Walking in the Light: Imitating God Through Love and Spirit-Filled Living

• Imitating God [00:06:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the Greek word 'mimete' (imitate) in Ephesians 5:1, clarifying that believers are called to imitate Christ, not control creation.
• The Image of God [00:10:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the image of God primarily as righteousness and holiness, explaining that while the true image was lost in the Fall, it is restored in believers upon regeneration.
• Sanctification and Glorification [00:12:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Romans 8:29, the pastor outlines the theological progression from predestination to conformity to the image of Christ, describing sanctification as an active, ongoing process between justification and glorification.
• Walking in Love [00:14:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies walking in love as the primary practical method for imitating God, referencing Christ's sacrificial love as the model.
• Sanctification and Imitation of God [00:13:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that between justification and glorification, believers are in a process of being conformed to the image of God, requiring active effort to imitate Christ daily.
• Love as the Primary Evidence of Faith [00:14:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > He identifies walking in love as the first and foremost way to imitate God, citing Christ's sacrificial love and the commandment to love God and neighbor.
• Unrepentant Sin and Idolatry [00:16:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that unrepentant sin (including specific examples like homosexuality or covetousness) indicates idolatry, where one loves their sin more than God, resulting in no inheritance in the Kingdom.
• Walking in the Light vs. Moral Twilight [00:19:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > He contrasts the believer's new identity as 'children of light' with the 'moral twilight' of dabbling in sin, urging believers to reprove darkness and live transparently.
• Redeeming Time and Eternal Priorities [00:23:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes the urgency of redeeming time because days are evil and eternity is near, challenging the congregation to prioritize God over work, family, and leisure.
• Prioritizing God over Worldly Distractions [00:26:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that God is more important than work, school, friends, and even family, warning that family becomes an idol if it displaces God's first place.
• Redeeming Time [00:27:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > He emphasizes that time is a precious, non-renewable commodity and challenges the congregation to consider how they will account for their time before God's throne.
• Eternal Perspective vs. Earthly Desires [00:29:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the fleeting nature of material success (cars, houses, jobs) with the eternal inheritance and satisfaction found in heaven and Christ.
• Sanctification and Transformation [00:28:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > He explains that true believers are being transformed day by day into the image of Christ, citing Ephesians and Colossians regarding being raised with Christ.
• The Filling of the Holy Spirit [00:35:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > He exhorts the congregation to be filled with the Spirit rather than alcohol or worldly highs, linking this filling to the purpose of serving and sowing for the Lord.
• Thanksgiving and Submission [00:37:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor concludes with practical applications: giving thanks in all circumstances, even bad ones, and submitting to one another in the fear of God.
• Submission and Service [00:40:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses submitting to one another in the fear of God, correcting the idea that this is merely old-fashioned language, and establishing the hierarchy of loving God first, neighbor second, and self last.
• Marriage as a Biblical Picture [00:42:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Christian marriage is intended to be a symbol of Christ and the Church, acknowledging real-world difficulties but insisting on the biblical ideal based on God's eternal purpose.
• Sacrificial Love of Husbands [00:43:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor illustrates the difficulty of the husband's role by sharing a personal anecdote about his own pride and a radio segment explaining that Christ loved the church even when it was unfaithful, setting the standard for husbands.
• Typology of Adam and Eve [00:47:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects Ephesians 5 to Genesis 2, explaining how Eve coming from Adam's side while he slept prefigures the Church being born from Christ's side (blood and water) while He was dead on the cross.
• Spiritual Adultery and Simplicity [00:54:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using 2 Corinthians 11, the pastor warns against spiritual adultery by allowing hearts to be engaged with earthly things, urging believers to maintain 'godly jealousy' and simplicity focused solely on Christ.
• Spiritual Adultery and Fidelity [00:54:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the metaphor of a chaste virgin espoused to Christ to warn against engaging hearts with earthly things, defining this as spiritual adultery.
• The Simplicity of Christ [00:55:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > He emphasizes that the Christian life is 'simple' and 'all about Christ,' listing His redemptive acts (love, choice, sacrifice, resurrection) as the sole focus.
• Imitation and Vigilance [00:56:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citing Ephesians 5:1, he argues that to remain on Christ, believers must actively 'watch' and 'imitate' God, keeping attention fixed on Jesus.
• The Lord's Supper and Self-Examination [00:57:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > He transitions to communion, explaining it as a symbol of union with Christ and a foretaste of the marriage supper, requiring serious self-examination and repentance to avoid eating unworthily.
• Confession and Prayer [01:05:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The segment concludes with a corporate prayer of confession, asking for forgiveness and the strength to turn from sin to serve Christ.

• Sermon Illustration [00:10:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a humorous anecdote about putting up a sign stating 'people are more important than dogs' to illustrate the inherent value of humans over animals, stemming from the faint residue of God's image in all people.
• Sermon Illustration [00:26:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his mother calling him a 'holy roller' when he began his Christian walk, and notes that he comes from a family of 300,000 Muslim relatives who might oppose his faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:24:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses a comparative illustration of time allocation: people can sit through a three-hour football game (and want overtime) but cannot sit through a 45-50 minute sermon, revealing where their true affections lie.
• Sermon Illustration [00:21:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > He illustrates the concept of 'moral twilight' by describing Christians who walk with 'one foot in the world and one foot in the church,' trying to be good while dabbling in sin, contrasting this with Jesus' absolute holiness.
• Sermon Illustration [00:26:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his mother calling him a 'holy roller' and mentions having 300,000 Muslim relatives who might dislike him for his faith, illustrating the social cost of prioritizing God over family.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > He observes that only the sick and elderly in nursing homes seem truly excited about going to heaven, while others are more focused on earthly pleasures like eating, vacations, and careers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > He uses the example of Eve and Adam losing the image of God by succumbing to the temptation of immediate fulfillment and knowledge, warning against similar modern temptations.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references a church sign claiming they have 'better highs than the CBD store' to illustrate the superiority of the Holy Spirit's filling over worldly substances.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > He humorously notes that his car leaks oil but still gets him from A to B, using it as a minor illustration of finding reasons to praise God despite imperfections.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story from early in his marriage where he felt proud and unhappy, wondering if he 'deserved a harem,' until a radio segment on Ephesians 5 convicted him of his lack of sacrificial love.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a radio host's question about how the church treated Christ when He loved them, noting that the church didn't even know Him, cursed Him, and fled during His arrest, yet He still gave Himself for them.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor draws a typological parallel between Adam falling into a deep sleep from which Eve was born from his side, and Christ dying on the cross from which the Church (symbolically) was born from the spear wound in His side.
• Sermon Illustration [00:52:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the cultural concept of a dowry to illustrate that Christ paid the 'terrible price' of His life to win the Church as His bride.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the Greek word 'arrabon' (earnest/pledge) which is also used for an engagement ring, illustrating that believers are currently 'engaged' to Christ and should not 'hang out' with other spiritual suitors.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the biblical analogy of the church as a 'chaste virgin' espoused to one husband (Christ) to illustrate spiritual fidelity, contrasting it with the 'spiritual adultery' of engaging with earthly things.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references the story of Eve being beguiled by the serpent's subtlety to illustrate how minds can be corrupted from the simplicity of Christ.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > He describes the Lord's Supper as a 'foretaste' of the 'glorious marriage supper' that awaits believers, linking the physical elements to the future consummation of the marriage between Christ and the Church.

• Pastoral Charge [00:13:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > Actively strive to imitate Christ and conform to God's image on a daily basis.
• Pastoral Charge [00:21:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > To pursue holiness and actively engage in the Christian walk.
• Pastoral Charge [00:20:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > To avoid fellowship with darkness and actively reprove sinful works.
• Pastoral Charge [00:25:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > To intentionally use time for God's purposes rather than wasting it.
• Pastoral Charge [00:34:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > To redeem time, walk circumspectly, and live for Christ.
• Pastoral Charge [00:36:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > To actively sow and serve.
• Pastoral Charge [00:38:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > To give daily praise and thank God for the opportunity to serve.
• Pastoral Charge [01:08:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > Form two lines down the aisles to receive communion elements and return to seats.
• Pastoral Charge [01:08:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come forward to partake in the Lord's Supper.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:01] If you would turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5, and as you're turning there, I'd like to remind you, this is obviously the fifth of six messages. There are six messages tonight, Ephesians chapter 6, focusing on spiritual warfare. But last night's message was a very important one. Pastor Andy did a great job focusing on the fact of the body, the local body, the
[00:00:38] importance of the local body. Every one of you, and I welcome visitors who are here today, every single one of you should be part of a local body. You should be members. It's very important.
[00:00:50] It was said by, I guess now, the late Vodie Bauckham, it was said, God's plan A is the local church. He has no plan B. And I believe that's exactly right. I believe that's exactly right.
[00:01:06] And I also want to thank you all who have been praying for me.
[00:01:12] God has strengthened me.
[00:01:14] Your prayers are being answered.
[00:01:16] And so by God's grace, he will help me yet again here.
[00:01:20] I know he has and will.
[00:01:22] So Ephesians chapter 5.
[00:01:25] We're going to read the entire chapter.
[00:01:27] Pastor Andy was so kind as to leave me a little bit of chapter 4 last night that was unpreached.
[00:01:32] And so we will reach back into 4 a little bit.
[00:01:35] but we're going to focus on five, so let's read now the entirety of Ephesians chapter 5.
[00:01:45] Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
[00:01:59] But fornication and uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, or as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.
[00:02:13] For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
[00:02:25] Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
[00:02:32] Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
[00:02:35] For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
[00:02:40] Walk as children of light.
[00:02:43] For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
[00:02:49] And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
[00:02:55] For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
[00:02:59] But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
[00:03:03] For whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
[00:03:06] Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
[00:03:14] See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
[00:03:22] Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
[00:03:26] and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks for all things unto God always,
[00:03:41] and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:03:46] Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God.
[00:03:49] Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body.
[00:04:00] Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
[00:04:07] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
[00:04:20] not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[00:04:26] So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
[00:04:30] He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
[00:04:33] For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
[00:04:40] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
[00:04:45] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
[00:04:54] This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
[00:05:00] Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
[00:05:11] Let's pray.
[00:05:13] Heavenly Father, we do praise you for your holy word.
[00:05:16] We thank you, Lord, for this great chapter in the book of Ephesians.
[00:05:20] Help us now, Lord, to better understand it, to receive the teaching, to be grown up, as Pastor Andy prayed earlier, into the head, your son Christ Jesus, our bridegroom for those of us who are born again,
[00:05:36] who one day we will celebrate our marriage at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[00:05:41] Help us now, we pray, by faith to receive and to walk in this.
[00:05:45] In Christ's name we thank you. Amen.
[00:05:49] Speaking of walking, Pastor Andy preached Ephesians 4 last night, and verse 1 of Ephesians 4 says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called.
[00:06:04] You say you're a Christian, you say you're a child of the Most High God, you sure but don't act like it.
[00:06:16] That's my colloquialism.
[00:06:18] But, you know, God forbid, right?
[00:06:21] We should be acting the part as well, and not just acting, but being.
[00:06:25] Well, I go back to 4.1.
[00:06:27] I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation with your call, because it's kind of repeated almost, but in a different fashion in 5.1.
[00:06:37] Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children.
[00:06:42] Now, this word followers, I think Pastor Anthony mentioned this also, is actually in the Greek mimete.
[00:06:51] And mimete sounds like our word, what?
[00:06:54] Imitate.
[00:06:56] Yes, and it is.
[00:06:57] That's where our word is derived from.
[00:06:59] And it does mean imitate.
[00:07:00] So, can you believe that the Bible tells us to imitate God?
[00:07:05] Now, obviously, we can't imitate him and like we are God controlling everything.
[00:07:09] but when it tells us to imitate God, what do you think might be that example that we're supposed to follow?
[00:07:16] Jesus Christ, the God-man, absolutely.
[00:07:20] And so it starts out, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, or imitators of God.
[00:07:26] And I do want to reach back into chapter 4, because Pastor Andy finished teaching and preaching last night and focusing on the body, the body of Christ, the church.
[00:07:38] But the last part of the chapter, there is something important here, because as you know, what is the therefore, therefore, right?
[00:07:48] 5.1 says, be ye therefore followers of God.
[00:07:52] Well, it's really therefore, it's the previous four chapters.
[00:07:55] But specifically, I think, this last section of Ephesians 4, if you would come into the reading with me here in verse 17 of the previous chapter.
[00:08:05] 4.17, we're going to run right back up to 5.1, and I think it's going to make more sense to you.
[00:08:13] Ephesians 4.17, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
[00:08:23] That goes back to 4.1, right?
[00:08:24] Walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called.
[00:08:27] Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
[00:08:40] But ye have not so learned Christ.
[00:08:42] If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful us.
[00:08:54] When we're born again, we're made new, right?
[00:08:58] You see, this is the idea.
[00:08:59] We are a new creature, a new creation in Christ Jesus.
[00:09:02] Behold, old things have passed away.
[00:09:05] All things have become new.
[00:09:06] So it's time to put off the old man concerning the form of conversation.
[00:09:11] Verse 22 of chapter 4 of Ephesians.
[00:09:13] The old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust.
[00:09:16] And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
[00:09:20] Now notice this next verse, 24.
[00:09:22] And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
[00:09:30] Now, that's very important, because righteousness and true holiness, if you turn with me to the right in your Bibles to Colossians, Colossians is very similar to Ephesians.
[00:09:44] And there is a parallel passage here in chapter 3 of Colossians, verse 8.
[00:09:52] But now ye also put off all these, put off the old man, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds.
[00:10:05] Now notice, and have put on the new man.
[00:10:08] Now remember, in Ephesians it says, the new man according to righteousness and holiness.
[00:10:13] What is righteousness and holiness?
[00:10:16] The image of God primarily consists of righteousness and holiness.
[00:10:21] There's more to it than that, but that's the essentialness.
[00:10:24] See here in verse 10 of Colossians 3, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
[00:10:36] So we're born again by the Father through the Son and now the new man has the image of God.
[00:10:47] Now in the garden we lost the majority of the image of God.
[00:10:51] There's still a faint representation.
[00:10:53] Everyone has that faint representation.
[00:10:56] Human life is more important than dogs.
[00:10:58] That's why I'm going to soon put on the sign, people are more important than dogs.
[00:11:02] Have a funeral.
[00:11:05] Don't worry, that was free.
[00:11:06] But anyways, where did that come from?
[00:11:10] Where it comes from is that humans are infinitely more valuable than animals and livestock, okay?
[00:11:18] Even if you like your dog more than your neighbor, your neighbor is still worth more, okay?
[00:11:23] You need to understand that.
[00:11:24] So every human, even unbelievers, still have a faint residue of the image of God.
[00:11:32] But the true image was lost in the garden.
[00:11:35] Now when we're born again, it comes back, and yet not perfectly.
[00:11:40] Turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 8.
[00:11:44] Romans chapter 8 explains the process a little bit more.
[00:11:49] And I'm sharing all of this because, remember, the first verse in the text at hand in Ephesians 5.1 is calling us to imitate who?
[00:11:57] God. Well, the image of God might help us in that, right? Romans chapter 8, let's take a look at verse 29 and 30. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. You say, oh yeah,
[00:12:14] predestinated. We already talked about that in Ephesians 5, to be adopted as his children. But notice here, for whom he did foreknow, Romans 8, 29, he also did predestinate to be what? To be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
[00:12:34] Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, whom he called, he also justified, whom he justified, he also glorifies.
[00:12:41] So there's this aspect that we who are born again, remember Ephesians 1, we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the earth to the glory of his grace.
[00:12:50] We're saved, chapter 2, by grace, through faith, not of ourselves, not of works, it's the gift of God.
[00:12:56] lest any man should boast.
[00:12:57] But we are saved unto that end place.
[00:13:01] But in the meantime, once we're born again, the image of God comes back, and righteousness and holiness is working in us.
[00:13:13] And as we are on this pilgrim journey to glorification, those that he called, he also justified.
[00:13:21] Those he justified, he will also glorify.
[00:13:25] Well, between justification, when we're born again, we're justified by faith, right?
[00:13:29] When we're born again, when we profess faith in Christ and repent of our sins, from that point until glorification, when we see Jesus, when we die or when he comes for us, there is a conforming more and more to the image of God.
[00:13:45] So this idea, this command to imitate God is active.
[00:13:49] You need to actively try more and more to be like Christ day by day.
[00:13:56] And that's not my suggestion.
[00:13:57] That's the word of God's command unto each and every one of you who are a believer.
[00:14:01] Amen?
[00:14:03] Right.
[00:14:04] So, let's go back then to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1.
[00:14:14] Be ye therefore, see why the therefore is therefore, followers of God or imitators of God as dear children.
[00:14:23] And we are children, right?
[00:14:24] We've been adopted.
[00:14:26] children of the Heavenly Father. Praise God. And how do we do that? First and foremost, immediately, walk in love. Now, we talked a lot about love, right? 1 Corinthians 13.
[00:14:37] We preached it for a long time. We used Jonathan Edwards' book, Charity and Its Fruits, his preaching series in 1738. We talked about the nature of love, the love of God.
[00:14:48] But the greatest way for us to imitate Christ is to walk in love. Verse 2, As Christ also loved us and hath given himself for an offering and a sweet sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
[00:15:01] Love, right, is not selfish.
[00:15:03] After all, what does the Bible say is the first commandment?
[00:15:06] Jesus says the first and great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:15:15] So we know that God did that.
[00:15:18] For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son.
[00:15:21] Jesus so loved his disciples that even while they were denying him and running away in his most needful time, he still died for them.
[00:15:34] And Romans 5 says that while we were at enmity against God, he still died for us.
[00:15:39] That's love.
[00:15:40] We're called to love like that.
[00:15:43] Not easy, is it?
[00:15:44] But nevertheless, we're commanded to do just that.
[00:15:48] Now, there's these verses here that talk about sins that we should have no part of as Christians.
[00:15:56] And what I'd like to point out in this list of sins, in verse 3, fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, let it not be once named among you, or filthiness, foolishness, foolish talking, jesting, not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.
[00:16:10] And then verse 5, a whoremonger, unclean, covetous, who is an idolater.
[00:16:16] They don't have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
[00:16:19] Remember, chapter 1, we have the earnest of our inheritance, the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:25] People who are in unrepentant sin will not go to heaven.
[00:16:30] Do you understand that?
[00:16:31] That's what he's saying.
[00:16:32] Any kind of sin, specifically these or gross sins, it's just like, for example, this word uncleanness generally refers to perverse sexual things like homosexuality, for example, can a homosexual go to heaven? Absolutely, if he'll repent. If he does not
[00:16:52] repent, or unfortunately, in some things that call themselves a church, they'll have a thing in the pulpit that's a homosexual and unrepentant and proud and boast about it. And everybody says, isn't that wonderful? We're such a tolerant church. According to the Bible, this person has
[00:17:11] no inheritance in the kingdom of God whatsoever, okay? Now that's just, I named that one because that's, our culture has gotten so perverse and so foolish that they're calling good evil an evil good, just as it was prophesied. But by the way, before you all say, yeah, those homosexuals are
[00:17:33] rough. Notice, also a covetous man. Someone who always wants more stuff and never repents will not go to heaven. Doesn't have to be a homosexual. And so the point is, it's not just this sin or that sin. It's unrepentant sin. And why unrepentant sin? Because ultimately,
[00:17:58] notice what we find here in verse 5. For this you know, that no whoremonger or unclean person or covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God.
[00:18:13] Why? What's the big deal with unrepentant sin?
[00:18:16] Ultimately, I like my sin more than God.
[00:18:19] If I love God more than my sin, I'd give it up.
[00:18:22] Or I would beg him to take it away from me.
[00:18:25] Though I may fall, I would cry out for help.
[00:18:29] But to just say, well, basically, God's going to just have to take me the way I am.
[00:18:33] I hope he'll let me in because I'm not changing.
[00:18:38] You have made yourself and your sin bigger than God.
[00:18:41] That's called idolatry.
[00:18:43] And idolatry is, after all, against the first commandment of the ten.
[00:18:48] And the second, and really all of the ten commandments are tied up in idolatry.
[00:18:53] So we need to understand that.
[00:18:54] That has nothing to do with us as Christians.
[00:18:56] We should not find ourselves in this place.
[00:18:59] So he's saying, look, these things should not have anything to do with you.
[00:19:03] Also, verse 6, let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
[00:19:11] Almost like a sense that there may be people in the church who say, yes, yes, amen, amen, but they may very well be in these sins.
[00:19:19] Let no man deceive you.
[00:19:21] Be you not, therefore, partakers with them.
[00:19:24] And he talks about this section about how we used to be darkness, but now we're light.
[00:19:30] Praise God.
[00:19:30] He's translated us out of the kingdom of darkness.
[00:19:33] of Satan. You know, we think of hell and death, and we think of darkness, and we think of heaven and its light. There's no need of the sun or the moon, because the Lord and the Lamb, the King and
[00:19:46] the Lamb, the one who sits on the throne of the Lamb, they are the light thereof. And so we've been translated out of darkness into light, and so therefore we are to walk as children of light.
[00:19:58] Verse 8, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Interesting. Brett was talking in Sunday school about, you know,
[00:20:14] judge not lest you be judged. Well, if you can't judge, how can you reprove?
[00:20:20] Here it tells us to reprove. Reprove the works of darkness. Doesn't that kind of sound awful judgmental what's the point of reproving them hopefully they will see the error too and they will repent a lot of times they'll just jerk the neck and get all the more stubborn but sometimes
[00:20:41] they will reprove them don't go and hang out with them reprove them for it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret but all things that are reproved are made manifest
[00:20:56] by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light wherefore he saith awake thou that sleepest it's a good verse for the church here and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light
[00:21:10] you know I think I think it's kind of like I don't know it seems to me we as Christians can kind of walk through a moral twilight all day long you know just kind of like the twilight zone kind
[00:21:22] of thing. You know, I'm trying to be good. You know, I got one foot in the world and one foot in the church, and just, you know, try to be as good as I can. I don't know. He said, no, no,
[00:21:32] wake up. It's time to get right. It's time to be holy. It's time to assert yourself on this pilgrim journey to heaven itself. It's time. This is not following God. Remember what it says in
[00:21:46] the beginning? Imitate God. Jesus didn't, you know, hang out on the, you know, like, well, you know, I'm going to dabble a little bit with sin over here, but for the most part, I'll be a good guy.
[00:21:57] No, absolutely perfect, absolutely holy in every way. You know, I'm sure that God has humor. We see humor in here, but Jesus did not tell dirty jokes. Jesus didn't laugh at dirty jokes, okay?
[00:22:14] Okay?
[00:22:16] That's jesting.
[00:22:17] That's one of the things that it mentioned.
[00:22:18] You should have no problem.
[00:22:19] Don't encourage these things, okay?
[00:22:23] We need to walk in the light.
[00:22:25] You know, people get in darkness because they want to hide.
[00:22:29] But for us, we should be completely in the light, you see, so that anyone can examine our life.
[00:22:35] And hopefully, our life will be a reflection of the true light, for Christ is life, and it will shine unto them.
[00:22:43] Wherefore, he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
[00:22:48] That's interesting, arise from the dead.
[00:22:50] Remember in Ephesians 2, we used to be, before we were born again, what?
[00:22:56] Dead in our sins and trespasses.
[00:22:59] Arise.
[00:23:00] And in Psalm, I believe it's what, 36?
[00:23:03] In thy light shall we see light.
[00:23:07] If God does not shine the light of his Spirit upon us, we're unable to discern the difference between light and dark.
[00:23:15] In thy light shall we see light.
[00:23:19] And so, he says, see that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.
[00:23:28] Here's this walk, this Christian life, circumspectly, always looking around, making sure what's going on.
[00:23:36] Don't be oblivious.
[00:23:38] the attacks of the devil who roams about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and all of the more subtle things that take away from our walk and our imitation of Christ especially the wasting of time.
[00:23:56] That's why it says here redeeming the time because the days are evil.
[00:24:01] How do you spend your time?
[00:24:03] We've talked about it before.
[00:24:05] How do we spend our money and our time?
[00:24:08] You want to find out where people's hearts are?
[00:24:11] Look how much, how they spend their money and their time.
[00:24:15] You know, if they can't come to church for more than an hour, but they can go be on the lake and drink for six hours, that gives you an indication of where their hearts are.
[00:24:26] If they can sit through a football game that's three hours long, and then when overtime comes, they just can't get more anymore.
[00:24:35] I mean, we'd love for it to just keep going all day.
[00:24:39] But when, you know, we get past about 45, 50 minutes in the sermon, isn't that not?
[00:24:50] I mean, now, granted, I may not be the best preacher, you know.
[00:24:53] But as I've said before, go find the best one and stay if he preaches for three or four hours.
[00:24:59] Don't be a hypocrite.
[00:25:00] Amen?
[00:25:01] Good.
[00:25:01] That was quick.
[00:25:02] And so, redeem the time.
[00:25:05] Redeem the time for the days are evil.
[00:25:08] What are you doing with your time?
[00:25:09] How much time do you have left?
[00:25:11] How do you know?
[00:25:13] Tomorrow we could be called to heaven.
[00:25:16] What have you done with your life?
[00:25:17] For God.
[00:25:19] You all are here.
[00:25:20] I think you all claim to be Christians.
[00:25:23] After all, this is eternity that we're moving towards.
[00:25:26] This little life, some of you are 70, some of you are 80.
[00:25:30] I don't know if there's anyone here.
[00:25:32] There's some 86 or 7 or 8.
[00:25:35] I don't know if there's any 90-year-olds in here today.
[00:25:36] But what is it compared to eternity?
[00:25:40] Nothing. Nothing. And this is our God. This isn't our profession or our hobby or something that we just do on Sunday because that's what my parents did and that's what upright people, respectable people should do. This is supposed to be our eternal destiny. Nothing should be more important.
[00:25:59] So we should be imitating God and we should be daily seeking to redeem time. We'll say, Pastor Joseph, I'm just so busy, you know.
[00:26:07] I got school and I got work and I got this and I got that and this and that and that.
[00:26:14] And I just can't hardly find time to pray or study or anything.
[00:26:19] Well, it's time to redeem back some of that time, somehow or another.
[00:26:23] Because if this is your God, it's more important than work.
[00:26:27] It's more important than school.
[00:26:28] It's more important than friends.
[00:26:31] Don't get mad at me.
[00:26:32] I'm just speaking the truth here.
[00:26:33] It's more important than family.
[00:26:36] Is God more important than family?
[00:26:38] How many of you know some family, when you come to God, won't like you so much?
[00:26:43] Like my mother said, are you one of those holy rollers?
[00:26:50] Now, praise God, she still likes me.
[00:26:53] But, you know, I come from a family of 300,000 Muslim relatives, and probably some of them would like to kill me for some of the things that I've said about Muhammad and Islam.
[00:27:06] You know, family is wonderful.
[00:27:07] There's nothing wrong with family, but family is terrible if it becomes an idol.
[00:27:14] Anything can become an idol, and we need to understand God must have the first place.
[00:27:20] Redeeming time.
[00:27:21] How are we using our time for the Lord?
[00:27:23] And sometimes, whatever it is, I don't know, you know, I just don't have time for this, and I don't have time for that.
[00:27:28] And, you know, time, of course, is a very precious commodity, even more precious than money.
[00:27:34] Certainly, we can look at money and see how your affections are.
[00:27:37] but money you might lose and get back.
[00:27:41] Time, once it's lost, you never get it back.
[00:27:47] If right now something happens and you die and you stand before the throne and God asks you, the last week, how much of it was spent for me?
[00:27:58] In my word, in prayer, in witnessing, in sharing Christ with other people, in serving in the church or whatever.
[00:28:10] I don't know.
[00:28:11] Everyone here would have a different answer.
[00:28:13] But what's your answer?
[00:28:16] And if there's anyone here who says, well, you know, honestly, there wasn't a whole bunch to it.
[00:28:22] Is that what you're going to tell God?
[00:28:24] Well, God, you know, I was pretty busy.
[00:28:27] You need to understand it's kind of busy down here on earth, and I just really couldn't find time for you.
[00:28:34] Is that the answer you're going to give?
[00:28:38] God should be changing us.
[00:28:41] We're being more and more.
[00:28:42] If you're born again, there's a big if, because Colossians says if.
[00:28:47] If you've been risen with Christ, that goes back to Ephesians 2, verse 6, because in 2.5, though we were dead in our sins and trespasses, if we've been born again, God makes us alive with Christ, Ephesians 2.5.
[00:28:58] And Ephesians 2.6, and hath raised us up and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
[00:29:06] And that's why the Apostle Paul prays in Ephesians 3, that God, that Christ would dwell in our hearts by faith, that we would understand who we are in Christ, understand our position in Christ, understand that we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
[00:29:22] understand that there is a true sense in which we've already been raised up and made to sit in heavenly places, and that's what it's all about.
[00:29:31] Not the car or the house or the job or the ball game or how green your lawn is or anything else.
[00:29:40] All of that's fine and good, but that's nothing, worthless.
[00:29:44] It's all going to burn up.
[00:29:45] I need to be transformed day by day and conformed day by day more to the image of Christ whose heart and mind was singularly set on returning to the heaven he came from to live the perfect life
[00:30:05] that you couldn't live, to die and take the punishment that we all deserve, and then to raise on the third day and ascend back to the Father, to the throne.
[00:30:17] It says, he endured the cross, despising the shame.
[00:30:22] Why?
[00:30:23] For the joy that was set before him.
[00:30:26] I got to tell you folks, now you come tell me if you're different.
[00:30:29] If you're different, I'll rejoice with you.
[00:30:31] I will, I'll say praise God.
[00:30:33] I won't give you a hug today because I'm not feeling well, but the only people I see rejoicing about heaven are the very sick and infirm elderly folks in the nursing home.
[00:30:46] I don't find anybody else that's so excited and ready to go to heaven.
[00:30:50] They're ready to go out to eat.
[00:30:52] They're ready to go on vacation.
[00:30:54] They're ready to, oh, I don't know, to graduate from this or that or get this degree or get this sale or make this amount of money or whatever.
[00:31:05] But when you say, aren't you excited to go to heaven?
[00:31:09] Yeah, that sounds nice, Pastor Joseph.
[00:31:12] What are we having for lunch?
[00:31:19] What's the problem?
[00:31:21] Is not heaven heaven?
[00:31:24] Isn't that where the one who loved us and gave himself for us is?
[00:31:28] The one who is love incarnate?
[00:31:31] The one who is more wonderful and glorious than anything we can hope, ask, or think?
[00:31:38] every desire, all of the things that we complain of here on earth, day by day, will be gone there.
[00:31:46] And everything that we really desire, the very base of the desires, even if sometimes our desires are perverse somehow because of our fallen nature, there is a base desire there that is good and that is right,
[00:31:59] the desire for love, that will only be perfectly fulfilled, 100% satisfied, and a satisfaction that grows day by day in heaven for all eternity.
[00:32:13] Yet here, so often, we're not really satisfied, if we're honest.
[00:32:20] All of the things that we truly, deeply desire are found in heaven and waiting for us.
[00:32:26] The inheritance has already been purchased.
[00:32:29] The blood of the Lamb has been spilt.
[00:32:31] The earnest has been given to us, the Holy Spirit of God.
[00:32:35] We're on our way.
[00:32:37] We've been sealed only to be opened up by the addressee, which is God.
[00:32:44] And in the meantime, what's this over here?
[00:32:48] Oh, let me come over here and look, you know.
[00:32:51] Instead of having our heart and mind and affections fixed on things above, we cleave heavily to the earth and to the things of the world.
[00:33:02] beware. Remember, to be an imitator of God, we have to be born again. We have to have his spirit in us. And the image of God is to be once again being renewed in us. And it says in the Bible
[00:33:21] that as we look to God in prayer and the word, we are renewed day by day. We are changed, transformed from glory to glory, more and more sanctified, more and more like Christ.
[00:33:37] That's the normative picture of a true believer.
[00:33:40] Until when we see him, 1 John chapter 3, we will be like him.
[00:33:48] This is the way it's supposed to be.
[00:33:52] But remember the one who had the image of God and lost it.
[00:33:57] Remember Eve and Adam, but it's specifically Eve.
[00:34:01] What did Eve lose it for?
[00:34:04] Hey, look, God's trying to hold you down.
[00:34:08] There's all this great stuff, all this knowledge.
[00:34:12] It's called the Internet.
[00:34:13] No, but, you know, it's AI, you know.
[00:34:17] But, you know, all this great stuff that, you know, you can be like God.
[00:34:22] You can do it yourself.
[00:34:23] You can have fulfillment right now.
[00:34:26] Just go ahead and eat of this tree.
[00:34:29] And it was that which took away the image of God.
[00:34:33] And for us, we need to beware of the very same temptations.
[00:34:38] The lust of the flesh, right?
[00:34:40] The lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
[00:34:44] God have mercy.
[00:34:45] Redeem the time because the days are evil.
[00:34:49] That's true, isn't it?
[00:34:51] Redeem the time.
[00:34:52] Walk circumspectly.
[00:34:54] Live for Christ.
[00:34:56] Now, verse 17.
[00:34:57] Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
[00:35:02] Don't be drunk.
[00:35:03] with alcohol, but be filled with the Spirit. We put a sign out there that says we have better highs than the CBD store. We have better highs. We said also we have the one Spirit that you can't
[00:35:19] purchase at the ABC store. That's the Holy Spirit. And we should be filled with that Spirit.
[00:35:27] It's not just a Pentecostal thing or a charismatic thing. It's a biblical thing.
[00:35:31] we have been and didn't Paul pray that for us go back to Ephesians chapter 3 notice his prayer again in verse 17 of Ephesians 3 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted
[00:35:45] and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you might be
[00:35:55] filled with all the fullness of God. But remember, I said, for what purpose? I've seen people, I want to go and get a blessing. I want to go get filled with the Spirit. I want to, I said, why?
[00:36:11] Oh, it'll be great. It'll be fun. It'll be exciting. Man, there's nothing like that.
[00:36:16] What are you going to do with this fullness? But more importantly, what are you doing with what you have right now for the Lord. And if you're not really using what God has given you, why should
[00:36:34] you think he's going to give you any more? The Bible says he ministers seed to the sower. Are you sowing? Are you serving? Redeem the time. The fullness of God, the filling of the Holy Spirit
[00:36:51] is a beautiful and wonderful thing. You want to imitate God? Christ Jesus, did he have the Holy Spirit? He had the Spirit without measure. God has dealt to every man the measure of faith, but Christ Jesus had the Spirit without measure. And so if we're going to imitate
[00:37:11] God, we should seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And by the way, this might be very simple for you, but if you're full of yourself, there's no room for the Spirit.
[00:37:25] So you have to be like John the Baptist, right?
[00:37:27] He must increase, I must.
[00:37:33] Speaking to yourselves, verse 19, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:37:47] Is thanksgiving a hallmark of your life or are you apt to complain?
[00:37:55] And I guess the question, Should I ask your husband or wife about that?
[00:37:59] Or your kids?
[00:38:02] Are you more apt day by day?
[00:38:05] Thank God that I have the health that I have.
[00:38:07] Thank God that we have this food that we have.
[00:38:10] Or thank God that we have this car.
[00:38:12] It leaks oil, but it gets us from A to B.
[00:38:14] Praise the Lord.
[00:38:15] Thank God for whatever.
[00:38:17] We're going to give God praise day by day.
[00:38:19] Thank God for another day to serve him.
[00:38:21] Or is it more complaints and belly aches?
[00:38:26] No, no, we should be thanking God.
[00:38:29] Every breath is a gift, isn't it?
[00:38:32] Are you owed the next one?
[00:38:34] And in whose hand is your next breath?
[00:38:36] Is it not God himself who graciously grants it to us?
[00:38:41] So it says giving thanks.
[00:38:45] Giving thanks always for all things, even the bad things.
[00:38:50] Well, just remember, if you're a child of God, all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.
[00:39:01] If that's you, even the bad things, you know, I understand something horrible happens.
[00:39:07] Oh, thank you, Lord, that this happened.
[00:39:09] Well, I understand that's difficult.
[00:39:11] But you can thank Him that if you're a child of God, thank you, Lord, that I know that even this you will use to my good.
[00:39:20] As difficult as this is, as challenging as it is, and I don't understand why, and yet I believe your word, I know you have promised, I do love you, you have called me before the foundation of the earth, and that good work that you've begun in me
[00:39:34] in salvation, you will see unto completion, you're the author and the finisher of my faith, and I believe that, and I trust that, and even this I know you will use for my ultimate good
[00:39:45] and your glory, and so I give you praise and thanks in Jesus. This is the way that we need to begin to look at things now and not put on an act say well this is what joseph said so i better
[00:39:58] say it no no no you got to mean it we can only mean it if we believe it right and that has to come faith comes from hearing hearing by the ephesians 5 continuing on submitting yourselves
[00:40:19] verse 21, to one another in the fear of God. So, you know, this old thing, these old movies like the Scrooge movie and all that, you know, the old day, your servant, you know, like that was just
[00:40:34] kind of the language. But there is this aspect that we are to serve one another. We are to submit to one another. We are to serve one another as much as possible. That's what God's called us to
[00:40:45] do in a spirit of love. We're not to esteem ourselves, but others more highly than ourselves.
[00:40:52] We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That makes him number one, right? And then we're supposed to second, love our neighbor as ourself. That makes
[00:41:00] you number two, right? And what is my? A distant third. The Lord Jesus Christ, number one. Everybody else, number two. And then me, a distant third. Isn't that what the Bible says? Is that how we
[00:41:14] always often live and act and speak and think? Why not? Well, now this section quickly about relationships, which we'll be speaking of more this evening in the first part of Ephesians 6, but then of course we're going to dwell a lot in the spiritual warfare aspect in chapter 6.
[00:41:36] But there is this business of husbands and wives here in chapter 5. Then later in chapter 6, I see one of my children here.
[00:41:46] Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
[00:41:49] It's a great verse.
[00:41:50] I hope you enjoy that.
[00:41:53] God bless you, my child.
[00:41:56] Of course, they remind me.
[00:41:59] They remind me well of chapter 6, verse 4.
[00:42:02] And fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.
[00:42:07] So they are correct.
[00:42:09] However, here in 5, there is a focus on wives and husbands.
[00:42:14] And the reason is, and we're going to get to it before we come to the table, that ultimately the Christian marriage is supposed to be the symbol and picture of the marriage of Christ and the church.
[00:42:27] And this is what we have here.
[00:42:29] There is a biblical picture presented here.
[00:42:32] Now, I know that many of you have had different situations and divorce and not getting married at all or getting married and not working out and all sorts of things.
[00:42:42] and I recognize that there's husbands that aren't good and wives that aren't good.
[00:42:47] I understand.
[00:42:49] However, there is a biblical ideal and injunction that we cannot dismiss because this is God's plan.
[00:42:59] And it is based after the eternal purpose of God in his son Christ Jesus espousing us, the church, to himself.
[00:43:10] And so that's why we see here in verse 22, Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord.
[00:43:17] And that's a beautiful thing.
[00:43:19] If the husband is godly and a godly Christian husband, for a wife to submit joyfully to her husband is a beautiful thing.
[00:43:29] And then, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body.
[00:43:35] Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything and then the husbands actually have a harder job really husbands love your wives even as christ loved the church and gave himself for
[00:43:52] it how much love is that yeah i remember um one time you know early in my marriage i was just you know i don't know what was wrong with me but um you know i was just thinking
[00:44:05] And I don't know, marriage was good, but I just guess I was just too proud, you know.
[00:44:11] I mean, maybe I deserve a harem or something.
[00:44:14] I don't know.
[00:44:15] I don't know what was on my mind, you know, but I was just, I just wasn't happy for some reason.
[00:44:22] And here comes this radio five-minute segment on this verse.
[00:44:27] And he said, husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
[00:44:32] He said, what kind of love is that?
[00:44:35] He says, when Christ gave himself for the church, how was the church treating Christ?
[00:44:44] I don't even know who he is.
[00:44:46] Even start cursing.
[00:44:48] In his most difficult time, can't you wait with me one hour?
[00:44:53] Right?
[00:45:00] Still happens today.
[00:45:01] And then when they come to get him, most of them, what do they do?
[00:45:10] I'm out of here.
[00:45:13] We are to love our wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
[00:45:19] Well, my wife just, she doesn't love me the way she should, so I don't need to love her.
[00:45:27] They didn't stop Christ from loving the church.
[00:45:29] Even when the church denied that they even knew him.
[00:45:35] Yes, the man does have a harder job if he'll take it seriously.
[00:45:40] Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
[00:45:44] Why? That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
[00:45:50] So the word of God, and I'm so glad you're all here, I'm speaking to the choir, is supposed to be cleansing us, washing us spiritually.
[00:45:58] Why are we to be washed? Why are we to be cleansed?
[00:46:01] Well, notice verse 27, that he might present it, what's the it?
[00:46:06] Us, to himself, right?
[00:46:10] That he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[00:46:19] And that's that wonderful day of the marriage supper of the Lamb, right?
[00:46:23] We, the church, is going to be married to Christ.
[00:46:26] How beautiful.
[00:46:27] How wonderful.
[00:46:30] So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
[00:46:32] He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
[00:46:35] For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
[00:46:40] for we are members of his body.
[00:46:43] We, church, are members of whose body?
[00:46:47] Christ.
[00:46:48] How close are we?
[00:46:51] Of his flesh and of his bones.
[00:46:54] Wow.
[00:46:57] Can you get any closer than that?
[00:47:00] And then notice verse 31.
[00:47:02] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh.
[00:47:11] Does that verse sound familiar from some other place?
[00:47:15] Where? Genesis? We have a little bit of time. Let's go find it.
[00:47:21] Genesis chapter 2, verse 21. Well, let's start in verse 20.
[00:47:33] Genesis 2.20, of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
[00:47:54] And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
[00:48:02] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
[00:48:07] Weren't we just talking about bones and flesh and the church and Christ?
[00:48:11] You think there might be some kind of connection here?
[00:48:15] This, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
[00:48:19] She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
[00:48:24] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
[00:48:35] Isn't that what we just read in our text in Ephesians 5?
[00:48:40] Now, what does this passage in Ephesians 5 have to do with Adam and Eve?
[00:48:45] Well, the creation is what established one man and one woman.
[00:48:51] Marriage is only one man and one woman, nothing else.
[00:48:57] And the reason is because that's the way God created it.
[00:49:00] But also, it is a picture of the one God who espoused his bride.
[00:49:07] Initially, it was the nation of Israel, but it's the people of God.
[00:49:11] Now, as we saw in Ephesians chapter 2, the middle wall of partition has been broken down to of two, Jew and Gentile, to make one new man, the church.
[00:49:23] And so Christ has one bride, one man, one woman.
[00:49:27] And he loves his bride.
[00:49:31] And of course, he gave himself for his bride.
[00:49:35] And so we see that here back again at the end of chapter 5 of Ephesians.
[00:49:39] Our text, we're almost done.
[00:49:41] Here in Ephesians 5, verse 30.
[00:49:44] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
[00:49:48] Sounds like Adam and Eve.
[00:49:50] For this call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
[00:49:57] This is a great mystery, but notice, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
[00:50:04] Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
[00:50:15] Remember, we have an inheritance, and we've received the earnest of our inheritance, which is the Holy Spirit.
[00:50:25] And we have an inheritance because we've been adopted as children, and children will one day receive the inheritance, right?
[00:50:34] But we're also the wife of the only begotten Son.
[00:50:43] We also receive the inheritance in this way, as the church.
[00:50:47] And you know, Adam, Eve comes out of Adam.
[00:50:52] Well, doesn't the church, in a sense, come out of Christ?
[00:50:56] In order for Eve to come, Adam has to lay down and go into a deep sleep.
[00:51:06] I don't know that they needed, God didn't need anesthesia.
[00:51:09] But the picture here is like someone dead, right?
[00:51:13] and out of the side is Eve born right here, the rib.
[00:51:21] So too, when Christ is on the cross and they break the legs of the one and they break the legs of the other to hasten their death, they come to Christ, they don't break his legs,
[00:51:35] he's already dead, but they take a spear right there, maybe the very same place that Adam's rib was taken out.
[00:51:44] And out comes blood and water.
[00:51:49] And the church symbolically is born.
[00:51:53] Right there, Christ, dead on the cross.
[00:51:57] Adam, almost dead, if you will.
[00:52:00] And out of Adam's side in this place comes Eve.
[00:52:05] Christ, dead on the cross.
[00:52:07] Out of his side comes, if you will, the church by the blood and the water.
[00:52:12] not from under his feet not from over his head but here at his side close where he can embrace his bride this is what god has done for us he loved us he gave himself for us
[00:52:31] he loved his bride so much us the only way he could win us you know you got to pay a dowry to get a bride. Not anymore. But it used to be, right? You have to pay to get this wife. Christ
[00:52:49] paid a terrible price for you to be his bride. And that was to give his very life so that we might not only have eternal life and salvation, not only be now adopted children of the Most High God,
[00:53:06] but in a special spiritual way to be married to Jesus Christ Himself and the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[00:53:18] We've already been engaged.
[00:53:20] We've received the inheritance, the Holy Spirit.
[00:53:22] Remember the word for inheritance in the Greek in Ephesians 1 is Erebon.
[00:53:26] And Erebon is also used for what?
[00:53:30] Engagement ring.
[00:53:32] We've been engaged to Christ.
[00:53:34] Once you get engaged to somebody, you don't generally go around hanging out with other people, do you?
[00:53:39] You're not supposed to, at least.
[00:53:43] I hope you don't, and didn't.
[00:53:45] We've been engaged to Christ.
[00:53:48] Our heart's affection should not wander to the right nor to the left, but be wholly fixed upon Jesus Christ.
[00:53:57] I'll end with this.
[00:53:59] I referenced it earlier in our series.
[00:54:02] In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul says this.
[00:54:06] 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1.
[00:54:09] Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me.
[00:54:14] For I, Paul, am jealous over you with a godly jealousy.
[00:54:19] For I have espoused you, church, to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ on that wedding day.
[00:54:36] What does it mean for us to be a chaste virgin?
[00:54:38] that our heart does not get engaged with whatever it is on this earth like it is to be with God and Christ and heaven itself and salvation.
[00:54:54] Otherwise, we have committed the spiritual adultery, haven't we?
[00:54:58] And then he says, but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
[00:55:19] It's simple.
[00:55:21] It's all about Christ.
[00:55:24] He loved us into eternity past.
[00:55:27] He chose us.
[00:55:28] He gave himself for us.
[00:55:30] He suffered our penalty.
[00:55:32] He lived and fulfilled the law we couldn't.
[00:55:35] He defeats, as Pastor Andy said, death, hell in the grave, Satan himself, all of our enemies.
[00:55:43] He's raised up and far above principality and power and might.
[00:55:47] He's in heaven at the right hand of God.
[00:55:50] We have a place in him there now, but also waiting for us.
[00:55:56] And when he returns, we will be married to him in this glorious marriage supper of the land.
[00:56:03] We've been sealed by the Holy Spirit.
[00:56:06] We're on our way.
[00:56:07] It's all about him.
[00:56:10] Simplicity in Christ.
[00:56:11] but he fears, like Eve, our minds can be taken off of Christ onto anything else.
[00:56:22] And that's what we need to be careful of.
[00:56:25] The only way our minds and hearts can remain on Christ is if we seek daily just what it says in the beginning of our chapter, Ephesians 5, verse 1.
[00:56:36] Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children.
[00:56:44] Followers, imitators.
[00:56:47] In order to imitate, you've got to watch.
[00:56:51] Keep your heart, your mind, your eyes, your attention on Jesus Christ.
[00:57:00] And there won't be a problem.
[00:57:01] Amen?
[00:57:02] The one who gave himself so that we might have life, here it is, presented before us.
[00:57:12] His body, his blood, shed for you and for me.
[00:57:17] and Pastor Andy is going to come forward and he's going to officiate in just a moment but first we're going to have the choir come up and we're going to give the tithes and offerings
[00:57:27] but I'll just say one thing before that this body and blood that we partake of communion remember we are of his flesh and of his bones communion means two becoming one this is the gift of God
[00:57:47] this is the foretaste of that consummation of that marriage that God has laid up for us since the foundation of the world.
[00:57:57] May this be a means of strengthening us to follow, to walk, and to imitate our triune God who loved us and gave himself for us.
[00:58:07] Amen?
[00:58:09] Choir, if you would come forward.
[00:58:11] And we're going to give to the Lord now in the midst of their blessing us with song the tithe and the offering.
[00:58:22] And to that end, I will pray.
[00:58:24] Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.
[00:58:27] Thank you for your truth.
[00:58:29] Thank you for your Son, Christ Jesus.
[00:58:31] And thank you, Lord, for this table of grace about which we are to partake soon.
[00:58:37] Bless, Lord, I pray, even now as we hear this song and as we give unto you cheerfully just this small portion of what you've given us.
[00:58:47] For you've given us everything, even your life.
[00:58:49] It's in Christ's name we thank You and praise You, Lord. Amen.

[00:58:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:58:53] You have to remember how this table is set.
[00:59:31] What it means. What it stands for.
[00:59:34] It was set by Jesus giving Himself for us.
[00:59:42] Dying in our place. His blood being shed for us.
[00:59:47] And He says to us, take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you.
[00:59:53] and this cup is the new testament in my blood so not only are we supposed to remember what christ has done for us but we are also to eat and drink on him by faith because as jesus says in john
[01:00:14] chapter 6 he says unless you eat the flesh of the son of god and unless you drink his blood you have no life within you.
[01:00:24] Now we do not believe that the bread literally becomes the body of Jesus and that the grape juice becomes the literal blood of Jesus.
[01:00:37] Of course it is a symbol.
[01:00:39] Of course it points us to Christ and what He has done for us.
[01:00:44] But it is us receiving it by faith.
[01:00:47] and it should cause us to come before Him in humility.
[01:00:54] Some passages in Ephesians that point to the table and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
[01:01:07] In Ephesians chapter 1, what we read of this standing that we have with Christ that He has done for us.
[01:01:17] In Ephesians 1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
[01:01:35] that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
[01:01:41] Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted
[01:01:55] in the Beloved.
[01:01:56] And why are we accepted in the Beloved?
[01:01:59] Why are we accepted in Christ?
[01:02:03] In whom we have, because in Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.
[01:02:16] This grace that He gives to us that we don't deserve because of our disobedience, because of our sin, because of our wayward hearts.
[01:02:27] This also should make us think about, and as we think about how we approach the table that we looked at just now in chapter 5, where it says a caution in coming to the table,
[01:02:45] that there is to be repentance, that there is to be turning from sin, that if anyone is walking in sin or anyone has unconfessed sin that there may be repentance that we actually turn from our sins.
[01:03:04] It says, But fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not be even named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather the giving of thanks.
[01:03:27] For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ.
[01:03:45] Now you might be wondering why I am reading that.
[01:03:50] Why I'm trying to make everybody feel bad.
[01:03:54] It is because we need to take this seriously in truly repenting in our hearts before the Lord because this is what the Apostle Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 11.
[01:04:11] He presents what the sacraments are, but then he says he fences the table, which is what we are getting up to.
[01:04:23] In verse 27, Wherefore, whoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
[01:04:36] But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
[01:04:45] For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
[01:04:56] And so this is why we must repent, why we must turn from our sins and turn to Christ and there will be forgiveness there will be cleansing but we have to turn from sin and so as we come and we partake
[01:05:14] of the Lord's body and what He has done for us it was His death of Him dying for our sins that is the only thing that can make us whole and so therefore we need to run to Him
[01:05:31] and run away from our sins and want to serve Him and Him only.
[01:05:38] Let's look to the Lord in prayer.
[01:05:42] Lord God, O Lord, we come.
[01:05:48] We humble ourselves.
[01:05:49] We prostrate ourselves before You, O Lord, that You might forgive us.
[01:05:56] We confess our sins in the name of Jesus.
[01:06:00] And Lord, we know that it was our sin that put Him on the cross.
[01:06:04] we know that as He was tortured and killed that it was so that we could be forgiven so that we could have new life.
[01:06:18] So Lord, we ask that You would help us to remember in this way and that we would apply the grace of Christ to our lives that we would walk after Him that we would turn from our sins
[01:06:35] so that we might be forgiven so that we might be changed and transformed and offer spiritual sacrifices in how we live to proclaim Christ in our lives.
[01:06:52] Lord, we ask that You would take these physical elements of bread and of grape juice, and Lord, that You would use them for our spiritual good.
[01:07:04] That You would show us how we are linked and united to Christ, even being seated with Christ in the heavenly places right now.
[01:07:12] And Lord, we praise You, we thank You, and we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus.
[01:07:20] Amen.
[01:07:23] The Lord Jesus, on the night that He was betrayed, He took bread, and when He blessed it, He broke it.
[01:07:32] He gave it to His disciples, as I do ministering in His name.
[01:07:38] And He said, Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of Me.
[01:07:45] in the same manner after supper Jesus took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink this cup in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread
[01:08:03] and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes and so as we confess our sins as we seek the Lord with all of our hearts let us come and partake and eat together
[01:08:23] the meal the Lord has prepared for us.
[01:08:27] So if we can come up and we can have two lines down the aisles and then once you have received the elements if you can walk to the outside and go back to your seat
[01:08:36] but if you can hold the elements so that we can partake