Good morning. As Joe wants to say, I'm glad
to be here. It is good to be amongst familiar
faces and to be able to hear his word proclaimed. If you would turn to Ephesians
5, in verse 22. Ephesians 5, verse
22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is 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, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word. that he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men
to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it. even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this call shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and his church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. God tells us in his word that
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
Today's passage is no exception. I mean this passage this morning
as encouragement and help to us this morning. But God gives
the increase. And his word will not return
to him void. It will accomplish that which
he sent it to do. I don't want the emphasis to
be on wives and husbands, although wives and husbands are certainly
a part of this passage and the instructions should be heeded
for both husbands and wives. I believe this passage was even
given by Paul as an encouragement to the Ephesians because he was
giving it to show a picture of Christ and his church. Although
I know I do not measure up as a husband, but it encouraged
me because I know he did. Oh, that I might can remember
this. But the reason I think he meant this all as encouragement
is this. It says in the first chapter,
in verse 15 and 16, that when he heard of their faith in Christ
and their love to all the saints, he did not cease to give thanks
for them, mentioning them in his prayers. He wanted them to
know the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his
power to believers. Really, this little epistle has
all the doctrines of grace, as we call them. If you look through
it, it is in this short book. And it kind of culminates into
this passage with him giving the example of wives and husbands,
as it pictures Christ and his church. So, wives, we read in Ephesians
5.22, says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto
the Lord. We know that He has all might
and He is Lord of all, from Scripture. We know that from Scripture He's
the Creator of all things. He's the potter, we are the clay.
He has been given power over all flesh to give life to as
many as God has given Him, it says in John 17, 2. He died,
rose, and revived that He might be Lord of both the dead and
the living, Romans 14, 9. Matthew 28, 18 tells us that
he has been given all power in heaven and in earth. It also
says that one day every knee shall bow. But this says he is
head of the church. It is a headship that is loving,
caring, protective, forgiving, thoughtful, sacrificial, and
more. As a head of the church, he works
all things for the good of his church. Because it also says
here he is the savior of the body. The main way he is savior
of the body is mentioned just a few verses down. He gave himself
so that his church might live. That we might live. He is the
protector. Psalms 33 20 says this. Our soul
waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
He's the comforter. But when the comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, Even the spirit of
truth which proceeded from the father, he shall testify of me,
is John 15, 26. He is the provider for the church,
Ephesians 3, 20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us. He is the savior of the body
in all ways. He has done and always does what
is best for his people. We read with the husbands now,
Ephesians 5, 25. It says, Husbands, love your
wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it. Again, we see this tells us that
he gave himself for us. Christ died so that we might
live. And this is my hope that he died
for me and took away my sins. But also, he is the king of glory,
the creator of all things, yet he humbled himself and came down
as a man so that we might be saved. He was here on this earth
and did so without having anything. It says he had no place to lay
his head. In Luke 9.58 we read, And Jesus
said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. He was reviled
and had people wanting to murder him. He had people lie on him. He had people spit on him and
beat him, and yes, ultimately nailing him to a cross where
he gave up the ghost. But he opened not his mouth.
He sacrificed everything, even unto death. And why? So that
he might sanctify and cleanse it. From the context here, he
did this by his death. And why did he do this? that
he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. What he done for me and what
he done for his church has made it so that they will be with
him where he is for eternity and be without spot or blemish. Now, this is what I had on Friday,
what I've just given you. And I found when preparing these
messages during the week that I have some stupid thoughts.
I'm sure none of you all have any stupid thoughts through the
week. But I was saying, Paul, is this all you have? Is this
all you can come up with? I mean, I basically just read
you what it said in these passages. I haven't really went into anything.
But I went to sleep Friday night. And God didn't reveal anything
to me in a dream or anything. I woke up thinking about my message,
and God brought it to my mind. He said, you know, basically
this to me. He brought it to my mind. Basically,
keep it simple, stupid. It is, Christ is not simple,
salvation is not simple, but it is as simple as this, that
salvation is of the Lord. It's all of Christ. This is all
about This is all about that Christ. It's about Christ and
Him alone. It's about who Christ is and
what Christ accomplished. Salvation is not simple, but
it's as simple as that. There's another term here that
is used even in our book here. It's singleness or singular.
It's simple because it's all about Jesus Christ and He fits
everything together. And what does it tell us? Let's
turn over to chapter 4, verse 4. There is one body and one spirit,
even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above
all and through all and in you all. All things flow from Christ.
All gifts come from him. We are in Christ and Christ is
in God. This is like Earl used to say,
we're in Christ and Christ is in God. We're all one. All things flow from Christ and
all gifts come from Him. What is precious is Christ. It's
all about Christ, in Christ, by Christ, for Christ, and to
Christ. I have to keep my message on
Christ and not make it about man or myself. Because of who
Christ is and what he did for the church is why wives should
submit to their own husbands and why husbands should love
their wives. We should look to Christ in all
things, but this is not just for husbands and wives to do.
Certainly there is some instruction here for husband and wives, but
this is about Christ and his church. If you are in Christ,
you are a part of his body. What does it tell us in verse
21? submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
That is not just husband and wife, it's all of God's people. But we also read in chapter four,
verses 31 and 32. I'll read that to you. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. What Christ has done, He has
done for every believer, because we are talking about, is Christ
and His Church. His body looks to Christ and
Him crucified, and we never get over that. The Scripture tells
all of His people that we should love one another, and it says
things like, esteem others better than yourselves, be kind, have
charity, be hospitable, because He has been this way with us
and for us. He has clothed us with His righteousness,
covering our own nakedness with His righteousness. I am fully
righteous in God's sight in Christ. That is an amazing thing to me
to think about. It is not just as if I've never
sinned. It is I am right in God's sight
in Christ. because I'm here, in Him. In
the rest of this book, we see instructions to children, fathers,
servants, that can be employees and masters or bosses. So this
is to all of God's people. He gives faith to all of His
church, to each and every one of us that are in Christ. It's
not about me. It's not about us. It's all about
Christ and what He has done. So then, how do we do these things?
How do we look to Christ? How do we submit? How do we love
one another? We do this by the power of His
might because He equips us. Let's look at chapter 6 in verse
14. And it tells us previous to verse
14, it says, Put on and take unto yourselves the whole armor
of God that we may be able to stand against the walls of the
devil. This is a battle, and we need the battle garments God
has given us. But he supplies them. It tells
us our loins girt about with truth. This is Christ. From here to here, it covers
all the essentials. Christ is the middle of everything. He holds everything together.
This is Christ. next we have the breastplate
of righteousness my project protection is his righteousness for me and
all darts that might come at me to protect me all that i might
be found in his righteousness next each job with the preparation
of the gospel peace shoes on and ready is what this seems
to indicate to me be ready to proclaim in the field does work
taking the shield of faith Faith, God's gift to us which allows
us to trust Him and to see Christ as He is. Faith will help protect
every part of you. Believe God and what He says
in His word and you will find safety there. What He has said
is true because He is truth. Next, the helmet of salvation.
This is Christ too. Christ is the head. You know,
we can see this as our hope in, you know, Christ is our salvation.
That's our hope. That hope is Christ will return
to take me where he is one day. What God has done is forever.
This won't keep me from losing my head or going into deep despair
when the arrows start flying at my head. He saved us to the
uttermost and no one can pluck us out of his hands. And last
we see here the sword of the spirit. which is the word of
God. The gospel we can defend and
go to on the offensive attack. This word will help us to lay
blows to lies. It can also be used to cut to
the heart by his spirit. It pleads God through the fortunes
of preaching to save them that belief. I've been saying this
a lot lately. But I think it's worth being
said. We must look to Christ. By His gifts and His revelation
from His word, He allows us to submit and to love. It is all
because of what He did for us. We love Him because He first
loved us. And we also love one another.
And all of this is to the praise of the glory of His grace. And
that is in the face of Jesus Christ. And I pray that this
has been encouragement to you as much as it has been to me.
Roy, will you lead us in prayer? We thank you, Lord, for the privilege
that we have of being out here this morning and each other,
which has come out to hear your truth proclaimed. We thank you,
Lord, for the words we've already heard. We ask that you would
guide and direct and reach everything that is done here, be with us,
welcome to Josephus, and bring us more truth as we desire to
hear from you. We ask that you would guide each
and every one which come out here tonight, today, and give
them safe travel, mercy, home, and bring them back again at
the point in time that we might hear more of the Lord's claim. His blessings we ask.