With these sound effects, I think we need to
sing a verse of How Great Thou Art. The Rolling
Thunder. Tonight our evening service at 6 o 'clock
will involve a dedication of children. That's
always a very special time. You say, well, what
about the electrical situation? Well, even if
the power doesn't come back on and we only have
the power that we have now, we'll still have
an evening service, so I hope you'll plan to
be back. And tonight the message will continue
the series on the end of the age, and tonight
we'll be talking about Satan's masterpiece, the
Antichrist. Let's open our Bibles this morning
to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. You don't
really want to leave early anyway, do you? The
rain out there that we can hear so well. Therefore
be imitators of God as beloved children and walk
in love just as Christ also loved you and gave
himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God as a fragrant aroma. There are some things
in life that are both fun and frightening. I
don't know if you've been to Valley Fair and
have tried that Viking ship out there, but that's
an example of something that is both fun and
frightening. Do you know what I'm talking about?
They have a ride out there that looks like a
Viking ship, and it looks like it might be a
pleasant ride. It begins to rock this way. There
must be a hundred people sitting on this boat,
and it rocks more and more and more until finally
it does a complete loop like this. It is a ride
that is fun, but at the same time, frankly, it's
a little bit scary. And some of you are shaking
your head. You know what I'm talking about. I
think that there are other examples of that,
though. Getting married is an example. We've
had two weddings here in the last couple of days.
And that's always a fun time. But it's a little
frightening, too. I can remember when I got married
that I was really looking forward to it, but
I was a little scared. There were a lot of new
experiences for me, and I wasn't sure that I
was at that point ready to get tied down. And
when I say at that point, I mean a half an hour
before the ceremony. I've been single for 25
years, and suddenly I realized my independence
was going. I didn't realize it then as much as
I do now. But it's been a lot more fun than it
has been frightening, I'll say that. Having a
child is the same thing. We've had lots of babies
born in the last few months. I notice there's
no rose on the organ today. Some of you aren't
trying hard enough. So we've got to keep this
going every week, every week. Having a baby is
fun. To see that little one there in the arms
of a mother and to sense the joy and happiness
of mom and dad. But it's a little frightening,
too, to think that that little rascal is going
to grow up to be just like his parents. That's
scary. Well, the Bible talks something about
that, you know, because the Bible says that we
are God's children. And here we are commanded
to be imitators of God, our Heavenly Father.
And we imitate God by walking in love. God is
love, the Bible says. Now, he's much more than
that. God is also holy. God is faithful. God
is omniscient, all -powerful. He is eternal.
He is unchangeable. Indeed, our minds cannot
conceive of all that God is. But this one attribute,
love, so well expresses God's attitude and actions
toward us, his children, that he says to us,
you walk, and as you walk or live, imitate or
mimic my love. You and I cannot create a universe.
We can't make it thunder. We can't devise a method
of salvation for ourselves or anyone else. We
cannot bring into existence a new heaven and
new earth. We cannot raise the dead. In all those
ways, we cannot possibly imitate God. You and
I can humbly and in a finite way mimic or copy
God's love. If we couldn't, he wouldn't tell
us to do it. He says, be imitators of God and
walk in love. There are three truths in our text
today which will help us understand why God tells
us to imitate him. The first one is very simply
this. We are his children. There are other terms
that are used to express the relationship that
we have to God. Here in Ephesians, for example,
we are called a holy temple. We are called fellow
citizens, fellow heirs, fellow partakers. We
are named as saints. We are called the church.
A number of times we are said to be members of
his body. But perhaps the most precious of all
the terms that describe our relationship to God
are the familial ones, that is, those that deal
with family relationships. Back in chapter 1
and verse 2, we see grace to you and peace from
God our Father. And so God is called our Father.
What a blessed term that is. And God has given
us His Spirit, whereby we are able to call Him
Abba. intimately we may speak to him as dad,
as daddy. Abba is an Aramaic term used of small
children in addressing their fathers. It's a
precious term, and the Spirit of God gives us
that liberty to call God our Abba. In verse 5
of this same chapter, it says he predestined
us to adoption as sons, another family term.
In chapter 3 and verse 14, The apostle says,
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family, or the whole family,
in heaven and on earth derives its name. And
so here we see that we are called God's family.
Some of us are in heaven, some on earth yet,
but we are together God's family. Now in chapter
5 and verse 1, we are named as his children.
And again later in the chapter, in verse 8, He
says that we are children of light. It seems
to me that these kinds of terms, these intimate
terms, are the most precious ones that describe
our relationship to God. The term children here
is tekna. In the Greek language, that doesn't
mean a whole lot except that it points to this.
It refers to those who are the born ones of God.
It is a word that emphasizes the relationship
of the child to his parents, that the child is
born of his parents. And it is a God who has
caused us to be born again. Peter tells us that
we have had a seed planted in us. That seed is
the living and abiding word of God. And he tells
us that the Spirit of God caused that seed to
germinate and to bring forth life within us so
that we have been born again. And children naturally
want to be like their parents. And I believe
that children of God long to be like God morally.
Not that we get there completely in this world
for sure, but that is the longing, that is the
bent of our hearts toward holiness. John says
to us, no one who is born of God practices sin.
Does that mean that a Christian cannot sin? No.
Thus he would not say to us earlier in the same
book, if we confess our sins. But what it's saying
is the one who is born of God cannot go on practicing
sin as a habit of life. Because, it says, His,
God's seed abides in him, and he cannot habitually
as a practice of life sin because he is born
of God. That seed within us is the divine nature.
And so God has put within us his nature. And
coupled with that natural tendency, we have the
command here to imitate and to mimic our Father.
So why is it that we should do that? Because
we are his children. He is our father. It's natural
that we should. There's a second reason. We are
his children who are loved. It calls us in verse
1, beloved children. That term beloved means
that we are greatly loved. None of us can fully
appreciate how much our father loves us. Oh,
that we could more. If we could really grasp
the love that our Heavenly Father wishes to pour
into our lives. We are the object of God's abiding
affection and His eternal kindness, as we have
seen earlier in this book. God's love toward
us has a specific historical manifestation. And
as a result of that love, what did Christ do?
Well, it says he gave himself up, an offering,
a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Notice
the action. Christ gave himself up. Literally,
it means he delivered himself over. Please keep
in mind that our Savior was not coerced to the
cross. He was not tricked. He was not victimized
by God or by man. He was not involved in something
that he lost control of and he ended up accidentally
getting crucified. All of those have been postulated
by unbelievers. Rather, the Word of God affirms
over and over again that Jesus gave himself up
for us. It was a voluntary act of his will. It
was his choice to go to the cross. It was a surrender
of himself to the will of God in perfect obedience.
He himself said in John chapter 10, No one takes
my life from me. I lay it down of myself. He
further said, I have the authority to lay it
down and I have the authority to take it up again.
And he did three days later. So our Savior went
to the cross of his own volition as an act of
love for us. And it says that that act had a
meaning. It was an offering, a sacrifice. This
word offering refers to the Old Testament grain
or meal offerings. These foreshadowed the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will
take the time this morning to go back to the
book of Leviticus in the Old Testament and look
at the second chapter, because there we see something
about this kind of an offering. It's the third
book of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
and the second chapter. These are words written
to Israel of old, of course, regarding their
offerings. It says, Now when anyone presents
a grain offering as an offering to the Lord,
his offering shall be of fine flour. That is,
it is flour that has been milled. It is flour
which pictures the perfect righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. the perfect balance that was
in him, the evenness of character. That's the
significance of the fine flour. And he shall
pour oil on it, oil being a symbol frequently
throughout the Bible of the Holy Spirit, and
put frankincense on it. Frankincense was a part
of worship. And so what is said here as this
offering is being offered up, it was to be flour
upon which oil was put and mixed with frankincense,
a picture of Christ, who in perfect balance of
character, who in righteousness offered up himself
through the eternal spirit, it says, unto God,
an act of worship. It goes on to say, he shall
then bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, and
shall take from it. his handful of its fine flour
and of its oil with all of its frankincense.
And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as
its memorial portion on the altar, an offering
by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. This
was done for the glory of God as they offered
this up. And it says the remainder of the grain
offering belongs to Aaron and his sons. In other
words, only a portion of this particular kind
of an offering was offered on the altar. That
was done for the glory of God. The rest of it
was for the good of man. And do we not see in
that action another symbol, a type of what the
Lord Jesus did in his offering of himself? As
he offered himself, it was both for the glory
of God and the good of man, to provide for the
needs of man. Skip on down to verse 11. No grain
offering which you bring to the Lord shall be
made with leaven. For you shall not offer up
in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering
by fire to the Lord. Say, what's wrong with these?
Well, both of them ferment. They are corruptible.
And there was to be nothing corruptible in this
offering, the meal offering. which again points
to the Lord Jesus Christ in whom there was nothing
corruptible inherently. There was no sin found
in him. He offered himself to God and became
sin on the cross for us as he bore our sins on
the tree. So that's all that Paul has in mind
as he says. It may not be all that he has in
mind, but at least that's part of what he has
in mind. when he writes, Christ delivered himself
up for us as an offering. But he also uses the
word as a sacrifice unto the Lord. Back up a
page, if you have a Bible like mine, to Leviticus
chapter 1. And here we see the orders regarding
what is called the burnt offering. This was another
kind of offering that was offered up in ancient
Israel. Verse 2, Speak to the sons of Israel
and say to them, When any man of you brings an
offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering
of animals from the herd or the flock. If his
offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he
shall offer it male without defect. He shall
offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting,
that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall
lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering.
Now you say, why was that done? The offerer put
his hand upon the heads of the offering to identify
with it. For you see, this offering was to be
for his sin. There had to be a transposition
of the sins of that man to the offering. And
so that was symbolized by the putting of his
hands upon the head of the bullock or the sheep.
And it says, It goes on to say that it may be
accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.
And he shall slay the young bull before the Lord,
and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer up
the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the
altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
Skip on down to verse 9. Its entrails, however,
and its legs he shall wash with water, and the
priests shall offer up in smoke all of it on
the altar. for a burnt offering, an offering
by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. Now
the word sacrifice there in Ephesians chapter
5 embraces the bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament,
not the meal or cereal offerings as in chapter
2 in Leviticus, but rather those other offerings,
most of which were the bloody offerings, the
animals slain in a particular way, the blood
shed for the sins of the offerer. And in the
case of this particular kind of offering, the
burnt offering, that whole animal was to be placed
upon the altar and burned and consumed on behalf
of the one who was offering it. So you see how
beautifully that pictures our Savior's work as
well. For he offered up himself, his blood was
shed on our behalf at the cross. And he was consumed.
His human nature was consumed by God's wrath
in the sense that he endured sufferings of hell
in his body and soul as he experienced the cross
on our behalf. And so we see the love of God
in Christ giving himself up as an offering and
as a sacrifice. And as he did that, it says in
Ephesians, it was a fragrant aroma. That means
that this sacrifice was well -pleasing to God.
God was satisfied with this. It was as though
what was being done came into the presence of
God and it all was sweet to him. When it talked
there about the sweet savor of the offering or
here as it speaks about the fragrant aroma of
it. What it's referring to is the fact that what
was done was pleasing to God. Now frankly, that
kind of a sacrifice is repugnant to the natural
man. Indeed, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the shedding of His blood, is repugnant
to the natural man. That is why there are denominations
today revising their hymnals to take out any
reference to such things as the blood of Christ.
Because to them that is unseemly, to them it
is uncivilized. But I want to tell you that without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sins. And praise God, he provided in his Son
the sacrifice, the only acceptable sacrifice
for our sins. And I like those two words here
in Ephesians chapter 5. The purpose of it all
was for us. That is, it was on our behalf that
God so demonstrated His love in His Son. So why
is it that we should imitate God and walk in
love? Because we are His children who are loved.
And that brings us to the third reason. We are
His children who are loved that we might also
love. Christian love is greatly misunderstood.
There are those who have an idea of this love
as being sentiment, hugging everybody or kissing
everybody on the cheek in the church service
or in greeting them. Is that what Christian love
is? Christian love, my friend, is not sentiment.
It is not mere emotion. It is not a passing feeling.
that we may have for someone else. But this kind
of love is action on behalf of another. It is
movement. It's not a feeling. It may include
a feeling, but don't limit it to that. It can't
stop there, or it's not agape love. It is love
that moves and motivates a person to take action
on behalf. of another person. I was touched by
the actions of that teenager in Texas a couple
of weeks ago. That young man who for half an
hour lifted his friend who was in a cast in the
midst of those flooding waters around Guadalupe,
Texas. He lifted that friend of his as long as
he had strength to do and finally he collapsed.
And they both went downstream. The friend was
able to grasp a tree. As far as I know, the young
man who tried to save his friend in that flood
has never been found. He sacrificed his own strength,
which he could have used to save himself for
his friend. The young man was a Christian young
man. They were all a part of a Christian campus,
if you will recall. Jesus said, greater love
has no man than this. That he lay down his life
for his friend. If you and I are going to imitate
God and walk in love, it means laying down something.
Maybe even our lives. You see, this kind of love
involves self -sacrifice. For we are to love
just like Christ loved us, who sacrificed himself
for us. Let's not be tempted to divert our attention
to a shallow kind of love and call it Christian.
Let's not accept that as Christian agape. It
is not. Let's understand that if we are going
to imitate God and walk in love as his people,
you and I are going to have to lay down a price
for other people, people who may not deserve
it. People who are even unlovely and undeserving
and who cannot repay us. But if we're going to
imitate God, beloved, that's what we must do
because that is God's love. And we cannot make
a farce of God's love by just helping those who
are our friends or those who can pay us back
and saying that we now have practiced God's love.
We have not. We have not practiced God's love
if we simply talk about it or sing about it.
But we have practiced God's love and we have
imitated God himself when we are willing to lay
down a price that costs us dearly for the sake
of others. When I think of those people who have
sacrificed their careers and lives to go to the
mission field, And have spent decades there with
no earthly reward. And why? So they could labor
hard and pour out themselves, adjust to a new
culture that sometimes is very difficult, learn
to eat new food that is not very tasty at first.
In some cases, in order to bury children there
or bury sweethearts there, that's why they've
done it. in order that they might pour out a
sacrifice for the glory of God and for the good
of those dear people who need to be won to Jesus
Christ. We who live in this country can follow
their example. We don't have to go to another
culture to pour out ourselves as a sacrifice.
We can take some of our precious time, and time
is precious. and pour that out as a sacrifice
on some person who needs it. We can take our
words of encouragement to someone who's hurting,
who's been bent low by life's problems, and we
can pour out those words upon them as an act
of love and sacrifice. We can forgive that person.
against whom we've had a grudge. We can share
financially with those who have needs. We can
open up our pocketbooks, our wallets, and give
generously of that which we have been holding
back and saving for ourselves. I believe with
such actions, God is well pleased. And just as
the sacrifice of our Savior was well -pleasing,
a sweet aroma to God, so every time you and I
act in love toward another person, that is a
scent that comes before God, an aroma of worship
that is well -pleasing to Him. I tell you, these
are amazing words that God says to us, imitate
me. Children enjoy playing. the game follow the
leader. How do you do that? You have to watch
the leader. You watch the leader and you do what
he does. How do we imitate God? We watch God
and we do what God does. No, we cannot create
worlds and call them into existence. but we can
use our tongues to bless and edify others. We
may not be able to raise the dead, but we can
go to someone who is as good as dead and share
with them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and pray that that person would respond in faith
and be saved. And in a sense, when we do that,
We plant that seed, and then the Spirit of God
brings forth life, and they believe in Christ.
That is raising the dead spiritually. It's an
act of love to share the gospel with somebody,
an act of eternal love, because that's the one
message which, if they believe, will give them
eternal life. And if they die without it, they
go to a Christless hell for eternity. What a
great act of love it is to share your faith with
another person. God says, you watch me and do
what I do. Mimic me. What that means is walking
in love. There are some things in life that are
both fun and frightening. Walking in love is
one of them. It's frightening to walk in love.
And I'll tell you why. Because you can't walk
in love without paying a price. And up front,
you don't always know what that price is going
to be. It may be more than you think. God doesn't
always tell us what the cost will be, but he
tells us to walk in love and sacrifice for others.
It's frightening because there are unknown risks
when we walk in love. We have to take a step
of faith to walk in love, to treat other people
this way. I'm talking about your family situation.
I'm talking about your roommate, about those
people at work. It doesn't say here just to love
other Christians, but it says we're to walk in
love, and that embraces the world too. There
are risks doing that. You may get hurt. In sacrificing
yourself for someone else, you may get taken
advantage of. But count it for the glory of God.
There are some things in life that are both frightening
and fun. And I'll tell you, it's fun to walk
this way too. There is no greater joy than to
walk with this kind of an attitude. Because it's
an attitude that's died to self. It's an attitude
that no longer owns and grasps and holds tight,
but it's an attitude that gives and is not afraid
of losing for what is taken has already been
given to God. There is no greater joy than to
follow the example of God and to walk in love.
Nor may we do that this week. Can you isolate
someone in your mind right now? Think of that
face, that name. that person who needs the touch
of God's love through you? Who is it? Will you
determine by God's help to walk in love toward
that individual today, tomorrow, when you see
them? Imitate God that way. There was a television
show for a while, one of the Christian shows,
that had a theme song that went like this, and
I'm not going to sing it. So relax. But the words
are, I am loved, I am loved. I can risk loving
you, for the one who knows me best loves me most.
I am loved, you are loved. Won't you please take
my hand? For we are free to love each other.
We are loved. Let's pray together.