Amen. Well, if you turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter three, we're in Colossians chapter three verses 22 to Colossians chapter four, verse one. Colossians 3, 22 to Colossians four, verse one. Last time we saw God's will for the family which is according to his original design in nature, modeled after his own being in the way in which the three persons of the one God had relate to one another so that human children naturally and temporally proceed from the love of their parents even as the Holy Spirit naturally ontologically and eternally proceeds from the love that the father and the son have for one another. He proceeds from them even as children proceed from their parents. This is a reflection of physical and human likeness of the divine and spiritual oneness and threeness and the human family is to grow in its likeness to God again because we are creatures and we can't be exactly like God so we grow in our likeness. God doesn't grow in his divineness. He's fully perfect but we grow and we are supposed to grow as husbands love their wives as wives submit to their husbands and as we saw last week children also right now no matter how young they are they have a place to play in serving God in the church. It's for Christian children that the command goes out because only Christian children can be addressed like this from God and told to submit to obey their parents and by obeying their parents they please God right now they're not too young to serve him they're not too young to have a role they have a role they can obey God and they do trusting in Jesus Christ and our parents teach them to trust in Christ and yet to obey and yet we also saw that the parents have a role that particularly the father is to see to it that the home is a place where children can grow and develop through the loving and wise application of parental nurture and discipline. We saw that we are to avoid both harshness and laxity that children are not to be provoked by their parents in that sense and the father is charged with that duty to make sure it doesn't happen. I think all of this biblical motto of consistent loving discipline is summed up nicely in a verse I did not read last time let me read it to you. Proverbs 29-15 listen to this verse the rod and rebuke give wisdom but a child left to himself bring shame to his mother boy if that isn't a problem in the world today children just left to themselves left to themselves at home left to themselves in the streets left to themselves in the stores wherever left to themselves and it's so easy for parents to either lash out and be harsh and be abusive or drop out and neglect and in both cases offer excuses right well it's hard well it's too much it can't be too hard it can't be too much you're a parent you've got to make the sacrifice a pregnant woman doesn't get you know eight and a half months in you know what I need two and a half weeks off of this pregnancy god it's too hard you signed up for that being a parent is hard especially when they're young I know we had four and five years you don't get a lot of sleep you have to be where they are you don't get the nice adult time that you see the singles getting in the older folks that will come and believe me it'll come too soon so I hear enjoy that time with them I know it's hard don't leave them to themselves make the sacrifice don't make excuses I need my adult time you need to be a parent kids need you make the sacrifice it will end believe me and so this verse is powerful right the rod and rebuke you wisdom don't leave children to themselves they will bring shame to you do you love your children parents do you love god then make the sacrifice take the time to consistently lovingly discipline them to not leave them to themselves believe me you'll wish that you would have done more when they grow well today we move beyond the family unit to consider another institution that is present everywhere in the ancient world but really until recently maybe know where that people knew about and that is the institution of slavery what do we make of this text in our bibles this morning how do we apply it to our lives well that's what I think we see in our passage that this passage applies to us in our context of so-called freedom today we'll have to see Lord willing let's pray as we turn to God's word Father we thank you that you do give us your word that it is timeless that it is true that it's from you that it's what we need though often not what we like when we don't operate in the spiritual nature Father help us not to be thinking of others help us to be thinking of ourselves every one of us fall short and it's our duty to and own that and to bring it to you not to be condemned and to feel bad but to be set free and to be forgiven but we have to do it we have to own it and so Father we pray as we consider the passage on slaves and masters that we would see how this applies to us that we would see your goodness in this text and that we would turn away from all of our sin in it and that we would rejoice in the salvation and the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ for we pray this in his name amen here now the word of the Lord from Colossians chapter 3 beginning in verse 22 this is God's holy word bond servants obey and all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye service as men pleases but in sincerity of heart fearing God and whatever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ but he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done and there is no partiality masters give your bond servants what is just in fair knowing that you also have a master in heaven may the Lord establish this word in our hearts this morning I pray I want you to notice first of all the freedom of the gospel I want you to notice the freedom of the gospel verse 22 bond servants obey and all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye services men pleases but in sincerity of heart fearing God this passage is shocking to modern ears it's absolutely shocking I can think a few verses that are criticized with as much passion as verse 22 in our text today in particular the Apostle Paul but the whole Bible is is not only criticized it's condemned for what we see in today's passage today's passage has the gall to offer a command to slaves and to tell them be good slaves obey your masters listen to them continue to be the good slaves that you are not
this passage has been blamed for condoning even helping the institution of slavery why if the slaves actually listen to Paul here and our good slaves slavery would have continued to this day the argument goes that if Christianity knew and believed as we know today that slavery is wrong why all would never have spoken this way the word of God would not why does it not condemn slavery as an institution why does it not seize this golden opportunity that really the Apostle has as he goes forth throughout the empire proclaiming what's supposed to be the word of God pure truth why doesn't he before a watching world teach and practice the love of God and man in full fairness and equality and condemn this institution where one person owns another person why does Paul not bring fairness and justice to the social sphere of human society and seek to do it in all the Roman empire and then in all the world because what Rome did ruled the world well it sometimes said in defense of the Bible while the Bible argues for the ethical treatment of slaves it it sought to curtail abuses in the institution of slavery so what so does Aristotle so does Plato sit all the moral philosophers they cry out against the abuses of slavery slave masters should not be so cruel they should not kill their slaves at a whim they should be kinder to them there was even Roman laws that if slaves were treated cruelly enough but they could show that they could have a new master given to them and they could be delivered from that situation and we must admit beloved that nowhere in the New Testament and nowhere in the Bible is the institution of slavery condemned it's not condoned nowhere is it condoned nowhere does God say thus say if the Lord thou shalt have slaves or slavery is good or even slavery is impartial it doesn't condone it but it does not condemn it what the New Testament does is to instruct Christian slaves and Christian masters to be godly slaves to be godly masters to be just in fair to be kind and good whether you're a slave or a master that's what the New Testament does it does not command them to give up the practice it does not say to masters in general free your slaves the New Testament doesn't do that and so the New Testament is attacked and the Bible is condemned by our moral warriors today who know so much better than the word of god and they are so much more righteous than the Almighty Maker if we notice a few things about our text rather than just sit on our high horses and try to condemn scripture as morally inferior to us if we want to actually look at what the text says we will see that for some reason the passage on servants and masters really slaves and masters is longer than the entire passage on wives and husbands and on parents and children and on fathers and mothers masters and slaves is longer than all of that combined more attention is given to this situation in which there were slaves and masters I think we've lost the context of the ancient world today we've lost the context and the knowledge of what exactly was going on in this passage and we want to look at everything through our 32nd prism of new snippets with no understanding and say we know everything and this was wrong and we're right and we're better and they were worse it's been estimated that at least a third of the population of Rome were slaves in the first century maybe as many as twice the amount of all the males in the city there may have been more slaves than people a lot of experts go back and forth even the most modern ones they don't know exactly how many slaves there were there were a lot of them some Romans famously had thousands of slaves one owner thousands because it became a sort of a symbol of your status we know that many Christians were slaves we know this in particular from certain letters but even in scripture in Peter's instruction where he gives some of these moral instructions in chapter two and three where he talks about citizens to rulers and rulers to citizens and husbands to wives and wives to husbands and he talks about slaves in Peter first Peter two and three but Peter never has a word to masters and it's been theorized that maybe the people that Peter were were writing to there were no masters the Christians were either too poor to have slaves or they were slaves themselves and there's a lot of evidence that many of the early Christians were slaves it was not however we need to think about when we look at the Roman institution of slavery it was not the racial slavery of colonial America in many ways slavery was a way to survive if you were poor if you were mained if you were impaired in some way whereas being a Roman citizen was a privilege to be earned it was not automatically granted you didn't if you were born in Rome you didn't become a Roman citizen it was a privilege in fact scholars debate what did Paul's father do perhaps even his mother that caused Paul a non-ethnic Roman to be born a Roman citizen his father must have done some great work heroic deed for the empire that's the only way he could have been given the status what scripture says he was born a Roman very rare for a non-ethnic Roman his father must have done some great thing in the empire perhaps even his mother but whereas it was difficult to be a Roman citizen you came into slavery in the ancient world in many ways in fact Rome which was always conquering countries if you were conquered in a country you pretty much were a slave there were some exceptions they would bring them in if they thought they could populate their armies and so forth but pretty much you'd come in as a slave in the captured nations at Rome was constantly capturing you could be kidnapped and made a slave that way we see that in the Old Testament when Joseph is kidnapped by his brothers and made a slave you could be sold in the slavery willingly by your parents because they had debts and this was a way there was acceptable you could be sold in the slavery you could be convicted of a crime and sentenced to slavery that was one of the judgments of their jurisprudence system you could be sentenced to be a slave for a time or for life you could go into debt yourself and sell yourself into slavery in order to get out of debt that was an accepted way in which for you to deal with your problems in the ancient world or you could be born a slave if you're the child of slave parents you were automatically a slave what do we what do we say about this system what do we say about the criticism that the Bible gets for not outright condemning the system there are many cruelties tacitist rights of four hundred slaves who were put to death because they did not prevent the assassination of their master and so the Roman law came in and killed four hundred of them slaves did not have many rights that they did have some but it was very hard for them to enforce them what do we say about this criticism that comes well i think it's at least arguable that our system today is no better did you ever think about that that our system today the way in which we deal with the poor and the indigent and those who are in the lowest levels of society did you see the way our society rules help them if i can use the word help in quotes some of you have worked in the criminal justice system and you've seen what happens when the government continues to just hand out for free free food free housing free everything to people and what happens is it robs them of their dignity and then they have this guilt and then they get into drugs a lot of them and they destroy themselves and then our government provides free drugs for them there are people in this church whose relatives have gone through this system and the government provides the methadone and keeps them spaced out on a drug that's more powerful than heroin the government pays for it and gives it to them because it doesn't know what to do with them and they have no dignity and their lives are destroyed and there's sections entire sections of our city that you can't go into because we're so morally superior to the Romans that we've created this system where generational welfare continues where you're stuck in a cycle and you can't get out and you're even made to be ashamed of yourself and you end up destroying yourself with government paid for drugs and needles and you get into all sorts of crime and we have these ghetto areas that they're called and so forth in every city and the homeless is growing and everything else but the Roman slavery system was so off so much worse wasn't really i'm not going to you know we could go into the details and compare but the slaves worked and they did something that was good for them even when they were treated bad and they had human dignity and they were able to do things and work in a way that their physical bodies were not destroyed by government but drugs and so forth so let's just notice at least you could make the argument that the Roman system may not have been so bad compared to ours maybe ours is even worse i don't know i'm not going to argue that let's jump to the ultimate argument and let's just admit the fact that there would be no slavery and there would have been no slavery in the Roman Empire if there were not sin in the world and if we really want to talk about causes and cures then let's be serious and let's deal with the problem for real sin is in the world entirely against the will of God against his specific and explicit command to man God said if you sin these things will happen death will come thorns and thistles pain will come subjection will come oppression will come all of these things and man sinned and now these things are in the world ultimately the reason why slavery is was in the world in the first century is the same reason why every evil is in the world today ultimately because God is merciful it's an ironic to you is that sound ridiculous think about it evil is in the world today because God is merciful if God were perfectly just and there was no mercy in God then the moment is sinful thought entered someone's head the moment somebody thought about erecting the institution of slavery they would immediately be sentenced and thrown into hell the moment somebody thought about stealing something the moment somebody thought about murdering or hurting someone because thoughts are sinned and can be sinful and so there would be no evil in the world and that's the alternative either God can be merciful and allow sinners and if he allows sinners to live guess what they're going to do they're going to do evil and so God is merciful when he lets sinners live and they do evil and then what do we do we shake our fists and say God how dare you let this evil happen when the alternative would be throw us all in hell where we deserve there be no evil earth would be perfect the rocks in the trees would do their own thing no humans would be doing anything wrong and then the person who is so upset with God and blames God for all the evils that are in the world could rest content as he's burning in hell because nobody would be alive to do evil and that's really the alternatives beloved so God is merciful he allows man to live and so man erects institutions like slavery you know what the real solution though beloved is not simply to just try to get rid of these outward things by which man manifests his evil that wouldn't solve anything what God does is he sends his son in the world to deal with the evil that's in man heart that gives birth to all these things that's what we need we don't need to find ways to outwardly get rid of institutions that express the sin of man we need to get rid of the sin of man but there's only one thing that does that and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ it expressly deals with the evil of man Jesus died to reconcile us to a holy God a God who hates him a God against whom all sin is directed you and I suffer from some evils from people but not all many many evil deeds happen in this world that you and I don't even know about every single one is against God every single one is infinitely more offensive to him than anything has ever been to your eye and yet he does not consume us in a moment as we deserve and the gospel comes and addresses this evil and restores first the honor and majesty and dignity of God as man is reconciled first to God human liberalism is always concerned about this fear always about other people always about what bad thing is happening to someone else on the outward doesn't care at all about the heart doesn't care at all about the dignity and majesty of the almighty God who made us from nothing to be like him and we offend him every moment and he lets us live and then we again blame him for the evils of the world and yet God does not consume this world I don't know about you but I could go on and on and I am just floored with the patience and the long suffering and the tolerance of a God who is Jonathan Edward described as holding every human being by a slender thread over the flames of the fire we deserve and every human being is mocking God and hating God and is loathes of the God and yet God continues to hold him with the hopes that maybe that person would be saved and we blame God for the evils in the world it's God's fault it's the Christians fault that slavery was not cured in the first century the gospel addresses the primary cause of evil Jesus died to reconcile us to a holy God in the reconciliation of man to God we have the ultimate and real answer to all human injustice not simply fixing the outward and glossing over the inward but purifying man's heart so that he will actually love God and actually love his neighbor and begin to live that way and yes he's still a sinner so he still messes up and does things imperfectly and yet this is what God is done and we get to be a part of that this is the freedom of the gospel secondly I want you to notice the dignity of work notice the dignity of work again verse 22 I only have three points today bond servants obey and all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye services men pleases but in sincerity of heart pleasing God I wanted to do that background because I wanted to deal with the massive criticism that this text gets from the liberals the Christianity condones or even furthers the practice of slavery beloved this verse does not give us verse 22 does not give us let me just say it straight up it is not the revolution of the social justice warrior it is the restitution of the divine grace savior that's what we have in verse 22 the most famous effort to flee the free the slaves and there were many in the Roman Empire probably the most famous without a doubt really was Spartacus in 73 BC to 71 BC Spartacus a Roman gladiator a slave rises up with other slaves and gladiators many of them prisoners for horrible crimes let's not make it too hollywood they were all saints they were prisoners and many of them sentenced for murder and things but they were slaves and they threw off the Euchar slavery and they defeated multiple Roman legions it was pretty amazing when you read the history from 73 to 71 BC but then Rome brings the might of its empires as the armies were out fighting other wars they come back and Spartacus is crushed and almost every single one of them are killed on the battlefield every single one of these slaves except for the 6,000 they captured in all 6,000 plus they crucified and they lined the crosses along the Appian way to Rome 6,000 plus and yet some would want Paul to call for a revolution to free the slaves Paul was much more merciful and kind to the people and much more thorough and deliberate because he was speaking the word of God and beloved whatever we want to say about what happened in the first century no one can deny that it was the Christian William Wilberforce in England who ended modern slavery modern racial slavery no one can deny that read up on William Wilberforce and it was the Christian abolitionists in America who put to the end racial slavery in America it was the Christian abolitionist movement no one can deny that I know you can look them up and find the sayings of this theologian and this Pope and whatever saying that slavery is okay throughout history no one can deny the fact that racial slavery ended in the modern world by William Wilberforce and the Christian abolitionist movement it was people who believed in Jesus who ended it and no one can deny that they can find these trailer quotes and say look what this guy said and take it out of context Paul's instruction in this letter beloved let me just say this is unheard of he addresses the slaves personally and first as I said yes there was more instruction from the Stoics and from other philosophers but it would be two the men and about the women and about the children and about the slaves Paul says in the Greek the women the husbands the children the fathers the slaves they're all addressed identically with the definitive object marker and the noun in the plural and then a second person plural verb speaking to them directly Paul says to the slaves imagine the slaves would have had a bin in the congregation as this letter was read and you would hear the wives okay do this the wives the husbands okay husbands do this the children children in the congregation being instructed by God do this children fathers do this the slaves they're there they're part of the congregation they have a role to play in God's family in God's church they're addressed by God they're spoken to by God Paul addresses the slaves first and with four times as much words from God as the masters get the masters get one token verse in chapter four verse one almost as an afterthought unheard of in the ancient world that the slaves would be spoken to this way that they would be said to be just as able and responsible to serve God as the masters with four times as many words from God could you imagine if the most popular person in the world came and spoke four times as long to your most hated enemy through a few words at you and left how would you feel Paul speaks four times as long the word of God four times as long to the slaves as it does to the masters telling the slaves that you can serve God you can still glorify God and I love what it refers to them as to their masters in first 22 you've probably heard me sort of emphasize it bond servants obey and all things and here it is your masters according to the flesh that's all they are their masters according to this fleshly human relationship for a time that's what they are they're not your masters they're not your betters they're not over you in some ontological or eternal way they're just your masters according to the flesh you know like your boss at work it's the same kind of thing that Paul was saying here obey them they happen to be in this relationship arrangement this relationship where they're above you in some sense that's okay serve them in fact it says serve them not with eye service as men pleasers but in sincerity of heart notice not fearing them fearing God they're serving God they're still glorifying God Paul lifts the dignity and the purpose of the slaves in their work look at verses 23 and verse 24 whatever you do slaves do it heartily to the Lord and not to mend my masters commanding me to clean out this stall my master's commanding me to fix this rag and my masters and I'm doing all of it to the Lord and not to mend you see how Paul has gone way beyond freeing the slaves in some physical way he sets them free and all that they do they're serving God he says knowing that from the Lord you will receive a word the reward of the inheritance no matter what the master is paying you God will pay you he accepts your work he accepts it he will pay you because and here's the clincher you serve the Lord Christ wait a minute this is my master this is my owner I serve the Lord Christ Paul he has set the slaves free he has lifted the dignity of their work I mean can you imagine if this is true for slaves how much more is it true for you and I no matter what kind of situation we may be in no matter how demeaning it may be what if you're in prison wrongly accused and condemned for a crime you didn't commit you serve the Lord God in that do the work you're commanded to do and know that God will pay you for it what if you're a prisoner of war taken captive by a hostile enemy nation you serve God in that prisoner of war camp whatever they tell you to do do it heartily God will reward you again obviously not if it's a sin the same thing wives can't submit to their husbands if they command them to sin children can't obey their parents if they command them to sin slaves were not to obey masters if they were commanded to sin but again that is such a small rarity that Paul can just say submit and everything obey and everything and hear again obey in all things and all the things that obviously are not inherently sinful but Paul always says it that way because we are so prone to find something on well wait a minute my master didn't love Jesus enough when he told me that so if I do this is a sin that is not the kind of species reasoning that we are to do in all things unless it's clearly a sin we are to obey in all things that's the point because again we're serving God God is accepting your work if you're if you're in an abusive family and you have to obey parents or you have to submit to a husband who is not a good husband you serve Christ Paul say do it unto the Lord do it heartily do it for real for God God will repay God sees it you're always God's servant do you hear what he's saying whether you have an unfair boss at work do the job the best you can not for the boss fear God and serve him he's put you in that situation he understands it he understands the injustice of it he had a son who went through a little bit more injustice and still did his duty and that's the purpose and the thing we are we are being able to redeem even these awful situations we are able to show the glory of God in them and if it was easy where would be the glory in it God puts us all into a rich paradise the moment we're converted all serve me there every scoundrel would be a Christian if that's the case you serve Christ he says it pleases God there's no lesser gold there are there should be no clock watcher Christians oh it's almost quitting time oh the boss isn't here let's goof off the boss is God he always sees you lift the dignity of your work do it for the Lord do it notice it says heartily you know what the Greek word there is out of the soul do it out of the soul put your soul into it put your heart and soul into it because you're doing it for the Lord this is how and that's why I picked that text in the Old Testament this is how Joseph could be sold into a slave as a slave and and serve God as a slave why because he knew the Lord was his master this is how Joseph could be wrongly accused put in prison and he's doing his best in prison why because he knew the Lord was his master and God was accepting his work and was blessing him beloved this sets us free this text this sets the prisoner free and it would should be enough this kind of instruction and yet Paul goes beyond that and he promises rewards verse 24 you will receive the reward of the inheritance the positive motivation but verse 25 you'll be repaid if you do wrong don't think that as a Christian if you are in a situation where you have a master in some sense and you're doing your duty out of hatred and whatever don't think you're going to get away with that because God sees and God that says here you will receive you'll be repaid for what he has done there is no partiality in other words God is not respecting persons he's not saying well the master gets a better deal because he's the master well the the or we would do it this way right the poor gets a better deal while you're poor you know you can steal things once in a while well you're oppressed you know you can commit adultery it's not as bad God is no respecter persons no matter what situation we are in we are called to the same thing that's what that means there's no partiality so your situation is a difficult one serve God to the degree that you can in that situation so your situations one where you have all kind of power and so forth you're more responsible to make sure that others are able to be blessed and that's this last verse to the masters but let me go to my final point the quality of mankind I want you to notice the equality of mankind verses 24 and 25 again show us the reward promised the faithful service the punishment coming to unfaithful now we know we're saved by grace we receive righteousness by grace but judgment is by works because grace on the inside will manifest itself on the outside and it won't be the profession that God looks at it will be the proof or you believe in Christ where is your works you love your neighbor where's your works that's what we see here and so this is where we're called to stir up the grace in our hearts again not to earn something before God God doesn't say you know you'll be rewarded by earning it but to live out what you already have your God servant live it out and God reward you as you do that so here is again justice and fairness and there's no partiality God doesn't respect again the free the rich the beautiful the smart the powerful he doesn't look at the race the sex we're all morally equal creatures before him we're all held to the same standard and we're all promised the same rewards and threatened with the same punishments God retreats men equal here he lifts the slave up and he brings the master down again look at verse one of chapter four masters give your bond servants pay your bond servants what is just and fair knowing that you also have a master in heaven even as the slave he says oh that's just your master in the flesh he says to the master you are a slave and you have a master in heaven Paul makes the slave and the master equal in this text he goes way beyond setting the slave free in some outward sense he renews each one and charges each one to live out the circumstance they're in under the sovereignty of God trusting God but serving God yes you masters you have this earthly advantage you're a master you're free well guess what you're more responsible to make sure that justice and fairness is done to those under you and God will hold you accountable to that Ephesian says as our text also implies you have a master in heaven he says he sees you may have rights over those slaves but I have rights over you God says and you better treat those slaves well here where we see that the free man is a slave before God even as the slave is free to serve God and you know what it's just not true let me go back to that criticism it's just not true that Christianity is indifferent to slavery no it does not condemn the institution because it completely guts it and undermines it and makes everybody equal within it but Christianity actually says this 1st Corinthians 721 were you called while a slave Paul says don't be concerned about it you can't control that that's okay God's not going to think less of you but if you can be made free do it Paul says all right it's not the best thing to be called as a slave but don't feel bad don't think God thinks less of you he's no respecter of persons he doesn't look at the master any better than you but if you're able to be made free then do it and so Christianity did price-free to more than slavery but what it did was it said to the slave you are as much Christ servant as your master Paul says it this way again in 1st Corinthians 7 he was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave Jesus said that this way most assured I say to you whoever commits sin is a slave of sin that's the real bondage that we are all in unless the gospel sets us free in our hearts that's the thing that our noble moralists today don't even recognize let alone decry let alone try to free people from they would have people continue to be slaves of sin they just want it to be prettier on the outside so they feel good about themselves when they go to bed at night Christian and he goes says no we're not satisfied with that we want everybody to be equal we want everyone everybody to be given their full human dignity before God right now right now the slave gets to serve God right now the master's accountable to God not someday not after we organize not something when we get the revolution going and everything happens someday we'll have the utopia right now everyone's able to serve Christ immediately in the gospel this is the power that the gospel brings this is the true equality that we have in Christ the Christian slave is set free at conversion and the Christian master at conversion becomes a slave and everyone must know that life is so much bigger than these human relationships we get caught up in today and the status in society that you have that we want to somehow smooth over make all equal first of all it's not possible second of all it wouldn't work the third of all wouldn't fix the problems what is what does it mean that you're you have more possessions than another that your your job enables you to to do more that you have more power or more education or more wealth or less of any of these things or that you can do some big influential thing in a temporal way to the world what is any of that to God doesn't add anything to him is it going to give you a better judgment before him what matters is what did you live for who were you serving not whether it was as a slave or a master who were you serving we had a funeral service on Friday when we had Frank Gazza's family and I looked at those people and they were a lot of them I didn't know and some of them I did and I appealed to them we're all going to die someday you can be free and serve God right now or you can get caught up in your status and think that somehow by changing some of the ways in which we account things it's going to make a difference beloved we get to live the real true eternal freedom right now with all the dignity that anybody can have no matter where you're at whether you're a child a parent a husband a wife free slave you get to live for the Lord that's the only freedom that there ever is this is what this does it sets the prisoner free it sets the captive free the apostle Paul says it this way in Roman 6 and I'll close with this but God be thankful though you were slaves of sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered and having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness and having become slaves of God you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life let's pray father we thank you that you are a God who is merciful that you don't cast us into hell the moment that we sin it's easy for us to look at outward institutions and to see the flaws in them and to want to condemn them and yet we don't look at our own hearts and see the massive offenses that we're giving to you and even if we see them we excuse them Lord I fear that our society rather than becoming more righteous is becoming more hypocritical is becoming more wicked is becoming more surface oriented and accepting evil on the inside even as it makes those white wash supple clerk shine in the sun while they're full of dead men's bones Lord I pray that that would not be the case in your church I pray that there would not be the case in the PCA I pray that would not be the case in our hearts and our families that we would seek to serve you from the heart and not be so concerned with what situation we're in yes if we can better our situation do it as you say but to be concerned with serving you now where we are father help us to do that help us to be faithful slaves of Christ even as we are free to serve him no matter what men do to us we pray this in Jesus' name