While I was reading that passage
of scripture, how are you going to preach the gospel from that
passage? Well, with the Lord's help, it's certainly my intention
to. I've entitled this message, The
Gospel and Relationships. Look in verse 1 of chapter 4
once again. foreman, owners of businesses,
bosses, masters, give unto your servants that which is just and
equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Now,
do you know that that verse of scripture is just as inspired
as Isaiah chapter 53, Romans chapter three, Romans chapter
eight, and any other passage in the scripture? God the Holy
Spirit gives specific instructions how an employer is to treat an
employee, or how a master is to treat a slave, giving them
that which is just and equal. Do the people you work with or
the people who are under you or under your authority feel
like they're treated in a fair and equitable way? Would they
be glad they work for you? Would they count it a privilege
to have you over them? Are you paying them fair and
equitable wages? Do they feel respected? Do they
feel appreciated? Now, in this passage, Paul gives
instruction with regard to relationships, marriage, parents, and children. employers and employees. The reality of the grace of God
in my heart is seen in my relationship with other people. You believe
that? I want to repeat it. The reality
of the grace of God in my heart is seen with my relationship
with others. Now, salvation itself, among
other things, is a relationship with the living God. That's such
an awesome thought. I think of our Lord, what he
said in John chapter 17, verse 3, when he said, this is life
eternal, that they might know thee. Not know about you, but
know you. and have a personal relationship
with you, so that when they speak your name, they're not name dropping,
they really know you, the living God, and you know them. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. Now my relationship with him,
will affect all my other relationships. It will have an effect on me
as a husband, as a father, as a father-in-law, as a pastor,
to you, every relationship I have as a friend. And the word Paul
uses with regard to these relationships are good words to describe what
our relationship with the Lord himself is to be. He uses these
words, submit, Love. Don't be bitter. Obey. Be well-pleasing. Do not provoke. He speaks of singleness of heart
and doing what we do heartily as unto the Lord. He talks about
knowing and he talks about giving. And those are all wonderful words
that would describe our relationship with the living God. Now life
consists of relationships, doesn't it? Good relationships, bad relationships,
strained relationships, no relationships. But life consists of relationships.
No man is an island. And we've all experienced good
relationships. We've all experienced bad relationships. We've all experienced where relationships
become strained, and we've all experienced where there's no
relationship. Now, when I talk about a relationship
with God, what, and I don't really know what word to use, so I'm
gonna use this word. What is the most important ingredient,
as far as us, in our relationship with God? What the scripture says, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That is the most important
aspect of our relationship with God. If that's not there, nothing
else is there. And if that's there, everything
else is there. The fear of God. The writer to
the Hebrews said, let us have grace. And it takes grace to
this, that we may serve God acceptably in an acceptable manner with
reverence and godly fear. Now that is what a real relationship
with the living God is. It's one of reverence and godly
fear. A true relationship with God
is called in Scripture the fear of the Lord. Now this fear of
the Lord, it's not the slavish fear of mistrust and anxiety
and unbelief that everyone of us has experienced worrying about
what's going to happen. That's not the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is not fear of punishment or fear of Him
taking something from us. Nothing like that is truly the
fear of the Lord. That's a slavish fear. That's the fear of mistrust.
The only people who truly fear God are those who believe the
gospel. There is no other fear of God.
You know, when Paul talked about the natural man, he said there
is no fear of God before their eyes, no true reverence, no true
respect. But the child of God has a fear
of God, a reverence of God, an awe of God, a respect of God. And let me tell you what the
fear of God does, always. The fear of God makes an individual
afraid of sin. Always. And the reason we're
afraid of sin is because it's against God. Every time we sin, we're guilty
of disrespecting God. Every single time. The fear of
God makes a man afraid of sin. It makes a man afraid of the
way he hears. He doesn't come in with a flippant
attitude. He doesn't come in with an indifferent
attitude. He comes in wanting to hear from
the Lord. Speak Lord, thy servant hears.
That's what the fear of God does. And the fear of God makes a man
afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. I understand that. That's what the fear of God does.
If you have a real fear of Him, you're afraid to look to your
works in any way. Anything that has your thumbprint
on it, your fingerprint on it, you don't want to have anything
to do with it. You're just like Paul when he said, Oh, that I
may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is the law. but that which is through the
faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now that's what the fear of God
does. It makes you want to have nothing to do with God apart
from the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that I might
be found in Him. All I ever want God to see when
He sees me is to see His Son Jesus Christ like that song we
just heard in the beloved. Accepted am I. I don't want to
be found anywhere but in the Beloved. Accepted in Him. Now, interestingly, I've been
thinking about this, thinking about these relationships. The
most important ingredient in any human relationship is very
similar. You know what it is? Respect. Respect. In a marriage, the most
important thing is respect. For me to respect Lynn, for Lynn
to respect me. In a friendship, the most important
ingredient is respect. If you respect that person, you're
going to have a good friendship. If they respect you, there's
going to be a blessed friendship. Now, respect is earned. It is,
it's earned. But respect is so very important. In the relationship between a
parent and a children. Parents, you better teach your
children to respect you. And if they don't respect you, you
make sure they do. That's an essential part of being
a parent. Teach your kids to be respectful.
Teach your kids to bow to authority, to have a respect for authority.
That's so important for your children. And parents, respect
your children. That doesn't mean you cow down
to them in any way, but you should treat them with respect. The key to any kind of relationship
is respect, and anytime there is a strained relationship, there's
disrespect. Every time. When there's a strained
relationship, there is disrespect. Either you have treated them
disrespectfully or they have treated you that way. Disrespect
erodes a relationship more than anything else. Now, just in a
relationship, marriage, marriage, being a parent, being a good
employee, being a good employer. Respect and be quick to forgive. Be quick to apologize and be
quick to forgive. Now, in our relationship with
God, I think about this, it's an eternal relationship because
it's of free grace and nothing can erode that. Nothing can erode
that. Aren't you thankful for that?
I rejoice in that right now. I can't mess this thing up. because it's all of His free
grace and how that rejoices my heart. But you know what people
do when they have a respect for the Lord? They're quick to confess
their sin. They're quick to come into His
presence and ask for forgiveness and cleansing and mercy. And in any relationship that's
good, a good marriage, good parenting, Good friendships will be quick
to truly apologize and to truly forgive. That is so vitally important
in any kind of good relationship. And you know, I was thinking
about this. Disrespect for God is behind all evil and all error. All error comes from a low to
low view of God, a disrespect for Him. And to higher view of
man, every error, every sin comes from disrespect to the Lord. Disrespect for man says who you
are and what you think and how you feel is unimportant to me. And this kind of attitude is
so arrogant and so evil and wrong. And it has its foundation, disrespect
for the Lord. Do some, don't some people deserve
to be disrespected? How do you answer that? Don't
some people deserve to be disrespected? Now there are people I have no
respect for because of what they've done, what they believe, directions
they've gone. There are people I have no respect
for. Does that ever give me a right to be disrespectful to them?
No, never. Everyone is always to be treated
with respect and to treat anyone disrespectfully. Don't you want
to be somebody that respects everybody? I want that. I want
to be somebody who always is respectful and disrespect towards
people is so ugly. May the Lord deliver us from
that. We've all been guilty of this
from time to time. And may the Lord deliver us from
being disrespectful people in any way. I want to respect everybody.
I really do. I have such a desire. I never
want to treat someone in any other way but that of respect. And that doesn't mean if they're
not preaching the gospel that I go ahead and approve of them.
No, I mean there are people I have no respect for. None at all. But that doesn't mean I treat
them disrespectfully. That should never be. Teach your
kids to always be respectful. Now, with those things in mind,
let's look at verse 18. Wives, Colossians chapter 3,
verse 18. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as it's fit in the Lord. Submit yourself,
he said to the Ephesians, as you would the Lord himself. That's
tall order, isn't it? But it's what He says to do.
And that's enough of a reason to do it, isn't it? Do you need
any other reason other than the fact that He says to do it? This
is what the Lord says. And what the Lord says is best.
And what the Lord says is good. The key to submission is to respect
your husband. You respect your husband, you'll
submit to him. You will, and you'll find it a joy to do it.
And you'll want to do it. You'll be doing it in obedience
to the Lord. Men, make your wife want to submit
to you. You treat her in such a way that she wants to submit
to you and finds it a great privilege to do so. Earn her respect. Verse
19, husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Ephesians 5.25 says that we're
to love our wives as Christ loved the church. And how did the Lord
Jesus Christ or how does the Lord Jesus Christ love the church?
He gave himself for it. Now that's a harder commandment
to submit. Would you admit that? It's harder to love your wives
as Christ loved the church than it is to submit. May the Lord
give you and I grace to do what he says to do to love our wives.
As Christ loved the church and he gave himself, you give everything
to your wife. Your job, your responsibility
in life is to give yourself completely to her, to serve her, to seek
her good. Love her. And don't be bitter
against her, he next says. I think that's funny, don't be
bitter against her. That presupposes that men, they're gonna do things
to irritate you. And you'll do things to irritate
them that could create bitterness, that could create resentment,
that could create suspicion, that could create just a negative
attitude. Don't do that. Don't be bitter
against your wives. And wives, don't give them any
reason to make them feel bitter. It goes both ways. Verse 20, children. Obey your
parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Children, obey your parents.
Do what they tell you to do. The Lord's made them your parents.
They're wiser than you are. They know more than you are.
And God expects you to obey your parents. And it's well pleasing
to the Lord, the scripture says, the obedience of the child to
the parent. Children, obey your parents. This is found several
times throughout the New Testament. Children, obey your parents.
Parents, you make sure your children obey. If you don't do that, you're
dropping the ball, and that's displeasing to the Lord. Your
responsibility is to make them obey. That's the greatest responsibility
you have as a parent. It's to make them obey. That's
when you really love them. It's when you care enough to
make them obey. This is well pleasing to the
Lord. Verse 21. Fathers, provoke not your children
to anger, lest they be discouraged. Paul said don't provoke them
to wrath in Ephesians. Don't push and abuse your authority
over them in a bad way. Respect your children. That's
what that means. Respect your children. That doesn't
mean they have authority over you, but you treat them in an
honorable way, like you love them. Respect your children.
Don't treat them in any way other than respect. Don't treat them
with contempt. Don't provoke them to wrath.
Men are more likely to do that and push their authority. But he says, Father, provoke
not your children unless they become discouraged and utterly
disheartened. Verse 22, servants. Obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh. Not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart fearing God. Servants obey not only when
they're watching you, but you keep working when they're not
looking. Don't stop when you're out from under their eye. You
always give your best to the glory of God. You always strive
for excellence in whatever you're doing to the glory of God. Servants
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Not with
eye servants as men pleasers, just being obedient when they're
looking, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. That's why
you continue. This puts significance in everything
we do. What we do, we do in the fear
of God. It's the fear of God that makes
me want to give my all to this. That's it. That's why I don't
have to have somebody looking over my shoulder to give my best.
Do what you do in the fear of God and whatsoever you do, do
it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that of the
Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve
the Lord Christ. I'm going to come back to that in a minute. There's
the gospel right there. But, verse 25, he that doeth
wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there's
no respect of persons. I don't care if you're a believer.
If you loaf on the job, you're going to get fired. If you're
incompetent, you're going to get fired. If you don't do your
best, you're going to get fired. Doesn't matter even if you are
a believer. That's no excuse to in any way
do anything to give my all in what I'm doing. You will reap
what you sow. If you treat your children bad,
they're going to be disheartened. They're going to give you trouble.
If you don't submit to your husband, there's gonna be problems. I
mean, just go on and on and on. You reap what you sow in this
life. Now you do. Thank God I don't reap what I
sowed before the Lord, because if that did, he'd have to send
me to hell. Salvation's in Christ, but in this life, you can't do
wrong without some kind of effect. You reap what you sow. And he
says in verse one of chapter four, Masters, Give unto your
servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also
have a master in heaven. If you have a position of authority
over somebody, you make sure they're happy to be under you
and that they count it a privilege to have you as their authority. You treat them justly and in
an equitable way, not showing favoritism, knowing that you
have a master in heaven observing you. You know, when I was thinking
about this, someone, You say, well, I don't really have a position
of authority with anybody. You know, every time you go in
a grocery store, you do. Anytime you go into a restaurant, you
do. The way you deal with the clerks or the way you deal with
waiters and waitresses. How do you treat them? You know,
I really think somebody's character is really shown by how they treat
service people. I really, that means so much.
I mean, I've talked to several people who wait tables and so
on. They say they always dread the religious crowd coming in,
the Sunday crowd coming in, because they're the ones that give the
worst tips and act the most rude. Well, I want Todd's Real Grace
shirts to have the biggest tippers in Lexington. Everybody here,
be a big tipper. Be someone who is gracious. Be
someone who when you're dealing with somebody in a grocery store.
It helped me today. I went into Costco to bring in
some bad meat that Lynn made me. I didn't want to do it in
the first place and probably had a bad attitude. I remember
what I was going to preach on. I stood there for 25 minutes. This is me tootin' my own horn.
I'm usually rude over stuff like that. You know, why are you making
me? But the point is, I want everybody
to see grace. I want everybody to see grace.
May the Lord enable us to be that way. But these words regarding
our relationships are excellent words with regard to our relationship
with the Lord. First, I love this word, submit. Submit. Submit to Him. He's the Lord. Whatever He says
is best. You can trust Him completely. Well, you know, if you women
had a husband that was absolutely perfect just like Christ, it
would be easy to submit to Him. Well, we have a husband like
that. The Lord Jesus Christ. Submit. Whatever He says is best. It's right. It's glorious. Love. Love Him for who He is. Love
all of His glorious attributes. Don't you love His holiness?
The fact that He's always holy, and He's always just, and He's
always perfect. I love the way He is! I love... His sovereignty, His rule over
everything. I love the fact that everybody
in this room and everybody outside of this room, their heart is
in His hands. And as the rivers of water, He
turneth it whithersoever He will. We love that. We love who He
is. We love how He saves. Don't you
love the way He saves by those I wills we were reading about
in Exodus chapter 6? I will do this, I will do that. No, I will
if I will and you shall. I love His way of salvation.
I love His way of saving by sovereign grace. I love His way of election
and redemption and regeneration and perseverance and everything
He does. I love I love Him. I love His salvation. I love
His way of saving. I love His person. He's so glorious.
I love it with a little Shulamite woman trying to describe her
beloved. She says, He's altogether lovely. And that is our Redeemer. Oh, we love Him. And then the next word that's
used is obey. Now the Gospel is to be obeyed. What's that mean? I think this
is very interesting. The word obey comes from the
word to hear. To hear. You hear the word and you obey it. When God says believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know what you do?
You believe. You rely upon Christ. When the Word says, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know
what you do? You call. Lord, save me. You said it in your Word. You'd
save anybody that's calling. I'm calling. Save me. You obey
the Gospel. It's not something you just give
assent to or agreement to. You obey. You obey the truth. And then, when it speaks of the
children, it speaks of them being, when they obey, it's well-pleasing
to Him. And when I thought about this,
I thought, you know, I want to be somebody who always craves
the Lord's approval. I want Him to be pleased with
me. And in Christ, here's the glorious thing, in Christ He
is. He really is. He's pleased with Todd Nybert. And when I enter glory, He's
going to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Because
Christ is the good and faithful servant, I'm in Him. I know the
only way I please Him is in Christ, but I want to please Him, don't
you? You know, anybody you love, you want to please, you want
them to be pleased with you. You want that. Anybody you love,
that's a great desire you have, is you want them to be pleased
with you. Somebody says, I don't care what anybody thinks. Well,
you've got a horrible attitude then. I care. I care. I want the Lord to be pleased.
I want the Lord's people to be pleased with me. Be well pleasing. And then he says to the fathers,
don't provoke your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
You know this thing of provoking. Every time we sin, we provoke
the Lord. He's holy. I think of that scripture, the
thing David did displeased the Lord. That's what scripture says.
The thing David did displeased the Lord. Well, you know, I got
to be honest in thinking about myself. I think everything I
do displeases the Lord in and of myself. I realize that because
of who I am. But, oh, may God give me grace
to not provoke him, to not provoke him. And then he says to obey
in singleness of heart, in fear, doing what we do heartily as
unto him. Whatever I do, I want to do it
heartily with all my heart. That means not half-hearted.
I don't want to be half-hearted about anything. I want to do
it heartily as unto the Lord. And then he says, give, he says
to the masters, give unto your servants that which is just and
equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Give
that which is just and equal, which is what? Everything. Everything. I want to, oh may the Lord give
me and you the grace to give ourselves lock, stock and barrel
to him. Now let's go back to verse 24
for a moment. Now I've been talking about all
this stuff we're supposed to do. What does that have to do with
me entering heaven? Nothing. It doesn't take away
from its importance. But look what Paul says in Colossians
3, verse 24, knowing. I love that word knowing. You
know, the Christian is somebody who knows something that the
world knows nothing of. We all know something. The Lord
has revealed something to us. There's something we know that
we glory in, that we're so thankful for this knowledge that the world
has no understanding of. We want them to. We want to preach
the gospel to everybody. But there's something special
when the Lord teaches you, you know. I always think it's amusing
when people say the Lord's trying to teach me something. The Lord
doesn't try to do anything. If he teaches you, you're taught.
Knowing. Knowing something. And what is
it we know? Knowing that of the Lord you
shall receive the reward of the inheritance. Now, the natural man, as a matter
of fact, I read a commentary on this and a guy said, this
proves that hope for reward is a good motive for obedience.
And I thought, well, you didn't even look at the language of
the scripture. What's an inheritance? Have you ever known anybody who did not deserve anything
and yet got a big inheritance? And it had absolutely nothing
to do with anything they did. As a matter of fact, if anything,
they didn't deserve anything. And you know that. And yet, here
they are on Easy Street. They're given this great, big,
huge inheritance simply because of their connection with somebody
else. That's what an inheritance is. Now, all that I have from
the Lord is by way of my connection with
somebody else. It doesn't have anything to do
with how good a father I am, or how good a parent I am, or
how good a friend I am, or how good an employee I am. It has
absolutely nothing to do with it. We have an inheritance. And an inheritance is not something
you work for. It's not something you earn.
It's something that's given to you because of your relationship
with somebody else. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Now regarding this inheritance,
turn over to Galatians chapter three for a moment. Now the inheritance the believer
has, I want you to think of this inheritance. Heirs with God, Joint heirs with
Christ. Here's my inheritance. Everything
that belongs to Jesus Christ is mine. Everything. He even says, the glory which
thou has given me, I have given them. That's what the Lord says. My inheritance is to be without
sin. My inheritance is to be perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. My inheritance is to
behold his face in righteousness. My inheritance is to spend eternity
with him. Beholding his face. What an inheritance. There's no way you and I could
enter into it enough to describe it. But look at this passage
in Galatians chapter 3 verse 18. Four, if the inheritance be of
the law. If the inheritance has anything
to do with me doing anything. That's what law means. Law means
something is conditioned upon, is contingent upon you doing
something. You won't have it unless you
do this. Now, Paul says, if the inheritance
be of the law, it's no more of promise. Now, in that passage of scripture,
in Exodus chapter six, we read all these promises. God said,
I will do this. I will do this. I will do this.
I will. Don't you love the I wills of
God? The I wills and they shall. Oh, the inheritance. If it be
of the law, if God gives it to me because something I do in
any way to any degree, it's no more of promise, but God gave
it to Abraham by promise. Now, here's why we have the relationship
in the first place, this relationship with God. It's the promise of
grace. Oh, God's promise. You see, it's
God's promise. If I say I promise something.
I mean to do it. Something may happen. Or maybe
I might even forget. Or maybe I'm just no good and
didn't do it. But God's promises never like
that. You see all the promises of God in him. are yea and amen. They're positive, they're sure,
they're certain, they must take place. All of his promises. And that's why I have a relationship
with him because he promised before time again I was going
to have one. I was viewed in Christ, accepted in Christ, saved
in Christ. So while we look at all these relational responsibilities.
I want to be this person. I want to be this person described
in this passage of scripture. And by the grace of God, you
and I will be. But aren't you thankful who you are doesn't
have anything to do with how you perform anything? I really believe that. Believe
it with all my heart. Accepted in the beloved. Now
the same inspired word that teaches us that salvation is of the Lord
and the fear of God teaches us how to be in relationships with
others. And I hope this will make all
of us inspired to be truly respectful people to all. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
reward of the inheritance. What a joy. Lord, what we have awaiting us. It's beyond what we can conceive.
but how we thank you that the inheritance is by that promise,
the promise of your grace. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us the grace to obey what you say in your word with regard
to wives and husband, children and
parents, employers and employees. Lord, enable us to honor you
in all we do. Make those around us believe
that they've been blessed to be around us because of the way
we treat them. Lord, give us grace to be that
way. Bless this message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's
name we pray, amen. We got rich. 511, we'll stand and sing.