Ephesians

[0:00] In dependence upon the Lord for much felt needed help, I want to direct you again to Ephesians chapter 5, reading verses 1 and 2.

[0:23] Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Be ye 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 savour.

[0:56] In Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Be ye 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 savour.

[1:27] Just to pick up the threads again this afternoon, we looked at this word, as you know, and we are told to be followers of God, followers of God.

[1:56] God the Son, that came down here upon the earth, that walked here below.

[2:13] We have his blessed example, and we are to follow that. My friends, there are times when you and I come into strange paths, sometimes into circumstances where we don't know what way to go.

[2:41] We come into many difficulties from time to time.

[2:53] And my friends, I feel it is a good thing if we can take them to the Lord, and if we can search and look into the world and see, sometimes the pathway that Jesus took.

[3:18] And sometimes, my friends, I have to ask the question, what would Jesus have done? what would he think?

[3:32] Think upon our actions, for instance, when we have a pathway or decision to make and don't know what to do.

[3:44] My friends, it is a good thing if we can take them to the Lord and see, see whether he will frown upon it or whether he will smile upon it.

[4:05] There are times, my friends, when we find there are clouds that gather. We do not feel free to go in a pathway until the cloud is removed, if it is going to be removed.

[4:28] But my friends, we are to follow God as dear children.

[4:40] We are to be humbled. We are not to be rebellious. I know we are.

[4:51] So often, I know that, my friends. I do not suggest that I in any way can do these things myself. I cannot. But we have the Word of God and we have the command that we should be as dear children.

[5:12] That is teachable. that is willing to be corrected. A child, when it is young, is taught by its parent.

[5:30] The parent corrects it. The parent teaches it. The parent leads it in a right path.

[5:42] And so, my friends, we are to become as children. Yes. Grown men and women are to come as children before their God.

[5:57] Yes. And, my friends, I believe the more the Lord works in the heart, the more he will make you and I feel our need of a father, of one to teach us, of one to lead us, of one to correct us, of one to deliver us.

[6:26] These are the fruits, my friends, I believe, of being made a child or as a child.

[6:36] my friends, I would that we knew more of them. For I believe, my friends, there would be more blessing. Well, then, we are to be, we are to be as dear children and walk in love.

[7:01] Walk in love. We spoke a little of it this morning, of walking in love. My friends, if you love someone naturally upon the earth, you desire to walk in love.

[7:20] You desire to please them. You desire to do what they want and many things. And, my friends, it is the same spirit spiritually.

[7:34] If we serve God, if we are His, if the love of God is in our hearts, there will be a desire to walk in love before Him.

[7:48] And, this will be a constraining power in our hearts. It will help and enable us to walk in His ways.

[8:01] will be of walking in love. And, we said, I think, towards the end of this morning about referring to the commandments, the ordinances of His house.

[8:20] Why, my friends, there should be, I believe, only one motive in walking in that command. And, that is in love.

[8:35] And, if that is not there, then I question the reality of it, of walking in that pathway. But, when the love of Christ is in exercise, there will be that drawing power toward Him.

[8:52] there will be that desire to please God. Yes, I wish, my friends, that it was more in exercise in our hearts.

[9:05] I believe it would keep us from sin, oft times. I believe it would save us many a pain and suffering.

[9:18] I believe it is often the cause of darkness because we have not the love of Christ in our hearts in exercise.

[9:33] But, all my friends, do we love Christ? Do we love God?

[9:45] Walk in love. how does it come about, my friends? You might say, well, I'm so helpless in this.

[9:56] I cannot love God just when I want. No. My friends, naturally speaking, we know, do we not?

[10:09] If we're taught of the Spirit, we shall know this, that we're carnally minded. That is, we mind the things of the earth. We don't mind spiritual things.

[10:23] There is no spiritual sight until the Lord works in the hearts, quickens into life, and puts it there.

[10:35] He opens the blind eyes. He softens the heart. He takes of the things of Jesus and reveals them unto us. He shines into a poor sinner's heart.

[10:50] My friends, it's the Lord leading us in these paths and walk in love, walk in love.

[11:06] Jesus walked in love. He walked in love, in love to his father, in love to his dear children.

[11:20] Oh, how it is manifested in his walk, in the scriptures, in his life here below. Oh, we can read much in the word of God, especially in the gospel of John.

[11:38] We can read, my friends, of the love of Christ, the love he had to his father, and the love he had to his dear children.

[11:50] He walked in love. This morning, my friends, we commenced with that hymn, 28, wasn't it?

[12:02] 28. and the last verse of that hymn this morning, we have the love of God set forth.

[12:14] The father, the father sent the son to die. The father sent him to die. He knew what he had come on this earth for.

[12:28] He'd come to die, to lay down his life. the willing son, obeyed. There's love, perfect love, the witness thou to ratify the purchase Christ has made.

[12:51] My friends, we have real love there, the love of Christ to his dear children. And who are his dear children?

[13:01] why they're sinners? Sinners. My friends, it's a solemn thing to feel and know one's self to be a sinner.

[13:18] But unless, my friends, we know it, we shall never know the love of Christ. because the love of Christ is to sinners.

[13:34] It's to them that are, that are, that know themselves as sinners. Oh, do we know anything of this love?

[13:52] Well, Jesus walked in this pathway. He bore much for his dear children.

[14:03] And we are to walk in love. My friends, I believe if we're taught of the Spirit, our religion will cost us a lot.

[14:14] I mean in this way. I don't suggest that we can earn salvation or buy it in any way.

[14:26] But I know this, my friends, if we are taught of the Spirit, our religion will cost us a lot to walk in his ways, to walk in obedience to him, to walk upright before the world, to honour him.

[14:44] I say it will cost us much, because we will be hated, we will be rejected, we will be spit upon, because the world and Satan hate, hate God.

[15:04] They hate religion, and they hate all those that love God. are. My friends, I believe this, that if we had more of the love of God in us, if we honoured him more, we should have more persecution.

[15:30] But my friends, there's a denying and a dishonouring of our God, and Peter, the apostle, he knew it, he walked in it, we're told of it in the word of God.

[16:10] He openly denied his Lord three times, before the world, because he feared the consequences.

[16:22] And my friends, can you and I throw any stones at him? Haven't there been many times when we've been in company, perhaps in the business circle, in the world, or even at school, when, my friends, there have been those things said, when the Lord Jesus has been ridiculed, when there have been those things that have been said that dishonored him, perhaps even in regard to the weather, the elements of the earth, the sun and the rain, and many other things.

[17:06] And where have you and I been amongst those people? Have we been silent? And if we have been silent, then as far as they have been concerned, we've been in agreeance with them.

[17:21] How dishonoring, how we deny our Lord. And we know if we open our mouth and disagree, we should be a spectacle, and we shall suffer sneers and jeers and persecution.

[17:37] I say, my friends, we have deceitful, deceitful hearts.

[17:48] We're desperately wicked. But all my friends, do we have to confess these things sometimes before our God?

[18:01] love of love of love of love of Christ in our hearts, all that we might have more of that blessed fear of God, all that we might be able to honour him, to honour him, to serve him.

[18:23] I, my friends, do you know anything of the love of Christ in your heart? How did you come by it?

[18:38] Was it something you did for the Lord? No. No, it wasn't. There are those, my friends, in religious circle, that the more they can do for the Lord, the more they think they love him.

[18:57] But, my friends, it doesn't work that way at all. It works the very opposite. If you and I love him, have ever loved him, it's because he has loved us.

[19:12] It's because, it's because of what he's done for us. My friends, we have to painfully prove that we can do nothing, nothing of ourselves.

[19:31] We can't soften our hearts. We can't pray. Well, you say, I can pray, that's easy enough. Yes, perhaps it is with some, with their lips, but what about your heart?

[19:48] My friends, to pray from the heart, you need that heart to be softened, you need it to be touched, you need it to be melted, you need it to be humbled.

[20:05] When you have a heart and a rebellious heart, can you soften it? Can you melt it? Can you confess your sin before God?

[20:17] love it? Ah, my friends, we need the love of God. We need him to come. We need him to work in our hearts and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us.

[20:41] all my friends, this is a great mystery, a great mystery.

[20:52] If the Lord is teaching you and I, if he has opened our eyes and revealed in some measure our state and condition before him and realizing in some measure our sinnership, our failings, our shortcomings, our rebelliousness and many other things, I say if you have had these things revealed in some measure to you, can you understand why this blessed God, the Son of God, why he could love such a sinner as we are, why he could come in such love and mercy and lay down his life for such a one as you and

[22:00] I, I say can you understand it, can you fathom it, the love of Christ, my friends, I cannot fathom it, neither could the hymn writer, I don't know which one it is, I'm not familiar with the hymn writers as regards to particular hymns, but there's one who penned these words, why me, why me, oh gracious God, who must forever lie in hell, were not salvation free, he knew my friends, from his experience, what he deserved, he knew that he did not deserve the mercy and the love of God, but it was made manifest unto him, it was shed abroad in his heart, he couldn't fathom it, ah my friends, oh what love the

[23:09] Lord has to his dear children, so much so, that he was willing to come, as we have already said, and sung of in the morning, willing to come and lay down his life, willing to suffer many things, we cannot begin to understand and fathom what he suffered for poor sinners, why my friends, to leave heaven above, that holy, happy place, that paradise, where he dwelt with his beloved father, I say to leave that heaven, that paradise, where there was no sin, no sorrow, and to come down and dwell amongst men, on this sin-cursed earth, can you begin to understand it, my friends, we know, as we are taught by the Spirit, a little of the, what it is to live here below, if we're taught of the Spirit, this will not be our rest, we will not be able to settle here, no, no, ah, the world can settle here, and so could we before we were called by grace, yes, but when we're called by grace, when the

[25:03] Lord works in the heart, my friends, he weans from this earth, he shows us the folly of it, yeah, he comes closer, he comes close, he shows you and I, that we have a body, a body of sin and death, nothing but sin and death within us, and that is how it will be, this side of the grave, but all my friends, those that walk in love, those that Christ has loved, my friends, they will one day come to that blessed place in paradise, they will be in heaven with him, but that's the other side of the grave, that my friends, there will be sometimes, perhaps only once, perhaps once in a life, maybe more, the Lord is a sovereign, but there are sometimes just those one or more glimpses of heaven above, what it is to be there, what it will be, just a glimpse, oh my friends, it's a holy place, a blessed place, where there is no sin, where there is no sorrow, where there is no nothing of the world, where there is no confusion, where there is no vileness, where there is no lust, ah, there's no sin, no sorrow, that's the place, heaven, and what is there there?

[27:47] There is God, there is God, the Father, there is Jesus, the Son of God, the Redeemer, there is the blessed Holy Ghost, Christ, yes, and there are three one call, and there my friends, they have gone to prepare a place, in that place, for his dear children, yes, heaven is a prepared place, for a prepared people, we don't know nothing hardly of it, but it is a prepared place, for a prepared people, my friends, we hear sometimes various remarks about heaven, and seeing one and another there, and so on, but all my friends,

[29:01] I believe they miss them out, they miss them out, we have loved ones here below, but my friends, they are lent, they are lent one to another here upon earth, for the Lord in the creation said it was not good for man that he should be alone, but my friends, when man goes, is taken out of this earth and into heaven, when he is saved by grace, when he is washed and cleansed from all sin, it will take a whole eternity to praise, to praise and bless and crown him Lord of all.

[29:58] My friends, we won't want any other then. Oh my friends, is the Lord preparing us?

[30:20] Time is nearly gone, I thought it had gone for the minute, but it's nearly gone. well my friends, we have then, that Christ also has loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.

[30:51] My friends, God the Father, God, how does he look upon you and I?

[31:05] We read a solemn word in the last verse of Hebrews 12 regarding God, for our God is a consuming fire.

[31:20] God, that my friends, sets forth God Almighty, it sets forth his holiness, his holiness.

[31:38] God, his God, my friends, when we view this great almighty God, when our eyes are opened, we shall realize we cannot possibly approach this holy God, not in ourselves, because we're sinners, because we're unholy, how can we approach him?

[32:19] We can only approach him through a blessed saviour, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and my friends, if God the Father looks upon your eye, it can and only be through his beloved son, he will see, he will see what his beloved son suffered, he will see the blood that he shed, that blood that cleansed his dear children, that's how they are viewed, the Lord views them through his son, all that the Lord might view

[33:22] Jesus and not us. My friends, understand me right, if he views us without and not through the Lord Jesus Christ, we would be consumed.

[33:42] Oh, is there anything known, have we experienced anything of this love, this love of Christ, or if you've experienced anything of it, my friends, you'll know what it is to love him, to love him.

[34:07] I say, I said earlier on, if we have loved him, it's because he has loved us, it's because of what he has done for us, it's because we have known something of his mercy, his compassion.

[34:31] Oh, my friends, the love of Christ is past finding out, it's past finding out, all my friends, does the love of Christ constrain you and I?

[34:56] The love of Christ will, it will be, when it's in exercise, it will be the means of keeping you and I from evil, evil.

[35:14] Because if we love him, then we will not want to grieve him. And that's one thing, my friends, that his dear children are so fearful about, lest they should grieve the Lord, because they know only too well, painfully, that if they sin against him, and grieve him, that there are clouds that come over us, and we cannot see him, we cannot find him, we cannot hear his voice.

[36:00] Oh, how many times have we grieved him? And yet, my friends, we have proved his blessed faithfulness, we have proved that his love changes not, he does come again.

[36:20] Didn't we read it in that 16th of John that you have now there for sorrow, but I will see you again in your hearts, shall rejoice.

[36:35] I believe we did, if we didn't, it was in the 17th chapter. Well, my friends, there are many sorrows, many sorrows to the people of God, but oh, our Jesus, he had many, many more sorrows than ever you and I have had.

[36:58] Oh, the sorrows of his heart, no man can express or tell what he suffered. Oh, the love of Christ, why, he, he loves his children unto the end.

[37:19] He cannot change his mind. He cannot turn away from them. He cannot leave them to despair. care. He cannot cast them off forever.

[37:32] I know he challenges. I know he chastens. I know he rebukes. But who does he do it to? To them that he loves.

[37:46] They're the ones, no others. Oh, my friends, you may have been chastened and troubled many times and tempted and tried about it that it's an evidence that the Lord has cast you off, that you're not one of his.

[38:07] It's the very opposite, the very reverse to what the flesh and Satan thinks. It's an evidence of his eternal love to our souls.

[38:20] O may look, may we be humbled then, under his mighty hand. O may we be brought more into these things that we have tried feebly to look into today.

[38:41] O may these things be shed abroad in our hearts. His love, and O may we know something of that love in our hearts to him.

[38:58] Remember the two on the road to Emmaus, they were sorrowful, they communed together of the way of their religion, of their hope, and their hope regarding the Lord Jesus Christ as being their saviour.

[39:19] O they mourned, they mourned together, because he had died, because he had been buried, but now he had risen from the dead, and he saw them, he saw them in their pathway, and he came right where they was, and communed with them, and what happened?

[39:42] Their heart burned within them. It burned within them.

[39:53] They loved him, they loved him, and he opened their eyes eventually, and they saw him, they knew him, and he vanished.

[40:07] May the Lord bless a few things. For his name's sake. Amen. Thank you.