The little epistle of Paul to
Titus chapter 2. We're in the second chapter. I want
us to go to verses 9 and 10. For the time being, I want us
to skip verses 7 and 8. We'll go back to that. We've
been studying on the advice, the exhortation that Paul has
given to different groups. He began with the aged men and
then went to exhort Him the aged women, and then the young mothers,
and now He's coming to slaves. And let's read verses 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 purloning, but showing all good fidelity,
that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Tonight I want us to look at
the subject of slavery. That's what this word servant
means here in verse 9. It means slaves. Almost every
place you find this word in the New Testament, it means slave.
Sometimes it means a voluntary slave, and other times it means
one who has been bought. He's in bonds. He has no choice
but to serve. In Galatians chapter 3 verse
28, there is neither bond nor free. That's the same word that
is here. Bond is a slave. And most of
the places in the epistles of Paul that we read about this
word, it's talking about those who were literally sold into
bondage. I was reading a man's name. He's a professor, David Reese.
I'm not for sure where he's a professor at, He's very thorough on the
study of history in the early church. And he estimated that
in the New Testament church under the Roman Empire, there was between
30 and 50 percent of the population that was in slavery. Now that's
absolutely amazing, isn't it? He said the great feat, the buildings,
the Roman I forget now the name of it. It used to be there in
Rome. A portion of it is still there. It was built mainly on
the backs of slaves. So that's a huge population of
slavery in that century. And many of them had heard the
Gospel. And they were still in slavery.
And the Apostle Paul here is right into them. Slavery has
always been rampant. Ever since we have any recorded
history of it. sometimes more than other times.
But Abraham and Sarah had a slave, remember that? He may have had
more than one, but Agar wasn't an Egyptian slave. Sometimes
whole nations were enslaved. Egypt enslaved the whole nation
of the children of Israel. For 150 or 200 years they enslaved
that whole nation. Sometimes Israel would enslave
nations. Sometimes their own brethren,
the Jews, would sell themselves into slavery. Of course, when
they did that, when it comes to the year of Jubilee, when
they blew the sound of the trumpet, they had to let all their Jewish
slaves go free. And what a beautiful picture
of the gospel we have there. Men who were enslaved to sin
and Satan, when they hear the gospel trumpet, they go free. They are free from the bondage
and guilt and power of sin. Now, slavery is a subject. that
has been widely debated, deeply debated for many, many years. Now rightfully so. And I don't
know anybody who believes in slavery that in and of itself
that it was a good institution. Some people have found some good
things about it. We've heard people talking about
there's been periods of time in our history when the whole
nation was so reduced to such poverty, people were pleased
to be a slave. At least they had food, they
had clothing, they had shelter, while free men lived destitute. And I've heard even some black
men that were thankful black men and women in our time, I've
heard them with their own voice, thank God that their ancestors
were slaves here in America. Not that they were slaves per
se, but they said if my ancestors weren't brought from Africa to
here, I'd probably still be in Africa, worshiping some idol
or in poverty. So in that sense, I guess we
could say there was something good or has been something good
about slavery. But the institution of slavery
itself is no good. It just isn't right for one man
to own another man. To me, that's repulsive. I hope
that's repulsive to you. It's repulsive. And the question
has been asked, the questions have been asked this, did Paul
realize what a hateful institution slavery was? Did he even realize
it in his own mind? If so, did he desire to abolish
it? If he desired to abolish it,
why don't we see any attempt at abolishing it in the New Testament? And we don't. We don't. Well,
I'm sure of this, Paul realized the hateful institution of slavery. But you know something he realized
more than that? The Apostle Paul realized that
the whole world was hateful to God. A fallen society, an unregenerate
society, is hateful to God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And James says it like this,
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. And you take a world
that's the enemy of God, it's no great mystery that their enemy
is one to another, is it? You take a man that's in bondage,
you take a world that's in bondage and enslaved to sin and Satan,
would it be surprising if they enslaved one another? Paul taught
slavery, and he was against slavery, but first and foremost, the slavery
of sin and the slavery of Satan. Paul's intention was not to make
war or assault some physical institution of slavery. That
wasn't his intention. He had no intention to assault
this institution of slavery. But his intention was this, to
change one heart at a time by new birth. It is not Christ's
purpose to effect an outward revolution in this world. That
is not His purpose, is it? But His purpose is a new life,
a holy life within the heart, new creatures in Christ. Slavery
is going out of our country, and I thank God for it. I thank
God that it is outlawed. But has this freed the black
race from sin? There is a slavery worse than
physical slavery. And when they freed the black
man from slavery, thank God for it. But is it happening now? Which is the most important,
physical or spiritual slavery? If the gospel affects lasting
good in an evil institution in this world, it does it this way,
not physically, but spiritually. It changes the heart. And Paul's
main concern was this, reconciliation between man and God. And until
that's settled, until a man is reconciled with God in his heart,
He'll never have a right relationship with his fellow man. And that's
why Paul preached the gospel first and foremost. He never assaulted the institution
of slavery because Christ never called him to do that. He called
him to a much higher work, to deliver men from the slavery
of sin and Satan by the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I've heard men talk today about
missionaries and they're giving the missionaries advice before
they send them off to some oppressive government. When they sent missionaries
to India and they sent them to China and communist Russia, one
of the things they had to instruct them is this, don't get bogged
down in politics. You're not going there to overthrow
the government. The government of China is a
very repressive government. You've got believers that's there.
Most of them are underground. But the Lord didn't call them
to overthrow the Chinese government. He don't call them to assault
any outward institution, is what I'm saying. I don't think I'd
want to live in a socialist society, do you? I don't want to live
in a socialist government. I don't like the government of
France. But I have a dear friend, Jean-Claude Souillot, that lives
there and he loves the place. And him and the little church
there is not trying to assault the government and overthrow
it. Our own nation has legalized
the killing of unborn babies. How do we as Christians deal
with that? Do we blow up the abortion clinics?
Do we shoot the abortion doctors? The Lord hasn't called us to
do that, has He? He hasn't called us to assault any of these evil
institutions. I remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ was born in Bethlehem, and Herod the king, it said,
sent forth his soldiers and slew all the children in Bethlehem
and all the coast around Bethlehem. How many hundreds or thousands
was that? And he slew them. He killed them.
Imagine Rachel weeping for her children? But did the church
rise up and assault Herod's oppressive kingdom? It didn't, did it? It
didn't. Paul went further than just identifying one evil
institution of slavery. He condemns the whole world.
It's not just one institution that's bad. This world is bad. This world is evil. He said to
the church, you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse society. And in that society, holding
forth the Word of Life, by your blameless behavior before God
and man, you shine as lights in this dark world. That's what
the Lord has His church in this world for. Not to overthrow these
institutions, but to preach the Gospel. And by preaching the
Gospel, by the power of the Holy Spirit, one heart is changed
at a time. That's what the Lord is doing
today. So Christ hasn't called His church to assault these evil
institutions, slavery or any other. Christ Himself will judge
them in time. But He's calling believers, He's
calling His people to be obedient to Him and live their lives in
this evil world. And sometimes that life calls
upon them to suffer. And that's what we find in these
slaves. They were called upon to suffer. What would have happened if Paul,
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sent out a command to
these believing slaves to assault the institution of slavery? What
would have happened if between 30 and 40 percent of the population
had risen up to overthrow slavery? You say, well, they would have
probably done it. That would have been a war. There would have been a war.
There would have been bloodshed. And here's the question that
has to be asked in the light of that. What would the world
have thought about the gospel? What would all these slave owners,
what would many other people have thought about the gospel?
I thought they said this was the gospel of peace. This is
not the gospel of peace. This is a declaration of war
and rebellion. You and I can see what would
have happened if even the Lord had sent through this apostle
the message that now it's time to overthrow this evil institution
of slavery. Man at the chaos that would have
created. It wasn't the Lord's intention
to do that at all. What did the Bible do to slavery? What did the Bible and what does
it do? What did it do in the New Testament
and what does it do? Well, it regulates it. It regulates
it. It gives these institutions of
slavery, these slaves and masters, instructions as to their attitude. It put the acts to the very root
of the cruelty of slavery. Now, will somebody hear me say
this? If somebody heard what I just
said, I mean to tell you, they'd rise up. That ain't enough. It ain't enough for even God
to regulate it. God should have abolished it.
I was just reading on the internet before I come down here, a man
called God an awful name. An awful name for not abolishing
slavery. If He's God and He rules, why
didn't He abolish slavery? You'll have to ask Him that.
I'm just telling you, He did not abolish it. Could He have
done it? Of course He could have. But
did He? No, He didn't. But He regulated it. He regulated
it. And wouldn't it have been much
better? Isn't it much better that He regulates it? Doesn't
that give some relief to these poor, suffering slaves? Wasn't
it better to regulate it than to let it run rampant? with no
relief whatsoever? Some have often asked the question,
why did Moses give the Jews back there in the wilderness permission
to write their wives a bill of divorce and put them away? They
asked the Lord Jesus that. Why did Moses do that? You tell
us that divorce was against your rule from the very beginning,
your law from the very beginning. It wasn't so to be. Then why
did Moses do that? And you remember what the Lord
Jesus said, because of the hardness of your heart. And what those
husbands were doing, they were wretched, miserable, lust-mongering
husbands. And if Moses said the only reason
you can put your wife away is because of adultery, you know
what they did? They would accuse her of adultery.
They would have her stoned. So because of the hardness of
their heart, it had to be regulated. And it's the same thing that
happened with slavery. It was going to happen anyway.
It's an evil institution that has been happening in the history
of this world. So God chose At least in the
church realm, to regulate. To regulate. And how does he
do it? By two ways. Look here in our
text. Look in Titus chapter 2 verse
9 and 10. He does it by two ways. The attitude
of the slave. Look at the attitude of the slave
in verses 9 and 10 again. exhort servants to be obedient
unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things."
Man, can you believe that? You know what he just did to
this slave? He took his mind away from the
oppressive situation that he's found himself in. And he's turned
it completely around. Instead of saying, slave, when
you go to the bed of the night and you are so grieved, thinking
about your awful situation, think of this, how you may please your
Master. Now you talk about grace. You
talk about grace. Pleasing this man who bought
me? Yes, pleasing Him. Please Him
well in all things. You know, we go right back to
what we've talked about in all of these different groups up
in here, and that's self-control. We saw that in every group, haven't
we? Controlling yourself. And now Paul goes to the same
thing with these slaves. Controlling yourself. Controlling
your whole attitude. Bringing yourself under subjection.
and against all odds and all probability, seek to please your
Master in everything. That's the first thing. And then,
in the last part of verse 9, he says, not answering again.
That's controlling one's tongue. That word means not complaining,
arguing, or talking back. Control your tongue. If he does
something that hurts you, Don't cuss him. If he tells you to
do something and you're tired and you don't want to do it,
don't argue with him. Control your tongue. And control
your hand. Look in verse 10. Not proloning. That word means pilfering. It
doesn't have so much to do with grand theft, but it has to do
with the little petty thieves. Don't be stealing little things
while your master has his head turned. And he finishes up like
this, showing fidelity, showing faithfulness in all things. And then in Colossians 2, verse
3, verse 22, listen to this, "...slaves, obey in all things
your master according to the flesh, not with eye service as
men-pleasers, but in singleness and sincerity of your heart,
fearing God." And Peter goes one step further. Listen to what
he says in 1 Peter 2.18. Slaves, be subject to your own
masters in all fear, not only to the
good and gentle, but also to the harsh, to those who abuse
you. Obey them, please them, don't
talk back to them, don't steal the least thing from them, not
even the cruel, and do all of this in the sincerity and the
integrity of your heart in the fear of God. Boy, this is asking a lot of
these four slaves, was it not? Isn't that asking a lot of a
slave that's been sold and bought? A man owns him. and He's told
to treat His Master in this respect. I want to show you a verse right
over to your right in 1 Peter chapter 2. Look over there with
me, 1 Peter chapter 2. No one, I doubt really, even
if the apostles had the opportunity to show Sufferings of Jesus Christ. More than these poor slaves.
When you looked at these slaves, you saw something of the suffering
of Jesus Christ. Suffering in those poor slaves.
Look here in chapter 2 of 1 Peter. Look here at the context. Look
in verse 18. 1 Peter chapter 2 and look in
verse 18. Slaves, that's what this word
means, servants, be subject to your masters, your masters with
all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward,
the harsh. For this is thanksworthy if a
man for conscience towards God, in dear grief, suffering wrongfully,
For what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults,
you take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, and take it patiently, this is acceptable to God. For
even hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.
Who did no sin, neither was any gall found in His mouth. Who,
when He was reviled, Revile not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins, and his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes we are healed." Christ was asking these slaves not to
please themselves, but to please their masters. And you know who
was the perfect example for them? Christ Himself. Christ Himself. What does the Scripture say about
Him? He pleased not Himself. but as it is written, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me." Christ was asking
these slaves to obey their masters in all things, and He was their
example for that, because the Bible says that He was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He was telling these
slaves not to argue or complain or answer back, and He was the
perfect example for them to follow. For the Scripture says here,
when He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered,
He threatened not, but committed Himself to him that judgeth faithfully. He was asking of them to be content
while they lived in poverty. But He was their example. The
Bible says, "...he that was rich became poor, that you through
his poverty might be made rich." And these poor slaves were called
upon to bear the marks of slavery in their bodies for Christ's
sake. But listen, Jesus Christ their
Lord and Savior bore a greater burden in His body than slavery. He bore their sins and all the
consequences of it. Don't you know when Peter wrote
this to these slaves, this had to be an encouragement to them
as they suffered? It was literally the sufferance
of Christ abounded in them. They were suffering for His sake. And now they read here that He
suffered for their sakes. He suffered for their sakes.
Well, when I read this, what the Lord was asking of these
slaves, sometimes it makes me so ashamed of myself. If I have
to suffer the least opposition, the least discomfort, it irritates
me. If anybody reproaches me in any
way, it bothers me. And here the Lord Jesus was calling
upon these slaves to suffer patiently and graciously while they were
in slavery for His sake. We studied last week about the
young women being insubmissive to their own husbands and obeying
their husbands in all things. And I can almost hear some of
these young women who had got mixed up in a bad marriage and
had an unbelieving husband that was mean to her and hateful to
her. And now Paul writes to her and says, You be obedient to
him. You obey him and love him. And I can almost hear her in
her heart saying, Man, I can't do that. I just can't do that.
And then she goes on in the very next verse. And she sees these
poor slaves, these suffering slaves that the Lord calls upon
them to please their masters, even the cruel ones, and be submissive
to them in everything. In everything. That's the first
way that the Bible regulates slavery in
the New Testament. It tells to believe in slaves.
Do all you can to please your Master. Obey Him. Don't steal from Him. Don't talk
back to Him. Please Him well. That's the first
thing. And look over in Ephesians chapter
6. A couple of places with me. Ephesians chapter 6. Slavery
was also regulated by regulating the attitude of the Master. Look
in a couple of places with me here. In Ephesians chapter 6, look what Paul says now to the
masters. We know what he said to the slaves, but look at the
masters. In Ephesians chapter 6, and let's read again what
he says to the slaves here in verse 5. Servants, slaves, 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 our service as men pleasers,
But that is the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the
heart. With good will do and service as to the Lord and not
to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the
same shall receive of the Lord, whether he be a slave or free.
And you masters do the same things unto them, forbearing threatenings. knowing that your Master also
is in heaven, neither is there any respective person with Him."
Now here is what Paul exhorts the Masters to do. Here is their
attitude. Forebearing threatenings. Don't even threaten your slave. This word means to cease and
desist. To give up threatenings. To give
up using violent and abusive words. Now, I'm not saying a slave never
did need to be disciplined. But what Paul is saying here,
the disciplined, whatever discipline is taken with that disobedient slave,
it's got to be measured. It's got to be a measured discipline. If Paul forbid hateful and abusive
language, Don't you think He forbid hateful and abusive whipping
or inhumane treatment? Well, of course He did. So here's
the first thing we see how the Lord regulates slavery. He regulated it through the slave,
by his attitude towards his master, loving, faithful, obedience. And now here He does it by the
attitude of the master. By the attitude of the master.
Don't be abusive to your slave. All of us have seen probably some of the movies,
and I don't know if they exaggerated or not. I'm not here to judge
that. Maybe they didn't. But we've
seen slavery in our own country, how they tied slaves to posts
and whipped some of them to death and things like that. Maybe that
was so. But that's not what Paul is saying to do. He said, don't
even speak to them in an abusive way, let alone treat them with
abuse. Look now over here in Colossians
chapter 4, and doesn't this statement here tell us something? The Apostle
Paul said, and he reminded these masters, and he says the same
thing here in Colossians chapter 4 verse 1, that you have a master
in heaven. Did you notice how he did that
to the master? He said, don't forget this, you have a master
in heaven. Your master is in heaven. And
then he said, there's no respect of persons with him. And you
see what he's saying when he's saying that? He's saying, masters,
you may put a difference between your slave and yourself. You
may respect masters more than you do slaves. But he said, your
master in heaven has no respect of persons. He doesn't reject the slave because
he's a slave. He doesn't accept you because
you're the master. He's no respected person. And
he says, He's your master. Boy, that was a good warning,
wasn't it? That was a good warning to the slaves. But look here
to the slave owners. Look here what he says in verse
1 of Colossians. Masters, give unto your slaves
that which is just, and equal, knowing that you also have a
Master in heaven." Just and equal. Well, what's just and equal?
Well, just, if He's your slave, wouldn't it be to give Him proper
food? Proper clothing? If He's your slave and He's bound
to you and He can't go anywhere else for housing, isn't it just
to give Him housing? Is it not just in the eyes of
God to compensate a man when he works for you, even though
he's your slave? Give to him that which is just
and right. Is it right to have a man at
a disadvantage and abuse him because of it? That's not right,
is it? That's not just. The Lord Jesus
said it like this. Therefore, all things whatsoever
you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them,
for this is the law and the prophets." And that concerns every man without
exception, doesn't it? Whatever you want people to do
to you, however you want people to treat you, then you treat
them the same way. And that applies to these slaves
and masters and masters and slaves. If the institution of slavery
had bowed to the rules and authority of Christ's Word, it would not
have taken England so long to abolish it by legislation. And
it would not have taken America a war to abolish it. It would have died on its own,
would it not? At least the cruelty of it would
have. So many injustices will continue
in this world to the very end because this rebellious world
refuses to bow to the authority and rule of Jesus Christ the
Lord. And even the professing church
so often and so many areas neglect to bow to the absolute rule of
the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ and this will continue more or
less until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of
God and of His Christ. Until Jesus puts all rule and
all authority and all His enemies under His feet. You are never
going to do away with all the evil institutions of this world
until the Lord puts them under His feet and sets up that everlasting
kingdom that shall never be shaken. That's when we'll have justice.
That's when we'll have lasting righteousness, and not until
then. And it's not the church's business
to go about overthrowing governments. It's not the church's business
to overthrow institutions. It's the church's business to
hold forth the Word of Light to this lost and dying world. And by doing that, God's going
to call out His people and make them new in Christ. And that's
the way we change things, isn't it? You know the whole problem
that we've got today. And I understand this. I get
involved in this too. We think what we need to do to
change things is legislation. If we can just get the right
politicians in, we can get this legislation passed, and that's
going to change everything. You know what changes things?
When God visits us. in a revival and hearts are changed. That's what really changes things,
isn't it? A man told me one time, he said, why don't you guys demonstrate
with us? Why don't you go out with signs
at the abortion clinics and stand on the street with us? I have
dear loved ones. I have dear relatives that does
that. Maybe we should. You're welcome
to do it if you want to. But I'm like dear old Jack Shanks.
I'm going to preach the gospel to people. And every mother who
believes the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ will never kill
another unborn baby. That's the real cure, ain't it?
That's the real cure. Well, we've got one more lesson
on slavery. I want to look at next week some
things here that were so encouraging to these poor slaves that had
nothing to look forward to in this life. Nothing to look forward
to. Can you imagine that? Can you
imagine being a slave with nothing to look forward to? But Paul
gave some wonderful instructions to them, to exhort them, that
had to really encourage them, and that's what we'll look at
next week.