God Honoring Work

0:10Thank you for listening to the Sermon Audio Podcast for Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church is a reformed confessional Baptist church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church or for directions, you can visit us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

0:40Let me begin by saying this. How much effort, how much resources are spent in our society today trying to help people be successful in business or in their career. The amount of books that are written, podcasts that are done, seminars and TED Talks. And let me say when I dunk on some of those modern ways and some of our modern times, like youth groups, which I think that was last week, or those self-help books or technology obsessions that we have, all of those business gurus that are so popular now. I'm not saying that all of those things are inherently bad. There are some good in all of those things. The issue is what is the focus? Where or what are the guiding principles? What are the goals? What are those main goals? This is what we've been focusing on then over the past few weeks, hasn't it? Trying to see and to know what those main focuses are. For example, if your marriage on the surface is happy, is holding together, you're doing all of the things that the modern world tells you you are required to do for a happy and loving marriage. You're loving in all of the languages, as it were. But a wife is not respectful to her husband as her head. And the husband is not spiritually leading and giving himself up on a daily basis for his bride, that she may be taken care of, that she may be sanctified into the splendor of Christ, if those are not present, then what really do you have? In the same way, if your kids are well fed, if they're given every opportunity, if they grow up to be doctors or lawyers or whatever else the world says is a worthy career for them, but they do not honor, they do not respect, they do not obey you, and they did and they do not serve the Lord, you have done nothing for them. As we consider our text then this morning, if the focus in your vocation is material success, climbing the ladder, creating a business, but it does not contain the virtues of Christ and faithfulness to God, if it is a purely a purely a venture of people-pleasing, an eye service riddled with partiality, you may be successful by worldly standards. You may climb that corporate ladder, you may make a bunch of money, but you will have failed in every meaningful and faithful way. It is possible by God's grace to be both obedient and successful. We can, by the power of the Spirit, serve Him and honor Him well and produce measured results. But we must get our eyes off of the world as the primary focus and shift it to obedience to Christ and sanctification as the main thing. Then we let God do the work everywhere else. And even that has great gospel and salvation connections that Lord willing we will see this morning. So that's where we're headed. Let's stand once more then as we read our text. Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 5. Bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with the good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, that this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or free. Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you again, and as always, for your word. We pray and ask, Lord, would you by your spirit open our hearts and our eyes and our minds and our ears to receive what you would have for us this morning? Lord, please teach us. Please transform us into the image of Christ. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. I'll begin then a second time, uh, where I ended last week. And that is with the doctrine of total depravity. Everybody loves to begin with the doctrine of total depravity, right? This is one of the most fundamental doctrines of the true Christian faith, and this is again our understanding that man in Adam fully and completely fell. There is no one in and of themselves who is good. There is no one who is righteous, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away and together have become worthless. No one does good, no, not even one. That's the Apostle Paul, Romans chapter 3, verses 10 to 12. What this means for us this morning and today is that any in any corporate or vocational setting we find ourselves in, if the bosses and the employees are not Christians or have no interest in following the truth of God, they are at their core, that is their root, their heart. Selfish, self-seeking, ignorant, lacking self-control, petty, bitter, vindictive, and corrupt. That's not me saying it. It's God saying it. And any appearance other than that is fake. It's not genuine from the heart. Again, that's not a pessimistic view of man. That's the biblical view of man. And these truths, these are truths that we need to know to be on guard against the sinfulness of our own flesh and against the corruption of the flesh of others. Because where do we think all those ideas about how to function orderly in any sort of corporate or vocational or professional setting, where do we think that those ideas come from anyway? This, of course, ties to the whole idea of restraining grace that Brother Stephen was talking about this morning in 1 Samuel. Without the wisdom of God, left to our own depraved wills, our businesses, our lives would be nothing more than Darwin's dream. The survival of the fittest. No rules, no laws, no structure, no hierarchy, win at all cost. Step on whoever, however, to the top. This is why this text, this morning, is so vital for us in our attempt to walk worthy of our calling. Because here we see that the gospel and God's word truly does inform every aspect of our lives. In this wisdom, we see that it does not destroy hierarchy and put anarchy in its place. But rather, it upholds God's hierarchy. It supports it, it redeems it, it orders it rightly before God. And this is why our text begins, or how our text begins: bondservants obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ. Many have used this passage to criticize the Bible, and to say that the Bible, the Bible here clearly approves slavery, it approves the oppression of men. That is certainly one way to read it, if you're ignorant, or if you desire to discredit God's word so that you can disobey it. The truth is this there was a tendency here in the early church, a tendency that has not gone at all, gone away, even today, right? It's perhaps even more prevalent now, in fact, to assume that because Christ has come, because Christ has saved us, because he has freed us from our sin, because he has freed us from our guilt, because he has destroyed that dividing wall of hostility. He's destroyed all of those man-made distinctions that we come up with that this means that all must be essentially equal in every way, in all ways in life. The reading is that a post-Christ world must be holy and without distinction, must be free from all authority, from all hierarchy. The kind of world that John Lennon imagined. I won't go on a tangent, uh, but this is why so many equate social justice with the gospel. Those are not the same. And in many cases, as in the early church, what Paul is addressing here, social justice, this is a man-centered perversion of the church. This whole idea of you can't tell me what to do, you have no authority over me, I follow Christ, we're all the same now. Such people will inevitably quote Galatians chapter 3, verse 28: there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you're all one in Christ. See, we're all one. In doing that, they argue that in Christ all are equal in every way. Again, they do so in ignorance, ignoring every other passage in Scripture by assuming that Christ has done away with all of those distinctions and he has not. On a spiritual level, right? On a salvific level, that is true. All in Christ are Abraham's offspring and heir according to the promise, but our text this morning, as we read, addresses and corrects our tendency to push that beyond where God intended. We still clinging to our old depraved nature, want the redemption we have in Christ to level everything out, to create really a socialistic, communistic, egalitarian, pagan-like democracy, where everything and everyone are perfectly equal in every way, and everything is perfectly equitable and fair according to our standards. This is not how God operates. That's not according even to his own nature. Even the nature of the triune God demonstrates this principle as he is equal in essence but distinct in persons. The Son, Jesus Christ, being fully God, still submits to the will of the Father. God came up with hierarchy. In the home, men must lead, wives must follow. In the church, elders must lead, congregations must submit. Even in our vocations, anyone with half a brain cell knows that there has to be leaders and that there has to be submissive workers. This is good. This is from God. It's according to his nature. If you want to turn there, you can. It's Matthew chapter 25. It starts in verse 14. This is the parable of the talents. This is a parable, which is, you know, this is a fictional story told by Jesus to demonstrate a truth to those with ears to hear, to understand this truth. And in this parable, he is describing what is the kingdom of heaven like? What is the kingdom of heaven like? And this parable then is Christ's answer to the kingdom of heaven is like this. And to paraphrase, three men are brought to their master. They're given a disproportionate number of talents, that is, sums of money in this case, but many have seen this to be far beyond an application of simply monetary, speaking specifically and only of monetary means here. One of those men is given five talents, another is given two, and the final one is given one. It's important to note as you read that parable later on this afternoon, because I know y'all are all going to go back and read the whole the whole thing. Jesus says that the distribution of these talents was given not arbitrarily, but it was given according to their abilities. They were given these talents according to their abilities. The greater ability of the man, the more the master entrusted him with. Disproportionate abilities, disproportionate talents. The man with five talents and the man with two, they're thoughtful and they're wise, and they steward well what they're given, and they turn a prophet back to the master when he returns. The man who was only given one, though, in fear, he just goes and he hides this talent. He does nothing with it, and when the master returns, he only gives him back what was originally given to him, nothing more. I'm going to pick up on that sword then in verse 26 with the master's response to that one talent guy, Matthew chapter 25, verse 26. But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I'm scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming I should have received what was my own interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to every one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's not very fair and equitable of the master, is it? There are many applications here, both spiritual and practical, that many wise men have drawn from this section over the years. But in connecting it to our passage this morning, the point I want to make, or the thing I want to emphasize, bringing it back to redemption, is how wonderful redemption truly is, and how terrifying judgment truly is. That in Christ our souls and our lives have been redeemed and they've been given a purpose wherever or whoever we are. The world has expectations that spiritual and vocational success is measured purely in quantitative output, right? I'll say that again. The world has expectations that spiritual and vocational success is measured purely in quantitative output. How much? How many? Businesses must be big businesses, churches must be megachurches. When we have that view of things, though, then we think it charitable to flatten everything out, to make everyone feel equal. Or we look down on those one-talent people or one-talent churches. And we do everything we can to try to fix that problem, to make them more like the five talent people in churches, businesses, whatever. We read the text this morning, as we did, and many are appalled at Paul telling bondservants to obey their masters. How could he tell bondservants to obey masters? How could Paul even suggest such inequality or that one man should be subject to or submissive to another? The kingdom of heaven, though, is not about equality of outcomes. The kingdom of heaven is about equality of purpose. I'll say that again. The kingdom of heaven is not about equality of outcomes, but rather equality of purpose unto the Lord. Or for the master. Such that our grand purpose in life is not how much, or about one's role over mine, or why does he have that and I don't? Why does he get to lead and I don't? Why does his business boom and mine is still small? Why does that church have 200 and ours still have 50? Why am I still a bondservant and not a master? All such notions, all such thoughts make people people pleasers. It makes us eye servicers, if that's a word. It makes us bitter, it makes us discontent, it makes us jealous and disgruntled. The beauty of the kingdom of heaven, the glorious good news of the kingdom of Christ is that it is God alone, the master of all, who has given the talents. It is Him who has given all things, and when He returns again to judge, He doesn't count talents, but rather faithful stewardship. In that way, all are truly equal. And that what we are called to is nothing more than turning a kingdom-focused prophet on whatever the master has given us. That is rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. Knowing that whatever we good we do, this has been granted to us by Him who gives all things. Whatever we have has been given to us by Him who gives all things. And it is Him alone who sits in heaven, who sees all and knows all, and that will give back according to the stewardship of what is entrusted to us, and that is all. That is very freeing. This is very burden lifting because it shifts our focus off of everything else but faithful service right where we are. What am I doing? What are you doing for the kingdom today with what you have been given? This is the question. That's the main thing, the big idea that will change lives, that will change marriages, that will change parenthood, that will change vocation, that will change churches. This will free us from jealousy, from bitterness, from that constant pushing that proverbial stone uphill. So free us from chasing the Joneses, from chasing the Osteens, from chasing that business guy on YouTube with a private jet. Colossians 3, verse 23. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not from men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. One more point there, or by way of illustration. Here are the words of George Herbert, and I have used this poem before. His poem is The Elixir, concerning this idea of transforming the power of God to redeem all work for his glory. Herbert says this: A servant with this cause makes drudgery divine, who sweeps a room as for thy laws, makes that and the action fine. This is the famous stone that turneth all to gold, for that which God doth touch and own cannot for less be told. So our call then, as Christians, in walking worthy of our call, is not to live in resentment of our station, not to live in paralyzing fear. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Rather, our call is to do all unto the Lord, to live in the redemption that he has purchased for us, and faithfully steward for his glory whatever he has given you, whatever he has given you. Because God alone is the giver and the rewarder. He is the source and supply of all wisdom. His redemptive work did not take the broom out of our hands, church, but rather it turned it to gold. Serve him today, and every day, right where you are, in the position he has placed you as a bondservant or a master, according to the abilities that he has given you, either five talents or one. Nothing more, nothing less than faithful stewardship unto God. This is the call. I struggled with a bit on the title for this section and my notes. I do try to form titles for all these sections because though I do stray a bit, it does tend to help me stay somewhat focused. For this section, I settled on tender leaders, considering our previous command to be tenderhearted towards one another. So as we look at this last section about masters, think tender leaders. Interestingly, this is one of those, if you've seen the movie Inception, Inception-like passages, where within the same passage, the application from the former subsection gets reapplied back into the subsection, the next subsection, and I'll explain that. I'll try not to put you to sleep while I do it. That's also an inception reference. What do we see from the previous subsection that we just covered? This idea about bondservants obeying their masters. Recap that. That though there are still distinctions among men, there is no partiality, no distinctions in the ultimate value, and as a result, we can confidently and hardly do whatever is in front of us unto the Lord, knowing that He, God sees, He rewards, and that there is a purpose in whatever He has for us. Further, we saw, as I brought in the parable of the talents there, that the kingdom of heaven is not concerned with quantitative output, but rather faithful stewardship. That is how God leads us. Okay? The same then is now turned back around on us to those who lead. And Paul says, now, masters, as the Lord does unto us, do the same unto them. That is, do for your people, masters, what the Lord does to you. And he gives us some further direction there. Stop your threatening, Paul says. How often do leaders today resort to threatening? How often is our disposition harsh and demanding when our focus is purely on prophets and not people? Doesn't get more practical than that. How does our Lord recognize our position? Consider this. How does our Lord recognize our position? Psalm 103, a passage we have read often during our morning scripture reading time, says this: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Our Lord knows our station. He knows our struggles. He knows our dispositions. He knows our inadequacies. He knows our frailty. We are indeed as dust. Yet it is here where he shows compassion and tenderness towards us. The whole notion of the vocational world, masters and bondservants, this is completely opposite of that, isn't it? Even in Christian businesses, even in churches with large staffs of people, we find the tendencies to push output over people, to push profits over personal and spiritual development. There is little space for a one-talent kind of person in a vocational space because business is about making money. So leaders are harsh. They push, they chide, they try to force everyone to conform to the same level of output because more output means more money. And how else am I going to buy that jet or whatever? I'm so very thankful that in the kingdom of heaven there is indeed a place for all kinds of people. And if we believe that, hear these words. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. If we ever truly received that precious gospel, why do we still insist, why do we still insist on leading as the world does? Doesn't the gospel change us? Doesn't it shift our perspective on life and living? It must. The master who threatens does so not realizing that his master is the same master as the one he threatens. And the greater master shows no partiality. He does not favor quantitative output, as we have seen, but the quality of the heart and character of the person. He does not cultivate productive cogs, but holy and sanctified souls. This is important for us, church, because our lives must indeed reflect the gospel that we believe. A gospel that tells us that salvation comes not to the one who wills, a salvation comes not to the one who runs or works, but is dependent solely on God who has mercy. Not to the productively religious, but to the humble and contrite soul. Church, we will forever be at odds in spirit and in body when we receive the gospel for our salvation, but then continue to live and work like the world. We tend to forget so quickly that the things which are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal. So what is our true work? What is our focus? As leaders, what are you trying to achieve? Success in the things that are seen? Or success in the things that are not seen? We could further say that man judges the outward appearance, but the Lord judges the heart. So what you should hear me say then is that we shouldn't be productive leaders. We shouldn't strive to get the best out of our people. We should just be mediocre and lazy, right? I hope you don't hear me say that because I'm not saying that at all. We should strive for excellence in all that we do. But the principle is to focus on stewardship first, to shape faithful souls, not just productive people. This applies to mothers, training their kids, leaders in charge of workers, the church. In that, we mustn't provoke the one talent person because he isn't producing five talents. That only pushes them to hide what they have for fear of failure. Instead, we value what God has given, who He has made them to be, and we encourage to steward well what it is that they can do. To find purpose and peace and contentment and joy in who God has made us to be. It is here where the true sanctification begins, resting in the authority and the gifts and the power and the promise and the purpose and the providence of God. Because our God calls and saves and uses people from all backgrounds. There is no partiality, right? He calls and saves and uses all talents, all levels of intelligence, all ethnicities, all financial levels, every tribe, every tongue, every nation. And if he doesn't show partiality in his work, and Paul says, now masters in your work do the same, what does that mean other than church do the same? Going back then to how it began, in our fallen world that has bent our notions of marriage, of home, of family, of success, is bent our notions of vocations. We have been bent to fallen ideas. What, though, are the most important words that you could ever hear at the end of your life? What are the most important words that you could ever hear at the end of your life? What are the only words when you meet your father that are worthy of living for? Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little, I will set you over much. Those are the words. And the pursuit of those words from our Lord are the only thing that will change marriages. It's the only thing that will change families. It's the only thing that will change homes and will change vocations is living faithful to the Lord. Faith given to us by grace transforms our hearts. It awakens our souls. That same faith that is given to us by a gift that awakens our hearts and awakens our souls leads to faithful service to the one who has shown us such grace, as we sang about this morning. Faith, trusting in the sovereignty and the provision of God, that he will indeed reward those who do his will from their heart. That is what salvation and life are all about. Not fussing and comparing, not discontentment or constant striving. Salvation is a rebirth by faith, isn't it? Upon the realization that we are all sinners in need of mercy, we are all unworthy of that which he gives by grace. It is a call to surrender, a call to trust, to acceptance that all things are from him and through him and for his glory. And so we walk by that faith, doing whatever is in front of us for his glory and making every effort that all in our charge, whether one or a hundred, also walk by that same faith. Not people pleasers, but faithful servants of Christ. Because no matter what you do or you don't do in this life, hear me, no matter what you do or don't do in this life, none of it matters even a little. If when you stand before your master, you don't hear well done, good and faithful servant. And so that may that be our both our goal and our prize, church. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you first for your salvation that you have given to us by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, who indeed lived the life that we could never live and died the death that was meant for us, Lord, that we may live and be free. We thank you for that grace, Lord. We thank you that you have worked faith in our heart to receive and to believe that good news. Lord, we pray and ask now, would you help us by that same faith to walk by it, Lord, to live by it? Lord, to to be faithful in our service to our masters here on earth, Lord. To be faithful masters to our bondservants, Lord, to our people who are in our care and our charge, as parents, Lord, as employees and employers, Lord, as churchmen. Lord, help us to live by the same faith that you have given to us. Help us to live and to walk in the same freedom that you have purchased for us by and through Christ, Lord. Help us to treat others as you have treated us. Lord, would you help us, please, Lord? Help us to walk worthy of the call that you have put upon our lives, Lord. And ultimately, Lord, help everyone here by your grace and through the preaching of your word and through the singing of your songs, Lord, for the through the sacraments and through everything that we do here, Lord. May it be our goal, Lord, that everyone here who is in our care will indeed stand before you and hear those blessed words. Well done, good and faithful servant. Lord, may that be our goal and our prize.

40:38In the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen.