R377 Imitating God, Pt.3

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton as we head to the book of Ephesians together. Today on The Encouraging Word, we finish the message called Imitating God with Dr. Don Wilton and know that we're here for you connecting and praying together at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Turn with me now in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. I'm going to be preaching the last in a miniseries from Ephesians chapter 5 entitled Imitating God. And we've discovered here in chapter 5 and verse 1 that Paul says we are to be imitators of God and the word there for imitate is mimitai which literally means we are to mimic God. We are to be like God. Paul says that as born again believers we are to endeavor to emulate or to copy God. We are to strive to say what God says. We are to strive to do what God does, to behave in a manner that is well pleasing to the principles and precepts that God our Heavenly Father sets before us.

But I want you to notice something here. I want you to notice that in chapter 5 and verse 1 that the Apostle Paul says be imitators of God. And then in verse 21, look at verse 21 with me for just a moment. What does Paul say in verse 21? He says submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Now friends, there is something about to happen here. I want all the wives and the ladies to listen to this because I'm going to give you just a little peep into the future here. If we understand what God is trying to teach us because and I'm not going to get into it but when we get into verse 22, there are some things there that we're going to read about that America doesn't want to read about. And there are going to be some things with regard to marriage and family and the relationship between husband and wife and parents, sons and daughters that today of course the world says we cannot operate according to these principles and these precepts. We living in an increasingly volatile world in which men want to become women and women want to become men.

We are living in a day and age today where it becomes increasingly unpopular for a man to be a real man or for a woman to be a real woman. It becomes increasingly unpopular to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to show you something rather interesting here because in chapter 5 and verse 1, the apostle Paul says be imitators of God and then in verse 21 he says submit to one another. And that word submit is the same word that we're going to find in the next verse when Paul having laid the foundation, having set the scene, having placed the context in its correct circumstance and situation in the heart of God. Paul from verse 22 is going to begin to help us to understand what it is that God wants us to know about the special institution called marriage.

He's going to try and help us to know the mind of Christ as we begin to delve into the real biblical essence of what it means to be a woman or a man or a son or a daughter. The Bible tells us how to live but we cannot understand these things if we don't understand God's principles and precepts. We're not going to be able to understand that God has created men and women absolutely 100% co-equal partners in marriage. There is no such thing as a boss in the house.

There is no such thing as authoritarianism in the house. That is not what God is talking about here. And what Paul is saying is listen, if you and I are going to be able to understand the precepts and the principles of God's word, we must understand what it means to imitate God.

Now let's have a look at this together. I want to read to you chapter 5 beginning at verse 1. Or of any kind of impurity or of greed because these are improper for God's holy people. Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of such things God's wrath comes upon those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them for now you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret but everything exposed by the light becomes visible for it is light that makes everything visible.

This is why it is said, wake up oh sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Be careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is.

Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit, speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. May God add his blessing this morning to this reading from his Word. We've looked at the first several ways in which we can imitate God.

I want to just remind you of some of them this morning. How can we imitate God according to what Paul tells us here? Number one, by living a life of love. We saw that in verse two. By loving, by giving, by sacrificing. Number two, by avoiding immorality. Now we saw that in verse three.

We discussed it over two Sundays at length. Sexual immorality, impurity, greed and lust. Third way we can imitate God is by guarding the tongue. According to verse four and Paul divides this into three components.

Obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking. And we know that the Apostle James reminds us that the tongue is a small instrument that can do more damage than anything else. It can light an entire forest fire and yet the tongue can do so much good for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Number five, by appreciating the change that has taken place in our hearts and lives. And you'll remember in verse eight, we saw this juxtaposed together. The Apostle Paul says, you once were in darkness but now you are children of the light.

There but by the grace of God go I. And the Apostle Paul says, here in verse eight, he says, listen, if you're going to imitate God, you must appreciate the change that has taken place in your life. And Paul puts it into two components. He says, once you were in darkness, now you're in light in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What an incredible thing to think about. What an unbelievable joy to be able to announce to the United States of America today that the word of God tells us that because of Jesus Christ, you once were, but now you are. Paul puts it like this. He says, therefore, if any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a brand new creature. All things are passed away and behold all things have become new.

And I said to my friend Louie yesterday, I said to him, Louie, my constant pain and my agony of my heart is that our young people today would not make the same mistakes as we made that they wouldn't waste their time and become damaged and hurt and impaired and have to carry baggage on their shoulders for the rest of their lives. And the Bible says you can be delivered from that, you can be set free. But there's a sixth mean by which we're able to imitate God and that is by taking on godly characteristics, by taking on godly characteristics. Look at verse 9 and 10. Paul says, for the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. He begins to talk about the practical reality of imitating God and he divides it into three areas. He talks about goodness and he talks about righteousness and he talks about truth. Well, we've come to understand goodness in all different kinds of ways today. But here when the apostle Paul talks about goodness, my friend, he's talking about goodness as it pertains to the mind of Christ Jesus. He's talking about what is right.

He's talking about what is free. He's talking about what is beautiful and honourable, what is morally good, what is pleasant and useful and suitable and worthy and in this context, Paul is saying that if you imitate God, you are going to be given to goodness. That is moral excellence. And what is the ultimate expression of moral excellence?

It finds its ultimate expression in that which is willingly and sacrificially done for others. That's what Paul is saying. Our church is filled with people like that. Our church is filled with people like that. I went to someone's home this past week and they're about 80 years of age and they said to me, Pastor, if we join the church, we're too old, there's nothing else for us to do. I said, no, you're not too old, you need to be a deacon and you need to be a Sunday school teacher and you need to be involved.

Do you know why? Because the Bible says that we need to imitate God. What an incredible thing.

Goodness. Paul takes it another step further and he talks about righteousness. He talks about righteousness, he's talking about righteousness on two levels of understanding. It has to do with our relationship with God. That is our faith which is the exemplification of our righteousness, but it also has to do with how we live. That's what Paul is talking about when he talks about imitating God. Romans chapter 6 and verse 13, Paul says, present your members as instruments of righteousness to God. What does that mean? It means simply pursue righteousness.

Go after it. Go after righteousness. Do something about it, get it into high gear, but then he takes it even further and he talks about truth. Says if you're going to take on godly characteristics, not only goodness, not only righteousness, but truth. And when he talks about truth, he talks about honesty, reliability, trustworthiness. In opposition, he's talking about hypocrisy, deceptiveness, falsehood. And he's saying in essence, without fruit, you're never going to be a walking display of an imitation of God.

Because without fruit, there is no evidence of a relationship with God. That's what Paul is saying. Look at that verse again. He says, live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light is consistent in all goodness, righteousness and truth.

Then he takes it one step further. There's a seventh means by which we can imitate God. I hope some of you have written these down. That is by obeying the commands. By obeying the commands, how can I imitate God? It's impossible when I think of Louis and myself as young boys and teenagers. If you'd come to me when I was 14 and 15 and said to me, you need to imitate God, I would have said, how?

I mean, it's almost a contradiction, you know, because there's so much going on in a young person's mind. But Paul says, you imitate God by obeying God's command. Look at verse 11a, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness.

That's a command. Every now and again, I'll have someone come to me and say to me, Pastor, I've been presented with this opportunity or that opportunity, what shall I do? And I say, don't do it. Tongue in cheek, I've had people come to me and say to me, preacher, what do you think of sin? And I say, I'm against it. Sometimes what Paul is saying here is, listen, we don't have to weigh up our options as far as God is concerned. We don't have to weigh up our options about morality and immorality and right and wrong. If God's Word says it's wrong and the Spirit of God tells us it's wrong and the Word of God confirms that it's wrong, don't do it. That's what Paul is saying, have nothing to do with it.

Walk away from it. Folks, listen, we're going to get into parents and all the rest. I'm going to be speaking to myself primarily. Do you know most of us baby boomer parents, we are the biggest compromises that the world has ever seen with our children. We're always compromising not with them, but for them. We're actually telling our children, listen, it's okay to do it, but just do a little bit of it. It's okay to go to this place, but just behave when you go there. It's okay to participate in this thing, but just behave like a Christian when you do. God says, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness. We must obey the commands of God. We must not participate in or even associate with what God says is wrong. Number eight, how can we imitate God? By doing the commission of God, by doing God's commission. Look at verse 11 through 13, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. He doesn't only tell us what not to do, God's word tells us what to do. He takes it one step further. He says, expose them, for it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible.

What is he saying here? It's really this, that if we are to imitate God, we cannot ignore evil. We must expose evil. We cannot resort to silence. Paul writing his charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16, he said, preach the word. Why?

Because it is profitable for every circumstance of life. And Paul is saying that we must use the word of God to reprove and to correct and to chastise and to build up and to educate. That's what Paul says. You're listening to The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton. We'll be back with the rest of today's message in just a moment. We also want to remind you about the opportunities you have to get connected with the daily encouraging word devotional. You can sign up on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. Of course, it's absolutely free, pops into your email box about 6 o'clock Eastern every morning and will provide an application to God's word that you'll be blessed by.

Just a single page takes just a moment and you can sign up right now online at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don. Paul is giving us a directive here at this juncture, but there's a ninth and a final directive here that I want to share with you. Paul says that if we're going to imitate God, we must heed the call. We must heed the call. Look at verse 14.

For it is light that makes everything visible, that is why it is said, Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead. You know what I believe Paul is trying to say? Paul is trying to say here under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Wake up. Now I don't know how to paraphrase that. He's just saying, Wake up. He's saying, Listen Christians at Ephesus, you've been given all of God's commandments.

You know the way, you know what you need to do and you know how you're supposed to do it. Now wake up and do it. And maybe this was the first Nike advertisement.

I don't know. If he'd lived in 1997, Paul would have made a lot of money. He wouldn't have said, Wake up, O sleepy. He would have said, Just do it.

Just do it. Perhaps he understood our human weakness most acutely, perhaps better than we do sometimes. He understood that our greatest difficulty is coming to church on Sunday and going to Sunday school and listening to what God has to say. But then we go to work on Monday and we don't just do it. We continue as normal. We continue to flirt with the devil. We continue to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the church.

Let me give you a guarantee this morning, if I may. Is your husband really unhappy? Is he a Christian? You want me to tell you why he's unhappy?

Because he's not doing what God tells him to do. Is your wife unhappy? Is she a Christian? You want me to tell you why she's unhappy? She's not doing what God's Word is telling her to do.

Is your son, daughter unhappy? Are they Christian young people? If they are Christian young people and they just, their lives just never come together, my friends, it's guaranteed according to God's Word. But here's what the Bible says in 1 John 1 verse 9.

If we confess our sin, Jesus Christ is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. But we're faced with a predicament. How do we translate all of this into the practicality of our daily lives? Well, from verse 15 to verse 21, we have a series of seven practical applications. I want to give them to you. Now you may want to write these down, folks.

Stick them on your refrigerator or something. Seven practical applications, I believe directly related to imitating God. In fact, there's a little conjunction there. Paul says, be very careful then. That word then means on the basis of what God has shown us, take these biblical precepts and apply them to your life.

That's what Paul is saying. So let's have a look at them, some practical issues related to imitating God. How do we take these biblical precepts? Number one, be careful how you live.

There it is in verse 15. You know, I was looking at these seven issues here and I wish that I was preaching on this on graduation Sunday for high school and college graduation because these seven points, they are tremendous in terms of their practical application in our lives. Number one, Paul says, be careful how you live.

Not as unwise, but as wise. Paul is saying, watch what you're doing. Know who you are. Stand firm upon God's precepts and principles. As you walk, walk carefully and circumspectly.

Walk in the way of God and God is going to bless you for that. Number two, make the most of every opportunity. Verse 16, make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Paul says, listen, let's just cut all the fat. Let's just come to the point at which we understand that there is an incredible amount of evil in this world and that Satan is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and what Paul is saying here is if you want to imitate God and apply these principles, you must not only be careful how you live, but you must make the most of every opportunity.

Time is too precious. Number three, understand the Lord's will. Understand the Lord's will. Look at verse 17. He says, therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Now here he juxtaposes foolishness with a lack of understanding about the will of God and he hits the button right on the head.

He hits the nail right on the head. Paul says, listen, if you want to imitate God, you need to find yourself in the centre of God's will. Make your decisions based upon an understanding of the will of God. Consult God.

Ask God what it is that he wants you to do. Number four, don't drink alcohol. Talking about imitating God and we get up to verse 18, Paul says, don't drink alcohol.

Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery. I don't have time to talk about alcohol this morning, but I don't think there's anyone here who would disagree with me that because of alcohol there have been the loss of far too many battles. Because of alcohol, my friends, there have been the downfall of many a government. Because of alcohol, there has been moral corruption of the highest order. Because of alcohol, there has been unrestrained behaviour and recklessness such of which our society still hasn't come to grips with how to deal with it. Because of alcohol, there have been loss of life and broken families.

Every day you open up the newspaper, somebody else has been killed somewhere in South Carolina over this past year. We've had some precious young people, teenagers drowning in lakes all over the place and accidents and horrible things happening and nearly every time alcohol is somewhere involved in the whole shebang. You say to me, pastor, how can you imitate God? Listen to me, the Bible uses alcohol.

Do you know why? Because alcohol, my friends, and being drunk on alcohol is the very counterfeit of point number five, which is to be filled with the Spirit. Paul says you need to load yourself up with the Spirit of God, not with alcohol. And what will be the result?

The result is that it will affect your speaking and your singing. Number six, give thanks always. And number seven, submit to one another.

That means that everybody else comes first. Such powerful teaching from the pulpit today with Dr. Don Wilton. And now as he heads into the studio, I pray you'd open your heart to what he wants to share next. 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. Welcome to the family of God. Some of you I know prayed along with a pastor moments ago, and we want to give you free resources to help you grow. 866-899-WORD is the number. Let's connect.

Let us put those resources in your hands. That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to connect with you. You know, I'm so glad that we've been able to share together by means of radio today.

You just mean so much to me and how thankful we are for the Word of God together. You can call right now and connect with me at 866-899-9673. Did you get that? 866-899-9673. Call and connect with me right now. Thank you again for joining us. Let's connect over the weekend on our website at www.tewonline.org.