Book of Colossians - Ch. 3, Vs. 18-25 (03-21-1999)

How Faith Is Expressed in Everyday Living

Last week I gave you two questions, one for this week, one for next week. The one for next week was designed to get you to search your Bible. And I assume everyone has done that. So you can forget about the question for next week.

There is no last name recorded of our Lord Jesus. But we do have a question for this week, and I want to get to it. The question was, how do we express our faith in everyday living? And I ask you to find a scripture to help you support your answer.

I know you all have an answer, so we'll go in rotation. Does anyone have an answer? Alright. You're saying the expression of your faith is in doing things for the Lord. Alright. Anyone else? Okay, so it comes back to our works again.

Someone else? Wait a minute, what's your name?

Go ahead. I'll talk to you later. This is now how faith shows that faith works with His works. Or you might say in His works. So the answer, according to that verse, is that we exercise our faith as faith works in our works.

Because the only true works we can do is that God sees as good works are by faith. That's right. That's good. Someone else? Don't look at me.

Tell me what your answer is. Tom? Anyone else? Go to the book of James. All of your answers were excellent. Now let me give you mine. The book of James, first chapter, verses 5, 6, 7, and 8. Brother David, read that please.

Alright. Alright. To add to your answers, let me say this. Everything that you do, do not even start it unless you're certain of what you're doing. Do nothing out of doubt. In other words, Greg, don't ever say, Well, I don't know if I ought to do this now, but I'm going to try it and see how it works out.

That's not expressing faith. Faith is a positive attitude, Brian. It is knowing that this that I am doing is right. And you express that in your belief, in your speech, in your walk, your talk, your thinking.

It is a positive attitude. Never from doubt. A double-minded man receives nothing. A double mind means he's trying to live in the world and in God's world both at the same time. And you cannot do that.

And he does not know what he should do. Well, we don't always know what we should do. We know what we should not do. So that that you do not do, do not do it with a positive attitude. Alright. Yes.

And if we have that humble spirit about us, we're hoping what God's going to do, and we have the confidence that he's told us to do it, so we are going to do it, then he's the king of our lives. And I think that fits in with the double-minded man.

If we're letting ourselves be king of our lives and letting God be king of our lives, and we fall back into that mindset, we're setting ourselves up for not living that kind of faith life. That's right.

When I said do it with a positive attitude, I didn't mean that we should do it out of pride. Not that that's what you meant. I know, but it made me think. Don't be cocky. Don't be so certain that everybody else is wrong.

What I'm talking about is that that you are doing, whatever it is, in your everyday work at the church, in your reading, your studying, talking, do it with a positive attitude. If you're going to teach anybody anything, well, let me ask you this.

I break into my own sentences too much. If you go to a store to buy some home appliance, let's say you're going to buy a new refrigerator and freezer combination, and you look around, you finally get a salesman or a woman to come talk to you, and, Greg, they don't know what they're selling.

They don't really, they can read the name on it if there is one, but they don't know anything about the product. Would you buy from that person? It's almost got to the place now you have to, but at the same time, the salesman needs to know their product, and whatever your line of work, you need to know your product, and I trust that you do.

So act like it. Always willing to learn, Brian. Never take the position, I don't need to learn anything, but just operate from a positive attitude in your life. All right, let's come to our scripture for today.

Wives, Husbands, and Children in Colossians 3

In Colossians, the third chapter, and I have the 18th verse marked. Is that about where the rest of you are? Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. There's been lots of rebellion and discussion and snickering about this word, submit.

Now, understand, the Lord set up the home. He made the man responsible for the home. Just because the man does not accept that responsibility will not exempt him from the judgment pronounced upon him.

A marriage is not a 50 -50 situation. Get that settled in your mind to start with. There must be someone that can make the final decision. If you go into business with somebody, never go in 50 -50. Somebody has to be able to make that final decision.

That's to the man in the home. He does it with a loving wife, a wife that supports him in all of the endeavors that he is doing, whatever it may be as long as it's legal, moral, and not fattening. She is to support him and submit to him.

Look to him for guidance. Now, we men know that our wife has a lot of control over our life, and rightly so. But, Brian, we still have to shoulder the responsibility of the spiritual leadership, the physical leadership, the financial leadership, everything about the home.

So the wife is told to live under your husband. And I thought it was interesting. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. Brian, why do you think that's in there? The wife is to not seek advice from the world or from anyone else when it comes to a decision between she and her husband.

That's just the way it is. The wife is told to do all in the name of the Lord under her husband. Now, Margaret, if Tom gets a wonderful idea of how they can rob the First National Bank and you're a very submitting wife, then are you to go along with him and drive the getaway car?

No. Unto the Lord, giving thanks to God for the Father by him. Wives, worship the Father, dress for the Father in your husband. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Ever since time began, the women of the world have had a very, very hard life.

They still do. God made it that way. But unduly so in so much of our history, the Bill of Divorcement was given through Moses simply to protect the wife. Before the law of divorcement came into being, the husband could kick her out any time he wanted to for any reason.

It didn't make any difference. If he got up one more and didn't like her looks, out she went with nothing. So the Bill of Divorcement was to help preserve the family. Also, another point, no place in the Bible can you find where the Lord has told the wife to love the husband.

Now, Tom, we expect our wives to love us, and they do. But they're not directed by God to love us. We're told to love our wife. I wonder why that is. Anyone have an inkling of an idea? Do you think that might be it?

Any other thoughts? Well, that depends upon your definition of the word is. Reverence. The woman is the responder. God made her that way. She responds. The wife, the husband, is the projector. If he loves his wife, she responds in love.

If there is a problem in the marriage, more than likely it started with the husband. Boy, I wish each one of you could have been here when I made that statement and seen the expressions. Because the woman responds to the man.

If you don't believe that, hit him sometime. I have never struck a woman. I only struck one man. That's when I was about 15 years old. He wasn't a man, he was a boy. Husbands, love your wife. Not somebody else's, yours.

Be not bitter against them. They're just responding to you. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Let me ask you something. Jesse, how long are we a child of our parents?

Forever. Forever. Even if they're dead, we're still a child of them. Now, there comes a time in every young man's life when he has to make his own decisions. That's not what we're talking about here. That when you start your own family and your own home, you no longer have to honor your parents.

The Bible says we must. And it has lots of benefits to it. I remember my wife being a nurse. Years ago, we were talking about children and how they recover in the hospital and how some of them don't and some respond well and some do not to medication and all of this.

She said the child that has been obedient to their parents gets well a lot quicker because they follow directions and they will listen and do what they're told to do. A rebellious child has a struggle.

So, children, obey your parents. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Now, the parents are to control the spirit of the child, but to not break it to where the child is, what can we say, affected mentally, but guide them.

The old Adamic nature makes everybody not only curious, but they will automatically look at things from the negative side. The best way to not provoke your children to anger is to live the Christian life.

Working Heartily as Unto the Lord

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Brian, what does it mean, men-pleasers or eye service?

All right.

Were you ever, or maybe you've had an employee that worked only when you were around? Now, you have been intelligent enough to establish your company and to hire other people, make the payroll, yet some employees think that you don't know that they're not working.

It wouldn't take a very smart person to figure out whether the work's been done or not. So many, many employees, and I don't mean everybody, but I have run in my life across a lot of them. Some I wanted to, literally.

They do just enough to get their paycheck. See how little they can do and still get their paycheck. Well, it isn't very long until they don't get their paycheck and they go someplace else. That's not the way to do it.

If we are Christian, or since we are Christian, then we're to act like it even though we're employed someplace else. Now, when this was written, the world situation was a little bit different than it is today, at least in this country.

Paul was writing to a people that had slaves, and a lot of the thinking among slaves was that when they become Christian, they no longer had to answer to their master, that they answered to God only. And Paul makes it very clear in some of his other letters and here that that's not true.

If you are a slave when you're saved, you're a slave after you're saved. If you have a toothache when you get saved, you'll have it the next morning, more than likely. The state of your soul, salvation-wise, has very little to do with immediate effects upon your situation.

Don't get in a hurry to do anything, because you're not going to speed up God's plan one bit. And He'll move you where you should be or keep you where you should be. But in singleness of heart, again we get back to this double-minded person.

It just won't work, folks. But whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Because everything you do is unto the Lord, whether you know it or not. Do it heartily. There's a good word.

Pat, what's it mean, heartily? All right.

Enthusiastically, honestly, wholeheartedly. Act like you like it, whether you don't do or not. Again, with a positive attitude. This is the job I'm given to do. I've had a lot of them I didn't like doing, but I did it.

Whatever it is that you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. We cannot do it directly, personally, unto our Lord. How do we do it? Everything's to others. The knowledge you gain in the study of the Scripture is not for you.

It's for you to share with others. You cannot hoard it and gain. Knowing, and he said this is common knowledge now. You know this. That of the Lord you might receive the reward. Is your Bible different than mine?

Go ahead. You have. Why? What kind of a verb do we call that? Well, it's perfect. Future perfect. Is that all the information you can give me? See, you're not acting positive. Greg Teller. Imperative.

Imperative. Absolutely no choice. Now, you shall receive the reward. What is a reward?

Yes, you would have been right if you'd left out the word prize.

Reward is payment for work done. Knowing that of somebody you'll receive a reward. It's of the Lord because everything we do is under the Lord. He sees only that which is in compliance with his will. His will is all that will be done.

How many of you heard Stanley this morning on television? Everybody. It's for the first time I've heard him be that positive about security. And he's getting there. He's not there yet, but he's getting there.

Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive. Why didn't it, David, why didn't it say you shall accept? Just like we receive salvation, we do not accept salvation. That's right. That's right. But we do not concentrate on rewards here on earth.

We do not work just to get the rewards. I would hope the employee does not work just to get the paycheck. Paycheck's history if they do their work. The reward is history if we do our work here as under the Lord.

I still maintain that most of the good works that we do, we do not know it. We are not conscious of it. We're not aware that this is what it is. Beg your pardon? Well, your first question, was it why doesn't the employer?

Why doesn't he? Why does he?

The reason I was hesitant. Go ahead. All right. That gets back to what David said. Yes. It's a lot easier to do. I just think it's a lot easier to serve and respect and love God than to do it as if we're doing it for the Lord.

I think that command makes it easier for us.

That's right. The reason I hesitated was I was searching my memory bank for a connection from the employer. See, in our relationship to the Lord, we serve a perfect employer. And he's just. On earth, the employee, even if he wants to do a good job, lots of times is stifled by a mean employer.

So it works both ways. The employer, the employee would be doing the best he knew how to do, but even the best get very discouraged if the employer is always on the negative side and finding fault and threatening to fire and all of this.

So it's on both sides, the answer to your question. That's right. That's right. You said it. We sure do. That's right. Absolutely. You see, everyone will have to answer to the Lord. But Brother David, I can remember when I was a small child that if my father wasn't in sight, I kind of forgot I was going to have to answer to him, but always did.

Same way with our Lord. There is a day coming when we will each stand face-to-face to him, saved or unsaved. All right? Verse 25. But he that doeth wrong shall receive which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.

In the Greek it says there is no difference of face. If you do wrong, then you'll lose the reward you could have had if you had done right. It did not change what you did. The job was still there. You still performed it some way.

It all comes back to our heart, to our mind. How do I look at this? How do I respond to it? What's my responsibility in it? Instead of trying to change the situation because we cannot do that, then we are to accept the situation and work our way through it the very best we know how to do because it's under the Lord.

Even though Brian might sign my paycheck, I did the work under the Lord. The Lord can judge all mankind while at the same time controlling all events. Everything that takes place in time and space has been decreed by God, but everything that man does, he does because he wants to do it.

Therefore, man can be judged. That brings us to the end of this chapter. Are there any thoughts you had now before we do something else? We have one more chapter, which we'll take up next week.

Brian, no one likes to be wrong.

They do not like to be proven wrong, but we all are wrong at lots of times.

Yes, that's right. They do.

Well, in our marriage, it has been a picture to me of heaven on earth. My wife lets me make all of the big decisions. She decides when we buy a new car, when we would buy another house. She decides what we'll eat and where we'll go.

She decides all of the things like that, but she leaves the big decisions to me. As she said, I'm not through. The big decisions are whether we attack Russia or Japan. Things on the top level. I can decide those.

Well, there's very little money coming from any place now. Now, we'll start the fourth chapter next week, but I have one other thing that I need to do this morning. Brian, if you'll come back or come up here a moment.

Give a card to everybody. What I want you to do quickly is to write down the book you would like to study next. Not that it will make one bit of difference, but I would like to know right now. No, you can hand them in next Sunday, because we still have one chapter in Colossians left, and we'll probably finish next week.

I appreciate your comments. This is what makes the class interesting, very informative to each one of us. It's all based on and guided by the Holy Word. A word from anybody now before we quietly pass out.

Greg, dismiss us, please.