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Voddie Baucham - Dr. Voddie Baucham Family Conference at Shorebreak Church · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You may be seated, and please give a warm welcome
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Votie Bauckham. Well, good morning. Good morning. It is a
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  Speaker 2: delight to be with you this morning. I apologize for
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: my absence on yesterday. It was a matter of us
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: being mixed up with our Hawaiian geography. We started on
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Oahu and had a couple of events there. And then
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: we went to Kauai. And then after Kauai, we were
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: supposed to come here and have something on the Kona
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: side and then something on the Hilo side. But the
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  Speaker 2: name of this town is not Kona. So we thought
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: we weren't supposed to come here until Sunday. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: somebody alerted us on Thursday, and we were able to
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  Speaker 2: sort of, you know, make some switches and arrangements and
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  Speaker 2: get over here last night eventually. But, yeah, so sorry.
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  Speaker 2: We were supposed to be here last night, but we
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  Speaker 2: made it today. A bit embarrassing because this is not for,
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  Speaker 2: especially for, Bridget and me, it's not our first time
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  Speaker 2: in Hawaii. It's not our first time on the big island.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, it actually happened. All right. If you have
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  Speaker 2: your Bibles with you, open them to the book of Ephesians.
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  Speaker 2: Open them to the book of Ephesians. We have three
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  Speaker 2: sessions today. And we will spend those In the book
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  Speaker 2: of Ephesians, if I had to name this, it would
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  Speaker 2: be the Ephesus Family Conference. The Ephesus Family Conference on
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  Speaker 2: the Big Island. What I want to do in this
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  Speaker 2: first session is really kind of orient us in the
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  Speaker 2: book of Ephesians. I want us to get a picture
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  Speaker 2: of it. When we think about Ephesians, we think about family,
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  Speaker 2: we think about the household codes, we think about chapters
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  Speaker 2: 5 and 6, and it is true that the most
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  Speaker 2: extensive presentation of the household codes is found in Ephesians
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  Speaker 2: 5 and 6. But you have to understand that in
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  Speaker 2: the broader context of the book as a whole. So
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  Speaker 2: what I want to do first is orient us and
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  Speaker 2: then we'll move into some of those practical marriage and
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  Speaker 2: family issues. The book of Ephesians is divided into two halves.
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  Speaker 2: It's divided evenly into two halves. First three chapters and
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  Speaker 2: then the last three chapters. And it's made clear that
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  Speaker 2: there's a division there. If you will open to Ephesians
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  Speaker 2: chapter 3. At the end of chapter 3, you have
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  Speaker 2: a doxology and an amen. To him be glory in
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  Speaker 2: the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever
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  Speaker 2: and ever. Amen. That's the end of something, obviously, right?
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  Speaker 2: When you have a doxology and an amen, you're done,
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  Speaker 2: you're finished, you've stopped. And then for one, I therefore.
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  Speaker 2: So three ends with a doxology and an amen, and
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  Speaker 2: four begins with therefore. So it is a clear break
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  Speaker 2: there between the first three chapters and the last three
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  Speaker 2: chapters in the book of Ephesians. But not only do
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  Speaker 2: we have that clear break But there is also a
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  Speaker 2: thematic and theological break in the book. In the first half,
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  Speaker 2: we see Paul's teaching on orthodoxy. He's establishing the orthodoxy.
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  Speaker 2: He's instructing us in our calling. He's giving us indicatives.
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  Speaker 2: And he's instructing us in right believing. Then we get
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  Speaker 2: to the second half. In the second half, we go
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  Speaker 2: from orthodoxy to orthopraxy. We go from our calling to
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  Speaker 2: our conduct, from indicatives to imperatives, and from right believing
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  Speaker 2: to right behaving. In the first half, if I had
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  Speaker 2: to summarize it, Paul's giving us a proper understanding of
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  Speaker 2: what Christ has accomplished on our behalf to the Father's
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  Speaker 2: glory through the cross. Let me say that again. Paul
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  Speaker 2: is giving us a proper understanding of what Christ accomplished
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  Speaker 2: on our behalf, to the Father's glory through the cross.
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  Speaker 2: In the second half, he's giving us a view of
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  Speaker 2: proper living in light of and as a direct result
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  Speaker 2: of Christ's active and passive obedience. All of those things
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  Speaker 2: are important. Proper living in light of, and this is critical,
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  Speaker 2: because oftentimes we We want to use the Bible as
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  Speaker 2: a rule book or a guidebook. And there are worse
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  Speaker 2: rule books than guidebooks, right? It's the best rule book
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  Speaker 2: and guidebook that you could ever have. If you're going
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  Speaker 2: to choose a rule book and a guidebook, it's great
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  Speaker 2: that you choose the Bible as a rule book and
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  Speaker 2: your guidebook. But if you choose the Bible only as
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  Speaker 2: a rule book and a guidebook, it will be to
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  Speaker 2: your condemnation. It will be to your condemnation. Because the
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  Speaker 2: second half about our conduct is about proper living in
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  Speaker 2: light of and as a direct result of Christ's active
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  Speaker 2: and passive obedience. Not as a substitute for, but as
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  Speaker 2: a result of. What do I mean by active and
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  Speaker 2: passive obedience? Well, they're the two sides of our redemption.
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  Speaker 2: In Christ's active obedience, he keeps the whole law on
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  Speaker 2: our behalf. He is born of a virgin, so he
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  Speaker 2: does not inherit Adam's original sin. So that's why Christmas matters. Amen, somebody. Right?
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  Speaker 2: He's born of a virgin. He does not inherit Adam's sin.
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  Speaker 2: He has no original sin. If Christ is not born
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  Speaker 2: of a virgin, if he's born of ordinary generation, if
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  Speaker 2: he's not born of the Holy Spirit... then he's a
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  Speaker 2: sinner just like you and me. He has a sin
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  Speaker 2: nature just like you and me. And he could never
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  Speaker 2: be our substitute.
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  Speaker 3: Okay?
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  Speaker 2: If he's not born of a woman, he doesn't fulfill
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  Speaker 2: the promise in Genesis 3.15. The promise in Genesis 3.15
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  Speaker 2: is that the seed of the woman would crush the
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  Speaker 2: head of the snake. So he has to be born
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  Speaker 2: of a woman, but he can't be born of ordinary generation.
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  Speaker 2: He must be born of a miraculous virgin birth okay
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  Speaker 2: so he has no original sin but it's not enough
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  Speaker 2: for him to just have no original sin he has
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  Speaker 2: to keep the whole law and he has to keep
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  Speaker 2: the whole law perfectly because you could you know you
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  Speaker 2: could be born without original sin and still sin how
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  Speaker 2: do we know this adam he's born without original sin
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  Speaker 2: and he sins right So Christ is born without original sin,
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  Speaker 2: but he has to keep the whole law. And in
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  Speaker 2: his active obedience to God on our behalf, he keeps
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  Speaker 2: the whole law. And he is completely righteous. Therefore, he
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  Speaker 2: can impute to us his righteousness, actual righteousness. In his
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  Speaker 2: passive obedience, he takes upon himself our sin. In his
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  Speaker 2: vicarious obedience, Penal, substitutionary, atoning death on the cross. Okay? Folks,
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  Speaker 2: theology matters. Amen? Theology matters. All of this is theology,
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  Speaker 2: and all of this matters. And there are a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people who are all messed up because they want
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  Speaker 2: Jesus without theology, and then they get Jesus who's theologically incorrect.
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  Speaker 2: For example, there are people who want Jesus, but they
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  Speaker 2: don't want virgin birth. If you get Jesus without virgin birth,
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  Speaker 2: you get a sinful Jesus.
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  Speaker 3: Right?
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  Speaker 2: They want Jesus without penal substitutionary atonement. If you don't
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  Speaker 2: have penal substitutionary atonement, if you're offended by that, if
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  Speaker 2: you're offended by the wrath of God being poured out
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  Speaker 2: on his son in order to redeem sinners, then you
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  Speaker 2: don't get salvation because God must be, as Paul says
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  Speaker 2: in Romans 3, both just and the justifier of the
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  Speaker 2: one who places faith in Jesus. The only way he
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  Speaker 2: can be just is if he pours his wrath out
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  Speaker 2: on sin. The only way he can be a justifier
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  Speaker 2: is if that pouring out of his wrath is a vicarious, penal, substitutionary,
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  Speaker 2: atoning death of one who has no sin of their
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  Speaker 2: own to pay for and who can thereby pay for
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  Speaker 2: the sins of others. That's what separates Christianity from every
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  Speaker 2: other religion in the world Every other religion in the
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  Speaker 2: world can be really boiled down to a really simple statement, right?
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  Speaker 2: You need to have a religious experience. And then from
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  Speaker 2: that moment on, you need to do more good stuff
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  Speaker 2: than bad stuff and hope for the best when you die.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. And oversimplification, not by much. That's every other
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  Speaker 2: religion in the world. And they all have the same problem.
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  Speaker 2: Problem number one, you can't be good. Amen, somebody. You
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  Speaker 2: can't be good. And if you think you can be good,
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  Speaker 2: then you're proud and that's not being good. Problem number two,
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  Speaker 2: no other religion in the world has an answer for
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  Speaker 2: the stuff you did before your religious experience. No other
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  Speaker 2: religion in the world. So even if somehow You can
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  Speaker 2: keep up with the bad and the good for the
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  Speaker 2: rest of your life after your religious experience. You started
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  Speaker 2: off behind and there is no answer. None whatsoever. So
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  Speaker 2: you can't be good and you can't deal with what
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  Speaker 2: happened before your religious experience. The answer is condemnation. Accept
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  Speaker 2: the active and passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ
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  Speaker 2: who laid down his life for sinners. That's it. There
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  Speaker 2: is no other answer. There is no other satisfactory answer. Period.
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  Speaker 2: Full stop. And without this, without all of this, Christianity
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  Speaker 2: is meaningless and empty. So, part of this is about
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  Speaker 2: also changing our view of Scripture, the way we view
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  Speaker 2: the Bible, the way we even think about the Bible,
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  Speaker 2: the way we approach the Bible. Particularly, the difference between
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  Speaker 2: what the Gospel produces and what the Gospel requires, the
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  Speaker 2: difference between indicatives and imperatives, and the centrality of Christ
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  Speaker 2: and His work. What the Gospel requires. What does... The
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  Speaker 2: gospel require. All the gospel requires is repentance and faith. Period.
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  Speaker 2: That's all the gospel requires. Repentance and faith. You say that,
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  Speaker 2: if you let it sit for a minute, people get uncomfortable.
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  Speaker 2: The reason we get uncomfortable is because, you know, we
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  Speaker 2: want to say, well, wait a minute now. There's got
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  Speaker 2: to be some obedience there, right? There's got to be
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  Speaker 2: some obedience there. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But that's what the
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  Speaker 2: gospel produces. It's not what the gospel requires. Be very
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  Speaker 2: careful with that. Because if the gospel requires obedience, then
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  Speaker 2: that means you could be obedient apart from the person
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  Speaker 2: and work of Christ. And if you could be obedient
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  Speaker 2: apart from the person and work of Christ, Christ died
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  Speaker 2: in vain. Because you could have just fixed it yourself.
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  Speaker 2: But you cannot be obedient. Therefore, the gospel does not
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  Speaker 2: require your obedience. The gospel produces your obedience. Okay, all right.
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  Speaker 2: Just want to make sure we're all together here. If
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  Speaker 2: we confuse what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces,
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  Speaker 2: we'll end up pursuing works righteousness and negating the very
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  Speaker 2: gospel to which we are attempting to conform. And that's
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  Speaker 2: where many Christians live. and works righteousness. That's where so
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  Speaker 2: many Christians live. Bogged down right there in that place
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  Speaker 2: where we're confusing what the gospel requires and what the
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  Speaker 2: gospel produces. What about these indicatives and imperatives I keep mentioning? Indicatives,
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  Speaker 2: these are just grammatical terms. An indicative indicates what something is, right? Um,
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  Speaker 2: An indicative, that is a television monitor, right? That's an indicative.
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  Speaker 2: An imperative tells you something to do. Turn on the
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  Speaker 2: television monitor. Look at the television monitor. Those are imperative statements, okay?
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  Speaker 2: And in the scriptures, we have indicative statements that tell
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  Speaker 2: us what something is, and we have imperative statements that
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  Speaker 2: tell us what to do. Theologically, let me put it
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  Speaker 2: this way.
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  Speaker 3: Indicatives.
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  Speaker 2: Indicatives. What God has done and produced in us and
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  Speaker 2: for us through Christ's work on the cross. The indicatives
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  Speaker 2: are what God has done and produced in us and
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  Speaker 2: for us through Christ's work on the cross. Okay? That's
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  Speaker 2: who we are because of what Christ has done. It's
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  Speaker 2: what we have because of what Christ has done. Imperatives.
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  Speaker 2: What God requires and enables us to do as a result.
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  Speaker 2: of Christ's work on the cross. As a result, right?
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  Speaker 2: Notice I keep saying that. I keep going there, and
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  Speaker 2: this is incredibly important. Classic example of indicatives and imperatives together. Philippians.
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  Speaker 2: We love Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Philippians 2, 12. Therefore,
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  Speaker 2: my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not
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  Speaker 2: only as in my presence, but much more in my absence,
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  Speaker 2: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's
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  Speaker 2: an imperative, right? That's an imperative. Work out your own
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  Speaker 2: salvation with fear and trembling. I mean, not only is
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  Speaker 2: that a scary imperative, it actually has fear and trembling
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  Speaker 2: in it, right? That's the epitome of a scary imperative.
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  Speaker 2: Verse 13. For it is God who works in you
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  Speaker 2: both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
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  Speaker 2: There's the indicative. There's who you are and what you
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  Speaker 2: have because of Christ's person and work that actually enables
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  Speaker 2: you to do that which is required of those who
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  Speaker 2: are in Christ. Okay? Classic example of that. By the way,
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  Speaker 2: there are no imperatives in the first half of Ephesians. None.
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  Speaker 2: The first three chapters of Ephesians, all indicatives, no imperatives. Okay?
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  Speaker 2: In the last three chapters, you think I'm about to
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  Speaker 2: say it's all imperatives, right?
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 2: In the last three chapters, it's a mixture of indicatives
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  Speaker 2: and imperatives. So if the first three chapters are all
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  Speaker 2: indicatives and no imperatives... And the last three chapters is
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  Speaker 2: a mix of indicatives and imperatives. Which does Paul think
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  Speaker 2: is more important? Anybody? The indicatives. The indicatives. Because you
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  Speaker 2: can't achieve the imperatives apart from the indicatives. You can't
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  Speaker 2: understand the imperatives apart from the indicatives. If you pursue
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  Speaker 2: the imperatives apart from the indicatives, you end up in
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  Speaker 2: works righteousness. And you're negating the very gospel to which
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  Speaker 2: you're attempting to conform. Amen? That's why, for example, when
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing marriage counseling, right? I do marriage counseling and
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  Speaker 2: I'm dealing with a couple, whether they're Christians or not,
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  Speaker 2: I start with the indicatives. I don't just run to
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  Speaker 2: the imperatives. Somebody asked me about that one time, right?
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  Speaker 2: Because they knew that I was working with this couple.
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  Speaker 2: at least one of them was not a believer, which
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  Speaker 2: was a huge problem. And so I figured my job
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  Speaker 2: was to tell him you're not supposed to get married
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  Speaker 2: because you're a believer, which means that you're in open
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  Speaker 2: rebellion against God if you want to marry this person
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  Speaker 2: who's not a believer or whatever. It's like, what do
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  Speaker 2: you do? You start with the indicatives. Here's what you
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  Speaker 2: definitely don't do. You don't just run to Ephesians chapter
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  Speaker 2: 5 and say, here's what a good marriage is supposed
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  Speaker 2: to look like. So Sir, you need to do this, this, this,
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  Speaker 2: and this. Ma'am, you need to do this, this, this,
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  Speaker 2: and this. No. You cannot. You cannot rightly pursue the
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  Speaker 2: imperatives apart from the indicatives. But again, that's what many
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  Speaker 2: of us try to do. Now, there are Six key
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  Speaker 2: indicatives that we find in the first chapter of the
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  Speaker 2: book of Ephesians. Six key indicatives. I want you to
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  Speaker 2: see them there. Go to Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at
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  Speaker 2: verse 3. We're going to read through Ephesians 1, 3
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  Speaker 2: to 10. We're going to read through it twice. We're
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  Speaker 2: going to read through it twice. You'll see why in
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  Speaker 2: a minute, okay? There's some things I want you to highlight.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe the first time we go through, you can underline,
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  Speaker 2: and the second time we go through, you can circle.
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  Speaker 2: If you're digital like me, maybe the first time you
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  Speaker 2: can use one color, and the second time you can
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  Speaker 2: use another color and highlight. If you don't know how
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  Speaker 2: to highlight... and you don't have a paper Bible, just
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  Speaker 2: ask somebody to help you. All right. So, blessed be
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  Speaker 2: the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, first,
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  Speaker 2: who has blessed us in Christ, so underline who has
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  Speaker 2: blessed us, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
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  Speaker 2: even as he chose us. So he blessed us, he
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  Speaker 2: chose us, chose us, in him before the foundation of
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  Speaker 2: the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
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  Speaker 2: In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through
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  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to
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  Speaker 2: the praise of his glorious grace in which he blessed us. There,
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  Speaker 2: he blessed us again. And then we have redemption through
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  Speaker 2: his blood The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the
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  Speaker 2: riches of his grace. Which he lavished upon us. According
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  Speaker 2: to his purpose. Which he set forth in Christ. As
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  Speaker 2: a plan for the fullness of time. To unite all
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  Speaker 2: things in him. Things in heaven and things on earth.
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  Speaker 2: Do you see that? blessed us, predestined us, all that,
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  Speaker 2: all those things that he did. And you should have
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  Speaker 2: underlined those things, right? Now let's look at the same
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  Speaker 2: passage again. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
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  Speaker 2: of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us, now circle
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  Speaker 2: in Christ, with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. even
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  Speaker 2: as he chose us, circle in him before the foundation
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  Speaker 2: of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
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  Speaker 2: before him. In love, he predestines us for adoption as
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  Speaker 2: sons through Jesus Christ. Circle that. According to the purpose
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  Speaker 2: of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace,
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  Speaker 2: with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Circle that.
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  Speaker 2: In him, circle that, we have redemption through his blood,
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  Speaker 2: circle that, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the
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  Speaker 2: riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in
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  Speaker 2: all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery
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  Speaker 2: of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth, circle,
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  Speaker 2: in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time,
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  Speaker 2: to unite all things, circle, in him. Things in heaven
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  Speaker 2: and things on earth. So when you look at this,
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  Speaker 2: these key indicatives, right? When Paul is laying out his
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  Speaker 2: theological foundation in the book of Ephesians, there are two
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  Speaker 2: things that are clear. Number one, this is about what
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  Speaker 2: God has done, right? And number two, this is about
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  Speaker 2: what God has done in Christ. That's clearly what he's
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  Speaker 2: communicating here. There's other places. Romans 11, 36. For from
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  Speaker 2: him and through him and to him are all things.
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  Speaker 2: To him be glory forever. Amen. That's how we respond
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  Speaker 2: to this truth. There's a second thing I want you
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  Speaker 2: to see. So there in chapter 1 where he sort
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  Speaker 2: of lays his foundation. And then I want you to
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  Speaker 2: see these chapter endings. I believe these chapter endings... Give
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  Speaker 2: us a framework, the ending of these first three chapters.
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  Speaker 2: Give us a framework for understanding the book as a whole.
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  Speaker 2: And if we had time, we could go through the
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  Speaker 2: whole book and show how they apply. But we will
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: look at it in the other two sessions as well.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: But look at the chapter endings. Look at the end
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: of chapter one. He put all things under his feet
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: and gave him as head over all things to the church,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: which is his body, the fullness of him who fills
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: all in all. So what the book of Ephesians is
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: all about, three things. Number one, Christ's headship over his body.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Christ's headship over his body. Can you say that one
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: with me? Christ's headship over his body. That's the first
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: major theme In the book of Ephesians. The second one.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Look at the ending of chapter 2. Verses 19 to 22.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: the household of God built on the foundation of the
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: also being built together into a dwelling place for God
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: by the Spirit. Listen to the language there. Household of God, built, foundation, cornerstone, structure,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: holy temple, built together, dwelling place. This is construction language, right?
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: This is all construction language. Um, But it's also about
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: us being built together into a dwelling place for God's spirit.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: So the first key is Christ's headship over his body.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: The second one is unity in Christ's body. Unity in
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Christ's body. Can y'all say that one with me? Unity
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: in Christ's body. Then there's a third one. Here's our doxology.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Now to him who is able, beginning verse 21, verse 20,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, of chapter 3. Now to him who is
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: able to do far more abundantly than all that we
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: to him be glory in the church and in Christ
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. So the
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: first one is Christ's headship over his body. The second one,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: unity in Christ's body. And the third is the glory
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: that the body gives to its head. The glory that
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: the body gives to its head. Can you say that
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: one with me? The glory that the body gives to
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: its head. Okay? Let's look at these general imperatives. this
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: call to Christ-honoring unity. So go to chapter 4, verse 1.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. That's
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: how he begins the second half of the letter, right?
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: In light of all of these things, here's what I'm
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: asking you to do. Chapter 4, verses 4 through 6.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Or 3 through 6, sorry. There is one body one spirit,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: just as you were called to one hope that belongs
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: God and Father of all who is over all and
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: through all and in all. Again, you see what we're
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: being called to. Now continue. Go to verse 7. But grace...
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: was given to each one of us according to the
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: on high, he led a host of captives and he
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: it mean but that he had also descended into the
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: who ascended far above all the heavens that he might
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: fill all that he might fill all things. That was
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: the purpose of the person and work of Christ. Again,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: that harkens back to chapter 1, verses 22 and 23. Remember,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: he put all things under his feet and gave him
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: his head over all things to the church, which is
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: his body, the fullness of him who fills all things.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: That is who Christ is. If we continue in chapter 4,
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: go down to verse 11. He gave the apostles, the prophets,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: for the work of ministry for building up of the
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: body of Christ until we all attain to the unity
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: of God to mature manhood to the measure and the
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: we are to grow up in every way into him
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: who is the head, into Christ from whom the whole
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: body joined and held together by every joint with which
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: it is equipped. When each part is working properly, makes
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Unity, unity, unity.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, Christ's headship over his
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: body unity in Christ's body and the glory that the
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: body gives to its head. So whenever we're looking at
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: the imperatives in the second half of the book of Ephesians,
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: we have to keep these things in mind, right? For example,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: in the household codes. What are the household codes about?
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Think about the instruction to wives and to husbands in
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: And to children. What does he point to? Christ's headship
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: over his body. The husband is the head of the wife.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: As Christ is headship, right? Christ's headship over his body.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Unity in Christ's body. And the glory that the body
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: gives to its head. Husbands, right, loving their wives in
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: such a way that they present them to themselves without
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The glory that
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: the body gives to its head. When you understand the
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: structure of the book of Ephesians, it helps you to
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: understand the imperatives and how these imperatives fit within the
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: context of the indicatives. Who Christ is, what Christ has done,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: who we are as a direct result of what Christ
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: has done, and how that enables and empowers us not
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: just to obey, but to obey in a way that
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: brings glory and honor to to the Lord Jesus Christ
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: who has redeemed us and is conforming us to his image. Amen?
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: All right, we'll stop there. We'll take 10 minutes, okay?
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: We'll stop there. We'll take 10 minutes. All right, so
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: let's just go back to Ephesians chapter 4. We'll close
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: out the thought that I was trying to elucidate earlier. Remember,
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: we're talking about indicatives and imperatives, the right attitude, the
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: right thinking concerning these imperatives and how we approach these imperatives.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: And one of the ways that Paul expresses that is
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: in his very familiar put off and put on statements
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: there beginning at 417. Look what he says here beginning
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: at 417. Now this I say and testify in the
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: There's an imperative, right? You must no longer walk as
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: the Gentiles do. In the futility of their minds. Isn't
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: that interesting? You must no longer walk as the Gentiles
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: do in the futility of their minds. He doesn't say
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: their sinful behaviors. He says in the futility of their minds.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Now obviously he's talking about their sinful behaviors, right? But
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: his statement is in the futility of their minds. They
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: God because of the ignorance that is in them due
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: to their hardness of heart. Again, the statement is, don't
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: walk like the Gentiles do. And what follows is anything but.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Don't do this, don't do that, don't do that. Stop this.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Stop that. Stop that. No. Immediately he starts using these
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: terms that have to do with the mind. He continues.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality,
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: not the way you learned Christ. What an unexpected turn
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: of phrase, right? That is not the way you learned Christ.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: It doesn't say that's not the way you found Christ,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: fell in love with Christ. No, that is not the
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: way you learned Christ. Notice all of these intellectual terms
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: that he's using here, right? Assuming that you have heard
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: about him and were taught in him as the truth
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: is in Jesus. And then he says, to put off
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life,
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: in the spirit of your minds, and to put on
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: the new self, watch this, created after the likeness of
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: God in true righteousness and holiness. This new self is
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: created after the righteousness of God and true righteousness and holiness.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: A couple of passages come to mind. Psalm 1, 1
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: and 2. Blessed is the man who walks not in
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: his delight is in the law of the Lord, and
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: in his law he meditates day and night. 2 Corinthians 10.5,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Colossians 2.8, see to it that no one takes you
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: captive through philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: according to the elemental spirits of the world and not
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: according to Christ. And again, here Paul says, put off
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: your mind. That's what he's referring to. This is not
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: just behaviorism. This is transformational. And what is this renewal
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: in the spirit of your mind? It is the message
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: of the gospel. It is repentance in faith. It is
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: coming to know Christ. It is coming to be found
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: in Christ. It is being transformed and conformed to the
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: image of Christ by faith. That's how you put on
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: the new self. This new self that is created after
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. This
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: also brings to mind Romans 12 too. Do not be
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: conformed to this world. Literally, do not be pressed into
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: the mold of this world. But be transformed by the
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: and perfect. It's these indicatives. It's coming face to face
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: It is coming to him by faith. It is coming
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: to him in repentance. It is believing the gospel. It
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: is receiving the Forgiveness in Christ through the gospel. And
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: it is that work that God does in us as
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: a result that transforms us. Otherwise, what we end up
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: doing is trying to conform ourselves. And we have these imperatives.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: And there was a real, it was a big move,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: this was decades ago, But there was a very popular
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: move where some successful Christian writers were writing national best-selling
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: books on business and this, that, and the other. And
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: what they were doing was they were taking some of
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: the principles of Proverbs, but they really weren't saying that
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: these were the principles of Proverbs and there was no
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Jesus in it and And, you know, so again, there
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: were huge national bestsellers. The result of that was not
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: this rampant transformation in the business world to Christlikeness. Why?
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Because it was just imperatives without indicatives. It was just
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: another means to an end. And it had nothing to
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: do with Christ. It was not putting off the old
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: self and putting on the new self, right? It was
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: dead men dressing up in living men's clothes, still being
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: dead men, right? And for many of us, that's what's
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: going on with our Christian life. We're dead men dressing
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: up in living men's clothes, but we're still dead men.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: And we think, well, maybe if I just wear that.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Maybe if I just wear that. Maybe if I just
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: wear that.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: No.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: You have to be made alive in Christ. You have
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: to be made alive in Christ. Otherwise, your works are meaningless.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: In order for an act to be righteous, it has
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: to be the right thing done the right way for
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: the right reason. And there's only one right reason, and
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: that is the glory of God. And we don't get
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: there apart from the person and work of Christ. So
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: remember what this is all about. Christ's headship over his body,
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: unity in Christ's body, and the glory that the body
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: gives to its head. Okay? All right. With that in mind,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: we're going to look at a couple of things. One,
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I want us to look at interpersonal relationships. And then
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: after we look at interpersonal relationships, we'll get into marriage
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: and family. We'll do that sort of as a whole.
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: Remember, the lay of the land. Two halves of the book.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: Where is the break? What's that? Between chapters three and four, right?
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: First half, orthodoxy. Second half, orthopraxy. First half, our calling.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Second half, our conduct. First half, indicative. Second half, imperatives.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: First half, right believing. Second half, right behaving, right? Remember that.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: The theological statement that we said about the first half
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: is about a proper understanding of what Christ accomplished on
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: our behalf to the Father's glory through the cross. Okay?
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: The second half, proper living in light of and as
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: a direct result of Christ's active and passive obedience. Remember,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: the gospel requires what? The gospel requires repentance and faith.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: The gospel requires repentance and faith, right? What does the
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: gospel produce? It produces obedience, okay? So obedience is absolutely necessary,
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: but it is a result. It is a result, not
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: a cause, okay? Remember, indicatives and imperatives. Indicatives tells you
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: what something is. Imperatives give you a command. something to do.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: Those key imperatives or those key indicatives at the end
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: of the chapters remind us of what it's all about.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Let's say it together. Number one, Christ's headship over his church.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: Christ's headship over his body. Christ's headship over his body, right?
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: Let's say that together. Christ's headship over his body. The
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: second one, unity in Christ's body. Let's say that one.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Unity in Christ's body. And the third one, the glory
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: that the body gives its head. Let's say that one.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: The glory that the body gives its head. Some of
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: you are already thinking about the ways in which this
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: works itself out in different areas of Ephesians, and we'll
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: get there. So how about these practical imperatives in chapter 4?
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: These practical imperatives. First, we have this call to Christ
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: glorifying holiness. One of them is to speak the truth.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Look in verse 25. There's an imperative, but it starts
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: with an indicative and ends with an indicative. So this
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: is an imperative sandwich. First, therefore, having put away falsehood,
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: does not say, therefore, put away falsehood, right? Therefore, having
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: put away falsehood. This is after the put off, put on, right?
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: You've been created, right? This new life that's been created
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: in righteousness and holiness. So, therefore, having put away falsehood.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: How did you put away falsehood? Did you put away
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: falsehood because you made a determination and you grit your teeth. No.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Having put away falsehood is a reference to what Christ
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: has accomplished in you through his person and work.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: That's what we looked at in the put off, put on.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: So therefore, having put away falsehood, that's an indicative, not
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: an imperative. Therefore, since you put away falsehood, let each
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. And then,
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: here's another indicative. For... We are members of one another.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: So there's the sandwich. First, indicative, having put away falsehood.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: The other indicative, we're members of one another. And then
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: the imperative is, speak the truth. Did you catch that?
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: So us speaking the truth with our neighbor It's a
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: direct result of who we are in Christ. Speak the
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: truth in your name. Why does it make sense for
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: you to speak the truth in your name? Number one,
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: because you put away falsehood. You are in Christ. You've
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: been transformed by the renewing of your mind. You are
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: in Christ. You've put away falsehood. He is the way,
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: the truth, and the life. If you are in him,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: you've put away falsehood. That's not who you are anymore. Amen?
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: And that's good news, right? You've put away falsehood. Now,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: does this mean that there's no more falsehood lurking in you? No,
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: that's not what this means. There is falsehood lurking in you.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: But when you've put away falsehood, what that means is
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: you recognize falsehood as something that is lurking in you.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: You don't just embrace it as a way of life.
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: The other indicative is we are members of one another.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: We are members of one another. How? Christ's headship over
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: his body. Unity in Christ's body. That's where he starts
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: in chapter 4. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: God and Father of us all. We're united with Christ. Therefore,
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: we're united with each other. Now, if I have put
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: away falsehood on the one hand, and if I have
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: been united with you in Christ on the other hand,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: The only thing that makes sense is that each one
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: of us would speak the truth with his neighbor. You follow?
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: That's how the indicatives and the imperatives work together. Not
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: just grit your teeth and speak the truth. It is
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: you have put away falsehood. Falsehood is not a part
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: of who you are. You are in the truth and
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: the truth is in you. So we speak the truth.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Beyond that, we have been united with Christ and we
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: have been united with each other. And so we speak
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: the truth with our brothers.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: You see the difference? Not just gird up your loins,
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: figure out a way to do this, but recognize who
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: you are in Christ, which is what empowers and enables
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: you to do the thing which is consistent with who
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: you are in Christ.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: Anger.
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: The next, beginning of verse 26. Be angry and do
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: not sin. Do not let the sun go down on
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil. Be angry
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: and do not sin. Do not let the sun go
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: down on your anger. By the way, the scripture does
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: not say don't be angry. Amen? In fact, he says
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: be angry. There are times when it is appropriate to
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: be angry.
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: Not all the time. Hulk. Okay? But there are times
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: when it is appropriate to be angry. Let's look at that.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: Matthew 5, 21 and 22. You've heard that it was
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: said to those of old, you shall not murder, and
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: to you that everyone who is angry with his brother
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: will be liable to the hell of fire. So we
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: know that there's sinful anger, but then we're told here
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: to be angry and not sin. So now we know
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: that there is some kind of anger that is not
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: sinful anger. What does that mean? And again, remember this
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: whole section is about our interpersonal relationships here, right? And
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: the place where this is most significant is in the home,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: but there are applications for every relationship that is ours.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: What is righteous anger? What's the difference between righteous anger
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: and sinful anger? First of all, righteous anger is a
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: God-given emotion. This is important. It's a God-given emotion, not
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: a manufactured emotion. It's a God-given emotion. Secondly, righteous anger
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: is directed towards sin. Righteous anger is directed towards sin.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: It's directed toward the things that make God angry. Amen?
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: It is a reflection of Christ's headship over his body
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: and unity in Christ's body and the glory that the
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: body brings to its head. Would it bring glory to Christ,
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: our head, if the things that made him angry didn't
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: make us angry? Huh? That doesn't work, right?
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: As we say in Texas, that dog won't hunt. Okay?
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: It just can't. And there are things that make God angry.
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: Righteous anger also vindicates God. Righteous anger vindicates God. So
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: if my anger is directed toward, if my anger is,
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: God-given emotion, directed toward sin, that is pointed toward vindicating God,
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: then it is acceptable. What's sinful anger? Sinful anger is delayed.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: It's delayed anger. The anger didn't come when it was
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: supposed to. You held on and then you got angry later. Amen?
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: You let it go. And then all of a sudden
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: later on, you decided not to let it go after
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: you had let it go. That's delayed anger. Delayed anger
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: is sinful anger.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: You were fine. And then all of a sudden, something
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: else happened. And now you reach back. And you grab
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: this anger that you decided to do nothing about before. Now,
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: there's a couple of possibilities. Possibility number one is that
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: this anger would have been righteous then because there was
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: something sinful and you did not express or experience that
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: anger at the time, which means you did not agree
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: with God over this issue at the time. Should have
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: gotten angry and you didn't. Now, something else has upset
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: you and you decide to reach back and grab onto
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: the anger that you should have used in order to
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: vindicate God, but you didn't. And now you borrow it
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: in order to vindicate yourself. If you can't say amen,
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: you ought to say ouch. Right? I heard married people
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: do this sometimes. I heard, I heard, right? I heard.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: I heard. Secondly, sinful anger is misplaced anger. Sinful anger
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: is misplaced anger.
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: So this is similar to the delayed anger, but it's different.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: So I go to work, and on my job, I
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: experience something over which, or I see something over which
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: I experience righteous anger. but I don't do anything about it.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: I hold on to that righteous anger because I'm a coward.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: Then I get home and something happens at the house
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: and I unleash that on the people who are not
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: the people that I should have unleashed it on. That's
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: misplaced anger. Okay?
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: Get mad, come home, kick the dog. Get mad, come home,
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: yell at the wife, yell at the husband, yell at
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: the children. That's misplaced anger, okay? For whatever reason, I
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: didn't deal with it in the time and place that
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: it should have been dealt with. I didn't deal with
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: it in that context. I held on to it, and
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: in another context, it spills over. Another sinful expression of
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: anger is manipulative anger. Manipulative anger. I'm expressing my anger
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: not in order to vindicate God, but I'm expressing my
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: anger in order to hurt or intimidate you so that
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: you don't do whatever you did anymore. Okay? I don't
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: want you to be righteous. I'm not pointing you to
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: the person and work of Christ. I'm pointing you to
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: my wrath and I want you to fear my wrath.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: I want to change your behavior because you fear my wrath.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Parents do this often with children. It's not discipline or
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: correction pointing them to God, directing them toward righteousness. It
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: is I want you to take in. the full weight
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: of my indignation and my wrath I want you to
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: be terrified right now and the next time an opportunity
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: like this comes along I want you to think about
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: this right here and everything that is spewing out of
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: me onto you at this moment so that you don't
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: Dare do that again. That is manipulative anger. That is
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: not pointing someone to the righteousness of God and pleading
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: with them to view their action in light of God's righteousness.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: That is me saying, I want my relationship with you,
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: my authority over you to be the influence in your life.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: as to whether or not you choose to do this
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: or that. The problem with manipulative anger is, number one,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: it doesn't bring glory to God. Number two, in the
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: long run, it doesn't equip whoever it is to live
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And one
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: day you'll be gone. And if they've just been pointed
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: to your anger and not to the righteousness of God,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: then once the influence of your anger is gone, so
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: is the modification of that behavior. Are you smelling what
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: I'm stepping in? Okay. So again, if it's delayed, if
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: it's misplaced, if it's manipulative, then it's sinful anger. Listen
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: to this from James. James 1, 19 and 20. This
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: is so important. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. Usually,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: if you memorize this, you just memorize that. Right? If
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: we have our kids memorize this, we just... Let every
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: slow to anger. And that's good. That's good, right? Four,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: That's the problem with manipulative anger. With delayed anger, misplaced anger,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: manipulative anger. So, remember, what's it all about? Christ's headship
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: over his body, unity in Christ's body, and the glory
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: that the body brings to his head. Anger that is
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: sinful anger is trying to bring glory somewhere else.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: Right? Right?
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: Theft. Verse 28. Let the thief no longer steal, but
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: so that he may have something to share with anyone
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: in need. What is this? Right? What's the motivation here?
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: Remember what I said, that Those three chapter endings give
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: us a picture of Paul's overarching argument for everything that
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: he's doing there in the second half. So what does
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: this have to do with Christ's headship over his body,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: unity in Christ's body, and the glory that the body
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: brings to its head? Let's look at it again. You
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: were stealing. Your problem is stealing, right? Your problem is
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: not anger. Your problem is stealing. Let the thief no
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: longer steal, but let him labor, work, doing honest work
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: with his own hands. What is stealing? Stealing is you
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: illegitimately benefiting from someone else's labor. Right? Their labor produces
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: whatever this thing is, and you, instead of laboring in
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: order to be able to produce whatever that thing is yourself,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: you take what their labor has produced. So, don't steal,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: but rather labor, doing honest work with your own hands,
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: so that, there's a so that, you may have something
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: to share with anyone who is in need. Now, instead
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: of illegitimately benefiting from the labor of others, you're producing
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: surplus labor so that you can benefit others. Right? What
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: is this about? This is about unity in the body.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: And it is about the glory that the body brings
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: to its head.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: Speech.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: Speech. Verse 29, let no corrupting talk come out of
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: your mouths, but only such as is good for building
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: of God by whom you were sealed for the day
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: of redemption. This is really interesting because we've heard this
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: so often, right, about grieving the Spirit. I've heard this
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: referred to, I've heard people say that, you know, children
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: should go out so that, you know, they don't grieve
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: the Spirit, right? Because, you know, there's babies, and babies
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: making noise, that'll grieve the Spirit. Or, you know, something
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: happens up here, some glitch, this and that, that grieves
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: the Spirit. Or, I mean, I've heard any number of things, right,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: of how people can grieve the Spirit. But none of
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: them pay attention to the context of this passage and
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: the broader context of the book of Ephesians. But when
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: you do pay attention, for example, go back to chapter 2.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: Go back to chapter 2 and verse 19. So there's
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: the indicative, right? Right? There's the indicative. Who are we?
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: We are a holy temple. We're being built together as
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: a holy temple. That's what the Spirit is doing among us. Amen?
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: That's the indicative. Chapter 4, verse 10 through 12. He
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: who descended is the one who also ascended far above
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: the heavens. that he might fill all things. And he
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: gave the apostles, the prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: equip the saints for the work of ministry for building
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: up the body of Christ. So what's the work that
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit is doing? The Holy Spirit is building
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: up the body of Christ into a holy temple, right? Now,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: let's go back to 4, 29-31. With that indicative in mind,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. Literally,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: the word here is corrosive, right? Something that would corrode
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: a metal. Let no corrosive talk come out of your mouth.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: Let no talk come out of your mouth that would
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: corrode and break down a structure. But only such as
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: is good for building up. Who's building? Who's building according
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: to chapter 2 and chapter 4? The Holy Spirit. What's
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: he building? The body. He's building a temple. He's building
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: a temple with what? Us. So your fellow believer to
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: whom you're speaking is part of the construction material that
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: God is using in order to build his temple. Don't
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: let words come out of your mouth that will break
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: down what the Spirit is building up. But only such
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: as is good for building up, as fits the occasion.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: that it may give grace to those who hear. Why?
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: Because that is what the Spirit uses in order to
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: build us into a body. Then he says, do not
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: sealed for the day of redemption. What grieves the Spirit?
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: You breaking down what he's building up. Context, context, context.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: Let your baby cry in church. Amen, somebody. So the
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: indicative is, here's who Christ is building us up to be.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: So when it comes to speaking the truth, right? Here's
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: who Christ is building us up to be. When it
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: comes to sinful anger, here's who Christ is building us
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: up to be. When it comes to letting no corrupting
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: talk come out of your mouth, what's the indicative? Here's
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: who Christ is building us to be. And then the
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: last one, forgiveness. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: and clamor and slander be put away from you, along
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: with all malice. Now remember where we started. You've put
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: away falsehood, right? You've put away falsehood. Now he's saying,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: let all this be put away from you. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: Be kind to one another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another as
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: God and Christ forgive you. There's the indicative. Forgive because
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: you're forgiven. Two sides of this. You can forgive because
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: you're forgiven. You must forgive because you're forgiven. The indicative
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: is our forgiveness. So refusal to forgive, number one, is
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: sinful disobedience. It's sinful disobedience. If you refuse to forgive,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: you're disobeying this clear command to forgive. And it's sinful disobedience.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: It's also hypocritical arrogance. Because you're saying to another person,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: Christ may forgive you, but my standard is higher. The
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: blood of Jesus may satisfy the God of the universe
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: in regard to that sin, but I demand more. Now,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: everything that I've done, that I've done I fully expect
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: to be washed in that blood. However, you, on the
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: other hand, have sinned against me. You see how hypocritical
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: that is? It's also dishonoring to the body. Treating your
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: forgiven brother or sister like one who is unforgiven. Now,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: that is much easier said than done.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: A couple of things need to be said about this
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: in order to make this clear. The first thing that
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: I want is I just want that to rest on us. Right?
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: I realize it raises questions, and we're going to deal
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: with those questions, but we're going to deal with those
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: questions in light of these indisputable facts. Refusal to forgive
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: is sinful disobedience. It's hypocritical arrogance. And it's dishonoring the body. Period.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: Full stop. Now, in order for us to understand this rightly,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: we need to understand what forgiveness is. Right? We need
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: to understand what forgiveness is. This is from John Calvin. First,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: what is forgiveness but a gift of mere liberality? A
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: creditor is not said to forgive forgiveness. when he declares
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: by granting a discharge that the money has been paid
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: to him. But when without any payment, through voluntary kindness,
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: he expunges the debt. So forgiveness is expunging a debt.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: You don't owe me. You don't owe me. By the way,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: how do we make people pay? We make people pay
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: by withholding affection by withholding honor, by withholding attention. These
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: are ways that we punish people for what they've done, okay?
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: This is how we express our unforgiveness, all right? I
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: don't forgive you, so I'm not going to give you
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: your respect. I don't forgive you, so I'm not going
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: to give you attention. I don't forgive you, so I'm
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: not going to give you affection, okay? All of these
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: are the ways that we pour out our wrath on
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: people who have sinned against us. Forgiveness myths. Myth number one,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: the guilty party must ask for forgiveness first. The guilty
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: party must ask for forgiveness first. Why do we believe this?
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: Passages like Luke 17, 3 and 4. Pay attention to yourselves.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 2: If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: And if he sins against you seven times in a
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 2: you must forgive him. And so we look at a
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: passage like that and we say, see, there it is, right?
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: If your brother sins and then he asks for forgiveness,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: then you forgive him. But if he doesn't ask for forgiveness,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: you don't forgive him. You don't have to forgive him
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: because he didn't ask you for forgiveness.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: That's not what that passage is teaching. Amen? You're putting
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: the emphasis on the wrong syllable. The emphasis in that
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: text is about our continued willingness to forgive, not on
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: a technicality as to when forgiveness is given or expressed.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: There's several examples of this, but there's one that I
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: want to point out because we love it so much.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: And it obliterates this myth. And we find it in
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: Genesis chapter 45. Genesis 45, look at the beginning of
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 2: verse 4. Genesis 45, beginning of verse 4. Now, what
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: has happened here in Genesis? Genesis. Joseph's brothers have sold
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: him into slavery, right? He was a slave in Egypt.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: His brothers show up. He recognizes them. They don't recognize him.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: They think he's dead. He tests his brothers multiple times,
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: and now he's about to reveal himself to his brothers.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: And they came near and he said, I am your
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: me here. For you asked for forgiveness and I am
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: now extending it to you because you asked. No, for
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: God sent me before you to preserve life. They didn't
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: even know who he was, let alone ask him for forgiveness.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: And he extended forgiveness to them. Jesus' example, Matthew 9 too.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic lying
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: on a bed, and when Jesus saw their faith, He
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: said to the paralytic, take heart, my son. Your sins
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: are forgiven. Mark 11, 25. Whenever you stand praying, forgive.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: This is Jesus. Whenever you stand praying, forgive if you
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: have anything against anyone so that your Father also who
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: is in heaven may forgive you. your trespass. Luke 23, 34.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they ask for it. Father,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: forgive them for they know not what they do. And
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 2: they cast lots. To divide his garments. It's the logical consequences.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: Colossians 2. 12 to 15. And you who were dead
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: in your trespasses. And the uncircumcision of your flesh. God
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 2: made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: By canceling. the record of debt that stood against us
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: Another passage, 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Here's the logical problem.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: If we believe that forgiveness is only to be extended
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 2: to those who specifically ask for it, and there are
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: people who carry this to its logical conclusion. The logical
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: conclusion has to be that you could die with unconfessed
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 2: sin and go to hell because you forgot to ask God.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: for that specific sin. Is that really what you want
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: to hold on to? Because here's the deal. I don't
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: know all my sins. Amen, somebody. I don't know all
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: my sins. In fact, there's sins that I learn are
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 2: sins later on. And I'm like, ooh, I've been doing that.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 2: That's sin What if I died before I learned that
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 2: that was sin? Then I'd be like, you know, let
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 2: me in, Lord. He'd be like, nah. Like 97 things
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: that you didn't ask for forgiveness for. I didn't know
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 2: that was a sin. Yeah, sorry. You have to ask.
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 2: You see what I'm saying? I mean, the logic in
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 2: that is so faulty, let alone the examples of that
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 2: we have in the scriptures. Here's the other problem. There
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 2: are some people who can't ask you for forgiveness. There
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: may be people in this very room who are holding
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 2: on to unforgiveness against dead people. How do you do that? Well,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: my dad wasn't a good dad, my mom wasn't a
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: good mom, and they're dead now. And I withhold attention
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 2: from affection and honor from them as a punishment to
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: them because of what they did when they were alive.
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 2: I don't acknowledge them. I don't, I mean, you know,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: you fill in the blanks, right? All of these things
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: that you're doing and they're dead. You're still trying to
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: punish a dead person. If they're dead, either they are
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: paying for whatever they did to you for eternity in hell,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: you're not adding to it, or it was already nailed
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 2: to the cross and you're blaspheming it. They don't have
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: to ask. They may not even be able to ask.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: They might not have sense enough to ask. But we forgive.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: Because as a wise person has said, you holding on
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: to unforgiveness against another person is like you drinking poison
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: hoping they die. It's like you burning down your whole
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: house to kill a rat. It's senseless. Unforgiveness eats away
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: at you. You are wasting time and energy and effort
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: in order to punish somebody for something that will either
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: be nailed to the cross or they'll pay for for
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 2: eternity in hell. God will deal with that. God will
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 2: deal with it. And it will benefit you none to
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: hold on to it. None. Myth number two. Forgiveness requires forgetting.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: Forgiveness requires forgiving. Listen to this from Henry Ward Beecher.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: I can forgive, but I cannot forget. It's only another
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 2: way of saying I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 2: be like a canceled note torn in two and burned
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: up so that it never can be shown against one.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 2: You're canceling a debt. You're canceling a debt. This is
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: another unforgiveness trick, right? You say, I forgive you, but
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: I'm never going to forget it. I forgive you, but
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 2: I'm going to withhold honor, attention, and affection until I
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: feel better. Well, what is withholding honor, attention, and affection?
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: The theological term for that is unforgiveness. I forgive you.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: I'm just not going to forgive you. Well, gee, thanks
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: so much for nothing. Right? Myth number three. Forgiveness is
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: an offensive weapon. Josh Billings wrote, there is no revenge
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: so complete as forgiveness. Oscar Wilde, always forgive your enemies.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: Nothing annoys them so much. That's what sinners think about forgiveness. No,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: I'm going to forgive you, right? Yeah, no, no, no, no, no,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 2: I forgive you. I forgive you and I want you
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 2: to know I forgave you. And for the rest of
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: your life, as you think about this, you think about
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: the fact that I was the bigger person and I
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 2: forgave you. And I hope that eats you alive to
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: the day that you, no, no, that's not forgiveness. Myth
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 2: number four. Forgiveness will make everything better. And it won't. Remember,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: forgiveness means I give up my right to punish you
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 2: for that. I'm done. I don't have the time, energy,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: or effort, nor do I have the authority to punish
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: you for that. Forgiveness will not make everything better. Matthew 18,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: 21 and 22. Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: How often will my brother sin against me and I
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 2: forgive him? As many as seven times, Jesus said to him,
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 2: I do not say to you seven times, but 70
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 2: times seven. Because you forgive somebody, doesn't mean it's over
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 2: and it's done with. You may have to forgive. You
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 2: more than likely will have to forgive again and again
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 2: and again. One of the great myths, one of the
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 2: great destructive myths, right? You hear married people all the
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 2: time who get offended because their spouse sins against them, right?
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 2: Because if you love me, right? If you love, listen,
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 2: the people that you love and live with are the
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: people you sin against the most. It's not irrational, but rational.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 2: What's irrational is thinking, You are a sinner. I live
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 2: with you, which means I should see less of your
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: sin than anybody. Come on.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 2: No. Whatever my besetting sins are, Bridget will get them
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 2: more than anybody else because I love her so much.
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 2: Right? If you love me, then you wouldn't sin against me. No. No.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: That's sanctification by horizontal love. That's not what sanctifies.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 2: If you really love me, then my love or your
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 2: love for me would sanctify you and it would deal
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 2: with your sin. You heretic.
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 3: You heretic.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 2: When did you become Jesus? When did loving you become
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 2: the power of the cross? You follow? Because essentially that's
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 2: what we're saying. If you really love me, then your
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: love for me would have the power that only the
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 2: cross has. No. Other considerations. Number one, forgiveness is not
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 2: the same as reconciliation. Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 3: Okay? Okay?
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: I must forgive, but I can't always reconcile. Think again
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 2: about the person who's already died. I must forgive that person,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 2: but reconciliation died with them. Any opportunity for reconciliation died
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 2: with them. Or there may be people who don't want
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 2: to reconcile, and I can't. Reconciliation is a two-way street. Forgiveness, right,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: as a single-lane road out in the country, Reconciliation is
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 2: a two-way street. Secondly, forgiveness does not guarantee restored trust.
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 2: Forgiveness does not guarantee restored trust. And there are times
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 2: when wisdom requires that we're careful with trust. There's a
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 2: person in your family who has molested children.
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 2: You don't leave your kids with them. Amen somebody. Forgiveness
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 2: does not guarantee restored trust. Okay? If you have a
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 2: spouse who's been unfaithful there can be forgiveness and reconciliation.
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 2: By God's grace there can be forgiveness and reconciliation. However
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 2: Forgiveness and reconciliation doesn't mean that you no longer need
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 2: access to the cell phone or that they no longer
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 2: need to account for their time. You follow? And this
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 2: is one of the reasons that we often balk at
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 2: forgiveness because we want to put all of these things
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 2: under forgiveness and they're not. Again, forgiveness is just me
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 2: giving up my right at any punishment of you. The
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 2: other thing is forgiveness cannot be extended by proxy. Forgiveness
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 2: cannot be extended by proxy. For example, I can't forgive
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 2: you on behalf of the state. If you did something
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 2: that was a crime against the state, that's between you
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 2: and the state. I can't forgive you on behalf of
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 2: the state. And so I actually may have to turn
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 2: you in so that you can deal with the state.
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 2: But as far as you and me, we're good. I'll
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 2: even come visit you.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 2: In fact, for me, For me not to treat it
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 2: that way could be a crime. There are a lot
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 2: of churches that got in trouble with this because things
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 2: would happen in the church that should have been reported
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: to the state and they didn't. And abusers were not
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 2: dealt with because the church didn't respect sphere sovereignty and say,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 2: this is a state issue. This is a crime. It
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 2: is a sin But it's also a crime. Okay? So,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 2: all of those things need to be taken into consideration
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 2: when we talk about forgiveness. All right? There is a
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 2: lot more that we could say about this. But I
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 2: think for our purposes, we'll end it there. I hope
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 2: you see how even here in this section where Paul
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 2: is dealing with interpersonal relationships, number one, you still see
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 2: the indicative and imperative relationship. Number two, you also see
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 2: how the context of the letter comes to bear, right?
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 2: When you see that he's dealing with Christ's headship over
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 2: his body, unity in Christ's body, and the glory that
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 2: the body brings to its head, All of these things
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 2: take on new meaning. And it's no longer just, you know,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 2: do this, do this, do this, do this. It's in
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 2: light of the person and work of Christ. You are
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 2: no longer who you used to be. You've taken off
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: your old self. You put on your new self. There's
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 2: a new reality. And in light of this new reality,
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: there are new attitudes and new behaviors that are born
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: out of this new reality. When you think about that,
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 2: by the way, it's also, it's liberating. Right? It's liberating.
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 2: There's such weight that comes with. Here's a list of
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 2: things that you must do. Man, that's, come on, that's tough.
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 2: But when instead it is here, here, is a list
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 2: of things that you have been empowered and enabled to
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: do because of the person and work of Christ in you.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 2: A list of things that you won't even think about
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 2: the same way when you think about them in light
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 2: of the person and work of Christ. A list of
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 2: things that not only just make sense in light of
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 2: the person and work of Christ, but a list of
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 2: things that you have been empowered and enabled to delightfully
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 2: pursue because of the person and work of Christ in
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 2: your life. That's a game changer, folks.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 2: All right. It's time for our next break. Let me
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 2: pray for us. Father, we thank you for this time
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 2: that you've given us. We thank you for the ways
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 2: in which you are instructing us and We ask that
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 2: by your grace you would allow us to think deeply
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 2: on these things, but not just to think deeply on them,
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 2: but to be impacted by them. I pray, Father, that
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 2: as we hear these things, we would constantly be pointed
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 2: to the person and work of Christ and our need
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 2: for Christ, that we might continually flee to him, that
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 2: those perhaps who have come here not knowing him and
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 2: the pardon of their sin, might come to repentance and
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 2: faith and might trust in his finished work. And that
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 2: those of us who are already found in Christ would
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 2: be renewed in our affections toward him, renewed in our faith,
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 2: renewed in our obedience, and in delightful obedience because of
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: who he is and what he's done and what is
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 2: being produced in us as a result. Grant these things,
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 2: we pray, in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 4: Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5.
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 4: Let's remember those things that we're keeping in mind here.
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 4: Remember what it's all about, right? First, Christ's headship over
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 4: his body. Unity in Christ's body and then the glory
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 4: that the body gives to its head.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 2: Right? You got them? Remember those three things. Also remember
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 2: indicatives and imperatives and the difference between those two. The
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 2: indicatives point to what Christ has accomplished on our behalf
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 2: to the Father's glory through the cross. Right? It's who
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 2: we are as a result of that. The imperatives are
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 2: what we're called and enabled to do as a direct
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 2: result of those things. So when we keep all this
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 2: in mind, we remember the fact that all of the
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 2: imperatives in the second half are going to be rooted
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 2: in the indicatives of the first half. So we have
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 2: to continue to remind ourselves of those things. Now with
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 2: that in mind, we're going to look at chapter 5.
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 2: And we're going to take it backwards. We're going to
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 2: start with looking at biblical manhood and then we're going
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 2: to go back and we're going to look at biblical
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 2: womanhood in light of these things if we have time.
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 2: Why does this matter? Number one, it matters because of
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 2: marriage patterns that do not portray the relationship between Christ
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: and the church. If God says that he gives us marriage,
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 2: and particularly he gives us marriage in order to portray
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 2: something of the relationship between Christ and his bride for
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 2: whom he died, his bride, the church, and if that
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 2: is at the heart of our understanding of the gospel,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 2: then when we have marriage patterns... that do not properly
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 2: portray that relationship, we have marriage patterns that also are blasphemous.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 2: They're blasphemous. Secondly, parenting practices that do not train boys
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 2: to be masculine and girls to be feminine. These are
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 2: problematic when we throw these things away. And we're seeing
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 2: a lot of that, right? We've been seeing for a
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 2: long time people apologizing particularly for masculinity, you know, but
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 2: also for femininity and trying to raise children, you know,
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: recognizing that the patriarchy, not patriarchy, the patriarchy, right? The
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 2: patriarchy is evil. Masculinity is toxic. And because of that,
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 2: there's a generation that's been striving to raise their boys
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 2: and girls in ways that are not specific and particular
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 2: as it relates to boys and girls. Um, I've often
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 2: said that in our culture, we're not, we're not raising
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 2: women anymore. Um, We're raising men who happen to be
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 2: biologically capable of having children. Attitudinally. We don't value womanhood.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 2: And it's ironic because not valuing womanhood is harmful to women.
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 2: Patriarchy is a blessing to women. Let me say that again.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 2: Patriarchy is a blessing to women. What we're doing is not.
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 2: It's harmful to women. Classic example of this is in
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 2: the transgender movement. In the transgender movement, listen, right now
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 2: everybody's talking about the whole sports issue and transgender athletes
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 2: and sports and there have been hundreds if not thousands
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 2: of young women who have had championships and scholarships stolen
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 2: from them by boys, right? And again, patriarchy is supposed
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 2: to be dangerous and damaging to women, but this new
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: nonsense that we're seeing where we try to completely blur
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 2: the lines between men and women, let alone any idea
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 2: of the roles that between men and women, what's the
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 2: end result? The end result is the abuse of women,
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 2: the erasure of women, right? I mean, right, we had
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 2: the new congressman from Delaware, right? This transgender identifying person
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 2: from Delaware, and now they're having all the discussions about,
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 2: you know, what bathrooms you use and this and that
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 2: and the other But there's another issue here. If we
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 2: identify this person as a congresswoman from Delaware, then what
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 2: have we done? What have we done? Our woke culture
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 2: has allowed a white man who's supposed to be like
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 2: the epitome of the evil patriarchy, right? We've allowed a
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 2: white man to erase a woman. and replace her. But
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 2: we're the ones that are crazy, right? This is hugely problematic,
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 2: and so it's more important than ever for us to
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 2: be clear about these things. We used to worry about
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 2: homosexual tendencies and increasing attempts to justify homosexual alliances. Here's
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 2: what's ironic. because the Overton window has shifted so far
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 2: to the left, now the outrage over, you know, puberty
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 2: blocks or puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and then mutilating
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 2: surgeries for children has now run us so far in
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 2: that direction with our outrage that we don't even think
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 2: about Obergefell anymore. We don't even think about the fact
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 2: that we have obliterated and blasphemed the very definition of
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 2: marriage in this country and most of the Western world
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 2: now by allowing people of the same sex to call
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 2: their relationships marriage when they're not.
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 2: We're so far down the rabbit hole now. that's just like, yeah, okay, whatever.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 2: The other thing is, and this often gets me in trouble,
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 2: and those of you who know me know I worry
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 2: so much about that, but patterns of unbiblical female leadership
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 2: in the church that reflect and promote the confusion over
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 2: the true meaning of manhood and womanhood. God intends for
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: men to lead in the church. God intends for those
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 2: who hold the office of pastor or elder to be men.
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 2: Women are not qualified. They're not allowed to hold that office.
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 2: It's unbiblical. It's unbiblical. And that's scandalous in many circles,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 2: you know, to say. But here's one of the things
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 2: that you see inevitably. Just trace them historically. Trace the
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 2: denominations that have allowed and elevated women to the pastorate,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 2: and you will trace denominations where men disappear.
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 3: It matters.
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 2: It matters. It matters. And so as we look at
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 2: these things and as we think about these things, I
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 2: want you to recognize that in so many ways, these
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 2: are the most relevant issues that we are dealing with
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 2: in our day. And the ways that we're dealing with
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 2: them or not dealing with them have tremendous implications. And
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 2: we're seeing the fruit of that. now so let's look
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 2: at manhood in order to do this we need to
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 2: back up and let's see it in the broader biblical
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 2: context you have to see manhood in context right if
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 2: somebody says well what is manhood you know what is
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 2: manhood it's really hard to kind of define that and
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 2: sort of depends on who you're talking to or where
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 2: you're talking to them or whatever But we need to
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 2: see it in context. And the Bible introduces manhood in
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 2: some particular context. Number one, the man and his work.
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 2: Genesis 2.15. Look there, Genesis 2. Verse 15. The Lord
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: took the man and put him in the Garden of
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 2: Eden to work it and to keep it. So the
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 2: man kept the garden. By the way, the man worked
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 2: before the fall. Work is not a product of the fall.
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 2: I got one amen over here. Work is not a
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 2: product of the fall. There's some of y'all who are like, man,
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 2: that's a lie, you tell it. No, work is not
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 2: a product of the fall. Man worked before the fall.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 2: What the fall did was change the nature of that
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 2: work because now creation is not cooperative. and it also
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 2: changed our attitude toward that work. But the fall did
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 2: not bring work. By the way, there's going to be
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 2: work in the new heavens and new earth. I don't
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 2: know where we got this idea that we... A lot
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 2: of men don't want to go to heaven. They don't
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 2: want to go to the other place, right? But a
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 2: lot of men, if they're honest, they don't want to
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 2: go to heaven because they've been told their whole lives
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 2: that heaven is about being, you know, disembodied spirits laying
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 2: on clouds playing harps. We weren't made for that. So
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 2: they're like, listen, I don't want to go to hell
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 2: and spend eternity separated from God. But being a disembodied
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 2: spirit laying on a cloud playing a harp doesn't sound
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 2: a whole lot better. There will be work in the
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 2: new heavens and new earth. There was work before the fall,
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 2: so there will be work after the restoration. Okay? So
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 2: that's the first context, the man and his work. Second
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 2: context we see is the man and his God. Again,
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 2: Genesis chapter 2. Look at verse 16. And the Lord
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 2: God commanded the man. Stop there. The Lord commanded the man.
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 2: Even before the fall, even when Adam had not sinned,
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 2: he was under the command of God.
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 2: God wasn't negotiating with the man. God wasn't trying to figure.
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 2: He commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 2: every tree of the garden, but of the tree of
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 2: the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 2: for in the day that you eat of it, you
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 2: shall surely die. Second London Baptist Confession puts it this way.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 2: God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 2: in his heart and a particular precept of not eating
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 2: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 2: and evil, by which he bound him and all his
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 2: posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 2: upon the fulfilling and threatened death upon the breach of it,
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 2: and endued him with power with the power and the
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 2: ability to keep it. So man is created in God's image.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 2: Man is created for God's glory. And man is bound
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 2: by God's law. Then there's the man and his family.
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 2: Verse 18 of Genesis chapter 2. Then the Lord God said,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 2: It is not good that the man should be alone.
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 2: I will make him a helper fit for him. That's
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 2: verse 18. And again, this goodness is not, this is
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 2: not a moral declaration. Because there's been no fall. So
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 2: there's nothing in the world that is not good from
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 2: a moral perspective. Right? When he says that it is
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 2: not good, this is a declaration not of morality, but of.
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 2: Order and propriety. So here is God, the triune God,
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 2: who has existed throughout all eternity as one God in
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 2: three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son eternally
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 2: begotten of the Father. The Spirit eternally proceeding from the
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 2: Father and the Son. God makes man in his image.
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 2: And the man is alone in the garden. It's not
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 2: good for the man to be alone. That's what he
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 2: says is not good. It's not good for a man
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 2: to be alone. The man who's made it in the
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 2: image of the triune God. And so what does God do? Well,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 2: puts the man to sleep. And from the man proceeds
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 2: a woman. And then from the union of the man
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 2: and the woman proceeds children. A triune representation of the
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 2: triune God. That is the reference here. Now he makes
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 2: the woman, he brings her to the man. He says
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 2: in verse 24, therefore man shall leave his father and
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 2: his mother and hold fast to his wife and they
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 2: shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 2: were both naked and were not ashamed. And so when
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 2: we talk about the man and his family, we talk
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 2: about the man and his family of origin, right? Therefore
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 2: the man shall leave his father and his mother. His
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 2: family of origin is so important that There's one reason
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 2: for him to leave it. What's the reason for him
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 2: to leave it? To go establish another one just like it. Right?
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 2: And then there's this family of choice.
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 2: Now, let's look at Ephesians. Remember. Remember what this is about.
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 2: Say it with me. Christ's headship over his body. Come on.
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 2: Christ's headship over his body. Unity in Christ's body. And
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 2: then the glory that the body brings to its head
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 2: or gives to its head. Okay? Look at this. Ephesians
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 2: chapter 5, beginning of verse 25. There's an imperative here.
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 2: What's the motivation? The first one is Christ's body. Husbands,
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 2: love your wives as Christ loved the church. He doesn't
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 2: just leave that as a nebulous statement.
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 2: Husbands, love your wives is not an imperative toward an
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 2: emotional disposition. Okay? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 2: the church and gave himself up for her, that he
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 2: might sanctify her, set her apart. Having cleansed her with
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 2: the washing of water with the word so that he
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 2: might present the church to himself in splendor without spot
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 2: or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 2: holy and without blemish. So motivation number one, there's this
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 2: picture of Christ's body. Again, Christ's headship over his body,
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 2: unity in Christ's body, and the glory that the body
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 2: gives to its head. We'll see when we look at
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 2: biblical womanhood, we have time to get to that part,
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 2: that the wife submits to her husband as to the
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 2: Lord because the husband is the head of the wife
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 2: as Christ is the head of the church. So There's
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 2: Christ's headship over his body being reflected here. Here we
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 2: see this picture of unity in Christ's body, but we
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 2: also see the picture of the glory that the body
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 2: brings to its head. As Christ loved the church and
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 2: gave himself up for her, why? What is the motivation?
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 2: That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 2: washing of the water with the word, This is the
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 2: motivation of a husband towards his wife. Setting her apart.
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 2: Washing her with the water of the word so that
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 2: he might present the church to himself in splendor without
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 2: spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That she might
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 2: be holy and without blemish. To make her pure and holy.
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 2: A husband's love for his wife ought to be a
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 2: Purifying influence. The way that I try to think about
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 2: this myself, the phrase that sort of encapsulates what this
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 2: text is bringing forward is that a man ought to
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 2: think about his wife in this way. That his goal
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 2: is that his love for his wife, as a result
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 2: of his love for his wife, she will be more
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 2: like Christ as a result of having married him than
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 2: she would have been had she not. Let me say
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 2: that again. That she will be more like Christ as
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 2: a result of having married him than she would have
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 2: been had she not.
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 2: I hear you, man. That's a heavy weight to bear. Amen. Hallelujah.
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 2: Praise the Lord. Yes, it is. This is not something
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 2: to play with. Not something to play with. I always
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 2: bring this. You know, when young women are, when I'm
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 2: talking to young women about young men who are just
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 2: not qualified to be their husbands, I bring this to them.
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, first, Paul's clear teaching, do not be unequally
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 2: yoked together with an unbeliever. But the other is this.
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 2: This is what God intends for your husband to be
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 2: in your life. A man whose love for you will
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 2: result in you being more like Christ as a result
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 2: of marrying him than you would have been had you not.
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 2: How do you get that from an unbelieving man? You don't.
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 2: Which means my first question is, are you truly converted?
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 2: If you would even consider a man who's not a Christian,
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 2: are you truly converted? Don't even get me started on
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 2: the fact that in the next section he's going to say,
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 2: fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 2: them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 2: So God intends for you to marry a man who
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 2: will be responsible for leading and bringing up your children
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 2: in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, and you
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 2: are willing to marry a man that doesn't know Christ?
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 2: I don't think you're saved. Then motivation number two, my body.
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 2: First motivation, Christ's body. Second motivation, my body. In the
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 2: same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. Again,
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 2: the phrase that I keep in my mind here is,
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 2: she's not just mine, she's me. She's not just mine,
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 2: she's me. And I remember You know, early on, Bridget
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 2: and I got married. I met Bridget January 21st, 1989.
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 2: It was my sophomore year in college. January 21st, 1989.
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 2: I remember her birthday was the 23rd. So it was
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 2: two days before her birthday. And that was the next
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 2: time we saw each other. It was on her birthday.
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 2: And I brought her birthday presents and It was just
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 2: the most awesome romantic thing ever. But anyway, I was
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 2: 19 years old. January 21st, 1989. We got married June 30th.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 2: Same year. Five months and one week later. Because we
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 2: had to wait until summer break. And the two of us,
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 2: both sides of our family, last two generations, there have
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 2: been 26 marriages and 23 divorces. 26 marriages, 23 divorces.
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 2: And of those marriages that didn't divorce, there's three. And
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 2: the last two generations, both sides of our family, three marriages.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 2: Three marriages. One of them ended in a premature death
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 2: of my uncle. Another one, they raised one child who
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 2: was the product of my uncle's adulterous affair. That's our
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 2: whole marriage legacy. We've never seen it work in our family,
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 2: in our experience. And this phrase, she's not just mine,
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 2: she's me. I remember when we had our first real argument.
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 2: And I remember it because, you know, we lived in
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 2: this little, this little tiny apartment off campus. And we
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 2: both went to our sort of opposite corners of this
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 2: little tiny apartment. And both of us were thinking the
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 2: same thing. Both of us were thinking we didn't even
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 2: make it a year. Because we knew that people argued, disagreed,
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 2: and divorced. What we didn't know is that people argued, disagreed, reconciled,
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 2: and kept on doing that. And so then we reconciled.
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 2: And I remember this wonderful, godly deacon in our church.
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 2: He was a fire chief in Houston. And I remember
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 2: him saying to me, you know, winning an argument with
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 2: your wife is like your right arm defeating your left.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 2: And it just stuck with me, right? And his whole
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 2: point was, she's not your enemy. And eventually that turned
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 2: my mind into, she's not just mine, she's me. She's
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 2: not just mine. She's me. Why would I want to
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 2: defeat her if she's not just mine? She's me. In
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 2: the same way, husbands should love their wives as their
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 2: own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 2: no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 2: cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 2: are members of his body. What is that? Unity in
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 2: Christ's body, right? That's the motivation. Remember, indicatives and imperatives, right?
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 2: The idea here is unity in Christ's body. That's what
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 2: we're portraying. That's what we're picturing. This unity that Christ
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 2: has in his body. Three. Third motivation is testimony. Christ's body,
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 2: my body, And there's a testimony. Therefore a man shall
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 2: leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 2: The two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound.
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 2: And I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 2: This beautiful picture that is being portrayed. This beautiful picture
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 2: that is going forth. to a lost, hurting, and dying world.
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 2: So on the one hand, it's Christ. Because of my
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 2: love for Christ, my desire is to present my wife
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 2: to the Lord in a way that she would be
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 2: more like Christ as a result of being married to
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 2: me than she would have been had she not. Then
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 2: there's a second blessing. Think about this picture. Bringing her,
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 2: handing her to the Lord. Lord, I loved her. And
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 2: may you be pleased. And the Lord going, I am
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 2: in joy. Why? Well, because if Christ is my all
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 2: in all, And if I love the Lord and am
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 2: being conformed to his image, and if there's nothing more
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 2: precious to me, and if my love for my wife
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 2: has the result that she's more like Christ as a
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 2: result of having been married to me than she would
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 2: have been had she not, then it makes her even
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 2: more precious to me. Do you see that? Her Christ-likeness
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 2: Makes her even more precious to me. Motivation number one,
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 2: Christ's body. Motivation number two, my body. Motivation number three,
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 2: this testimony. This testimony. First and foremost, to the world.
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 2: But secondly, to our children. Should the Lord grant us children?
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 2: To our children. Whose first picture of the gospel and
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 2: first hearing of the gospel will be in the context
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 2: of this relationship that God gave us in order to
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 2: portray this picture. What are the implications? Well, for the
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 2: sake of time, we won't spend much time on that.
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 2: Let's look at biblical womanhood. So now we'll look at
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 2: the passage of four. Why do we do this backwards?
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 2: For a number of reasons. Number one, I've found that
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 2: when we back into this, it's a lot easier for
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 2: people who have been rendered hostile to this teaching. And
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of us have been rendered hostile to it.
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 3: It.
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 2: And I'm not talking about non-Christians. I'm not talking about
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 2: the radical lesbian feminist studies professor. I'm not talking about them.
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 2: They're going to be hostile no matter what. I'm talking
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 2: about Christians who've been to college and had to take
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 2: courses from the radical lesbian feminist studies professor and from
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 2: the radical biology professor and the radical political science professor
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 2: and the radical everything else professor, right? Who not only
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 2: despises Christianity, but all things patriarchy, you know? You spend
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 2: enough time in that. You bathe in that enough. You
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 2: swim in that enough. You consume media enough that tells
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 2: you that enough. You listen to the UN enough as
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 2: they spout these things over and over and over again.
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 2: That's one thing, and again, I don't want to get
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 2: off track here, but living in a developing country, a
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 2: third world country, for the last decade, I've gotten to
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 2: know and experience more of the United Nations than any
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 2: person ought to. You don't hate the UN enough. I
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 2: promise you, you don't hate the UN enough unless you've
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 2: experienced what they are doing to the developing world. You
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 2: don't hate the UN enough unless you've seen what they
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 2: are communicating, what they are teaching, the garbage that they
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 2: are pushing down the throats of people using Western aid
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 2: In order to get, you don't hate the UN enough, right?
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 2: And so this whole, you know, anti-patriarchal, anti-Christian, it permeates everything, right?
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 2: So there tends to be some negative ideas in this regard.
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 2: So we go backwards. Now let's look at the woman
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 2: and her work. Again, back in Genesis 2, then God said,
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 2: it is not good that the man should be alone.
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 2: I will make him a helper fit for him. I
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 2: will make him a helper fit for him. Ultimately, the
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 2: woman and her work was designed by God to be
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 2: a help for the man and his call to exercise dominion.
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 2: Not independent contractors who share a bank account. Right? But
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 2: the picture of a unified force exercising dominion to the
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 2: glory of God. You see this elsewhere. Proverbs 31, 23.
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 2: Her husband is known in the gates. when he sits
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 2: among the elders of the land. Verse 27, she looks
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 2: well to the ways of her household and does not
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 2: eat the bread of idleness. Titus 2, beginning of verse 3,
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 2: older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 2: slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 2: what is good and so train the younger women to
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 2: love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 2: at home, kind, submissive to their own husbands that the
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 2: word of God may not be reviled. 1 Timothy 5.14
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 2: So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 2: their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 2: The woman and her God. We see in Genesis chapter
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 2: 3 those first three verses And the woman said to
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 2: the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 2: trees of the garden, but God said you shall not
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 2: eat of the fruit of the tree that is in
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 2: the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 2: lest you die. The woman was responsible and accountable for
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 2: the same command that came to the man. Amen? It
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 2: was not a separate command for her. It was the
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 2: same one. She's created in the image of God. She's
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 2: created for God's glory. And she is bound by God.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 2: God's law. What about the woman and her family? Genesis
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 2: chapter 3 and verse 20. The man called his wife's
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 2: name Eve because she was the mother of all living.
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 2: It's the second time he named his wife. The first
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 2: time he named her woman. He named her Esha because
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 2: she was taken out of Esh. The second time he
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 2: gives her a proper name instead of a categorical name
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 2: and he names her Eve. Because she was the mother
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 2: of all living. By the way, this name has to
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 2: do with the curse pronounced on the serpent which was
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 2: a promise given to mankind. This name is emblematic of
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 2: the glorious role that the woman played in God's providential
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 2: work of bringing about into the curse. It's glorious. It's glorious.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 2: Motherhood is glorious. Amen, somebody. All right. Now in Ephesians.
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 2: Remember what it's about. Christ's headship over his body, unity
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 2: in Christ's body, and the glory that the body gives
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 2: to its head. Wives Submit to your own husbands as
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 2: to the Lord. For the husband is the head of
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 2: the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church,
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 2: his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 2: church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 2: everything to their husbands. Notice these phrase, as to the Lord,
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 2: as Christ is, and is himself his Savior. As the
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 2: church submits to Christ. There's a picture here. Submission and
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 2: human agency. When we submit to the Lord, we always
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 2: submit through our submission to human agency. We always submit
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 2: through our submission to human agency. Everybody is called to submission.
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 2: Everybody's a child before they're an adult. Amen? Nobody comes
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 2: here grown. And because of that, they're called to submit
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 2: to their parents. Everybody. Doesn't matter if you're male, you're female, what. Wives,
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 2: submit to their husbands. Here in Ephesians 5. Church members,
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 2: submit to church leaders. Hebrews 13, 17. Citizens, submit to
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 2: their government. Romans 13, 1 Peter 2. All human beings
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 2: submit to God through submitting to proper human authority. There's
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 2: the first thing, okay? Because oftentimes when we look at this,
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 2: we treat it as though somehow women are being put
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 2: upon as no other group of human beings are put
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 2: upon because they, like no one else, are called to submission.
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 2: Everybody is called to submission to human authority. A wife's
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 2: submission to her husband is only a picture of her
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 2: submission to Christ. It's only a picture of her submission
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 2: to Christ. Struggling with submission to one's husband is a
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 2: struggle with submission to the Lord. And again, I know
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 2: we often don't want to think of it that way
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 2: and usually don't admit that that's an issue. But here's
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 2: what I've found. Here's what I've found. I've never found it.
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 2: I'm sure maybe it exists somewhere. But what I've always
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 2: found is here is a woman who says, I really
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 2: struggle with submission. And I can point to a number
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 2: of areas. But the first one I do is I
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 2: aim for the low-hanging fruit. Right? What's the low-hanging fruit? Well,
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 2: you're here to me as your pastor, which means you're
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 2: submitting to me as your pastor. You're having this issue
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 2: in your marriage, and you came to me as your
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 2: pastor to submit to my counsel. So evidently, you don't
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 2: have a blanket problem with submission. Number two, you got
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 2: a job. You haven't been fired. which means somehow you've
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 2: learned to be submissive at work which is evidence number
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 2: two that you don't just have a blanket problem with
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 2: submission I don't need to go further but I can
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 2: When you were on your way here, there were stop
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 2: signs and red lights. Guess what you did? You stopped. Why?
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 2: Because you submit to the law. Again, you do not
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 2: have a blanket problem with submission. You'd be locked up
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 2: somewhere if you did. So let's stop telling that lie.
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 2: This problem is particular. And it's spiritual. Amen? Secondly, a
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 2: wife's submission is not an expression of value, but one
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 2: of order and unity. It's one of order and unity.
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 2: The term that's used for wives to submit to their
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 2: husbands is It's a military term. And it's beautiful that
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 2: it's this military term because in the military, and I
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 2: know especially in here in Hawaii, I know there's a
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 2: large percentage of people with military service in Hawaii. And
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 2: even people who aren't themselves involved in military service, they
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 2: get it. Especially in an environment like this, right? That
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 2: there's submission. And I always ask this question. If you
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 2: have somebody who is an enlisted man, right? They're a
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 2: sergeant or they're a petty officer, right? And they've been
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 2: in the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Navy, whatever,
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 2: for 15 years. And then you have an officer who
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 2: is a lieutenant, an ensign, if they're in the Navy, right? Right?
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 2: And they've been in for 15 months. Here's my question.
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 2: Let's just be honest. Who's more valuable? You can say it.
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 2: It's the enlisted man with 15 years of experience. He's
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 2: way more valuable.
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 2: Way more valuable. But when the officer who's been there
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 2: for 15 months gives an order, what does that enlisted
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 2: man with 15 years experience do? Salute and execute. That's
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 2: what he does.
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 2: Because it's about order and not value. By the way,
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 2: if he does not salute and execute, he undermines his
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 2: own authority in the unit because he's broken the chain
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 2: of command. So whenever I have a couple who comes
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 2: to me and the wife is struggling with submission to
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 2: her husband, I always say, really be this bad man,
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 2: how's it going with obedience with your children in the house?
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 2: Because if you're breaking the chain of command and regularly
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 2: modeling the fact that order and authority doesn't matter, it
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 2: is impossible for your children to be unaffected by that. Again,
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 2: if you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 2: By the way, which is another piece of evidence that
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 2: you don't just have a general problem with submission. Because
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 2: you expect your children to submit to you. Right? Thirdly,
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 2: a wife's submission to her husband is not a statement
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 2: about all women and all men. It does not say
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 2: women submit to men. It says wives submit to your
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 2: own husbands. Amen? Wives submit to your own husbands. A
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 2: wife's submission to her husband is an expression of her
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 2: faith in God as she gives herself to the one
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 2: whom he has called to love, protect, serve, and nurture her.
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 2: It's an act of faith as well as an act
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 2: of obedience. A wife's submission is not conditional. What I
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 2: mean by that is it's not conditioned upon a husband's
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 2: worthiness of that submission. Why? Because there has never been
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 2: nor will there ever be a husband who is worthy
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 2: of his wife's submission.
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 3: Amen? He's not.
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 2: He's not. He's not. It's not the way it works.
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 2: It's not the way it works with your children. Your
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 2: children aren't called to be obedient to you to the
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 2: degree that you're worthy. It doesn't work like that. It
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 2: doesn't work like that. You're not called to obey the
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 2: traffic laws to the degree that the police force in
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 2: your town is worthy. There would be chaos, right? It
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 2: doesn't work that way. This is about order and value.
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 2: Listen to this in 1 Peter 3. So I always
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 2: get this question, you know, yeah, well, what if, what
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 2: if your husband is just not godly? What if your
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 2: husband is not a Christian? What if your husband is
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 2: not loving you like you're supposed to? What if your
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 2: husband is not? What if your husband is not? What
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 2: if your husband is not? And I just always go, man,
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 2: it'd be awesome if there was like a passage in
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 2: the Bible that gave instructions to wives whose husbands were not.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 2: 1 Peter chapter 3, like wives' wives, be subject to
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 2: your own husbands so that even if some do not
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 2: obey the word, they may be one without a word,
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 2: without a word. without a word, by the conduct of
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 2: their wives, when they see a respectful and pure conduct,
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 2: do not let your adorning be external, or don't let
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 2: it just be merely external. The braiding of the hair,
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 2: putting on a gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear.
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 2: By the way, so many people miss this. You got
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 2: denominations where they don't allow women to braid their hair
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 2: or put on makeup. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's incredibly sad
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 2: because that is not what's being taught here. It's not
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 2: what's being taught here. What's being taught here is you
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 2: know how to influence your man. You know how to
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 2: attract your man. You know how to get his attention.
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 2: You know how You know the things that you put
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 2: on that make him go, wait, what? You know that, right?
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 2: The things that you do with your hair, the things
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 2: you do with your clothes. You know that. You know that.
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 2: Why do I say that? It says, but let your
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 2: adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 2: imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 2: God's sight is very precious. You know how to get
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 2: his attention outwardly. This is about getting his intention inwardly. Remember,
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 2: what's the goal here? That he may be won without
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 2: a word. How do you win him without a word? Well,
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 2: you know how to win him without a word when
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 2: you do your hair in a certain way and when
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 2: you put on a suit. You know how to win
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 2: him without a, like not one word. Amen? This is
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 2: the internal version of that. For this is how the
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 2: holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves,
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 2: by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 2: calling him Lord. Why choose Sarah and Abraham? Because it's
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 2: about the most extreme example of a wife's submission that
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 2: you find in Scripture. Tell them you're my sister so
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 2: they don't kill me. She ends up being taken off,
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 2: put in danger by her husband. And that's the example
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 2: that he chooses. You're her children if you do good
• 2:27:16
  Speaker 2: and do not fear anything that is frightening. This is
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 2: an act of faith, an act of great faith. Are
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 2: there limits? Of course there are. No one can command
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 2: what God forbids or forbid what God commands. Amen? No
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 2: one can. But those are the limits. Commanding what God
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 2: forbids and forbidding what God commands. Well, there are arguments
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 2: against this. Okay. Well, I missed yesterday. So let me
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 2: just do these quick. There's arguments against this. Evangelical feminism
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 2: has arguments against this. And yes, there is an evangelical
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 2: feminist movement. And they do have arguments against this. Three
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 2: in particular. One, oneness in Christ. We're one in Christ.
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 2: So no more of this patriarchy, submission, headship stuff. Two,
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 2: mutual submission. Particularly in Ephesians chapter 5, they go, yeah,
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 2: verse 22 says, why submit to your husbands? Verse 21 says,
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 2: submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 2: then the third one is the reversal of the curse, right?
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 2: The curse was, your desire will be for your husband,
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 2: but he will rule over you. And that's where this
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 2: headship stuff comes from. Let's deal with this in turn. First,
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 2: the oneness in Christ argument. We're in Galatians 3.28. There
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 2: is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 2: There is neither male nor female. For you are all
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 2: one in Christ Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. This
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 2: is absolutely true. And the context of this passage is
• 2:29:11
  Speaker 2: about our salvation. If this literally meant no distinctions between
• 2:29:20
  Speaker 2: male and female, then this verse would justify so-called same-sex marriage.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 2: It would have to. It would have to. And it
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 2: would also nullify and make completely incomprehensible all the passages
• 2:29:42
  Speaker 2: in the New Testament about the relationships between men and women.
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 2: Why would we talk about the relationship between men and
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 2: women if those categories don't exist anymore? Right? So, no.
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 2: That doesn't work. The oneness in Christ argument doesn't work.
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 2: Because the same guy who wrote Galatians 3 is the
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 2: guy who wrote Ephesians 5. The other one is the
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 2: mutual submission argument. Submitting to one another out of reverence
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 2: for Christ. For the sake of time, we won't go
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 2: through all this, but Ephesians 5.21 is the end of
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 2: a paragraph. It's the end of a paragraph. I don't
• 2:30:24
  Speaker 2: care what language you speak. I don't care which direction
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 2: you're Your writing goes left to right, right to left,
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 2: top to bottom. You don't start at the end.
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 3: Amen?
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 2: And what that means is, in order to understand 521,
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 2: we have to back up to the beginning of that paragraph,
• 2:30:42
  Speaker 2: which is at 515. If you go to 515, what
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 2: you find is three sets of three. First, you have
• 2:30:49
  Speaker 2: three contrasts, right? Don't be unwise, but be wise. Don't
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 2: be foolish, but make the most of the time. And
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 2: then don't be filled with wine. but be filled with
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 2: the Spirit. On the third contrast, you get three commands, right?
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 2: You know, the first command is that we're, you know, singing,
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 2: making melody with our hearts to the Lord so that
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 2: we're praising Him. The second command is that we're being
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 2: prayerful and thankful, you know, be thankful for all things.
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 2: And then the third one is, verse 21, submitting to
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 2: one another out of reverence of Christ. Now, on the
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 2: third contrast, you get three commands. On the third command,
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 2: you get three contexts. Submission in three contexts. Context number one,
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 2: wives to husbands. Here in verse 22. Context number two,
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 2: children to parents. 6-1. Context number three, slaves to masters.
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 3: 6-5.
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 2: So Ephesians 5.21 is not the umbrella for verse 22.
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 2: It's the umbrella for Ephesians 5.22 all the way down
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 2: to 6.9. And there's none of the other household codes
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 2: that have a mutual submission caveat. And the word that's used,
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 2: the Greek word, hupotasso, is a military term. And in
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 2: the military, submission goes in one direction, up the chain
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 2: of command only, never the other way. So that one
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 2: doesn't work. Then the other one is the reversal of
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 2: the curse.
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 3: 16.
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 2: To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 2: pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children.
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 2: Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 2: rule over you. Now the reversal of the curse argument
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 2: says that the husband ruling over the wife is a
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 2: result of the curse. Therefore, when we come to Christ,
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 2: the curse is reversed. A couple of problems. Number one,
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 2: male headship existed before the fall. The woman was made
• 2:33:02
  Speaker 2: from the man, male headship. She was made for the man,
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 2: male headship. She was brought to the man, male headship.
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 2: She was named by the man twice, male headship. Here's
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 2: the other problem. By the way, in Romans chapter 5,
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 2: Romans chapter 5 says because Of one man, sin entered
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 2: into the world. The woman ate first. If there is
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 2: no male headship, why is it Adam's fault? It's his
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 2: fault because he was the head. Male headship before the fall.
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 2: Here's the second problem with the reversal of the curse.
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 2: I've been there when childbearing took place. It's not nice. Now,
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 2: the curse... I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 2: In pain you shall bring forth children. If the curse
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 2: is reversed, you should be able to go to the
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 2: maternity ward and know who the Christians are. Amen? Wailing
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 2: and gnashing of teeth over here, and then a bunch
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 2: of Christian women over here going, what are they on about?
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't work that way.
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 2: Why? Because that hasn't been reversed. Right? It doesn't work
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 2: that way. Not to mention the fact that male headship
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 2: is not a product of the fall. Rebellion against male
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 2: headship is a product of the fall. Okay. We already
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 2: talked about other limits. Yes, there are limits. Right? Nobody
• 2:34:51
  Speaker 2: can command what God forbids or forbid what God commands.
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 2: We see this example with Peter and John when it
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 2: comes to the government in Acts chapter 4.
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 2: Whether it is right to obey God rather than men,
• 2:35:03
  Speaker 2: you be the judge. But we cannot but speak of
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 2: what we've seen or heard. Nobody can tell you not
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 2: to proclaim the gospel. Nobody can, again, nobody can command
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 2: what God forbids. Nobody can forbid what God commands. All right?
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 2: That's where the limitations are. Okay.
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 2: I'll stop here so that we can have whatever we're
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 2: going to have before we do our questions.
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: Questions, we can divide them into, I guess, three sections.
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: First is forgiveness. The other one is submission. And then
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: the other third part of the questions have just things
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: that are related to these topics but kind of outside.
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 2: So we'll get to those questions last. But we'll start
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 2: with the topic of.
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 1: The first one is, how should Christians respond to others
• 2:35:59
  Speaker 1: who are demanding to be forgiven?
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 2: How should Christians respond to others who are demanding to
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 2: be forgiven? I don't know. How do you demand to
• 2:36:15
  Speaker 2: be forgiven? I don't... Our obligation is to forgive. People
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 2: shouldn't have to demand to be forgiven. So if somebody's
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 2: demanding to be forgiven, we should go, why are you
• 2:36:30
  Speaker 2: demanding to be forgiven? Forgive. Yeah, I don't... I don't
• 2:36:39
  Speaker 2: know why you're demanding to be forgiven. All right, next one.
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: Is it sinful to feel hurt or not.
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 2: As close if you have chosen.
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing if you have forgiven someone, is it still
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: okay to feel hurt?
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was kind of one of the points, right?
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 2: It's a myth that forgiveness makes everything okay. It doesn't.
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 2: We still feel hurt. We still feel betrayed. And like
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 2: I said, forgiveness is not reconciliation. Reconciliation is different. Reconciliation
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 2: is a process. I can forgive a dead person. But
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 2: reconciliation is a process, and it's a two-way street. And
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 2: so a lot of times, that's where the confusion comes in.
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 2: Is we put everything, we put forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, trust,
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 2: you know, healing, we put all of that in the
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 2: same category and just refer to it as forgiveness. And
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 2: that's where all the difficulty comes, right? Forgiveness is a
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 2: part of those processes it's the beginning of those processes
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 2: but it's not the automatic conclusion of all those processes.
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: The next few questions about forgiveness I think it's the
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: same it's a conflation of those two categories so if
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 1: I repent to someone I have wronged in light of
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: the gospel what do I do if that person refuses to.
• 2:38:16
  Speaker 2: Forgive me forgive them for not forgiving you.
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 1: Amen um how do you deal with a repentant individual
• 2:38:30
  Speaker 1: who knows that they can repeat the sin and and
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 1: know that they need to be forgiven by you again over.
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 2: And over that's not a repentant individual right if um Yeah,
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 2: that's not a repentant individual. You call that person to repentance.
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 2: But a person who is continuing in their sin and
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 2: not experiencing any accountability for it. Because that's the other
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 2: side of it, right? We have Matthew 18. There's a process. when,
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 2: when people sin, that's a separate thing, right? When people
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 2: are engaging in that process, God gives us, um, uh,
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 2: a remedy for that, a way to deal with that. Um,
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 2: and so we, we, we call people to repentance. Um,
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 2: forgiveness is me giving up on my right that I
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 2: never had anyway to punish someone, right? Um, So I'm
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 2: not going to punish you, but I'm going to call
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 2: you to repentance. Calling you to repentance is not a
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 2: lack of forgiveness.
• 2:40:00
  Speaker 1: I guess, pressing more into that, it's clear, this is
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 1: more clear when we're dealing with big sins, like adultery.
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 1: Someone says they repent, they keep doing it. But how
• 2:40:14
  Speaker 1: about small things, little vices that a husband or wife
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 1: is dealing with or someone is dealing with?
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 2: And it's repeatedly coming up. That's the essence of marriage.
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 2: You know, that was the point that I was making.
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 2: We fool ourselves when we think that because we're married
• 2:40:27
  Speaker 2: to someone, that somehow that means they should be less
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 2: likely to sin against us. But people tend to sin
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 2: in similar ways, right? We tend to have struggles. And
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 2: those struggles, some of them, they stay with us. And
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 2: because of that, our tendency is going to be to
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 2: sin repeatedly in these similar ways and have to go
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 2: through that cycle again and again and again of sin
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 2: and repentance, right? Restoration, reconciliation. That's living together, you know?
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 2: That's the Christian life. The Christian life is not one of, oh,
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 2: you know, we're Christians, we love each other, things are
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 2: going to happen once and then never happen again. You
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 2: need to sell tickets to that world.
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, moving into submission, there's a few questions about what
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: Abraham did when he entered Egypt and, uh, Sarah's submission.
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: So the questions are in line of if it isn't
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: Abraham asking her to do this, something that God forbids.
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 2: And why is she then submitting?
• 2:41:59
  Speaker 1: Is it, isn't it wrong for her submit to submit
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: to Abraham's request?
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The interesting thing is, um, the argument that's, that's
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 2: made is he's asking her to tell a truth. It's
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 2: not untrue that they have another relationship. Um, and he's
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 2: asking her to emphasize that one, um, instead of making
• 2:42:29
  Speaker 2: something up. Um, and so, and in that regard, no, it's,
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 2: it's not the same thing. Um, You know, when you're
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 2: going into enemy territory, you know, when the Germans come
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 2: to your house, you're not obligated to tell them you're
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 2: hiding Jews in Nazi Germany, right? You protect life if
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 2: you can.
• 2:43:14
  Speaker 1: This question is probably in relation to when you talked
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 1: about anger and whether you're being angry because you are
• 2:43:24
  Speaker 1: to respond the way God responds or then using it
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 1: later on for your own either manipulation or to.
• 2:43:36
  Speaker 2: Any other way misplaced yeah And.
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: So the question is, any suggestions on how to check yourself,
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 1: whether you are making a.
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 2: Decision based on.
• 2:43:47
  Speaker 1: What you're supposed to do or something selfish?
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really difficult, especially in the moment. But we
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 2: have to ask ourselves what the goal is, right? What
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 2: am I doing with this anger? Am I just venting
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 2: this anger or... Am I displaying and communicating God's displeasure
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 2: with whatever this thing is? And am I pointing people
• 2:44:22
  Speaker 2: to fear of me or am I pointing people to
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 2: fear of God? Those are questions that we can ask.
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 2: And this is something that takes more and more Christian maturity,
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 2: you know. In order to be able to do that
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 2: in the midst of what can be very emotionally charged moments.
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 2: And what often ends up happening is, you know, we're
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 2: not always going to get that right. But when we don't,
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 2: even the way we handle that can be a great witness.
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 2: You know, coming to a child and admitting that the
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 2: anger that you expressed was sinful. and asking that child
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 2: for their forgiveness because of the sinful anger that you expressed.
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 2: There's few things more powerful. There's few things more powerful
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 2: in the world, especially in your child's world.
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 1: This question is probably more to your wife, but you
• 2:45:31
  Speaker 1: could answer it or not. What does it look like
• 2:45:33
  Speaker 1: for your wife to be your helper in your area
• 2:45:37
  Speaker 1: of dominion as a pastor, leader, preacher?
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for Bridget, you know, we've been married 35 years
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 2: and the great help, the greatest help that she's been
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 2: to me is having to manage our household in such
• 2:45:56
  Speaker 2: a way that I'm able to rest in that, you know?
• 2:46:00
  Speaker 2: I don't, I can't, I couldn't do what I do
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 2: were it not for managing things the way that she
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 2: manages them and also helping me to keep things sorted
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 2: and organized and you know it just I just couldn't
• 2:46:30
  Speaker 2: I absolutely could not she's a rock in that regard
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 2: and it's part of my goal has been to guard
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 2: her from other people's expectations because everybody has expectations as
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 2: to what her help is supposed to look like. And,
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 2: you know, one of the things that I've had to
• 2:46:56
  Speaker 2: fight for is for those not to make their way
• 2:47:01
  Speaker 2: into our world. That's good. That's good.
• 2:47:12
  Speaker 1: So we're now going into questions that may not be
• 2:47:15
  Speaker 1: related or somewhat related to our topics today. Uh, the
• 2:47:20
  Speaker 1: first one is after prayer, fasting, trusting in the power
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 1: of Jesus, what can I do to put to death
• 2:47:27
  Speaker 1: besetting sins that cling so close to me?
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 2: Um, you know, it, it depends on those sins, but usually, uh,
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 2: You know, you go back there to chapter 4 that
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 2: we looked at, beginning verse 17. Now this I say
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 2: and testify in the Lord, you must no longer walk
• 2:47:52
  Speaker 2: as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 2: Oftentimes with these besetting sins, there are things that we're
• 2:48:00
  Speaker 2: thinking wrongly. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 2: the life of God because of the ignorance that is
• 2:48:06
  Speaker 2: in them. Due to their hardness of heart, they become callous.
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 2: have given themselves up to sensuality, grieved to practice every
• 2:48:12
  Speaker 2: kind of impurity, but that is not the way you
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 2: learned Christ. So, one thing is, we have to learn Christ, right?
• 2:48:27
  Speaker 2: Not just, you know, please, oh please, oh please, take
• 2:48:31
  Speaker 2: this away. Please, oh please, oh please, make this better.
• 2:48:35
  Speaker 2: But you need to understand those aspects of you and
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 2: your personality and your background and your circumstances that make
• 2:48:46
  Speaker 2: you vulnerable to this and then also Christ and who
• 2:48:50
  Speaker 2: he is and how that can be applied to this
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 2: as well and then what do we do assuming that
• 2:48:58
  Speaker 2: you heard about him and have been taught in him
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 2: the truth is in Jesus put off your old self
• 2:49:05
  Speaker 2: which belongs to your former manner of life and is
• 2:49:08
  Speaker 2: corrupt through deceitful desires so putting off your old self
• 2:49:13
  Speaker 2: may mean that there's places you don't go, may mean
• 2:49:15
  Speaker 2: that there are things that you don't have in your house,
• 2:49:19
  Speaker 2: may mean that there are people that you don't associate with,
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 2: you don't have to, right? Put off, put off, put off,
• 2:49:26
  Speaker 2: put off, put off. And then the other one is
• 2:49:29
  Speaker 2: to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 2: put on the new self, right? So that is the
• 2:49:36
  Speaker 2: ordinary means of grace. That is... you know, the ministry
• 2:49:40
  Speaker 2: of the word. That is wise counsel. That is, you know,
• 2:49:46
  Speaker 2: all of those things that God has put around us
• 2:49:50
  Speaker 2: that we can take advantage of. So it's a full-orbed process.
• 2:49:57
  Speaker 1: So as someone who is experienced in contending for the
• 2:50:01
  Speaker 1: faith and addressing full head the sins of our culture,
• 2:50:10
  Speaker 1: what's the expectation on an average Christian in his neighborhood,
• 2:50:14
  Speaker 1: in his workplace, in his community? How far do they
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 1: take that battle? When do they stop? When is enough enough?
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's always going to be a wisdom issue, and
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 2: it's going to change from person to person and from
• 2:50:29
  Speaker 2: time to time and from season to season. There are
• 2:50:33
  Speaker 2: times when the circumstances around us put us in the
• 2:50:42
  Speaker 2: forefront of a battle, right? When we didn't intend for
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 2: it to happen, we weren't looking for it, but because
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 2: of the gifts, talents, abilities, desires, training, experience, education, whatever
• 2:51:00
  Speaker 2: that the Lord has given us, we find ourselves in
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 2: a place where there's no doubt that this is something
• 2:51:06
  Speaker 2: that we're supposed to be speaking into. And when we
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 2: find ourselves in that situation, then we speak into it.
• 2:51:13
  Speaker 2: I don't go looking for things to speak into. I don't.
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 2: I don't speak into most things. But once in a while,
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 2: there are those things that because of my gifts, talents, abilities, desires,
• 2:51:27
  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of other stuff, I find myself in
• 2:51:32
  Speaker 2: the midst of and in the middle of. And when
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 2: I do, I do what I can. but I don't
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 2: go looking for stuff, you know, and I don't feel
• 2:51:42
  Speaker 2: like I need to say something about everything. I ain't
• 2:51:45
  Speaker 2: got time for that. Thank you. That's good. This will
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 2: be the last question.
• 2:51:59
  Speaker 1: So here in Kona, we have a whole host of
• 2:52:03
  Speaker 1: faith traditions, Reformed Baptists, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal.
• 2:52:08
  Speaker 2: Five of them right here on this campus, right?
• 2:52:14
  Speaker 1: NAR, we have a big YWAM campus here. Um, and
• 2:52:18
  Speaker 1: it's a small town. Everybody's kind of with everybody. Uh,
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: what are some things we unite, you know, come to
• 2:52:27
  Speaker 1: the table for, and what are some things that we,
• 2:52:29
  Speaker 1: we shouldn't, you know, is there, is there a place
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 1: for ecumenicalism, I guess? Um, in working together or in
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 1: what are the things that should unite us or not?
• 2:52:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:52:45
  Speaker 2: I think we should respond to those things as opposed
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 2: to inventing them.
• 2:52:51
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:52:52
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's our job to say, let's find
• 2:52:57
  Speaker 2: as many ways as we can for us to do
• 2:53:00
  Speaker 2: ABC XYZ. I think as a local church, man, we
• 2:53:03
  Speaker 2: got more than we can say grace over. And we
• 2:53:06
  Speaker 2: need to be faithful, right? But then there are going
• 2:53:09
  Speaker 2: to be things. This goes back to the last question.
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 2: There are going to be things that come up around
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 2: us in our community that automatically compel us and other
• 2:53:22
  Speaker 2: Christians toward co-belligerence. A classic example of that is we
• 2:53:28
  Speaker 2: talked about this stuff with the transing of kids, right?
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 2: that's not something that we have to go run and
• 2:53:36
  Speaker 2: look for. I mean, the stuff that's happening with that,
• 2:53:39
  Speaker 2: there are states, you know, one of them is Minnesota, right?
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 2: Guy who just ran for vice president that will take
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 2: children away from their parents in other states in order
• 2:53:54
  Speaker 2: to treat them there. I mean, this stuff is, you know,
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 2: It has come for us. The abortion issue. It's interesting.
• 2:54:09
  Speaker 2: After Dobbs, Roe v. Wade falls with the Dobbs decision.
• 2:54:14
  Speaker 2: There have been more abortions per year since Dobbs than
• 2:54:21
  Speaker 2: there was under Roe. More abortions per year. And the
• 2:54:26
  Speaker 2: abortion movement has become more bloodthirsty than ever. We saw
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 2: that in this last election, right? I mean, we saw
• 2:54:36
  Speaker 2: a whole campaign, a whole candidacy where the one thing
• 2:54:43
  Speaker 2: that animated Kamala Harris that made her non-robotic and non-fake
• 2:54:52
  Speaker 2: was when she talked about her bloodthirst for the death
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 2: of the unborn. She became animated, She didn't need a prompter.
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 2: She became passionate, unlike any other thing that she talked about, right?
• 2:55:08
  Speaker 2: This is huge. And it's becoming more and more of
• 2:55:15
  Speaker 2: an issue. And even the Republican Party, you know, Donald Trump,
• 2:55:23
  Speaker 2: for all that he has brought and is promising and
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 2: can be hopeful about One of the things that he
• 2:55:32
  Speaker 2: did was go to the Republican Party platform and good
• 2:55:37
  Speaker 2: it of its pro-life commitments and put in exceptions, right?
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 2: Put in exceptions. And that's something that has to be
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 2: paid attention to, right? Because if it's not something that's
• 2:55:51
  Speaker 2: addressed and paid attention to, eventually that slides into just
• 2:55:57
  Speaker 2: another bloodthirsty pro-abortion party. So those are the kinds of
• 2:56:04
  Speaker 2: things where you don't have to go and decide, should
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 2: we work with others? No. As Christians, we look up
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 2: and we're working together in the trenches because that's something
• 2:56:15
  Speaker 2: that's there. It's something that's come. So I think we
• 2:56:19
  Speaker 2: need to, like I said, discover those things rather than
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 2: look for them.
• 2:56:25
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 2:56:26
  Speaker 2: Well, Dr. Bauckham, thank you.
• 2:56:30
  Speaker 1: All the passages we read, Paul talking about coming to
• 2:56:35
  Speaker 1: traveling and preaching and completing the joy of those who
• 2:56:40
  Speaker 1: he comes and shared with. We feel the same way.
• 2:56:43
  Speaker 2: We're on an island. It could feel very scarce here.
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 1: And we are incredibly blessed by you.
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 2: So thank you. It's my pleasure. Appreciate it. And just
• 2:56:57
  Speaker 2: know that this is a blessing. For me, this is
• 2:56:59
  Speaker 2: a blessing for us. I get so excited for my children.
• 2:57:05
  Speaker 2: What a privilege it is for them to be able
• 2:57:07
  Speaker 2: to see the body of Christ in in so many
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 2: different parts of the world. I know it's a huge
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 2: blessing for me and I count it a privilege whenever
• 2:57:22
  Speaker 2: I have an opportunity like this. Some people say, Things like,
• 2:57:27
  Speaker 2: you know, thank you for coming to, you know, a
• 2:57:29
  Speaker 2: small church like ours. Listen, the day I think I'm
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 2: too important to come to a church like this is
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 2: the day I'm no longer qualified to go to any church.
• 2:57:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you.
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 1: And for those who want to follow along and see
• 2:57:47
  Speaker 1: where the Bauckham family is going to settle, you can
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: follow them on Instagram. They're having a little countdown where
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 1: every week they're crossing out states that they're not going.
• 2:57:59
  Speaker 2: So you guys can follow them there. Thank you. Thank you, brother.
• 2:58:02
  Speaker 1: All right, let's pray and we'll be done. Father, we
• 2:58:05
  Speaker 1: just thank you for your goodness and your kindness to us. Lord,
• 2:58:09
  Speaker 1: first and foremost, we thank you for all that you
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 1: have done for us and for all the promises that
• 2:58:14
  Speaker 1: you have made to us through your son, Jesus. Lord,
• 2:58:17
  Speaker 1: that these promises, they are truly for us, Father. And Lord,
• 2:58:23
  Speaker 1: as we seek how to live wisely in the world
• 2:58:27
  Speaker 1: that you have placed us in, in a time that
• 2:58:30
  Speaker 1: you have placed us in, Lord, first and foremost, I
• 2:58:32
  Speaker 1: pray that your goodness, these indicatives would be at the
• 2:58:38
  Speaker 1: forefront of our life and of our thinking and motivate
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 1: and be the wind in the sail for all that
• 2:58:45
  Speaker 1: we do in our community and in our families and
• 2:58:47
  Speaker 1: our marriages. Father, we thank you for this time with
• 2:58:50
  Speaker 1: our brother, Brother Votie.
• 2:58:52
  Speaker 2: Lord, bless him.
• 2:58:54
  Speaker 1: Lord, we pray for his health, that you would give
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 1: him many, many, many more years, Lord, in service to
• 2:59:01
  Speaker 1: your body and to your church. Lord, bless them in
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 1: their travels. Give them rest, if at all possible, here
• 2:59:07
  Speaker 1: in Hawaii, Lord. And Father, bless every single one of us.
• 2:59:12
  Speaker 2: We pray this in Jesus' name.
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 3: Amen.