Ephesians 5:1-2

All right, if you have your Bibles, let's turn

over to Ephesians chapter five and verse

number one, we turn over to a new chapter

today.

This is such a tremendous epistle as we've

been learning so much.

And I want to remind you, especially after

being in the high mountains of the Gospel

of John last week by the Ernie as a bivoc

ational pastor, sometimes when I can't get Eph

esians

done, I pull an old John and we've been going

verse by verse through something I preached

years ago through John to help me out when we

have one of those what I call a John week.

But I want to remind you what this section is

all about.

And actually, Roger Dale mentioned it in

Sunday School, and I want to reiterate it is

important.

Verse three chapter of Ephesians, town

doctrine, high theology, talking about the big

subject

of predestination and election, and

importantly, who we are as Christians in

Christ.

And then there's a dividing line.

After chapter three is over, we go to four,

five and six, and the Apostle Paul is saying

to us, OK, now that you understand who Christ

is, now that you understand the person in

work of Christ, now that you understand who

you are in Christ, now four, five and six,

this is how you are to live, OK?

And Paul continues here what we're going to

look at today to be very practical.

And he's teaching us and continuing to teach.

If you go back and remember in chapter four,

he implored us, remember that word beg impl

ored

us to walk worthy of the calling with which we

have been called.

That's how he started chapter four out and the

and the second half of this book.

So to put into your mind that that what we're

looking at today is is under the doctrine

of sanctification.

This is not justification.

This is sanctification.

This is the high standard of Christian living

given to us by the word of God.

And you can be very sure that since all of us

as Christians are in a daily struggle with

the world, with the flesh and with the devil,

I promise you, we are all starting with me

going to be convicted by what we hear today.

And that's good for us because all genuinely

regenerate Christians know that we need to

be convicted.

We need conviction from the word of God in

order to spiritually grow in order to live

daily for the glory of God because of the

great struggle that we have that God has ord

ained

for our with our flesh and be conformed to the

image of Christ.

So I mean, think about it.

I tell you all the time.

I'll continue to tell you as a Christian, you

know the meaning of life.

You know the purpose of life.

The overarching meaning of life for the

Christian is to bring glory to God and enjoy

him forever.

That's what we're striving for.

So let's start out.

What I want to do is I want to read this next

section that we're going to study in verses

one through seven.

And we're not going to get very far in this

section.

We won't get past verse two, but I want us to

get our minds right back in the flow of

Paul's thought.

Chapter five, verses one through seven,

therefore the imitators of God as beloved

children and

walk in love.

Just as Christ also loved you and gave himself

up for us and offering and a sacrifice to

God as a fragrant aroma, but immorality and

any impurity or greed, it's not even be named

among you as is proper among saints and there

must be no filthiness and silly talk or core

suggesting, which are not fitting, but rather

giving of thanks for this, you know with

certainty

no immoral or impure person or covetous man

who is an idolater as an inheritance in the

kingdom of Christ and God.

And there's a lot there that needs explaining.

So we're going to start slowly to pick this

apart.

And first, I want you to look at that phrase.

Look there in verse one, the imitators of God,

literally that word, be mimics of God.

A mimic is not somebody who just picks up

general patterns.

A mimic is somebody who copies specific

characteristics.

That's heavy.

Think about it, imitators of God.

It's kind of like when Jesus said, be perfect

even as your father in heaven is perfect.

Or when Peter said in 1 Peter 1 15 and 16, but

look at this, like the holy one.

That's God who called you.

Be holy yourselves also in all your behavior

because it is written, you shall be holy for

I am holy.

That's from Leviticus 1144.

And so from the big picture view, that right

there is really the Christian life summed

up in one phrase, be imitators of God.

Be like God, and obviously that's going to

need some further explanation, is it not?

Well, for starters, we are to be like God, if

we're going to be like God, it's pretty

obvious that we need to know what God is like,

right?

And if we want to know what God is like, as

the young man said this morning in Sunday

school, we've got to study and know God's

character.

And as we study the Bible, what do we

constantly see from Old Testament to new?

We constantly see the character of God unfold

ed before us and revealed to us in the pages

of Scripture.

Be holy as I am holy.

As I said, and Peter just quoted for us, goes

all the way back to Leviticus.

And you may be thinking, well, oh, the Philip,

that's easy to say.

You may be imitators of God, but that's really

hard to do.

And it is, and in fact, you can't do it in

your own power and strength.

You can't grit your teeth and summon your own

will to the best of your ability to be

like God and like so many things that we learn

in Scripture that sound crazy to say, I'm

going to say something crazy to you right here

, that the place where you start to be

like God is by realizing that you can't be

like God.

That's where you have to start.

That sounds crazy, right?

You start with a broken and contrite spirit.

You start as a new creature in Christ Jesus,

hating your sin, hating an overwhelming sense

of your sinfulness overtakes you.

And you begin to realize that, oh, yes, I can

't wait for the faith to become sight and

to see Jesus in heaven equal with that.

I can't wait to be rid of my sin.

I long to be free from this flesh.

And that in this life, while you're living

life, begins to bring about real, true desires

that you never had before, real, true, actual

desires for righteousness in new behavior.

And here we hit another one of those fantastic

biblical paradoxes.

On the one hand, we are to be like God.

And on the other hand, we know we can't be

like God.

And when you get there in your thinking, you

also know, OK, those two things are true.

There has to be, there has to be some other

power that makes this possible.

And that brings us back to what Paul prayed

for the church at Ephesus and really for the

church for all time in Ephesians 316, look at

it again, that he would grant you according

to the riches of his glory to be strengthened

with power through his spirit in the inner

man.

So wait a minute, I'm a Christian, but I'm

still a sinner.

I can't be like God, but this Bible is telling

me that I must be.

And if I can't be, but I must be, then I'm

going to need some help on the inside to do

what I can't do.

And who can do that?

The Holy Spirit who strengthens us as Paul

just prayed with power in the inner man.

And what is the result of that?

Well, just a few verses down the end of verse

19 and chapter three, you also may be filled

up to all the fullness of God.

Remember that's his prayer.

And that is the progressive, continual plan of

God, as I said, and conforming us to the

image of Christ in the process of sanct

ification.

And so we have to absolutely, totally depend

on the work of Christ and the spirit of God

and the ministry of the spirit to do what we

can't do, but what we must also at the

same time do.

And as I've said many times, nobody really,

really likes this, but when we do good and

we have victory, God gets all the glory for

that, but when we fail and we sin, we get

all the blame.

Now on the surface, you hear that that does

sounds like a raw deal, but when you really

think about it right as a Christian, that

doesn't bother you one bit.

We can say it this way.

Be imitators of God, but realize that's God's

work, not yours.

You understand?

We are totally and completely dependent on the

spirit of God.

Now, as I always tell you, the work of sanct

ification is synergistic.

S-Y-N, it is us and God, but without God, it

doesn't happen, not for a second.

And if you are a Christian, he is absolutely

doing that work in you.

Okay, so with that reality right now in your

thinking, now we can just get real practical

with these thoughts, just think about it.

If God humbled himself in Christ, can't you

humble yourself?

If God is different and set apart from the

world, can't you be different and set apart

from the world?

If God is light, then can't you be a light in

this present, very deep darkness of this

world that we're living in?

If God is love, then can't you be love?

All the while realizing that the spirit of God

himself is working all this out in you.

Consider what we learned in just these three

first chapters of Ephesians about what we

have as believers in Christ.

We have a new standing before God all time.

We have a new life.

We have a new righteousness.

We have a new father.

We have a new inheritance.

We have a new citizenship.

We have a new master.

We have a new freedom.

We have a new victory, a new security, a new

peace,

a new unity, a new fellowship, a new joy, a

new spirit,

a new power, a new ability, a new calling,

a new purpose, and a new love.

All of that just in the first three chapters

of this book of Ephesians is laid out as a

foundation.

All of that, Christian, is ours in Christ.

And now he says, look at verse one,

thinking of that, therefore,

the imitators of God as beloved children.

Then he says in verse two, walk.

Remember your daily manner of life, walk in

love.

And guess what?

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

and the gifting of brilliance that God gave

Paul for writing,

he laid that foundation of love

in the first three chapters of Ephesians as

well.

Look at the end of verse four in Ephesians one

,

and into five, in love.

He predestined us to adoption as sons

through Jesus Christ as himself.

And then in Ephesians two, why did he show us

mercy?

Ephesians two, four.

But God, being rich in mercy because of his

great love

with which he loved us.

Ephesians three, 19, Paul is praying.

And to know the love of Christ which surpasses

knowledge,

our whole position is predicated on God's love

.

And if this is true, when we get here to

chapter five

in verse two, he says, you better walk in love

just as Christ also has loved you.

In other words, based on all what I'm telling

you,

he's saying, you ought to be able to see

that this should be characteristic for you as

a Christian

to walk in love.

Now, I wanna show you four points

out of these seven verses that I read at the

beginning,

and they end with a warning.

The very first two verses are positive.

You can glance over them.

Verses three through six are very negative.

And then verse seven gives us a warning,

but we're not gonna get past verse two for

today.

So the first point is this, the plea.

Go back to verse one.

And then the first part of verse two.

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved

children

and walk in love.

Now, stop right there.

What I'm fixing to tell you is not anything

that you haven't heard before.

But remember, preaching is not designed

to impart information to you that you retain

from that moment for the rest of your whole

life

and you don't have to hear it again

and in accord with which you will live.

That's not what preaching is designed to do.

The secret here, as Brother Ed Lacey used to

say,

is to keep telling you the same stuff you

heard before

over and over, but you forgot it

in terms of your behavior.

You understand?

So you gotta keep hearing it.

And I gotta keep hearing it.

And I gotta keep learning it.

To emote, intermittent repetition is the best

instructor.

I'll quote that till I die.

If it isn't operative in your life,

what you're learning here, you better listen

more.

You better listen more deeply.

Because every time you hear it, guess what?

You're more accountable than you used to be

before a holy God.

Look at verse one.

"The imitators of God."

That's not a suggestion.

That's a command.

And remember, you're being commanded

to do something that you can't do.

But as I said earlier,

that is where the spirit of God comes into

play.

And check out what comes first.

Therefore, we always gotta figure out

what is there for, right?

Well, that makes us look back to chapter four

in verse 31.

Remember this, let all bitterness and wrath

and anger and clamor and slander

be put away from you with all malice.

Obviously, all of those things are the

opposite of love, right?

And when you're bitter towards somebody

and you have a grudge and you're angry

and you yell at them publicly, remember that's

clamor,

yelling publicly or talk about them behind

their back,

that slander, where's the love in any of that?

On the other hand, next verse chapter four

verse 32,

be kind to one another, tenderhearted,

forgiving each other just as God in Christ

has also forgiven you and we covered all of

that.

And we said, remember, what does a lack of

forgiveness do

to make you bitter, which will eat you alive

and angry

and you'll slander people and you'll hold grud

ges

and what is the reason for that?

Because you won't forgive, remember?

And the reason you don't forgive

is really you don't really love that person.

So what Paul is saying in our text for today

is,

put away all of the anti-love stuff in your

life.

He doesn't mention love in verse 32.

Look again, chapter four verse 32,

he mentions, what does he say?

Kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness.

And so just to be sure you don't miss where

that comes from,

he gives to chapter one of verse five right

behind this

and he says, therefore.

You see, in order to be those things,

kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiveness,

be imitators of God and walk in love.

You see the flow there?

Because love is kind, tenderhearted and

forgiving.

And we can measure our love by the thought of

forgiveness

because think of it this way.

That is the way that God presents his love,

right?

God so loved the world that he gave us

beautiful trees and mountains to look at.

God so loved the world that he gave us

beautiful sunrises and sunsets to see.

God so loved the world that he made

all these delicious fruits and things to eat.

All of that is great.

He did all of that under the heading of his

common grace,

which nobody deserves, but amazingly,

every human being gets under common grace.

But what's missing out of that?

Those descriptions of God's love.

God so loved the world that he took million,

of vile, undeserving, wretched, God-hating,

rebellious sinners, and he died on the cross

to bear their sins and to forgive them

and to impute them with his righteousness

and bring them to eternal heaven forever when

they die.

That's how God so loved.

Now that's way better than trees,

mountains, sunsets and food, right?

You see?

And the point is, love is best measured

in its ability to forgive.

Even when we were dead and our trespasses and

sin,

God made us alive in Christ.

Why?

Because of his great mercy based upon his

great love

with which he loved us, the Bible said.

Whereas John says, "For you don't love,

you're not of God."

Remember?

And no matter what gets done to you,

we always have to go back to that bombshell

verse

that we dropped the last time we were here in

Ephesians,

chapter four, verse 32.

This is nuclear missile.

Forgiving each other just as God in Christ

has also forgiven you as a killer.

Think about everything you've done in your

life.

God at the cost of the life of his son,

forgiven, single, one of your sin, my sin.

And think about this.

John MacArthur has a great insight right here.

Let's talk about for a second

within the family of believers.

No matter what harm another believer has done

to you,

you think about what I was talking about

earlier

about things pastors go through in churches

and what people go through in churches

when there's church hurt, we call it.

No matter what a believer is done to hurt,

harm, slander,

or offend you, Christ has already paid for

that sin.

Think about it.

So if you're thinking, "Boy, I'm gonna get

them back,"

or what they said, or what they did,

you better think, "Why?"

Jesus already suffered for what they did for

you.

What more do you want?

What more blood do you want to pull out of

that stone?

That goes in the yikes folder, right?

And so we have to come and keep it in mind.

And the struggle is real for us

that we are to forgive others just as God and

Christ

has forgiven us.

Not only about you, but when I consider the

holiness

of God, I offend God a lot.

But as a believer, do you know that incredibly

,

God doesn't ever say, that's it,

I have taken as much as I am gonna take from

you.

That's the last time I'm done with you.

He never says that.

Because he knows that his son has taken every

bit

of the wrath that I deserve for my whole

lifetime.

So he never says that to us, Christian.

But there's nothing left for him to do to me.

'Cause it's all been done to Jesus,

on my behalf, on Calvary's tree.

And with that infinite example that we have

in Christ of love and forgiveness toward us,

Paul is now staying here is the way that I

want you

to walk for the rest of your life based on

that.

God through his holy spirit is saying, tell

them, Paul,

here in the last three chapters of Ephesians,

tell them to imitate me.

Walk in the same kind of love that never holds

bitterness

or a grudge or slanders with anger and malice.

Let me tell you,

if you're holding a grudge against somebody,

it really isn't their problem, it's your

problem.

If you're a Christian, you have to drop it.

If we're gonna walk in love

as we've been instructed here, we have to

forgive.

And here's a tidbit in line with what we've

already seen.

The depth of your love is indicated

by how much you forgive and also though,

how much you know and realize and understand

that you have been forgiven.

Now, people with a past like mine have a

little bit

of a leg up on because it's a lot easier for

us

to realize how much we've been forgiven

because we were so terrible as people

before we came to Christ.

But I'm here to tell you, this is for

everybody.

Whether you grew up in church or not.

And for all of us to get to a proper place

of realizing how much we have been forgiven,

we have to do a deep dive in studying,

one, the holiness of God,

two, the depravity of man,

and three, all the depths of the substitution

ary atonement

of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

And you will never plumb those depths in this

life.

I promise you, the depth of what the person

in work of Christ means, you'll never plumb

the depth.

Our brains can't take in the fullness of what

happened

and the three hours of darkness

as the wrath of God was being poured out upon

the sun.

You can study it as much as you can.

You can understand it as much as you can.

And the deeper you go in studying those three

doctrines

from the word of God,

the more deeply you will understand

how much you have been forgiven.

Which in turn will definitely affect

how much you forgive.

You see how this work?

So to summarize with a general statement,

Paul is saying God loved us and forgave us

and that's the way we are to be with each

other.

No bitterness, no anger, no wrath, none of

that.

So in that sense, be like God, he's saying.

And we've been given the Holy Spirit

to enable us to do this.

Being an imitator of God sounds wild at first

when you hear that.

But not when you break it down in the biblical

way.

First again, it's impossible, it's only

possible

because there was a miracle that happened to

you

as a Christian.

Regeneration, being born again is not

something

that you do.

You have faith and then you're born again.

People have that backward.

Being born again is something that happens to

you.

It's all of God, it's monogistic.

You're born again, your dead spirit is made

alive

when you became a Christian.

And then 2 Peter 1.4 gives us a stunning truth

that is true of every single believer.

For by these, he has granted to us precious

and magnificent promises so that by them

you may become partakers of the divine nature.

I can't even, I blows my mind.

You can be like God, I can be like God

from the aspect of understanding that it's

true.

Holy Spirit of the living God lives in,

and dwells you as scripture says.

And then secondly, this is possible by sanct

ification.

As the Spirit of God himself is continually

working

in your life and in my life again,

what's the purpose to conform us to the image

of Christ?

And Paul is just telling us repetitively here

in Ephesians,

if you're gonna call yourself a child of God,

then act like it, will you?

That's what he's saying.

There's nothing worse than when I hear

somebody say,

boy, so and so, claims to be a Christian.

And then I get a laundry list of the examples

in their behavior and their day-to-day life,

how they don't act conform.

That's terrible to hear.

I didn't have time to find the exact quote,

but I remember reading that one time there was

a soldier

and his name was Alexander and there was a

fierce battle.

And he got caught deserting the battle.

He was running away from the battle.

He was coward and they caught him.

And they brought him before the supreme

warrior,

Alexander the Great.

If you know anything about him from history,

Alexander the Great was told why they brought

the deserter before him.

And he looked at the cowardly soldier in the

eye

and he said, soldier, drop your cowardice or

drop your name.

Don't use Alexander for a name

if you're gonna come to the battle.

You claim a name in Jesus.

So Christian, you must walk to the best of

your ability.

1 John 2.6, very, very convicting.

The one who says he abides in him ought

himself

to walk in the same manner as he.

There's John telling us the same thing.

This is not just New Testament folks.

This has always been God's standard.

God's law in the 10 commandments.

That is not a crushing example of legalism.

As you know, the three fold use of the law

from Reformed theology, the law is a mirror.

It shows us God's righteousness.

It shows us our simpleness and is used as the

school master

to drive us to the gospel.

The second use being the restraint of evil.

The very law that we have in the United States

is based in the law of God.

And then three, the law of God is given as a

guide

of God's holy nature and character

as a guide to follow for how we are to live

in a way that's pleasing to God.

And there are actually 10 aspects of love

that are verbalized in the 10 commandments.

The first table of the 10 commandments is love

toward God.

The second is love toward others.

And I want to show you this.

Let's look first in Exodus 20.

Verse three, love is loyal.

You shall have no other gods before me.

And God is just saying, would you love me

enough

to not leave me for some other God that doesn

't exist?

Your spouse says, would you love me enough

to not leave me for another, right?

How much more so with God?

Love is loyal, that's what he's saying.

Secondly, love is faithful.

Faithfulness is really loyalty extended.

Look next in verses four through six.

You shall not make for yourself an idol

or any likeness of what is in heaven above or

on earth

and in the water under the earth.

You shall not worship them or serve them

for I the Lord your God, I'm a jealous God,

visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the

children

on the third and fourth generation of those

who hate me,

but showing loving kindness to thousands who

what?

Love me and keep my commandments.

So love is loyal and love is faithful.

God is saying, if you love me, you're not

gonna leave me.

You're gonna stick with me.

You're gonna be faithful.

Next, love is reverent.

Look at verse seven.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your

God in vain

for the Lord will not leave him unpunished

who takes his name in vain.

You ever hear somebody say,

you can't talk about my wife like that?

You can't talk about my husband like that?

Well, do we feel that way about God?

When his name is dishonored,

taking his name in vain is not just cursed

word.

We talked about that before.

Next, love is intimate verses eight through 10

.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you show labor and do all your work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord

your God

and in it you shall not do any work.

And then he goes on from there with the

specific.

And of course in the new covenant,

the spirit of the law is carried over to right

now.

Sunday, the first day of the week, love is

intimate.

God says, look, you work six days

and I give you the ability to do that and

create wealth.

But on this special day of the week,

you set it aside to worship me.

You set it aside to be with me

in the gathering of God's people for worship.

So there in the first table of the law,

it's all about loving God,

loyally, faithfully, reverently and intimately

.

That's easy to understand, right?

Would, how did Jesus sum that up?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, mind and strength, right?

And then what did he say next?

And love your neighbor as yourself.

And that's the second part of the commandments

.

Love towards men, look at verse 12.

Love is respectful.

Honor your father and mother

that your days may be prolonged in the land

which the Lord your God gives you.

Love honors, love respects.

The best example is of your parents.

Next, love is harmless.

It produces no injury.

Verse 13, you shall not murder.

Love doesn't murder.

It doesn't hurt anyone.

It's harmless instead of hurting.

It helps.

Next, love is pure.

Verse 14, you shall not commit adultery.

Adultery defiles, but love seeks only purity.

Next, love is unselfish.

Verse 15, you shall not steal.

Love doesn't steal, it gives.

Number nine, love is truthful.

Verse 16, you shall not bear false witness

against your neighbor.

If you lie against your neighbor,

what you're trying to do, you're trying to

hurt him.

If you love your neighbor, you'll tell the

truth, right?

And you'll fulfill that commandment.

Lastly, love is content.

Verse 17, you shall not covet your neighbor's

house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife

or his male servant or his female servant

or his ox or his donkey or anything

that belongs to your neighbor.

Simply put, you're content with what you have.

You realize God is sovereign over the material

things

in your life and the standard of living that

you live.

And you don't want somebody else's stuff.

In fact, when somebody gets a new house or a

new car,

love says, that is fantastic.

I am so happy for you that you got that

and that the Lord has blessed you

and Americans in the land of Pliny

are on the struggle bus with that one, right?

So love towards others is respectful, harmless

, pure,

unselfish, truthful, and content.

That's the 10 Commandments.

And when you combine the first part towards

God

and the second part toward man,

you discover even in the 10 Commandments,

the same thing, be like God.

It's saying the same thing.

The law is the reflection of God's character.

So that sums up our first point, the plea.

The imitators of God walk in love.

I'm gonna close and I promise this will be

quick.

Point two, the pattern.

Verse two, just as Christ loved you

and gave himself up for us as an offering

and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Now we've already seen how does God love?

He forgives sin, right?

He forgives every Christian's sin, past,

present,

and future through Christ's work on the cross.

So consequently, who's the example of that

pattern?

It's Christ.

Look again, verse two, just as Christ also

loved you.

Now I've told you many times,

biblical love is not an emotion.

It's never defined as an emotion in the Bible.

Biblical love.

It can be emotional, but biblical love is an

act.

An act of self-sacrificial giving.

Selflessness is the main ingredient of true

love

as defined by God.

It is the absolute main ingredient

of a healthy, successful marriage.

Selflessness on the part of both.

Biblical love is not looking for what you can

get

out of the other person.

What you get out of it doesn't play any role

at all.

Consider Jesus, who definitely did not love us

because of where he could get out of it.

Huh?

He loved us in spite of ourselves, right?

All that we bring to the table is our sin.

This is a love that doesn't exist

on the basis of any reciprocation.

It's humble, obedient, self-giving, self-sacr

ificing love

that says, I love you, not for what I get out

of it,

but because it's my nature to love.

And what does that come with?

A new nature.

Only if you have a new nature can you love b

iblically.

But it doesn't come automatically

even to the Christian.

You have to work at it,

just like everything in the Christian life.

Look again at verse two.

And walk in love just as Christ also loved you

and gave.

There it is.

Self-sacrifice, himself up for us as an

offering

and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

To put it plainly, the whole act of Christ

smelled good to God.

'Cause it was his kind of love

that being demonstrated over the cross.

Jesus, again, was not looking

for what he could get out in what he did.

It was totally agape, self-sacrificing love

on behalf of those that he came to save.

And Paul uses the familiar language

of the Old Testament sacrificial system.

Every burnt offering sacrifice in the Old Co

venant

was there to provide this fragrant aroma

that was to be acceptable to God.

But remember, in the Old Covenant,

only if it was offered with the right inward

attitude

would it be pleasing to him.

And Paul uses this idea again

at the very end of Philippians 4:18.

Look at it.

A fragrant aroma, acceptable sacrifice,

well-pleasing to God.

Core, the substitutionary atonement of Christ

was the most perfect, well-pleasing sacrifice

to God in all of human history.

In fact, God was so well-pleased

by the sacrifice of Christ

that not only was his holy justice satisfied

for every sin of every believer

for all time paid for by Christ, punished in

Christ.

Not only that, he imputed Christ righteous.

For every believer for all time,

thereby making peace between God and man

where there was only war from the fall on.

And to prove holy justice was satisfied

in Christ's work on the cross.

What did he do to prove it?

He rose, Jesus, there, yeah.

His Jesus conquered death, hell and rain,

which we're gonna celebrate next month.

When God, the Father looked at the perfection

in the character of Jesus

and the peacemaking element of his work.

And he saw the absolute devotion of love

for sinners who deserve nothing but his wrath.

What that did is it rose to his nostrils

as a perfect, fragrant aroma,

the only perfect, acceptable sacrifice to God.

So let me ask you, Christian,

do you want your life

to be a fragrant aroma?

Is that what you want, Esther?

You must move, strive to be imitated

imitator of God in the way that we learned it

today,

totally dependent upon the spirit of God

and walk in love just as Christ loved you.

For his, let's pray.

Father, we thank you today for these

tremendous,

tremendous inspired by the Holy spirit

and words of the Apostle Paul,

not only teaching the church at Ephesus,

but also teaching the whole of the church

for all of human history and all of church

history

to the very last day when Christ returned

in all of his glory.

Help us, Lord, where we fail.

Help us, Lord, to learn.

Help us, Lord, to take this in and let it

motivate us

to live more to be imitators of you

and walk in love just as Christ has loved us.

And if there's anyone here

who is not bowed the knee to King Jesus

and saving faith and Bible was in it.

What I pray that you would use the word preach

this day

to draw them to yourself.

Stop them and fear them.

In Jesus' name we pray.