Bible Lesson 181

Serving God . . . 1st Corinthians 7:21-23

“Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price do not become slaves of men.”

“Service can never become slavery to one who loves.” J.L.Masse

In this lesson, we will look at a Biblical subject that creates tension in the ‘modern church’. The subject is servant. Properly translated from the Greek it is slave. Slave and slavery is a word the resonates with people in our Country because of some of the treatment that some of the African slaves received at the hands of their masters. However slaves and slavery cannot be identified with that kind of slavery, in our study of our relationship with God.

The Christian’s service is to a benevolent and Kind and merciful master; but God is always master of those whom He created. Never get the idea that you are in charge, it is always God and He is Lord over all, or He will not be Lord, or Savior, at all. Service, Servants and slaves come in all shapes, sizes and forms. In fact, in all probability, there are some reading this that work for the government, so that means that you are (and are referred to Government servants).

Others are most certainly working for some other than self and so they are servants to whomever they work for. You who work for yourselves should know that you are more of a servant or slave of yourself than those who work for others. The problem in our country is that we have come to the point that nobody wants to work for someone else, although they want to draw their paycheck. What they want to do is to run the show. There is a story about a group of young boys who wanted play army, but after a long period of arguing and complaining, they found that it was impossible for them to play army; because everyone of them wanted to be a general.

That goes to prove that, if any effort is to be successful there has to be someone in control and all others must be servant or slaves. I continue to use servant and slave in the same sense because God tells us that whosoever and whatsoever we serve, we are it’s slave (Romans 6:16). Service (slave) gives the sense that what we do is done out of obedience, to some master. If you serve self, you become a slave of self, and if you serve God you become a servant (slave) of God, and if you serve the world and it’s ways, you become a slave of the world and an enemy of God.

We are a people who have been taught that we can have our cake and eat it too, but that does not work; because sooner or later we run out of cake. Christians are slaves of Christ, and that statement is proven by the Word of God, in Romans 6:17-18, in which, God speaks to us through the writer and says: “But God be thanked that 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” (KJV,NARB,NIV).

So you see, Christians are slaves to their Savior because they love Him, because He first loved them.’ Now, just in case you are one of those people who really does not understand our Creator God, and you resist being God’s slave, which means that you obey Him, you serve Him the way He has ordained and that your unqualified allegiance is to God; then in the vernacular of the space program, “Houston we have a problem”. By that, I mean that We do not and cannot manipulate God. He has set down the rules for every man’s salvation and they will stand until every person who comes to Him on His terms is saved, and then the end will come. I’m not talking about the end’ in the sense that those who are stocking up on things they will need at the end of our civilization, (Which does not appear that far in the future), because they are speaking about a man-made time, but God is going to one day say to the earth, This is as far as you go into depravity, and He will destroy the earth.

It has become painfully apparent that man has lost the concept of God. We know the word God, but we have no idea of His Majesty, Grace and Mercy. We have been convinced that we are the result of some cosmic explosion that created the genesis of man, and man has evolved over billions of years into the mess that we have today. Now, don’t purse your lips because I have said that mankind is a mess today; because only those who are willfully ignorant, blind and unheeding, apathetic to the point of silliness, would think that man has become better every decade. You can’t tell that by reading the papers, or listening to the news, or even being aware of what is happening from the lowest street beggar to the halls of government. It seems that most do not want to solve the core problem that we have which is that we have chosen to part with God and make up our own religion. Only God and His perfect wisdom can cause any nation to prosper in the sense of human goodness and good will. God and Christ and Christianity are the only way that man can be fulfilled. We are not the result of a cosmic fireball, we are creatures who were created in the image of our God; however disobedience has separated us from Him. God has turned His face from us today because we have chosen sin over righteousness, Worldly instruction over God’s Divine plan for His creatures. What is the most identifiable sin in our day’ It is murder, disregard for life which is a gift from God. It happens so often around us that we don’t even notice, and we move around it as if nothing has happened. We not only kill ourselves, but we demand the right to kill our unborn babies in the womb. If we can support that in the name of woman’s rights, then we have: and it seems that many women have argued for it, we have crossed the line with God who has declared that children are the heritage of God (Psalms 127:3).

That aside we all should look back to whether we are really serving God the way He has ordained. Most do not because they do not know what we mean when we say that God is sovereign. The Christian Church used to know what is meant by the term God’s Sovereignty’ because it was studied and preached from the pulpits of America. They had not forgotten that the Word of God declared “Yours O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all.” We have apparently forgotten that verse and the rest of the Bible, at least as far as being the pattern for the life of those who will share heaven with God forever. We have forgotten that God is supreme in everything from your birth to your salvation, and from your life on the earth to that eternal resting place (whether heaven or hell). His Will is supreme, and His will,will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is not simply a name that we remember, but which does not exercise sovereignty over every aspect of every life that will ever exist on this earth. He is the King, over presidents, potentates and popes. He is the Only Potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords (1st Timothy 6:15). That is who God is and it is to our everlasting shame and depravity that we have forgotten that, in our lust to be what we can never be, and that is in control of our own lives. God at times seems to allow us a modicum of control, and I suppose that He does that to prove to us that we cannot control our lives. I can remember in my early life that I just knew that I would be able to manipulate and shift, and change things in such a way that I could control my life and God let me run until I was almost out of rope and then He lovingly reached in and pulled me out of the mess that I had made of it.

God is light and God is life and only God could have spoken all that we know into being. He alone is the Creator, the sustainer, The Savior, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We have to understand that complete sovereignty of God before we are saved; and I don’t mean that we have to have any exquisite definition of God: what I do mean is that we know in our hearts that we are His creature and that He is the Creator who owns it all and we see him from our position in the dust before Him as we worship as His Mercy and Grace in not discarding us into hell with the devils. Our God is so thoroughly misunderstood by us, that we like to think that God was embarrassed at what happened in the Garden of Eden. God was not ambushed by the devil in Adam’s fall! God knew Adam would fall as is evidenced by the fact that He planned salvation for those who will ever be saved from before the foundation of the world, before Adam and Eve were created. (See Ephesians 1:4). Where do these preachers who preach that they have a plan that, if completed by anyone, will bring salvation.

You know what I’m talking about, you’ve heard it and you may have based you salvation on it, but it goes like this, admit you’re a sinner, believe on Jesus Christ, confess your sin, and you are saved. Anyone who believes that is just simple! To believe that man has worked out a formula for salvation when God declares that He alone is’ Salvation is silly, (Psalms 3:8; Psalms 68:20; Acts 4:12; Romans 1:16). I said a few sentences ago that God knew in eternity past exactly who would be saved, because He had predestined their salvation. That is true, however God did not tell us who it would be so we preach and teach the gospel to everyone and God works His Will in that. God did not put a mark or signify who had been elected, and the only way that we can ever know who was elected is to see a sinner changed into a saint, a life that is different and Christ like. What we have done, for the most part, is to supplant Christ with a building and a people we call church. We have become slaves to the visible church, and we really believe that if we go to church often enough we will inherit heaven. Now, I have nothing against going to church; but it is past time that we who are church members, began to be the church’ once the church service is over. We apparently have forgotten that what is supposed to happen when the elect assemble is “Worship God” and be instructed to go out into the work place and the play place and the home place and the school place and teach the lost the gospel and how they should obey all that Christ has taught us.

It is almost comical what we will claim is a witness opportunity. Some think it would be a phrase tossed into the wind as we pass someone we know that goes..”God loves you and so do I”, and some believe it is fulfilled by inviting someone to our church. That is not what the Great Commission requires of us. Matthew 28:19-20 makes it plain that witness involved much more than some casual statement, it involves our lifestyle to be one that not only goes into the everyplace (where it would normally be), and make converts, make disciples, and baptizing them, and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded. Matthew 28:19-20.

Now the question becomes are you complying with the command of the Great Commission’ Some are but it is apparently not many are! We are being out witnessed, out worked, out done by the cults that abound around us. We are not even keeping pace with training in the Christian church, because the church is not of one mind with Christ. We have begun to take the world view of the world instead of the Biblical view. I am in receipt of the results of a recent survey of American workers and religion. Sadly it seem that overall, the cults are sharing their beliefs with us more often than we are sharing our Christian religion with them, something like 26% of them are witnessing while we (Christians) post a 22%. The most damning fact is that most evangelicals’ cannot or will not make a witness that would drive anyone to take notice. That is a shame but that is the truth; and it is evidenced in our homes, our communities, our state and our nation. We have elected leaders who have chosen to make it illegal for us to stand and teach or preach the truths of God inerrant world which is where we find the only hope of eternal security. For a Christian to quote the Word of God from Romans chapter one and verses 21-32, in the presence of someone else, has been found to be a hate-crime.

We have a High government official who has taken it on himself to erase evangelicalism out of the military services. Even our founding fathers have been labeled as extremists by our DOD (Department of Defense). If we watch much television, we are bombarded by foul language and sexual connotations. Now I don’t know about you, but that does not sound like a nation that was established on the principals of God’s law, and a people who are really serving their God. The church has from the very early church believed the Word of God and lived it to the point that their morals affected the communities where they lived and worked. That was basically due to the fact that they knew what they believed and were ready to die to protect their beliefs. The church has always had some kind of authority (Moral), in their communities; but since we began to invite the world and the worldly into our midst we no longer have that authority, the world will not listen to the world. Stop and think about where America is today, we are a house divided and we cannot agree on any issues except those issues that redefine or negate the Christian Church’s belief system. Think about this traditional marriage, marriage between one man and one woman has been the standard for over two thousand years and it was God’s plan for mankind since the Creation of man; however, today we are questioning if that is really the only kind of marriage that can be considered marriage. Marriage was God’s ordained plan for mankind, and it was put into place to populate the earth, and we have not nearly populated the earth in our time. We kill a great percentage of the heritage of God in the womb of their mothers. So how dare us be agreeable to abortion.

It is time that we were challenged to be men and women enough to stand on what we believe. I challenge you with the same challenge that Elijah challenged Israel on Mt. Carmel, “How long will you falter between two opinions’ If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” (1st Kings 18:20-21). If you read the rest of that chapter there in First Kings, you will find out which one won the test; and of course, it was the creator God Jehovah. We need remedial training in who God really is; and the first thing we must learn is that He is Sovereign in everything. He is sovereign in His will, in His Power, in His Grace and in everything that we do on this earth that He created. God does not change, He is not fickle, He says what He means and means what He says. God knows everything that we will do, what we will say, and how we will act, we cannot surprise Him, or ambush Him; because He ordained all that we will do as we live here on the earth.

To Americans today, I would say that it is high time that we recognized that God is Sovereign in His Mercy, He shows mercy to those whom He will, and compassion on whom He will (Romans 9:15). There is one thing that most people in our time believe and that is that God loves everybody; but that is a lie because the Bible make it clear that God the Father and God the Son’s love belongs only to those who love them enough to obey (John 14:15, 21-24). So we know now that God is sovereign over His love. God does indeed pity’ some and is kind to even the unthankful and evil, but that is also bound to His Sovereignty. We can demand nothing from God and we must never think that we can. Grace is unearned and undeserved and Grace is God’s to extend to the creatures at His Sovereign will. Now, in closing let me remind you that if you take nothing else away from this lesson, you take away the idea that our minds are stretched whenever we stop to consider our God and His Majesty, and Glory. I would charge you never again to attempt to pray until you consider how great and majestic and sovereign our God is. We are people who have lost our fear of God. We flippantly talk about God and never stop to consider that He controls us from the way we walk and talk to the air we breath and every heartbeat that sounds in our breast. Go back and read the Old Testament and see what happens to people who forget that God is to be feared.

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob