If you would open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. This week, we're going to be in verses 22 through 33. Ephesians 5, verses 22 through 33. So here are the words of the Lord this morning through the Apostle Paul. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, his body and is himself its savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. that she might be holy and without blemish, and the same way husbands should love their 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 Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. And I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Let us pray. Father, we. We are thankful for Christ's coming and making us his bride to present us as spotless and blameless to himself, Father, we are thankful for a great Savior who loves his people and cherishes them and cares for them. We do love and feel loved by our Lord Jesus. Father, as we come to this text today, we ask that you would open our eyes and give us understanding, allow us to be molded and shaped by your word. We ask that you would work among us, that you would convict us where we need to be convicted and that you would You would heal us where we've been wounded and that you would give us great hope in Christ and great hope in this glorious gospel of his being lived out in marriage. Father, we pray all of these things in the great name of our Savior Jesus. Amen. May be seated. Well, today we come to a text that's well known for a number of reasons. One way it's well known, it's read at a lot of weddings. If you've been to weddings before, if you've been more than just a couple, you've heard this read, I'm sure. It's a subject of much study by Christians and non-Christians alike. And it also teaches about the hot topic we have in our culture of gender. I read as I was preparing for this sermon, I read a pastor who wrote in the early 2000s that he lived in a gender neutral times. And I would really like to know how he describes our culture now. We live in a culture that once claimed they wanted gender inclusivity. And now we live in a culture that demands that we affirm that anyone can be any gender and have any pronoun, even ambiguous ones that they want. We live in a culture that works hard to break down gender differences. And if you want to get into a whirlwind of controversy as a public figure, try suggesting anything biblical based about gender. And what you will find is culture warriors coming out in full force against you. Well, another way that this text and others like it, the offset text that we've read in Genesis and Colossians this morning, have become well known because they become hot topics in churches around our nation. These texts have been used at various times to degrade women and build up the superiority of men. These texts have been at other times completely ignored. They have been undermined in an attempt to conform to cultural norms. And they've been known by people who flat out reject Christianity. And they've used these texts to claim that the Bible and the church put women in bondage when they read texts like this. Brothers and sisters, that is not what this text teaches at all. And what I want us to see today is the glorious nature of creation and the gospel on display in the text and how as husbands and wives live out the gospel in their marriage and lived out their proper roles, that the gospel of Jesus is put on display for the world to see. I want us to work to not misuse or misapply these texts. Now, the The main idea of this passage, oftentimes in headings of Bibles, or people talk, they'll call them instructions to husbands and wives, and it is that, but I think it's more than that. So I say the main idea of this passage is the application of the gospel to marriage and the display of the gospel through marriage. And I think we see this in three main sections as we break this text down. And these happen to be the three sections that Tom broke it down a while ago. So this works out well together here. Number one, we see the gospel applied to wives and the way they are to live out the way God has made them. Number two, we see the gospel applied to husbands and the way that they are to reflect Christ and the way that they lead their family. three, we see the gospel on display in the oneness of marriage, how to come together as one. And we see that on display. So we have three main parts of this text, the gospel of the wives, the gospel of the husbands, and the gospel on display through marriage in this oneness. Now I want us to see these three parts today. And I will tell you Anytime you come to a text that's very much contentious in a culture or society, you do well to read widely. All right. And so I have benefited. What I mean widely is read a lot of people that are good, solid, exegetical, trusted people. And I'll tell you that I have benefited from pastors and commentators and other Christians that have written about this text and others. And if you read much, you will you will know that what I am what I'm saying here is not something that that is new. It's been taught for for centuries throughout the church and has been taught over and over again, and it should not be new to you. Now, before we jump into those three sections, we're going to have an extended introduction. We need to look at Genesis. We need to look at Genesis. I think Paul's words are often misunderstood and misapplied. And people claim that what Paul said here was just a product of his culture, a first century culture, because they don't understand what underlies Paul's thinking. Paul's thinking as a Pharisee and as one of God's Jewish early, I guess before he was a believer, one of the Jewish thinkers. And then as he became a Christian, he's looking at the entirety of the Old Testament and how God works. And I think the underlying, what he sees here in applying the gospel, he sees all the way back in Genesis. And I think that any discussion, when we start talking about gender roles, and anytime people, and Christians particularly, start talking about this, we need to have an understanding of God's intention in creation. And then we need to have an understanding of how that's distorted in the fall, and how the gospel of Christ redeems that. So we're going to go all the way back to Genesis. You can flip there if you want. We're going to look at a couple of passages there. The first one is the first place that we see gender mentioned. That is Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27. If we have the right understanding of this, this will make Paul's words make more sense. Genesis 26, then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over livestock and all the earth and and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth. So God created man in his image and the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them. Now, this is a very important passage for us to have in the background and the underlying of what Paul is saying. It is important to remember that in the creation account, we have mankind made in God's likeness as image bearers, both male and female. Both of our genders are image bearers. And sometimes the language that's used when we talk about genders, that is forgotten. This passage teaches us that both male and female are created in God's image. And there's a couple other aspects that are important as well. Before we leave the image bearer part, I want to flesh this out what this means a little bit. This means that intrinsically, all humans, regardless of our gender, I won't even go further to say regardless of our age, we have equal worth in the eyes of God. What I mean by that is we are all equally image bearers. One is not superior to the other. We are all created in God's image. Don't be fooled. Every culture from the time of the fall until now has found a way to goof that up and mess it up. Sin has destroyed it. Every culture has found a way to devalue women. Every culture has found a way to talk about the created order being wrong. And even in our own culture, in our own churches, I've heard these very type things said, where the value of women has been degraded, or unknowingly men have built themselves up to be something greater than what Scripture says. But listen to God's word today. God created man in his own image and the image of God. He created them male and female. He created them. When we speak about passages like this, when we speak about our brothers and sisters, let us be very clear that we are making sure that we are not devaluing humans because that is unbiblical. Now, This text teaches us a few other things that are very important as we move into Ephesians. It tells us that our femaleness or maleness, our gender that we are given is not an accident. It's not an accident. God created male and female. He didn't create like we might have in language, feminine, masculine and neuter. He didn't do that. He created male and female. And it's not a choice of our own, is it? God made us the way that he has made us for a purpose. It is not an accident. He made men and women different, both in his image and both are needed. In fact, I think this text also teaches us that we need each other. He created male and female because we need each other. And in fact, if we go to in Genesis chapter two that we read earlier, we get more of a detailed look at how God created mankind. So if you want to, if you're a Genesis, you'll look to the other page and see that passage we read earlier in Genesis chapter two, starting to verse 18. God saw Adam and he said, now this was before the creation was done. It is not good for man to be alone. Not everything was good at this point. Nothing had sin, but man was incomplete without a woman. There wasn't sin yet, but God wasn't done making the creation good. He needed to create a woman for Adam. And so if you remember what we read earlier, Adam, God had Adam call all the animals. He looked at them all in creation. He named them and none of them were suitable for him. Why? Because they were animals. He needed a helper that was like Him. He needed an image bearer of the living God to be like Him. Now this helper was not to be a subservient or inferior like the animals were. No, this helper is an image bearer. Also carrying the image of God. Now as a side note, the word helper that's used in Hebrew there, It's the same word, helper, that is used in other places in the Old Testament, describing God as a helper to Israel, and God as a helper to His people. David calls out in the Psalms, and he calls God to be his helper. It's the same word that's used there. And this helper is supposed to be suitable or fit for Adam. We could translate that. Part of that meaning in Hebrew, it's hard to always translate it into English. He's opposite. The helper to Adam was his opposite or had characteristics that he lacked. So God looked and saw Adam and said, it is not good for this dude to be by himself. It's not. God knew what he was going to do. He was going to create a woman. He purposely created Adam with some downfalls that he needed someone else to fill. Opie starts seeing, as they come together, they help one another out. And then we see this marriage relationship at the end of chapter two, they cling to one another. And even in the creation account, we start getting language that helps us understand Christ and the church. So what God does for Adam, because it is, creation is not done, He brought forth Eve from Adam's flesh, helping us to see that she is different from any of the rest of the creation. She is like Adam, and that she is an image bearer. Now, I think this helps us to see men and women are incomplete with each other. We need each other. The creation account helps us to understand that there are weaknesses that we have, and God has created women for men and men for women to help us. Even if you aren't married, you benefit from relationships with the other gender. You have parents and siblings and grandparents. You have the church family. And if you're a man, you benefit from knowing and having sisters in Christ to help you. If you're a single lady, you benefit from hopefully having godly men in your life. We need each other. Now, what does all of this have to do with Ephesians 5? This is the background of creation that is underlying Paul's words. Paul actually quotes Genesis in here, verses 1-24. So I think all of what he's saying, he's building upon the creation account and the application of the gospel into the marriage based on the way God has created the world. Now, the problem is after chapter two in Genesis, we have the fall. Genesis chapter three, everything gets messed up and turned on its head. And part of the curse, part of the curse there is that there will be tension between men and women. God says to Eve, your desire will be for your husband or against your husband or that you will want to rule over them. And then he says, but he will rule over you. There's this tension that comes as a result of the fall. It wasn't initially intended to be there. And ever since that point until now, there's this tension back and forth, this fighting of the gender roles throughout all of Scripture and all of time and even our own experiences. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you that in the gospel, there's hope. In the gospel, as it is applied to marriages, we see on display redemption from that curse. So let's flip back, if you're in Genesis, flip back to Ephesians. This is this is the underlying, I think, to what Paul is thinking, what he knows to be true in Genesis. He understands the fall and now he's going to apply the gospel. to husbands and wives. And if you remember, right before verse 22, what we talked about last week, is Paul has told the church to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, to have deference, to care for, to put themselves away for each other. And now he's going to expand that in husbands and wives. And he says, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church's body. And is himself its savior. Now, the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit everything to their husbands. Now, I guarantee you, because of the fall, these words probably are not pleasant to everyone's ears in this room. When you read that, do you find yourself kind of cringing a little bit? Because those words are not the words that are affirmed by our culture, are they? But these are these are Christ's word. These are God's words to us. And the same the same language that we have in verse 21, submitting to one another, Paul says, wives, you are to submit to your wives. Those same words to put yourself aside and to submit to the leadership of your husband, what does that mean? What does it mean? Let me give you a high level definition first, and then we'll look at the details. Because I think, I know, not I think, I know, in our contemporary context, the word submission leaves a very bad taste in our mouths. And I think the way that the scripture speaks of it and the way that our world speaks of it are not the same. Paul is calling wives to willingly honor, affirm and follow the headship of their husbands and respect their husbands in their marriage. This is not blind servitude. That's not what Paul is calling for, but he is appealing to wives to willingly submit to the leadership of their husbands. Now, I want to flesh this out a little bit, because I know some of you in here are like, I don't like this. This is what submission is not. And I have compiled these from various authors like Ligon Duncan and Clint Arnold and Tim and Kathy Keller and John Piper and Wayne Grudem. I have compiled some of these together. Submission is not, this is what it's not, it is not denying your humanity or your equal worth as an image bearer. If you hear someone speak in such a way that submission makes someone less of a human, you tell them they are wrong. That denies scripture. Submission does not mean your humanity is any lower. Submission is not here. the same word in Greek as obedience. Submission is not to be blind obedience. They're different words. In fact, the Greek word here is in the middle voice, which most of you, that doesn't mean anything. Middle voice in Greek is reflexive, which suggests here that it's a voluntary action that Paul is asking wives to make. It's one of these places in scripture where we have a command, but then there's an actual action that must take place. Giving is an example. We're commanded to give, but we actually have to do it. There's other places where the same type thing happens. And Paul is calling on wives to submit. It's not blind obedience, but it's willing submission to the husband. Now, submission is also not giving in to every demand of the husband. A wife should not ever follow her husband into sin. We are always to follow the commands of God. Any leadership that a husband has comes by the authority of Christ, which means that any time that he is trying to lead his wife or family into sin, it would be disobeying the commands of God. And we are not to do that. God's commands are paramount and supreme authority in marriage. And just so we speak of this correctly, husbands are not the supreme authority in a marriage. Christ is. Next, submission is not cowering in fear of a husband who can attack at any moment. Let me stop right here for a moment. I want to make sure that this is clear. Because I have read so many stories. I have read through seminary, through studying of counseling, through the stories that have come out in the newspapers in the last year. I've heard so many stories of people who were being abused and they never spoke out because they were trying to be submissive. I want you to hear me. If you are in a situation. where you are being abused by someone or making or maybe you aren't sure if what you are experiencing is abuse. Please come talk to one of the elders. Come talk to me or Tom or Kevin or Larry. Grab someone if you don't want to talk to us alone. Come with us. If you love this person, then we need to help you and help them. Sometimes the strong help. Now, remember, Eve is supposed to be a helper for her husband, Adam. Sometimes the strong help that your spouse needs is for you to get them help. It's never loving to follow a spouse into sin, and it's never loving to help a spouse do wrong. That is not submission. That is not helping. Also, submission is not giving up efforts to influence one's husband's for good and righteous decisions. Sometimes I hear people speak and they speak in such a way when I read about this, I've heard people writing and I read them writing, I heard different speakers speak. And I think they miss out on this. Submission is not giving up efforts to influence your husband towards good and righteous decisions. In fact, in 1 Peter 3, we see that Peter writes and tells wives to be submissive so that she may be able to win her unbelieving husband over to the gospel. There's an influence there that Peter is saying is supposed to be there. Proverbs 31 surely paints a picture of a wife who has her husband's complete trust and that he listens to and whose husband praises her for her righteousness. Genesis chapter 2 tells us that Adam needed help. And let me tell you from personal experience, there is much godly wisdom that comes from wives, which is tremendously helpful for their husbands. And I'm not just speaking about my own marriage. I'm speaking about knowing many of you in this room and watching godly wives give good, sound advice to their husbands. Submission is not giving up those efforts to influence one husband towards good and righteous decisions. So what is submission? If those things aren't submission, what is it? Submission is the acknowledgement The following and the respecting a husband's spiritual leadership of the home by the wife and the marriage relationship. Submission is being willing to help your husband in thinking about decisions to support him in his sanctification and ultimately not because you don't have the ability to make a good decision, but submitting to what he decides, because you're putting on the you're putting on display the work of Christ now. Here's what I mean by when you do this, you put on display the work of Christ. If we look at Philippians chapter two, starting in verse five, this is what we read. Have this mind among yourselves. All right, so Paul's instructing that this is how we are to think. Which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not take a quality with God, a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing. taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He, this is Christ, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. When wives voluntarily submit to their husbands, they are mimicking Christ. It puts on display the way that Christ submitted himself to the Father, willingly submitted himself to the Father, to the point of death. Now, I'm not saying, wives, that you should submit yourself to your husbands to the point of death, but I'm saying that when you submit, willingly submit to your husbands, what you are doing is you are putting on display what Christ has done in the Trinity. Now, at this point, the question that immediately came to my mind was, but why do women have to submit to men? Why did Christ have to submit to the Father? And ultimately, we do not know. But this is how God has ordained things and the way he has ordered them, we don't know all of the answers, but we do know that when we do a scripture commands, Then when wives submit to their husbands and they put on the display of Christ, they are showing to a lost and dying world. They are showing to their husbands. They are showing to the church. I think putting also putting on display to the heavenly rulers that Christ is good and what he has done is righteous. And we get a part in living that out. So I want you to hear me correctly in this today, wives. And if you're not married, women, if one day you will be married, hear me correctly in this. Wives are to submit to their husbands because it puts on display the gospel of Jesus. This is how the gospel is practically applied in your life. When wives submit to their husbands, it shows not that he's superior to you, But at the new creation, Christ has changed you and you are willing to be like Christ and submit to him and reflect Christ's own actions. It also reflects the way that the church submits to Christ, doesn't it? This is all tangled together and it's all meant to bring glory to Jesus. So let me encourage you, wives. And husbands, if you've never had this conversation about this text, or those of you who are not married that someday will be married, have these conversations with your future wives and husbands before you get married. Think about how you practically are going to put on display the work of Christ in your life through submission in this marriage. Now, Every commentator and every person I've read about this passage, and also when I preach to the offsetting text in Colossians, always point to the fact that there is like twice as many instructions for men. Women, it seems to be like that's the straightforward or maybe you're just smart enough to get it. And men, we need some more explanation of what this means for us. All right, so we get to the second part gospel of the gospel applied to husbands. Now, the verses we just looked at are verses 22 through 24. Don't just speak to wives. They also speak to husbands. And we can very easily surmise that if wives are to submit to the spiritual leadership of their husbands, then guess what that means for husbands? You're required to lead. Brothers, listen to me. You must make this part of the important items on your to do list. This must be on your radar. You must be engaged in the leadership of your family. Too many men check out. Too many. Don't want the accountability. We don't want it. We don't want to be held responsible for goofing something up because we love our family. But we are called to be faithful and Christlike and to lead our families. Now, that's assumed in the first couple of verses, the lives that we're going to lead. Now, Paul understands human nature. He knows what he was like before. He's given us a beautiful, well, maybe it's not always beautiful in writing, but it's terrifying what it's like to not be a believer. He understands human nature that by nature we were children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Paul understands that. And so when you tell someone to be a leader and give them some authority, Paul knows that's going to go off the rails. And so starting in verse 25, he expounds for us what it means to to leave. And he says this husbands love your wives. And I want to stop there just as a side note. He doesn't have to tell wives to love their husbands, but husbands, you love your wives. And then he says, Now, that's the command. And he's going to give us some illustrations as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their 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 Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Now, I think what we find here is a submissiveness on the part of husbands as well. And I say this because husbands are to be servant like in their leadership. That is not something that comes easy for most men. I know some of you are like, well, let's just be honest. That is not easy for us, is it? In the business world, you are not to be a servant leader. You are to make decisions and tell people what to do, and if they won't do it, you get rid of them and you put in somebody who will. That is not how the marriage is supposed to be run. And I think it's beautiful that starting in verse 25, Paul doesn't mention the word leadership here. It is assumed from the previous part of this passage, but he fleshes out what proper biblical gospel saturated Christ filled, loving, sacrificial leadership of a husband is to look like. And he does this by giving us a command. And then he gives us two illustrations to help us understand how that command works. Command is this. So listen closely then. Husbands, listen, those of you who are not married, teenagers who will one day be married, listen to the command. Wives, women who aren't married, listen to the command of your future husbands that Christ has given them. Love your wife. Period. What does that look like, Paul? Well, let me give you some illustrations. You are to love your wife as Christ loved the church. You are to love your wife in the way that Christ gave Himself up. You want to know what Christ did for the church? He gave Himself up. He gave up all that was rightfully His. He took on human flesh. And then on the cross, He took on sin and reproach for the church, and He went to the grave for the church. He loved His bride in such a way that He took the punishment that she deserved, and He did so without complaint. And the result of this work of Christ is that the church is presented to himself as holy. Husbands, single men, young men, boys, women, hear this carefully. Christ gave himself up to sanctify his wife, the church. And husbands, you are to selflessly give up yourself. You are to love your wife and your actions are to point her to the living Christ. Your love should bring her along in her sanctification. She should be a better Christian because she is married to a husband who loves her and gives himself up daily for her and leads her and the family. Now, the confusion at times in this passage, in this illustration that comes, is that in this text, men see that they are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. And people, men, because we're sinful, take this to mean that we don't have to give sacrificially, but we get to get all the glory, just like Christ gets the glory from His church. That is not how this text reads. Note where Paul stops the analogy. Husbands, you are to sacrificially love your wives. You are to lead her towards sanctification. But nowhere in there does it say, then you will be glorified like Christ and receive the glory of your family. No, that glory is reserved for Jesus and Jesus alone. Oftentimes, as men, what we want is to be venerated and glorified. That's what we want. We want people to worship us. And Paul is saying that is not what it means to be a leader in a marriage. He says, you lay yourself down in the way that Christ laid himself down for his bride. And brothers and sisters, let me tell you, we get a greater reward than any praise that we would get from our families. We get Christ's reward. Don't long for your own glory. It is dim and fading. Long for the glory that we will get when we are raised from the dead and Christ's light shines on us. We lay ourselves down now in obedience to Christ, loving our family, knowing that one day we will get his reward. So let me ask you, husbands, how are you doing in your marriage in this way? You sacrificing yourself for the good of your family? Are you leading spiritually in the home in such a way that leads your wife towards Christ? Are you leading in such a way that you're a non-benevolent dictator? That is not the model of Christ. Illustration number two, just in case that one wasn't understood. Maybe some husbands will object and say, Paul, I can't do what Christ did. I can't save my wife. That's Jesus's word. And I think Paul made that clear, but some people might be confused. And so he goes and gives us another illustration. We're not getting off the hook. Paul says, all right, husbands, love your wife as your own flesh. No one hates his own flesh. We nourish our bodies. We feed them. We sleep. We exercise. We rest. We avoid harm's way. We manage risk to save ourselves. Paul says, you love your wife as if she is your own flesh because she is your own flesh. And he quotes Genesis 2, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one. You love your wife as your own flesh because she is your own flesh. Now, we talk about the picture of Christ in his church all the time and the marriage, but that analogy. I think this is beautiful for the church as well, that Christ nourishes the church as if it's his own body, because it is. And so, man, you do the same. Let me ask you, let me challenge you, married man, to ask yourself, how practically am I loving my wife? And then why don't you ask her? Ponder that this week and then ask her. Am I loving you as Christ's love of the church? Am I loving you as my own flesh? How can I do better? I think it's amazing. I think it's amazing that with what Paul tells wives and husbands, that we both get the privilege to reflect Christ. Wives reflect Christ in his submission to the father and the church's submission to Christ and husbands. We get to reflect Christ in his sacrifice. We get to model his sacrifice. Now, lastly, what we see in this passage is that the gospel gets put on display in this oneness. As we've seen, the gospel applied to women, the gospel applied to our wives and then husbands. And then as this is done correctly, the gospel is on display in the oneness, starting verse 31. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. And I'm saying that refers to Christ and the church. However, let one of let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Now, because of verse 31, that's why I call this this display in oneness. Paul quotes Genesis 2, 24. And what he says is when a man and a woman get married, the two become one flesh. There's this oneness there. And it's this profound mystery. And it's this mystery that I would say most of you that are married understand. And those of you who aren't married maybe don't understand. And those of us who are married, we don't know how to explain it. But there's this oneness. And this union of man and woman and this unique oneness of submission and care and love of each other reflects the union of Christ and His church. And when we live in Christian marriages that are healthy, and they model this, and they look different from other marriages, what we are doing is we are putting on display for everyone to see Christ's gospel for His church. We are living out a picture of what Christ has done for his people. We see one spouse willingly submitting in leadership, and we see the other one laying his life down for his wife. And when a lost and dying world goes, what are you doing? We go, we are, we are, we are living out what Christ has done for us. It's for all to see. Now, this text, I think, is the application of the gospel to marriages. And this text tells us about how women and men are to fulfill their roles in a way that mimics Christ's. Both mimic Christ, one in submission, one in sacrifice. And this text is about how Christian marriage is put on display, the union of Christ and his bride, the church for all to see. Now, I want to close today with Paul's words in verse 33, for those of you who are married. All right, hear this as Paul's challenge to you, his exhortation to you, those of you who aren't married, this is still an exhortation to you to look forward to. Let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Let us pray. Father, we. We are thankful that you have sent a savior who gave up. And put himself aside. And went to the point of death to redeem his church and his bride. To make us spotless. And father, we thank you that you allow us to mimic that. Father, we ask that you would give us wisdom on how this applies in each one of our relationships and how we work this out and as we strive to please you. We ask that you would you would grant wisdom to us and grace to us and that we would we would be able to live in marriages that. They reflect you. And Father, we are thankful that you have given us a great savior to mimic and we pray all of these things in his name. Amen.