You would please turn your Bibles to Ephesians, Chapter five. Hope you notice, as we read, as Pastor Eddie read that passage out of First Peter, the parallels between what we've been studying in chapters two through five and the book called Ephesians. Today, we want to proceed with Paul's instruction to that church and to the church members there as we study the apostolic instruction that he gave them regarding their earthly or temporary relationships. What they enjoy together as children of God will never end. As members together of that local church and as members together as the body of Christ, Another way we might put it is church membership is an eternal relationship because it's based on our union with Christ. We're united together because we're united to him. The eternal relationship, by definition, then has priority in our affections and our loyalty because it has priority in Christ's affections and Christ's loyalty. This is counterintuitive for most of us because we put so much time, so much effort and money into our family, which is justified. If we think about the tithe for a moment, our Lord's command that we give 10 percent of our income to his work in the church leaves us with 90 percent of our financial resources just for supporting our family. And I know what you're thinking. We've reached a point in our nation's history in which the city, county, and state governments and federal government requires to give quite a large portion of our money to support the government programs. However, in God's economy, he's kindly provided in his law the means necessary to support our earthly families well. And we ought to be thankful for that. What we must guard against, is the tendency among Christians today to either put the family as a higher priority in God's economy, or to mix the family and church as if they are one and the same in God's program. I recently received a conference announcement entitled, Family and Dominion Conference, God's Weapon for Victory. Now, while many, if not all the men involved are fellow believers, they're well intentioned and they will probably say some things with which we would agree. The family is not God's weapon for victory in this world. It's very important that we understand that God's weapon for victory is the preaching of Christ's word. That's the way God has worked and will always work. That word preached, blessed by the sovereign spirit. In that way, Christ saves his people, establishes his churches and builds his kingdom. Christ said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. It's the church that Christ is building and churches. I think many believers in the United States would rightfully like to see a recovery in our nation of Christian faith and Christian doctrine, doctrine, Christian morality and Christian industry. However, I believe it will only come in our Lord's behest or not at all. And the Christian family is a product of that sort of recovery of the gospel preaching. The Christian family is a product of the church and not the other way around. We see this pattern throughout the scriptures, and I believe in church history as well. God sends a preacher of his word, much like what happened in Ephesus. God sent the apostle Paul there to preach the word of Christ. Some believe that gospel message. Those who believe become obedient to Christ's doctrine. And they build local churches where Christ's word will be proclaimed by Christ's messengers. That was what happened at Ephesus. That's the pattern we see laid out for us in the scriptures. And then those churches then send out preachers of Christ's word to repeat the cycle over again. Then, if God grants, out of those Christian churches come Christian families. A distinctively Christian concept of the marketplace comes out of that, a distinctly Christian concept of government, education, art, all the aspects of those things, those things that go in to make up what we call culture. They all come out of a church and churches where Christ's word is proclaimed. It could be that that will only produce persecution. In some countries, that's all that's come of it. The Christian family, the Christian marketplace, Christian government has not come out of it. What's come out of it has been persecution. It may build something like Western society, Western culture that we have enjoyed and still enjoy the fruits of. But that depends upon God's sovereign purpose. Upon which we are dependent. And in which he disposes of us as he sees fit. Because he's the good God, isn't he? And the God of grace. So we rest and trust in him. So let's we want to keep this sorted out as we come to this passage. I think it helps us if we understand in its context, the church, which came from the preaching of the word of Christ, which came from people believing that word, then gives birth to the Christian family. We want to understand that today as we begin to look at this passage. Let's pray. Our dear Father in heaven, we bow before you, the recipients of so many of your good gifts. We are so used to life lived with those gifts at hand, those gifts creating the structure within which we move and have our being. We know what a family is supposed to look like. We have grown up in families that have been highly influenced by the gospel message of Christ. And though we see the degeneration of that today, Father, we return thanksgiving to you. That you, in great kindness, in mercy, and according to your sovereign purposes, caused the Word of Christ to be preached with power in Europe, in England, and then in the colonies, so that we are part of the sweep of history in which you have blessed the preaching of the Word of Christ with the establishing of churches where the Word of Christ has been preached and given birth to these things. We thank you, Father, for such grace. We thank you for your ongoing grace in continuing to save people, continuing to teach men to be Christian fathers and husbands and women, to be Christian wives and mothers and children, how to be Christian children. Father, we pray, we beseech you that you would continue this work. That in the midst of the judgment that our nation so richly deserves, you would show mercy. And once again, you would raise up preachers of your word. And once again, you would cause that word to go forth with power. And once again, your spirit would move to bring thousands to hear the word preached. And to go forth living for Christ, establishing churches, and then from there establishing Christian families. Father, we see our country seemingly in so many ways becoming pagan. We once again ask that you would show mercy that You would establish Your people, that You would grant grace to us who make up Heritage Baptist Church, and grace to Your people that are assembled in churches throughout this land, that they might heed Your Word. Father, we would live for Christ, our Savior, who has loved us, who has given Himself for us. who chose us to be His people, made us to be a kingdom of priests and kings. Father, we thank You for what You've done. We thank You for Your gracious kindness to us that You chose us to this. You did not appoint us to be with those who are disobedient, which we deserved. You've been kind to us and merciful to us. We thank You. We bless You. We praise You. ask that such love and such grace, the profound work of Christ on our behalf would move us to lose our lives for his sake by living our lives according to his word. Give us grace to better understand this today, we ask. In Christ's name, amen. He would, with me, look in Ephesians chapter 4, notice by way of memory, Reminding, excuse me, verse 17, we read there Paul's words, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man. which was created according according to God and righteousness and true holiness. And then in chapter five in verse one, therefore, the followers of God or imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us and offering the sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. And in verse eight, for you are once darkness. But now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. In verse 15, see that you walk circumspectly or in wisdom, not as fools, but as wise. And in verse 18, be filled with the Spirit. Verse 21, submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord. And then 22, here's the context, isn't it? Why? Be submissive, submit yourself to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the Lord is head of the wife, excuse me, for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church and he's the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Now, I must admit that I come to this text with a little bit of reluctance. Because I have a wife and for 33 years she has, I think, done a tremendous job living with this man. So as I come to this, I have a tenderness of heart towards women and the job that God has given you. But my reluctance is overcome because of the confidence I have in the Word of Christ. That it comes from a savior who is good, who loves his people dearly. Whose commandments are the life, there are food and drink, aren't they, for our spiritual well-being. And I come knowing that, well, that our dear sisters in the Lord who are married are loved by Christ. And He gives His commandment to you in this context of His love and His sacrifice for you, which has been received by the Father. Because this is given in the context of how a church then functions and how Christian women in a local body of believers who are married ought to think about themselves. And their situation now there again, in this context of this big picture imperative. Christ's high calling to his disciples in Ephesus, as well as in every church birthed from the preaching of the gospel. The imitators of God as their children, so wise, as I address you today, it's in this context of you being imitators of God and then having the word of Christ that teaches you how you are to be an imitator of God, a follower of God. We've examined Paul's explanation of this commandment under those headings, walk in love, walk as children of light, walk in wisdom. Which has been filled out with some other things, redeem the time because the days are evil. Be filled with the Spirit. Be controlled. Be a word-based person. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And so he's addressing the whole church. And then he begins to address specific groups of people within that local congregation of believers. So today we begin to look at women who are married in the congregation. And I want to look at this particular instruction here, Our cue from the text here under these two headings, one as to the Lord. In other words, you women are to who are married Christian women who are married. Are taught by the apostle to come to your earthly marriage relationship in light of your heavenly relationship with Christ. And then secondly, he mentions In verse twenty three, for Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Paul taught these women to come to their earthly marriage relationship in light of their church, local church relationship. The Christ, that body of people there that Christ had purchased for himself and made it to a church. So under these two headings, we're going to look at this and I'll give some explanations, some applications of this, and then we'll try to have some applications in the end. I have a suspicion that this is only going to be one message of at least two messages on this whole issue of Christian women who are married. So firstly, Christ taught these women to come to their earthly marriage relationship in light of their heavenly relationship. We will see a little bit more of this when we get further in chapter five. If you'll notice with me in verse twenty eight, he said, So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. And it's always in that sort of framework that we as believers, regardless of who we may be and what we approach, And what our responses may be, we always come with that in that framework that God is very gracious and kind to us. So he says here, just as the Lord does the church, we are members of his body, of his flesh, of his bones, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, the apostles said, but I have but I speak concerning Christ. and the church. So as you think women who are believing women who are married, as you think about your situation, you think about it in this context. Not where do I live? Not how good a job I did picking my husband? Not what is everybody else around me doing? But who am I in Christ? What has he, in fact, done in purchasing my soul for his own possession, uniting me to himself and putting me in his church, in a local body of believers? So Christ taught these women to come to their earthly marriage relationship in light of their heavenly relationship. So Paul's assumption here, as he said, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Paul's assumption here brought the teaching of the Old Testament regarding the family to Gentiles. Without the Jewish ceremonial and civil distinctive, that's kind of in a way a beginning place here in this practical instruction. This was nothing less than a restoration of the Creator's order from Genesis 1 and 2. This was nothing less than really an explanation of the Seventh Commandment. You should not commit adultery. And how it applies to women. The Christian distinctives, however, are simpler and more profound, there's not the trappings of all the Old Testament ceremony and civil distinctives. But there is something that without the outward trappings in place, there's an addressing in the Christian instruction here in the Christian explanation that Paul was giving from the Lord that addresses the inward person. The soul, as well as the outward speech and behavior, and we've seen the interplay of those as we've gone through chapter four and five to this point. He taught them the temporary but significant nature with these words and this command. The temporary, but significant nature of the marriage relationship in which a Christian woman. Was assigned the role the creator intended for women from the beginning. That of a complimentary position of a wife with her husband. She's equal to him, she is as valid as he is. But she's also different than he is, and she has a different role assigned her wives submit to your own husband. Now this restoration of the created order contradicted pagan Gentile ideas that were prevalent there in Ephesus. Ideas of the female gender. Ideas that were innate to man in his idolatrous position. False belief systems often subjugated the woman to a slave role, left to the whims of men who assumed God's place of lawgiver, using women as they pleased, in which she had little, if any, recourse. That pagan self-idolatry that assumes the privileges and authority and law-giving place of God over others. And we all wrestle with that. All you have to do is think about yourself a little while, and you'll see that that tendency is within you. Another erroneous belief was that they elevate women to a godlike status. Although there wasn't a whole lot of difference from the former in how they were often treated. Elevated to a godlike status, women were often used as a tool for man's sexual pleasure without the mutual love, without the respect of preachers that came with the morality that God set in place. So this restoration of the created order contradicted paganism as it continues to do. So she was to think of her relationship with her husband. In light of her heavenly relationship, I'm a creature before the creator, I am a redeemed one before my savior. So Paul's instruction regarding salvation that they had all received in the congregation had already included these women in an entirely equal position with their husbands in their union with Christ. So there's the restoration of the created order, but there's also something to be said about men and women brought to life by the Spirit of God as the Word of God was preached. They come to faith in Christ. Everything that was said to those men and women, the church there at Ephesus in chapters one, chapters two, chapter three, up to this point in four and five, was said to all the congregation. This elevated women from the inferior position assigned them in paganism. Because here they had an entirely equal position with their husbands in their union with Christ. In the eternal councils of the triune God, the Father chose them. Predestined them to adoption. Predestined them to participate in Christ's inheritance, just as their believing husbands have been. Men and women in the congregation. In time and space, they have been redeemed by the same work of Christ on the cross. These are revolutionary concepts that will change a society of people from the foundations up once they settle in people's thinking. These women who were married, their sins have been pardoned, their souls purchased and their status with God secured. Reconciled at peace. granted free access into his heavenly presence, just as their believing husbands had been. There's no difference. In another context, Paul laid it out for us, didn't he? There is neither male nor female in the great kingdom of God, the merits that Christ purchased on behalf of his people on the cross. In time and space, they enjoyed the same ministry of the Spirit who resurrected them, sealed them, united them to Christ, being built together in Christ's Word with their fellow believers as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Men and women, single and married, young and old, could come to Christ. For these Christian women who were married just as their believing husbands had been, they were being built. It's a dwelling place for God in the spirit. As members of that church. Furthermore, in this whole idea of her looking at her earthly relationship in light of her heavenly relationship, furthermore, Paul included them in all the privileges and obligations of members of Christ's church at Ephesus. Now, I don't agree with the tendency of modern translators of the scriptures to make interpretive translations of personal pronouns. But we must understand that Paul was not being gender exclusive when he used the masculine plural throughout this letter. When he spoke in chapter one of adoption as sons. He met adoption as siblings of God, every member of the body of Christ, every member purchased by Christ, every member chosen by God before the foundations of the world was predestined to adoption. Adoption of sons, yes, but that's all of us, men and women alike. So these Christian women who received this word wives, submit to your own husbands, knew already. that with their husbands, they were children of God, invited to sit about the table. Sons of disobedience in chapter 2, verse 2. Again, masculine, but we're all born sons of disobedience. This includes male and female, young and old, free and slave, rich middle, poor classes of people, just like elect men, elect women were lost and they must be raised to new life in Christ. So these women who came to Christ. Were taken into his churches, given all the privileges that pertain to church membership in one of his churches, as with other members, they were called to fulfill God's purpose for Christ's churches. to participate in the unity with the other members and to receive the ministry of the Word, just like every other church member. All the privileges. And, of course, you can expand that on out. These women were also called to the very obligations of church membership that their husbands were called to. To live life as unto Christ. To live life for Christ. To live life because of Christ. And to join in the formal gatherings. And to join in the informal gatherings. And to increase her understanding of Christ and His work. And to pursue sanctification together with her fellow church members. The privileges and obligations because of this new heavenly relationship she enjoyed. She had the same privileges and obligations as her husband did. Now, these are transforming concepts. For women that were born in a pagan context, she would begin to think very differently about herself. She had no reason to think that she was somehow something great. She had every reason, as her husband did and any other member of the church, to realize that God, in his mercy, in his grace, in his election, had brought blessing upon her that not only transformed this life, but implanted within the depths of her soul the hope of glory forever in heaven. not some subjugated, inferior place to the men. Now, this is going to transform a whole society, isn't it, if God blesses the preaching of His Word. With many people who have come to Christ and many people who begin to take on these concepts, believing Christ's Word and beginning to obey Christ's Word, and they begin to go out into a culture salting The word of Christ everywhere they go. This was so with her, but but it wasn't just that there was more to it. Secondly, Christ taught these women be submissive and wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. He brought to bear what Christ had accomplished that brought forth this local congregation of people. Christ had made himself the Savior of the body. So, she would think about her earthly marriage relationship in light of her heavenly relationship. She would begin to think of herself as one who was saved by Christ in all the full blown sense of that word. One who is delivered from the wrath of God. On the negative side, we might say, but on the positive side, one that is joined to this body of people, this local assembly of people who have been saved and make up this local congregation of God's people. So he taught these women to come to their early marriage in light of their local church relationship. Paul instructed Christian married women to take on a life of submission to their husbands. Just like the church would take on a life of submission to her Savior and to her Lord because of his work on her behalf. Why did Paul call those people at Ephesus to forsake their old life and take on these new behaviors and begin to walk as imitators of God and children of love and children, excuse me, walking in love, walking as children of light and walking in wisdom. Why did he do that? Because of what he said in chapter five, verse two. Because Christ loved them. And Christ gave himself sacrificially for them. And the father received that sacrificial work of Christ and accepted them as he accepts Christ and everything that was said in chapters one, two and three came to bear them. So instructed these women, then, as the church would see itself as submissive to Christ and ready to take Christ's word on and preach and proclaim Christ's word and begin to live Christ's word and to restructure their life as an assembly of people based upon the word of Christ. So she would then look at herself and say, It's time for me to restructure my whole view of marriage. It's time for me to restructure my view of marriage. As a church member, she was to participate in the mutual submission that every member was obligated to with every other church member. Remember, he had said, submit to one another in the fear of God, in reverence for the gracious Father. So she came with this same sort of perspective. just as the church did. She thought of herself as not being put upon, but as being privileged. That's how the church looks at itself, isn't it? That church would look at itself and think, well, what a privilege to submit one to another. Why? Because of God. Because He is worthy of reverence. Because of His grace. So this woman at Ephesus, You have to remember this. She had she saw nothing of this before. The closest that she might have had to seeing this thing of a wife and submission before may have been with the Jewish community, which was largely rejected and mocked. And she saw Jewish women who. some of which may have been truly converted and rejoiced in her place as being submissive to her husband. But she also saw Jewish women who hated it, probably joined in the gossip circles with the rest of them, backbiting about their husbands, encouraging each other in their sinful ways of dealing with their spouse. But this came with transforming power. Here are these Christian women, some of whom formerly were in the Jewish religion, some of whom formerly were in the Gentile paganism, now together in this local body of Jesus Christ. And they began to restructure how they looked at themselves, how they thought about themselves, how they talked about themselves. This gave formerly pagan, darkened Christian women a perspective, an example That was the common experience of every church member. She came to this as to the Lord. And so it is with every Christian wife in this age, with that simple phrase, the apostle brought the work of the Savior on the cross into the marriage and the home of every believing lady. She will learn to approach her relationship with her husband, not based on his performance. But based on Christ's work for her and Christ's commandments to her. The one whose perfect work secured her soul forever in his care. Now, I understand if you'll think about this moment, we're really getting into what makes women tick, isn't it? Women want security. They don't want to be used. They don't like wondering what's going to happen next. This Christian woman at Ephesus began to rethink all this. And she began to think, my well-being is not in the hands of this human man I'm married to. My well-being is in the hands of a savior who loves me. And has proved it beyond doubt in giving himself for me on the cross. And providing for me in this life access into God's presence. And the hope of being with him forever. So think about the transforming idea that was included here. This life is not all there is. And the relationship I enjoy with people at church is the eternal relationships I'm going to enjoy. And this one with my husband is relatively short lived. But I'm to approach it now with the only way of looking at things. This gave her reason to labor at being a wife with willingness and joy because of the great love of the Savior for her. with all his promises and the sure hope that her labor was not in vain, but significant in displaying the wisdom of God's grace to her. How would she display the wisdom of God's grace to her when she was out away from the assembly of God's people? Submit to your own husbands. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wise be their own husbands in everything. In her thinking, emotionally, physically, how she conducted her life. This was radical. And this was transforming of society because God blessed it. Now, it would take, what, five centuries, ten centuries, twelve, fourteen centuries before Western culture was what you enjoy now. This is how she would display the wisdom of God's grace to her and bring glory to her. It has not changed in our modern world. Christian wives, if you are a Christian woman and you are married, the way you will bring glory to God in this world is your wifely submission to your Now, I know there's more to that than that, to your life than that. But that has got to be the major one. And we'll go into that more, Lord, next week. Let's move on here. So instead of contention, bitterness, complaining, backbiting, you know, the women getting together, talking about their husbands. Encouraging each other and their sinfulness. That was going on in Ephesus. Now, You see, some of those women that were part of those circles were dropping out. They were holding back. They weren't laughing at the jokes on the husbands anymore. Instead of those things, she joyfully submitted to her husband and loved her husband. Imagine the effect that this might have had on the circle of women who knew her prior to having come to Christ. What opportunities might have come from her new life to speak of her great Savior. It would have shocked her friends. I would just say by way of application, ladies, you need to try to get a little of that back. How you speak of your husband with other women ought to shock them because of your Christianity, because of Christ. So here we are, this woman looking at her earthly relationship in light of her relationship with the Lord Jesus and then in light of her relationship with the church, just as the church submits to Christ, she is submitting to her husband. And then Paul gave his precious sisters a new paradigm to follow in structuring their role as a wife of a husband, the church and its relationship to the anointed one who saved it from the consequences of sin. So she would work this out, not just the phrase, just as to the Lord, but also this phrase, just as the church. The savior of the body, she would think about Christ, she would think about the church. Now, do you think some of those ladies ask themselves, how can a bachelor give useful instruction to women? I assure you they did. This is not a new thing. You know, it's not something that came out of the 20th or the 21st century when women all of a sudden said, who's this bachelor talking to us? The answer to that is this. When that bachelor was an apostle of Jesus Christ, the Lord, that bachelor gave instruction revealed by the creator of all and the Lord of the church to be observed by every church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every lady. who is a church member in one of Jesus Christ's churches, comes to her marriage relationship just like the church comes to its relationship with Christ. Paul taught the Christian women in Ephesus to respond to his word as they responded to their loving Savior. They would no longer think in the darkened way they used to think. As one's alienated from the life of God, they have not so learned Christ. In other words, they must think to themselves, I must put off the old woman. And put on the new woman. Created according to God. In holiness and true righteousness. I must become a follower of God. I must walk in love with my husband. I must walk as a child of light with my husband. I must walk in wisdom with my husband. I must submit to him as the church does to Christ. Paul transformed the Christian wife's estimation of the idea of a husband in general and of her husband in particular. My husband is, what does the text say, my head. The husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church. It's redeemer. It's protector and provider. We'll talk more about that when we get into the husbands. She was to conclude that her husband is her head, as she had come to conclude that Christ is her church's head, the savior of the body. Her hope was in his, that is Christ, all powerful rule for his body's well-being. That's where her hope was anchored. Not in her earthly husband. You see, this is a radical change in the way women think, isn't it? How would a pagan woman think about her husband? She would think more immediately. Here's this man that I'm related to. And as he prospers, I prosper. As he fails, I fail. My life is under his care or lack of it. Well, she may have had a very different view. I don't know who this man is, and I don't care who he is. I'm going to live my life the way I want to live it. That's transformed, isn't it? She comes to this thinking in a way she hadn't thought before. This man is my head as Christ Jesus is the head of my church. Now, women, I have to ask you, do you think that way? She was to, by faith, believe Paul's words that her husband was given to her by God to love her, to show her mercy, to receive her as united to himself and to exercise the full extent of his rule for her well-being as revealed by the word of God. Some of these ladies had to believe this word over their experience with unloving husbands. Because some of them had terrible husbands. The question you have to ask yourself, ladies, today is, do you believe Christ's word? Do you believe that Christ is the savior of his body? Do you believe it's he who saves and none can really harm? And your well-being and your functioning as a Christian woman who must submit to her husband is wrapped up in this. These women in absence would no longer speak. Each any one of them, she would not speak to her husband or treat her husband like she used to in a simple self love sort of way and dishonesty or in sinful anger. The standards of church membership were her standards of widely submission. Her assumptions and fears of malicious treatment by her husband must no longer rule her. Rather, her assumptions of Christ's love and sovereignty. In other words, her reactions to her husband were tempered by his, that is, Christ's provision. She would repent of intentions of evil toward her husband and replace them with loving and moral treatment because of Christ's grace and Christ's commandments and Christ's example. Her enmity toward her husband was destroyed by Christ's reconciling work on the cross in her behalf. And she must replace those old ways with the new ways of loving service and obedience as to the Lord, just as the church did to the Lord. Now, understand this, Paul, in all of this, as he taught them that their earthly relationship with their husband was to be carried out in light of her heavenly relationship and in light of her church relationship, Paul was not teaching these ladies, these women who were married, to replace pagan beliefs with a new, equally deceptive idealism. It was that she had become willing to lose her life for the sake of the one who lost his life for her sake. That's what really it is. Women, that's what it is. This thing laid upon you. Why submit your own husbands? This is difficult. This is not easy. It will require you to lose your life for Christ's sake. Why would I ever ask you to do that or command you to do that? Because of the word and because Christ gave his life for you on the cross. Some of these Christian women at Ephesus were married to unbelieving men who remained hardened in their paganism. They may have suffered for doing good. That's one reason I wanted the first Peter text read. Remember that? Go back and review it yourself. You are a kingdom of priests. You are God's own people. And some of you, and he spoke in general to all of them, All of them were submissive to the government. Some of them were slaves. Some of them were wives with husbands and who did not obey the word. Some of them were husbands with wives. And he gave that instruction. For these women at Ephesus, regardless of their situation, Christ, for each one of these precious women, Christ was her example. Christ was her guide. Christ was her hope. Not her and certainly not her husband. even among those who were married to Christian men. The contentions and difficulty of marriage didn't evaporate. But the labor that she went to had new motivation, had new structures, and new commandments that gave her hope and perseverance. And those ladies in Ephesus would have to do the same thing that you ladies would have to do. She'd have to wake up in the morning and remember, Christ loves me. Christ proved that in giving himself for me. I am elect from before the foundations of the world. I am adopted into the very family of God. The enmity between me and God with all my fellow church members is gone. And I approach my marriage to my husband with these things in place. Well, let me make a few applications. There's so many things that come to this, I'm going to limit these today and we'll come back to some of them later tomorrow, next week, Lord willing. Number one, modern ideas on marriage practice do not negate the apostolic instruction that Christian women received in the first century. 21st century ideas of marriage. Do not negate what the Apostle gave 1st century women. Do not believe contrary ideas, regardless their contemporary source. You'll have friends that will think you are ridiculous for trying to do this. You'll have family members that will mock you. They will misinterpret what you're doing. But you have the privilege of displaying to them what everyone in this room who's a member of Heritage Baptist Church has the privilege of demonstrating to this world, that we are submissive to Christ because Christ purchased our souls and our beings. And that's our privilege. We sing praises to Him. Why? Because of what He's accomplished for us. Christian women don't Buy into contrary ideas, contrary philosophies, contrary commandments, contrary concepts. I don't care where they come. Listen, your contemporary media. The news, movies, TV, newspapers, magazines. Don't buy into it. When you see that stuff, contradict it. It's of the evil one. I don't care how plausible it sounds. I don't care how many people are accepting it and following it. You get your marching orders from a bachelor apostle who lived 2000 years ago. Because it's the word of Christ. God's way of holiness has not changed, certainly adjustments must be made to live holy in one's own society. However, the commandments and the practical instructions of Christ's Word remain ever contemporary. Ever contemporary. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. That is a precious, good, wise, loving, light-filled commandment from your Savior. Just as His grace revealed in His Word refreshes your soul every day, so His commandments free your soul as you confess your sins, as you pursue repentance, and as you labor to obey your Savior every day. And you have an advantage. Use your church for help. That's one reason we're here. Submit yourself to other ladies. Talk to them. Find a godly Christian woman. And humble yourself. And get her help. Don't pick someone who's just going to say what you want to hear said. I don't care if she's older than you or younger than you. It doesn't matter that so much as is she a godly Christian woman? Secondly, if you think to yourself You don't know my husband. What you're saying will not work in our marriage. Let me give you something to think about, ladies. Realize this. Your submission to your husband is the measure of your submission to Christ. Just as to the Lord. Christian women, if you're married, your submission to your husband is the measure of your submission to Christ. The issue is not what works to make your marriage wonderful. It's what are you doing for Christ's sake to display your faith in his word and your patience under his sovereign wisdom and promise? That's what he's called you to. Just as the pursuit of sanctification calls every one of us who are members of this church to face the reasonable obligation to practice self-denial as a way of life. And as we practice self-denial, we count God's glory more important than our own happiness. So this text. Cause Christian women who are married to the same pursuit, a life of self-denial. That's a way of life. Counting God's glory more important than your own happiness. And in this and this alone, you find happiness. Unless your husband has marriage breaking behavior. Unless your husband commands you to sin, I gently but firmly call you by Christ's love and Christ's sacrificial death to repent of your sinful presupposition and submit yourself to Christ's Word. You must do this, ladies. Your particular circumstances with your husband do not relieve you of these imperatives. The Savior with sovereign wisdom placed you in the marriage you find yourself in now. That's my third application. The Savior with sovereign wisdom placed you in the marriage you find yourself in now. Listen, in counseling, our pastors have had this thing. Well, I was I was out of God's will when I married her or married her. It wasn't God's will for me to be married. And so so now it's God's will for me to be divorced. You know some people on that basis have pursued divorce. It's foolishness. It's the lie of the evil one and the lie of this world. You are married. Deal with the marriage you're in now. It's God's will for you. Your marriage to your husband is not exactly like other marriages you know. Yours serves his purposes. as He sees fit for you and your husband. Some marriages may look better to you. Others may look worse to you. Work at yours as it is. If you face particular circumstances in which you're not sure how you ought to deal with them, ask your pastors for advice. We will pray for you. We do pray for you. I don't know if I can pronounce that word right. We're not a bunch of misogynists. We count the ladies in this church as dear sisters in Christ. And I'll be frank with you for a moment. Yeah, there are times when we'd like to take a guy out back. And physically demonstrate to him what we think he ought to be doing. But we are not allowed to do that, praise God. Our job is to counsel Christ's Word, preach Christ's Word, and pray. And we will do that to the best of our ability. Ladies, you are important to us. But God has laid upon you a great privilege, just as the church submits to her head the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the body, you submit to your own hospital.