The Christians Priorities
A Sermon on Ephesians 6:5-9
Originally preached June 19, 1960
Scripture
5Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; 6Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; 7With good will …
Sermon Description
The goal of the church is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to sinners. In this sermon on Ephesians 6:5–9 titled “The Christian’s Priorities,” this is the central message of the church as proclaimed by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The church is never to use its voice as just another platform of social and political change. But sadly many Christians are willing to minimize the proclamation of the gospel for the sake of political commentary and cultural influence. When Christians do this, they often alienate those that they seek to evangelize by criticizing their political and social position. As a result, the lost and unbelievers think that the church is just another activist organization trying to convince them of another perspective on government or economic policies. The times when Christians had the greatest influence in society were not when they were concerned with politics and social change first and foremost, but when they proclaimed the gospel of the forgiveness of sins and the coming kingdom of God. This call to singular focus by Dr. Lloyd-Jones could not be more fitting since believers must think scripturally about all matters if they are to truly impact their world and work for Christ. The church must never shrink from proclaiming the whole gospel of God and the glorious news of salvation in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
Sermon Breakdown
- Christianity does not abolish our relationship to social, political and economic conditions.
- Christianity does not even condemn such things as slavery directly as being sinful.
- Christianity does not condone slavery either. Neither does it justify it.
- The Bible's concern, Christianity's concern, then is as to how the Christian should react to these things and how he is to live in the midst of all this.
- Somebody may ask, well, then, what about improving conditions?
- It is never the business of the church to be concerned about improving conditions. Her business always is to be laying down these particular principles.
- The individual Christian is never to take the law into his own hands. He is never to act as an individual. But that does not mean that as a citizen of the country to which he belongs, that he is not entitled to take part in improving the circumstances and conditions.
- The church does not commend any of these changes. It's never done so. There is not a word in the Bible which tells men to abolish slavery.
- And yet, when men become christians, they begin to think, and they think on both sides.
- I've given you an example of how the men began to think. But look at on the other side, William Wilburfoss, a wealthy man born in the lap of luxury. Why did he become concerned about the question of slavery?
- And there's only one answer to the question. It was his conversion, because William Wilbur was under winter conversion that was as radical as that of the drunken miners outside Bristol. Same thing exactly.
- Here was a man who was entirely changed. And from being a society, fop became a great reformer.
- And as his mind became Christian, he began to look and he said, this is not right. I must deal with this. Not because he'd got a command, but because of his general thinking and his general christian outlook.
- That is the way. Exactly the same with the Earl of Shaftsbury and the factory acts of the last century.
- There was another man who underwent an evangelical conversion. An aristocrat of the aristocrats, born in the lap of luxury. But because his mind had been renewed in Christ, he began to see everything differently and he developed a concern.
The Book of Ephesians
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.