Gooding, David: 11 - Life under the Lordship of Christ

It'll be obvious to our, uh, us all that our epistle is now progressively becoming more and more concerned with practical things. So just let us notice in our little map of the epistle where we have come to. We are considering the third movement, and at the moment this second middle paragraph in that third movement, and in our talk we must cover the rest of that paragraph and the final paragraph as well. Let us notice that running through these paragraphs, therefore, is not merely the question of our life and our lifestyle as it used to be before the Savior found us, and our lifestyle as it should be now that we have put on the new man. Not only so, but there runs through this third movement a tremendous emphasis upon the lordship of our blessed Savior. In paragraph one, we remember we were told this morning that we were to set our minds on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. And that is an allusion to Psalm one hundred and ten verse one, where prophetically the Lord said to my Lord, says David, sit thou on my right hand until thine enemies be made the footstool of thy feet. In thinking of our blessed Lord in that high and elevated position, we cannot but think of his lordship. And so now, as we come to the second part of this middle paragraph, we are going to be told how the lordship of Christ is to have influence, decisive influence, in the way we Christians behave in our families and at our daily work. Look, if you will, please, at, uh, chapter three, therefore, in verse eighteen we are told, wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Or again, verse twenty, children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing in the Lord. Or again, in verse twenty two, servants, obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord. Moreover, whatsoever you do, work heartily as unto the Lord, verse twenty four, knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the recompense of the inheritance. You serve the Lord Christ. Chapter four, verse one, masters, render unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master. Yes, but it's the same Greek word as the word for lord, knowing that you have a lord in heaven. So we are to think how the lordship of Christ works itself out in the daily life of family and business. And then, as we come to the final paragraph that talks to us about life in the work of the Lord, in the work of the gospel, in the work of the church, look at what verse, um, seventeen says. Say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it. That said, I want to say now that, uh, I shall be speaking, if you can, uh, still believes in miracles in this modern day and age, I shall be speaking briefly. The laughter is out of place. Uh, because, do you see, in the first place, when we come to this question of the working out of the lordship in the family and in business, you might think that I have very little experience in these particulars, and you would be right. And therefore, I shall leave it to you in your discussion time this afternoon, uh, to think about the practical application of these exhortations. I belong to that honored group that are, have the gift of celibacy. That is not that it is above the honor given to those who are called to marriage. It is that they who are called to marriage would be the experts in saying how the lordship of Christ ought to be worked out in married life. I was a child once, but it's a long time ago. I have certain vivid memories of what obeying parents involved, or at least disobeying parents involved. Ha. But I thank God for parents who did the best they knew how to instill into my mind the word of God. Uh, but I have not been a parent, and I leave it to you who are parents to talk frankly and positively and constructively on how the lordship of Christ is to work out in this relationship. As far as being a slave is concerned, I've never been one. I have been an employee. I have never been a master. Here, perhaps I might be allowed to say some things, and I will say what I can with all due brevity. There is another reason, however, why perhaps, uh, I better, I should be wise to confine the length of my comments. Because nowadays, let's be honest with ourselves, these verses, and particularly those that, uh, concern themselves with husbands and wives, are felt in many a circle to be somewhat offensive. Survivals from the age of male chauvinism. And if I were to expound them too much, I might e- easily be dismissed as somebody who, through lack of experience, doesn't know what he's talking about. And if anybody is liable to be a male chauvinist, it would be he. Let us help ourselves, if we can, by the observation that if moves and developments in modern society have made some of these biblical precepts appear to be offensive, even when they were given to certain classes, they would have been very difficult to take. Imagine being a slave under an unreasonable slave master and being told you have to obey that master and submit to him, not only to the good, but also to the difficult and froward, for this is well pleasing in the Lord. And to be told that for Christ's sake you are expected to submit, rather than listening to the message of those that would have provoked the slaves to disobey their masters and try to get their freedom by force. In other words, these precepts have not always been light and sweetness to everybody. To some people, they have always seemed offensive. Let us therefore help ourselves as we face them, by certainly being considerate one for another, but remembering what this epistle has taught us. These precepts about how the lordship of Christ is to be worked out in family and business. Pray, let us remember, do our best to remember, who that blessed Lord is. He is the first of all creation. He is the first of redemption, who for our sake, sinners though they were, bore the pains of the cross and gave his life for us. If anybody has a right to talk and to lay down the rules and the regulations, who of us would be willing to dispute the rights of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ? Secondly, let us therefore notice the groups themselves. The three groups that the apostle mentions here, in which the lordship of Christ is to work itself out. Wives and husbands, children and parents, slaves and masters, with their modern day analogs of servants and employees on the one side and employers on the other. And did I hear my good, uh, Christian women folks say, but look what the man has done now, if that isn't the most offensive thing that ever he ever said. You'll say, do you mean really to group the wives with the children and the slaves on the one side? Wow, what an insensitive thing to go and do. Women group with the children and the slaves, and the husbands bless them with the, the masters and the rulers. Isn't that a summing up of the offensiveness of the whole business? Well, I didn't write it, is my first line of defense. I'm merely pointing out what the apostle has written. And secondly, let's not jump to too many conclusions. Yes, the good ladies are here, if they are married women, on this side of the fence, so to speak, on the side and in the groups whose virtue it is to obey. But of course, when it comes to this second group, the ladies are on the other side, aren't they? Included in the parents. Yes. And when it comes to the third group, not all ladies are on the left hand side and all gentlemen on the right, of course not. Some ladies could be on the right hand side, couldn't they? You will remember that delightful encomium of the virtuous woman at the end of the book of Proverbs. Delightful picture of that masterful woman who rose up before it was daylight and organized the house and organized the household servants and gave them each their task and run what would have in those days been quite a large domestic establishment with not husband and children only, but all sorts of servants and slaves. And having organized the household, then she went down to the marketplace and saw a field, and she bought the field and was in quite a big way of business, and therefore mistress over the slaves, men and women. And you will remember the story in the New Testament of Lydia, who was in the fashion business and was in, uh, Philippi, though she was born in, in, in Thyatira, because the material she sold, purple, was very expensive, and therefore she was in Philippi where people normally had a lot of money and could afford to buy expensive clothes. And she was there, head of an establishment of importers and wholesalers and retailers, you'll see, and had doubtless many servants and some slaves, maybe, under her control. And of course, it is still true, isn't it? Never more true in modern society. From the nursing sister in the hospital who has the other nurses under her command. Or do you see the school teacher or the, uh, company secretary, who could very well be a woman. And you, madam, who have your daily help in your home. She doesn't tell you what to do always, does she? Isn't it you that tell her what to do? So that should reduce the balance just a little bit, isn't it? It is not everywhere and always that the women folks are on this left hand side of the divide, you see, and the men on the right. Far from it. There could be situations where the good lady would be the master, and the gardener, who she has every right to control, is a man. Yes, apparently, when it comes to hu- wives and husbands, then the Holy Scripture regards it as fitting that a woman should submit to her husband, whatever that means. If women folks should feel that that is offensive, all I can say as a theoretical, uh, theologian and a bachelor is to observe that for our sakes, our blessed Lord, being equal with the Father, was pleased not to grasp hold of that position, but humbled himself and became a servant and took God as his head and became obedient unto death. It is that blessed Lord who learned what it cost to obey that is asking Christian wives to submit to their husbands. And we might go further along that line, mightn't we? Suppose, my dear Christian woman, you had been the Virgin Mary, the creator of all things now become incarnate, given to your charge. It is written of him that when he went home, he was subject to his parents, and if you had been the virgin, the blessed Lord Jesus would have been subject to you. This is not a lord who lays down commands without knowing what they mean. He first practiced what he preaches. Isn't it true, however, that difficulties have arisen because the people on the right hand side, so to speak, of our little chart here, both men and women, when placed in positions of decision and leadership and and rule, have sometimes behaved as tyrants and taskmasters and have become unreasonable. So that if, uh, sometimes the people on the left have been wayward, sometimes the people on the right have been unreasonable, and that, I'm afraid, is true. And I don't know that every parent would feel, looking back over the years, that they always acted the best way with their children. And some parents live with lifelong regrets about what they did or they didn't do. They were too strict or they were too liberal, and would to God they had been different. I can imagine, though I cannot know what they feel. But of course, uh, then we may comfort ourselves somewhat, man, where, at least it seems to me, eh, if we think how this matter of the lordship of Christ works. You will perhaps say, do you always have to obey in the situation if you happen to be one of the left hand side? Uh, suppose your parents ask you to do something that is wrong, do you have to obey them? Well, no, not if it is contrary to God's law, do you? The teenagers in Malaysia, for instance, when they find the Savior through hearing the gospel, maybe in their Christian union at school or in the university, and then go home, have to face this practical question many, many times, as their parents demand that they take part in the household worship of the gods. What is the teenager to do? It is, uh, a very difficult situation to be faced, isn't it? And one will often be o- be asked in Malaysia by such people, what ought I to do in order best to commend the gospel? Obviously, there are situations where we must obey God rather than men, and if the person in charge of us, so to speak, is demanding that we do something contrary to God's holy word, then we have to obey the Lord rather than men. But does that mean at the other extreme that if the person, so to speak, in charge that has to take the decision asks me to do something that I don't like to do, I can always say, no, I'm not going to do that because I don't think the Lord would have me do it. You know, the father says to a fourteen-year-old, now you're not going out, uh, to play football yet again. You're going to stay in and help mother with the housework, Dulcie. And the fourteen-year-old says, oh, why should I? George down the road, his parents don't make him stay behind and help his mother and do the housework, and I don't think God would have me stay in. Well, if it's open to the people in the left hand group always to decide, then why do we have any control at all? Surely the lordship of Christ will mean that the people that God appoints as leaders in their various groups do have authority to decide. And if we who are to obey are asked to do something that we feel we don't like, but if it's not contrary to the word of God, it's for us to obey rather than to decide, isn't it? You say, wouldn't that fill life with a horrible, uh, uh, uh, and distressing bondage? Well, would it? Let's take the extreme case of the slaves and listen to what Paul says to them. Slaves, obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleaser- pleasers, but in singleness of heart, serving the Lord. That is, the slave is not merely to look to the master that is over him, but beyond that master to the master, the Lord. Suppose the earthly master asks him to do unpleasant things and is unreasonable. Yet if he really believes that behind that master stands the Lord himself, he can do it unto the Lord, can't he? And would he grudge doing it to the Lord? How many unpleasant things did the Lord do for you, friend? And what is more, if we do it for the Lord, says Paul, we'll see, doing it heartily as unto the Lord, from the Lord we shall get the reward anyway. He measures not merely we have done, what we have done, but what it cost us to do it, and for his sake to do things that we felt were unreasonable and unpleasant, but we did it for the Lord's sake. We shall get from the reward, the reward of the inheritance. You'll see, we shall all reign with Christ. We shan't all have equal responsibilities, shall we? And the people w- will have the most responsibility are the people that have learned to obey the Lord most. And of course, if we misbehave, the lordship of Christ is a real thing. For he that do- does wrong may expect to receive discipline from the Lord now and lack of reward in the day to come. So that a real vigorous faith in the lordship of Christ, it seems to me, instead of making life more difficult for the slave, would in fact make it easier. So presumably it is in all the other relationships of life, a vivid faith that sees that behind those whom God's providence has put in charge of us, behind them stands the Lord himself, and that I may work for the Lord. Takes out of the life, the difficult situations in life, some of their smart, and in their place puts the balm of knowing that I work for the most reasonable of masters. I may serve the Lord. And of course, there is the other side of it, isn't it? If these on the right hand side here, the husbands, the parents, and the employers abuse their authority, the lordship of Christ is a real thing. Listen to what Paul says to the masters, the lords, as the Greek has it. You give your servants what is just and equal, knowing that you yourself have a master in heaven. They are not autocratic tyrants that may do as they please. They have a master to whom they must give account. He has a very long memory and a very exact ledger. With that said, I wish briefly to turn to what will be the next, uh, and final paragraph in the epistle. And that concerns not merely our obeying the lordship of Christ in the, uh, family and in the business, but our concern for life in the work of the Lord, the final paragraph in the book. So once more, and for the last time, let's take our bearings. We have been thinking throughout this epistle of the struggle towards Christian maturity, of progress towards complete sanctification. And we noticed earlier, so let us notice it again, that at the end of all three movements, a paragraph is devoted to this matter of struggle and striving and exerting oneself. And at the end of the first movement, it was a question of Paul's sufferings and strivings on behalf of the gospel and on behalf of the church, which is the body of the Lord Jesus. At the end of the, uh, second movement, we had described to us the struggles of religionists of various kinds, mystics and ascetics, and heard the verdict of Holy Scripture that their strivings, however well-intentioned, were unprofitable and useless. But now, as we come to the end of the epistle, we're reminded that there is struggle and strife and striving and exertion for us who love the Lord. It is not merely a question that we have been redeemed and can rejoice in our redemption, and that we have the living Lord inside us, we have put on the new man. If that is real, then none of us will be content simply with the salvation of his own or her own soul. If we have really got salvation, we shall not be content to sit at ease. We too shall join that dign- dignified, glorious company of the saints who strive every ounce they know how of their energy and vision and thought and giving to promote to the world the gospel that has saved them. And a developing holiness that does not result in a keen interest in the spread of the gospel, both at home and abroad, is a very questionable type of holiness. Let us today, in God's mercy, show that our interest in intensive study of Holy Scripture, as we have tried to do these three weeks, is a something that doesn't take away from our zeal in the gospel, but impels us the more energetically to strive and struggle for the Lord Jesus in the extension of his work and his kingdom. That last paragraph, then, is to do with that matter. Life in the work of the Lord. Don't propose to go through it in detail. But in its first few verses, chapter four, verses two to six, Paul indicates that the believers should have a concern for the spread of the gospel. Firstly, in their prayers for him, he being at this time a prisoner, that God would open the door for him to speak the mystery of Christ, for which he was in bonds, that he might make it manifest as he ought to speak it. And then they ought to have a concern for their own witness for the Lord, to walk in wisdom and seek the Lord's wisdom and grace to know how they ought to answer everybody, and thus themselves personally witness to the Lord, as the Lord gives them occasion and opportunity. And then in the next set of verses seven to nine, he writes to them about the fact that he's sending them sundry friends of his, Tychicus, for instance, together with Onesimus, in order to give them up-to-date information of conditions on the field. The Colossians were expected to take practical interest in the practical conditions that surrounded the missionaries on the field. I'm in prison, and my affairs shall these two brethren make known to you. It was a happy thing, wasn't it, that there were men and perhaps women in those days that were prepared to journey to and fro from the mission field to the home church, to keep the home church, uh, informed of the state of things on the mission field and the needs that arise and how the home church could help meet those needs. No good simply praying in a sort of impractical way, Lord, bless the missionaries without knowing what the missionaries stand in need of, is it? We're expected to inform ourselves of actual conditions on mission fields in which the Lord has given us an interest and a responsibility. And finally, in verses ten to the end of chapter four, there is a delightful paragraph. I sum it up as the love and prayers of the brotherhood. Now, it's easy to sign one's letters, isn't it? Love and prayers. Let's hope we always mean it. Here is a delightful example of what love and prayers meant in the early church, and what a magnificent, enriching thing it is to be a part of the great brotherhood of Christ all round this world, not only saved by the same Savior, but involved up to our ears in the work of the Lord, together with those magnificent men and women that serve the Lord so well and so sacrificially. You get to know them, don't you? They're one of a great family around the circle of the earth, and you get to know their needs, and you get to know their triumphs, and you get to know their weaknesses, so that you can help them and pray for them, and they for you. Listen to Paul as he recommends to them, for instance, in verse ten, Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. If he comes, receive him. No great splurge here about the way he ran away from the work and let the apostle down, that's forgotten. Receive him. Don't forever lusting be harping on people's faults in the past, but their present work for the Lord and what they can do. And then he says there are these others, verse eleven, uh, people, Jewish fellow workers, he says, they have been a comfort to me. Just you imagine the great Apostle Paul. This is not the word that is often translated comfort and means encouragement. This is the word from which we get paragoric, is the soothing medicine that mother gives to the injured child, yes. And the great apostle, lionheart though he, though he was, sometimes had wounds very deep, not only physical, but spiritual and psychological as well, and was grateful for brethren and sisters who could come along and comfort the sheer man. That's tremendous, isn't it? If you can't be an apostle, do the next big thing and comfort an apostle when he sits licking his sores. And then, of course, he, he, he, he talks of other folks, doesn't he? Ah, there's Epaphras, Epaphras, if you like. Bear him witness because I passed his door some mornings and heard him at it, and late at night as well. How incessant he is for praying. He doesn't just sign these letters, love and prayers. He has a rigorous prayer life to pray for the believers in his home church, even though he's on the mission field, that they might be saved from false recipes for spirituality and may grow mature and assured in the will of God. And there's Luke and there's Demas, he says. They both greet you. Ha. Aha. Who couldn't feel the pathos of that? Luke is going on to write two inspired volumes in the New Testament. Marvelous man, Luke. And there's Demas. What's he going on to do? Ah, he once ran well, grew cold, loved the world, and deserted the apostle. Oh, God save us. What is your future going to hold, my brother, my sister? Which way are you going in the future? You're going to rise up from today to do great things for the Lord in your own department. God forbid any of us should leave these studies and go out to become cold of heart, to abandon the Lord's work and the Lord's servants. Greet the Laodiceans, he says, and make sure they read this letter. Ha ha. Hope they did. Do you think they did? You say, why do you question that? Well, I don't know. Can't always be listening to things that are read out in church, can you? You'll see, but I mean to say, the letter is full of riches, isn't it? Wealth of riches untold. Hope they read it. For some years later, the Lord had to write to them and says, you think you're rich, don't you? When actually you're poor and blind, miserable and naked. And then there was a little word to Archippus. He'd been given a mi- a ministry in the Lord. Make sure, Archippus, you fulfill it. It's easy, isn't it? Well, it is when you're above sixty to settle down on your oars, you know, and leave unfinished what you should be doing. The Lord speak his word to our hearts, that our grasp of the glories and the wealth of the salvation that there is in Christ shall express itself, not only submission, glad submission to his lordship in family and in work, but show itself in our vigorous and unsparing devotion to the Lord's work and to his servants. By special permission now, by all concerned, you are to be allowed to continue your discussions to the hour of half past three. Yes.