May God be gracious to us and
bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your way
may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations. Let
the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You judge the peoples
with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise
You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You.
The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the
ends of the earth fear him. As I read that. And contemplated
that and considered that, I pray that it will be a blessing to
you. A prayer church that as we continue
in this letter to the church of Ephesus that you would hold
on, you know, here's what happens. And it's sort of like in life. And this is what I see, not necessarily
as much with us, but throughout my tenure in ministry and even
as a young man and a boy in church, about 10 minutes or quarter till
the hour of concluding. What you hear and what you see
and what you experience is the pastor will. Be preaching and
then he'll fold his Bible over. He'll put his hand upon it, his
notes may go to the side. There's a definite pause and
he will say something that indicates to you that he is concluding
the service. Even though there may be 10 or
15 more minutes of talking or preaching or evaluation or whatever.
And what you see then from this perspective, as someone who has
done that for years, is you hear this. You hear the zippers of the purses
and the zippers of the Bible cases and the notebooks going
up, the pens clicking, being put away, everybody's packing
up, getting ready, maybe a little breath here or there, and you
see it. And so, as a shepherd, it frustrates me when I'm in
front of a group of people and they pack up before I'm done.
Not because I think it's rude, it's just you're missing something.
You missed something and you won't hear it. And though I believe
in the sovereignty of God, I also believe that God affects prayers
in His people. And I believe God affects cause and action
in his people. And I believe God is used on
all natural means to bring about a supernatural end in everything
in this world. Why did he become a man, he had
to. So that he could live as a holy man and then die for all
who believe. Why does God purpose to save
men through the hearing of his word, that's what he wants. That's
what he wants. Why did God save men to preach? And why did God save men to worship? And why does God save men when
I say mankind? Why does God save humanity at
all? It puzzles me. And just like
when we open up, I mean, when we're closing our service, we
have the tendency to zip up and pack up. Even though we don't
do that physically in this fellowship, I want to warn you to not think
that you don't pack up because sometimes we pack up. We pack
up in our minds. We pack up in our hearts and
just as we might pack up each week as we're concluding something
or concluding our service. Sometimes we pack up as we're
moving to the end of that which we've been studying for so long
and we're moving to the end that we've got months to go. We're
at the end of Ephesians. And so oftentimes we as human
beings, we pack up and we begin to compartmentalize. Yeah, I
got that. Yeah, I got that. Yeah, I got that. And we were
already ready to go. We've got a rollback and we're trying to
roll it down, put it in the trunk and drive away. Please do not
do that with your heart and mind, according to this text. Do not
think you are through with Ephesians one and two and three and four.
Do not think you're almost done with Ephesians five. You've not
even begun. We have not even begun with It
is just imperative that as a church who is planting and just launching,
that we get what is foundational to the church to start, that
we cannot leave it behind. We got that then. No, we got
it now and we're going to continue to get it. Even as one who teaches, it's
not something, well, I've got that. And I just move on. No, I have been in this letter
for a long time, long before I taught it to you. And we'll
be in it a long time after I teach it to you as I as I use it frequently
to govern the ministry of the church, to measure and lay the
rod of measure against the success and the fruit of we as a people.
And so as we're moving now, we're going to have a very difficult
time because the text that we're in at Ephesians 5 verse 22 is
one of most husbands' favorite verses in the entire Bible. And I tell you, years ago, they
zipped up their heads and they zipped up their hearts, among
other things, and they settled with it. Why? Cement. And so that's where we are today.
And oftentimes, and I pray by God's grace that through it all,
that all of us will grow to understand. That's why I spent so much last
week on the inhalation. See, what Paul's doing here is
he's going, maybe he's about to say something. We take a breath
before we say something. We take a breath before we sing.
We take a breath before we dive into the pool. We don't go, It
doesn't work. We take a deep breath and we
make sure we've got enough to go for just a few minutes. Then
we take another one. And Paul, what he's done there
is he said, look carefully how you walk. as not as unwise, but
as wise, making the best use of the time to cause the days
of evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what
the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine, but
be filled with the Spirit. Verse 19, addressing one another
with spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart
to the Lord, giving thanks always and for everything to God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one
another out of reverence for Christ. And he takes a breath. So what he's done there is he's
primed it. He's taken a big breath and he
said that here we are, we're ramping up and he's jumping up,
not off the cliff to fall down, but he's jumping up to the next
ramp, to jump up to the next ramp, to jump up to the next
ramp so that he concludes this letter to the praise of his glorious
grace. That's what he's going to do.
And Paul is going to show us how it looks pragmatically. to be a people of God's own possession
who have actually been transformed by the supernatural power of
God that raised Christ from the dead. And that we who are new
creatures have been raised from the dead. No longer are we slaves
to sin, but are slaves to righteousness. Not bound by chains, but freed
by the Son of God who broke our chains. And the rendition that
we sing often in this fellowship, Amazing Grace. And then we sing
the standard old Stanzas and then we go, my chains are gone.
I've been set free. And we get the verse 22 of Ephesians
five and we're bound. We're in chains again to go. Well, my chains are free, but
I've fallen into them. I'm not tied by them, but for
some reason I've fallen into a big bucket of them and I can't
climb out. Something's wrong. We are not
in chains as Christians. Under no circumstances is the
law of God and the command of Christ burdensome for us. Nowhere
is it burdensome. Ever. We are a people who have
been freed by the Son. And when the Son sets us free,
we are free indeed. Wives, submit to your own husbands
as to the Lord. Verse 22, The husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and himself
its savior. Now, as the church submits to
Christ, so also wives should submit and everything to their
husbands. And I'm going to stop there today because next week
and the next week and the next week, the husbands get their
turn. We've learned last Sunday that
as we saw out of this text, just move in such a mighty way that
the gift of submission is that which is purely exemplified in
the gospel and the power of the gospel. And that we who are in
Christ by the gospel, by grace, then are submissive to the core
of our DNA. That's what we are. We who are
like Christ are growing up and are being made like Christ. We
are maturing to the fullness of the statue of Christ, to the
measure. Do you see the argument? I'm quoting Paul out of Ephesians.
There we are. We're growing. We're worshiping.
We're living. We're admonishing. We're remembering. We're praising. We're walking
in wisdom. We're putting away falsehood.
We're speaking truth. We're doing all these things.
And then the fullness of that example holistically then begins
to start culminating in the submission to one another. And we saw last
week as we contemplated submission, it is very much been degraded
to a negative thing. Much like Pastor Dave or Brother
Dave was saying this morning, he was saying that it's a negative
thing to be under discipline. That's what he preached this
morning in Reidsville. It's just like that, that it's negative
to think of submission. Because what happens there is
we suppose that submission means this. I don't have a say. I'm not important. I'm not valuable.
I'm not powerful. I'm a subservient person. I'm subordinate. There's something
wrong with me. I'm lesser. I'm weaker. I'm not
as exalted. I'm not as worthy. So it means
in our culture, I'm not just going to lie about it. That's
what it means. And that's a blasphemous thing to say about that which
God has given us as a gift. The gospel of Jesus Christ at
its core is submission. Jesus submitted himself to the
will of the father by submitting himself to the hands of wickedness
so that he could be killed and atoned for the sins of the church.
And that's the beauty of submission. Why in the world do we have we
misconstrued it? Because the devil is a liar.
And that's why Paul closes this letter with such things. Ephesians
3, the church is to display the manifold wisdom of God to the
powers and principalities of the heavenly places. And then
Ephesians 6, we do not fight against flesh and blood, but
against the powers and principalities of darkness. See, this is the
powers that work in the world today, friends, and I'm telling
you, the devil's a liar and he's been whispering to the hearts
of humanity ever since the beginning of man. And the same lie that
he spoke to Eve and Adam is the same lie he speaks to the Christians
of the church today. The devil doesn't have to manipulate
the world as heavily as he does the church, because the church
is manipulated through so-called teachers. The church is manipulated
through so-called preachers. The church is manipulated through
so-called traditional ideals and philosophies about the Bible
that have been underhandedly Molded a massage to look like
the world and it fits perfectly like a glove. Well, this is what
the world is So let's make the Bible fit though. It doesn't
fit like there Let's bend that a little bit and there we go and it starts
to blend and then all of a sudden you have a false God And a false
gospel and we're happy-go-lucky down the lazy river lazy Susan
River of hell We're just floating on down without a care in the
world. We're going such such a slow rate We think we're just
coasting but we're really flying Into destruction And so we come to this text today
and it is a difficult text. But I want you to remember, as
Paul writes this thing, several things I want you to see. He's
talking to addressing someone. He's addressing wives. He said,
and subjecting one another to Christ out of reverence for Christ. We looked at that last week.
We saw the reality of what that means. And the beauty of it. And then now Paul is about to
show how this is played out. Wives to your own husbands. And the word submit there in
the Greek is not in that text, but it's inferred because it's
one sentence out of submitting to one another of reverence for
Christ. Wives to your own husbands as
to the Lord. That's the thought there. But in a way of putting
it into English to not put it there because we like headers
and titles and numbers, it would not make sense. So they move
the submitting there and then they put it there. In that sentence. And you might say, well, that
isn't what Paul actually wanted wives to do. Well, he does say that
over there in verse 24. So it's just making it function grammatically
a little bit clearer. Now, there's a lot to be said
here, because here is in Liza a severe problem. Who is he writing
to? He's writing to wives. But most importantly, what kind
of wives? Well, listen. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful
in Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God,
our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's take the introduction
to his letter and let's place it right here in the principle
of the audience for this specific thing that he's building his
argument out of. He says. Saints who are in Ephesus who
are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God,
our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, those or who he's talking to,
and now he's talking specifically out of that group, the wives.
You wives who are the saints in Ephesus, who are faithful
in Christ Jesus, grace and peace be multiplied to you from God
our Father, Lord Jesus Christ submits your husbands as unto
the Lord. That's what he says there. So
Paul now is saying he is talking to those who are in the beloved,
who are saints in Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus.
So the outcome of all these things, I should have done that in every
verse. You are the faithful ones in Christ Jesus. Look carefully
how you walk. You are the faithful wives who are in Christ Jesus.
Submit to your own husbands. And not only are they the faithful
ones, but you see verse 21, submitting to one another out of reverence
for Christ. So you who are the faithful ones in Christ Jesus
submitting To one another out of worship and adoration, affection
for Jesus, then you submit also to your husband. So here is the
audience faithful saints who are wives submitting to one another
and to their husbands who love the Lord Jesus with all that
they are. These are the ones who we speak to whom he's speaking.
Paul is talking not to disobedient wives, not to the rebellious
wives. There were no rebellious wives in Ephesus, according to
this text. There were no rebellious that I'm sure there were just
as there were rebellious husbands and rebellious children. But
he's not saying this because it was a problem with submission.
This is part of his argument that the outcome of new birth
is new creation works as a new creature. And so part of that
and ultimately in that it's supposed to function this way relationally
so that the church as a whole functions well to the praise
of his glorious grace. This is the argument that the
letter of Ephesians is trying to pull and it does a fine job. But we zip up sometimes. We zip
up number one. We zip up number two. We zip
it up. We put it away. We've got it done. We've memorized
the data. And we plug it into our archives. Friends, take it
out and keep it stirring. Do not allow the Word of God
to grow stale in your heart. Keep it alive. Fan into flame
the good deposit that was entrusted to you, dear Timothy. That's
what Paul writes. Fan into flame. Are you fanning
the flame that which God has called us to? And so here are
these wives that are called of Jesus Christ. And now not only
are they called, but now they're commanded to do something. Submit
unto your husbands, to your own husbands, as to the Lord. And
so let's pack this or unpack this if we can. Briefly, there's
more than we'll get to, but it will mold together in the next
three to four weeks. But there's things that God needs us to see
here today. And let's look at it. First of
all, I want you to see that the command to submit is not for
something, for many things. And I want to address what this
command is not saying or that it's not coming from. In other
words, Paul is not giving this command in order to keep people
in their place. Paul has no way motivated to
give this command, wives submit to your own husbands, so that
the wives could be kept in their place. That is not his motivation. It's wrong. Secondly, Paul is
not giving this command, wives submit to your own husbands,
because he's revealing the worth of the husband over the worth
of the wife. As a matter of fact, if you see in this illustration
of what Paul says marriage is, is that The the wife is a picture
of the church to whom the God of the universe subjected themselves
himself to death as a criminal to save. So I believe the church
is pretty valuable to God and I believe the wife is pretty
valuable to God. above and beyond the husband.
But yet God says that if we put it in the metaphor there, that
Jesus, God loves the Son without measure. He gives the Spirit
without measure. So there's a lot of love going on everywhere.
And so that which God loves as Jesus Christ is without measure.
There's a love that can't just it can't be it just can't be
combined and put in. It can't be seen. It's just so
big. But then in God's love for us, he gave that which he loves
greatly, greatest. John 3, in order to save us. And so with that, let's build,
I hate to use this term, but you know, have a little bit of
esteem for God's glorious affection toward you in spite of you. But
then yet, when you are His, you are the beloved and He gave His
life for you. Understand that. It's very strange,
as Paul says, where few people would die for a good person.
Maybe somebody might die for a really good person, but nobody
would die for a wicked person. But that's what Christ did, you
see. And some of us husbands and some
of our culture likes to look at it, go, yeah, the women are
wicked and we're trying to put up with them. That's not what it's
saying right there. Because it's talking to the beloved called
wives, the saints in Ephesus who are in Christ Jesus and faithful
in Christ Jesus. That's why Paul puts that qualifier
there, faithful ones. He didn't say wicked ones, disobedient
ones. He didn't say, you brothers and sisters, I'd like to call
you mature, but you're not. I'd like to call you adults,
but you're children. Remember that he said to the
Corinthians? He didn't say that to these people. He said, you're
faithful. Now let me tell you how this
is supposed to look. Let's paint the picture here. So Paul's not
writing there to reveal worth. He's also not writing this, wives
submit to your own husbands who is in charge. He's not setting
someone who's the Lord over someone else. That's not the point. It's
a violation of the gospel to say that. That's not the point
here. He's also not establishing masters
and slaves because he actually addresses masters and slaves.
And he says, masters, treat your slaves as though they're your
brothers. Slaves, subject yourselves to your masters as though he
were Christ. So Paul's not saying that he's
establishing a hierarchy of lords and servants and subordinates
and powerful. He's not saying this because
of sin. He's not showing, we'll see that
in a couple of weeks. Paul's not saying wives submit
to your husbands because you sinned. Or because of sin. He's not saying that. It's wrong. He's not saying Wives submit
to your husband because man rules and girls rule. He doesn't say
that. There's no misogynistic or feminist issue here. This
is the gospel. It's not an issue of character
and word and things of that. He's not saying wives submit
to your husbands because there's an issue of power here. But what is he saying? Paul is
saying wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord Because
this is a clear picture and a clear example of worship unto Christ
because of Christ in the home. It's just one half of it, it's
actually one third of it. One fourth of it. Because we
get husband and wife, we get wives to husband, husband to
wife, children to parents and fathers to children and then
slaves to masters. We we start seeing this picture
here of how it works. And even though life submit to
your own husband, then just a breath before he said husband submit
to your wife as a sister. It's really awesome. But then
yet the picture gets smaller, more minute, and the examples
begin to show the reality of what God has done in Christ Jesus.
So let's look at these believing, purchased, empowered, worthy
wives, why should I submit? That's the question I ask. Why
should wives submit to your own husbands? Because it is commanded
to. It is commanded. But because
it is commanded, then out of the command comes a desire to. Why wives submit to your husbands? Because you want to. Why? Because it's commanded to. And
not only is it desired, because it's an act of worship. See? Wives, submit to your own husbands
as to the Lord. And so, if it was just there,
I probably wouldn't be able to force that on you, but the text
does it already. Submitting to one another out
of reverence for Christ, verse 21. So the worship of Christ,
the affection we have for the Lord Jesus, out of that affection,
wives, submit to your husbands. As to the Lord, in other words,
as God has commanded you to submit to Christ, then Christ has commanded
you to submit to your husband. And so you with joy do it because
you're doing that which your Lord wants you to do. And empowers
you to do. Because it's out of worship,
it's an overflow of joy. Submission is an overflow of
joy. I can't wait to be obedient to
my God. I can't wait to reflect the nature
of His power in my life. I can't wait to show the overwhelming
submission to my husband because of the worship I have for Christ. And then I ask myself, why has
God done this? Why should wives submit? But
then the next question is, why has God done this? We saw briefly
just a few things of why He hasn't done it. It's not because women
are less. It's just because it's what He's
done. Why has He done this? Well, He's done this to the praise
of His glory. That's why He's done it. To the
praise of His glory. Look at verse twenty three, you
don't believe me, look at verse twenty three, four, four. The husband is the head of the
wife. Even as and what it means there is it's showing you that
it's even as right now, as Christ is the head of the church. Husband
is the head of your wife, as Christ is also now the head of
the church. So husbands right now, in the present time, are
the heads of their wives, right now, as Christ is the head of
the church. So in that, wives, out of worship,
to the praise of my glory, God says, submit to your husbands.
For the husband is the head of the wife. The word there, or
the root word of husband, is the word in the Greek called
andros. Andros. And you find that word
and its meaning in the original language is extremely powerful.
You'll find it in John chapter 1. You find it there. And if
you want to turn, you can look at it. I don't usually do word
studies, but I thought this would be interesting for you. In John
chapter 1, you find the word there. Here. In verse, let's just read verse.
12 of John 1, it says, But to all who did receive him, who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children
of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh,
nor the will of man. And right there, when it says
will of man, the word in the Greek is andros, husband. Because
the word andros means that which controls. So the very translation of the
word husband means one who controls, one who leads, one who moves. So our mind, the NIV translate
that in John one as decision. It says the decision of the mind.
So the the very role of husband is one who is the head. That's what it means. And the head. leads, the head
directs and the head oversees and the head moves the body where
it goes. But think of that as a person
and you'll see the body in just a moment. Is not abused by the head, it's
not hated by the head, I think I'd like to go eat. I'm going
to go and eat me some ice cream. I think what I'll do, just because
despite my stupid body, is chop off my hands. See who eats ice
cream now, body. Oh, but I'm the one that can't
taste it now. I can eat like a cow and just... That's not the way the head works.
And we'll see that. As Christ is the head of the
church, keep looking. I've turned in the wrong book
here. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ
is the head of the church. And then there's some clarification
there. Head of the church, comma, His
body, comma, and is Himself its Savior. What a world! So now we start to see the image
of that headship. Now we start to see the beauty
of that submission. Now we start to see the understanding
of worship through the submission of wives to their husbands. And
we see that as the husband is the head, even as Christ is the
head, that the head is only a head and that the body really, and
I want you to be careful not to take a theological position,
but just in the metaphor, what is a body without a head or a
head without a body? It's a dead person. OK, it's
just a discombobulated fella. He's done. If you throw him in the pool,
he will sink or float, depending. But he won't swim. You feed him,
he won't swallow it. You yell at him to come and do
something, he won't come. He will not respond. He's dead. Just as the church is dead without
her head, Jesus, and the husband and wife are not dead without
each other, but the picture is just the same. We're both dead
without Christ. So in the marriage, we'll have
to submit to your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband
is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. So let's continue. What Paul. Is not saying here in the context
of submission. Is this. And we'll look more
at that, which I said, as Christ is the head of the church, because
if you look and you continue there, what Paul does. As he says in verse 25, husbands
loved your wives as Christ loved the church, and so there's a
lot more to that, we'll get to it next week, but today. Paul did not say. Submit to your
husband, wife, if your husband loves you. Paul does not say
submit to your husband if he's cool. Paul does not say submit
to your husband if he's good looking, or if he's gentle, or
if he's strong. He does not say those words.
Verse 24 says, Now as the church submits to Christ, You notice
it doesn't say, as the church should submit to Christ. It's
an actual assumption that the church submits to Christ. Why?
Because the church has been empowered to submit to Christ. And Christ
has empowered wives to submit to their husbands. He says, as
the church submits to Christ, wives should submit to their
husbands. But there's a really big two
words there that bother us in the text. And it says in everything. Now, if I were a snake in the
grass who hated women and wanted to squelch some problems in homes,
I could stir some up and everybody would be on the divorce block
in a couple of matters of minutes. Because what happens here in
the world is people take this text and they put their finger
in their wives' faces and they say, you submit, woman. Isn't
that what the Scripture teaches? Is that what God does? Obey my
Son! Step on us? That sounds like
some kind of an army movie or something. Does God command us
to obey His Son? Yes. Does God put His finger
in our face? No, but He will. He can. And who's commanded the wife
to submit to her husband? The husband? Or the true husband? Christ has. Christ is the one
who is being disobeyed, not the husband, if the wife disobeys
or does not submit. And I want to correct some of
that language there because I think it's extremely wrong. Because
so many men think they've got a right to get in their wife's
face because there's no submission there when the man is not dying
in the first place. You see what I'm saying? And
so what that does not mean is that you submit to your husband
if he loves you or if he follows Christ. Because it says in everything,
submit to your husbands. So some people would say, well,
if my husband isn't a godly man, I'm not going to submit to him.
Well, that's wrong. As the church submits to Christ,
so also wives submit to your husbands in all things. So let's
try to pick this out. Why does this feel wrong? Why
does it feel so pressured and it feels like it's in some kind
of a pressure cooker just waiting to explode? Bad analogy. Why is it there? Why does it
feel that way? Well, because I wrote down a
lot, but I'm going to give you seven. I think it feels wrong
in our culture because many people believe that women should submit.
To all men. And the scripture says right
there and also in first Peter, by the way, which we'll get to
in just a minute, chapter three, it says wives submit to your
own husbands. There is no other man in this
world to whom my wife should submit. It doesn't work that way. And
I've been on staff with churches that the elders felt like they
had the authority to manage people's wives like children. It's wrong. Maybe I shouldn't have said that,
but it's bad. It feels wrong also because many
believe it means That for a wife to submit, she's got to agree
with everything her husband believes. It's not true. And I'll show
you first, Peter, that it's not true. Matter of fact, Peter gives
the example in his first epistle that the wife is a believer and
the man is a pagan. He hates the gospel. He hates
God. He hates Christ. And he forbids
probably his wife to worship. What does she do? She worships.
And he's probably told her many times, shut your mouth, woman.
I don't want to hear about this God of yours. And what does she
do? She preaches the gospel in his face. And he says, I don't want you
to try to change me. And what does she do? She lives her life out in
front of him so that maybe God would grant him repentance and
tries to change him in that way. It feels wrong because in our
culture, Many people believe that women should not have an
opinion. Women should have an opinion. And women do have an
opinion. And husbands, if you were any
kind of a brain in between your ears, you would listen to the
opinion of your wife because most of the time they are wiser
than you. Most of the time. And a good
wife would say, oh no honey, most of the time you're wiser
than I. And it feels wrong sometimes
because some people believe that a woman
should obey her husband over the Word of God. It also feels wrong because sometimes
people believe that a woman or a wife is only as spiritually
mature as her husband allows her to be, and that some people
believe that it's the husband's job to raise the woman spiritually,
but the Scripture says otherwise. Is it a bad thing to invest in
our families and our wives and our children? No, but our wives
should also invest in us. It feels wrong in our culture
because so many people believe a woman is not to be believed or it's not useful. And the world at large looks
at women and they say that. And some cultures make women
actually because their property where nothing but that which
can be seen through the eyes. It hasn't been too many years
ago that women didn't have the right to vote in this country. They were considered lesser of
people. And heaven help if it was a black
woman who happened to be a free slave but still couldn't have
any power. Some people believe in our culture
that submission means that women should fear their husbands. And I'll tell you that that's
all garbage. Submission to a husband by wife
is nothing but a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there
is nothing greater than that. And everything other than that
is less than that. And so simply put, that's what
Paul is about to begin to argue. Submit to your husband, to your
own husband. But the question then remains,
and I like, in this sermon, the points have been more questions
The question then remains, well, what good does it do? How does
it show the Gospel? Well, let's see if I can answer
that without getting into the next few verses. Why is it so vital? That would
be a good question. Well, it's vital because wives
who submit to their husbands show a perfect picture of the
power of the cross of Jesus Christ. Submit to your husband as to
the Lord. As the Lord submitted to the will of the Father and
to subject Himself to death on a cross. Philippians 1. So the submission of a good wife,
of a godly woman, of a commanded, called woman to her husband shows
the power of the cross. It also shows the reality of
the gospel. It shows a reflection of the
gospel of Jesus Christ in that we who are in a home and in a
marriage, a marriage was created. Get this. before the fall. And out of the man came the woman. The woman is part of the flesh
of the man. God did that because He wanted
the husband and the wife to reflect the nature of Jesus Christ in
the church before there was ever sin in the world to be redeemed. But God in His foreknowledge
and God in His providential sovereignty established it to be so. Why
did God create snakes and mosquitoes? To bite us. Well, that's not true. It is
to me. Look at Deuteronomy. And God
sent fiery serpents to bite the Israelites so that they would
die. Those are the words of the Lord. So God created snakes to
bite the Israelites so they would die. And I believe God created
mosquitoes so He could irritate the dog mess out of us on barbecue
nights. And to some people, give malaria
and kill them. And you know why it's so vital?
Because in the picture of the gospel, through submission to
a husband, a wife confronts the culture in which we live. I really
believe that. Because look at the advice that
you get in the world. Oh, I wouldn't put up with that
crap. Any man don't pick up his own socks, they ain't worth keeping.
Leaving! And I'm making light of things.
There are some serious things in marriages. And there are some
reasons to be protected by the church in marriages. And there
are reasons to put somebody in jail in marriages. And there
are reasons to file for divorce in marriages. But they are so
much exceptions. And I think sometimes we jump
into the easy street rather than divine power of God through prayer
and fasting and believing in that Christ can set this straight,
rather than we just, I just quit, I just don't want to deal with
it. Friends, God can deal with it. So a wife that submits her husband
reveals the wisdom of God in Ephesians 3.10, because it fights
the culture. The culture says dump him, stop
it, be strong. And I say be strong. Be strong,
woman. Be bold. And submit to your husband. Ask
to the Lord, because the culture hates it. It's counter-cultural
and it's counter-intuitive. It's not that which is normal
inside the hearts and minds of humanity. The natural man, the
old man, the dead man who was once alienated from the covenant
of promise without any hope in the world, separated from the
God of the world, did not understand why submission was good and why
it was awesome and why it was joyful and why it was a gift.
Friends, it's wisdom of God seen in submissiveness. Another reason that I think it's
so vital to see submissiveness in the marriage is that it's
a revelation of an eternal covenant with God. Jesus submitted to, listen, Jesus
submitted, and this is what's so crazy, Jesus submitted to
death and the church submits to Him. And Jesus, as the husband, forever
has died for the church, but He's alive. He forever intercedes
on behalf of the church as the atoning Lamb of God. And the
church forever worships Him and loves Him and adores Him and
serves Him. And it works that way. But why is this vital? Why do we care? Can't the church
just have their marriages and be done with it? Well, no. And I give you two out of fourteen
reasons today. Reason number one is marriage.
Why is this important? Why do we care? Why do we have
to? Because Paul taught it. That's not a point. Marriage
is a sexual union. For this reason, Paul says in
a little bit, the two shall leave their father
and mother and become one flesh, cleaved to one another. So they
leave and they cleave and they weave. They leave their home
and their family and they cleave to one another and they become
one flesh, one person. Out of Adam came Eve. Out of
the flesh of the man came the woman. They're one flesh, two
people. You see it now? I think I'm going
to kick over this podium. And you look at what does Paul
say in Ephesians. You who were once alienated,
who were far off, have now... Look, let's just read it. Let's
just read it. Where's that at? I've lost my
train of thought. Look at chapter 2 verse 1, And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
following the course of this world, following the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit that does not work in the sons of disobedience,
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which
He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made
us alive together with Christ, by grace you've been saved, and
raised us up with Him, seated us with Him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, so that the coming ages He might show the
immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Jesus,
for by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not of
your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a
result of works, so that no one may boast. For we as His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand.
I wish you would walk in them. First thing, God created marriage to
depict this. First thing, it's a sexual union
and God created it for this. Keep reading verse 11. Therefore,
remember that you at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh, called
the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which
is made in the flesh by the hands. Remember that you were at that
time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world. But now, here's marriage, in
Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace,
who has made us both one, and has broken down in His flesh
the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of the
commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself
one new man in the place of the two, so making peace, and might
reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby
killing the hostility." We're one flesh with Christ. Christ is complete with his church,
with his bride for whom he died. The marriage is supposed to...
Jerry Maguire didn't start that. Jesus started that. You complete
me. Jesus lacks nothing. But in his
desire, he's complete with his bride. That's what he came to
do, to seek and save that which was lost, to create a people
for himself, to the glory of God the Father. This is strong
stuff. And I would submit to you that
I was probably 35 before I saw it. as perfectly as I can see it
today. And I praise God that maybe by the time I'm 70 or 80,
if I live that long, I'll see it even more clearly. So marriage is a sexual union,
and that one flesh is a picture of the reconciliation of Christ
and the church to God. And then he tells Adam and Eve,
he says, go and multiply and subdue the earth. So if the sexual
union as one flesh is a picture of the gospel, then the multiplication
of a family, now don't read in what I'm not saying here, the
multiplication of the family, which is why God created marriage
to begin with, to depict the picture of the gospel as one
flesh. But then the other is a picture of the promise. Is
it through your son? All the nations will be blessed.
Your children will be as great as the sands of the shore. And there's no other picture
in the world that's as true as the picture of the marriage.
Even the church on this side of eternity is a little bit skewed.
So the marriage shows what it's supposed to be. And then as the marriage is in the
body together, Why do you think Paul has now, in a mentor of
mine, said it so clearly like this about eleven years ago.
He says that marriage is a microscopic picture of the macrocosmic reality
of Christ and the church. It's like the little globe with
snow in it. And it's a picture of New York
City. It's little statues of New York City, little tiny, you
know. And you shake it and there's a blizzard in New York. And you
look at it, it's so cool. And you can see all the neat
things in the snow globe. But it's not New York. That's what marriage is. It's
a little snow globe of the gospel. And it's not the gospel. But
we get to shake it up and see it work and see it fall the way
it's supposed to be and see forbearing and forgiving and submission
and dying. And we see it all for the glory
of God. And it's to point us to the picture
of Christ in the church and the fullness of the gospel for all
of eternity. It is a picture. One flesh and the multiplication
of a family is a picture of the promise of God saving people
from every nation and every tongue and every tribe. Jesus died on
the cross by Himself. There was no human being there
with Him on His cross, dying with Him. And that one man, Jesus,
made the many righteous. The marriage points to that.
Wife, submit to your own husband as to the Lord. It points to
that. There's no better picture than that. And friends, any other
picture of marriage is a lie from Satan. The second out of fourteen, because
man and woman are created equally. It's important because husband
and wife, Adam and Eve, Eve was not a subordinate lesser being
than Adam, she was of his essence. So to say he was lesser means
that Adam was less to begin with. And so in the scripture, man
and woman are created equally in dignity. They're created equally
in redemption. There's a book that I like young
couples to read before they get married. There are several books.
One of them is This Momentary Marriage by Dr. John Piper, afforded
by his wife, Noelle. And then another book that I
like them to read, When Sinners Say I Do. And oftentimes we forget
when we're getting married and we're all fuzzy-wuzzy-luzzy in
love and everything's great. And if a hurricane split us apart,
we'd swim the Pacific to get back together. And then a year
later we're going, I'd like to drown for you. But one flesh does not make one
sin nature. It's two sin natures, two people
coming together for one flesh. And so what you then have is
an exponential issue, mathematically. You have an incredible sinner
over here, and an incredible sinner over here, and an incredible
sinner in the middle. With double the sins. Like, a
really interesting problem. So what do we do? Only God can
do that. Submission reveals the wisdom.
Of God, as I said, and the power of God. Especially when people
understand. That we are to submit even when
the one who is being submitted to is not worth it. We weren't worth dying for. We
rebelled against God. But God, because of His love
and because of His mercy, saved us. Submission reveals the wisdom
of God because it reveals the person of Jesus. It reveals the
power of Jesus. It reveals the worth of Jesus. It reveals the purpose of Jesus. Jesus says these words to His
church, If you love Me, you will obey My commands. And He says
these words to His beloved sisters in the faith, If you love Me,
you will obey your husbands. I still don't get it, but I get
it. So what do I obey? And what do
I submit? Turn very quickly to 1 Peter
3. Well, I thought I'd have more
time here. Because I know that the trouble
now comes when some wives sit and say, this man of mine is
wicked. And he asks me and suggests for
me and encourages me to do things that he desires that are not
godly. What do I do? Or he prohibits
me from doing that which is godly. What do I do? Well, being that Jesus Christ
says to submit to your husbands as to him, then it does not eradicate
that which Jesus Christ has told you to do otherwise. So anything
that that under husband has said to do that would violate the
obedience to the true husband is nullified. Submission does not mean doing
all that you're told to do, especially when it is against the Word of
God. I had this argument one time with a sister in the Lord,
believe it or not, who was a mother whose husband was not a believer.
And she came to me and sat down with me and two of the men in
the church. And she said, my husband refuses to allow me to
teach my children the Bible. And I am not going to disobey
Him." And I said, dear sister, the blood of your children is
on your hands. You go right ahead. She left
the church because she felt me a false teacher
to tell her to disobey her husband. That's like saying, woman, my
children are mean and do not feed them. Do not clothe them. Do not give them medicine when
they're sick. What mother would do that? A worthless mother. Obey the
Lord first. And I say that because often
the case, not always, but often the case in a home, a wife comes
to faith apart from her husband. And sometimes in a home, a husband
is a believer and the wife is not, and he's frustrated that
he has not a godly wife, in which I say, die to yourself. That's next week. And get over it. Pray for, lead,
show submission to the Lord in spite of what your wife might
do. Show submission to your husband
in spite of what your husband might do. 1 Peter 3. Peter's writing the same stuff.
Submission to authority. And he says that Christ bore
our sins in His body that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. And by His wounds we've been healed, quoting Isaiah.
For we were strained like sheep, but have now returned to the
shepherd and the overseer of your souls. So likewise, wives
submit or be subject to your own husbands so that even if
some do not obey the word. You see that. Even if some do
not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct
of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
Do not let your adorning be external, but the braving of the hair and
the putting on the gold jewelry or the clothing you wear. Now
guys, we're not going to get into that. Don't take that literal that
women shouldn't fix their hair and put on clothes. But let your
adorning, in other words, let that which is seen, let that
which will win your husband, let that which he will see and
observe, Be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable
beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight
is very precious." And then we can get down to verse
7. We'll tag over there. So what I want to show you there
is that the unbelieving husband is not obeyed against the will
of God, but submitted to out of respect to the Lord inasmuch as a submissive, quiet spirit.
Argumentation, as we'll see, toward children. Fathers, do
not exasperate your children. You don't push your children
to anger. Husbands, you don't push your wives to anger. Wives,
you don't push your husbands to anger. So what do we do? Well, I think
it all boils down to this word. And then I'll close here and
we'll pick up here next week. It boils down to this word. In the fullness of time, God,
in His sovereignty and in His loving mercy, sent His Son to
live in this world, to die on the cross and was raised from
the dead in order that He might display His righteousness because
in His divine forbearance He looked over former sins and present
sins and future sins. And so He put forth Christ as
the satisfaction of His wrath against sinners So that his righteousness
might be upheld. That's Romans 3. There's an argument
there for Romans 3. And the reason I do that is because
people exchange the glory of God for the glory of man. For
their own way, their own wisdom, their own culture, and their
own stuff. And the other stuff they can
see with their eyes, even the stuff God has made, they worship
their bodies, they worship the birds, they worship the beasts.
They satisfy their flesh, they satisfy their needs, they satisfy
the hunger of their heart, and it's not of God. And so in God's infinite mercy
and infinite love and infinite wisdom, He sent Jesus to pay
for the penalty of that absolute wicked idolatry in the human
soul. And Jesus died. And Jesus was
raised. And Jesus, through His Spirit,
calls us to faith. And we are saved at the cost
of His life. And out of that respect reverence,
adoration, affection, worship. I'm going to use all that synonymously. We submit wives, submit to their
husbands. Just like last week, brothers
and sisters in the church submitting to one another. We do it. So the core then of
submission is not as much, it is an action, but not as much
as inaction as in one's action as it is in one's spirit. Reverence. Worship. Not for the husband,
but toward the husband as toward Christ. In obedience to Him. I don't want to give a list of
how that works. I think if our heart is right
with the picture, the Spirit of God will give us the plan. And then the church, as we live
together, will teach one another how that works. What do I do
here? And I tell you, one of the greatest
ways of being submissive is to just pray for that man who's
a bull. And there's words for that for
all of us. We pray more than we are problematic. We pray. We pray more than we
persuade. I pray for you, church, oh so
much more than I preach to you. I pray for my family more than
I talk to them. And we ought to pray for one
another. Because that's that's how God's going to do it. And so we come and we find that
a anti-cultural, really ridiculous thing that God has commanded
is actually a joy. And then out of that joy is a
worship for Christ. And then out of that worship
is a picture of the purpose of the gospel clearly. And wives
just happen to be first here. And maybe we don't get it or
understand it. Maybe we say to ourselves, maybe some of our
wives, some of us who are wives would say, it's so funny saying
that and I'm not in any way a wife, but I am a bride. To Jesus. Which makes it ironic,
I'm a sheep, but a shepherd and a bride, but a groom. But maybe we would sit here and
say, I can't submit, but I say you can. The Word of God says
you can. And you have to allow the Lord.
And I say allow because you can grieve the Spirit by bearing
down your feet and refusing. But if you love Christ, you will
relent that fleshliness and take it off and put on the new man
which is created in Christ Jesus. And you will dive into the Word
of God. And through the Spirit of God, He will teach you those
things. And you will begin to grow in that way. Submission. is not subservient, devalued slavery. It is a willing and only willing
gift. So husbands, when your wives
submit, it is a gift they give you that is the greatest gift
they could give. And if they don't submit, you
don't reach into their purse and snatch it out. And young
women, children who are future wives, there is no greater gift
to the Lord Jesus Christ than submission to Him and submission
to your husbands. And young boys, young men, don't
you ever forget that the greatest gift that your wife will give
you is her heart of submission as unto the Lord, because you
ain't all that and you don't deserve it. just as we ain't
all that and we don't deserve the submission of Christ. I pray that through it, even
in marriage, you would see Jesus, that you would see the gospel.
That's why it's here. That's why it's here in Ephesians
and in Peter and in Genesis 2 and 3. That's why it's there, so
that By seeing, you can believe and be saved. Are you in Christ? Are you the
bride of the Lamb today? And if you are not, oh please,
do not let the sun go down without repenting and believing and trusting
fully in Jesus, who is your only hope, who is the true Husband. And it was the satisfaction of
your soul. Let's pray. Thank You, God. I never understand You, Lord,
fully. Never truly just grasp all the
wonderful, unknowable, all-filled mysteries of Your mind and of
Your heart. God, You have made it very clear about the Gospel
of Jesus. And in the marriage, You have
shown purely this Gospel through the husband and the wife, and
their one flesh, and the wife submitting, and the husband dying,
and the children obeying, and the parents being gracious, and
the slaves surrendering to their masters, and their masters treating
them as brothers. Father, this is just unbelievable.
It is your wisdom seen lived out. God, without Your Spirit,
without Your Word, without Your grace, we cannot even continue
to understand these things, much less live them out. And so, Father,
as Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus, Lord, we pray to
Your ears the same thing for ourselves, that we would be filled
with all Your fullness. That we would understand and
comprehend the breadth and the depth of the love of Christ Jesus
That we would see and behold and believe and that we would
walk Unified as one people with one faith and one Lord with access
to one father and the blood of Jesus Christ Father that blood
has not been shed in vain for it has atoned for the sins of
all who believe and only those who believe And it's in His name
we pray, Amen.