WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Have you ever heard a message on God's bonsalade before? 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:09.000 I haven't. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:18.000 But I'm going to hear it tonight, and I hope it'll be through the power of the Spirit of God. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.000 You say, "God purchased us. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:24.000 We're not our own. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:33.000 We're bought with a price." That means that every single person sitting in a seat at here is a slave. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:43.000 You're either a slave to Christ, or you're a slave to the powers of darkness. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:47.000 It's one of those others. It's not both. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.000 It's either you are or you're not. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:01.000 Have you given much thought to being a slave? 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:09.000 Has that ever come across your mind that you are a slave? 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:19.000 I wouldn't want to raise your hands because I think that a lot of them you say, "Well, I haven't." I haven't given it much thought. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.000 It hasn't been on my mind. I haven't even considered it. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Then what I would suggest is that you would listen to what is being said in relationship to a bond slave. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:47.000 It's amazing to me the magnitude of this topic. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:56.000 It's amazing to me how God has his bond slaves. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:08.000 I'm thinking, "Well, where do I fit into that?" There are three points that I want to be able to present to you tonight. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:20.000 One is, why does Paul completely surrender to the character of a bond slave? 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 Why does he completely surrender to that? 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:35.000 Secondly, why did Jesus empty himself to take on the form of a bond slave? 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:55.000 And three, why did Onesimus run when he had a good master? 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:13.000 Now, my text is in Titus 1.1, but it's really not much. It's God, I mean Paul, a bond slave of God, and that's it. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:24.000 And so I want to deliver that before you tonight. So let's go to the Lord in the word of prayer. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:34.000 Father, I come before you and acknowledge to you, Father, that I'm not capable of preaching this message. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.000 I'm not capable of anything. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:44.000 And Father, it's you that I ask that would speak through me. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:56.000 I pray that, Father, that you would hold my mouth shut when it doesn't have anything to pertain to godliness. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:03.000 But, Father, that you would open my mouth and that you would speak through me. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:27.000 And that this very, very, very important topic of a bond slave would echo itself in the ears of your people and in their hearts, and that they would give great consideration for why there is a bond slave. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 And what does it take to be one? 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.000 I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:43.000 Now, the Bible says Paul, a bond slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:54.000 And then it repeats that in Romans 1.1, Paul, a bond slave of God and... 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:03.000 I don't think it says an apostle of Jesus Christ, but I believe it does. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:10.000 And then in Philippians 1.1, he says Paul and Timothy, bond slaves of God. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:17.000 And then James says James is a bond slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Peter, a bond slave of apostle of Jesus Christ. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:28.000 Jude, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:33.000 Epaphorus, a bond slave of Christ. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:43.000 And so the question then needs to be asked, why is there so much emphasis put on being a bond slave? 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:52.000 Why is it that these great men of God consider themselves to be bond slaves first? 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.000 Before they are apostles of Jesus Christ. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:05.000 Why everything stems from the fact that they're an apostle. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:10.000 I mean that they're a bond slave of Jesus Christ. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:22.000 Now, the Greek word here is "doulos." And the legacy Bible, I don't know how many of you know what the legacy standard Bible is. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:27.000 That is the Bible that is written by John MacArthur. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:56.000 And he put out this Bible and one of the reasons why he wanted to put this Bible out was to change every one of the words "servant." Every time that you saw the word "servant," he wanted to change it to "slave." So why is it that that was so important to him? 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:07.000 Why was it so important for him to change every time the word "servant" was used in the Bible and change it to "slave"? 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:10.000 Because that's what it is. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 A doulos is a slave and is a bond slave. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:22.000 So therefore he changes all those times that is being done. So why did you do that? 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:40.000 Fire, his Greek dictionary, said "doulos is a slave and a bond slave.""Vines" refers to "doulos" as a slave and a bond slave. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:48.000 So you say, well, what's the difference between a servant and a slave? 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:58.000 A servant can be, through a service, gives you a service and then he goes home. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:08.000 A slave is owned by a master and he does a service, but he doesn't go home. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:19.000 He's there permanently. He doesn't get paid for what he does. He's a slave. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:24.000 We are all slaves. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:35.000 We are answerable to Christ alone. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Why does Jesus empty himself and take on the form of a bond slave? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:53.000 I'd like you to open your Bibles to Philippians 2, verses 6-7. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.000 Now, the latter part of 6 is what I'm going to pick up on. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:32.000 "Although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a bond slave and being made in the likeness of men." Okay, now let me ask you another question. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:46.000 If bond slave is not so important, then why does Jesus Christ take on the form of a bond slave? 00:09:47.000 --> 00:10:04.000 If bond slave is not something that we are to be thinking about and considering, why is it that Jesus Christ has taken on the form of a bond slave? 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:13.000 Now, I want you to see something here. He existed in the form of God. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:26.000 Moraphia, the Greek word here. Form, he was in the existence of God. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:37.000 That is the exact representation of the Godhead. He was the exact representation of his father. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:42.000 He was in the form of the Godhead. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:54.000 Now, he gave up his form of being in the Godhead and became a form of being a bond slave. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:01.000 Can you figure that? Can you grasp that? I cannot. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:17.000 I cannot grasp the fact that Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, became a bond slave, a slave. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:27.000 Now, that is low. You come from the lofty heights of heaven. 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:40.000 You come, he comes from the position of being part of the Godhead. He is the Godhead with the father. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:49.000 And then he takes on the form of a bond slave. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:57.000 Why? What purpose? 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:08.000 He emptied himself of one form and took on another form. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:16.000 Amazing. Absolutely amazing. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:32.000 So, he did it so that he may bond with his father, bond slave. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:42.000 Bond slave means that you bond with your master. Bond slave means that you bond with Christ. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:53.000 Bond slave means that Jesus bonded with his father. Bond slave means that he bonded with his father as a slave. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:59.000 So, why did he do that? 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:11.000 For our example, for our example, that we would take on the form of a bond slave. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:16.000 So, well, I don't know if I really like that idea. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:30.000 A slave is under the complete control of somebody else. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:41.000 He's under the complete control of somebody else. He does not have his own will. He does not have his own desires. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:50.000 He does not do things out of character. He does everything that his master tells him to do. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.000 Everything. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:08.000 It's either you're a slave of Christ or you're a slave of Satan. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:18.000 It's either you have been born again and you are now a slave of Christ and you're no longer a slave of Satan. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:23.000 Other than if you are a hypocrite. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Now you say, well, why do you pick on hypocrites for? Because they're slaves of Satan. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:39.000 What do you say that for? Because when they come to church, they're one person. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:46.000 They're acting like they are Christians, but then they go back to the world and they act like the world. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.000 And so you can't straddle the fence. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:55.000 It's either you're sold out for Jesus Christ or you're not. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:05.000 So it's either you have or slaves of righteousness, slaves of Christ, or you're not. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:16.000 Now, all believers are slaves of Christ, but not all believers are bond slaves. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:25.000 All believers are slaves of Christ, but not all believers are bond slaves. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:52.000 So the question would need to be asked then, why would these men, such as Paul and James, Peter and Jude and the papyrus, why would they want to be a bond slave? What would be the purpose that would be behind that? 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:58.000 Is there anything special that I'm going to get if I become a bond slave? 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:05.000 There's two things that I see in Scripture. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:15.000 And the first thing is intimacy. To be bonded with Christ is intimate intimacy. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:31.000 Having an intimacy with Christ, being intimate with Christ, that is one good reason, is it not? 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:48.000 That's what Paul said. He said, "Nor do I count myself dear to myself." If he doesn't count himself dear to himself, then he must count himself dear to someone else, and that would be Christ. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:17:03.000 And the second thing that is important is that a bond slave identifies with Christ's suffering. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:09.000 Paul identified with Christ's suffering as a bond slave. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:40.000 Notice what he said here. He says, "He is hard-pressed yet not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed." That would mean that God cares for you and he watches over you as his bond slaves and as his slaves. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:59.000 Each one of the trials that Paul goes through, God, he could say, "I am not crushed. I am not in despair. I am not forsaken. I am not destroyed." He was able to say that in every one of the cases. Why? Because God gave him grace to get through. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.000 God gave him grace to get through. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:10.000 So my suggestion to you as you're going through a trial is don't pray that God will deliver you from the trial. 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:16.000 Pray that God will give you grace to get through the trial. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:24.000 I want to share seven characteristics of a slave and a bond slave. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:43.000 These are not things that you would say, "Oh man, I just can't wait to be a bond slave." Actually, you would probably say, "I really don't want to be a bond slave." A bond slave is by choice. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:51.000 God does not say that it's mandatory that you become a bond slave. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.000 He does not require it in any place in Scripture that you become a bond slave. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:01.000 It is by choice. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:06.000 And these men chose to be bond slaves. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:08.000 Interesting. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:16.000 A slave is owned by another, and the other is Jesus Christ. 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:23.000 Aren't you glad that Jesus owns you and not Satan? Aren't you glad that Jesus owns you and not your pastor? 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:29.000 That somebody else would own you? 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:42.000 A slave owns nothing. A slave owns nothing. You say, "Oh wait a minute. That's where the rubber meets the road. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:54.000 I do own things. I own my own house. I own my own car. I own all those things. I own my own property." No. God owns it. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:58.000 Do you not know that God owns all things? 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:18.000 And so therefore, since God owns all things, then you might as well just come to a place of saying,"All is that you own everything, and I glorify your name over it." God could take it away anytime he wants to, could he not? 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:35.000 The first tornado goes through, and your house is done, and you're saying, "Lord, why did you do this?" You'd say, "Well, no. That's God's house. Lord, if you want to do that to your own house, then that's up to you. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:44.000 It belongs to you." So a slave doesn't own anything. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:49.000 A slave has no will of his own. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:52.000 Has no will of his own. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:58.000 It's God's will. It's not your will. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:03.000 It's what God desires. It's not what you desire. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:08.000 It's what God orchestrates. It's not what you orchestrate. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:14.000 It's God who's in control. It's not you that's in control. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:21.000 It's God who decides as to how you're going to live your life. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:26.000 He's not you saying, "God, this is the way I want to live my life." No, no, no, no. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:38.000 If you're a slave of Christ, which I hope that you are, it is not according to how you want it to work out. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:45.000 It's according to how God has designed it to work out. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:52.000 So you have not your own will. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:04.000 A bond slave seeks absolute surrender with no compromise with the world. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:13.000 Seeks absolute surrender. And you say, "That's really tough." Yes, it is very tough. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:30.000 But despite the grace of God that we can ever have absolute surrender, being a bond slave is one who is intimate with Christ and has absolute surrender. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:42.000 But without compromise to the world, worldliness, worldliness creeps into the church. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:50.000 Worldliness is the enemy of the cross. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:23:01.000 Worldliness is how you dress and how you talk and where you go and what you do. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:14.000 All those things are dealing with as to whether or not you're doing it for the glory of God or are you doing it for your own edification. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:30.000 A bond slave bonds with his master and has intimacy with him. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:39.000 The passage of Scripture, that's an Exodus. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:48.000 Let me see if I got my... 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:54.000 Well, you're just going to have to take my word for it because I lost Exodus. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:09.000 In Exodus 21, I think it's 6 and 8, it talks about a man who was a slave. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:15.000 He made himself a slave to his owner or to his brother. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:17.000 And he was in debt. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:23.000 And so he asked him if I can be a slave to you for seven years so I can pay off my debt. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:25.000 He said yes. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:33.000 But in the meantime, he gives him a wife and so by her he has children. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:42.000 Now, seven years comes up and it's time for him to go free. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:52.000 Well, the wife that he gave him and the children that he had from the wife belongs to the master. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:25:12.000 And so he's saying, "I want to go free but I want to take my wife and children with me." And he says, "No, you can't do that." He said, "Okay, I do love my master and I love my wife and my children. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:17.000 Therefore, I will not go free. I will be a slave. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:24.000 I will be a bond slave." This is where the principle comes in. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:33.000 And so the master takes him to his doorpost and he puts an awl and he punches a hole through his ear. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:45.000 And by punching a hole through his ear, that meant to say that he is now a bond slave of the master forever. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:55.000 And so he keeps his wife and he keeps his children and he doesn't lose any of them. 00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:02.000 Because he decided he would be a bond slave. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:05.000 Of the Lord. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:10.000 Now, in closing, I want to share with you. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.000 Onesimus. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:22.000 Now, Onesimus is a slave. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:25.000 He's a slave in the physical realm. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.000 He's a physical slave. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:33.000 He is owned by a man named Philemon. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:47.000 Philemon is a man who loves the Lord and Paul is the one who want him to Christ. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:50.000 And he has a church in his own home. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:52.000 He's a godly man. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:00.000 And for some reason, Onesimus is not happy being there. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:02.000 And so he runs off. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:04.000 He runs away. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:13.000 And now the question would be, does Onesimus not know the consequences of a slave running away? 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Evidently he did. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:23.000 It could be the death penalty for a slave. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:26.000 To run away from his master. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:31.000 Or he could be branded right there. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:41.000 So in every time that he if he were to run away again, they people would see that he was a runaway slave. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:44.000 So he runs away. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:52.000 And by the providence of God, he ends up where Paul is in prison. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:28:00.000 And you think, well, man, what what fate is that? 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Well, Paul wins Onesimus to the Lord. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:13.000 And Paul is so much an aberrant by Onesimus because Onesimus evidently knows how to serve. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:28.000 And so he serves Paul and Paul says, I am so I am so wishing you Philemon that you would not need Onesimus, but anyway, that he would come back. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:33.000 But here's the point that I want to make by the story about Onesimus. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:41.000 Is that running away. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:52.000 Running from God is not the answer to what Christ is to you. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:04.000 If you don't know Christ today, running away would not help you one bit. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:15.000 You know, when you start to run, you cannot run away from God. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:18.000 Onesimus found that out. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:24.000 He ran and ran and he ran smack into God. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:29.000 And that's what happens when you run away from God. 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:39.000 Let me make a couple of applications with you. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:41.000 If I close. 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:47.000 A bond slave bonds with Christ for two reasons. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:51.000 Intimacy and identification. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:05.000 Two, a bond slave seeks absolute surrender with no compromises. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:10.000 And let's pray. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:31.000 Father, I pray that as we search our own hearts, we need to make a decision as to a bond slave. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:38.000 Do I want that intimacy with Christ? 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:43.000 Do I want that identification with Christ? 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:50.000 We are slaves already. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:31:02.000 Now we are going to become bond slaves bonding with our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:09.000 We say, we want intimacy with Christ, but are we willing to pay the price? 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:21.000 We want to be associated with Christ in a very intimate way, but are we willing to pay the price? 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:31.000 I ask you, Father, that we would search our own hearts as to where are we in Christ? 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:35.000 Where is our walk in Christ? 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:45.000 How do we measure up to you, Lord Jesus, when you look at us and you see us? 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.000 What type of lifestyle do we have? 00:31:49.000 --> 00:32:04.000 I pray, Father, that you would bring home this message and that it would really resonate in your hearts of your people. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:07.000 We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:17.000 [BLANK_AUDIO]