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Voddie Baucham - Berean Bible Church Family Conference Morning Session · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: We're going to go ahead and get started. The way
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the morning is going to work is that Pastor Vody
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: is going to do both sessions. He said we'll take
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: a break in the middle and and just see how
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: that goes. But glad you're all here. Let's open a
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: word of prayer and then we'll have we'll have our
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  Speaker 2: speaker come.
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  Speaker 1: Let's pray.
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  Speaker 2: Father in heaven, we love you and we love our
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  Speaker 2: families and we love your word as we come together
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  Speaker 2: now at the nexus of all these things that we love.
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  Speaker 2: We pray that your spirit would work through your word,
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  Speaker 2: that the word of God would challenge us, would change us,
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  Speaker 2: that your spirit would illuminate what is proclaimed In all
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  Speaker 2: of this, we pray that your excellence would be made
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  Speaker 2: known in our hearts, that we might then proclaim that
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  Speaker 2: excellence to our families, and our families might proclaim that
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  Speaker 2: excellence everywhere. I pray that you would bless our speaker
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  Speaker 2: this morning. We pray for clarity in his words and
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  Speaker 2: clarity in our minds.
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  Speaker 1: And we ask that you would be honored with all
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  Speaker 1: that we do.
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  Speaker 2: In Jesus' name we pray.
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  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I had read Vody's bio. It's the same bio.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: That you all read.
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  Speaker 2: And so I'm not going to introduce him with any
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: of his bio stuff because you're actually here to hear him,
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  Speaker 2: which means that you already know who he is.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: So Vody, will you come and preach to us? Good morning. Aloha. Yes.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: It is good to be here. This is what we've
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: been in Hawaii for three weeks. This is our third island.
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  Speaker 1: And we leave actually tomorrow. So, yeah, it's kind of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: bittersweet to be on the last weekend of all of this. Tomorrow,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the whole crew will be here. But this morning. And
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  Speaker 1: we drove over from, what is it? No, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: like Hapuna. Like a little area, yeah. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: these two brave souls came with me this morning to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: drive over like an hour and 40 minutes this way
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  Speaker 1: and then do this and then go an hour and
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  Speaker 1: 40 minutes back and then turn around in the morning
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  Speaker 1: and come an hour and 40 minutes back over here.
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  Speaker 1: so they get extra points. We are actually in the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: process of relocating, repatriating back to the U.S. after right
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  Speaker 1: under a decade in Zambia and Lusaka. So this is
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  Speaker 1: a really good sort of buffer for us. It was
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  Speaker 1: especially a good buffer for us once we got over
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the 12-hour jet lag between Lusaka and here. So to
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  Speaker 1: get here from Lusaka, we go from Lusaka, Zambia, to Doha.
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  Speaker 1: That was a seven-hour flight. A couple-hour layover, and then
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  Speaker 1: from Doha to DFW, 16-hour flight. And then from DFW
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  Speaker 1: to Honolulu, eight-hour flight. Yeah. So... So for the first
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  Speaker 1: few days, we did nothing but just try to be
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: awake when the sun was up, which was enough of
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  Speaker 1: a challenge. But now we're over jet lag. Everything's great.
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  Speaker 1: And we head to Dallas on tomorrow. Spend Christmas with
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  Speaker 1: family there. My wife is from Dallas. And then a
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  Speaker 1: couple of other sort of furlough type visits before we
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  Speaker 1: finally settle where we're going to settle, which I can't
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  Speaker 1: tell you right now. All right. It's a secret. But anyway,
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  Speaker 1: while we're here today, we have the opportunity to talk
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  Speaker 1: about family, marriage, family. And we want to understand marriage
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  Speaker 1: and family. We want to understand it biblically. It's incredibly important.
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  Speaker 1: for us to be able to wrap our heads around
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  Speaker 1: these issues of marriage and family, especially in the day
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  Speaker 1: and age in which we live, because there are battles
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  Speaker 1: on every front as it relates to marriage and the family.
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  Speaker 1: There have been battles on every front for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: but there are more battles and there are new battles.
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  Speaker 1: It seems like there's a new battle every day. And
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  Speaker 1: then there are battles that we aren't even aware of,
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  Speaker 1: that we don't even think about. For example, people think
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  Speaker 1: about the battle of feminism and feminism's war against marriage, right?
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  Speaker 1: That was one battle, yes, for sure. But then we
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  Speaker 1: think about the same-sex marriage battle, the war against the
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  Speaker 1: very definition of marriage, right? The battle with feminism said, yes,
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  Speaker 1: we agree about what marriage is, but that thing that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: we agree about is harmful to women, right? And because
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  Speaker 1: it's harmful to women, we need to get rid of it.
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  Speaker 1: A common misconception is that feminism was all about women
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  Speaker 1: having to step into a vacuum because of what men
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  Speaker 1: weren't doing. No, feminism was a war against biblical manhood. Period,
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  Speaker 1: full stop. It always has been a war against traditional
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  Speaker 1: biblical manhood and marriage. And so feminism, we understand what
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  Speaker 1: marriage is, but marriage is harmful to women, and so
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  Speaker 1: marriage needs to be done away with. The second wave
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  Speaker 1: feminists argued for the elimination of marriage. And then after,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we agree what it is, but we need
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  Speaker 1: to get rid of it. Then it came, we can't
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  Speaker 1: agree about what it is. Same-sex marriage, right? We agreed
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  Speaker 1: that marriage was a covenantal relationship between men and women,
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  Speaker 1: between a man and a woman, between one man and
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  Speaker 1: one woman, right? and then all of a sudden it's like, nope,
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  Speaker 1: we don't even agree about what it is. It can
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  Speaker 1: be two men, it can be two women. The polyamory movement,
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  Speaker 1: which has become more and more popular. There are TV series,
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  Speaker 1: Sister Wives, and these kind of things, in addition to
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  Speaker 1: court cases. Legal scholars were arguing that If we agree
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  Speaker 1: that marriage can be between man-woman, man-man, then why are
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  Speaker 1: we hung up on the numerosity requirement? Why are we
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  Speaker 1: hung up on it has to be one man and
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  Speaker 1: one woman, or why can't it be two men and
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  Speaker 1: a woman, or three women and two men? Why can't
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  Speaker 1: it be that? And so polyamory has now become the
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  Speaker 1: new sort of, avant-garde as it relates to marriage. But
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  Speaker 1: then we move even further. And now we've gone from,
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  Speaker 1: we agree, marriage is between a man and a woman,
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  Speaker 1: but marriage is harmful to women, let's get rid of it,
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  Speaker 1: to marriage can be between two men, it can be
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  Speaker 1: between two women, and then to marriage can be between
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  Speaker 1: any number of men and women, to now What's a
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  Speaker 1: man or a woman? We don't even agree on that, right?
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  Speaker 1: Forget there being only two people in a marriage and
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  Speaker 1: those two people being male or female. We don't even
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  Speaker 1: agree now that there's just two genders, right? To say
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  Speaker 1: that in some places is considered a hate crime. By
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  Speaker 1: the way, I'm not making that up. I'm not making
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  Speaker 1: that up. Try living in the UK. Try living in
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  Speaker 1: Canada and making the argument for exclusively two genders. You'll
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  Speaker 1: have problems. Legal problems, right? So there's what's going on
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  Speaker 1: on that level, and we all see that. But then
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  Speaker 1: there are things that we are not seeing as well.
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  Speaker 1: The things that we are not seeing and not as
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  Speaker 1: aware of are those sort of underlying issues in the
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  Speaker 1: culture that have been festering in the culture while we
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  Speaker 1: were occupied with all the big shiny things. For example,
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  Speaker 1: most young people now have no idea how to go
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  Speaker 1: on a date. Because it's not what young people do.
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  Speaker 1: You don't go on dates, you hook up. And for
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  Speaker 1: young people today, sex is no more formal or consequential
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  Speaker 1: than a handshake. In fact, the whole idea is to
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  Speaker 1: not get emotionally involved with one another at all and
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  Speaker 1: just leave it on the level of the physical. Friends
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  Speaker 1: with benefits is no longer the idea. It used to
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  Speaker 1: be the idea, friends with benefits. But now we recognize
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  Speaker 1: that friendship itself can be too much of an emotional entanglement.
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  Speaker 1: So we just want benefits, no friends. Pornography has become
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  Speaker 1: so incredibly rampant The average age at which young people
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  Speaker 1: are exposed to pornography now is nine. Nine. Because it
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  Speaker 1: used to be that you had to, you know, go
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  Speaker 1: to your uncle's room and find his stash of magazines.
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  Speaker 1: But no, no. Now you just need a device that's
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  Speaker 1: connected to the Internet. And some parents are giving those
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  Speaker 1: to their children now. Eight. Younger. And then there's this exposure.
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  Speaker 1: Young men with this overexposure to pornography have found that
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  Speaker 1: it is difficult for them to engage and associate with
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  Speaker 1: young women. Because of this overexposure. Young women find that
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  Speaker 1: it is difficult for them to engage with young men
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  Speaker 1: because all young men want from them is the fulfillment
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  Speaker 1: of their pornographic fantasies. Young married couples are having tremendous
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  Speaker 1: problems because of this overindulgence in pornography, this overindulgence. normalizing
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  Speaker 1: of pornography. And now we've moved even beyond that, right?
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  Speaker 1: We're constantly pushing the envelope. And now the age of
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  Speaker 1: the sex robot is upon us. That's no longer sci-fi.
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  Speaker 1: It's a real thing. It's a real thing. and expected
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  Speaker 1: to become more and more of a common thing. So
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  Speaker 1: in all of this, now the outliers in society, now the,
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  Speaker 1: to borrow their term, the queer people in society, remember
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  Speaker 1: when queer just used to mean strange, right? Now the
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  Speaker 1: people who are strange, the people that you look at
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  Speaker 1: and you go, really? Are the people who are heterosexual, monogamous, married,
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  Speaker 1: want kids? By the way, that's the other thing. Children
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  Speaker 1: are now the enemy. Children are now the enemy. Having
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  Speaker 1: children is an intrusion. Two things. Having children is an
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  Speaker 1: intrusion until it becomes an achievement. What do I mean
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  Speaker 1: by that? Well, the normal way of thinking about kids
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  Speaker 1: now is we live our lives, we're able to live
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  Speaker 1: our lives without the intrusion of children, we're able to
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  Speaker 1: enjoy our lives without the intrusion of children, and then
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  Speaker 1: later on in life, when... A woman is in her
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  Speaker 1: late 30s or early 40s, and someone actually introduces her
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  Speaker 1: to the idea that a geriatric pregnancy starts at 35.
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  Speaker 1: She's got her career. She's chasing the bag. And now
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, as that window begins to close,
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  Speaker 1: children used to be an intrusion, but now that's one
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  Speaker 1: thing that she hasn't achieved. I've achieved my career goals.
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  Speaker 1: I've achieved my financial goals. But the one thing that
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  Speaker 1: I don't have on my resume is I haven't had
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  Speaker 1: a kid. So I'll do that now so I can
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  Speaker 1: cross it off the list. Not because of the love
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  Speaker 1: of children, but to cross it off the list. So
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  Speaker 1: in all of this, we're trying to be people who
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  Speaker 1: represent this biblical picture of marriage, this biblical picture of
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  Speaker 1: the loving, living relationship between Christ and his bride, the church.
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  Speaker 1: We're trying to be people who cherish and welcome children.
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  Speaker 1: We're trying to raise a generation to swim against all
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  Speaker 1: of these streams that I've just alluded to. And it
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  Speaker 1: is becoming more and more challenging as the days go by.
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  Speaker 1: So no longer can we just assume that reading a
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  Speaker 1: few verses out of the Bible about what marriage is
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  Speaker 1: and about what parenting is, is sufficient in terms of
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  Speaker 1: combating the culture. We have to read those texts and
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  Speaker 1: apply those texts within a context of unparalleled opposition. And
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  Speaker 1: let me say this. If you think that that opposition
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  Speaker 1: is just out there, you're naive and sorely mistaken. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: if you have any connection to the outside world, if
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  Speaker 1: you have social media, if you have a television, if
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  Speaker 1: you go to a school somewhere, if you have any
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  Speaker 1: connection to the outside world, you are being inundated with
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  Speaker 1: and discipled in all of these things that I just shared.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're a person in this room today under 30,
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  Speaker 1: the majority of your discipleship, the majority of it has
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  Speaker 1: been in this context. And if you're honest, you hear
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  Speaker 1: everything from a biblical traditional model of marriage and family
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  Speaker 1: with skepticism. You hear it as dated. And you may
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  Speaker 1: even hear it as oppressive. And if you're raising children children,
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  Speaker 1: and you've got children who are still in your home
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  Speaker 1: or children who have left your home who are in
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  Speaker 1: that sort of millennial range, then this is what's happening.
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  Speaker 1: So if you're wondering why there seems to be this
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  Speaker 1: disconnect between what you believe and these children who were
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  Speaker 1: raised in your home and brought to your church, if
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  Speaker 1: you're seeing this massive disconnect, it's because they have absolutely
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  Speaker 1: been inundated by and discipled by this culture that is
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  Speaker 1: antithetical to biblical truth. So on that positive note, open
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  Speaker 1: your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians. And as
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  Speaker 1: we open to Ephesians, again, we're very familiar with Ephesians,
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  Speaker 1: and we're familiar, for example, with Ephesians 5 and Paul's admonition.
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  Speaker 1: to husbands and to wives. Ephesians 6, Paul's admonition to children.
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  Speaker 1: We're very familiar with that. What is often referred to
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  Speaker 1: as the household codes. It is the most full-orbed expression
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  Speaker 1: of the household codes anywhere in the New Testament. But
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  Speaker 1: what I want to do is, I want you to
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  Speaker 1: see the household codes within the context of Paul's broader
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  Speaker 1: argument and his broader teaching in the book of Ephesians.
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  Speaker 1: So in this first session, I want us to just
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  Speaker 1: get oriented in the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians...
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  Speaker 1: is neatly divided into two halves. And I say uniquely
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  Speaker 1: because what Paul does in the first half of Ephesians
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  Speaker 1: and the second half of Ephesians, he does in other
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  Speaker 1: books as well. But usually, for example, in Romans... there's
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  Speaker 1: a division that comes, but it doesn't come until chapter 12.
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  Speaker 1: But in Ephesians, he divides it right down the middle.
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  Speaker 1: You can see this even if you look at the
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  Speaker 1: end of Ephesians chapter 3. Look at Ephesians 3, 21.
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  Speaker 1: To him be glory in the church and in Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Now, that's
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  Speaker 1: a doxology, right? Doxos, praise, right? So that's a doxology.
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  Speaker 1: A doxology followed by an amen. If you have a
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  Speaker 1: doxology followed by an amen, what just happened? You just finished, right?
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  Speaker 1: You just finished something. And in case that wasn't enough,
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  Speaker 1: chapter 4, verse 1 begins with, I Therefore. And if
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  Speaker 1: you're saying I, therefore, you just what? You just started something, right?
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  Speaker 1: So 321, I just finished something. 4-1, I just started something.
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  Speaker 1: So there's a clear division here. Look with me, if
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  Speaker 1: you will. Uh-oh. Look with me in Romans 12. Or
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  Speaker 1: look at 11. Look at 11.36. For from him and
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  Speaker 1: through him and to him are all things. To him
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  Speaker 1: be glory forever. Amen. What is that? It's doxology and
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  Speaker 1: an amen, which means you just finished something, okay? He's
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  Speaker 1: doing something in the first 11 chapters of Romans that
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  Speaker 1: he finished right there. Now, Romans 12.1, I appeal to you, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: exact same pattern, right? Exact same pattern. The unique thing
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  Speaker 1: in Ephesians is that it happens right in the middle,
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  Speaker 1: divided right in half. In the first half, Paul is
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  Speaker 1: dealing with orthodoxy. He's dealing with our calling in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: He's dealing with indicatives, and he's dealing with right believing.
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  Speaker 1: In the second half, he goes from orthodoxy to orthopraxy, right?
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  Speaker 1: He goes from our calling to our conduct. He goes
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  Speaker 1: from indicatives to imperatives. In other words, he goes from
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  Speaker 1: right believing to right behaving. It's important to see this division.
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  Speaker 1: If I were to put it in a statement, it
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  Speaker 1: would be this. In the first half, Paul gives us
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  Speaker 1: a proper understanding of what Christ accomplished on our behalf
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  Speaker 1: to the Father's glory through the cross. That's what he's
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  Speaker 1: trying to give us in the first half of Ephesians.
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  Speaker 1: What Christ accomplished on our behalf to the Father's glory
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  Speaker 1: through the cross. What is he giving us in the
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  Speaker 1: second half? Proper living in light of and as a
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  Speaker 1: direct result of Christ's active and passive obedience. Proper living
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  Speaker 1: in light of and as a direct result of Christ's
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  Speaker 1: active and passive obedience. Now, when I say active and
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  Speaker 1: passive obedience, this is important theological ideas, theological concepts. Most
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  Speaker 1: of the time when we think of Christ's obedience, we
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  Speaker 1: think of his passive obedience. Christ's passive obedience is his
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  Speaker 1: suffering and death on the cross. It's what happens to him, right?
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  Speaker 1: He humbled himself. And he became obedient. Passively. By experiencing
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  Speaker 1: death on behalf of sinners. That's Christ's passive obedience. In
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  Speaker 1: his passive obedience, he pays the price that we could
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  Speaker 1: not pay and accepts the penalty that we could not endure.
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  Speaker 1: In his passive obedience, our sinfulness is imputed to him.
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  Speaker 1: Our sinfulness is punished in him on the cross in
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  Speaker 1: his passive obedience. And this is incredibly important. But it's
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  Speaker 1: only half the picture. There is also Christ's active obedience.
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  Speaker 1: In Christ's active obedience, he keeps the whole law. In
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  Speaker 1: Christ's active obedience, he is not just born righteous, but
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  Speaker 1: he lives an actual righteous life. He is born sinless
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  Speaker 1: because of the virgin birth. This season of the year
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  Speaker 1: we celebrate, we celebrate the virgin birth, not just the
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  Speaker 1: birth of a child, but the birth of the Son
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  Speaker 1: of God, who was born of a virgin. not with
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  Speaker 1: the benefit of a man, but born of the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Why is that important? It's important because it is through
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  Speaker 1: ordinary generation, the union of a man and a woman,
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  Speaker 1: under the federal headship of our first parent, Adam, that
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  Speaker 1: we inherit a sin nature. And every human being who's
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  Speaker 1: born of ordinary generation inherits a sin nature. But there
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  Speaker 1: is a promise that was made In Genesis 3.15, a
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  Speaker 1: promise in the form of a curse to the serpent.
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  Speaker 1: The promise was, I will put enmity between you and
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  Speaker 1: the woman, between your seed and her seed. You will
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  Speaker 1: bruise his heel. He will bruise your head. So the
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  Speaker 1: seed of the woman will crush the head of the snake.
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  Speaker 1: The seed of the woman will reverse the curse. The
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  Speaker 1: seed of the woman will undo what Adam has done.
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  Speaker 1: The problem is that because of the sin of Adam,
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  Speaker 1: everyone who's the seed of the woman and the man
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  Speaker 1: inherits Adam's sin. So if Christ was born from Mary
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  Speaker 1: and Joseph, he would have inherited Adam's sin. You have
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  Speaker 1: to be the seed of the woman in order to
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  Speaker 1: crush the head of the snake, but you can't be
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  Speaker 1: the seed of the woman and a man together. In
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  Speaker 1: order to crush the head of the snake. Because then
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  Speaker 1: the snake is not just going to bruise your heel.
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  Speaker 1: So what has to happen? In the fullness of time.
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  Speaker 1: God sent forth his son. Son of God. Born of
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  Speaker 1: a woman. Born under the law. To redeem those who
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: are under the law. Christ was not born with original sin.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Theological liberals believe. for over 100 years have been trying
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: to argue that the supernatural aspects of the gospel are
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: not essential, among them being the virgin birth. If there
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: is no virgin birth, then there is no active obedience
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: of Christ. Because if there is no virgin birth, Christ
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was born with original sin. And there's nothing he could
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: do to take it away. The virgin birth matters. So
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: virgin birth, he's born without sin. But, Being born without
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: sin is not enough. Need I remind you of Adam?
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Adam had no original sin, but he sinned. and as
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: our federal head we all fell in him. Christ is
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: born without original sin but then in his active obedience
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: he is tempted at every point as we are yet
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: without sin. He lived a perfect sinless life. Why is
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: this important? Well In his passive obedience, our sin is
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: imputed to him and he nails it to the tree.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: In his active obedience, his righteousness is imputed to us.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: And we stand before God not just having had our
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: sins paid for, but we stand before God as righteous
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: in Christ. That's the active and passive obedience of Christ.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: And it's because of that that we are enabled and
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: empowered to live holy and righteous lives. This is about
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: not just changing our view of Ephesians, but if we
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: understand this rightly, it transforms our view of Scripture. It changes...
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: terms of our understanding of the difference between what the
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: gospel produces and what the gospel requires the difference between
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: indicatives and imperatives and the centrality of Christ's work on
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the first one with the gospel producing what the gospel
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: requires all the gospel requires is repentance and faith all
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the gospel requires is repentance and faith nothing else Nothing else.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: That makes us uncomfortable. Because, you know, you hear that
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and we want to go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: What about obedience? That's what the gospel produces. The gospel
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: requires repentance and faith. The gospel produces obedience. Why is
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: this important? If we confuse what the gospel requires and
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: what the gospel produces, we'll end up pursuing works righteousness
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and negating the very gospel to which we are attempting
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: to conform. Here's the other problem. If the gospel requires obedience,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: then that means we could obey in and of ourselves
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: apart from the work of Christ. If we could obey...
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: in and of ourselves, apart from the work of Christ.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Christ's penal, substitutionary, atoning death was absolutely unnecessary. Because we
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: could have obeyed. We could have obeyed. No, what the
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: gospel requires is repentance and faith. What the gospel produces
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: is obedience. Indicatives and imperatives. This is really important. An
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: indicative indicates what something is, right? This is just grammar. Indicatives.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: So this is a bottle of water. I'm just indicating
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: what it is. An imperative, drink the water. An imperative,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: just like it sounds, it's telling you something to do, right? Right?
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: We have to understand the difference between indicatives and imperatives.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: And oftentimes what we do is we take indicative parts
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: of scripture and turn them into imperatives. So we take
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: something that God is saying we are and have because
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: of who Christ is, and we turn it into a
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: command for us to achieve in and of ourselves, which
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: goes back to what? Confusing what the gospel produces and
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: what the gospel requires. Okay? The indicatives and imperatives are
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: inexorably linked in Scripture. We can only achieve the imperatives
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: because of the indicatives. Because of what God has done.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Because of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf to
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the Father's glory through the cross. It is only because
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: of that that we can actually achieve the imperatives. Which
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: is why You know, we can run to Ephesians chapter 5,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and we can tell people, you know, husbands, you need
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: to do this, and wives, you need to do that.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: You know, go. But if that's not rooted in the indicatives,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: if we're talking to people who are not Christians, the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: most we can get is... a shadow, approximation of what
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: was intended in those things. Better than not attempting those things.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: But all we can get is a shadow, an approximation.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: There has to be the empowering of the indicatives. And
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: so in order to understand these things fully, we have
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: to understand the indicatives. That is why In the first
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: half of the book of Ephesians, there are no imperatives.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: First three chapters of the book of Ephesians, you're not
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: told to do a single solitary thing. Nothing. No imperatives
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: in the first half. We only find imperatives in the
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: second half. But we don't find just imperatives in the
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: second half. In the second half, we find indicatives and
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: imperatives together. Now, if all we find in the first
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: half is indicatives, and in the second half we find
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: indicatives and imperatives together, what's more important? Indicatives or imperatives? Indicatives.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: The indicatives. Right? The indicatives. And we have to keep
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: them in mind when we get to the imperatives. A
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: couple of places. One place I like to go to
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: that's the difference here, the distinction, and how you have
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to hold these things together, is in Philippians, Philippians 2.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Very familiar, right? A couple of verses of Scripture, Philippians 2,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: 12 and 13. Philippians 2, 12. Therefore, my beloved, as
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: my presence, but much more in my absence, work out
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: your own salvation with fear and trembling. There's an imperative.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: And it's a scary one, right? It's so scary it
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: actually has fear and trembling in it, right? That's scary.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But the
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: imperatives are always rooted in indicatives. And here, the indicative
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: is the next verse. For. For. It is God who
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: works in you both to will and to work for
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: his good pleasure. There's the indicative. This is the work
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: of God in you that enables the imperative. Anyway, we'll
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: see that. But for now, what I want us to
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: see is some of the key indicatives. Go to Ephesians
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: chapter 1, beginning in verse 3. We're going to look
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: at verses 3 through 10. And what I want you
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: to do is, if you have a paper Bible and
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: something to write with. If you're one of those people
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: who doesn't like to make marks in your Bible, it's
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: another discussion for another day. But if you have a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: paper Bible and something to write with, this works really well.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Use a pencil if you want to erase it later,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: but trust me, you won't want to erase it later.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: If you have an electronic version, figure out how you
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: can do two different color highlights, okay? Because we're going
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: to read through this. We're going to read through this
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: a couple of times. Ephesians 3, Ephesians 1, I'm sorry,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: verses 3 through 10. Key indicatives here. This is Paul
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: laying out his theological framework for everything that's getting ready
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: to come. Blessed be the God and Father of our
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ, by
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the way, You want to underline who has blessed us
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Even as he chose us. So he blessed us, he
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: That we should be holy and blessed. before him. In love,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: he predestined us. So he blessed us, he chose us,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: according to the purpose of his will, to the praise
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: of his glorious grace with which He has blessed us
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: in the beloved. There's that blessing again. In him we
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: upon us. Okay? Blessed us, predestined us, lavished upon us,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: underline that one, in all wisdom and insight, making known
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: to us, he made known to us, the mystery of
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to unite all things in him, things in heaven and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: things on earth. So you got all these things underlined?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: What did you underline? Let me hear the phrases. What's
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: the first one? Second one? Third one? Fourth one? What's that? Yep,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: it's stolen us. The fifth one? Huh? Lavished upon us.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Sixth one? Yeah. Okay. Let's look at that again. This time,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: first time you underline, this time I want you to circle. Ready?
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: who blessed us in Christ, circle in Christ, with every
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: us in him, circle in him, before the foundation of
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, circle through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: with which he blessed us in the beloved. Circle, in
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: the beloved. In him. Circle, in him. We have redemption.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Through his blood. Circle, through his blood. The forgiveness of
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: known to us the mystery of his will, according to
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: the purpose which he set forth In Christ. You want
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: to circle in Christ. As a plan for the fullness
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: of time to unite all things in him. You want
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: to circle in him. Things in heaven. Things on earth.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: In him. In Christ. In him. In him. In him.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Through him. So there are those six things that God
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: has done. And how has he done those six things?
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: In Christ, through Christ, right? That's his whole point. That's
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: his whole point here. He's laying his theological framework for
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: the way that we read the book of Ephesians. But
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: this is not just exclusive to Ephesians. We already looked
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: at the end of Romans 11, verse 36. For from
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: him and through him and to him are all things.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: To him be glory forevermore. Amen. Well, there's another thing
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that we need to see in order to understand and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: have our framework in reading and appreciating the book of Ephesians.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: And this is the chapter endings. The chapter endings. Took
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: me a long time to see these. I kind of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: backed into these. But once I did, it was incredibly
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: helpful in terms of understanding the letter as a whole.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: The chapter endings, the way these first three chapters end.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: And you'll see later on the way these things apply.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: It'll make all the sense in the world. But look
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: at the end of chapter one. The end of chapter one.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Verses 22 and 23. And he put all things under
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: his feet and gave him as head over all things
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: to the church, which is his body. The fullness of
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: him who fills all in all. So the first key
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: here is Christ's headship over his church. Christ's headship over
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: his church. Or Christ's headship over his body, rather. Christ's
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: headship over his body. So just jot that down somewhere
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: and hold on to it. It's going to be incredibly
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: meaningful as we continue to read through the book of
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Ephesians and as we get into the imperative side of this. Remember,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: this is about Christ's headship over his body. Can we
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: say that one together? Christ's headship over his body. Good. Now,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: go to the end of chapter 2, beginning at verse 19.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what alerted me to this. We'll
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: look at it more later. But what really alerted me
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: to this was basically, you know, teaching on this book and,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: you know, you get to Ephesians 5 and it's obvious
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: that the picture of marriage there is a picture of
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the relationship between Christ and his church. And where do
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: we start? We start with Christ's headship over his body.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: The wife's submission to her husband is about what? Christ's
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: headship over his body. That's emphasized in the first chapter.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: And the first chapter comes to a crescendo. And at
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: that crescendo, we see Christ's headship over his body. Well,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: what happens at the end of the second chapter? Verse
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: beginning at 19. So then you are no longer strangers
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: and members of the household of God built on the
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: you also are being built together into a dwelling place
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: for God by the Spirit. The second one is unity
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: in Christ's body. Unity in Christ's body. Can we say
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: that one together? Unity in Christ's body. The first one
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: is Christ's headship over his body. The second one is
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: unity in Christ's body. And again, if you think about
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter 5 and the instruction to wives and then
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the instruction to husbands. The instruction to husbands is rooted
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: in this idea of unity in Christ's body. And thirdly,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: The end of chapter three. By the way, since we're
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: only doing these two sessions, let me do something really quickly.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Let me do something really quickly. Go with me to
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: chapter four. Whoa, what just happened? Okay, sorry. Go with
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: me to chapter four. And I want to show you
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: how this works in terms of the way we read
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: the text. Chapter four and go to Verse 29. Chapter
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: 4 is an amazing, you know, beginning of verse 24,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: an amazing passage in terms of interpersonal relationships. So we'll
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: just start at verse 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: for we are members of one another. Be angry and
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: do not sin. Do not let the sun go down
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: in your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil. Let
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: doing honest work with his own hands so that he
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: may have something to share with anyone in need. And
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: we could walk through how each of these goes back
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: to those chief indicatives, but I want to show you
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: specifically this next one. Let no corrupting talk come out
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: of your mouths, but only such as is good for
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the day of redemption. Now, verse 30, do not grieve
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit of God. I have heard So many
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: explanations of verse 30. So many uses of, you know,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: grieving the spirit. Do not grieve the spirit, you know.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: You have a baby in church who's making noise, right?
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: There are people who don't want babies in church because
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: that may grieve the spirit, right? If you have cell phones,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: turn off your cell phones, turn off your ringers because
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: we don't want to grieve the spirit right and all
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: these things that we don't know because we don't want
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: to grieve the spirit so the idea that we have
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: is the holy spirit is here but the holy spirit
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: is really timid and so the holy spirit is here
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: and he wants to do his work but if something
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: out of the ordinary happens you know he's here and
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: he's like i'm about to bless ah baby cried you
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: know Or he's here and he's like, boy, I'm about
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: to pour myself out on, man, I'm gone. Phone rang.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: I'm out of here. Right? And so these are things
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: that people use in terms of grieving the spirit. And
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: there's some other like crazy things that people refer to
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: as well in terms of grieving the spirit. But look
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: at this again. Let no corrupting talk come out of
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: your mouths. Um, By the way, the word there for
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: corrupting is a word for corrosion, almost like acid. Like
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: acid would corrode a metal, right? Don't let words come
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: out of your mouth that are corrosive to other people
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: like acid, right? That would tear them down, right? But
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: only such as is good for building up. Only let
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: words come out of your mouth that are good for
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: the day of redemption. Whoa. Have we read something or
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: heard something about the Holy Spirit earlier in this letter? Right? Context, context, context.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Paul's writing this, right? So, Earlier on in chapter 2,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: he says, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: but fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: of God. By the way, when he says, speaking the
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: truth to one another, why? Because we're members of one another, right?
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: He's going back here, unity in Christ's body. Members of
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: the household of God, built on the foundation of the
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: apostles and prophets, So this is construction language. There's building
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: happening here, right? There's building happening here. Don't let corrosive
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: talk come out of your mouth, corrosive talk, tear down
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the building. But instead, what kind of words? Words that
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: build up. So there's building happening here. Christ Jesus himself
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: being the cornerstone, cornerstone of a building, in whom the
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: in the Lord. There's what the building is. The building
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: is a holy temple in the Lord. In him you
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: also are being built together into a dwelling place for
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: God by whom? Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: building individual members of the body together into a holy
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: temple and a dwelling place. That's the work that the
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is doing. And then Paul says, don't use
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: corrosive words that tear down Instead, use words that build up. Otherwise,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: you'll grieve the Spirit. How are you grieving the Spirit?
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: He's building up. You're tearing down. You see how that works?
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: You just let Scripture interpret Scripture. Otherwise, we get off
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: into all these fantastical, ridiculous things. And beyond that, we
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: miss an incredibly powerful point. Right? The way that we
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: interact with each other ought to be rooted and grounded
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: in the indicative of us belonging to one another and
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: being built together into a holy temple for Christ to
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: dwell in. Right? You see how that works? All right.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: So that's the second one, unity in Christ's body. Now
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: on to the third one. Chapter 3, verses 20 and 21.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: This is our doxology. Now to him who is able
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: or think, according to the power at work within us,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: to him be glory in the church and in Christ
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. So we have
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: Christ's headship over his body. We have unity in Christ's body.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: And now we have the glory that the body gives
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: to its head. Those are the chapter endings, right? So
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: start off in chapter one with this theological framework. These
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: master indicatives, if you will, of what God is doing.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Each chapter ends with a crescendo. And at that crescendo,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: he points to another indicative, really to the purpose, the
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: driving purpose of these indicatives. Christ's headship over his body,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: unity in Christ's body, and the glory that the body
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: gives to its head. Now, when we get to chapter four,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: those things that we looked at, for example, we could
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: look at those as precepts Pure indicatives. There'll be a
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: couple of problems with that. One problem is they have
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: indicatives and imperatives mixed up together. But we can look
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: at that and we can say what we need to
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: do as Christians is just work hard to tell the truth.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Work hard to not steal. Work hard to not... Or
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: we can go back to those indicatives and see how
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: the indicatives fit in with the imperatives. And what we
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: see then is an ethic of interpersonal relationships rooted and
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: grounded in Christ's headship over his body, unity in Christ's body,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: and the glory that the body brings to his head.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Completely different. Then go to five. We're just going to
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: do a quick reading here. Wives, submit to your own husbands.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: Ask to the Lord. For the husband is the head
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: his body, and himself his Savior. Now as the church
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: to their husbands. What is that? Christ's headship over his body.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Christ's headship over his body. Husbands, love your wives as
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her, that
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: of water with the word, so that he might present
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: or any such thing that she might be holy and
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: without blemish. There's the glory that the body brings to
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: its head. In the same way, husbands should love their
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: church because we are members of his body. What's that?
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Unity in Christ's body. I mean, this is not a reach.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: This is not a stretch, right? This is not like,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: you know, if you just twist this up here a
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: little bit and twist that a bit. No, this is
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: like straightforward. This is not calculus. It's arithmetic, right? It's there.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: It's there and it's absolutely crystal clear if we just
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: let the text speak as a whole. Okay? All right.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: Let's look at a couple of things here and then
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: we'll take our break. We saw in Chapter 1, those
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: kind of general indicatives, right? The indicatives that lay the
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: foundation for all the indicatives of the first half. They
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: give us the theological foundation. for understanding what he's communicating. Well,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: in chapter 4, we have kind of the general imperative.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: The imperatives that sort of lay a foundation for all
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: the imperatives that are to come in the letter. Look
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: at chapter 4, beginning of verse 1. I, therefore, a
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: spirit and the bond of peace. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: by the mercies of God. I'm sorry. This is a
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: parallel passage I want to share with you in 12.1.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: Remember we looked at the end of Romans 11, right,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: and how we had the similar ending to Ephesians 3?
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: In Romans 12, we have a similar beginning to the
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: beginning of Romans 4. So in Romans 12, 1, I
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Go back
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: to Ephesians and look again. at chapter 4 and verse 3.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: And remember, we're talking about imperatives here. First half of
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: the book, we got all of these indicatives, right? And
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: the second half, we get imperatives. And he's just given
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: us these imperatives about living together in unity, right? Living
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: in a manner worthy of the calling that we have
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: in Christ. But look at verses 3 through 6. There
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: is one body, one spirit, just as you were called
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: who is over all and through all and in all.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: But grace was given to each one of us according
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: he ascended on high, he led a host of captives
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: and he gave gifts to men. And saying he or
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: saying he ascended what does it mean but that he
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: also descended into the lower regions the earth he who
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: descended is the one who also ascended far above all
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: the heavens that he might fill all things that he
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: might fill all things that's the goal here that Christ
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: might fill all things his headship over his body, unity
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: in his body, and the glory that the body brings
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: to its head. By the way, this is not new.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: Even in this letter, chapter 1, 22 and 23, he
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: put all things under his feet, gave him as head
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: over all things to the church, which is his body,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: the fullness of him who fills all in all. If
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: he's intended to be the head of all things, most assuredly,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: He's intended to be the head of his body, the church.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: And when we look at marriage, what are we seeing
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: a picture of? That same thing, Christ's headship over his
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: church and the husband's headship in the marriage. Look at
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: the beginning of verses 11. He gave the apostles, the prophets, evangelists,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: work of ministry, for the building up of the body
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: of Christ. until we all attain to the unity of
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: to the measure of manhood, to the measure of the
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: no longer be children tossed to and fro by the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: truth in love. Since we put away falsehood, let every
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: man speak the truth of his neighbor, right? Rather, speaking
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: the truth in love, we are to grow up in
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: from whom the whole body joined and held together by
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: every joint with which it is equipped. When each part
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: is working properly, makes the body grow so that it
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: builds itself up in love. What's amazing about this is
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: when you go to 425 and you look at those
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: imperatives in terms of the interpersonal relationship, it mirrors this
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: passage here, which is all about unity in the body,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: us belonging to each other and building each other up
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: in Christ. If we disconnect these things, We turn it
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: into sheer law. If we disconnect these things, we present
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: a picture of Christianity that is just moralism and legalism, rules-based.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: But when we put these things together, and when Christ
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: and his work are at the center of them, it
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: changes the whole tenor. I mean, it changes everything. This
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: is about unity. Unity. Unity. Okay. We have to look
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: at these last ones. This moves us into the put
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: on and put off segment. Beginning of verse 17. We'll Oh,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: come on. Now this I say in testifying to the Lord,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: There is an imperative, right? You must no longer walk
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: as the Gentiles do. Stop living like that. That's the imperative.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Stop living like that. In the futility of their minds.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: What's so amazing about this passage is is that when
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: we get into this whole put off, put on, this
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: whole don't live like that anymore, what you and I
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: would expect is, for example, let's say that we had
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: some people who were ex-whatever, right? You name the sin, right?
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: There were ex-drug abusers. There were, you know, ex... criminals, thieves,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: sexual whatever, just name it. You just fill in the blank.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: What we would expect is if those people came into
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: the church and those people said, we don't want to
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: live like that anymore, we would say, don't go here,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: don't do that, don't do that, right? That's kind of
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: the way that we approach it, right? You did some
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: bad stuff. Don't do that. But listen to what Paul
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: says here. This I say and testify in the Lord
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: And what's the difference between the way that you can
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: just substitute sinners, right? What's the difference between those people
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: who are living in sin and us? In the futility
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: of their minds. Your behavior is an outgrowth of your belief.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: They are darkened in their understanding. Alienated from the life
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: of God because of the ignorance that is in them.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: Due to their hardness of heart. And by the way,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: he's not talking about coronary artery disease. Right? Notice this.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: Minds Understanding, ignorance, that's all here. That's all here, right?
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: It's ironic that we always talk about, you know, you
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: miss having about 12 inches, the difference between your head
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: and your heart, right? Paul's going, nope, it's all here.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: By the way, your heart knows nothing. Your heart feels nothing.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: I got a big old scar up here. I had
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: mine operated on. They opened up my chest, stopped it.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: Crazy to think about, right? Stopped it, fixed it, right?
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: It's just a muscle in the center of your chest
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: that pumps blood. It feels nothing. It knows nothing. It
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: yearns for nothing. It loves nothing. The only feeler, knower, yearner,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: and lover that you have is here. Whenever the Bible
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: talks about the heart, it's using it figuratively. And it
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: uses it figuratively because of how this makes this respond.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: So when this is afraid, here you go, right? Right?
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: When When this encounters the one that it loves, this
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: starts doing stuff, right? This, though, is just responding to this. Okay?
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: Why is this important? Because what Paul's saying here, the
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: difference between the sinner and the saint is not just
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: in outward behavior. It starts here. In case you didn't
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: catch it, he reiterates. They have become callous and have
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: What a choice of words. He doesn't say that's not
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: the way you fell in love with Christ. He doesn't
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: even say that's not the way you met Christ, the
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: way you encountered Christ. He doesn't say that. He said
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: that's not the way you learned Christ. Everything he's using
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: in this whole section is up here. It's up here,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: all of it. Not sheer intellectualism, right? It's not about
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: what you figured out, but it's about belief. Assuming that
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: you have heard about him and were taught in him
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: as truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: To put off your old self. Put off your old self.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: How do you put off your old self? Which belongs
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: deceitful desires. You have to put off your old self.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: There's a number of things that we could say about this.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: But think about it just for example in terms of marriage.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: To people who are about to be married. Put off
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: your old self which belongs to your former manner of life.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: You have a former manner of life. You have to
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: put off. You need to evaluate and examine Your former
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: manner of life. The way you used to live. And
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: what motivated the way you used to live. What drove
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: the way you used to live. And is corrupt through
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: deceitful desires. What are those underlying desires that drove the
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: way you used to live? Put those off. You have
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: to examine those in order to put those off. Put
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: them off. Don't excuse them. I don't know what the
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Hawaiian version is, but it's always amazing how every culture
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: has excuse for certain sins, right? You're angry and you're violent. Well,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: you know I'm a redhead. You know I'm Latino, right?
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: Or you know I'm right. Really? But like, If you
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: listen long enough, every culture has an excuse. I don't
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: know what the Hawaiian version of it is, but I
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: know there's some Hawaiian version of, you know, well, you
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: know this person is short-tempered or this person is, well,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: you know they're, you know, whatever. I'll learn what the
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: Hawaiian version is, right? But in essence, in essence, I'm
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: not responsible for my sinful behaviors and attitudes because, you know,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: it's just my culture. Put off your old self. Don't
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: excuse your old self. Look your old self in the
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: eye and call sin, sin and repent of it and
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: flee to Christ and pursue Christ's headship over his body.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: Pursue unity in Christ's body and pursue the glory that
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: the body brings to its head. And to be renewed
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: in the spirit of of your minds. Again, everything that
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: he's saying here is up here. Because you can't have
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: right behaving without right believing. We live in accordance with
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: what we believe. So when you have wrong behaving, Go
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: to the root of the wrong believing because that's what
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: you need to put off. And that wrong believing has
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: to be replaced with right believing. The indicatives. That's why
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: it starts with the indicatives. This is right believing that
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: will lead you to right behaving. Here are the indicatives.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: Hold on to these. This is what's true about you.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: I don't care how you were raised. This is what's
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: true about you. If you were in Christ, this is
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: what's true about you. Believe this. Hold to this. Cling
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: to this. Put on the new self, created after the
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: All right. Um, we will, we'll take our break there.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: We'll take a break there. But for now, I, what
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: my hope is that in this time that we've spent,
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: and I know this is a lot, right? This is
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: a lot to take in. Um, but I hope that
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: in all this, you've taken in that some of you
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: are already thinking about parts of Ephesians that you are
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: familiar with. Um, that at least have a clearer, more
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: abundant meaning for you, right? More depth of meaning for
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: you than they could possibly have without understanding, appreciating, and
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: bringing to bear the weight of what it is that
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: Paul's doing in this letter. alright let's pray Father thank
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: you for your word and the privilege to spend time
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: in it together pray that these moments that we've shared
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: the truths that have been shared take root and would
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: bear much fruit in our lives we pray this in
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: Christ's name for his sake Amen All right. All right.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: Ten minutes. Ten minutes.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: I forgot that I was given two announcements to make
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: before I came and introduced everything here. And I forgot
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: both announcements. So as per my instructions from Aaron, the
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: bathrooms are behind this hallway back here. So if you
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: need to use the restroom out the side doors and
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: around there for those who aren't from our church.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: Then also we're going to take a love offering.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: We're going to have some receptacles in the back. I
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: think just the plates will be back there. If you
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: want to give, we're going to try and write one
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: check to Bodhi's ministry. So write the check to Berean
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: Bible Church, or if you put cash in there, that
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: will all go into the same check. So we'll leave
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: that back there and give as you feel led.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, 10 minutes, and we'll be back. Thank you for
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: joining us. We are here live 1030 every Sunday morning
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: at Hilo Bereans on YouTube and Facebook.