How To Imitate God (Ephesians 5:1-2)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:05.839 Let's turn in our bibles to a chapter five of Ephesians. If you have 2 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:08.990 one of the Pew Bibles, this is page nine hundred and seventy eight. 3 00:00:09.070 --> 00:00:16.309 I suppose Pew is not the right word cart bibles. That's a habit, 4 00:00:16.390 --> 00:00:22.219 I guess. So. If you have one of the black bibles from a 5 00:00:22.379 --> 00:00:28.140 cart, this is page nine hundred and seventy eight. I'm going to preach 6 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:32.380 particularly on versus one and two, but I'll go ahead and read a little 7 00:00:32.380 --> 00:00:43.689 further than that. Fesians five. Therefore, the imitators of God as beloved 8 00:00:43.689 --> 00:00:48.490 children and Walk in love. Is Christ loved US and gave himself up for 9 00:00:48.609 --> 00:00:55.600 us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all 10 00:00:55.640 --> 00:01:00.000 impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among 11 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:04.950 saints. Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk, nor crude joking, 12 00:01:04.989 --> 00:01:10.269 which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving, for you 13 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:14.549 may be sure of this. Did everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, 14 00:01:14.709 --> 00:01:19.340 or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in 15 00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:23.780 the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, 16 00:01:23.819 --> 00:01:26.219 for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of 17 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:33.609 disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them. For one time you 18 00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:38.810 were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children 19 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:42.209 of the light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is 20 00:01:42.329 --> 00:01:47.599 good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the 21 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:52.560 Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose 22 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:56.040 them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do 23 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:00.719 in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible 24 00:02:00.629 --> 00:02:05.069 for the anything, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it 25 00:02:05.189 --> 00:02:07.629 says awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will 26 00:02:07.629 --> 00:02:13.310 shine on you. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as 27 00:02:13.430 --> 00:02:17.780 unwise but as wise, making the best use of time, because the days 28 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:23.180 are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will 29 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:25.659 of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that 30 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:31.090 is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in Psalms 31 00:02:31.129 --> 00:02:36.569 and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your 32 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:40.129 heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God, the father, in 33 00:02:40.250 --> 00:02:46.039 the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence 34 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:51.240 for Christ. May God blesses word to us. You may be seated. 35 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:00.110 So their number of things here in this passage that we ought to pay attention 36 00:03:00.310 --> 00:03:06.310 to and learn and and study and reflect on. One of the ways, 37 00:03:06.789 --> 00:03:09.430 one of the reasons I have for saying that, are these words that are 38 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:14.740 given here that we ought to in verse ten try to discern what is pleasing 39 00:03:14.819 --> 00:03:19.219 to the Lord. This is our goal, is Christians. Our job are, 40 00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:24.659 our act of service is to learn how to please our heavenly father, 41 00:03:24.699 --> 00:03:30.250 or, to put it another way, as Paul puts it in the beginning 42 00:03:30.250 --> 00:03:35.930 of this chapter, how to be like our heavenly father. What an amazing 43 00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:42.639 way to think about our lives and our obedience before God. Be Imitators of 44 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:49.639 God, as beloved children. First, Peter to twenty one says, for 45 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:53.000 to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving 46 00:03:53.080 --> 00:04:00.229 you an example so that you might follow in his steps. Or John Thirteen 47 00:04:00.430 --> 00:04:02.750 thirty four, where Jesus says a new commandment. I give you that you 48 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:08.949 love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love 49 00:04:09.750 --> 00:04:15.379 one another. It is, of course, wrong to think that all Jesus 50 00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:19.579 is is an example, to think that Jesus is only a model and nothing 51 00:04:19.660 --> 00:04:24.689 more than that. Jesus clearly is more than that. We read in these 52 00:04:24.769 --> 00:04:28.529 verses, in verse two, for example, that Christ loved us. Yes, 53 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:32.649 but he also gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and even 54 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:39.879 a sacrifice to God. We wouldn't be children of God if Jesus weren't more 55 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:44.399 than an example. Jesus didn't just teach us the way of obedience, he 56 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.519 was obedience, and through his obedience we have the very righteousness of God, 57 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:56.670 not because we followed his example and then became the righteousness of God, but 58 00:04:56.790 --> 00:05:01.110 because it was given freely to us. Notice, Paul says, be imitators 59 00:05:01.189 --> 00:05:08.779 of God as beloved children, not to become beloved children. None of your 60 00:05:08.939 --> 00:05:17.019 children here earned their childhood, none of that. None of our children were 61 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:25.970 workers that slowly worked their way into the family, they were born or adopted, 62 00:05:26.610 --> 00:05:30.089 I'm into our families and as children then are called to act as children, 63 00:05:30.129 --> 00:05:34.920 and that's the way Paul expresses it here. So my simple point is 64 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:41.959 this is that, though we are called to imitate, to follow the example, 65 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.319 to follow in the steps of Jesus, of course Jesus is much more 66 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:49.269 than that. He is one who earns us the right and the place to 67 00:05:49.430 --> 00:05:54.589 follow in his steps. He is the one who empowers us to do that 68 00:05:54.790 --> 00:05:59.709 by his spirit. But while we affirm those things, we also don't want 69 00:05:59.709 --> 00:06:03.579 to deny that Jesus is an example. In affirming that he is more than 70 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:06.779 that, we also don't want to say that he is less than that, 71 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:12.899 for the scriptures clearly testified to that, to this fact and that this is 72 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:17.850 the way of our lives. Be Imitators of God or, as I read 73 00:06:17.970 --> 00:06:24.689 in First Peter, because leaving an example. Christ left an example so that 74 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:32.639 we might follow in his steps. This language of following God and being his 75 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:39.079 children goes all the way back to genesis. We were made humans, were 76 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:45.600 made in the image of God. We were called to be his son, 77 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:53.829 called to be children of God and walking in obedience. Adam, of course, 78 00:06:53.910 --> 00:07:00.589 failed in this task and instead of obtaining a glory and consummation and and 79 00:07:00.949 --> 00:07:08.100 and and a glorified state, he fell. He fell into sin, he 80 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:13.220 fell under the wrath of God was separated from communion with God. What he 81 00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:19.649 and Eve cast out of the garden, still bearing God's image and yet marred, 82 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:25.410 an image that was there, and yet they were unable to fulfill the 83 00:07:25.569 --> 00:07:31.279 task that God had placed on them. And it's in this context that Paul 84 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:35.000 has been speaking to us when he said, for example, in verse two, 85 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:39.600 and you were dead, or, I'm sorry, Chapter Two of Ephesians, 86 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:42.920 and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, 87 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.750 following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of 88 00:07:46.870 --> 00:07:51.269 the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 89 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:57.149 You were, by nature, Paul says, children of Wrath, but 90 00:07:57.389 --> 00:08:03.620 now we are something different. Now we are called beloved children, adopted through 91 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:09.379 the beloved son of God, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and 92 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:13.569 it's because of this status, and it's within this status now that Paul talks 93 00:08:13.649 --> 00:08:20.370 to us in chapter five and says now, let me tell you how to 94 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:24.930 live as a child. How do you live as a child? You imitate 95 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:31.360 your parents. It's the natural way of things, isn't it? Children imitate 96 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:33.799 their parents. Sometimes we wish they wouldn't write. Do as I say, 97 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:39.840 not as I do, but nevertheless they do. Sometimes we wish they would 98 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:43.870 imitate us more. Please, please, I'm trying to show you the way 99 00:08:45.029 --> 00:08:50.590 and you're not following. But all of the incongruities that happen in between a 100 00:08:50.309 --> 00:08:58.580 human relationships are perfected in God. God is a perfect father and unlike me 101 00:08:58.980 --> 00:09:05.940 and perhaps unlike you, he never fails, he never missteps, he never 102 00:09:05.019 --> 00:09:09.659 has to say. Do as I say, but not as I do. 103 00:09:09.769 --> 00:09:15.409 Everything that God says, everything that God does, is perfect in every way. 104 00:09:16.370 --> 00:09:20.850 You can look at him and you can study him from now and all 105 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:26.320 through eternity and you will never find one thing which you ought not to follow. 106 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:33.159 Isn't that amazing? And what's even more amazing is that we don't have 107 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:37.759 to climb up into the mysteries of God and speculate all kinds of things about 108 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:41.830 who god is in order that we might imitate him. If we ask, 109 00:09:41.190 --> 00:09:46.750 well, how do I imitate God, he tells us, he shows us, 110 00:09:48.269 --> 00:09:54.059 walk in love, he says, as Christ loved US and gave himself 111 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:58.740 up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. How do 112 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:03.539 we imitate God? How do we act as a true son or a true 113 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:09.809 daughter. Well, we act as the Eternally Begotten Son of God did when 114 00:10:09.889 --> 00:10:16.809 he was in this world, in Love, in righteousness. How far does 115 00:10:16.929 --> 00:10:22.279 that love go? How much should we extend ourselves? How much should we 116 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:26.799 give ourselves? He tells us that as well. What did Jesus do? 117 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:33.120 He gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 118 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:37.750 The act of Jesus, when we study him in the Gospels, what do 119 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:41.549 we see? We see at every point, moment and in every way, 120 00:10:41.590 --> 00:10:48.470 Jesus acting with perfect love, with perfect goodness. We ought to follow him, 121 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:56.059 we ought to study him as our savior, as our model, and 122 00:10:56.220 --> 00:11:00.940 the extent to which he gave himself up is quite great. On Paul makes 123 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:05.490 the arguments and Romans that maybe somebody might give their lives up for a friend, 124 00:11:05.929 --> 00:11:11.210 but who gives their lives up for an enemy? Jesus did we read 125 00:11:11.370 --> 00:11:16.330 in Romans that Christ died for us while we were still enemies? He died 126 00:11:16.409 --> 00:11:20.559 for the ungodly, while we were still at enmity with God. As I 127 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:26.279 was saying earlier with regards to our adoption, Jesus didn't say now I'm going 128 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:28.720 to give you these five, six, ten million things to do and if 129 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:33.990 you prove yourself well, maybe I'll call you mine, maybe I'll adopt you 130 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:39.149 into my family. What have we been reading in Ephesians? Ever since the 131 00:11:39.230 --> 00:11:41.789 beginning of the chat, ever since the beginning of the book, God has 132 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:46.350 been telling us that we have been adopted before the foundation of the world, 133 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:50.779 that the that we are love, the love with which God has loved us. 134 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:56.740 For example, verse five of Ephesians One, he predestined us for adoption 135 00:11:56.779 --> 00:12:01.809 as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the goodness and strength of your character. 136 00:12:03.009 --> 00:12:09.169 No, according it says, to the purpose of his will, to 137 00:12:09.250 --> 00:12:15.529 the praise of your mighty deeds. No, to the praise of his glorious 138 00:12:15.799 --> 00:12:22.639 grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved in Him. Verse Seven, 139 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:28.759 we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according 140 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:33.750 to the riches of His grace which he lavished upon us, and all wisdom 141 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:37.590 and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to 142 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:41.789 his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness 143 00:12:41.830 --> 00:12:46.620 of time to unite all things in heaven or all things in him, things 144 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:52.259 in heaven and on things and earth, things on earth. This is the 145 00:12:52.340 --> 00:12:58.970 inheritance we have obtained as the adopted sons and daughters of God, those who 146 00:12:58.009 --> 00:13:03.690 have been loved by Jesus Christ from all eternity, those for whom he gave 147 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:09.049 his life up on the cross. And now we stand in all this grace. 148 00:13:09.129 --> 00:13:18.399 We stand as children of the heavenly father. A lot of times we 149 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:28.509 think about the sacrifice of Jesus in gruesome ways, really, and that's not 150 00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:33.029 all wrong, right, he gave himself, his blood was shed. We 151 00:13:33.230 --> 00:13:39.590 just read here, though, in verse two, the Sacrifice of Jesus is 152 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:43.820 put in a very positive way, or the positive side of it is emphasized. 153 00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:50.899 It's not against the other pictures of a sacrifice, but it reminds us 154 00:13:50.940 --> 00:13:56.490 that the sacrifice that Jesus Gade was also ultimately a good one. This is 155 00:13:56.570 --> 00:14:07.009 important because when we love sometimes we feel like we're losing we're giving of ourselves 156 00:14:07.809 --> 00:14:11.320 in love. Right, we give and we give and we give. Our 157 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:16.879 high and our money are energy, are emotional resources. We feel tired, 158 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:24.470 maybe feel like we're losing something, but the way that Jesus sacrifice is is 159 00:14:24.590 --> 00:14:30.429 described here in verse, who is a fragrant offering, reminds us of the 160 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:39.340 the goodness in it. The sacrifices would have smelt good, I think, 161 00:14:39.659 --> 00:14:45.379 when you put meat on the barbecue and your backyard. It's a good thing. 162 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:50.259 Right, if you go to somebody's house and you walk and, let's 163 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:52.210 say they invite you over for a party, and you open up the back 164 00:14:52.330 --> 00:14:56.690 fence and you walk through, go who, you've got meat on the grill, 165 00:14:56.970 --> 00:15:03.809 right, it's a good smell. It's a pleasing smell. Hospitality, 166 00:15:05.370 --> 00:15:11.639 that act of love and sacrifice given for another is literally of a delicious smelling 167 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:16.600 thing, and the sacrifices were often eaten by the priests and those who sometimes 168 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:24.309 by those who offered them as well. The sacrifices, though requiring a death, 169 00:15:24.669 --> 00:15:33.149 ultimately achieved a fragrant thing, a good thing. They brought communion between 170 00:15:33.230 --> 00:15:39.019 God and the one who offered the sacrifice, fellowship, perhaps even around a 171 00:15:39.139 --> 00:15:48.179 table. Why? Because sin was atoned for, in some cases, things 172 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:54.210 that were separating from a separating us from God. We're taking care of a 173 00:15:54.370 --> 00:16:00.529 by the sacrifice of these Old Testament sacrifices pointed forward to the greater sacrifice that 174 00:16:00.610 --> 00:16:06.799 Jesus himself offered on the Cross, a sacrifice of love, a fragrant offering 175 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:11.799 a pleasing thing, and it's in that same way that we are called to 176 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:15.360 offer up our lives when we walk in the love of Christ, when we 177 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:21.429 imitate God in this way. We may feel sometimes like we're giving, giving, 178 00:16:21.509 --> 00:16:23.990 giving, maybe we even say in our minds I'm losing, losing, 179 00:16:25.070 --> 00:16:32.750 losing, but maybe you can let another image capture your heart as you offer 180 00:16:32.899 --> 00:16:38.379 yourself up to the Lord. Think of yourself as being as being offered up 181 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:45.940 in the love of Christ, as a fragrant offering something that is sweet, 182 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:52.850 smelling to him and pleasing, a pleasing to God. When we give our 183 00:16:52.129 --> 00:16:59.450 sacrifices in the name of Jesus, we give ourselves and give ourselves to others 184 00:16:59.529 --> 00:17:06.240 and to God out of faith in him. God is is pleased, it 185 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:08.920 smells good to him, in a way of in a manner of speaking, 186 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:17.869 and so in the same way that when your children obey you, or the 187 00:17:17.990 --> 00:17:22.470 kids when you obey your parents and there's happiness and peace and joy, we 188 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:26.430 find this in the family of God as well. When we serve the Lord 189 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:30.660 Jesus, when we imitate him, when we walk in his way, according 190 00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:33.900 to His grace, according to his power within US or his power in us. 191 00:17:34.740 --> 00:17:40.420 The Lord is pleased and instead of as we read in Verse Thirty of 192 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:45.450 Chapter Four, instead of grieving the Holy Spirit, we please God again, 193 00:17:45.609 --> 00:17:49.890 not because of some mighty and wonderful thing in us that we have achieved on 194 00:17:51.009 --> 00:17:55.650 our own, but because of him working in us. He's like a master 195 00:17:55.890 --> 00:18:02.240 craftsman who shapes and molds and cuts and designs and then looks at his work 196 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:07.119 and is pleased. What a joyful thing it is to be in the hands 197 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:11.839 of God, to be crafted by him, to be molded by him, 198 00:18:12.869 --> 00:18:18.630 to be his child, being fraught brought closer and closer into his image. 199 00:18:18.670 --> 00:18:25.470 Let us turn to the Lord in prayer and asked that he would treat us 200 00:18:25.509 --> 00:18:26.700 as his beloved children.