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Amen. What a privilege it is
to sing the very hymns that God wrote back to him in his worship. If you would please let's take
our Bibles out together and we want to turn back to Ephesians
as we continue in our expositions of the book of Ephesians. And
we want to look in Ephesians chapter 5 beginning today in
verse 25. Paul, of course, here, under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is addressing the subject of
the family. And beginning in verse 25, he
speaks to the duties and responsibilities of the husband. So, Ephesians
chapter 5, in verse 25, we find these words. Husbands, love your
wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present her to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that she should be holy and without blemish, 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. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and 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, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let
each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself,
and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Let's now join together before
the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we come before you now as we come before your Word. And Father,
as we come before your Word today, we thank you for your precious
Word. We thank you for its inerrancy,
its infallibility, its all-sufficiency. We thank you for its authoritative
declarative statement, giving us the revelation of your will
for us, your people, to live our lives in accordance with
what you desire. We pray, Father, that you would
grant us even today that fresh awareness of the ministry of
your spirit, that he would own your word and drive it to our
hearts, that our hearts would be found open and pliable and
humble and sensitive to quickly receive, believe, and by your
grace, obey what your word says. Lord, that we would be those
who not are only hearers of your word, those who are deluded,
but those who do what it says. We pray, Father, that you would
help us, that we would enlarge these truths in our homes, in
our marriages, in our families, that we would have godly marriages
and homes. marriages and homes that are
instructed and following after your word. Lord, that we would
be salt and light, that we would show the world what a difference,
what a fundamental distinction there is for those who are part
of your family. We thank you, oh God, that you
have saved us by your grace. You have sent your son and he
has paid the price. And therefore, we are cleansed
and forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus. We pray, Father, that
you would even today draw sinners to yourself. In accordance with
your sovereign purpose, may they be enabled to see their sin for
what it is and run to Christ as the only one. who can deliver
them from their helpless situation. Father, we give you all honor,
all praise, and all glory. And we pray all of this in the
name of your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for
his sake we pray, amen. As we come today, of course,
we recognize that in this section in Ephesians 5, Paul is addressing
the pattern and the plan that God has for a godly marriage
and godly home. We have said that it is critical
to a God-glorifying marriage that we have a clear understanding
of those God-ordained roles and relationships. God has given
us clear instruction concerning the home. Amen? And it is our
duty to embrace it, to believe it, and to follow it by God's
grace. We already have dealt with the
subject of wives in verses 22 through 24, and what is the responsibility
of the wife? It is submission to her husband. We now are looking at the responsibility
of the husband, and that runs from verse 25 all the way down
to verse 33. What is the responsibility of
the husband? Well, he is to love his wife, as Paul declares. Last time we looked at these
verses and we gave an overview exposition of the text, and we
considered in verses 25 and following, first of all, the instruction
God gives to husbands. We noted in verse 25, part A,
the duty stated. What is the duty? Well, husbands,
love your wives. That's simple and that's straightforward,
and that's the duty that God has called husbands to fulfill. What is the manner described
of this kind of love? Well, the manner described, verse
25, part B, we are to love our wives just as Christ also loved
the church. and gave himself for her." We
then noted, following this thread of instruction, and we noted
in verse 31 through 33, what are the implications of Christ's
love for the church as it relates to the home and marriage. Well,
we said, number one, verse 31, Marriage involves that intentional
union. This, of course, is a quotation
all the way from Genesis 2, verse 24, that leaving, cleaving, and
becoming one flesh. And so here we see again that
pivotal verse quoted by Paul. Then in verse 32, he says, marriage
presents a spiritual illustration. There is this glorious illustration
of the husband being the head, the wife being in submission. to Christ being the head of the
church and the church being in submission to Jesus Christ. This is symbolic, it is typological,
it is a mysterious and glorious reality that these two things,
they speak of that reality. And then in verse 33, we concluded
by noting that number three, marriage requires a dual obligation. He says, at verse 33, there is
the duty of husbands, and here he's repeating himself, that
they are to so love his own wife as himself. And then notice the
last phrase of verse 33, the duty of wives, that they are
to respect their husbands. So that is the basic flow of
the passage that we looked at last week. Now, having considered
an exposition of the text, we now want to consider more of
an explanation of this duty as it relates to husbands. Now,
you may recall we are following the same pattern we did with
the wives in our previous expositions. We began with the wives and we
gave an exposition of verses 22 through 24, what it is that
their duty is. And we explained what that means
and what it looks like. And then we gave a fuller explanation
of that duty of submission by simply following the traditional,
historic, reformed Puritan approach of explaining what the wife's
submission entails. This is not something that I
have come up with. This is what is the historic
reform teaching on what submission looks like. And this is why we're
basically following the outline of Dr. Joel Beakey in his book,
Living in a Godly Marriage. The wife is to submit, and we
said it involves four things. It involves her reverencing her
husband, her obeying her husband, her assisting her husband, being
his helpmate, and then fourthly, her modesty towards and for her
husband. So now when we come to the subject
of the husbands, we're going to do the exact same thing. So,
gentlemen, don't think that you're going to get out any more lightly
because you're a man or a husband. We're going to follow the same
path, the same track, and consider the traditional Reformed Puritan
approach as it relates to the duties of the husband. And according to Dr. Joel Beeky
and many others, just as there are four things that describe
the duty of the wife in submission, there are two things that describe
the duty of the husband. And that is, number one, authority,
and number two, love. And so those are the two heads
of which we will consider this subject of the duty of the husband. Let me quote to you Dr. Joel
Beakey. He says this, and I quote, based on Ephesians 5, the Puritans
taught that a husband's two foundational duties are authority and love. The husband is the authoritative
head to whom his wife is to submit herself just as the church submits
to Christ, verse 23, and the husband is to love his wife just
as Christ loves the church. Thus Ambrose wrote that the husband's
whole duty towards his wife lies in these two things. He must
dearly love his wife, and he must wisely maintain and manage
his authority over her. Man's sinfulness, being what
it is, a husband may be tempted to exercise an austere authority,
void of love. or an indulgent love that abdicates
authority. But a husband's obedience to
God requires the exercise of both of these duties. It is loving with authority.
It is having authority with love. And those things go together.
Some of you are familiar with the name Richard Baxter. How
many of you have heard that name before? A famous Puritan, which
I would highly recommend. He points out this same thing.
He says, and I quote, the husband must so unite authority and love
that neither of them may be omitted or concealed, but both will be
exercised and maintained. Love must not be exercised so
imprudently as to destroy the exercise of authority. And authority
must not be exercised over the wife so magisterially and imperiously
as to destroy the exercise of love. as your love must be a
governing love, so your commands must be loving commands. So you see how these two things
go together. It's not one to the exclusion
of the other, and we can fail husbands by emphasizing one to
the neglect of the other. They go together with a symmetry
and an essential part of our duty as husbands in relation
to our wives. So our treatment is going to
be following this pattern, the husband's duties. We will consider
his love that he has for his wife, and we'll be considering
that authority. Wayne Mack, I have quoted from
him and we'll be looking and using his resource in this subject. He basically divides these two
categories up. And I don't know whether he's
not necessarily reformed. I don't know whether he is gleaning
from the reform tradition on this subject, but he comes out
in the same way, nevertheless. And he describes it as the two
duties are loving and leading. And of course, the idea of leading
is that idea of authority. So let's talk about the husband's
duty to love his wife. We've given an exposition here
in our text. Now we want to consider what
kind of love that husbands are to have for their wives. Well, look with me again in our
text, Ephesians 5, verse 25. We are told exactly what it is
to look like. Husbands, love your wives just
as Christ so loved the church. and gave himself for her." Jesus
Christ is our example. Amen? He is our example in all
things. And husbands, he is our example
as it relates to the kind of love we are to exhibit and have
for our wives. Now, we acknowledge on the front
end here that we cannot fully ever grasp and comprehend the
incredible subject of the love of God. There's a sense in which
this subject is beyond us. Some of you are familiar with
the words of the hymn. It's entitled, The Love of God,
and there's a stanza. I just want to quote the stanza.
You probably will recognize it. It reads like this, speaking
of how vast God's love is. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made? Were every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of
God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole. though stretched from sky to
sky." Corrugation, God's love, there is an aspect to it that
is beyond our comprehension. Amen? It is deep. It is vast. It is incomprehensible. Incidentally,
just by way that you may or may not know, these very words I
quoted were framed in a picture in John MacArthur's office at
his church. It was a large print of these
very words. Some of you appreciate the ministry
of the late Pastor MacArthur, and we loved his ministry and
appreciated his faithfulness to the Word. Well, he loved that
hymn, and that was actually framed in his office there at the church. But we would hasten to say this.
even though there is a debt to the love of God that we will
never plumb. There is nevertheless some things that we can know
about the love of God that we are to take, and then as husbands,
we are to implement as we love our wives. So what kind of love
are we to have, husbands, for our wives? Well, just like Christ
loved the church, number one, and I'll just make a list this
morning, Very simple to follow. Number one, it is to be an unconditional
love. It is to be an unconditional
love. Turn with me in your Bibles.
You're in Ephesians. Just turn back a page or so and
look with me please in chapter two. Now, we were in chapter
2 as we were going through Ephesians, but that's been several years
ago. And you're probably familiar with these words because these
are very familiar words in this book. Here Paul is speaking about
the depravity of mankind. And we read in Ephesians 2 and
verse 1, he says, "...and you he made alive." That speaks of
regeneration. who were dead in trespasses and
sins in which you once walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom
also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, just as the others. Here Paul is describing
the condition of all lost humanity, depraved, disobedient, and doomed
under the wrath of God. But then notice in verse number
four, that glorious adversative conjunction, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy
because of his great love with which he loved us, even when
we were dead in trespasses, made us live together with Christ
by grace. You have been saved and raised
us up together and made us to sit in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Congregation, I want you to notice
in verse 4 this idea of this great love that God loved us. Speaking, of course, of His elect
people, those that He set His special electing love upon. And
we read here that even while we were, verse 5, dead in our
trespasses, dead, depraved, and justly the recipients of God's
wrath, God nevertheless loved us with his great love. That
congregation is an unconditional free love. Amen? It isn't based
upon any conditions, stipulations, or requirements that we had to
meet. It isn't based upon our performance. It isn't based upon
our earning it, achieving it, or maintaining it. This is how
God has loved us. Praise be to God. Because if
the love of God was in any way whatsoever conditioned upon our
performance, we would have no hope at all before God. Because
even our very best is like filthy rags before a holy God. But praise
be to God. God has loved us with this unconditional
free love. A love that saves us. And this is how we are to love
each other. And this is how a husband is
to love his wife. Husbands, you are to love your
wife unconditionally. Your wife, whatever the situation
and circumstance and relationship you presently have, you may have
a rocky relationship, you may have the best relationship you
could possibly imagine, your wife may be fulfilling all of
your desires as you please, or she may not be. She may not even
be submitting as God has commanded her to. That's an issue of sin
that she has in her life. But regardless of her present
situation, your love, husbands, for your wives is to be unconditional. It isn't based upon how she performs. It isn't, well, you know, she's
just not submitting the way I like, so I'm going to withhold some
of my love and affection toward her. Not one millisecond. Amen? Your love is to be unconditional. Because that's the way Christ
loves us. That's the way Christ cares for
His own. And we are to love our wives
as Christ loves the church. It is an unconditional love. Turn with me please in your Bibles
back to Deuteronomy chapter 7. A second thing we would say when
we seek to understand or glean from God's love how husbands
are to love their wives, it not only is an unconditional love,
but it is to be a volitional love. These things really kind
of go together. It is a volitional love, that
is a deliberate choice of the will. Listen to what God says
to His ancient people Israel about His deliberate volitional
love for them. Deuteronomy 7, verses 6-8. He says, For you are a holy people
to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen
you to be a people for Himself. a special treasure above all
the peoples on the face of the earth. Verse 7, the Lord did
not set his love on you or choose you because you were more in
number than any other, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you
and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers,
The Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed
you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king
of Egypt." Here we see God stating His choice of the Israelites. It wasn't because they were a
mighty nation. It wasn't because they were more
in number than any other people. No, God set His electing love
on Israel, and He did so because it was His choice. He volitionally
set that electing choice to love them. Whenever, husbands, you
took those solemn vows of marriage, when you stood before people
and before the Church of God, you made promises to God. to love your wife. You made promises
to God and to her and before Christ's church that you would
love her and that you would love her so long as your relationship
on this earth continued. And that does not change. Just
as the ancient Israelites, God set his volitional choice on
them, And we know the story of the Old Testament, don't we?
We know how that they were very fickle and they were faithless
in many different ways throughout their history. And yet God set
his love on them. Notice again, the words there,
it was because of verse eight, the oath which he swore to your
fathers. That speaks of that Abrahamic
covenant and that deliberate choice of God's will. Husbands, we are to love our
wives unconditionally. We are to love our wives volitionally,
which means that you are to choose to do it. Not, well, I'll do
it if I feel like it. I'll do it if I'm in the mood
for it. No, I will do it because I choose to do it. And I have
the capacity to deliberately, volitionally love my wife. Turn with me to your Bibles,
please, over to Galatians chapter two. Again, following just basic
ideas related to that love that Christ has for the church, and
then using this as our go-by for how we are to love our wives.
We are to love our wives unconditionally. We are to love our wives volitionally. We, number three, are to love
our wives selflessly and sacrificially. Selflessly and sacrificially. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
20 is a glorious verse. In fact, this verse, if you're
into having a life verse, that used to be a popular thing back
in the day. This is one of those verses that a lot of people choose
as their life verse. It's a beautiful verse. Paul
writes in verse 20 of Galatians 2, I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me." Here we say this statement at the
end of verse 20 about God's love. God loved us and It says, He
died for us. That was a selfless, sacrificial
choice of dying that we might be saved. This is exactly what
we see in our text in Ephesians 5. Christ dying for His church,
that sacrificial love. Congregation, this is how we
are to love our wives. It's like the humorous statement
that you probably have read before, kind of brings a chuckle. My
wife and I have a very happy marriage. There's nothing that
I wouldn't do for her, and there's nothing that she wouldn't do
for me, and that's the way we get through it, doing nothing
for each other. Well, that's not exactly the
idea of having a selfless, sacrificial love. Husbands, we are called
to be giving ourselves selflessly, constantly, continually to loving
our wives. It is a deliberate, unconditional
commitment to lay down our lives for our wives. Talk with me,
if you will, in your Bibles over in Jeremiah. And I want to read
in Jeremiah chapter 31 as we continue in our list. Husbands,
we are to love our wives unconditionally, volitionally, sacrificially,
selflessly. Our love is to be, number four,
an endless love. It is to be an endless love.
Jeremiah 31 and verse 3. Here we have this description
of God's love for his own. And again, this is husbands are
understanding of how we are to love our wives. Jeremiah 31 in
verse three, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have
loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, I have drawn you. What a wonderful statement this
is. What a blessing to know this is true. God loves His own with
an everlasting love. A love that will never diminish.
A love that will continue for all eternity. Look with me please
in the New Testament and notice the words of the Apostle Paul.
Turn to Romans chapter 8 please. And look with me in Romans chapter
8. Taking up our reading in verse 35, and again we have this idea
of this endless love that God has for his own. Paul writes
in Romans 8 in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Shall tribulation, our distress,
our persecution, our famine, our nakedness, our peril, our
sword? As it is written, for your sake
we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Yet in all these things, we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded. than either
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Here the Apostle
Paul considers all possibilities and all situations, encompassing
all realities. And he asks the rhetorical question,
what will separate us from the love of God? And the answer is,
absolutely nothing. Amen? Nothing. Anything present, anything to
come, and anything in between. Life or death itself. We are
super conquerors through the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, Pastor, what does this
have to do with husbands loving their wives? Well, the love that
the husband is to have for his wife is to be this kind of unending
love. Christ's love for his church
is continual. It is unending. It is immutable. So often people today have a
love that is fickle, it is mutable, it is something that alters based
upon the situation at present. It quickly oscillates and fluctuates. Praise be to God, God's love
for us doesn't oscillate, and it doesn't fluctuate, and it
doesn't diminish whatsoever. And so we are to have this same
love for one another. And husbands, we are to have
this love for our wives, an unending love that continues throughout
your relationship. You're in Romans chapter 8. Just
turn back a few pages. Look with me in Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5, and we consider another element. Husbands, we
are to have a love for our wives that is unconditional, volitional,
selfless, sacrificial, unending, and then fifthly, it is to be
a visible love. It is to be a visible love. In
Romans chapter five, look with me at verses six through eight.
Paul says, for when we were still without strength and due time,
Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely For a righteous
man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would
even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own
love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. That statement there in verse
8, he demonstrates, he commended, as the old King James says, it
is this idea of putting on display, making visible, making clear,
so that there's no doubt that that love is a real, genuine
love. Does God love His own? Yes, verse
8 says, He's demonstrated that love. He's demonstrated that
love And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The ultimate demonstration of
love. So how does this relate to husbands
and wives? Well, husbands, you are to have
a visible love toward your wife. It is to be a love that is clearly
seen and heard. It is to be a love that is seen
by your actions, by your attitudes, by your words, and by your deeds,
so that it is clearly communicated through that demonstration of
the life you live together. Look with me please back to Ephesians
where we started. And I want us to note in Ephesians
chapter 5 again, our text, another aspect of the love that husbands
are to have for their wives. In number 6, and this will be
the last on our list, and of course we could add others to
it, As we think about the love of God, our love for our wives
is to be a purposeful love. It is to be a purposeful love. Let me just read to you again
what we've already read, verses 25 through 27. Husbands, love
your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing
of water by the word. that he might present her to
himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish."
The love that Christ has for us is a purposeful love. It is
a love which has an intentionality to it. It is that love which
leads us. to become what Christ has called
us to be. So when we talk about this purposeful
love that husbands are to have for their wives, it means that
we are to work for our wives' improvement, for her development. Now, we'll get into this in more
detail when we speak of the husband as prophet, priest, and king
in the home, and the idea of instruction. But everything about
our love is a love for our wife that leads her for her benefit,
for her blessing, and for her spiritual well-being. This is
how Christ loved us, so that we might be a glorious church
without wrinkle, without spot, without blemish, but holy unto
the Lord. That's how we're to love our
wives. So, having considered a very brief list of things that
would be included in that kind of love we are to have for our
wives, let me conclude this morning by considering a demonstration
of this duty. That is, how do we demonstrate
this love? Very practically speaking. And
I want you to turn with me, please, in your Bibles back to 1 Corinthians
13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Here, of course, is a very familiar
chapter to, I'm sure, most of us here, if not all of us. It
is this beautiful chapter on love. And we see the language
here of what is involved in this agape love, this selfless love,
generally speaking, and certainly as it applies to the husband
and the wife. Paul writes, let's just take
up our reading in verse four, 1 Corinthians 13. Love suffers
long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does
not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does
not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice
in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Then notice verse 8, love never fails. This is a description
of what love looks like. It's how love is demonstrated. Let me suggest to you a list
of things. Husbands, you can demonstrate
your love for your wife, seven things, and then we'll be through.
Number one, you can demonstrate your love to your wife by declaring
your love to your wife. You are to tell her that you
love her. You are not to be stingy with
those words, I love you. It's not like, well, I'll tell
her I love her on her anniversary and I give her a card. No, you
better not be doing that. I tell my wife I love you every
day, sometimes many times in a day. And occasionally she responds
in like manner. But you are to be telling your
wife you love her constantly. She needs to hear this. She needs
to know this. She needs to be encouraged in
this regard. It's like the husband who said,
well, we sleep in separate rooms. We have dinner apart. We take
separate vacations. We're doing everything we can
to keep our marriage together. Well, sadly, that's what you
sometimes see. No, you are to be declaring,
sharing, stating, verbalizing that you love your wife. Don't say, well, she knows. She
knows that I love her. No, you need to tell her that
you love her regularly. Secondly, you demonstrate your
love for your wife by providing for her. You are responsible
for this. You are the head of the house.
You are to be the primary bread earner. She is to be a keeper
in the home as her major realm of ministry and responsibility. You are to provide for her physical,
emotional, social, spiritual, intellectual, and recreational
needs. That's your responsibility. You
are to be meeting her needs and providing for her. Thirdly, not
only are you to declare this love and provide for her, but
you are to be protecting her. That is an expression of love. That is your duty as a husband. You are to protect your wife.
And that is God's will for your life. And protecting your wife
is an expression of that love you have for her. Number four,
by assisting her. You're to be ready to be a help
and an assistant to her. Now, her calling is to be your
helpmate. So let's make that very clear.
But that doesn't mean you don't help her too. You're to help
her as well. This doesn't mean that you take
on her domestical duties. But you help and come alongside. And there may be those times
when you say, I know that you've had this and that and the other,
and the kids have been like this. I'm going to help you with the
meal tonight, or I'm going to help with the laundry today. Occasionally, you come alongside
and assist. You don't take on her role as
the wife, but you assist because you love her. And that's an expression
of your love. Number five, by praising her. You need to praise your wife.
Now, what I mean by praise, it's not some sort of flowery flattery
that you just express. What I mean by that is that you
are to express your appreciation for her regularly. She takes care of you. She makes
sure that your clothes are clean and the laundry is folded. She
cooks meals for you. She keeps the house clean. She
takes care of the children when you're at work. She does a thousand
other things. I mean, it's unimaginable the
many things that our wives do. How frequently do you say, thank
you for that? Thank you for this delicious
meal. It's another delicious meal like all the rest. Thank
you for always making sure the clothes are clean and folded
and put away. Thank you that you keep the house
clean and pick up. Are you telling your wife that?
You ought to be. That's an expression of your
love for your wife. Number six, you demonstrate your
love by refusing to compare her. Husbands don't ever say, well,
so-and-so's wife does this, unless you want to get into trouble
right quick, amen? Don't do that. There's to be
no comparisons whatsoever. You're devoted to your wife,
and you're responsible for your wife, and you're to be leading
your wife, and you're not to be bringing others into that
equation. And then number seven, you are
to love and demonstrate that love not only by declaring it,
providing for her, protecting her, assisting her, praising
her, refusing to compare her, but by romancing her. Yes, I said it. You're to be
romancing your wife. You're to be sending her cards.
and taking her out on dates. Now it doesn't have to be extravagant.
You might be on a tight budget. It doesn't mean that you go and
you eat at some five-star hotel every night or every week. It
may just mean that you go to Brahms and you have a hot fudge
sundae on occasion. That's Romancing, that's being
kind. It means that you give flowers
for her, unless she hates flowers, give flowers on occasion. I do
that on occasion. You take her out and you treat
her that way. Husbands, wives love that kind
of stuff. They absolutely love it. And
it is an expression of your love for her when you do it. Not just once a year, not just
on your anniversary. but do it regularly, showing
her how you love her. So husbands, as we conclude this
morning, a question that all of us should be asking ourselves,
how are you loving your wife? How are you loving your wife? Are you loving your wife? Christ
loves the church. Are you loving your wife? As
we have seen this incredible, indeed, in many ways, incomprehensible
love that God has for His own. Oh, my dear fellow men and husbands,
this is the standard that God has called us to. We are to love
our wives as Christ loves the church. Are you, in your home
if you have children and small children, are you modeling this
love so the children see this? Do they see that you love your
wife? Do the children have any confusion
as to whether or not daddy really cares much about mommy? That
should never be in the equation of your home. They should see
you as having this kind of love that God has called you to. And
it is your responsibility in the home, as the head, as teacher,
to be teaching your sons from the earliest age. This is how
you are to love your wife, should God be pleased to give you a
wife someday. Should you be married someday,
You're to love your wife, and you're to love your wife like
Christ loves the church. Husbands, this is your duty.
This is our responsibility. This is on us. And it is that
which we will answer before God as to the faithfulness that we
love our wives. Before we can love our wives,
before we can even have love in our homes, we must first of
all know the love of God through Jesus Christ. And if you are
here today apart from Jesus Christ, and you have not known what it
means to come to Christ as your Savior, then the call of the
gospel to you is not first obey the word related to your home,
but first run to Christ and receive him as your Lord and Savior.
The first word for you is to trust in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has said
that He welcomes all who come to Him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. If you haven't called
on Christ, call upon Him today. Run to Him today. Trust in Him
today. It will revolutionize your life,
and you'll have implanted within your soul a desire to do what
He says. Let's bow together in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank You for Your Word today. We pray, oh God, that we as husbands
would be faithful in this duty of loving our wives. Lord, that
you would, by your grace and enablement, help us to be constantly
reminded that we are called to have this love for our wives. Lord, that it would be a love
that is clear and demonstrated, a love that is communicated and
which is modeled and taught to the next generation, so that
there will be this faithfulness continued in the rising days. Father, we pray that if there
are those here who do not know Christ, in accordance with your
sovereign purpose and your wonderful, glorious grace, that you would
be pleased to draw them to your Son, that they would receive
Christ as their Savior and find salvation in the Lord Jesus. O God, grant this, we pray, for
the glory of your name, the sake of your kingdom, and for the
honor and praise of your Son. Father, we pray all of this in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for his sake we pray, amen. Amen. Let's all stand together now
as we prepare to be dismissed. Again, with the words of Holy
Scripture, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his
face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift
up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And all of God's
people said, amen, amen.
Duties of Husbands (Pt. 2)
Series Ephesians
In this sermon, Pastor Linehan considers the duty of husbands to love their wives in the marriage relationship.
| Sermon ID | 83251641137529 |
| Duration | 51:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 5:25-33 |
| Language | English |
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