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[0:00] chapter 5, and let's have a word of prayer. Our Lord and Father, we're grateful to be able to be saved and to come before you this morning, humbly seeking your will and seeking your wisdom from your words.

[0:18] Please bless the time now and help us to understand the truth of the Scriptures, help us to be in subjection to this book, help us to rightly divide it and to teach it clean and pure and accurately, and may your Spirit bear witness to the truths.

[0:33] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, we got passed through this section on being filled with the Spirit in verse 18, and I gave you a little outline there from 19, 20, and 21 of if you're filled with the Spirit, then you're going to be joyful and thankful and humble.

[0:49] And it's a pretty good little description there of those verses, and it's something that, as what I said, that's what it looks like from the Apostle Paul.

[1:00] Instead of just trying to come up with ideas of being filled with the Spirit, you do this, that, and the other thing. This is what the Scripture says in connection with being filled with the Spirit. And all three of those things, they're right on the money.

[1:12] If you try to walk with God, then those are things that happen and should happen, is joy in your heart. That's unexplainable. It's a fruit of the Spirit. It's evidence of being filled with the Spirit.

[1:23] Thankfulness, right? And what's the word? Covetousness, but rather gratitude. And then what we get into today is the submitting and the humility.

[1:36] So let's pick it up in verse 21. Still carrying this. It's one to another in the fear of God.

[1:47] And that's where the period ends, the thought that goes back to verse 18. So we're going to try to show you a little bit of what that looks like in some describing way.

[2:04] But before we do that, it's yourselves. It's plural. It's the church. We want to jump right into verse 22 because, yeah, amen, wives. Get on your knees. Do what you're told to do.

[2:16] But that's not the teaching. The teaching is submitting yourselves. And let's see this somewhere else. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5. The submission starts with everybody having a spirit of humility and being subject or in subjection one to another.

[2:35] A feminine thing or a role of... 1 Peter 5. And here he's talking about elders in verse 1.

[2:50] Peter calling himself an elder. And when he gets to verse 5, he says, Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Well, that's a pretty easy one, right?

[3:02] We just... That's kind of most cultures. The younger submit to and obey their authorities. Or the aged have the way.

[3:14] And the younger follow and do what they're told. So verse 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. But watch this. Yea, all of you. So now he's almost flipping it around by saying the younger submit to the elder, of course.

[3:29] Yea, all of you. All of you be subject one to another. And be clothed with humility. So he doesn't give any elderly or aged person a pass to be arrogant or cocky or think that they need to be submitted to and followed and obeyed.

[3:49] As a matter of fact, the elder is supposed to come in to the situation or into the church with the same clothing of humility as the younger. All of you be subject one to another.

[4:00] And be clothed with humility. Why? For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. And God will resist an elder if they're filled with pride.

[4:11] And he'll give the grace to the humble one. The younger, perhaps, even. And you may remember, I don't want to take time to steer off of this, but there's evidence of that in the Old Testament where an older person was lifted up in pride and God bypassed him and went to the younger one.

[4:29] All right, verse 6 then says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. So the point is clear there. This teaching from Ephesians of submitting yourselves one to another and how that looks, that goes beyond husbands and wives relationship, although he's going to go right into that family core.

[4:52] It starts with everybody. And we need to get that first. So now we'll go back to Ephesians 5, verse 21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And now trickling down in this line of thinking of submission, verse 22.

[5:08] Scripture pulled out of its context, pulled out of its place, and just put that on the wall and say that's the most important command.

[5:22] And in doing so, you can, I'll give you the comparison. Turn to Colossians chapter 3, and let's compare another verse to make sure accurately because you could go to Ephesians and say, submitting yourselves one to another.

[5:38] Wives, submit unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. And so whatever my husband tells me to do, I have to submit to him as if he's God. And you could make it sound like that's what it's saying, and that's not what it's saying.

[5:54] It's saying, submit to that husband as unto the Lord, as in if you can submit to God, if it's right, then you can submit to him in that. Watch this in Colossians chapter 3, verse 18.

[6:07] Parallel passage here. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. In the Lord. As it is fit or suitable or a match as it's right, you can submit.

[6:22] So give me an illustration here. If I say to my wife, hey, I'll pull up to the store. You run in and grab what we need.

[6:33] And I'll sit here and keep the car running. And let's go. Remember what the Bible says. You submit to me. So is that fit in the Lord for the wife?

[6:44] Does she have to? The Bible says, submit to the Lord. Okay, Father. I'll obey him because he told me to, and you told me to obey him. But no, that's not fit in the Lord to go break the laws of the land or even to violate the scriptures.

[7:03] And so if a husband is telling or suggesting a wife, and this couldn't go other ways, children and parents, it would say children obey your parents in the Lord. And so your children don't obey parents when they tell them to do something that's against God or against the scripture.

[7:16] And the same thing's true. If she doesn't submit to her husband, if he's not telling, or if he's leading her against the scriptures, if it's not fit in the Lord, then she's not obligated from the scripture to submit in that area.

[7:29] Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. And now he's gonna make some, carry this again a little bit further. For the husband is the head of the wife, a little explanation of the submission and the role here.

[7:50] So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. And now we're gonna pause here. I wanna use the screen here a little bit to kinda put a chart up here that I think will help you visualize because, and this isn't a great title maybe here calling this biblical headship.

[8:15] It's not very catchy, but because the verse we just read, there it is, in Ephesians describes that the husband's the head of the wife and then it says Christ is the head of the church.

[8:28] So there's, is one Christ is the head of the church. That's a separate thing, but it's used as an analogy. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 11.

[8:42] I put that up there, yeah. And let's see a verse here that will start to this chart.

[8:59] 1 Corinthians 11 and verse number 3. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ.

[9:15] So Christ is under or in subjection to, man is in subjection to Christ. And the head of the woman is the man. And the head of Christ is God.

[9:26] He just gave us four different things there and so I wanna put it up here so that you can see it. And so we'll stop the pecking order coming down the submission or the headship. God, it said there at the last part of that verse and the head of Christ is God.

[9:41] So no doubt referring to God the Father and Christ in his subjection role to him as he displayed all through his life. Scripture.

[9:55] If you need to see it again, verse 3. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. There it is. And the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God.

[10:06] It says it in a different order but that's it, right? Alright. Look at Ephesians chapter 6. Just to complete this chart a little bit further.

[10:17] Ephesians chapter 6. There's something missing on this chart and it's the children.

[10:32] So children, what are you to do? So underneath the parents, the man, the woman is the child.

[10:43] So there's the complete chart of children but not very spiritually minded so that really doesn't have anything to do with it. So there's the...

[10:58] Do I put it up there? Yes. Let's look at this one. 1 Timothy. Keep going to your right a little bit. 1 Timothy.

[11:08] 1 Timothy. But it just... The scriptures are accurate and where it shows up it's going to match.

[11:23] So 1 Timothy. Look at this verse. Just a thought here that can solidify this chart. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.

[11:38] the man Christ Jesus. Now I know that's not about subjection and those things but there it is. Now I want to add some arrows to this and this is where you need to just watch and I hope you can see clear where you're at because this is going to start to teach something about this whole concept.

[12:02] So I'm going to throw some arrows on this chart and the arrow as you can see is going to represent... The downward arrow is going to represent God's command to lead the one below. To teach the one below.

[12:13] To love the one below. And so there's the chart. It's all in order and the man is to lead the woman. The woman, the child. Christ is to lead the man. In the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ he was led of God the Father and we'll even look at a verse or two about that maybe.

[12:30] So there's one set of arrows. The next set of arrows is going to represent God's command. Notice both of these are about God, the biblical version of all of this. What God says, who is supposed to love who, whom, and obey whom and honor.

[12:45] So the one going up is going to represent who God says you're supposed to obey and submit to and follow. And so there goes the opposite way. And we already saw in Ephesians that the woman is to submit to the husband, the wife to the husband.

[13:02] and the head of every man is Christ. Now, I'm not sure where I put the verses at.

[13:13] Let's see what happens. If that, look at John.

[13:25] John. John. John. John. But I'll pick these because they're back to back.

[13:41] the role of the Father and the Son and the Son and the Father in this little bit here. Verse 28, Then Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He.

[13:56] And notice this, I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And so he's teaching. And we can look at leading.

[14:09] Loves the Son. And then verse 29, And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those who do not God.

[14:26] And there he is in subjection to that role in that. from underneath obedience to the mom.

[14:48] He's not right with the dad either. He's not right with Christ. He's out. She, he, she. If they get out of that relationship or of this submission role, then they're not right with God when they don't obey their parents.

[15:04] Their job, based on those arrows, they only have one. They don't have anybody that they're over. So as a child, they have one job in this life, as far as this thought goes, and that's to love and obey and honor, follow, submit to the authority above them.

[15:22] And you know what the mom says when the kids act up, wait till your father gets home. Why? Because they're in the same line and disobeying the mother is disobeying the father and that's not gonna fly.

[15:35] Now, the kid is not right with God when the kid is outside of this. We're assuming that what they're training and leading in is the right ways of God in this line.

[15:46] If they're in line with God and Christ, then the kid needs to stay in line. If they step out of that line, they're not right with God. They're not right, the kid's not right with his dad. You got the idea.

[15:57] Alright, so let's take another example. What happens if the woman says, I'm not doing this? This has happened many, many times in the ministry or in just a church or in a relationship where a man says, I feel the Lord and Christ is leading him.

[16:18] If he's in this system the way he's supposed to be, that's what we're presenting right now, I feel God leading me this way and the woman says, oh no, I won't have any of that.

[16:30] You can go to church but we're not doing that and she steps out from underneath that leadership and that direction or for instance, a man's getting his life right with God, maybe he wasn't.

[16:40] and the woman and the child so they weren't following the Lord and the woman and the woman and the woman and the woman and the woman I need to start reading my Bible and he gets over where he belongs.

[16:54] The woman says, I'm not dealing with that. I didn't marry you to go to church every Sunday and things like that. Is she right with God? Absolutely not but he can be right with God. Her job is to be underneath him and follow his leading as he's following Christ.

[17:09] So she steps out of this headship picture here. She's not right with God here if she's not following and being led by her husband who is in this being led by Christ.

[17:30] She may in fact pull those children right over there with her and say, we're not doing that and the children now aren't right with the Lord and it may not be the case. The child will have to make up his mind or God will have to have some grace here.

[17:44] All right, let's take a look at the man. What if everything's going well and the man starts backsliding and says, I don't want none of this or I'm stepping out or the man's lost or this is the situation.

[17:56] What do you do? What does the woman do? Does she submit to her husband when he's not right with God? When he's lost? How can she submit to a man and be right with Christ?

[18:09] The woman has to obey Christ if the man if the man right with God if she's going to follow a lost man and the woman and the woman and the woman are equal and they're the same and there's no difference between and there's variations and there's no difference between and there's variations of this but how does that?

[19:05] That's not going to match the scripture and it's going to create problems as you well know. here's another one this is totally backwards it's almost humorous but it's not far off I'm sure you've probably seen it to where as a for instance either a week the thing gets flipped and when she's in charge her about his life and it's all about the kid the kid gets their way and the wife tells the husband to shut up and do what he's told and the thing's completely backwards here's another one we could add things to this this is what is pretty popular the government is the one that feeds you and protects you and provides for you so you submit to us and there's biblical truth to submitting to the government when when they're not going against the scripture

[20:08] Peter said we ought to obey God rather than man so if we had a long column there we can't add everything to this but if the government's in it in that line where they're not against the scriptures you can be in subjection to them if the government's outside of that line you can't be in subjection to that form of government and obey God so the thing works but this is a little bit out of balance if there's no God in it if there's no Christ you can't stay there and so this is the right one this is the Bible one and that's just kind of a way of putting it into your eyes so that you can see it and then understand what the Bible is about it all and that's the end of the book we could even add some thoughts like different that's the home that's the home what we read in Peter about submitting yourselves one to another we could even add things there's church leadership there's ways of looking at different dynamics or different relationships but in the home and what Paul's dealing with in Ephesians 5 wife relationship so back there in verse 23 where we got into this headship thought the husband's the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he's the savior of the body and Paul uses that term to refer to the church there it is again and he references that again later in is that in this chapter yeah members of his body verse 30 29-30 going through there and so he's the one that uses that term body of Christ referring to the church the church that is made of comprised of born again Christians verse 24 therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything

[21:57] I believe Paul's dealing with saved people here he's writing to a church and the ideal situation he doesn't cover all the basis in every scenario in this chapter of the different possibilities of saved lost single all of that so he's talking to saved people and this is the way it ought to be the ideal setup in verse 25 husbands love your wives so now we're transitioning from the wife to the husband he has a role and a duty it's a command to love your wives and this is not an easy command I don't mean loving a woman or a wife is hard but what he puts on this is pretty heavy husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word that he might present it to himself a gloomy such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish so ought men to love so this is a it's not a just a bypassing statement oh I have to say something to the men too this is pretty pointed and pretty strong what did Jesus Christ do for that church as the example of how a husband is to love his wife he gave himself for it he gave himself for a church that would disobey him that would abuse him or misappropriate his blessing his grace

[23:37] I mean we're talking about a rebellious people just like in Israel we're no better than them in the Old Testament a church that is backslidden a church that's one of or lukewarm and he gave himself for the church and I'm not trying to compare that to every wife out there by any means but I'm stating the fact is that he knowingly he willingly and knowingly gave himself for a church that he himself was going to have to clean up and fix up and make acceptable to himself he didn't do it for the perfect church and he didn't do it he's giving everything in this situation and so little in return and that's the mindset of a man to come into that relationship and that love for his wife is not that if you're perfect and if you submit to me and if you do everything I tell you to then it's going to be easy for me to show my love to you if that's what

[24:39] Jesus Christ did for us then we can say yeah woman you better do everything I tell you to and I'll be good to you but he didn't and that verse has convicted me my entire marriage entire marriage anytime there's a situation or just a disagreement between the two of us because we're two different people and we have two different minds and two different wills and just saying I do at an altar did not unite us perfectly in a bond that is unbreakable that bond is breakable as you well know those bonds have been broken all over the place and ours could be broken too if it weren't for the grace of God I've been trying to say times to think if I ever feel like that you know if we would get in an argument or not see something eye to eye or agree on something and that happens in relationships all over the place if that's the case and in my mind the devil's filling me with thoughts you should tell her this you should say that you were right she's wrong blah blah blah and then the scripture says love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it the scripture says have you been perfect to Jesus Christ if not then shut up and if you have to take the wrong take the wrong if you're right maybe you're right maybe you're wrong just shut up and let it go because he's forgiven you of everything so let it go and that verse has helped me we probably wouldn't be married if it wasn't for the scripture and I'm not saying we're on the rocks or anything like that

[26:22] I'm just saying that's just life right and the word of God can change you and it's right to do right thank God for this book that helps us to do right now God has commanded the husband to love his wife and there's some examples in this bible of that and there's some types and we'll mention that in the next hour a little bit that is interesting one of which I'll mention now is Adam and Eve and Adam and Eve picture for us Christ and the church and the very first husband and wife and take a look at 1st Timothy chapter 2 and I want you to see this I think you know the story of Adam and Eve but look at 1st Timothy 2 it sheds a little light on the situation that they found themselves in and this is this is this is tough I mean this is incredible 1st Timothy 2 verse 14 the bible says and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression so the bible says that the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so that woman was deceived and she was genuinely tricked and you could say you could blame her and all that yeah but she messed up but Adam did not he was not deceived according to Paul

[27:48] Adam saw the thing and he knew what it was and the decision he made to partake of that fruit was willfully and knowingly he didn't have a devil tricking him why did he do it he's a picture here now I'm not saying this is why he did it but he's a picture of Christ loving the church and giving himself for it Adam loved that woman Eve as if she was the only woman on the earth yeah she was he loved that woman and he could have chosen God God are we gonna because he knew this was bad she violated the word of God the command and he had a choice to make and he made the choice and he just had to have it she told him how good it was I think he wasn't deceived and so he made a choice and there's a good picture there of of a man loving his wife and giving himself for it just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for it and there's other types in that Old Testament that show some of that very stuff now verse 26 26 he gave himself for it and the reasoning goes forward that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing so here the wedding the man and woman they get married and she wears the white dress and this whole picture of this this purity this spotless without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that's the significance of that wedding picture comes from the scripture of a cleansed church the word which I have spoken unto you the word has a cleansing agent look back at John chapter 17 without this word you can be saved by the blood of Christ but this word has the qualities of sanctification the blood sanctifies it's all connected in the same but your day to day moving out of sin and getting cleaned up comes from the word

[30:31] John 17 verse 17 Christ is praying to the father on his way to the garden he says sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth you're going to get sanctified before the father it's going to be through the word Jesus Christ sanctified and cleanses his church with the washing of water and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord and the Lord because Christ comes and and there's places we could go to discuss that and pictures of that elsewhere as well in the Old Testament but you better be in the word the word has the ability to cleanse you and to change you and to clean you up and I've said it a thousand times from Romans 12 to renew to transform you and to renew your mind that's a cleansing that takes time and you don't get saved and just become super Christian it takes time in the word to have the word sanctify you to change how you think you've been trained by parents by this world you've had so much input and you continue to have a lot of ugly wicked flawed mentality input being put inside of you you need the word of God to combat that and to counter that and to kick it out and to cleanse you and now Jesus Christ is not interested in presenting to himself a filthy dirty used up abused trashed bride he wants it to be sanctified and cleansed he wants it to be glorious in so how's he going to get that from your good works is he going to get that from your devotion from your love for him please he knows better and I hope you do too he's going to do it himself he has to do it himself you're not going to be able to get there verse number 28 going back to the husbands and wives he's saying so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies and a man may get accused of being rugged and dirty and not care about it but the truth is men take care of their bodies some more than others but you wash your body and you shave and you clean yourself up and clip your nails and if you're a married man for the most part if you're looking for a wife you definitely do after you get married you might let some of that go but not for long you'll hear about it but men ought to love their own wives as their own bodies and there's

[33:26] I'm not going to take the time there's more scripture to turn to here and to cost reference this with but he that loveth his wife loveth himself and there's truth to that in that relationship you could say it the other way that he that loveth himself doesn't love his wife but that's not the statement here and he's talking about his own body and if you love your wife the way you're supposed to love your wife and give yourself for it you're doing yourself a favor verse 29 says for no man ever yet hateth his own flesh right nobody purposely destroys themselves and harms themselves we take care of ourselves if we get cut at work we stop and we address it and we clean it up because it's our body we don't just pretend do that again watch the I mean some devil possessed fool does stuff like that but no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church for we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones the church gets cut when his bride or his church his people get hurt or bruised he cherishes he takes care of it he binds them up and heals the wound and he cares for his body and he careth for you we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bone and we're going to close here but turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number 12 we are members of his body so that's that means that local church but the bride or the overall universal church including the local church all believers are members of his body so this is his body coming together and so it goes back to this is why we ought to be in subjection one to another because it has nothing to do with you and if a man wants to get the preeminence in the body that's a that's a satanic sin to take the preeminence away from Jesus Christ it's his body he's the one that belongs receiving the glory from us together verse number 27 says you are the body of Christ and members in particular now let's back up a little bit he gives illustration describe that body about verse verse 14 the body is not one member but many so he goes on to a physical body showing that it has comprised of in the passage an ear an eye what else does he talk about just those two you've got hands and feet and you've got members that are less honorable in verse 23 and comely parts that have no need in verse 24 and so the body is made up of several things and we're to care for one another verse 25 that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honored all the members rejoice with it roles within the body now back in

[36:52] Ephesians the statement was that we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones and I think it's always worth saying and bringing it to light we've been talking here about being filled with the spirit we've been talking about walking not as children of darkness but as children of light and reproving the unfruitful works of darkness and here in this passage about submitting to yourselves and your role and it all comes back to believers to the body of Christ and it's about the Lord Jesus Christ all of your obedience is not so that my marriage is great and your submission is not so that my home works well it all comes back to I'm doing this because I'm doing this because when everybody's in some objection one to another in love with the Lord Jesus and he's leading them and all that stuff this thing works and it's healthy and it's strong to do with it but can you imagine a body that's got poison in it and diseased and it's not capable of doing what God is calling it to do the Lord nourisheth and cherisheth it and he loves that body just like a man does taking care of himself it's probably easier to say wives take care of their bodies better than men take care of theirs but I think we all stand the picture here now I'm going to close here like I said but I hope it's your role to stay in that line and if you or someone else in the line is out of it it creates problems and I'll bet you serious issues but like a relational issue

[38:55] I'll bet you you can look at that chart and point out somebody got out somebody's not where they should be in that line because this thing works and so we'll close there we'll come back and wrap up this thought about the mystery about 10 or 12 minutes and we'll come back a lot So Thank you.

[40:15] Thank you.