In Ephesians chapter 6, and let's
begin in verse 5, down through verse 10. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
5, servants, slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters,
those who have bought you and traded for you. They own you.
They own your title. I can't imagine that, but that's
what happened. Your master is according to the flesh, with
fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with thy 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 to men. knowing that whatsoever good
thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be a slave or whether he be free. And you masters,
you that own these slaves, do the same things to them, forbearing
threatenings, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither
is there any respective person with him. Find me, my brethren,
and be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." I
made a statement last week, and that is what I want to continue
with today, because we looked and saw, probably to some of
us, our amazement that the early church was not left in this world
to reform the world. If they had, they would have
been reforming slavery. God takes the long term. He looks at the big picture.
When he's going to do things, he doesn't send his people out
in the streets to riot and burn businesses and lift up their
voices. He puts the Christian attitude
in them. And then when something is changed,
it's really changed. That's what we saw last week.
And I made the statement last week, and I want to continue
on that line. this afternoon that God did not
leave his church in this world to reform the world. That's not our business to do,
to reform the world. The world doesn't need reformation,
the world needs reconciliation. The world does not need reformation,
it needs regeneration. The world is not in need to do
better. The world is in need to be made a new creature, a
new heart, and a new spirit. To address this world and to
dress it up in a cloak of mere reformation is no more than to
put a pretty suit on a dead corpse. It may look better, but it has
no life in it. It may look better to us. We may look in the casket and
say, oh, what a pretty body, but it's dead. It's dead. We may teach a man not to do
any harm to his neighbor, but his heart is still full of enmity
against God. You may cry peace, peace to this
world, but the world does not have peace with God. We're trying
to get men on a right relationship with God in Jesus Christ. And it's not our business to
get men on a right relationship with man first. You know something
God is more concerned about than my relationship with you and
your relationship with somebody else? Your relationship with
Him. That's what has to be got right
to begin with. Let the church seek to reform
the world in all its systems, its social system, make the home
better, make the political system better, make the economic system
better. Let the church take all of its
time, quit preaching the gospel, go out in the world and try to
reform its institutions, And if you succeed in reforming the
world, all you have done is reformed the kingdom of darkness. Preaching reformation to this
world, if you succeed in doing it, you've just reformed the
devil. You've just reformed the devil. Why do I stress this? Why do I stress this? Let me
give you some reasons why I stress the Church is not in this world
to re-farm the world. The Church is left in this world
to give the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. That's why we're
left here. Let me give you some quick reasons
why the Church is not left in this world to re-farm the world. Number one is this. When the
church does not seek to reform the world, but she seeks to bring
her to a knowledge of God in Christ, it's to remind this world. We tell the world, I'm not here
to help you be a better person. I'm not here to reform your systems. And when we tell the world that
over and over again, we remind the world of this, that the world
in and of itself is hopelessly and helplessly lost. You can't go out to a tree that's
roots are rotten and tilled around it and expect to get any fruit
from it. You can't. Pull it up. Pull it up. It needs
a new tree planted there in its place. Stop talking about inherent
goodness. Curse it. There is none. Stop
talking about human merit. Denounce it. There's no such
thing. Stop talking about the freedom
and power of the human will to do anything that's good in the
spiritual realm. It's impossible. Without me,
you can do nothing. That's what we remind the world
over and over again. You're in darkness. The wrath
of God is upon you. How can you be reformed? How
can you do good who are accustomed to do evil? Number two, we don't seek to reform the world.
If we did, if that's our business in this world, what does that
do to the wisdom of God in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? If the world can be reformed,
Why did God give us the cross? It does away with the cross.
There's something more important than reformation. That's the
cross. There's something different to preach other than reformation.
That's the cross. If reformation thirdly, in part
or in whole, will meet the sinner's need in any degree, that he don't need a righteousness
that comes from heaven. What is reformation? It's a man
building up his righteousness. It's a man seeking to be a better
man, a better woman. Oh, you need a better home. Will
that give you a righteousness that will make you accepted with
God? Oh, our political system needs to be reformed. Why don't
you Christians reform our political system? Why don't you come and
help us reform it? Why don't you Christians get
together and help us reform our judicial system and our schools? What have you got when we do?
Will that satisfy you? Oh, give man a moral righteousness,
and that's all Reformation is. Just build him up in his moral
righteousness. He needs a righteousness apart
from a moral righteousness. He needs a heavenly righteousness.
He needs the righteousness of one outside of himself. And you
don't get that with Reformation. And fourthly, and this reason,
I guess, is just as good as any. If we went out to preach reformation
to this world and that becomes our message, reformation, to
help people do better, then what are we going to do with the first
two chapters in this epistle? I've seen people, I've heard
preachers. If you listen to the radio and watch the TV sometimes,
you'll see these preachers. And it's strange to me how they
begin in the fifth or sixth chapter. They go over to the first and
second chapter of Ephesians. They hardly know anything about
that. They'll just make a few general statements about that. But boy, when they come over
to the home, a man loving his wife, and children obey your
prayers in the workplace, man, they can go into great detail
about that. How can you preach reformation in the light of the
first two chapters of this epistle that you and I have been studying?
Let me give you some examples. You remember this? Remember what
we started out years ago in the first chapter in verses 1 and
verse 4? He hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That's not reformation. That's
election. That's God's settlement upon
whom He's going to save in time. But preachers preach that. They make a few general statements
about it. Then they say, well, that's just too deep for us.
We don't know very much about it. And then they go on to verse
7, the necessity of redemption, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. How do we handle that? Verse 11, the necessity of being
in Christ, in whom you have obtained an inheritance, in Christ? We want people to go to heaven?
We want them to have God's best for them? How does man obtain
heaven? Being in Christ. That's it, ain't it? On down in verse 13, the
necessity of hearing the gospel, in whom also you trusted after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
the necessity of trusting Christ as he's revealed in the gospel. In Boyd chapter 2 and verses
1 through 3, we studied on that. You're dead in trespasses and
sin. You must be quickened. You're
the enemies of God by nature. You're following the devil. You're
in the kingdom of darkness. He has to save you. He has to
give you life. What would you and I think about
a man that would skip these chapters or make a few general statements
about them. And he goes over in the fifth
chapter, the sixth chapter, and says, now we're really going
to go into detail on this. This has to do with the home.
And I'm really going to tell you wives how to submit to your
husband. And you husbands how to love your wife. I'm going
to tell you so much about the family. Chuck Swindoll, I used
to listen to him. He's out in California. And this
is the very way he handles the Word of God. He don't say anything about election.
Why not? Is election essential? What about
blood redemption to dwell there and go into detail about it?
What about quickening us who are dead in trespass and sin?
For him to say, I don't know very much about that, but boy,
when you get over here, let's go into great detail. You know
what that man's trying to do? He's trying to reform people. If we skip over chapters 1 and
chapter 2, and we go into chapter 5 and 6, you know what we've
done? We may not admit it, but we're
just preaching reformation. We're just preaching reformation. Oh, I want to tell you how to
live your life in this world. Well, that's good. That's wonderful.
But you've got to start with living your life before God.
And to do that, you have to be born again. He had to be made
a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is chapter 6 written to?
It's written to believers, isn't it? It's written to believers. It's so evident that it's written
to believers. Somebody made a statement one time about the Sermon on
the Mount and said it's time that the church went back and
started preaching the Sermon on the Mount and telling the
world how to live their lives. Well, there's just one thing
wrong with that. When you and I went through the Sermon on
the Mount, I remember how that sermon started. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are they that mourn. That's not the world, is it?
That's the opposite of the world. The world's not meek. The world
looks upon meekness as weakness. The world don't mourn over its
sin. The world don't mourn for a relationship
with God and Christ. The world is not poor in spirit. Those are men and women that
God has broken and tossed and brought unto Himself in Jesus
Christ. Those are the people that are
told to turn the other cheek. And it is evident by that as
we look at this. Look here at chapter 6 again.
Look here at who this epistle is addressing and how they address
it. Look here at Hosea's instruction. Look at verse 5 again. Let me
emphasize this. Look at this. Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling,
and singleness of your heart," look at this, "...as unto Christ."
And look what he said in the very next verse, "...not with
our service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of God." And look what else he says, doing
the will of God from your heart. Look in verse 7, with good will
doing service as to the Lord and not to man. This is not talking about the
reformation of lost people. This is teaching these men who
have been quickened, who have been barred again, these servants,
men and women, how to love and serve their Master. And he said,
you do it by serving the Lord Jesus Christ. The world is not
serving Christ. The world cares nothing about
the will of God. The will of God. Have you never
seen a lost man in your life seeking the will of God? He doesn't
care what it is, and if he knew it, he wouldn't do it. Who is
this to? It's believers. It's believers. He's not reforming anybody. He's
just teaching these men who he's given life to how to live in
this world as children of God. I love the way he says this.
You're doing the will of God, look at this, from your heart. Now, go teach the world to do
that, if you will. And you're wasting your time. Doing the
will of God from your heart. I had a preacher that was my
foreman for years, where I used to work. And I sat and listened
to him talk to a drunk man one day. It was really, if it hadn't
been so serious, it would have been comical. The man, he was
a drunk. It wasn't just that he got high,
he got drunk often. And my boss was sitting and talking
to him, and I was listening. And he said, now listen, present
your body a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. And I stood there thinking, man,
oh man, that scripture is not to that man. He should have quoted
it all to him. I beseech you by the mercies
of God. What does he know about the mercies
of God? He knows nothing about the mercies
of God. Present your body and live in
sacrifice. But he's trying reformation, you see. Trying reformation.
Can that man do the will of God in his heart? To do the will
of God in your heart, you have to be given a heart to do God's
will. Here's what he said. Here's what he said. A new heart
will I give you, and I'll put my spirit within that new heart,
and I will cause you to walk in my statutes." It's God who
works in us to will and to do. Is God working in the hearts
of this world? No. Satan is, but not God. He's talking to men. He's talking
to men whom God has given a new heart and a new spirit to. Not
men that He's trying to reform. Do the will of God in your heart. You can teach that man now. You take a man that knows God's
will, he loves God's will, and I tell you, over and above his
own safety and over and above his own ease, he'll do God's
will. You try to get a lost man to
do the will of God, he ain't going to do the will of God.
God first has to break him and give him a new heart and a new
spirit. But you take a man that knows God, I tell you what, there's
nothing he will not risk to do God's will when he knows it. We looked last week when Paul
brought this slave back to Colima. Remember he brought Onesimus?
Onesimus was a slave. He got mad at his master and
ran off. Could you blame him? Could you
blame him? I'd have done the same thing.
Ain't no man going to buy me and keep me and work me if I
can have it. And he said, me either. So he
ran off. He got in prison with the Apostle Paul, and Paul preached
to him, and the Lord saved the man. And Paul said, let's go
back to Philippians. And you know something? That
was amazing in itself that Paul took him back. But I'll tell
you something more amazing than that. He went back. He went back. Why would you go back and submit
yourself to a man who owns you? Who has bought you? Do you know
why he went back? Old Nassim said, I'm not serving
him. That's not who I'm really serving.
I'm serving Christ. I'm not just going back because
I'm afraid of Him. I'm not going back because the
Apostle Paul has told me to go back. I'm going back because
I know it's God's will. Now, you let God save a man,
and you let God reveal His will to a man, and I'm telling you,
He'll do it. He'll do it. As much as in Him is, He'll do
it. You take our dear forefathers.
Brother Larry was talking one day about Smithville. If you've
ever read Fox's Book of Martyrs, you know about Smithville there,
close to London. That's where they burnt so many
martyrs. Went there and heaped up piles of wood and drove those
men there and set them on piles of wood and set the wood on fire.
And they never resisted them. They burned them in the fire
at the stake. And they died willingly. A lot
of them sang unto the Lord His praises. Why? Because they said,
this is God's will. This is God's will. Not with our service as men pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your
heart. Be a slave. For the glory of God in Christ.
Submit to your masters. And do it willingly. And do it
lovingly. You can be a slave and glorify
God in it. You can serve Christ. I tell
you what, you can scrub floors and clean toilets. And do it
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that's God's will. And you don't have to be ashamed.
It's honorable. It's honorable. If you're serving
Christ in it. I told you about Petros Rikos,
the pastor there at the Presbyterian Church in Muncie. Bless his heart,
he was overwhelmed with depression. Finally took his own life. I
don't know about all that. But I sat and talked with him
one day. And he was talking about grace, and I had no idea. He
was having all kinds of trouble with the congregation at that
time over the doctrines of grace. But we sat there and his face
just lit up. His face just lit up as we talked.
And he asked me what I did for a living. And I said, I'm a trash
hauler. I'm a trash hauler. I didn't say I was a trash technician. I didn't try to clean it up.
I just said, I'm a trash hauler. And he said, oh, what an honorable
way to serve Christ. You can be a slave and serve
Christ. I don't care what you do. If
it's honest, and if it's not deceitful and cheating men, I
don't care how menial it is, you can serve Christ in it, and
you don't have to be ashamed of it. Get you a good education. Do the best you can. Make all
the money you can. Save all the money you can. And
give all the money you can. But I'm telling you, if you have
to wind up flipping hamburgers, If you wind up cleaning toilets
or pumping out sewer tanks, you can do it for the honor of God
and as the servant of Christ. It ain't about reformation. What does it take to serve Christ
in sincerity? That's what he said here in verse
5. with fear and trembling and sincerity,
in the sincerity of your heart. And that word has to do with
subjectively. You do it within your heart.
You do it as unto the Lord. Look at your heart and make sure
that you're doing it for His glory and objectively do it for
the good of those that you're working for. Well, you won't find it easy.
I'm not saying it's easy. Can you imagine what these slaves
went through, how they were tempted? Can you imagine that? I can imagine
the temptation these poor slaves found themselves in, especially
with some rascal for a master. It wasn't easy. But they were
told to do it with singleness, do it for his good, as well as
to keep your conscience clear with the Lord. Can you imagine
the temptations that were upon these masters? Not to pay them
what was right. Not to be gentle with them. Not
to be good to them. They're mine so I can just abuse
them. The temptation that went along with that. What does it
take, listen now, here's one of the things I'm getting at.
What does it take for a man to truly love his wife? What does it take for a wife
to truly and sincerely reverence her husband? What does it take
for a child to truly submit to their parents and obey their
parents and honor their parents in their heart as well as outwardly? What does it take to be a good
employee? What does it take to be a good
employer? That's what this is all about.
That's what this is about. This is not about building monuments. This is not about building mega-churches. This is about living our life
down in the nitty-gritty every day, where the rubber meets the
road. That's what this is about. And
I'm telling you what, it's not easy, is it? It's not easy. You know
something more difficult than preaching for me? It's being
a husband. That's the truth. Did you see
last week in the paper, one of these pastors of one of these
mega churches down somewhere in Georgia, his wife filed for
divorce. So he took a leave from the pulpit
and he said, I've got to go home and try to get things straightened
out. He can run a mega church, but he can't run his home. It
takes more grace to run your home than it takes to preach
and run the church. That's what Paul is saying. What
does it take? I tell you, I'm not interested
in starting some world outreach evangelistic program. I'm not
interested in that. That's not the way we're called
upon to serve the Lord. I'm not interested in building
a big family life center. You know what I'm interested
in, and you know what you're interested in. I'm a wife. How can I please my husband?
I'm a husband. How can I love my wife? I'm raising
my children. How can I teach them and bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? I'm down here in
the workforce. All that's going on there. How
can I get along in there to please the Lord and to do what's right?
That's what this is about. The everyday nitty-gritty of
life. There's where grace shows itself. The Lord had them there before
him in judgment. And you know what he said to them? I tried
to get you to build a big megachurch, and you wouldn't do it. I told
you to get a world outreach, and you just neglected it. That
ain't what he said, is it? I was in prison, and you visited
me. I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me
something to drink. I was sick, and you came and
had prayer with me. They said, Lord, we don't remember
any of that. No, he was too busy in the big things, you know.
He was thinking about all the things the world could see and
pat you on the back. That's not Christianity. That's
not what he's talking about. Here he's talking about you poor
slaves. That you're owned by somebody
else. This is so important to you that you listen to my instruction. Why? Because it's here the grace
of God shows itself. I can come here and scream and
holler and teach and preach. How do I live when I go home? I can brag about what a Christian
I am and teach you how to be a Christian. What kind of husband
am I? That's what he's talking about. And this is so serious
and it's so overlooked by the world and it's so important to
the Lord and so essential for us. There ain't but one way to
live out a life like this. in these everyday nitty-gritty
things. And he tells us here in verse 10. Look at it. Here
it is. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. Oh, here I am in a situation
in my home. Here I am in a situation with
my children. Here I am in a situation on my
job. And the world don't think it's important, but it is important.
And I'm in trouble. I can't do it. What can I do? Be strong in the Lord. And in the power of His might. That's the way we live the Christian
life. That's where grace shows itself. Every day. Just keep on keeping on submitting,
loving, teaching, doing the will of God from your heart day after
day after day. The world won't notice it. But
you know something? Just let these little things
go. Let the home go. Let the wife quit taking her
place as the wife. Let the husband quit loving the
wife. Let the children rebel. Let the parents quit teaching.
Let our workplaces get out of skeleton. Let the Christian not
be a Christian in the workplace. What happens then? Society breaks
down, doesn't it? These things are the most important
aspect of Christianity. The home and the workplace. And
there's where grace shows itself. A friend of mine says he's going
to divorce his wife. He's getting rid of his wife. He can't live
with her anymore. I said, well, you've lived with her this long.
What happened? I can't take it anymore. Not
in your own strength you can't. But here's what he says. Be strong
in the Lord, in the power of His might. I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. And look what he says in
chapter 3. Look over in chapter 3. I love this passage. Chapter
3, look in verse 20. Now to him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, look at
this, according to the power that worketh in us. That's the only way to live a
Christian life. That's the only way to serve
Christ as being a husband, serve Christ as being a wife and a
kid on the workforce, whether you own the place or where somebody
is working for you. That's the only way, brothers
and sisters, to live a Christian life. It's God living it in you. It's you living it with the power
of God. That's it. And that being said
and known, Why go preach this to the world? If a Christian
cannot live these things out in his life, apart from God working
in him and his grace, how in the world is the lost people
going to do it? I heard some preachers. Boy,
they weren't preachers. They had a radio program on.
This is what you get into when you start trying to reform the
world. They have this call in. You call
in if you've got problems and they tell you how to solve these
problems in your life. And they quote scripture to you
and everything. Well, this one woman called in. I thought that's
good enough for you, old boy, trying to reform the world. This
one woman called in. They profess to be Christian.
Boy, we know the Bible and whatever problem you're facing in your
life. Buddy, we've got Scripture right here to help you get through
it. This woman called in and said, I've been praying to Mary,
and she hasn't helped me yet, and I need some help. Can you
help me? Okay, give her a Christian answer now. I'm at this problem
in my work, and I've been seeking Mary and praying to her, and
she's not helping me yet. Can you help me? Yeah, give her an
answer now. Give her an answer to that. They ought to be stuck up. They
ought to be made to act to show what they are, silly people trying
to refine the world. These things are not for the
world. They're for believers. They're
for Christians. And nobody can live like a Christian. And the only way he can live
like a Christian is because God is working in him to will and
to do. If you've been praying to Mary,
then you're lost and dead in your sin. And if you don't repent,
you'll perish. But they never told her that.
They start telling people that, they'll lose their program. They'll
get kicked off the earth. They're here for reformation.
We're here for regeneration. That's the difference.