We've been studying in Ephesians
chapter 5, talking about submission and the heart of this submission. You see, when we read about these
things in the scripture, the scriptures speak assuming a work
of regeneration in the believer. These are not things natural
men are going to do. They used to teach manners when
we went to school. Yes ma'am and no ma'am and opening
doors and so on. They taught that in the schools.
But it didn't do any good. Natural man, he ignores those
things. You come up to a stop sign and
say stop, they don't stop. They roll right on through it,
keep right on going. And if you present these things
to a natural man and begin to talk about submission, he just
reasons them away and goes on about his business. But submission
ultimately is unto God. That man, that woman who'd been
brought to God, been called out of darkness, regenerated with
the Spirit of God, he brought into submission. And he wants
to submit. He wants that. That's the desire
of his heart. He wants to submit to God because
he's already found out that all these other things are vanity.
That's his desire. And so then the whole rest of
his life is spent with this attitude and character of submission.
So submission is ultimately unto God. And it's God who has ordained
and placed all authority wherever it's found. It don't matter where
it's found. And so when we talk about submission,
I might be talking to the wives, to their husbands, or to children,
to the parents, or civil authorities, or whatever it is. It all boils
down to this, submitting yourself to God. To God. And it's God who's ordained these
things. Look with me over to Romans chapter 13 for just a
minute. It's God who has ordained and
placed all authority wherever it is. whether it's in the home,
or whether it's in the workplace, or whether it's in the civil
government, or wherever it is. Now watch this. Here in Romans
13, Paul said, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. He's talking about authorities
here. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are
ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power resisteth the ordinance of God, because God has ordained
these things. So if you resist it, you're resisting
him ultimately. And they that resist shall receive
to themselves damnation. That man who is in constant rebellion
to God, he's a child of darkness. And he can expect nothing except
damnation in the end. And then he goes on to tell us
that these powers, these authorities, are put in place for our good,
and they're not there to be feared. We're not to fear those powers,
but they're set there to protect us. Maybe a simpler statement
would be this. They restrain evil men from being
as evil as they could be. God restrains by these powers. You go somewhere where there's
very little law, see how they act. All you got to do is read
the history of the old west. There was no law. There was no
authority. There was nothing. And these
men went out there, and man, it was rough. You know, you say
something crosswise, you'd be out in the street. And it's like
that in a lot of places in our country, even today. But these
things are put in power. And these powers are kind of
like a chain of command, and they begin in the home. The scriptures say that the husband
is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church. We looked at that last week.
And this is not some dispensational headship. because the Bible was
written in old time that it only had to do with old time. It's
not a dispensational headship, but this headship was established
in the very beginning of mankind. Right in the very beginning.
God took this woman from the bosom of a man. Somebody said
that she wasn't taken from his foot to be walked on. Nor was she taken from his head
to lord things over him, but she was taken from his bosom
to be loved and cared for and to be one with him. And Paul
writes to young Timothy and he gives him instruction on this
relationship over in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 12 and he
tells him this. He said, I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
And he's talking about when we come in here to worship, and
the Word of God is being taught, he said, I don't suffer a woman
to do those things. And certainly not to usurp authority
over the man, because the husband is the head of the wife. And
he gives two reasons for this. over in 1 Timothy chapter 2.
The first reason he gives is the order of creation. He said
Adam was first born, and then the woman. She was born. He wasn't born
for her, but she was born for him. And therefore, he's the
head. And the second reason is the
order of the transgression. Listen to this. 2 Timothy 2 verse
14. It says, Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. She was first in the transgression. And therefore, he remains the
head of the woman. And as God ordained Christ as
the head of the church, He ordained the husband as the head of the
wife. Now, that's just the way it is. And it teaches this throughout
this book. Abraham's wife called him Lord. And in the New Testament, it
says, even as Sarah called him Lord, so you women ought to be
in subjection to your own husband. Give that as an example. And
I'm going to say this as clear and as candid as I know how,
and I'm directing my comments to the believing wives and young
women in this congregation. It's not only unseemly, but it's
ungodly to talk down and criticize your husband in public. Don't
do it. Just don't do it. I know you
feel justified sometimes. I know that he can give you good
reason at times. I know that. Been there, done
that. But don't talk down and criticize
your husband publicly or privately. It's not just unseemly, it's
ungodly. Just don't do it. The Lord will
take care of any breach on his part. You can be assured of that.
We commit, I showed you last week, or the last time I, last
week I was in Kentucky, I showed you the week before last, that
this thing of submission is committing these things unto him who judges
righteously. And that's what we need to do.
He'll take care of it. He'll take care of the breaches.
That's not your place. That's his place. It's his place. And lashing back is not a godly
act. All right, now, let's address
the husbands. Ephesians 5, verse 25. It says,
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself for it. Is there any man in this congregation
who believes he can do that? Can you love your wife as Christ
loved the church? No way. We cannot do it in volume, and
we cannot do it in perfection, but you can do it in likeness,
and that's what he's talking about here. Here's the pattern. Here's the pattern. You husbands,
God's ordained you as head over your wife, and nowhere, I challenge
you, nowhere in the scripture does it tell you to keep your
wife in subjection. I've heard that all my life.
It ain't in this book. What it tells you is love your
wife as Christ loved the church. That's right. Subjection has to do with being
submissive to God. There's no way you can make anybody
subjective to you. No way. You might stand there
with a board in your hand and threaten them, but that's it.
That's it. There's no other way. And he
tells the husbands to love your wife even as Christ also loved
the church and gave Himself for it. How did Christ love the church? That's what we need to figure
out. How did Christ love the church? Well, He loved her in
particular. Now let me show you something. Look down here in Ephesians 5,
verse 33, down at the end of this chapter. It talks about
loving your wife as you love your own bodies and that you're
one and all these things. It gets down here at the bottom
and he said, nevertheless, verse 33, let every one of you in particular,
see that? So love his wife even as himself. In particular. Love has an object. Jacob, that's what the Lord said. Jacob have I loved. What about
Esau? Esau have I hated. Jacob have
I loved. And you can go on and on and
on through the scriptures. Well, preacher, why are you so
sure God doesn't love every son of Adam? Because love will never
be separated from its object. Love has an object. And it secures
itself upon that object. And it will not be separated
from it. Listen to this, Romans 8, verse
35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? I want you to listen. Tribulation. Distress. persecution, famine,
nakedness, peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we're more than conquerors
through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Love cannot be separated
from its object. It passions itself on an object,
and it loves. Christ loved us. God loved us. You see what I'm saying? And
yet, men and women want me to believe that this love that Paul
just described, that I just read to you, can be separated by almost
anything, any little thing. And they call that love. There's
no way that's love. That's a lie. Love has an object
and it will not be separated from it. Rather than be separated
from his bride, Christ would subject himself to untold humility. There's no way, I can't even
imagine the kind of humility he was subjected to. He who thought
it was not robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation. Why would he do that? Because
he loved you. He loved you. And shame and suffering completely
beyond our imagination. Listen to this. You want to know
what love is? Here's what John said. We always
called him the apostle who loved Christ. That's how he referred
to himself. Actually, he said the apostle whom Christ loved.
He knew his love wasn't equal to his. But he said, herein is
love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Our sins. Just imagine yourself. Your wife's upset with you. And
you start, you're convicted in heart. And you come in. And you want to reconcile things. You want to make up. And you say, honey, I love you
just like every other woman in the world. How far is that going to go?
Ain't going to go very far, is it? But isn't that exactly what
they're telling us from every pulpit in this country? God loves
you. Christ died for you. Then why
the separation? Love can't be separated. You
see what I'm saying? Love has an object. It's in particular. Actually, Adam, because his wife
sinned against God, and separated herself from God, he refused
to let her go and followed her even in the transgression. Now,
you read it for yourself. And you can find it over in Romans
chapter 5. And in that respect, he was a pattern of Christ. That's
what it says. He was a figure of him who was
to come. Love joins itself. Listen to this. He said, Husbands,
love your wives. Isn't that what that says? That's
what that says. Christ loved the church in particular.
And then secondly, He loved her and took her into union with
Himself. Turn with me over to John chapter
17. It would be easy for me to talk about loving your wife or
loving anybody's wife for that sake. Why would that be? Because there'd be no commitment. No commitment. No union. No marriage
contract. I wouldn't have to live with
her. You'd have to live with her. See the difference? Now
I stand here all day and say I love you. But I don't have
to live with you. He does. That's right. What I'm saying is there's no
substance to that. And when men stand up and they
say, God loves everybody, there's no substance to that. There's
no commitment in that. There's no sacrifice in that.
You see what I'm saying? Love forms a union. A union. And it becomes one.
It becomes one. I wouldn't have any obligations.
I wouldn't have any responsibility. It'd be no substance, just words.
But particular love joins itself in an unbreakable union, bound
to her, one with her, assumes all her debts, stands responsible
and affected by what she says and does. He's one with his bride. Look here in John 17. Verse 22. Now, this whole chapter
deals with this, but he's getting down to the crux of the matter
here. Now, watch this here in verse 22. And the glory which
thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even
as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect and one. Now, watch this. that the world may know that
thou hast loved me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved
me." That's union. Union. Hosea the prophet married
a harlot by God's command, God's instruction. He went down and
married a harlot. Can you imagine the shame of
the prophet of God as he stands in the temple to minister to
the children of Israel and to tell them the gospel of God's
sovereign grace and he stands there preaching while his wife
is a practicing whore? Can you imagine what this man
feels? And that ain't nothing compared
to the church. and the humility and that spiritual
adultery that we performed while Christ was in everlasting union
with us. All of these things being charged
to Him, charged to Him. It's a picture of the Bride of
Christ, chosen in covenant love and yet lived out their days
as vile sinners until He came and reconciled us to Himself.
Listen to this. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners. Is there any other kind
of sinner other than a vile sinner? We're all vile. Even our righteousness,
as he says, is filthy right. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. And then look back here at our
text in Ephesians 5. this union. Ephesians 5 verse
31, it says, for this cause, and this is a quotation I believe
from Genesis chapter 2 if I'm not mistaken. 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. You see that? That's how Christ
loved the church. He loved them in union with them. He loved them as He loved Himself. He loved them as He loved His
own glory. He loved them. And He would not
be separated from them. Alright, here's the third thing
I know about the love of Christ for His bride is that it's sacrificial. It says, Husbands, love your
wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. Now,
if we give ourselves, everything else is included, isn't it? I just, I don't believe in these
new prenuptial agreements. Some man accumulates a little
bit of money, and he has a bad experience with a woman. He divorces
her, and he marries a new one, but he ain't taking her altogether. We're going to have a prenuptial
agreement. You can't touch my funds. And
I've got this antique car collection. I won't catch you in there driving
on my car. And you can't do this, and you can't do that. That's
not love at all, is it? Love is sacrifice. He said, love
your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself. Think about that. Gave himself. Listen to this, Romans 8.32.
There's nothing else to comfort us more than this. I want you to listen to this.
I'm talking about concerning everyday life. I'm talking about
this walk with Christ, this walk of faith. He said, he that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? If you give yourself,
you give everything you have. She gets it all. You go back
and read that account. It's a beautiful account of the
kinsman redeemer with Boaz and Ruth. When Ruth was joined to
him, she had it all. All of it. It bought Malon and
Chilon's stuff. He bought Naomi's stuff. He bought
it all. And Ruth was joined with him. God's love for his people spared
nothing. Sweetheart, you can have me,
but you can't have my car. You can't get in my truck. That's
my truck. Oh, my. I'm going to tell you
something. If you hold anything back, she
doesn't really have you at all. She don't have you at all. Love
gives itself sacrificially. And it gives what is most precious
to him. It gives his name and his honor. It gives his heart. Think about
that. Gives his heart. It gives all. He said, we're heirs of God and
joint heirs of Christ. Gives it all. He didn't spare
anything. When old Hosea went down and
bought his harlot wife off the auction block, he took her home
bearing his name. Think about that. She bore his
name. She wore his robe. Wore his robe. And she lived
in his house. You think about that. And Boaz set his heart upon Ruth
to be his bride. He was wealthy. He was powerful.
He could have snatched her up without question. But love is
honorable, isn't it? And that's the next thing I know
about this love of God. It's honorable. He's not going
to compromise His name to do anything. He honors His name
and His union with His bride, with His love for His bride.
It's honorable. Old Boaz, he brought Ruth. He
done made up his mind. His love was set on Ruth. He
was going to marry Ruth. But he brought her up to the
gate of the city where all the judges sit. And he knew there
was a kinsman closer than him who had the right. And he said,
if you can, do it. He said, I can't. It'll mar my
own inheritance. I can't redeem her. And he said,
then you know this day. that all her debts are mine,
and I paid them all. That's honorable, isn't it? Christ
takes his bride to himself, and he tells everybody, her debts
are mine, and I paid them all. I paid them all. What she has
through me, she has honorably. I give it to her. I've justified
her. She's mine. Living with a woman who's not
your wife is not honorable. It's adultery. And living with
a woman whose debts you're not willing to pay is not honorable.
Not honorable. Christ spent his whole life on
this earth redeeming his bride. Huh? That's right. He spent his... Think about that
for just a minute. Paying her debts. Providing her
with a covering. Preparing for her a house. He
took nothing for himself. Nothing. He didn't own a piece
of ground. He didn't own a second coat. He didn't have a house. He said
the birds of the air have nests. And the foxes have holes. But
the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He gave himself,
Russell, 100%, 100% to this, to this, 100%. Be careful about your reputation.
Your wife bears your name. She bears your name. And I'll
tell you something else about this love. This love never quits. It don't throw its hands up.
It suffereth long. Ain't that what Paul said? Love
suffereth long. It never quits. Listen to what
Peter said. He said, the Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usworthy. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Love never faileth because love
never quits. Now, husbands, love your wives. I told you the last time we met,
I told you the greater responsibility falls on the man. I'm to love her as Christ loved
the church and gave himself for her. Paul addresses the unbelieving
spouses over in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And he gives to the believing spouse, he gives
this word of encouragement, verse 14. He said, for the unbelieving
husband is sanctified by the wife. And the unbelieving wife
is sanctified by the husband. Now he's not talking here about
proxy. He's not talking about God loves
you so he loves her. That's not what he's talking
about here. What he's talking about here is means. And the
Lord's pleased to use the means of this relationship to influence
that child of God and bring them to Christ. That's what he's talking
about. He uses that sometimes between
the children and the husband. He tells us to train our child,
our children up in the way. We're to do that. And that way
is never going to depart from them. They will always know that's
the way. They may not go the way. But
sometimes God uses that. And he uses the marriage union
also in that respect. Look down at verse 16 of 1 Corinthians
7. For what knowest thou, O wife,
whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether
thou shalt save thy wife? Might be. God might use that relationship
to bring her to Christ or to bring Him to Christ. And then
lastly, I know this about this love. Love is always demonstrated. God loved us and demonstrated
that love before the whole world. Before the whole world. Sending His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And He demonstrated that love
when He chose us and espoused us to His Son before the foundation
of the world. And He demonstrated that love
when He sent the Holy Spirit into the world to make His gospel
effectual in our hearts and woo and win the sinner. I can't explain
that, I just know it so. I know when the Holy Spirit begins
to work on your heart, it's a whole lot like falling in love with
your wife. He causes you to to see and to understand who He
is and understand all these things we talked about this morning.
And you love Him. You don't love Him like you ought
to, but you love Him. You love Him. He that loveth
not knoweth not God. You can't know God and not love
because it's part of that experience of grace. And He demonstrates
that love as He meets with us and enables us to worship Him.
He demonstrates that. I can't talk about love down
here in some church who's up here ripping and roaring and
destroying the name of God. He's not in that mess. He doesn't
demonstrate His love there. He demonstrates His love where
His people are gathered together to worship Him. And He demonstrates
that love as He preserves us and keeps us from falling. And
now He tells us, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the
church and gave Himself May God enable us to do that
with all our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.