My goal is that when I preach, I stand through the whole service. Not there yet, but I'm on the way. So I'll be standing for some time and sitting again. Let's turn to the book of Ephesians, chapter four. We're gonna start reading in chapter four, verse 17. And then continue on the first two verses of chapter five, which are the verses we're gonna focus our attention on this morning. Paul's letter to the church of Ephesus, chapter four, verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. In the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feelings have given themselves over to lasciviousness. to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation of the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on The new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor with his hands, working with his hands the thing which is good. that he may have to give to them that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And now here's the text for this morning, the first two verses of chapter five. Be, therefore, followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. So far we read God's holy, inspired word. In the preceding verses, which we just read, the Apostle Paul exhorts the church of Ephesus to put off the old man of sin with its evil works and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness. Put off the old. Put on the new. And under this main heading, Paul has further instructions. Put away lying. Don't lie to each other, but speak the truth. Don't steal, but rather work with your hands that are good, that you can provide for yourself honorably and even have to give to the poor. Don't let corrupt communications pour out of your mouth. Instead, speak that which is edifying and builds up, and put away bitterness, anger, malice. Put it away. Rather be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving. Now, in the verses that we have before us this morning, Paul summarizes this. That's the intent of the word, therefore, be therefore followers of God. We could paraphrase this. He's saying, in other words, don't be this, rather that, put off that, put on this. In other words, What I'm saying is, be followers of God as dear children and walk in love. If we analyze these two verses, we see three main ideas. The main thought is, be followers of God as dear children. That word follower is literally the word imitator. Be an imitator of God. How do we do that? How do we imitate God? By walking in love. And from the context, the emphasis is especially walking in love with one another. And then finally, Paul gives us the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself as an offering and a sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savor or odor. So that's what we're gonna be talking about. Let me ask this, and as we go through this passage, consider this. Are you imitators of God? Or are you imitators of someone else? Being imitators of God, The first point is the idea, then the manifestation, how this shows itself, and finally the possibility. Be, therefore, imitators of God. To imitate is to follow the example of someone else. And that's evidently the meaning here of the King James Version. Be followers of God. Be followers of His example. It means to do as you see others do, to be like others, and that's our very nature. We're always following the example of others. That's innate in children, and we'll come back to that later on in the sermon. But it's the nature of children to imitate their parents and their siblings who are older. But we do that in our whole life, don't we? Are you in business? Do you see other businesses thriving? What are they doing? What's the key to their success? Well, let's follow that. We're followers of their example. A man came to me. He said, when I was younger, I knew I didn't fit in. I was a misfit. That's an odd feeling. What did he do? He followed the example of others, learned from what others were doing and not doing so that he fits in. We're imitating all the time. The trouble is that we easily imitate the wrong things. As we notice in the previous chapter, Paul warns against many sins that prevailed in the church of Ephesus. Lying. Sinful anger that lingered on and on. Stealing. Corrupt communication that poured out of their mouths. Bitterness. Those were found in the church of Ephesus. It didn't take too long being there to see those things, to feel the effect of those things. And in these things, The saints of God were imitating not God, but the world. That's evident from how this whole section in chapter 14 and chapter 4 begins. I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth not walk as other Gentiles walk in the vanity or emptiness of their mind. Many of these saints had come out of paganism. And they were still mimicking, imitating the pagan world and the pagan way of dealing with things. And the church is not free from that today either, is it? And our church isn't either. We rub elbows with the world every day. Many of us are in the workaday world. We rub elbows every day with the world. and deal with them. We live in their neighborhoods. We see the world through modern means of media, television, the internet, books, magazines. And so often, we find ourselves imitating the world around us, imitating the world in our dress, imitating the world in our language, in our entertaining, in our partying, and how we deal with one another. In every area of life, we imitate the world in their dealings with each other, and it's not the righteous way of dealing, it's sinful. And this ought not to be. John, in this third epistle, verse 11, said, Behold, follow or imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good. When we imitate the world, we are imitating and following evil. It would be well for each of us daily, and we should do this, to ask ourselves at the end of the day, well, who did I imitate? Who did I follow today? Was it good or was it evil? How much of the world crept into my life today by what I followed? In keeping with the principle to imitate that which is good, the verses before us exhort us be imitators of God. Be imitators of God as dear children. Our passage identifies us as the dear children of God. Now you understand we're not that naturally. On account of the fall in Adam, we all became the legal and the spiritual children of the devil himself. From a spiritual point of view, We look like the devil, we act like the devil, we imitate the devil, and that's the world, isn't it? But we are the children of God in Christ. On the basis of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, God has adopted us. He took us who were no children of His, and He adopted us, made us legally His sons and daughters, committed Himself to care for us, to provide for us for time and eternity, but He didn't stop there. He doesn't want His adopted children to look like the devil, to act like them, so He transformed us through a new birth so that we, from a human point of view, resemble God and His virtues. And so it is that God is our Father, and we are His dear children. And it's rather significant that we're addressed now as God's children. As I said, it's the very nature of children to imitate their parents. You see that all the time. I saw that yesterday in a very cute way. We were camping this past week, came home with all kinds of things we had to put away. So one of my daughters came with an older daughter and with their youngest one, two and a half years old. Boy, she had to get involved. Mom was doing this, her sister was doing this, carrying boxes. We had a couple pairs of shoes. Here's one shoe, take it in. Take another shoe. Delighted she followed the example of mom and her sister. As children, we don't realize what we're doing. As adults, we do. You know, when you become a teenager, and I'm speaking from my own experience, no, you're not gonna follow the example of your parents. They don't know anything. But then the Lord, in His grace, matures you. You find a spouse. You start having children. And then you realize, I've got to follow the example of my parents. How did they raise? What did they do? That works. And we follow their example. We mimic them. And lo and behold, And this is my experience too, you come out of your house and you're an adult and there's things that you don't like and you don't wanna imitate when you have your own home. And all of a sudden you realize dealing with your children, dealing with your spouse, that's exactly what dad did and I didn't wanna do that. That's the very nature of parents and children. Mimicking is the way God uses for parents to train their children. You train your children by what you say, but don't forget you train your children by the example you give, and they will follow it for good or for bad. Well, that's the way it is on a human level. Now on a heavenly spiritual level, we too are the children of God. And as God's children, born again with a new life, a new heart, it's the very nature of us as His children to imitate Him, to do as He does. That's an inevitable fruit of the new birth. And now we are called in this passage to live in harmony with that reality. You are the children of God. Your nature is to imitate. Now live in harmony with that as dear children. That brings us to the second point. Be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love. That's how we follow God's example. That's how we imitate Him as dear children. We walk in love. Your walk is your whole life. Your thoughts, your desires, your speech, your actions, all governed by the deepest motive of your heart. Your walk is your whole life. To walk in love means that your whole life is one of love, and it's controlled by the principle of love. And the emphasis of this passage is that we are to walk in love with respect to our neighbor. The great commandment of the law, first of all, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the second is love your neighbor as yourself. And the emphasis of this passage is walk in love with respect to your neighbor. That means the neighbor that's in your home, where you have your closest relationships, your spouse, your children, your parents, your siblings. That includes the neighbor in the church. It even includes the neighbor outside the household of faith. This includes the neighbor that doesn't love you and always hates you and treats you ill. Whoever that neighbor is, no matter what the context, walk in love with respect to that neighbor. Our motive in dealing with that neighbor must be love. Our thoughts and desires towards Him must be that of love. Our words to Him and about Him must be words of love. So also must our actions with respect to Him always be the behavior of love. And when we walk in that kind of love with respect to our neighbor, we are being the imitators of God. That's evident from the fact that we are called here the dear children of God. That word means loved. It could have been translated the beloved children of God. We are the children whom God loves. He's loved us from eternity and chose us to be with Him and His family. He's shown that love to us in countless ways. And as we'll see in a moment, especially through the perfect sacrifice of His Son on the cross. But every day, we know His love. As we have fellowship with Him, He draws us into His own life. Oh, the love that God shows to us. Every day. We are imitators of God. when we reflect to our neighbor the same love that God has shown to us as His beloved children. And the specific example that the Word of God gives to us is Christ. If we're going to be imitators of God, we must follow and imitate the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us as a sacrifice and an offering. How Christ has loved us. And in love, he gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God. He did it, of course, by his death on the cross. The word sacrifice here, he gave himself as a sacrifice, refers to the bloody sacrifice of the Old Testament for the sins of the people. Day after day, week after week, month after month, these sacrifices, bloody sacrifices were brought to the house of God for the sins of the people, but none of them ever served to cover the sins of the people. They only pointed ahead to a greater sacrifice, to be provided by the Lamb of God. Jesus, God's Son in our flesh, our representative, went to the cross. to offer himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And in this sacrifice of himself, Jesus accomplished what the Old Testament sacrifices could not do. He bore the guilt of our sins. He took the full punishment in our place. He walked in perfect obedience. And he did that for our salvation. This perfect sacrifice is the only way to deliver us from our sins, from the dominion of Satan, to free us, to bring us unto God in friendship and fellowship, and to live with Him and enjoy Him forever. That's why this is called and offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling odor, savor odor. You know, those Old Testament sacrifices smell pretty good. You're gonna go home today, you got roast beef in the oven, you got pork, It's gonna smell pretty good, isn't it? Just think of all the sacrifices of animals, sheep, goats, oxen, all burning on the altar. That was a tremendously sweet odor to the people. But because it pointed to the perfect sacrifice that was going to come in Jesus Christ, it was a sweet odor to God too. How much more then, when Christ came, gave his life as the sacrifice for sin to secure the salvation of his beloved people, what a sweet smelling odor to God. And notice, Jesus gave Himself to be such a sacrifice. That was a terrible, dreadful sacrifice to make. Just look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, just prior to His arrest, as He's anticipating the agonies of the cross. What a terrible thing that cross was. He had to endure, in a short time, hell, eternal hell for all of his people. But he gave himself willingly for that sacrifice. He was not forced. He was not dragged to the cross as many criminals were. Willingly he went, knowing full well the agonies that awaited him. If you read the narrative of the Gospels, you see that he even set in motion and controlled the events that led to his crucifixion. He gave himself, and it was a matter of love, how Christ loves us. And that love he has for us that brought him to the terrible sacrifice of the cross only reflected the love the triune God has. as our Father, because Jesus Christ is the Son of God, coming to our flesh as God's representative, as God's mediator to bring us our salvation. That love of God in Him brought Him to give Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our salvation. And we must mimic this love of God that he has shown to us in Christ. There's two thoughts here. The first is that we must mimic this love by seeking the salvation and welfare of our neighbor. Why did Christ offer himself as the perfect sacrifice for us? What was the motive of his love? Our salvation, our welfare, our welfare every day, our eternal welfare. We must imitate this. We must mimic this love by seeking the spiritual well-being of our neighbor. How do we do that? Well, let's go back to the law. There are two tables of the law. The first, dealing with our relationship to God. The second table of the law, our responsibility towards our neighbor. And behind that second table of the law is this, love your neighbor as you love yourself. And in the language of that law, there are all sorts of negative things. Don't do this, don't do that, and not that for sure. But in light of all of Scripture, for everything forbidden there, there is something very positive. Obligations of love towards our neighbor. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul was dealing with in those preceding verses. When he said, now put off the old man with its works and put on the new man in Christ, he said, this is what it means. Put away lying and speak every man truth with his neighbor. How much do you lie to get your brother and sister in trouble or to get yourself out of trouble? Lying doesn't stop, does it, when we grow up? Easily we fall into all sorts of deception to promote ourselves, to keep ourselves out of trouble. Speak the truth. That's love. Speak the truth. Speak the truth in love. You can speak the truth and still do it in hatred to get somebody in trouble. Speak the truth in love. Now you're imitators of God in Christ. The next is this. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Much anger that we have is not righteous anger. It's sinful, selfish anger. I'm angry with you because you embarrass me, because you limited me, because you hurt me, because of this and because of that. And it lingers on and on and on. and reflects itself in all sorts of retaliation, verbal and physical. Am I the imitator of God? Put away that anger. Put away that anger. Let your anger only be a righteous anger because God's name is defamed. And make sure that you put it away by the time you go to bed. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hand the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. There are two thoughts about this passage. Some say they stole in the sense that they weren't productive. They were lazy, and they became burdens on the church. You're stealing. Others say, no, this probably is actual stealing and taking, especially slaves who belong to Christ from their masters. That's not imitating God. No, work with your hands a thing that is good. Provide for yourself honestly and for your family, and even with a view to providing to those who have need. That's imitating God, his love to you in Christ. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying. Corrupt communication, gossip, backbiting, abusive language designed to hurt, to belittle, to embarrass. That's not imitating God. That's not what he does to us. What should proceed from our mouth is that which is good to the use of edifying. Our words should build each other up. Build up your spouse. Build up your children. Build up your siblings. Build them up, not tear them down. That's what God does in His love. That's what He does here. That's imitating God. And then finally says, Paul speaks of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, malice. How easily that creeps into our lives and families. He says, don't do that. Be kind one to another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Then we are following God as dear children. That's how he deals with us in love. Now that's how we as his children must act too. Mimic him in these things. That's the first point. We mimic God by treating one another in love, seeking the welfare of each other. The second is that we are willing in love to sacrifice for the welfare of our neighbor. The welfare and salvation of our neighbor often requires great sacrifice on our part. Sacrifice of money. sacrifice of time, sacrifice of effort. It may even cost us our health, maybe even our life one day. If we love our neighbor as God has loved us in Christ, if we're following his example, we will be willing and ready to make that sacrifice, even as God did for us in Christ by his love. That's being a follower, an imitator of God as dear children. And that brings us to our final point, the possibility. The possibility is that we are the dear children of God. In our natural state, being depraved, the children of the devil, we would never do this. And we could not do this. And the world cannot do this, whose spiritual father is not God, but the devil himself. But we are the dear children of God. In Jesus Christ, God has adopted us. He's transformed us through a spiritual rebirth. He's even given us his image. so that in many ways we reflect him in a human way. And it's only as dear children who have received the love of God in Christ and have been transformed that we can love each other and our neighbor, reflecting God's love to us. But that requires, and this is important, that we be renewed in the spirit of our mind. I'm addressing you as God's dear children. I believe that. The more I come here, the less people I know, because children are born, members come. But I know the core group here from hope. And I know you as the dear children of God. And I believe the rest fit that description. But even though it's our nature, as born again in Christ, to be imitators of God, to show that love of God to our neighbor, the work of God isn't finished in us, is it? We have a sinful nature, and that's very powerful. And that sinful nature does not want to follow God. It clamors to follow the world. It has a tremendous influence on our lives. That's why in the church you find much that isn't following after the example of God in Christ. And so we have to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. That's chapter 4, verse 23. concerning the former conversation, the old man that is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." The spirit refers to the human spirit that brings us into conscious relationship to God. The animals don't have that spirit, only angels and humans. And that spirit is connected to our mind, what we know, what we think. As children of God, our minds need to be controlled by the Word of God. And that mind of ours with the spirit must be renewed, renewed every day. so that we can act as God's dear children, walking in love. If our spirit, the mind of our spirit is not made new and renewed every day, there'll be a sad lack in our lives, in our homes, in our church. And how are we renewed in the spirit of our mind? God does that. But He does that in connection with the means of grace. He uses this Word of His, this Word preached, this Word meditated upon, this Word discussed among the fellowship of the saints. He uses the sacraments, baptism and Lord's Supper. He uses our prayers, fervent, diligent prayers seeking The work of God to renew the spirit of our mind. That's what he uses. And through the renewing of the spirit of our mind, we have the power to throw away, to put off that old man with all of his evil and imitating the world. To put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness. so that we follow Him as dear children, as His children. What a beautiful thing. Let's pay heed to this. Let us not be content to imitate the wrong thing, to imitate the world around us. Let us strive, helping one another, encouraging one another by the renewing of our spirit to be followers of God as his dear children walking in love. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we're very thankful for thy word. We're thankful that we are thy children, thy dear children, loved by thee, Lord, give us to experience that love and give us also the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to reflect that in our dealings with every neighbor and walk in love. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.