Ephesians 6, 1 through 9 is a
commentary on Christ is all in all. I hope that will be understood
by the end of this message. Now, this thought in Ephesians
6 actually begins in Ephesians 5, 21, where it says, submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And then he
talked about the responsibilities of wives and of husbands. And he lets us know that all
this speech regarding marriage is to give and to picture the
relationship between Christ and his church. But nevertheless,
let every one of you, in particular, so love his wife even as himself. And the wife see that she reverence
her husband. Then he gives instructions to children, to parents, to slaves,
and to slave owners. and masters. And he ends this
thought with in verse nine, your master also is in heaven. Neither
is there any respective persons with him. Nobody can buy him. He doesn't show favor to any
special demographic. You can't bribe him. He doesn't
negotiate. He's the judge. who always is
absolutely just and gives everyone their due. Now, I've heard people
object to the particular truth of election and his death only
for the elect. And they say, well, that makes
God a respecter of persons. He's shown some people favoritism
that he not showing to others. Let me say this, God shows favoritism
to Christ because he deserves it, and everybody in him. And when he saves somebody, it's
in a way that honors his justice. God's justice demands their salvation. And those outside of Christ,
he gives them their due. He doesn't show favoritism to
persons in that sense. He does show favoritism to Christ.
Don't you know that that's who he is? That's how he would be. and he shows favoritism to all
in him. And let me also say this. Everybody
that's in Christ wants to be in Christ. Do you want to be
in Christ? Do you want it so that all God
sees when he sees you is Jesus Christ? You're in Christ. Those outside of Christ don't
want to be in Christ. They have no desire to be in
Christ. They'd rather come into God's
presence on their own with their, on the footing of their merit
and their works. And God's going to meet you where you want. I
can tell you this, if you come in Christ only, that's where
God will meet you. And if you come in your own works,
God will meet you there, if that's what you want. Now, Ephesians
6, 1 through 9 is a part of this whole book of Ephesians, this
sublime book. And it cannot be considered apart
from everything else he said in Ephesians. Now, if I just
go right down these verse nine, these first nine verses and give
their meaning, that's good. But if I do it without preaching
the gospel, I prove by that that God hadn't taught me. Every message
must be gospel. You believe that? Every message
must be gospel. And I've heard people take say
the book of Ephesians, or they've done this with Romans too. Well,
the first 11 chapters of Romans is doctrine, and the last five
chapters are practical, how to live. And I've heard people say
about Ephesians, the first three chapters are doctrinal, the last
three chapters are practical, how to live. No, it's all gospel. It's all gospel. And I hope you'll
see this as we look through this. In Colossians 3, verse 11, we've
read that passage of scripture, Christ is all and in all. He's all that God is. He's all
to God. He's all in the scriptures. He's
all in this passage of scripture that people would say, well,
that's talking about relationships and how to live. He's all in
the scriptures. He's all in every doctrine. He's
all in my salvation and all that God requires of me, he looks
for Christ for. I love that. He's all in my hope and the evidence
that he's all to me is that he's all I have. I don't have anything
else, but him only. When David spoke in Samuel 23
verse five of the covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this
is all my salvation and all my desire. Another way to quote
that would be Christ is all. He's all my salvation. He's all
my desire. The only thing that gives me
assurance of my personal salvation is Christ is all. Nothing else. Not how I'm living, but how he
lived and how he lives, and how he ever liveth to make intercession
for us. God looks to Christ only for
me, and I look to Christ only for me. Christ is all in all,
and that affects all areas of my life. My marriage, my relationship
with you, my responsibilities as a parent, as a child, as a
slave employee. But he was talking about slaves.
And you think about what it was like to be a slave in those times,
as a slave owner. If I believe Christ is all and
it does not affect all about me, I don't really believe Christ
is all at all, do I? Now, in verse one of chapter
six, Ephesians, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for
this is right. That's a good reason to do something,
isn't it? It's right. It's what God commands in his
word. And parents, your child will not obey you unless you
make sure they do. You need to obey me, the Bible
says to. That's not gonna get anybody
to obey. You make sure they obey. And that's your responsibility
before God. You're to do this because Christ
is all. Is that enough of a reason for
you? Do you need any other reason? Do you need any other motivation?
You're to do this because Christ is all in all. He goes on to say to the children,
honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment
with promise. Treat with reverence and respect
your mother and father. Understand their God-given authority
over you. And once again, it's up to the
parents to make sure their children honor their mother and father
and honor all kinds of authority. You can't just say, well, this
is what you ought to do. No, you're to make sure they do it, or they
won't. You know that scripture that says, train up a child in
the way it will go, and in the end, it will not depart thereof?
So many people thought of that as, if you train them up right,
in the end, they'll end up being fine. No, that's not what that
means, because many people have found that that's not the case.
They've trained up their children right, and they've ended up being
utter rebels. It means train up a children in the way it would
go, let him go his own way. leave him to himself and let
him make his own decisions. And in the end, he's not going
to depart from that. That's exactly what that passage of scripture
means. And somebody says, well, it means if you trade them right,
they'll end up good. Well, hopefully, but not necessarily. That's not what that scripture
is teaching. You teach parents or to teach
their children like this. I said this recently because
I said so. That's a fine reason. You don't
need any other reason. Because I said so. Somebody says,
well, don't you need to give an explanation? No. No. Your child is not your peer. It always troubles me when I
see kids trying to, or parents get on the same level as their
children and talk to them like their peers. No. No. Your child is not your peer.
You're the child's authority. And it's your responsibility
to make them do what's right, to make them respect authority. And the authority begins with
God being the authority. We don't explain away that, that's
the way it is. And this is the first commandment
with promise, that it may be well with thee and that thou
mayest live long on the earth. Now this is the first and only
commandment with promise, any child that learns to respect
authority will be successful in school, in their jobs, in
their family life. A disrespect or contempt for
authority spells disaster in every way. And it's every parent's
responsibility to teach their children to respect authority,
beginning with them. If your child doesn't respect
you, guess whose fault it is. It's not the child's fault. It's
your fault. That is his instruction with
regard to children and do this for the Lord's sake. And he's
gonna say more about this. The only reason you need to do
this is because Christ is all. That is to motivate you in all,
in every aspect of your life. Look in verse four. And ye fathers,
I think it's interesting he says this to the fathers because probably
most mothers aren't like fathers. Fathers are more likely to provoke
their children to wrath. Fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath. Do not provoke your children
to wrath by the way you treat them in a tyrannical, in an unreasonable,
in an unfair way, but bring them up to maturity in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. Now, the first thing you do in
doing that is bring them to hear the gospel. That's the most important
thing you can do for your child is bring them to hear the gospel
and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to
maturity. Your child's education, morals,
and so on, you're to teach them to be people of character. Now
here's one thing where I think most parenting, I don't, whenever
I talk about marriage Parents always tell you, you're not a
very good husband, you're not a very good parent. I always think that. But still,
I know this is true, whether I'm a good parent or not. Somebody
says, well, you ought to live what you believe. I know that.
I don't want to. But most parenting fails when,
I don't know where I'm going with that. I'm sorry. Believing
Christ doesn't make us indifferent about being a parent. We want
to be the best parent we can be. And not try to reason with
our children, make them do right. And they're the ones that are
going to benefit from that. And if you don't make your kids do
right, you're sinning against God. If I don't make my, well,
Aubrey's an adult, but Lynn's told me you can't tell her to
do things the way you used to. I know, I can't, she's an adult,
but still need to do what I say. May the Lord give us wisdom
in being a parent because Christ is all. That's why we want to
do it. Now look in verse five. Servants. Now they're talking about slaves.
a Roman slave who had no recourse. He belonged to somebody. He was
owned by somebody. And what a miserable life that
must have been. You know, it's interesting that
many people have used this passage of scripture to show that the
Bible does not really teach slavery is wrong. They didn't say anything
about it. They said, just obey your masters.
Oh. If you want to use that, you're
crazy. I mean, yes, slavery is wrong under any circumstance,
but it didn't change these people's condition. They were slaves that
God saved. The scriptures are not putting
their approval on slavery here, but think of the condition of
a slave in these Roman times, how miserable it would have been
to be somebody's property, to be mistreated without having
any recourse. Can you imagine the despair that
could create being a slave with no way to get out of it? God saved some of those people.
There were slaves that the Lord revealed himself to. Read the
book of Philemon. That's about a runaway slave
that the Lord saved. Now, what is Christ is all going
to do for them? A whole lot. A whole lot. Look what it says in verse fives.
Verse five, servants be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of
your heart as unto Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the
heart with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good
thing any man doeth, the same he shall receive the Lord, whether
it be bond or free. Now, what is Christ is all going
to do for someone in a hopeless situation of despair? He works as unto the Lord. He
serves as unto the Lord. The Lord's put me in this position.
I'm going to serve my master for the Lord's sake. for his
glory. Now that had a great effect on
their life, didn't it? He'd do this as unto the Lord. Christ is all, is the only motive
you have, performing this task in singleness and simplicity
and generosity of heart. Christ is your Lord, and you're
doing this as unto him. And you know, when you're on
your own personal job, you know who ought to be the best employee
where you're at? You. Why? for the glory of Christ. You're working as unto the Lord,
believing Christ is all. Whatever you're doing, you're
doing it because you believe Christ is all, and that's enough
of a reason to be the best at it. Verse six, not with eye service,
not just when your boss is looking, as men pleasers, but as the servants
of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Now, do you know
that with regard to work, If you show up every day and
are on time and have a good attitude, you're going to be very successful
where you work. It'll happen. Doing this as unto the Lord. You don't know what my boss is
like, somebody's thinking. Well, that's not who you're working
for. You're working as unto the Lord. Have you ever been in a
situation where you've had a boss that just about drove you crazy
or some kind of relationship in a working environment that
about drove you crazy? Well, you're working as unto
the Lord. May the Lord give us grace to
always do that. When you look to Christ as all,
doing the will of God from your heart, that by itself will make
you a better employee. Verse seven. with goodwill, doing
service as to the Lord and not to men. With goodwill, remembering
who the Lord is, not simply as a man pleaser, but serving Christ.
And that puts significance in everything I do. Now with a believer,
there's nothing mundane. Somebody says, well, I just,
you know, I'm so insignificant. There's nothing you do that's
insignificant if you're a believer. because everything you do, you
do as unto the Lord, because you really believe Christ is
all in all. And that's why you always give
your best. Now, when I preach, every sermon you hear, I've given
my best, every one of them. Now, it might not come to you
that way. I can't help it, but I still
have given my best. Why? You know, when I see where
a preacher has not prepared properly and didn't have time to prepare,
you better make time. That's what comes first, because
Christ is all. And that's enough of a reason
to make anybody give their best at what they're doing. Christ
is their master. Christ is all. And that's to
be our attitude in everything with goodwill, remembering who
the Lord is. doing the will of God from the
heart. Verse eight, knowing that whatsoever
good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the
Lord, whether he be bond or free. Verse nine, you masters, you
do the same things unto them. You treat them with respect,
with honor, You treat them the way you want to be treated. I
love the way the Lord said that. As you would others do to you,
so do ye to them. You masters do the same things
unto them forbearing threatening. Don't use your position of authority
to threaten them with the consequences of what's gonna happen if they
don't obey you. You know, that's just contrary to the gospel to
act that way. I want the people, if I've got
a position of authority of people, I want them to want to work for
me because of how good I treat them, how well they feel treated
and fairly and honorably and so on. And that's what he's saying.
Don't think, you masters, don't think you've got something over
them. I love what he says, forbearing threatening. Have you ever had
a boss that was always letting you know they had authority over
you? It's difficult, I've had that and I'm just, I don't like
that, neither do you. But you masters do the same things
unto them for bearing threat to him, knowing your master also
is in heaven. You've got a master, he's got
a master. And I love the way he says to
these masters, neither is there any respect of persons with him. Don't think. that because you're
a master, you have some leg up on the Lord. Don't think he views
you as above that other person. There's no respect of persons
in his sight. Your master, your Lord is also
in heaven. He's their Lord and he's your
Lord and he doesn't see you above them. There's no respect of persons
in his sight. Now, what does this mean? God
is not a respecter of persons. This is glorious with regard
to him. As a matter of fact, if you read
in James chapter two, when James talks about respect of persons,
he said, when you commit respect to persons, you're committing
sin. That's one of the definitions of sin the scripture gives is
to show respect of persons. Well, what is this thing of God
not showing respect to persons? Well, turn with me to Galatians
chapter two. Verse 11, but when Peter was come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. Now, whenever
you publicly reprimand somebody, there better be a good reason
for it. And he had a reason for it. Public reprimands probably
should have never been made. But Paul, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, had a reason for this public reprimand of
Peter. And think of how embarrassed
you would be if the Apostle Paul reprimanded you publicly. If
he came in here and pointed my name out in front of everybody
and reprimanded me, how humiliating that would be. And I'm sure Paul
was very sensitive of that. and he wouldn't have been doing
this for a reason that did not justify it. Verse 12, for before
that certain came from James, now these were the Jewish believers
that came down from Jerusalem, before that certain came from
James, He did eat with the Gentiles. And I love to think of him doing
that. I mean, he was having a good time fellowshiping with the Gentiles,
talking with the Gentiles and everything was going great. But
when they were come, these Jewish believers, he withdrew and separated
himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision and the other
Jews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also
was carried away with their hypocrisy. That's what dissimulation means.
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the
truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, if thou
being a Jew lives after the manner of Gentiles and not as to the
Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Now,
what he's saying is everything you're saying is contradictory.
It's a denial that Christ is all. He didn't say anything. When they came in, he started
getting nervous. He started getting fearful. He
gets up, moves away from the table of the Gentiles, and sits
down with the Jews. And what he was saying when he
made that statement was Christ is not all. There's some kind
of advantage with being a Jew. And I'm going to go over here
with the Jews and sit with them rather than Gentiles because
that is, you're better off that way. And what that is, is a favoritism. Showing favoritism to persons. You're better off being a Jew
than a Gentile believer. You can be saved being a Gentile
believer. Don't get me wrong, these people were saved. But
you're more saved. You're more accepted. You're
more pleasing to God if you go over here and identify with the
Jews. Now, Peter, I think it's interesting, all of his life,
it seemed like he had a hard time loving Gentiles. I think
of chapter 10, Acts chapter 10, when he comes to Cornelius, actually,
we're gonna be considering that, Lord willing, Sunday, next Sunday,
but he's in a trance, he has a vision, and he sees in this
vision a sheep coming down with unclean animals, that you were
forbidden to eat under the law. And a voice came to him, rise,
Peter, kill and eat. And he said, not so Lord. I'm
not gonna do that. Why? Nothing unclean has ever
touched my lips. I'm different. He's making himself
different because of what he did not eat. And the Lord said,
what God has cleansed, call not thou common. And this was done
three times and the vision was over. Look in Acts chapter 10. Now he's sent after having this
vision, he goes to the house of Cornelius. And here's what Peter said he
learned from this vision. He didn't know what it meant.
And then look what he says in verse 34. Then Peter opened his
mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. There's no advantage to being
a Jew. I perceive that. But in every
nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted
with him. And I know what people will do
with that. They'll say, well, that's teaching salvation by
works. No, it's not. This describes every believer. We fear him. Being justified, we're people
who are described as working righteousness. That's who we
are. That's because of justification. I fear God, that's the work of
Christ in me. I work righteousness, that's
the work of Christ for me. That's justification. And I think
the Lord quite often lets things be stated in a way that if you
wanna hang yourself, he'll give you something to hang on. But
we know from the truth of scriptures that that's not teaching salvation
by works. Like this guy didn't believe the gospel, but he feared
him and worked righteousness, therefore he's saved. So it's
saying, oh, Paul is finding out that with God, there really is
no respect of persons. There are no advantage to anything
that you do. Turn to Romans chapter 12. You're not going to earn points
with God because of who you are. Romans 2. Verse six, who will render to
every man according to his deeds. You're going to be and I'm going
to be given everything according to my deeds. I think of that,
hold your finger there in Romans two and turn to second Corinthians
chapter five. Verse 10. For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the
things done in his body according that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad. If I'm justified, everything
done in my body is good. If I'm not justified, everything
done in my body is bad. Now to look at that passage of
scripture and think, well, what that means is, is believers are
going to be rewarded according to the things done in their body.
And some are going to earn a higher reward and some a lower reward.
You're going to be rewarded according to what you've done, whether
it's good or bad. That's so far from the gospel. It's not even
worth mentioning. If Christ is my righteousness
before God, I have a personal righteousness where everything
in my body that has been done is good. And to look at that
in any other way is to look at it the wrong way. God is no respecter
of persons. Christ is no respecter of persons.
You're going to be given exactly what you personally deserve. That's what that means. Now go
back to Romans 2. who will render to every man
according to his deeds. You can count on that. God is
righteous and he's going to give everybody exactly what they deserve.
To them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory
and honor and immortality, eternal life. That's what you get out
of that. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the
truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation
and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew
first and also to the Greek, but glory and honor and peace
to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to
the Gentile, for there is no respect to persons with God. Now, I wish that you and I could
enter in to the glory of this. When I hear, well done, Thou
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. And I'm gonna hear that. And
I have done well, because what I've done is what he has done. That is my righteousness before
God. And all the things done in my
body are good. There's no understanding of justification
apart from that. God's no respecter of persons.
He's not going to show anybody favoritism. If you are perfectly
righteous, you're going to be brought in. If you're evil and
unbelieving, you'll be cast away. That is God's glory as being
no respecter of persons. I turn to James chapter 2. My brethren, have not the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of
persons. That's how important this is.
You can't have faith and have respect of persons. For if there
come into your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel,
and there come also in a poor man in vile arraignment, and
you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and
saying to him, sit thou here in this good place. We're so
glad to have you. Be real, let's recognize this
man. He can give us all kinds of money is what that's about.
He can help us, he can do things for us, but recognize this man.
I mean, he's somebody. He's somebody in the community.
Let's recognize him. And you say to the poor, stand
out there, sit here under my footstool. Are you not then partial
in yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts? You're showing
respect to persons in doing that. Hearken, my brethren, My beloved
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world? Now he's
not simply talking about poor people. Although most of the
people the Lord saves are probably what we would call poor people,
but that's really not what he's talking about when he's talking
about financially poor. He's talking about people who are
poor in spirit. People who don't have anything to recommend themselves
to God. They don't have a thing. Would
that describe you? You don't have anything but Christ. That's
what a poor person is. A poor person is somebody who
doesn't have anything but Christ, but that makes them rich. That
makes them infinitely wealthy. Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that
love him? But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress
you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do they not blaspheme
that worthy name by which you are called? If you fulfill the
royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, you do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. Christ is all in all. He's all my salvation. He's all
that God is. He's all in the scriptures. And
that affects every aspect of my life as a spouse, as a parent,
as a child, as a slave, as an employer. Christ is all in all. And if it doesn't affect me,
I don't really believe Christ is all in all, do I? Christ is
all and in all, and that is the only motivation needed. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name,
because he is all, we would be motivated to submit ourselves one to another
because he is all. To be what you call us to be
as husbands and wives because he is all. To be what you call
us to be as husbands and wives and children and parents, employers
and employees because Christ is all. Lord, deliver us from
not seeing the continual glory of Christ being all and that
invades every thought we have. Bless the message for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen.