chapter 5 and verse number 25, "Men, it's our
turn and just like I delivered from the
word of God the biblical gold standard for
Christian wives in the last two
sermons, today I will deliver the first of two
biblical gold standard sermons
from the word of God for all Christian
husbands." Men, you didn't think you were
just going to get one if they got two, right?
And right out of the gate, let me
say that I often and regularly miss the mark
of the gold standard that I am
fixing to deliver to you. You need
verification of that. There's a beautiful
lady sitting here on the front row that can
second that motion. Just exactly like
the Christian life, we live between peaks and
valleys. Peaks and valleys, right?
Difficulties, failures, victories. But the
main thing is this, that we are
continually striving to be obedient to God's
biblical gold standard that you're
fixing to hear for today. And it never fails.
When I am at a peak and I'm doing
well at this, that is when life is the best.
And then having that self-awareness
and yet still descending into the valleys
should make us all realize the
fierceness of this struggle that we have as
Christians with the world, the flesh,
and the devil every single day. It's like, how
do you go there? But that's our
plight in sanctification. Now, the world's
understanding of marriage and a
Christian biblical understanding of marriage
are for sure, as we've been
learning, two very different things. Most
people from the world's perspective
believe that a great marriage is really
guaranteed by just being in love, right?
The bliss of romance as defined by the world.
But just how do we define bliss?
There was a survey once done among children
about love. Children looking
at the adult world were asked a series of
questions and their answers were both
enlightening and entertaining. They were asked
, how do people in love typically
behave? Wendy, age eight, said, well, when a
person gets kissed for the first time,
they fall down and they don't get up for at
least an hour. Then they were asked
another question, why does love happen between
certain people? Andrew, age six,
said, well, one of the people has freckles so
he finds somebody else who has
freckles too. May, age nine, said, no one is
really sure why it happens but I heard
it has something to do with how you smell and
that's why perfume and deodorant
are so popular. Manual, age eight, said, I
think you're supposed to get shot with
an arrow or something but the rest of it isn't
to be too painful. Then they were
asked, what falling in love is like? John, age
nine, said, it's like an avalanche,
you ought to run for your life. Glenn, age
seven, said, if falling in love is
anything like learning how to spell, I don't
want to do it, it takes too long. Then
they were asked, how important are your looks
when it comes to falling in love?
Anita, age eight, said, if you want to be
loved by somebody who isn't already in
your family it doesn't hurt to be beautiful.
Brian, age seven, said, it isn't
always just how you look. I mean, look at me,
I'm handsome like anything and I
haven't gotten anybody to marry me yet.
Christine, said, while beauty is skin
deep but how rich you are can last a long time
. Then there were some
confidential general opinions about love.
David, age eight, said, love will find you
even if you're trying to hide from it. I've
been trying to hide from it since I
was five but the girls keep finding me. Regina
, age ten, said, I'm not rushing
into love. I'm finding fourth grade hard
enough. Then they were asked to make
suggestions about surefire ways to really fall
in love. Camille, said, shake your
hips and hope for the best. Bart, age nine,
said, take her out to eat and make sure
it's something she likes to eat. French fries
always really works for me. Now,
those are great, right? But really, if you
really stop and think about it, how
much better would adults do with those same
questions? Figuring out how to make
romance last permanently, that's quite a
challenge. And in spite of the difficulty
of doing that and making marriage work, in
spite of all the divorces that we have
in our country, we still have over 80% of men
and women in our nation saying I do.
But then, sooner or later, as I said before,
over 40% of them wind up saying I
don't. Why is this? Well, I think a trip to
Second Timothy can at least, in part,
give us what the issues are. Look at Second
Timothy with me, chapter 3 verse 1.
But realize this, that in the last days,
difficult times will come. And you need
it important to understand the last days here
in context refers to the reality
that the last days started when Jesus came and
was crucified, died, and was
buried and went back to heaven. So in that
sense, we're in the last days right
now. That's distinct from the last of the last
days, okay? Make sure you understand
that. But keep reading, verse 2, "For men will
be lovers of self, lovers of money,
boastful, arrogant." And you could stop right
there and understand that lovers of
self and money, boastful and arrogant, are
going to have a pretty hard time with
any kind of sustained relationship, right? Not
only that, keep reading.
Revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful,
unholy. Verse 3, "Unloving,
irreconcilable." And by the way, unloving in
the Greek here means they lack
normal family love. And that's a problem if
you're gonna stay married. Keep going.
Malicious gossips without self-control. Brutal
. Haters of good. Verse 4, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure,
rather than lovers of God. Now, I've never
lived in any other time period, but this
particular time period, but this sure
hits the bullseye in our day, don't you think?
And again, they lack the normal
family love, and they are completely self-abs
orbed in their own self and their
own self-fulfillment. So, I want you to just
for a minute put together all what
we've studied so far in the last few sermons,
actually the last four sermons
about the subject of marriage. Is there any
hope for marriage when it's
assaulted by these kind of last day's
mentality that we find here in 2nd
Timothy 3, when it's absolutely insulted,
assaulted on the outside by this
godless immoral culture that we're living in,
and when it's assaulted naturally
on the inside, remember as we study from
Genesis by the battle of the sexes
that started after the fall in the garden,
where women naturally seek to
control and dominate men, and men naturally
seek to suppress and
dominate women. That's natural in all of us as
we study from Genesis. Can
marriage be rescued in any of this? Is there
any hope here? Well, it's my
position that there is, and it exists in Ephes
ians chapter 5, starting in verse
22. God's plan for the family is clearly laid
out. The husbands, then next come the
children, then next come the parents. It's all
there. The question is, this, are you
going to do things God's way, according to God
's word, or are you going to do
things your way? That's what it comes down to.
The baseline requirement, if you
remember, is found in verses 18 to 21 of
chapter 5, being filled with the spirit.
Remember, that's a command. That's not
something that you pray for. For starters,
the only hope for marriage to be what God
wants it to be, that is the primary
prerequisite. You must be saved and filled
with the spirit, and then Paul goes
on to the specifics, and he starts with the
wives, which we took two messages to
cover in verse 22 through 24. Let's remind
ourselves of those by reading them.
Wives be subject, remember, submit to your own
husbands as to the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is
also the head of the church, he
himself being the savior of the body. But as
the church is subject to Christ, so
also wives ought to be to their husbands in
everything. Now, we covered all that
ground if you missed either of those two
messages and the prior two foundational
messages before that for a total of four. I
commend you to go back and listen to
those or watch them on our Facebook page,
because we got to move on now to the
husbands. Starting in verse 25, let's read
together verses 25 through 28, our
text for today. "Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself up for her, so that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word, that he might
present to himself the church in
all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that she would be
holy and blameless, so husbands ought also to
love their own wives as their own
bodies, he who loves his own wife loves
himself." Now, let's start with this very
clear principle at the outset. Go back to
verse 25, "Husbands love your wives." That's
not the only place it's found. Look at Coloss
ians 319. "Husbands love your wives,
and do not be embittered against them." So, we
can see here that love is the
key ingredient. According to God's way, for
men in particular, as the head of the
household, it's the headship of love. It's the
leadership of love, and when love is
not the context of the marriage relationship,
at some point war is what
results. But for us, Christian men, the how we
are to love our wives is what we
most need to focus on this morning. Look again
at verse 25, "Husbands love your
wives, how? Just as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself up for her." Now,
that's pretty clear, isn't it? And just in
that wording, you don't have to have a
PhD to understand that this love that Paul is
speaking about is a sacrificial
love. You are to love her men, just as Christ
also loves the church and gave
himself up what? Sacrificially for the church.
This is the highest standard. This
is the manner of love that Christian men are
to have for their wives. The same kind
of love, think of it, that Christ extended to
the church. Men, this is not a
suggestion for you. This is a command for you.
At the end of Acts chapter 20, verse
28, describes this love that Jesus had for,
look at it, at the end of Acts 20
28, "The church of God, which he purchased
with his own blood." That's the
intensity. Romans 5a, "But God demonstrates
his own love toward us in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us." That's the intensity of this
love. That's the way men, we are to love our
own wives. The early church father,
John Chrysostom said this, "Hear the measure
of love. If it be needful that thou
shouldest give it thy life for her, or to be
cut to pieces a thousand times, or
endure anything whatever, refuse it not.
Christ brought his church to his feet
by his great care, not by threats or any such
thing. So do thou conduct thyself
toward thy wife." Totally sacrificial. Now,
remember our historical survey at the
time that Paul wrote this letter. In the Roman
and Greek world at this time,
remember he's writing to this church at Eph
esus and it's a secular letter that
goes around to the different churches in that
area. This idea here of how we are
to love our wives, let me tell you, it was
completely unheard of. Listen to
Cato, a Roman writer from that time, he said
this, "If you are to catch your
wife in an act of infidelity, kill her without
a trial. But if she catches you,
she would not venture to touch you with her
finger. She has no right." As we
learned, men in this day had total and
complete control over women at every
level in those days, every legal level even.
They really had zero rights. So for
the men in the church, originally reading this
letter, "This love your wives," as
Christ loved the church sacrificially, it was
shocking to them. In our day, when
many men basically say, "As long as you
fulfill what I want, you can be my
wife." But when you cease to do that, "I'm
going to go get somebody else," it's the
same thing. This kind of husband love your
wife sacrificially. It's just as
shocking for men in our day to hear this. It's
counter-cultural in every way. Now,
as I did with the ladies, I want to give you a
comparative text to illustrate
this kind of self-sacrificing love. Biblical
illustrations are always the
best. Look over at 1 Peter 3:7. "A few
husbands in the same way. Live with your
wives in an understanding way, as with someone
weaker since she is a woman and
show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace
of life so that your prayers will
not be hindered." Now, man, out of this text,
I want to give you three C's to
remember. Number one, consideration. Live with
your wives in an understanding way.
Men, husbands, can we all agree we need work
here? Huh? I mean, come on. This is the
opposite of the self-serving world's idea of
macho mentality. That's not true
manhood at all, by the way. This is trying to
understand your wife, her
sensitivities. I'm not saying this is easy.
Why is this not easy for us? Because
we are so wired differently, men and women,
right? This is really dealing with
meeting her needs no matter how you might
evaluate the importance of those
needs from your own estimation. You feel what
I'm saying? Understanding her
feelings, her fears, her anxieties, her
concerns, her dreams, her goals. Living
with your wife in an understanding way. And I
have no problem standing here
admitting to you that when it comes to dealing
with feelings, I have a very low
batting average, okay? I mean, I'm geared to
practical reasoning, action, solving
problems and let's move on. Not sharing my
feelings about whatever the deal is. So
I have to work really hard at this. And I have
a feeling some of you do too. But
one thing that I think I have learned in
getting close to 30 years of marriage,
and you can check with Chrissy after this to
see if she gives the thumbs up or
thumbs down to this. One thing I have learned
is sometimes it all just boils
down men to listening, listening. My wife will
tell you I have a saying in our
household since my kids were little, to say
less is best. In order to understand
our love, in order to love sacrificially, you
have to understand what the
needs are. And men, you may have to listen for
a while to actually grasp what's
going on with your wife. I mean, I'm often
slow at grasping exactly what's
going on, right? I'm learning to be patient in
my listening. But my main
point is this, guys, you have to be working at
this intentionally. This
is not something that's just going to happen,
osmosis. You have to be working
at this because, again, most men are just not
automatically wired to behave like
this. But as I've told the ladies, through the
power of the Spirit and a
Christian man, this is possible. Now, let me
give you my second C, and this is a
very old word, chivalry. Look again at verse 7
, "Live with your wives in an
understanding way as with someone who is
weaker since she is a woman." Now, ladies,
before you get all riled up at that verse, and
some of you might be right now,
what? This does not mean weaker spiritually,
okay? This does not mean
weaker intellectually. This simply means what
you all know, and we know, to be
true, weaker physically. Among the many
reasons, this is why we don't ever need
the pure insanity of men, grown men,
participating in women's sports. You see
how that works out? The guy always wins, right
? It's funny how you almost never
see the reverse where, you know, the woman who
's mentally insane decides to go,
"I'm gonna go run track against the men." I
haven't seen that yet. I mean, I'm not
ever gonna say to Kristie, "Hey, look, after
you go out there and change that
flat tire on my Dodge 2500, then I'll take you
to the store." You're gone out
there. I'm never gonna say that. There is a
reason for why in the 63-year history of
the Navy SEALs, the most elite Special Forces
unit in our military, there has
never been a woman who has ever successfully
completed Buds, which is the
basic underwater demolition SEAL training.
They've had women try. Why? Because
the standards are for men. Men are stronger
physically than women. This
shouldn't insult you, women. This is how God
has designed us. It's His design. If
you're mad about that, you're mad at Him. You
're not mad at me. God has clearly
designed women to be under the strength and
protection of a man. If me and
Kristie are in a Walmart parking lot and some
not-head comes, walks and up to us
to give us some business with them, I'm gonna
take her and put her in front of me
and say, "Go hand on that dude." She's getting
behind me and I'm dealing with it,
right? So we're to be our wives strength on
the physical side. That's what this
verse means. And then our third C is communion
. Look next in verse 7. "And show
her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of
life." And again, though we are
unequal physically, we are equal spiritually.
Remember, I tell you that
saying all the time, the ground is level at
the foot of the cross. So treat your
wife as your spiritual equal because she is.
Honor her as a fellow equal heir of
the grace of life. So Peter just gives us some
pretty straightforward things to
work on, man, if we are to be the husbands
that God wants us to be. We will
follow the words instructions. We are to love
our wives. Again, that is a command.
Well, I don't love her anymore, brother Philip
. Well, that's a sin. If you come
back here and sit down with me and having
trouble and you tell me that, that's
what I'm going to tell you back. That is a sin
. Well, you don't know how she
treated me. Well, that's not the issue. How
she's acting is not the issue. Do you
see anything here in that text? Huffins love
your wives unless she's acting out
of her mind. Does it say that? It doesn't.
Jesus loves sinners when they hated him,
right? We are following his lead. Now, let's
get back to Ephesians 5/25.
Man, when we, when we really dig down into
husbands love your wives just as
Christ also loved the church and gave himself
up, we have to understand
something of the depth of this command. And I
think that starts by understanding
that the spirit-filled husband has to have
this mindset. We love our wife not
for what she can do for us, but instead what
we can do for her. This is, think of
it. This is how the love of Christ works in
the lives of all believers. Think about
it. Jesus doesn't love us because there is
something about us or in us that
attracts him to love us, right? In fact, it's
quite the opposite action. While we
were yet rebellious sinners, Christ died for
us, the ultimate expression of love.
The love of Christ for his people, it doesn't
seek to tyrannize us. It actually
seeks to meet our needs, to understand us, and
to provide strength for us. It has
nothing to do whatsoever with our deserving
his love, does it? Because none of
us deserve Christ's love, none of us do. And
we certainly didn't do anything to
earn the love of Christ, do you think? And if
you are a believer, you better
understand that it wasn't because we were more
desirable than other people that
Christ set his love upon us from those who don
't believe. Jesus loves his church
even before they are his church. You
understand that? And even after they are
his church, in this process of sanctification
that we're all going
through, while we are going through the peaks
and the valleys of the battling
our flesh, guess what? He still loves us
because once you and I are recipients of
the love of Christ, you have to understand
that is a love that never dies. It
never lessens in its intensity. It is a love
from Christ that is utterly and
completely self-sacrificing on his part. And
men for sure, the Bible is clear.
This is the kind of love that the Spirit of
God gives us the capacity to have for
our wives. Not imperfection, of course not. We
don't get that till heaven, but in
direction. Romans 5/5 says this, "For all
Christians and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out
within our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who was given to us." What was the
first in the list of the fruits of the
Spirit? Anybody know? Love. That's the first
fruit of the Spirit. Look at
1 Peter chapter 1, 22 to 23, "Since you have
an obedience to the truth, purify
your souls for a sincere love of the brethren
fervently love one another from
the heart, for you have been born again, not
of seed which is perishable, but
imperishable, that is through the living and
enduring Word of God." This is the
kind of love that belongs only to people who
have been born again. And if this is
the kind of love that we are to have for all
other believers, how much more men
are we to love our wives fervently from the
heart, as Peter is saying here. The
world tries to hang on to worldly romantic
love, Hollywood love, if you
will, as long as possible. But eventually, as
I said before, those butterflies fly
away. Them fireworks, they quit popping, right
? If you don't have a new nature, I'm
telling you it's nigh impossible to sustain
that love. But if you've been
born again, you have the capacity for a
sincere, fervent love for your wife,
because you are a new creation in Christ Jesus
. God so loved us that He gave us
His Son, right? Christ so loved us that He
gave His life for us and we are to love
our wives in the same way, self-sacrificing ag
ape love. Think of the
love chapter that's often read at weddings in
1 Corinthians 13. I don't
have the time to break it down, but just
listen, just listen to the main points
of biblical love. It's a love that acts. It's
a verb. It's patient. It's kind. It's
not jealous. It does not brag. It is not
arrogant. It does not seek its own. It is
not provoked and does not take into account a
wrong suffered. How you doing
with that one, man? Also, it does not rejoice
in unrighteousness, but rejoices
in the truth. What else does it do? It bears
all things. It believes all things.
It hopes all things, endures all things. This
is the kind of love that never
fails. That's the biblical character of love,
men, and that is how we are to love
our lives. This kind of love is not dependent
on the object of love. It is
dependent on the one who loves the object. In
other words, men, I'm telling you it's
on you, is what I'm saying. It's on you. Her
behavior is not the issue. Look in
this text. Do you see anything about her
behavior in this text? And as with
the women, let me make this little side note.
There are all kinds of
situations and circumstances that we could go
through here where maybe
she doesn't choose to receive your love. Maybe
she rolls out. Maybe she commits
adultery. I don't have time to go through all
the different scenarios that are
possible in this situation where we would
apply different biblical verses to
this. I'm just giving you the gold standard
here. I'm just exegeting these
scriptures right here. Those things are a
whole nother issue for a whole nother
time. I'm talking about in every place where
she is at least there in your home
to receive your love. This is how you are to
love your wife. It's what this Bible
is saying. For example, when Paul says love
does not seek its own, that means it
never wants revenge. It never wants retali
ation. Men, and if you ever had to
get revenge, an argument, mhm, retaliate in
that argument, you want to be right,
even if you're not. Aside from selfishness,
selfishness is always right at the top
number one problem in all marriages that have
problems. A sub-point connected to
that problem of selfishness is another issue
that also destroys marriages. And
let me tell you what that is. It is unforg
iveness. Even a Christian married
couple. What you have there is two centers
saved by grace, but centers still
bumping into one another on a regular basis in
the closest way possible, right?
And biblical love doesn't keep a record of
wrongs. Anybody in here ever kept that
record? Again, it never wants revenge. It
never wants retaliation when it's wrong.
If you have two people who are regularly, they
have a healthy pattern of forgiving
one another. When they screw up, then there's
no records of wrongs kept. If
you're regularly forgiving one another, there
's no retaliation to be carried out.
And for both parties, even though I'm
specifically zeroing in here with the
men, let me tell you what this comes down to.
In order men for us to carry these
things out, to not want revenge, to not want
to retaliate, let me tell you what
it all really comes down to. It comes down to
us having debt to sell. That's
it. Dying to yourself is the real issue here.
And learning to do that on a
regular, continual basis, esteeming her better
than yourself. Setting aside your
desires for her. Putting her first in what she
wants. This saves you. This
saves you from being defensive and revengeful
and retaliatory and hostile.
And then accumulating all these things said
and done against you and you just,
they just boil up and one day they just boil
out all over the place and you have
a knock down drag out. You can save yourself
from all of that if you die to
yourself. And she's more important than you.
This is a principle that really is
for all of life, but really especially married
life. When you're forgotten,
when you're neglected, when you're purposely
set aside, whenever you're
insulted, or whenever this sin against you,
whatever it is in that situation,
when you know how to die to self, you remain
joyful. Because you have union
with Christ. That is dying to self. It's not
easy. Now say it was easy. Not easy,
but possible Christian man in the power of the
Spirit. When she misunderstands you.
When what you want is not interesting to her.
When your opinions are ridiculed and
you refuse to let anger rise up in your heart
and you don't retaliate. Men, that
is dying to self. When you lovingly, patiently
bear with any disruption, any
annoyance, and you practice at enduring things
like this as Jesus did, that is
dying to self. And the big picture which
filters down to marriage. Listen, when you
can be content with any food, any clothes, any
climate, any society that God has
ordained for you to live in, and you're
content, that's dying to self. When you
never cared to make yourself constantly the
subject of conversation, or the good
that you may do, especially when you're not
recognized for it, that is dying to
self. In the big picture, when you see
somebody else prosper and reach the goals
that you want to, and you can honestly rejoice
with that person, and you don't
feel any envy and not question God. When your
name might be greater despite the
circumstances, let me tell you, when you can
honestly be like that, is dying to
self. If you can reach men, that level of
spiritual maturity you will make for a
godly spouse in many other areas of life. D
ying to self. And here is a real tough
one, guys. When she is right, and you know it,
and you receive her correction humbly,
inwardly and outwardly, without resentment,
without fighting back. It's a tough one,
right? But when you can do that, is dying to
self. When self dies, that, man, is what
makes you the leader that God wants you to be
in your home. Which, of course, is
our responsibility to be the spiritual leaders
of our household, to love our
wives as Christ, love the church sacrificially
, daily dying to self. Not
easy. Okay? I had to deal with this all week.
You're just having to deal with it
for 45 minutes. You understand? Never done
perfectly. But listen to me.
Possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now,
spend a lot of time on this first
point. How we love our wives, sacrificially.
So we're just going to
quickly touch on the second part in point in
verse 26. And I'll add some more to
this next time. Second, after loving our wives
sacrificially, secondly, our love
is to be a purifying love. We are to love our
wives as Christ loved the church.
Look next in verses 26 to 27. Here's the
illustration. So that he might
sanctify her, talking about the church, having
cleansed her by the washing of
water by the word that he might present to
himself, the church, and all her
glory, having no spotter wrinkle or any such
thing, but that she would be holy
and blameless. Now first, this is further
demonstrating the love that Christ has
for the church, right? And then here, our
responsibility and the biblical standard,
I hate to tell you, it's ramped up even
further here in these verses than in
verse 25. We are to have the same kind of pur
ifying love for our wives that
Christ Jesus has for his church. Christ seeks
the purity of the church. That is
why all believers, all of us in here who
believe savingly, we are all going
through the same process of sanctification. We
are all going through
the same process, Romans 8, of being conformed
to the image of Christ in
our life. We have Christ's righteousness imp
uted to us, put on our account when
we believe we are justified by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ
alone, done deal, all sins are forgiven, but
he is also taking us through a daily
process of growing impractical righteousness
throughout our lives, not
perfection, but direction of our lives. And
when we see this extraordinary picture
in the Bible of Christ taking his church to be
his bride, giving his life for the
church, and then seeking the purity of the
church, that is the same way Paul is
saying we are to be towards our wives. That's
a tall order, man. When we say it is our
responsibility to be the spiritual leaders of
our household, part of what this
means is that, man, we are to lead our wives
in the same quest that we have in
our own lives, and that is spiritual growth
and spiritual maturity in our
sanctification. Notice again verse 26, so that
he might sanctify her, having
cleansed her by the washing of water with the
what? With the word, as believers, all
of us. All of us had that one time cleansing
when we repented, believe the
gospel, that comes from the word of God. But
then, again, as we enter into the
Christian life, day by day, we collect dust on
our feet, if you will, and we
need a daily, continual washing. This is all
of life. There's a one-time
repentance unto salvation. There's a daily
repentance that we need to do as we
battle the world flesh and the devil. And that
doesn't happen apart. Look at verse
26 again, from the washing of water, from the
word and sanctification, just like
in justification. So, men, it's as simple as
you expose yourself to the word of
God, lead your wife in this process, just as
Jesus does with all of us. We are to
seek for her what Christ is seeking. We, what
we are seeking for ourselves, to
grow into grace and to spiritual maturity. And
look at the outcome. Look at the
outcome, finally being this in verse 27, that
he might present to himself the
church in all her glory, having no spot or wr
inkle or any such thing, but that she
would be holy and blameless. That's the goal
for the church. That doesn't happen
in this life, but that's going to happen one
day when we're all in glory. Men,
what I'm telling you is what is best for your
wife is the same thing as what is
best for you. As 1st Thessalonians chapter 4
verse 3 starts out, people want to know,
what's the will of God for my life? What's the
will of God for my life? It's right here.
For this is the will of God, your sanct
ification, your spiritual growth.
Now, there's really a whole lot I left out of
more practical stuff that could be
said about this, but man, you're gonna have to
come back next time to get the full dose.
And Christian men, I'm with you. It may not
feel good right now to get this kind of
hammering conviction for 45 minutes or however
long I preach. But let me tell you
something. This is exactly what we all need
starting with me. We need this. So,
gird up your loins like a man and be a man and
come back next time so you can
take your licks like a man so that you can
learn how to be the husband that God wants
you to be. Let's pray. Father, we thank you
Lord. Very convicting,
just as it was with the wife, so it is with
the husbands. There's two ways really to go
about
marriage and family. There's your way and
there's the world's way.
And it's very clear for Christians that you
have laid out your way very clearly
in the pages of Scripture. Father, I pray you
'd help every husband in here or husband to one
day be.
I pray you'd help us all. Convict us. Forgive
us where we failed and help us, Lord, to learn
from
this so that we can be the kind of husbands
you have designed and it is your will for us
to
be so that you will receive all the glory from
it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.