Ephesians chapter 5 this morning.
Ephesians 5 22. We'll read the rest of the chapter
and probably only look at a few verses this morning. Verse 22
wives submit yourselves under your own husbands. As unto the
Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And he is
the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ. So let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it. I think we will only read those
verses this morning, because I want us to look particularly
Did you notice the language? Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands. Well, how in the world do you
do that? What does that look like? How do we even know what
that is? As unto the Lord. As the church is subject unto
Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands. You don't
have to look to him. to find out what it is. And husbands, love your wives.
What do you mean by that? How in the world do we even know
what love is? Christ. Christ. This passage shows, first of
all, and I believe preeminently, how absolutely all permeating
the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ is to the believer. in
his life or her life. This shows how that no decision
that a believer makes, no relationship that he maintains, no attitude
that he embodies, no consideration that he entertains, is free from
the constraint of the love of Christ, or is free from the dominion
of his lordship over us. Everything. Everything has to do with him.
Do you see this here? Even our most important of relationships,
especially them, are what they are because our relationship
to Christ is what it is. Do you see that here? Paul is
not just saying that the submission of the church to Christ is a
good example of how a wife should submit to her husband. That's
not really what he's saying. What he's saying is that it's
the reason for it. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ
is our perfect example in everything. How can a perfect man not be
an example unto men? He is our example in all things. But much more than that here,
Christ is the reason for our love, the reason for our submission,
the reason for every relationship being what it is. Our relationship
to Christ is the reason for our relationship to one another being
what it is. If we don't have that, if we're
not his bride, if we're not his church, if we're not submissive
to him, how do we even know what it looks like? We don't know
anything. This is the true relationship
of husband and wife. What does it look like? Well,
you know, my mom and daddy were for a great example. That may
be true, but don't look to them to see what it looks like. And this is true of the relationship
of church members to one another. Also, I wanted to mention, by
the way, here, how do we know how to interact with one another?
To behave toward one another, to treat one another. John 13,
34, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another.
as I've loved you, as I've loved you, that you also love one another. Ephesians 4, 32, be you kind
one to another and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Just because you
put the word church out on your sign in front of the building
doesn't mean you're a church. God said this is a church right
here. And this is a marriage. What we're looking at this morning,
this is a marriage before God. Perfect examples of what love
and forgiveness are. True, His love for us and His
forgiveness of us. But much more than that, He's
the motivation of our love. He's why we forgive. Not just
an example of it. He's the inspiration in the very
life and light of all that we do and all that we are. That's
what I want us to see here. This is clearly shown here and
everywhere we've looked in this book. Wives and husbands, as well as
you are submitting to and loving one another, when you think about
your life, with your husband or your wife
as we look at this. As you are submitting to one
another, loving one another, forgiving one another, covering
one another's faults, as you think about one another throughout
the day, your thoughts of one another, when you talk about
one another in front of others, when you make decisions that
affect one another, if you are not thinking of Christ If your
relationship with Christ has nothing to do with that, if he
does not have everything to do with the way that you act and
think and talk to one another and about one another, then you
don't have a good marriage. You don't have what God defines
as marriage in his book. You just don't. This is what
it is. It's not just looked at it, you
know, and kind of try to imitate that. Yes, we do. It says it
in the in the context. You remember, we're imitators
of God. But he's telling us what it is here to what marriage is. And this is why. This is a very
important point, this is why much more so than some of my
friends, I insist. If you are a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, I strongly recommend, I implore you before
God, marry a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You young people that aren't
married yet, let me ask you young ladies an honest question this
morning. If you're a young lady that hopes to one day be married
to the man of your dreams, How is he going to love you as
Christ loved the church if he doesn't even know who Christ
is? How is a wife going to be a true
wife before God if she doesn't know who Christ is? How? You
answer me that. Marriage is a very sacred and
meaningful institution of God. You're married before God. You
give vows to one another before God. You are giving yourself
to somebody. You're becoming one with another
person. And most who go through this
don't think about that. Nothing can ever, nothing can
ever just be about you anymore. Ever. It's about us now. You don't get married just because
you're lonely. You don't get married because
you want to get out of your parents' house. You don't get married
because you like the idea of getting married. You don't get
married because you like a person or desire them. Marriage is a
complete and absolute commitment to somebody. That's what it is
before God because as Christ loved the church, would you say
he's committed to the church? And the church is committed to
him. Paul said, I count not my life dear unto myself that I
might fulfill the mission that he sent me on to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Do not. It's to give your heart
away and be glad that you did it. Never look back. Do not enter
into marriage lightly. I don't want to stand before
you this morning and talk about this thing of marriage without
impressing this upon you. A lot of young people here this
morning. A lot of people that are married
that may not know what it is. You're exchanging vows before
God. You're vowing to one another,
but you're vowing them before God. You're vowing them unto
God also, because this is His institution. Numbers 32, if a
man vow a vow unto the Lord or swear an oath to bind his soul
with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according
to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. I'm promising to love
and take care of her forever. I'm promising that to her. But
I'm promising it to God, too. I'm going to take care of her.
You gave me a wife. You've entrusted her to me. Ecclesiastes 5, 5, Better is
it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow
and not pay. And I have some very dear friends
who have divorced. And in some cases, I still love
both of them. And I'm pretty sure they both
are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. If your marriage doesn't
work, it doesn't mean necessarily you don't know the Lord Jesus
Christ. It just means you weren't really married according to God's
definition of it. There's no mistake that we can't
make. Let's face it. But don't enter lightly. into
it. You thought you were married.
You called it that. You may have even known what marriage was
and really hoped that that's what it was. And that's heartbreaking
when it's not. It's heartbreaking, especially
for you, but for those that love you. But this, this is marriage. Not what you call marriage, not
what this world calls marriage. Man has the audacity to think
that it is his prerogative to define marriage. You see it in
the news, don't you? How are we going to define marriage?
Too late. We're past that. God's already
defined it. That's not even a consideration.
How are we as a society going to define marriage? God ordained
marriage and God has defined it. And I have a question for
those who want to be married but are entering into an abomination
before God. I've got a question for you.
If you are in defiance against the word of God with regard to
marriage, and I'm not talking about something that's debatable,
if you are in open, undeniable defiance to the word of God,
to God himself and his word, then why do you insist on getting
married at all? Think about that. Just live like
animals and get on with your life because God ordained marriage. If you got no use for Him, why
do you have any use for the things that He's ordained? Just don't
even call it that. Just live like an animal and
get on with it. But if you're going to acknowledge
God at all, or His institution of marriage, it's going to be
God's way. If you don't like God's definition
of marriage, then why get married at all? Just do what you're going
to do. Did you know that a man's relationships
in his home, with his family, and in the church too, but especially
at home, those relationships with his wife and his children,
those are the true test of his relationship with God. You think
I made that up? Let me read you some scripture. The true test. Our Lord did not
say, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples, that
you can answer all the questions correctly, all the doctrinal
questions. No, it's love, isn't it? It's love. It's love. In 1 Timothy 3, when laying out
the qualifications for a pastor now, the qualifications for a
pastor, Paul says, if you want to know if somebody's going to
be able to serve God in that capacity, look how he runs his
household. You read it, 1 Timothy 3, read
the chapter. You want to know if he can do
it? If God has called him to do it, see how he runs his house. First Peter 3, 7, likewise ye
husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, according
to knowledge, not according to the way you feel, according to
what God said, giving honor unto the wife. We're not animals. We're responsible before God,
giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel. She needs
you. She depends on you according to God. She may not admit it.
She may not want to. and as being heirs together of
the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered." Have
you ever read that scripture? Honor your wife and treat her
properly so that you can talk to God without a problem. 1 Timothy 5.8, if any, provide
not for his own. And let's face it, love's not
just an emotion, is it? Love is I'm all in. You have
me. You have whatever I can do. You
have whatever I am, whatever I know, whatever I'm capable
of is yours. If any man provide not for his
own, especially for those of his own house, he has denied
the faith and is worse than an infidel. If you say you love God and know
God, And you mean to your wife, you mean to your children, you
talk hatefully about them, you despise them and you don't take
care of them. God says you're a liar. You don't love me. He said if you don't love your
brother who you can see, how are you going to say you love
me who you don't see? I'm thankful for the public worship
of God. Aren't you? You can't live without
it. By God's grace, I'm just not going to. But what you are
at home, that's what you are. That's what you are. That's what
I am. And let me say something again
that I've said recently, and I'm going to keep saying it. The contemporary woman doesn't
believe a word of this stuff. Doesn't believe a word of it. About submission, about the husband
being the leader of the family and the wife being dependent
on and supportive of the husband. Let me tell you something. The
world may consider God's way weak. Well, she's just not a
very strong woman. You know, she has to ask her
husband everything, you know, if it's okay with him. She's not a very strong woman. They, the world, may consider
God's way weakness and their way strength. They may speak
of being an independent woman. God said there ain't no such
thing. You're gonna look to your husband. You're gonna depend
on him. They speak of being a strong-willed
woman when a woman will not submit. when she will not be submissive.
They say, well, she can't help it. She's just a strong willed
woman. No, she's not. She's weak. Being a witch is
the easiest thing in this world. That's the easiest thing in the
world. That's weak. If you're going to be a wife,
according to God, that's going to take some strength. You're
going to need some strength from him to do that. Let the world say what they will.
Here's the thing about that now. I'm not going to be long this
morning because I want you to remember what I say. I don't
want to get lost in an abundance of words this morning. This is
not complicated. It's very simple. Let the world
say what they will. Here's the thing about that.
The God. You think about God for a minute.
The Son of God. the Holy Spirit of God, the God
that loved his own from the beginning, from the beginning now, and said,
having loved his own, he loved him to the end, too. Having loved his own without
beginning or end, the God that sent his Son into this world
to redeem his people, and he got the job done. The God that
said, let there be light in the creation of the world, but also
said, let there be light to this wicked, black, God-hating heart.
And there was light. The God who purchased his church
with his own precious blood. The God who rules all things
for his own glory and the good of his own sheep. That God said,
wives, submit yourselves to your husbands and be subject unto
them in all things. And I tell you what he said to
the man, to the husband, love your wife like I love you. That God we just described, he
said you love your wife the way I've loved you. If you do things the world's
way, they'll like you a lot better. You'll be up with the times,
you know. you'll be a contemporary woman or man. They'll understand
you and they will applaud you. Or you can obey the God that
made you. And who will determine everything
that happens to you. And I'll tell you this, everything
that God does, you know why he does it? You can see it in the language
of our text this morning. Everything he does and everything
he says, he does it and he says it to honor his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is not really all about
marriage, really, of a man and a woman. And you know, this is about marriage
and Christ and his church are a good example of what marriage
should be. No, this is all about Christ and his church. And a good marriage is a picture
of that. So that God can put on display
in our very lives the glory of his son. That's what this is. That's what Paul said in verse
32. He said, I'm not really talking about the marriage of a man.
I'm talking about Christ and his church. That's what I'm talking
about. Matthew 22 to the kingdom of
heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for
his son. Now you think about that. the kingdom of heaven. What's
it like? It's like a king making a marriage
for his son. And if God has given you a marriage,
or ever does give you one, that reflects the glory of that one, then you are highly blessed of
God. Let's pray.