I want to begin reading in verse
5 of Ephesians chapter 6. I want to put maybe a little title on this
lesson this afternoon. What is our main priority? Just
to give you something to think about as we search through these
scriptures, because I think that will be the thrush of our thoughts
this evening. That will help us. When I'm making
some of these statements, maybe you'll have to go back and say,
what's the main priority? What's the Christian priority?
I want to read these verses to you. If you read this, as it literally
reads in verse 5, slaves, slaves. Sometimes we read about servants
in the scriptures, and they're hard servants. Sometimes they're
domestic servants, and other times servants means slaves. This is what it means here. 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 eye 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 doeth, The same
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond, whether he
be a slave," that bond is the same word as verse 5, servants,
whether he be a slave or whether he be free. And you masters,
do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, Knowing
that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of person
with him." Now, the gospel had left Jerusalem by, at first,
not even the apostles, but by just people like you and I that
the Lord had saved. And then later by the apostles
and other men and women. And the gospel invaded a heathen
world full of darkness, full of ignorance of God, ignorance
of themselves, ignorance of the judgment to come, ignorance of
the resurrection, not only ignorance of doctrinal truth, but in open
and profane sins. One of the things that you and
I seldom think about is some of the issues that the early
church had to face. What happened to a man who had
five wives when the Lord saved him? Have you ever thought about
that issue? And that was an issue in the
early church. That's why a man that had more
than one wife could not hold an office in the church. But
we realize, as we begin to read the scriptures, that all kinds
of issues were faced in the scriptures, and these epistles deal with
some of those issues. Let me tell you two or three
right off the bat. There were men and women who were married.
They were both heathens. The Lord saved the spouse. He saved the husband. And the
husband began to wonder, since his wife is not saved, since
he has no spiritual fellowship with her, can I just put her
away and find me a Christian wife? And so Paul had to write
in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and deal with that issue. He said,
if you are a husband whom the Lord has saved and the Lord has
not yet saved your wife, if she be pleased to abide with you,
Then don't put her away. Then he says the same thing to
the wife concerning the husband. So we have to deal with that
issue. Then I imagine also, the scripture doesn't say, but I
imagine also that he had young people, teenagers especially,
that the Lord had saved the teenager, but the parents weren't saved.
What's the teenager's responsibility to the parents? They're not saved. They're heathen. They don't know
the Christ that the teenager knows. Are they to honor that
mother and dad? Are they to obey them? Or are
they to pay no mind to them? I know one man, I've known him
for a number of years, when his dad was still alive, this man
professed to be saved, but his dad wasn't saved, and he was
very disrespectful to his dad. I don't know if he thought because
he professed to know the Lord and his dad didn't, that that
gave him the liberty to disrespect his dad or not. But Paul tells
the children here to honor your father and your mother. They may not be believing parents,
but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Honor your
father and your mother. There are some that were told
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 that had quit working. The early church,
and especially the Apostle Paul, emphasized the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Some had just quit working. Some
had said, He's coming, so there's no sense to work. There's no
sense to maintain a house. There's no sense to work at a
job. The Lord's coming, so they just quit working. And Paul wrote
back to them, and here's what he said. He said, We heard that
there are busybodies among you, working not at all, now such
we command and exhort by the Lord Jesus Christ, that with
quietness they work and eat their own bread." Occupy, the Lord
said, till I come. But that was an issue. And here
tonight, you and I have come to this issue of slavery. Of slavery. And this is one thing
I love about the Scripture. It takes on these issues. And
it tells us how to deal with these issues. Sometimes we're
repulsed by these things. I can't imagine how Anthony must
be repulsed if I'm this repulsed when I think of our country and
the slavery that's in our country. But it was ingrained in the early
church. They were fixed in this slavery,
and they couldn't get out. And what we realize here is that
Christianity And this is sometimes something that a lot of people,
they just won't look at and be honest with, because they're
so repulsed by it. But at first, Christianity did
not abolish slavery. It didn't even forbid men owning
slaves. You won't find that in the New
Testament. Nowhere does these epistles rebuke a slave owner.
But it teaches the slave of his responsibility to his master. So what we see here, the first
thing, that Christianity does not abolish relationships, political
relationships, social relationships, financial relationships, economic
relationships. Divorced didn't allow a man to
divorce his wife because his wife was an unbeliever. Didn't
give children the permission to cease to obey their parents.
Didn't give anybody the permission to quit a job. And also, we find
this, that it did not teach the slave to rebel against his owner. Ain't that amazing? That's amazing. That's what we want to look at,
and I want to prove this to you, first of all, by two examples
in the Scripture. Now stay with me on this. Look
first in Philemon. Look in Philemon, the little
one chapter of the book of Philemon. If you turn to Timothy, and then
Titus, and then the book of Philemon. Now, if you're not familiar with
the book of Philemon, he was a slaveholder. He was a slaveholder. He bought slaves. He had them. There was a man who was a slave
by the name of Onesimus, and he had ran away. He had rebelled
against his master, ran away, they caught him, I suppose, and
put him in jail. And while he was in jail, the
Apostle Paul, who also was in jail, preached the gospel to
him, and on Massimus' heart was opened, and he knew the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, what advice did the Apostle
Paul give him? How did Paul handle this situation? Now, I know how I would have
handled it, and I know how most of you would have handled it.
But I'm not so much concerned how we would have handled it,
how did they handle it? Well, look in Philemon, look
in chapter 1 and verse 10. Paul is writing to this slave
owner about his slave. And look what he says in verse
10. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus. whom I have begotten
in my bonds." He was in jail, I was in jail, I preached to
him, and he's barred again. "...which in time past was to
be unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me." Look in verse
12. "...whom I have sent again, thou
therefore receive him, that is, as my own vows." What? This apostle sent a slave back
to the man who owned him? Would you have did that? Would I have did that? We sure wouldn't in our day,
would we? But there's a reason why they did this. Let's read
on. Look in verse 13. whom I would have retained with
me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the
bonds of the gospel. But without your mind would I
do nothing, that your benefit should not be as it were of necessity,
but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed
for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever. Not now
as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved especially
to me. Now, now, how much more unto
thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord." So first of all, we
see how these men, these great apostles, the preachers, handle
slavery. I want to give you one more example.
I want you to look over in 1 Timothy. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 6. I want you to get 1 Timothy chapter
6, and I want you to hold that. I've got one more passage I want
to read to you. Look over in 1 Timothy chapter
6, and beginning here in verse 1, and I want you to hold that,
and I want you to turn it over to a scripture that I wanted
to bring out in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Look in 1 Corinthians
chapter 7. I have three passages I want
to read to you. Look in 1 Corinthians 7 and look
in verse 20. This has to do with slavery too.
And look what Paul says. Here he is dealing with it. Most
of the churches, they tell us, a great number of the members
of the church at this time were slaves. They were slaves from
all different walks of society. Romans, Africans, Asians all
over the place are different slaves. But look here at what
the Apostle Paul writes to them in verse 20 of chapter 7 of 1
Corinthians. Let every man abide in the same
calling wherewith he was called. Are you called being a slave? Cure not for it. That word cure
not means don't be deeply distressed. Don't be so full of anxiety because
you're a slave. Don't be in despair about it.
Don't be overwhelmed because you're a slave. But if thou mayest
be made free, if you can obtain your liberty, use it rather.
Use it for God's glory and the good of other people. For he
that is called in the Lord, being a slave, is the Lord's free man. Likewise, also, he that is called
being free is Christ's servant." So that's what he says to the
slaves. If you can be made free, that's good. That's wonderful.
Use it. If you can't, don't be so anxious
about it. Don't be so filled with despair
about it. Now, that's easy for the apostles
to say, wasn't it? That's easy for us to say. But
that's why I say, there's a bigger issue here. There's a bigger
issue. There's a main priority that
we have to look at. Was these apostles approving
of slavery? Was that what it was about? Did
they promote it? Why, no. It wasn't that at all.
But neither did they hold demonstrations out in the street and riots and
destroy public property to abolish it. That's important too. Does our Lord Jesus Christ approve
of one man slapping another man on the cheek? Not at all. But
what did he tell that one who was slapped? Turn to the other
cheek. He don't approve of a man forcing
you to walk a mile without your consent. But when you're forced
to do it, what does he say? Go with him too. Go with him
too. There's things the Lord doesn't
approve of, the early church never approved of, but they were
so careful how they dealt with it. And that's so important as
you and I study this. Look here now at 1 Timothy chapter
6. Look at this. 1 Timothy chapter
6. And here we're beginning to get
into the importance of the issue. as are under the yoke, count
their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and
his doctrine be not blasphemed." Now how is a slave who has been
bought by a man and may yet be sold by that man, how is that
slave to honor that man and please him in everything? Why should
he even think about doing such a thing? Well, Paul gives the
reason here, that the doctrine of God be not blasphemed. It's
for God's glory. It's for the glory of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If these slaves, and there were
many of them in the early church, had rose up in rebellion against
their masters, and begin to demonstrate and riot in the street and destroy
property, look at the shame that would have brought on the gospel
of Jesus Christ. The world would have rose up
and said, what kind of a Christ is this that you serve? He's
led you to be filled with rage and resentment, and now you're
out destroying property, and you're mean and disobedient.
What kind of gospel is this? It's surely not a gospel of peace.
So Paul says here, honor, honor your masters. Please Him well
in everything. And he tells us back over in
the text that I read to Ephesians 6, he says, do them goodwill
service. Please them well. Serve your
masters, for in doing this, you serve Christ. In serving your
masters, you do the will of God. Look over in another scripture.
Look in 1 Peter 2. Look in 1 Peter 2. This is just
as important now as it was back in the early church, but more
so in the early church because the gospel was just getting a
foothold. And what kind of an attitude
were people to demonstrate? What was the Christian attitude? When a Christian found himself
in these situations, what was his attitude to be like? Look
at what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 2 and begin here in verse
11. Look at this. Let's read some
of these. 1 Peter chapter 2 and look in
verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war
against the soul, having your conversation honest among the
Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, They
may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God
in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man, obey the laws of the land, for the Lord's sake, whether
it be to the king as supreme or unto governors, as unto them
that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and
for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God,
that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorant of
foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak
of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men,
love the brotherhood of your God, honor the king, slaves,
be subject to your own masters with all fear, not only to the
good and gentle, but also to the foolhardy. For this is thankworthy
if a man for conscience towards God, in dear grief, suffering
wrongfully, for what glory is it when you be bevetted for your
faults, you suffer for it, but You shall take it patiently,
but when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently.
This is acceptable with God. Now, what's he saying here? What's
he saying? No matter what situation you
fall in, if you're a wife submitting yourself to a husband that's
not saved, or a husband loving your wife that's not saved, if
you're a slave submitting yourself to your master, This is one issue. Here is the overriding issue. God's glory. God's glory. It's more important than you
are. There's an issue above ourselves
or our situation. If it calls upon me or you to
suffer, then suffer patiently and suffer willingly and graciously
if it is for God's glory, no matter what situation you find
yourself in. Go on down to chapter 3. Look
in chapter 3 and verses 1 through 4. Look at this. Likewise, you
wives, be subject to your own husbands, that if any obey not
the word. They don't believe the word.
They're not believers. They also may without the word be won by
the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste
conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning," don't let it
be that outward adorning of the plaiting of the hair and the
wearing of gold and the putting on of apparel, but look at this,
"...let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which
is not corruptible, even the ornaments of a meek and quiet
spirit which is in the sight of God of great price." See what
Peter is telling us. He is telling the same thing
the Apostle Paul always tells us, that Christ suffered, leaving
us an example that we may follow His steps. And if you and I find
ourselves in a situation that we have to suffer, let's remember
to follow Christ and have his mind and his attitude. Suffer
if that's to bring glory to God. Suffer if that's to serve Christ
and please Him. The Church is not left in this
world to reform the world. We should always remember that.
We forgive that. It's impossible to reform this world. Why is the church lecturing?
To honor God. To spread the doctrine of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And her attitude, no matter what
realm, social, political, or economic, she is to maintain
a Christ-like spirit that honors God, even before man. We have several issues. I remember
the moral majority. Probably some of you have forgotten
about the moral majority and all that they tried to do back
in the 70s and the early 80s. You and I are faced with some
issues today. How do we deal with them? What about the abortion
issue? That's a big issue, isn't it?
What do we do about abortion? What do we do when babies are
being killed in clinics? Are we to shoot the doctors?
Are we going to go out in the streets and riot and burn property?
How are we going to handle that issue? What about the issue of
homosexuality? How do we handle that? Do we
start talking nasty to those people? Do we look down upon
them? How do we handle those issues?
If the issue of slavery taught us anything in the New Testament,
it teaches us that the Church is not left here to reform society. If that's why the Lord left the
Church here, then the first thing that needed to be reformed was
slavery, and yet none of the apostles led demonstrations against
it. The Church didn't rise up and
go out riding, riding. They didn't tell the slaves to
be disobedient and leave their masters. There's one issue. There's one overriding issue
is what I'm saying. And what is it? The glory of
God. The glory of God in Jesus Christ. The world passes laws today to
regulate society. Sometimes those laws are good
and sometimes they're bad. But the church is not here to
make laws. The church is here to spread the knowledge of God
in this world. The church is here to change
hearts, to change minds, to change the way people think. Worldly
issues, no matter how important they truly are to us, they're
worldly issues. They are secondary issues. Now, you may say slavery is a
secondary issue. Absolutely. Is abortion a secondary
issue? Absolutely. Our relationship
to God and our relationship to eternity, that's the overriding
issue. That's where our hearts and our
minds should be. Peter said we are pilgrims and
strangers in this world. And if we get caught up trying
to reform this world, we err. We err. We're pilgrims of eternity. We're going to be in this world
for a short period of time, and then we're leaving this world
for that eternal world. And when the church starts trying
to reform a sinful, godless society, It's no good either to heaven,
and it's no good to this earth. I saw James Kennedy. He's been
dead now for a year or so. Most of you saw him in a documentary,
Amazing Grace video. He really impressed me because
he said some wonderful things about man's depravity and God's
grace. And I thought, well, I know that
man's on TV. I want to go listen to him. So I turned the TV on
and listened to him two or three different times, and every time
He was preaching on these social issues, political issues. The last time I saw him standing
on this road, he was preaching on abortion. His whole message
was about abortion. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm
for abortion. And you're for abortion. But
it's wrong to come here and give this pulpit over to any social
issue. The church is not here for that
cause. It's here to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ. To change hearts. And when you
change hearts, then you'll change society. Laws aren't enough. The world
does that. Let the world have at it. And
there's times when the world needs to pass law. But we aren't
here, brothers and sisters, to pass laws and reform society.
I was coming back from somewhere the other day, and I heard this
preacher. And man, he was wound up. He's talking about, now don't
be discouraged. We're going to have the victory.
And I thought, boy, go for it. Go for it. And come to find out,
he was trying to get some churches together to go down to march
around the local utility company because the gas bill was so high. More power to you, but that ain't
going to do souls any good. I remember, or I don't remember,
if you've read about it, you've probably seen some of the old
films back in the late 20s, when some of the churches, Billy Sunday
and those fellas preached in our message on the sin of strong
drink. That's all they preached about.
They just, they hammered on that. Well, it got the churches together,
and they've got some old films, you may have seen them, The women
and the men got their hatchets and their clubs and they went
downtown and they went into the beer joints and the nightclubs
and busted up their kegs and whiskey and beer and wine running
everywhere. And they got so much stirred
up that they passed a federal law against drinking. You remember
the prohibition? Well, you say, Bruce, that's
a wonderful thing. Well, you better wait a minute. You better
wait just a minute. As soon as they got the law passed
where people couldn't drink and it wasn't legal, all of these
people down south said, man, we'll make some money. We're
going to start making whiskey. You heard of the bootleggers?
Have you heard of underground crime? Well, that's what happened. Up in Chicago, St. Valentine's
Day Massacre, all of those, that's what came out of Prohibition.
Why did the church do that? Why did they get together and
abolish Frank? Well, they said, this is a big
issue, and we need to quit preaching the gospel and settle this issue.
Well, that's the troubling. There's one issue, is what I'm
saying. One issue. And if this deal of
slavery didn't teach us anything else, it taught us this, that
God has not left us here to reform society. But he's left us here
to spread the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgiveness
of sins, salvation, a new heart. And when that happens, people's
minds will begin to be changed there. And you won't have to
pass so many laws. You won't have to abolish all
this stuff. It will fall on its own. Well, this is the instructions
he gave to these slaves, and I think it helped them. I think
it helped them. They were stuck in this slavery
and could not get out of it. So he writes to them, and he
says this, if you can't obtain your freedom, serve Christ. Serve Christ by being good to
your master, by obeying your master. And when you serve Him,
you serve God, and you do the will of God. Now, that would
have helped me if I had been a slave in these days. It would
have helped me. But let's hurry on. One more
thing, and let's look at the other side. Look in chapter 6
of Ephesians, and look in verse 9. Now he deals with the other
side. And you masters, you slave owners,
do the same things to them. I've told them their attitude
to have towards you, now I'm telling you your attitude to
have towards them. You notice he doesn't say sell
your slaves or give your slaves freedom? Why didn't he say that? Brothers and sisters, you and
I live in a sinful society, in a godless society. And there
are social issues and political issues and economical issues
that are ground into society. And Christianity doesn't just
come along and abolish all these issues. We have to live right
in the middle of all this trouble. And sometimes the Bible says
you're out to live in your trouble. Here's how to bear it. Here's
how to endear it until it's changed by the grace of God. So he comes
here and he says to these masters, he said, don't be threatening
your servants. Don't threaten your slaves. Don't beat them, but don't even
tell them you're going to beat them. You have to have instructions,
rules, but don't threaten. He says, stop with your tempers. Stop governing with terror and
threats and harsh words and treatments. Be considerate to your slaves. They're not one quarter of the
person. They're your fellow man. They're
children of God. And you treat them as such. Love
them and respect them and honor them. Colossians chapter 4 verse
1, here's what he says to the mastery. You masters, give unto
your slaves that which is just and equal. If you've ever been
to Fairmont, West Virginia, if you get off the interstate and
you go 250, is that it Barb? 250 North? You get down there, just before
you get down into town, on the left, I don't know what the name
of that big mansion is, I used to know, it's on the left, pretty
close to where Darryl owns his place. That was a man who owned
a coal mine, who built that huge mansion, owned a lot of property.
And he built that coal mine, Scott said, on the back. of those
poor working coal miners. That he overworked and underpaid
and put them in positions in mines that even some of them
were hurt and some killed. That's not right. That's not
just and that's not equal. And that's what he's telling
the ministers here. I'm not forbidding you to have slaves. God never
forbid it. He could have, but he didn't.
But I tell you what, he strictly regulated it. Don't you rule
with terror, and you give to your slaves what's just and equal. And he sums it up with this.
I want you to know this, he said, you have a master in heaven. Your master is your slave's master
too. And you may have respect of persons. You may mistreat him because
he's under you. But remember this, his master
is your master. And there's no respect of persons
with him. You know what grace will do when
it gets in your heart. When you go down to the restaurant
and the waitress comes to wait on you, You know you won't mistreat
her, even though you could. Because she's under you. And
you could have her running ragged. And if she didn't please you
well, you could tell the manager and get her in trouble. But you
don't do that. You know why you're kind to her. You know why you leave her a
good tip when you get up from your table and go home. That's
grace. That's grace. Grace shows itself
in how you treat those who are serving you. And Paul said to
these masters, he said, I'm going to check and see if you've got
grace in your hearts. How do you treat your slaves?
Do you threaten them? Do you overwork them? Do you
abuse them? Do you give them what's right
and just? That's grace. That's grace. Though Christianity never at
first abolished slavery, yet it put such a gracious and loving
attitude in the heart of the slave for his master, and in
the heart of the master for the slave that it was impossible for this
institution to continue very long. See that? We wouldn't have had the thought
of war here in the States to free slaves if there hadn't been
grace in men's hearts. Do you know that? That's the church's business.
And this fits every situation that you and I find ourselves
in. When the Lord saved me, I belonged
to the United Steelworkers. I've been a union member ever
since. Now I'm a teamster. But when
the Lord saved me, me and the union fell out. We just fell. I almost become anti-union. But you know, I had to be careful.
I realized I had to be careful. That's the system in which I
found myself in. And for me to go rebelling and
getting people worked up over that issue, that was none of
my business. So I had to realize, here I'm
stuck between the company and the union. And if I just start
making waves and making a big issue out of this, that's not
my place as a Christian. My place as a Christian is to
work in the situation where God has put me, and do it for God's
glory. See what I'm saying? We have
trouble in our homes, don't we? Social problems in our homes. And I tell you, sometimes our
hearts break because of it. We could lose our tempers, and
I have. We could just want to choke some
of our relatives, and I almost have. But how do we handle that? Just like we handle this tonight.
My soul, if he wrote to these dear slaves, the children of
God, and says, here's the attitude that you should have. This gracious,
obedient attitude. How much more, you and I, as
we face problems in our family, problems on the job. Terrence,
I'm sure you have problems on your job. Political issues? How are we to face it? Well, here's the main issue,
brothers and sisters. Those things are secondary. They're
temporal. They're passing away. We're pilgrims
and strangers here. And we want to take everybody
to heaven that God will give us grace to take with us. Does that make any sense? I hope so. Let's pray.