Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1-2.
It says these words here. Therefore, be imitators of God's
beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Now, there's a lot there and I told you guys that it's going
to slow down just a bit, it might boggle a bit. And it doesn't
do justice that also last Tuesday, we started doing some exposition
on John 3, 16, when we deal with, for God loved the world in this
way, that He gave His Son, the only one He had, that the believing,
the once believing, should not perish but have eternal life.
And so in that, we then see an expression of the love of God
in His giving of the Son. Here, in Ephesians 5, this same
love is being portrayed. And not only is it being portrayed,
it's being exemplified, and then it's being commanded for the
body. So, in the same manner in which
Christ loved us, then we also, in turn, love one another. And
so, in doing that, as we see, we then will be mimicking God,
reflecting God, imitators. And one of the things that we
need to do in order to understand fully is I want to go back, and
believe it or not, I want to reestablish our thoughts and
our focus on Ephesians chapter 2. Because the argument here
puts us in a mindset to understand why this love of God, as beloved
children, we ought to imitate and reflect Him. Keep in mind,
too, that imitation is not acting like God. Imitation in the Greek,
mimic, means to reflect God. So, if God is not in us, we can't
reflect Him outwardly. That's why morality is not a
reflection of godliness. Though immorality is definitely
not a reflection of godliness, morality is not a reflection
of godliness. Nowhere in Scripture has Paul been teaching that.
And here in Ephesians, Paul has not been saying, if you do this,
and you do this, and you do this, and you do this, and you do this,
and you act this way, and you say these things, and you live.
Now, of course, he's saying, these are not of who we are.
As a matter of fact, he's going to get very specific on some
stuff coming next week, and that sexual immorality, or impurity,
or covetousness, coarse joking, should not even there should
not even be a hint, it should not even be named among you.
In other words, there is going to be certain attributes of the
Church of Jesus Christ that if these things are present, we
ought to be brought under discipline for them. Because with these
things, then we are no longer imaging and reflecting the nature
of our God who has saved us in Christ Jesus, but rather we're
reflecting the nature of the old man who has already been
put to death. Therefore, imitate God. as beloved
children. And I'll tell you, Church, as
you share your faith in the world, this is one of the areas that
you will come to conflict and to head-butting with many people
when they want to talk to you about two things in specific
terms. One is the sovereignty of God,
and two is the love of God. Now, there's a third one that
gets extremely heated, and that is the creation of man, the will
of man. the free will of man, which I cannot find. Nowhere
in psychology, nowhere philosophically, nowhere scripturally, nowhere
theologically can I find the free will of man. It is a lie
from the pit of hell. It is the desire of the flesh. It is an entitlement of the spirit
that is dead and deserving of judgment. And so, as we look
at being mimickers or imitators or reflecting God in Ephesians
5, 1 and 2, look at verse 2, and then we'll go to Ephesians
2. I'm going to read the whole chapter. Look at verse 2. And walk in love. Listen, we
get that, don't we? We see, walk in love. We understand,
okay, we ought to love one another. We know that John teaches us
we ought to love one another. Paul teaches us we ought to love
one another. We see James saying we ought
to have affection for one another. We see it very clearly in Jesus
saying they'll know that you're my disciples by the love you
have for one another. So if there's not love, then
we are definitely not walking as imitators of God. We're not
walking for God calls us beloved children. And because we're beloved
children, it means first he has loved us for if God had not expressed
his love toward us in Christ then we would not be children
in Christ we would be children of wrath so turn to Ephesians
2 and follow along as we read all that to lay a foundation
for where we are this morning here we go in verse 2 Paul says, and you, you were
dead in your trespasses and your sins in which you once walked. You see the nature of his language.
Look at what he's saying. That's why I don't want to re-preach
all this, but I want you just to get the feel for it. Because
this is the pump that's been priming here as Paul launches
into chapter 5 and comes out and would therefore be imitators
of his beloved children. And he talks about the love that
we ought to walk in and he gives us the example of Christ. And
that's really the, if I could title this sermon anything, it's
Understanding the Trueness of the Love of God in Christ. That'd
be a good title for today's sermon. Understanding the Trueness of
God's Love in Christ. We need to see that we were once
dead in our sins. The second verse there, in which
you once walked. Following the course of this
world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work, and listen to what Paul says, in the sons
of disobedience, in the sons of disobedience, among whom we
all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the mind and the body, and were by nature children of
wrath, like the rest of mankind. but God. You remember when we
went through this some time ago in chapter 2? But God. This is
a beautiful expression of God's mercy. But God, being rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with
Christ. By grace you've been saved. that
it raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly places
of Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might show, what
is He going to show? The immeasurable riches of His
grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So you get the
whole point. God's love is not just this feeling
He has. As a matter of fact, if we were
to look at the feeling of God toward us who were once dead
in our trespasses and sins, if we could just grasp the little
righteous anger, just a whiff of it, if we could see a pump
of smoke come from the fuel of the heat of God's wrath towards
sinners, there would not be something that would be very, very pleasant
for us. I don't believe we would see
an affection. I believe we would see a holy
fire of anger and wrath. but Christ in Christ we have
been made alive by God in his kindness toward us in Christ
that we might be raised in Christ that we are seated together in
Christ so that the coming ages verse 7 chapter 2 he might show
the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in
Christ So, in other words, what's happening
here, and I'll break it down when we get back to chapter 5,
is that man, by himself, is a worthless group of people. And God cannot express forgiveness
and love and kindness toward us lest he be wicked, except
he do it in Christ. There's a bunch of sermons there. We might have to revisit some
of these. Then he says in verse 8, For
by grace you have been saved through faith. And these are
not your own doing, they are the gift of God. Now I change
that because of the way the grammar sits. When we look at this, for
some reason we think that we're talking about something else.
But this means grace and salvation and faith. If you take it just
in the English, all three of them. This is not
your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not as
a result of works, so that no one may boast, but we are His
workmanship. The action of God has moved on
our behalf in affection toward us in Christ Jesus, and now we
are His workmanship, verse 10, created, listen, in Christ to
do good works, for which God has prepared beforehand that
we should walk in them, therefore now walk in love. See Ephesians
5? We've got to get this. feeling
underneath us and then Paul says in verse 11 of chapter 2, therefore
remember that you at one time you Gentiles of a place called
the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which
is made in the place by a hand remember that you 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 in Christ Jesus you who were
once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ,
for he himself is our peace." I just want you to hear this. He is our peace. He is who has
made us both one, and he is the one who has broken down in his
flesh the dividing wall of hatred and hostility toward God by abolishing
the law of commandments, as stressed in ordinances that he, Jesus,
might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making
peace, and might he reconcile us both to God in one body through
the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and he
preached to you who once were far off, and peace he preached
to those who were near. for through Christ we both have
access in one spirit to the Father so that you are no longer strangers
and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and
the members of the household of God verse 20 which is built
or who is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets
in Christ who is the cornerstone I'm just putting that there for
emphasis Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom
The whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple
of the Lord in Him in who in Christ you also are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Now, what I have left to preach
is I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18 words. 18 words, not points, words. I have 18 words three headings, with nothing
messianic, just a list of words that are expressed in this verse
2 of chapter 5. Verse 1, chapter 5, remember
what we said? It's always so good to go back
and hear that. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Do you know how we're beloved
children? See what chapter 2 told us about how we have become beloved.
God didn't look at us and see us and go, wow, I must save them. He looked at us and in His judgment
we are condemned, children of wrath. But His love toward us
in Christ was, I will save you. It seems like I'm saying the
same thing, but I'm not. One is a false doctrine, one
is a false gospel, one is a man-centered faith that takes Christ out of
the necessity of the equation and makes him this mediator of,
oh please, it makes him a beggar and one makes him a certain savior.
One is the action of man toward Christ and the other is the action
of God in Christ toward man. big difference. There's no scripture
to support the first position, but it all supports the second
position. And so, what's the big deal?
Because if we want to imitate God as beloved children, we must
then walk in love. And love is not what we, as American
churchgoers, have called it. It is no longer fitting to be
out of our lips. The word love is no longer fitting
to be written into our poetry and into our stories and into
our lives because we do not know what it means. We think that
love is kindness and we're sort of right. We think that love
is mercy and we're sort of right. We think that love is feeling
something tenderly toward others and we're sort of right, but
we're so wrong. we've missed the whole thing.
Love is only expressed in the person of God, in His space,
in His countenance, in His nature, and his character, and his omniscience,
and his omnipotence. Everything that God is, is holy,
and all that he exemplifies is love. And so, even out of his
love comes his judgment. For a loving, righteous, holy
One who owns it all does not allow wickedness to continue
without judgment. True love defines justice. Have you ever been offended?
Have you ever been offended in such a way that you needed restitution? Have you ever been beat up? Some of you men in the room?
Some of you ladies maybe, but some of you men, most of us men
at least have been slapped around a little bit. Usually because
we say things with the mouth that the body can't establish
in defensive measure. so we can't hold it. My father
always said, your mouth has written a check that you're behind, cannot
catch. And so, being beat on. And I'll
never forget, you know, being 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, that was
about the last time I really got beat up. But, I like, always
got pushed around. And when you get beat up, you're
hurting physically, and you're hurting emotionally, and your
pride is falling all over everywhere. But the pride, when it's hurt
and it's crushed and defeated, it swells from the contusions.
And so, as the pride swells, you think you're taller than
you are, and all you are is walking on bruises. And so as you walk
on bruises, you feel, I'm going to get that guy back. Why? Because he came up from behind
me and because he did not like me, he punched me in the back
of the head. True story. I've had somebody punch me in
the back of the head. And I'm, why would you do that?
You're going to get it. So you feel like you want to
resolve that. When you see that children in
the world who are abused and taken for granted, when you see
children who aren't fed and aren't taken care of, it makes you angry. It should. It builds in you this
spirit of hostility, the spirit of bitterness and frustration
and there's a righteous anger there because God is angry. God
is angry. But then our flesh takes over
and we want justice. We want justice. Justice must
be given. Justice will be given. Justice
is always given in God's economy. Walk in love. Now, walking in
love, what type of love is it that we're walking in? Friends,
I'm here to suggest to you that this love begins with justice. It's a strange thing, I know.
I stop loving. Yes, it is! It is the opposite
of love. It is satanic hate to not have
justice. It is satanic hate to not have
justice. Because the wicked would love
for the other wicked to just get away with it. Let's just
all let it go. Let's just let it go. Isn't that what we're supposed
to do? We're supposed to forgive and let it go, but you're taking
it also then out of context. What does it say in Scripture?
Forgive others as Christ has forgiven you. Or, better yet,
in the context of how Paul puts it, forgive others because God
has forgiven you in Christ. I can forgive because I have
been forgiven, and the degree in which I've been forgiven,
I must also forgive. So, the fullness of wickedness
that I have, and that I am, and that I'll stand against the righteousness
of God, all that's been forgiven. It's been forgiven in Christ. And that, in this sense, is how
God loves. This is how God expresses His
love. He expresses it through the giving
of the Son, and the mercy toward sinners who deserve nothing but
wrath, and He's a loving, holy God, so He must provide justice
for righteousness' sake. And when you know Romans, when
you know Romans, especially chapters 1 and 3, 1 through 3, you really
begin to see, what does Paul do? Let's just do a quick remembrance
survey of Romans chapter 1. Paul says that the wrath of God
calms all wickedness without exception, and that no man in
this world that has ever lived is without excuse. And he knows
that the judgment of God is coming. Even though he might say there
is no God, he is guilty. There is no innocence in the
world, friends. In chapter 2 of Romans, what
does Paul say? What does he do? He talks about
the grace of God, an expression of God's mercy going into chapter
3. Why? So that God could be vindicated. Wait a minute. How is God's mercy, or how does God's judgment and
mercy go together in this vindication? Because God put forth Christ
as propitiation in order to display his righteousness. Do you know
what that means? That's Romans 3.21. God took
his son, put him in the world, and crushed so that God could
be seen as righteous. But Jesus didn't deserve the
crucifixion. No, but I did. And if God forgave
me, when? Before the foundations of the
world are set. And God had not been satisfied,
and my debt had not been paid, then he would not be righteous
to forgive me. Because it's not righteous to
let people get away with wickedness. It is wrong. We get it. I get it. I understand
what I'm saying, but deep inside of my flesh, it balks. It will not throw that pitch
into my heart. You know what I'm saying? I know that's right. But why does it feel so right
to just let people, just let them be. It's the cause of our own nature.
We, like the rest of mankind, were children of wrath and so
the little bit of that flesh that still, a lot of that flesh
that still remains alive is satisfied in knowing that there are others
who are going to be let free. And so in the death, the thief
loves to see it when, even though he may be reformed and forgiven
and he paid his debt, Sometimes the thief is like, oh, just don't
cut off his hands. I was a thief. I know how bad that was. And
I have my hands. Let him keep his. And that's good. That's
good. But that's not what God calls
for. God says, not just the hand, the head, all of it. We take
it. I will take it. God will throw the entire body
and the soul into hell. You know, synonymous with God's
wrath and judgment is hell. It's how the scriptures, it's
how God has established the expression of his judgment is hell. And
the other way that he's expressed his judgment is where? On a cross. And you might say, well now,
he gave judgment to Israel, but he gave discipline to Israel. We brought judgment to America.
No. That's mercy. Well, the big earthquake of so-and-so,
the big tsunami of so-and-so, that's not judgment, that's mercy.
It's mercy. What? Yes, mercy. Okay, so, things
happen. People die. That's mercy. What
they deserve is eternal hell. They deserve the wrath of God.
And there is no device of man that can compare to the judgment
of an eternal God. The worst thing that people can
think of happening to them in this life is to be incarcerated
or executed for a crime. You know what? When the hands
of men have been washed than yet to come is the judgment of
a holy God. And there is nothing worse in
this life. Oh, someone who stands before
God today in eternity of judgment, who happened to die by the hangman's
noose because he was a murderer, is wishing he could die every
day for the rest of eternity, Father. Rather than suffer the
judgment of the wrath of God and think, oh my gosh, this sermon
was about love. Friends, if you don't understand
what I'm saying about God's wrath and the deservedness of man, you will not understand his love
for you. The love of God is expressed
in a way that makes no sense logically. So let's remember a few things.
Let's remember the reality of God and holiness. God is whole. We are not. God commands us to
be holy. God's holiness is seen in His
perfection. It is, as I like to say, a display
of His intrinsic worth. So, when we see worthy, worthy,
worthy, glory, glory, we worship the Lord, it's because He's holy. That's the only reason we should
worship Him, because He alone is worthy of that praise. And,
if we are not holy like Him, we stand in judgment. God, being
perfect and righteous and holy, and He has created this world,
and in man's rebellion man has sinned, and Satan has sinned,
and God, because He is holy, because He is perfect, because
He is just, will put judgment and wrath on all that is wicked. He must. It's an imperative. He will, it's a guarantee, all
sin will be atoned for either through his eternal wrath in
hell or through his judgment on Jesus Christ on the cross. And the sin, see this is where
you get in with limited atonement or particular redemption, the
sins that have been placed on the the life and the body of
Jesus Christ have been paid for already. They're done. Jesus didn't say,
I hope you finish it. He did not say that. He said,
it is finished. It's paid. It's released. It is paid. The debt to God the
Father has been paid by Jesus. It's done. No other debt. You who are in Christ owe God
nothing but worship for His glorious grace. You owe Him your life,
but you don't owe Him payment for your sin. Because Christ paid it. Christ paid it. So, we see the
reality of God and holiness and perfection and justice and judgment
and wrath. Now, let's remember, as we look at chapter 2, the
reality of man. Of man. The reality of man is
that man sits in wickedness. And because man is wicked from
conception, man... See, here's what people think. What does he say? Walk in love. As Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us. He gave himself up. He gave himself
up. To whom? To the Father. Why? So that we could become beloved
children. So that we could be the righteousness
of God. But then listen very carefully
at the descriptive that Paul uses here about Christ's love
and giving himself up for us. He says, it is a fragrant offering. and sacrifice to God. We have watched too much King
Kong. We misunderstand what that means. King Kong the vicarilla. And
they would give him blonde ladies to pacify him and keep him from
tearing their village up and killing all the other people.
So, you know the story. We think that a sacrifice or
an offering is what we give to God to keep him back. But if we do this, then God will
stay over there. That's paganism. That's the world religion. That's
Islam. Let's work and do, and let me
do all I can to please God that He might not smite me. I want
to keep Him away from me. I want to keep Him distant. I
don't want Him stepping over the Grand Canyon into my camp.
Stay over there, and let me give you. Here's some fruit. Here's
some grain. Here's my child. Here's my dog. You want to check? I mean, you know, people think
that. I'm going to try, I'm going to
call. I don't want God to get me. That's not the Scripture. God can't. And you know what's
crazy? What does the Scripture teach us is that God is not satisfied
with the blood of goats and bulls. He's not satisfied in dove and
lambs. He's not satisfied. It points
to his satisfaction who is Jesus, the Lamb of God. And nothing can satisfy God except
a full and perfect sacrifice. And what is the sacrifice? The
sacrifice is not to keep God at bay. So what's wrong with
man? See, people think that they can
come and be a sacrifice to God. You cannot do that. You cannot
do that. God, listen, is eternal. God is holy. And if you sin against
Him by being conceived, You deserve his judgment. I gave the explanation
a couple of, well, the week before last, after we preached the sermon
on this two weeks ago, and I was talking with some gentlemen about
it in town, and I said, for example, if someone came into your house
and killed your parents and your siblings, and nobody had feelings,
and 30 years later, the evidence shows that it's someone in society
who has found a cure for all sorts of illnesses and has saved
millions of orphans and found the treatment for Alzheimer's
and has loved, because of his remorse that he had for killing
your family 30 years ago, he spent the last 25 years of his
life spending trillions of dollars in philanthropy and benevolent
things and he has made the world at peace. Would you just say that's okay?
My family's life is not important. You've done enough good, that
cancels that out. Are you serious? Are you serious? None of that doesn't cancel it
out. The man's going to the electric chair. He's going to die. Because he murdered people. He
has to die. What kind of judge would stand?
What would happen if the Supreme Court of the United States, not
that they would do this, but what would happen if they did
this? If they said, We know this man's crimes are awful, and we're
not going to punish him because he is such a good man now. Are
you kidding me? There would be terror and riot
in the streets of America. Hopefully. Maybe there wouldn't. Maybe everybody would applaud.
Yeah, I can murder too, and as long as I work it off, I'll be
good. Look, friends, the point is this,
is that we as fallen people cannot honor as a sacrifice. We cannot
please God. who we are, we're filth. And
so God's judgment is due, man. But in His mercy, He forgives
man. How? This is it. We walk in this
love. And see, here is the love of
God. It's the love that Christ gave.
What does Jesus say? The words of Christ, that there
is no greater love than this. that a man should lay down his
life for a brother Jesus comes and we who are hostile
and hateful toward God Jesus lives among us Jesus lives with
us Jesus is tempted just like we were and are and Jesus fulfills
as a person the full requirements of the law of God be holy, be
perfect as I am perfect and then he is spotless without blemish
he offers his perfect life and gives his perfect life up see
Jesus didn't when I say he gives his life it doesn't mean he gave
just the life out of his body he gave 33 years of righteous
living so he gave his perfect life He says, if we could play, we'll
play here, Father, I give my life in place of theirs. You see that? You, all the guilt that is due,
all of them, all those that you are going to bring to you, all
those who will come to faith in me, all those who are mine. I give my life in place of theirs. I give my perfect life, and you
judge me as though I were them. But my life is perfect. So the
sacrifice is worthy. God is pleased with Christ, but
then His wrath, you see the difference? The sacrifice is worthy and pleases
God, and His wrath then is poured out on one who is worthy to be
to be accepted and received then God is satisfied not only with
the man Jesus but then with his wrath against me and you and
it's paid and nothing can call it in ever again it is paid in
this way walk in love How are we supposed to walk like
this? As beloved children, as those
who have been saved and that God had created before they were
created for them to walk in good works in Christ. See, that's the whole thing of
chapter 2. We are in Christ. So we must understand the deservedness. I got to a minor off-topic discussion
from a post that Brother Jesse put on Facebook yesterday with
a guy about the love of God and that we should never at any time
preach the wrath of God. And I don't do this online, so
I sent him a private message and we talked. And I said, Brother,
you don't understand the love of God. Yes, I do. Jesus loves me so
much that he died so that I might be saved. I said, you're half there. Why does Jesus
love you? You can't answer that. Why does
God love us? Why did Jesus love us to give
himself up for us? Why? He shouldn't. That's why we can't
answer that question. Because we search the files of
our soul. We search the chasms and the
cavern of our iniquity and we look for that one scrap of paper
that was left on the floor of the cabinet that would say, there
it is, that's what I'm looking for. There's my work, it's not
there. And it's not there because it's
been lost. It's not there because the janitors have cleaned it.
It's not there because it's never been there. There is no reason
for God to love us. There is no reason for Christ
to give himself up for us. There is no reason under the
universe that he should have done that. We are not worthy
or deserving of his love. We're not worthy or deserving
of the Creator becoming like a creation and walking among
us in iniquity while we hate the very nature of his being.
There's no reason why he said that I must be lifted up. See,
the imperative there in John 3 where it says, "...as Moses
lifted the serpent into the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up." The word dei, the error, the small little three-letter
Greek word, is an imperative in which it has to happen. In
other words, for God to be righteous, I must die. Because I've paid
for your sins, and now I must atone for them. I must impugn
my righteousness to you, and you must give me your iniquity. Put it on me. Put it on my back. Put it on my body. Fill me with
it that I might be crucified to satisfy the Father so you
can be justified." And that is a legal legal, judicial declaration
from the highest judge. And it's not that, okay, your
debt's paid. It's that you're innocent. Why
are you standing in front of my court? What sin? What iniquity? What depravity?
What wickedness? What Satanism? What paganism? What idolatry? What adultery?
What drunkenness? What dope addict? Where? I don't
see them anywhere. I see righteous, and righteous,
and righteous. I see righteous, I see perfection,
holiness, wonderful, glory, beautiful in Christ. Free. And you didn't pay it,
and I didn't pay it, we can't pay it, cause Christ paid it.
And if we were to pay it, we would pay for all of eternity. See, this is the reality of Christ
and love. This is what love is. love is is giving up when no one deserves it so that
they might be justified and now as we look at what's
going to be happening here I don't want you to miss the fullness
of the fact that this is a fragrant and sacrifice to God. So as I
looked at that, and as I followed that, I asked myself, so to me,
there is an affection that God has given toward me that was
worth killing Christ for. Be very careful what you hear
here. And yet, there is no reason for
Him to love me that way. there is a glorious, gracious
love, an indisputable love, and this love means that Christ's
life and His death and His suffering on the cross was pleasing to
God, it was a fragrant It's a fragrant sacrifice. It
was a beautiful thing. God looked down and was pleased. Don't miss that. That's a huge
theological mistake to miss that. It pleased the Father to crush
the Son. It pleased God to kill Christ. It pleased Him to place Christ
on the cross. God put forth Christ as propitiation. That means unto dissatisfaction. God only does that which pleases
Him. He purposes it, He plans it,
and He acts upon it. And the fragrance of true love
involves six things. true love of fragrance reminds
me after Lazarus was raised from the dead and we saw this $40,000
bottle of nard poured out over Jesus' head and there's a phrase there that
John writes in John 11 this is the aroma of the perfume field
of the house I spilled a bottle of essential
oil the other day. I smelled it for a while. It's the little bottle. I can
announce it to you. The aroma of the worship of Mary
filled the house. The aroma of the crushing of
the Son of God was pleasant to His nephews. The fragrance of true love We'll
deal with this as we move along. It's first seen in a holy anger. A holy anger. That God who is
holy has a holy and rightful anger. That's what I mean by
holy. He's not wrong for feeling that. He should be. Toward us. Then, out of that anger comes
a holy justice, number two. A holy justice. fragrance of
true love involved first a holy anger and then a holy justice
that God will bring to judgment every sin ever committed period
and then that sin judgment for that sin will be forever it won't
be a few minutes it won't be a brief moment it won't be a
hundred years it will be forever but then third the fragrance
of true love, according to what Paul teaches here, is holy substitution. So God, in His mercy, because
of the great love in which He loved us, gave Christ to substitute
two things. To substitute our life of sin
for His life of righteousness. So, like that. And then, our
wicked nature for His righteous nature. He who knew no sin became sin
that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus, even on the cross,
however, was not guilty of sin. Those who were guilty, their
sin was put upon Him. So really, there's a whole series
in there, theological things to think about, substitutionary,
the penal substitutionary atonement. Christ brings us at one. What
is it that Paul said in chapter 2? He tore down the wall of hostility,
and we who were far off, He brought us near. He preached to us. He
brought us near. He brought us to God. He prepares
us for God through His substitution. And in the fragrance of that
true love is a holy anger, a holy justice, a holy substitution
who is in Christ. Then we see a holy forgiveness,
number four. A holy forgiveness. Do you realize
you were forgiven before you were born again? So that no one can boast. You
were forgiven. And that's the fifth thing. A holy
rebirth. Because you're forgiven, God
brings you to life in Christ. Because Christ paid your debt.
seeks you out, brings you to life. He brings you to life.
And then out of that, to the praises of the Lord's grace,
which is the whole theme of Ephesians to begin with, the sixth thing
that we see in the praises of love is a holy worship. Holy affection. Holy gratitude. Holy lives, Romans 12, 1 and
2. Holy commitment. Holy belief. Holy faith. We exercise and practice
these things continually, and we fail and we pick up, and we
stand up and we fall down, and we pray and we starve, and then
we succeed and we fail again, but God is faithful, for it is
not about us maintaining, but it's about us abiding. And we
abide in Christ, and He's in us, and we are in Him. and no
one can snatch us out. How do we abide in Christ? By
faith. It doesn't mean I believe I live
there. It means that when we look in the
mirror of our own iniquity and we see it, even as Christians
today, and we see it, we know maybe some of us are struggling
with that right now, today, with unforgiveness and with frustration
and doubt and bitterness and disobedience and rebellion and
thievery and lust and all these sorts of things, it's there,
it's alive, it's in the church, but it's not customary to be
named among us as we'll see. So where does our hope lie? That
Christ alone and his life on this earth was enough and that
his sacrifice on the cross was enough to expressly and specifically
and explicitly provide us justification. We're fine. If it weren't for Christ, we would
perish. That's what means by faith. Faith,
a fully knowing, trusting, believing, acting, living, loving, pushing,
pressing, abiding, holding, resisting in Christ because He has already
satisfied the Father and there is nothing we can do to satisfy
Him. So then out of that comes the
holy worship. We then live our lives because
we're no longer a slave to death, a dead man walking. We're live
men and women and children walking in Christ who are able to worship
fully what our heart adores, supernaturally. And then we become afraid. Sacrifice
to God with our lives. I don't know who said this, but
I heard it this week as I was debating some of this very theme. About why do we preach the wrath
of God? I go back to what I said at the
beginning. We don't fully understand how God loves us until we fully
understand what we truly should be getting from Him. I'm going to paraphrase it, preaching
the love of Christ is giving them hell, showing them wrath,
and putting both hell and wrath on Christ and telling them they're
free to go. So how can you express the love
of God without the wrath? For the very nature of His love
is that Christ gave Himself up to the wrath of God for us. I suppose this, it's not loving
to withhold that. It's not loving to say, oh God
loves you and you're fine. Really? He really does? How does he love you? He loves
you in that you deserve the very fullness of the wild crest of
his fury because you are a wicked sinner. and there's nothing you
can do to be saved. In His great mercy, He poured
His wrath out on Christ, and God sent His Son, who was God,
who is God, to live among men, to live a perfect life, and His
life was worthy and satisfying to the Father. Then Christ gave
Himself up to them. The gospel's not God loves you
so much that he killed Jesus and now he doesn't have to kill
you. That's backwards. It's not necessarily full. Because then the question is,
why would God want to kill me? Because you deserve it. You deserve it. So, as we close this time, I
say, now what am I supposed to do with this? Worship. Worship and know that walking
in love first and primarily is giving ourselves up, is it? I say yes, but foundationally,
walking in love is forever and forever and forever having that
in the fullness of our hearts and minds that God's love is
expressed in His mercy by His wrath. Without that, how do we walk
in love? We can't. Without that full understanding,
all that we do for love is really not love at all, is it? So church, as we close our time
in this Word, understand that as we move to these next things,
as we move to these areas of exhortation about these not being
among you, we move to probably, in some of our hearts, some rebuke.
Know that it's not changing these things about us that makes us
pleasing to God, but it's the fact that God is pleased with
us in Christ alone. And so our obedience and our
worship is out of a full affection for what He has done and who
He is. Obedience is not out of fear,
but out of affection. Lord we are always and forever
amazed forever amazed at your love for
us God fill us with fullness of joy for Christ has taken our
debt and paid it with his life with his death Lord our hope
is now not in just the fact that it's paid Father, it's paid and
then Christ has been raised alive and you've promised us life.
For the wages of sin is dead, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus. Lord, the only way we receive
that is by faith. A work of your hand, a work of
your Spirit. So Lord, send your Spirit to
our hearts. Awaken our consciousness. to
your Holy Spirit who resides in your children. Father, those
who may sit under this teaching today, Lord, who are not yours,
God, if it pleases you, we pray, our desire is, Lord, that you
bring them to life, that you help them to see, help them to
believe. Father, bring holy affections
to the children in our midst. Help them to realize that the
fullness of life is not what they can do Sovereignty of their
own ability, but Father, in the full hand of your prophets, we bring them to life. We thank you for your love for
us. Let us forever, let us forever worship you. In Jesus' name,
amen.