Bond-slaves of God

Have you ever heard a message on God's bonsalade before?

I haven't.

But I'm going to hear it tonight, and I hope it'll be through the power of the Spirit of God.

You say, "God purchased us.

We're not our own.

We're bought with a price." That means that every single person sitting in a seat at here is a slave.

You're either a slave to Christ, or you're a slave to the powers of darkness.

It's one of those others. It's not both.

It's either you are or you're not.

Have you given much thought to being a slave?

Has that ever come across your mind that you are a slave?

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.

It hasn't been on my mind. I haven't even considered it.

Then what I would suggest is that you would listen to what is being said in relationship to a bond slave.

It's amazing to me the magnitude of this topic.

It's amazing to me how God has his bond slaves.

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.

One is, why does Paul completely surrender to the character of a bond slave?

Why does he completely surrender to that?

Secondly, why did Jesus empty himself to take on the form of a bond slave?

And three, why did Onesimus run when he had a good master?

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.

And so I want to deliver that before you tonight. So let's go to the Lord in the word of prayer.

Father, I come before you and acknowledge to you, Father, that I'm not capable of preaching this message.

I'm not capable of anything.

And Father, it's you that I ask that would speak through me.

I pray that, Father, that you would hold my mouth shut when it doesn't have anything to pertain to godliness.

But, Father, that you would open my mouth and that you would speak through me.

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.

And what does it take to be one?

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, the Bible says Paul, a bond slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

And then it repeats that in Romans 1.1, Paul, a bond slave of God and...

I don't think it says an apostle of Jesus Christ, but I believe it does.

And then in Philippians 1.1, he says Paul and Timothy, bond slaves of God.

And then James says James is a bond slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter, a bond slave of apostle of Jesus Christ.

Jude, a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

Epaphorus, a bond slave of Christ.

And so the question then needs to be asked, why is there so much emphasis put on being a bond slave?

Why is it that these great men of God consider themselves to be bond slaves first?

Before they are apostles of Jesus Christ.

Why everything stems from the fact that they're an apostle.

I mean that they're a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

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.

That is the Bible that is written by John MacArthur.

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?

Why was it so important for him to change every time the word "servant" was used in the Bible and change it to "slave"?

Because that's what it is.

A doulos is a slave and is a bond slave.

So therefore he changes all those times that is being done. So why did you do that?

Fire, his Greek dictionary, said "doulos is a slave and a bond slave.""Vines" refers to "doulos" as a slave and a bond slave.

So you say, well, what's the difference between a servant and a slave?

A servant can be, through a service, gives you a service and then he goes home.

A slave is owned by a master and he does a service, but he doesn't go home.

He's there permanently. He doesn't get paid for what he does. He's a slave.

We are all slaves.

We are answerable to Christ alone.

Why does Jesus empty himself and take on the form of a bond slave?

I'd like you to open your Bibles to Philippians 2, verses 6-7.

Philippians 2:6–7

Now, the latter part of 6 is what I'm going to pick up on.

"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.

If bond slave is not so important, then why does Jesus Christ take on the form of a bond slave?

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?

Now, I want you to see something here. He existed in the form of God.

Moraphia, the Greek word here. Form, he was in the existence of God.

That is the exact representation of the Godhead. He was the exact representation of his father.

He was in the form of the Godhead.

Now, he gave up his form of being in the Godhead and became a form of being a bond slave.

Can you figure that? Can you grasp that? I cannot.

I cannot grasp the fact that Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, became a bond slave, a slave.

Now, that is low. You come from the lofty heights of heaven.

You come, he comes from the position of being part of the Godhead. He is the Godhead with the father.

And then he takes on the form of a bond slave.

Why? What purpose?

He emptied himself of one form and took on another form.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

So, he did it so that he may bond with his father, bond slave.

Bond slave means that you bond with your master. Bond slave means that you bond with Christ.

Bond slave means that Jesus bonded with his father. Bond slave means that he bonded with his father as a slave.

So, why did he do that?

For our example, for our example, that we would take on the form of a bond slave.

So, well, I don't know if I really like that idea.

A slave is under the complete control of somebody else.

He's under the complete control of somebody else. He does not have his own will. He does not have his own desires.

He does not do things out of character. He does everything that his master tells him to do.

Everything.

It's either you're a slave of Christ or you're a slave of Satan.

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.

Other than if you are a hypocrite.

Now you say, well, why do you pick on hypocrites for? Because they're slaves of Satan.

What do you say that for? Because when they come to church, they're one person.

They're acting like they are Christians, but then they go back to the world and they act like the world.

And so you can't straddle the fence.

It's either you're sold out for Jesus Christ or you're not.

So it's either you have or slaves of righteousness, slaves of Christ, or you're not.

Now, all believers are slaves of Christ, but not all believers are bond slaves.

All believers are slaves of Christ, but not all believers are bond slaves.

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?

Is there anything special that I'm going to get if I become a bond slave?

There's two things that I see in Scripture.

And the first thing is intimacy. To be bonded with Christ is intimate intimacy.

Having an intimacy with Christ, being intimate with Christ, that is one good reason, is it not?

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.

And the second thing that is important is that a bond slave identifies with Christ's suffering.

Paul identified with Christ's suffering as a bond slave.

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.

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.

God gave him grace to get through.

So my suggestion to you as you're going through a trial is don't pray that God will deliver you from the trial.

Pray that God will give you grace to get through the trial.

I want to share seven characteristics of a slave and a bond slave.

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.

God does not say that it's mandatory that you become a bond slave.

He does not require it in any place in Scripture that you become a bond slave.

It is by choice.

And these men chose to be bond slaves.

Interesting.

A slave is owned by another, and the other is Jesus Christ.

Aren't you glad that Jesus owns you and not Satan? Aren't you glad that Jesus owns you and not your pastor?

That somebody else would own you?

A slave owns nothing. A slave owns nothing. You say, "Oh wait a minute. That's where the rubber meets the road.

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.

Do you not know that God owns all things?

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?

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.

It belongs to you." So a slave doesn't own anything.

A slave has no will of his own.

Has no will of his own.

It's God's will. It's not your will.

It's what God desires. It's not what you desire.

It's what God orchestrates. It's not what you orchestrate.

It's God who's in control. It's not you that's in control.

It's God who decides as to how you're going to live your life.

He's not you saying, "God, this is the way I want to live my life." No, no, no, no.

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.

It's according to how God has designed it to work out.

So you have not your own will.

A bond slave seeks absolute surrender with no compromise with the world.

Seeks absolute surrender. And you say, "That's really tough." Yes, it is very tough.

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.

But without compromise to the world, worldliness, worldliness creeps into the church.

Worldliness is the enemy of the cross.

Worldliness is how you dress and how you talk and where you go and what you do.

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.

A bond slave bonds with his master and has intimacy with him.

The passage of Scripture, that's an Exodus.

Let me see if I got my...

Well, you're just going to have to take my word for it because I lost Exodus.

In Exodus 21, I think it's 6 and 8, it talks about a man who was a slave.

He made himself a slave to his owner or to his brother.

And he was in debt.

And so he asked him if I can be a slave to you for seven years so I can pay off my debt.

He said yes.

But in the meantime, he gives him a wife and so by her he has children.

Now, seven years comes up and it's time for him to go free.

Well, the wife that he gave him and the children that he had from the wife belongs to the master.

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.

Therefore, I will not go free. I will be a slave.

I will be a bond slave." This is where the principle comes in.

And so the master takes him to his doorpost and he puts an awl and he punches a hole through his ear.

And by punching a hole through his ear, that meant to say that he is now a bond slave of the master forever.

And so he keeps his wife and he keeps his children and he doesn't lose any of them.

Because he decided he would be a bond slave.

Of the Lord.

Now, in closing, I want to share with you.

Onesimus.

Now, Onesimus is a slave.

He's a slave in the physical realm.

He's a physical slave.

He is owned by a man named Philemon.

Philemon is a man who loves the Lord and Paul is the one who want him to Christ.

And he has a church in his own home.

He's a godly man.

And for some reason, Onesimus is not happy being there.

And so he runs off.

He runs away.

And now the question would be, does Onesimus not know the consequences of a slave running away?

Evidently he did.

It could be the death penalty for a slave.

To run away from his master.

Or he could be branded right there.

So in every time that he if he were to run away again, they people would see that he was a runaway slave.

So he runs away.

And by the providence of God, he ends up where Paul is in prison.

And you think, well, man, what what fate is that?

Well, Paul wins Onesimus to the Lord.

And Paul is so much an aberrant by Onesimus because Onesimus evidently knows how to serve.

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.

But here's the point that I want to make by the story about Onesimus.

Is that running away.

Running from God is not the answer to what Christ is to you.

If you don't know Christ today, running away would not help you one bit.

You know, when you start to run, you cannot run away from God.

Onesimus found that out.

He ran and ran and he ran smack into God.

And that's what happens when you run away from God.

Let me make a couple of applications with you.

If I close.

A bond slave bonds with Christ for two reasons.

Intimacy and identification.

Two, a bond slave seeks absolute surrender with no compromises.

And let's pray.

Father, I pray that as we search our own hearts, we need to make a decision as to a bond slave.

Do I want that intimacy with Christ?

Do I want that identification with Christ?

We are slaves already.

Now we are going to become bond slaves bonding with our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

We say, we want intimacy with Christ, but are we willing to pay the price?

We want to be associated with Christ in a very intimate way, but are we willing to pay the price?

I ask you, Father, that we would search our own hearts as to where are we in Christ?

Where is our walk in Christ?

How do we measure up to you, Lord Jesus, when you look at us and you see us?

What type of lifestyle do we have?

I pray, Father, that you would bring home this message and that it would really resonate in your hearts of your people.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

[BLANK_AUDIO]