Labor, Management, and God

We read the word of God from Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 5, and then I also want to read the complementary scripture to that from Colossians chapter 3. Ephesians 6 verse 5. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in 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 whatever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Then from Colossians chapter 3 verse 22.

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not to men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.

Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. May God bless his word to our hearts. If a reporter from Time magazine or Newsweek had been present when our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount, he would have chuckled to himself and sent his copy to his editor something like this.

Prophet from Nazareth claims he can do the impossible. His followers are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They are going to change the world.

Well, the interesting thing is, they did change the world. Within a few short centuries, the Roman Empire was no more. And many of the gross sins and vices that belonged to that Roman Empire were on their way down and out.

And among them was slavery. It may come as a surprise to you that when Paul says servants in Ephesians 6.5, he's not talking about the housemaid and the butler and the fellow who mows the lawn. He's talking about slaves.

There were sixty million slaves in the Roman Empire. The economy was built on slavery. The many worked that the few might have luxuries.

One third of the city of Rome were slaves. And no matter where you looked, you saw a person with a brand on his forehead or with the marks of torture and beating on his body. In every major city there were slave markets.

We still have a long way to go, but thank God the introduction of Christianity into the world has wiped out, begun to wipe out, the great vices of antiquity. We still face problems today. We don't have slave markets in Chicago, but people are still enslaved.

If Paul were to come to Chicago, I wonder what he would do about pornographic literature, prostitution, gambling, the narcotics traffic, bad housing. People are saying today, why doesn't the Church do something? You people down there at Moody Church, why don't you do something about these things? And my answer is, we are doing something about these things. We're doing the same thing Paul did about them.

When Paul went to Ephesus, he planted a church, and he preached the gospel, and he turned loose the power of God, and things began to happen. And so I want to talk with you today about this matter of how does the Church confront the evils that are in society today? Almost every Sunday some visitor stops me and wants to know, what is Moody Church's position about this question or that question? It may be a question concerning racial equality, it may be a question concerning economic security. Well, I want to answer some of those questions from the Word of God.

You see, according to this passage we read today from Ephesians chapter 6, God is at work in this world removing evil, fighting evil, and accomplishing good. And to do this, he has three tools, and these three tools worked in Ephesus, and they worked in Rome, and they'll work in Chicago. Tool number one, the message of the gospel.

When Paul went to Ephesus, he didn't organize protests against slavery. Now there may be times when we as Christians ought to protest sin, but Paul did not waste his time organizing protests against slavery. He didn't try to organize the slaves into some kind of a revolt.

He didn't burn down buildings or kill people. Paul simply went to Ephesus, and for some three years he preached the gospel. He rented a hall and preached the gospel.

He went to the synagogue and he preached the gospel. And I suppose someone would say, well, Paul, not much is going to be done. You're wasting your time.

But quite the opposite was true. A great deal was done. And by the preaching of the gospel, slavery was attacked.

And by the preaching of the gospel, the whole idolatrous economy of Ephesus was shaken so much so that they called a great town meeting. The first tool that God uses for the changing of this world is the message of the gospel. And slaves heard the gospel and were saved, gave their hearts to Jesus Christ.

Masters of slaves heard the gospel and were saved. And a whole new relationship was built up because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now when you read the Old Testament, you discover that God permitted slavery.

He didn't command it. He didn't bless it, but he permitted it. God was educating the race.

There were numbers of things in the Old Testament which God permitted in the education of the race. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus Christ. Then when Jesus Christ came, the full light of God's revelation came into a dark world.

Then the Holy Spirit came, began to write the Bible, and then the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, began to go to work in the world. Do you ever notice that when God does something, it's not always done suddenly? We want to tear down buildings and destroy things and suddenly do things new. God doesn't work this way.

God could have spoken the whole universe into existence in one second. He chose not to do so. God could have prepared the nation of Israel in one week.

He chose not to do so. He could have sent the Lord Jesus Christ hundreds of years sooner. He chose not to do so.

You see, God plants the seed, and he waters the seed, and he nourishes the tree. Then he produces the fruit, and the fruit has more seeds in it, and that seed produces more fruit. This is the way God works.

This is the way your body grew. He brought the gospel to Ephesus and to Rome and to a heathen world that was steeped in slavery, and the gospel began to destroy slavery. Now, how did the gospel destroy slavery? You say, why even bother to talk about this? It applies to us today.

In the first place, when you preach the gospel, you are declaring how important a man is. You see, a slave was nobody. Aristotle, the great philosopher, said, a slave is a tool with a soul in it.

A slave was a piece of furniture. A slave was a nothing. If you wanted to kill him, kill him.

If you wanted to whip him, whip him. He had no rights, he had no privileges, except as his master would grant them. But here comes Paul preaching the gospel, and he says to a congregation of people out in a marketplace, here are some slave masters.

Perhaps just a few blocks away you can hear someone auctioning off the slaves, and Paul is saying, you were made in the image of God. And that slave stands a little taller. Not only were you made in the image of God, but Jesus Christ, God's Son, came to this earth and became a servant, not a master.

And that slave stands a little bit taller. And that Lord Jesus went to the cross and died for you. For me? For you.

For God so loved the world, including slaves. You see, when the gospel comes along, it takes the master who thinks he's up on Pike's Peak, and the slave who thinks he's way down in the valley, and the gospel takes both the master and the slave and puts them on the same level ground at the foot of the cross. For there is no difference.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The slave knew he was a sinner, but the master didn't know he was a sinner. And so the gospel levels every man, and the gospel shows the love of God to every man.

And the gospel said to these slaves, Jesus Christ died for you. Of course, these slaves believed and were born again, which gave them a whole new position. They were now the children of God, made in the image of God, redeemed to have that image restored.

And they could go anywhere now and stand tall and straight and say, I'm a child of God. The gospel gave them a whole new position. But Paul indicates in Ephesians 6, the gospel also gave them a whole new purpose.

He says, now look, the labor that you're doing, do it to the Lord. You aren't serving your master anymore, you're serving the Lord. Do what your master tells you, but serve the Lord.

And all of a sudden, the most menial task took on brand new dignity and glory. It used to be that the unsaved slave would go to work and say, oh, there's work to be done. My master hates me and I hate him, but if I don't do this, he'll whip me.

Now he would go to work and say, Lord, help me today to glorify your name. The gospel gave them a whole new purpose in life. And of course, the gospel gave them a whole new power in life.

This whole section in Ephesians chapter 5 hangs on 518. Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Husbands and wives be filled with the Spirit.

Parents and children be filled with the Spirit. Masters and slaves be filled with the Spirit. When you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior and the Holy Spirit moves in, there's a whole new power.

And the slave would get up early in the morning and say, oh, Father, I can't do this work today. There's too much to be done. I can only take so much, but give me your power, not just to please my master, but to glorify your name.

That's what the gospel did for slaves. You see, if anybody could understand the gospel, it would be a slave. When Paul stood there in the marketplace and preached the gospel, he would use the word redemption.

And the slave would say, I know what he's talking about. I know what redemption means. It means to be purchased out of the slave market.

Do you mean that's what Jesus did for me? This may interest you. If a slave were able to save enough money, he could buy his freedom. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul suggested this.

He said, now let every man remain in the same state he's in when he gets saved. If you're a slave, you're still a slave, but be a Christian slave. If you're a master, you're still a master, but be a Christian master.

However, he said, if you can get your freedom, do so. It's right for a Christian to use the means that the law provides to get things done. They had an interesting ceremony.

If a slave could get enough money to buy his freedom, you know what he'd do? He'd pick one of the gods in that city, and he'd go down to that God's temple, and he would give his money to that God. The priest would take it. Then he'd go home and get his master, and the slave and the master would go down to the temple, and the God would receive the slave through the priest, of course, in this way.

The slave would say, I have brought my purchase money. I wish for the God to own me. The priest would take the purchased money from the God and give it to the master.

Now, the slave could have taken the money and bought it from the master. No. The slave gave the money to the God.

The God gave the money to the master. That meant that the slave now belonged to the God, and he was free. So when Paul came and said, I want to give you good news.

You don't have to bring any money. The God who wants to own you has paid the price for you. You can't set yourself free, but he has set you free through the blood of his Son.

The slaves understood that. That's why so many, many slaves trusted Christ as their Savior, even though they did not have necessarily political freedom, civil freedom. They had spiritual freedom in the Lord.

Wherever the gospel goes, it sets people free. I get so tired of these liberal people who deny the Bible and laugh at the gospel. They tell us that we evangelicals, we who hold to the truth of the Word of God, have done nothing for society.

They'd better read history. John Wesley went through England, not preaching against child labor, not preaching against the condition of women, but preaching the gospel. The result was one of the greatest upheavals in all of history, and child labor was wiped away.

Slavery was wiped away. Children and women were taken and given a high position in society. Industrial situations were improved.

Many of the social laws today in America that you appreciate, such things as safety and insurance and retirement, and many of these things are the outgrowth of the Wesleyan revival in Great Britain. Don't ever come and say the gospel doesn't have any power. That's the first tool that the Lord uses to change the world, the message of the gospel.

The second tool that he uses is the fellowship of the church. Can you imagine Paul writing a letter to a local church, and he says, I want to talk to the slaves. Slaves in a local church? Yes.

I don't want to talk to the slave masters in a local church? Yes. I understand why Paul would write in chapter 5 to the husbands and wives, you'll find that in local churches, to parents and children, you'll find that in local churches. But slaves? Were the slaves welcome at a local church? Yes.

The early church must have been a very exciting place. If you were to attend a Lord's Day service in Ephesus or Corinth or Philippi, you would find an exciting group of people. You'd find Jews and Gentiles.

You'd find rich and poor. You'd find men and women. You'd find children.

You'd find young people. You'd find Roman soldiers. You'd find former Jewish rabbis.

You'd find slaves, branded and beaten. You'd find masters of slaves. You'd find people who had been very religious before they got saved.

You'd find people who had been very licentious and pagan before they got saved. And here they are in a local church. A local church is supposed to be like this.

If I read my New Testament correctly, there's no such thing in a local church as belonging to a certain nation or social class or financial class. In fact, Paul puts it beautifully back in Galatians 5 and again in chapter 3. 328, there is neither Jew nor Greek. And so you don't talk about nationality in the local church or race.

There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

That is what the local church is all about. And when the church burst upon the Roman Empire, people couldn't figure it out. They said, what is this group of people? There are no distinctions.

Why, in the synagogue, the men sit here, the women sit here, the leaders sit up on the platform and so forth. And there are strata, but not in the church. The rich man comes to the same Lord's table as the poor man.

The black man comes with the white man. The educated man comes with the uneducated man. Why, even the women are welcome to come to the fellowship.

Why? Because we're all one in Jesus Christ. One of the greatest forces for God in the world today is the fellowship of the local church. When this church here that meets in this building dedicated to the memory of D.L. Moody, what are we doing? Some of you are tempted not to come.

What are we doing? When we assemble together, what is actually happening? Are you spectators at a program? So let's go and see what Wiersbe is going to say today and what the choir is going to sing today. Is this why we come? I hope not. You see, when the local church gathers together with the power of God present, things can happen.

Changes can take place. God can do great things. To begin with, we are testifying that Jesus is alive.

As we meet together on the Lord's Day and sing his praises, we're saying to this unsaved world, Jesus is alive. They believed he died. We're telling them he's alive.

We're also telling the world that he is a gracious and loving Savior. He has saved all of us out of our sins, and we don't look at each other's face or place or race. Man looks on the outward appearance.

God looks in the heart. God never meant for a church to be an elite group of people who set up their own qualifications, and if you don't belong to our race or financial class, we don't want you. If you attended a church service in Corinth or Philippi or Ephesus or one of the assemblies in Rome, you would have been amazed to see, behold, how they love one another.

We need this today. The church was never meant to be an elect, elite group from a human point of view. We are an elect, elite group from a divine point of view.

Whether it's either Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female, rich or poor, we're all one in Jesus Christ. Maintaining this unity is difficult because you and I are prone to want to be with our own. Nothing wrong with national backgrounds as long as you don't make them front grounds.

Our national backgrounds, we did not choose. They were chosen for us. We're all one in Jesus Christ.

When the Church of Jesus Christ moved into Rome and the slaves got saved by the power of Jesus Christ, a whole new fellowship started and God began to work through the Church. The third tool that God's using in the world today beside the message of the gospel and the fellowship of the Church, get this now, is the conduct of the individual Christian. You see, we've gone from a big circle to a small circle.

He's talking here to individual servants and individual masters, and he's saying, now look, if you want to change your world, start by changing your own life. Slaves, here's the way I want you to live. Masters, here's the way I want you to live.

Husbands, wives, children. We live in a world that has the idea nothing can be done unless 10 million people are doing it. If you're going to change Chicago, you have to organize a committee and gather assembly and get a big budget.

No, Paul didn't do this when he went to Ephesus. Paul came into Ephesus and he went to the synagogue and began to preach. He rented a philosopher's schoolroom for a couple of years and taught there, went out in the marketplace, and individuals were saved.

Now would you learn this? God changes the world by changing individuals. Very unwillingly, John Wesley went to a meeting in Aldersgate Street that day in May, that evening in May, and while they were reading the preface from Luther's commentary on Romans, Wesley said, I felt my heart strangely warmed, and he got converted. He'd been an Episcopalian preacher and he got converted.

And when God changed Wesley, he began to change England. And the Methodist revival went through England and it touched the man who was digging the coal in the mine. It touched the little child who was working the machine in the factory.

God changes Chicago by changing individuals. Paul is saying to these slaves, you don't like slavery any better than I do. But Paul didn't go to Rome and lobby against slavery.

Paul went to Ephesus and went to Rome and preached the gospel, and the gospel destroyed slavery. Paul says to these slaves, if you want to change things, start with your own life. He says to the masters, if you want to change things, start with your own life.

When Paul led Onesimus to Christ, a slave, and sent him back to Philemon, a Christian master, he said, Philemon, I'm sending him back to you as a brother. There's a new relationship now. You see, the gospel doesn't change your status.

It just means your status is not important. Someone says, well, I'm a poor man and I got saved. You're still a poor man, but you're rich in Christ.

Someone says, well, I'm a leader and I got saved. You're still a leader, but you're a follower of Jesus Christ. I'm a slave.

Oh, but you're the Lord's free man. I'm a master. Oh, but you're the Lord's slave.

You see what I'm talking about? When I got saved, I didn't cease to be male. I'm still male, have been since conception. But it's not important.

To those who know Jesus Christ, male or female, rich or poor, black or white, these things are not important. What is important is glorifying God. And so the third tool that God uses in this world is the individual believer whose conduct is the way God wants it to be.

Now, I think we'll close this message with a little inventory. Let's ask ourselves four questions about our work. You're a truck driver, a typist, a secretary, a student, a manager, a superintendent, a cook.

I don't know what you do, but there are four questions that Paul would raise from this passage. Question number one, for whom are you working? He says here, look, as unto Christ, verse five, as the servants of Christ, verse six, as to the Lord, verse seven. Is that the way you study? Type? Manage? Drive? Cook? For whom are you working? He says to the slaves, you serve the Lord.

He says to the masters, you serve the Lord. The second question is, why am I working? Well, it's obvious we're working to get money, are we? That's not what Paul says. In verse six, he says, do you work because the boss is threatening? There are some people who won't do anything if you aren't watching them.

There are some people who won't do anything if you aren't threatening them. A man's worth is determined by the amount of supervision he requires. Paul says, why are you working? Working because you're afraid of being fired? Working because you want the boss to see you? Or are you working to do the will of God from your heart? Verse five, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, verse six, doing the will of God from the heart.

To be rewarded not by men, but to be rewarded by God. Verse eight, he shall receive of the Lord. For whom are you working? I hope we can say the Lord.

Why are you working? To please the Lord. Whatever reward? To get it from the Lord. How are you working? Now back in Paul's day, slaves were known for their laziness, their complaining, their disobedience, their defiance.

He says to these Christian slaves, now wait a minute, you're a Christian now. Peter writes to the Christian slaves who have unsaved masters and says, you just be obedient. You take it.

You've got to win them to the Lord. Paul is writing to Christian slaves who've got Christian masters. He says, now, you're a Christian.

How should you work? Obediently. Do what you're told. Do beyond what you're told.

Seriously, with fear and trembling, take your work seriously. Sincerely, in singleness of heart. There are very few here today who would steal from an employer.

You wouldn't walk off with a typewriter, I hope, but they'll steal time, waste time. And so he says, I want you to work sincerely. I want you to work honestly.

I want you to work devotedly. I want your heart to be in it because you're serving the Lord, and you masters, you be fair and equal with your servants. You know, if all of our people who were involved in labor were saved and followed this, we wouldn't have a lot of the problems we've got.

If all the Christians who professed to be Christians were doing this, we'd have much better testimonies. It's an embarrassing thing when somebody phones the pastor and says, so-and-so a member of your church? Yes, well, she works for me. I got problems.

It's kind of hard to give the gospel to a fellow like that. It's kind of hard to tell him how to be saved when a Christian is not working the way a Christian is supposed to work. And by the way, if you've got a Christian boss, work harder.

Simply because you have a Christian boss doesn't mean you can slough off and take it easy. Work harder, both of you serving the Lord. So he asked, for whom are you working? The Lord.

Why are you working? To please the Lord and get his blessing. How are you working? Sincerely and heartily and honestly and devotedly. Fourth question is the hardest one of all.

Will your work stand in eternity? He said, you're going to receive from the Lord what you've done. Will it stand in eternity? When you stand before Jesus Christ and he tests your work, will it stand? Not what were your benefits down here. What are the blessings going to be up there? Not what were the rewards down here.

What's the reward up there? Not the praise of the boss down here, but the well done of the master up there. I can just see this happening. Here's a Christian slave and he goes into an unsaved household and begins to live like a Christian and leads them to Christ.

Here's another Christian master who has a group of unsaved slaves and he acts like a Christian and he leads them to Christ. It's the individual doing his job and serving the Lord that's changing the world. Now, please don't sit around and complain about what's going on in this world.

We like to do it and blame everybody else. Something must be done about this and something must be done about that. Fine, who's going to do it? We are.

We are, yes, we are. We're the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world.

How are we going to do it? By sharing the gospel. You know, if there were more salt in this world, there'd be less rot. If there were more light, there'd be less darkness.

Just sharing the gospel, passing out tracts, witnessing, praying, getting people to accept Christ. All of us can share in this. How are we going to do it? The fellowship of the local church.

The next time you complain about some sin in Chicago, ask yourself, how loyal have I been to my own church? If I were an unsaved person walking into the average evening service of the average church, I'd never want to be saved. I'd say, if these people aren't concerned enough to be here, why should I even be concerned? If I were a missionary home on furlough and went to a prayer meeting and heard they weren't even praying for me, I'd say, why worry? Why do anything? The greatest thing you can do for the city of Chicago is to support your own local church. Go to work for God.

Some church members are going to have a lot to answer for at the judgment seat of Christ for their neglect. If I were a Sunday school child and came to an evening service and didn't see my teacher, I wonder if I'd want to come back to Sunday school. What are we going to do about it? Individually on the job, living for Christ, being an honest, faithful, hardworking secretary, being an honest, faithful, hardworking truck driver, or whatever God's called you to do.

Because whatever you do, you do it to the glory of God. These are God's tools for changing the world. I think Henry Varley was right when he said to D.L. Moody, the world has yet to see what God can do in, through, and for that man wholly yielded to him.

Mr. Moody said, by the grace of God, I'll be that man. Chicago has yet to see what God can do in, through, and for that man wholly yielded to him. Some of us here today will want to say, God, by your grace, I'll be that person.

I'm going to go out and change my world with your help. Gracious Father, we confess that sin is rampant. Righteousness is hidden.

Truth seems to be on the scaffold. Wrong seems to be on the throne. You've given to us the greatest message in the world, the greatest fellowship in the world, and the greatest opportunity in the world, and we take it for granted.

Forgive us. I pray, Lord, that today you'll speak to the hearts of unsaved and call them to the Savior. Speak to the hearts of careless Christians, and oh, may we, oh God, yield ourselves afresh for service.

Bless this church. Make it strong. Give to us, oh God, a growing group of loyal people who will work together to build this ministry, to reach across the world.

Help us to be faithful in our jobs. I pray, God, that each one of us will do the work you've called us to do because you're watching, and because you are rewarding, and because you are judging. Lord, it's much easier to work for you than for anybody else.

Your yoke is easy. Your burden is light. Help us to be faithful.

For Jesus' sake, amen.