In Ephesians chapter 5, we've
got here in our study, and I just want to read two verses to you.
I want to begin reading, though, in chapter 4. Let me begin reading
because I appreciate whoever put these divisions in these
letters. It would be difficult for us
to find. But sometimes I wonder. And maybe it's because of my
ignorance of these things. I wonder why they put them where
they put them sometimes. And chapter 5, it doesn't seem
to me, should have been divided here. But that's fine. I'll find
no fault with that. I appreciate them doing it. But
in verse 31 of chapter 4, let all bitterness and wrath and
anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all
malice, all sorts of evil, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us and hath given himself to God for us, and an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Christ hath loved us and
hath given himself for us, and an offering and a sacrifice to
God." This word here, be ye followers, means to be imitators of God. Mimic God. Be like God. Now, when we think of that, isn't
that a humbling statement? When you read it here, and to
try to explain it, be imitators of God. We can't imitate God
in His omnipotence. He's the Almighty. We're weakness
itself, aren't we? We can't imitate Him in His omnipresence. He's every place. You and I are
stuck here in this one little spot. We can't imitate Him in
His omniscience. He knows everything. Everything's
naked and open in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
What do you and I know? Where's yesterday when it passed?
We know nothing. But how can we imitate God? We
imitate Him in His moral character. We can imitate Him in that. He
tells us here in verse 32, Be ye kind, even as God. Be ye tenderhearted, even as
God. Forgiving one another, even as
God. We can imitate Him in that, can't
we? Look here with me in Luke chapter 6. You want to hold Ephesians
and look in Luke chapter 6 and begin reading here in verse 27. This is our Lord's message that
he preached upon the mountain. You'll find this beginning in
Matthew chapter 5 also. But here he's speaking the very
same thing that Paul tells us to be imitators of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. had already come down from heaven
and revealed the Father, and here's what He tells His disciples
to be like. Look in verse 27 of Luke chapter
6. I say unto you which hear, love your enemies. Does God love His enemies? He
loved you, didn't He? He loved you when we were yet
enemies. Christ died for us. He loved His enemies. Do good
to them which hate you. Does God do His enemies good? Wasn't He good to you when you
hated Him? Didn't He cause His Son to rise
upon you, send rain to you? Didn't He fill your heart with
gladness? He's good to you, wasn't He?
Bless them that curse you. He blessed us when we cursed
Him. And pray for them which despitefully use you. Jesus Christ
prayed for us there in John 17. Father, Father, I pray for them
that you've given me. I pray for them. He's prayed
for us, hasn't he? And unto him that smites thee
on the one cheek, offer also the other. And buddy, he did
that. And him that taketh thy cloak,
forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh
of thee, and to him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not
again. And as you would that men should do to you, do you
also to them likewise. If you love them which love you,
what thanks have you? For sinners also love them that
love them. But if you do good, to them which
do good to you. What thanks have you? Sinners
do that. If you lend to them of whom you hope to receive,
what thanks have you? Sinners do all that too. But
love your enemy and do good. Lend, hoping for nothing again,
and your reward shall be great. And look at this, and you shall
be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as
your Father is merciful." We can imitate that, can't we? By
His grace, we can imitate that. Be ye kind, for God is kind. Be ye merciful, because your
Father is merciful. Be ye good, because your Father
is good. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Imitators of God. And look what
else he said. Be imitators of God as dear children. He's not talking to the world.
He's not talking to unsaved people. He's talking to children, ain't
he? He's talking to those whom he's quickened. He's given them
life. He's made himself known to them.
He saved them. The Lord has saved them. That's
what we was talking about back there. The Lord has saved them.
They're His children. He don't tell lost people to
imitate God. How useless that would be. But
here He's talking to the dear children. Be ye imitators of
God as dear children. Yes, Ephraim, my dear son, dear
son, dear children. The word also means beloved.
Be ye followers of God as beloved children. The children of God
are beloved. That is what is said about him
in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. We are bound to thank God for
you, beloved of the Lord, the beloved of God. What manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. One reason our children should
honor us as their parents is because we love them. They should
respect us and seek to please us because we love them. Everything the parent does,
almost, is for the sake of the child, isn't it? Think how much of your time,
Miranda and Terrence, is made up of taking care of that little
thing right there. feeding her, clothing her, protecting
her. And someday, hopefully, she'll
come to see how much you guys love her. That she is dear to you, and
if that ever sinks in, you know what her attitude will be. Since
my mom and my dad loves me so much, And I'm obviously so dear
to them, I'm going to honor them. I'm going to respect them. I'm
going to be careful what I do. I'm never going to bring shame
or reproach on them because I'm dear to them. As wonderful as
it is, you're a child of God and therefore you are dear to
God. You are beloved of God. And I tell you, as we become
to see that more and more and more, when we get it in our hearts
that this is the truth, I'm dear to God. And don't we have all
kinds of proofs of it? And when we become to see that,
that's when we'll want to never do anything to displease Him. or to bring shame on his name. Dear children. Sometimes you'll
see this in families. You'll see it in parents and
in their children and even in their grandchildren. That some way or another, that
the parents have instilled into those children, sometimes it's
the whole family. I know one family, Joe knows
one family, that the whole family is this way. Some way or another,
mom and dad has instilled in those children how much they
care for them and how dear they are to them. And those children,
and now their grandchildren, wouldn't do anything to bring
reproach. Everything they do, they think
about mom and dad and grandpa and grandma, how to honor them. Because they know, I'm dear to
my dad. My dad loves me. And boy, when
you begin to say that you're dear to God, it's Ephraim, my
dear son. Wretched Ephraim. Remember what
he said about Ephraim? He's joined the idols. Leave
him alone. But the Lord said, I told you
to leave him alone. But then I couldn't leave him
alone. Why? Because I loved him. And I separated
him from his idols. And he's my dear child. And boy,
when Ephraim began to realize what the Lord had done for him
and whose he was, he smote upon his chest and began to worship
and honor. That's what Paul is saying here.
Imitate, imitate God because you're a dear child. And I love
the way, I love the way the one The one version, I'm not for
sure which one it was. I have all kinds of versions.
I never bring here and read to you. I read all kinds of versions
of Scripture. I love the King James. I've read
other versions. Brother Larry has read other
versions. And I can say from experience, this is the best
you'll ever find. This is the best we have. But
I was reading this one. The one fellow said, it literally
says this, therefore continue becoming imitators of God as
beloved children. Just keep on becoming imitators
of God. I love the way that says that,
don't you? As you learn more about Him, imitate Him more. As you realize what He's done
for you, imitate Him more. As you realize He's working everything
in this universe for your good, just keep on loving Him and honoring
Him more. When you and I think about salvation,
it's not just from hell. It's not even just from our sin
to the wrath of God. That's wonderful. Man, that's
wonderful. Who can estimate that? But what's
salvation ultimately about? It's to make us like God. Is it not? That's it. That's it. And who better to
imitate than Him? If you admire somebody, if you
love somebody, if you respect somebody, you can't hardly help
but imitate them. You see this a lot with young
preachers. If they have a preacher, I see this still this day in
my own self sometimes. You see somebody like Brother
Mahan that you love and admire, and you sit and listen to him
preach, and you'll find yourself patterning yourself after him.
Why? Well, look at him. Who wouldn't?
Brother Lord Jones told one time of this And they had this one good, excellent
preacher. He was a very famous preacher.
I forgot his name. But he said he had a habit. He
just stood while he preached and pulled his pants up with
his arms. And he said so many of the preachers that went through
that seminar, they would stand in the pulpit and just sit there.
You know, it's just natural, ain't it? To imitate somebody. That you love and admire and
respect and reverence. Be you imitators of God. Of God. Look over here in Romans
chapter 8. Very, very familiar passage.
Hold Ephesians 5 and look over here. This is God's purpose. This is His whole purpose in
salvation. Not just to make us imitators
of Him, but to make us like Him as He has revealed Himself in
His Son. That is God's purpose. No wonder
we are told to imitate Him. He is making us like Him. Look
here in Romans chapter 8 and look here in verse 28. We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God. We love God because He first
loved us. We love Him. To them who are
the called according to His purpose. God has a purpose. And what is
that purpose? Look at this. Whom He did foreknow,
not what, but whom, He also did predestinate To be conformed
to the image of His Son. That's God's purpose. To save
us from sin. To save us from wrath. Thank
God for it. But I tell you, there's something
even greater than that. And that's to make us like His
Son. And you know when that starts?
In this life. in regeneration with becoming
like Christ. Paul said this, be you imitators
of me as I also am an imitator of Christ. Let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus. Ye ought also to walk
even as he walked. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church. I have given you an example that
you should do as I have done to you." And boy, when you and I find
out that God is working in us to make us copies of His Son,
that's God's purpose. That's God's purpose. To make
us like Him. I tell you, that just enthuses
me, doesn't it, you? If that's God's purpose with
me, then that's what I want to be. That's who I want to imitate. My Lord and my God. That's His
purpose. And look here in Psalms chapter
17. It's not only His purpose, and therefore we should imitate
Him. But I'll tell you something else.
It's the desire. of every child of God to be just
like their Lord. That's the desire. That's your
desire here this afternoon. If the Lord has called you, He's
begun a work of grace in your heart, you'll never be satisfied
until you're just like your Lord. Old Alexander McLaren, a preacher
way back in the 1800s, he made a wonderful statement He said
there is, down deep within every regenerated heart, something
that will never be satisfied until they awake in the likeness
of Him that created them. That's so. If you created a new
creature, there's something down deep in your heart. And you can
truly say this, I'll never be satisfied until I'm just like
Him. Here's what David said. Look
at it in Psalm 17 and verse 15. Ask for me. I will behold thy face in righteousness. I will be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. Not just your physical likeness. That's our desire. I want to
be just like you in my soul. I want to be righteous. I want
to be free from sin. I want to be kind. I want to
be tender-hearted. I want to be just like Christ. Never be satisfied until that
happens. And you know something? Let me
show you one more Scripture. Because you'll see here, this
is the promise. This is going to happen. Look
over here in 1 John 3. In verse 3. Be ye imitators of God as dear
children. Look here in 1 John 3. This is
going to happen. God has purposed it. We're going
to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Every saved
sinner believes it and longs for it, and he's got the promise
that someday he's going to be just like his Lord that saved
him. Look here in verse 1 of 1 John
3. What manner of love the Father
has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. Therefore the world knows us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, dear sons, dear children, and it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And you've already started being
like Him here. I can see it in some of you. I can see it in
some of your lives, your attitude. You're becoming like Him. And
someday you'll be just like Him. Every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as Christ is pure. Be you imitators of God. And look over here in Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 2. imitators of God, followers of
God, because you are His children, dear children, beloved, dear
to the Father, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us
and hath given Himself for us in an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Here is Christ's love. His love
is an example for us, for us to know how to love. And you
know His love is never in word, but is followed up by deed and
by truth. He loved us and therefore has
given himself for us in an offering and a sacrifice to God. What would it mean for you if
I just told you all the time I loved you? Oh, I love you. Clarence, I love you so much.
I never was kind to you. I didn't come and help you when
you needed me to. I never did forgive you when you sinned against
me. That wouldn't be love, would it? Love is seen in the deeds
of kindness and the attitude that the person has towards you.
Long-suffering and helpful. and kind and forgiving. This
generation talks a lot about the love of God. We hear them
talk about it. But they have no evidence of
it. They talk about God loves me
and I love God. But the Bible tells us to love
not in word. If we have no evidence that God
loves us, I'd be careful about believing it, wouldn't you? Because
when God gives a man the assurance that he loves him, he gives him
the evidence of it. He doesn't love in word. If I come to you and I say, Larry,
do you have any evidence that God loves you? Do you believe
God loves you? Larry would say, he loves me. Why wouldn't he love me? I'd
say, Larry, how do you know God loves you? You know what? He'd tell me. He'd tell me why
he believes that God loves him. He'd got some evidence of it. The knowledge and the assurance
of the love of God is always seen in the cross. That's where the love of God
is revealed. He loved us, and here's the evidence. He gave himself for us. Paul says, He loved me and gave
himself for me. That's the first place we'll
see the love of God, is at the cross. That is where the Holy
Spirit brings us to see the love of God is at the cross. Listen, herein is love, not that
we love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation
for our sins. That is the love of God. And
we have the evidence of it. He sent His Son. He sent His
Son. We can't talk about the love
of God apart from the cross, can we? Can we? Why, no, we can't. It's impossible
to know the love of God except we see it in Christ. That's where it is, in Christ. And we can't see it in Christ
except we see it in the crucified Christ. That's where we see the
love of God. There's another way that God
reveals his love, and it's what he does for us, not only in his
Son at the cross, but when he calls us to himself.
When he comes to us finally and in mercy and calls us by his
gospel, then we can have the assurance, God loves me. God
loves me. Listen to Jeremiah chapter 33
and verse 31 and verse 3. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you. No man can
come to me except my Father which sent me. Draw him. How do I know
God loves me? He's given me evidence of it.
What has He done? He's drawn me to cry. all the
years He suffered me to resist, the years He left me in my darkness,
until finally He says, I love you too much. I ain't going to
let you go. And what did He do? He drew me.
He drew you. He brings us to Christ. And I'm
not hesitant, folks, and you shouldn't be either, to tell
anybody that's talking about the love of God, If he hasn't
called you to Christ, you ain't got no evidence of it. I'm not saying God doesn't love
you, but I'm saying this, you've got no right to believe it. You
don't have the evidence of it. I have loved you, therefore I'm
not going to let you perish in your sins. I've loved you, therefore
I've washed you from your sins in my blood. When God loves a
man, He shows that man He loves him by saving him from his sins. There was a story told about
a mom and dad who brought their little girl a cat. And the little girl was allergic
to cats. And she got all stocked up and
got infections in her lungs, and they took the little girl
to the doctor and said, she's allergic to something. Have you
brought anything in your house? Well, we've got a cat. Well,
you better get rid of it. She's allergic to cats. They started to get
rid of the cat, and the little girl started crying. I love my
cat! I love my cat! And the priest
just could not bring himself to separate the little girl and
the cat. Finally, the little girl got sick and died. Did they love that daughter?
In their estimation, they did. But did they truly love her or
love themselves? To be honest, God, when He loves
a man, He loves him to the point where He says, I'm going to save
you from that which is killing you. But He comes to us, He breaks
us, we cry, we tremble, but He says, I love you too much. And
He brings us, and He saves us, and He washes us. And when we
stray, He loves us so much, He whips us, He chastens us. Why? Because He loves us. Has God
ever laid the rod up on you? He loves you. That's how much
He loves you. He ain't going to let you keep
your cat and die with it, you see. He's going to save you from
your kittens. God loves us, and He's given
us the evidence of it. Christ loves us. How do we know? Because He's given Himself. He's
given Himself. How do I know He did that for
me? He's given me an interest in it, ain't He? That's my fault. I ain't got none of it myself. I haven't lifted a finger to
do a thing to redeem my own soul from sin. I'm trusting He's done
it. And He's doing it at the right
hand of God. And the last part of this verse,
look at it. He's given Himself an offering
and a sacrifice to God. And here's how God thinks about
that sacrifice. It is to God a sweet fragrance,
a perfume. You ladies know something about
perfume, don't you? All I know about it is sometimes
my wife's got something that she puts on and, man, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. It just changes
the whole room and everything. Just want to walk around smelling
of it, hugging of it. Fragrance. Fragrance. When the Lord Jesus Christ lifted
up His voice and said, It's finished. And they ran a spear up in His
side and His blood gushed out from His veins. And all His water
and blood ran out of His body. How did the Father feel about
that? Oh, He said, What a spell! Oh, what a smell! Oh, what a
fragrance that is! And he's still smelling it today. Oh, this perfume, this odor has
filled every place where the gospel has ran and been preached. And someday it will fill this
earth, and it's filled heaven with this wonderful fragrance
of the sacrifice and offering of the Son of God on the cross
outside the city of Jerusalem. Sweet-smelling fragrance. You remember when Noah came through
the flood and his family, and they took some animals and burned
them, some of those clean animals, and made an altar and burned
them for a sacrifice. Can you imagine? Have you ever
smelt flash burning? Sort of obnoxious, ain't it?
It's repulsive, really. I've smelled it. Oh, it's awful.
You can't stand it around. Can you imagine when those animals
begin to burn, to stink? But you know what the Bible says
in Genesis chapter 8? When God smelt that smoke coming
off of those sacrifices, It said that God smelled a sweet savory
and said, I'll never again curse this earth like I just have.
I'll never curse again. Why was that such a sweet smell?
You know why? God saw His Son in those sacrifices. He looked down through time and
he said, what I see there on top is my Son in reality, hanging
on a cross, giving Himself for the sins of His people. It is
a sweet-smelling Savior. And you know why it is a sweet-smelling
Savior? Because He took away everything
that God hated. Everything that he despised,
it took it away. It purged away all sin. It's gone. Why wouldn't God look
upon it and smell it as a sweet scent? The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. He couldn't come to
us. God couldn't fellowship with
us. He couldn't receive us into His presence to reveal His love
and kindness and mercies. His way was blocked up. What
had blocked it up? Our sins. Your sins have separated
between you and your God. And they've hid His face. He's
too pure of eyes. He can't look upon you. So what
does He do? He says, My son, go remove that. Go purge that away. And that's
what he did. And now mercy's door has been
opened wide open. And mercy comes to every elect
soul and washes them and brings them to God. And you know what? When God looks at them and smells
them, you know what He smells? A sweet smelling savor. We are
to God a sweet savor of Sometimes when the Lord shows
up during a message, we've all experienced this. The preacher
gets up to preach, and the Lord comes and blesses them, and oh,
isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? I mean, an
hour can pass just like that. It's so pleasant. That's the
way God looks upon every gospel message. It's the Savior of Christ. God wants to hear about His Son.
His soul is enthralled with Him. It's wrapped up in Him. And you
start talking about Him. It's this sweet Savior all over
again. All over again. If you want to
please my wife, talk about me. She loves me to death, don't
you, baby? I can ask her that here in front
of you. She'll have to shake her head, yes. That's the way
God is. If you want a sweet Savior to
come up, talk about Him. Just tell back
to Him, Christ, who He is, what He's done. You are to God a sweet-smelling
Savior. God bless His Word.