Live like a Christian. So, you know, we emphasized last week that if people feel they need more sermons on how to live like a Christian, it almost strikes me as what they really want is more motivation. Because I'm hard-pressed to think you don't know how. I mean, we need to be reminded, but we don't know how. So I'm viewing it really more as There's something wrong, and there's something wrong spiritually, and they need more motivation because maybe they feel like they've failed too much. There's too much inconsistency in their lives. It comes out expressed, just teach me how to live like a Christian. Well, that's kind of a cover-up. I think for what's really happening, in most instances anyway. I'm sure there's real instances where people aren't sure, so how do you live the Christian life? But that's pretty much elementary stuff for a brand new believer, or even someone who has not come to Christ yet. But an interesting thing, though, is Paul is gonna spend pretty much this chapter, talking about how to live like a Christian. That's what he's going to do. And particularly as you get closer to the end of it, and we're going to see that as we go through this chapter. He's going to tell us how to live like a Christian. Now someone may object to me making that observation. I mean, I don't think anyone's going to deny it. And they might say, well, wait a minute now. If Paul's going to do that, then you're in contradiction to Paul, because you said that Christians really don't need to be told how to live like a Christian, that because they have the spirit of God dwelling in them, they ought to know how to live like a Christian and that we don't really need to ever cover that. And that's actually not true. I have said. on multiple occasions in this series when mentioning that thought that I'm not saying we never need to teach on practical holiness. I'm not saying that we never need to teach on that. I've never conveyed that. I've never indicated that it wasn't at times necessary and profitable. My point was, and continues to be, that if we love the Lord with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, all of our minds, then we will know what to do. Love will inform us as to how to live like a Christian. Love will teach us that. You say, I don't follow. Well, because love moves us to action and love for the Lord, love for Christ and what he's done for us. If we've come to Christ and he dwells in us, that love moves us towards obedience. We want to please him. We want to obey him. How can we please him and obey him unless we know what he wants us to do? So love moves us to, well, let's find out what he wants us to do. So we go to the Bible. We sit in church services and hear sermons coming from the Bible. So we we want to learn what does the Lord expect of us. So we study and learn the scriptures so that we know. And why do we do that? Well, because we love him and we want to please him. So we on our own initiative, by God's grace, because of his indwelling presence, we go to the word and we learn what he wants us to do. OK, so that's the key, I think, to the whole thing. God's will is not a mystery. I know Christians like to sometimes pretend it is, but it's not really a mystery. I know there are certain things about God's will. Lord, do I go to this school or that school? Do I choose this as a career or that as a career? Well, there's no Bible verse for that. Is this the right person to marry or is it not the right person to marry? So there are situations that require a decision of you where maybe God's specific will in that thing isn't so clear. Okay, that's one thing. But the truth is, how to live like a Christian, that's clear. That's clear. And it's pretty straightforward. God's will in that regard, how we can live in a way that pleases Him, is not a mystery. But there is teaching in the Word of God that tells us what He expects from us. So we ought to study it and read it. and contemplate it and teach upon it so that we know what to do and that we can remind ourselves of the obligation that we already know about, but sometimes we need to be reminded of things we already know, okay? And so Paul gives it to us in this chapter, but you know, how he does it and the way he initiates the subject is really great. We're gonna spend some time just thinking about that this morning. He says in verse two, because he says in verse one, because of this great truth of the mystery of Christ that I have revealed to you, I beseech you, walk worthy of that calling that he has given you. What calling had the Lord given them? To become the citizens of Israel, to become the children of God, to be part of God's covenant nation. to be his people. We who are not a people are made the people of God. We've been invited into that promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we're full participants. Now, in light of that high blessing, live godly lives. Now he's going to tell us how to live godly lives. So how does he start doing that? That's the question. Well, it's interesting because the first thing Paul emphasizes, really, if you look at 1 to 6 as a whole, is the unity of believers. If you're going to talk about how to live like a Christian, what does God expect from us, what is holy living, you can start in all sorts of places. But Paul starts by promoting and exhorting upon them unity amongst the brethren as the starting place. of how to live like a Christian. He says, so how do we live in a way that is worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called? Well, he goes right into it in verse two, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. This is all very much tied into what was the secret of the Lord? What was the mystery? The two have become one. No longer two, one. No longer Jew and Gentile, one. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, not one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles. They have been brought into the Commonwealth of Israel. Right. So this all matches one God and father of all. The whole thing is that way, who is above all and through all and in you all, even the Gentile believers. Right. When Peter, when they when they they saw, well, even the Holy Ghost has fallen on the Gentiles, just like it has on us Jews. Well, they determined that God is no respecter of persons, and he's going to call out people from among the Gentiles. See, it was all unfolding, and here it's being explained. But when you look at verses two through six, you're seeing unity and peace amongst the children of God. Now, that's easy to see as the broad picture, but stop and think about that. He just introduced his thoughts by saying, walk in a manner that is worthy in the light of this great grace God has given you. Okay, then what do we do? Walk in peace and with unity with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Why is that so fundamental to holy living? See, that's kind of what I'm asking, saying. Because unless you stop and think about what he's doing and realize, well, he could have gone a whole bunch of ways. He chose to do it this way. I think he chose wisely because he was moved by the Spirit of God to do so. So I know he chose wisely. It was, in fact, the Word of God, not Paul. Paul does not start off by his discussion on what godly living is, worthy living is, he doesn't start off with a list of do's and don'ts. And that might be almost the natural tendency. Hey, let's cut right to the chase. Do this and don't do that. Do this and don't do that. Do this and don't do that. Now, when you're all done with that, you say, oh, now we know exactly what to do. Thank you for being succinct and straight to the point. That's not what he did. Paul's not afraid of a list. Of do's and don'ts, I know that. Instead, Paul started going to a lift. He started talking about unity amongst the brethren. And I'm saying the ultimate question, you might think we're forgetting about it as we go along. The ultimate question is, but why is he appealing that way? And it absolutely makes sense, which by the time we get to the end of this sermon, I hope you see. But Paul is not afraid of a list of do's and don'ts. He really gets into it towards the end of the chapter, right? If you go over to the same chapter, chapter 4, but verse 25. And Paul says, Wherefore put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor. We are members one of another, so don't lie. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. You need to control your anger, okay? Don't lie. Don't be unrighteously angry. In verse 27, neither give place to the devil. Don't leave an open door to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more. He's listed on all these sins. You don't do these things. You don't steal. But rather let him labor, working with his hands. Oh, here's what you do. You be industrious and you work and you provide and don't expect someone else to do everything for you. Act responsibly. And he that may give him to him that needeth, let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth. Watch what comes out of your mouth. So see, he gives a little laundry list here. I'm not going to go through it all. We'll do that when we get to it. Right. And verse 31, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, put her away from you. So there's a laundry list at the end, at the end of the chapter. So at the beginning of the chapter, he's saying live in a way that is worthy of the great grace that God has shown to you. Okay, so give us that list. Be at peace and unity with each other as brothers and sisters. Okay, yes, that's all sweet, but where's this list? We need this list. Paul isn't wasting time. Paul isn't trying to write a book and sell it and make money. So he's got to get a lot of fluff in there to fill the pages. So you have to read a whole book this thick to get about this much of what you're really interested in, which is one of the burdens of book writing nowadays. Now Paul's doing something that should be done before any laundry list is ever passed out. And the question is, why is he doing it this way? Well, that's our subject. It seems to me, in my opinion, Paul doesn't want the Ephesians particularly the Gentile Christians in Ephesus but it would apply to the Jewish ones as well but I'm thinking he's mindful of the area they're in but he really doesn't want the Ephesian Christians and the Gentile Christians to mimic the scribes and Pharisees. And they love lists of do's and don'ts. Doesn't mean they really keep them, but they do love the list, you see. And I think Paul had enough wisdom to know that was the example set for them by the leaders in Israel, the lists. But they were hypocrites. Why were they hypocrites? They loved the list of do's and don'ts. So why didn't they keep them themselves? That's why Paul, Paul doesn't want them to make the same mistake. So he starts off giving them the correct context before he will issue any list of do's and don'ts. I think he wants to, what Paul's doing, he wants to couch his moral instructions, the spiritual obligations of do's and don'ts. He wants to couch them within a context of a broader and more lofty perspective. So when they look at the list, they don't look like Pharisees and scribes when they read it. They look like God's children when they read it. And until they're prepared to read the list, he isn't going to give it to them. Paul doesn't want to just say, OK, let me say it right off the bat, do this and don't do that. Because I do think Paul is, don't forget, Paul was a Pharisee. He knows how they operate. Paul, I'm sure, did not want the large people to begin to look at godly living as a performance, as a merit-based system that will make God smile upon them. If he just gives him a list, oh, well, I did the list, right? It's that guy that says, uh, so what am I going to do? And you know, the commandments are lifted and, well, I've kept them all. All right, go sell everything you have to give to the poor. Oh, so he had a list and he said, Hey, I kept them. So I'm good to go. And he found out from the Lord, he was not good to go. Paul is aware. She says this has to be approached the correct way. You have to go to the motivation of the heart before you can go to the letter of the law. So Paul doesn't want them to be modern day scribes and Pharisees as Christians. Instead I think Paul wants to motivate them and prod them towards godly living, prod them towards living in a worthy manner in light of the truth of the mystery of Christ. Paul wants to prod them to godly living. He wants to prod them to living like Christians by reminding them to remember where they came from and to be thankful and to love God. Those things have to undergird the receiving of any lift. If you don't have those things and all you have is a list, you got a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites. So Paul isn't going to put up with that nonsense, right? So he says what he says in verse 1. Let's look at these verses here and see how he does this. In light of these glorious truths and this inheritance that you have, Walk worthy of this gift that God has given you. Walk in a worthy manner. And if you don't mind, just jump down to verse six. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Paul wants them to be unified in that unified faith. There's not two faiths. This is the mystery of the gospel, Jew and Gentile in Christ. They're brought into the commonwealth of Israel. There's one Lord and one faith, one baptism. And you need to have unity and peace amongst you. Now, see, that's like the sub-point of what we're talking about. So why is he arguing that way? In order to prod them into, as you said, being thankful and appreciative of what God has done for them. Well, I think that ends up being obvious on its face. Paul wants them to honor God and to walk as one family in perfect harmony as children of their heavenly father. In light of his goodness, God's goodness to them that he's been describing here in this epistle and his mercy he says, walk as he, that is your father, walk as he would have you to walk. Honor him and obey him, all of you. Now, why is he saying that? Let's make a little application here. There is nothing more dishonoring and discouraging to a father than to see his own children publicly for the face of all men, walk in disobedience to him, and to rebel against what he has taught them, and for his children to be at odds with each other as brothers and sisters. For a father to see his children turn on him and reject him, and then see his children fight each other, is the worst thing that a father can have happen to him. And you know, all you gotta do is be a father. Find out. That's what we're talking about, because God's our heavenly father. And by this mystery of the gospel, he's brought us into his family. And we're saying to ourselves, how are we walking in a way that is worthy of this high calling he's given us? So Paul is describing this thing this obligation in this frame of reference. For a father to see amongst his sons and daughters division, disunity and rebellion against, his authority is to embarrass him before others and to bring great discouragement to himself. But when a father sees his children walk in obedience, and in respect to what he has taught them. And he sees also love and harmony between his sons and daughters, between the brothers and sisters. When he sees both of those things, he's, you know, that's as good as it gets. That's as good as it gets. Look at Ephesians chapter six, just to illustrate this. Ephesians chapter six. The father is blessed and honored when all his children listen to him, obey him, and walk in his commandments, and they love and cherish one another. And there's nothing more, that did make the father happy, right? And it honors the father. So in Ephesians six, verse one, Paul brings that out in a different context here, but he says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, and here's one good reason, for this is right. But then, look, Paul attaches something to that. Honor thy father and mother. Paul attaches the concept of obeying one's parents to honoring one's parents. That's because when children obey their parents, they honor their parents. There's nothing more irritating than seeing that little brat in the store. Hey, shut up, dad. I love you, you know, and blah, blah. Yeah, kid, you know. And you think to yourself, what an embarrassment to the parents. And you're not, you know, maybe the parents are to blame. Maybe they got like a, you know, a really bad apple there, who knows? But no one enjoys seeing that. And the ones who enjoy it the least would be mom and dad. So Paul ties the idea of obedience to honoring one's parents. In 3 John, go to 3 John. There, John. Well, let's start at verse one here. The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth." They have the truth and they walk in it. Now look at verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Now, I know the example here is not Paul, John is not their physical father, and I'm using that, the analogy of the physical father, but the principle is still the same. He's their spiritual father, whether spiritual or physical, it applies to both. And so verse four stands on its own as a principle. I, as your father, have no greater joy than to hear that my children Walk in truth. So what happens when they don't? Well, you know, the math is easy. Unless someone, you know, teach me how to understand this. No, you understand it. Look at Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. Yeah, verse 22. Proverbs 23, 22. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. Well, there's an exhortation here. That exhortation is that they ought to listen to their parents. By the truth, sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding. Verse 24. The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice And he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. So when a father has a righteous son, he's happy. The one is that son is also wise. It brings joy to his life. This shouldn't be shocking. And of course, there's a flip side to that, of course, in Proverbs 17 and verse 25, simple precept here. And it's just the flip side, a foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bear him. I think we can understand those principles. Now Paul, in Ephesians 4, let's go back to Ephesians 4. Paul in Ephesians 4 is saying that in light of this tremendous grace and mercy, that has been shown us by God, that I've explained to you in this mystery. You ought to love and obey him. You need to bring him joy, not grief. And you need to start by loving each other as brothers and sisters, being at peace with one another, because your father wants to see that. And that's where Paul begins. But when you think of it, I'm speaking, when I say that's his subject matter, yeah, from verses 2 to 6. But at the very beginning of that segment, how does he stop? Verse two, so this is the beginning of that thought. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering for bearing one another in love. So, if you want to walk in a way that is worthy of this great gift that God has given you, be lowly, meek and longsuffering. That's how he starts this whole process here. And I think that makes sense. The Apostle Paul starts his exhortation by calling God's people to have lowly dispositions, meek spirits. And I think that is becoming of people who remember what they were before the Lord called them, and then remember what they've become because the Lord has called them. And that will spur them on to love and respect him, look to obey him, and to love one another as brothers and sisters. See, this is all tied in just like this, and it makes perfect sense. He wants them to remember, and see, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering for bearing one another in love, if they can remember who they were before God showed mercy to them, and then they can remember what it is they've become, then this process starts. Who were they? Well, in the context here, in chapter 2, verse 12. So, who were the Ephesians before they came to Christ? Particularly these Gentiles. Well, they were without Christ. They were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. They were strangers from the Governance of Promise. So they had nothing to do with the Jewish Messiah. They were not citizens of God's nation state, Israel. They had nothing to do with the covenant promises God gave to Israel. They didn't have any hope and they didn't have any God. So that's who they were. Bad. These are the Gentiles before the conversion. But what are they now that they've come to Christ? And that's summed up in verse 19. You're no more strangers and foreigners. You're no longer not citizens. You're fellow citizens in that commonwealth of Israel, along with the believing saints amongst the Jews, which you expected that because the promise was given to Abraham's seed. So a remnant would come to receive that promise. But what about us? You've been made participants with them. You've joined them. So this is where we were, nothing. This is where we are because of his mercy, everything. I mean, nothing excluded in spite of what dispensationalism says. We don't have any of that stuff I just mentioned. We have just salvation. It's a generic salvation, divorced from the promises given to Israel, which is ridiculous because the only thing Paul preached was the hope of Israel. So, you know, I keep emphasizing that point because there's a lot of good thinking that flows from remembering that. So who they were, nothing. Who they've become, by God's mercy, everything. So now they're going to be thankful. They're going to love him. He's their father. And they're going to love him, respect him, obey him. And they're going to look at each other, fellow sinners saved from the morass of nothingness and brought into regal splendor. All of us have been. We're all in the same boat and there's a camaraderie there and there ought to be a love. And that's going to bring joy to the Father. See, it's just that simple. Now this was true for the Gentiles in Ephesus. Brethren, it was also true even for the Jews. So I want to take a few minutes to show you that, because I'm emphasizing a point here. Go to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. And what we have really here is a parable. You don't think of parables in the Old Testament, but they're there. It's brief. Ezekiel 16, verse 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, go of Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. What is God saying? Well, brethren, obviously this isn't meant to be taken literally or physically. God isn't saying, you are genealogically the byproduct of Amorites and Hittites. No, that's not true. The Amorites and Hittites were the people that dwelled Canaan before the children of Israel got there. The children of Israel were the seed of Abraham, not Ammonites and Hittites. What is God saying? Well, this is metaphoric, okay? He's saying spiritually. Now, the Ammonites and the Hittites were pagans. The pagans that inhabited Canaan before the Lord had to boot him out. And the Lord's saying, spiritually, you know, I had to remove the Hittites and the Amorites to make room for you, my people, and now that you're there, you're just like them. Your father was a Hittite, your mother an Amorite, or your mother was an Amorite, your father a Hittite, whatever it is. He's saying you're the spiritual descendants of these pagans. Okay, so he starts off pretty rough there, okay? Verse four. Now in verses, well, let's read four and five. And as for thy nativity, in the day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut. Neither was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee. to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou was cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born. Now, what the Lord is saying is, do you remember what you were before I called you and blessed you? Now, the Lord's taken poetic license here. He's skipping over the patriarchs. And he's going right to their captivity in Egypt. Remember, they didn't become a nation formally until he gave them a covenant. He entered into a formal covenant and then gave them the land. The nation was being birthed in Egyptian bondage. Yeah, I know, the promise was given to Abraham, so it existed before, but you don't make... Parables and metaphors walking all fours. It's just that simple. He's saying, you were birthed in Egyptian bondage. You were never a nation. You never had a land. I didn't have any formal covenant with you. He says, you were born as slaves to pagans. That's how I found you. And he's describing it as an infant that's been abandoned by its mother and left to die in an open field. And the Lord comes along and discovers this infant. This is the parable, if I can call it that way. And this infant, it was so fresh, the umbilical cord was still attached. It hadn't even been removed. The infant, according to the passage, hadn't even been washed of its blood. It was covered with blood from its birth. never been cleaned, never been clothed, never been swaddled, dropped off in the field, just tossed to die. No one had shown her any pity. It was at death's door. Death is imminent for an infant in that situation. And it was in a state of offense and neglect. The Lord says, that's how I found you. Verse six, when I passed by, When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. The Lord commanded this infant to live. All the circumstances were against that. What the Lord commands comes to pass and he commanded that this infant would live. He gave Israel life. What was he doing? He would take them out of Egyptian bondage and make them his nation, formally. What was he doing here? That's what he was doing. What was he doing here? Well, he was planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth. That's what he was doing, right? That's Isaiah. He's planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth and saying unto Zion, thou art my people, right? We've looked at that passage many times. That's the same analogy. This is just a different analogy of the same situation. This is where you were. You had nothing like the Ephesian Gentiles. You had nothing without God, without hope in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you got everything. The Lord's saying here, just a different parable. You were the infant cast out in the field to die, and I picked you up and gave you everything. And he explains all that in great detail here about his blessing them throughout the years. And you would think that that being the case, that they would therefore humble themselves and be so grateful and full of thanksgiving and love that they would in meekness and lowliness of heart serve him with fear and obedience, like Paul's exhorting in the first verses here of Ephesians 4. But did they do that? Well, you know. Verse 7, the Lord says, I have caused thee to multiply as the butt of the field, And thou hast increased and waxen great since those days. And thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown. See, you grew up. I took you as an infant, and you grew up to be someone that's beautiful and of a marriageable state. And thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. He prospered them. Now, when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. See, now, later on in their history, he makes this observation. and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine, which is to say that he married her. So he's covering like a whole swath of their history in just moments and in a sense almost interchanging them. He's just describing the whole thing, see? And so it's quite the portrait here, this betrothal. Verse nine, that I washed thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broided work, and shod thee with badger's skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk, nothing but the best. I deck thee also with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thy hands. By the way, you know, some of these fundamentalists say sinful or jewelry. No, it's sinful for you to get your worth from jewelry and vanity. And if that you can't do that and don't wear any. But there's no the Lord isn't doing anything uncomely here. In fact, he was blessing her with all these gifts, bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck. Verse 12. And I put a jewel on my forehead. and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thou wast decked with gold and silver, and thine raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered work, and thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil. And thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put on thee, saith the Lord God." He had done this all for them. Trump likes to say that. I took this person for nothing, and I made them. You expect them to be loyal the rest of their life. We're talking about God. This is real. This is powerful. He's saying, you had nothing. You were an offense. I took you out. I made you my nation. I made you my people. And I entered into covenant relationship with you. And I was your husband, and you were my wife. When I picked you up in your blood as an infant, you had no idea I was going to bring you into the palace of the king of kings and make you my wife. Yeah? In spite of all God's goodness and grace to Israel, Israel lifted herself up in pride, not in lowliness of heart or meekness of spirit. And they were not thankful, which is very much like Romans 1. And they played the harlot. And we see that, picking it up at verse 15. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, And God gave it to her. Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playest the hollet because of thy renown, and pourest out thy fornications on every one that passed by, as it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, the garments he gave her, and deckest thy high places with diverse colors, and playest the hollet thereupon. She took the beautiful finery that her husband gave her and decorated her pagan idols with it. And like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Verse 17, Thou has also taken thy fair jewels, and of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and made as to thyself images of men, and did commit whoredom with them. Every good thing he gave her, she turned around and used against him for her own lust. And tookest thy broided garments, and coverest them, and thou hast set mine oil and my incense before them. All the blessings he gave her, she used for perverted purposes. My meat also, which I gave thee. fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee. Thou hast even set it before them, these idols, for a sweet savor, and thus it was, saith the Lord God. Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, who thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured, Is this of thy haughtoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children? Imagine that. Your wife slaughters your children. Well, she brought them to these pagan gods. You know those pagan gods? History tells us they made them the same. You know, they had arms that went like this, and the infants were placed in the arms. But the thing is, they have a raging hot fire, and it's made of metal, and the metal would heat up, and the little infants would be placed on scalding hot metal arms of an idol and, you know, burnt to death by being roasted. And he's saying, those were my children that you did that to. And you adorned that idol with the finery I gave you to bless you. And you took my corn and oil and all that I blessed you with and you laid it at the feet of this idol that you murdered my children in front of." This is what God is saying. In verse 22, and in all thine abominations, 22, in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms, thou hast not remembered, see there's their problem, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth when thou was naked and bare and was polluted in thy blood. Now, do you get the point we're driving at this morning? We're saying, well, how do you live like a Christian? Just give us a list of things. No, no, no, you need more than a list. We'll get to a list if you really need one. How about just remembering where you were and where I took you? And you'll write the list yourself. When they ask, how do I live like a Christian? Say, you can't write that list? You don't know? I don't believe it. Or do you not know? I can't read people's hearts, but I can read the scripture. I can understand what it's saying. I get the message. My job is to tell you the message. What was Israel's sin? This is so horrifying. Completely set aside all the good things God did, completely forgot about it, and it caused her to not live like a Christian. It caused her to sin. What was her chief problem? Well, we're told later on in the chapter. In Ezekiel 16, in verse 49, and she's being compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, right? I can't get into all that now, Verse 49, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride. Now, there's a list of sins here, but the first one on the list is pride. The sin that made Sodom and Gomorrah what Sodom and Gomorrah became was pride. You say, I thought it was sodomy. No, that's the byproduct of their pride. You can read that in Romans 1. When liberals say, oh, the sin of Sodom wasn't sodomy, it was pride. It's like a half truth. Well, they're actually right. That was the founding. But to say that sodomy wasn't a sin is a lie. It's the lie that stems from the previous lie. The pride will lead you into acts of abomination. Paul wants us to live godly lives in Ephesians 4. So he starts off by saying humility. And remembering where you came from. All the other scriptures agree with that, see? I am telling you how to live like a Christian without even giving you details. Because when we have the foundation, the details just come. Their sin was they weren't lowly, they were not meek, they were not humble, they were not grateful, they were unthankful, and their foolish heart was darkened. They became reprobates. So we go Back to Ephesians 4, it's very discouraging. Look at the clock, all of a sudden get very discouraged. Well, in Ephesians 4, there you go, Ephesians 4 myself. That clock shocked me. It's all zeros there. You sure that was set right? You sure that was set right? All Paul is saying, I'm going to have to stop here because I'm only two-thirds of the way through my sermon. All Paul is saying in Ephesians 4, 1 and 2, let's read it, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. And how does he start explaining that? With all holiness and meekness, with long-suffering for bearing one another in love. So we have there humility and mutual love amongst the brothers and sisters. in order to honor God for what he's done for you. What Paul is really saying is don't make the same, he's saying to the Ephesian Christians, don't make the same mistake that Israel's fathers made. Don't fail to humble yourselves in meekness and in humility and with thanksgiving, knowing where you were, polluted in your blood, or outside the Commonwealth of Israel without God, without hope in the world. Remember where you are now. You God took you into Israel and made you a nation, gave you a covenant and gave you corn and wine and oil. Or he made you citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel and heirs of the promise. If you humble yourselves, if you remember those things, you will humble yourselves with all meekness. And you'll serve the Lord. See, before Paul wants to give them a list, he wants to give them a foundation upon which that list can be written. The problem with legalistic churches is it's all about the list and there's no foundation. So they think hammering the list, you know what happens when you hammer the list? You make people feel guilty, then you kind of psychologically coerce them to do the things they don't really want to do. And so they become obedient, but they're unhappy. And sooner or later, they find something else to do. The dog always returns back to its vomit. There needs to be a heart change. That's the problem. There needs to be a heart change. And that's something that God does through his sovereignty. And there's no other way. So yeah, as we go through this chapter, we'll see some of the details. But see, once you kind of have that foundation, as soon as you read the detail, you know, whatever the detail is, right? If you go to the end of the chapter, it says, put away lying. Of course, I mean, I was polluted in my blood. And he raised me up and made me beautiful and gave me gold and silver and ornaments. He made me his wife and I became the queen of his kingdom. I was brought in as his spouse. Yeah, so don't lie about the king. Well, duh. It's good to teach that lying is sin. I'm not saying it's not. I don't think Christianity, I don't know how to say this. I think there's much of Christianity that doesn't believe in the new birth, and all they talk about is being born again. They don't believe in the new birth, and the ones that don't have nice big churches with people being added daily, such as should be deceived. You say, well that's awfully judgmental. If the Lord says, surely I come quickly, and you say that didn't happen, I'm going to make a judgment from the scriptures. Brethren, it's one thing not to see a thing. Look, we all can make mistakes, or we all can be blind to certain things. I don't make judgments there. But once you've been told, and you have eyes to see, and it's plain before you, there's no excuse. You can't cover it up by having a big church. You can't cover it up by being adorned in all the regalia of Christian finery, whatever that is nowadays, which is probably a T-shirt and skinny jeans in Qatar. I don't know, you know, whatever it is. When I came to Clayville, I came for one reason. There was a simplicity that was so profoundly direct and simple, I didn't want it any other way. That's sort of the nature of God. And if that wasn't true, then how could he say that his people that make up his kingdom are like children? It's only children that enter into the kingdom of God, which means, you know, just raw simplicity, sincerity. And people say, well, save this first century Paris here thing. Well, that's so complicated. That's so profoundly deep. No, it's not profoundly deep. It's like saying, OK, I'm going to rebuild my V8. I've never done that before. So you open up a book. You look at some schematics. And this goes here, this goes. OK, let me start that process. Imagine some guy doing that. Probably guys have rebuilt engines on YouTube. I don't know. But people do all sorts of things on YouTube, right? You do this, do this, and this goes together. Okay, okay, you got to remember that, and you go and do it. And you forget, you go back. Why should we differ with the Bible? I mean, if it's important to us, we think we ought to do it, just look at it and go back to it. We know what to do. The instructions are there. They're not written in hieroglyphics. Yeah, so there's a problem in Christianity. I'm not sure how to resolve it. I'm sure Jeremiah felt that way in his day, too. What am I supposed to do? He probably thinks about himself, there's something I'm doing wrong. No, but we read Jeremiah. He wasn't doing anything wrong. It was the age they were in. It's hard to account for the deceptions of a human heart. They're very sophisticated. And who can know the human heart? The scripture tells us. So all we can do is humble ourselves and say, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And when in any way my heart is deceiving me so I can cover up my own failures, expose it to me, Lord. We ought to pray that the Lord would expose us to ourselves so that we can take care of business before we expose him to the world by our disobedience. We all fall into sin. This isn't a lesson on being judgmental. It's a lesson on just actually loving him enough to care about, let's fix our problems. Let's bow our heads in prayer.