We're going to look at Ephesians,
but you can first turn to Ezekiel. I'll let you be finding an old
book of Ezekiel, a big book, the Old Testament, Ezekiel 36. There's someone out to get you. There's someone out to ruin you.
They have to destroy you, your mind, your body, your soul, your
heart, your marriage, your home, your family, this church. And that someone is you, yourself,
self. Everyone by nature loves himself. We love ourselves more than anyone
else. That's the reason the Lord one time says, love your neighbor
as yourself. Everyone is out for themselves.
We pity ourselves more than anybody. We defend ourselves at all cost,
right or wrong. We justify ourselves, don't we? And we're defending a bad man. At the end of Luke 18, the Lord
said, if you exalt yourself, you will be amazed. That is,
if you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. The Lord said, if any man comes
after me, First thing, he said, let him deny himself, deny self. Paul wrote, and we may look at
it Wednesday night, 2 Timothy 3. He said in the last days,
the last day, now, perilous times, the first thing he said is men
should be lovers of their own selves. It's all about men. But now when somebody is born
of God, When there's this new creature, and it's so. It's just
the scripture. It's the truth. When this new
creature, born of God, begotten of God, born again. Our Lord's
the one that said that. Born of God, begotten of God,
by His word, by His truth, by His gospel, a new man, a new
creature in Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Here's what happened. Look at Ezekiel 36. Now look
at this, verse 21. The Lord said, I had pity for
my holy name's sake with the house of Israel. That's his elect.
I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had
profaned among the heathen. That was us, everyone. Verse 22, therefore say under
the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for
your sakes, O house of Israel. But for mine holy name, say,
that you have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among
the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them. And the
heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. I chose you, like Isaiah 43,
that you may know me, that I am he. He said, I'm going to take
you, verse 24, from among the heathen. Verse 25, I'll sprinkle
clean water upon you. You shall be clean from all your
filthiness and your idleness. I will cleanse you. Verse 26,
a new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put
within you. Verse 27, I'll put my spirit
within you because you didn't walk in my statue. You dwell
in the land. Verse 28, verse 29, I'll save
you from all your cleanliness. Verse 30, I'll multiply the fruit. And verse 31, Then shall you
remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good,
and you shall loathe yourselves. When God does this work, he causes
someone who loves himself to loathe himself. You know what
I mean. That old man. He needs to die. He needs to
die. That old man is a madman. He's a fool. He's crazy. There
was a years ago a man with a farm and
had one son. And the boy had a dog. His name
was Ship. He was a sheepdog. He named him
Ship. And the boy came in one day to his dad. He was troubled. And the boy said, Dad, something's
wrong with the ship. He said, he growled at me. Went
to see him. He growled at me. He's never
done that before. He said, hey, Dad, he's got a wild look in
his eye. He said, Dad, he's kind of foaming
at the mouth. And the father listened to that.
And as he was talking, the father went up over the fireplace, the
mantel, and there was a shotgun, double-barrel shotgun, hanging
there. And he reached and grabbed the shotgun and got it down and
looked at the open chamber, looked in it, and a couple of shells.
He said, Dad, what are you doing? Boy, Dad, what are you doing?
He said, son, the ship's gone mad. He's a mad dog. He said, son, I've got the kill
ship. or else he'll kill you. And it is old man in us that's
got to be killed or he'll kill us. You don't want to be left
to yourself. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. All kind of self-help books today,
aren't they? Our self doesn't need help. It
needs a killer. And they'd kill her. I listened
again. What made me want to now go to
Ephesians with me. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. After hearing someone tell me
about their marital problems again. And there's lots of them. Anybody that's married is going
to have problems. And you know, the divorce rate's
about 50% or more. And after hearing someone talk
to me distraught over their marital woes and problem, I began to
read Ephesians 5, Husbands and Wives. I was going to bring a
message on that, but I began to read it all. And it says something
for everybody here. Everybody. And I listened again
to a message by my pastor that I recommended to you years ago
on submission, the key to happiness. Do you remember that? I listened
to it again. And look at verse 21. He said, This is the key to happiness.
This is the key. This is salvation. Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Submitting yourself.
Bowing to it. submitting your rights and your
wishes and your wants and your desires into one to another,
not thinking of yourself, but others, in the fear of God toward
the Lord. And it goes on to say, wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, as unto the
Lord. Husbands, the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head
of the church, the Savior of the body, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wise be to their own husbands in everything."
What's the problem? Self. It's always a problem. Well, what about me? Years ago, a woman was going
to leave her home and family, her husband and children, and
her comments were, I'm not happy. I'm tired of making everybody
else happy. I want to make myself happy. I serve everybody. I do everything for everybody.
I'm not happy. Our Lord, who was rich and for
our sakes became poor, who dwelt in happiness, holiness, harmony,
peace, love, joy. And the whole message here is
built on this, for Christ's sake, as Christ loved us and gave himself
for us. He left all that to come down
here for whom? Who did he marry? Who was his
bride? And that's what this scripture
talks about. 31, a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined unto his wife. The two shall be one
flesh. This is a great mystery. And I'm speaking concerning Christ
and the church, he said. This is what Christ did. Who
did Christ marry? Who did he come for? Who did
he give himself for? Who did he lay down his life
for? Who did all him happy? Oh, he was a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. Why? For the great love of which
he loved. Who did he love? Not the righteous. Not the good. Not the worthy.
Sinners. No good. They didn't love him.
Didn't ask for him. Told him to go back. We don't
need you. Didn't want him. Self. He gave Himself. Look at Ephesians 5 verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also loved
us and given Himself for us an offering, a burnt offering. You know how many times in Scripture
it talks about Christ giving Himself? Many gave Himself for
our sin. The righteous, the just for the
unjust. The righteous for the unrighteous. Gave Himself. Paul
said, He gave Himself for me. Paul said, Me, who was injurious
and a blasphemer, the chief of sinners. Why would He do that? Gave Himself a ransom. A ransom. Switch places. Take me. A sacrifice. He sacrificed himself. A burnt
offering. Take me. Alright, go back to chapter 4
that we just read. Talk about self. Talk about Christ
giving himself for his people. And he says here, again, let's
just read some scripture and make a few comments. I, therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. In chapter 5, he says, be followers
of God as dear children and walk in love as the children of God.
He says, verse 2, with all lowliness and meekness. We ought to be. Why? Because
we are low. Worms. That's what we are. We're not somebody. We're nothing. Meet with long-suffering, forbearing
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity, the unity
of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Because there's one body,
one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God, Father of all, who's above all and through
you all and in you all. He's talking to the saints. He's
writing to God's people. The church of Ephesus and the
church of... It's one. It's one, one, one. One body. It's a family. And like the members
of this body, we serve the head. Don't we? We take our orders
from the head. And every member of this body,
my fingers, don't do things for themselves. What if your fingers
said, I'm tired of... I want to make me happy. That's
just not possible, is it? It serves the whole body, and
principally we hold up the head. The head is the glory. Well,
Christ is our head, and we're the body. We're all a bunch of
little toes, aren't we? Toenails, armpits. Seriously. It's not me. It's not about me.
It's about Him. About me. Your family. It's not I, me,
and mine. When you've got a family, it's
not you're a member of a family. It's not about you. We try to
tell our children that they come into this world, and we try to
get this self out of them, because we're born with it. Mine. Mine. I do it myself. I know that I'm a sinner, and
my daughter was born for me, and I know she's a sinner, born
dead in trespass and sin. And then my grandchildren came
along, the first one. Oh, she's just so sweet. I thought,
hmm, she's so sweet, and she just never did anything wrong.
And then the next one came along. All right, now you've got some
competition. But one day, one day, one day Sophie and Isabella
was sitting on the couch, and I'd just never seen anything
out of Isabella, just nothing. But all of a sudden, she didn't
sit. I saw her. She just reached and grabbed
something away from Sophie. Mean! Unprovoked, just mean! I thought, I can't believe it. I can't believe she did that.
She's a sinner too. Rotten. Me. Mine. If we're left
to ourselves, we'll kill ourselves. And we'll destroy everybody in
our path. This church is not about me. It's not about you. It's about
Him. And this whole body. And it talked
about giving pastors and teachers And if he's a true pastor and
teacher, he has one thing in mind, the glory of God, the exaltation
of God's Son, the unity of the Spirit, and if anybody is messing
up that unity. The scripture says, have no fellowship
with them. Like a hand that offends, cut
him off. Right? If gangrene gets in a
part of your body, what do you got to do? Cut it off. If somebody's
critical, if somebody's drawing away somebody from the fellowship,
if somebody's making critical comments about the preacher,
about the preaching, about the church, about the brethren, all
that, those that cause strife and division, he says, have no
fellowship with them. Cut them off. Because it's not
about you. It's not about me. It's not my
church. It's his church. And that's what we're all about,
building up one another on this most holy thing. Not tearing
down, not separating, not dividing, but uniting. This is about Christ. It's all about him. Everything's
to be done for that reason. Right? Children are selfish. Verse 14, he says, that we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about by the
slight of men, cunning and crafty. Paul said, with good words and
fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the sinful. Let's not be children. He said,
be children in malice, but not in understanding. We need to
understand. We need wise as a serpent. and harmless as death. It's about
Him. It's not about me. It's not about
you. It's church. I got my feelings
hurt. That's that self I'm talking
about. If that self gets your feelings
hurt, you'll drag everybody down with you. And you'll turn everybody
else against everybody else. That's what you'll do. That's
what I'll do. That's what we'll do. If God doesn't kill this
old man, He needs gone. He needs to be out of here. This new creature in Christ,
like Christ, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, long-suffering
and patient. That's what this is all about.
The whole body, verse 16, fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth. Supplieth what? Maketh increase
of every part in love. In love, it says, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, forbearing
one another. In love. Oh, he said, blessed
be God who blessed us, chosen us, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him. In love. In love. Love is the bond of perfection.
Love is maturity. Love. Forgiveness. Like Christ. Love one another. Look at chapter
5. Chapter 5. Well, look at chapter 4, verse
31. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger,
clamor, evil speaking be put away from you. All of it. All
malice. All of it. Read on. Be kind one to another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. Even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. What has the Lord forgiven you? He says, if you don't forgive.
Our Lord said that. If you don't forgive, you won't
be forgiven. So, He says we need to be like
Christ. We need to grow up, not be little
children understanding and malice, yes, but not an understanding,
not be tossed to and fro, not be easily influenced by others,
not be led astray, not be seduced and tricked by good words
and fair speeches. It's all about crime. Building
up one another, not tearing down, not separating, striving for
the unity of the spirit and love. In chapter five, It says in verse
1, be followers of God as dear children and walk in love as
Christ hath loved us. Now again, I'm talking to God's
people because God doesn't love everybody. You know that? You know that. Most people don't
know that. My dear old mom is pretty old
now and her hearing and her mind is going a little bit. And I
went over there this morning. I couldn't get a hold of her
on the phone. And she had the radio on. It was 825. She'd been
listening to me, you know. And then it went on through and
somebody else was preaching, talking. And I said, who are
you listening to? She said, you. And I said, Mom, our program ended
ten minutes ago. And as soon as I said that, that
fellow said, God loves you. He's not mad at you. I said,
Mom, see, I didn't say that. God didn't say that. That's not
me. God doesn't love everybody. It's
a hell. God doesn't love people in hell. Why does he put them
there? Because he loves them. Who needs a God like that? Oh,
no. Oh, no. God loves his people. He loves
his people. And he sent Christ to die for
his people. And Christ came to shed his blood for his people.
He said, I lay down my life for my sheep. See, love saves. If you could save someone you
love, would you? Yes, you would. God can and he does. He doesn't
damn anybody he loves. He saves every person he loves.
Oh, yes. Whoever he loved, he's going
to save. And he sent Christ to this world
to die for their sin. Who? The just and the unjust.
The holy for the unholy. The righteous for the unrighteous.
The altogether lovely Son of God for a harlot. Yes, that's
what the Scripture said. Sinners. Someone who came, pure,
spotless, Lamb of God, holiness, righteousness, the Son of the
Most High God came to this earth and said he was despised and
rejected. That's what they all said. Every man, kill him. We will
not have this man reign over us. You see, salvation must be
by sovereign mercy. It must be by sovereign grace.
It must be by the will of God. It must be because you will not
believe him. You will not accept him. You
will not bow to him. We will not. I would not. I am
here because God said come. I'm here because God said, here,
my boy. Because God had mercy upon me. I didn't do anything. He did
it all. And he sent Christ. Here's what I'm trying to say.
Who did he come for? I was a prodigal son. I was the
thief on the cross. I was Mary Magdalene. I still
feel that way. But God sent Christ. Not for everybody. And this is
how you know who he did it for. They're convicted of what they
are, and they ask him for mercy, and they see their need of Christ,
and the gospel comes to them in power and convicts them, and
they see what they are, and they call on God for mercy, and he
shows them the gospel of Christ, their substitute, and they rejoice
in Christ. And they know that in them no
good thing. And why would he come and why
would he do such a thing for such a worm as I? Without exception, all of God's
people. And that right there, that and
that alone will make you long-suffering, forgiving. That's the only thing
it will. I think on things of others when
you realize I am worthy I am the chief the center I what I
deserve. God gave Christ. It's the only thing that make
us tender hearted and forgiving because God is so kind. Nothing else will. The law won't
do it. You can't grit your teeth and say, I want to love somebody.
I want the love of God in Christ. The mercy of God. Me, the chief
of sinners spare. And then he talks about submitting.
Go on down in verse 21. Submitting yourselves one to
another. In the fear of God, why submit
yourselves unto your own husband as unto the Lord? The husband
is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.
Do you know what our Lord submitted to? Do you know what our Lord
Jesus Christ submitted to doing and being by coming to this earth? He whom angels praise, he whom
the heavenly host bowed down to, and he came here to serve. Who? submit himself. He wrote the law and he put himself
under the law. He become a curse. My, my. Husbands, look at this, in verse
25. Husband, love your wives as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself. Like I said, who did
he marry? Who did he come for? Read Hosea. Read the story of Hosea sometime.
You'll see. He said, you sold yourself for
nothing. Sold to sin. Gave all the glory and the credit
to everybody and everything but God. But God. Rich in love. Send someone to
marry her and show her. Show her. He came for you. Me? Yes, you. Husband, love your wife. As Christ
loved the church. gave himself for. He sanctified,
verse 26, cleansed it with the washing of water by the word
to present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing. That would be a good title, wouldn't
it? Or any such thing. So ought men, verse 28, husbands,
so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. Christ's
body was broken. He said, this is my body broken
for you. You know what they did to his
body? And he did that for his bride. So are men today. He laid down
his life. He laid down his joy. He laid down, but he said for
the joy that was set forth. And the old man, he said, so
ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. Verse 28,
he that loveth his wife loveth himself. You see? No man ever
hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the
Lord the Church nourished and cherished the apple of his eye.
We're members of his body, his flesh, his bone. And down in
verse 33, so he says, let every one of you in particular love
his wife even as himself. His wife. Reverence her husband.
Now turn in closing to Philippians 2. Just two pages over. Philippians
2. Let me close with this, okay? Speaking of self. What Christ
did to himself for his people. Now, does this gospel mean anything
to you? What we've been saying that Christ
has done. What we've been reading. Does it mean anything to you? His love. Sacrifices, substitution
is what he did. Verse 1, that's what it says.
Is there any consolation in Christ? Comfort of love? Fellowship?
The Spirit? See, we're all just a bunch of
sinners saved by grace. We're all a bunch of nobody.
It's not about me. It's not about me. When I'm gone,
God's church is going to go right on in it. It doesn't need me. How are you? Are there any bowels
and mercies? Have you experienced any? Have
you received any mercies? Any? Oh. Are you like Jacob? Jacob said,
I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and all the truth
that you've shown. You keep telling me. Like the child in Ezekiel 16,
you know, that he had such mercy upon, is thrown out in the field,
and the Lord came by and said, live, and decked it with ornaments,
and washed it, and cleaned it from its filth, and said, you
were beautiful. What did she do? She started
thanking too highly of herself. She started thanking highly of
herself. Oh, and he had to bring her down
again. And that's what the Lord does
for his big brain. That self's got to come down. He that exalteth
himself will be abased. So the Lord, through His mercy
and His Word, He keeps telling us. He's talking to believers,
sister, isn't He? About lying, about, you know,
loving, about forgiving. Well, you don't have to tell
believers. Yes, you do, do you? Why? Because they've got this
self in them. They've got this old man in them. And all of us
need to realize that fella is out to get us. He's out to get
everybody. He's in it for himself. Paul
Mahan needs to die. And I reckon he has in Christ. John, you reckon old John Davis
is crucified with Christ? Oh, I hope so. Don't you? Kill
him. Be done with him. Put him under
the ground. Don't let him back up. Because he ain't nothing
but trouble. He's in it for himself. He complains
about everything and everybody. And that new man's got nothing
to complain about, but everything to be thankful for. That's what
he said in Ephesians 5. He said, in everything give thanks.
This is the will of God. Everything. That new man says,
anything this side of hell is mercy. Anything I have, I don't
deserve it. It's a gift. It's grace. It's
100% grace. I don't deserve anything. Thank
God for Jesus Christ. That's what the new man said.
The old man said, well, hmm. Now, kill it. Philippians 2 says in verse 2,
fulfill my joy, be like-minded, having the same love, one accord,
one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.
He calls it vainglory because we have nothing to glory in.
It's vainglory. If we take glory in anything,
we're a fool. We're a vain fool. For him that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, because the Lord, everything
we have is by His grace. In lowliness of mind, verse 3,
Philippians 2, 3, let each esteem other better than themselves. You know what we ought to do?
We ought to say, surely they don't think thoughts like I do.
Surely they don't think thoughts like I do. Surely they don't. Look not every man on his own
thing, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
man be in you. Here it is, which was also in Christ Jesus, who
being God, in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. But here's what he did to himself. He made himself
of no reputation. All men and women want to do
is build up their reputation. their esteem in the eyes of people.
They want to be famous, rich, and famous. If they're rich,
that's not good enough. I want to be famous. I want to
be, you know, I might be a billionaire, but I need to be president. Why?
I want to be, I want everybody to think highly of me. He was in the form of God, but
made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form, read
on, took upon him the form of a servant. The king became a
pauper, a servant. Made in the likeness, now here's
humility, here's condescension, in the likeness of men. You know
what it'd be like for you and I to become a worm? For you and
I, would you become a worm? to go down and save a bunch of
worms? Would you give yourself and your
life for worms, would you? Come on. No, you wouldn't. You
know Psalm 22, it says just that. It's the psalm of the cross.
Dan, do you know it says just that? The psalm of the cross
or the words of Jesus Christ on the cross? He said, I'm a
worm and no man. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He cried that from the cross.
Psalm 22. And he went on to say, I'm a
worm. I have willingly, lovingly come down for worms. That's the likeness of man. And
he went on to say, he'd been found in fashion as a man. He
humbled himself. and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Humiliation, shame. Here it is. Give me 30 more minutes. No, don't worry. We need to sit
here and rap for two days of what Jesus Christ did. Beaten to death, even the death
of the cross. See, Adam had it all. Adam, righteous. Adam, holy. Adam, the Lord was so good to
him. God gave Adam everything. Created
him upright. Gave him a wife. He had it all.
What did he need? Nothing. Everything. Complete. Satan came along. You can be.
You will. You. It's all about you, Adam.
You'll be like God. You don't have to bow to and
submit to God. You will be. Satan said, that's
what I said. I will. You won't either. You
serve this old man, you're going to die. Adam, you'll be like
God. Adam said, OK, that's right.
God, have you forgotten what I've done for you, Adam? Yeah. He died. He died. And that old self killed everybody
and everything around him. He died. And he was naked. A shame. And man's gotten so bad now,
he's naked and not a shame. There's even a show called that. But the spotless Lamb, Son of
God, came down this earth and submitted Himself to be stripped
naked in the eyes of all these jeering, laughing, mocking, spitting,
vile creatures. Stripped Him naked, hung Him
on a cross, and mocked His pain. Would you do that? Would you
do that? No, you wouldn't. But God. You see, this is why it's not
an offer. It's not an offer. It's not something, won't you
accept it? No, sir, buddy. Whoever Jesus Christ died for,
they're going to, the Lord's going to bring over them understanding what they've done
to the Son of God. and what the Son of God has done
for them. He's going to give them an understanding to see
that I despised and rejected Him, hated God, loved myself
but God, and God would send His Son to do such a thing like that
for me. Oh! Even the death of the cross.
Stripped because Adam was naked. He was stripped and we were clothed. He was put to shame, so we'll
never be put to shame. He died, we'll not live. He was
despised and rejected, we're accepted by God. He was hated
by men, we're loved by God. What's that? It's for Christ's
sake, not for your sake. You have nothing to do with it.
And you wouldn't have had anything to do with Him if God hadn't
said, you will love my son. You will hear this. And so, God hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name, that the
name of Jesus Christ, not I accepted Jesus, O how I love you, your
knee will bow. You'll drop to your knees as
before a king, and a judge, and a lord, and a master, and one
that owns you, and one who's had great mercy upon you, one
you fear. And your tongue will confess what? I am a sinner and
nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all.
Unworthy, unworthy. Worthy is the Lamb. Your knee
will bow. Your tongue will confess. Everybody
is going to someday. But God's people now in mercy
and love from God now, right now, see what they are. who God
is, what Jesus Christ has done for them, and they bow their
knees. They sing these songs. We don't sing these songs because
we have to. We don't sing these songs because
it's Sunday. We sing them because we love the One who loved us.
Because we can't believe how God loved me. We sing that song,
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me. How can it be? While the whole world thinks,
yeah, God ought to love me. You want to find out. You want
to find out. Real soon. Thank God we found
out. He found us. Anybody? This ain't
about me. If this was about me, I'd spit
hell wide open. And if I bowed at me and served
me, I'm going to tear everybody and everybody else, including
myself. This is about Him. It's all about Him. Everybody
in heaven is there for one reason, Jesus Christ. Everybody in heaven,
they're not talking about mama, they're not talking about themselves,
they're talking about Jesus Christ. Unto Him that loved us, and washed
us from our sin, in His only blood. Unto Him be all honor,
and praise, and glory, and strength, and salvation. Unto Him! He did
this, every one of us. Right to sit on the front row
is a thief on the cross. On the front row is Mary Magdalene.
On the front row is Saul of Parsis. On the front row is a woman caught
in adultery. On the front row is the public.
All of them shouting as loud as they can. Salvation is up
in the Lord. All of God's people. There's
no exception. They know this stuff. Oh, my
dear Lord. Show us ourselves and then show
us Christ. Okay. John, come on. Please.