Well, good morning. Good to see
all of you this morning. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter six, we're going to continue
our study in Ephesians six this morning. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord, seek his face. Our father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Father, we come into your
courts this morning with thanksgiving. How thankful we are for our Lord
Jesus Christ, for full and free redemption in him, for righteousness
in him, for forgiveness of sins through his blood. Father, how
thankful we are. How thankful we are that you've
been pleased to give us this opportunity to worship you. Father,
what a blessing it is to be able to open your word to read and
study it, to have Christ proclaim from it. Father, I beg of you
this morning that you'd send your spirit upon us and enable
us to worship. Don't let us just go through
the motions of religion. But Father, enable us to hear
your voice in the word and to worship. And what we pray for
ourselves, Father, we pray for all of your people, wherever
they might be meeting together today. Father, bless your word. for your great namesake, for
the good of your people. Father, for the sake of our country,
for the sake of the world, that you might be pleased in this
dark, dark day, shine the glory of Christ our Savior forth. Call
your people, call many, many people to faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we dare not sin against
thee and forgetting to pray for your people. We're in deep waters
and times of great, great difficulty. Father, we pray that your grace
would be sufficient, that they would find that you fulfilled
that sweet promise, that your grace is sufficient for every
trial, for every heartache, for every difficulty. And Father,
we pray that you'd be pleased to deliver them as soon as it
could be thy will. And all these things we ask and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. It's for his sake and his glory
we pray, amen. Now, my prayer has been since
I began preparing this lesson this week, that the Lord will
use this lesson to exalt our Savior in such a way that it'll
increase our faith in him. And at the same time, Now, primarily
that it'll exalt Christ, it'll cause us to look to him, but
also that this time will be very, very helpful because it's instruction
that is good for our everyday lives. The subject is the workplace. I've titled the lesson Employees
and Bosses. Now, I'm pretty sure that everybody
here already knows what the scripture teaches about employees, that
we're to be honest, hardworking, industrious people. You all know
that. A believer, you know this, should be the best employee in
any business. Whatever business it is, we should
be the best employee there. Our boss should find it easy
to supervise us. And a believer should be a great
boss, too. If Lord's put you in that position
of responsibility, we should be great bosses to work for,
fair and honest. Now I want to give you four reasons
from scripture that that's true. Number one, be the best employee
that you can possibly be. Because if you're a believer,
you're serving Christ himself. Look at verse five of Ephesians
chapter six. 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. Now, all of us see what the scripture's
saying here. This is not something that's
difficult to understand. The Lord's telling us, serve
your boss like you're serving Christ himself. Because you are
serving Christ himself. That's who you're serving. You
are boss, is our boss because the Lord's put him in position
over us. So we're to obey him. Now let
me show you that in 1 Peter 2. Peter goes and takes this a step
further in teaching us that this applies to a good boss or a bad
boss. I've had my share of both. And
at one time I was particularly struggling with a very bad boss.
And I was talking to my uncle. about that situation, and this
was his advice to me. He said, you're always gonna
have good bosses and bad bosses. Sometimes you'll have one, sometimes
you'll have the other. He said, just wait it out. They always
go somewhere else. If you have a good boss, enjoy
him while you got him. If you have a bad boss, just wait it
out. They'll go someplace else. Peter tells us here, when you
got that bad boss, remember this, you're still serving Christ.
You obey him, 1 Peter 2, verse 18. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear. Not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the froward. Now just do what your boss tells
you to do. What he gives you to do, do it. Now, let me say
this. That does not apply. If your
boss tells you to do something illegal or immoral, that doesn't
apply. But unless it's illegal or immoral,
do it. Just do it, because that's what
the Lord tells you to do. Now, I looked this word servants
up. I never had looked it up before,
and it has several meanings, and the first one is what we
all would expect. It means one who gives himself
up to the will of another. Servant, he does what his master
tells him to do. But this word servants also means
this. Those whose service is used by
Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men. Don't you
get that? One whose service is used by
Christ to extend and advance his cause among men. Now that puts a whole new light
in doing what our bosses tell us to do, doesn't it? Because
by doing what our boss tells us to do, we're extending and
advancing the cause of Christ among men. Totally different perspective.
And Paul tells us here, don't be the person. We've all worked
with this kind of person. Don't be this guy who only works
hard when the boss is looking over your shoulder. That's what
Paul says. He says, don't be men pleasers.
Don't just work when the boss is there. Work hard all the time,
because that's what you're supposed to be doing. That's what they're
paying you to do. Do the best quality work that you can do,
because it's what you're supposed to do. When they're paying you
to do it, then do it. And remember this, I mean, if
you think, well, I don't want to work hard when the boss is
looking. Well, you remember this, our Lord always sees what we're
doing. He always sees. Just do a good job because that's
what you're supposed to do. And Paul tells us now to serve
our bosses in singleness of heart. And that word means not self-seeking. You're not doing this because
you're self-seeking. It's because what you're supposed to do is
for the good of the company, you know. Now what Paul's talking
about is attitude, isn't it? It's not just doing what you're
supposed to do. He's telling us to do it with a good attitude.
Now, if you trust Christ, if you believe on him, and you follow
him, you do it with a good attitude, don't you? You follow him with
a good attitude, with a thankful attitude. Well, have the same
attitude in doing what your boss tells you to do. Do it with a
good attitude. See what Paul says in verse seven?
With goodwill, doing service as to the Lord and not to men.
Now don't do what your boss tells you to do, just grumbling and
murmuring about it under your breath because it's just, you
know, that dumb guy. Don't do that. Do your job as well as
you can possibly do it with the best attitude that you can muster. You know, last week I told our
children that scripture says obey your parents and do it with
a smile on your face. Remember me saying that? Same
thing applies to us employees. Do what our boss tells us to
do, smile on our face, because we're serving the Lord. We're
serving the Lord. That's a mighty good motivation
for a believer to be the best employee in the place. All right,
number two, be the best employee you can be because your work
ethic reflects on your Savior. Look first at 1 Timothy chapter
six. Your work ethic reflects on your
Savior. 1 Timothy six, verse one. Let as many servants as are under
the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. that the
name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Now you honor
your boss that the name of our God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
Look over a few pages of Titus chapter two. Titus two verse eight. He says, you sound speech that
cannot be condemned. That he that is of the contrary
part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. exhort
servants to be obedient under their own masters and to please
them well in all things, not answering again, not talking
back, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity. Now, why should
you do that? That they may adorn the doctrine
of God our Savior in all things. Here's what Paul is teaching
us. People that you work with and
your neighbors and so forth, people know At least they know
the general tenets, they know the framework of the gospel that
you believe. They know where you attend services,
they know the people that you, they know about you. Our actions,
in front of them, reflect on what we believe. Our actions,
how we conduct ourselves, is a direct reflection on the gospel
that we preach and believe. And our actions, also how we
conduct ourselves, also reflects on everybody else here. Don't
they? They're going to think everybody
is just like us. So do a good job with a good attitude. Be the best employee in the business. And if you do that, you're going
to be a good representative of Christ. People will think well
of our doctrine because they have a good opinion of you. You
know, they'll see Well, what you believe, that doctrine that's
in your heart, that moves you to conduct yourself well. It
moves you to be an easy person to work with. They like working
with you. They know they can trust you. They know they can
trust you to do a good job. And if you don't do a good job, and
you're lazy, and you work to find ways out of getting out
of work. We've all worked with that guy,
right? They work harder at trying to not work than they would if
they just did the job. We've all worked with somebody like
that. Well, if you do that, That's your reputation in the workplace. You're going to be a very poor
representative of Christ. And people will think badly of
our gospel because they think that gospel doesn't make any
difference. I mean, you know, it just doesn't make any difference.
And you think, well, that probably really won't happen. Oh, yes,
it will. And I give you an example. I've lived this. I worked with
a man for years. And he made a point of telling
people all the time how religious he was and what a theologian
he was and how studied in the scriptures he was and he would
fill in preaching and different things. That man is one of the
laziest men I've ever worked with. He found every excuse in
the book not to work. And every time there was work
to be done, you couldn't find him anywhere. Well, one of our
co-workers told me one day, he said, you know, that man invites
me to go to church with him all the time. He said, I'd never
go to church with that fella. I'd never go where he goes. I'd
never listen to him preach because he's so lazy. He told me, he
knew I, you know, filled in preaching and things too. And he said,
now I go listen to you preach. He never did. I mean, you know,
he never did, but that's what he said. That just tears at my heart.
No, I know this. I know this just as much as I
know anything. If God Almighty chose to save
a person, they're going to be saved. God's going to cross their
path with the gospel. He's going to make them hear
of Christ. He's going to give them faith to believe Christ.
I know that. I believe that with every fiber
of my being. I also know this. If the Lord
leaves any sinner alone, just leaves them to themselves, lets
them have their way, They'll refuse to hear the gospel. They'll
refuse to believe on Christ, and it'll be their fault. I know
that. I know that. But you know, we preach to people.
We preach to people. We're preaching the truth of
God. We're preaching the glory of Christ. But we're preaching
to people. And you cannot preach to people
if you don't care about it. It can't be done. I mean, you
can give a lecture, you can talk about the five points of Calvinism,
but you can't preach to the hearts of people if you don't care about
it. Can't be done. And I don't ever, ever, ever,
ever want to be the excuse that somebody uses to not hear the
gospel. You don't ever want to be their
excuse. I know if, God left him to himself. I know that they wouldn't come
anyway. I know they wouldn't believe.
I know they wouldn't come here anyway. But I don't want to be
the excuse they use. I don't want to be a valid excuse,
do you? That's what Paul's saying here. How you conduct yourself
on the job reflects on our gospel, reflects upon our Savior. Well,
that makes being a good employee very serious, doesn't it? Very
serious. All right, now back in our text.
Here's the third thing. Don't expect the Lord to bless
you if you're not doing a good job at work. Just don't expect
it. Verse eight, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man
doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond
or free. Now you do a good job. I mean,
just the best that you can do, the best that your abilities
allow you to do, you do a good job. And I'm telling you this,
the Lord will bless it. The Lord will bless it. Now scripture's
not saying, and I'm not saying this at all either, that you
just work hard, keep your nose to the grindstone, and eventually
you'll rise to the top of the corporate ladder. Scripture doesn't
promise us that. That promise is never in the
word of God. Maybe you will, maybe you will, maybe you'll
have success and those kinds of things because of your hard
work, but that's not promised to us from the word of God. But
this is also true. Successful people, people who
are successful, have something in common. You know what it is? They work hard. They've worked
at it to be successful. Now, I know plenty of believers
who work hard. They do a very good job. I mean,
you just couldn't ask for a better employee, a better person to
work with. Yet they still live paycheck to paycheck. And that's
most of us, isn't it? That's most of us. But you know
what else? Those people who go out and work
hard every day like that, you know what else I see about them?
I don't see them starving, and I don't see them lacking for
the necessities of life. I don't. The Lord provides, doesn't
he, as he promised. And again, this is, I mean, I
saw this firsthand. I saw it in Mexico in those times
I went to Mexico. Now, the people there are very
poor, very poor. The believers there are very
poor. And I mean, the person with the smallest bank account
in this room is rich, rich in comparison. But they're very
poor. But you know what else I saw
about the believers there? They work hard. I mean, they work
hard. They got a job. All of them.
Every last one of them, they got a job. Now, they might have
to travel out of town, live out of town, you know, Monday through
Friday to work that job. And they come home on the weekends.
But they got a job. And they do other stuff. You
know, they're making stuff. They can go down and sell it
to market. They're growing stuff. They can sell it out to market.
They all got chickens and turkeys and goats and all kinds. I mean,
they're working at something all the time, making a living.
Some of them started their own business. And you know what, really? Their
work ethic puts most of us to shame. It really does. The effort
that they put into coming to the worship service puts most
of us to shame. We got a hangnail, we don't come.
They walk three miles. It's just unbelievable. And you
know what? They do it without complaining.
They do it without complaining. You know what? The Lord has blessed
them in their work. Now, they're poor by our standards. They're
still poor, but they live better than most people around them.
They do. The Lord's blessed their work.
Now, I know this. I'm not telling you just go out
there and work hard and the Lord's going to make you rich. He'll provide. He'll provide.
But the flip side of that coin is this. The Lord's not going
to bless sloth. He's not going to bless sloth.
Don't ever be lazy. and not work, and not do the
best that you can do, and then blame your lack on God's providence. Well, God just not being pleased
to give me these things. You can't say that if you're
not working. You can't say that. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians
3 verse 10, he says, even when we were with you, we commanded
you this. Now this is the apostle. This is an apostolic commandment. If any would not work, neither
should he. The Lord's not gonna bless laziness,
is he? He won't listen. So let's work hard. Let's be
hardworking employees. Now here's the fourth thing,
and this is the thing I think will be a real blessing to you. Be the best employee that you
can be as a picture of Christ our Savior. Now these last few
lessons we've been looking at, I've tried to show how every
member of the family, our responsibilities in our families, how every member
of the family can be a picture of Christ. And you know, if I
understand my responsibilities and my role in the family as
a picture of Christ, boy, that'll let me do it with such a better
attitude, won't it? I showed you, I tried to show
you how wives who are in subjection to their husbands, they're both
a picture of Christ and a picture of the church. Wives who are
in subjection to their husbands, They're pictures of the church
in subjection to Christ. But they're also pictures of
Christ the Savior, who is in subjection to his father, even
though he is equal with his father. He was in subjection to his father.
That's a picture of Christ. Husbands are pictures of Christ
when we love our wives self-sacrificially. We love them, we take care of
them, we cherish them. Do that as a picture of Christ,
how Christ loves his bride. Children are to obey their parents.
as a picture of Christ in his obedience, in his obedience to
his father, in his obedience to his earthly parents. Let's
do that as a picture of Christ. Fathers are to be pictures of
Christ as the head of the home, how we love and provide for and
take care of and teach our children. We're to do that as a picture
of Christ. Well, employees are to be pictures of Christ by picturing
his work ethic. You know, the earliest recorded
words we have of Jesus of Nazareth, the earliest recorded words we
have of him. Wish ye not, I must be about my father's business.
He was 12 years old and he would not let anything get in the way
of the job that the father sent him to do. 12 years old. And
the job that the savior came to do, It's a big one. He had the job
given to him of his father of redeeming his sinful people. And he came to do it. And he
didn't have to be coddled into doing it. We've all worked with
people. Oh, they got to be coddled and
motivated and just got to be, you know, to do a good job. Not
our savior. In the harshest of circumstances,
He would not be deterred from doing the job that the father
sent him to do. He told his disciples, the son
of man came not to be ministered unto. He told them, I'm the Lord
of glory. I'm your creator. You get breath
from me. I didn't come to be ministered
to. I came to minister. And how is he going to minister
to his people? to give his life a ransom for many. And he wouldn't
be deterred from going to Jerusalem to do it. Look at John chapter
six. John chapter six, verse 38. The Savior says, for I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that
sent me. I came to do the job that the Father gave me to do.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me. This is the
job he gave me to do, that of all which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. Now that's the job that the Father
gave the Son to do, to redeem his people and not lose one of
them, not lose one of them, and raise them up again at the last
day. Now, how's he gonna do that? How's he gonna do that? By obeying
God's law perfectly. And you know, that's just what
he did every second of his life. In thought, in word, in deed,
in motive, he obeyed God's law perfectly. And then, he had to
suffer and die for the sin of his people. He had to die in
the place of his people, pay the penalty of their sin for
them. And you know what? He did it. And he did it willingly. They couldn't take him against
his will. He made sure they knew that when they came and said,
you know, that mob came out and he stepped out. I mean, he wasn't
trying to hide. He said, who are you looking for? They said,
Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. They all fell
over backwards, just laying there flat on their back. He did that
just to show them you're not taking me against my will. No,
I'm going willingly. I'm going as a lamb before her
shears is done. Put away the sin of mine. This
is what I want to do. This is what I came to do. He
did it willingly. He did it with a good attitude. Does that thrill your heart?
Oh, aren't you glad? Aren't you glad he did that for
you? You who believe. Think of the effort that the
Savior put in to redeeming you. Think of it. Isn't it an honor to go imitate
that? God's giving you an honor to go imitate that work ethic
when you go to work tomorrow morning. In Luke 19 verse 10,
the Savior said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost. He has a people scattered over
this whole creation from every generation, every era of 6,000
years of human history. He has a people scattered, lost
all over that creation. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. And he did everything it took
to save every one of those lost sheep, to save them fully and
completely. And he will not rest until every
one of those lost sinners is found and brought to him. He's going to find them. He's
going to find them. They're lost. They don't know. They don't even
know they're lost. He's going to find them. He's gonna bring
them to hear of Him, hear the gospel, to hear of Him, give
them faith to believe Him. And then, He's gonna bring them
all the way home. He won't rest till it's done.
Now aren't you glad He's that determined to save you? Huh? Aren't you glad? Isn't it an
honor to go back to that salt mine tomorrow morning and imitate
that work ethic? Whether you got a good boss or a bad boss,
it's an honor to imitate that ethic. And as I said a minute ago, our
Savior did everything that He did with a good attitude. In Psalm 40 verse 8, the Savior
said, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God. He didn't say, I'm
doing it because I have to. I'm doing it to earn a paycheck.
I'm doing it because my sinful people, they can't be saved without
it. They're such a burden to me, but I'm going to do it anyway.
No, He didn't say that. He said, I delight. I delight
to do thy will, O God. I delight to save my people so
that not one of them is lost. He delighted to do it. Look back
at Isaiah chapter 42. Our Savior, he made sure that
everything he did pleased his Father. He made sure everything
he did lived up to the standard of his father. And you know what
his father's standard is? Perfection. Perfection. Isaiah 42, verse one. This is
what the father says of his son. Behold, now look at this. Behold,
see my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul
delighted. I put my spirit upon him. He should 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 a smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged, for he hath set judgment in the earth, and the
isles shall wait for his law. And that's what the father said,
behold my servant, this is what he's come to do. Well, he did
it. Then look what the father says
about him in verse 21. The Lord is well-pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. The Savior came to obey the law
for his people, and he magnified it. By him keeping it, he glorified
the law, he magnified the law. He pleased his Father so well
that the Lord is well-pleased for his righteousness sake, for
the sake of his perfection. Our Savior had such a work ethic. He did absolutely everything.
He didn't leave one thing off the to-do list. He did everything
that the Father gave him to do perfectly. And he refused to
rest until the job was done. And you know when the job was
done? After he'd established righteousness for his people.
After he hung on that cross, made his soul an offering for
sin. when sin was finally atoned for,
when the transaction was finally done, before he gave up the ghost,
he made sure we knew this. He cried it, it's a cry that
echoes through the ages. It is finished. And he gave up the ghost. The
job's done. The salvation of God's elect
is accomplished. All of his people have been made
righteous. That puts a whole new light on
how we do our job, doesn't it? Huh? Maybe we can go back to
work tomorrow with a little better attitude about getting up five
o'clock, beat work on time. Because it's a blessing. I won't
go into all the ways, but you know this is true. It's a blessing
to have a job. It's a blessing to have something to do. God's
given you something to do. And it's a blessing to go to
it and be a picture of our Redeemer, of our Lord. Now very briefly,
let me give you this on bosses. Verse nine, back in our text.
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. If Lord puts you in a supervisor's
role, now you be fair. Be fair with people. Now, I'm
not saying just let people run over you and not work. No, people
gotta work. You hold them accountable for
what they were supposed to be doing. But you be fair. Be fair with them. Remember this.
Remember how our Lord and Master treats us. If you have employees,
you have people work for you, you pay them well. Pay them as
much as you can possibly pay them. And treat them well. Treat
them well. Make them glad that they work
for you. You know, it is shocking how much this phrase from a boss
means. Thank you. Thank you. I supervised people for quite
some time, and on Fridays you go hand out paychecks, and pretty
soon it just got to be stubs. You know, everything's electronically
deposited, but you give them a stub. And that's why I always
put that check in their hand and say, thank you. Thank you.
You'd just be amazed how far that goes. I'll leave you to your own thoughts
and prayers on developing more about being a supervisor. Be
a good one, be a good one. And here's a good guide for both
of these things, whether you're a supervisor or an employee,
listen to this statement from Matthew Henry. A steady regard
to the Lord Jesus Christ will make men faithful and sincere
in every station of life. Whatever station you're in, you'll
do it better if you have a steady regard to Christ our Savior. I think that's good, don't you?
All right, I hope the Lord will bless that too.