Two Journeys

I believe every Christian on the face of the earth greatly underestimates spiritual warfare, perhaps even infinitely underestimate spiritual warfare. I think all of us do. I think the vast majority of, at least American Christians, are day by day unaware that they're even in a spiritual war. And so I feel like my job today is to, as one Puritan pastor put it centuries ago, to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.

And so, I think about my home state Massachusetts, one of the heroes there is Paul Revere, and you think about that story, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. April 18, 1775, he was roused from his bed, was told that the redcoats are on the move that very night, found out that it was going to be by sea, he went, escaped from some British pickets and then rode out to Lexington and conquered to warn the slumbering countryside, a Middlesex County there that the redcoats were coming, the British were coming. And you picture in your mind the militia being roused from their beds and getting their weapons and going out to the green there in Lexington and then to the bridge it conquered, and getting ready to fight.  And so, I feel like this text is going to do that. I pray that this text will do that, kind of run roughshod through our complacency and rouse us from our beds of ease and comfort, as the book of Amos says, "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion," that we would not be complacent, that we will be roused to vigorous, attentive fighting in the spiritual realm.

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament, I've quoted it many times from the pulpit is the story of Elisha with his servant, and the Aramean troops surrounding the city. I've quoted even quite recently, and how Elisha prayed, "Oh Lord, open his eyes. There are more for us than there are for them." And so, the servant was enabled to see in the spiritual realm the chariots of fire, the angelic army that was surrounding to defend and protect Elisha. Well, I have maybe a bit of an opposite mission. I want you to have your eyes open to see the spiritual forces of evil that are arrayed against you without neglecting the fact that there's an angelic army or the sovereign power of God, but that you be aware of “the rulers and the authorities and the powers of this present darkness,” and that you would see into the spiritual realm. And you're only going to do that by faith, you're only going to be aware of your danger by faith in the word of God. So we're coming to Ephesians 6:10-18, the whole section on spiritual warfare, and my desire is that you would be aroused and aware that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened so that you could see spiritual danger, and then take the precautions the Lord wants you to take.

I feel like many of us Western Christians, American Christians, we fall prey to what one missiologist called, “the Flaw of the Excluded Middle.” And the idea here is that we Christians believe in the most high God, creator of the ends of the earth, and also in His own son, Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God, and our prayers go up to the throne of God, and we have that sense of the loftiness, and the grandeur, and the greatness of God. Amen. And then we see the physical world around us that operates by physical scientific laws, and we're familiar with that, and we operate in that realm, and we've increased in the last 200 years of our scientific awareness of the principles by which this physical world is governed, we're more and more aware of that. But we've excluded the middle realm of angels and demons. We're like practical atheists when it comes to those things. We're like materialists, or deists, who act like it doesn't even matter, and we're not aware of the kind of danger that we're in all the time from the devil, and from demons, from demonic influence. And it seems like this text for us is a major wake-up call that we would be aware of what kind of enemies are opposing you every step of the way.

We're not aware of his moment by moment activity. You never think that if you're sick, it might be a satanic attack. You're not aware that if something breaks down or something happens, you just think materially what would it take to get fixed and you wouldn't be aware of the fact that it might be a satanic attack on your life. Or that when you're in a conflict, like you married folks occasionally get into marital discussions from time to time with one another, and in the course of that discussion something pops in your head that if you said it you'd spend months living it down. And perhaps some of you husbands have actually said it. Only the husbands now. Say that thing, and then how do you un-explain, and then, what's so amazing, it's like I don't even think that's true. I would never want to say that to my beloved wife. Where did that come from? I know where it came from. 2 Timothy 2 says that the devil can take us captive to do his will, and so that we actually even as Christians, we can sometimes do the work of the devil, we just need to be more aware of the invisible spiritual realm.

A few nights ago I was watching with my kids, the movie, The Hobbit, probably some of you have seen it, the Tolkien thing. I don't know how in the world they got three movies out of a 250 page book, but you have to do what you have to do. But at any rate, that first movie, in that movie, this Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins finds this magic ring, this powerful ring that enables him to turn invisible. And he finds its previous owner, Gollum, is a wicked, vile creature who just lives for lust of this ring, loves it, lost it, is looking for it, and Bilbo has it. He doesn't know it's power but somehow he comes to put it on and goes invisible, and this nasty creature is blocking his way out of the cave system. And there's this very poignant thing in the movie where Bilbo, invisible, has his sword laying right at the neck of Gollum, ready to kill him. And I was like, "Wow." But Bilbo has a good heart, he's got a merciful heart, and he doesn't want to kill him, and so he doesn't kill him, pulls the sword back and jumps over him and escapes. Turn it around. Imagine the most vile, wicked creature you can imagine. Worse than any human tyrant that's ever lived, worse than Hitler, worse than Stalin, worse than all of them. With his sort of spiritual lies laying at your spiritual neck, and zero mercy in his heart. That's the picture that I have of spiritual warfare. And the word of God has come to be a light shining in a dark place to show us the truth, so that we're aware of the kind of enemy that we have, and that we will fight.

And so, look at the text again verses 10-13. It says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, or we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you've done everything to stand, stand firm then." And he goes on from there.

So I want to begin by saying our spiritual warfare is real. There's a real war going on, a spiritual war. We have a struggle, we wrestle. Look at verse 12, "Our struggle..." NIV says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood." A more literalistic translation, “we wrestle.” We have a wrestling. It mentions later in the text. There's this day of evil that's on us, and so we have this struggle, this fight. So if you're a Christian, you are at war. War is upon you, and you need to know it, you need to be aware. You have a violent, a vigorous enemy that's against you. And so, we wrestle. KJV, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, [or this present darkness,] and against spiritual wickedness in high places [or in spiritual places.]"

So you picture a vicious hand-to-hand combat and two soldiers with knives, and they're rolling on the ground, and they're grabbing at each other's clothes, and sweat coming down their face. It's war, and they intend to kill each other. There can be no truce, no peace between the two. One or both of them will end that struggle dead. And that's the picture that we have in the scripture. The word of God alone has the power to teach us the reality of this spiritual warfare. You can't find it in a laboratory, you're not going to be able to come up with an experiment that will prove that it exists. It's the word of God that tells us what's happening to us, what's going on. We're told in 1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith." So there's a war that we have to fight.

Now, this warfare is spiritual. It's a spiritual war. It's not physical. It's fought in the spiritual realm. He talks about how our struggle is, “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms, that spiritual language.” We have spiritual enemies.

Now, Paul makes an amazing negation or an amazing assertion in the negative. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, that is to say not against human beings, but Paul is not denying the reality of human opposition to the Kingdom of God. He's not saying, "You will never have a human enemy." I would imagine none of you will have as many human enemies as the apostle Paul did. I mean, committed, dedicated, murderous enemies who hated Paul. Paul struggled mightily against the Jewish leaders of his nation who didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and they felt motivated to do everything they could to shut down the sect of the Nazarenes of Jesus of Nazareth, that shut it down. Paul had been one of them. And when he turned and became a servant of Jesus, they became his mortal enemies. And then even in Greece, they're going from town to town to persecute him and arrest him and stir up riots against him.

And speaking of riots, in Ephesus, he had Gentile enemies too like Demetrius who made shrines to Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt. Losing money, comes after Paul vigorously.Sso much so that a riot starts for two hours as they're shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." They would have killed Paul on the spot if they could. And the Romans, to some degree, were Paul's enemies. In the end, Caesar executed him, cut off his head. They were holding him, and they incarcerated. So Paul knew very well that he had vigorous human, flesh and blood enemies. But he also knew that there is no human enemy so depraved, so wicked, so violent that they're beyond the sovereign grace of God to save. Even the bitterest enemy breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples can be converted in an instant like Paul was. He knew that. 

So what is he saying when he says our struggle is not against flesh and blood? We want to stick in some extra words maybe. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the Scripture, but my understanding just through exegesis, “Our struggle is not only against flesh and blood.” Or even better, “our struggle is not ultimately against flesh and blood.” Behind every seething hate-filled enemy of the cross, there is a demonic, even a Satanic presence. That's what he's saying. So as we look at at our world, and we see who they are, who are the human enemies. And you may talk about ideological enemies, gay rights activists, abortion rights activists. Talk about Islamic terrorists, ISIS, people that behead Christians. Talk about atheistic, materialistic, scientific professor types that are hostile to your faith in the classroom, or other students who are like that. Behind every racist, behind every materialist, every atheist, behind all of that is a demonic, satanic world system of lies, and a spiritual presence. That's what he's saying.

Now, what is the spiritual warfare that we're talking about? Later in the chapter, Paul's going to talk about the shield of faith with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. So I hope you knew we weren't going through the entire spiritual armor today. Piece by piece. Maybe four sermons, maybe five, probably not 40. Okay? But a good number on spiritual warfare. So we're just getting going. So say, "Oh, God, give me strength and patience." But yeah, there are these flaming arrows that the shield of faith can extinguish. Faith operates in the invisible spiritual world, the shield of faith. And so these flaming arrows, shot at us by the devil, are invisible. 

What are they? They have to do with truths or really lies on his part, contradiction of biblical truth. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, you can turn there if you'd like and look there or put your finger in Ephesians and look at it. But this is a very important passage. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. And there the Apostle Paul says this, "Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ." If you just walk through that you get a sense of the nature of spiritual warfare. What are we talking about? I think one of the keywords there is the word "arguments." Paul says, "We demolish arguments." What are arguments? Arguments are not like having an argument, not like that. Arguments are like the closing argument in a law case. They are rational. They are organized. They are thoughts and concepts and the idea of, supposedly of truth. Satan makes lying arguments against every doctrine in the Bible. And we have the power to demolish those arguments, to blow them up.

We don't blow people up like the terrorists do. We blow up arguments and concepts. We blow up ideas. We refute the sword of the lies of the devil. As he swings his sword of lies, we meet it with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And it blocks it. We have the power to refute, to demolish satanic arguments, the cults, the false doctrines, the false religions, the false philosophies of this world, and the temptations that come. We're going to take captive in this warfare every thought and drag that thought obedient to Christ like it's in chains. We fight a mental, spiritual, conceptual battle. That's what we're fighting.

So the devil is a liar. And he tries to use lies to manipulate our feelings and our senses. He stimulates lusts. He stimulates doubts and fears and depression. I honestly believe every spiritual depression is demonic, all of them, not some of them, all of them. I'm not denying that there's physiological side, but Satan has some access physiologically too. They're all of them should have to be fought in this way. And so, Satan comes at us. In all of this, Satan and his demons have the power to insinuate thoughts into your mind. Think about that. I mean it's. I think it's creepy, but it's true. Satan can put thoughts in your mind. Now he can't trigger your volition. He can't make you will, but he can tempt you and allure you with concepts. We'll talk more about it next week, but he's just constantly pushing. And you can't see it, but you can feel it. 

It's to me like air pressure, 14.7 pounds per square inch of air pressure pushing on every square inch of your body all the time. You're just used to it. It's all you've ever known. The only time you really notice it is like when you're on an airplane taking off in your ears start to pop because the cabin pressure is stabilizing. So you're chewing gum or whatever. You have an ear infection, it's awful. But you didn't even notice it. You didn't even feel it. It's just the world you live in. It's like, does a fish know it's wet? Does a lost person know they're in darkness? Do we know that we're surrounded by a dark world? Are we aware? I think if the Lord wills to take away all demonic influence from you for 24 hours in which the devil could have literally no approach to you at all, not physically, not mentally, not in your feelings, not in your thoughts, none. I wonder if that day might be like the closest to Heaven on Earth you've ever felt in your life because that pressure would be removed. And you would be almost giddy with joy and peace as a Christian I mean. I mean, just so confident, so happy, so elated. Friends look forward to an eternity of days like that in Heaven, Amen. I'm just looking forward to that. But all I'm saying is that that's not happened. And we have this pressure, constant pressure. He's called the “power of the air, the kingdom of the air. And so he's pressing on us all the time.” 

And our spiritual enemy is relentless. He never stops. We have a spiritual enemy. Look at verse 11: "Put on the full armor of God." Sorry, I'm back in Ephesians 6. "Put on the full armor of God. So you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.” So we have an enemy who makes schemes. That's what the verse says in verse 11. He has schemes. And it's really terrifying, but here's the truth. Just as you have a personal Savior, you also have a personal enemy. You have, if you're a Christian, you have a savior, His name is Jesus Christ. But 1st Peter 5:8 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith." So, you have an enemy, the devil, and that's terrifying. What it means is, I think, that the demonic realm has demons assigned to each one of us as believers, who study us and know our weakness and come after us all the time in our weak areas. All the time, and it's relentless.

Jesus Christ fought the devil every day of his life, all of his life. I believe Revelation 12 makes it plain that that ancient serpent, the dragon, Satan, was ready to devour the male child, the moment He was born. And what happened, you remember what happened? King Herod sent soldiers to Bethlehem and its vicinity to kill all the boy babies that were two years old and under. That was a direct demonic, a satanic attack, seeking for Jesus. But the Lord had sent an angel to warn Joseph in a dream. That proves angels can speak into our brains. And the angel spoke and warned him, "Get up and flee, go to Egypt," because Herod is going to search for the child to try to kill him. And so Joseph took the warning from the angel, that was insinuated in his mind, and he ran, and he got Jesus out of there. But that, I think, it was a demonic attack on Jesus. And then, when Jesus began his public ministry, right at the start of his ministry, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil, for 40 days. We're going to talk more about that in future weeks, God willing. But the Holy Spirit led him, and the devil tempted him. And, when the devil was done, he left him till an opportune time. I'll talk more about that in a minute.

Satan fought Jesus every step of his way, and Jesus opposed and advanced his kingdom by means of driving out demons, the kingdom of God advancing. It was a battle of light and darkness. Satan mysteriously tempted Jesus through Peter, when Peter took Jesus aside. When he said, "I'm going to be crucified," he said, "Never, Lord, this will never happen to you," He said, "Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me." But, strangely, at the end of his life, at the Last Supper, Satan entered into Judas to go and betray Jesus to his death. So, honestly, Satan didn't know what to do with Jesus, we can talk about that another time. He's like, tempting him, "yes" to the cross, "no" to the cross, which is it? But, ultimately, Satan was there fighting Jesus every step of the way. And at the cross we're told in Hebrews, chapter 2, and this is so vital for us. Jesus, by his death, Hebrews 2:14-15, “destroyed him who holds the power of death, that is the devil. And freed those who, all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus set the prisoners free, He crushed Satan at the cross.” So, Satan is a defeated foe, but he's still alive, he's still roaming the earth, and he's still dangerous.

So, who is the devil? What are we talking about? The devil is a created being, an evil angel, I guess we could think of it that way, created by God. It's debatable, but I think so, the most powerful, the most glorious, the most capable of all of his created beings. Seems that way, anyway. He, Satan, according to Ezekiel and Isaiah, became enamored with his own beauty and his own power, and sought ascendancy in heaven, sought to take God's throne from him, not realizing the infinite gap between creator and creature. Infinite gap. He tried to topple God from his throne. Michael, the good angel, and his good angels, fought against the devil and his angels. He apparently, it seems, was able to co-opt, to persuade one-third of all the angels to follow him in his rebellion. Michael defeated him, Revelation 12, he was thrown to the earth, and now he's doing all his damage here on earth. 

Then, in the next moment in redemptive history, the next main thing in redemptive history, he co-opted a serpent, and came and approached Adam and Eve through a talking snake, the deceiver that he is. And he led Adam, and through Adam, the whole human race, into joining Satan's rebellion against God. And in us joining Satan's rebellion against God, we also took on his wrath and condemnation, as it says in Matthew 25, in the sheep and the goats, the Lord will say, on that final day, to all those that have not been redeemed through faith in Christ, "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." He's not in Hell, now. Hell is his punishment, talking about Satan. 

But at the garden, God also judged the serpent, gave a prophecy to the serpent, this is God being more clever than Satan. "Okay, you're going to come in in disguise, I'll talk to you through your disguise. I'll talk to the serpent. I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed." “He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” So, the clear prediction there of the coming destruction of Satan's kingdom. Now, the word "Satan" itself means "accuser." He is the enemy of the people of God, and has fought God's people for 20 centuries, every generation Satan fights God's people. 

He's pictured as a dragon, you think of a flying, fire-breathing dragon, but it's just a metaphor for his deadly power. Actually, he usually masquerades as an angel of light. Sweet, alluring, beautiful, enticing, clever, appealing. And in this way, he comes through cults and false teachers and others who masquerade as servants of righteousness, but they're really not. And this is how he does his damage. He crafted, if you can believe this, every world system that is anti-Christian, every world system that's against Christianity, he crafted it. All of its various snares and traps and lures, the world and its system, every false religion, every atheistic philosophy, he created it. He's exceptionally devious, intelligent. His power is vastly greater than ours, that's Satan. But he's not alone. As I said, one third of the angels fell with him, we call them demons. And they're mentioned in the text, looking in at verse 12, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against... " Now, these words are plural, "against the rulers," plural, "against the authorities," plural, "against the spiritual forces... " plural, "of evil in the heavenly realms." So there's this array of demonic opposition to the Church of Christ. 

It's a vast, dark, organized kingdom. The Scriptures speaks of the devil's authority and the rulers' authorities and all that. They have powerful positions. So much so, that in Jude and 2 Peter, we're told as believers we are not to deal with the devil. We're not like hunting the devil down and going after the devil. No, the devil will come after you. Be fruitful. Lead people to Christ. Speak the truth. The devil will find you. He's already after you anyway. We're not going to hunt the devil. Actually, even the Archangel Michael only said, "The Lord rebuke you." He's not getting in a debate with the devil. You'll lose. Just, "The Lord rebuke you. I'm here to do a job. I'm here to bury Moses." That was what Michael was doing at that point. We're here to preach the Gospel. We're trying to advance the Kingdom of God, but that's the devil in it. And it speaks of the demons as powers of this present darkness. Satan is called the “god of this age,” 2 Corinthians 4:4. “The ruler of the kingdom of the air,” Ephesians 2:2. Demons are everywhere. I don't personally think that I've ever gotten up on Satan's radar screen. I think I'm too small for that. I'm a small fry. I don't make Satan omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He's a created being. He moves fast, but he's dealing with big stuff. But he's delegated parts of his kingdom to me and to you. And so, to some degree, you're dealing with demons. You're dealing with Satan and his kingdom.

Now, he has powers. Look what it says in verse 11: "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." Now, when you think of a scheme, what do you think of? I think of like the Ponzi scheme. You think about some of these money-making things that bilk people, investors out. I think of an intelligent malevolent, twisted plot, don't you? When I think of a scheme, a stratagem. Alright. So the devil is intelligent. I think of a combination of poker and chess and boxing. I mean, it's kind of weird, isn't it? Can you imagine combining those? I actually think there was a biathlon of chess and boxing a number of years ago. I don't know if they're still doing it. So they would fight. They'd fight around, and play chess, and then fight, and chess, and fight, and chess. Isn't that weird? I guess they took off their gloves, but fight and chess. But also poker where there's bluffing going on, and basically lying and deceiving going on. That's the mix. So a combination of a left, couple of rights, a left, and you're down on the mat. So I get that sense of that malevolence, that evil allure. It says in 2 Corinthians 2:11: "In order that Satan might not outwit us, we're not unaware of his schemes." He uses that same idea. Satan crafts, allures by intelligence. Think of the brilliance of Satan's mind to come up with Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism, pagan religions, animism, materialistic atheism, Christ-rejecting Judaism. He's able to take a God-given religion that should have moved on into the New Covenant and shut it down and maintain the old covenant as long as they could, and then reject that whole thing, Paul says of the Judaizers that their religion is not much different than paganism at that point. Satan was able to do that.

Think of how clever he is to stimulate some people toward sins like homosexuality and then stimulate others to brutalize and attack them because they're gays like the Nazis did. He's behind both sides. Just like I think he was behind the Nazis and the Soviet army that fought in World War II, both sides, demonic all across, murdering everybody on both sides. That's just how intelligent he is. His dark genius is seen, and he sows division, especially within local churches. There is nothing I think more terrifying to Satan and his kingdom than a healthy local church. It is a terrifying weapon. It's more dangerous to him than any individual talented person, who's got a position for working for a magazine or working for CNN or whatever. Those folks have great ministries and can have an influence. But an organized, healthy, Gospel-preaching, advancing local church is a terror to him. So he will fight in healthy local churches like this one and seek to divide it and cause there to be factions and divisions within it, and cause people within the church to go after godly pastors or elders or go after different things and create and sow factions and divisions, as could happen in our church. 

Some geographical regions seem especially saturated with satanic influence. Revelation 2:13, Jesus said to the church at Pergamum, "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne." There's a focus of satanic activity. And he's able to attack us. He has the power, according to the Book of Job, to steal our possessions, to bring about natural disasters. Job lost every possession he had, his camels, his donkeys, his livestock, his servants. He even lost his children, seven sons and three daughters in one day. He has the power to hurt us physically, even to kill us. "He was a murderer from the beginning," Jesus said. But especially he kills our souls through lies, and he brings on us temptations. He's able to stimulate us.

Thomas Brooks in the 17th century wrote a book called 'Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices,' powerful book. You ought to get hold of it and look at it. And he just talks about different ways that Satan tempts us. Like one of the things Satan does is he presents the bait and hides the hook, right? So I think about David and Bathsheba, right?  And so he's out there on his roof looking and he sees the bait, but he doesn't see what's going to happen, what his life is going to be like afterwards. He hides the hook. He's able to do that. He's very skillful at doing that. He's able to paint sin with virtue's colors, so that sin looks actually virtuous, and morality looks not so virtuous. He's doing that in our culture today. Satan actually minimizes sin. He makes very little of it, making it appear minor and insignificant. He can twist our view of God, making us forget before we've committed the sin that our God is a consuming fire. And then making us forget after we've committed sin that our God is the Father of the prodigal son and welcomes penitent sinners back in the name of Jesus. He twists our perceptions of God, he's able to do that. He's able to persuade us that repentance will be easy later on, that the sin isn't that costly, it's not that big a deal and that you can always repent later, forgetting the hardness of heart that sin produces.

Satan makes the soul bold to venture into tempting situations. “I can handle that,” although Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." By the way, that's the correct translation. Not "deliver us, generally, from evil." Deliver us from the evil one. But we think we can handle it. We get into tempting situations. Satan makes much of happy, apparently happy sinners who haven't yet repented. The prosperity of the wicked, so that we forget the darker side, or the future of what's going to happen. Satan persuades sinners that there are a lot worse sinners than they are. And he works to discourage us from holy duties. He presents to the soul a twisted view of the difficulties, crosses, afflictions and troubles of serving Christ. How hard it's going to be. He makes us bored and weary of godly duties. Like getting up for a quiet time or listening to sermons. He persuades us that holy duties will not make us better, they're going to actually be ineffective in fighting sin. He's able to make us distracted and mentally weak in prayer.

Not only does he tempt us, though. He also accuses us of the sin after we've committed it. In this way, he is the greatest spiritual hypocrite there has ever been or will be. He is the most wicked being there is, but then he gets all righteous and accuses us of sin. How can that be? He seeks to manipulate God, to use God's holiness and God's Law against God's people. He is the “accuser of the brethren, who accuses them before our God,” listen to this, “day and night.” Revelation 12:10. And he causes sinning Christians to despair of mercy and grace as though God can never win them back. He does all of this and he orchestrates persecutions. Satan's behind ISIS. Satan's behind communist governments that use their position to shut down the Gospel as best as they can. He's behind any anti-Christian elements in our government. Satan's behind all of it. 

But the devil is on a chain, amen? He's limited. He's restrained. As powerful as he is, he is infinitely below God. This is not dualism, the yin and yang. You've got Satan as the yin and God as the yang. It's not like that at all. Satan continues to exist only because God allows him to continue to exist. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” At any point, God could pull the plug on Satan's very existence. Now you may ask, "Why doesn't He do it, then?" Because Satan is actually serving God's purpose in this world. Part of it is to the Church, He wants you to learn how to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. He wants you to get strong. He wants you to use your faith. He wants you to rise up like Jesus and fight like Him and do great deeds of valor in His name. He wants you to be strong. And so, Satan is the foil against which you will be courageous and strong and bold. God is using Satan. But in Job 1 and 2, Satan has to ask permission to get at Job. Complains about the hedge He's put around Job and all of his possessions. It says in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10:13, "God is faithful, and will not allow you, [will not permit you,] to be tempted beyond what you can bear." There's Satan's leash. “But with the temptation, He will make a way of escape so you can stand up under it.” Praise God.

And so, the Lord is on us, strengthening us and helping us. I was talking to somebody recently like, "Does God just let us fight on our own?" Does He just say, "Alright, here's your spiritual armor. Put it on. Hope it goes well for you. I'm busy doing other things?" Not at all. That's, again, that deistic view. God is so on top of every moment of your spiritual struggle, more than you can possibly imagine. “With the Lord, one day is like a 1000 years.” He is filtering and chaining Satan and resisting at every moment, but allowing some things through so that you can be strengthened and you can fight with your spiritual armor on. He is filtering at every moment. 

And so, we're told in James 4:7, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Friends, he's not fleeing from you. He's fleeing from the power of God around you and behind you. Now, the devil is a defeated foe. He was defeated in the past by Michael and his angels. He was defeated at the cross and the empty tomb by Jesus. Couldn't stop the cross. Couldn't stop the resurrection. He was crushed. And God has willed a slow death for Satan's kingdom. It's been going on 20 centuries. Slow death. 

And so, Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." So He is slowly, gradually, taking dark territory back from Satan. One living stone at a time. We are scaling the walls of Satan's dark kingdom. It's kind of cool. I think of myself like a spiritual ninja. It's so exciting. And we scale the walls and we're going in the dark kingdom. And we are rescuing sinners. We're seeing chains fall off and people rescued. And there's nothing he can do to stop us. It's been going on for 20 centuries. All of the elect, all of them will come to faith in Christ, and Jesus will raise them up on the last day. None of them will be missing, and it's awesome. And so, little by little the God of peace is crushing Satan under our marching feet. It's awesome. So, that's the devil's past, present, and future defeat is coming at the second coming of Christ, when the Lord comes with the armies of Heaven and with the sword of truth coming out of His mouth. And He will consign, finally, the devil and his angels, to Hell, where they will be forever and ever in torment. That's the future. And so, he knows that his time is short.

Alright, now, what are the actual commands given here? And like I said, we're just beginning to look at this week, but there are three commands given here. Look at verse 10 and following, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." So verses 10 and 11 has three basic commands to you in terms of spiritual warfare. Command number one, “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” Command number two, “put on the full armor of God.” And command number three, “take your stand,” or “stand your ground,” which he says four times in these verses. So be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, and then stand your ground. 

So, let's talk about them briefly, and we'll talk more next week. First, what does it mean to be strong in the Lord? What it means is you cannot, you must not, try to fight on your own. When the devil comes you've got to run to Jesus, get close to Christ. See all of your fighting as with Him and close to Jesus and empowered by Him. Not away, like "Look, Jesus. Look what I can do." “Apart from me,” Jesus said, “you can do nothing.” You draw close to Him. Well, who is He? He is the omnipotent God of the universe. He's the God of Isaiah 40, who sits enthroned above the nations. And “all the people are like grasshoppers, are like dust on the scales, they are like a drop from the bucket.” That's the omnipotence of God. Infinitely powerful compared to Satan. “Be strong in His mighty power,” in His omnipotence. 

Do you realize nothing difficult for Jesus? What would you think would happen if you said to Jesus, "Which is harder, to cure a blind man or a deaf man?" What do you think He'd say? I think He'd say, "No, but trust in me." Something like that. Something that make you scratch your head and say, "Okay, what is that? What did He say?" Nothing's particularly difficult. Do you think it was particularly difficult to save Saul of Tarsus? The language means nothing when you're talking about omnipotence. There's nothing particularly difficult for omnipotence. And so, draw close to Jesus, the omnipotent one. Draw close to Him, the undefeated one. He defeated all of Satan's temptations. Get close to Him. “Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” Find out how powerful He can and will be through you. Find out. Again, we're going to look at each of these elements of the spiritual armor, but they relate to your salvation. Think of who you are in Jesus, how righteous you are in Him with imputed righteousness. How secure and strong you are in the Gospel, with your feet fitted with the readiness of the Gospel of peace. How at peace God is with you. How secure you are with the helmet of salvation on. How saved you are and will be. That's the strength of the Lord. There's nothing Satan can do. His mighty power.

I love Isaiah 40:28 and following, it says, "Do you not know? Have you not heard the Lord is the creator of the ends of the Earth? He will not get tired or weary. His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." Think about that. Don't you get tired when tempted? I do. I mean, you're resisting, resisting and it just doesn't seem to abate. And it gets wearying to fight for holiness. So be strong in the Lord. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. “Even youths grow weary and stumble and young men stumble and fall, but those who wait on the Lord, will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary and walk and not faint.” And then put on the full armor of God. We're going to talk about that beginning next week, God willing. And then finally stand firm. Stand firm. Stand firm.

Verse 11, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand.” Stand against the devil's schemes. Verse 13, "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, that evil day, that time of temptation, you may be able to stand against." That's literally what it says, "Just stand against them. Stand your ground. And after you've done everything, to stand." That's three. Verse 14, "Stand firm then." Four times he's told you to stand. So you stand, stand firm. 

Well, how do you do that? You're utterly determined not to sin. You're not going to give in, you're not going to yield. You're going to say, "No" to the sin. Sometimes you're going to do that by running. You're like, "What? Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean?" I mean running in the physical world so you can stand in the spiritual world. Think about Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Remember that story? Of Potiphar's coming after that guy, day after day after day. Remember that one day when Joseph comes in and said, "Huh, where is... Everyone's gone. Where did all the servants go?" And then, here she comes, again. It's like, "Oh, I get it. I see what's happening." There's nothing to talk about, there's only one thing to do. Run for your life! Leave your garment in her hand, whatever, just run. So what's interesting is the combination of standing and running. Listen again to what it says, 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you, except what is common to man, but God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear." Listen, "But with the temptation will make a way of escape so you can stand up under it." It's like, "Alright, am I escaping or standing?" You're doing both. You're standing by escaping. “Lead us not into temptation.” You've gotten yourself into a tempting situation? Get out! Run! So do that.

Alright, let's finish with some applications. We'll pick it up, God willing, next week. First and foremost, I just want to say, none of the advice I've just given for fighting Satan applies to non-Christians, not yet. There's only one thing you need to do, and that's come to Christ. You have no hope, you're actually already in Satan's kingdom. His chains are around you, spiritually. You can't break free, but here's the thing. You've come to a place today where the Gospel is being preached. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is that God created Heaven and Earth, gave us laws by which we are to be governed. We have violated those laws. We have broken them. We are in Satan's dark kingdom thereby. But God sent His Son who lived a sinless, righteous, upright life, perfectly obeyed all of God's laws, resisted all of Satan's temptations, won our righteousness for us, then suffered on the cross, paying the penalty we deserve for our sins, and now offers His righteousness as a gift, and to take your wrath on Himself as your substitute. That's salvation by grace through faith. Trust in Christ. You don't need to do any works, just trust in Him. And if you do that, all of your sins, past, present, future, will be forgiven. Trust in Christ. And then, once that happens, Satan will be at war with you and you can begin your battle.

To you Christians, embrace the central concept of this sermon. You're at war. You're at war. Wake up. Fight. Stop underestimating the amount of damage this war is causing you, how much trouble it's causing you in your marriage, how much trouble it's causing you in your parenting, how much trouble it's causing you at work or at school. Stop underestimating. Greatly increase your spiritual vision of seeing what's happening in the spiritual realm. See it. Be not unaware of his schemes. Be aware of what he's doing. When you fall into sin, ask the Lord to show you what Satan did to get you so you don't do it again. And then follow the three steps that we'll talk about. Be strong in the Lord and His mighty power, draw close to Christ, do that in your morning quiet time. Do it throughout the day. Be very Christ-centered in your life. 

And evaluate your present life. How do you see Satan attacking you? What's going on? What temptations have been a recurring theme in your life? How are the demons coming at you day after day? What lusts are conquering you? What habits do you have to change so you stop yielding to those lusts? Might have to do with the internet, might have to do with your smartphone, your iPad, or something. What covetousness has mastered your heart, what material thing are you living for? What hidden anger or unforgiveness is Satan stirring up in you so that you're hostile towards someone you should love? What excesses are glutting your lifestyle right now? How is Satan duping you and drawing you. Evaluate the duties you're neglecting. How are you doing in your morning quiet time? How are you doing memorizing scripture? How are you doing putting on the full armor of God? How are you doing in ministry? Are you interceding and praying for brothers and sisters who are going through these kinds of struggles? How are you doing with witnessing? So next week we'll talk about putting on the full armor of God. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. Study your word. Father, I pray, strengthen us for this battle. Help us to be more aware than we've been of what the devil does and how he attacks us. Help us, O Lord, to fight. And not just to fight but to win. To be victorious in Christ. To stand firm in the day of testing. To stand firm in the evil day when temptation comes. Father help us to do all this for your glory and for the spread of your Gospel here in Durham and even to the ends of the earth. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Paul as he was evaluating his preaching ministry in Corinth, said, these remarkable words, 1 Corinthians 2:3. He said, "I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling." So I feel that today a few weeks ago, I felt led by the Lord I felt pressed on my heart that Ephesians 6:9 would be a jumping off place to talk about an issue that faces our nation and our church, our ministry and this community, and that's the topic of racism. Since that time, I've done a lot of reading. I've done a lot of talking to friends, both black and white. I've talked to leaders in the community, other pastors. And the more I've had those conversations, the more this sense of fear and trembling has increased, not decreased. This is a hot issue for people. It's hard for people, it's hard to hear, it's hard to talk about, it's polarizing, it's divisive, and painful. That's why I somewhat identify with Paul's self-assessment weakness, fear, trembling. 

But, you know, I also stand before you today with a tremendous confidence in the power of the Word of God to make changes in human hearts, that the Word of God has a supernatural power to change the world. It's been going on for 20 centuries the Gospel of Christ and so Paul continues in 1 Corinthians the next couple of verses saying, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power." So I just have a sense of confidence that the Word of God is powerful to demolish satanic strongholds, and I just consider racism to be a satanic stronghold, and I think 2 Corinthians 10 says that we wield weapons that have supernatural power to blow up satanic strongholds. Blow them up. I believe that racism is a subset of the overall darkness satanic darkness that's come on the human race. It's a subset of it, that darkness is the darkness of sin, of rebellion against a holy God. 

But God has sovereignly shown his light in the darkness. Isaiah 9:2, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." And that light is Christ. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." And God's word is light. Psalm 119:105, "A lamp to our feet and a light to our path." And the Church, God's Church is light, we are the light of the world, Jesus said. “He lights a lamp and puts it up on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.” And so it says in Isaiah 60, speaking of the heavenly Zion, "Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Behold, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you, nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn." So the obstacles are huge, problems are complex, seem to be insoluble but I think where the darkness is the greatest, God's light can shine most gloriously. Where the enemy is seen to be strongest, God's power is displayed most radiantly gloriously and that's what I want to see happen today and through our church. 

Summer of 2016

So we begin by just looking at recent events. Recent events, just search our souls. This summer has been a hot summer. Now I know it's hot, it's hot, every day. I had some hope last week when it got to be 75. I'm just weak and it's not because I'm from Massachusetts, I don't like the cold either. So it's been steaming hot this summer. But the heat I'm talking about here, is the heat of current events. It's the heat of the issues connected with this topic of racism. On July 5th, Alton Sterling a 37-year-old African-American man was shot several times at point-blank range while being pinned down by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And the incident and downloading of the videos led to ever escalating protests, resulting in a July 9th, demonstration, in which police officers were injured. And then the next day, July 6, Philando Castile was fatally shot, in St. Anthony Minnesota. Police officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled him over in St. Paul, Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds was with him in the car, and after being asked for his license and registration Castile notified the officer, he had a license to carry weapon and one in the car and office told him not to move, and as he was putting his hands up, the officer, shot him in the arm four times and he bled to death. Diamond Reynolds video live streamed it and it obviously created immense reaction culminating in the shooting of three officers in Baton Rouge July 17th. All of these things coming together. And these events at the beginning of the summer just two more in a series of high profile events, all fitting that description of interactions between people of color and law enforcement.

The names have been burned into our minds, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, places like Ferguson, Missouri, North Charleston, South Carolina have become the focus of intense national scrutiny. A year ago in April 2015, in Baltimore, in the city of Baltimore, there were significant race riots, racial riots involving the injuries stemming from incidents involving injuries of Freddie Gray at the hands again, of law enforcement officials pushed the outrage of African-American community to a boiling point, and demonstrations got violent. Somewhere in the midst of all of those events that we've been discussing, that have been going on in recent years, a controversial group called Black Lives Matter was organized, and has become an increasingly vocal, and visible part of the political election and other parts of the landscape. Borrowing a phrase from Thomas Paine's opening words in his American crisis written around the time of the American Revolution. "These are the times that try men's souls." Or search our souls, should search our souls.

My Own Anguish and Journey

So, I have searched my soul and I've been thinking about myself. So who am I? Where do I come from? What's my background? Well, I was born in Boston, I was raised in Eastern Massachusetts, I was Irish-Catholic, went to college as an unbelieving, nominal Catholic. Never dreamed when I matriculated as a freshman at MIT, that I would end up the senior pastor of a Southern Baptist Church. I don't think any of those words would have meant anything to me at that point. What in the world is that? On this issue, as I find myself now the senior pastor of a predominantly white Bible Belt Southern Baptist Church, pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention which I learned after I became a Southern Baptist, that it was started in 1845, when slave-holding missionaries wanted to take their slaves with them on the mission field and Northern Baptists refused and so, they broke off and started the denomination of which this church is a member. I was surprised to find that out, but it's just history. 1845. The same year this church was established. The more I've learned details about the struggle for the Civil Rights Movement and the terrible injustices of the Jim Crow era, institutional racism, that segregated South. So I didn't see with my own eyes, I was more in 1962, so the Civil Rights Movement was going but I was really little, I didn't know much about it, but since the Civil War ended, and 13th or 14th amendments, were passed ending slavery. But then the situation just was still horrible, for blacks in America.

And then I look at my own heart and I just have always had, honestly revulsion and hatred for those kinds of things. It's always been part of my life but honestly I didn't have any black friends growing up. None. There were just none in the community at all. I know that Boston was a focal point of racial tensions and demonstrations and even riots, violent riots during the busing era. But again, I didn't know much about that. I think in my heart, honestly, I'd always wanted to have African-American friends, but I just didn't have an opportunity. So I was wired that way, but in the end, it didn't really help me because I tended more and more to think that's got nothing to do with me. That's not who I am. It's not what I think, it's not what I've done. So I don't really need to think about this topic. But I believe that I have a position of responsibility in this community, a position to lead this church, to preach the Word, and I'm increasingly aware that most of my sins, and the racial issues have to do with sins of omission, not sins of commission, things that I should have been doing and haven't been doing. And I'm going to have to give the Lord and account some day, for my ministry in this community. And the issue of racial reconciliation is going to be one of the themes we're going to discuss, I believe, and I want to be faithful.

TGC and Mika Edmondson

Back in May, I attended the stakeholders meeting of the Gospel Coalition. Every other year, we have a conference, a big conference and then the alternate year it's just the Gospel Coalition gets together and we're a group of mostly pastors, but also evangelical leaders from different denominational backgrounds. And we had the privilege of listening to Dr. Mike Edmondson talk about this theme, this title, it was assigned to him, "Is Black Lives Matter", that group, "the New Civil Rights Movement?" Well, that talk just blew me away. I didn't know that much about BLM. I learned a lot from him about it. He did a great job of just tracing out very carefully the differences between BLM and the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Significant differences. For example, the Civil Rights Movement was originated in the black church and was steeped with biblical themes and a desire for reconciliation, genuine reconciliation between blacks and whites, a genuine unleashing of biblical truths by Dr. King and others. Many of the leaders were pastors etcetera, they used non-violence that many said got from Gandhi but Gandhi said he got it from Jesus, so let's just give the glory of Jesus of loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, winning people's affections by that kind of behavior. And that was the strategy.

BLM is different in many ways. I think perhaps most significantly by their embracing of the Gay Rights Agenda and linking those two together in ways that Evangelical Christians find repugnant, especially black leaders who were active in the Civil Rights Movement, just find utterly repugnant, and don't agree at all that it's the same. Also some embracing of socialism, socialistic themes by BLM and seemed countenancing violence and other things just some significant difference but none of that was what really moved me. What really moved me was at the end he said, "Do you understand why BLM has been raised up? Why? It's because the evangelical church has stayed on the sidelines on this issue. There's been no coherent, well-thought out, vigorous evangelical answer to these social issues. That's why." He said, "We the church can do better than Black Lives Matter. We must do better than that. We must step up and speak the truth about these things, so that that movement becomes by contrast, pathetic and obsolete because these issues are so, in such a healthy, beautiful way being addressed by the Church." So his words burned in my heart, I was moved. I was moved to tears. 

So, three weeks ago, I was going to a place to study and write my next sermon, which I thought that morning my next sermon was going to be on spiritual warfare. God willing, that will be next week. But instead, I ran into a friend of mine, African-American man named Eddie White, who went through our internship a number of years ago. Eddie was a layman in his church and just felt the leading to become a vocational pastor. He wanted to become a pastor. Found out about our internship, did some research on the website, and downloaded some things. That same day he saw Matthew Hodges driving the van with the First Baptist Church thing on the side, he's like, "Woah! A sign from God." He followed him to Liberty Street, got out and had a conversation, went through our internship, eventually left his job, went to Southeastern Seminary, and is now a pastor. Big fork in his road and we were privileged of being able to walk with him. Saw me right away, recognized me, we hugged. And I stood there in the parking lot and talked to him for 50 minutes on my study day. But I didn't realize that the Lord had different plans for me and that a whole different sermon. 

So, we got to talking about these themes. He said, "Pastor you need to come with me to the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum." I said, "When do you want to do it?" He said, "How about this week?" So we went that Thursday. It's the kind of thing that changes your life. He took me first on a tour of NC A&T, traditionally black college. There we parked and then I was walking by a statue with four guys on it. Now, we did more walking by that statute, he came back and said, "These were the Greensboro Four." I didn't know anything about the Greensboro Four, many of you do, many of you don't. But there is this big statue of four men standing side by side. The Greensboro Four were students at NC A&T during the Civil Rights era. Back then by law, public institutions were segregated. The lying slogan at the time was, separate but equal. Well, they were separate, the “separate” part was vigorously enforced, but the “equal” not at all. Separate schools, separate motels, separate restrooms, separate water fountains, separate swimming pools, separate places on public transportation. John Piper said in his book Bloodlines, he said, "How could you communicate more clearly the lie that being black was like a disease?" 

Well, there was a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, for you younger people. Woolworth’s was that generation's version of Walmart. I remember Woolworth’s, I actually walked into a Woolworth’s once. But there was a Woolworths there and they had a lunch counter and the lunch counter had a place where you could sit and eat. But it was open to whites only. Blacks could order food there, but they had to take it out. So these four students thinking of just a way to agitate and to affect change said, "Why don't we go to lunch counter and sit down and order something and not leave till they serve us?" So that's what they did. Four students, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. and Joseph McNeil, did that on February 1st, 1960, at 4:30 PM, walked into Woolworths, went right, they couldn't sit side by side, but they found seats, sat down and ordered coffee. They were obviously immediately refused and urged to leave fervently, but they didn't leave. They stayed there until the store closed that night. The next day, more NC A&T students joined in this and it started to grow. 20 more students recruited from other campuses joined in, white customers heckled them while they peacefully studied to keep busy. Just reading books, newspaper reporters, a TV film crew covered the second day, and more and more people got involved. Within one week of the initial protest, Greensboro students throughout North Carolina in different other campuses following black campuses like Central here and all that, here in Durham, started similar protests. It became a whole pattern of protest, and it was incredibly effective. The original Woolworth’s in Greensboro, where those demonstrations were happening, however, was losing money hand over fist to the tune of $1.6 million, during those weeks. So the store manager Clarence Harris quietly asked three black employees to change out of their work clothes and order a meal at the counter and it was done. The segregation of that lunch counter was finished.

So we were standing there on the campus. He told me this story, etcetera. I didn't know anything about it. We went from there to the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum, which is at the Woolworths where the Woolworths was, but it's not a museum. And we went in, and it was just extremely moving for me, to walk through that place to see the photos up on the wall to be reminded of what things were like. It's recent history friends, recent history. And it's difficult to look at those pictures, pictures of violence, the Birmingham Police turning a water cannon on peaceful protesters, freedom riding buses being firebombed, lynchings. I saw a Coke machine there that was in the bus terminal, I think, at that time. Again, segregated had a black section, white section, but the Coke machine had been designed to have two faces to places to vend. So with the wall separated, but you had the white side and the black side. The white side was 5 cents a Coke, black side 10 cents. The woman who was giving us a tour said, "I was down in the Coke Museum down in Atlanta, they didn't have one of these machines down there, one of those historical machines. Didn't show it." But it's there in the Civil Rights Museum. Clear evidence of separate but unequal, I mean unequal price. 

So at one point, I look over at Eddie and there's tears streaming down his face. I was just at a museum, just looking at pictures, thinking about history sober-minded, but he was feeling at a whole different level. His mother had been involved in the counter demonstrations there at NC A&T, she had been a part of it. She told them all these stories. And it bothered me that it meant more to Eddie than it meant to me. It felt like we weren't as one as we could be. I wanted to be more one with my friend. This pattern of non-violent protest continued. There were certain other aspects people would challenge like they had things called pray-ins, where groups of black people would go to predominantly white churches, and come and just kneel and pray, taking whatever abuse came. Some white churches responded by having human chains, blocking people from getting in. Some churches did that. It's possible our church did that, not for sure. Anecdotally we heard that that happened. So, that's history.

What is “Racism”?

So, what is racism? What are we even talking about? Can I tell you, first of all, I don't really know how to define race? The more I think about it, the harder it gets. I don't even know what it is. I can define ‘human race.’ But I have a hard time defining race. It's very, very difficult, just has to do with physical features or attributes that cluster a group or identify a person. Racism John Piper defines this way, "An explicit or implicit belief or practice that qualitatively values one race above another." So, it's a belief leading to actions that one race is superior to all others or maybe to a specific other race. So superiority of one race, inferiority of the other race or races, and then actions that flow from it. I think it has to do with a bias, a slant, a perspective that always goes in one direction, coupled with denigration and even hostility toward others. That's what I think of when I think of racism. 

I was at a basketball game my son was playing in a week ago. We're sitting in the stands, and the father of one of Calvin's opponents was sitting behind me. He had a good set of lungs. And I just thought the man was exceptionally biased in all of his comments. They all seemed to go from one slant. Whether the refereeing or the plays that were made or his praise or his condemnation, everything went one direction. But what really got me was when he said, "We should be wiping up the floor with this team." I was like, "Alright I'm about ready to say something." My son's been playing basketball most of his life. He can play a little. So he's not a mop. I kept my tongue. I don't know if it was cowardice, or good manners, or Christian sanctification, but I didn't say anything. I don't want to trivialize at all racism, but it's that bias, where you see every current event, whatever from your angle, and then that denigration of the other people where they're like mops or lower than you. That's what I think of. 

Why Am I Talking About This Now?

Now, why am I talking about this now, why today? Well, I've already told you, one reason, current events. I don't want the church to have its head in the sand like we don't know what's going on, and we're not relevant. That's a lie. The Bible is perfectly relevant to everything that's going on, the Gospel is. But also the text that you heard Ben read for us look at it again, it says, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way,” the same way that I encourage the slaves to have in mind the invisible Jesus, every moment that they serve, and they do their service as unto him. Masters, I want you to be aware of the invisible Jesus all the time, in how you treat your slaves. Do not threaten them. Talked about that at length last time, not going back into that. Since you know that he who is both their master and yours doesn't have, Now here's the phrase. "And there is no favoritism with him." “No partiality” some translations give us. He's “no respecter of persons.”

 So I've meditated on, “there is no favoritism.” That's where the sermon title comes from. There is no racism with Christ. So as I thought about, “What does it mean?” I think there's a positive and a negative side of there's no favoritism. First, he equally delights in every person that he has made in terms of their amoral distinctives. He just enjoys how he made you. He just delights in the color of your skin, the color of your hair, the color of your eyes, the shape of your eyes, the shape of your nose, the shape of your chin, your height, all of those amoral diverse tendencies of humans, God delights in all of them, equally. Now that's unbelievably important. Even aside from the topic of racism, I want all of you to be able to look in the mirror and say God made me, and be delighted in what he made. And God does make differences. He does make distinctions. Frankly, where would the Olympic games, be if there weren't differences between people? Everybody would finish in a tie.

God makes differences, but Paul says clearly in Corinthians, "Who made you different than anyone else?" Answer, “God did.” And what do you have that you didn't receive? Answer, “Nothing, everything I have, I received.” “And if you did receive it, then why do you boast as though you did not?” That kills racism right there. Every difference, God made, and we should delight in it. God just delights in what he has made. So what I want, is I want us to be able to look at each other's faces and just delight in what God's made fearfully and wonderfully, and just say, "It's beautiful, all of it because my Father made it." So that's positive, there's no favoritism with God, it goes that way. Then negatively, on Judgment Day, every moral decision. So I talked about amoral distinctions. Every moral issue will be evaluated fairly and justly by God. There's no favoritism, no special deals, no skillful lawyers with their special techniques, no sweetheart deals, no bribes, none of that. Romans 2:9-11, "There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, but glory, honor and peace, for everyone who does right, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism." That's what that means. So Judgment Day, level ground.

So, we face the challenge of racism and we have weapons of biblical truth in our hands. Now, if you look at your outline, the bulletin, I want to look at five biblical just heat-seeking missiles, that destroy racism. But I want to cluster them together. I want all of them together, that if we really embrace these biblical theological themes, racism should be gone forever, certainly from the Church. 

Creation: The Whole Race Descended from One Man

So, first creation. Biblically, the Bible teaches plainly all of us are created in the image of God. Every single human being is equally in the image of God, and even more fascinatingly, all of us are descended from one man. That's amazing. It says in Acts 17:26, "From one man, he made every nation of man, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and He had determined the time set for them, and the exact places where they should live." Now why, why is that relevant to race? Well, it's because people get separated, like after the flood gets separated from each other and settle in certain valleys, and just are there without interactions from outsiders. And then they have children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Some genetic tendencies start to float to the surface and then they all start to have those tendencies. Like, God celebrating in Isaiah 18, the people of Cush, the Cushites, what we call modern Ethiopians, he said, "Go to a people tall and smooth-skinned."

It's just delight that God has in that beautiful people. But he describes them physically. How do they get to be that way taller than other people? They're all descendants from Noah, all descended from Adam, but it has do with how God sovereignly orchestrated these things to happen. It's a beautiful thing, and God knew exactly what happened when he put all of that in the genetic code of Adam. Boy is he going to be surprised when he has a red-headed kid and one with black hair, and he's like, “Huh? Interesting.” You know, interesting. And just a journey of discovery Adam and Eve finding out just how diverse it can all get. But it's just a beautiful thing. 

Fall: The Whole Human Race Equally Sinned in Adam

Secondly, the fall. Every single human being on earth, is equally fallen in Adam. We all fell in Adam. Romans 5:12 says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death sin. And in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” We're all sinful in Adam positionally, and then we're sinful in ourselves actually, because we received from Adam a sin nature and though we don't sin, all of us sin exactly the same ways. So no, I don't sin exactly the same way as other people, but all of us are equally in need of Jesus, the Savior, all of us. And so Paul is very clear about this in Romans 3, "What shall we conclude then? Are we any better?" Romans 3:9, "Not at all." So, there he's talking to Gentile. Are we any better? Are they any better? We're all in the same place for he says, "Not at all, we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are whites and blacks whatever, either or you want to put it, are equally under sin." “As it is written, There is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they together become worthless.” There is no one who does good, not even one, that's all of us. There's a unity in sin here, shameful unity, unity in shame. And you can say, "Well I don't do this." Yeah, but James 2:10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at one point of it, guilty of breaking all of it." And then there's that multigenerational aspect in Matthew 23, Jesus said, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'" Now, listen, the next thing Jesus says, "And so, you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then the measure of the sins of your forefathers." 

Now, friends, each person stands or falls on his or her own actions. We're not responsible for the sins of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers. But there's something going on in what Jesus said there. And so for me to disavow guilt, say, "I wouldn’t have done it, that's not who I am." It's not helpful, that's not a helpful way it's true, but not helpful. I didn't commit the same sins as a clansmen, who did a lynching, or as some evil people that bombed little girls in Birmingham, or a governor that blocks Brown v. Board of Education. I didn't commit all those same sins, but I'm human, like that. Each of those people are, we're all human. And I can't say, "Look, I know I would never have done any of those things." In Daniel 9, Daniel prayed in solidarity with his people, the Jewish nation. Daniel being a pure man not sinless, but he just included himself. "We have sinned, we have violated your laws, we have broken your covenant, we have disobeyed, you." And there's that solidarity. So God gives to each person according to what he has done, that's true, but God calls in us with humility to recognize the same sin nature in me, as in anybody else. We all need a Savior. 

Redemption: Elect from Every Nation Were Equally Redeemed by Christ

Thirdly, redemption. Thank God, there is a Savior. Thank God, Jesus came to save us from these sins and in God's plan, he elected, he chose people from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Revelation 5:9, "You were slain, [speaking to Jesus,] you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men, for God from every tribe and language and people, and nation." Revelation 7 pictures them standing around the throne and worshipping God in white robes and saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne." So in that way, Romans 3:22 says, "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." God presented him as a propitiation of blood sacrifice, the one who turns away God's wrath through faith in his blood. We're all saved the same way, thank God. 

Church: The Church All Over the World is One in Christ

And then fourthly, that brings me immediately the doctrine of the Church. Having been justified, we are then assimilated, by the Spirit into one Church worldwide. And we have sweet fellowship through the Spirit with people of radically different backgrounds than us. We have become one body in Christ. That's just true, there's not different works God's doing all over the world, one work. And so, Galatians 3:27-28, says, "All of you who are baptized in Christ Jesus have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither junior Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus." And then Colossians 3:11, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all." So that unity of the Church, that destroys racism. And then finally, best of all, Heaven. Where are we going? What's it going to be like when we get there? How beautiful is that? We are going to see people from every tribe, and language, people and nation. I already said, Revelation 7:9-10. I believe, maintaining amoral diversity. Purified, all of us from our sins, but different from one another. I can't imagine, some matrix of people all standing the exact same height, face, shape and all that. That's just weird. And I wouldn't know why that was even what happened. In our resurrection bodies we all look exactly alike and that doesn't make any sense to me. But we'll be pure from all sins, pride, racism, it'll be gone. And we're going to be together, and these central topic of Heaven will not be any of us. It'll be Christ and his achievements and we're going to be together worshipping. And so, Isaiah 60, the picture of the heavenly Zion, gates standing open continually to receive wealth from the nations pouring in, diverse displays of worship to almighty God, that's what that is. Isaiah 60:11. So These five biblical themes have the power to destroy racism, creation, fall redemption, church and heaven. 

John 17: Trinitarian Unity

Now, my go-to verse on multi-ethnic churches has been for years, John 17, Jesus's prayer that all of the world who hears the Gospel through the words of the apostles, “that all of them, Jesus prays may be one, Father, just as you and I are one, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me. And have loved them even as you've loved me.” One of the key things I've said this before, I'll say it again, I believe you should go through John 17, the so-called high priestly prayer of Jesus and say everything Jesus asked for, he gets, everything, 100% because that's just Jesus, he never prays outside of the will of the Father ever. So it's like, "Oh gee, I wish Jesus could have the unity he prayed for." No, he's going to get it, it's going to happen. We are going to be in Heaven as one as the Father and the Son are one. Now, what does that mean? It's a mystery, but in the doctrine of the Trinity, we have ‘separate’ if we can use that language, persons who have a perfectly one relationship with one another and never ever disagree about anything, ever. And not only that, but they passionately hold their views with each other. I really, really love Jesus. Well, I really do too. And that's how Heaven's going to be like. I mean not exactly like that, but better. But that sense of passionate oneness around the truth and the works of redemption and Jesus, but he's thinking about now may they be in the process of becoming more and more one to let the watching world see a work that only God could do.

Don't you yearn to see that in this local church? That we would put the Gospel on display by supernatural unity, but the journey ahead of us is going to be hard. It's a journey of hard work, of seeking out areas, pockets of sin and shining the Gospel light. And so, a journey of justice and love stands in front of us. There're just serious social issues to address. The evangelical church has traditionally had a blind spot on social action and social justice. There's a long history of this. The fundamentalists tended to withdraw from science and culture and just pull back and just get in their own plays, and just celebrate Jesus crucified and bodily resurrected the fundamentals, but to not engage the surrounding culture. And this is part of that lack of engagement. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, wrote a book called Divided By Race: Evangelical Religion and The Problem of Race in America. They said this, "Recall that in the Jim Crow era, most evangelicals even in the North, did not think it their duty to oppose segregation. Instead, they felt it was enough to treat blacks they knew personally with courtesy and fairness." “So my job as a Christian is just be Christian to everyone I know. Just treat them kindly and with respect and that's it. And not challenge the structural institutional sins, not do anything about that.” That's a heritage.

So what is our goal? This is a slogan I've got. And this is like what's in front of me? A prayer goal on the issue of racism in society and structurally and in institutions. I got this from a quote in Piper's book, Bloodlines, "To render race inconsequential for life opportunities, to render race inconsequential for life opportunities, or irrelevant let's say. It doesn't matter what your race is, here are the opportunities." That's the goal. Now, I will say that's much more true now than it was 50 years ago. I think that clearly, progress has been made, and isn't that encouraging? The Christians through action and non-Christians too but just through common grace whatever, you can become, the society can become less racist and more openly, or overtly, just. So that's encouraging to us to try. But that's what we want to see happen or in Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous statement, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." That's a different way of saying the same thing. So we have a biblical commitment to act especially in proportion to our positions of responsibility. So the more that God's given you, the more He's going to require from you. So we have a commitment to speak up. Isaiah 1:17, "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17. Later Isaiah 58:6, "Is not this the kind of fasting that I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Or Proverbs 31:8-9, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves", that's advocacy, "For the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly and defend the causes or the rights for the poor and needy."

There Remain Serious Social Issues to Address

So present hot button issues, what are we going to do? Let's take the law enforcement and people of color issues. Now these are terrible incidents, but it's pretty obvious that I tend to see them differently than my black friends do. And that's a problem for me. I want to see things more together. I want us to be together and see it, and to understand what they see when something like that happens. Some people deny that in those incidents, there's any racism at all. I don't know how you can know that, but there isn't any. What happened is that people are resisting arrest, and then this happens, etcetera. Other people think it's nothing but racism all the time. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. On those that say there's no racism, all there's specific cases though, they've become a little bit difficult to explain when like an African-American gentleman's on his back with his arm, straight up, and just trying to surrender quickly whatever, and still get shot. And then, does the society react properly? The grand juries and all that, do they do the right thing? So there's just issues with that all over.

I know that most of the people within a one-mile or three mile radius of this place that we might seek to reach would see things radically differently I think than us, and that should matter as we're trying to reach the community. But there's deeper issues than that. I'll tell you, on that particular one, I saw a panel discussion, a round table discussion after Ferguson. And there was this one African-American sister in Christ, who's married to a black police officer, she said, "I can't tell you how conflicting this whole issue is for me. I see it very much from the angle of racial justice, but I want my husband to come home safely at the end of the night." And those are touchy moments when there's tension. And you got a split second decision. It's hard to know what to do. What kind of training? What kind of response after the fact, investigating the incident? Hard to know. That's what she said, speaking honestly. But I know there are deeper issues. 

Present Conditions

There're heartbreaking issues concerning the African-American community, especially young men in the African-American community. Homicide is the number one cause of death for black men between 15 and 29 years of age and has been for decades. 94% of all black people who are murdered, are murdered by other black people. It's heart-breaking. The more you look at this, it's just shattering. It's like, "Lord, what can we do?" In the past several decades the suicide rate among young black men, has increased more than 100%. In some cities, black males have a high school dropout rate of more than 50%. I was standing in line at Lowe's yesterday with Calvin, hoping you don’t if I tell. Calvin was turning on flashlights and turning them off and he was urging me to buy one of them. Like I'm good. High energy, lots of stuff going on. I just wanted to check out and leave. African-American woman standing next to me, she said, "That's just the way boys are. I have three sons of my own." We got into a conversation. "How old are your sons?" Her name was Lynn. "How old are your sons?" "Well praise Jesus they're 19, 18, and 15." I said, "Well Calvin's 15." We got talking. She says, "A 19-year-old and he's still a virgin.” She said that to me. We're total strangers. A little awkward. It's awkward. It's like, "Oh, good for you. Keep it up." But just the themes of raising young men and the challenges of doing that, and how hard it is, and this is much on her mind as a mother. These themes come together, they're not in a vacuum, they come together in a complex of issues, 

In 1965, the year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, 24% of black births in America were to single women. Today, the number is 72%. Just the devastation and being raised without a godly father who can give direction to a young man as he grows. Now, as we look at this complex of issues, there tend to be polarized answers. Answer number one, answer number two. Answer number one tends to focus on personal responsibility. Individuals need to take personal responsibility for their education, their morality, their actions. They need to live up to standards of society, and not get into the kind of difficulties that cause all these troubles. Alright? Focus number two is structural or institutional reform. There has to be significant changes made to society and structures in society. Bigger than any individual and it's going to take massive efforts to make. Those are two approaches, two different approaches. Social or political conservatives tend to be in the first camp, Republicans. And then social, what do you say, political liberals, etcetera, Democrats for the most part tend to be in the other. And there you've got that divide. What do you do? And African-American scholars are divided in the same way. 

Two Seemingly Conflicting Poles

Henry Louis Gates Junior of Harvard, said, "The causes of poverty within the black community are both structural and behavioral. It's not one or the other." He said this, "Not to demand that each member of the black community accept individual responsibility for their behavior, whether that behavior assumes the form of gang violence, sexual activity,” you name it, “is another way of selling out a beleaguered community." But Elijah Anderson of Yale said, "Without a massive program of reconstruction, inner-city residents, especially young black men will remain mired in hopeless circumstances that they cannot escape." 

Now, if you go with the more structural intervention side, things get even more complicated and divisive. Government intervention has made a difference, a big difference, like Brown versus Board of Education and other things with the Civil Rights Act. It does make a difference. But sometimes structural intervention makes things worse, like things like affirmative action programs are criticized, even by black scholars because they establish a preferential treatment for blacks, the kind of writes, impermanently a gap, which is insulting frankly, to African-Americans at that point. But then how do you level the playing field? So what do you do? Shelby Steele, African-American scholar says this, "Blacks can have no real power without taking responsibility for their own educational and economic development. Whites can have no racial innocence without earning it by eradicating discrimination and helping the disadvantagde to develop both sides." I feel harmony with that statement. So for us, we have to look at what God's given us, what positions of influence, what has he given us that we can use to level the playing field in an intelligent way. 

John Piper: “Seven Feelings Rise In My Heart”

Now, as I was reading Bloodlines by Piper, he got to after going back and forth and back and forth for far more pages than I burdened you with this morning. He just stopped in the middle of the book he said, "Can I tell you I have seven feelings right now?" That's John Piper by the way, he just has seven feelings. Most of us have one feeling, he has seven. But they were just so thorough and complete and they lined up and I just thought it was right. What were his seven feelings? “Alright, first I feel regret for my own sin in this area. Sense of regret. Secondly, I feel sorrow over cycles of despair and depression, and hopelessness and brokenness and the ruin of so many human lives. Thirdly, I feel anger at sin on all sides of this equation. No one's escaped. There is no one righteous, there's no one clean on this one. And I feel anger about that sin. Fourth, I feel frustration over untold layers of complexity of trying to actually solve this thing. It's frustrating to me that everything we try to do actually seems to make things worse sometimes. Fifthly, I feel empathy with the truth claims as I perceive them to be true on all sides of this debate. I feel drawn by the truth that I read and it's like, ‘Yeah that's true.’ Sixth, I feel a great longing to see the Gospel unleashed in this issue. And the Gospel preached, and individual saved, and lives transformed. And then finally, seventh, I feel tremendous hope for the future. Not just the eternal future of what's going to happen in Heaven but that even in our society, new things can be thought of, that will greatly improve life for everybody involved.”

The Gospel

Alright, so for me, applications. First and foremost, I always seek to preach the Gospel. And I actually see a lot of folks that are here that aren't usually here. Glad that you're here, praise God for that. I don't always know why people come to church, but I know this, none of this issue, this reason is by far the most significant issue of anybody's life. Jesus said, "What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" So even if the entire world of opportunity were handed right to whether you're black or white, it wouldn't matter if you weren't a Christian, if you weren't born again, it will do you no good on Judgment Day. And beyond that, all of the biblical truth that I've talked about only gets unleashed in the lives of believers. People who believe these themes. So come to Christ and trust in Him. Embrace the Gospel, the Gospel has power to change hearts. 

Ask God to Search Your Heart

Secondly, if you're a Christian, just take Psalm 139:23-24, and just say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, show me patterns of sin inside me." Now on racism it may be issues of deeper hardness in your heart toward individuals that may be there. And you didn't know it was there. There's some hiddenness that can happen there. Could be some sins of commission, things you've said or done in the past and you should feel ashamed for it, and you feel that and you want forgiveness for it. But it might be like me, mostly sins of omission, that you've shrunk back from getting engaged frankly. Shrunk back from energetic ministries and out of laziness, selfishness, cowardice, whatever reason, "Search me, O God and show me know my heart." 

Seek New Friendships

Thirdly, seek out genuine friendships with different people, people different than yourself. When I say seek out, I mean get out of your usual patterns, and go be involved in ministries or other things that enables you to make new friends that are different from you. And as you have opportunity, if they are, blacks with whites or whites with blacks, talk about these things. And don't shrink back from talking about it, but lean into the topic of racism like we've tried to do today and say, “Help me think better about this.” I want us, I want me and Eddie White, I want us to feel the same about the things that his mother went through. I want to feel the same and be one with my brother. And I want to be good friends. That's going to be one of the most important things you can do, genuine friendships with people who are different and genuine communication. 

Pray For An End to Racism

Fourth, pray for an end to racism, that race would someday be irrelevant inconsequential for life opportunities. Just pray for that. Pray that God would work. And if you say that there's no such thing as bias, there's no such thing as, well very controversially the phrase, “white privilege,” things like that. Look, I understand why you might think that way. I understand certain aspects and some of them amoral and some of them moral. You don't want to feel like the things you learned in your education were just handed to you because you're white and all that. I understand all that. But I liken it to bike riding. I like to ride bikes for exercise, and I've just found that uphills are harder than downhills. Have you guys, maybe some of you right bikes and you know, it's just when it's like this, it's hard. And when I get to the top, I'm exhausted.: But if I get to turn around and come back down, I remember riding out in the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was with a friend of mine, and we rode uphill for two hours and downhill for like 20 minutes. Scariest ride of my life. Over 50 miles an hour on thin tires. I don't think I'll ever do that again. But it was exhilarating. But bias is like that. It's just like every stroke of the pedal is a little bit harder just a little bit harder. Like is it real, is it actually happening? Well, that's where friendships can come in, where you can actually communicate. What we're seeking is often called the level playing field, achieving it may be a lifetime work. I don't know, but that's the goal. That's what we're looking for. And pray for FBC Durham to be a light in a dark place in a city on a hill. Pray for us to do creative ministries. Find ways to reach out. 

I was talking to Nathan Miles after the Wednesday meeting about the refugee issue. And I didn't even touch how the refugee issue is an issue of racism, too. And I mean, I could go on and on about this. But just that kind of ministry will really help us grow in terms of social justice and getting involved or urban ministry. So many of you guys are involved in that. Pray that God would do a multi-ethnic work, in this church just more and more people of different backgrounds becoming members here. And then finally, don't see color blindness, seek delight in what God's made. Let's just really enjoy each other in what God's made and delight in it, like we will in Heaven, so close with me prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time we've had to look at this topic. I just thank you for this church. I thank you for the hearts of the people here, I thank you for their eagerness to hear from God and from this word, and they're consistent trust in the Word to take this church where it needs to go. God, do a work, a supernatural work of unity and love and justice in our church, and through our church. Help us to be more energetic and active than ever before in issues of social justice, but with the saturation of the word of God and the inherent scriptures in the Gospel of Christ, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Well, for me, as a pastor, as a student of the Word of God, I find that some of the most powerful insights, in the Christian life come from facing hard questions, confident that God's Word has the right answer. For us to face hard issues, hard questions knowing that the Word of God will not let us down, that God has not left us as orphans, he is going to sustain us and help us. So for us to face squarely as we look at Ephesians 6:5-9, second sermon that I preached, last week was the easy one. Preaching on employer-employee relationships, and work and all that, but it didn't seem appropriate for me to stop short of asking hard questions, this week and next week. So this week, I want to look at the issue of slavery just simply as it's written, "Masters and slaves."

And for me, as a preacher, also, we're always striving to be relevant, we don't want to preach sermons and have services that are just irrelevant to our lives and chattel slavery is illegal all over the world. So one is in a simple way, you could say Ephesians 6, 5-9 is obsolete. There really is nothing more that we can get out of it. And so there's nothing for us to look at. And I set that aside last week. I don't think it's obsolete. They're abiding principles even though slavery is obsolete, we would have to say now, in that slavery is obsolete the law of the land everywhere is simply this, "Masters emancipate your slaves." That would be what the text would say to us.

So the question that has pressed itself on my mind is, why doesn't the Bible specifically the New Testament clearly teach abolition? Why doesn't the Bible just clearly say,"Set your slaves free." Why does it instead seem to manage the institution of slavery rather than just simply abolish it? So that's been on my mind and my purpose today, I have two purposes, one first and foremost, above all things, I want all of us to understand the theme of slavery in the New Testament. How rich and powerful a theme it is for your relationship with God and of Christ and with other people. And to embrace the term “slave of Christ,” like Paul did as he wrote and began the book of Romans. “Paul a bond slave or a servant, a doulos, a slave of Christ,” right away, identified himself that way, he was proud to present himself that way and wanted to say that I want us to just swim in that and embrace it and see the richness of that theme. 

And how powerful it'll be for us to understand those aspects, how slavery has been transformed by the Gospel and how slavery will be eternal, an eternal theme of our relationship with our creator, God, it's not going to go away. And then secondly, to defend this book against modern critics who used the fact that slavery is so clearly immoral and obsolete and all that to somewhat take, they think the higher moral ground over the Bible, and make the Bible obsolete and then extend it to other very hot issues. Like the LGBT questions and other things. And say the Bible is obsolete, it's commanding things that none of us does anymore. And so, we've moved on from it, to defend the Bible against that. Even if our defense, our apologetic isn't convincing to them, we need to be convinced the Bible is not obsolete, that the Bible's a living word, that it's an inerrant Word, and that we can have confidence in it. So that's what's on my mind today. 

Two Hundredth Anniversary of Wilberforce’s Triumph

Well, you just heard the text, read for us. I won't read it again. I want to begin by just talking about the amazing history of Christian leadership in abolition. Really the abolition of slavery around the world is an achievement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the most part, at least in the early stages, it was Christians that led out and seeing the need to abolish slavery and there's some heroes in that story like in 2007, mark the 200th anniversary of William Wilberforce's successful ending of the slave trade in the British empire. Thomas Jefferson wrote a similar law in the United States the next year 1808, but it was Wilberforce and his group that led out. He was an evangelical Christian in England, a member of parliament. He led a successful 18-year fight against the British slave trade, he was struck down again and again, he was vilified, he was opposed, he was shouted down, he was hated and mocked and threatened, but he tirelessly persevered until at last, success was his in 1807. He reminds me of a huge block of cork, and you just kept pushing him down and he just kept popping up again and again. And I just think there's so many good lessons from church history, and I just want to be like that. I don't know what issues and what ministry God's called me too, but just in my life, I want to be so filled with hope like he was that I'm just buoyant and you just don't give up. Eighteen years of losing until he finally won. And it wasn't just him. There were many others that worked together to abolish the slave trade. 

History of Abolition

By this, we mean the abolition of the infamous Middle Passage, the Atlantic slave trade in which people were taken from the African continent and brought over to the New World. Maybe 15 million Africans were eventually snatched from their homes and transported across the Atlantic Ocean, to be enslaved in the Western atmosphere. African kings, warlords, private kidnappers sold captives to Europeans, who held several coastal forts as staging grounds for this middle passage. The captives were usually force-marched to these ports along the western coast of Africa, where they were held for purchase to the European or American slave traders. Ships contained up to 300 slaves aboard one slave ship with a crew of about 30 people, the male captives were normally chained together in pairs to save room while the women and children generally had a little more freedom. The captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, but if food was scarce then slaveholders would get priority, concerning meals. 

It is a matter of record that in 1781, the captain of the slave ship Zong, threw overboard 130 living slaves chained together because he had run out of provisions, and he was going to claim them as lost cargo and get insurance money. Now Wilberforce spared nothing in making the horrors, the specific, the detailed horrors of the slave trade widely known, the inhuman conditions on-board, the over-packed slaves slave ships and in 1807, he was successful at that first leg of abolition, just the first leg, and that's the abolition of the slave trade. That was just the first step of the fight, for the next 26 years, Wilberforce also participated in the next phase and that is the fight to abolish slavery itself throughout the British Empire, and that was successful finally in 1833, just days before he died. 

Now, that passion for abolition continued not just in Wilberforce's heart and throughout the British Empire, but in the hearts of many here in America, and indeed around the world, as I said, abolition as a product in their hearts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the excesses of American slavery were extreme after that barbaric Middle Passage. Once they arrived, they were auctioned off like animals, completely dehumanized. They were kept literally in chains, often being branded with the owner’s mark to prevent them from being stolen. They could not form families because at any moment husbands and wives could be sold away from each other, parents and children sold away from each other, never to see each other again. Slaves were consistently beaten as a matter of principle, even for tiny infractions to assert the master's authority over their wills. More willful slaves, more determined slaves were forced to submit by iron bits and other iron implements that brought pain into their lives that reminded me of medieval torture devices. If slaves ran away seeking freedom, they were hunted down by professional slave-catchers and by dogs, and when they were recaptured they're often severely lashed with whips. If they persisted in running away in some cases, they would have their feet amputated.

Questions Linger About the Bible

Now we're aware that slavery was defended by people who claimed to be Christian, maybe even people who were Christians and defended it biblically. That's part of the problem we have in the apologetic to our present age. People made a defense for this, but you must see how, what I've just described, does not line up with what Paul commanded in Ephesians 6:9. I hope you see it. There's no defense for that. Look again at the text, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way." is one translation. The idea is go back and look at what Paul just said to the slaves and they're supposed to do their service in a certain way with a heart full of faith, seeing an invisible master, an invisible savior who sees everything they do and they're doing their service as unto, as unto him. The invisible master and king. Okay, “Now masters, you do your mastering in the same way. Seeing an invisible master who watches everything you do.” And then, the command "Do not threaten them." A prohibition against threatening. Friends, can we just have a how much more argument? If it's not okay to threaten them, how could it possibly be okay to beat them or whip them? So we must say that with the excess is that all those things are just completely biblically indefensible. The masters were not obeying the New Testament. They were not obeying what Paul commanded.

Now, I've talked about the first two phases of the fight against legal slavery, the abolition of the slave trade and then phase two, the abolition of slavery itself. Now that went on for a long time after the American Civil War worldwide. Abolitionists in this country continued their fight right up until obviously, 1861 when the war basically took over on the issue of abolition. And the United States passed the 13th Amendment, ratified by the states at the end of 1865. It was passed by Congress January 31st, 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States, and then ratified by the states on December 6, that same year, 1865, but then illegal slavery began in earnest in the United States. I didn't know this, but following the Civil War hundreds of thousands of African-Americans were re-enslaved in an abusive manipulation of the legal system called peonage. Across the deep South, African-American men and women, were falsely arrested on trumped-up charges, convicted of those crimes and then leased to coal and iron mines, brick factories and plantations and other dangerous workplaces. The system slowed down after World War One, but didn't fully end until the 1940s. So that's the third phase of the battle against slavery, and that is the fight against illegal slavery.

Now worldwide as I said, long after the American Civil War and the 13th and 14th Amendment, ended that in our country. Other nations stubbornly resisted abolition, stubbornly resisted it, especially Islamic nations. And finally in 1980, the last nation Mauritania abolished legal slavery, and that meant that every political nation on earth in every nation on earth, slavery is illegal. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including an article stating, "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Now we're in that third phase which is the battle against human trafficking, and it's a problem that we only are beginning to understand the magnitude of. There's a lot of information here I'm going to spare you from. You can come and ask me later. But one organization connected with the United Nations estimates as many as close to 21 million people are in forced servitude right now. 21 million worldwide.

There is a plan one ministry has a plan for ending slavery, worldwide. How to free today's slaves. And the cost, the estimated cost of worldwide abolition is close to $11 billion over 25 years. The United Nation International Labor Organization estimates that the annual profits from human trafficking could be as high as $150 billion. $150 billion every year. So clearly, the worldwide fight against slavery is not over, but in this case it's just that final phase against illegal slavery. But questions linger about the Bible. How can we read the Bible’s passages on slavery? Look especially at the Old Testament in which slavery is just clearly even not just permitted, but encouraged with the Jewish nation concerning the nations that they conquered etcetera. It's just managed. How do we do that? And then the New Testament, "How do we understand that?" And how do we defend this book against those who would seek to go out into other moral issues like the LGBT issue and all that? And say, "You have no standing, you're being selective, you're being hypocritical, you're only applying some aspects and not the others." How do we respond to that? Especially beginning in our own hearts. 

Well, let's begin with a definition of slavery. What do we mean by slavery? It's the social sanction that permits one person or group to compel the involuntary labor of another person or group in conditions that usually make them socially inferior and are restrictive of their freedom. So, that's what slavery is. Now, the key issues then are compulsion of labor or involuntary labor. Conditions that make the individual inferior subhuman, and then the lack of personal freedom, the Gospel transforms each of those three elements. Just completely transformed it. So the eternal aspect of slavery that I'm going to advocate from the Book of Revelation, is radically different than the things that we've seen on Earth because sin nature will be gone forever. So, let's begin by looking at slavery in the Old Testament. 

Overview of Old Testament History

The first mention of slavery was in the curse on Noah's son, Ham, for his treatment of Noah when Noah fell drunk and the curse went on Ham's son Canaan, cursed to be Canaan the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. Abraham had male and female slaves like Hagar, when Hagar was abused by Sara, she ran away and God told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt, and then he threatened his brothers when they didn't know who he was threatened his brothers with slavery for stealing his cup. Then eventually, once Joseph died and the next Pharaoh came along who knew nothing about Joseph, the entire nation fell into bondage in slavery. It's a big part of the Jewish heritage because in the Exodus, they were brought out with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm and through the Red Sea into freedom. 

The Puzzling Laws of Moses

Then the laws of Moses come along and they seem, at least to our perspective, a little puzzling a little challenging. Moses consistently reminded the Jews, that they had been slaves in Egypt. He commanded them to be mindful of treating aliens and strangers with that kind of kindness saying, "Do not oppress an alien. You yourself know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt", but yet slavery was as I said, permitted in the Laws of Moses, especially in times of war, where captives were brought in and they were made to be slaves and that's how it was managed.

Key Text: A Voluntary Slave Who Delights in their Master

You could even have a fellow Hebrew as a slave, but it was managed very carefully. And Deuteronomy 15 is one of the key texts that kind of brings us into the New Testament themes, and even into the eternal theme of slavery as a beneficial relationship. Deuteronomy 15 it says, "If a fellow Hebrew man or woman sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free, and when you release him, don't send him away empty-handed, supply him liberally from your flock, and your threshing floor and your wine press, give to him as the Lord, your God has blessed you. Remember that you also were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. And that's why I give you this command today. But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you’ because he loves you and your family, and is well-off with you then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door and he will become your servant for life, do the same for your maid servant."

So the idea of piercing the earlobe for somebody that just was so delighted to stay with the family and submit to that master because it was such a good life and so richly blessed, then is brought over first and foremost, with Jesus Christ. In the prophecy in Psalm 40, it says, "Sacrifice and offering. You did not desire. But my ear, you have pierced. Here I am, it is written about me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, O God." That's taken over in the Book of Hebrews, and ascribed directly to Jesus and in fact, Jesus said, "Alright Father pierce my earlobe. I am yours to command. I will do everything you command me to do. Whatever you command me to do, I will do. That's Jesus leading out on this and Jesus himself said, “I've come down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.”

Christ the “Very Nature of a Slave”

So, Philippians 2 as we come to Christ, the perfect slave and perfect master, Philippians 2, it says of Jesus Christ, “who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being found in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” What's interesting to me about Philippians 2:5-8, is that it uses this “very nature language.” Jesus was as much slave, as he was God. And the clause it follows, being found in human appearance, is kind of like, you need to realize we were made to be douloi, we were made to be servants. That's what we were made for. We are so deceived about this. And so, the nature of being human is to be a servant, that's what we're made for. Jesus led the way in that. He was the most servant of us all. He was the perfect slave, he went as low as a slave could possibly go. And he carried himself like a servant to everyone around him, that was just his nature. Anyone and everyone who came to him for a need, he got up and met it. And think of the healings. He has got to be the most incredibly interruptible and yet efficient leader in history. I can't match his interruptibility. People just came, and he got up and went and served them. Didn't matter what the need was.

Christ’s Slave-like Demeanor to Others

The Roman Centurion came and his servant was suffering and Jesus said, "I'll go and heal him." And then the woman with the issue of blood, and then Jairus's daughter, and all this, whoever had a need, huge crowds came and he healed them all. But the ultimate servanthood is displayed in his death on the cross, and he foretold it and showed it in John 13 with the foot washing. You remember how he took off his, symbolically his robes, royal robes, picture the incarnation. Put, covers himself with a towel, and then washes his disciples feet, drying them with the towel around his waist. Just such a picture of servanthood. And you remember how Peter said, I love that moment. He's like, "Lord are you going to wash my feet?" I figure his like the seventh or eighth of the 12. He's like, "Yes." I don't want you to wash my feet. I remember how he says, "Lord, you will never wash my feet." That's one of Peter's never statements, four never statements. Another topic, another sermon, but four times he says, “Never," he said, "you'll never wash my feet." Jesus says, "Unless I wash you, have no part with me. I have to serve you, or you can't go to Heaven." And so, the ultimate servitude was Jesus's death on the cross. That downward path of slave-like obedience led him to the cross, that led him to his death on the cross. 

Christ’s Ultimate “Bondage”: The Cross

Jesus in another place used I think slavery language to talk about this feeling he had about his crucifixion. In Luke 12:50, he said, "I have a baptism down to go." In context, he's talking about his crucifixion. I have a baptism down to go and I am as if in a straight jacket until it is accomplished. I'm bound in, I'm roped in until I go die on the cross. So as a slave, Jesus drank the cup of Hell and condemnation for me and for you, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” So he's a perfect slave. He is also the perfect Master. We see in our text in Ephesians, we see it in Colossians 4:1, "Masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know you also have a master in Heaven." So he's a perfect master.

Spiritual Slavery: Every Human Being a Slave

So let me talk about slavery in the New Testament. Just make some observations. I just handed it out at a moment ago. Every single human being is a servant or a slave. All of us. Not some of us, all of us. We're going to serve some master. It's inevitable. Now, Satan is a liar about this, right?  He's going to come and he's going to lie to us and he's going to offer us freedom, as he defines it. Freedom, freedom from all submission, freedom from all authority. You can do whatever you want with your time, with your money, with your energy, you can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. You can choose, and no one has the right to tell you what to do, you can eat whatever food you want, you can spend your money however you want, you can go where you want, etcetera. But Satan omits in all of that, the message of freedom that you owe complete obedience to your creator and lawgiver, to your God. He leaves that out. And at the core, Satan's deceiving us into a different kind of bondage, into slavery to him and to sin. He knows very well what he's doing. He wants you to serve him, remember how he tempted Jesus, saying, "If you'll fall down and worship me," why the physical falling down? “I want to dominate you.” That's what Satan's like, that's what sin is like. So every non-Christian, is already a slave. A slave of sin. Jesus said this in John 8:34, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin," Romans 6:17, "you used to be slaves to sin." 

The Gospel, Jesus comes along, and there we are in chains to sin, and to Satan and death and he sets us free, sets us free. But it's not freedom in the way Satan defines it. That doesn't exist, that freedom doesn't exist. He says, "I want you to serve me." And so he comes with this beautiful offer, one of the most beautiful in the New Testament, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." What's the next thing he says? "Take my yoke upon you". “Take that stiff neck of yours and put it under my kingly yoke. Stop rebelling against me, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So trade the one heavy, crushing yoke of sin and death, and Satan, for a light one in which you find out that all of my commands are morally beautiful. And they're delightful, and they result in a beautiful world, in a peaceful life and all that. “Take my yoke upon you. Let me be your king, your master,” that's what he's saying. Paul uses this kind of slave language quite boldly, in 1 Corinthians 6, talking about sexual morality, sexual purity, he says, "You are not your own. You were bought at a price." Wow, that's strong. I was bought, a price was paid for me and I don't own myself. Somebody else paid for me. “Therefore glorify God with your body.” So that's clear servitude language, you are a servant, a slave, of crisis like I am, Paul is saying. You were bought at a price, and that price was infinite. So the bottom line, every human being on the face of the Earth will either serve God through Christ, or serve Satan, sin, death and Hell. Those are the choices. There's no third option. You're going to serve someone.

Freedom and Slavery Both Redefined by Christ

So if you ever talking to somebody and they say, effectively, "I'm free! No one tells me what to do, I can do whatever I want with my life, my money, my time, my relationships, my interest and my hobbies, I am master of my own fate, I am captain of my own soul." Be assured they are slaves of Satan, and it's somehow your job by the ministry of the Law and the Word to show them that and to show them a better freedom that comes from serving Christ. That's the reality. So therefore, freedom and slavery are both redefined by the Gospel and by Christ. Freedom is redefined. It's a whole different view of freedom now. I think the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32, had it, "I run in the path of Your commands, for you have set my heart free." So my pathway is bounded by the laws of God, and when I run in there I feel free. That's the freedom for me. Outside of the laws of God is corruption and wickedness, and bondage to sin. And I will not run there, but this path is a free path. My heart is free. Or Jesus said in John 8:31-32 to the Jews who had believed him. "If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 

Paul teaches this kind of freedom as well, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness," that's the same thing as the pathway of God's laws, slaves to God, slaves to righteousness. Now that's what you have, it's a different kind of freedom. Therefore slavery has been redefined by Christ. We are all slaves now to Christ and also we are told to other people. We're actually slaves to everybody, anybody and everybody. That's pretty powerful. We are free now, to serve other Christians, we are free to wash their feet. Jesus said, "I give you an example, now, as I've washed your feet, so you must wash each other's feet. Be servants to each other.” Galatians 5:13, "You my brothers were called to be free but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another in love." There's freedom for service, that's what it is, serve one another in love. So we're free to wash the feet of other Christians, we're actually free to serve non-Christians too, to become slaves to non-Christians.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19 and following, he says, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. I become all things to all people, so that by all possible means, I may save some." Now I have a powerful illustration of this by a friend of mine who's the Vice President with the International Mission Board. He went to serve at a refugee camp in Greece, was made up of people that had fled from ISIS. The Muslim families for the most part, fled from ISIS, the camp was managed by the United Nations. Bunch of tents. The United Nations doesn't get into actually managing what the tents are like for the families that come. There's a high turnover rate, and the people that are there don't want to be there and have very little respect for the camp or miserable and sad and leave the tents in horrific conditions. I can't even describe what it's like. He showed his photos, but he and his team would go in and clean excrement, and urine, and rotting garbage from out of those tents, getting them ready for Muslim families to move in while the missionaries were sharing the Gospel with those Muslim families, with a clear display of servanthood right in front of them, that's I think what Paul means when he says, "I can be a slave to a non-Christian in the hope that I might, somehow lead them to Christ." So that's all spiritual.

Physical Slavery: Not Overthrown but Subverted

What about physical slavery? What about that? Now, masters and slaves, it's right there. It's not talking about some spiritual thing. It's talking about actual chattel slavery. Why aren't there abolitionist verses? Well, there aren't abolitionist verses, but there are subversive forces unleashed by the New Covenant, that destroyed slavery. It was not the purpose of the Gospel during that era of Roman history to overturn the entire socioeconomic system of the Roman world, the estimates up to half of all the people in territories dominated by Rome were slaves. It was woven in the economic system. It was not God's purpose to just overturn all of that. Instead, there's this management of it, but then there are these subversive themes. In a very good way. I'm using the word subversive in a good way. They were subversive to destroying chattel slavery, and they worked. For example, the Golden Rule, very effective, "Do to others what you would have them do to you." Right? 

It's a simple logic. “Would you like to be a slave?” “No.” “Then don't enslave someone else.” It really just works, it's very, very powerful. As a matter of fact, Abraham Booth, an English Calvinist Baptist, preached basically, that sermon. I'm thinking if that's the sermon I think it's a real short sermon, but very effective. A minute and a half long. But his title was longer than that. “Commerce in the human species and the enslaving of Innocent Persons Inimical,” I guess, “Hostile to the Laws of Moses and the Gospel of Christ.” That's the sermon title. They had more words back then. But he said this, one of his application point is, "How would you like it if some foreign slave traders came to Liverpool, here in Liverpool, and took your wives and children right from you, and enslave them, how would you like that?" That's subversive and attacks and destroys slavery, it's a very effective argument.

Jesus himself gave this hierarchical sense, in John 15, he says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you, I no longer call you slaves because the slave doesn't know what his master is doing." That's very interesting. Now later, Paul would call himself a slave of Christ, what he's saying is, I have a higher role. And later in that same Gospel, he says, "I'm going to call you brothers and sisters. I'm going to make you co-heirs with me, you're going to rule with me on the throne of the universe." So, we are slaves and sons and daughters and co-rulers with Christ, all of the above, all of those themes are valid and powerful, not just some of them. The common brotherhood of master-slave in the Gospel is a subversive force. Galatians 3 "you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." 

Then in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul gives a command to slaves, that if they can get their freedom, they ought to do it, 1 Corinthians 7:21. "Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you." Interesting statement. You know what he's saying by that, he's saying, “You can actually live a flourishing, fruitful Christian life as a slave. And God will reward you richly on Judgment Day for your faith-filled obedience. So don't let it trouble if you can't get your freedom, but if you can get your freedom, do it.” The whole ethos of 1 Corinthian 7 is the less things that tie you down there, the more free you'll be to serve Christ, in this world. That's what he's saying. 1 Corinthians 7:22, "For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord, is the Lord's freed man." You're actually free in the Lord's eyes. But similarly, who is a free man is called Christ's slave. So you think you're free, but you're actually Christ's slave. So that's what he's saying.

There's a clear condemnation both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament of slave traders. There's no doubt about that. They were condemned to death in the Law of Moses, so the laying weight in the jungle with the net and a club for somebody that goes to get river water, and then you jump up on him and knock him over the head and drag him away in a net, you're guilty and deserve death in the Law of Moses for that. And in 1 Timothy 1:9-11, “We also know that the law was not made for the righteous, but for law breakers and rebels for the ungodly and the sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, adulterers, perverts, for slave traders, and liars, and perjurers.” So they're listed as wicked people. 

And then finally, there's the Book of Philemon, which I think is marvelous. You remember the story in Philemon? It's just a little book. But Paul writes and apparently the story is the slave Onesimus, had run away from his master Philemon and had stolen from him apparently. Runs away in the Roman Empire, ends up meeting the Apostle Paul. Now it turns out, Paul had led Philemon to Christ. So they were good friends. What are the odds? Oh, what a lucky day. You know, that kind of thing, not the whole thing was orchestrated. Paul leads Onesimus to Christ, to faith in Christ, then writes the letter that's now in our New Testament, gives it to the slave and sends them back to his master. Think about the faith it would take to obey Paul, and go back. But in the content of the letter, he says this, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good." Key verse, "No longer as a slave," that's key, “no longer as a slave.” What's he telling him to do? "No longer as a slave, but better than a slave: Now, a dear brother. He is very dear to me and even dear to you. Both as a man and a brother in the Lord. So, I know you're going to obey me because I want to just, I'm not going to remind you, this is pure rhetoric. I'm not going to remind you, you owe me your very soul.” But I know you'll do the right thing. Oh, come on, that's very subversive. What is he telling him to do? Set him free? Set him free. So all of those forces over 18 centuries, were subversive and destroyed chattel slavery. Now you might say, "Well why didn't God do it faster? God has his own ways. God's ways are not our ways. But in the end, it was the Gospel and Christians that destroyed it, and it is gone. Now, what's the future of all for slavery? 

Eternal Rewards Based on Becoming Slaves

Well, in Heaven, in Heaven slavery will be 100% redeemed from the curse. We will get rewards on Judgment Day based on how much we acted and felt and truly acted out as slaves in this world. Jesus defined true greatness this way. "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." In other words, our rewards on Judgment Day will be based on how well you live like a slave.

The Angel's Perfect Obedience

And then, when we get into Heaven, we're going to see a throne, surrounded by 100 million angels that live every moment to do the perfect will of God. They're delighted to do anything he says to do and actually one of those angels called himself to John, "A fellow slave with you of the Lord." A fellow slave. Angels and humans both of us, fellow slaves. Now, those angels are delighted to do anything God says. John Newton, made this observation he said, "If two angels were sent to the Earth, on a mission from God. And one of them was sent to run an empire and the other was sent to sweep the streets of the city, neither one of them would seek a different job, but would do it gladly, for the glory of the one that sent them." I love that. No matter what the Lord assigns you to do, just do it as unto him. It's a beautiful picture, isn't it? But, in that same chapter, Revelation 22:3 it says, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will serve him." So there it is, in the New Heaven, New Earth we will be sons and daughters, we will be co-heirs, but we also be his servants. And so what's the essence of that? 

What It Means to be a Slave

We'll think it, think it through. What's the difference between being an employee and being a slave? Well, an employee can say, "I'm not working here anymore." Right? "I'm quitting today. Famously, I've seen some pretty dramatic quittings in my professional life. Oh, there's  one story I'll tell another time but it was dramatic. What was cool is the guy came back a week later and asked for his job back. Didn't get it, they were still repairing the wall, and some other things that had been broken on that day, so. But that was humorous to say the least. But you can quit and you can demand wages. Okay? When we're in the New Heaven, New Earth will we be able to quit? No, that's already been tried. That's what redemptive history was all about. And will we be able to go to God and demand wages for our labor for him? No, we can't do that. We will be forever his slaves, but we're going to be delighted, and we're going to reign with him forever and ever. And you know what's going to happen?  It says in Luke 12:37, "It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, the Master," listen to this, "will dress himself to serve, and have them recline a table, and he will come and wait on them in Heaven." So you're going to be at the wedding banquet of the lamb and the bridegroom is going to come up and ask if you like, a refill. He's going to serve you up in Heaven while being the King of glory. So servanthood, itself, has been totally redeemed, and made perfect, and it is eternal, so that's why the Bible doesn't totally abolish or destroy slavery because there are aspects of it we need to embrace for the rest of our lives. Jesus himself embraces it. 

Alright, so what applications can we take from that, well, let's just begin with this, submit willingly to Christ the King. Perhaps for the first time. You may be an unbeliever, maybe God brought you here, I'm calling on you to submit to Christ, come to him. All you who are weary and burdened, and let him give you rest. Take your neck and submit it to Christ's kingly yoke and let him forgive you, let him wash your, wash our soul with his redeeming blood. Start there. But then secondly, for you Christians, realize that you are the slave to the one whom you obey. Whether to sin, which leads to death, or to Christ, which leads to eternal life and righteousness. So who are you obeying? Are you fighting the good fight of holiness? Are you submitting to God's laws? Are you living like a slave of sin, or a slave of righteousness? What is actually happening in your life? You have been set free. Roman 6:18, "you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Are you living that out? 

Thirdly, seek to obey Christ, every moment, just present yourself to him as your Master, and you the slave. Be proud to say I'm a doulos. I'm a slave of Christ. What do you want me to do? Command me, and I'll obey. Fourthly, serve other people, be a servant to all, find ways to wash feet, and not expect to be thanked or noticed. I think much about that IMB Vice President. I want to do that ministry. I actually sought an opportunity to go in September, but the IMB has been separated from that ministry right now by political forces unfortunately, but I would love to take a team to go wash tents. "Well now that you described it like that. Pastor, I'm not so excited, if that was a different kind of mission trip," but I'm thinking this is a great opportunity for us who don't know the language and don't know the culture, to serve those who are trained and can. So stay tuned. I'm still looking for a chance to go do that, to be a servant, but find ways to serve non-Christians and lead them to Christ. Fifthly, defend the Bible. Defend it against people who think that they know better about the Bible. And it's like, "Well the Bible teaches slavery," it's like, does it? Let's talk about that. Defend the Bible, be honest about the past. The excesses of chattel slavery, but to say, "Look, those folks were disobeying God's Word." Clearly. And look forward to the future when we will spend eternity serving God. I'm yearning to look forward to that. 

In the meantime it may be that some of you may be called on to give your lives, a focus of your lives to the third phase of this abolitionist battle and that is battling illegal slavery. I know at least a few of us have been involved in sex trafficking and some other things. There's child slavery, going on. There's other issues and some of you may be called on to be influential, like William Wilberforce in greatly reducing illegal slavery in our world. Close with me in prayer if you would. 

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. I pray that you would press these lessons to our hearts. Help us to delight in serving you Lord help us to embrace it, help us, O Lord, to look for opportunities to serve others, and not ask to be thanked or paid or in some way receive anything back, help us, O Lord, to be effective in becoming servants to all people so that by all possible means, we might save some. And thank you, Lord Jesus especially for serving us when we were so filthy and covered with sin, you became our slave and you washed our whole souls in your cleansing blood. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Well this morning as I came to First Baptist Church, 414 Cleveland Street, I came to this place of worship, the sanctuary, which has been such a big part of my life. I was thinking as I walked in here about places of worship that I've been at around the world, and I've had the privilege of being in sacred spaces all over the world, and I've seen a lot of them in Japan, I've seen them in the Orient in India. I've seen them in Kathmandu and Nepal, I've seen them in New England, where I grew up. Probably the most awesome sacred space I've ever seen was Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague, which was started in 1344, it took 600 years to complete. And I'll just never forget just being in there, and just the soaring sense of grandeur, the greatness of the place, and just how much effort went in over the years to make that sacred space the amazing place that it was. I've been in a Shinto shrine in Osaka that was almost a thousand years old. I remember thinking of the antiquity of the place and all of the wood and wondered if it had ever been replaced or if it was original. They had a big iron bell that the priest would clang with this big log. I remember being amazed by that because the priest would clap to get the attention of the gods, and I was thinking about Elijah and the prophets of Baal and "Shout louder, maybe he'll hear," something like that, but we serve the living God, but that's a sacred space for those people in Japan. In Boston, the oldest church I ever worshipped at was Park Street Church right on the Boston Commons. It's the oldest place of worship I've ever actively worshipped in. I've also walked through the Old North Church in Boston. That's the "one if by land, two if by sea" church for the night of Paul Revere's ride. I've stood in the church where John Calvin preached in Geneva and saw that, and it was just an amazing thing for me to be there.  

Last summer, Calvin and I were at the Wittenberg church where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses. It was under massive construction, it was a bit of a let-down. I remember seeing the cement mixers, and the chain link fence and all that and I wasn't feeling like it was much of a sacred space, but it's the oldest and I would say probably, the most famous Lutheran Church in the world. All of these sacred sites have moved me in different ways. 

The only biblical place I've ever been to was Mars Hill. I got to climb up that little rocky outcropping there where the Apostle Paul preached his famous message in Acts 17, it's there printed in Greek in a plaque at the bottom. I remember being especially amazed at the top, because the tips of the rocks were all polished like glass. They were shiny like glass. No intention had gone into that, but just the feet of pilgrims over hundreds and hundreds of years, just polished it smooth. The oldest place, sacred space, I've ever been though was right near that. That was the Acropolis which was a shrine to the goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom for which the city of Athens was named. It was built around the time of the Babylonian exile. It's the oldest place of worship that I've ever been to. 

Now all of these sacred spaces, all of these places of worship, are as nothing compared to the heavenly shrine that we're going to be worshipping God at in all eternity. And the significance of the move in the new covenant from a sacred space where you go and where you worship, that one location where the temple was in Jerusalem, where all Israel would come three times a year and make that pilgrimage and go to that sacred space and worship there, that has been fulfilled, that imagery has all been fulfilled in Christ. We don't need to make those kinds of pilgrimages anymore. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Woman, believe me, the time is coming where neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." That unfolds the truth that we learned about God in the Old Testament, the words of the prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah 23:23-24, "‘Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away. Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’, declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?”, declares the Lord." We worship an omnipresent God. We worship an immense God who fills Heaven and Earth, and there is no space that can contain God. 

Stephen picked up on this theme, when he was proclaiming, effectively, the end of the animal sacrificial system, the end of the significance of the temple there in Jerusalem, he saw it clearly. They killed him for it. But he saw it clearly, and he said this in Acts 7:48-50, "The Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says, ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Or where will my resting place be? Has my hand made all these things?’ And so they came into being." And as Paul said in that very spot that I mentioned earlier, in Acts 17, "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not live in temples built by hands, and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, for he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." 

So we Christians in the New Covenant, we've come to understand the omnipresent God can and should be served everywhere at all times. Every square inch of the universe belongs to God, Almighty God. Every moment of time is his. Abraham Kuyper put it this way, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine! Mine!’" And yet, for all of that, there is such a thing as holy ground in some mysterious way. God was every bit as omnipresent back in the old covenant as now, and yet he did say to Moses, "Take off your sandals, for the ground on which you're standing is holy ground."

So what is holy ground? What is a sacred space? It's a place where we can encounter the living God, where he's choosing to reveal himself. And we can have a relationship with him, and we can encounter him. So this morning what I want to do is I want to set apart the Christian workplace as a sacred space. A place where we can, indeed, where we must encounter the living God. I want to ennoble your work, I want you to see the value of your labor every moment, and to see that it's an act of worship if you do it by the power of the Spirit in obedience to the Word of God. You are able to offer up a living sacrifice, every moment in the workplace. Not only able but you must. So what that means is sacred space could be for you an office building, it could be a cubicle. It's hard to believe, isn't it? I've worked in cubicles multiple times. I had three different engineering jobs, after I graduated from MIT. I worked for a company that made ion implanters. If you want to know what that is, I'd be happy to tell you. Come after, say, "What's an implanter?" I'll tell you all about it. But I worked in a cubicle there, vertical carpet and all that, that was my sacred space. I also worked for a company that made eye surgical equipment and I worked for a company that made hot chocolate machines, so all different kinds of jobs. And it was my desire as a Christian to be filled with the Spirit every day as I went to the workplace. I wanted that place to be the focus of my ministry, I wanted it to be an evangelistic place, I wanted it to be a place where I could offer up to God my engineering work as a sacrifice. I didn't do it well every day, but that was my goal. So that could be your sacred space. It could be a surgical operating room, it could be a board room. Maybe you're an executive. It could be a counter at Chick-fil-A or McDonalds, if you can believe it. How could a place like that be sacred space? But it's all in the attitude you bring to the work you do. Holy ground.

Now here I'm trying to sweep away centuries of false teaching that we see in the Medieval Roman Catholic Church. They established a kind of a hierarchy of value, the holiness of work. And it was captured by fourth century Catholic historian, Eusebius. This is what this man said, "Two ways of life were given by the Law of Christ to his Church. The one is above nature and beyond common human living, holy and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind. It, that pattern of life, devotes itself to the service of God alone." So, there you have the retreat from the world, the asceticism, the monks, the nuns, the clerics. They're separate from normal life, they're fasting, they're praying. It's a higher way of living. Such then is the perfect form of the Christian life. “And the other more humble, more human permits men to have minds for farming for trade, the other secular interests as well as for religion. And a kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them.”

We're sweeping all of that away today, that is completely false. Medieval Catholicism there had that hierarchy, there was the sacred and the profane, or secular. That's what profane meant, it's secular. So the sacred would be popes and cardinals and priests and monks and nuns and all that, and they lived a separate kind of life. And then profane, secular, would be everybody else, and they would do work as peasants, as farmers, as tradesmen, different work like that. Now Protestantism came along under Luther and the other reformers and it established what was there plainly in scripture, the priesthood of all believers. And Luther and others took that to the degree of looking again at work, at the work that we do. Martin Luther said this, "When a maid cooks and cleans and does other housework, because God's command is there, even such a small work must be praised as a service of God, far surpassing the holiness and asceticism of all monks and nuns.” Far surpassing, the work of a maid in cooking and cleaning. He also said this, "Seemingly secular works are a worship of God and an obedience well pleasing to God." And again Luther said, "Your work is a very sacred matter, God delights in it. And through it, he wants to bestow his blessing on you." Subsequent generations of Protestants, of teachers of the Word of God, wholeheartedly agreed. The Puritans came along and established this kind of teaching as well. William Tyndale said this, "If we look externally, there is a difference betwixt washing of dishes and preaching the Word of God. Externally, yes. But as touching to please God, no difference at all." William Perkins, another Puritan, said this, "The actions of a shepherd in keeping sheep is as good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving a sentence or a magistrate in ruling or a minister in preaching."

So this morning, I just want to sweep away the idea of ‘secular work.’ By that, I mean secular, and we're seeing that in our increasingly atheistic culture. The word secular means religion-free, God-free, so that your work zone is a God-free zone. We're not bringing God into that. It's secular, it's a secular thing. Well, we Christians should never do that. There should never be secular work or that kind of worldly work, for the Christian view of work is that everything done by faith in Christ by the power of the Spirit for the Glory of God is sacred, no matter what your employment. So I want you to see your workplace as a place of worship where you must encounter the living God, where every action of your employment can be a living sacrifice offered to God.

Now look again at the text, if you would, and I want to make some comments about it. Ephesians 6:5-9, reading this time from the NIV, "Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them, not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly as if you are serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. And masters treat your slaves in the same way, do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no favoritism with him."

Now, I want to just make an aside about where we're going in the preaching ministry in Ephesians. I'm well aware that in talking about employer-employee relationships from Ephesians 6:5-9 is making a bit of a leap of interpretation. The text doesn't say employer or employee, it says masters and slaves. So what I want to do this morning is I want to talk about work. If I could just sum up this sermon, it's about work. 

Next week. I want to talk about slavery, and the following week I want to talk about racism. So those are the next three sermons. This morning, work, then slavery, then racism. I feel that these are helpful topics for us, and it will be increasingly helpful. Like next week's sermon, what I want to do is face square on the question, why isn't the New Testament clearly abolitionist? Why does Paul seek to manage slavery here rather than just abolish it? So I'm going to try to give the best answer I can. That being able to defend the Bible as a timeless and living document is going to be increasingly needed in our age. People will bring up slavery and talk about it, especially related to things like LGBT things. It's going to come up and they're going to say, "Look the Bible is clearly obsolete. Look at the topic of slavery."

So, hopefully next week I'm going to give you a way to answer any accusations against the Bible, and talk about why Paul doesn't clearly sweep aside slavery. And then the following week, I want to zero in on the phrase, "There is no favoritism," and just address some of the incredibly controversial and hot topics that have been going on this summer and just some of the heritage, the history, and how the Bible answers the issues of racism and where we can go from here. So those are the next three weeks, God willing.

Greek’s Faulty View: Work as Punishment

Now, let's look at this morning at work and employment. And let's begin by just trying to understand work biblically. The Greeks, into which the culture Paul was writing, looked on work as a punishment. How many of you have ever done that? I look on work as a punishment. I've heard it, I've heard it said by those near and dear to me, people I cherish have looked at work as a punishment. Maybe it doesn't help that we sometimes use work as a punishment, maybe that's not helpful, I don't know, maybe not good parenting. But at any rate, the Greeks did see that. They looked at it this way, that work was a curse, the gods hated mankind and so they cursed us to work while they lay around and eat heavenly grapes and eat ambrosia and drink nectar all day long, whatever that is for them. That was their view. Work is a curse. 

Even within that, they had a kind of a similar two-tier view of work that I described earlier. There it's not sacred and profane, but it was more intellectual and menial. They would divide it in that way. So Plato and Aristotle, and other philosophers promoted a two story concept of work, that the majority of men should do the heavy lifting, menial labor, that the minority like themselves might engage in higher intellectual pursuits like art and philosophy and politics. So that's the way the Greeks tended to divide up work. 

God a Worker, Not an Idler

Now for us as Christians, we know right from the beginning of the Bible, our God is a worker, not an idler. And so, from the very first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and Genesis 1 pictures a very active creative God who creates the heavenly realms and separates the waters above from the waters below, and separates the sea from the dry land, and creates vegetation and creates the animals, and the birds of the air, and ultimately creates man in his image. So God is a hard working creative God and he delights in his labor, enjoys it, finds pleasure, and he looks over all that he's made and behold it's very good. So there's just a beautiful pleasure of God and work, and on the seventh day he rested from his work. So that's how the Bible begins. 

Then Christ as he comes in, he teaches us some things about God's work that maybe we could have figured out, but that Christ told us in John 5:17 when they're accusing him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said, "Actually, My Father's always working, to this very day, and I too am working." We come to realize theologically that if God ever stopped working, the universe would stop existing. God created a dependent universe that needs his energy and his work. It's not an independent thing, it needs God to work on it to keep it alive, keep it existing. So, he's always working. 

Work in Eden: The Gift Given

And then God gave to Adam and Eve, to the human race, creative work to do. Genesis 1:26-28, "God blessed them, male and female, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’" So here's this beautiful fresh perfect world waiting to be explored, waiting to be filled and subdued, whatever that means, but there's going to be this creative labor. And there are certain types of plants that could not spring up apart from human cultivation. And so, God gave us work to do and that was before the fall, dear friends. Genesis 2:15, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to serve it and protect it, to work it and take care of it." And so work is a good gift from God. Our work is not a curse, rather our work has been cursed, and there's a world of difference between those two. Our work is not a curse, but our work has been cursed.

Work After the Fall: The Gift Cursed

And so in Genesis 3, we know what happened with Adam when he fell into sin, God cursed the ground because of him. And he said, "Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life, it will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field, and by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return." So we are now laboring and struggling in futility, in cursed labor, to just scrap out an existence because of Adam's sin. And so the greatest curse of all on work is ultimately futility, emptiness, working on something that doesn't come to fruition, that in the end comes to nothing, that sinks back down into the dust.

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 says, "What does a man get for all that toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun, what do we get for all that? All of his days, his work, his pain and grief. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless," and this repeated phrase, "a striving after wind," that's the curse on work, you're laboring on something that comes to nothing, dust in the wind. Now as the Bible unfolded after Adam's fall, there would continue to be inventiveness, creativity, people developed metallurgy, they developed different technologies, and the human race has advanced since then. But the work has always been a labor under Adam's curse.

Now, in the history of Israel, we know that they fell into bondage, into slavery, and how the Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard bondage and toil, and with the whip of the slave driver, and they worked them ruthlessly, Exodus 1:14. After the exodus, God regulated work in the Ten Commandments, he said, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, do all your work in six days and rest on the seventh, for God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh." So here work is commanded, labor for six days, but it's also limited. Rest on the seventh day as God did. 

Christ’s Example: Glorifying the Father by Labor

Now Christ is the end of the world, he glorified labor. No one has ever been a better example of what I'm commending to you today than Jesus, namely finding joy and delight and relationship with God through your work. Nobody did that better than Jesus. Jesus said, as I already quoted, "My Father is always working and I too am working." In effect, Jesus plainly said "The only work that I do is the work the Father is doing." So, what the Father is doing, the Son joins the Father in it, and they work together. What a beautiful picture of work that is. He actually said at the time in John 4, the Samaritan woman, he said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work." This is My food, it gives me energy, it gives me pleasure to do God's works. And he said at the end of his life, praying to the Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do." Jesus is our role model for work.

Work in the New Heaven and New Earth

Now as we go on, as we look ahead, you may wonder where are we heading, pastor? Where are we going with this work thing? Are we going to work in Heaven? What about the New Heaven and the New Earth? Will there be work there? Friends, I believe with all my heart there will be work in Heaven, but it won't be cursed. Think about all of the redeemed from every tribe and language and people and nation, remember what God said at the time of the Tower of Babel. If, as one people, speaking one language they've begun to do this, then nothing they propose to do will be restrained from them, they can achieve anything. Imagine though, instead of doing it to serve our own glory, like they did at the Tower of Babel. We would build and construct things in the New Heaven and New Earth for the glory of God to show our capabilities for his glory. And we will be like as one people speaking one language, building for the glory of God.

Now I'm going to talk more about this verse next week. But Revelation 22:3 supports what I'm saying, I think. It says in Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible, "No longer will there be any curse," amen. "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and... " Listen, "his servants will serve him." So I'm going to talk more about that verse next week. We're going to work. No failed projects, no deadlines. How cool is that? We are going to labor and it's going to, it's going to work out, it's going to be successful. And what feeling of joy we'll have, not pride, but worship to God that he gave us these hands and these minds to be able to create things. That's what I think we're heading toward.

Basic Command: Obey Your Earthly Masters

Now, let's look more specifically at what Paul commands to slaves and then to masters. First, the basic command is, “obey your earthly masters.” What we're looking at today is a special category of work which is work done in submission to God-ordained authority. That's not all of the work. There's just some things we do on our own, the work we do around the house or whatever, but here we're talking about work done at the command of another person. So he gives commands to the one receiving the command, the slaves, and then he turns around and gives command to the one that gives the command by God-ordained authority, the masters. So we're looking at commands to the slaves, those in submission to God-ordained authority, and he's commanding obedience, "Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them, not only to win their favor, when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart, serve wholeheartedly as if you are serving the Lord, not men." So fundamental to Paul's doctrine here is the God-given right to command, that God delegates authority to creative beings, to people, and they have the right to give commands to others. That's foundational to human society. 

The Workplace: Adding Context to the Command

So in the American workplace, in our workplace, it comes down to the boss' right to give work to the employees and the requirement for the Christian employee to do what they're told to do, that we see God in all of that. It is the boss' right to command within the boundaries of the work, and it is the employee's responsibility to obey. Now, obviously, we need to limit this as we've said before. The boss' right to command is not universal. The boss isn't God. Peter said, "We must obey God rather than you." he said that to an authority figure. As I said in a recent sermon in terms of submission to God-ordained authority, God-given authority can never command God forbidden activity. God-given authority can never command God-forbidden activity. So we are going to evaluate the commands given to us and be sure that that's not happening. But in every other respect, when an employee willingly and skillfully and cheerfully does everything commanded by the employer, it is glorifying to God. It's glorifying to God. 

Now he says, obey your earthly masters, in the Greek it's “masters according to the flesh,” so he's kind of limiting. The implication is, they have a limited scope over you. They don't own your soul. So there's a limit there. And it also implies their authority over you is temporary, it's limited. There'll come a time, it'll be over. But in all of that, we should obey as if we were obeying Christ himself. Look at the text again, "Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." Verse 6, "Obey them not only to win their favor, when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart." Verse 7, "Serve whole-heartedly as if you were serving the Lord. Not men.” He says it three times, "Just as you would obey Christ,” “slaves of Christ,” “as if you are serving the Lord." It's very plain. So the idea is to look beyond your earthly boss and see Jesus behind him or her. 

Treat Your Employer/Employee as You Would Jesus

I think about this in the Hall of Faith in that great Hebrews 11 chapter, Hebrews 11:27, it says, "By faith Moses persevered... " listen, "as seeing him who is invisible." Hard to do sometimes. I've had some bosses that cast a looming shadow in front of Jesus, and you had to kind of look around and it was hard to see Jesus behind them. It was hard. But we have to do it, we have to do it. So when your boss tells you to do something, eminently reasonable and not immoral, within the job, but it crosses your flesh, annoys you in some way, that's a key moment for you, isn't it? That's a key moment. You should see it as something Christ himself were giving you to do.

For example, let's say you serve tables. And the owner tells you to bus someone else's table or do something else. It's not even in your area of the restaurant. And you're probably not going to get a tip from it, and you're probably not going to be thanked for it, but just do it. Key moment! Key moment in your walk with Christ. There's nothing immoral about the command, well within the purview. Well within the rights. Just do it, do it cheerfully, do it by faith, do it for the glory of God, don't expect any earthly reward, expect a heavenly reward.

Suppose you're a nurse and your supervisor tells you to take care of... And there are some of these I guess particularly irritable patients who only find fault with the nursing staff. God forbid, that any one of us should be one of those. Say, "Oh God, give me grace to be a good patient." I don't know what kind of patient I'll be. I think there are days I think I'm going to be one of those, I hope not though, I don't want to be an irritable patient. But you're the nurse, and you have to go take care of this. This is a thankless task. And the tendency is going to be to complain, not only about the patient but about the supervisor who constantly gives you the harder patients and all that kind of thing. It is endemic to the American workplace to complain against the boss. 

Don’t Work Half-Heartedly

So we need a faith-filled demeanor, we need to do it, it says with respect and fear and sincerity of heart. Paul literally says with fear and trembling, there's a sense of God in all of this. I want to do this as unto “God the immortal, the invisible, the only wise God, I want to serve him who dwells in unapproachable light.” That's what I want to do, so I'm going to do it wholeheartedly too, every fiber of my being. I want to give to the Lord the best effort I can for his pleasure and his glory. It is so easy to be half-hearted in work to just get by, to cut corners, to skirt. I've seen it done, I've done it myself sadly from time to time. It's easy to mail it in 8:00-5:00, and then the clock turns 5:00, I'm gone. 5 o'clock and zero seconds. Look, I mean, I know the work day needs to end at some point, I'm not saying you gotta put the holy extra five minutes in. Pastor said I had to add five minutes, so I'm not leaving before 5:05. Look, that's legalism. That's not what I'm talking about, I'm saying, But look at your attitude. Is your attitude a minimalist, whatever it takes to check the box and get by attitude? That's what this text removes.

No, because that affects the way you do everything you do throughout the day. It also removes shoddy workmanship, shabby workmanship. You know what I'm talking about? Just cutting corners, doing the cheap thing. It's almost as though American workers these days are living for the weekend, they're living for recreation and entertainment and free time and hobbies, and work is some kind of an unwelcome interruption for the true purpose for which we were put here, and that's eat, drink and be merry. I think we've all experienced the frustration of shoddy workmanship in the home. In appliances, Christy and I have some stories to tell about a dishwasher. She'll tell you, she worked hard to replace our remarkably faulty dishwasher. I used to come, and I'd come down in the morning and it had this little error code on it, and I was like, "Oh God, give me strength." The one good thing about that appliance, it's the one you can kind of muddle through without. The washer and dryer, not so much. Kind of hard. But at any rate, just the frustration of the shoddy workmanship, the planned obsolescence. And the text says, "Not as eye service or man pleasers." It's like only when their eye is on you, you're going to behave at a much better level when they're watching you. When they go away, it's like this kind of thing, as soon as they turn, sticking out the tongue or something like that. I've seen it happen. Maybe not that childish but it's like the face. Oh, what was that? And they turn back. No, no, yes sir, no sir, I'll do it right away, sir. But smarmy and deceptive. 

I remember years ago, I had a computer-based chess program that I used to play, it had a hotkey that immediately went over to spreadsheet, a fake spreadsheet. It was unbelievable, it was pathetic. And so you're like, you're playing chess at work, and then if your boss comes by, bang, there's this fake spreadsheet. Well, I hope your work has something to do with spreadsheets, because if not, you're fried. And if they take a close look at it, and it's doing nothing, it's just sitting there, it's like, oh man, that's a bad moment. Maybe I shouldn't talk about the bracket challenge and March Madness, but really productivity goes down at least in the state of North Carolina. The kinds of things that happen around that time and I guess it's all excusable, I suppose.  Now the life of faith is living as seeing him who is invisible, not eye service, not man pleasers, saying, “I'm trying to offer my work to God.” “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

So what does this mean? Well, it means work fully, give 60 minutes of diligent labor for every hour of work, work honestly, don't steal from your employer. I said in the sermon on stealing, for Walmart and other retailers employee theft is a multi-billion dollar problem. Work, thirdly, skillfully. Develop your craft, get better and better at what you do. Work at it. Study it. How can I be better at X, a year from now than I am now? I'm not talking about making your job an idol and living for it. But I'm just saying be skillful. Fourthly, work wisely, use a high level of craftsmanship appropriate to every level. I remember there was a guy I worked with named Pete, he was a draftsman, a very good draftsman. Very immature, good comedian, did a great Elvis impression. I remember that. Boss came in seeing him do it. That was an awkward moment for Pete. But Pete made this elaborate drawing, that was back before we used computers, before we did CAD, this elaborate pencil drawing of an electronic connector, took him two and a half hours to draw it. It was like Michaelangelo had drawn it. It was spectacularly beautiful. The boss was rightly angry at the waste of time. That thing, there's a certain drafting protocol that it could have been drawn in 10 minutes. 

So, just work wisely, work energetically, full energy. And I mean even an hour after lunch, I know it's hard. 2:30 in the afternoon, everyone's sleepy, but just say, "Lord give me strength. I want to work as unto You, I want to give a full day for You." Work respectfully, don't gossip or demean the boss. Don't talk behind his or her back. Don't tell jokes or demeaning stories. If other employees do, don't join in with it. Work thankfully, be obviously, clearly thankful you have a job. I mean just be thankful you live in this country, and that you have a job where your needs can be met like this. Be thankful. Thankful for every task you have to do, and work spiritually. Do it with a sense that your work is an act of worship to God.

Work to Make the Gospel Attractive

Now, in all of this, we want to make the Gospel attractive. Put the Gospel on display. I think the workplace can be one of the greatest places of evangelism there is in America. It's hard to know strangers in America these days. If you just start talking at the gas pump or the convenience store or whatever, if you're funny and interesting and don't ask for anything, they'll talk to you. But at the workplace now you can develop relationships, long-term relationships with non-Christians. I had a list of all of the people in the engineering department and I prayed for opportunities to share the Gospel with all of them, and God was faithful. I think I actually had good full Gospel opportunities with three-quarters of the engineers and the technicians that worked in that department. I went after it, I prayed for it, I was patient, I looked for opportunities. But the workplace can be a great place to make the Gospel attractive.

Remember the Day of Judgment

Well, all of this, we should be doing with an eye to Judgment Day, we should know, as it says in Verse 8, "The Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free." he's going to return to you by saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant." he's going to give you rewards. You don't need to be noticed by your boss. You don't need to do it so you can get a raise or get ahead. If that comes, that's a sidebar. What really matters is God was pleased with you today, he will reward you. And you're storing up treasure in Heaven every day by that kind of labor. 

Masters Will Be Judged 

Now let's talk to the masters. Verse 9, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way, do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no favoritism with him." So Paul connects the commands to the master, is what he just said, in the same way. In other words, "by faith, as seeing Jesus, as seeing the invisible one, please treat your slaves that way, knowing that Jesus is behind them, just like he's behind you." See Jesus, see Christ in those that report to you. Understand you have a master in Heaven named Christ, he sees everything you do, he will evaluate everything that you do. And he says, “do not threaten them,” or perhaps even literally give up threatening them. I just use a how much more argument. We're going to talk about slavery next week, but all the excesses of the chattel slavery system, how do they miss this command? Don't threaten them, but you can beat them. I could easily go into that whole topic now, I'll wait 'til next week. But clearly, the command here is don't deal with them having forgotten they're human and having forgotten perhaps they're redeemed by the blood of Christ. He's giving commands to Christian masters here. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ, equal to you in redemption and in reward in Heaven. Remember that. These are temporary roles we're playing here. So, keep looking at them by faith.

In 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the second edition of her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. And that was obviously a very clear depiction of the abuses of African people in American slave system. Well, that addition, the deluxe edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin was published with artistic renditions of many of the most poignant scenes in the book. In one of the drawings, the wicked master Simon Legree is beating Tom savagely, while Tom is praying and crying aloud to Jesus. And in the rendition Jesus is behind watching the beating though unseen by Simon Legree. So that's the idea, it's like you're being watched all the time. Everything you do is being seen by Jesus and he is the true King, the true master. And some day you're going to have to give him an account. You're going to stand before your Judge, and give him an account for everything you've done.

There is No Favoritism With God

And it says in Isaiah 11:3-5, speaking of Jesus, "he will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears, but with justice and righteousness he will judge the needy and with justice, he will give decisions for the poor of the Earth. He will strike the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist." We are going to be called before the Judgment Seat of Christ. We're going to give an account for everything done in the body, whether good or bad. Masters need to keep that in mind. And so, practically, bosses should carry themselves humbly toward their employees, they should not think of themselves in any way superior to them. I've meditated on "There is no favoritism with God." It's not an easy phrase to understand biblically. But I think it at least means this: They are every bit as human as you are, every bit as accountable to the judgment seat of God as you are, every bit as rewardable as you are for your works, every bit as redeemable by faith in the blood of Christ. In that way there's no favoritism, everybody gets treated the same way.

So keep that in mind, supervisors should make sure the workplace is fair and equitable, in which employees have a chance to excel and grow and be developed and be rewarded for their labors. Supervisors should evaluate the performance of their workers with justice and equity and reward it. I was reading an article about Asian sweatshops in a region in the world where there's a surplus of unskilled labor, those unskilled laborers can be greatly taken advantage of, because they're immediately replaceable. And they are often greatly taken advantage of, unhealthy, unsafe working and conditions. Limited bathroom breaks. Some of these sweatshops eliminate all talking between employees during the work day. Companies like GAP, Liz Claiborn, a clothing line for which Kathy Lee Gifford was the spokeswoman. Nike, Walmart. All of these have come under criticism for using goods that were put together in these kinds of sweatshops.

Do Not Withhold Wages

The greatest injustice an employer can do toward an employee is to withhold appropriate compensation for the work. Wages, appropriate wages. So James 5:4 says, "Look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty and he will judge." So the chance of injustice in wages is greater in an age of or an area of undocumented aliens. We were at a meeting yesterday, concerning ministry to refugees, undocumented aliens, and all that, same issue, same problem. The employer can know that the undocumented aliens are undocumented and therefore vulnerable and fragile and can be taken advantage of. That's wickedness, and God will call people to account if anyone does that. The implication is you should treat your slaves the way you want to be treated, and the way you will wish you had treated them on Judgment Day. Treat your employees that way.

So it says in Colossians 4:1, "Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a master in Heaven." What is right and fair? Wages for their labor. Respect and commendation for a job well done. And some day you're going to give an account to your master, and there's no favoritism with him. And we're going to talk more about that going forward. 

Application, we just start by saying trust in Christ, trust in Christ, the ultimate worker for us is Jesus. His works and not yours, save your soul. We are justified by faith and not by our works, not by our career, not by our skills, not by our labor, we are justified by simple faith in Christ's work on the cross. His perfect obedience to his Father, his works save us, not ours.

So, I prayed at the beginning if God might have brought someone here who's unregenerate, you know that you're outside of Christ, trust in Christ, put your trust in him, and then having done that, you'll have a whole lifetime of good works that you can do for the glory of God, but not for the forgiveness of your sins, but to glorify him. And then, for all of you who are Christians, just offer up your work to him, offer up your works, the rest of your day, the rest of your week, offer up your labor to him as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice. If you're in a particularly challenging work environment, I've been in some, I had a boss that hated me and I think it was because I was a Christian. I came back from my honeymoon and we had a Bible study going, we had a bunch of things. This guy was an aggressive non-Christian, shut all that down, was a very difficult person to deal with. I've had those kinds of bosses. I'm not saying it's easy. But if you're able to imbibe the teaching here, God will give you grace to offer up a sacrifice that's pleasing. And get a big picture of your work, your career, all of that and see how God can use it for the building of Christ's kingdom. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time we've had to look at Ephesians 6:5-9, through the lens of the employer-employee relationship, Father. Help us to take the timeless principles that are here. They're still relevant, even though chattel slavery is now illegal all over the world, but yet these verses are not thereby obsolete, but that we can draw principles whereby we can work and give you glory. And Lord if you give us time next week to look at slavery and beyond that, at racism, give us grace to hear what you would say to us so that we can live beautiful fragrant lives here in this culture in an age that just so deeply clearly needs the teaching of the Word of God. In your name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Well, it's my joy to be back preaching with you again. I wasn't sure whether I could keep doing that or start doing it again. We'll find out, won't we? We'll find out whether I still know how to preach but thank you Tom for praying for me. It's kind of interesting for me to come back in the midst of a verse. Some of you may remember, we are right in the middle of Ephesians 6:4. So, this morning you're going to get Ephesians 6:4b. And it's been like two months since we had Ephesians 6:4a. It reminds me of a really powerful moment in Church history.

I did my doctoral dissertation on John Calvin, and for me, he's just one of the greatest examples of a verse by verse expository there's ever been in Church history, tremendous unfolder of the Word of God, but the city of Geneva wasn't ready to hear the word from Calvin, and they evicted him and William Ferrell, his co-worker in reform there. And they left, they had to leave, they were thrown out of the city for preaching the word. They were gone for a number of years. And finally, Geneva, the leaders knew they needed the ministry of the Word of God, and they wanted Calvin back, and they persuaded him to come back, and he came back, and as he began his first Sunday back preaching, he started right where he had been many, many years before that and resumed. And I think if you just know the big picture, you know what's being said there, it's like, “We could have had years of ministry of the Word so, but let's pick up where we were and start. “

Now, I've not had such a negative relationship at all. I've been working on an Isaiah commentary, and I was not evicted from this pulpit, but I'm glad to come back and, as it were, parachute into the middle of Ephesians 6:4 and talking about Christian parenting. But in doing so, I want to begin just by getting some perspective, to try to understand where we're at in Ephesians to understand how parenting, how Christian parenting fits into everything.

Some time ago I heard about a children's book, richly illustrated. You can picture it in your mind's eye, and the book is called Zoom. It was conceived and written illustrated by Istvan Banyai. I don't know anything about the individual, but I think it’s a very clever concept. And the first page in the book starts out with this kind of interesting diagram of triangles, red triangles with dots all over them. As you turn the page, you zoom back and you find out that you're looking at the comb of a rooster. And you can see the rooster, and you can get a little bit more perspective. So we started looking at the details of a rooster's comb, and now we've stepped further back. And then the next page you zoom further back. And there are two children standing on a bench looking at the rooster in some kind of a cottage, I guess. You zoom further back, now you're out the door of the cottage and you can see the cottage, and in fact, the whole barnyard because you're up a little higher and there's a pickup truck and all that.

And so the next page, you zoom back a little bit further, and the whole scene it turns out, is just a brochure, I guess, for a set of toys, and you see someone holding the brochure, and it's a little bit jarring because there is this big hand grabbing the whole thing. And then the next page, you zoom back further and the person's in a magazine, and then you zoom back further and the magazine is on the lap of a sleeping teenage boy on the deck of a boat. I'm like “Where are we heading?” And then you zoom back further back and it turns out this whole thing is an advertisement for a cruise on the side of a bus in a city. And after a while you start getting bewildered. I have no idea where this journey is going to take us. Now I'm not going to keep going on this Zoom thing, you'll have to get the book and find out the rest. I'm not going to give you the plot spoiler. I've already kind of ruined the first few pages.

I think as you gain perspective on Christian truth, Biblical truth. The further back you step, the more you can see the big picture of what's going on in your life, and you can gain needed perspective. And I want to do that kind of context here. I want to take the Book of Ephesians right here at Ephesians 6:4b and kind of step back more and more to give eternal meaning to Christian parenting, to give you a sense of context of what you're doing as Christian parents. And this stepping back further and further will give an eternal perspective and a radically new view of a series of mundane encounters, and honestly, most of parenting is a series of very menial mundane encounters. And friends, brothers and sisters, we don't have much time. Our life is a mist, as you heard earlier. It's just here, we're here for a little while, and then it vanishes.

In Job 7:6, Job said, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." So you can imagine just how a tapestry or how cloth is made and the weaver's got a spool of thread on the shuttle and he just shoots it across and it's gone, it's just gone. And I never really realized how quickly life goes until I had children. And then you start seeing them grow up and go through stages and you just blow through those stages so quickly. And you just don't have a lot of time when your children are young and their hearts are tender and they are eager to learn from you. You don't have much time. And then as they grow older, they're still in the home, but they're a little more set in their ways, and that's a different phase of parenting. And it just goes, it goes fast. And so, my desire is that you would make the most of the brief time that you have.

These series of mundane encounters that just seem like they're not significant, but they really are. I think about like a mother humming while giving her newborn just home from the hospital its first bath. Just that little moment there, or a father gathering three preschool kids on the couch for a family devotion and opening the Bible up like he does every evening, or a mother caring gently and lovingly for a sick child at 3:00 in the morning. There is not going to be an infinite number of times of doing that, at a certain number and pouring out love on that child, or a father driving his family to church week after week after week. Just habitually not forsaking the assembling of themselves together with other Christians. Or parents hugging their kids or talking to their kids or disciplining them when they sin. And in the matrix of an ordinary everyday life, these children grow up, and pretty soon they're gone. And we have to make the most of these days, the time that we have, and I just believe God's Word is sufficient. It's enough. What we have in the word of God is sufficient for us to do a good job as parents, as fathers and mothers.

Now, for us, I want to just zoom back further and further so we can see where we're at in Christian parenting. You heard what Tom read, the whole context here is of the father-child or the parent-child relationship is set in the larger context of Ephesians 6:1-4, "Children obey your parents in the Lord," as it says there. And you heard the text. And, "Fathers do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the training instruction of the Lord." But these commands, if you zoom back a little bit further, you go back in Ephesians, are set in the context of the Christian family. And the most important human relationship in the Christian family is the husband-wife relationship. So it comes on the heels of wives being told to submit to their husbands as to the Lord and the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the Church. So the context of healthy Christian parenting is a strong, stable Christian marriage.

Then you zoom back even further and you find out that the Christian marriage is a subset of the Spirit-filled life. In Ephesians 5:18 we're commanded, "Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead, be being filled with the Spirit." So there's this ongoing renewing and refreshing that the Spirit does, and the Spirit-filled life then is lived out in a number of significant ways. But the Christian family, the Christian marriage, and then parenting is a subset of that Spirit-filled life. Then if you zoom back even further, going back in Ephesians to Ephesians 4:1, we find out that the Spirit-filled life is a subset of what Paul calls, “living a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Just the entire pattern of our lives that we are to live up to the calling that we have received, and the Spirit is given to enable us to do that.

Then if you zoom back even further, we find out in the first three chapters of Ephesians that God is about some vast amazing glorious building project. He's building a dwelling, a spiritual temple. Reaching for an image from 1 Peter, “made out of living stones.” And this spiritual temple is rising in every generation and becoming a glorious dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. And in that structure, that spiritual structure, we will spend all eternity in fellowship with God and with each other. And that gives an incredible context to Christian parenting.

Now we find out, zooming back further, that the building materials for this rising temple are quarried, they're excavated from Satan's dark kingdom. We were at one point, “dead in our transgressions and sins, we were enslaved to Satan in all kinds of lusts and evil desires. Just like the rest of the world, like everyone, we were by nature objects of wrath.” That's what we were. That's where the building materials come from this, and our children come into the world lost, they don't come into the world as believers, they come into the world unregenerate or not having yet been regenerated. And we ourselves the same.

But then we see so beautifully in Ephesians 2:4-5, "But God, because of His great love with which He loved us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved." So this awesome work of salvation through faith in Christ is the point of every moment of Christian parenting. That's the ultimate end of Christian parenting. The top priority for every Christian father and mother is the salvation of your children, that they will spend eternity in Heaven, not in Hell, that they will be in that eternal temple, that eternal dwelling with God, that they will be there. That's top priority. It's not the only priority, but it's absolutely top priority. To that end, we find out, zooming further back, in Ephesians 1:13, that everyone who was ever included in Christ is included in Christ when they “heard the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation. Having believed, they were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” So the children have to hear the Gospel, and only by hearing and believing the Gospel will they be included in this vast glorious work that God is doing.

And once they've come to genuine faith in Christ, we must prepare them to do a pattern of good works that God has laid out before them even before they were born. There's a specific pattern of good works, unique to them different from yours, but unique to them, and in those good works they are called on to walk for the rest of their lives. Having come to faith in Christ, they can do good works. They can't do any as unbelievers. But as a believer in Christ, we are, all of us, “Christ's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.”

And so, therefore, Christian parenting has two great priorities or two-fold purpose: Evangelism and discipleship. That we would evangelize our children, bring them to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, by the ministry of the Gospel. And then secondly, discipleship that we should teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded, and get them ready to fulfill their unique purpose in God's redemptive plan. And you don't know exactly what that is, but it's exciting, it really is a thrill. And so you have to get them ready, you have to get them prepared.

Zoom back with me one final time to see the purpose of all of this. And what is the purpose of all this? Ephesians 1:4-6, "[God] chose us in Christ before the creation of the world that we should be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will, " listen, "to the praise of His glorious grace." That's the final step in this step-back journey, this zoom-back journey. Christian parenting is done that your children might live eternally for the praise of God's glorious grace. That's the point of it all. Now, as our days are swifter than weaver's shuttles, it's a good image for me because I'm leaving behind a string of thread, and part of that are my children, and every day we're weaving a tapestry to some degree, threads of different colors, but there's this beautiful thing being woven in their lives. And the ultimate end of this, Ephesians 1:10, is that “all things in Heaven and earth would be unified or brought together under one head, even Christ” for the praise of His glory. That's the big picture for me.

And it's wonderful to know that for us as Christian parents, it's no accident that we are parents, we're not accidental parents. And it's not any accident that you're specifically parents to the kids you have. I know you may think that it's all an accident. I've actually heard, I'm not going to say much about this, that my kids were adopted. My kids were not adopted. Alright, I have a photographic record of every step of the journey. I watched them grow up. Adoption is a delightful thing, and many of you have adopted kids, but my kids, I watched them get born. And it's no accident that I have the specific kids I have. It's no accident that you have the specific kids you have. It says in Ephesians 1:11, "In Him, we're also chosen, having been predestined," listen to this, "according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Every detail has been figured out. So you have been given these children as a gift of God and they belong to God, not to you, ultimately. And that's the biblical context.

Now let's talk about our own context. Let's talk about the era in which we live, what's going on in the world today in reference to Christian parenting, in reference to what we're facing. What is our context in our society, in our culture, in our nation? What's going on? Well, honestly, in one sense, what's happening right now is the same thing that's been happening in every generation. In every generation, our enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion seeking to devour our children, spiritually. He's coming after our children as he does in every generation. He didn't take any generations off. He's coming hard after our children, and he wants to destroy them spiritually. Our children already are, to some degree, but will be increasingly under constant, daily assault from the world, the flesh and the devil and we have to protect them and get them ready and prepare them for that battle.

One leader in the SBC said this, we are losing our children. Research indicates that 70% of teens who are involved in a church youth group will stop attending church within two years of their high school graduation, 70%. So the world is relentlessly pulling our kids away from Christ, away from the Gospel, pulling them into worldliness and rebellion and unbelief. So Ephesians 6:4 speaks especially to fathers, because they have a primary role in training the parents, but also to mothers as I argued two sermons ago, and really to the entire church as we care about Christian parenting and care that it'd be richly blessed and ultimately the entire society.

Now, last time in Ephesians 6:4a, I talked about the negative or aspect or the prohibition in this verse. "Fathers, do not," there's something they should not do. “Do not provoke your children to anger [or wrath.]” We talked about the significance of that prohibition that it shows that God has authority over your children. He's limited your authority, He's limited over what you can do to your children, and you ought not, must not provoke them to wrath. And I gave a careful list of various things that parents can do to exasperate or provoke their children to wrath. Ultimately, the idea is that parents would in some sad, strange way actually be serving the devil to pull them away through discontent away from the Church and away from Christ, because of sins of bad parenting that they're doing.

So we listed things like hypocrisy, not living up to standards that you preach. Harsh parenting, being too disciplinarian. Lax parenting, not disciplining faithfully or biblically enough. Unreasonable expectations, inconsistency, lack of biblical input, just a lack of loving affection for children. There's a variety of things last time. Now this time, we're turning around and we're speaking more positively there, “Do not do this, but rather Christian fathers do this.” So that's what we're looking at right now.

Instead, he says, “Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” or do your parenting in the Lord, that's what he's saying. All Christian parenting must be done in the Lord, the Lord being the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christian parenting is done in Christ. Or as a subset or part of our walk with Christ as Christians. It's done for the glory of Christ, it's done by people redeemed by the blood of Christ, father and mother, it's done by the living, indwelling power of the Spirit of Christ within the father and mother. That's what Christian that's how Christian parenting is done and it's done by the Word of Christ, theScripture, the Bible. We do Christian parenting, I'm preaching about Christian parenting. Now, every nation acknowledges the importance of pouring into and shaping the minds of children. Everyone is aware of that, everyone is aware of the importance of catching children young while they're moldable, malleable, shapeable.

Some time ago, I heard a story about a man who lived out in a rural part a mountainous area, and this man, this elderly man was a wise Christian man, had a lot of kids, had a strong ministry. He also had an object of interest on his mantelpiece. It was a bottle with a full shiny red apple inside, with a cork in it. So there's this bottle. And the guests in his home would inevitably notice it and go over and pick it up and try to figure out how he got the apple in there. And they're looking for like the trap door at the bottom or some secret thing on the side, but it's just a simple glass bottle looking like any other glass bottle.

How in the world did you get that fully grown apple in there? He said, "Well I'll show you. And he brought them out to his little orchard he had outside the door. And on one particular tree, there were five or six glass bottles and blossoms growing up into the narrow neck of the bottle. That's how it's done. So if any of you have apple trees or pear trees and all that, you can do that and it's kind of exciting and you can amaze and mystify your friends, how in the world did that fully grown apple get inside that narrow neck of the bottle? But you just get it young, while it's still young, and the mind is tender of the child. Everyone all over the world knows that, and I'm going to say that for good or ill. People understand the importance of indoctrinating the next generation in their own worldview.

So their own world philosophy, they want to impart on the next generation, they might raise them as they are perhaps as moral philosophers, or as atheists, or as Muslims of various patterns, or Nazis in the '1930s in Nazi Germany, strong emphasis by the government in raising the next generation of Nazis. Hitler boasted. He said, "You can fight me, but I already have your children." And it was true. Many of them turned in their parents to the Gestapo. Or communists, a whole generation of Chinese kids growing up with Mao's red book and being indoctrinated at a very early age. Everyone knows this, the importance of getting children early. So it is in our country, there are people with strong ideological bents and convictions that are not ours, that very much want to train the next generation to follow after their same pattern. But we Christians, we are seeking to do it in the Lord. By the pattern of the Lord's book, the Bible, for the glory of Christ. Now there are three keywords here: nourish, train, and admonish. Let's look at each of them in turn.

First “nourish,” or bring them up, rear them. The word nourish is kind of home base for this Greek word. Paul used it in Ephesians 5:29 when he was talking about the husband-wife relationship, the husband. Said, “the husband should love his wife as his own body. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds it, [same Greek word,] or nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church.” So there's a sense of feeding, there's a sense of nourishment, of feeding. So, the idea here in Christian parenting is fathers and mothers, you should feed your children as they grow up. Nourish them. Now obviously, for us, we know that the food of their lives is not just physical food, we know a good father is going to be a faithful provider for his family. “I was young, and now I am old. I've never seen the righteous begging bread, or their children begging bread, out in the streets, never.” So the idea is that a godly man will be faithful to provide physical food for his family. But this goes far beyond that.

I think I'm going to go to Matthew 4:4 where Jesus said, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So I think the nourishing from father to children, from mother to children here is a feeding of their growing souls on the word of God. They're going to grow up in the Scripture. And the ultimate and the ultimate food of their faith is Christ Himself. In John 6:35, Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me will never go hungry.” So we just want to feed our kids on Scripture, as it points ultimately to Christ, the food of their souls.

So just let's get real practical. Fathers, you just need to sit down with your kids every day, and open the Bible and read them the scripture and teach them. Every day. Fathers especially, mothers too, but fathers lead out here. And so, here we're talking as we have many times before about the daily devotion, the family altar, family devotions, and the importance of gathering the family around the word of God. It doesn't need to be complicated, doesn't need to be, it doesn't need to be in-depth. Actually as they're little, it ought not to be too long, don't go on and on. Remember what happened to poor Eutychus and how he fell asleep and fell out. I'm not saying Paul talked too long but maybe someone needed to look after poor Eutychus. Alright. Thank God, Paul raised him from the dead. But at any rate, we're not looking to go on and on and on. So the idea, especially when they're young, it's more times per week than minutes for time.

So just be consistent, and feed them the word and spend time in worship, get a little song you guys sing together and “sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs” together as a family, and then spend time praying. Pray for each other, pray for missions, pray for anything that you're facing teach them to pray. Daily time. So you, fathers, as you're evaluating your performance right now, you're thinking about how you're doing. This may be an opportunity for you to repent, an opportunity for you to say, You know, it's been a good idea, I've known of it but we're not doing it and I need to lead my family better in doing this. But beyond the daily devotional time, there's so many things that fathers and mothers can and should be doing nourishing their children's souls with the Word of God.

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:7 it said, “talk about the Law of Moses, talk about these things, the Laws of Moses. When you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.” I'm just using a how much more argument. We're in the New Covenant now. We've got better things to say, better promises it says in the Book of Hebrews. We've got a better story to tell. So let's talk about Christ and the Gospel, and the Word of God. When they sit at home and walk along the road, when they lie down, when they get up, just supersaturated, bring them up, nourish them in the Word.

Second word here is train or nurture. It's a very important word in the Greek. Paideia is the word, it's a word that the Ephesians would definitely have known about. Generally, the word had to do aristocratic families, high-born families, noble families. The father, especially toward the heir, he would hire well-known Greek philosophers or send his son, an heir to a school of key philosophers and he would be mentored and tutored. The word would be paideia, he would receive his paideia and his training to come up into his inheritance, so he could take his father's place. We are heirs of the Kingdom of God and we need to receive this paideia, this training, the children need it. As sons of the king, they need to be trained. Sons and daughters prepared for the full inheritance.

And this word paideia has a full range of meaning, everything to do with education. It's impartation of information, but it's also a training of morals. It involves discipline, involves some of the harder aspects of education but it involves generally education in all of its respects, shaping the mind of the child to think and the life, the heart to love what's right and to hate what's wrong.

That's what we're talking about here. So it means an education. Fundamentally fathers are ultimately responsible for the education of their children. Now, this is more radical today than it may seem. And we have to be careful to not cede, not give up our role as Christian parents, to other forces to educate our children. Government can be a usurper in this role. Government schools can take a role sometimes high-handedly over the children that Christians need to be aware of and say, “This is not biblically true.”

I was reading one document by the government agency of the US Federal Government and this document said it was "inviting families to be equal partners with them in the education of their children." I'm like, "How generous of them. How sweet." I mean, it just melted my heart that they were willing to invite me to be an equal partner with them in the education of my kids. I added for now, for now.

I don't know if they're still going to be making that gracious invitation in 20 years. We've seen some rather shocking behavior from the federal government about some controversial issues in which funding was threatened to be removed from schools that didn't see it the president's way or the government's way, and you lose your funding. So, that's a scary harbinger for the future on what it's going to be like in government schools.

Now we understand many families are unable to homeschool their kids they're unable to do that. We understand there are some Christian moms that are struggling, they don't have a husband, a father to their kids. And they're battling just to make it, and we understand that the government school is all that they have and it gets their kids ready with mathematics and other things, etcetera, but there's stuff lacking, and that's where the church can step up. It can be a father to the fatherless. We can be involved. We also know that many of our brothers and sisters are actively involved in public education, they're seeking to be salt and light in a very dark place, and we support that, and we're glad for it.

But I'm more troubled by parents that send their kids to school, the government schools, as missionaries. At young ages, sending them to be salt and light themselves surrounded by so much darkness. Just understand what's going to happen. They'll be there six hours a day, five days a week, totally indoctrinated not just by the curriculum, but by the other kids and the comments that are made. And if you're going to do that, you will need to work doubly and triply hard in the evenings and the weekends to counteract any false teaching they may have had, or false influences. Sometimes they might not even tell. It could be mockery or shame or ridicule in the cafeteria and they're made to feel ashamed about a biblical view, and they'll never tell you about it, but you as fathers are responsible to ferret it out.

Many Christians feel it's just better to homeschool and many more and more are homeschooling. I think there's going to be some more creative hybrids of co-ops and other things in the future where we can step up and educate those that there's no way for those parents to do homeschooling, but the Church can do the full education of those children. It's going to be an interesting road, a steep uphill battle.

Al Mohler, at Together for the Gospel this year, spoke of a Christian family he knew who was sending their kids to school, a government school, as witnesses and missionaries. But one day, at dinner father was just talking about homosexuality is a sin, and his teenage son spoke up and said, "Dad. That's hate speech, you need to stop doing that." Well, that's obviously a difficult moment. Those are the kind of things that we're facing. For me, overall, if you were to ask me why we personally have chosen to homeschool our kids, the biggest danger for us, for me, I'll just speak for myself. The biggest danger is secularism. The idea that God is irrelevant to mathematics, God is irrelevant to science, God is irrelevant to literature, God is irrelevant to American history, God is irrelevant to European history. I disagree from the core of my being, God is relevant to everything in the universe He made by the word of His power. It's His universe, He's relevant to everything.

 So, if some of my students didn't like math, I won't say much more about it, but just didn't like it, I would say Math reflects the character of God, God is an orderly being. He counts a lot of things, He's a counter. It didn't win the day, but I tried. Tried, alright? But I want to teach every subject that way with God at the center. You don't get to do that in the government school. Actually, it's illegal. So I worry about that.

So, we're responsible to raise our kids to raise them up. And I love Luke 2:52, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” That's a great parenting verse. Growing up in wisdom like the Book of Proverbs, rubber meets the road. How to handle your speech patterns, and what to do with your money, and what to do with your friendships and what to do concerning sexual purity and relationships, and all of these things. But it all starts with Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” And so, I want to teach wisdom, I want to see my kids growing in that kind of wisdom. And it also says in stature, there's this physical maturing that goes on. Good parenting, you want to see your kids growing bigger and stronger and more able. So that means, just physical health, physical fitness. Also sports maybe some dexterity skills like musical instruments, different things. You want to see them grow in their physical stature, and in favor with God, that's just religion, piety, the patterns of religion, of prayer and Bible intake, and church involvement. And favor with God. And then in favor with men, that's that socializing aspect, where good manners, how to eat it at the dinner table, and how to hold the door for somebody or see somebody who's weak and you help them, you love your neighbor as yourself. That's a great pattern. So that's word number two training or nurture. And the third word is admonish.

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The word, admonish or admonition is rather negative, it has to do with correcting someone in reference to sin. An admonishment is a warning in reference to sin. And I think of it in terms of the rebuke, the verbal aspect of correcting, a warning, because sin is dangerous. And so, godly parenting involves those kinds of admonishments. I need to warn you about dangers you're going to face in life. I want to warn you. I love what Paul said to the Ephesian elders, he said in Acts 20:31. “So, be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Well, I'm just going to say, how much more than does a father do that and a mother do that with their children? It's a dangerous world. And I want you to be ready, I want you to be prepared to fight the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Now, one of the hard aspects of parenting is that there is a Christian parenting, in particular, there is a mysterious and difficult complex blending of Old Covenant and New Covenant style persuasions. Basically, your children are going to be born under the Law, it says in Galatians, and you're going to need blessings and curses for simple acts of obedience or disobedience. One happens, and you're just going to discipline them. So there's going to be an Old Covenant field of Christian parenting, but always over that is the New Covenant of grace and mercy and forgiveness when they have come to faith in Christ, and their sins are forgiven, and they know they're not justified by works but by faith in Christ alone. And so we have to blend those two together.

As Christian fathers, we can say, like Joshua does. As for me and my house, we're going to do X. So we don't practice religious freedom in our home, our kids are not free in that area, and there's going to be disciplines in others, but we want to bring them into the New Covenant, a transformation by the Spirit that only God can do where they love the Law of God, they love Christ and they're following. That's the mystery. Now, when they sin, like in the Old Covenant, we're going to discipline them. There's going to be the rod of various types, both physical and metaphorical. We believe in that, think it's biblical. It says in Hebrews 12:6: "The Lord disciplines those he loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son." But as the children grow older, there's going to be more and more counseling, more and more words spoken. More and more entreaties and persuasion and reasoning that happens as it should.

Well, obviously there's a lot more we can say about Christian parenting but this is what the verse says. “Do not exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ultimate goal, saturating them with the Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:15, “How from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Top priority is saturating them with the Gospel, but then the Word of God takes them beyond their conversion. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Sounds like parenting to me, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. They're ready for their career to provide for families to raise their children themselves, they're ready, also, for any good works they would do in the church with their spiritual gifts, they're just made ready. And the Word of God can do that.

Now, with the remaining time that I have, I want to talk about marks of regeneration. How can you know that your child is born again? What are we praying toward, what do we want to see? They come in illiterate and un-lingual, or whatever that word is, from the hospital. Cute except at 3:00 in the morning, not so cute, but they're cute. And then they start growing, and you've got this incredible dimmer switch going on, from darkness to full light of day. And this dimmer switch just keeps getting brighter and brighter. If we're talking about spiritual things, hopefully, that's what we want to see, but how do we know, how can we tell if our children are born again? Now, this list of marks of regeneration, which I've given you in your bulletin, are good for adults too. You want to see these things in adults. If you don't see these things in yourself, you're not born again.

But in terms of applying it to the children, first we want to see in our children love for God and for Christ, a heart attraction toward God, they love God and Christ. How do you know? Well, you can never know what their heart is, but you see their actions and you hear their words. And the Bible says, "Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks," so they're going to speak words of love toward God and toward Christ.

Secondly, love for other Christians, 1 John, is big on this. We love the brothers and sisters in Christ, so we want to see in our children are developing love for the Church, and for other Christians, and they love Christian fellowship. They love being with other boys and girls who love Jesus. They love being with older people in the church who love Jesus, they just enjoy fellowship, they enjoy church.

Thirdly, growth and obedience to God. They are obeying the Law, not to earn their forgiveness, but because the Word of God is right and they want to see this pattern of obedience. They're obeying God and His commandments. They love God. This is love for God, that we obey His commands. And so, there's a sense of love for the commands of God.

And fourthly, love for God's Word, they delight in God's Word. So, practically, you're going to come in and you're going to see your kids, you come in the door, in their bedroom and you find them reading the Bible, just because they want to. And when you have family devotions, they're eager, they're leaning in, their faces are lit up, they ask questions, they answer questions, they're into it. Not detached, not distant, not bored, but they're into it. They love God's Word, and so they read it.

Fifthly, there's a sense of conviction of and the hatred for personal sin. They feel that they are sinners. And not only horizontally like they're grieving over getting caught and having to do the punishments, that's normal. But there is a vertical aspect in which they are grieved at hurting Jesus for their sins. They're sad about that. And it bothers them to sin against such a loving God, and they see the sin in their lives as the problem between them and God, and they know that.

Sixthly, they are able to actually refuse some temptations. They're starting to fight sin. They're starting to fight temptations, and to kill them and put them to death. They're able to overcome patterns of laziness, or sassiness, or disobedience, and they're starting to grow in those areas. And along with that, seventh, sacrificial good works, they're able to find ways to serve other people. You're seeing those patterns of good works in your kid's lives. And number eight, they're able to explain the Gospel.

We can sit down, and they can talk to you, and they can tell you, God, man, Christ, response. That God created the world and gave us laws by which we are to live. Secondly, we are as humans created in the image of God for a relationship with God but we've sinned and we've broken God's laws. And that thirdly, God sent Jesus into the world. Son of God, Son of Man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross in our place, so that we might receive a gift of righteousness. And that He was raised from the dead, and that we believe that the death and the resurrection of Jesus is enough to forgive our sins. And that we don't have to do any good works, but simply by faith in Christ, we can have the gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Then you'd be able to explain that. Now, I know it's going to be children language, but it's just like the dimmer switch. It goes brighter and brighter, and they get sharper and sharper in their understanding and they're able to explain it. And then finally, internal conviction that they actually are God's children. They have a sense, they just know that they're born again. They have a joy from that and a sense of hope. So, there's a lot of things more I could say about that.

I want to finish my sermon today by a few words about child baptism. This is a very interesting and passionate topic for many, many in the church and our own church has been through a long journey on this. We've been thinking about child baptism for a long time. Now, I want to begin by saying I'm not talking about infant baptism, I hope you know that. We Baptists don't believe in infant baptism. I was raised Roman Catholic. I was baptized, I don't remember it at all as an infant. And many churches after the Reformation, did not thoroughly break with some of those aspects, etcetera, that the Roman Catholic Church and Greek orthodox did. And many others have followed the same paedobaptist approach, baptizing infants, Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians but we Baptists are what we call, credobaptists. We will only baptize people who give a credible profession of faith in Christ.

So, we believe in water baptism's command as part of the Great Commission. We don't think you have to be water baptized to go to Heaven. If you should come to a genuine, saving faith in Christ and later that afternoon or the next day, get in a tragic accident and die, you're not going to be at any disadvantage. You don't have to be water baptized to be saved, but you have to be water baptized to be obedient. And somewhere in there, everyone who is born again, as they have opportunity should be water baptized and should not refuse water baptism.

Now, we need, as we come to the question of child baptism to realize the particular difficulties of the issue, and the difficulty comes from standing on the outside looking in, to try to discern what's actually happening in the heart of a child. How do we know? Now, especially if they're growing in a good, godly, Christian home, they're going to be super saturated with the Gospel from childhood, infancy. They're going to learn the language of the Gospel, they're going to speak it, they're going to be set as they should be. This is what fathers and mothers should be doing. Children learn language by parading back expressions they don't even understand. Somewhere along the line after that, they learn what the expression means, and come to a sharper understanding.

Like when a child says to me, that Jesus died to save our sins. Well, my little meticulous engineering mind says, "That's not true. Our sins were doing just fine. They didn't need any saving. He died to save us from our sins, and from the condemnation that comes," Now, you're saying, "Are you being too precise?" It's like, that's not the issue. The issue is, what does the child understand? And so, it's right for them to learn phrases and parrot them back, and then come into a fuller understanding across the years. That's right. That's what child education is all about. That's what our church wants to see happen in our Sunday School Program, Bible For Life. We want to see it happening in every Christian home but the problem is standing from the outside in, we don't know what's generally going on. Now, let's talk about the Sinner's Prayer. The standard, Baptist approach and decades before and recently, I would say this way, is that you would basically lead your child to pray as soon as possible, a Sinner's Prayer, "Jesus forgive me for my sins. Thank you, you died on the cross, etcetera." And then, relatively soon after that, to bring them for water baptism, and then teach them, "Once saved, always saved."

That combination has been devastating to many Baptist churches. You end up with lots of baptized church members who never come to church and who thinks they're saved. That's a problem, but I want toddlers and 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds to learn the Sinner's Prayer because they're going to sin. And I want them to be brought to Jesus when they sin. I'm not going to say, "Well, we get to Jesus by and by." I want them to know right away that sinners should go to Jesus when they sin. So, they're going to be praying, "Jesus forgive me. I'm sorry. Will you please accept me?" Etcetera.

Where does water baptism fit into that? When does that happen? I would say, every Baptist family waits at some point. It’s not as soon as they pray their first Sinner's Prayer, they're going to be water baptized. Everyone waits. Question is, how long? We also know that children, biblically, are immature in their thinking. It's not an insult, it's just true. “When I was a child, I thought like a child, talked like a child, reason for it like a child. When I became a man and put childish ways behind me.” Also, 1 Corinthians 14:20, Paul says, "Brothers, stop thinking like children." He's not trying to insult children, he's saying, "Grow up and be mature in the way you think" So, children think immaturely. There's no harm in it.

We believe, the elders believe, that children can come to a genuine faith in Christ, at a very early age. A genuine faith in Christ. Can I say that again? Because it just keeps coming up again, and again. As we struggle on to child baptism, I just keep hearing this. I want to say again, "We believe, with all of our hearts that children, boys and girls, can come to a genuine saving faith in Christ at a very early age." But I'm going to add this statement, "It's just very hard to tell for sure from the outside looking in." It's real. God knows it. He knows that He sent the Holy Spirit into that child, He knows it, but we don't know. What we've got are their words and their actions looking on the outside. So, when we come to that dimmer switch, as we're cranking that dimmer switch and it's getting brighter, and brighter, somewhere in there, they should be water baptized. Somewhere in there. When should that be?

Now, some Christian parents are readier at an earlier age to see their children baptized than others. Some may become even emotional or indignant if the elders want to wait a little longer as a matter of policy. Sadly, some in some churches on this issue have left because they've disagreed so vigorously over this with the leadership of the church. And that's sad. I don't think anyone should ever leave a church over child baptism, ever. My personal conviction. Others are more peaceful about it, understanding the elders' desire to see all children water baptized at some point, and are just seeking to be wise. We have a feeling we're going to err somewhere. We're going to err on this side or that side. because we don't know exactly when they're generally born again. So, there's going to be danger. If we have very little filtering and just instantly baptize kids as soon as they make some profession of faith in Christ, you're going to have the problem that I described earlier.

A lot of times the kids don't even remember their baptism at all. It's too young. There's going to be a downward spiral, if you go from twelve, accept baptism at twelve then goes to eleven then ten, nine, eight, seven, six and it just keeps going lower. Some state conventions have baptismal statistics, Southern Baptist churches, from zero to five years. Five years old or younger? Hard for me to accept that. So, there's going to be danger in that side, but then the other side, there's going to be a danger if you wait too long. The kids aren't going to want to be baptized. They get older and older, going through the youth group. They don't get baptized, they're not interested in it at that point, they haven't really been encouraged. There can be a bit of a works thing happening in the family where, "We'll wait to see how many good works you can do, and then we'll know whether you're born again," that can be dangerous. So, there's danger all around.

Now, let's talk, finally, about the FBC elders' approach in policy, and what we're trying to do. Until a few years ago, the feel in the church here, I guess, was to just not bring kids around for baptism at all. And now, I think there were cases from time to time, but in general, people just didn't bring kids for baptism. We didn't have any overt policy, but handled more shepherding, that there tended to be a waiting. From my personal development, Mark Dever has been a big influence on me at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, they basically exhort kids to be out of the family, out of the home, on their own, like in college to be water baptized. That's far to one side of this equation. I don't hold those convictions, but what we found was in the general field of, don't bring the kids for baptism, then none of the youth were getting baptized. Kids were going right straight through until they were 18 and never really being challenged with water baptism. We didn't feel comfortable with that. We want to make a change.

We were concerned about the downward spiral, so we wanted to set a guideline. So, the elder is, about two years ago, I think, said that, "We wouldn't consider water baptism for children under the age of twelve." Where did the number twelve come from? I don't know. Jesus was twelve when He was in the temple. I don't really know. And therein lies the problem, there was no biblical support for the standard. Now, we weren't claiming there was a Biblical support for the standard, but it became a lightning rod of controversy. When actually, we're trying to encourage youth baptism. It's ironic the way that thing goes. The elders, recently have pulled the twelve off the table. We don't see Biblical support for that. So, what's left? You know what's left? The marks of regeneration. That's what's left. So, I taught them carefully to you today. I can say more, but I'm running out of time, almost out of time.

I want you parents, to train your kids toward those marks of regeneration, saturate them. In this case, unlike the SAT or other standardized exams, we want you to teach to the test, say, "Alright kids, this is it." Where's my bulletin? Alright. This is what we're looking for in you. Please do these things, they're all in the Bible. And then you're going to teach toward them, and train toward them, and get them ready to articulate God, man, Christ, response and get them ready. And when they're able to come, and sit with an elder, and give a credible defense of their faith in Christ and they'll be ready for water baptism. We're not going to say an age. We think it's not likely to be much before 12. There could be exceptions but my feeling is, there's no rush here, there's no rush to wait. We're not discouraging anyone, we're encouraging kids to come to faith in Christ. We want parents to saturate their kids with these things and teach them about water baptism. Tell them that we want them to be water baptized when they're ready, we want them to the members of the church. And then Kevin's done some great work with our youth ministry, in really urging youth to be baptized, and we've seen more, and more youth baptisms recently, which we think is really fantastic. If on some point you might think differently, the elders are happy to talk to you about it. We basically don't have an age below which. But it would have to be a really rare kid and the circumstances, just for us, it's hard for us to see a child baptism. We're really pointing more towards youth baptism. We want to see young people baptized.

Another issue with children is that they can't count the cost, it's hard for them to know what it's going to cost to be a Christian, but teenagers have no problem with that, they know very well, it's going to be costly to be a Christian. I think that's pretty vital. We also want to see the kids fully understand symbolism, that they understand the symbolism of water baptism, and how it symbolizes what's happened in their heart, inside. So anyway, like I said, the elders are happy to talk to any of you folks on these things. You bring your kids and we'll talk to them, but parent and prepare them toward the marks of regeneration.

Close with me if you would in prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we've had to look at parenting it's just so much we can talk about. I Thank you, oh, Lord, for the grace that you've given us in Christ. And I ask, oh, Lord that you'd strengthen each of us, who are Christian parents to be faithful, to prepare our kids for eternity and for life. Life in this world and for eternal life beyond. Lord, give us strength in this high calling. Help us to be faithful in Jesus' name. Amen.

So just a couple of things before I get into the sermon. This will be the last time that I preach to you for a while. I'm going to be taking a writing sabbatical this summer for six or seven weeks. I have a five-year deadline on my Isaiah commentary, and I've been endlessly ribbed by others that have written in that series, saying I'm bringing up the rear, so it's due in August, and I'm grateful to the elders for an opportunity to concentrate and work on it and also looking forward to hearing the ministry of the Word from the elders. So I'll be here, our family will be here those weeks and we'll be ministering in all other ways but just I won't be preaching. So pray for me that I would be able to just have the gift of brevity. The commentary is done. It's just 30% too long and well, you know that problem, you have to endure it just about every week, but that's what I'm doing. Also, I'm delighted to see our China team back. I'm looking especially at the team that came back at 4:45 this morning. You guys are still awake. I'm going to be looking at you throughout the sermon and seeing if those eyes are open. I see that you've got your coffee there, so keep going but we're glad to have all of you here.

This morning, I get to preach on parenting. And so, you know how in Ephesians 5 for a section of the time, the husbands get to elbow the wives, and then the next week the wives get to elbow the husband. So I guess this morning, I suppose the children get to elbow the parents. Mom and dad, pay attention now, listen carefully. But I want you to know, I'm not sure who exasperates who more, in parenting, the parent-child relationship because I have been thoroughly exasperated by my children from time to time. And I know that I have also exasperated them, but we turn to the word of God this morning to be blessed, and we really yearn to hear from Scripture what Godly parenting is all about. And I want to resume a theme that I began last week, because it's been much on my mind, especially with the China team coming back and with the heart that all of us should have for the global expanse of the Gospel.

I often think in my mind that the vision that the Apostle John had, of the finish line, of this election that we have talked about in Ephesians Chapter 1 before the foundation of the world, God chose His children, His people that He would adopt them at the right time and he had all of human history in his mind, Ephesians 1, teaches this very plainly.

But then you get in Revelation 7:9-10, it says, "After that I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language." “Nation, tribe, people and language. Standing before the throne and in front of the lamb, and they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.’” These are the redeemed. Now, what a sight that's going to be. They were elect from before the foundation of the world, they were chosen in Christ and they will be there in Heaven with clear emblems of their purity, clothed in white, holding palm branches of victory, and they're waving and they're giving all credit and glory to Jesus, the Lamb who died for them.

But then in the text, in Revelation 7:13, it says, "One of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from?" And as I did last week, I want to upload in your mind again, another question, how did they get there? What is the story that will be told in Heaven of how those elect actually came to saving faith in Christ? Now, I love thrilling conversion stories. Of course, we all love the story of Saul of Tarsus, and how breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, the very morning of the day he was converted gives us incredible courage and boldness in evangelism, thinking if that man in that mental state can be converted on that day, anyone can. When I think about all others that have been converted, we're going to have the chance to hear their stories and to rejoice in them.

I read a story, a book once called Death of a Guru and it was an extended testimony of a Brahmin caste Hindu. He comes from a long line of Brahmin priests, his name was Rabi Maharaj. He was trained as a yogi, and he meditated for many hours each day, but he became disillusioned and depressed by Hinduism, heard the Gospel and was radically, permanently transformed by it, and became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. I look forward to meeting him and hearing his testimony. I love those kind of testimonies.

Or you know Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case for Easter, The Case for Christ and a number of other books, he was Yale educated in law, he was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, he was an avowed Atheist but he was converted to Christ when he began investigating Christianity to debunk it. You know how many people there will be like that in Heaven? I think Josh McDowell was the same way. These apologists, they go after Christianity to debunk it, and the more they get into it, the more powerful and compelling it seems, and they end up being converted.

CS Lewis was similar. He was an Atheist, an intellectual enemy of the Gospel, he eventually became what he called, "The most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."He'd been fighting Christ and the overwhelming truth of the scripture until he could fight no longer and was saved, wonderfully.

And so I want to hear all of those stories or I think about bold missionary endeavors and these courageous missionaries like William Carey, and Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, John Paton, Elisabeth Elliot and all of these great brothers and sisters in Christ and I was reading the story about the first convert in India under William Carey, he was a man named Krishna Pal. He came to faith in Christ when he slipped on a river bed, a muddy river bed and dislocated his shoulder. He had already become disillusioned with Hinduism and was starting to focus on Theism through Islam, but he heard about this, this missionary compound, this community, and they had some medical knowledge there, his shoulder was dislocated, and he was brought to the missionary compound and a doctor there working with William Carey named John Thomas took care of his shoulder and spoke to this man Krishna about Christ. And he began coming regularly and hearing the gospels, this was after Carey had been there for seven years with no fruit, and Carey and his team led him to Christ, and when this news emerged, all of this man's Indian friends began to mock him and attack him, and persecute him, but he eventually ended up leading dozens and dozens of them to Christ. And in Heaven, we're going to hear stories about brothers and sisters like this.

Or I think about heroic traveling Evangelists like George Whitefield or Billy Graham that have led so many people to Christ. I love reading the stories of Arnold Dallimore wrote a biography of Whitefield and how he crossed the Atlantic Ocean 13 times and all of the detailed stories of people up and down the colonies, the coasts before the American Revolution, just clamoring to hear the Gospel through George Whitefield and being converted. Or in 1957, I read the story of Billy Graham's New York City crusade and you really should Google the photo of Billy Graham preaching in Times Square in New York. I think that will never be repeated again.

Several hundred thousand people crammed in to Time Square, black and white photo, and Billy Graham about to preach the Gospel, and the fruit of that 110-day crusade there, 2 million people heard the gospel and over 50,000 claimed to have come to faith in Christ. And we're going to want to hear all of those stories. But as I said last week, by far the most productive means by which the elect are converted, soundly converted is Christian parenting.

Now, I don't know the percentages, I guessed it, 60%, 55%, 60%, 70% who knows who can tell? But I want to focus all of you parents on the incredibly high calling that the Lord gives you when he brings a baby into your life. When he brings a child into your home. The high calling that you have to bring those children to a saving faith in Christ. I believe that God uses the Christian family generations down the line from when William Carey or Adoniram Judson or John Paton come to an area, to establish a multi-generational testimony to Christ and bring many, many to faith in Christ. Missionaries in that case, build the bridge, but the parents are the key to that multi-generational structure that gets built-up. Everyone that I've talked to has said that this is true. By far the most effective kind of evangelism there is in the world is parent-child evangelism, nothing is even close. Far more effective than workplace evangelism, contact evangelism or anything else. And so, we want to embrace this concept that the Great Commission starts at home.

The Great Commission that Jesus gave to us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you,” the most effective disciple-making all around the world is done at home, making disciples of your own children, and teaching them to obey everything, that comprehensive obedience that parents get to teach their children.

So this morning, as I did last week, I'm advocating that you embrace, you who are parents of growing children, embrace this pattern that's given us in 2 Timothy 3:14-15. “As for you,” Paul says to Timothy, “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it.” You hear that? The people who taught it to you and how from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. You see the beautiful combination of the in-depth close relationship of the evangelizers and this word that you've known from infancy how beautifully that comes together in Christian parenting.

Now I need to give a few caveats. I was talking to a dear brother, this week and I want to say a few things what I do not mean in saying all of this. First of all, I do not mean that we don't need evangelism and missions outside the home. I do hope you know that. When I say 55% to 60% maybe get converted at home, you know that leaves 40% to 45% that don't, if those numbers are true. They need Evangelists and missionaries. So we absolutely have to be faithful. I was not brought to an evangelical understanding of the Gospel by my parents. I was led to faith in Christ by a fraternity brother at age 19 in Boston, at Sigma Chi at MIT. That's who led me to Christ. And so I absolutely believe in evangelism and I believe in missions.

So we're not saying that, nor do we say that every child who is raised in a godly Christian home will themselves become godly followers of Christ. We know the heartbreaking reality of how many break away from what their parents taught and exemplified and do not walk with Christ. We know that that's true, and Jesus Himself said it was going to happen. In Matthew 10:34-37, he said these words, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I've come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies will be the members of his own household," and then he said this, "anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me. And anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me." So our top loyalty is always going to be to Christ.

We know sadly, that many children do rebel and do not follow their Godly parents. That's how whole movements like the Moravians and the Puritans, the New England Puritans, fall apart after a few generations, because the children don't follow in the godly footsteps of their parents. That's how in a country like the Czech Republic and all that is 99% Atheist. Whereas in generations before there were far more Christians because the younger generations did not follow in the Gospel. So we know that. But there are many, many things that we parents can and should be doing to enrich our children's lives with the Gospel and that's what I'm going to preach about today.

So we've got before us, in this text, I'm zeroing in on verse 4 alone, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." So here we have the eternal accountability of parents. Now, the word, the text says, “fathers,” we stick with that word, it's a good translation. And so the primary responsibility for bringing up the children goes to the fathers. But we know that the Greek word used here can be extended to include mothers as well. So we can think of this in terms of parents, but we continue to embrace the headship and submission pattern of marriage in Ephesians 5 and say that the father is the one primarily responsible for this ministry in the home. But mothers are in view, are too, definitely biblically. Think about the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 6:20-21, says, "My son, keep your Father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching." So you got the Father's command, the Mother's teaching they're working together, the father and the mother, in the godly nurturing of the children. “Bind them upon your heart,” he says, “forever and fasten them around your neck.”

So we think about godly mothers in the Bible, and godly mothers throughout church history. You think of Timothy with his mother, Eunice and how she, with her mother Lois brought Timothy up in the faith. We think about heroic mothers in church history like Felicitas in Ancient Rome, who had seven sons, who with her, all of them on the same day were martyred by Marcus Aurelius. And how she had raised them up to be Christians and they all maintained their Christian confession even at the price of their own lives. Or Monica, you know the story of Monica with her son Augustine, one of the most famous conversion stories in all of church history, but it was his godly mother who wept and prayed for him as he was wandering so badly in paganism and philosophy and sexual immorality, and she was just heart broken and would continue to pray and he mentions her quite prominently in his Confessions.

When I think about Susanna Wesley, and her children John and Charles Wesley the most famous of her children, she gave birth, I think, 19 times the records are a little sketchy, 10 of them survived into childhood, think about that, nine not surviving into childhood but that's just how it was back then. With infant mortality and other things that would take children. But Susanna Wesley was a beautiful mixture of piety and practical godliness in her home. I picture a home of high energy, high-powered, intelligent kids. And it said that she would sit in the center of the living room on a chair with her apron over her head that was her prayer closet, kids were to leave her alone for that time while she was praying. I don't know how well that worked, but at any rate, that's what she did. But she made it a point to spend one hour a week evangelizing and discipling each of her children pouring into each one as they were growing.

And then there's Charles Spurgeon with his mother. Spurgeon gives this testimony, he said, "I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. I remember on one occasion her praying thus, now Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the Day of Judgment if they lay not hold of Christ." She was praying that out loud. Spurgeon said “That thought of my mother's bearing a swift witness against me pierced my conscience. How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee and with her arms about my neck prayed these words, ‘Oh, that my son might live before thee, Oh Lord.’”

So we have in view I think godly parenting both fathers and mothers, but we're going to zero in, especially in the responsibility of the fathers to evangelize and disciple their own children. And we start in this text, in verse 4 with the negative. There's a prohibition here. “It says Fathers do not provoke your children to anger,” and then the positive, “but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” We've seen this throughout this practical section of Ephesians from Ephesians 4 through 5 and now into 6. The negatives do not do this, “do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. But only what is helpful for building others up.” We get the same pattern here.

So we have this prohibition. “Do not provoke your children to anger.” So what this means is that fathers are limited in their authority over their children, they're limited by the word of God. The Father is the highest human authority over the child, with the mother second in command. But parental authority is not absolute. There are limits to parental authority, and there are also limits of parental responsibility. So fundamentally, we just need to get across, your children are not yours, ultimately. They belong to God, they belong to God. For He alone made them, He alone sustains them, He alone can save them and He alone will judge them. They belong to God.

I think about what Job said in Job 10:10-12, he said, "Did... ", speaking to God, "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence you watched over my spirit." So he's saying God you knit me together in my mother's womb. So, fathers are restrained in their authority by the higher authority of God, our children belong to God.

Now, let me say a tender word to any of you who might have the extreme tragedy of burying a child, if that should ever happen. It's been a time of tremendous temptation to parents, grieving parents to find fault with God at times like that. To rage in accusation against God, for “taking my child from me." This is where I want to say to you again what I've been saying to you. They are not yours, they belong to God. They belong to God. And we can never rail against God if you should choose in His providence to take one. I don't think there are any trials that we could face in life, that is poignant and wrenching as burying a child. I think that's one of the hardest things that can ever happen. So, I'm not minimizing the pain that one feels, but if you're not in any way helped by yielding to Satan at that moment and turning away from the God who alone can minister to you, and bring you comfort, and sustaining grace at that time. And Job knew this. Job lost 10 children in one day. Think about it. It's just staggering to me. Seven sons and three daughters in one day, and he said about that, “the Lord gave and the Lord took away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” And in all this, he did not find any fault with God or charge God with wrongdoing. So all of our parenting should be done in light of God's greater ownership and greater responsibility over our children. That's vital, they belong to God.

So what is the prohibition. Let's look at it. It says, "Do not provoke your children to anger," The NIV has “Do not exasperate your children.” I know well when some of my children learned the word exasperate because then I heard it often. We'll get to all that, because I'm going to couch the terms here so that parents are not hindered by the sermon I'm preaching today I'm hoping to help. Alright, but exasperate, I think it's a potent word, but more literally, “provoke your children to wrath.” Don't give them a reason for reasonable anger. There is righteous indignation don't give them a reason for that. And don't tempt them to unrighteous anger either. That's what we're looking at here. Don't be a cause for your children to rebel and run from Christ and from the Gospel because of your bad example and your bad parenting.

So the focus here is the tender hearts of your children. Children can become discouraged, they can become dismayed, they can become beaten down, repressed and ultimately enraged by bad parenting. We desire instead to cherish and nurture and love our children. The child must be brought to broken-hearted repentance over sin, to faith in Christ to a deep love for God and for the Word of God in a pattern of obedience to it. That's what we're trying to do.

Now, let me say a cautionary word here. Just because a child is angry at his parents, especially at moments of discipline, doesn't mean their parents are to blame. You know that, don't you? Parents You definitely know that. Kids tend to get provoked to anger easily whenever any consequences of a sin are brought to them. So it's not necessarily the case that when your kids are angry that you've sinned or done anything wrong. They may just need to get quiet and go pray and see that they are the ones that have sinned and their parents are just trying to be faithful parents. But we need to look at what Paul is prohibiting because there is something that he is prohibiting here. So, I want to get into specifics, What provokes children to wrath? What exasperates children?

Well, number one, I'm going to go kind of the opposite direction cause all the rest are going to lean on the other side, but number one, just lack of discipline at all. Lack of discipline at all, just letting them roam free and never challenging or crossing their wills that, ironically, in the end will provoke them to wrath. Most of the injunctions I'm about to give seek to restrain from doing discipline too harshly or too abundantly or in a way that will provoke them to wrath, but it's ironically true that no discipline at all will end up feeding their fleshly nature, their fleshly pride, and their rebellious hearts and make them children of wrath, serving the devil.

So you definitely want to cross their sinful wills, and discipline them when they sin, you definitely want to do that. As it says in Proverbs 13:24, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." As a matter of fact, the author of the Hebrews picks up various Proverbs on discipline. In Hebrews 12 when he says that's how our Heavenly Father treats us, he disciplines us when we need it for our sins. And as a matter of fact, if He doesn't discipline you, you're an illegitimate child, you're not a true son or daughter of God. He will not allow you to just go off into sin, He's going to pull you back, and as someone called it, take you to the divine woodshed. He will do hard things in your life. Hebrews 12. And in that he's quoting the book of Proverbs. So to not discipline at all is to provoke them to wrath. However, beyond this, there's an array of wrong ways to discipline and train a child, ways that will provoke them to anger.

Secondly, on the other hand, excessive strictness will provoke a child to wrath. Some parents see the overall laxness of parental discipline in our culture and they overreact in the opposite direction. They feel the more strictness the better. I don't know why, but I was reminded of the old woman and the shoe. You remember her? Mother goose? I read this with new eyes this week. “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn't know what to do. She gave them some broth without any bread, whipped them all soundly, and sent them to bed.” I'm thinking that's not good parenting. And it says right in the rhyme she doesn't know what to do. So, be saturated in the Word of God, you will know what to do, and it's not that.

So excessive strictness, the great danger here, of course, all humor aside, is abuse. That can become abusive, even corporal punishment and we know can become abusive because there have been those extremes, some would seek to eliminate corporal punishment as even being legal at all. Some nations have done that. Made it illegal. I think that's obviously going too far, but it is possible that some of it can become abusive.

Thirdly, a lack of love for the children provokes them to wrath. A cold, emotionally, distant, loveless parent never holding the children never cherishing them, never telling them how much you love them. Or perhaps, let's just say not enough. So stern, so angry with them, failing to find your joy in their blessing. Just like I asked between husbands and wives, I said husbands ask your wives, “Do you feel loved by me like Christ loved the Church?” Well, maybe you need to do that with your children. “Do you feel that I delight in you, that I'm glad that you're in our home. I'm glad you're in my life. Do you feel that?” Sorry, there was a wedding yesterday, I get like this, anyway. Do you tell them regularly, how much you love them? You know time goes by like the wind, the days just go by and you won't have that chance anymore to hold them and to tell them. So, loveless parenting.

Fourthly, hypocrisy in the parents can provoke them to wrath. Christianity, not being genuinely lived out before them in the home. Children are observing you constantly, no matter what you're doing, good or ill They see it all, they are astute observers, and imitators. That's how they grow. They can smell out the inconsistencies. “If you say you love God,” quoting 1 John, "If you say you love God and do not keep His commandments, you're a liar," your children will see that lie. So it provokes them to wrath when you are hypocritical when you're acting pious, and godly at church, and then at home you're not living it out, that will provoke them to wrath.

Fifthly, parenting in anger, sinful anger. Remember I spoke a number of weeks ago about carnal anger? “Be angry but do not sin.” So I made a distinction between righteous anger and unrighteous anger. I said that unrighteous anger is frequently motivated by pride or inconvenience, by pride or inconvenience. That really comes to roost in parenting. Your kid embarrasses you out in public, and they get it at home. Why? Because you have their best interest at heart, you're trying to train their character, shape their souls? No, you were ashamed, you were embarrassed. That's why. So you parent at that moment in anger or discipline in anger.

I believe that parents, especially if you're administering the rod, you're administering corporal punishment, you must make certain you're not angry at all. You go get yourself under control, you go be Spirit-filled, you make sure you remember what this is all about. It's their souls you're trying to see them come to faith in Christ. They're not yours, they're going to stand before God, and not you on judgment day. And so, you're not their Savior, you're not their king, you're their parent. And so calm yourself down. The thing they broke through childishness is not worth all of that. And so calm yourself down and then go back and do the discipline as needed and do it wisely and consistently.

Sixth, injustice. Injustice. Injustice provokes a child to wrath. Sometimes the parental discipline, the parents discipline mechanically with no opportunity for the child to be heard. No opportunity to express his or her side of the story, the parent may feel that the child has no right to speech. Children should be seen and not heard that kind of thing, especially at moments like that. “All they must do is listen and submit.” However, we celebrate in our legal system, the writ of habeas corpus, and the fact that no one accused of a crime and can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. What that means is that their case has to be heard. And we celebrate that out in public. And so I would just urge parents to give your child an opportunity to make his or her case, within reason, I've noticed they'll make it as long as it takes. They'll filibuster. I've seen all kinds of things going on. Alright, but if they have never had a chance to tell their side of the story, that is frustrating. It can provoke a child to wrath. Now again, a child may feel that any discipline is unjust. We hear often about our injustices at home. Alright, but some of it can be. And if you are parenting or disciplining unjustly, it can provoke a child to wrath.

Seventh, excessive protection. Excessive protection. It is a dangerous world you brought children into. It's physically dangerous and it's spiritually dangerous and you know it. And it's right for you to want to protect your children, but there is a pattern of excessive protection. Some parents seek to remove their children in every way from all the dangers of the world. They're extremely protective they keep them close at all times and so the operative word is, “No.” No to everything. So as they grow and develop and they experience things in life, they're going to get hurt, and we want to protect them, but ultimately only God can do that.

Number eight, excessive control. Some parents expect absolute obedience to parental commands throughout every moment of the child's life at home. Well, this is in one sense a biblical standard as we said “all the way, right away, with a happy spirit, that is the biblical standard.” The problem comes when the parent covers the growing child's life thick with commands and it's inevitable that almost anything that happens at that point is going to be some pattern of disobedience. And so that's difficult. That's a challenge. Parents have to be sure not to become control freaks, especially as the child grows and rightly needs to make more and more decisions for him or herself. There's like, as I've said, a dimmer switch. And so more and more they're going to need to be able to make their own decisions, then they're going to need to be able to fail, to make bad decisions, they need to be permitted to mess up and still be loved.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was speaking in his context in England of adult men and women that he knew never got married because it would displease their parents. I mean, that's unbelievably selfish on the part of the parents as though the children were born exclusively for them. You can, especially think of women growing and the father keeps them close and they just, dad just never lets go. And so, she misses her opportunity, and goes on through and never gets married. But there are actually just many examples of the temptation we parents have to become control freaks. And just absolutely down to the smallest detail, controlling things of our children's lives.

Nine, failure of parents to encourage children. If the parents hardly ever encourage, but instead always pointing out failures, ways it could have been done better, the child's going to feel about his father or mother, “I just can never make him happy. It's never enough. No matter how well I do every day, it's just never enough to make him happy or her happy.”

Number 10, Unreasonable expectations of achievement. Some parents put extreme pressure on their children to achieve. They're really, in some ways, just living out their ego through their children, pushing them to excel. This could be in academics, it could be in athletics, music, could be in Christianity and just living out the Christian faith, pushing hard. The children then become little performing monkeys and often the last issue comes up as well. The parents rarely encourage the child because they're pushing them on to even higher and higher levels of achievement. And so, that can be very provoking to wrath.

Eleventh, inconsistency in discipline. Sometimes the parent is strict, sometimes they're lenient. Sometimes they espouse a family value, and other times they ignore it, back and forth. The standards become murky. The child really doesn't know what the parents want or expect, and so it's hard to know. Now, if you can just pause and see now the incredible difficulty and humbling of parenting. Alright, so which is it? Alright, are we supposed to be extremely consistent but not overly strict in discipline? Pastor, how do you put it all together? My answer, I don't know. I know this, it says, "Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best." So I say, frequently, my kids, they know that I'm saying “I'm doing as I think best. God is better than me. Okay, trust in your father. But this is what I think right now, I am not lowering the standard on that thing that you've done, but I'm giving you grace right now.” Oh they get, they love grace, that kind of grace. Alright, give me grace, I want grace. Yeah, I understand, well, there's other kinds of grace, there's the grace that teaches you to say no to ungodliness. We're going to work on that one today. That's the grace you'll get today. But it's hard, this is humbling. Come to God and bring him this list and say, Oh God, teach me to parent because I don't know what to do and I need your help.

Twelve, favoritism. Favoritism, showing preference to one child over the rest or over others. Clear example of this in the Bible, Jacob with Joseph. It says it straight in the text. Genesis 37:3. Look it up, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons.” Your eyebrows go up at that point. He's setting Joseph up to be murdered. Now, I'm not in anyway condoning the murderous jealousy that was in the hearts of his brothers, but I think the pattern of the royal, the rich coat.

Do you remember when Esau showed up with 400 armed men to greet his brother after he'd been away for a long time? Remember that? Hey we're going to have a family reunion. I just happened to bring along 400 soldiers to help us celebrate. It was a very tough night. And Jacob, spent the night wrestling with an angel, and then the next night, next day he got ready to meet Esau and he put his children in concentric circles almost of preference. The slave women and their children were outer circle, then Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph on the inner circle. What does that say to you if you're one of the other kids? Favoritism can be provocative to children.

And finally, failure of parents to sacrifice cheerfully for their children. “Oh, what a burden you are to me.” That's the message. It's like, no, that's not the message. The message is what a blessing you are. Do you know how blessed I am to have you in my life? And so, there's a Bible verse in the 2 Corinthians 12:14-15, “Children should not have to save up for parents, but parents for their children. So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.” Now that's Paul the apostle speaking to the Corinthian church, but He's speaking in the idea of parenting. I am very gladly spending everything that I have to give it to you. Alright, so that's the negative. This is a good time, I think for fathers and mothers to just reflect, and as needed repent and ask God to forgive you, and if you feel like you've been parenting in a way that's not been helpful, then just ask God to give you grace.

Now, in the short time I have left, now I'm going to resume preaching on parenting when I get back. I did not want to do this, but there are lots of things I want to say about marks of regeneration, how to parent your children toward conversion and how to know they are converted. I want to talk about child baptism and all that. That will be after I return to the pulpit. But let me talk about the positives here briefly. And we'll get into them a little more next time.

The positives, the three words given us here are “nourish, train and admonish,” all in the Lord. “But instead nourish them or bring them up in the nurture [or training] and admonition, [I think is the best translation of that word] in the Lord.” Alright, so first of all, all parenting is to be done in the Lord, as a subset of the Spirit-filled life, as a subset, it's done as Christians. “As a prisoner for the Lord,” he said, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received." So your parenting should be worthy of your calling. You should be Christian parents and then again, Ephesians 5:18, "Be filled with the Spirit." So, Spirit-filled parenting that's what we're looking for. Spirit-filled parenting. So we're not looking for just mere morality. We're bringing them up in the Lord. We know there are all kinds of moral instructions we can give them.

Have you ever looked online George Washington's rules of civility? Okay, look that up. He teaches you not to spit into the fire. Okay, I guess that's really important. It was important back then. Don't spit in the fire. Or all kinds of things, how to eat in a mannerly way. How to not turn your back on someone speaking to you, how to deal with bodily fluids, frankly, George Washington was very detailed about these rules of civility.

Well, look, we Christian parents, we're going to embrace that basic level of philosophical morality too. We're going to teach people how to be good citizens, good students, good people, holding the doors for people, mannered at the table, we're going to teach them all that, but this goes so far beyond that. We're going to bring them up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” So all things pointed toward the Lord Jesus Christ focused on Jesus with a constant reference to Christ and his shed blood. And we're going to nourish them.

It says "nourish your children", it's translated “bring them up,” but rear them raise them. But it's that feeding image here. Ephesians 5:29 speaks about what the husband does, or what Christ does for the Church. No one ever hated his own flesh but He nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the Church, same word. So there's the sense of nourishing your children, feeding them.

Now, of course, a godly father will see to it that his children don't go to bed hungry. So, you're going to physically feed them. But especially, you're going to feed them in the word. Jesus said “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” You're going to feed them the Word of God, and fundamentally you're going to feed them the bread of life who is Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." You're going to feed them. So nourish them, feed their souls. We're going to talk more about this next time, but I'm just giving you an overview. Nourish them.

Secondly, train them, train them. The Greek word here is “paideía.” It's a concept of systematic preparation of the child for adult life. Shape their minds, get them ready for everything they're going to do in life, especially spiritually. Begins with language, the mother tongue, this is where the invaluable assistance of a godly mother who teaches the mother tongue comes in. The infant learns how to speak and then beyond that, full education. Just getting them ready. Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature and favor with God and man, Luke 2:52. You're getting them ready for every phase of their lives.

Now, next time I'm going to say some things about education, there's a lot to be said about education. We homeschool our kids. I think the divide between government school and homeschool has never been wider. I think it's getting even wider. There's also private school. Those are the three basic options. There's a hybrid as well, but you're going to have some weighty decisions to make, especially as government gets more and more aggressive in its worldview, you're going to have some weighty decisions to make. There's some godly brothers and sisters in public school, some of our own church members have given their lives to pouring out good education in the government school setting, but things are getting harder and harder for them to do what they would really like to do and for parents to make wise decisions. So we'll talk more about that next time, but we're going to discuss the “paideía,” the training of a child, and then finally the instruction of the child will talk more about this again. But the idea here is, correction in the face of sin.

You're going to be admonishing them, showing them their sins, and especially what will happen if they continue in patterns of sin. So, Fathers raising their teenage sons, mothers raising the daughters. Parents raising their children getting ready for the heavy things that they're going to face in life and dealing all along with their sins. So as I said, we're going to stop there. I'm going to talk next time more about these three words. I'm going to talk more about marks of regeneration, and we'll talk also about child baptism and just the difficulties, challenges, and interesting aspects of that for a church, but be praying for us as we do that. So that'll be about in, maybe about seven weeks after my writing sabbatical is done. So, let's close in prayer.

Father, we thank you for all the things that we have been learning through Ephesians. We thank you for these very clear instructions that come from your Word, and Lord I pray that You would be strengthening right now fathers and mothers in the sometimes seemingly overwhelming challenges of parenting. I pray that you would be raising up before our very eyes, a generation of godly children, of sons and daughters who will embrace Christ at a very early age and begin living out patterns of obedience in their lives because their parents are raising them up in obeying this pattern. Father, I pray right now for any that are here that do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Maybe they didn't have a godly mother and father to teach them the Gospel, or maybe they did and they've been straying. Thank you for bringing them here today. I pray that you would reach out to them now through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they might know the salvation that He alone can work. Father, we thank you for this time to assemble, to worship, and for the ministry of the word, in Jesus's name, amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Ephesians 6:1-3 and how children must honor their parents through obedience, by the Spirit's power.

This morning we're going to be looking in our continuing study in the book of Ephesians, in chapter 6:1-3, which you just heard Brad read. For me, I love biographies. I love missionary biographies. I love the heroic spread of the Gospel, some of which I just prayed about a moment ago. 

One of the most moving biographical accounts I've ever read or heard about is the story of John Paton, the courageous Scottish missionary to the cannibal infested islands of the New Hebrides in the mith century in the South Pacific. Through Paton's influence, 3500 cannibals, through his direct influence, 3500 cannibals renounced their heathenism for Christ in the tiny island of Aneityum where he poured out his labors. In Fiji, 79,000 cannibals were converted by missionaries that he mobilized mostly from Australia. 79,000 converted. In Samoa, 34,000 cannibals professed Christianity through the labors of those same missionaries. In the New Hebrides where he focused his attention, which is a chain of islands, 12,000 were converted, and he said 133 of them were trained, specially trained, raised up, and sent out as missionaries to their own people.

Amazing fruitfulness in an overwhelmingly challenging and terrifying situation because a mere 18 years before he arrived there in 1858, in 1840 the first two missionaries to the island of Tanna, where he first began his missionary service, were clubbed to death and cannibalized immediately on the beach in the full view of the ship that brought them. 18 years later, he got on a boat and went to that same exact island with amazing courage. And he risked his life, his family. His wife died, his child died, he himself, 18 times stricken with fevers, the exact same fever that took the life of his wife. And with amazing courage, for those many, many years, led so many people to Christ. What are the roots of John Paton's character, his courage, his calling as a missionary? How can we understand what led to that kind of character, what led to a man like that? And I would have to say at the human level, in large measure, it was his relationship with his father, James Paton.

James Paton was a poor tradesman who raised his 11 children in the Scottish, Calvinistic heritage that he had inherited. Raised 11 children. He himself yearned to be a minister of the Gospel but providentially was prevented from doing so. And so, he entrusted himself to the Lord and poured himself into his family. When John was born, he and his wife, metaphorically, laid him on the altar before God with prayer, and dedicated him to the Lord's service that, if God saw fit, he could be a missionary of the cross. He did that just days after he was born, after John was born. And then this godly father bathed John in prayer as he was growing up, every day, family altar, solid doctrine, an intellectual depth to their faith that was unmatched. Also, the Covenanters heritage of martyrdom also was preached and taught in that household. Their father, James, had a prayer closet that he retired to three times a day, and he prayed with great passion for the conversion and for the discipleship of his own children.

When the time came for John to leave home for good and go off and serve as a missionary, the very thing that his mother and father had wanted when he was born, his father walked with him six miles along the road until the place came where they had to part. And as the two of them, father and son, were walking along the road together, the father was weeping, praying, pouring out heavenly counsels, prayers, advice, scripture, in these last few minutes they had together. And when the time came when he couldn't even speak anymore, he just continued to pray silently, his lips moving, and John remembered this many, many years later. No words could come out, but he knew his father was burning in prayer for him, tears flowing down his face. And they stood there, they were at the parting place, they had no more time together, the time had ended, and all he could say at that point was this. "God bless you, my son. May your father's God prosper you, and may He keep you from all evil." Then they embraced one last time and he walked away. John waved his hat in saying good-bye to his father, but his heart was breaking. 

And so, he dove into a ditch to just have a good cry, and he's just laying there weeping about the separation, but also eager to begin his work. And after he'd been there some time he climbed up the dike to see if his father could still be seen along the road as he returned back to their home village. And just at that moment, his father also was climbing up the dike to look back to see if he could still see his son. There were some distance apart, and it was clear the father, James, didn't see him, but then just continued to talk, and he assumed, John assumed, praying for him as he walked on his way. And he watched through blinding tears, John did, until he could see his father no more.

Then he got up and hastened on his way to serve Christ as a missionary. These are his own words. "Vowing deeply and oft, by the help of God, to live and act so as never to grieve and dishonor such a father and mother." So that is on my mind as I preach on “children obey your parents in the Lord, honor your father and mother.” As we come to Ephesians 6, we come to the next section in Ephesians, but for me, a very powerful and moving one.

My desire is to be that kind of a father. My desire is all you fathers listening to me would be fathers like that. And beyond that, you children, at whatever age, some of you are coloring, scribbling, some of you listening as best you can, some very attentive as you get older. I understand. The text is written to you. I'm going to be speaking also to your parents about the text. I desire that a generation of servants of Christ like this would be raised up. There's a lot of missionary work left to be done, and also I think it's going to take an unusual amount of courage for you to be a Christian in America going forward, more than perhaps in our generation. So I want you to be ready to face the challenges you're going to face in the years ahead. In Ephesians, as we come to chapter 6, I want you to see it in continuity. It's not just popping up out of nowhere but it's a flow that we've seen in this beautiful book.

This idea of the parent-child relationship is a subset, or a part, of the Christian life that Jesus bought for us with His own blood. It's part of the life he bought. It's part of what it means to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,” for us to be godly parents and children. It's a life that flows from the salvation that's been so clearly taught in this magnificent book of Ephesians. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast." We were saved, we were justified, we were forgiven by grace through faith in the shed blood of Christ, “having been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world, having been predestined to be adopted as his sons and daughters, having received the hearing of the Gospel, having believed, having been marked in Him with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, all of this flowing. Having been rescued from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son, having all of these blessings, we are now called on to do good works.” Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Now the centerpiece of those good works is the building of an eternal temple, a dwelling place, rising in every generation described beautifully at the end of Ephesians 2, as a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. And this dwelling, this temple, this holy structure, which I think is the Church of Jesus Christ. I think we could also say it as the Heavenly Zion. It is the New Jerusalem. It is rising in every generation as living stones are quarried from Satan's dark kingdom and rescued and brought over and set in this spiritual wall, this image of the structure that we have at the end of Ephesians 2. Bringing in 1Peter 2:5, "you are living stones." And we are put into this rising temple. This magnificent, glorious structure is presently under construction. Amen? But it's looking really good, I've been told, by the Spirit of God in my heart. It is magnificent and glorious and it's better than it was a month ago, much better than it was 10 years ago. Every generation of elect people who hear the Gospel and come over and believe, beautify and glorify it even more, and none of them ever gets lost. And it's just getting better and better.

This is the work of our lives, the glory of God, and the rising of this spiritual holy dwelling place. Now I believe, in the end when we get to heaven we're going to hear all the stories. Not just John Paton and his father, and not just what happened with those cannibals. We're going to hear them all. And we're going to be so eager to hear them. I'm telling you, all of you are going to be super PhDs in church history. You're going to love it, you're going to want to hear all the details, and you're going to hear from the heavenly perspective what God did by His sovereign grace to get those people saved. And we are going to glory in those stories. But I believe, I can't prove this, but I believe that when we get to heaven and we find out how it all happened, the overwhelming majority of those in Heaven will be there primarily and first and foremost because their parents led them to Christ. "Overwhelming majority. What is that Pastor? 55%?" I don't know what overwhelming majority means. 

When I was at the IMB last week, or last month, knowing I was going to preach this, I went to five of the best missiologists and veteran missionaries in the Southern Baptist Convention, in the IMB. And I asked them this question. "Worldwide, what percentage of genuine believers do you think had Christian parents who led them to Christ, essentially?" They said, "Well do you want a number? I said, "Yes." Obviously, it's anecdotal, I don't know. But the numbers ranged anywhere from 60%-75%. These are veteran missionaries. Because what happens is the missionaries go to that land, and none of them are Christians. They find some bridge people, those bridge people come to faith in Christ. Immediately, what do those bridge people do? They turn to the people they know, first and foremost their own families, their parents, their siblings, their children. And they begin to share the Gospel. Some of them believe, receive, and trust. Some of them turn in hostility and persecute. But that's where it all starts. Give it two, three, four generations, ask what's going on in that nation, the overwhelming majority had Christian parents. It just happens again, and again, and again. And it's a powerful thing to see this.  So fundamentally, we believe that this parent-child relationship is essential to God's sovereign plan for the rising of the Church of Jesus Christ, for the building of this holy temple. It's foundational, it's vital. 

"We believe that this parent-child relationship is essential to God's sovereign plan for the rising of the Church of Jesus Christ, for the building of this holy temple. It's foundational, it's vital. "

When I was there at the commissioning service there were 36 missionaries commissioned. 29 of the 36 in their written testimonies, which I as a trustee get to read, 29 out of 36 said, "Effectively, my parents led me to Christ." 29 out of 36. It's amazing. And how my own son, when he was baptized a few weeks ago, zeroed in on 2 Timothy 3:15, which says, "How from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." I believe this is the very thing that was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 when He said, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And through you all the families of the Earth will be blessed." The families.

In all of the types or patterns of evangelism that there is in the world, workplace evangelism, street evangelism, missionary type work, contact evangelism, airplane evangelism, which I love. Where can they go? They're captive. Especially if they have the window, and I have the aisle, where are they going to go? So we're going to talk about Jesus until they don't want to talk about Jesus anymore. I try to be kind, I try to find out if they're interested. But of all of the types of evangelism there is, by far, overwhelmingly, the most effective is parent-child evangelism. Nothing else even close. This is by God's will and by His power. And so, my desire is to put inside you, parents, especially, a zeal and a fervency for the souls of your children. The healthy Christian family is a great, magnificent factory, a machine, for the production of children of God who will live before Him forever. And it's been working now for centuries.

So we come to Ephesians 6:1-4. Listen again. I'm going to read verse four even though I'm not dealing with it today. But look at the text again. "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth. And Fathers do not exasperate your children or provoke them into wrath, instead bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." We’ll deal with verse four next week, God willing.

So I want to start by talking about the blessings and challenges of children. Children are one of the greatest blessings that God can ever bring into your life. They are endlessly fascinating, endlessly unpredictable. They are a rich Biblical blessing, and we need to be told that because in our nation, in our culture, there is a negativity toward children. A negativity like children are a burden, children are almost what feels somewhat like a curse. But in Psalm 127 it says, "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward.” And to borrow a phrase, an idea from 1 Timothy 4:8 about godliness, Paul is talking there about godliness and it says, "godliness has value for all things", listen, "holding promise both for the present life and the life to come." Children are like that. They hold promise both for the present life, to bless you in this present life, and to bless you in the life to come.

So in this present life, when Noah was born, his father Lamech called him Noah, which sounds like the word comfort, because he said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground that the Lord has cursed." He's going to alleviate our suffering here, just to have a child. And then in Ruth chapter 4, the women said to Naomi, when Obed had been born to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, the women said to Naomi, "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age." Think about that. How beautiful is that? "For your daughter-in-law who loves you and who's better to you than seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap, and cared for him. And the women living there said, 'Behold Naomi has a son.' And they named him Obed." He was the father of Jesse, the father of David,” the father of Jesus, Matthew 1:1.

And so, in God's sovereign plan we see the beauty of children. Children hold promise for this present life in more ways than we can count. There are just the joys of watching them grow and develop, speaking their first words, taking their first steps, continuously acquiring greater and greater capabilities. It's really a stunning thing to watch. I've mentioned this before, but I still can't get over it. When Christy and I were missionaries in Japan, the first year our primary job was to learn the language, the Japanese language. And that was hard. And I'll never forget, we had tutoring sessions, we had books, we had tapes, we had flash cards, we had all these things going on. We also had a one-year-old daughter named Jenny who came over with us basically inarticulate, and left two years later fluent in English. No flash cards, no tapes, nothing, no effort. I was so jealous. It's like, "How can this be?" And I figured there was some corresponding Japanese kid who was one-year-old when he came over, couldn't speak a word of Japanese. Two years later, fluent, conversational. And I just think it's amazing, going on right before your eyes as it's happening. It's a marvel.

So also you parents can testify how many earthly blessings have come to you from having children. The unforgettable moments, the things that can never be repeated and you treasure forever. I have drawers and drawers of memorabilia. What am I going to do with it? I don't know, but I'm not giving them away. Toward the end when the kids were getting older, I didn't accept just any art work, it had to be good. Okay? They had to have put some work into it, there had to be some thought. Just a couple of scribbles and crayon on the… We're not putting that on the refrigerator. But if you worked at it we would put it up on the fridge and it would be there for a while. And then I'd take it down. And I learned in the course of time to write on the back the circumstances, because what happens is, five years later it's like I don't even know what it is. Is it a tree, is it a mountain? I don't know. When was it given? But to write on the back who gave it when, same thing with cards, different things that are written, it's just absolutely precious. At every moment the way they just look up to you for approval, for love, the way that they just trust you at an early stage, the way that they are obedient at a certain level, and the way they just grow and grow and grow before your very eyes.

I've likened them before to a sunset. You can just picture that, and just the colors of it. And it's just different colors and it's continually changing so that if you look away for just a minute or two and talk to your friend and look back, it's different now. And that's the way it is with the children. They go through these stages, and you can't hold on, they're not going to be in them for long. They mispronounce a word, kind of really cute. And you actually want, at least I did, wanted them to keep mispronouncing the word because it was so cute. But they don't, they learn how to say it right. But it's just these sweet things.

And then they just keep growing and they challenge you and they ask questions and you share experience. You go to national parks together and you share that, and they remember that. Pretty soon, they're teens, and they're so intelligent, so gifted, so full of promise, so aware of your failures and weaknesses. Acutely aware. And you know it, and it's an interesting relationship, and you're just kind of along for the ride, and you're able to celebrate their amazing achievements academically or in athletics, or in music, or art, or other things that they love to do, things that are different than you love to do. And then come the later blessings as the kids get even older, walking your daughter down the aisle to give her to somebody else's precious son. Or seeing your son receive somebody else's precious daughter. And to be commanded by your son to do that wedding and not cry. That's just cruel. How am I going to get through a wedding like that and not cry? He asked me if I could, he's not here, so I can just talk about him. "Dad, I want you to be my best man." I remember he said that to me. "But I also want you to do the service. Can you do both?" I said, "I don't think so because the best man stands over here and I'll have to stand here. So the only way could do it is if I wear a sign, 'By the way, I'm also best man.' So that's not really going to work." But my daughters have asked, are you going to both walk me down the aisle and then receive me?" And I haven't figured that one out yet. I got maybe some time on that one. But all of those things. And then,. I've been told, we don't have this experience yet. But grandchildren come in and you have most of the blessings and almost none of the challenges. Amen, hallelujah. Looking forward to that. So we're looking for all of that. 

But then you've got the challenges of children too, and we have to be honest about that. Honestly, the challenges of the parent-child relationship is caused by the spiritual warfare that we're about to get into in Ephesians 6, and by indwelling sin. The Bible teaches the clear doctrine of Original Sin. Every human baby is born in Adam, and they come into your family with that Adamic nature, a commitment to sin. Romans 5:12 says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned." You have to meditate on the words "because all sinned". Every human sinned in Adam. And so it says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "In Adam all die." And we've seen in Ephesians 2:1 that we were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live. And verse 3 in that same chapter, "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts, and like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." Now, this sin nature may not be obvious to new parents immediately when their precious little child is wrapped up in a sweet smelling blanket. But what it is, is, as I've mentioned before, fanatical commitment to self-interest. And that you can see immediately in an infant. That fanatical commitment to self-interest is the essence of the trouble you'll have in raising them. And you have the same thing too.

There was a police study in San Francisco on juvenile delinquency, this is cited by Jim Eliff. These are striking words, because they're not written from a Christian perspective, they were just written from a secular policing perspective. This is what it said. "Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered, he wants what he wants, his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He is dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children, but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free rein to their impulsive actions to satisfy everyone, every child would grow up a criminal, a killer, a thief, a rapist." Well, that's the essence of parenting, the negative side of parenting, is that's what you're facing, the sin nature. Fanatical commitment to self. 

Along with that, as I just mentioned in passing, but it's very much the issue as well. We ourselves, even redeemed in Christ, we still have that flesh nature. We still have a fanatical commitment to self in there too. So we struggle with pride, we struggle with anger, we struggle with sins and selfishness and habitual patterns of evil. And our children, I have found, pick those up much more readily than they pick up our good habits in Christ. They pick up your particular habits and patterns, which is a great source of shame to parents, where they can see that in their own kids.

So, beyond that there's a constant demonic satanic side, and a world side, that Satan is cleverly assaulting your children's souls, and the world is pouring acid on them as you seek to develop them, etcetera. And so you've got all of this at work. Furthermore, we just need to understand the future of American parenting. Where are we going? Where are we heading here? I do fear for the future of our country. I already hinted at it in my prayer. But we have moved quickly beyond gay marriage at this point to an acceleration of wickedness and bizarreness that I just don't know where we're heading as a nation, as a culture. And there is a direct worldly attack on the right and responsibility of Christian parents to bring their children up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You're going to see that more and more. 

I believe that the government is going to try to put a wedge between Christians and their children, and assert their right to indoctrinate our children. It's happened many, many times before. We, Christian fathers, feel the authority and the responsibility we have to say to the surrounding pagan world, in the words of Joshua 24:15, saying to the pagan world, "If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." But I was on a website recently that said every child should have the freedom to choose for himself or herself what religion they will follow.

The website is, I don't know how to pronounce this, but humanium.org. Wow. Listed the fundamental rights of children. Right to Freedom. "Children have the right to have an opinion different from their parents." By the way, they know that. "I have an opinion different from you." I'm aware. Alright. "A child should not be the victim of the pressure of an adult who would try to force him or her in order to influence them in their opinion." That's just called parenting. I'm sorry, I'm editorializing. Let me just read. "Children have a right to be informed, so they can make their own minds up about important subjects." Now, next heading, Freedom of Religion. "Children have the right not to undergo constraint or oppression which will injure their freedom of religion or other rights. Children can freely determine the religion or conviction of their choice. A religion doesn't have to be imposed on them." So basically, I'm supposed to, as a father, just be a world religion instructor. "This is what Buddhism teaches, this is what Hinduism... So now you make your own decision." It's actually abusive then it seems to bring them up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

My daughter Carolyn showed me a tweet sometime ago that shocked me at how weird things are getting. It said effectively that it's child abuse to name a newborn baby before they've had a chance to choose their own gender. I don't know how that works. "Baby one, baby two." Here, the tweet said, "Use gender inclusive pronouns like baby-self or toddler-self until they are old enough to make their own choice." So in the name of individual freedom, all children should be free to choose everything for themselves, and not have anything forced on them. And yet it's plain that in the Bible parents are to bring their children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Borrowing from the old covenant language in Deuteronomy 6:7-9, they're talking about these precepts and ordinances, but I'm going to just talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Impress them", the words of God, "On your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates." If I can just summarize, brainwash your kids. Just brainwash them in the word of God. Let them be transformed by the renewing of their mind, because I'm telling you, the world will try to do it. It's not going to stand idly by, it's going to try to brainwash your kids in its direction. Along with this is the danger, as I just mentioned a moment ago, of ever encroaching government rights to the training of the future generation. Reading about what school was like in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, basically every child there was indoctrinated in Nazi ideology, and frequently got to the point in their teen years where then they would start turning their parents in to the Gestapo. So also the same kinds of things happened in communist countries during the Cold War.

John McArthur cited a letter he received from a man in his church who emigrated from Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. This is what he said. "My wife and I experienced the dissolution of the family unit by the communist government. From our own experience, the godless doctrine pumped into our little children's souls brought up the most cynical generation you can imagine." Parenthetically, less than 1% of Czechs in the Czech Republic are believers. 93% are atheists. But this individual said, "Most young people do not believe in anything, not even God. The godless system destroyed, in great part, the will of the people and produced an obeying array of cynical and different disposable robots. The same thing is beginning to happen to us now in this country." So, blessings and challenges. 

Let's talk about God's goal for parenting, and that is His glory. Now, your outline says they're salvation, but I'm going to actually amend it. God's goal in parenting is His glory in your salvation too. So, just put "... His glory in their salvation... and yours." because God's going to be at work in both of you, and you're not any of you done being saved. So God has a wise purpose in all of this. Okay? So what is the purpose of parenting? I would say it's the exact same purpose of why God made the world. His glory, ultimately. God made all things for His glory. And the thing that glorifies him the most is the salvation of human souls. So that's the goal of parenting too, is His glory in the salvation of your children and of yourself. But let's focus on the children.

A key verse I use for parenting is one with which you should be very familiar. It's in Mark 8:36-37. "What good would it be? What would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" Or what would a man give in exchange for his soul? So let me put that in parenting language. “What good would it be for your child if he or she should gain the whole world, whatever that means, and forfeit their souls? And what would you give in exchange for the souls of your children?” I know parents want to give their children so many good things. Good character, education, fine clothing, a comfortable lifestyle, fruitful career, athletic success, academic achievement, acceptance at a prestigious college. All the material blessings of prosperity, good morals, legacy, heritage, sweet memories, all of that. All of those earthly blessings are sweet, good things from God. But what would it profit you or your child if they gained all of them and they had to hear on Judgment Day, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"? What good would it be if after they've been well-fed, well-clothed, well-educated, well-employed, worldly successful, you can boast to all your friends in your retirement home about what your kids are achieving and all that, if in the end they're lost, then what good would it be? So my desire in this sermon and next is that God would be glorified in the salvation of your children. That's my center desire. 

So, let's turn to the text, and here's the text, the Bible. I remember my father used to say to us in exasperation, because we drove him crazy, and we did. But he said, "You didn't come with a training manual." Here it is. Here's the training manual. The Bible is sufficient for raising your children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” I'm not saying there's not good materials out there, there are. But it's sufficient. Here again, 2 Timothy 3:15-17. "How from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." That sounds like parenting to me. Thoroughly equipped and ready for any good thing God wants them to do. Now we're focusing this morning on 6:1-3, that's the command to the children. Next week I want to focus, God willing, on the command to fathers and mothers, parents.

So, the words are going to come to children, but I want the parents to listen as well because it's the parent's job to hold these commands over their children and pray toward and act toward them obeying them. If the parents don't train their children to honor and obey them, they never will. And so the parents really need to embrace these words before the children do. These commands need to be on your heart, and then you can impress them on your children. Alright? So God's command to children is, "Obey and honor your parents." That's the order it gives in the text. 

Look at it, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth." The address is to children, and the first command here that's given is, "obey." Now, you may say, "Alright, does this go on forever?" No, it doesn't. I think the word children would be certainly minors and teens and all that. And then on up until they are no longer dependent on you financially. There's still a pattern of obedience in Jacob's life. It says in Genesis 28:7, "Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram to seek a wife." The word obey is there. Now, I do not need to obey my mother anymore. When I got married, I left my father and mother, and I was united to my wife, and I started my own home. I need to honor her the rest of our lives, but I don't need to obey her. So there is a weaning off of parental obedience until they're on their own. That's the challenge. 

Now, the word “obey” has to do with external behavior patterns. So the text in the order it gives us here is, I think, wise. Parents, to some degree, work on your children's external patterns of compliance, that they would obey you. And then it moves to honor, which is something from the heart. Our goal is a heartfelt obedience that's a genuine work of grace. But it starts with this idea of obey. And it means literally to hear under, it means to submit as in Ephesians 5:21, "Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ." Submission is obedience to God-ordained authority. Authority I define as the God given right to command, the God-given right to command. Parents have that. I feel like we're too squeamish about it. You have this sense of weakness. But we have the right and responsibility to give wise, loving, godly commands to our children. 

And so, from infancy, they need to be trained to obey their parents. This is coming straight from God. Before they have the capacity to comprehend an invisible being who created them and whom they must obey above all, almighty God, they must first submit their wills to their parents who they can see and be trained to obey them. And they need to be taught that their obedience to their parents is ultimately obedience to God. So that's what you're teaching them.

Now, what is obedience? We covered this this morning in Bible for Life in the parenting class. I love it, and it's something that I heard years ago from a parenting curriculum that Kristy and I used early on. And it defined obedience in the pattern, I think, of Matthew 6:10. "May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." So how is God obeyed in Heaven? And what this curriculum writer said is, "That the angels obey God all the way, right away, with a happy spirit." So those were the standards we used for our kids. All the way means everything we said to do, 100%. So 80% obedience, that's not obedience. Right away means now. It's not hard. Now. No, not later. Now. Okay? No delay. To delay is to disobey. And with a happy spirit means we're ultimately trying to get to the heart. We want you to delight in the commands that were given and see them as wise. 

Now, this pattern is for infants and young children and going up. And there's this pyramid where you're going to be early on covering your kids lives with commands, just covering them, papering them over with commands when they're young. And then dimmer switch turning them down more and more, until at last, they're ready to just take over their physical lives and look after themselves. And so, there's going to be all of these commands. Now, children it says are to obey their parents “in the Lord.” In the Lord means with a mind to Christ, you're looking to Christ. It implies the parents better be giving godly commands to them. So all authority is ultimately under Jesus. And we see the moral beauty of the obedience. "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right." The word gives a sense of morally beautiful. It's attractive when you have an obedient son or daughter. It's just delightful.

And then he quotes the Ten Commandments. "Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy life on the Earth." Now, here's the complexity. I've meditated on this a lot in the last couple of months. The hard thing about Christian parenting is how we have to harmonize or synthesize the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. That's really hard to do. The kids are under the Law, they're under the Old Covenant. They're under the tutor, so to speak, until they are brought to Christ. So they have to be trained, in effect, just like the Jews were in the language of blessings and curses. This is what we've got, this is what you have to do, and this is what will happen if you don't do it. That's what we call in our family the if-then chart. "If you do this, this is what will happen." Alright? That's early on. And then as you go further and further in, you're wanting them to move into a New Covenant walk with Christ. In which from the heart, from a transformed nature, they are loving God and loving His Law, and His commands, and by the power of the Spirit, are fulfilling the Law. And that's the challenge.

You need to therefore, teach them the fullness of what the Law means. Talk about how when the Ten Commandments were given what the circumstances were, how God descended from Heaven in fire to the top of Mount Sinai, and how the ground shook beneath their feet, and how it became supernaturally dark. And how God spoke with a voice so loud and so terrifying that everyone in the camp trembled and they begged to not hear that voice anymore. "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." And He is the one who's saying, "Honor your father and mother." So there's a sense of the terror of the Law, a sense of the judgment that comes if there's disobedience to the Law, all of that has to come. But that's not enough, that's not enough. You have to move from the Law to the Gospel. And so it says in Romans 3:20-24, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the Law."

They're not going to get saved by obeying you. They're not going to get saved by the Law. Instead they're going to find out that they're sinners in need of a savior by the Law. And so, Romans 3:20-24, it says, "No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law, rather through the Law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God apart from the Law has been made known to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." So you're going to want, every time they sin and you're disciplining them and you're training them, to preach the Gospel to them, to tell them that Jesus came for exactly these kinds of sins. Jesus came to take out the heart of stone and to give you the heart of flesh. Jesus came to change your very nature.

And so, the command here given to the child is fascinating. "honor." "Honor your father and mother." What does that mean, “honor”? Been thinking about this. It's related to worship, I think. But it's obviously at a lower level. You only worship God. But it has to do with an esteem, it comes from the heart, a respect. Love is involved in there, but it's a sense of esteem and honor in the family of, or the relationship of worship. But ultimate honor is given to God in worship. And so the idea here is a heart attitude of respect toward the parents. I honor my father, I honor my mother. And that's something that parents have to teach to their children. Do you teach your children to honor you? Do you teach, each of you, teach your child to honor the opposite parent? The father's telling their children to honor their mother, and not speak disrespectfully. And the mother doing the same thing in reference to the father. A heart attitude.

Now, we, as parents don't have power over the heart. I can't make my child honor me, something they do with their heart. But I can show them the word, I can pray that God would work in them, I can yearn for the Holy Spirit to work this. Now, as your kids get older, as they get to be teens, as I already mentioned, it's not funny but it's just true, they just know your sins. But here's the thing, you don't have to be a sinless parent to be worthy of honor. You're worthy of honor because you're the father or the mother. Do you member when Noah got drunk and lay exposed in his tent? Remember that story in Genesis 9? And how one son, it seemed, mocked him. But two other sons put a cloak on their shoulders and walked in backward and covered their naked father. That's a timeless lesson on how you honor a sinful parent. The requirement to honor is not tied to how righteous your father and mother is, but to God's will.

Now, what is the promise that comes to children? Well earthly and heavenly blessedness. "Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the Earth." So there's a promise here. It zeros in on a promise. This is the first commandment that gives you a promise. And it's blessedness, it's going to go well with you, you're going to have a good rich blessed life if you do this. And long life, in other words you won't be struck dead. I meditate on this. There is an Old Covenant feel here and both quality and quantity of life is linked to honoring your parents. We know that God struck two of Judah's sons dead. Ur was wicked so God put Him to death, and Onan was wicked so God put Him to death. Nadab and Abihu were struck dead by fire that came out from the Lord because they were irreverent. Ananias and Sapphira, this happened in the New Covenant era, God struck them dead for their lying. So children, honor your father and mother so that you may live long on the earth, and that it may be a richly blessed life, a quality of life.

Ultimately, this is what I yearn for. Early conversion, growth and discipleship from these kids, a development in spiritual gifts and knowledge of the Word of God so that they are unleashed in ministry for the Lord, just as James Paton did for John Paton. That's my desire. 

So, quickly, applications. Start by just delighting in the blessings of children. Behold, they are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” “God knit them together in their mother's wombs.” Cherish them, they are created in the image of God. They're not yours to command like they're your slaves. Alright? They are precious human beings. As I said about the husband-wife relationship, by far more significant than that she's wife is that she's human, and redeemed. And the same thing is going to end up true of your children. Far more significant that they're your children is that they are created in the image of God, and that they can believe the Gospel. So cherish them, and just cherish these times. You know what I mean. You older parents know exactly. The days, the years go by like the wind. Like the wind. Don't waste these days, don't waste the time. So parents, embrace your responsibility to bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. More next week. Embrace your responsibility to preach the Gospel to them. "How from infancy they have known the Holy Scriptures." Saturate them.

Charles Spurgeon said this, "Some wrongly say, 'Do not teach your children, they'll be converted in God's own time, if it be His purpose. Therefore leave them to run wild in the streets.' Well, people who do that will certainly both sin against the child and the Lord Jesus. We might as well say, 'If that patch of ground over there is to grow a harvest, God will do it if it's God's good pleasure. Therefore, leave it and let the weeds overgrow it. And do not endeavor for a moment to kill the weeds or to sow any good seed.' Why such reasoning as this would not only be cruel to our children, but grievously displeasing to Christ.” Parents, I do hope you are all endeavoring to bring your children to Christ by teaching them the things of God. Let them not be strangers to the plan of salvation." This is Spurgeon, listen though. "Never let it be said that a child of yours reached years in which his conscience could act, and he could judge between good and evil, without knowing the doctrine of the atonement. Without understanding the great substitutionary work of Christ. Set before your child life and death, Hell and Heaven, judgment and mercy, his own sin, Christ's most precious blood. And as you set these things before him, labor with him, persuade him as the apostle did his congregation with tears and weeping to turn unto the Lord. And your prayers and supplications shall be heard so that the Spirit of God shall bring them to Jesus."

Say a final word to children, especially to teenagers. Let me speak directly to you teens. By now you are fully aware of your parents' strengths and weaknesses. By the way, they do have some strengths. You'll find that out more and more as you get older. But it is your time now, and these words I think are most understandable to you, because they are written to you. "Children, obey and honor." That's what God's calling on you to do. Remember how Noah's sons were blessed by respecting their father, even at his weakest, most sinful moment. Ask the Lord to give you a heart of honor toward both your mother and father. Ask Him to bless you with long life in the richness of the Gospel. And you younger children, I'm almost done, praise God. Love your parents, do what they tell, study the Bible, pray, ask your mom and dad questions that are on your hearts. And mom and dad be ready for them to do it, because they'll keep saying, "Why, why, why?" Until you have no other answer, and just say, "Because God wanted it that way, that's why." Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you so much for children. We thank you for the blessing that they are. Thank you that this church is so lavishly blessed. Every year, O Lord, at Mother's Day we see how many babies were born in our church, and as their parents yearn to dedicate them to Christ. We thank you for the blessing. We thank you for how we can see, at every stage, children that we've been blessed with. Lord, give parents grace to parent well, and give the children grace to be obedient and to honor. In Jesus' name, amen.

For the third week, I have the privilege of preaching on Christian marriage, and as I've been meditating on Ephesians 5, I've found these verses that I'm about to preach on searching my soul. I preach best when the message preaches first to me. When I feel that I'm sitting under the word of God myself, that I'm able best to explain it to others. I also think the best sermons are those in which you have a sense of an encounter with the living God. I was talking some time ago to Don Carson, D.A. Carson, about his first time hearing Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great Welsh preacher preaching, and he had heard so much about Lloyd-Jones, who many consider the greatest preacher of the 20th century. And he went to hear him, and as he was listening to him preach, after a number of minutes, he had one thought. "This guy is overrated." He was disappointed. Lloyd-Jones' introductions are not really that noteworthy, he starts the same way every time. "I should like to call your attention this morning to," and then off he goes. And he begins every sermon that way. But as the sermon progressed, Don Carson changed his opinion entirely. Two-thirds of the way through that sermon, he thought, "This man is the greatest preacher I've ever heard." But by the end of the sermon, he wasn't thinking about Lloyd-Jones at all. He had one overwhelming thought, "What a majestic, holy, great God we serve and what a great savior is Christ." He was to some degree, transported out of the place, and wasn't thinking about the human messenger at all. And I think that's the best you can do in a sermon, the best you can do is through the text, to have an encounter with the living God. And for me as a preacher, to feel that I'm also hearing from God and sitting under that.

That's my desire today, as we look at this section on the message to husbands. I feel very much my own weakness and my own sinfulness. Frankly, I feel that any husband that reads these words and doesn't feel that, you haven't read them carefully, or you don't know yourself. Talk to your wife. I actually would say, do that. Take Ephesians 5, read it out loud to your wife and say, "Hun, how am I doing?" She'll tell you. Ouch. That's the very thing I'm going to urge you to do at the end of this sermon. But I've felt that and I feel the conviction of it and to feel that I, like Isaiah, I am a man of unclean lips. I'm a sinner. And I live in a land of people of unclean lips. We're surrounded by people who are messing up in the area of marriage, they're messing up in the area of sex. This is a virulent issue in our culture. We are surrounded by wickedness in this area, and aberration, and darkness. Deep darkness, a darkness that can be felt. We live among people who don't really understand what God intended when He set up marriage. They don't understand the sacredness of the marital union.

And we are called on to testify to the light, we are called on to be the light. We are the light of the world, and to proclaim the light to people who are sitting in darkness, who are walking in darkness, the people who are walking in darkness have seen a great light. And that light is Christ. And we get to it, as it says in Philippians, “to hold out the word of life is as we shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation.” We get to do that. And I think marriage may be one of the best platforms to do that. It's one of the best displays of the Gospel there is. A good, healthy Christian marriage, and the burden for that, I think, is on the husbands, primarily. That we would lead our wives toward a beautiful display of the Gospel, in a crooked and depraved generation that needs to see this truth.

Now, you heard Ron read these words. I'd like to read them again and I really want to marinate in the text this morning, for you men and for all of us. Look again at Ephesians 5: 25-33. There it says, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, cleansing her, by the washing with water through the word, to present her to Himself as a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church, for we are members of His body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery. And I'm talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." I think the world that we live in, this country that we're living in, needs desperately a generation of godly Christian husbands who will live out as best they can, by the power of the Spirit, the challenging words that are here.

My desire is that this would set our marriages up as a platform, that we would be a city on a hill, that we would be a light that has been lit by the Spirit of God and put up on a lampstand. This Christian marriage lived out by the power of the Spirit has converting power. First and foremost, we're going to see over the next few weeks, in the lives of your children who are observing you as they watch the way you interact, but also a surrounding community.

We're going to begin now with the command. In verse 25, the simple straightforward command to husbands: “Husbands, love your wives.” This is the basic command. Now, this may be surprising to some, because men get married because they love the women that they're marrying. They're in love with them. He's in love with her, so why in the world would he need to be commanded to love her? Because this is the very reason they're getting married, so he would think. So it seems a little odd to some, but Martin Luther, speaking of married love, and especially of newlywed love, spoke in the earthy way that only Luther could do. He said it's like “drunken joy.” “It's irrational and short-lived. Soon, you will wake up and the wine will have worn off, and you're left with this woman, and now comes the real story.”

You have to love Luther. He just says it unvarnished, just like he thinks it is. The real question then is, will you love the real person you're married to? Stanley Hauerwas put it this way, "The faulty assumption is that there is someone just right, the perfect person for us to marry. And that if we look closely enough, we will find that perfect person. This moral assumption overlooks a critical aspect of marriage. It fails to appreciate the fact that we always marry the wrong person. We never know whom we will marry, we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while, and he or she will change, for marriage being the enormous thing that it is, means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary problem, then, is this: Learning how to love and care for the stranger whom you actually married." 

We actually do need to be commanded to love our wives. We need to be commanded to love our wives because biblical love is the most challenging thing our sinful beings will ever do. It searches us to the bottom of our souls. Genuine, spiritual love, genuine, Biblical love does not come naturally to any of us. It is a supernatural work in us by the sovereign Spirit of God. And it begins here for us with the command. I really have tended in sanctification and the overall promises, the marvel of the Gospel, to look at all commands as promises. It's a beautiful thing. All of us should see all commands in the Christian life as promises of what the sovereign grace of God will work. Someday, I will love my wife as perfectly as Christ loved me. That's a beautiful thing, and it gives me hope, it fills me with such hope. But for us as Christians, the idea of being commanded to love should not surprise us. Isn't this the fundamental summary of the law that Jesus gave us? “The first and greatest command is this: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second command is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We have to be commanded to love God. How much more then commanded to love our wives? So this shouldn't surprise is that there is this command to love. And then on the second commandment, “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” the command of a Christian husband to love his wife is a subset of that overarching command that God gave us. Your wife is your nearest and best neighbor. She is the one that you are commanded on, horizontally, to love the best. This shouldn't surprise us that we are commanded in this way, and this is the very thing the Holy Spirit of God has come to work in us. He has come to work in us by the blood of Christ, so that the law of God may be perfectly fulfilled in us who “do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” See what He's doing?

And so this husband's love for his wife, set in this context now, Ephesians 5, is a subset of the overarching kind of ethical approach that Paul's taken, that we, Ephesians 4:1, are to “live a life worthy of the calling we have received.” And we are only able to do this, Ephesians 5:18, by the power of the Spirit, as we are filled with the Spirit, we can live a life worthy of the calling we have received. We saw last week that the command to the wife to submit to her husband was directly, even grammatically connected to being filled with the Spirit, because it has all those participles, be being filled with the Spirit, and then there's, -ing, -ing, -ing, -ing, five of them. The last one is submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord, "Wives to your husbands." So it just flows right from the Spirit-filled life. But we should see the extension also to the husband. As the husband is filled with the power of the Spirit of God. He is enabled to love his wife in this way. It's a subset of the Spirit-filled life.

Now, what do we mean by love? Now, I have given a definition multiple times in previous sermons. But I want you to know, the definition that I've given you in the past, it came, it started for me personally in meditating on Ephesians 5. This is where it started. How would I define love? Love is heart attraction resulting in cheerful, sacrificial action. Attraction, action, both of those aspects are Biblical love. If you only have one or the other, or neither, you don't have Biblical love. You need both, as the heart is drawn out to and delights in the object of love, that's the first, it flows out in actions that actually meet needs for that person. That's action. And so there's a sense of heart attraction, your heart is drawn toward the person, and it results in cheerful delighted sacrificial action. That's what love is.

Now, John Piper makes a strong case for marriage in his book on Christian hedonism called Desiring God. Now, Christian hedonism is the idea that Christians should live for pleasure. That's what hedonism is. We should live for pleasure. We should be pleased. But the thing is, we're just so messed up on what should please us. We should be ultimately pleased or delighted in God. And if we're not delighted in God, we're not born again. And we should be genuinely, horizontally in love toward others, toward our neighbor, we should be delighted in their blessing. We should enjoy blessing the other person. It should bring us pleasure. And if we are not pleased, it isn't love. I think he makes his case. I think he's right. Fundamentally then, love, horizontally is for me to knit my heart together with another person, and find personal delight in their blessing. God loves a cheerful giver. It's more blessed to give than to receive. I want to live for that pleasure vertically toward God, horizontally toward others. These are the two great commandments. That's what I want.

Piper argues that genuine love must flow from a deeply interested heart. I am personally delighted to bless you, to give to you. Well, this is even more true when it comes to a husband. This is the pinnacle of that horizontal relationship. I am personally delighted to live for your blessedness. I get my highest earthly joy out of seeing you blessed. That's what I want. That's what love is. Because this is a command, and it must be obeyed, and because other people sometimes say, "I just can't help how I feel. There's nothing I can do about how I feel." They say that love is an action. It's an act of the will. Friends, I'm telling you, that's only half of the equation. If that's all you have, you're a hypocrite. And I guarantee, your wife will sniff it out. If she doesn't know you are delighted to bless her, then she will not be blessed. And she'll know. We have to press through to the real thing, by the power of the Spirit. We have to find a transformation of the heart, where I actually personally am invested in the blessedness of my wife. That's what love is. 

Now, this goes vastly beyond the initial fireworks of romance. The command may seem strange for those just falling in love, those who have recently been engaged, or are dating, or courting. Let me say, “Why you have to be commanded to love your wife. If you have to be commanded, now something's wrong.” Friends, something's wrong! Did you not know that? Something is wrong. It's called indwelling sin. There's a parasite inside us, there's a tumor growing inside us. Something is wrong. And guess what? The two of you, you've been on your best behavior during your dating lives, haven't you? Come on, be honest. You didn't want your intended getting too close to your family, because they're going to spill the beans and what you're really like. Alright? Well, soon enough, he or she will know. Your spouse will know. Husband, your wife will know. Wife, your husband will know what you're really like. And then you settle in. And then, actual sin patterns will start to emerge for both of you. And the things that you found so delightful in the other, the things you found, husband, so delightful and your wife, not so delightful down the road sometimes. "Oh, she's so quiet and shy, and so tender and all that." It's going to drive you crazy five years in. And the same thing, "She's so neat, I love the way that she's so neat. That really helps me in my not neatness." Yeah, try that 10 years down the road. Are you still delighting in that part of her personality? So we need to be commanded, and here is the command. Husband, here's your command: Love her. Let your heart be warmed toward her. Be delighted in her, cherish her, and serve her. Heart attraction that results in cheerful sacrificial action, that's what Ephesians 5 is teaching. That's the summation of what's going on here.

Alright, now, we're given some patterns here. The first pattern given here is Christ's love for the Church. Looking at it in verses 25-27, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." The pattern for the husband's love is Christ's sacrifice at the cross for the Church. That's the pattern here. Now, Jesus spoke quite directly about love and sacrifice in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." It's the idea, Christ delighted to lay down his life for His bride. It was his joy that He did. Now, this cost was immeasurable, but the ultimate glory of what He's done is also infinite and immeasurable. And will make it all worthwhile. But He had to pay a price for His bride. Now, this is an old covenant feature. It's not something that happens so much anymore.

I remember a friend of mine, Zane Prat, who's with the IMB now. He told a funny story. He came back, he was in his late 20s and single, which was very strange for the Afghan men that he was ministering to. Muslim Afghan refugees in Pakistan. They were saying, "Why aren't you married? Haven't you been able to afford a wife?" they asked. He said, "Well, I don't... You don't have to pay. In my country, they're free." They're like out of their minds. "Then why aren't you married? Hasn't your father been able to choose one for you? There must be plenty of women." "Well, actually, we make our own choice." "Then why aren't you married? You get to choose your own and they're free." "Yes, but in America, she gets to choose, too." And then their circuit breakers just went off at that point. It made no sense at all. Entirely different pattern in the Islamic world.

But in the Old Testament, there was frequently a bride price. Like, do you remember how Jacob had to serve that conniving con artist Laban for seven years. You remember that whole thing? Seven years. But I love what it says about those seven years, as he was serving to marry Rachel. “Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” Can you actually imagine Jesus thinking in that way about His own price that He paid? "It seemed actually small compared to what I get." I ponder that. I don't know how to think about that, but He was delighted to pay that price. Or then you remember David, it was more of a warrior thing with King Saul. "If you want to marry my daughter, I need a 100 Philistine dead men. You going to kill 100 Philistine soldiers." I think he was hoping to get rid of David, but he underestimated him. He killed 200. He went out and killed 200. And in that way, he was enabled to win Michal, Saul's daughter.

But Jesus had to go and destroy the devil and his kingdom at the cross. He had to destroy the devil and his kingdom by dying. That was the bride price, and He paid it. He gave himself up at the cross. “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church,” heart attraction. And gave Himself up for her, sacrificial action. Cheerful because it's for the joy that was said before, and we'll get to that in a minute, to make her holy. This is obviously speaking of Christ's blood atonement, how He shed his blood. Ephesians 1:7, "In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." And he did it for the benefit of the blessing of the Church, the immeasurable blessing in the New Heaven and New Earth of her eternal salvation. Every blessing you have as a Christian, from great to small, all of them are blood-bought, paid for by the blood of Christ. What blessedness? And you haven't seen anything yet compared to what you're going to get in Heaven. All of them blood bought, paid for by Jesus. And this is the measure of his commitment and his love for His bride, the Church.

Song of Solomon 8:6 says this, "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death. It's jealousy is unyielding as the grave, it burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame." Song of Solomon 8:6. Jesus' love is like that, only better. His love burns like a holy fire, like a zeal for the holiness of His bride, the Church. And His love is stronger than death, it's not as strong as death, it's stronger. It defeated death on behalf of the Church. That's the commitment and the love that Jesus has for His bride, the Church. And He gave Himself up, as I've mentioned, because He was delighted to do it. It made him happy, ultimately joyful to do this.

Hebrews 12:2, it says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God." For the joy that was set before Him, He did it. He could see the future, how there would be some from “every tribe and language and people and nation,” clothed in white, standing around the throne, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb." And He could see it and He wanted it. He said in John 17, "Father, I want those whom you have given me, the elect, to be with Me and to see My glory. I want to share this blessedness together, and I am delighted to give My life to make that happen." It's a shared joy, and eternally perfect, perfectly shared joy, and eternal marriage in Heaven between Christ and the Church, a shared experience of delight in each other. And for this, He laid down His life.

Husbands are to do that for their wives. Do you not see how infinite, how soaring this command is? How this will search you the rest of your life? Saying, "Am I doing this for my wife? Am I laying down my life for my wife?" Jesus made it daily in terms of discipleship. “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me.” This is a daily dying to self. And I think a huge part of a Christian husband's sanctification and service is toward his wife and his family. And so daily, he's going to deny himself and take up his cross and live for his wife.

Practical application, just going to make it all the way through, just keep making practical application. Can you just be honest, husbands, how this is the hardest thing you'll ever do? Just be honest that it's hard for you to give yourself up for your wife, to lay down your life for your wife. Just be honest. The essence of the flesh is a fanatical commitment to self. All of us have it. And you're being called on here as a Christian husband to deny that, for the sake of your wife, to say no to your flesh, to what you want in the flesh to do, to benefit your wife.

Christ's death on the cross teaches all husbands to lay down their lives for their wives. You have to think consistently daily, what would most bless my wife. How could I be the best blessing to her? Does that not search you, O Christian husbands? Are you doing that? Are you thinking every day, "How can I bless my wife today? What can I do to bring her joy?" It means to deny your own selfish interests and your pleasures and find your pleasure in her pleasure. Certainly involves the hard work of holding down a job that will meet her physical needs, to be a breadwinner, definitely to do that, but it's so much more than that.

Remember, in Genesis 2:15, “the Lord God put the man in the garden to serve it and protect it?” Protect her by providing for her, but more than that, what about your time? What about your free time? Costly hobbies, I've been thinking about that. The ones where you're there all day, golfing, hunting, fishing, watching a sport, doing something like that all day long. Meanwhile, your marriage is shriveling. Your wife's just learned to kind of be on her own, doesn't need you, you don't need her. It means learning to find out what blesses her. One writer talked about speaking her love language and had these five love languages. I think that's helpful. I don't know if there's only five, but I thought that the listing of the five was beneficial and helpful to me. Maybe serving her, acts of service, maybe it's gifts, words of affirmation, words of love, physical touch, especially of the non-sexual type, holding her hand, hugging her, serving her in some way, giving her quality time, full attention, a good conversation, whatever she likes. And I think all of the above, not "That's her one." She's blessed by all them. But just to a greater degree, maybe in one more than others, but just learning how to do that.

Okay. Now, what is the goal of a husband's love? Well, the first and primary goal in all of this is your wife's radiant holiness. You should have an eschatological and end time view of your marriage. Think about her on Judgment Day. What's she going to be like on Judgment Day? How can I serve Jesus' ends for her on Judgment Day? How can I get her ready for Judgment Day?

Look again at 25 through 27, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy. To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, radiant holiness, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Christ laid down His life for His Church to make her radiantly holy, beautiful. He wanted her pure, and clean, and holy and beautiful, in radiant glory.

Now, spiritually, he found her the exact opposite of all those things. Ephesians has made that very plain, how we were enslaved to lust, we were serving Satan, how all of us were sinful and wicked and degraded, depraved, that's how he found us. Defiled. How different is that from us husbands? When we found our wives, when we first met them, they were beautiful to us, and attractive. And in Christ, we married a Christian, so there's already been justification and some progress and sanctification, all that's beautiful, but that's not how Jesus found the Church. No, He found us serving Satan, found us dead in our transgressions and sins and corrupt.

Now, I don't think there's anything wrong. I think there's everything right with a young man seeing a young woman's physical beauty as attractive and being attracted to her. That's just a gift of God. That was exactly how it was with Jacob and Rachel. He saw her, and as soon as he saw her, he loved her. That was a biblical example of love at first sight, and he loved her until the day she died. And so there was an attraction there and there's nothing wrong with that, but we were repulsive. And the beautiful thing about all this is, we are found corrupted and dead and all that, and we are, Revelation 21, someday going to be beautifully dressed for our husband, descending from Heaven, and we are ready for the wedding day. And we're going to be radiant and glorious and beautiful. It's going to work, in other words. And He's going to make his bride beautiful and radiantly holy, so He can enjoy her forever. And He is very zealous for this.

Isaiah 62:1, I believe this is Jesus speaking about his church. "For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent." This is Jesus speaking, "For Jerusalem's sake, I will not remain quiet till her righteousness shines out like the dawn and her salvation like a blazing torch." He is zealous for the holiness of the church.

Now, if you look carefully at the words of 26-27, Jesus gave Himself for the Church to make her holy, that is totally conformed to God's nature, free from all sin, free from all stains and blemishes and any such thing, anything that would mar her radiance. And it says He washed her with water through the word, the word of the Gospel cleansed her conscience and her heart by faith. And positionally, she seemed to be in justification, holy and blameless in his sight, but then in actuality, she's not. She has bad habits, she has a sin nature, all that kind of thing. And there is progressive salvation, the sanctification that goes on. That's the marvel of all of this. We're not done being saved yet. And one of the beauties of marriage is that God has given us marriage as a workshop of salvation, of sanctification, because neither the husband nor the wife are done being saved. We both need to be made progressively holy, and yet we have these roles to play.

So it says in the text, “in the same way, husbands ought to love their wives,” so we are to wash them with water through the word for the purpose of her holiness and growth in Christ. And guess what? While that's happening, you're going to be growing, too. because you need to grow, too. Same thing in pastoral ministry, there are no perfect pastors. We're growing together. And it's just such a beautiful thing. No, you are not Christ to your wife, you don't shed your blood for her. You're not the atoning sacrifice turning away the wrath of God. That's been done once for all. But now you get to act like Jesus in her life, and that is to partner with Him through the Spirit in her ongoing salvation, sanctification, to help her grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ. And you get to do that by washing her with water through the word. And this idea is beautiful. Paul talks about it in 2 Corinthians 11:2, he's talking about the Corinthian church, a local church. He said, "I'm jealous for you, with a godly jealousy." He said, "I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so I might present you as a pure virgin to him." I think every husband ought to think of his wife that way. Like I'm not your real husband, Jesus is. And I want to get you ready for the real wedding day, the eternal one. I want to do everything I can to get you ready for Jesus. That's what this marriage is about. And I know that I'm also part of the Bride of Christ, and He's going to use that whole thing to get me ready too. And this is just a beautiful, beautiful picture.

And as you do that, you're getting her ready for Judgment Day, guess what? You're going to have a better and better marriage. Brothers, you're a fool if you don't do this, because it says in the text, "He who loves his wife loves himself." Hint, hint. Want a happy life? Do this. Bless your wife, pour into her. Make her happy, live for her joy, her only joy. Do that, and 10 years, 20 years down the road, you will be a blessed man. He who loves his wife, loves himself. John Piper said that's probably the most hedonistic verse he can find in the Bible. It's like, “You want to get something good out of this? Do this.” You're a fool if you don't. That's what he's saying. You're going to get benefits.

Practically, just practically, husbands, are you doing this? Have you set aside time for the two of you to be in the word together? I was convicted by this. We have family devotions, but I need more time with just the two of us over the Word of God, I think it would help. We've not been doing it. We've been busy doing other things. We're faithful in the family altar. Don't miss, really. But I think there's some times, we could have just the two of us in the word. I think it would help. But if I could just say, husbands, get to know the word. You say, "Well, you don't know my wife, she's a real Bible person. She knows the Bible far better than I do." Well, let that not be so 10 years from now. Get into a competition. You guys are competitive. I know you. Compete with her. Don't tell you're doing it. She's got a big head start on you, maybe. Catch up and pass. Or not. I don't care if to the grave, she knows more of the Bible than you, just as long as you're both growing and accelerating in your knowledge of the word of God. Be the priest, the pastor of your family, especially to your wife. And pray for her, take her weak areas, the ones that you would be tempted to complain about, don't complain, don't tell it to some other person. Bring it up vertically to God in prayer, pray for your wife's weak areas.

The second pattern for a husband's love is his love for himself. Look at verse 28-30, "In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife, loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church, for we are members of His body." So we have the one pattern, love her as Christ loved the Church. Now, here's a second one if that's too lofty for you, you need it, it will pull you up, but here's a practical one: Just love her the way you already do love yourself. This is very practical and it's easily understood. There's a basic premise here, husbands. You already love yourself. As a matter of fact, you've been loving yourself your whole life. When you were an infant, you were fanatically committed to the care of your own body. Just ask your mother, "Mom, was I fanatically committed to the care of my own body when I was an infant?" "Oh yes. Three in the morning, you didn't care what I was going through, that you wanted what you wanted when you wanted it. You were committed to your own body then, and I saw it all the way through. It never left. You continued to feed and care for yourself, and if you were hurt, to cry because you were hurt, and to look after it and I saw it all the way through. Actually, it's never stopped.

You already do love your own body. In the same way, love your wife. That's what it means. When you're hungry, you feed yourself. When you’re thirsty, you give yourself drink. When you are weary, you rest. When you have an itch, you scratch it. Everything you have needed, you have looked after your whole life. Now, you're married. This is the pattern. You have become now, one flesh. Look at verse 31, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." Her flesh then has become your concern as much as your flesh is. You need to feed and care for her. And I'll tell you what, I have seen some magnificent older godly couples show me how to do this. Show me how to do this. I remember one woman years ago, early in my marriage, at my pastoral ministry here. And her husband had Parkinson's and she cared for him for 10 years, daily. I remember asking her, "Is it hard?" She said, in a very simple way, she just said, "It's not hard if you really love someone." Cheerful, just caring for him. Feeding. And so, that's a wife to the husband, but it's something husbands can and often do for the wife. I've seen it the other way, too. Where her body, her bodily needs, are the same as if it were your needs.

Now, the second goal of a husband's love is the wife's healthy delight. The husband lives for the wife's healthy physical delight as much as for his own, and also her spiritual delight. Their hearts are linked together. He loves his wife, loves himself, means if you're happy, I'm happy. Do you understand how practical this gets in the issue of conflicts and arguments? What ends up happening is Satan deceives you in the midst of a conflict, marital discussion. Ever had a marital discussion? We've had lots of marital discussions. Alright, you're having one of those. Alright? You are deceived in the middle of it by a demon who whispers in your ear that it's possible for you to hurt your wife and not be hurt too. He's whispering the same thing in her ear, but you're forgetting that you're one flesh. You're one. You can't hurt her and not be hurt. It's impossible. This just causes you to say, "What can I do right now to bless you? How can I lead us out of this conflict in a way that will cause you to flourish and grow, actually?" Conflicts are going to happen. But ultimately, “he who loves his wife loves himself,” means I'm going to seek a shared experience of joy. My joy is going to be yours, your joy is going to be mine. That's what we're looking for, that's the oneness. So we're no longer selfish.

I love what it says in Deuteronomy 24:5. I don't know if we can get this in the federal code, in terms of military service. Listen to this. Concerning serving in the military in Israel, "If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. Instead, for one year, he is to be free to stay at home, listen, and bring happiness to the wife he has married." Isn't that beautiful? That's such a clear statement of what I'm talking about. Live to bring her happiness, I would say, a holy happiness. That's what you're seeking to do.

Now, we've already talked about this timeless mystery of marriage. I don't need to say much more about it because we've said some things, well I’ll make a few comments. It says in verse 31-32, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ in the Church." This healthy Christian marriage puts the mysterious Gospel on visible display. People can see it. The IMB loves to send married couples on the field, because it's seeking to give a multi-generational vision to the Church. Now then, not only them because Paul was single, but there is a desire to put marriage on display wherever possible.

And as I said at the beginning of the sermon, there's one audience that's just observing all the time. And that's your growing children, they're just watching the Gospel in the way the husband and the wife are interrelating. We'll talk about that over the next few weeks. As you grow in your one flesh, one spirit union, you are growing putting the Gospel on display.

Now, let me say one thing about the idea of “one flesh.” I think it's pretty clear that the word “flesh” refers to the marital union of sex, of sexually relating, marital relations. Our nation, our age is completely insane in this. It's completely insane. Part of it, the sexual revolution of the 1960s has made sex not sacred anymore. It's not sacred. It's just a physical thing, like a handshake. Something you could do at a party with a total stranger. Someone could say, "It didn't mean anything to me, it was nothing to me. I didn't even know her name," or "his name," that kind of thing. It's insane. And now it's gotten into even weirder things over the last 15-20 years, where gender itself is being questioned, but it started with the sexual revolution. As Christians, we should not, must not be deceived. Sex is sacred. It's meant for marriage. “For this reason,” for marriage, “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.” Sexual purity is of the essence of a healthy marital union.

If I could just speak to all you single people, you young men and young women, commit yourselves to absolute purity with regard to sex. As Christians, we need to have a sacred view of marital relations. Be pure. And you married people, recommit yourself to what you promised in your vows. You said something like “forsaking all others, keeping yourself only for this one person, the spouse.” You said something like that, live it. It's especially hard in this time of Internet pornography, and other assaults from the media, and from romance novels, and other things that pull hearts of married couples away from each other in terms of sexual purity. Be zealous in these things. 

Now, let me make some final practical commands and we'll be done. Verse 33, "However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Isn't it amazing how just by way of summary, the Apostle Paul goes back and hits the thing that each gender, each person needs to hear the most? Husband, let me tell you again, love her, cherish her like you did when you were dating her. Cherish her. Take her out on dates, love her, give her gifts, win her heart, woo her, still, even 20 years in. Love her, cherish her. And you wives, you see to it that you respect your husband. Don't bad mouth him, don't gossip about him, don't talk with your girlfriends about what he's like. But respect him. And respect his authority in the home. Submit to his leadership. That's the summation that Paul gives here at the end.

I want to add some practical things. Now, I have made a commitment always to preach the Gospel in every text. Now, this focus has been to Christian husbands, but I can easily preach the Gospel. We've already heard it. Jesus left Heaven and gave His lifeblood for the Bride, the Church, for sinners like you and me. That's the Gospel. Jesus died in our place, the holy for the unholy, to bring us to God, put to death in the body, made alive by the Spirit. That's the Gospel. And if you trust in Christ, your sins will be forgiven, all of your sins forgiven, and you will be part of the Church, the Bride of Christ. You'll be part of what Christ came to do, and he will love you forever.

And if I can just say, apart to all Christians, apart from even marriage, do you not see in these words to the Christian husband, just how much Jesus loves you? Whether you're a widower or widow, single, never married, whoever you are, Jesus loves you. This is how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ for you. He died for you, He shed His blood for you, because He cherishes you and delights in you.

But now, I want to speak specifically quickly to different categories of husbands. Let me start to the husband who needs to repent. Now, those of you who don't need to repent, you don't need to listen for the next minute or two, alright? No, actually you do. You need to come and talk to me after the sermon. Say, "I was the husband who didn't need to repent." “Glad to meet you. I want to enroll in your class. I want to enroll in your college. I don't know how you do it. But first, before I do that enrolling, I really want to talk to your wife, and see if she thinks you need to repent.”

So to husbands who need to repent, all joking aside, husbands who need to repent, repent, repent. Look over Ephesians 5:25-30, and say, "Search me, O God and know me." Say, "Have I been this kind of a husband to my wife?" Were there different kind of failure modes? There are abusive husbands, sinfully angry, physically abusive, emotionally abusive. There are some of those. More commonly, there are just neglectful, lazy, negligent husbands who are not zealous about their marriages, and don't really do much, and they're just on autopilot, and they're not zealous for their wife's sanctification. I'm just calling on you to repent. Go to God and say, God forgive me for not being a Christ-like husband these many years to my wife. Lament over the wasted years, and ask forgiveness of God. And if you confess your sins to Him, He is faithful and just. And He will forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Secondly, go to your wife when she can listen to you, and you're not distracted and ask her forgiveness, too. Confess your sins, that you've been negligent, whatever the Lord lays on your heart, whatever ways you have not loved her, or served her, or been godly toward her. Ask her forgiveness. And she will forgive you. And let that be the beginning of the rest of your years together.

New husbands, maybe the intoxicating wine of your honeymoon hasn't worn off yet. Great, enjoy it. But maybe you're already seeing that you're married to a real person. All I'm going to say to you as a new husband is set good patterns. Set up patterns of Bible study together and prayer. Set patterns of praying for your wife. Go back to Ephesians 5 frequently. Early in your marriage, set up good habits and patterns. Be quick to ask forgiveness, don't be prideful. You have a long way to go as a husband, she has a long way to go as a wife. Grow together.

Thirdly, to resentful or bitter husbands, your wife has hurt you in some way. Forgive her, as the Lord forgave you. It says in Ephesians, express that forgiveness and ask her if she's holding anything against you. Almost certainly, the root of bitterness has defiled both of you. Give and receive forgiveness. And if you've been one of those neglectful lazy husbands, what I would suggest is a question that I think would be good for all husbands regularly to ask your wives. "Do you feel loved by me?" It's a yes, no question, but better, maybe, "How can I love you better?" Let's read Ephesians 5:25-30 together right now. Okay, read it. And then say, "How can I love you better?" And listen. And put into practice the things that she says. And then ask the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to give you power to love, and lead, and serve, and teach, and serve, and protect as the Lord has called you to do. There's many more things I could say, but I'm just going to close now in prayer that God would strengthen you Christian husbands to live out what he's called on us to do. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the beauty of the word. We thank you for all of the many ways it instructs us and teaches us. I just want to pray for my brothers right now who are husbands, who are Christians, who have been searched by the text today, who have been probed by it, who have been convicted by it. Lord, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. And I pray, O Lord, give them strength and humility and wisdom to repent. And Father, I pray for wives, as they see their husbands grow, that they would be encouraging to them and pray for them, and that they also would submit to them as we talked last week. And through their godly submission, would help their husbands become more and more Christ-like leaders. I pray for both husbands and wives, that you would sanctify them through these beautiful roles that you've given us to play. These roles are temporary, but they are powerful and important. O Father, I pray that you'd help us to live out the Gospel in front of an unbelieving and watching world that needs it so much. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

 Amen. Amen. So we come this morning, in my unfolding of the book of Ephesians, we come to Ephesians 5:22-24, this section on wives submitting to their husbands, and as we do so, I'm very well aware that these verses and the topics in here are controversial in our day and age. I'm aware of that. I remember some of you may remember back in 2001 when the Baptist Faith and Message was changed and there was a brouhaha over a simple phrase that wives should be graciously submitting to their husbands. And I remember that and being surprised at the surprise, shocked at the shock. I don't know how to put it. I was amazed that people saw this as an innovation or something new when it really is a pretty straight rephrasing of what it teaches in Ephesians 5. So as I come to this text, I'm aware that we are surrounded by people who will take umbrage with some of the things I'm going to say today I'm aware of that. And yet, for all of that, I have a high level of confidence. And a high level of joy in the word of God today and then what I'm going to do.

I have that for a number of reasons: First, because I just trust the word of God. I trust that “all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” I trust the inerrancy of the word. I feel that we are not listening this morning to the words of a man 2000 years ago but really what it actually is the word of God, which is at work in us who believe, and that's my second reason for confidence. I believe that I'm in a community of believers. I'm surrounded by brothers, and sisters in Christ, and I get to interact with you, my family of God every week, and I know your heart. And I have been surrounded by godly sisters in Christ who are wives, and who yearned to obey this passage. They're not fighting it, they're not pushing back, they just want to do it better, they want to be more faithful. And I am blessed by you, sisters in Christ who feel that way. And I know that next week, when I'm preaching, to my brothers in Christ that are members of this church, I'm going to be preaching to the same demeanor. Men who really want to be Christ-like husbands to their wives, they want to live out that self-sacrifice, with their wives, they just find it a challenge and they want to be faithful. And so I have a great level of confidence in you, the church. I guess the approach I'm taking is you're doing these things now we ask you and I urge you in the Lord, to do so more and more. And thirdly, I just believe that this is a vital topic for this day, this is the idea of healthy marriage, of biblical patterns of marriage, of biblical gender-based roles in marriage. I think more than ever, our culture needs to hear the truth, the truth on this, and as I prayed this is the role of the Church, we get to proclaim this we get to shine forth the beauty of the truth of the Word of God.

So for those three reasons, I have a great level of hope and joy as I preach today. My hope is that through the ministry of the Word of God, that specifically this morning, wives will be strengthened that their “arms and their knees will be strengthened” as the book of Hebrews says for the journey that's in front of them and that you, sisters in Christ, will be enabled to live lives that are pleasing to the Lord, and you'll be made ready to give an account to Christ on Judgment Day. That's my desire toward my sisters in Christ. I desire also that brothers, the brothers in Christ would be praying for their wives would understand the, the role of the wives because we get to read each other's mail to some degree. 

Wives get to read next week's passage of the husbands, and pray for that and yearn for their husbands to fulfill that and we also can pray toward and help our wives to fulfill their roles as well. My desire is that by the end of the sermon, by the ministry of the word, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit that you'll have the same attitude toward the word of God toward the law that the psalmist said in Psalm 119:32, “I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.” But there's just a freedom that comes from living life the way that God has intended and laid out. So I'm going to speak this morning to wives primarily. I'm going to say some things to the husbands that will help the wives, but I'm going to save a lot of that for next week. So my goal here is the glory of God in the health, and scriptural precision, and eternal fruitfulness of the marriages of this church. That's my desire.

So in the text you've already heard, I'm going to read it again, and this is what we're going to walk through this morning. Ephesians 5, 22-24, it says, "Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife. As Christ is the head of the Church, His body of which He is the Savior, now, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." So, we begin by looking at the issue of submission and we began to talk about it last week, I did a little work on this last week. We're in a section in the book of Ephesians, which is practical, it talks about ethics, about morality of the Gospel applied, and there's a flow, and I'm going to get into that flow again, but in verse 21, there is this command, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” or “in the fear of the Lord.” And I mentioned last week that there are some that teach the idea of mutual submission, from that, and I think that that can be a very misleading phrase. I think it can lead us in bad directions. I think that my brother pastors that do that are emphasizing the one another part and leaning on the one another part more than on the submit part and understanding what that word means biblically.

The word, biblically, means to yield to or obey God-ordained authority, that's how it's used again and again in the Bible. And so, we can't redefine the word at that point to mean something like mutual servant-hood, or mutual loving yielding or various patterns of deferring to one another, which are clearly taught in Philippians and other places, 1 Corinthians 13, but that's not what submission is. What I said last week is that mutual submission in that sense makes as much sense as mutual obedience. And so, what Paul is doing, he's saying, “Submit one another, Church, mixed assembly, this group to this one. But then this group should carry their authority in this way, and then this group to this one, but then this group should carry themselves in that way, and then this group to this group should submit, but then this group should carry themselves in that way.” That's how the chapters, Ephesians 5-6 unfold. 

Now, I will say that among at least one member of my family, the idea of mutual obedience was very attractive. One of my kids said "I would love it if we could just alternate and you obey us, and then we obey you.” And that idea was taking root, and I felt the need to kind of pull it up from the roots. I don't know if it's been fully rooted out, but the idea of mutual obedience between parent and child is not going. Hopefully not going to take root in our family, although it would be an interesting ride. I wouldn't deny that, I'd be interested in what we would eat, what we would wear, and what we would do with our time. But I think that's what I'm getting at. But obedient submission has to do with recognizing that God entrusts to created beings responsible positions, that authority is the God-given right to command that with peers, we can give each other council, we can give each other advice, but we can't give each other commands. But there is such a thing as authority, that there are individuals created beings, who are given the right to command and that others must obey those commands and they're held accountable in reference that obedience. So we're told to submit to every governing authority instituted among men, 1st Peter, same thing in Romans 13. So that's what we're looking at here.

Now, this submission does not in any way demean the one that's doing this submitting. There's multiple ways we know that that's true, but the best is just to look at Jesus Christ. First and foremost, we need to see that it is Christ who's giving us this command. It is a bit of a red herring or a dodge to focus on Paul and who he was and what his upbringing was, his mentality and all that. We as Christians look beyond the Human messenger to the God who enables prophets and apostles to speak the truth, that's the essence of inerrancy the essence of the word of God. So we're not too concerned about Paul's attitudes and Paul's training and Paul's personality, any of that behind that we see Jesus Christ telling us what we must do, and we recognize that Jesus is our king, He's not merely our Savior, He is our king, we have entered the Kingdom of God by faith. And so, Jesus has told us and we're going to talk more about this later, but. Jesus as Our king is saying saying, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. From gentle and humble and hard and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” And that yoke, I think is submission to kingly authority, biblically. And so, it is saying is my authority is not a crushing burden for you. John says the same thing in 1 John 5:3.

He says, “His commands are not burdensome.” And so, we understand that submission is not demeaning because Jesus is the one commanding he's not trying to demean anyone. We also know that submission is not demeaning to the person who does it, because Jesus Himself submitted to His parents, Joseph and Mary, when He was 12, He submitted to them and He wasn't in any way saying He was essentially or ontological below them, or that they were better in God's eyes, it's just that they were His parents and the Law of Moses commands it, the children need to honor their parents and obey them, and so Jesus submitted them though He was intrinsically higher than them, because He was incarnate, the incarnate Son of God, but in Luke 2:51, it says that He was submissive, it's the same Greek word. And then, we get in 1 Corinthian 15-28, “the Son Himself will be made subject to Him [God the Father] who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all.” So the Son Himself submits to the Father. That's why Jesus speaks in the Great Commission. "All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to Me. I didn't usurp it I didn't grab it. It was given to Me by someone above Me, namely the Father.” And so, there's nothing demeaning about submission at all. Jesus Himself submitted. 

I think it's the essence of Satan's lie in the garden to think that if we obey God's word, we're going to be robbed of joy. I mean, he's been trying to trick us on this ever since. You know, “for God knows that when you eat of the tree,” he's implying that we're missing out on something, and I think what we need to do is, instead, just have that delight in the word of God, in the commands of God in Psalm 1 in the Law of God, it says, “blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf never withers. And whatever he does prospers.” You want a prosperous life, yield to the Word of God, delight in the Word of God. And that includes, in our marriage.

Now I'm aware of how challenging this command can be to obey. So let's start with the challenges. You have the, what is it, seven-fold outline? It's just getting worse. Every week we started with the standard Baptist three points, now we're up to seven. But I think we can move quickly through these and I hope that this will give good coverage on the issue of submission. Let’s start with the challenges.

The challenges of a wife submission. I can just probably boil it down to one word, sin. That's what makes this a challenge. And by that I mean sin on the part of the wife, and sin on the part of the husband. Every Christian husband, and every Christian wife still has the horrible burden, the grotesque deformity, to some degree of indwelling sin. It's a very strange thing. It's, praise God, temporary someday we're going to be free of all indwelling sin, but we're not free yet. And so, we have in Romans 7, it's very plainly taught where the Apostle Paul says, "I do not understand what I do, for the very thing I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Now, if I do what I do not want to do it is no longer I who do it but it is sin living in me that does it." Well, that's going to be true, absolutely of both the husband and the wife. We have this wickedness, this sin that grows like a tumor inside us, and it makes it very, very hard for us to submit to God, it makes it hard for us to obey His commands. We don't yield easily to authority, we tend to fight it, neither on the other side do we wield authority well. We tend to lord it over or domineer. And pride as it makes submission very hard.

Then there's just the issue of knowledge. A wife knows her husband very well. She probably knows him better than any person on the face of the earth knows him. She studies him probably more carefully than he studies her. It's not always true but I think it's generally true. And it's easy for her, as she sees the pattern of indwelling sin, work its way out in his life for her to lose respect for him. It's easy for her to lose respect for a husband that's inconsistent, or hypocritical, or harsh, or lazy, or sinfully angry, or any one of a number of other outbreaks of indwelling sin. It's easy to lose respect for a man like that, but every man is a man like that all of us struggle with indwelling sin nature. But honestly, it's a problem because even if he were sinless, even if he were flawless, she would still have trouble submitting because she has her own indwelling sin nature, too. And the proof of that every godly Christian women will say is, how difficult she finds it submitting to Christ. All of us do. We're all on that pattern. We understand God's word is pure. Romans 7 says, "In my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I can't keep it. I have trouble keeping it. And so even if he were sinless she would still have a hard time.

Now, all of this is even more challenging if the husband is not a believer at all and I want to talk more about that later in the sermon, so I'm not going to say much about it, now, but 1 Peter 3 addresses that. It  still calls on the wife to submit and to seek to win over her husband without a word by the submissiveness of her life. 1 Peter 3. 

Also, we know that it's difficult for the woman, or the wife to submit to her husband because the world is ratcheting up the pressure on the marriage at many levels and right on this very issue, I'm teaching on today saying, “It's not true, it's a display of patriarchal sexism or etc.”. Those are the kinds of things floating around and that can weaken resolve. Satan is active on this issue. He's assaulting the wife's mind in her heart, accusing her and tempting her. He's assaulting the husband's mind and heart and causing him to behave in ways that make it hard for her to submit. And the world's system is just filling our minds and hearts all the time, and we've got to fight it. It comes in our entertainment and books that we read, it comes in news stories, it just comes in all the time. And feminism is part of the spirit of the age, and egalitarianism, and that kind of thing, and the idea that anything less than that is demeaning to the human and makes them less worthwhile. So this command is challenging. Secondly, let's talk about the power of a wife’s submission.

With all of these challenges, how can she do it? How is it going to be possible for her to submit to her husband? Well, the word “submit,” actually does not appear in verse 22, in the original language. It really is just a continuation of a flow from verse 21, which is a flow all the way back to verse 18. We need to see this whole thing in context. So the idea here, what I'm going to tell you is that the wife, the Christian wife is able to submit to her husband as the Lord intended only by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. As she is filled with the Spirit, she will be able to submit to her husband. So you just have to pick up if you would Ephesians 5:18. It says, "Do not get drunk with wine which leads to debauchery, but instead, be filled with the Spirit.” And as I've mentioned before, what flows after that grammatically, and it comes across in many translations, but not all of them is a series of participles, “-ing” words that describe what Paul means by “be being filled with the Spirit.” So they flow, and this would not be an exhaustive list at all, there'd be many other verbs that would flow from the Spirit-filled life. Like evangelizing for example, or praying. Which aren't mentioned here so there are a lot of things, but he's just giving a sample of the kinds of things that describe the Spirit-filled life.

So be being filled with the Spirit, verse 19, “speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” secondly, “singing” and thirdly, “making music to the Lord in your hearts.” Fourthly, “giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and then fifthly “submitting to one another in the fear of Christ,” "wives to your own husbands." That's how it flows. So I think to some degree, I think every English translation starts a new sentence, at verse 22, and inserts, “the word wives submit, etcetera,” might break off the flow and we don't see the beautiful power of the Spirit that comes to enable the wife to do this and I think we definitely next week we're going to need to see the same flow toward the husband. He will be able to be a Christ-like head to his wife, only by the power of the Spirit. So, it is the Spirit's power that enables her to submit to her own husband, only by the power of the indwelling Spirit and this be done. 

And so I think it's just so vital that we see Christian ethics Christian behavior, do’s and don'ts in the Christian life as they flow from the Gospel. You're not Christian, because you behave Christianly. Quite the opposite. Jesus said, "Make a tree good then its fruit will be good.” And so, we are trees that have been supernaturally made good by the sovereign grace of God. We have been transformed by the power of God by the Gospel. We are those Ephesians 1 that says, “we were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” So the wife was chosen for that and she was predestined to be adopted as a daughter of God, by the sovereign power of God. So this is something God's been working from before the foundation of the world, and in Christ, His blood has atoned for all of your sins, you are completely forgiven you're redeemed by the blood of Christ. And “having believed the Gospel,” Ephesians 1:13, “you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God, you received the gift of the indwelling Spirit,” which is a marvel to me, because, earlier in the sermon I reminded you that you also have indwelling sin. So here we have the weirdness and the grotesqueness of the Spirit-filled Christian who also has indwelling sin. So we have both indwelling Spirit and indwelling sin.

Well, the Spirit's not going to put up with that forever. He's going to kick the sin out, amen. We're not going to become perfect in this world, but He will win. We will be victorious in the end, both Christian husbands and Christian wives in the end, we will be glorious, in Heaven. And so, that's the foundation we have. We have the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God and the Christian wife has had from Ezekiel 36, her heart of stone removed, and the heart of flesh put in, and there in Ezekiel 36 He said I will move you, “I'll put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and obey my laws and my commands.” And that's the beauty of the Christian life. We have the transformation, we've been made new, we have a heart of flesh, responsive now to the Lord, we have the moving of the Spirit, we have the perfect word of God, and we see it and do it. Both husbands and wives. So that is the power that we have.

So if I can just step aside and just say, a word of practical application to you wives. I saw a book title, a number of years ago. It stuck with me, I didn't read the book, but I saw it and just that was interesting is, on this very topic, I'm preaching on and it was, “Me? Submit to him?” That's kind of how I read the title. And it was written by a Christian woman who is seeking to help sisters in Christ still obey the very command I'm preaching on. But you get that sense, it's like I'm having a hard time doing this, and quickly you can start getting into, "you don't know my husband, you don't know the challenges I face and those kinds of things.

What I would say to you is go to the cross, go to the power of the Spirit, go to the flow of Ephesians 1-5. Remind yourselves of the supernatural work that God's already done in your lives, remind yourself of the new creation you are in Christ, remind yourself that you can be indwelt by the Spirit, but not filled with the Spirit, that that actually happens a lot. and that it's only by our sin that we stop being filled with the Spirit, and so confess sins at that point. And just breathe in the ministry of the Spirit, breathe in the sense of forgiveness, and the cleansing and the power. And say, “Lord, you through the Spirit, wrote these words, for me. I want to do them, I see the beauty. Would you please fill me? Forgive me and help me.” I think that that's the key both for husbands and wives, but that's the key for a wife to submit to her husband. Thirdly, the pattern of the wives submission. Let's talk about the pattern. Look again at the verses. Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife. As Christ is the head of the Church, His body, of which He is the Savior.

Now, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. So we have two phrases here that give us a sense of the pattern, the type that the wife can latch on to in our her mind, “as to the Lord,” and “as the Church submits to Christ,” in the end it's going to be the same thing. But her submission should be similar to the submission that she yields to Christ or that the Church submits to Christ, so a wife's godly submission or husband is pattern in this way. Actually, her submission to her husband is a subset of her submission to Christ. Christ has far more commands covering her life than just submit to your own husband, there are many other commands that Christ is giving her. This is just one of many just like the husband's command to be a Christ-like husband, or head to his wife is just one of many commands for him. So, this is a subset of our general submission to Christ our King. And so, that's the pattern as you submit to Jesus, your king, in the same way in a patterned way submit to your husband.

Now we know that this extends, I think, to all submission that the Bible teaches. We will submit to governing authorities, in the same way. Children will submit to their parents, and in every case, whether it's the wife to the husband, children, to the parents, slaves to the master, citizens to government, we're not in any case, saying that by our submission, we are saying that each of these is exactly like Jesus and is sinless and perfect. We're not saying that at all. We understand that all of those authority figures will give to God an account of how they wielded their authority. All of them will. So we're not saying that the wife by submitting is saying that her husband is Jesus, or is as flawless as Jesus or perfect, it's not that at all, but it's in the pattern of that, as to her Lord, and this comes from a heart attitude that then flows out into outward actions. She submits in her heart. And then it flows out into action.

So first and foremost, as we've said she submits to Christ, Matthew 11:22-30, Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest, take My yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle and humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” That is the fundamental moment of her conversion of taking her neck as all of us do, and yielding to the yoke of Jesus, the king. We're not going to fight as commands anymore, we're going to submit to His commands. And so that submission must come from the heart. It comes from a transformed heart, as we've been saying a heart of love to the Lord, and it's in that way also, in the subset sort of way, in a pattern way she's going to do toward her husband. And then it flows out into actions that comply with her submission to her husband's leadership.

If I could just say also, this is the key for me to all gender-based roles and all gender understanding. Fundamentally as our culture gets more and more confused about gender. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. And it goes way beyond bathrooms. Way beyond House Bill 2 and any of that. It's really a stripping away of the moral confusion that's happening in our nation where people just don't know what masculinity and femininity are anymore. Well, if somebody's going to come to me and say, Help me understand what it means to be a masculine man. What it means for me to be a feminine woman or what does that mean biblically? I would bring you right to Ephesians 5. Even if you're not married. I would just say this is the essential difference. All the other virtues that you give to masculinity, you could probably see corresponding virtues similar to that, like courage boldness leadership, other things like that in a woman, and they're actually commanded in other places in scripture. What then? I think it's this pattern within marriage of headship and submission, and then extends also in terms of an elders leadership of the church in a godly sort way, in a Christ-like sort of way. I would just take your meditations there. If you want to try to understand what the Bible means by masculinity, etcetera. It's the key to everything in terms of gender-based roles.

Fourth, what is the ground of a wife submission? What is the reason why she should do it? What does Paul say? What is the reason for the command? We'll look again at the verses. Verse 22 and 23 “Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the savior.” That's the reason why. Okay, you could take Verse 22, wives submit your husbands as to the Lord, stop. The wife then says, "Why should I do that? What's the reason you're giving me for that verse? 23 is the answer. “For,” or, “because,” or “since the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.” That's the reason why it answers the question why? So in other words, the ground for her submission is his status, his state in her life as her head. That's the reason why, that's what Paul would say. That's the reason why she submits. 

Now, the word “head” is an interesting word. Let me tell you. On the issue of gender and egalitarianism, and the struggles that have been going on in this over the last two or three, four decades, almost every keyword has been fought over. I can just tell you, there are battles that are fought over, the word “head.” Some scholars seeking, I think, to evade the sense of authority, the right to command say that head means source, like the head of a river, something like that. But if you look at, I think Ephesians, go ahead and look back their Ephesians 1:20-23. I think you'll get a sense of what Paul means by the word head in Ephesians 5.

So Ephesians 1:20-23, it says, "God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,”  Ephesians 1:21, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Now here comes verse 22, “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” That's what “head” means. I actually think there's almost a direct correlation between these words here at the end of Ephesians 1, and in Matthew 28:18, then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me.” I think this is Paul's version of it in Ephesians 1, "God placed all things under Christ's feet rulers, authorities, powers, dominions everything and made Him head over the universe.” And I read it this way for the Church or for the benefit of the Church. So that's Christ headship over the church and over everything.

I think in the same way the husband, headship of the husband in reference to the wife is similar to it. It's patterned after that saying. It's a position of authority, the right to lead the right to give commands, and make decisions in the marriage and ultimately in the family. Now, one thing we note in both Ephesians 1 and then in Ephesians 5, is that this headship is beneficial to the body. It causes the body to live and flourish and thrive. It's absolutely vital for us to see that it says he is, Ephesians 5:23, says the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, His body of which He is the Savior. You see, the saving work of Christ here, he's not a domineering tyrant here, He is the savior of the Church, and so his headship is beneficial to her. So the worldly vision of authority must be rejected.

You remember how the apostles were arguing about which of them would be greatest in the kingdom, remember that? There's just so many little ugly moments there in the Gospels, we get a sense of the humanity of the 12 apostles, and the sinfulness too, and Christ’s patience and dealing, but they're arguing about which of them is going to be the greatest. Jesus called them together and He said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles, lord over them. And their high officials domineer [or exercise] authority over them not so with you, instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” We're going to see that exact same thing being said in Ephesians 5, about the husband toward his wife. So, this headship benefits, it is servant leadership, it causes the wife to flourish and grow in every way.

Now as we look at the ground over submission, we need to look at the simple indicative statement here. There's not an imperative or subjunctive here. What do I mean by that? The husband is declared to be the head, the husband is the head of the wife, he's not encouraged to be the head, he's not commanded to be the head. Nothing is said about what kind of head you should be here, that'll come, I think later in the chapter. You should be a Christ-like it but it's not the husband ought to be the head of the wife or his expected to be, he just is. We just need to understand how unconfused, God is about all of this. He's not confused at all about what he intends in marriage. He's not confused by Supreme Court decisions or by high-level academic books. He just knows exactly what He intended in marriage.

 And so, this has nothing to do with his behavior, his height, his racial origin. Even his, I would say regenerate status, it just has to do with marriage. That's what happened when they got married. The moment that she said “I do” at that wedding, he became, in God's eyes, her head. That's what you can clearly see that it's not merely a piece of paper at that point, nothing that we can do will change God's perception of that, that God sees her sees him as her head and he will evaluate both of them on Judgment Day, on that basis. So it's good for us to know that that's how He will evaluate. That's the basis of her submission.

So husbands or I can just say in an aside, to husbands embrace your responsibility. I often think of the garden of Eden after the fall, remember after Adam and Eve had both eaten from the fruit, and then there was the sound of the garden, coming in the cool of the day, or of God coming, and He's moving. God is moving through the garden. And they became terrified, because they felt guilty, they were guilty and they hid. But who is He calling for, who is he calling for? He's calling for Adam. Now it's not that He didn't know what Eve had done. It's not that at all, and it's not that she's not just as accountable to God for what she's done, because He will call her to account it's who does He call for first. There's a sense of that responsibility of taking responsibility with positions of authority, come corresponding accountability, and responsibility for which we will give an account on Judgment Day. So husband just step up into your responsibility. We’ll talk more about this next week, but it's not that you ought to be the head. If you're married, you are the head. And that's the ground also for submission.

Now what about the extent of the wife submission how far does this submission go? We'll look at verse 24. Now, as the “Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything,” in everything. So, in everything I take to mean in every topical area of life, and down to its details. So, that would be money and possessions, it would be life management, it would be scheduling it would be parenting, church involvement, careers, ministry, mission, anything and everything. You put a heading over that's relevant to their marriage. So that's the way I take the phrase in everything. So, turning around with that means there's no area that either the husband or wife could say, that this idea of headship and submission is irrelevant to that, or doesn't fit there. Basically there is no topic or area of life, which the wife can say that's off-limits or the husband could say it's off-limits. Headship and submission do not extend to that.

Now, brothers let's not be fools here. I've mentioned this before. She has the right to set her kitchen up the way she wants. She has the right to set her dresser up the way she wants. She can put this in this drawer that in that drawer etcetera. She has the right to quote the standards to you while you're putting dishes away from the dishwasher. “It doesn't go there, it goes over here, yes dear.” Alright? Put it where she wants. Don't like, pull rank and say, I'm going to rearrange your kitchen just because I can. Alright, that's not wise. There are areas of jurisdiction. And if she just has a more refined eye for fashion than you do, and if you ever have that marital moment, that I've had many times in which your wife asks you, “Is that what you're wearing?” That is a good moment for you not so much to be thinking about headship and submission, but to ask advice. Alright, do you think I ought not to wear this? What's up, you know, what's the deal? Well I hope we're not at the level of  Garanimals where you need the top and the bottom to match, but they don't. Okay, that's not ideal right now. We're not saying that it extends so, she can't give some advice, and let's get more serious that she can't confront you on a sin pattern in your life, that she can't rebuke you, because she sees sin in your life, you can't say, "Well headship and submission, you're not allowed to do that.” Your wife has the right to rebuke you for sins.

So toward the wife, this idea of, in everything means you should broaden not constrict the sense of headship and submission. Say, "Lord are there some areas in which I'm not being submissive. Are there some areas, maybe the finances, or life direction, or there's some areas where I am feeling some resistance to my husband's godly leadership." And as you Christian wives gladly and willingly by the power of the Spirit, put this submission on display and everything, you'll be putting the Gospel on display beautifully in everything, especially before your children. So, if there is that gentle and quiet spirit, which Peter says, is of great worth in the sight of God, she will beautify not only herself, but she'll actually beautify the Gospel. 

She'll make the Gospel appear attractive to anyone that's watching. Like it says in Titus 2:4-5, “older women can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and be subject to their husbands. Same teaching, so that no one will malign the Word of God.” That means so people want think negatively of the Bible or the Gospel. And then later in the same chapter, in Titus 2:10, it says so that “in everything they may adorn or beautify the doctrine of God our savior.” So it's both negatively, so that people won't malign the Gospel and positively so people would see how beautiful the Gospel is. So, a Spirit-filled submission, in everything in all the areas really beautifies the Gospel, it powerfully puts the Gospel on display. So, that's the extent of the wives submission. It's in everything but are there limits to the wife, submission? Well, the answer is Absolutely, as with all human authority, it's not absolute. It's not absolute.

The first limit to the wife’s submission is in the intensive right from the beginning, verse 22, and not every translation has this is. NIV doesn't have this, but I'll just read it as it is. It says "Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.” So, it's intensive, it's made clear it's just pretty obvious, from that, that Paul is making it clear. You don't need to submit to every husband. You don't submit to a sister in Christ's husband or to every man. That's not true either, it's just to your own husband, also the words your own your own husband, implies a sense of ownership that the wife has over the husband like the husband has over the wife. And that we get into the issue of marital relations. Basically, she owns his body sexually just like he owns her body sexually. That's what 1 Corinthian 7 teaches beautifully, it says In Song of Solomon, 2:16, “my lover is mine and I am His.” So the sense of that mutual ownership specifically in the area of marital relations. Or in 1 Corinthian 7:3-5, it says “A husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife. And likewise, the wife to her husband, a wife, doesn't have authority over her own body, but her husband does. Equally a husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. So, that's a limit.”

So the man doesn't have freedom to roam, as in some cultures like, “Men will be men, nothing you can do to stop it. They're going to be polygamists one way or another.” No! Christians have from the beginning said that is not true and it's a sin to be judged, and so he does not have the right, to do that. There's a limit there, that she owns their marital relations just as He owns hers. Next also even to her own husband and even within this, the wife's submission is limited. She is to submit as to the Lord, but he is not the Lord, he is a sinner. And there may be times that his leadership will not be godly, this is even more true if he's not a believer. Says in Deuteronomy 13:6-8, basically, we're going to say this, she, the wife, must never, ever follow her husband into sin, ever.

Deuteronomy 13:6-8. It says, “if your very own, brother or your son, or daughter or the wife whom you love or your closest friend secretly entices you saying, 'let us go and worship other gods, gods that neither you know your fathers have known, gods of the people around you, whether near or far from one end of the land of the other, do not yield to Him or listen to him.” Actually your hand should be the first in putting him to death that says In the Old Covenant scriptures. So, no, you can't even if the one you love, the most in this world says, "Hey let's go worship another God. Let me put it to you this way. We must never follow God-ordained authority into God-forbidden activity. Let me say that again, we must never follow God-ordained authority, into God-forbidden activity. That point we break and it says in Acts 4-5, the apostles, when they were commanded by the Jewish authorities to stop preaching the Gospel of Christ that We must obey God rather than men. And so, it is.

The situation with Ananias and Sapphira is a case study for this. It turns out they both mutually agreed to lie to the Holy Spirit about the amount of money they got from the sale. But suppose only Ananias had wanted to do, Sapphira would not have been compelled to follow her husband into lying before the church about the amount of money they got from that real estate deal. Her fraud was her own and headship and submission you're not allowed to command your spouse to sin, ever. So the wife’s submission to her husband must be a subset of her submission of Christ.

Now, more specifically, "what if my husband is a non-Christian, what do I do then? Well, I want to commend to you, 1 Corinthians 7:13-16, and also 1 Peter 3:1-6. I'm not going to go carefully through those, but in 1 Corinthians 7, basically, it says if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her she must not divorce him. Instead she must live with him there to do life together. Paul says, The husband is in some sense sanctified or set apart by having a godly wife. Clearly Paul does not mean he's definitely going to be saved, because he says at the end, you don't know that you're going to save your husband, but if he's willing to live with her they should live together. You do your best as a Christian wife in that situation to follow whatever leadership he gives that's not ungodly. When it comes to the raising of the children, you should raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, you should say. I've got to bring them to church. This is what's commanded. Obviously, the more belligerent or intractable he gets about that the harder it gets, I understand that but fundamentally do what you can to submit to your husband when he doesn't contradict the word of God. Your overall demeanor should be one of loving submissiveness.

Same thing in 1 Peter 3. The idea in 1 Peter 3, as he says that without a word, you can win over an unbelieving husband when he sees the purity and submission and beauty of your life. The gentle and quiet spirit, so you're not murmuring or rolling under him. And when it says without a word, it means you don't nag your husband into the kingdom. You don't manipulate him into the kingdom, you just share the Gospel, and pray, and live your life, and pray and pray and pray some more. Honestly, I actually think 1 Peter 3 goes also for the Christian husband who's not behaving well on a given Tuesday afternoon, it's been known to happen. I'm not sure how bad I am on Tuesdays, but Wednesday can be a tough day.

Alright, so there are times that Christian husbands don't behave well, they don't seem to believe the word. I think it's wrong to take 1 Peter 3 and say it's only for the unbelieving husband. I think in general, all sin comes from unbelief and there's going to be a time that every husband in here, will be, to some degree, not believing the word at that moment. Same principles 1 Peter 3. Win them over without a word. Not saying you should never speak a word of correction. I already said you can, but I'm just saying your demeanor and your submissiveness will be powerful.

More practical advice. What about abusive situations? Well, I don't think we're ever commanded by God to stand there and take a beating. As a matter of fact, the apostles, sent out on mission, he said “If they persecute you in one place, flee to the next, if you can get your freedom, do it.” And so, I think most Christian pastors that teach on this say that an abusive situation is grounds for separation and divorce and I believe that. Now when it comes to emotional or verbal abuse, obviously it gets a little more difficult just because you've had an argument, I wouldn't use the word “abuse” there. We all have a sin nature. You just need to be very careful what you mean. But fundamentally, the desire is that this headship is not abusive. This is something that feeds and nourishes the wife, ultimately the godly wife as you feed her with the word of God, as you pour into her the Gospel she's going to become a better and better counselor she's going to be able to give good advice to her husband. And she will be a helper suitable for him. So we'll talk about that more next time, but as you pour the Word of God into your wife cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, she will give godlier and godlier council.

Finally, the delight of a wife's submission. Well, the basic idea is this, and you've heard it before, but I'll say it. The more the husbands do their part, the more delightful it is for the wife to do her part. And so, next week, we're going to talk about the husband's work and his calling to be a Christ-like head. The more he actually lives that out by the Spirit, the more delightful this will be. So, “Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.” The more you love your wife brothers, the more delightful this will be for the wife. But even if the husband doesn't, there's still a secret delight that comes to any Christian, who by the power of the Spirit even when it's very difficult, obeys the commands of God. So wives submit to your husbands by the power of the Spirit next week, pray for me as I preach to the husbands. I want to say one final thing, as we go to the time of the Lord's supper.

This is a time for us to celebrate the ordinance of communion. It's a time for Christians who have confessed faith in Christ and been baptized to partake. If you have not been converted, if you're not a Christian. If you've not testified to your conversion by water baptism, we'd ask that you refrain. But I just want you to know how glad I am that you're here, how glad I am that you've heard even if you wonder “What is this, how is this relevant to my life? I'm a single guy. I'm 30 or whatever, not a Christian etcetera.” Well, if I can just say this, maybe you're here for just this moment. That you would realize that God sent His Son into the world to die for sinners like you and me, and that maybe God brought you here, not so much to hear about a submission of a wife to her husband, but your submission to Christ the King.

So I'm going to say again, Matthew 11, come to Him, Christ come to me. All you who are weary and burdened and I'll give you rest" yield to Jesus submit to him, let Him forgive you for your sins. Now I'm going to close the sermon time in prayer, and then we'll have the time of the Lord's supper. 

 Father, we thank you for the opportunity we've had today to hear the Gospel, to see it applied specifically to Christian wives and how they relate to their husbands. Father, as we turn now to the ordinance of communion, we pray that you would please enable us to hear and believe the Word and take it to heart. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, I come this morning to the first of three sermons in our series in Ephesians. We've come to the section on marriage. It was not intentionally lined up with Mother's Day, it just happened that way. And Jared, I have six points in my sermon this morning. Is that okay? So this is like two sermons I guess, two Baptist sermons, I guess. But we're going to look this morning in an overarching, overview, sense of marriage. And we're not going to get into the exegetical details of Ephesians 5, but we're going to talk some, in a big picture, about Christian marriage. And then God willing, next week we'll have a second sermon zeroing in on the wife's responsibilities in that section, that scripture. And then, the following week, God willing, we'll look at the husband's responsibilities. So that's where we're going.

And as I begin this sermon this morning, my mind goes back in time. I imagine, I don't know that this happened, but I think it must have happened back to a warm, late June day in 1863 in a Pennsylvania farm area, where a peach farmer was just walking through his orchard. I can picture this, and I've walked through orchards myself, and you just smell the fragrance of those peach blossoms and you see the peaches growing on the trees, and you just anticipate the harvest and the time when the fruit is going to get ripe. And your heart is so filled with hope. The problem was that peach orchard was near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and within a week it would be the site of one of the worst battles in history. And that those peach blossoms were going to get ripped to shreds by bullets and by artillery fire, and the peace of that place was going to be rent by the screams of agonizing wounds and men dying. And we picture that image of a beautiful garden, a rich, beautiful garden that has become a battlefield. And you think to yourself, "How could such a fruitful garden become such a battlefield?" And this is the image that's in my mind as I think about Christian marriage. 

And as we come to the words of Paul in Ephesians 5:21-33, I look on marriage as a fruitful garden, a beautiful, rich garden that needs protection. That it is a battlefield. And we're going to find out later in Ephesians, not yet, but maybe in the future if God gives us the time, how we are in a place of spiritual warfare all the time. And our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against the rulers and the authorities and the powers of this dark age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And that Satan has made marriage a special focus of his activity, a special focus of his attack. Marriage is one of God's richest gifts, a fruitful garden. You look at the book of Song of Solomon, and marriage, the beauties and the mysteries and the allure, the attraction of marriage is pictured as a garden, a walled garden with fragrant spices and a fruitful harvest that's to come. And it's just a beautiful picture. And so, that garden imagery there in the Song of Solomon about married love, even sexual love, that picture in the Song of Songs, I think, harkens back to the original garden, the Garden of Eden where God first set up marriage, and established it right at the beginning. Adam, the first man, created by the sovereign power of God, and God brought Eve into his life. But before that, God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:15. It says, "To work it and take care of it." Most English translations go in that direction, but I think the Hebrew more simply says, "To serve and protect it." And so, the man's job there was to serve the garden and pour his intelligence and his skill as a gardener into that Garden of Eden. It was perfect, but incomplete. And there were certain shrubs and plants that needed human cultivation.

And so, God gave to the man work to do and he was to serve that garden to the end, that that Garden could be everything God intended it to be. What a beautiful image for the man in his protection role of the garden, or his serving role, and also protection. When you think, "To serve and protect", the image of protect comes in my mind of an impending threat. You protect because there's danger. And you might think, "What danger could there be?" But by then, putting the whole Bible together, Satan had already fallen and been cast down to earth with a third of the angels, it seems, from Revelation 12. And so, Satan and the demons are coming and there's going to be a temptation and there's going to be danger. And there would be a severe threat to the garden and to the whole planet. And it was Adam's job to protect the world from that threat, to serve and protect. I've thought about that often, since I had those insights. And I said, what Adam is called to do with the garden, I'm called to do with my family, with my marriage, and with my children, to serve them and protect them. And that's what I want. My purpose in these sermons is that husbands would serve and protect their wives and their children, and that wives would fulfill the role that God has for them as well. And then we'll get to the children's section, God willing.

But we understand that marriage, as an institution, is under direct attack in our day and age. I don't have to elucidate this for you, you know very well what I'm talking about. You know that the idea of one man, one woman, in a permanent covenantal union, for life, is under direct attack. The Supreme Court's decision last year to allow or endorse, I don't know what verb to put, gay marriage, is I think a satanic attack on biblical marriage. I find it staggering that the justices there could so arrogantly overturn millennia of jurisprudence and common understanding of marriage, and make that decision.

In Scandinavia, in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, where gay marriage has been legal since the early 1990s, the result has been a clear decline in marriage itself. Fewer and fewer young couples even get married, they just cohabit together, they might even have children, then they move on to another partner. And so, the idea of marriage itself has become, there, it seems, passé. But this is only the most recent attack on marriage, marriage has been under attack from the beginning. But even in our own culture we see it. The escalating divorce rates is an attack on marriage. The ideas of sexual freedom, open marriage, different things, cohabitation. And then just in general, constant marital strife. Marriage is a battleground, it's a fruitful garden that has become a battleground.

Because of all of these faulty assumptions, because of various things, Tim Keller in his book on marriage related that many younger people, who we often call millennials, these would be young people who have come to their adult years around the year 2000, thereabouts, "Are increasingly skeptical about the traditional pattern of marriage, one man, one woman, and a binding exclusive covenant for life." 

Keller quotes a star of the film Monogamy. This star, a woman, said, "In this country we have kind of failed with marriage. We're so protective of this really sacred, but failed institution. There's got to be a new model", she said. Well, do you not see that that's exactly what our world is saying? We need a new model of marriage, we need to come up with something new. because that thing didn't work. Well, friends, we as Christians know very well, we don't need a new model. We need instead to live up to what God has committed to us in the Word of God. We need to live up, as Christians now, speaking as a Christian to Christians, we need to live up to Ephesians 5 marriage. That's what we need to do.

And so, that's what I want to do. And I want to go to the end of this section here and talk about what Paul says to get a sense of the importance, and the spirituality, and the mystical truth of marriage that Paul gives us there. Look at Ephesians 5:31 and 32. He says there, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the Church."

So marriage, there is a profound mystery, it is a picture of Christ's union with the Church. Profound mystery. Now, when we come to the word mystery we're not talking about something like Sherlock Holmes where you look at something and with deductive skill and reasoning you pick out the clues and you put the whole thing together. I think there's a lot of young married men that are like that. They're trying to figure their wives out. "I don't get it. I don't understand how that even happened. What just happened? Something happened. I can tell something happened. She's upset. I must have done something. I must have said something. Don't know what it is, but something happened there." So I think a young man like that, a young husband would say, "Amen, marriage is a profound mystery." That's not, I think, what Paul means there when he says that.

This is not in my outline but I'm going to go ahead and say it. Alright, you're off message, handlers running, "Don't do it." But I'll say it anyway. Here's the thing, a man is constantly studying his wife, trying to understand her. The first wife was brought by God, and He explained to Adam where she came from, because he was in a deep sleep at the time. That's kind of a symbol, isn't it? But anyway. Deep sleep, here is this woman, and he gets it and says, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Where did he get that? God told him. So here's the thing, you confused husbands, go to God. He understands your wife. She might not even understand herself. Romans 7 says we don't understand ourselves. But God knows her. That's just an aside. But what does Paul mean when he says that marriage is, literally in the Greek, a "mega mystērion", a "profound mystery"?

What he is saying is that every marriage there's ever been, including non-Christians, any tribe, language, people, nation, any marriage, all marriages from the beginning have been a picture of Christ and the Church, whether they knew it or not. And that God, when He established marriage in the garden, was intending to give a lasting picture of Christ's union with his Church. That's the mystery. A mystery then, in Paul's way of speaking, a mystery is something hidden in God that has to do with His redemptive purpose that He is now revealing and making known in Christ. And marriage is now fully understood in this way. It's a picture of Christ and the Church. So therefore marriage is important. And it's especially under this kind of confusion, this mental fog, this spiritual fog our people are in, this culture that we're in is in. We need to live out Christian marriage according to Ephesians 5 for the cause of the Gospel. So that's what this is a call to do.

So let's go to the foundation. I'm going to step back and look biblically at marriage and just give an overview. I don't think we can go over these things enough. When I do premarital counseling, and after we've gotten to know each other, me and the couple, and we have some time to talk, the first text I go to is Matthew 19. And you can turn there in your Bibles if you'd like, or just listen. But in Matthew 19:3-6, there Jesus teaches on divorce. Now in doing premarital counseling I'm not trying to be negative. "You guys are so excited, and you're engaged, and you're looking forward. Let's talk about divorce." But I'm not trying to be negative because what Jesus does so beautifully, the divorce question comes to Him, and He answers by scripturally defining marriage. So it actually is a very good place to begin premarital counseling. In effect, I'm trying to just get out of the way and say, "I would love for Jesus to be your premarital counselor. If He were your counselor what would He do?"

And so, look what it says in Matthew 19:3-6. Some Pharisees came to him and said, to test him, they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven't you read", He replied, "That at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, 'For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate." So that's Jesus' teaching on divorce, but even more significantly, He's teaching on marriage. The question that's posed is, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" The answer's plain, Jesus' answer is plain. "No, it is not, it is not lawful." And He gives the reasons why. But the reasons just transcend the question, they just transcend. So in effect Jesus says, "If you want to understand marriage, we're going to start with scripture, you're going to start with the Bible." If we could all, in our society, agree on the inspiration and authority of scripture, we wouldn't have problems on marriage. It's because we don't, that's where we're getting into strange definitions, and we will continue to have that problem.

The basic presupposition for us as Christians is the Bible is the word of God. And you can see that that's Jesus' presupposition too, "Haven't you read?" If you want to understand marriage, you have to go to the scripture, you have to understand the Bible. And so, there are dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of books on marriage, many of them are very helpful. There are lots of conferences you could go to on marriage and many of them will be very helpful. But ultimately, if I can just say, the scripture is sufficient for a healthy marriage. Scripture is sufficient for a blessed, fruitful, Christian marriage. It's ultimately all we need. I think Jesus would say that. So He says, "Haven't you read?" And it's not just any scripture. All scripture is God-breathed, all scripture is helpful. But when it comes to marriage He’s going to bring you back to the beginning. "Haven't you read that at the beginning... " So He's going to bring you to Genesis. And so beautifully he's going to bring you to Genesis 1 and then Genesis 2. 

And you learn different lessons from each of those chapters. In Genesis 1 you learn that the Creator made them male and female. Now, Jesus doesn't quote the whole thing in Genesis 1, but you know it very well. "Let us make man in our image[, in our likeness.]” “And so God created man in the image of God, male and female, He created them.” And so, what we learn in Genesis 1 is the significance of the husband and wife, the man and the woman, first and foremost, as human beings created in the image of God. Now, we're going to learn later in the New Covenant, we also learn that they're absolutely equal. The husband and wife are absolutely equal, not only in being created in the image of God, but they’re absolutely equal in being redeemed by the blood of Christ. They're equally heirs of Heaven. And so, the first most important thing that a husband needs to know about his wife is that she's created in the image of God, and then that she's redeemed by the blood of Christ. 

And we'll get into all that. So the equality of male and female in the image of God and then later in Christ, is established. And frankly, if all we had were Genesis 1, we wouldn't actually think of any kind of differentiation of roles within marriage. It's very egalitarian. But Genesis 1 is not all we have, we also have Genesis 2. And so, Genesis 1 gives this overarching view of marriage set in creation as part of the six days of creation. Or of humanity, not marriage. Of humanity set in the six days of creation. But then we're zeroing in, in Genesis 2, on a detail. These accounts are not contradictory, they can actually very easily be harmonized. It's not written by different authors as some liberal scholars have told us. But it's just in effect like a map of the state of North Carolina, and then zooming in on the Raleigh-Durham area, let's say, or on Charlotte. Because that's a metropolitan area. You've seen that state map, so then zero on the capital or something like that. So, we're zeroing in, in Genesis 2, I would say on marriage. I mean there's other things, but more than anything by the end of the chapter, we understand we've zeroed in on marriage. 

So humanity, male and female, equally in the image of God, Genesis 1. But then we zero in on marriage. And within that, we are taught some very significant things. Special roles happen. "The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the Earth and breathed into his nostrils and he became a living being" Genesis 2:7. So there was a time that Adam was alone. He was formed first, and then Eve, as it says in 1 Timothy 2. So there was a time he was alone, and he was walking around in the garden, and the Lord was instructing him in terms of his role. And I already quoted Genesis 2:15 where God gives him a command. "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." I'm thinking that is the most well-ordered, most beautiful, most fragrantly appealing bachelor pad in history. Probably don't quote me on that. But I'm thinking there he is, he's alone, and it's a very beautiful ordered place. But there's work to be done. He said he put him there to serve it and to protect it, and “He commanded him not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when he ate of it he would surely die.” So this setting. But then comes this statement in Genesis 2:18, "It is not good for the man to be alone." It is very vital for us to understand. We don't have to change the scripture, we should never change the scripture. But I hear it this way, "It is not good for the man to remain alone." 

It was very good for him to be alone for a while. How do we know that? Because that's how God did it. God could have created Adam and Eve instantly at the same time. As a matter of fact, if all we had is Genesis 1, we'd think that's what He did do. And he could have done that, but he didn't do that. Why? To create, I think, the headship and submission relationship that we're going to have more clearly unfolded in Ephesians 5. To establish the male-leadership. To establish Adam, not just as head over his wife, but actually that Adam as head over the entire human-race. And there's all kinds of theology that flows from that. So He establishes him there, but He makes this statement, "It's not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Also, it's important for you to realize, his aloneness was utterly unique in redemptive history. There was no other human being on the face of the earth. No one.

So I don't think it's good for us to take that in terms of a bachelor, or a single woman, and say, in reference to them, "It's not good for them to be alone." It may be very good for a man to never marry. There are some men that never marry. And it could be very good for some women to never marry, because that's what God wills. Jesus talks about that in Matthew 19. But Adam's aloneness was unique. There was just no other human being, and there was no way that Adam, alone, could fulfill the cultural mandate of filling the earth, subduing it, and ruling over it and being fruitful and multiple. He had to have a wife. And so it was not good for him to remain alone. So God said, "I will make a helper suitable for him." And so I find in Genesis 2:15, "serve and protect" is the man's calling. Genesis 2:18 is a quick take at the woman's calling, "helper suitable."

And I think those words are worthy of a great deal of meditation. And so the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on him, and He created his wife from the rib of the man, and brought her to the man. Such a picture of how God makes marriages. The bringing to is a picture to me now in this world of God's providential activity in putting couples together. And it's a beautiful thing to watch, isn't it? So, He brings the woman to the man, and the man celebrates. "This now bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." And then the statement that Jesus quotes in Matthew 19, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." And then it says in Genesis 2, "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."

Now what Jesus is doing in Matthew 19 with Genesis 2 is He's saying, "What happened then between Adam and Eve, that's the lasting paradigm for all time." We don't need a new pattern of marriage, that is it. What we need to do is live up to it. We need to embrace what God says about it and live up to it, and we will have a fruitful harvest in our marriages and our family lives. So, that's the kind of biblical foundation.

Let's look at the Christian foundation. I want to go to Ephesians, and you can follow with me along in Ephesians 1 up through 5. And I'm just going to give an overview of the book to where we've come, but this time I'm going to look at it through the lens of marriage. Because this is what I'm going to assert: That marriage flourishes best in the context of the redemption worked by Christ. Christian marriage is the best kind of marriage there is, and it's established on the foundation of salvation by the triune God. So, I'm going to go back and just get a context of Paul's commands here, so we understand it. We know Ephesians breaks into two main sections. Ephesians 1-3 just basically gives us salvation through Father, Son, and Spirit. And then Ephesians 4-6 gives us “how then shall we live.” What kind of lives shall we live? And so that's what we're doing. So, in Ephesians 1-3, we have salvation. Beginning in verse 4 and 5 of chapter one, “God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ.” So, I'm going to say we are able to have God-honoring marriages because we have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be Christians, and we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.

And that gives us a solid basis for an excellent marriage. And then, in Ephesians 1:7-8, "In Christ we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." So, I'm going to say we're able to have God-honoring marriages because we, both the husband and the wife as Christians, have been completely forgiven by the shed blood of Christ. We've been atoned for. By grace, we are blameless positionally before God. The Christian husband is blameless. The Christian wife is blameless positionally before God by the redeeming blood of Christ. So what that does is it gives a solid basis for the continual forgiveness you're going to need to give each other in marriage. It's never going to stop.

And I actually think the giving and receiving of forgiveness is very much the essence of a healthy marriage between two sinners. That we can give and receive forgiveness. It's based on the fact we've been forgiven already by the shed blood of Christ. And God has given us wisdom to understand His big picture. We get what marriage is about. We understand it's not just about me and you. Or just about me, that's even worse. That individualism, I'm seeking my own pleasure. No, no. There's a big purpose for my marriage, and your marriage. And that is in Ephesians 1:9-10, God was doing this to bring all things together under one head, even Christ. So there's this incredibly work of unification going on in the universe, and marriage is a subset of that. The two becoming one. Also, we have been given the gift of the indwelling Spirit. 

Ephesians 1:13-14, it says, "You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance, until the redemption of those who are God's possession." So, the sealing of the Spirit is essential to the Christian marriage. Each one of you, the Christian husband and the Christian wife, has the gift, the infinite, immeasurable gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. You've been sealed with the Spirit, and the Spirit is there to help you, in part, have an excellent marriage. So you're indwelt by the Spirit. Now, in Ephesians 2, we learn that each of you have been saved by grace. You were dead in your transgressions and sins, and you have a lot of bad habits. Romans 7 makes that plain. 

But because we walked in the pattern of wickedness in Satan's kingdom, we've got a lot of bad habits. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, and you're going to bring that into the marriage. Both of you is. But we've been “saved by grace through faith, and this not of ourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” And again, that same solid basis for giving and receiving forgiveness. I've been saved by grace. I was a tool of Satan's. I was a slave of Satan's. I did his will, and now I've been redeemed. And you can see your spouse that way too, and you can extend that grace and mercy that's been extended to you. And then in Ephesians 2:10 says, "Now that we've been saved by grace through faith, we have a life of good works to do. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them."

So, if you're married, a lot of your good works are going to be in the context of your marriage. Christian husbands, you're going to do a lot of good works toward your wife, because she's your wife. Christians wives, you're going to do a lot of good works that God's laid out ahead of time for you to do because you're a wife. And that's going to be an organizing pattern of your good works toward one another.

And then at the end of Ephesians 2, we see Christian marriage as a part of of what God's doing to build this magnificent spiritual structure. The Church of Jesus Christ, the Temple of the Living God, the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Zion. This beautiful structure that's in the heavenly realms, and living stones through conversion are being brought into that, and the structures rising and becoming more and more glorious all the time. It's a dwelling in which God lives and will live eternally by His Spirit. And so my marriage, then, serves that end. My children aren't given to me for my own personal enjoyment, but that they might be converted and be living stones in that. And my marriage is to be a platform of the Gospel, and we're to have people in our homes and lead people to Christ, because our this marriage, like this, is temporary. ‘Til death do you part.’ So it's going to serve that vision of Ephesians 2. The building of the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Church, and that's a beautiful thing. And then, in Ephesians 3, we learn that we, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we are infinitely, perfectly loved by Jesus. He wants you to know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And that you would know that love that surpasses knowledge, that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

So, a Christian marriage isn't two empty people clinging and clutching to each other, and trying to find meaning from each other, and then failing once you get into marriage. Like, “this person is not going to satisfy me, I'm not self-actualized by this person.” And then you're going to get a divorce and go try to find your soulmate, who completes you and all that. Jesus completes you, you're already complete. In Him you have fullness, and you're bringing that fullness to the marriage. And she's bringing that fullness to the marriage. You understand what that means? If you're single and you never get married, you're full. You're complete in Jesus. If the Lord wills to add a husband to you or a wife, He's not going to improve your fullness at all. He's just going to give you good works to do and the blessings of marriage and all that, but you're already full. And that means if you're a widow or a widower, and you may never get married again, you're not an incomplete person now. You are full in Jesus, and that's a beautiful thing.

So Ephesians 1-3, a very solid foundation for a Christian marriage. But then, how then shall we live? “As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received.” I want a marriage worthy of this Christian calling, that's what I want. And so, verse 2-6, Ephesians 4, "Be completely humble and gentle." Might be helpful in Christian marriage. Oh, Christian husbands. "Be completely humble and be gentle, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called the one hope when you were called one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all, and through all, and in all.” And so, in Christian marriage, you're already one. Live like it.

You're going to Heaven. Live like it. Live a heavenly day now between the two of you. Live as two who have become one, as we all are in the Church. That's a beautiful thing. And then Paul defines holiness. Saying, "You're not supposed to live like the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. Don't think about your life like a Gentile. Don't think like a Pagan. Don't think about your marriage like a Pagan." Christian husband, if you're going to have a good marriage, you need to be transformed. “You need to put off the old man. That old nature which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. You need to be made new in the spirit of your mind by the ministry of the word of God, and you need to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” That's how you'll be able to do your Ephesians 5 work, which we'll get to in a couple of weeks. And Christian wives, same thing. “You have to put off the old man, you have to be made new in the spirit of your mind, and you have to put on the new self which is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Then you'll be able to be a Christian wife. 

And now we come to verse 18. Ephesians 5:18, "Be being filled with the Spirit." And it's directly applicable to the Christian marriage. It's dramatically applicable to the Christian marriage. What do I mean? Well, He gives this command, "Be being filled with the Spirit." Be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit-filled life is a life controlled and empowered by the Spirit of God to live out these biblical principles I've been giving you. The scripture that the Holy Spirit Himself inspired. And so, to be filled with the Spirit means to be very scriptural, to be very biblical in how you live. It means to be super saturated with the third person in the Trinity, where He is just controlling your heart's and your thought's affections, and your actions. Filled with the Spirit.

The Spirit indwells every Christian, but He doesn't fill every Christian at every moment. You know that's true. And all of your marital problems come because one, or both of you is not filled with the Spirit at that moment. That's where it comes from. You will not have sorrow, and grief, and sins, and all that if you're each filled with the Spirit, for the Spirit drives out sin. So be filled with the Spirit, and as we're filled with the Spirit, we're able to do what we're called to do.

So, I want you to follow along. NIV kind of breaks it up and makes it smoother and easier to understand, but it doesn't keep the grammatical construction the way it does. "Be being filled with the Spirit," and then come a bunch of participles, what we call -ing words. -ing, -ing, -ing, -ing, -ing. So it's like, this is what I mean by the Spirit-filled life. "Be being filled with the Spirit, speaking," I'm in verse 19, "speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Singing, making music to the Lord in your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." See, it flows from the Spirit-filled life. Just like the worship does and all the other things.

So, the submitting flows from the power of the Spirit. The Spirit-filled life is one characterized by joyful worship within your own heart. Thankfulness, flowing out horizontally to joyful worship with others. But then we get to verse 21, and we get to this idea of submitting to one another. So, if I could just pause right now in the Spirit-filled life, and just say this. Do you want a flourishing, fruitful happy marriage. Christian men, Christian women, Christian husbands and wives? What I'm going to say is to be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is not magic. It involves taking the truth of God that you already know, repenting of known sin, asking for forgiveness, and praying, and by faith receiving the gift of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit. 

So here's just a check for you. Okay, just a check. You're in a conversation. One of those conversations with your spouse. Husband or wife, freeze-frame, just a moment. Strobe light. Bang. Right now. Are you at this moment characterized by the fruit of the Spirit? “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.” If you're not, you've sinned. It doesn't matter what your spouse is doing. Take responsibility for your own demeanor. Take responsibility for your being filled with the Spirit. And if you're not, then you need to ask the Lord to forgive you. You need to find out what you've done. Maybe you've already said some harsh things, some unkind things, some prideful things. Maybe you've done some other things. The reason we need to constantly be being filled, we're so leaky. Herbert said that this morning. Leaky. We're leaky. All right, you've leaked through sin, each of you. Don't blame your spouse.

"Lord, if you knew what my spouse was like. You wouldn't hold me accountable. It's totally his fault." Or her fault. No, it isn't. You have to give up your filling with the Spirit, ever. It's a choice you make. So if you're not at this moment filled with the Spirit in that, it's your responsibility. So ask forgiveness, and then ask forgiveness of your spouse.

And now let me make a direct appeal to non-Christians. Could very well be there are some unbelievers here. The joy of a Christian marriage is for Christians, but it's nothing compared to the joy of Heaven. And I just to appeal to you, if you've come here today and you're on the outside, you're not a believer in Christ. You might even be in a troubled marriage, you might be in counseling, you might be contemplating divorce. There might be some abuse going on. You may be doing it, or receiving it. All I'm saying is that I have heard so many stories of how individuals coming to faith in Christ changes everything in the marriage. Changes everything. So in the name of the marriage, I'm going to go beyond that to appeal to you for the sake of your souls. Trust in Christ. God sent his Son, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross, that we might have forgiveness of sins.

So now, I want to say a few more things. I'll give you an overview of where we're going, and then we'll be done for the day. Okay, so an overview of marital roles. The first thing I want to set aside is something that many godly men teach, but I don't agree with. And that is the idea of mutual submission. I do not think that Ephesians 5:21 is teaching mutual submission. It may seem like it is, because it says, "Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ [Or, “in the fear of Christ]”. I don't think that that's right.

They'll bring in a verse, a passage like Philippians 2:3-4, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility. Consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others." Well, that's a great passage, and it's great for marriage, but that is not what submission is. I would call on mutual self-denial. Mutual service. Mutual foot-washing. Mutual love, yes. But the only way we can get at mutual submission is to redefine the word ‘submission’, or ‘submit’ biblically. And that's the problem I have with those that teach it. They're emphasizing too much the one another part, and they're not studying more carefully enough the submit or submission part.

Submission biblically always has to do with God-ordained authority. Always. Every time the word is used in the New Testament, there is an authority and someone else yielding to that authority. Biblical submission then, would be cheerful yielding to a God-ordained authority, because you're mindful of God. It's in service to God. So, there's many examples of this word ‘submit.’ We see it again and again. Like, for example, in Luke 2:51, "Jesus submitted," same Greek root, "to his parents, Joseph and Mary, because he was a minor in their home. He obeyed his parents and submitted to them." He wasn't saying they were intrinsically higher or better than him. They were just parents and he obeyed the Law of Moses, and submitted to them. Their authority. In Luke 10:17, the demons submitted to the 72 missionaries that were sent out. They obeyed them, they left the people they were demonizing. Romans 8:7 says, "The mind of the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." So that, again, is not just God-ordained authority, it's God's authority in the word, and they won't submit. That's the essence of rebellion. Romans 13:1 says, "Everyone should submit himself to the God-ordained authorities, for there is no authority except what God has established." Same Greek word, submit. You're not going to find any example, at all, of submission meaning loving service or self-denial of any of that anywhere at all. And the examples that are used, like where there's a scripture reference, there's only one. It's always Ephesians 5:21. I think there's a better way to understand this. Instead, what Paul's saying to the mixed Christian assembly is, "Okay, all you Christians, submitting to one another is part of the Spirit-filled life."

Category A to Category B, in the way I'm about to give you. “Wives to your husbands. Now, meanwhile, husbands, this is how you should carry yourself. Children to your parents. Now meanwhile, parents, this is how you should carry yourselves. Slaves to your masters. Now meanwhile, masters, this is how you should carry yourselves.” I think it's just a better way of looking at it, that way you're not redefining the word submit. Frankly, I think mutual submission makes as much sense as mutual obedience. Like imagine that in parenting, sometimes we obey them and sometimes they obey us. They'd love that. Let's have Parent Obedient Day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Child Obedient Day the rest of the week. What would you kids do with that day? It'd be an interesting day, wouldn't it? What would you eat for dinner? It'd be kind of interesting. It's like, today you have to obey me, tomorrow I have to obey you.

 Well, that would be the idea of mutual submission equal to mutual obedience. I think, instead, we're talking about arranging yourself under God-ordained authority, and that is the command given to the wives. “Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, His body, of which He is the savior. Now, as the Church submits to Christ, so also, wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” So, I'm going to give a whole sermon to that next week, and we'll talk about more about that. And then the command to the husband is love. To love like Christ does.

Look at verses 25-30 and following, actually, go through verse 33. "Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy. Cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church, for we're members of His body.” And then these words that we've looked at, "For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the Church. However, each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”And as I said, God willing, we'll go over these the next two weeks.

Let me give you two clear implications as we finish. First, embrace your corresponding roles. I would think there are very few, especially older folks, among us, anyone of adult age that's not heard Ephesians 5 before. It's not a new thought here, it's not a radically new teaching on headship and submission, not that. Instead what this is is again, for all of us, for me, for me, it's a call from God through Paul, through the Spirit, to embrace the role that God's given you. Husbands and wives should constantly copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the Church. So wives are to take their unique cue from the Church's relationship to Christ, that's how they're to think of their relationship with their husband. And husbands are to take their unique cue from the way Christ relates to the Church, as defined here. 

And this is going to be incredibly helpful for us going forward in this age of weird gender confusion. We're having a harder and harder time defining masculinity and femininity. It's like we really don't even know what they are. And I think that for me, if you get a 10-year-old, 12-year-old boy that says to his dad, "What does it mean for me to be a man, and not a woman?" Or you could see a 10-or-12-year-old daughter saying the same kind of thing to her mom, "Mom, what does it mean for me to be a woman, and not a man?" I would urge parents, moms and dads, bring them to Ephesians 5. That's going to be your homebase for answering that question, because frankly any other attribute that you put. Like courage, or self-sacrifice, or dedication, or thoughtfulness, or any of those things are true of both men and woman equally in the Bible.

What's the difference, then? It's going to be this issue of Christ-like leadership, taking initiative to serve the Church, and lay yourself down for the Church for its benefit. That's the masculine role. And then the feminine role of responding to that kind of Godly initiative with delighted, Spirit-filled submission. That's, I think, what biblical masculinity and femininity means. So, we're going to unfold those more in the future. 

And then secondly, and this comes right from my mentor on these things, John Piper. Desiring God has done more for my marriage than any Christian book that I've ever read. In that, he talks about Christian hedonism, the idea is finding pleasure. What he would say to non-Christian marriages that are floundering because they're seeking pleasure and all that, and they're selfish, and the self-actualization and all that. He'd say, "Your problem is you're not seeking enough pleasure. You're setting your sights too low. There is a kind of pleasure that soars above that kind of scrabbling in the mud after selfish lust, and patterns, and all that, that just goes so far beyond that that you don't even know about. But I wish I could tell it to you. It's the idea of learning to find your joy, first and foremost, in pleasing God and being satisfied in Him vertically. But then finding your joy and your blessing in another person's joy and blessedness. 

It's like, "I am here. I'm delighted to bring the light to you. I am pleased to bless you." That's what I want. I find my pleasure wrapped up in yours. So both husbands and wives can do this, that we would find our blessedness, our highest joy in bringing joy to our spouse. That's where we're going, and we're going to find it directly in the command of the husband, very plainly. “He who loves his wife... What? Loves himself.” It's a beautiful statement. In other words, you want to be a happy man? Have a biblical marriage. Invest in your wife. Love her. Feed her. Cleanse her. Strengthen her, and she will bless you. So those are two clear implications. One application I would give is married couples, just take Ephesians 5 home today, and just read it together. And pray together. And if you need to give and receive some forgivenesses, and almost undoubtedly you will, then give it and receive it.

Don't be too prideful to ask forgiveness. Don't be too prideful to give it. Let the Lord heal your marriage. You don't have to earn your way back to obedience. Just obey. You can just step right up into a biblical marriage today. Just give and receive forgiveness, and by the power of the Spirit, may He bless you. Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the initial thoughts we've had today on marriage in Ephesians. Thank you for the way it just flows from the whole Book of Ephesians, and how the work of redemptions just, for us as Christian couples, just flows right into our marriages. Father, we are mindful of the fact that not everyone here is married. Some would like to be married. We know that others have been bereaved. Father, we pray a special measure of blessing for each of them, that they would know that their fullness is Christ. Christ is their lives, and that they don't need a spouse to be full and complete people. For those of us that are married, oh Lord, I pray that you would help us to live up to the Ephesians 5 pattern that you've given us here, by the power of the Spirit. Help us to put the Gospel on display for our watching children, that they would see what a Christ-like husband and a Church-like wife looks like. And that they would live that out. And Lord, all of us, I pray that you would fill us with your Spirit, and help us to do the good works you have for us to do the rest of the day. In Jesus name, Amen.