Well, good morning. It's good to be home. It's good
to see you all. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Before we begin, let's go to
the Lord and seek His blessing this morning. Our Father, we bow before You,
a humbled grateful people. Father, we're so humbled in thy
presence. Just some understanding of who
you are and who we are humbles us in thy presence. And that
you would choose to be merciful and gracious, abundantly merciful,
rich in mercy and grace. to wretched rebels like we are. Father, how humbled and how thankful
we are. Father, it is our earnest plea
this morning that you would, by your spirit, enable us to
worship you this morning, to worship you as you ought to be
worshiped, to take our place before you in the dust and to
worship you. Father, I pray that the name
of your son would be exalted in everything that is said and
done here this morning Father, for your great namesake, for
your glory's sake, I pray you'd be pleased to show us your glory.
And Father, for our good, the good of our children, the good
of our community, Father, show us your glory, that we might
run to thee, find in thee everything that is required of us, freely
provided in our Lord Jesus Christ. And while we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people, wherever they're meeting together
today. Father, bless your word. You don't need us to tell you
this is a dark, dark day in which we live. Father, we pray you'd
be pleased to give a revival in the land, that you'd shed
forth the light of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the
land once again. Call out your people to yourself,
we pray. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior, amen. Now I've titled the lesson this
morning Submitting. I just have one verse as a text,
verse 21 of Ephesians chapter five. Submitting yourselves one
to another in the fear of God. Now here Paul tells believers
to do something that is very, very contrary to our nature. He tells us to submit. Is there anything more difficult
for this prideful flesh than to submit? Paul tells us as believers,
our agendas and our wants are to be made subordinate to the
needs and wants of everybody else in the congregation. We're
to think about what's best for everybody else first and ourselves
last. That's what he means by this
word submit. We're to obey others. We're not
to push for others to obey us. We're to obey them. We're to
do what others want, what others need, not what we want. Now there
can't be anything more unnatural to our self-centered flesh than
to submit. And I'll tell you, true submission,
this is why it's so difficult for us to truly submit, is because
to truly submit, it's not somebody taking a metal rod and breaking
your knees and making you, true submission is a willing thing.
And to be willing to submit, that takes humility. And that's
something not one of us has by nature, humility. And I really
like this. I've never really noticed this
before, but as I've been reading through this chapter this week,
I really like this. Before Paul tells wives to submit
to their husbands, and before he tells children to submit to
their parents, and before he tells employees to submit to
their bosses, he tells all of us, submit to one another. All of us are to submit. And
believers will. Believers will submit. Not perfectly,
mind you, I understand that. But we will submit, we'll submit
to one another, but we'll be a submissive people. Like I said,
not perfectly, not all the time, but we will. If you're a believer,
if you know Christ, you have experience submitting, don't
you? You submitted to the righteousness of Christ, you submit to the
lordship of Christ. And we can use that experience
to submit to one another. And this morning I want to give
you six reasons for a believer to submit. Number one is this,
to submit for the good of the church. Paul says submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Now we're to
submit to one another, everybody in the congregation in the fear
of God. That's the key to this thing.
The fear of God is reverence. It's reverence for God. Now submit
to one another. Give in to what others want.
Do whatever it takes. And you know, you understand
I'm saying without compromising the gospel, you know what I'm
saying. Give in so that there's not fussing
and fighting. Don't start a fight insisting
on your way. Just submit. Give up your way
so that there's peace. And here's why to do that. We
can only worship God if we're at peace with one another. It's
just impossible to worship God if we're fussing and fighting
with one another. It's impossible. Now, I didn't
worship why we're here. I sure hope that's why you're
here this morning. I sure hope that's why this body meets together
every week, to worship God together. Now, that's why we're here. Now
you do what it takes to make sure that happens in submitting
to one another. I'll tell you another good definition
of the fear of God is for the believer to be afraid. I mean
terrified to look to or trust in anything other than Christ
alone. Now, if you want to look to Christ
alone, you want your brothers and sisters here to look to Christ
alone, Don't get them looking at you. See submit don't don't
submit so that we're not focused on self. Just submit and let
it go. Because this is why I can tell
you if I'm focused on what I want and I'm not getting it. I'm not
hearing the gospel. I'm not. I'm focused on myself,
not on Christ. So submit, submit so you can
be focused on worshiping Christ and submit so that others are
not focused on you. If somebody's sitting over there
mad at you because you're fussing and raising a ruckus and you're
wanting your way or you got your way, even though it might hurt
somebody else, if somebody's focused on you because you're
throwing a fit to get your way, they're not looking to Christ.
They're not worshiping Christ. And like I said a minute ago,
now isn't that why we're here? We're here to worship. We're here so
that Christ is exalted and we're putting it to us. Now is that
right? Then get down in the dust. Let's
all submit one to another and get in the dust so that Christ
is worshiped. Because that's why we're here.
We're not doing anybody any good if we're not worshiping. And I know people think, and
maybe earthly speaking it is, that submitting to someone is
an act of weakness. But for the believer, submitting
to one another, You know, that's not an act of weakness at all.
It's an act of faith. Giving up my way so that there's
peace, so that we can worship Christ together, that's an act
of faith. Giving up my way, and I'll just
trust the Lord, take care of the matter. That's an act of
faith. So it's not weakness, it's faith.
All right, number two, look at Romans chapter 10. Here's a good
reason to submit to one another. Because salvation comes through
submitting to Christ. Romans chapter 10, verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of Christ. Now, if a sinner's gonna be saved,
we're gonna have to submit ourselves, huh? We're gonna have to submit
to Christ. We're gonna have to submit to
the righteousness of Christ. That's what God's word says.
God tells us in his word, this is a commandment. That's not
a suggestion, it's not a good idea, it's not like, you know,
no, this is a commandment from God. Quit. Quit trusting yourself. Quit trying to work your way.
Quit trying to do something that you think will make you righteous
enough that God will accept you. Quit that. Just quit it. And
trust Christ alone. Now that's God's commandment.
And if we would be saved, we better get busy submitting to
it. We better get busy submitting. And I know submitting to the
righteousness of Christ, trusting His obedience, His righteousness
alone. That takes God given faith, doesn't
it? I say it again, submission is not an act of weakness. It's
an act of faith. The only way I can be saved,
the only way I can be made righteous is through faith in Christ. Not
my words, through faith in Christ. And if I won't submit, I won't
quit trusting in my works. I'm going to die my sins and
be damned. That's how serious this matter
is. I'm serious. But if God saves me and he reveals
Christ to me, you know what I want to do? I'm going to submit. I'll show you a good example
of that in Psalm 18. You know, us Americans that don't
tread on me bunch, we don't have really any idea what it was like
to live under a king. I mean, a true sovereign. Somebody
that, I mean, there's no checks and balances, there's no waiting
and voting them out of office. I mean, this guy, he's king,
he's gonna do what he wants and nobody can say anything about
it. We don't know anything about that kind of and that kind of pride that had
to come with that. You think of the pride of the
person. I mean, nobody can tell him anything. Look what David says about those
kind of fellas. Psalm 18, verse 43. And this, you know, this
is Christ speaking. Verse 43, thou has delivered
me from the strivings of the people and thou has made me the
head of the heathen, a people whom I have not known shall serve
me. Now that you know, that's Christ
speaking. And look what he says here in verse 44. As soon as
they hear of me, they shall obey me. The strangers shall submit
themselves unto me. All these kings and these powerful,
but the strangers, as soon as Christ is revealed to them, they're
gonna submit. They're gonna submit. If God
ever reveals Christ to me, if I ever see Christ, I'll submit,
and there's no salvation without it, without that submission.
All right, number three, look at Philippians chapter two. Mighty
good reason to submit to one another is because you want to
follow the example of our Savior. Philippians two, beginning in
verse four. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you, this attitude be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. It wasn't robbery for him to
say he's equal with God because he is God. But he made himself
no reputation. It took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Now the entire life of
our Lord Jesus was a life of submission. It's something to think about.
This boy, Jesus of Nazareth, always knew he's God. He always
knew who he was. He's the son of God. He's the
son of man. He's God in human flesh. He knew who he was. He
told his parents when they thought he was lost that time. They found
him, explained the scriptures to all those doctors of the law.
He said, wished you know, I must be about my father's business.
And he went back home and submitted himself to them, submitted himself
to their authority. He obeyed them. They got their
life and breath and food and clothes from Him. Yet He submitted
Himself under them. He submitted Himself all the
time. He was in the flesh. He submitted
Himself to His Father's will. The reason He was here in the
flesh, and you think how the Prince of Glory humbled Himself,
humiliated Himself to appear in this flesh. to hide his glory
as the son of God and to appear in the flesh. He did that because
that was his father's will. He's equal with the father, but
he submitted himself to his father's will. And he came and he submitted
himself to his own law. He with his finger wrote the
law. He's the one, the lawgiver that gave the law to Moses and
then he came and obeyed it. He humbled himself to obey his
own law. Kings never did that. The president
sure tried not to do that. The king of kings submitted himself
to obey his own law. And he did it, serving his people,
so that his people could be made righteous by his obedience. He
submitted himself to suffer and die, even the death of the cross. They couldn't take him by force
against his will. He made sure they knew that. Who you looking
for? Jesus of Nazareth, I am. And
they're all laying on flat on the back. He let him know, you're
going to take me because I'm letting you, because I'm willingly
submitting to this, allowing you to take me so that I can
be crucified, even the death of the cross, bearing the curse
of the sin of his people, so they'd be redeemed from the curse
of the law. I mean, you and I just can't
fully grasp the depths of the submission of our Savior, what
He submitted to so the likes of you and me could be saved.
I mean, we can get some idea of it. We can't really fully
grasp the depths of it. Aren't you thankful that's your
Savior? Or aren't you thankful He's the one who would come and
save you? He's given you faith. Trust Him.
He's called you out. He's kept you. He's your Savior. He has put your sin away. Aren't
you thankful? Oh, I worship Him for that. I
praise Him for that. First and foremost, now He's
the sacrifice. He's the Savior. But I'll tell
you what else. That one I love so much, that
one I esteem so highly, I want to follow His example. I remember being a little guy. And my dad was my hero. And I'm
telling you, I wanted, I mean, whatever it took, I wanted to
be just like him. Now you magnify that infinitely. That's what the believer feels
about the Savior. I want to follow his example. He submitted for
my good. You know what that makes me desire? to submit for your good. See
that? Right forth, look at Hebrews
chapter 13. Number four, submit to your pastor
for your own good. I'm gonna say this in a way I
promise you, not one word of it, self-serving, but this is
what God's word tells us. Submit to your pastor for your
own good. Hebrews 13, verse seven. Remember them which have the
rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose
faith follow, considering the end, the goal of their conversation,
the goal of their preaching, which is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday and today and forever. In verse 17, he says, obey them
which have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they
watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that
they may do it with joy and not with grief. for that's unprofitable
for you. Now this doesn't mean, what the
writer says here, doesn't mean that the pastor is to rule over
every little detail of your life and tell you what to do and when
to do it. That's not what this means at all. Now the Lord has
given me some, as a pastor, he's given me some understanding to
be able to help and to be able to guide God's sheep. God's pastors
have the rule over the church, to lead the sheep And to guide
them, that's what that word means. It means to guide. It means to
guide God's sheep. It doesn't mean beat them up
and order every little thing that they do, but to guide them.
And God has given his pastor some insight on some things.
They'll help people if they'd ever listen. But this verse means
so much more than that. So much more. God gives his people,
pastors, after his own heart. After the very heart of God.
Now you think about that. In Jeremiah 3 verse 15, God said,
I'll give you pastors according to mine heart, according to my
heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. I tell you, if almighty God sends
you a pastor who's preaching Christ, who's preaching a message
to you, that's sent to you from the very heart of God, you'd
be wise to submit to his authority and to submit to his message. That's really what this means,
to submit to his message. And here's his message, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe him, trust him, quit
your works and trust Christ alone. Now submitting to that message,
that's profitable for you. It's so profitable, it'll give
you eternal life. And it's unprofitable to you
to make your pastor preach to you and try to guide you. Make him do it with grief because
you won't follow. You know, you won't, he can't
just guide you. He's got to push you along and that's unprofitable
for you. You won't listen to his message.
You fight him and argue with him every step of the way. That's
unprofitable for you. That doesn't make you look like,
you know, you're so big and important and no more than a pastor. It's
unprofitable for you. If you won't submit to his message,
it's so unprofitable for you, it'll damn your soul. This is serious business, serious
business, because there's no other way of salvation other
than Christ alone. All right, fifth, look at 1 Peter
2. Submit yourself to the law of
the land. 1 Peter 2, verse 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, or supreme,
or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him, for the
punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do
well. Four, here's why you do this. Four, so is the will of
God. that with well-doing you may
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Now this is what
the word of God teaches us. Obey the law. Unless they're
telling us what to preach, what we can, what we can't preach,
obey the law. Obey the law. It might not be
right, it might be unfair, but obey it. The example I use a
lot is taxes. Why don't you just grind your
teeth every April to have to pay taxes? I mean, every time
you get a paycheck, you're sending taxes to the government. You
know what? Pay your taxes. Obey the law.
Pay your taxes. Remember when the Lord told Peter
to go out and get a fish and take that coin and go pay our
taxes? This was a Roman tax. You reckon that tax was fair?
You reckon there was a publican adding a little premium on there
that he could skim off the top? Was that fair? Of course it wasn't. Of course it wasn't. What did
the Lord tell Peter? Pay that tax for you and me.
Just obey the law. Even if you disagree with it.
Obey the law for this is God's will. This is God's will for
us. And do it for the Lord's sake. And he says in verse 13,
submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, for
the Lord's sake. Now remember, this is not just
for our sake, this is for the Lord's sake, for the sake of
the Lord, for the sake of his reputation, for the sake of his
gospel. This is what scripture teaches us, that the powers that
be who have political power over us, the president, the governor,
the mayor, whoever, they're the servants of God. They're God's
servants. Now I know they're not a servant,
like a believer is God's servant, but they're God's servant. Paul
told us that in Romans 13, they're the servant of God for your good,
to run government, punish evildoers, and reward those that don't do
evil. These people, here's how they're
the servant of God. They're running this world so
you don't have to. Let the potsherds of the earth
strive with a pot shirt, they're running this thing, they're God's
servant doing God's will. Even if we disagree with it,
they're doing God's will. So that the believer can serve
the Lord spiritually. Now both of them are servants
of God, the believer and those in political power, they're both
servants of the Lord, serving in different areas, but they're
both servants of the Lord. Now obey them, show them respect,
show them respect. That's God's will for us. It's
His will that we do that. And submitting to their authority
will also put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Now,
if we don't obey the laws of the land, as a group, as a group
of believers, we don't obey the laws of the land. People watch. When you go out to work every
day, people know, they know where you attend church, they know
pretty well with what you believe. Now you go acting like a horse's
hind end, and you know what they're going to say? That gospel that
fella that believes doesn't do anybody any bit of good. It doesn't
make him peaceable. It doesn't make him a good citizen.
It doesn't make him easy to get along with. It does just the
opposite. I wouldn't go hear that gospel
for nothing. That guy's Savior can't be worth nothing. Because
look what it made him. It lets them go on and on and
on criticizing our gospel, criticizing our savior and bringing reproach
upon the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you're a good
citizen and you obey the laws of the land, you take away the
ability of those enemies of the gospel to be able to honestly
accuse you of that. They'll say, Well, here's a man,
he's a good citizen. He's easy to get along with.
He's not a criminal. Peter tells us that's God's will
for us. Now, I brought a message on this
recently about the will of God. We may not know what God's will
is in a whole lot of different areas. What is God's will? What is God doing? I don't know.
But this one I do know. This is God's will concerning
us, that we obey the laws of the land. It's for the Lord's
sake, for the sake of the gospel. Then let's submit to it, let's
submit to it. Is it worth submitting to those
things? If it might make somebody come
hear the gospel that you love, is it? Then do it. And here's the last thing, 1
Peter chapter five, submit. so that you receive God's grace.
1 Peter 5, verse 5. Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder. Yea, and all of you be subject
one to another and be clothed with humility. Four, here's why
you do the four. God resisteth the proud and giveth
grace to the humble. Now younger people should be
subject to older folks, shouldn't they? Older folks hopefully have
learned more because they've had time to learn more. So it
just makes sense. Younger folks should submit themselves
to the older. You think the older would know
better. It refers to the older in years,
and it refers to the elders in the church. But now, that doesn't
mean older folks are to throw their weight around and never
consider the younger. Go around strutting like a peacock
that everybody's got to listen to me because I'm older. No,
because remember what Paul said earlier, all of us submit one
to another. We need to remember this. Sometimes
a younger person will have some understanding and a better idea
than we have. You can read this this afternoon if you want, Job
chapter 32. But those three friends of Job's
that came to him. And there's a young man, Elihu,
was there listening to all of them. butchered the truth, listened
to their self-righteousness, and all that. And he waited until
all the older men had spoken their peace. And then his anger
was kindled, and Lihu spoke. And he said, I waited until your
older fellows talked, because age should speak first. But you're
all wrong. You're all wrong. And he had
a message for them from God. So Paul says, all of you, All
of you be subject one to another, older and younger alike. Submit
yourselves to what's best for everybody else first. Just consider
what everybody else needs first and what I want last. That's
submitting ourselves. Isn't that humble? Now that's
a humble attitude, isn't it? To think of others before I think
of myself. Well, that's what Peter's telling
us here. He said, be clothed with humility. Don't just put
it on as a show, be covered with it. Be covered with it, clothed
with humility. You know, a humble attitude,
considering myself to be last and you to be first, considering
you to be better than me. That's the only accurate thought
that I can have about myself. It's a humble, it's the only
one that's accurate. Now be humble, Peter says, for
God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud, but he
gives grace to the humble. How much do you need God's grace?
God says in his word, he gives grace to the humble. That's a
mighty good reason to submit to one another, isn't it? That
God would be gracious to us. And I'm gonna end like I began.
I know, I know better than most probably, how our nature hates
to be humbled. How we hate to be laid low and
have to submit to the wants and the desires of somebody else. But we need to remember this. If we're humbled, if we're laid
low, if we're submitting ourselves one to another, I know that's
being laid low, I understand that. But you know what God says,
those that are laid low like that, he'll exalt them in due
time. Verse six, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you
in due time. casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. Now that's a pretty good reason
just to let all this stuff go and submit to one another. If
the Lord's gonna take care of you, just submit and let it go. The
Lord's gonna take care of you. He's gonna take care of you.
And if we'd humble ourselves, we'd find ourselves to be recipients
of God's grace. You read through the four Gospels
and you read accounts of different people coming to the Savior and
talking to Him. You know the ones that He always
kept at arm's length. You know the ones He never would
be gracious to them. He never would open Himself up
to them. It's the Pharisee who was so
proud and wanted everybody else to submit to Him. But every single
time Somebody came and fell at the Savior's feet. He was gracious
to them. Mighty good reason to humble
ourselves, isn't it? All right, I hope the Lord bless
that.