Ephesians chapter five. I'm going to begin reading at verse
20. Giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the saviour of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the Church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Amen. May God bless
to us this reading from his word. I think it is a very lovely verse
that we find here in the 20th verse of Ephesians chapter 5,
the first verse that we read this evening. And it's a verse
that we would all do well to remember. The Apostle Paul writing
to the church at Ephesus says that we should be giving thanks
always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a shame so often that we
glide over these verses as if they're just joining verses. to the main meaty parts of the
theology or the doctrine or the principle that is being expounded
in a verse. But the Lord would have us, Paul
would have us remember that we are to give thanks to God for
all things. Thanks to God for all things.
Gratitude for all things. Gratitude for the things that
the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. Gratitude for the pardon
for sin that he has secured, the redemption that he has accomplished,
the righteousness that he has obtained, that righteousness
of God, that righteousness which makes us acceptable, that we
could never work up by our own efforts, the atonement to be
made at one with God because that purchase price was paid,
that ransom price was paid. reconciliation, that God and
man so long separated because of sin, that breach, that separating
force that entered in when man fell from that place in the garden
has been recovered, restored. and we have been reconciled with
God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the promise,
the promise of glory to come, glory in heaven, glory in the
presence of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Believer, in a
little while, you are going to heaven. in a little while you're
going to heaven. Pause and think about that for
a moment. All the troubles of this world
will be gone, all the challenges that we face, the trials, the
doubts, the persecutions, the weariness, the aches, the pains,
the bodily afflictions all gone and we will enter into the presence
of Almighty God and we will see things and hear things and smell
things and touch things that are beyond our comprehension
at the moment and all designed especially and particularly with
our eternal happiness in mind. That's what we ought to be thankful
for, all these things that the Lord has done for us. I'm thankful too for the providences
of this life, thankful that while times might be tough in this
life and there are trials and there are weights which we have
to contend with, yet pleased, thankful that the Lord has been
pleased to deal with us in this way. Let me just make a wee point
here, if I may. There is a certain element of
complexity when it comes to thinking about the providences of life. We talked last night for a little
while about the judgments of God that are deep as the ocean. And that speaks, that depth speaks
about the complexity that there are in the providences of God,
that he brings, the circumstances that he brings to bear on each
of our lives individually. God doesn't deal with us as nations,
he doesn't deal with us as families, he doesn't deal, he deals with
us as individuals. And the circumstances of our
lives, the circumstances that are peculiar to us, our God is
in control of. So he brings difficult circumstances
into our lives. He is the cause, he is the first
cause, the originator of all the troubles that we experience
in this life as well. And I say there is a complexity
about these providences because they're needs to be a different
way that a believer looks upon these things to the way in which
an unbeliever would look upon them or the way in which we used
to look upon them before we were saved. The trials of an unbeliever
are the fruit, are the end of the judgments of God against
them. That's what they're moving towards. They're moving towards a judgment. They're moving towards a time
of condemnation, a time of suffering, a time of judgment that will
endure forevermore. Hell is as real as heaven. And while the believer thanks
God for the expectancy of an imminent entrance into heaven,
the unbeliever has nothing to look forward to except a continuation
of the hard life that the vast majority have to endure here
upon earth, and it's only going to get worse. There is a punishment
for sin that begins in this life and extends to eternity, and
the unbeliever will endure that. There is a retribution that is
coming upon the children of men. But the very same trials, the
very same problems, the very same issues that the believer
has to deal with are rather beneficial. They are a means to another end. They are the good works of God
in our lives as he takes us and moulds us and makes us the people
that he would have us be. And so exactly the same incident,
event, circumstance in the life of one person and the life of
another have got a contrary, completely different end. Indeed, there is such a contrast
here, such an irony, that the very thing that brings the wicked
so much sadness brings the believer a degree of joy, because even
in his hard experiences, The believer knows that the hand
of God is at work and he is bringing all things together for the good
of the believer. In the quiet moments of our sorest
trials, the believer can give thanks to God. The believer,
as Paul says in verse 20, gives thanks always for all things. Always for all, not just the
good things, not just the soft things, not just the pleasant
things, all things, always for all things, the believer is able
to give thanks. James, in his first chapter,
the little book of James, tells us that we are to count it all
joy. when we fall into divers temptations
or diverse temptations, whatever they may be, whatever those trials,
those difficulties are, whatever they might be. Diverse just means
they could be this, that, or the next thing, whatever that
trial is. counted a joy. That's hard. That's hard to do sometimes.
But if we have the perspective that the Lord is in control of
all these circumstances, then we will see, even in the hardship,
that there is a reason for thanksgiving and gratitude. It is a trying
of our faith when these troubles come. But James tells us that
the trial of our faith worketh patience, and patience yields
to perfection. So we are to give thanks, and
we are to give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
because we know that it is through the Lord Jesus Christ that all
our blessings come. The blessings of God come to
us in Christ, It is as we are in Christ that we see that these
things are working together for our good. So we thank God, thank
the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, that mediator between
God and man, that one through whom all our worship, all our
gratitude, all our praise goes. We thank the Lord through the
Lord Jesus Christ. giving thanks in the name of
Christ, because we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is intimately
involved with us, that there is that personal relationship
with Him, that we can go to Him, we can share with Him, we can
confide in Him. When we're feeling down, when
we're feeling hurt, when we're feeling weary, we can go to Christ. When it seems that the events
and the circumstances and the affairs are overwhelming, we
can go to Christ. And what do we find? We find
one who has walked this way before. One who is sensitive to our needs. One who can identify with us. One who is our high priest who
has been touched with the feeling of our infirmities. and we find
him to be tender-hearted, we find him to be gentle, we find
him to be good, and we find him to be gracious. Paul calls for
gratitude here from the Ephesians, and he's calling for gratitude
from all believers, in all things, at all times. That's pretty comprehensive. Always in all things. And then
he does something interesting. He says in verse 20, that we
are to give thanks always for all things unto the Father, unto
God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
then he immediately says, submitting yourselves one to another in
the fear of God. He calls for gratitude and then
he calls for submission. And the interesting thing about
the positioning or the juxtaposition of these two things, linking
them together like this, is that There has to be, in some of the
trials of life, that submission. We have to submit to these things. You know, it is so easy for us
to grumble and groan and say, things should be better, I don't
deserve this. I'm better than this. But we
have to submit even to these trials and difficulties. The believer's life, hear this,
the believer's life is inherently one of submission. That's what
a believer or a believer's life is about, submission. Submission
to God, submission to the will of God, submission to the purpose
of God, submission to the fact that we know that God is in control
of all things. And if something happens, it's
not random, it's not accidental, it's because God has set this
in our lives with a purpose. And he calls upon us to submit
to that purpose and to give him his place. even to the point
of gratitude for it. And then Paul gives us some examples. And this is really what I want
to speak to you about this evening, because he gives us an example
of perhaps the greatest area of testing in a believer's life. Marriage. Marriage. And he goes on to talk about
being married. He goes on to talk about the
relationship between a husband and a wife. And I'm humbled as
I grow older. This is one of the advantages
of growing older. You can tell about all your experiences. Those old greybeards. we can tell you our experiences. And I'm humbled when I realize
how much marriage is a metaphor for the Christian life. And I
don't know whether you've ever thought about that before, but
it really is the case. There are so many parallels between
marriage and the Christian's life in this world. Marriage, like the Christian
life, is entered into with great joy and excitement and hope. It changes. The whole of us,
it changes everything about us. Marriage changes us because suddenly
we've got to take someone else into consideration. We don't
just do the things that we always did or go the places we always
did because we have to think about somebody else who's by
our side. And it brings us problems. It
brings us new problems that we never experienced before. It brings us great challenges
that we didn't know we would have to encounter. And it causes
us to grow. It causes us to grow in ourselves. We grow because we have to learn. new things, we have to engage
in different ways, we have to exercise parts of our character
and personality that we didn't know because marriage is such
a profound thing and like the Christian life, we find that
it's changing us every day. But it leads to a deeper joy. There is a first rush of enthusiasm
when you first get married, but that wanes, that passes, that
passes too quickly. And then you discover that there's
deeper levels of entering into relationships with one another.
And with that comes deeper joy, a sense of fulfilment, a sense
of coming together and a contentment in that relationship that flows
beneath the surface. And there might be short-temperedness
and bickering and sharp words at that level, but one hopes
that there is going to be a deeper, stronger relationship that beats
underneath the superficial elements of that. And Paul sees submission
as an integral part of the Christian life and an integral part of
married life. And he is showing us this contrast
in the example that he gives us here. There is order in marriage. There is an order in marriage,
as in the Christian life. There is order. The husband is
the head of the house. The wife accepts that headship. But headship brings responsibilities
with it. There are obligations that come
with headship. There is the care of the family,
of the wife, first of all, and then the wider family later.
There is provision for the family, responsibility that falls upon
the head of the family. And as we read these verses here
in the end, the latter part of Ephesians chapter five, we see
that the submissiveness of the wife to her husband in the marriage
speaks of the pattern, the parallel in the Christian life of where
The believer has to have that recognition of the higher rule
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he has headship over us and we
are to be submissive to him. There has to be, as the wife
submits and has reverence for her husband, so the believer
submits to and has reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's why there's, even in our worship, even in our approach
to God, even as we come into his presence, there ought to
be a solemnity about our approach, a reverence in our approach. because we understand that we
are coming into one who is our head and who has headship and
rule and responsibility over us and for us. Also, the submission of the wife
to her husband is only to her husband. The wife is not to be
submissive to another man. The wife is not to be submissive
to her children. The wife is not to be submissive
to those whom she has responsibility for, perhaps in the workplace.
But she has to submit to her husband and only her husband. And in that sense, too, we can
see a picture in the Christian life. For the believer is not
to be submissive to any but Christ. Christ is our head. To use a fairly explicit phrase,
we have one Lord in Christ and we've not to go a whoring after
other leaders, after other gods, after other husbands, after other
heads. We have Christ as our head and
we are called to be faithful. to our husband. We are called
to give our love only to our husband and to submit to him. So much for the wife. What does
the passage tell us of the husband? Well, the husband, in verse 25,
has to love his wife. I think this is great, the way
that the Apostle Paul just melds these two things together for
us here, showing that role of submissiveness on the part of
the wife, but then emphasizing this love that the husband has
for his wife. And there is a contract here,
if you like. These two things come together. Neither can we say that they
are mutually exclusive, because there has to be an element of
submissiveness on the part of the husband for the wife and
an element of love on the part of the wife for the husband. Of course, there is. But we're
seeing the order at play here. We're seeing the priorities and
the principles at work. So woe betide the man who imagines
that his wife's submission makes for an easy life for him, because
that's not how it works at all. And in turn, he is called to
love his wife, and that is a love which asks
for a lot. Paul to another church, the church
at Corinth, writes concerning love, and he says, love suffereth
long. Love suffereth long. You men
have got a duty to love your wives. That means you have to
be long-suffering. Yes, she's to be submissive,
but you've to be long-suffering. Love is kind. It's kind, kind
in the way it speaks, kind in the way it acts, kind in the
things that it does, kind in its sensitivity to the feelings. Love envieth not. Love vaunteth
not itself, doesn't flaunt itself. Love is not puffed up or proud. Love does not behave itself unseemly. There are many men who behave
themselves unseemly, but not if they love their wives, they
don't. Love seeketh not her own, is
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity,
but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. And Paul knows these onerous
obligations of love. He knows them and he's written
them to the Corinthians. Perhaps he doesn't feel as if
he has to write them all out individually again to the Ephesians. So it seems as if he summarises
them in verse 25. And he says, husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it. You see, that takes all of those
1 Corinthians chapter 13 characteristics of love and wraps it up in one
simple sentence. Love them the way that Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. That speaks of sacrifice. And that's what the husband's
love entails. Sacrifice. So there is the relationship
formed before us, that relationship of love, tending to sacrifice, and submission on the part of
the wife to the husband's headship. The man is to love as Christ
loved the church, and Christ sacrificed himself for his bride. How much different would marriages
be? How much different would society
be, the world be, if a man would rather die than hurt his wife? Would rather die than cause his
wife hurt and sadness? These two words then, submission
and love, they speak to us about this relationship
that exists between the husband and the wife. Failure in these two words is
the cause of so much trouble in this world. Marriage breakdown,
sadness in families, children abused and hurt, taken from that
environment where their best interests, their health, their
education, their well-being, their care is most usefully fulfilled
and satisfied. Failure is hard. and we see the
consequences of it all around about us in this world. And what the apostle is saying
here is that Christ's love for the church, the husband's love
for the wife, yes, the wife is to be submissive,
but in my mind, the weight of responsibility lies upon the
shoulders of the man. as we think about what love entails.
And this sacrificial love, Christ's sacrificial love, it's not aspirational. It's the standard. It's the standard. He says, husbands love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Christ's love for the church
is eternal. It's unremitting, it's unconditional. He gave all he had to secure
for her everything that she needed. Christ did. And the church's submission to
Christ must be complete and absolute. Christ gave everything for us. and our submission to him must
be complete and absolute. He won't throw any interlopers
into that relationship. He's not going to accept a third
person in the marriage. He's not going to accept a lack
of submission from his bride. Christ looks to us as his people,
his children, his body. He is the head. And that is why he looks for
commitment. That is why he looks for a personal
relationship. That is why we talk about a personal
relationship and commitment with Christ, because that's what it
costs. That's what is required. And
you can mess around in your relationships in your youth or whatever it
is you might do. But that's not how you act when
you have someone that you love. That's not how you act when you
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's looking for commitment.
He doesn't want half-hearted people coming and going, engaging
and withdrawing, not having any real dedication to the cause,
the work, the service, any more than a wife wants to have a husband
who comes in two or three nights a week and doesn't come in the
other nights, or a husband wants to have a wife who disappears
for days on end and he doesn't know where she is. You see the
parallels between marriage and the Christian life? Now, this passage so far and
the way in which we've treated it, has been right up there,
right up there as far as the way that we are to live together. We are to apply these truths
to our hearts and our lives. It's elevated thinking. It's
aspirational in that sense. Marriage, family life, our children's
lives and their wellbeing, The whole world would be a better
place if Paul's direction here, his straightforward, simple direction,
were adhered to, accepted, believed, and followed. But women are not submissive.
And men don't love their wives. and so the world goes to ruin. John says, in 1 John 2, verse
16, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but it is of the world. And that's the problem in so
many areas, aspects of our life. And that is the problem that
endeavours to encroach upon a believer's life as well. This is the way
of the world. And this is the consequence of
the way of the world when we turn our back upon the things
of God and we turn our back upon the direction of the scriptures. I say, This passage so far has
been high and elevated and aspirational, but there's a surprise at the
end of this passage. There's a surprise at the end
which is amazing and it's extraordinary. It's a statement that when we
read it and we think about it for a moment, puzzles and mystifies
us as to what on earth is being said here. And that begins in
verse 29. Let's read together again, verse
29. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, Let
every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. See, the thing about it is that
this passage isn't saying what we think it's saying. Or at least it's saying much
more than we think it's saying. It says what we've said. We've
shared a few thoughts together about submission and love, but
it's much, much more important than that. What this passage
is saying, what Paul is saying here is that marriage is not
simply a metaphor for the Christian life. Nor is his words just good
advice for a successful relationship or a successful society. It's
much more significant than that. Marriage is much more significant
than that. In fact, marriage is given to
us, not as a metaphor of the Christian life, but as an earthly
picture of God's eternal purpose of salvation. It's a human message of explanation, message
of communication that speaks to us of the covenant union between
the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. That's what that means.
I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is a great mystery. I speak concerning Christ and
the church. This is about the eternal union.
This is about the eternal purpose of God for the salvation of his
chosen people, the elect of God in this time world that we live in. It is
God coming out of eternity in the person of Jesus Christ to
gather his bride, to gather in his people, to make that people
personified as his bride, united with him in eternal union. And marriage, marriage is a picture
of that. Earthly marriage prefigures a
spiritual reality, the eternal union of God with his people. the covenant union between the
church and the Lord Jesus Christ. And now I don't mean by church
the buildings down the road at the corner of the street or a
particular denomination. I'm not talking about that kind
of church. I'm talking about the body of
believers. I'm talking about that group
of people who by faith trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
have always been in the love of God, always been under the
sight of his gaze, always at the heart of his purposes and
his grace. Eve. Eve. You know who Eve was, yeah? Eve
in the Garden of Eden. Eve was taken from the first
man, Adam. You remember that? She wasn't
born. She was created out of his side. God opened him up when he slept,
opened him up, opened up his body when he slept and took out
a piece of Adam and made a woman from that piece that he took
out of Adam's body. Eve was formed from Adam's side,
flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood, bone of his bone. What was united in one person, Adam, was separated in order to make
two people, Adam and his wife, Eve. And that relationship that they
had of submission was broken. when Eve followed another. Eve took her direction from somebody
else. Eve should have been in submission
to her husband, but Eve wasn't. Eve should have been listening
to her husband, but Eve didn't. Eve should have obeyed her husband,
but she followed the direction of the serpent, of Satan. And Eve took of the fruit at
Satan's instigation, and she rebelled against God, and she
rebelled against Adam. And that union, that union of
trust was broken. Sin entered. And Adam, in that
moment, in that moment when Eve came to him, having eaten the fruit, the juice maybe still on her
lips, and said to Adam, this is good. This is good. Adam in that moment, he had a
choice to make. He had a choice to make. He knew the consequences of what
Eve had done. He knew what God's word was.
And he looked at the woman, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh,
blood of his blood, and he decided that he would
go with her. He decided that rather than be
separated from the woman and stay with God, he would go with
the woman. Paul says, what does it say? No man ever yet hated his own
flesh. And Adam didn't hate Eve. He
loved her. And he went with her, knowing
the consequences of his action. Adam, in that sense, is perhaps
the only person that ever really had free will. Because Adam had
the ability there to choose God or his wife, and he went with
the woman. Every other child that has ever
been born after that has been born into that sin, that sinful
state, that sinful condition of a fallen, rebellious man and
woman. Eve took the fruit and Adam took
Eve. Adam chose flesh over spirit. He chose Eve over Christ. I wondered, as I thought about
this, whether Adam thought that he might in some way be able
to save Eve from the act of disobedience and rebellion that she had perpetrated. I wonder if he thought that in
some way he might recover her, to reach out and get her back,
to in some way redeem her and be able to restore this fellowship
with God, that he saw her slipping away and went after her. in the hope that he might be
able to save her. I don't know. But Adam's sin in choosing Eve
condemned him as Eve's sin condemned her. And mankind was lost in
that act of disobedience. Well, I'm not going to spend
too much more time on this. I want to just wrap this up if
I may. But the story of redemption and
the story of God's love and the story of salvation is a story
that despite the rebellion of Adam and Eve, all was not lost. The events in the garden, the
failure of the first Adam brought about the coming of the last
Adam, the spiritual Adam, the God-man. That which was made
of flesh was not able to stand against the deception and the
corruption of the devil. It needed God himself to withstand
the devil. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, verse 47, we read, the first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. And here we see the way of salvation
being set before us, not in Adam and his earthiness and his fleshiness,
which was weak, but in the strength of the God-man and the Spirit,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And God, knowing all things,
knowing the end from the beginning, knowing it was good, it was good
for the glory of the son not to be alone. Remember how he
looked at Adam in the garden and he said it would be good
for him not to be alone? The pattern of that was not Adam
and Eve. The pattern of that was Christ
and the church. It was good for Christ not to
be alone. It was good for the God-man not
to be alone. The relationship between Adam
and Eve was a picture of that eternal relationship between
Christ and His church. And the Father knew that it was
good for Christ to have a people, Christ to have a bride. And so,
he elected a people in the eternal covenant of his grace that would
be to the honour of his son, who would be one who would be
a companion, who would be united to God the Son, the God-Man,
our Lord Jesus Christ. And in elective grace, he called
those people and united them to his Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. It's Christ. He is the man. Not Adam that left his father
and was joined to his wife. Adam didn't have an earthly father. But Christ had a spiritual father. So when it says here that For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be
joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. That's
Christ that's being talked about there. He is the great forerunner. He is the one who left his father,
left the presence of his father and came into this world for
his wife, that they too should be one flesh. Lord Jesus Christ, it is said
of him in Philippians chapter 2, verse 6, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. But you see, the bride that he
came for was already fallen in Adam. The bride that he came
for was already separated. And so he sacrificed himself
for the love that he had for his bride. He exhibited these
qualities of love and all that it entails from 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 for the redemption of his bride. Here was one who
was able where Adam was unable, who was worthy where Adam was
unworthy. Here was one who could save his
loved one from their sins. What Adam could not do, Christ
accomplished. He left his father and he was
joined to his wife and they too are one flesh. They too are one
flesh. He loving his bride, whom he
loves as his own body, and the church is the body of Christ,
and she submissive to her husband, whom she recognises as her Lord
and as her head. That's what this passage is about.
That's the mystery that the Apostle Paul is speaking of here. And I confess to you, I confess
to you that sometimes I draw back from the clear testimony
of Scripture on such mysterious ground as this is upon which
we stand right now. I feel it, I feel the lack of
faith, the lack of understanding. I
find it almost too wonderful to contemplate that these two
became one flesh, Christ and me, Christ and his church. Christ and His Bride. One flesh,
one body. It's a mystery. It's beyond our
comprehension, but it is the testimony of Scripture. It is
a mystery revealed to all who receive it by faith. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
The victor, the one who has accomplished the redemption and salvation
of his people, is heir. Heir he has inherited. He is the heir of all things. And the church, united with him,
joined to him, are joined heirs together with him in all things. I don't know how to explain that.
I don't know how that's conceivable, how that's possible. But that's
the testimony of the word of God. That's what God has for
us. That's what God has done for
us. notwithstanding what Eve did,
notwithstanding what Adam did, for what Christ has done and
accomplished to those who are his people, they are bound together
with him eternally as joint heirs with him in all things, just
in the same way as you take your husband's name and you have every
right to those things which are his, because the two have become
one and are regarded in law as one. Well might we be thankful in
all things. Well might we be thankful. We
who by faith have been given all things. All things. All things are mine. Says the
apostle. He says in Romans 8, 32, he that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he, that's for all us that are his bride, his church, his people,
all us who trust in him and to believe in him, who gave him,
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? All things. Oh, I am so rich. I'm so rich, you wouldn't believe
it. And it's nothing to do with Barclays
Bank. All temporal good things are
mine. Everything I need in this world,
everything that is suitable for me in this world, everything
that is appropriate for me by the great God of this world who
knows me, who knows the end from the beginning, who is the designer
of all things. Everything that is suitable and
appropriate for me is mine. And all spiritual good things,
justifying righteousness, free sovereign grace, pardon for sin,
forgiveness with God, sanctification, adoption into the family of God,
eternal life, and an amazing heavenly inheritance is all mine
and yours. If you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you're one of his people, Ephesians 5.20 says,
giving thanks always in all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I smile at the way in which the
Apostle Paul wraps this up. because he's taken us in a sense
to the heights in this contemplation of the union that exists between
Christ and his bride. He's spoken of wonderful heavenly
things, of the redemptive mystery of Christ coming into this world
and taking his people for himself. But the Apostle Paul knows that
we must still live in this world. He knows that we're still earthbound. Our feet are still on the ground,
even if our eyes are looking heavenward. And so he brings
us back to earth in the final statements of his chapter here.
He says to us, as it were, this mystery about Christ that we
can see revealed in the relationship of marriage, the relationship
between the wife's submissiveness to her husband and the husband's
love and sacrifice for his bride. That's the true meaning of this
passage. He says to us, but we still presently
dwell in the picture. where our duties apply, where
our responsibilities are real. And so he says right at the very
end in verse 33, nevertheless, notwithstanding this great mystery
with which I've engaged your thoughts and drawn together your
praises and your gratitude to God through the Lord Jesus Christ,
notwithstanding that, nevertheless, Let every one of you in particular
so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence
her husband. You see, we've still got to pass
through this world. We've still got to take the responsibilities
that this world gives to us. And we still have to live to
this direction that the Apostle Paul gives us with respect to
revering and submitting to our husbands and loving our wives
with sacrificial love. Friends, this evening our eyes
are towards heaven in these truths. We're looking unto Christ. but
our feet are still upon the earth. So, men, love your wives. Ladies, submit to your husbands. And may the grace of God in all
things be our portion upon this pilgrim way. Amen.