It’s going to be a good night tonight. Amen? You’ve enjoyed it already.
Well, we’ll take what we can get.
I want to teach, preach, if you will, out of Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22.
We want to teach out of there. I sense it’s the thing to do.
I have a number of things in my mind I’d like to jump into that I’ve got to back off and put them on the shelf, as they were.
So this is what I’m going to fuss with tonight.
We have a missionary that was here last Wednesday. Who was here last week?
Ron Wallachy. Remember that? It was a good service, was it not?
Walter tells me tonight that his wife, Maria, correct on the name,
has a problem with breastfeeding.
She has brain cancer.
I think that what we need to do is just to stand, if you will, and pray for her.
The days have not gone by where God cannot touch that.
It’s nothing for God to do that.
And I think that we need to believe together for that.
Anybody agree with me on that one?
Okay.
Then we need to do that.
I like to pray in the name of the Lord.
Jesus is that name, right?
David came after Goliath in the name of the Lord.
Goliath came after him in the name of whatever.
But bragging, big old, big mouth bragging,
David calmly says,
well, I would have said a few more things than David, but what David said,
“I come to you in the name of the Lord. I’ll have your head.”
And he did.
Yes?
So let’s go to God in the name of the Lord.
Everything has got to bow in the name of the Lord.
Demons saw Jesus coming.
They said, who?
I know who you are.
It’s the demon.
The people didn’t know who he was.
But the demons did.
The people were no less created than demons.
It’s an interesting dialogue there.
He says to Jesus, have you come to torment us before our time?
And Jesus said, no.
That will come on due course.
Just get out of the person.
In the name of the Lord is what I’m after.
Are you with me here?
In the name of the Lord, things have to bow.
There’s nothing that does not have to bow at the name of the Lord.
Every knee will bow.
Every tongue will confess.
Everything must bow at the name of the Lord.
The storm in the sea has to quiet in the name of the Lord.
Are you with me here?
Let’s pray together.
Father, we’re coming tonight in behalf of Maria Wallachy, Father.
Father, in the name of the Lord, we’re asking you to touch her body.
We are committing it to the name of the Lord.
In the name of the Lord,
it must bow.
Do we get a witness on that, folks?
It must bow.
At the name of the Lord, that thing must bow, O Lord.
Raise her up out of whatever that is.
Touch that thing.
It’s nothing for you to do, God.
We are believing you for that.
We are asking in the name of the Lord.
Everybody says together, amen.
God is with us.
He is with us.
You may be seated.
This is a good church.
Well, we’ll take what we can get.
Oh, boy.
You know what I’m fussing with right now is that bright light that’s in my eye right here.
It’s throwing a glare, so I’ve got to make an adjustment here maybe.
Okay, then I can get a little more comfortable.
I’d like to introduce somebody to you.
Is that okay, too?
I’m on up here.
I guess I can take a little liberty.
But it’s good.
This past Sunday, I was in the Wisdom for Life room.
Oh, you take what you can get.
And in walks in a former student.
And I was stunned because he’s not supposed to be here.
You understand?
He’s a former student.
There’s nothing in the closet or anything like that.
But I saw him.
I was shocked.
And it took a little while to soak in.
Well, this student happens to be here.
In fact, I found out that they moved down here to Sagin, from which he was born in Sagin,
many, many, many years ago.
And he is a grad student at Liberty University online.
And they’re going to be coming here to church.
Would that sit all right with you all?
Yeah.
His name is Terry Strong.
He and his wife, Charity.
And they’re sitting with us in the front row.
So just make them welcome, if you don’t mind.
I’ve got to share something else with you.
That’s all right.
We’re OK here.
I have a friend that was very close to me in the Philippines.
He pastors in a place called Barangon City, eastern Samar, Philippines.
He was on the board of directors of the college there.
His name is Salvador Petitico.
And we are in contact via email and Facebook.
And a month ago or so–I really don’t know.
It was a month ago, six weeks ago, or whatever–he sent me a message saying, “We had a couple
of people move into San Antonio from our church.”
And so I sent back, said, “Well, send me their name and how I can get a hold of them.”
He told me they were looking for a church.
I said, “I’ll get a hold of them, and we’ll have them come.”
So he sent me their contact information, “Come to find out they live in Cibolo.”
Isn’t that incredible?
So I sent an email explaining my relationship with Sal.
He was on the board and this and that, was always in the continuing education classes.
I preached in his church and in that city and whatnot.
And told him my relationship here at Tree of Life.
Invited, you know, “I know you’re looking for a church, so we’ve got to meet and you’ve got to try this out.”
So I got an email back, and they are not here tonight.
At least I don’t see them, but they do come on Sunday mornings.
And they say, “Wow, isn’t God great, how He leads this, that, and the other around?”
We were looking for a church, drive by Tree of Life, and pulled in the lot, decided we were going to try it.
No sooner did we pull in the drive, we parked our car, and we knew it was God’s will for us to be here.
We’ve been coming ever since.
They had been here two Sundays.
Isn’t that incredible?
So they attend here. I think that’s just fantastic.
God is with us.
And this is a great place. This is a beacon.
God draws. This is a drawing.
You sense the presence of the Lord when you pull into the place. Amen?
This is a good church.
Well, you take what you can get.
This is a good church. Yes!
And of course, a church is made up of people.
It means you are good people.
Amen.
Okay.
I want to talk about family relationships.
I know that Pastor Don is going to be teaching and preaching on this at some point in time.
But I feel this in my spirit to do this.
We talked about this in a Wednesday night session some time ago.
I don’t remember how long ago.
And I really don’t deal with this very often myself.
But I feel, I just sense, impressed to do this.
There is no reason.
You know, the divorce rate in church is as high as it is in the world.
And if we can’t keep a marriage together in the church, what hope is there in the world for Pete’s sake?
Now this is, I’m not mean to, if you’ve been divorced, our daughter has been divorced.
Just, it happens.
If you have been, this is not any kind of a discourse or a treatment to condemn or this, that, or the other.
Please understand that.
I think we all know that.
Yes?
I want to talk about normal familial relationships, family relationships, husband and wife.
I want to zero in on that.
And I feel, if you’re not married, don’t feel slighted because one day maybe you will be married.
Maybe it’s better you don’t.
But we will then take heart of this and you can help someone else.
At least this is going to be some good stuff here.
All right?
But I want to get back to that.
My Lord, if we can’t keep things together.
If we can’t keep things together in the church, what in the world hope is there outside of the church?
I think it’s time the church rises up.
Amen.
Amen.
Rises up and pleads the blood of the Lord on marriages and on families.
There is a way to work things out provided both sides want to work that out.
If both sides don’t, if there’s one that doesn’t, I realize that’s a difficulty.
But God is still God.
He can go where we can’t go right into the heart of somebody, right into their spirit and soul and say what we can’t say.
Amen.
We need some intercessory prayer in the church house for families and marriages in the place.
Do I get a witness on that?
How many would commit themselves to do that from now on?
Keep doing, keep doing.
We’re going to commit ourselves.
Every hand should have gone up there.
We want to intercede for families, for marriages, husband and wife relationships.
Now I want to exegete a passage here out of Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22 through 33.
I don’t know exactly how far we’ll get.
Hopefully we’ll get through it.
I’m going to be as exegetically correct as what I can be on this, okay?
And yet there’s a lot of material in here so we sort of have to scoot through.
I want to introduce this by pointing out the context.
Ephesians 5:1-8 deals with how we are to live our life.
To live our life with God is to imitate and be like God.
What I’m doing this for is that Paul is setting this up for Ephesians 5:22.
In Ephesians 5:9-14 he’s dealing with the contrast between our former life and our present life.
Our former life was lived in darkness.
Our present life is lived in light.
We are children of the light then and not darkness.
That’s very significant as we deal with family relationships with husband and wife.
Would you not think so?
Ephesians 5:15-21 then deals with some general admonitions as to how we are to live our life
in a community in the confines of a church.
Our relationships with one another.
A very good passage with which to deal.
And that section ends in verse 21 with this statement.
That we are to, all of us, are to submit and subject ourselves to one another in fear of Christ.
Or in respect of Christ.
From that Paul launches into then in verse 22 what I would refer to as domestic relationships.
I want to deal just a little bit with that verse 21 before jumping into verse 22.
Where Paul says,
Brethren and sisters, all of us are to subject ourselves to one another.
None of us are higher than anybody else.
Yes, we have different functions.
What we do as humanity is we confuse function with status.
We all have the same status and that status is this.
We have been placed in a right relationship with the judge and with the court.
That’s called righteousness.
You know righteousness is not flawless.
It doesn’t mean flawlessness.
It doesn’t mean holiness.
It doesn’t mean you’re one of the king’s kids and all that kind of stuff.
It just means that the judge, though you are as guilty as sin.
Myself included.
God has pronounced us acquitted.
And he has put us in a right standing with the court.
That’s what righteousness means.
Yes?
We are all that.
Since we are all that there are everything that happens to us should be one.
Everything that happens to us should be worked out.
Now there’s more to it than that.
But basically that’s it.
A right standing before God.
So as people who have a right standing before God.
It’s easy then to submit and subject ourselves to one another out of fear of Christ.
Or respect of Him.
I think it might be wise to deal with that fear of Christ.
What do you think the fear of Christ might mean?
Do you think it is a cowering under the pew?
Or under the seat?
Afraid of Him?
When He comes walking by?
Nope.
That’s not it.
It’s out of respect for who and what He is.
Would you not agree?
Especially it would be a response for the one who loved us.
And took our place on the cross.
And bought us our redemption.
And set us free.
Hallelujah.
Because of what He’s done for us is the point here.
Because of what He’s done for you.
And because of what He has done for me.
And because then we have a right standing with God.
We can well afford to subject and submit ourselves to one another.
Out of respect to the one who gave His life for us.
Hallelujah.
Are you getting the picture?
This is the context.
And the emotion if you will.
Out of which Paul writes to husbands and wives now coming.
So in verse 22 we see Paul is telling the wives.
He addresses them first to subject themselves to their own individual husbands.
Now just prior to jumping into that.
Let me mention a couple of other things.
Relative to background.
Marriage is universally recognized.
Yes?
There’s not a place you can go on the face of the earth where that is not the case.
There are marriages.
Husband and wife.
Man and woman.
In fact in the Republic of the Philippines.
It’s against the law to get a divorce.
You cannot get a divorce in that country.
You have to go out of the country if you’re going to do that.
Marriage in the Bible is regarded as a fulfillment.
Or a maturing.
A coming together of body.
Or a joining together of body.
And a mind.
And a spirit.
Between a man and a woman.
Spirits come together.
Bodies come together.
Our minds come together.
Body, soul, and spirit come together as one.
That is a sacred thing.
That is in the background of marriage.
The Jewish view of women.
I want to cover just in a couple of minutes.
The Jewish view of women.
And a Greek view of women.
And then a Roman view of women very shortly here.
The Jewish view of women was very low.
We need to set this as a contrast and a context.
In fact in the morning prayers.
The men would pray this.
They would thank God.
That they were not born a Gentile.
Nor a slave.
Nor a woman.
Woman was not even considered to be a person.
In and of herself.
But a possession.
She had no legal rights.
She was the possession of her father.
And then the possession of her husband.
Literally so.
Ideally the Jews had a high level of marriage.
But in practicality it didn’t work out that way.
We can read in Deuteronomy 24:1.
The law there.
The law of divorce that Moses wrote.
When a man takes a wife.
He says.
And marries her.
If then she finds no favor in his eyes.
Because he has found some indecency in her.
He writes her a bill of divorce.
And puts it in her hand.
And sends her out of his house.
Key word here of course is indecency.
What in the world.
How is that defined?
In response.
To a question about divorce.
And about the law of Moses.
Jesus recognized a provision of the law of Moses for divorce.
And further stated this.
That Moses did do that.
But it was not originally so.
It’s not part of the original plan.
It’s not part of the plan.
It’s in there because of the hardness of the heart.
Are you with me here?
Could it be that when we have a breakdown in a marital relationship within a church.
That it is because of a hardness of heart on one party or the other.
Or maybe even both.
Would you not agree with that?
That could be that.
We need the spirit to start melting down hearts.
Amen.
Would you agree with me there?
I think that is enough there.
The Jews had that view of women.
In the Greek world it was worse.
And in the Roman world it was worse even than that.
In the Greek world prostitution was normal actually.
In fact Demosthenes.
A philosopher said we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure.
And we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation.
We have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately.
And having a faithful guardian for our household.
Isn’t that some picture of marriage?
That’s the world’s picture by the way.
Women lived a secluded life.
They didn’t have the freedom that we have today.
In fact Xenophon another philosopher said relative to a wife.
That she might see as little as possible.
Hear as little as possible.
And ask for as little as possible.
Now the last one I could understand.
Just kidding.
Companionship and fellowship in marriage was next to impossible in the Greek world really.
Socrates put it like this.
Is there anyone to whom you entrust more serious matters
than to your wife?
And is there anyone to whom you talk less?
Does that hit?
That’s well said isn’t it?
We trust everything to our wives except we don’t talk to them much.
That’s what he’s saying.
We don’t discuss things.
Is that true today?
Could that not be a source of some problems?
Of some tension?
Of this, that and the other?
The Roman world was worse than that.
I don’t even want to fuss with the Roman world.
But the summary is this.
It is against this backdrop.
This cultural context.
That Paul is calling husbands and wives.
And I want to give that clarion call to all of us.
Starting with myself tonight.
Calling us to a new purity.
A new fellowship with one another.
Between husband and wife in our married life.
A higher way.
There should be a higher way in the church.
Would you not agree with me there?
Jesus and Christianity liberated women honestly.
If you would understand history.
It liberated women.
It liberated the wife.
And I want to issue that same call.
We need to focus our prayers in that direction.
And our thoughts and our thinking in that direction.
To help and undergird marriages.
Amen.
Now with our text.
Let wives willingly subject themselves.
To their own husbands as to the Lord.
Paul starts here.
I probably would have started with the men.
And worked my way down.
But I’m working with the text here.
I want to tell you that this is an imperative.
This is a command.
No way around this.
I want to tell you that this is a present tense.
As far as tense is concerned.
It means it starts and it never stops.
It always is continuous.
But the thing that might be a little strange.
Is that is this.
And that is.
A passive voice.
If we have an active voice in a verb.
That means that the subject of the verb.
Namely the wife.
Is going to initiate the action.
If we have a passive voice.
It means that the action.
The action is not really initiated.
By the subject of the verb.
Which is the wife he’s talking to here.
But is an action that happens to the wife.
Do you understand that so far?
And how the question would arise.
Now as to how then.
Could an imperative be a passive voice.
But this word subject appears here.
In verse 21 and verse 22.
And later on in this passage.
And in Colossians.
It appears in several places.
Every one time that it appears.
It’s always a passive voice.
So let me try and explain what it means.
In James chapter 4 and verse 7.
He says subject yourself to the Lord.
To God.
Remember that passage there.
Passive voice there.
And an imperative.
How in the world is it possible to do that?
It’s possible because of this.
When we come in contact with Christ.
And we.
The gospel hits our spirit if you will.
And we realize what God has done for us.
And his son.
What is our response?
Our response is.
Just to sit ourselves down if you will.
And let God do with this.
Whatever he wants.
Are you with me there?
And let him place us where he wants us placed.
Really that’s what that’s talking about in James 4:7.
It means allow God to position us.
Where he wants us positioned in his church.
And in his kingdom.
And I don’t want to talk more about that.
I’ll leave our context here.
If we put that meaning in the context here.
It’s the same thing.
The initiative.
Really the initiative in this verb.
Really lies with the husband.
And not with the wife.
This is not something where the.
A lot of guys would say.
Oh thank God he’s going to preach on this.
I hope she hears this good.
But we’re going to hit everything.
It’s not taking a club.
And beating somebody into subjection.
Is that how Christ does it?
To his church?
Absolutely not.
The initiative is with the husband here.
In other words this.
I remember when Shirley and I were dating.
I was working with Northwest Airlines.
And I arranged passes.
For us to go to California.
And so that we weren’t married.
We weren’t even engaged.
We were dating.
But so that we’d be chaperoned.
I got also tickets for my parents to join us.
And we were visiting a former pastor of ours out there.
I had something in mind.
So a 40,000 feet in the air.
On a Northwest Airlines.
Because I worked for Northwest Airlines.
So I got these passes.
I was sitting.
I made sure my parents were not sitting with us.
But a couple rows back.
And I was talking with Shirley.
I said you know Tuts.
I said we ought to.
We ought to get married.
And that was 40,000 feet in the air.
I want to tell you that she’s been 40,000 feet in the air ever since.
Now the issue is this.
Here’s the point.
Is that.
Gentlemen.
As husbands.
We need to approach our wives.
In such a manner that.
The way that Jesus approaches.
Us.
That when we see him.
And what he has done for us.
Our natural response is.
Yes Lord.
Take us.
You get the picture here.
That is how this is too.
That’s how that passive voice.
Comes in.
It’s the initiative.
Is in the place of the husband.
And not in the place of the wife.
This subjecting.
Is in response.
To an approach.
To the wife.
By the husband.
Are you catching that?
Boy.
You know.
There ought to be a better response.
Than that.
Than this.
This subjecting.
Is in response.
To an approach.
To the wife.
By the husband.
Isn’t that.
Than this.
Maybe we just ought to close this up.
We go out for a hot dog.
Are you all with me?
Yes.
Okay.
That’s what we’re talking about here.
Now it’s a good response.
It’s the natural response.
And this is to be done.
To her own husband.
Not somebody else’s husband.
Or not somebody else.
Above that.
That can happen at times too.
When there’s more submission.
To somebody outside the family.
Or still to a mother.
Or still to a father.
Or to a brother.
Or a sister.
Than what it is.
That’s what we’re talking about here.
That’s what we’re talking about.
That’s what we’re talking about here.
That’s what we’re talking about here.
Or to a brother.
Or a sister.
Than what it is.
To a husband.
Do I get a witness on that?
It’s to her own husband.
That’s the focus here.
Now what does it mean.
To this subjection here.
Well it means to be appointed to a place.
It means an order.
God has a right order in things.
It’s not a matter of somebody being worth more than somebody this.
Or being menial.
It’s a matter of function.
Functionality.
The word subject means to be arranged.
In a special place.
A place of relationship with others.
It also can mean to come underneath the influence of something.
It also refers to being ordained.
Just think of this.
This place that we’re talking about for the wife is ordained.
It’s an ordained place.
That is a serious place.
It means to be arranged in a proper order.
To establish an order.
And it’s actually a military term as well.
That we use.
A general who is the head of the army by the way.
He would place his troops in a certain rank and file.
Position them in a certain way.
So that they could win the campaign.
The battle.
Are you with me?
God has arranged the household and the structure.
Which means house law by the way.
Stewardship.
He has arranged that in such a way that it will be successful.
If we follow that.
Do we get a witness on that?
If we follow that it will work.
It will work.
Will it work flawlessly?
Absolutely not.
Has it worked flawlessly in my life?
Absolutely not.
Has it worked flawlessly in Shirley’s life?
Absolutely yes.
That’s a good touch.
Are you getting the picture here?
To be placed in the right place.
Yes.
You know when God set things in order in Israel.
He put the monarchy, the kingship, not as the head but underneath the priesthood.
It was the spiritual relationship with Him that He was looking for first.
Amen?
God places things in the right order.
Jesus subjected Himself, the same word, to His own parents.
It was in divine order.
And this is to be done as to the Lord.
What do we do?
Do we subject ourselves to the Lord?
Correct every one of us here.
How many here rise up above Jesus?
Every day you get up and say, “I’m going to be better than Him, I’m going to be bigger
than Him.
I’m going to control Him.”
Anybody say that?
That’s a little bit stupid, but that’s what we’re talking about.
We do that as to the Lord.
We subject ourselves one to another out of fear of Christ in respect to the Lord as we
would subject ourselves to God.
That’s what that’s talking about.
It’s a comparative there.
Verse 23, “Because,” he says, “the husband is the head.”
Is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church and is the Savior of
the church.
The key thing here revolves around the meaning of the word “head.”
Notice it doesn’t say, “The husband is the Lord of the wife,” ah, phooey.
He’s not the Lord of the wife, only Jesus is the Lord.
It says He’s the head.
You know?
In every situation where there is a leader, where there needs to be a leader, the leader
is only successful to the degree that the leader is a head and not a tyrant.
It’s a head.
It is the need of any group for a head that causes that group to follow the leader.
A group needs a head.
Are you with me here?
And that head is not a tyrant, it’s not a King Tut or somebody like that, it’s just
a head.
And it says here that the two become one entity here.
Let me read this.
“Because the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church and
the Savior of the body.”
The head, as Jesus has the head, guards the church, does He not?
He provides for the church, does He not?
He guides the church, does He not?
He caresses the church in that sense.
He nurtures the church.
He takes care of every need that that church has, He takes care of it.
In fact, to such a degree He said, “Anything you ask in My name, I will do it.”
He’s talking to the church here.
That is the relationship, husband and wife.
Are you, get the picture here.
The head and the body are not severed.
They are not two things, they are of one body.
The head, if the head is severed from the body.
Neither the head nor the body can live, yes?
How many times in the history of the church have marriages, the head and the body been
severed and disintegrated?
It can’t live anymore, and the devastation it does to the offspring.
Now think of that.
Paul says in Romans that it’s impossible to be severed from the head of the One who loves
us, who is Christ Jesus.
How much more all that to be in the marriages of Christian people.
Do we get a witness on that?
There is nothing that God can’t do to restore.
In fact, God is a God who restores and revives and brings that which is lost back together,
hallelujah, and empowers it and makes it like it was new all over again.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
Our God can do that.
So the head and the body are one.
They are not two, they are one, and we will deal with that in just a minute.
That they are one entity, of which that entity there will be a head, has nothing to do with
qualification of being a head.
Your husband may be a dunderhead, but he’s a head.
Are you with me here?
Oh Lord, have mercy.
You get in the middle of this and you begin to wonder if you should have started.
What do you think, Luke?
Thanks, that’s easy for you to say.
Okay, let’s deal with a couple things here.
Two being one, we’ll deal with that a little more later, but Israel was to be a channel
through whom God would save the world.
Israel rejected that and failed it.
They were a failure.
Sin was found in them too.
They were called through Abraham to be that, but they forsake it.
They weren’t faithful to their calling.
The church actually is called to that.
Now we get to the New Testament church.
Jesus had to come and fulfill Israel’s call.
The New Testament church is to be the vehicle through which God will influence people to
come to Him.
And the church is not faithful to that.
Not either.
We have to have Jesus who is the one who does that, yes?
But the point I want to make is this: Israel, Gentiles, out of two, what did Jesus do?
He made one, of which He is the head, yes?
And it says in Ephesians that He brought peace.
He’s made peace.
What is peace?
Peace is being totally united on the same level.
Same thing.
That brings peace.
I’m going to fuss with that just a little more.
You know we need another hour, but we’ll hurry up here.
Peace is being totally united for God’s purpose.
And we want to fuss with that just a little bit, but God brought peace between Jews and
Gentiles and made one family out of them, of which He is the head.
He is the head.
And in that, the head there became reunited and reconstituted.
In the coming together of Israel and the Gentiles together, Jesus was made the head
of both of them.
Are you getting the picture there?
When we come together as husband and wife, we are reconstituted with a proper head and
a proper body.
Are you getting the picture?
There is an analogy there that is actually deep.
In the fall, husband and wife became separated from each other.
But in the Lord, Jesus is the head.
Husband and wife, neither husband nor wife are without one another.
Are you getting the picture?
In the fall, they became separated.
That’s when enmity came.
That’s when problems really issued out of, correct?
But in Christ, the fulfillment of all of that, I feel I’m doing this poorly, but it comes
together in Christ.
We come together as a renewed one, and we are not alone anymore.
We are placed together.
Are you getting the picture?
Are you getting the picture there?
In Christ, and the headship of Christ is made manifest, Jesus is the head of the church,
and that headship is manifested in the unity of Christ and His church.
Here’s where I’m driving to.
The headship of the home can only be manifested when there is a perfect unity between husband
and wife.
When the unity is not there, the head will not function, and neither will the body function.
Husband won’t function, and the wife won’t function.
Husband will not be ahead, and it can’t survive.
Are you with me here?
It’s that unity together that brings peace.
Peace is a total unity of two people coming together as one.
That brings peace.
So when trouble comes to the marriage, you understand, regardless of from where it comes
or what it is or how it gets there, peace will reign because there is unity in the marriage.
The head is functioning and the body is functioning.
Is that making sense?
In verse 24, he says, “But as the church is willingly submitted to Christ,” and that has
to be for it to function, the church can’t function on its own, “so likewise also let
the wives be submitted to the husbands in everything.”
We’ve already dealt with that.
Verse 25, “Let husbands love the wives.
Christ also loved the church.”
This is an imperative love, an active voice, not a passive voice, an active voice.
That means husbands are the initiators of this love.
As we said before, it’s because of the love that the husband expresses for the wife that
the wife will just melt, like Shirley does.
Oh God, forgive me.
Are you getting the picture there?
That’s what we’re seeing here.
My God have mercy.
What Jesus did for us, gentlemen, in coming as a human being and living and suffering
and dying and being buried and resurrected and ascending and sending the Holy Spirit,
He loved us.
So much He loved us.
God so loved the world, He sent His Son.
That’s the kind of love we’re talking about.
He loved our wives.
God is love.
Out of that love comes peace.
Peace is the platform from which Jesus did everything.
Peace is Jesus being totally united with His Father, husband and wife, totally united for
the cause and the will of God in their life.
That brings peace.
Out of peace comes mercy.
Mercy is a feeling.
It is an emotive word.
Or it feels for the symptoms and for what it sees, like God looked from eternity and
saw humanity trapped in sin and felt something for it.
Out of that comes grace.
Grace is an action.
Mercy deals with the disease.
Grace deals with the, I mean, mercy deals with the symptom.
Grace deals with the disease.
Now this is how it is in a marriage.
If love is the basis of it, if husbands, if we love our wives.
And our wife has a reaction, reacts to that, responds, there is peace.
We become unified for a purpose.
Out of that peace then there is a natural emotive feeling, one for the other.
Are you with me here?
We take care of one another’s needs and then we feel for one another’s needs and we take
care of them.
That’s to be exemplified, not just in our life, but in the whole world.
With lost humanity.
Are you getting the picture at all?
It is through this way that God will reach the world.
Now this love that we have for our wives is to be a sacrificial love.
It’s interesting how we start out and I think, I’ve got plenty of time to cover this, and
then I lose control of myself and I find myself in a squeeze.
But to be a sacrificial love, what do you mean?
Well Jesus sacrificed himself for the church, did he not?
We are to love our wives as Christ did.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
Let me tell you something.
Love is not a feeling.
Love is not sex.
You can have sex with anybody.
That’s not love.
Love may find expression that way, but that’s not really love.
Love is a decision, it’s a determination.
God decided to love you and it doesn’t matter what you do, He loves you.
You can read through the book of Hosea, by the way.
God said, “Hey, you see that hooker over there?
Go marry her.
I want to show you what love is all, what love and restoration is all about.”
That’s another one to preach sometime, maybe we will.
It’s a sacrificial love.
Jesus for God so loved the world that He sent His Son sacrificially.
Jesus came, sacrificed His life.
He didn’t, they didn’t take His life, He gave His life for us.
And that is the kind of love we are to have for our wives.
A sacrificial love.
That doesn’t mean that we’re to look for a way to die, to have somebody thrust us through.
We don’t go around looking for that.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t.
But it means we go around looking for ways to express that love though, that may be her
needs over my needs.
Oh, that’s tough.
I wanted to go golfing.
I got a motor grass, or whatever that is.
Okay, are you getting the picture here at all?
Christ did not do things by threats or causing fear.
He did it through love, and that’s how we have to do it, love, love, love.
Now, He did not love the church sacrificially so that the church would do things for Him.
That He loved the church so He could do things for the church.
You got the picture there?
I want you to hear that again.
Jesus sacrificially loved the church, not so the church would do things for Him.
We need to get out of that mode, but so that He could do things for the church, hallelujah.
He decided to love us so He could bestow upon us Himself, and everything that He is,
hallelujah.
We need husbands to love our wives in that way.
Thank you.
Sister, I’ll do this.
I’m getting excited too.
This is good.
Okay, He loved the church sacrificially.
He sanctified it.
When He gave Himself for the church on the cross, that sanctified the church is what
He’s saying here.
When we give ourselves, we give ourselves to wives, we sanctify them, means we separate
them from everything else.
Everything else unto ourself.
You get that?
You get that?
You get how this is?
So He could present the church without spot, without depravity, and without wrinkle.
Wrinkle means to be pruned up, without that.
It has to be also a purifying love we see here too, which says Christ cleansed and consecrated
the church.
We’re talking about baptism and identity.
All of that.
Let me tell you this.
Any love that drags down another person is not love.
Any love that makes one rougher rather than refined is not love.
Any love that utilizes deceit and lies is not love.
Any love that weakens the moral fiber in a person or in a relationship is not love.
Any love that overlords and puts down, whether mentally or emotionally or any other way,
is not love.
It’s from the devil, it’s not God.
Real love is a great purifier of life.
And the initiative comes from the one who loves.
And the response comes from the one who is loved.
The onus is on the one who loves.
So also husbands ought also to love, let me translate it this way, this is really how
it’s said and there’s a good reason for it.
To love the of themselves wives as the of themselves body.
The of themselves means this.
We could say their own wives or their wives, but it doesn’t, it leaves this out.
It is the of themselves wives.
Are you getting it?
What it does is put them together with their wife as one.
Are you getting it here?
If we say love their wives, it’s like a possession.
It’s not translated wrong.
It’s like a possession, it’s not that.
This puts the relationship there very tight.
The Greek text is really beautiful.
You all need to learn Greek.
Now he’s gone too far.
It ought to love the of themselves wives.
There is a unity there that can’t be broken is what’s happening here.
Now the word ought is a debt.
The fact that we are husbands produces a debt on us to love our wives.
We owe that to them.
It is an ought.
It is a debt.
It is an outright obligation by what is right and what is fitting to do.
Therefore it is necessary and that comes out of the bond of marriage, out of the relationship.
We are bound to love our wives.
We cut a decision on that the day we committed ourselves in marriage.
Are you with me here?
There’s no choice.
You already done made the decision.
Are we men of our word?
Well we get what we can get.
Real love does not demand service.
A man loves his wife as his own body.
Real love cherishes the one that loves.
It means to promote the health and the strength.
To educate really is what it means and provide for and even pamper is a word there.
Sustenance.
Spiritual vision and maintenance of the relationship to impart warmth.
Pay attention to, to minister to, to pull things around to make it better.
Is all this making sense to you?
And then for this reason and if our musicians would come back and prepare to play whatever
it is they are ready.
For this reason or cause then a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined
to his wife.
The two shall become one.
I don’t have time really to explain all this.
And it kind of is a pity but it’s okay.
This is to be an unbreakable love.
This love is never to stop.
It always goes on.
You know love never dies?
Even though a partner dies a love doesn’t die.
Love is powerful.
God is love.
Love will die when God dies.
You may not love them as wife or husband in the future to come.
That’s not the issue.
But love will never die.
For love to die means God has to die first.
So love is not going to die.
It’s an unbreakable love.
It is because of this love that a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife,
be joined to his wife.
And that means that word, that preposition join is like this, inextricably bound together.
And Paul emphatically uses that.
Not only does he make a compound with the preposition and the root, he uses the preposition
again besides it.
We’re stuck together honey, and that’s it.
The word is there.
We’re bound together.
Hallelujah.
It’s unbreakable.
He says they become one.
He says that this is a mystery, meaning the whole relationship is in the Lord by the way.
Bound together in the Lord, a great mystery.
He’s speaking of the church, Christ and the church, as being a great mystery here.
How two can become one is a mystery.
And I was going to talk a little bit about the Godhead here because we, our marriages
reflect the unity of relationship in the Godhead.
And that Godhead is inextricably bound together for eternity and nothing can break it up.
You know, God the Father and God the Son, both of them are personalities.
God brings His personality, the Son brings His personality into the relationship.
They don’t cease being a personality, but they become one and they’re bonded together
by the Holy Spirit.
He’s the seal of promise, the Spirit of love.
He binds them together.
That’s why Jesus said, “A sin against the Father,” over here, that’s forgivable because
it’s a sin against the personality of the Father.
A sin against the Son, the personality of the Son is forgivable, but a sin against the
Spirit who is the power and the force that binds that unity of relationship together,
that’s not forgivable.
That’s why in our marriage ceremonies we say, we pronounce you husband and wife, what God
put asunder, what?
What God has put together, what God has put together, let no man put this unity asunder.
God have mercy on the person who breaks up a marriage, that’s it.
Every divorce, I believe this, every divorce is a shot at God.
I think the devil has deceived himself.
If he can divide families, marriages, and to get in there and divide that cohesive force,
then eventually he can get in there and divide that cohesive force in the Godhead, which
he can’t, of course, but do you see the analogy there?
That’s why the attack is on the family.
You know, when a person can’t get to the person they want, who do they attack?
Family.
Are you with me here?
We need to come together as family.
Amen?
This is a good place here.
I like this place.
Do you agree with me?
Yes.
God is doing something in this place.
The best is yet ahead, man.
I’m telling you, I can just feel it.
I just know it.
I can sense it.
Boy, I feel good.
But it’s time to go.
Let’s stand together.
We’ll let the critters play up here.
How many know a marriage, of a marriage that might be in trouble?
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise your hand.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise your hand.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise your hand.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise your hand.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise your hand.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise your hand.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise both hands.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise both hands.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise both hands.
It’s not yours, or if it is yours, you can raise both hands.
Okay.
Hey, let’s unite ourselves around these things.
God is not that far removed.
God is not that far removed.
Yes?
Do you believe with me, He can touch them?
Yes?
Do you believe with me, He can touch them?
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.
Let’s pray.
Father, I pray that you would bless me with your love and your love for me.