Brethren, let's turn to Ephesians
chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. In all of our relations in life,
the Lord teaches His people to be tender whenever we have the
rule over somebody. And He teaches us to be submissive
when somebody has the rule over us. You know, when God calls
you to life and He calls you to faith in Christ, He doesn't
abolish the relationships you have in life. He actually gives
you light to understand why He ordained those relationships.
You see Christ in those relationships between a father and a child,
between a husband and a wife. You begin to see those relationships
in light of Christ. Now, whenever we're the authority,
Christ teaches us how to rule well, as we ought to. And then when we're in a position
to submit to that authority, He teaches us how to submit.
and we see it all in Christ. We're going to start today with
Christ giving us the general command for us to submit ourselves
to one another. He says, first of all, here in
verse 21, this will be our text, He says, Submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God. Submitting yourselves one
to another in the fear of God. He's showing us, first of all,
that we're to submit to one another, and in the context, he's speaking
of those who have the authority over us. We all have somebody
that has authority over us. Now, notice, first of all, how
and why we are to submit. This is the utmost importance. It says, in the fear of God,
or in the fear of Christ, as some translations have it. The
fear of God includes many things. It includes faith in Christ. It includes dependence upon Christ. It includes humility towards
Christ. It includes humbleness of mind. It includes a healthy fear of
God. A healthy fear of God. A reverence for God. An awe for
God. Now, we're not born the first
time with the fear of God. We don't have that the first
time. When it says here in Ephesians 5.21, to fear God, that's not
something we're born with. When we come into this world,
you can look at the brazen audacity, you can look at the pride of
sinners, and it tells us there's no fear of God. That's what the
scripture says. The psalmist said, the transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart, there's no fear of God
before his eyes. You look at the transgression
of the wicked, and it's telling you there's no fear of God there.
There's no fear of God there. Unregenerate sinners are not
afraid to lie. They're not afraid to lie before
God, not afraid to lie about God, not afraid to lie to men
and have the rule over them. Just not afraid. Look at Romans
3. Romans chapter 3. Look at verse 13. But you see this, Romans 3, 13.
Here's why men aren't afraid to lie to God, or lie to men,
or even lie to themselves. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of asp is
under their lips. And then an unregenerate sinner
is not afraid to curse God. Not afraid to curse God, not
afraid to curse his fellow man. Look at this. Whose mouth is
full of cursing and bitterness. Unregenerate sinners are not
even afraid to shed blood in the heart, in the hand, in the
word. They're not afraid to shed blood.
Verse 15 says, Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. The way of peace they've not
known. Why is all this? What makes a sinner not afraid
to do these things? Look at verse 18. There's no
fear of God before their eyes. No fear of God. Now the reason
men naturally hate authority And this is true. Men naturally
hate authority. You put a bunch of sinners together
out on the yard working and the foreman comes around and they'll
be real nice to that foreman when he leaves. They're going
to talk about him with one another. Somebody's going to say something
bad about the foreman. It's just a natural hatred for authority
in the heart of man by nature. Don't like pastors, don't like
police officers, don't like bosses, don't this, because they hate
God. The natural heart is enmity against God. You can learn the
doctrine of grace and you still not have the fear of God in your
heart. The same as you can learn the doctrine of Armenian free
will works religion and not have the fear of God in your heart.
A man can become religious and not have the fear of God in his
heart. And it's evident, too, in the
fact that men don't realize when they come into the house of worship
that God's present wherever he's gathered his people and where
the gospel is going forth in truth. He's there. He's present.
And men speak so flippantly in the pulpit and act so flippantly
preaching and saying things from the pulpit. And sinners come
into the house of God acting like they've got just utter disdain
for God, not even realizing God. How would you act if you saw
God standing here? He's here. That's what the scripture
said. You know what Paul meant when
he said, I was with you in fear and much trembling? He wasn't
afraid of public speaking. That's not what he was talking
about. He was speaking in the name of God. And he said, I was
fearful and trembling to speak in the name of God. This is what
the scripture says. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the
sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil.
Be not rash with thy mouth, let not thine heart be hasty to utter
anything before God, for God is in heaven, and you're on earth. We're little. We're little. We're little. God's holy, mighty. So a natural man, he doesn't
fear offending God. He doesn't fear that. He doesn't
fear speaking lies or fear the terror of God's justice and His
holiness, His wrath. He doesn't fear any of that.
But the believer born of the Spirit does. The believer that's
born of the Spirit of God, the first thing God does is put the
fear of God in his heart. That's the beginning of wisdom.
is to have the fear of God. When Christ is made unto you
wisdom, you will have a fear of God. And when that happens,
your heart will be broken and it'll be contrite. You'll be
humbled before God. God don't have any proud sinners
that He's saving. They are when He finds them,
but when He gets done with them, they're not proud sinners. They're
broken, contrite, humble sinners by His grace. Now be sure to
understand, this is not a legal fear. This is not a legal terror
of God. Christ has taken care of the
justice of God for His people. The Scripture says He was made
a curse for us and thereby He redeemed us from the curse of
the law so that we're not under that curse anymore and we don't
have to worry about the wrath of God anymore. Whenever Christ
is formed in the heart, He casts out fear. The Scripture says
there's no fear in love. There's no fear in love. Do you
fear somebody you love? There's no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear.
It says, he that has torment, he that feareth is not made perfect.
The man has been taught of God that he has no reason to fear
God anymore. Not in a legal terror. He can
approach God, but he does it reverently and with awe, in that
kind of fear. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. We've received the spirit of
adoption. We've received the spirit of
God whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we're sons of God. Sin shall not have dominion
over you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. It tells us that repeatedly.
If you're led of the Spirit, you're not under the law, you're
under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law? We gonna break off all yoke and all rule and
all authority and just be like kids running wild on the playground
because we're not under the law? No. Grace makes the child behold
Christ on the cross. And when you behold Christ on
the cross, you behold what he bore, how he bore the sin of
his people, how he bore the judgment of God. You see something of
the holiness of God, the unbending, unyielding justice of God. He
spared not his only begotten son. And you see God's grace
and you see God's mercy and you see that God, that Christ has
made satisfaction of God for his people. And when you behold
that, you'll have a reverence in your heart. And so, when we
have this reverence in our heart, it's all in our heart, it makes
us want to submit ourselves. It makes us want to come under
the yoke of Christ and do whatever He says. Do whatever He says. And He tells us here, submit
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Now, this is
important. This is important as well when
we talk about this thing of submission. If those in authority over us
would have us to do anything that's contrary to God, contrary
to the Scriptures, it's going to come between you and Christ,
between you and the Gospel, between you and your brethren, we're
in no wonder, no obligation to submit to them at all. We've
got to stand with Christ, not with them, always. Now that's
just the case. Now those in authority over you
might make mistakes sometimes. and you just bear with them knowing
God's going to overrule the mistake. But what I'm saying is if a person's
trying to prevent you from worshiping God, they're trying to take you
away from the worship of God, they're trying to come between
you and Christ, under no obligation whatsoever. You remember those
fellows that come down from Jerusalem? They came down and they began
to tell some of the believers at Antioch that they must be
circumcised or they could not be saved. And the Apostle Paul
said, To whom we gave place by subjection, know not for an hour
that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. That's
why we didn't subject ourselves to them. The key to submission
is this, in the fear of God. Look there at verse 22. Wives,
you submit to your husbands, how? As unto the Lord. You see, it's in the fear of
God. Verse 25. Husbands, how do you love your
wives? even as Christ loved the church, in the fear of God. Ephesians
6, 1. Children, obey your parents.
How? In the Lord. Ephesians 6, 5. Fathers, how
you raise up your children? In the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. Servants, verse 5. How do we
serve? As unto Christ. Verse 9. Masters, knowing your masters
in heaven. You see what I'm saying? It's
in the fear of God. This thing's not just a It's not just a, well,
I've got the rule over you, so you've got to submit to me. No,
no, no. What are you trying to get me to submit to? Christ,
the gospel, true worship, you're leading me in the way I'm supposed
to go, or you're leading me away from Him. You're under no obligation
to submit if you're being led away. Now, here's the second
thing. Believers are to submit to all
who are in authority, all who are in power over us. He says
there, submitting yourselves, Ephesians 5.21, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God. Now, let's go to Romans
13. Some of this will be reviewed
if you get the daily readings, because I wrote an article on
this not too long ago. But Romans 13. Christ is commanding this through
the Apostle Paul. And he tells his children to
be in subjection to all those in authority. Look at this. Romans
13, 1. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers. That includes everybody in authority
over you and I. Every person in office who's
over us. They're nobody. They're sinners.
It's because of their office. It's because God put them there.
That includes wives to husbands in the Lord. That includes children
to fathers and mothers. That includes the church to Christ
under shepherds and his deacons that he's put there. Employees
to employers. citizens to the civil rulers,
police, mayors, governors, the president, in the Lord. Now,
they may be making decisions that are not in the Lord, not
godly, but as long as they're not leading you away from Christ,
you don't have to raise a fuss about it. You see what I'm saying?
You can be in submission to them. Here's the reason we submit.
Here's the reason. Look at this, verse 1. There's
no power but of God. Romans 13, 1, there is no power
but of God. And the powers that be are ordained
of God. God's the only one in power. Nobody would have power if it
wasn't for God. You and me couldn't even take
a breath if it wasn't for God. And those in power are there
because God put them there. Whose is the kingdom and the
power and the glory? The Lord said, Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. It's God's glory. Revelation 1.5 says, Jesus Christ
is the faithful witness. He's the first begotten of the
dead. He's the prince of the kings of the earth. That means
what it says in Revelation 17.14. He is the king of kings and the
Lord of lords. It says they shall make war with
the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them because He is Lord of Lords
and King of Kings and they that are with Him are the called and
the chosen and the faithful. Sometimes we see one of our presidents
or you know, that's in office and we see them leading this
country in a way that is obviously a wrong direction. It's not a
good direction. Do we have to rebel? Do we have
to protest and get out in the streets and act crazy and like
the world's coming to an end? Why don't we? We believe God.
We believe God. Scripture says the king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. as the rivers of water, he turneth
it whether so ever he will. Isn't that comforting? I love
that. I know that if that king's going
this way, be it a right way or a wrong way, I know who's ruling
his heart. God. Whether he knows God or
not. Whether he knows it or not, God's ruling his heart. I can
submit whatever he says. I can submit. As long as he's
not separating me from my God, I can submit because God's got
God's got to rule over him. By me kings reign, he said. By
me kings reign, princes decree justice. By me princes rule and
nobles, even all the judges of the earth. That's God. Think
about this. Who chose Christ to be king?
God the Father did. Who chose his people in Christ? God the Father did. It was a
good choice, wasn't it? Whatever he does is a good choice.
And now Christ came forth and accomplished all the victory
over Satan, sin, death, and hell, and he did that for his people.
Now think how he did it. It wasn't robbery for the Son
of God to say, I'm equal with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit. He's equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
Paul said that in Philippians. But when he came, how'd he come?
According to the will of God, he came forth because it was
the Father's will. He came forth and He took the
form of a servant and He submitted. He subjected Himself to the authority
of Caesar. He was made under the law. He
subjected Himself and walked about submissive. Here He is,
the One who made the world, the One who made everything in it,
the One who made everybody in it, the One who's given the King
breath to breathe. And He submitted Himself to the
King. And by submitting to the Father
and obeying the Father unto the death of the cross, He redeemed
His people from all iniquity. Completely saved us from all
iniquity. And now He sits on the throne
of God and He reigns supremely as the God-man mediator. There's a man seated there who's
God and that God is man in one person ruling everything that
happens in this earth and He's doing it specifically only for
His people. That's who He's doing it for.
You can find comfort there. You can rest there if you know
Him. If you're His enemy, you hate
it, and you're up to because you're not going to win. You're
not going to win. Listen to this. Turn over to
Jeremiah 27. You know history. If you know
history, you know this, that nations that were one time in
power, Just like the United States, for the past century, for the
past 100 years, this has been the ruling nation in the world.
I'm not sure that's going to be the case in the next century.
I think China might be. Really. And people, I had a man
tell me one day, he said, oh, you can't say anything like that.
He said, this is America. Look into history. Nations that
ruled the world aren't even in existence anymore. You think
a nation just because they're ruling power is going to last
forever? Think of some of them ruled 600 years. They thought
we'll never be out of power. You don't even know who they
are now. You don't even know who they are. Who does that? Who brings them up and puts them
down? One time in history, Babylon rose to power. And every nation
that was anybody came under the power of Babylon. And Babylon
ruled everybody, including Israel and Judah. Who did that? Who
did that? God told Jeremiah. Now get what
he told him. He said, you take a yoke and
put it on your neck, a real yoke, and walk around with it. And
when people ask you, what's that mean? You tell them this. And
here's what he told them. Look here, Jeremiah 27. And look
at verse 2. Thus saith the Lord to me, Make
thee bonds and yokes, put them upon thy neck, and send them
to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king
of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king
of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem,
and to Zedekiah king of Judah. And command them to say unto
their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.
He said, you send these messengers back to all these kings of all
these different nations. And here's what God said. Now
you tell them this. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, thus shall
you say to your masters, I have made the earth, the man and the
beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched
arm. And I've given it unto whom it
seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these
lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. And the beasts of the field have
I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him,
and his son and his sons' sons, until the very time of his land
come. And then many nations and great
kings shall serve themselves of him. God said, I'm going to
raise him up and y'all are going to serve him until the time I've
appointed. Then you're going to serve him
or then he's going to serve you. He raises up and he brings down.
Now watch this. He says, And it shall come to
pass that the nation and kingdom which shall not serve the same
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and it will not put their neck
under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish,
saith the Lord, and the sword and the famine and the pestilence. You mean God's in control of
all that? All that? I will send the sword, the famine,
the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. I'll make sure Nebuchadnezzar
wins, he said. Therefore hearken not ye to your
prophets. God said, going down the page,
He said, I didn't send them. He said, I didn't send them.
Now watch this. Hearken not to your prophets
and to your diviners, Why do they have to have a diviner if
they got a preacher? Because the preacher is never enough
to a carnal man. He got to have his fortune tellers too. Your
diviners, nor your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to
your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, You shall not serve
the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove
you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you
should perish. But the nations that bring their
neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those
will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord, and
they shall till it and dwell therein. Now you know what our
Lord's telling to us in Romans 13 and in Ephesians 5? He's telling
you and me what he told Jeremiah. He's saying, you put this yoke
of Christ on your neck and you walk around submitting to the
men and authority in this world. And as you do that, you're telling
men in this world, God is ruling the nations. God is ruling man. God is ruling beast. God is ruling
everybody in this earth. I don't have to fear. I don't
have to fear what man's doing. I don't have to fear what the
beasts are doing. I don't have to fear what men
are fearing. Because this is the truth of the matter. He changeth
the times and the seasons. That's Daniel 2.21. God changes
the times and the seasons. He removes kings and sets up
kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise
and knowledge to them that know understanding. He reveals the
deep and secret things. He knows what's in the darkness
and the light dwells with Him. So when they behold us not fretting
and worrying and getting all beside ourselves and worrying
we're going to run out of water and worrying fearful that the
seasons are going to change and fearful that all this different
stuff is going to happen and fearful that this nation and
that nation and this ruler and that ruler and we're not fearful
of that stuff. Why? Because our king has said
submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Don't be
fearful of them. Fear God. We can't fear both. Did you know that? We're going
to either exalt Christ and sanctify Him as high and lifted up as
ruling everybody and everything in this earth or we're going
to exalt a man and say, I'm so fearful what He's going to do. Exalt the God who's over that
man. Praise the God who's over that man and over that nation
and over that people and you can submit yourselves to the
powers that be. Now, go back to Romans 13 just
a minute. Since there's no power, no order,
no law but of God, therefore if we resist the powers that
be, we resist the laws of the land, we're resisting the order
and the command of God. Look here, Romans 13, 2. Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.
When we go in Ephesians, we're going to see this, that we either
obey or we disobey as unto the Lord. Whatever, when the Lord
says that, he doesn't mean it says if you're obeying the Lord
or you're disobeying the Lord. He means when you obey or disobey
those in authority over you, you are obeying or disobeying
God himself, Christ himself. That's just how it is. That's
plain and simple. Now, God's going to see to it
that his child is going to be corrected. Look here in verse
2. He says, and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. Now, don't be I don't know. Maybe you should be afraid of
that word damnation. What it means is we're going to receive,
if you're his child and you're disobeying those in authority
over you, God's going to use that office or some other office. He's going to use somebody in
the land, but God's going to see to it you're corrected. You're
going to see to it you're corrected. You're going to be chastened. What I'm saying is that officer
is going to give you a ticket or that judge is going to give
you a sentence or whatever, but it's going to happen. But behind
it, the first cause of it, it'll be God doing the chastening.
It's God that's doing the chastening. He's going to chasten his child.
And if a person be a rebel and come up against one of God's
anointed, And, you know, I'm not going to bow. I'm not going
to hear out. We're as holy as you are. God opened up the earth
and just swallowed up Korah and Abiram and his company. And they
died just like that. God, just like I told you the
other day, I said God can kill us and us not even know he's
done it. He don't have to drop you dead in your tracks. And
he can open up the earth and swallow you up in the earth and
you not even know he's done it either. Just all of a sudden
you gradually start want to go off into the world and love the
world and you just swallowed up in the world. That's that's
what he'll do for a man who's rebel rebel rebel rebel. I won't
have God reign over me. We'll see about that. God said
yes he will. He will reign. And if we meet
God in that condition then he will punish us in damnation for
everlasting. But God's going to have his child
to come into submission to him. That's what he's going to do.
Now look, if we don't want to be called out, if we don't want
to be chastened by God, you know what the best thing to do is?
What do your parents tell you a hundred times when you're growing
up? Just do what I say. Just do what
I say. Look here, verse 3. Rulers are
not a terror to good works, but to the evil. You do that which
is lawful and right, you don't have to worry about anybody.
It's when you start breaking their rules, that's when you
got trouble. Will thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that
which is good. Now first and foremost, who's
the power? Christ is the power. He's got all power in heaven
and earth. First and foremost, Come to Christ. Bow down to Christ.
Worship Christ. He's not a terror to that good
work. That's the good work that God
has before ordained that His people walk in. And everyone
of them is going to. They're going to be brought to submit
to Christ in saving faith and cast their care into His hand.
And that's... He praises His people for that.
How? He gives them righteousness,
holiness, protection, Glorification, growth in grace, He gives them
everything they need. But now if you resist Him, if
you resist Him, it's a different story altogether. And then the
same goes for powers in the earth. Submit to Him. Look here, in
submission to God, to Christ our God and our Savior, to those
He places in authority, to one another, we always find good
being ministered unto us. It's always the case. Verse 13,
do that which is good, And thou shalt... I mean, Romans... Romans
3, 3. He says, Do that which is good,
and thou shalt have... I'm sorry, Romans 13, 3 is what
I'm trying to say. Do that which is good, and thou
shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God
to thee for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword
in vain. For he is the minister of God. A revenger. to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil. Now, if we have any hard obedience
in this earth to a man that's in authority, whoever's in authority,
or if we have hard obedience to God, who gets the glory for
that? God does. We don't get to pat ourselves
on the back for anything. If you do what you're supposed
to do in this earth, God gets the praise and the glory. It's
His grace alone that made you do it. But if we don't do that
which we ought in this world, We're the ones who did it. We're
the ones who did it. We did it. And we ought not go
around blaming God's authority and blaming God's messenger and
blaming God's minister. Whoever capacity civil law wherever
he's at because if the police writes the ticket or the judge
writes a sentence passes a sentence who's really doing it. God's
doing it. God's doing it. God's doing Why will you go through life
in terror? He said if you do that which is evil, you're going
to have terror. Why go through life in terror? Why go through life
knowing if I meet God right now, I'm going to be cast out? He has to draw you. He has to
give you a heart. He has to give you faith. He
has to give you repentance. He does it all. He gets the glory
if you come to Him. And if you come to Him, you want
Him to have the glory. That's just how grace works.
And if we don't, there's nobody to blame but us. But my question
to you is, has He made you want to? Has
He made you come to your senses to realize, I'm under the wrath
of God if I meet God right now. Why go through life in terror? Why go through life in terror?
Alright, a few more things here. Look here. Why then must we submit
ourselves one to another? Why then? Look at verse 5. Wherefore
you must needs be subject. Not only for wrath, but for conscience
sake. We must need to be subject. God
says that's not an option. We must need to be subject. We've
got to be subject to Christ and everybody that he's put in authority. That's not even a question. We
must need to be in subjection. Now, why must we needs be in
subjection? Well, for one, God's just and
we're going to receive that which is just. If God saves a sinner
in mercy, that's just mercy because he sent his son to put away the
sin of his people and declare God just so that he could justify
you and show you mercy in a way in accordance with his justice.
It's just mercy. And if we meet God and He casts
us out, that's just condemnation. God's just. That's what He means
by not only for wrath's sake, not only for the fact that you're
going to receive justice, if you disobey, you're going to
receive justice. And not only for that reason must we be in
subjection, but here's the reason. Number one, for conscience's
sake. What's He mean by that? It means
because you consciously know God's the one in authority. Because
you and your conscience know God's the one ruling. And it's
God you're disobeying. And he says, for conscience sake,
toward God. What he's saying there is for
the sake of Christ that you know in your conscience. That's why
we submit. That's more important than anything
else. For His sake. For His sake. Alright, now we're going to We're
going to go through, Lord willing, next time we're going to start
looking at each individual relationship. And I hope you'll be here because
we're going to look at wives to husbands. And we're not going
to just look at these in just the bare letter. We want to see
Christ in it. We want to see Christ in it.
We're going to look at husbands to wives in a couple of weeks.
We'll look at children to parents. We'll look at fathers to children.
Employees to employers and employers to employees. We'll cover all
the relationships. But we're going to see these
in light of Christ and see how they get their glory from Christ. Because every one of them has
a picture of Christ in it. Every one of them. All right.
I hope you'll be here for those. Try not to miss them. Let's stand
together. Heavenly Father, we do ask you
to have mercy on us. We're rebels at heart in our
old nature. We pray, Lord, you would give
grace to our inward man and make us truly submissive. Make us
truly be obedient, good citizens. Make us be faithful to one another
in the Lord's house, amongst the Lord's people. Make us to
be a light in this world for Christ's sake. Fill our conscience. Make us understand, Lord, that
this is for your glory, your honor. Lord, forgive us our sins. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.