I want you to open your Bibles
to Ephesians. This morning, the book of Ephesians,
and I'll ask you to go to chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. This is our first Lord's Day
worship service of this year. God has gifted us with another
opportunity to gather and worship him in spirit and in truth. None of us have any idea of what
this new year holds in store for us, but we know him who does
know. because he himself has directed,
he's directing all things to the end that he has already purposed
even before he made the world. I want you to listen very closely
this morning, and you always do, but just focus in as I present to you the message that
I believe God has laid on my heart for this hour. I study and I seek God's face
and I deliver the message to you having two great desires
for you. Two great desires for you. I want you to be saved. As some of you perhaps are immediately
responding in your mind, you can move on now, Jim, because
I've got that covered. But I hope you're not saying
that. I remember reading something
by Brother John Newton, who wrote the song Amazing Grace. One time
from his pulpit, he prayed, Lord, if I haven't loved you before,
let me start loving you today. I'm not going to base my assurance
that everything's OK because of something that I believe happened
years ago. Right now, right now, I look
to the Lord Jesus as my Savior. I look to His redeeming sacrifice
for all of my acceptance with God. I take nothing, when it
comes to spiritual things, I take nothing for granted. And don't
you make that mistake either. Don't take anything for granted
regarding your relationship with God. This is the burden of my heart.
I want you to know God. And I want to know God. I want you to be saved and I
want to be saved. I don't want to perish. swearing
on a stack of Bibles that I'm okay. Every day we're told in the Scriptures
in 2 Peter, give diligence, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. Are you really resting all of
the hopes of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, I say
to everyone in here and to those who are watching right now, flee
by faith to the Son of God. An old jailer in Acts chapter
16, he had heard two preachers. They blessed the name of God
during the night, sang praises to Him. And then there was an
awful earthquake, and he assumed that everybody was going to escape.
He's ready to fall on his own sword. And Paul said, don't hurt
yourself. We're all here. And that jailer
The Spirit of God bringing to his remembrance the things that
he had heard Paul and Silas singing about as they praised God and
rejoiced in Christ Jesus, their Savior, their Redeemer, their
Mediator, their hope of glory. He brought them out and he said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And that which was the answer
of these two preachers was not, you need to be baptized. It wasn't, you need to live a
better life. They said, believe, that is cling
to, embrace. Brother Maurice Montgomery used
to say, hug up to the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved."
Put your trust in Him. We read in 2 Timothy 1 and 12,
Paul said, I know whom I have believed. Salvation is not in
a what, it's not in a when, it's in a whom. It's in somebody and
that's somebody's work. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded in my heart that
He's able to keep that which I have committed unto Him. I've
deposited the most valuable thing I have into the hands, into the
heart, into the arms, into the power of the Lord Jesus Christ
against that day. What have you deposited, Paul? My soul. My soul. Or aren't you dependent upon
your work? I mean, you wrote about, what,
over half of the New Testament?" He said, no. You've established so many churches,
doesn't that count for anything before God? No. He said, I believe somebody. Do you? Now come on now, let's
be honest. Let's don't play church. Let's be serious before God.
He knows if you have really deposited your soul into the welfare, into
the arms of, to the grace of, the faithfulness of, and the
power of the Lord Jesus Christ. What about you? I want you to be saved. And I
want to be saved. I don't want you to perish. That's why I study. That's why
I pray. That's why I preach. And I try to talk to you from
my heart. Brother Scott Richardson said,
true preaching is a man receiving a message from the heart of God
into his own heart and then from his own heart delivering to the
hearts of the people who are listening to him. Now, I can't get in your heart,
I can't get in your inmost being, but the Spirit of God can, because
nothing's impossible with Him. Oh God of grace and glory, would
you right now interfere with somebody's fatal plunge toward
hell? and open the heart and give them
the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance toward
God. Lord, save them by your grace. That's my prayer. Are you saved? Are you saved? I know this. He that hath the
Son of God, he's got life. That's what John says in 1 John
5, got life. What kind of life? Well, you
got spiritual life. If you believe on the Son of
God, you couldn't believe on Him if you didn't have spiritual
life. And you got everlasting life.
You got a life that'll never end. And you have eternal life. Eternal life, Christ said, is
to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Are you saved? That's what I
want for you. I can't save you and you can't
save yourself. But I pray that God will save
you. And I'll tell you how he does
it. He brings a sinner to the end of himself. And that sinner
says, oh God, I need your mercy. I need your grace. I need your
Son. I believe He's the Son of God. And I rest my soul upon Him and
His finished work of redemption at the cross of Calvary. That's
my burden for you. I pray that God right now will
trouble you over your sin and show you the only one who
could take care of them. That's Christ the Savior. And I have second great desire.
That's first great desire I have. That's why I study. That's why I pray. That's why
I preach. I want you to be saved. The second
great desire I have for each of us is this. I want us to live
for the glory of God. I want us to live with our hearts
focused on that Son of God who loved us and who gave himself
for us. I want you and I want myself
to do as Enoch did. He walked with God. Wouldn't
that be wonderful, to walk with God? Now there may come into your
mind the vision of Enoch and a man walking beside of him. The Lord may have come to him
in pre-incarnate form, but I believe he just, he fellowshiped with
God. He talked with God. God talked
with him. I know we're selfish creatures
by nature. We seek our own good. We seek
our own happiness. We seek our own honor. We want
to do our own thing. We'll give God a little token
of our attention every once in a while when it's convenient,
if it doesn't interfere with our life schedule. But I want you. It's first Sunday
of the new year. I'll give you a new year's resolution. Every day seek to honor Christ
Jesus. That's a worthy resolution, isn't
it? To think more on Him. to meditate more upon the glory
of who He is, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Savior, the
Redeemer, the Mediator. We're going to close the service
here in a little bit talking about what a friend we have in
Jesus. He's a friend of sinners. Focus
on that. Oh God, keep the eyes of my soul
focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so easily distracted. What about you? That's a terrible
thing. You would think all that Christ
has done for us, all that He gave up for us, He left heaven's
glory and came down here to save us. He laid down His life, a voluntary
death to satisfy justice for us. He endured the fullness of
the wrath of God for us, for me. And then he went back to heaven and
he said, I'm representing you at the throne of glory. You've got a friend in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's focus our lives on Him. focus our hearts on Him. When
we enter into this place, let's come in here wanting to be blessed
by the Lord with a vision, a faith sight of the Son of God. Did
you have that prayer when you came in here this morning? Lord,
show me the Son of God. I know we want to be blessed,
But the greatest blessing God can give you is to show you the
beauties and the wonders of the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me focus on Him every day,
who He is and what He did and why He did it and where He is
now. Lord, let me get a view of the
glory of the Son of God. I want to serve him with gladness.
That's what the psalmist said. I want to serve him with gladness.
Well, take a look at my text. It's very short. Ephesians 5
verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children. Young man, you need to sit down.
This fellow needs to sit down with you, okay? Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children. It's a very short text, but it's
very weighty. It's very weighty. First of all,
here's a precept. Be followers of God, that is,
Be an imitator of God. In fact, if you want to go home
and look in a concordance, you'll find that the original word here
is literally translated into the English as mimic. Be mimickers
of God. Be imitators of God. There's
the precept. And then he gives a reason for
obeying this precept. You know what the reason is?
Because we're children of God. It's very simple. Number one,
here's a precept. A rule by which to walk or live
in this world as imitators of God. I know there's a lot of
areas in which we can't imitate God. We can't mimic God. That's
obvious. But there are some areas where
we should and we're commanded to mimic or be an imitator of
God. Number one, let me love, let
you love what God loves. That's pretty simple. Let me
love what God loves. What does God love? I'll tell
you what God loves, the truth. That's what God loves. He's exalted
His Word even above His name. Love His truth. In the beginning
of Ephesians, we have laid out for us God's way of salvation. The Father chose a people unto
salvation. That doctrine is beloved of God. Let me love that truth too. God adopted a people into His
family. Let me love that truth too. Let
me be an imitator of God. Our Lord Jesus, when He was tempted
of Satan, you know what He used to rebut Him? The Word of God. Let me do that. I want to be
an imitator of God. And then in Ephesians chapter
1, we read about the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He died
to shed His blood. to wash away the sins of his
people. God rejoices in that substitutionary
sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Let me mimic God. Let me love
the truth too. Let me never be ashamed of the
doctrines of substitution and satisfaction. And in the end
of chapter one, we have the work of the Spirit who seals us under
the day of redemption, who quickens us. In fact, the same power that
raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, Paul says the Spirit
of God uses that same power to quicken us from spiritual death. I tell you, the truth of God
is important to him. May his truth be important to
me. Let me love what he loves. And let me hate what he hates.
He hates sin. Oh God, help me to hate sin,
my sin. We're so quick. And I'm guilty
of this as well. We say it's such a wicked world
out here. Well, that's the truth. There's
no question about that. But I got a wickedness within
me that is a greater problem to me. And I hate that. I hate that. I hate when I have the wrong
motive, and I use the wrong words, and I do the wrong things, and
I don't use my time wisely for the glory of God, redeeming the
time because the days are evil. It troubles me when I do that.
I hate my sin. You hate yours. And I'm looking
forward to the day when I'm not gonna have it anymore. You say,
Jim, is that gonna be in this life? No way. That's not gonna
happen in this life. It'll happen when this life is
over, but until that day, may God help me to go on hating my
sin. I hate it. I rejoice that Christ
Jesus died for my sins, but I hate the sin that nailed Him to the
cross. My sin. You see, this is what
it took to put my sins away. They're so horrible to God. They're
so awful. that in order for God to cleanse
me of my sin, he had to send the son of his bosom down here
and Christ had to die for my sins according to the scriptures
and put my sins away by enduring the wrath of God that my sins
so justly deserve. Christ died for my sins. I love
the fact he died for me, but I hate my sins that nailed him
there. Let me hate what he hates. He
hates a proud look. You got nothing to be proud of. Six things doth God hate. Yea,
seven are an abomination unto him. And the very first one is
a proud look. Somebody told me one time, I
tell you, when God saved me, he took all the pride out of
me. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't believe
you'd say that if he took all the pride out of it. Let me hate every evil way. Let
me hate hypocrisy. And let me follow God's example
in what he does. And God does good for us. You know that. Everything he
does for us is good. And they follow that example. Let me imitate God in that. God
is giving. God is giving. You know, Paul
said, he quoted the Savior said, the Savior said, it's more blessed
to give than receive. God is giving, let's be givers. Tell you, if God didn't continually
give to us, we couldn't stay alive. We'd all drop dead right now. He gives to all life, some measure
of health. He gives us air to breathe. Water
to drink, food to eat. You may not have everything you
want. We got a long won't list. But I tell you what, Nancy's
daddy, when he'd say the blessing, he'd say, Lord, I got more than
I can say thanks over. And I understood exactly what
he meant. And that's just the physical
things. God gives us physical blessings. What about your spiritual
blessings? God's a giver. He's a giver. He gave us all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God's always given. Because he's always good to his
people. And I'll tell you what, he's
good to the just and the unjust in many ways. Sends his rain
on everybody. Why, you'd be out here cussing
the name of God. He'll send a refreshing shower
upon your garden. You can be out here with God
being the furthest thing from your thoughts, the furthest person
from your thoughts. He sends the sunshine, makes
your tomatoes grow, grows them green beans you like picking
and eating. God's always giving. He's always
giving. Let's just be givers. Lord, teach
me something about generosity. Lord, walked into the temple,
had some in ready, said, let's go in here. Walked into the temple.
Let's see how people put their money into the treasury. And some of them come in, they
give big sum of money. A widow come in, gave two mites, I expect the disciple said, well,
she didn't give much. The Lord said she gave all she
had. Don't judge how much you give
by the volume or the monetary figure of what you gave. Measure
it by how much you got left over. She gave and she didn't have
anything left over. I wish I could give like that.
I wish I could have faith like that. And let me mimic God. Let me
follow God. Let me imitate God in trusting
His Son like the Father trusts Him. You know what it turned,
in my Bible, it's just one page back. I don't know what it is
in yours, But look at chapter one of Ephesians. And look at verse 12. Ephesians 1, 12, that we should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. I ask you, who first trusted
in Christ? God did. He chose a people and
then trusted all of them to the welfare of the Son of God. He trusted Him. He trusted Him
to make good on His covenant promise to come down here and
lay down His life and then take it again in order to save the
people of God's sovereign choice. God first trusted in Christ. Let me imitate God. Let me trust
Him. That make sense? Let me imitate
that. Let me trust Him. I tell you, this is a precept
by which to walk. Look with me over in 1 Peter.
Look at 1 Peter. Chapter two. You see, the Lord, our God, and
if you want to imitate God, remember God came to this world one time. Imitate Christ Jesus. He's a
perfect pattern. I grew up in Bassett, Virginia.
Had a good upbringing. kind of a country town, corporate
headquarters of Bassett Furniture Company. Went to Camel Court
Elementary School. We didn't have kindergarten.
I never went to kindergarten. First grade. And when I went to kindergarten,
I noticed all these green-like posters all the way around. The letters of the alphabet. And my teacher, he had served
in World War II, and then got out, went to school, got his
teaching degree, Mr. Jones. And I loved him, because
he had us marching everywhere. Yeah, we was like little soldiers.
We was like his little soldiers. And he pointed all those letters,
and he said, now you're going to learn to print these. You'll print these, just like
that up there. You know what? We didn't have
to invent. We didn't have to invent a way
to write the alphabet, print the alphabet out. He said, you
see that letter up there? That's an A. He said, I want
you to write that exactly the way it is up there. Remember
them little green, that's what, best I remember, they were green.
And then you got third grade, and then you got cursive, and
they had green, but it was cursive letters then. Do it just exactly
the way that is. Okay. It don't change anything. And I got third grade and everybody
said, you got the most hateful teacher of all. I can't remember
her name now, but she's wonderful. I found out she's hateful only
to those who wasn't very good students. She's strict. That's okay. I needed a strict
teacher. But she taught us penmanship.
She taught us cursive writing. Don't invent it. Now over time,
you know, you come up with your own little style. I'll tell you
what, to begin with, do it exactly the way it was. You see those
up there? I want to see them exactly like that on your paper.
And y'all, you remember that. And some of you schoolteachers,
retired schoolteachers, active schoolteachers, and you remember
that. Let me set before you the perfect,
perfect pattern. Here in 1 Peter, excuse me, 1
Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, and I want you to look
at verse 20. For what glory is it if, when
ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But
if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently,
this is acceptable to God. For even here unto where ye called,
even Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example." I
know He's the Savior. No question about that. I know
He's the Mediator. I know He's the Redeemer. But
He's the perfect example. You want to know how to live. Sometimes people say, I wish
you'd give us some rules to go by. Here's a rule to go by, imitate
the Savior. Well, I can't do that. Well,
I know you can't do it perfectly, but he is the pattern. He is
the example that you should follow in his
steps. I remember in Virginia there,
my dad, I go out on snowy day and I try to walk in his steps. It's a big long stride and you
try to walk in his steps. Peter says, follow in the steps
of Christ. Jim, I'm going to fail at that.
We're a bunch of failures anyway, aren't we? We're just sinners
saved by grace. But he's teaching us here, Christ
is our example. Look at verse 22. Who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was
reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."
You see, Christ Jesus submitted to the providence of God. Let
me submit to the providence of God. May no word of murmuring
or fussing or complaining come forth out of my mouth. Never
came forth from the Savior's mouth. There's just some steps to walk
in. You know, it is said it's the
highest form of flattery to imitate somebody. You know, the Lord doesn't expect
originality from us. And I would say to all of you
men who come up here to speak or you go somewhere else to speak,
don't try to be original. Truth is not original. There
is nothing new under the sun. You see, once you try to be original
with your message, you'll get off the truth. Because everything
that has been said has already been said. And here is the Word
of God and it doesn't change. I know people, I had a fellow
one time told me, he said, I don't think you've ever had an original
thought in your mind. He said that trying to put me
down as a preacher. And I said, well, I hope not.
I hope not. Right here's the book of God.
It's already laid out. I tell you, in preaching, We
follow the example of Christ. He preached the shepherd and
the sheep. Let me do that. In Mark, it says that Christ
began his ministry preaching the gospel. Let me do that. Let me imitate my master. Our Lord Jesus helped people. You know, He healed people who
died in unbelief. Let me help people, even though
they might be an enemy of the gospel. Do good to everybody, Paul said,
especially those that are of the household of faith. Show
mercy to people. Be forgiving of people. Our God was giving and forgiving,
and he's still giving and he's still forgiving. And then go back to my text,
and I'll just say a couple of words on this last part. As dear
children, the precept is clear, as is the motivation. This is
not legalism. This has to do with the family
of God. Be imitators of God as dear children. You're one of His children. How'd
you get to be one of His children? Well, before the world began,
He predestinated you'd be adopted into His family. What do you
think about that? With all the rights and privileges
of a child, He bequeathed to you in our Lord's
last will and testament, all the spiritual blessings in heavenly
places that he could ever give any sinner. You're one of his
children. I used to try to imitate my dad. I bet you did too. And you girls
try to imitate your mom. I remember when I was little,
Well, maybe seven or eight years old, six or seven years old.
I'd pretend I was a preacher. And my sister'd pretend she was
a piano player. And she had taken a few lessons. And we'd have us a service. And
I tell you, you think I'm loud now, I was really loud then. because I was mimicking, I was
imitating somebody I adored, somebody I loved. I'm one of the Lord's children. He adopted me into His family.
He birthed me into the kingdom of God. He caused me to be born
again by His Spirit through the hearing and the preaching of
the Word of God. I'm one of his children. And he's given to me all things
in Christ Jesus. And I would have you focus in
on one word here specifically, as dear children. You know what that word dear
means? Much loved. Much loved children. There may
be parents who don't love one of their children. That's a horrible
thing. I tell you what, God loves all
his children equally. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. He loved me. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us. Gave his son to be propitiation
for our sins, a satisfaction of divine justice. And he's given us the spirit
of grace who helps our infirmities. I'm weak, but he's strong. I'm ignorant, but He's the teacher. I constantly fall, but He tenderly
and compassionately lifts me up and says, I freely, fully,
all forgive. Oh, I wish I could live like
that. I wish I could forgive like He
forgives and forget like He forgets, because you see, children of
God, Our sins were nailed to the cross of Calvary with our
Savior. And He bore the wrath of God. He gave up the ghost and He was
buried in the tomb. And when He came out, the sins
stayed in there. They're buried in the depths
of the deepest sea. They're behind God's back. And
God said, I'll never remember your sins again. I wish I could. forget about all the wrongs that
were ever done against me, and I wish I could forget about all
the wrongs I've done against people. But I'm thankful they're
out in the blood. I tell you this, you want a New
Year's resolution, right here's a good one. This is a good one,
Ephesians 5.1. And next Sunday, the Lord willing,
let's change my mind, I'm gonna move on to the next verse. Walk in love as Christ loved
us, gave himself to save us. Well, may the Lord bless the
preaching of the gospel. I want you to be saved. I want
you to live for the glory of Christ. I want you to live always
focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to go wrong
if you keep focused on Him. Don't focus on me. I'm not going to intentionally
lead you wrong, but hey, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
Focus on the Savior. Focus on Him.