the book of Titus chapter 2,
if you want to turn there. We've been studying concerning
these slaves, and we want to do one more study tonight concerning
slaves. And in this study, we want to
look at the encouragement for slaves. Encouragement for slaves. And don't you imagine they needed
encouragement poor slaves bound and bought by other people. They
didn't have the liberty to go and come as they pleased. They
had to go and come and do according to their master and what he allowed
them to do. But this is some encouragement
for these slaves. But let's read in Titus chapter
2 and look in verse 9 and verse 10. Exhort servants to be obedient
unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things,
not answering again, not proloning, not pilfering, stealing, but
showing all good fidelity, faithfulness, obedience, that they may adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." Now we looked
last week at this word servant Paul uses this several times,
really over and over in his epistles. He uses it thirty times in his
epistles alone. And the first meaning of this
word servant is slave. It is a slave. That is the first
meaning of it. And he applies it in his epistles
to different kinds of slavery. Sometimes it is a bad kind of
slavery and sometimes it is a good kind of slavery. But let me read
to you some places where Paul used this. He uses it in Romans
several times as slaves to sin, to identify servants to sin.
Listen to how he says it in Romans 6. Know ye not that to whom ye
yield yourselves slaves to obey? His slaves ye are to whom ye
obey, whither of sin unto death, are of obedience and to righteousness,
but God bethanked that you were the slaves of sin, but you have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, the gospel, which
was delivered unto you." And then he says, being made free
from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So there's a bad
kind of slavery and a good kind of slavery, isn't it? Slaves
to sin and the curse of the law. And then when you're delivered
from that, you're made slaves to God, slaves to righteousness.
And the Lord Jesus used this word several times Himself. Listen
to John chapter 8. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
committeth sin is the slave of sin. The slave. That's bad slavery. But you know Christ has redeemed
us from slavery. He has ransomed us from slavery. The Son of Man came to give His
life a ransom for many. So He has ransomed us from sin
and from the curse of the law and now we are made slaves to
God, slaves to righteousness. Sometimes the Apostle Paul referred
to being slaves of Christ. He often used this word. In Romans
chapter 1, he said, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. And he began
the book of Titus this way, Paul, a slave of God. A slave of Christ,
a slave of God, and in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5, listen to this, a slave
to his church. He is a slave to the church of
Jesus Christ. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves slaves for Jesus sake. That's a good slavery, isn't
it? Being enslaved to God, being enslaved to Christ, being enslaved
to His Church, enslaved to His Church. And then, of course,
literal slavery. That's where we're at here in
our text, exhort slaves to be obedient. And so often Paul mentions
this in his epistles, being slaves, being bond, bound, bought by
another man. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, By one
Spirit were all baptized into one body, whether we be slaves
or free. Galatians 3, In Christ there
is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, nor male or female. Then in Ephesians 6, 5, Slaves,
be obedient to your masters according to the flesh. Colossians 3, Slaves,
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. So he often spoke of that and
we can just assume that he spoke of this so often because slavery
was something that was very well known in the New Testament. Much
of the world, as far back as you can read about history, history
has always had slaves. And it's been sanctioned by the
state in so many places down through the history of mankind.
I told you last week a man by the name of Professor David Reese,
R-E-I-S. I don't know him, but he's supposed
to be a reputable historian, especially in biblical New Testament
times. And he estimated that between
30 and 50 percent of all the Roman Empire was enslaved. Now
that's a bunch of people, isn't it? Possibly half the entire
population of the Roman Empire was enslaved, was being purchased. The Word of God doesn't hide
the fact of slavery, does it? It doesn't hide it. Boy, it warts
and all. That's what they say about this
Bible. It deals with these things, doesn't
it? It doesn't hide these things from them and neither does it
hide the fact that sometimes Christians Believers owned slaves
in New Testament times. Now, you can let Titus go for
just a few minutes. Now, I want you to turn back
over to your right to Timothy chapter 6. You can look in different places
in the Scriptures where we can see that believers, children
of God, sometimes owned slaves. Look here in 1 Timothy chapter
6 in verses 1 and 2. In verse 1 of I Timothy chapter
6, Let as many slaves as are under the yoke, that means they
are in slavery, count their own masters worthy of all honor,
that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. Now,
boy, this was asking a lot of these slaves, wasn't it? Count
your own master worthy of all honor. And we read in I Peter
last week that sometimes these masters were not gentle masters. And Peter said not only, submit
yourself not only to the good and gentle, but to the forward,
the harsh, the mean, the cruel, those heathen masters. Submit
yourself unto them. And he says here in verse 2,
look at this, and they that have believing masters. There are
Christians in this time that own slaves. I don't know how
that come to be. I don't know that if they owned
slaves and the Lord saved them then. I don't know if He saved
them and then they bought some slaves. I don't know. The Bible
don't say. But it does say that there were
some slaves who had believing masters. And look here how He
says it to them. Let them not despise them. Don't you slaves despise your
believing masters because they are brethren. but rather do them
service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the
benefits. These things teach and exhort."
Now there's a couple of ways that you and I can look at this
when he says here in verse 2, don't despise them because they
are brethren. We could look at that this way,
don't despise them because as your brethren in Christ, Don't despise them by thinking
this about them. That's my brother. He should
release me. And since he don't or since he
won't, don't despise him. Don't despise him. Now that would
take a lot of grace, wouldn't it? I mean, for you to have a
brother in Christ who owns you, And yet you do not despise Him. You are thinking to yourself
as you laid there of a night and you had worked hard all day
knowing that you were His slave, thinking, He is my brother in
Christ. Why don't He release me? Why
don't He free me? Paul said, Don't despise Him
because He is your brother. And secondly, we could look at
it this way. Don't despise them but because
they are brothers. You should be pleasing to them
because they are brethren. You should be more pleasing to
them because they are your brethren in Christ than you would if you
were owned by some heathen master. If you had to be in slavery,
who would you rather be in slavery to? A heathen? or a brother in
Christ. I'd much rather be there with
you. And Paul said, since it's a brother that you're enslaved
to, a brother in Christ, you ought to much more seek to please
him and do him service. And he goes on here to say, because
he is faithful. Your master is faithful to the
Lord. He's faithful to his word. He's faithful to his gospel.
And He's beloved. He's beloved of God. And He ought
to be beloved by you. And He says you're both partakers
of the benefit of that free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Salvation
by Christ. You're both partakers of that.
The benefits of grace and everlasting life. Have one Heavenly Father
and one hope. So He says serve Him because
of that. Boy, these slaves, These slaves
should love a believing master more. But in regard to civil
affairs, the slave is still the slave, and the master is still
the master. Being in Christ did not change
that, did it? And that's what the Apostle Paul
is telling them. And the slave was not to despise his Christian
master and insist on his freedom because they were both Christians,
but he should do his master service. because he was his brother. Look here at another place. We
see there that you could be a master and have slaves. They did it.
They did it. Look in Philemon. Back over to
your right. Just to pass the book of Titus. Look at Philemon. This is a man who owned a slave. You remember the context. I want
to look here in verse 15 and verse 16, but you remember this
story. You ought to read it. It's a
very, very delightful little story. And what we learned from
it was Philemon had this slave by the name of Onesimus. And
he may have been a thief. You know, one of the things that
history does tell us about these slaves, that they were thieves. When they got an opportunity,
they stole from their master, stole food, they stole tools
and stole it and sold it. And you know something, if you
were treated like a dog, when you start acting like a dog after
a while, a lot of these slaves lived in absolute despair. I
don't know what Onesimus' problem was, but he ran off. And somehow
or another he got arrested, but he found himself in prison with
the Apostle Paul. Paul said, I begot him in my
bonds. Somewhere they came into contact
by the providence of God. Paul preached the gospel to Onesimus,
and he heard it and believed it, and Paul sent him back to
his master. Sent him back to his master.
And here's what he says to him in verse 15. For perhaps he therefore
departed for thee for a season, that thou shouldest receive him
forever, not now as a slave, but above a slave, a brother
beloved especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both
in the flesh and in the Lord." Now we just saw in Timothy where
Paul told the believing slave that his Master was beloved. He was to love his master. And now we see here where the
master is to love his believing slave. And some have suggested,
and it may well have been true, that some of these believing
slaves pastored their believing masters. And I tell you, I would
have loved to have Onesimus as my pastor, wouldn't you? You
read the history a little bit about what the Bible says about
him, and Paul counted him a faithful minister. And Paul tells Philemon
here in this book, I would have kept him for myself, that he
could minister unto me. But without you giving me permission,
I wouldn't. But this slave was probably a
good creature. and he may have well became somebody's
pastor. I was reading John Gill on this,
and he said history shows that he was a bishop. He did become
a pastor. He was released from his slavery
and became a pastor. I don't know, but here we're
told here how the master was to feel about his slave. So we saw last week, while slavery
was not forbidden in the New Testament, It was regulated in
such a way that it would have died on its own. It would have
absolutely died on its own. If the believing slaves had felt
about their masters as the Bible told them to do, and if the believing
masters had felt about their slaves as the Bible told them
to, it would have died on its own, wouldn't it? The slave was
to render obedience and love his master. The master was to
take care of his slave, do what was right with him and give him
what was right and equal. And if that would have been done,
slavery would have died on its own. We wouldn't have had to
have a civil war to abolish it in America or any place else. But here's the thing, isn't it?
Here's the thing, brothers and sisters. in those earthly institutions,
for the most part, they're not regulated by the Word of God.
They are not regulated by the Word of God. Show us one institution,
even those essential institutions that our society depends upon
to continue as a society, show us one institution that is regulated
by the Word of God. You won't find them, will you?
You won't find them. Everything from our educational
system to our civil government, right on down the line. Those
essential, those that we call essential places of regulation to regulate
our society, none of them. And slavery, slavery was not
regulated by the Word of God, except in those few instances
where you had your believing slaves and your believing masters.
They were regulated by the Word of God, more or less. John Newton,
the man who wrote Amazing Grace, he was in the slave trade, deep
in the slave trade, before the Lord saved him. And he saw the
cruelty of it. He saw it wasn't regulated by
the Word of God. And he got out of it and gave
his time and effort to abolish the slave trade. If it had been regulated, if
slavery had been regulated by the Word of God and where it
was regulated by the Word of God, people saw the cruelty of
it and they were repulsed by it. We have several Christians,
professing Christians, and I think probably real Christians here
in our own country that own slaves, but I for the life of me, I for
the life of me cannot figure out why they didn't speak out
against it more than they did, the cruelty of it. A man has
to be repulsed if he sees or hears of another man being tied
to a post and blood cut from his back. I have to be, and I
hope you are too, somewhat repulsed if you go to a market where they're
selling men and wives and children for the highest price. That's
repulsive, isn't it? That's repulsive. And I can't
understand how a Christian man in our day could own a slave. We have too much light now, don't
we? We have too much light. We're not dependent as they were
in the New Testament upon them. So we've seen something
here about slaves, but right quickly I want to give you four
things that had to be an encouragement for these slaves. And you can
just imagine what they went through. The first thing was this. Even
though they were in physical bondage as a slave, yet in Christ
their souls, their spirits, their inner man was free. Boy, that had to be encouragement
to remember that, didn't it? Christ said, If the Son shall
make you free, you are free. Indeed, a person may be bound
physically by some civil law. It may be a just law, it may
be an unjust law, and a man may be bound by that law as these
slaves were. But if his soul is free, if Christ
has freed his spirit, then no law, no government can bind that
man. It may bind him physically. They bound Joseph and put him
in prison, didn't they? false accusation. Look what they
did to Daniel. They accused him and put him
in the den of lions. They had Paul bound in chains
for years to the Roman government. But you know something? Their
souls were free. You can't bind a man's soul,
can you? And when Christ sets a man free from sin and the curse
of the law, he is free indeed. And this had to have been an
encouragement to these poor, poor slaves. who had their liberties taken
away and coming and going at the command of somebody else,
to know and remember, Christ has made me free. Now Paul mentions
this, specifically mentions this. Look over in 1 Corinthians chapter
7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And look in verse 20. 1 Corinthians
chapter 7 and verse 20. Let every man abide in the same
calling wherein he was called." Every man abide in the same calling.
Now, sometimes when we read the New Testament, we have no idea
why the Apostle Paul wouldn't mention these things. But they
were having difficulty in the New Testament. You begin reading in verse 8
of this and continuing on, and look at it. This is some of the
problems that they had. When a woman was converted and
her husband wasn't saved, she wondered if she should put away
her husband. She thought, if I have children
by this man, are my children illegitimate? Does that make
him illegitimate because he's a believer and I'm not? Now,
we may look at that and say how silly that is, but this is some
of the issues that they face. Look at it. Look at it in verse 12. But to the rest speak I, not
the Lord. If any man hath a wife that believeth not, and she be
pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the
woman which hath no husband that believeth not, And if he be pleased
to dwell with her, let her not leave him, divorce him. For the
unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving
wife is sanctified by the husband, else where your children, unclean,
are illegitimate." You may be married to an unbelieving wife,
but the marriage is a real marriage, and your children are not legitimate. That's what he says. Verse 15,
But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. Our brother and
sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God hath called
us to peace. And he said, For what knowest
thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or knowest
thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? So what he's saying
here, abide with them. And lest they leave, lest the
unbelieving leave, abide with them. You may be an instrument
in God's hands of their salvation. And then he has something else
in verse 18. Look at this. Is any man called
to be uncircumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised.
Is he called in uncircumcision? Let him not become circumcised.
And what he's saying here in verse 18, some of these Jews
especially, our religious proselyte to the Jewish religion, they
were circumcised and when the Lord saved them, some of them
literally wanted to become uncircumcised. They didn't want to have anything
to do with the ceremonial law and this word uncircumcised means
to draw over. And the commentators tell us
that this was a common practice back in the New Testament time.
They wanted to remove the signs of circumcision. Now, I don't
understand why they wanted to do that, but it's another one
of these New Testament convictions that they had. And he says, if
you are uncircumcised and the Lord calls you, don't become
circumcised. Why is it that he didn't want
them to be concerned about being uncircumcised or circumcised?
Look in verse 19. Circumcision is nothing. And
uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments
of God. It don't matter if you're circumcised
or not. The keeping of God's commandments
is what's important. This is His commandment. that
we believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another. That's the commandment that's
important, isn't it? Then he says, Let every man abide in
the same call, and worry what he was called. Now look in verse
21. He comes to these slaves. Are
thou called being a slave? Are you a slave and the Lord
saves you? You believe in Christ and you're saved and you're a
slave? Don't be anxious about it, he said. Cure not for it.
Don't worry about it. Don't sit around and make yourself
sick thinking, how am I going to get out of this slavery? How
can I get free from my master? But if thou mayest be made free,
if you can obtain your freedom, then use it for God's glory and
be thankful. Well, look at this now. Here's
to the slave. For he that is called in the Lord," verse 22,
"...he that is called in the Lord, being a slave, is the Lord's
free man." You may be a slave, but if the Lord has called you,
He has freed you. He has freed you from the bondage
of sin and Satan and the curse and guilt. You are the Lord's
free man. You may still belong to some
man here in this world, and the civil law may bind you to that
man. But in your soul, you belong
to Christ, and you are His free man. He is preaching. Likewise,
also He that is called being free is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price, be
ye not the servants of men. Boy, don't you think that was
a blessing to have this told to
these slaves. You may be bound in body, but
you are free in your soul. Nobody can ever bring you into
bondage, no matter what kind of master you have, how mean
he is, how cruel he is to you. If the Lord Jesus Christ has
freed you, you are free indeed. Secondly, these poor slaves who
were so limited as to where they could go, and what they could
do and had to get permission for almost everything they did. And yet, in that condition, they
could serve Christ acceptably and they could do the will of
God and please God as much as the greatest apostle. Now, that's
wonderful, isn't it? I want to show you that. Look
over in Ephesians. Look over in Ephesians chapter
6. And look in verse 1. Ephesians
chapter 6. Verse 5. Ephesians chapter 6
and verse 5. Look at this. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 5.
Slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters according to
the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness, in the sincerity
of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with our service as men-pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the
heart, with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not unto
men. Poor slaves, as they served their
masters and were obedient to them, they were serving Christ. Well, that's not only encouraging
to them. That's encouraging to me. I used
to be a trash hauler. Most of you know that. I used
to be a trash hauler. But you know something? I hauled
trash to God's glory. And I served the Lord in my trash
hauling. I didn't always tell people I
was a trash hauler. We had pretty little names. You
know, I was some kind of an engineer. We transferred trash and all
that stuff, but I was a trash hauler. What are you? What are you? Well, we got different
kinds of people here, don't we? Dave was a teacher. Some of you
are housewives. Shannon's a mechanic and a window
tenner. Wayne was a manager of parts
in a car dealership. Some of you worked in the factories.
Some of you are counselors. And you know something? whatever
your status is in life, it doesn't matter if you're a banker, if
you're a housewife, if you're just a ditch digger, if you're
a trash hauler, if you're a slave, you can do the will of God. You
can serve Christ in your heart, just as much as these great apostles
served Him in their offices. Now, boy, that had to be comforting
for these slaves, When the Master was mean, they yielded to Him
and did Him service. They sought to please Him because
they read this passage of Scripture. You're not serving Him. You're
serving Christ. You're serving Christ. You're
doing the will of God from your heart. My wife used to clean
houses. For years, Joe cleaned houses,
cleaned toilets, serving Christ. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. Thirdly, thirdly, this is something
else that had to encourage slaves. Their complete and everlasting
freedom was soon coming. Their complete and everlasting
freedom was soon coming. I want to show you that. My heart
leaped in me when I was reading this one day and I saw this.
Look in Job chapter 3. Job chapter 3 and look in verse
11. Poor Job, he got in such a state
of mind that he was wishing that he would have died when he was
a little baby. That is what he is saying in Job chapter 3 and
verse 11. Look at this. Why died I not
from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost
when I came out of the belly? Why is it His iron death? Boy,
he was in a great trial, wasn't he? And what does death bring? Rest. Look what he said in verse
13. For now should I have lain still
and been quiet, I should have slept, then I had been at rest. In verse 17. There in death the
wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary find rest. There the prisoners rest together. They hear not the voice of the
oppressor. The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master." Oh, what encouragement
to tell a poor slave that is suffering, that has a cruel master. Oh, dear brother in Christ, just
hang on for a few more days. Your rest is coming. You are
going to be free from this master. Blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord, saith the Spirit. Yea, that they may rest from
their labors. There the tried are free from
their trials. The weary are free from their
burdens. The laborer is free from his
labor. The sufferer is free from his sufferings. The doubtful
and anxious are free from their doubts and anxiety. And the oppressed
are free from the oppressor. And the slave is free from his
master. And you know I sometimes wonder
if these slaves in heaven don't have a greater capacity to enjoy
the freedom there than anybody else. Wayne was talking Sunday
morning about 2 Corinthians chapter 4 where Paul said, Our light
afflictions which are but for a moment work for us. Afflictions in this world somehow
or other work for us a far more exceeding and eternal way to
go. I think everybody that goes to
heaven is going to fully enjoy the place. But I think some are
going to have a greater capacity to enjoy it than others. And
I wonder if these poor slaves who have suffered so here don't
have a greater capacity to enjoy the presence of the Lord and
heaven. and the freedom and rest that
is there may be more than anybody else. The greater the affliction,
the greater the capacity to enjoy deliverance. And lastly and fourthly,
turn back over with me to Titus. Titus chapter 2 and we will close
with this. In verse 10, He's been saying,
you exhort these slaves to be obedient, so on, not pilfering,
not prolonging, verse 10, but showing all good fidelity that
they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Boy, there is something more
important, and these slaves need to be told this, and they need
to be reminded of this. There's something more important
than their feelings. There's something more important
than how they're being treated at this present time. There's
something exceedingly more important than their present condition
in this world. And what is that? That's God's
glory. The glory of His gospel. That's
the most important thing. God being properly represented
by their attitude and by their actions. That's more important
than you, that's more important than me and our feelings, isn't
it? This word, to adorn, adorn the
doctrine, adorn the gospel, it means to decorate, to decorate,
to set in the best possible light. One man said this, to adorn means
to frame a picture. A picture may be beautiful, But
if it's stuck in a drawer, who can see it? If you want someone
to see a beautiful picture, what do you do? You frame it, don't
you? And you hang it on the wall for
people to see. That's what this word adorn means.
It means to frame the doctrine of God. To put it out there where
people can see it. And Paul's meaning here is when
these slaves submitted themselves and please their masters well
and serve the Lord Jesus in their capacity even as slaves, then
their masters and others would look at them and say, man, what
a gospel they must believe. Who can endear what they endear?
And how do they do it? By this gospel that they profess.
You know something, brothers and sisters, you and I are going
to do one of two things. As professing Christians, we're
going to do one of two things. We're going to bring glory to
the gospel or we're going to bring shame on the Lord's name.
We're going to do one or the other, aren't we? We're going
to let our light so shine as it were that men may see and
glorify the Father. They're going to see the gospel
that we believe, that we profess, And they are going to say, Man,
what a gospel! Or they are going to say, Man,
I thought he was a Christian. Man, how could he cuss? And how
could he get drunk? And how could he do this and
that and profess to be a Christian? One of two things. I tell you,
it is better to suffer for God's glory than to suffer God's glory
to suffer. There is something greater than
ourselves, isn't there? There is something greater than
ourselves, and that is the glory of the Lord. Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto Thy Name be glory and honor.