Instructions for Masters (Ephesians 6:5-9)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:02.960 But if you're able to remain standing, please do. And let's turn our 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:08.669 attention to Ephesians, chapter six. Ephesians six, this is one of Paul's 3 00:00:08.869 --> 00:00:16.030 shorter letters in the New Testament. Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ. We 4 00:00:16.149 --> 00:00:22.179 have been reading and in hearing God's Word Preach through this book for some time 5 00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:25.660 now. We're coming here to the end and in particular tonight we come to 6 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:32.060 the end of the section where he's been giving various instructions for households, the 7 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:37.729 first audience, of course, being these Christians in the first century, but 8 00:00:38.049 --> 00:00:44.009 still applying in many ways to us today. I'm so let me begin a 9 00:00:44.170 --> 00:00:50.479 tonight by reading chapter six, verse five, and our focus this evening will 10 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:55.880 be on the Lord's commands to masters in verse nine. So here is a 11 00:00:55.960 --> 00:01:02.799 God's word now from Fesians chapter six, verse five. Bondster, bond servants, 12 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:07.629 obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, 13 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:12.069 as you would Christ, not by way of I service as people pleasers, 14 00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:17.590 but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 15 00:01:18.109 --> 00:01:22.299 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. 16 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:26.540 Knowing that, whatever good anyone does this, he will receive back from 17 00:01:26.579 --> 00:01:32.579 the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or is free, masters do 18 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:37.409 the same to them and stop you're threatening, knowing that he who is both 19 00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:42.890 their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him. 20 00:01:46.090 --> 00:02:01.189 God bless his word to us. You may be seated well here. 21 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:07.629 Paul writes in the context of an evil world, which is how he always 22 00:02:07.710 --> 00:02:13.189 writes, and Paul writes in the context of a world that is full of 23 00:02:13.349 --> 00:02:19.219 difficulties and sins, a complex situations, things that are a challenging to navigate, 24 00:02:19.340 --> 00:02:22.580 and he's giving us instructions on how we ought to live in the world 25 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:27.860 in light of the things that he's been talking to us about, about Christ, 26 00:02:27.939 --> 00:02:31.449 about the Kingdom of God, about God's plan for us before even the 27 00:02:31.530 --> 00:02:37.530 beginning of time. All of these things, on these very lofty things, 28 00:02:37.610 --> 00:02:42.729 these very heavenly things, matter for how we live here and now, in 29 00:02:42.889 --> 00:02:50.520 our various stations and which we find ourselves when we become Christians, great and 30 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:55.599 many things change, but some don't change immediately, and particularly those things which 31 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:01.629 are very fixed into our society. Other things are fixed into our biology, 32 00:03:01.750 --> 00:03:07.629 our gender. Perhaps other things are fixed into our relationships, husbands and wives. 33 00:03:08.509 --> 00:03:15.659 Other things are institutions and society, or workers and bosses. And here 34 00:03:15.699 --> 00:03:23.340 in the first century, masters and slaves. What do you do if you're 35 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:28.370 a Christian slave? What do you do if you become a Christian and you 36 00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:34.250 own slaves? As we've thought about in a lot of different in each of 37 00:03:34.289 --> 00:03:39.169 these different sections dealing with children and parents and husbands and wives, this is 38 00:03:39.250 --> 00:03:44.280 something you've got a lot to think about and Paul doesn't give five books of 39 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.759 instructions. He has a short passage which we're called to listen to, pay 40 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:54.439 attention to and and seek to apply. Now, eventually slavery would be undone 41 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:00.629 in much of the world and there would be various places where those that institution 42 00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:04.310 would be gone, but of course only after many horrors and wars over it. 43 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:10.659 And we find in some ways that in some places it still exists and 44 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:15.379 they are complicated and difficult challenges as we think about slavery, and this is 45 00:04:15.420 --> 00:04:20.500 not a sermon on slavery in particular, but I thought it appropriate to quote 46 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:27.810 to you from Chrysostom, one of the great theologians of the fourth century, 47 00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:30.810 and he asks this question. Where does slavery come from? How do we 48 00:04:30.889 --> 00:04:35.529 think about it? And what he says applies a particularly to our passage and 49 00:04:35.649 --> 00:04:42.399 how we think about the relationships of masters to slaves and to their Lord. 50 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:48.319 Prsostom rights. In some sermons on a Fesians Society, arrangements, like laws 51 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:54.790 made by sinners, acknowledge these distinctions of classes. But we are all called 52 00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:59.829 to accountability before the Law of the Common Lord and Master of all. We 53 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:03.829 are called to do good to all alike and to dispense the same fair rights 54 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:12.139 to all. God's law does not recognize these social distinctions. He's drawing this 55 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:15.459 from the command and in verse nine, where he says to the masters, 56 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:19.500 he who is both their master and yours, is in heaven right. God 57 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:25.769 is not acknowledge these, these classes is he commands obedience to his will. 58 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:30.810 PRSOSTOM continues. If anyone should ask where slavery comes from and why it has 59 00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:34.170 stolen into human life, for I know that many are keen to ask such 60 00:05:34.250 --> 00:05:40.079 things and desire to learn, I shall tell you it is avarice that brought 61 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:45.759 about slavery. It is acquisitiveness. He means, like acquiring things which is 62 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:50.670 insatiable. This is not the original human condition. Remember that Noah had no 63 00:05:50.829 --> 00:05:55.589 slave, nor able, nor seth, nor those after them. This Horrid 64 00:05:55.709 --> 00:06:00.629 Thing was begotten by sin. It does not come from our earliest ancestors. 65 00:06:00.350 --> 00:06:06.139 We pay our ancestors no respect by blaming them. We have insulted nature by 66 00:06:06.259 --> 00:06:12.860 this system. He continues. No, how Paul connects everything to the idea 67 00:06:12.899 --> 00:06:15.699 of headship. As the woman, he says to the as to the woman, 68 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:19.009 he says to the husband, love her. As to the children, 69 00:06:19.050 --> 00:06:23.129 he says to the parents, you are to rear them in the instruction and 70 00:06:23.209 --> 00:06:27.730 discipline of the Lord. As to the slaves, he can only say, 71 00:06:28.649 --> 00:06:32.000 knowing that you two have a Lord in Heaven. In light of this, 72 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:39.360 or Sastom says, the masters, be benign, be forgiving. I think 73 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:43.959 we are all right to praise God that none of us here are in a 74 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:49.509 situation that would be characterized as as slavery, and particularly not in the way 75 00:06:49.670 --> 00:06:56.389 that we've known it in America. But just because we don't happen to be 76 00:06:56.509 --> 00:07:00.389 slaves or don't happen to be masters doesn't mean that we just skip over this 77 00:07:00.550 --> 00:07:04.899 section because it doesn't apply to us. Because what this section does do is 78 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:10.379 it reminds us of many things, but perhaps the ones I want to think 79 00:07:10.379 --> 00:07:15.529 about tonight is our common responsibility before God, are obligations to him as our 80 00:07:16.009 --> 00:07:20.449 Lord, as our master and, of course, our ultimate hope in heaven 81 00:07:20.490 --> 00:07:26.970 as well, something beyond the institutions and classes and castes of this world, 82 00:07:27.769 --> 00:07:34.560 something a heavenly kingdom in which we all are glorified in Christ. So what 83 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:41.959 are the commands that God gives here to masters? First thing to notice is 84 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.149 that masters are given the same instructions as slaves, a remarkable thing, something 85 00:07:47.230 --> 00:07:54.550 that perhaps undermines the institution itself. Masters, he says, do the same 86 00:07:54.829 --> 00:07:58.389 to them. Well, what is the same thing masters are to do? 87 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:01.459 Well, you have to go back and consider the commands he gave to bond 88 00:08:01.540 --> 00:08:09.060 servants. What does he say to them? He says to serve Christ as 89 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:13.329 you serve your masters, to not do this work under compulsion, even though 90 00:08:13.329 --> 00:08:16.569 you are under compulsion, but to do it freely, to do it from 91 00:08:16.569 --> 00:08:22.810 the heart, to do it truly, to work and serve not as someone 92 00:08:22.850 --> 00:08:28.279 who's simply trying to do the bare minimum or get away with the least possible 93 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:33.679 amount of work, but one who serves hard and works hard from the heart. 94 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:37.399 Verse Seven, Rendering Service with a good will as to the Lord and 95 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:45.669 not to man. This in these instructions, this way in which we carry 96 00:08:45.669 --> 00:08:50.990 about our work, the sincerity which is to happen on the part of bond 97 00:08:50.110 --> 00:08:58.980 servants is applies to masters as well. Masters are not to work and rule 98 00:08:58.179 --> 00:09:05.019 and serve within their households as those who are mere people pleasers, perhaps treating 99 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:11.330 their their their their family and their slaves in one way in public and then 100 00:09:11.370 --> 00:09:16.929 another way in private, perhaps looking honorable and respectful out in front of other 101 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:22.889 people, but then threatening and beating and terrifying and private. In fact, 102 00:09:24.169 --> 00:09:28.000 interestingly, the only command that the masters get in particular that's different from the 103 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:33.360 slaves, in verse nine, is really more of a warning than a command. 104 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:37.710 He says, stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their 105 00:09:37.909 --> 00:09:43.669 master, speaking of this the slaves, and yours, speaking of the masters, 106 00:09:43.190 --> 00:09:50.230 is in heaven and there is no partiality with him. God doesn't care 107 00:09:50.429 --> 00:09:54.779 that you're the boss, doesn't care, God doesn't care that you think you're 108 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:58.659 in charge or that you maybe even have a certain human institutions and laws on 109 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:03.659 your side. You are called to be obedient to him, and this is 110 00:10:03.740 --> 00:10:09.009 an important reminder for all who are in power, whether that's in this particular 111 00:10:09.049 --> 00:10:13.210 situation, in the first century, or any time you find yourself vested with 112 00:10:13.370 --> 00:10:20.769 some authority, whether that's as a parent or as an employer, or as 113 00:10:20.809 --> 00:10:26.120 a ruler in the government or even an unformal relationships, how common it is 114 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:31.200 for those who are in power to let it go to their head. It's 115 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:37.549 so common, so frequent that it's it's hardly worth even giving examples for, 116 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:46.350 but there are many. You might remember people appealing to Solomon asking for relief, 117 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:50.740 or of his son, and his son pressed them. Solomon son pressed 118 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:54.980 him even harder than their father. Did you think of Pharaohn and the slaves 119 00:10:56.019 --> 00:11:00.940 in Egypt? You think of any number of examples of people that tried more 120 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:05.730 than anything to secure their own position, that thought of themselves more than they 121 00:11:05.809 --> 00:11:11.809 thought of the Lord in Heaven. There is a warning here to all who 122 00:11:11.809 --> 00:11:16.730 are in authority. Just because you might be a big shot here doesn't mean 123 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:22.679 that you're higher than God. All of us are subjects of him. You 124 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:28.000 answer to him, Paul says, just as much as your slave does. 125 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:35.470 Where Society might give you a pass where society might allow certain excuses. Why 126 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:39.029 give you the benefit of the doubt? The Lord always knows the heart. 127 00:11:39.190 --> 00:11:46.750 You always knows what is right. Slaves would have the temptation to forget that 128 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:52.419 they serve a master higher than their earthly one, to fear their earthly one 129 00:11:52.580 --> 00:11:56.820 more than to fear the one that they have in heaven. The same temptation 130 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:03.049 applied to masters to can think of themselves as all there is is you have 131 00:12:03.169 --> 00:12:07.289 reached the top once you've got to me. But of course that's not true. 132 00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:11.529 As we read in this passage, as we've heard in the psalms, 133 00:12:11.610 --> 00:12:16.840 as we've considered in various passages this morning, the Lord is so far above 134 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.039 us. My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. 135 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:28.559 He rules from a heavenly throne, with myriads of angels surrounding Him who 136 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:35.990 are ready to do his bidding perfectly and capably at any moment. God rules, 137 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:41.070 not just for a time, as human authorities to, but eternally, 138 00:12:41.950 --> 00:12:45.419 from beginning to end. He is keen, he is ruler, he is 139 00:12:45.539 --> 00:12:50.779 judge, he is Lord. Even these words, this language that we use 140 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:58.850 regularly to describe him, describes our position underneath him. What master? What? 141 00:13:00.169 --> 00:13:05.090 What human could ever think that they are above God but they can do 142 00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:13.159 as they please with other people? Not So, says Paul. You need 143 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:22.039 to serve with a sincere heart God, who's in heaven. John Calvin Rights. 144 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:26.720 Masters are mistaken if they think their slaves will be of no interest to 145 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:28.549 God, because they are of no interest to the rest of the world. 146 00:13:30.990 --> 00:13:37.149 Big Mistake. God does not respect status, and the case of the humblest 147 00:13:37.269 --> 00:13:43.820 person will be just as important to him as the greatest king. Isn't that 148 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:50.100 true? How many times does scriptures say, I plead the cause of the 149 00:13:50.139 --> 00:13:54.940 orphan and the widow, I plead the cause of the one who is down 150 00:13:54.139 --> 00:14:00.529 trodden, the one who has been dealt unjustly? How many times have various 151 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:05.570 kings and rulers, much more, much more than masters, people who great 152 00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:13.600 nations, stood above their accomplishments and attributed all to themselves, made stupid decrees 153 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.480 and felt very powerful in their own shoes, and God took him down in 154 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:24.710 an instant, constant reminders, constant examples of yet we continually forget this, 155 00:14:26.710 --> 00:14:31.590 and so we fear princes and we fear governments and we fear masters. And 156 00:14:31.669 --> 00:14:35.309 we fear people who are over us more than we fear God. And if 157 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:37.700 we happen to be on the other side and positions of authority, we bear 158 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:43.460 ourselves and we decide our own wills and we think our own our own ways. 159 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:50.259 This is not a Christian way to think. It's not a Christian way 160 00:14:50.299 --> 00:14:54.809 to think, because is we've been hearing throughout this book and, as Paul 161 00:14:54.929 --> 00:15:00.889 says right here, this God who is in heaven, there is no partiality 162 00:15:01.049 --> 00:15:07.399 in him. This is a very condemning news for those who were under the 163 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:13.480 law, for those who think that they are perhaps free from judgment because they 164 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:20.200 are of a particular status and society. But of course is great news for 165 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:24.429 those of us who know that we have nothing, nothing to give, nothing 166 00:15:24.549 --> 00:15:28.549 to bring, nothing to claim, and to go to God who shows no 167 00:15:28.710 --> 00:15:33.669 partiality. What a blessing that is. What a wonderful thing it is to 168 00:15:33.750 --> 00:15:37.940 come as a slaver or a master and say I really don't have anything to 169 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:46.980 offer here. I have sinned. Forgive me. Can you imagine what our 170 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:52.929 faith would be like if God was a respecter of persons, that God elevated, 171 00:15:54.009 --> 00:16:00.610 perhaps people of wealth or nobility? If God, if God paid less 172 00:16:00.649 --> 00:16:10.159 attention to those people that were less valuable according to humanst anders. Praise God. 173 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:15.279 It's not that way, praise God that even the humblest, greatest sinners 174 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:21.190 of us, the people that are lowest and most despicable, either for the 175 00:16:21.309 --> 00:16:26.110 things that we have done or even things that aren't even our fault, we 176 00:16:26.230 --> 00:16:34.899 can all go before this king and find His grace. As we conclude this, 177 00:16:37.059 --> 00:16:44.500 this passage in Ephesians, these various codes for household codes, is the're 178 00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:48.250 sometimes called. It's various commandments for how we, as Christians, can and 179 00:16:48.409 --> 00:16:52.970 ought to live out our our very stations and callings and places in life. 180 00:16:55.210 --> 00:17:00.129 There are a few things that we ought to notice as we conclude. The 181 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.480 first thing to notice is that they all stem, all of these commands stem 182 00:17:03.640 --> 00:17:08.640 from the rule of love. Another thing to notice is that they always put 183 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:15.480 God in the highest place. There's no husband, no parent, no master 184 00:17:15.269 --> 00:17:22.470 who's higher than God. They also raise up and dignify and and and give 185 00:17:22.990 --> 00:17:29.950 a high calling to those who are under authority as well. They call all 186 00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:33.019 of us, in all of our stations in life, to seek the will 187 00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:37.299 of God and all things. These commands are the ways in which we show 188 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:45.130 forth the Gospel by bearing fruit in keeping with faith and repentance. So, 189 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:48.890 as you think back over these various commands, as you think back in the 190 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:52.730 ways and you think about the ways you currently live your life, in your 191 00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:57.089 relationships with your family and perhaps outside of that as well, and in your 192 00:17:57.130 --> 00:18:03.920 neighborhoods and your communities, in your the places that are in people that employ 193 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:08.839 you, what do you do when you see these things lacking in your life? 194 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:15.029 What do you do when you see that this kind of love with which 195 00:18:15.069 --> 00:18:18.150 you have been loved is not being brought forth, is not being demonstrated? 196 00:18:19.349 --> 00:18:25.509 What ought you to do? Well, one thing is that we ought to 197 00:18:25.549 --> 00:18:30.539 be attentive to God's word as we hear it and as we see lot it's 198 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:34.220 it lived out in the lives of others. It helps us not only to 199 00:18:34.299 --> 00:18:38.700 understand what it is God wants us to be, but it also helps us 200 00:18:38.740 --> 00:18:45.329 to see in action how he brings about forgiveness and grace in our lives, 201 00:18:45.130 --> 00:18:48.529 how the work of Jesus on the Cross, the work that he began even 202 00:18:48.569 --> 00:18:56.920 before the ages began, is playing out in this world. And if you 203 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:00.079 look around you, you will find that all of us have people that we 204 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:06.000 can learn from. These might be formalized relationships, but it doesn't have to 205 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.069 be. There are people in my life that I learned from that are near 206 00:19:10.269 --> 00:19:15.349 and far, older, younger, male female. Some I've never met, 207 00:19:15.750 --> 00:19:22.829 some I have. Let me now encourage you that one of the best places 208 00:19:22.990 --> 00:19:27.579 to learn the word of God and both its law and its Gospel, one 209 00:19:27.619 --> 00:19:33.980 of the best places outside the church itself, is in our homes. There's 210 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:41.609 a reason Paul focuses so much attention here on our homes. I think, 211 00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:44.970 if there was one thing that could mark our church, how wonderful would it 212 00:19:45.049 --> 00:19:49.690 be if we had godly homes, homes in which each household was growing in 213 00:19:49.849 --> 00:19:56.880 the Lord, sharing and encouraging walking with one another? Homes in which the 214 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:03.160 will of God was sought, homes in which we subjected everything we did to 215 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:07.829 the will of God and not to arbitrary things or our own whims and especially 216 00:20:07.910 --> 00:20:12.829 our own sins? What if we lived in homes that not only sought to 217 00:20:14.109 --> 00:20:18.589 obey these laws and live out these commands, but did so from a position 218 00:20:18.670 --> 00:20:25.859 of faith, faith trusting that we are incapable of doing these things perfect perfectly, 219 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:30.220 faith trusting that Jesus came aim and died for us so that we might 220 00:20:30.259 --> 00:20:34.930 be forgiven, so that we are our salvation in our life together as families 221 00:20:36.049 --> 00:20:40.569 and as a church doesn't depend on us. It doesn't depend on us sort 222 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:44.250 of falling in and out of God's grace, but one that is sure and 223 00:20:44.410 --> 00:20:49.640 strong, having been adopted by him. What I witnessed that would be is 224 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:55.920 we opened our homes to each other and to the world to share with them 225 00:20:55.960 --> 00:21:00.559 the love of Jesus and the Gospel. Of course, the opposite is scary. 226 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:06.549 What if we proclaim one thing here at church, but then people who 227 00:21:06.910 --> 00:21:12.109 come into our homes or live next door would be surprised and say really, 228 00:21:14.190 --> 00:21:21.859 Christians? What a sad thing that would do to the goodness of the grace 229 00:21:21.980 --> 00:21:26.539 God has given to us, what a sad thing it would say about all 230 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:33.049 the ways in which we have been blessed. My goal is not to just 231 00:21:33.289 --> 00:21:37.769 lay heaps of guilt on you. I'm sure there are things my neighbors might 232 00:21:37.849 --> 00:21:41.930 say about me. My point is just to say that this is important. 233 00:21:42.970 --> 00:21:48.640 It's important got it's here in God's word. We've spent a lot of time 234 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:52.160 in it, because God spends a lot of time a significant section of this 235 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:59.799 letter helping us to understand these things. We hear this law and it makes 236 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:03.869 us feel bad. Sometimes it pricks our consciences. We see the ways in 237 00:22:03.990 --> 00:22:08.230 which we don't fulfill it, ways in which we have not just make mistakes, 238 00:22:08.309 --> 00:22:14.269 but ways in which we have supremely fallen short, ways in which we 239 00:22:14.430 --> 00:22:18.980 have created consequences for our lives that we know we're going to feel for a 240 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:25.579 long, long time. What do you do with that? Well, you 241 00:22:25.619 --> 00:22:27.900 don't throw away the law and say, well, I guess I don't have 242 00:22:27.940 --> 00:22:33.569 anything to do with that anymore. Nor do you sort of double down and 243 00:22:33.690 --> 00:22:37.410 pursue it even harder, without any reference to the salvation that we have been 244 00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:42.450 purchase, has been purchased for us in Christ. No, we pursue the 245 00:22:42.529 --> 00:22:48.440 obedience to this law, thinking of it like David talks about, is sweet 246 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.200 as the drippings of a honeycomb, enjoyable, pleasurable, full of joy, 247 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:57.630 because we see that this good life that is described here is a good is 248 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:03.349 the life that God has called us into. We have been called into the 249 00:23:03.509 --> 00:23:08.150 household of God, in which he is our father and which he is our 250 00:23:08.230 --> 00:23:14.539 husband and which he is our master, and that household that he has established 251 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:21.220 is perfect and wonderful and you can never be taken away from it if your 252 00:23:21.299 --> 00:23:25.180 faith is in him, if your trusting him, him, if you're going 253 00:23:25.299 --> 00:23:27.849 to him with all of your weaknesses, all of your inadequacies and all of 254 00:23:27.890 --> 00:23:32.769 your sin and your low stature and all the rest, because we are not 255 00:23:32.809 --> 00:23:37.170 accepted into the household of God on the basis of our works, but on 256 00:23:37.250 --> 00:23:42.319 the basis of his. You remember what Paul says about Christ when he addresses 257 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:48.359 husband's he says that he Christ. Well, let me just read it to 258 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:53.920 you. We read it this morning, but it's worth hearing again. I'm 259 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:57.869 in Philippians all of a sudden. Okay, if Usians, husbands, Love 260 00:23:57.910 --> 00:24:02.990 Your wives as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her that he 261 00:24:02.990 --> 00:24:06.869 might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 262 00:24:07.430 --> 00:24:11.140 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot 263 00:24:11.220 --> 00:24:15.940 or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 264 00:24:17.859 --> 00:24:22.579 This is the foundation of the household of God and it can be the 265 00:24:22.660 --> 00:24:27.769 foundation of our households, our individual households as well. And when we fall 266 00:24:27.809 --> 00:24:33.890 short, which we all do and all will. We mourn of our sin, 267 00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:37.369 we mourn of the harm it causes, and then we go to God, 268 00:24:37.410 --> 00:24:42.079 who is not only our master who judges the world, but he is 269 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:51.640 also our covenant Lord Who Saves The world. We go to we go to 270 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:57.910 him as our father, not as slaves, but as children who have been 271 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:03.990 permanently adopted into his family through the Work of His only begotten Son, on 272 00:25:03.150 --> 00:25:07.779 the Cross in which he took our sins and died so that by his blood 273 00:25:07.859 --> 00:25:12.859 we might, as Paul says, be cleansed of our sins. This is 274 00:25:12.940 --> 00:25:18.900 why, when wrongs are done to us in our families, we can say 275 00:25:18.019 --> 00:25:26.289 things as radical as I forgive you. This is why, when we are 276 00:25:26.369 --> 00:25:30.410 hurt or when we harm others, we can go and we can say I'm 277 00:25:30.569 --> 00:25:44.240 sorry. John says, we love because he first loved us. This is 278 00:25:44.440 --> 00:25:48.200 the message that has been proclaimed to us over and over again throughout this section 279 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:53.150 of God's word. My exhortation to you is let his life, let Christ's 280 00:25:53.230 --> 00:26:00.390 life, be the foundation of your life and of your households, the example 281 00:26:00.630 --> 00:26:06.660 for your life, yes, but the source of it, the strength of 282 00:26:06.779 --> 00:26:11.940 it and the hope of it as well. Let's pray, let's ask last 283 00:26:12.019 --> 00:26:17.660 let's ask our savior to do these things in US and in our homes