be imitators of God. Loving one
another. Putting away all malice. Don't
let the sun go down on your anger. Love your wife. Submit to the
authorities. Love each other. Give yourself
for the betterment of another. Ask one flesh, one faith, one
baptism, one Lord that has one Father through one Christ, Jesus,
who's been raised from the dead. Do all that. And we're scared
to death. And we see it falling down around
us. And we're in a war. And we stop. And we go, what are we going
to do now? Look. Be strong in the Lord in the power of His
might. And that's where we're going to be next week. Because
this is not our battle. It's His. And it's won already. And you may be battling a lot
of things in your life as a Christian. And you may be battling in your
faith right now. You may be battling with apathy
or stagnation or doubt or discouragement. You may be battling because the
world that you have in front of you is a living nightmare. But friends, Christ is victorious
already over it. Just as the slave looks at his
master and says, that's not my master. That's my master. We look at the wickedness of
this world that seems to be choking us out, and we go, Christ has
already strangled that. It's over. We just persevere
by the power of God. And so you believe the Gospel,
and you fight to righteousness, to the praise of His glorious
grace, And we do that not as individuals,
though individually we do, but we do that as a body moving and
fighting the fight of faith together. Let's pray. God, You are so faithful. I'm never surprised that you're
faithful, but I'm always so surprised at how amazingly faithful you
are. Not that I didn't know you were, but every moment, Lord,
that You show Yourself, I see a depth that I never thought
I could see. God, show it to all of us through
Your Word. God, if we had any inclination
of how insignificantly prepared we are to preach such things
and teach such things and receive such things, we would have a
clearer understanding of how You work supernaturally into
the preaching of Your Word and to the reception of that preaching
into our souls for power. Lord, we would fall over and
just blow bubbles and never get up. We'd just be flabbergasted
at the greatness of Your majesty. So thank You for the doses of
glory and the doses of grace and the doses of majesty that
You give us in little increments, even though they're so big we
couldn't even see them if we backed up 50 million miles, but
You still allow us to just take a glimpse. Lord, we thank You
for that glimpse. We thank You for the fullness
of Your glory being seen in Christ and given to us through the Scriptures
and that through Your power, You're able to really And in
reality, manifest that power in our lives. And our thinking
changes as we renew our minds on the Gospel. And our action
changes as the Gospel renews our strength to walk in righteousness.
And our affections are changed. And our attitudes are changed.
And our words are changed. And our eyes and ears are changed.
Lord, help us to not be led into temptation. Even doubt and distress
and frustration. But Lord, help us to walk in
righteousness together as a people. Help us to be a walking worship
service. For not just our lives and minds
and hands, but God with our mouths as we herald the gospel that
there is a God who with great love and mercy has caused us
to be born again to a living hope. And through His mighty
Word, He has said, Get up and be alive. And we were wakened
and we are alive. And there is nothing, nothing
that can make us dead again. We praise You for Your glorious
grace in Christ. And it is in His name and by
His authority that we stand before You, Your children, Your inheritance,
in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen and amen.