But as I began to say, I want
to direct you, Helen and Ed, to these three simple words,
this very short portion of Holy Scripture that we find in Ephesians
chapter 5, at the beginning of verse 2. And the words are, walk
in love. I'll read the whole verse, and
walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for us with
smelling savour. And first of all to say something
of divine love, that love that is really being spoken of, the
love of God. When we think of God, and love,
we're not to think of love simply as an attribute in God. Of course God has many attributes. He's holy, He's righteous, He's
just, He's good and so forth. But love is more than an attribute. Love really is the very nature
of God. We read that passage in the 4th
chapter of 1st John and twice the Apostle says there, God is
love. God His love. And we see it so
clearly when we think of the doctrine of the God, the doctrine
of the Trinity. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of the Father, we are told, in truth and love. Remember how Christ speaks in
the book of Proverbs there in the 8th chapter? Then was I by
Him as one brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him. And when the Son of God in the
fullness of time appears, as God incarnate, God manifests
in the flesh, He declares so clearly there in the Gospel,
I love the Father. He loves the Father. And the
Holy Ghost also. He is referred to by Paul as
the Spirit of Love. the relationship between the
three persons, the father loving the son, the son loving the father,
the father and the son loving the Holy Spirit without any reference
to anything outside of himself. God in his very nature is the
God of love. And the wonderful thing is to
us that that love of God is demonstrated. Here is a God who reveals himself,
a God who makes himself known. And how does he demonstrate his
love? Well, we see it in the context
here of the words that I read in this second verse of Ephesians
5. And walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour." How God demonstrates
His love. There is, of course, the love
of the Father. And again, we saw it in that
portion that we were reading in the fourth chapter of 1 John,
here in His love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Propitiation, that's a long word.
It's a Bible word. It's a word also that's full
of remarkable doctrinal truth. There's another word we sometimes
use when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice,
it was a propitiation, it was also what's termed an expiation
and when we think of those two words they are quite different
maybe similar in sounding but expiation is a word that refers
to what sin has done to us the guilt that's associated with
our transgressions of God's law the wickedness of our lives and
that guilt needs to be expiated and that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done of course by the shedding of his precious
blood but when we think of that other word and it's there in
that portion that we read as I said here in his love not that
we love God but he sent his son to be the propitiation the propitiation
for our sins and that word really reminds us of how sin has an
effect upon God because God is angry with the wicked all God's
wrath must be must be satisfied there's nothing sentimental there's
nothing sloppy when we think about the love of God His love
is a sacrificial love because He is a holy God and a just God
And His law demands a ransom. And God has given His only begotten
Son to make that price, that great ransom price. We're told,
aren't we, when the fullness of the time has come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem,
to pay the ransom price for those who were under the law, to satisfy
all the demands. of what the law says, the soul
that sinneth it shall die and Christ dies in the sinner's place
and dies a just for the unjust to bring sinners to God. There
is the love of God demonstrated in the gift of His only begotten
Son. But then there's also the love
of the Son and surely that's what is really spoken of in this
verse. Walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savour. For the Lord Jesus, He comes
and He loves the Father and He obeys all the will of the Father. He says as much, I love the Father
and as the Father gave me commandments, even so I do. Oh, he shows his
love for the Father by his obedience to what the Father had commanded. And what was that? Well, he was
to be obedient unto death. And we see it there in Philippians
chapter 2, he became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Because he would obey the will
of the Father, he died voluntarily, he died willingly, He says as
much, doesn't it? Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
one might take it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. And I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. Oh, he loves the
Father. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
one who also loves the church he loves the church do we not
have it here in this very chapter where our text is found there
at the end of verse 25 Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it he wasn't simply motivated by that love that he
bore towards the Father but he also loved the church. And we are told, having loved
his own which were in the world, even those that the Father had
given to him in the eternal covenant, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. And so we pay that dreadful
penalty. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. All the wonder, the
wonder then of that love that is being spoken of in this verse. It's the love of God, it's the
love of the Father, it's the love of the Son, it's the love
of the Holy Ghost, it's the love of all the persons in the Godhead. Now that is the doctrine that
we see here in the verse. Martin Luther said doctrine is
heaven. And it is well worth our thinking upon these things,
meditating upon these precious truths. But let us come to the
practicality. The Bible isn't just doctrine.
There's doctrine, there's experience in scripture, there's practice.
And what is a practice? Well, here we have a biblical
pattern in this chapter. When I met with Ed and Helen
earlier in the month and we were discussing today and marriage
and so on I read with them from this fifth chapter there at verse
22 through to the end of course the apostle has much to say with
regards to the marriage union it's a great passage and what
we have said before us in the end of this chapter is the biblical
pattern of marriage And I mentioned that to both Ed and Helen when
we met together that particular Saturday morning. And what we
see when we read the Word of God with regards to that relationship
between a man and his wife is what is often referred to as
complementarianism. We reject so much of what this
world has to say. We reject feminism. Each have complementary roles
when it comes to marriage. And that's what we see, surely,
here at the end of this particular chapter. I read just now those
words at the end of verse 25. But at the beginning of that
verse, what does Paul say? He says, For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is
the saviour of the body. And then he goes on, verse 25,
husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it. There is the exhortation then
to the husband, he is to love his wife as the Lord Jesus Christ
loves the church. And of course Paul goes on to
speak Even more explicitly, later on in the chapter, verse 28,
he says, "...so ought men to love their wives as their own
bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the Church. For we are members of his body,
and of his flesh, and of his bones." The pattern that's set
before the husband then is that of the love of Christ. And that
love of the Lord Jesus Christ is of course a perfect love,
a perfect love. There's no fault in the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's almost impossible therefore for
the husband to attain what the apostle is speaking of. And yet,
here it is on the page of Holy Scripture. But then, what of
the wife? Well, I said to Helen, we have
words here, of course, again in the same portion of verse
22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord, and then he says the husband
is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the
church and he is the saviour of the body therefore as the
church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything. The roles are quite distinct
and quite complementary. Peter also speaks of the wives,
doesn't he? Likewise he says be in subjection
to your own husband that if any obey not in word, they also may
without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while
they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. All Paul is setting before us,
Peter the same, what God has set forth as the correct pattern
with regards to married life. And here There's no doubt at
all that the Apostle is speaking of Christian marriage. He's speaking
of Christian marriage. When we come to the end of the
chapter, he says, this is a great mystery. But I speak concerning
Christ and the Church. Now, I believe each of you, you
too as a young couple, you would wish and desire to live as Christians
should live. And so walk in love. Walk in love. And it's Christian
love. You're probably aware, many of
you, that there are a number of words in the original Greek
here that can be translated as love. And this is the greatest
of all those words. It's that word that's used repeatedly
in 1 Corinthians 13. It's the word agape. And it really
speaks of the love of God. walk in Christian love. And Christ the Lord says to us
quite clearly, if you love me, if you love me, keep my commandments. Or remember what the Lord himself
says when we refer to those words in the Gospel, I love the Father,
and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. If we love the
Lord Jesus Christ, Surely we must do the things that the Lord
Jesus Christ commands of us. That's the expression, the manifestation
of our love. We love His promises. All those
promises of the Lord, they're exceeding great and precious
promises. But we must also love His precepts. to love the commandments of the
Lord as we love the promises of the Lord. As you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, says Paul to the Colossians. And if we're walking in Him,
we're walking in the way which He has appointed, which He has
commanded for us. We're not to be partial. We're
never to be partial in the Word of God. Back in the prophecy
of Malachi We see how the faithful prophet rebukes the priests. He rebukes the priests there
in Israel. Why? He says, you have been partial
in the law. They were partial in the law.
They received some commandments, but they didn't take any account
of other commandments. Well, we're to take all the commandments.
But here we don't just have biblical pattern. and exhortation and
commandment, this expression, walk in love, it's certainly
an imperative, it's a command, it's a precept, walk in love,
but there's also motivation, isn't there? This is the way
of Paul. He doesn't just lay the bare commandment before the
Ephesians. He tells them if they're walking
in love, here is something to motivate them, as Christ also
has loved us. that sacrificial love of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that is to be the mark of those who are
the Lord's people. Or Paul can say again elsewhere,
the love of Christ constraineth us. And I pray that the love
of Christ might constrain each of you to desire to walk in all
holy obedience to the commandments of the Lord. This is the love
of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
greedless. These commandments are good commandments.
That law which God has given us is holy. The commandment is
holy and just and good. These gospel precepts, they are
precious just as the promises are so precious. Well, I've said
much really about the needs to heed the exhortation, the commandment
of the Lord, but I don't want you to go away thinking that
by living such a life as that we are able to do anything to
save ourselves. There's no salvation in anything
that we do. Any of our own work, you know
that, I'm sure. We're all as an unclean thing.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all fade like
the leaves and our iniquities like the wind. They carry us
away. Or the only hope of the sinner,
of course, is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great
sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ has made and that righteousness
that he wrought by the obedience of his sinless life and to have
that desire that Paul had to be found in him, he says, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is with the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. But if we know anything of the
Lord Jesus Christ and if we love Him, we will desire to walk in
love and walk in obedience to all those holy commandments. Well, I leave those three words
with you, Ed and Helen, walk in love and the Lord bless you
and keep you. Let us now sing our concluding
praise, the last hymn on the sheet. Praise to the Lord, the
Almighty, the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He
is thy health and salvation. All you here, brothers and sisters
drawn near, praise Him in glad adoration. The last hymn on the
sheet.