R375 Imitating God, Pt.1

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about imitating God.

That's right, over the next two days, we're diving into God's Word in this concept of what it is to be an imitator of God, to know that when people see us, they are seeing a representation of what they think a Christian is. Well again, we'll open God's Word together, but we also want you to know that we're open to talk with you and pray with you 24 hours a day on our prayer line, 866-899-WORD. It's also a place to order resources like the new book from Dr. Wilton called Saturdays with Billy about his time with Dr. Billy Graham as his pastor for over 20 years, and many more resources. Also online at www.tewonline.org. You can hear today's broadcast and maybe share it with a friend.

All those details are at www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. Please take a copy of God's Word and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. Let's worship together in the Word of God. Ephesians chapter 5. I'm going to read just the first seven verses of Ephesians chapter 5.

The first seven verses. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed because these are improper for God's holy people.

Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For you can be sure of this, that no immoral, impure or greedy person, for such a man is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

Therefore, do not be partners with them. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts this morning. Is it possible to imitate God?

No. I think if we understood the height and the brilliance of God's glory and his holiness, I think every one of us here this morning would be exasperated and would agree quite readily that it's time to leave church right now. Because it is humanly impossible for any mortal man or woman to rise up to God's standard, because God is holy, God is just, God is the absolute of everything that anyone could ever be. But the Bible says that we are to imitate God. In fact, it's interesting to note, my friends, that the word discipleship carries with it the very context of imitation. If you are a disciple and Jesus said we are to go into all the worlds and make disciples, that's why I'm so excited about what's happening with discipleship in our church.

That's why I'm so excited about what's going to happen tomorrow night at 7 30 when he's gone. At 7 30 when we introduce T-net to all of those who are interested and who really want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Discipleship means that I literally put my feet in the same footprints that God has put his feet in. I want to do what God does.

I want to follow God's leadership. It's interesting to note too that the word imitate is the word from which we get mimic. The word in the Greek text is mimitai. It literally means mimic God, copy God, do what God tells us to do. Paul talks about it rather frequently in all of his pastoral epistles. Paul says that as born again believers that the clarion call to all of those who love the Lord Jesus is to be like God, to follow God, to know the mind of Christ. And the Bible says to us here in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1 that as believers we are to imitate God. We must mimic God. We must try to be like God.

That God is our barometer. He's our litmus test. He's our standard of operation. He's the computer that we consult. He's the button that we want to push. He's the screen that we observe.

He's the picture that we want to paint. We want to be like God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's interesting to note here in Ephesians chapter 5 that Paul gives us two reasons why we should do this. He lays the foundation in verses 1 and 2. He says the first reason why we need to imitate God is because of who we are. Look there at verse 1. He says be imitators of God therefore as dearly loved children.

I like that don't you? Did you know that the moment that you gave your life to the Lord Jesus Christ that you received a special designation from God? You immediately became one of God's dearly beloved children. Now there are many things we could say about children but one thing we can say is that children love to imitate their parents. I remember many years ago when my sons were just little chaps and we were out watching a ball game somewhere and even though it was a minor incident I always remember it with great love in my heart because I was just standing there with my hands in my pockets watching the game.

My wife tapped me on the shoulder and she said look at the boys and I looked at the boys sure enough there they were both with their hands in their pockets watching just like daddy. Children imitate us. You know experts in these areas and I'm sure Seth Buckley knows a lot more about this in youth ministry than I do but experts tell us that children imitate parents to the extent that as they grow up they take on more and more of the habits and the characteristics of their parents. If parents are disciplined their children become disciplined. If parents have high principles their children have high principles. If their parents honor the Lord their children honor the Lord. If their parents give to God's work their children are going to give to God's work.

Conversely the negative side if their parents behave badly children grow up behaving badly. You know I say this if you know have you ever met a couple who every Sunday have preacher for lunch or they have church for lunch. I'm talking about they're just critical. I'll give you a guarantee if in your home you criticize the church you criticize God's people you criticize the preacher you criticize your Sunday school class get what guess what your children are going to do. It's guaranteed. I'll guarantee you nine times out of ten when your children leave home and they go off to college they're going to be found nowhere spiritually.

They're going to have a critical spirit. That's what the Bible teaches us. The Bible says my friend listen to me the Bible says we are to be imitators of God number one because we are his children but number two because of who he is.

Not just because of who we are but number two because of who he is because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Look at verse two and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us and and gave himself as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice for us. Paul says we are to try and do what God does and to live according to God's plans because when we do the Lord Jesus Christ is going to bless us. Now how do we imitate God? I want to give to you just four ways that Paul talks about here in this great passage. First of all we imitate God by living a life of love.

Look at verse two again. And live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Paul just having said we need to imitate him tells us what we must do and he begins at the very character and expression of who God is. Paul says if you want to imitate God you must live according to God. Live a life of love and then he tells us three ways to do that.

And he tells us three ways based upon the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you imitate God by living a life of love? Number one by loving. Number one by loving. John 3 16.

God so loved the world. Now dear friends I don't know how to describe love. Do you? As a minister or pastor I have the privilege of marrying a lot of people. And one question I always ask couples.

I mean it's just so basic. I look at the young lady and I say to her, do you love him? And then I look at the young man and I say to him, do you love her? Can you imagine asking that of a couple who are going to get married?

I mean they have every reason to look at me and say, preacher come on are you mean to say we're going through all of this for you to ask us such an obvious question? Do you know folks the number one reason why so many marriages fail is because couples do not love one another. What is love? People have described love as a feeling. Love is action.

It's a doing word. Love is everything in between in the English vocabulary. But if we want to understand the very expression of imitating God, we've got to understand 1 Corinthians chapter 13 where Paul talks about love is not envious and love is kind and love is long suffering and he roots everything he says in the imitation of God in the very expression of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I think of love I think of moms. I think of the no strings attached kind of love. Moms get that award there's no question in my mind.

Moms just seem to know how to love with no strings attached and when you let them down they just keep coming back and just keep loving and loving and loving. Paul said if we are going to imitate God we need to live a life of love number one by loving but number two by giving. That's what he says. That's what he says he says just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. Why does Paul want us to live a life of love?

By giving. It is simply this my friends because giving is the ultimate of everything that God is. In Genesis God gave life. In Exodus God gave the law. In Joshua God gave his people land. In the Old Testament God gave his covenant. In the Gospels God gave his son. In the Acts of the Apostles God gave his Holy Spirit.

In Revelation God gives to us an inexplicable hope of glory. Giving my friend is the very heart of the holiness of everything that God is and the Bible says that if we are in Christ Jesus we are to imitate him. We are to imitate him by living a life of love.

How do we do that? By loving, by giving and number three by sacrificing. That's what he tells us in verse two. He says sacrifice. Paul put it like this in Romans chapter one. Romans chapter 12 verse one. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. You see friend when Paul points us to imitating the God of sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's talking about the atonement and when he talks about the atonement he's talking about ultimate and absolute forgiveness. You're going to live a life imitating God you've got to imitate his sacrifice. You've got to imitate the forgiveness of God because of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.

That's what Paul is saying. Do you know that forgiveness comes on three levels? Number one, God's forgiveness. We cannot operate without God's forgiveness. In fact there are some people here today who would say, Pastor, if you knew what I'd done, if you understood what I'd been involved in, you wouldn't even bother to say these things.

Friend, I'm not saying them to you. I'm telling you that God's forgiveness is absolute. You can begin again. You can be completely forgiven of your sin.

Today absolutely 100%. God will take your sin in Jesus Christ and he will cast it as far as the east is from the west and he will remember it as far as the east is from the west. Remember it no more. Level number two is forgiving ourselves. Do you know that there are people here today who have been forgiven by God but you struggle so much to forgive yourself, don't you? You just cannot forgive yourself for what you've done.

And so there is a sense in which that as you're walking through life you're dragging with you a big, big lump of lead. There's a weight that is in your heart and soul and you know what it is? That you have refused based upon God's righteousness. You have refused or you struggle to forgive yourself.

I want you to do something right now. If you've done something that you know God has forgiven you for, I want you to say in your own heart, Lord Jesus, right now, because of the Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive myself. You need to be set free, my friend. If you are going to be an imitator of God, you need to be set free. But there's a third level of forgiveness and that's forgiving other people.

That's a tough one. You see, not only God forgives us, not only are we enabled to forgive ourselves, but number three, as a consequence, we then begin to forgive others for what they have done to us, to one another. Now I want you to do something else this morning. If there is somebody that you have not forgiven no matter what it is, I want you in your heart right now to say, Lord Jesus, because you've forgiven me, because I have forgiven myself, I forgive that person for what he or she has done to me. And friend, I want you to know that God will take that burden from you and he will allow you to begin to imitate him. Number two, we can imitate God by living a life of love. Number two, by avoiding immorality. Look at verse three, but among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed because these are improper for God's people. This is an interesting area here that Paul gets in that is so strikingly significant because we are in the midst, my friends, of one of the worst sexual revolutions that have ever hit the world since the days of the Roman Empire, when people gave themselves to such debauchery. The word here for immorality is the word poignia.

It's the word from which we get the word pornography. Whenever you read about pornography or pornographic, you can just put the word immorality there as far as God is concerned. And Paul here trying to tell us to imitate God is saying to us, listen, if you want to be like God, if you want to please God, you have to flee away from any and all forms of immorality, poignia, pornography. And when he begins to talk about that, ironically, Paul gives us three different understandings of immorality here in the scriptures. The first one he talks about is sexual immorality. Sexual immorality. Paul talks about illicit relationships. He talks about sexual permissiveness. And if you go back ironically to Galatians chapter five, the apostle Paul even demarcates sexual immorality, even to a distinctive class that goes way beyond this description. He talks about adultery. He says, listen, adultery is any form of sexual activity by a married person with anybody else at any time under any circumstances. That's what Paul says in God's Word. And Paul says, my friend in Galatians chapter five, and he says it again here in verse five of Ephesians chapter five, that they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now folks, we living in a day of compromise. We living in the Elizabeth Taylor era in the United States of America, where it is not only legitimate to hop in and out of bed, but it's legitimate to get married as many times as you want to. You can just fall in and out of marriage as you fall in and out of love. And it's quite legitimate to have any kind of sexual relationship you want to. The Bible says, my friends, that if you imitate God, you are going to avoid all forms of immorality. Some people would say, well, pastor, am I glad I'm not married?

It doesn't apply to me. Well, Paul goes on, he talks about fornication. Fornication is equally sexual immorality. Fornication is for those, my friend, who are not married.

Fornication means any form of sexual activity outside of marriage on any circumstance in any way, in any form or fashion. The Bible says, they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And there is a vast number of people in America today who would say, pastor, if that's the case, I need to get up and leave because there's no hope.

Don't leave whatever you do. You know why? Because of God's forgiveness. Because of God's forgiveness. God's forgiveness, my friend, is absolute, but it is conditional upon God's standards.

That's why I'm so proud of our young people with true love weights. But I'm going to say to you, my friend, if you have committed adultery, if you have committed fornication, I want you to know that the Bible says that God's forgiveness is 100% absolute. And I want to make an announcement today at First Baptist Church, because we know and love the Word of God. If you are guilty of sexual immorality and you have toed the line according to God's standards, you are welcome in this house of God.

You know why? Because the only difference between the best of us in here and the worst of them out there is the grace of God. What a powerful truth from Dr. Wilton. There's more great teaching to come in just a moment, but Dr. Don wants me to remind you we're here for you. We'd love to pray with you and for you at 866-899-WORD.

Jot the number down, store it in your cell. We're available 24 hours a day at 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org. Drop by the website today.

That's tewonline.org. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don. And I'm going to say to you, my friend, if a person who has been guilty of sexual immorality cannot come into the church and find absolute restoration, absolute reconciliation, absolute forgiveness, where in the world are we going to send them? What hope is there for the world outside the church of Jesus Christ?

Oh, dear friend, I'm so glad that you're here today because there is hope. There is a new beginning. Paul goes on. He doesn't only talk about sexual immorality. He talks about impurity, which is more general.

That means sick or unclean. He talks about greed and lust, which is somebody who has something but is not satisfied with it. That's why so many marriages break up today because of lust. Because they have something and they're not satisfied with it and so they just up and walk away. You, my friend, do not have a right to walk away from your marriage.

Let me say that again. You do not have a right, according to God's Word, to walk away from your marriage. Not according to God's Word, not according to God's Word. And if your marriage is creaking at the ends and it's falling apart, my friend, I want you to know that I've got wonderful news for you. You cannot abandon those children. You cannot abandon that wife and that husband. You cannot split up a family like that because God's Word says it's wrong. That's why. You cannot do it.

You cannot do it and there is no reason. The Bible says God's grace is absolute. His forgiveness is completely complete. And friend, if you've already gone through that, God will forgive you. Today can be the first day of the rest of your life but don't let it happen to you.

You won't go to one single person whose marriage is broken up and they'll give you a wonderful rosy picture of how wonderfully, deliriously happy they are now that their marriage is broken up. I never find people like that. Don't do it. Stand on God's principles. Young people, don't sell your body to somebody who's going to steal the very precious jewel that God has given to you. Stand firmly upon God's principles and if you're not standing upon God's principles and you've failed and you've done these things, I want you to know I'm glad you're here because God will forgive you.

Would you say Amen? God will forgive you. He'll forgive you on the condition that you stand in line with what God's Word teaches.

Now, beloved friends, these things are not always necessarily popular. I will guarantee you today that you will find churches that will not only condone what you're doing, they'll help you do it. I will guarantee you, you will not only find pastors and preachers that will condone what you're doing, they will help you do it.

They'll make you feel comfortable. But God's Word says, be imitators of God. That's what the Word teaches. Be imitators of God. Stand upon God's Word. Indeed, that is where we stand on the mercy-rich, grace-filled Word of God.

You've heard Dr. Wilton and he's been preaching from the pulpit. Now, as he steps into the studio, I pray you'd open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart to God? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed to receive Jesus moments ago with Dr. Wilton or perhaps to rededicate your life, you need to know Scripture promises that the angels are rejoicing in heaven and as are we. And Dr. Don would love to help you walk through the next steps. We have free resources for you if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. And we'd love to connect you with those resources.

That's a part of what that line is about, but it also that phone number means so much more. First Timothy 2, one through two says, I urge then first of all that petitions, prayers, intercession and Thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority that we may live peacefully and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. In the times that we live, our lives are anything but peaceful and quiet. How can we find peace? We can find it in daily prayer and Bible reading. God wants to give us his peace.

We just need to ask for it. We would be honored to pray for you. We would be honored to pray for his peace in your life. The encouraging word has a 24 hour live prayer line. You can call 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 and talk to a real person who will be glad to pray with you. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today.