Bondservants and Masters

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The following message by Alistair  Begg is made available by Truth For   Life. For more information visit  us online at truthforlife.org. Please turn with me to the letter of Paul  to Philemon, which is snuggled in between   Titus and Hebrews. I find it usually easier  to go from the back forwards and find it.   Sometimes the reading is finished by the  time I’ve finally tracked it down, but…  The letter of Paul to Philemon. And my thought  is that this may give us something for our   time this evening, but for now, I read it as  something of a cross-reference for this morning:  “Paul, a prisoner for Christ  Jesus, and Timothy our brother,  “To Philemon our beloved fellow  worker and Apphia our sister and   Archippus our fellow soldier,  and the church in your house:  “Grace to you and peace from God our  Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  “I thank my God always when I remember you  in my prayers, because I hear of your love   and of the faith that you have toward the Lord  Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that   the sharing of your faith may become effective  for the full knowledge of every good thing that   is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have  derived much joy and comfort from your love,   my brother, because the hearts of the  saints have been refreshed through you.  “Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to  command you to do what is required, yet for love’s   sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old  man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—I   appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose  father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly   he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful  to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you,   sending my very heart. I would have been glad to  keep him with me, in order that he might serve me   on your behalf during my imprisonment for the  gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without   your consent in order that your goodness might not  be by compulsion but of your own accord. For this   perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while,  that you might have him back forever, no longer as   a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a  beloved brother—especially to me, but how much   more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. “So if you consider me your partner, receive him   as you would receive me. If he has wronged you  at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my   account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I  will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even   your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit  from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.  “Confident of your obedience, I write to  you, knowing that you will do even more than   I say. At the same time, prepare a guest  room for me, for I am hoping that through   your prayers I will be graciously given to you. “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus,   sends greetings to you, [as] do Mark,  Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.  “The grace of the Lord Jesus  Christ be with your spirit.”  Amen. Well,   I invite you to turn to—no surprise—Ephesians  chapter 6 and read from verse 5:  “Bondservants,” or slaves, “obey your  earthly masters with fear and trembling,   with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not  by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers,   but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of  God from the heart, rendering service with a good   will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that  whatever good anyone does, this he will receive   back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant  or is free. Masters, do the same to them,   and stop your threatening, knowing that he who  is both their Master and yours is in heaven,   and that there is no partiality with him.” Father, we pray that as we turn to the Bible,   we might have the enabling of the Holy Spirit both  to speak and to hear, to understand, to believe,   to figure things out, to obey. Accomplish  your purposes, we pray, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.  Well, once again, it is important for us to remind  ourselves that when we come to this material,   that Paul is not writing, as it were, just to  the man or the woman on the streets of Ephesus,   but that he is writing—as per the introduction of  the letter way back in chapter 1—he is writing to   those whom he describes as “faithful in Christ  Jesus,” those who, later on in chapter 5, he   reminds, “are light in the Lord.” Those who were  once darkness, he says, “You are [now] light in   the Lord.” And in 5:18, those who are not getting  drunk with wine, but who instead are being filled   with the Holy Spirit. And as they are filled with  the Holy Spirit, these brothers and sisters in   Ephesus—and indeed, all the readers of this letter  in Christ—are learning what it means to “[submit]   to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Now, I belabor that point expressly because it   is very possible to come to any portion of the  Bible in such a way as to miss the fact that the   Bible is ultimately to introduce us to Jesus—to  introduce us to Jesus as the one who has done   for us what we could never do for ourselves, both  in living the life that God intends and in dying   death in the place of sinners—and that it is in  our awareness of who Jesus is and what Jesus has   done that we are then able to come to the places  of application and recognize that this is not   simply a form of moralism—“Do this and do that  and don’t do this and don’t do that”—but rather,   it is the dynamic of the work of the Spirit  of God, quickening those who are the faithful   in Christ and enabling us to become what God  intends for us to be. He has described these   individuals back, again, in chapter 1 as those  who have “heard the word of truth, the gospel   of your salvation, and [have] believed.” Now, not everybody who has heard the Word   of Truth here Sunday by Sunday at Parkside has  actually understood what has been said. And that   may be you. You’ve been listening for a while,  but you have never actually come, personally, to   believe. You haven’t settled the matter of whether  this really is truth and whether this is a matter   of great and eternal significance. Well, God is  at work, and he will accomplish his purposes.  But to those who have understood what Paul is  saying here, then you will have realized what   these individuals realized too—namely, that  when the Spirit of God comes to live in the   life of an individual, it changes everything.  And it changes particularly the way in which a   person thinks—first of all, the way in which  we think. And that is the point that Paul is   making. And that is why he has narrowed down to  these three crucial areas of life for everybody:   nothing more significant than the issue of husband  and wife, or the challenges of parent and child,   or, as we now come to this morning, the area  of industrial relations, or human resources,   and the everyday events of life in which some  report to others and others are in charge of them.  So let’s be clear about that: the gospel  changes our view of things, and it is a change   that is a wonderful change, but it is a radical  change. Remember, we often quote C. S. Lewis,   when he says, “I believe in Christianity  as I believe in the rising of the sun,   not simply because I can see it but because  by it, I can see everything else,” so that the   gospel changes our view of marriage, changes our  understanding of what it means to be a wife or a   child or an employer or an employee. And here  in this paragraph that we begin this morning,   in verse 5, he is dealing with the impact of  the Christian faith in the workplace. All right?  Now, the ESV uses “bondservants.” If you have the  same translation as I have, you will notice that   it has a little “1” there, then at the bottom of  the page it’s translating the Greek noun doulos,   then it refers us to the preface, and so on.  It simply means “slaves.” Slaves. And he is   addressing those who are slaves, and he is  addressing those who are the masters of the   slaves. Now, the very fact that he’s doing so  indicates something to us immediately—namely,   that within the congregation in Ephesus,  presumably sitting side by side as this   letter was given its first reading, were  those who were to be found in each category:   those whose role in life was within the servitude  of a bondservant and those who were in the   position of having slaves within their home. Now, when we come to this, it is immediately a   challenge for many of us, and certainly is for me,  to make sure that I am not immediately sidetracked   in dealing with this by viewing this material  through the prism of the Civil War—of immediately   coming to this and seeking to contextualize it  in light of 150 years ago, when we are confronted   with the horrendous nature of circumstances here  in our own nation. For those of us who have lived   in a country where slavery has been abolished  for more than a century and a half, we recognize   that it is hard to conceive how the ownership of  another person could be countenanced in this way.   So, let’s just acknowledge that and the challenge  that is represented in it in coming to the text.  The easy thing for me to do is simply  to say, “You will notice that this says,   ‘bondservants.’ It could be translated ‘slaves.’  What it actually means is ‘employers,’ so let’s   talk about employers and let’s talk about  employees.” But you’re too smart for that,   because you’re sitting there going, “Now, wait,  wait, wait a minute. There’s an underlying   question here that needs to be addressed.” And  so I want to do something with it this morning.  I want to tell you that I’ve been greatly  helped—you know that I read novels, and I’ve told   you in the past of the novels by the author Robert  Harris, and particularly his Cicero Trilogy,   written concerning life in the Roman Empire. And  the voice in those novels is the voice of Tiro,   who is Cicero’s slave. And as he serves in  the home of Cicero, he serves, first of all,   for the majority of his life as a slave, and then  as a freed man. But even after he is granted his   freedom by Cicero, he remains within the context  of Cicero’s home to serve him, because of the   relationship that exists between them. And the  relationship that existed between them was that of   master and slave, without question. But in actual  terms, Tiro was neither socially nor physically   nor economically deprived unduly in that context.  And he was like thousands—millions, actually—of   slaves at that time in the Roman Empire. So  the context in which Paul writes is much more   that context than our context this morning, or  even our context 150 years ago or 200 years ago.  It’s been estimated that at this time, about  thirty-five percent of the population in the   Roman Empire comprised those who were bondservants  or slaves. So if you think about that, you realize   how fundamentally important these individuals  were, and the tasks that they fulfilled,   for the well-being of the Empire. Now, there is no  question that many of them were treated brutally,   cruelly, and so on. But the fact is, to quote  Westermann of an earlier era, “The institution   of slavery was a fact of Mediterranean economic  life so completely accepted as a part of the labor   structure of the time that one cannot correctly  speak of the slave ‘problem’ in antiquity.” In   other words, you can’t speak of it simply in  problematic terms when you’re dealing with   that era, given all that was represented in it. And just parenthetically, we need to recognize   that there was no racial component in the Roman  Empire. There was nothing of that which was as   reprehensible as what was being tackled in America  in the Civil War. So again I say to you, when you   come to this, do not start from there and then try  and read this in light of that. Rather, read this,   and then once we come to terms with this, then we  can begin to apply this to that, whatever that may   be. I hope that is straightforward to you. Now, the fact that Paul addresses the   bondservants, or the slaves, in  this way is actually in keeping   with Westermann’s assessment: that they  were responsible members of the Christian   community, and he appeals to them as such. Now, resisting the temptation to just make a   quantum leap into “How has your boss been treating  you lately, and have you been turning up for work,   you know, on time?” and so on—which are all  matters of importance—before we get to that,   let’s acknowledge, first of all, what I have had  to acknowledge as I’ve been studying it this week:   that the most striking thing, first of all,  for me, is what Paul doesn’t say. In fact,   the most striking thing for me is what the New  Testament doesn’t say. Think about it. He does not   say to the slaves, “Now that you are a Christian,  you are free of your obligation to your master.”   He does not say to the masters, “Now that you’re  a Christian, you must set your slaves free.”  Now, just think about that for a moment. It’s  important. You say, “But isn’t Paul the one   who wrote in Galatians 3 that in Christ,  there is neither bondservant nor free man,   there is neither slave nor master, there’s  neither male nor female, there’s neither Greek   or barbarian or Jew or Scythian or bond or free,  that one is all and all is one, and so on?” Yes,   he wrote that. What was he talking about  there? He was talking about what it means   to be saved. He was talking about the nature  of salvation. If you think about it logically,   you realize that of course there were Jews, and of  course there were gentiles. Of course there were   masters, and of course there were slaves. What he’s saying is what we often say,   and that is that men and women are equal in the  sight of God, but men and women are not equal.   It’s a silly thing to say you’re equal. I’ll race  you out to your car, and we’re not equal. You will   beat me for sure. I can play about three notes on  the piano; you can play the entire piano. We’re   not equal. No, in the sight of God he has made us,  and in Jesus there is an equality that is grounded   in salvation, but that reality does not alter  the social, economic aspects of our existence.  And so, when you come to this, you realize  that Paul is not calling for the abolition   of slavery. “Be subject to your masters with all  respect, not only to the good and [the] gentle   but also to the unjust.” That’s not Paul. That’s  Peter in 1 Peter 2; he’s doing the same thing.   He says to these believers, “Now, if you want  to commend the gospel, this what you’re to do:   you’re to be subject to your masters. You’re not  involved in insurrection. God has instituted a   structure in the world, and that structure is  there, and this is the part that you play.”  “Well, am I only supposed to be kind  and nice and good and subservient if   the person is a good and a gentle master?”  No! Even if he or she is an unjust master.  Okay. Two observations—one, we might say,  practically speaking, and the other theologically   speaking. And we’ll spend the balance of our  time theologically not practically. Okay?  Practically speaking—practically speaking—Paul  was in no position to bring about the abolition   of slavery. He couldn’t have done it. If he had  suggested to these individuals that they operate   in a different way from that which was expected  within the framework of the Empire, then sure,   it would have an impact in some way—in some small  way—but thirty-five percent of the population   were involved in slavery. There was no way. In fact, the reverse would have been the case.   Not only would it have had very little impact on  the practice, but it may well practically have   precipitated the extermination of the fledgling  church. Because what we know—and we don’t know   much, many of us—but what we know of the Roman  Empire… And we’re thinking here in terms of Nero.   This is not Mr. Nice Guy who’s in charge of the  place. What we know of the Roman Empire is that   whenever something went wrong in the Roman  Empire, who got the blame? The Christians.  They said, “It’s the Christians. The Christians  are atheists.” Why would they say Christians are   atheists? Well, because the Christians did  not believe in all the gods that were in the   pantheon. And since they didn’t believe in  all the gods in the pantheon, then they’re   atheists. And as a result of that, the pressure  that was on them was significant. If Christianity,   then, in that context, had taken up, if you  like, or taken on the institution of slavery,   then the Roman Empire would have just crushed  it into oblivion. It had all the power to do so.  You see, “God moves in … mysterious way[s], his  wonders to perform; he plants his footsteps in   the sea, and [he] rides upon the storm.” That’s  why I prayed this morning concerning North Korea.   We trust and hope and pray that the news that  will eventually come out of North Korea is that   although the church has been brutalized and  driven underground, that it may actually have   been thriving, although we know nothing of it  at all. Certainly that was true of the Cultural   Revolution: the churches barred, and the gates  closed, and the Christians driven underground.   And everybody would have said, “Well, if it  was only different from that, then it would   have flourished greatly.” God knows. The expansion  of the church in the first three centuries was a   church that expanded under persecution. Anyway, in practical terms,   we could make those observations. More importantly, though, is to think   theologically. To think theologically. In  other words, to recognize that the reason   Paul does what he does is because he is  thinking properly. And the way in which   we need to approach challenging issues such as  this is by also thinking properly: learning to   think in terms of what the Bible teaches. You see, Paul is not driven by pragmatism   here. He’s not driven by pragmatism. He’s  driven by his theological convictions. Now,   what is a foundational theological  conviction for Paul? Well, it is this:   that God has entrusted to him and to those who  serve with him the message of reconciliation. So,   for example, when he writes to the Corinthians,  in 2 Corinthians 5, he says, “In Christ God was   reconciling the world to himself …. We are  ambassadors for Christ …. [And so] we implore   you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” In other words, Paul—if you like, Scripture—is   concerned first and foremost with man’s  relationship to God. That that is the great issue,   always: that God was in Christ reconciling  the world to himself; that the condition of   man before God in light of eternity is and always  will be the driving import of gospel proclamation.  That’s why Peter, for example, in the passage that  I just alluded to in 1 Peter chapter 2, before   he says what we just noted, he says, “I appeal to  you as pilgrims and as strangers.” All right? So,   theologically, the great issue is this issue:  God is holy, man is sinful, man is separated   from God. The message that we’re given to proclaim  is that God in Christ reconciles men and women to   himself. We’re also given to proclaim that  message in the short journey of our lives,   which is a very short journey, because we’re  not here forever; we are merely pilgrims and   we’re strangers. Therefore, the issues of this  world, as significant as they are, are not the   great issues. The great issues of the world relate  to the reality of our separation from God, of the   provision that God has made for us in that need,  and of the fact that we are here for a short time.  And Paul recognized that. That’s why in 1  Corinthians 9 he says, “My great concern   is to win as many as possible.” To win as many as  possible. So if he had taken on, if you like, the   cause of slavery, he would never have won hardly  anybody at all! Because all he would have been   talking about all the time was, “You know, this  shouldn’t be happening.” Of course it shouldn’t   be happening! But that wasn’t the message  being given to proclaim. You see, it alters   everything. It absolutely alters everything. Why is the church in the world today? We’re not in   the world today to reform the world. Our mandate  in the world is not political, it’s not social,   and it’s not economic. The fact that many of us  have lived through a period of time in the United   States whereby the social, political, and economic  concerns have increasingly encroached upon the   minds of those who should know better and have  begun to take on virtually a life of their own,   whereby we have begun to be seduced by the idea  that these really are the issues—that if we could   fix this and fix this and fix this then we would  be fine. But we were never invited to fix this   and this and this. The calling of the church is  to proclaim the gospel. And whenever that which   is central—namely, the gospel—becomes peripheral,  then that which is peripheral inevitably becomes   central—whatever you want to use as the issue. In an earlier era, Martin Lloyd-Jones makes   this amazing observation. I found it so  helpful, I wrote it down in full. Listen.  He’s speaking to a congregation, probably in the  1940s, maybe ’50s, in the UK: “We hear,” he says,   “so much today about defending Western  civilization [from] attack. That is all wrong!   As a Christian I am not primarily [concerned  about] Western civilization, I am interested   in the Kingdom of God; and I am as anxious that  men [and women] behind the Iron Curtain should be   saved as that men on this side of the Iron Curtain  should be saved. We must not take up a position   of antagonism towards those whom we want to win  for Christ. If we spend [our whole] time talking   against them we [will] never win them.” Now, let’s just stay there in the 1940s,   at the height of the Cold War. What is  Lloyd-Jones saying? Lloyd-Jones is saying,   “The whole of the Western world is preoccupied  by the threat of Communism. Many of you want   me to stand up in the pulpit and keep talking  about Communism: ‘Communism is a real problem,   and the Communists are doing this and  the Communists are doing that.’” He says,   “But I’m not going to do that. Why? Because  I want Communists to hear about Jesus.”  Now, you can apply it in any way you want.  Because if we’re to do that and bring in some   person—a Christian person, a pastor, whoever  it is—says, “You know, the great issue of the   world today is the destruction of Western  civilization. We have a problem with this,   and we have a problem there, and the gender issue  is upside down, and marriage has gone to pot,   and we don’t know what we’re doing with this,  and so on, and the next thing…” You want to see   people get up out of their seats and get excited?  I guarantee you! It’s happened for the last fifty   years in America. And what has happened in  terms of people being converted? Very little!   Very little! Because it’s not the issue. If Paul had decided to take this on, the   expansion of the gospel would not be as we have  now known it. God is sovereign in these things.  You see, the great concern—the great concern—is  that the gospel might frame our thinking. And   it is the gospel which frames Paul’s thinking.  Because Paul recognizes that the gospel works   everywhere. The gospel works in jails. The gospel  works in politics. The gospel works in science.   The gospel works in the arts. The gospel works in  the children’s ministry. The gospel works in the   nursing homes. The gospel works! And so Paul,  as he is addressing these Ephesian believers,   is speaking to them in the social context in which  they find themselves. And his responsibility is   not to disrupt that environment, but it is instead  to show them the difference that the gospel makes.  You see, the gospel is the answer to slavery.  The gospel is the only answer, actually. The   gospel is the answer to human trafficking. The  gospel is the answer to the upside-down world,   morally, in which we presently live. That’s why I read from Philemon. And   perhaps tonight we can say something of it.  But it was the gospel that brought about   the reconciliation between Onesimus  the slave and Philemon, his master.  So although the New Testament does  not call for the abolition of slavery,   what does history tell us? That the abolition  of slavery was brought about by Christian men   and women. Christian men and women. What was  it that caused a wealthy, high-ranking member   of society called William Wilberforce  to take on the plight of slaves? Answer:   the gospel! The gospel! You see, the gospel  changed his heart, changed his mind. Changed   his mind about everything! And caused him then to  say, “This is wrong, and this must be addressed.”  You say, “Well, aren’t you talking out of  both sides of your mouth?” No. Careful. The   distinction between the responsibility of the  church to proclaim the gospel and then for the   pastor-teacher to proclaim the implications of  the gospel in the outworking of that in every   area of life—so that Wilberforce did not sit under  a steady diet of non-Bible teaching, whereby his   pastor was constantly going on and on and on about  the issue of the day. He sat under the instruction   of the Bible, whose pastor was going on and on and  on always about the gospel. And he realized that   when the gospel changed him, he had a role to play  in society. And so do you. But it’s not my role.  Now, this is just by way of introduction. We’re  gonna have to come back to these principles and   try and work them out in our own day and time  and place. And it does relate to all of that,   as we will see. But the reason that industrial  relations are in the position they’re in—the   reason that you have all that friction in your  office, the reason that the unions can’t agree   with management and management can’t deal  with unions and so on—is what? Man is sinful,   man is selfish, man is self-centered, and man  needs a Savior. So how will man get a Savior?   Only if people share the gospel. The gospel. Now, it’s been my immense privilege to live   here now, for all this time, since the third  of August, 1983. I wasn’t hardly in the door   in this place before I began to be besieged by  well-meaning individuals saying to me, “You know,   it’s your responsibility, given the platform  you have in your pulpit, to take on the issues   of our time.” So they want me to address abortion,  they want me to address Supreme Court nominations,   they want me to give out literature in support  of various candidates for office, they want me   to tackle the question of racism, they want me to  do all of these things. And as best that I’ve been   able, I haven’t done a single one of them. Why? I want you to know that I care passionately about   abortion. I care passionately about racism. I was  exercised beyond measure regarding appointments   to the Supreme Court. But that’s me as an  individual citizen, exercising the privileges   of democracy. It is not me as your pastor and your  teacher. You see, because at the end of the day,   the real transformative work in a nation  is the transformative work of the gospel.  When in the north of Ireland there was a great  movement of the Spirit of God, in the Harland   and Wolff’s shipbuilding factories, the management  began to be overwhelmed by the amount of machinery   that was being returned to them that had been  stolen by the employees, to the extent that   the management issued a statement that was to  the effect, “We get it. Don’t bring us anymore   stuff.” Now, how was it that they began to bring  all this back? Because they were transformed by   the gospel. The gospel’s changed them, and they  in turn were changed. In other words, somebody   proclaimed to them the wonder of who Jesus is. Why is America as ungodly as it is? ’Cause   there aren’t enough Christians! We need  more Christians. How do you get more   Christians? By preaching about the issues  of the day? No. By preaching the gospel.  Why does Paul do what he does?  Because he understands this. You see,   when you come in your Bible to issues like  this, if you don’t stand far enough back   and address the big principles that underlie  all of our understanding of things, then it   will be possible to make all kinds of direct and  immediate applications that may in part be helpful   but by and large may miss the point entirely.  And that’s what we want to guard against.  The more Christians, the more Christian  thinking. The more Christian thinking,   the more Christian action—in art, in science,  in politics, in media, in education, and in   medicine. But if I were to forsake my calling,  I may cause you to be sidetracked into thinking   that these issues were the great issues, to  the neglect of the message of God’s Word.  If you read history, and alongside it church  history, you’ll find a number of fascinating   things—and with this I’ll just stop. But you’ll  find that the people in pulpits—pastors—who took   on the issues of the day and, you know, made it  into the newspapers—who in Britain, you know,   during the Crimean War, or whatever it might be,  they’d say, “This is the great evil of the day,”   you know, and so the press picked it up and  said, “You know, Reverend So-and-So is really   on his game,” and everything else. Meanwhile,  over in some little chapel there’s a pastor,   and he’s saying to his people who are reading the  Bible, “And this is who Jesus is, and this is why   it’s…” In the economy of God, that fellow—nobody  knows who in the world he is. He’s long gone,   forgotten. Nobody cares. And the apparently  insignificant work that was going on where   the pastor was just simply, day by day,  proclaiming to his people the unsearchable   riches of Christ—that is what yielded and what  yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.  You see, think about it. Think about all the work  that is going on unseen in small congregations   with faithful pastors just sticking with the  gospel. That’s why we have Basics: to say to our   brothers, “We believe this. We believe that God  was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.   We believe that the greatest need of man is to  be reconciled to God. When God reconciles him to   himself and changes his way of thinking, then that  man, that woman, will engage in the privileges and   opportunities that are there for them to effect  great change—social change and so on. But don’t,   whatever you do, start to tell your people that  there is only one economic formula that can be   true to the New Testament. Don’t, whatever  you do, start to tell your people that trade   unions are ipso facto from the devil. Don’t,  whatever you do, wrap any of that stuff around   the saving work of Jesus Christ. Because the  gospel works everywhere, and works through   individuals whose lives have been embraced  by it and who in turn are embracing others.”  That’s why Wesley, in his great hymn,  finally writes the two lines: he says,   “’Tis all my business here below to cry,  ‘Behold the Lamb!’” “Behold, the Lamb of God,   who takes away the sin of the world!” You see, the great slavery this morning   that each of us faces is a slavery to  which Jesus referred in John chapter 8,   when these religious people come to him, and  they’re very proud of their status and so on,   and he says, “You know, you really need to think  about this: that everyone who sins is a slave to   sin.” That’s the real slavery. And “if the  Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  First that, then this. Not this, then  that. May God help us in these things.  Father, thank you that we find our refuge in  Christ alone. And as we are confronted by these   difficult and complex and uncomfortable areas, we  ask that you will help us to do as Paul has done,   and that is to frame things in light  of the great principles of your Word.  We thank you that beyond the affairs of time  there is a throne that is fixed in heaven;   beyond the ephemeral nature of our earthly  pilgrimage, there is a new heaven and a new   earth. And so we pray that we might understand,  as M’Cheyne used to say, that “I am a dying   man preaching to dying men and women.” Lord, fill us afresh with an understanding   of the gospel and a desire to live for  it. For we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. This message was brought to you from Truth For  Life where the learning is for living. To learn   more about Truth For Life with Alistair  Begg visit us online at truthforlife.org
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Rating: 4.9294119 out of 5
Keywords: Truth For Life, The Church, Jesus Christ, Theology, Obeying God, Gospel, Priorities, Government, Secular Culture, Kingdom of God
Id: n8bT3EUk_xE
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 43min 13sec (2593 seconds)
Published: Wed May 02 2018
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