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All right, amen, Ephesians chapter number five. So we'll do a quick review here again over the book of Ephesians and how that breaks down. So if you remember last week we talked about this. The first three chapters are Paul, the apostle Paul, explaining doctrine, okay? And in those doctrines, obviously there's a lot that we could go over again, but really I broke it down into three categories. So we learn about this mystery, okay? This mystery that God would no longer have a physical nation on this planet that he uses to put forth his word, but instead he has a nation, a people, that is not bound by race or nationality. And so in other words, the church, the people of God, if you're saved, you are part of that. You are part of the people of God, the body of Christ. And the next point or the next doctrine that Paul really emphasizes is that when a person's born again, when you get saved, you're literally placed in Christ. You're in the body of Christ, okay? In Christ as opposed to in some religion or in some city or some state of that nature, okay? Now, if you think about this, and I'm not trying to be rude, but this is definitely true. You think about all the people in Islam, okay? What does Islam mean? Well, Islam means submission. That's what it means. Islam means to submit, submit to Allah. Now, there's an old saying, and I don't know if anybody's heard this before, probably, but Allah couldn't save Adallah, okay? And that's gonna be a sermon in the future. Now, we ought to be thankful, as Paul stated, that we're in Christ, that he died for us, okay? Whereas all the other religions of the world, what do we call that? Well, we call that human achievement. And that's basically teaching that you have to do something to earn your way into that, earn your way into paradise, or earn your way into heaven. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches salvation. The Bible teaches that he gave his life for us, okay? We weren't good enough. He paid the price. And so when you're saved, you're in Christ. And then the third area that he focuses on is the heavenly, okay, the heavenly as opposed to the earthly. So what does that mean for us? Well, that means once you're saved, you're born again, you're a part of this mystery, you're in Christ. And our mission, okay, our mission is spiritual. Our mission is to edify one another, build each other up, and to go out into the community and preach the truth, preach the gospel to people. And how do we do that? Well, we do that with words from the heavenly, words from the Lord. I was talking with somebody today for probably a little bit longer than I needed to. And he was just telling me, you know, well, you know, God loves everybody and everybody's a Christian and everybody's gonna go to heaven and you don't need some Bible, okay? And then he proceeded to tell me, you know, God is everywhere, which we agree. God knows all things, which we agree. And it's like, why are you saying that God's everywhere? God sees everything, God knows everything. God spoke the world into existence. However, you're saying that he wasn't capable enough to preserve his word. Okay, and he just kept saying, well, man corrupted the Bible, man did this. And it's like, well, of course, there's 400 something English versions of the Bible. And they all say something different until you take a look at the King James Bible. Okay, that's the key. And it's funny, once I brought that up to him, he was like, okay, well, yeah, it was good to meet you. And then the conversation kind of settled down and he even said he would consider visiting and hopefully the individual does. But the point is the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, meaning physical. We're not on a mission to go out and physically fight a war like Israel would in the old days. Our job is to take the wisdom, which is from above, which God has preserved for us and has given us. And we take this and we bring it to the community. Now, chapters four through six are really how to operate in those doctrines. So last week we talked about chapter number four, which is how does this mystery work? How do we apply the wisdom and the doctrines to our daily lives in order to get along? And Paul told us that God gave us prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for what? For the perfecting of the saints, okay? So once you're saved, once you're born again, the idea is that you would find a place to worship the Lord, find a good church that believes the gospel, that teaches truth, and to absorb and to learn and to fellowship and to get better, okay? And that word perfection that he talks about in chapter four is not this perfection like you don't make mistakes anymore or you don't sin. That's impossible. Everybody sins. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But that doesn't mean that we ought not to try to be more complete in him. And the only way that you can do that is through studying the word of God, studying the Bible. Now chapter five really corresponds with the second doctrinal emphasis in the first three chapters, which we talked about being in Christ. Well, chapter five talks about how to walk in Christ or walk in the Spirit. More on that in a second. And the last chapter is obviously about spiritual warfare. So now that you find yourself saved, you're born again, you're in Christ, you get alerted to the very real fact that all the physical problems with politics, false doctrine, all of these lies, everything that you see going on in the world, there's a spiritual force behind those. And we're given the recipe for success and how to win and be victorious in this life in chapter six which of course we'll talk about next week. Now the title of the sermon today is Take This Home. Take This Home. On some of my younger days when we were going to churches, there was a funny saying we used to joke around with each other with and we would basically say, hey, don't forget to take the Holy Spirit home, okay? And we'd just be kind of kidding around. The reason why we would say that is because it seems like in churches, there's a lot of people that will show up and put on the good front, put on the good face and act real spiritual but then come Monday, it's just a whole nother person, a whole nother ball of wax. And so the idea and what you're gonna see this evening is that we wanna take these things to heart. We wanna learn how to walk in Christ because it's important, okay? You know, like this guy had told me earlier today, he's just like, it doesn't matter what the Bible says because it's corrupted, it was written by man and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, at the same time, he's telling me things that we should and shouldn't do. Like you shouldn't take money from people, which we don't. You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't support Kenneth Copeland who's a Pentecostal crazy prosperity guy preacher and it's like, yeah, we don't do that. But what gives you the right to say that if you don't have truth? You know, what gives you the right to say that? What are you measuring based off of? You know what I mean? It doesn't make any sense. So back to chapter number five. So the main theme in chapter number five is the Christian walk. And really, you know, this kind of brings you all the way back to the beginning of the Bible when you think about it, the fall of man. So the first time you're gonna see walking in the Bible is actually in Genesis chapter number three and it's God walking in the garden and the cool of the day and what do you have? Well, you have man, you have Adam and Eve trying to hide themselves from God, okay? And so the rest of the Bible is basically instructions, it's history, it's admonition, it's learning. It's all for us to be able to walk with God. That is the point of these things. Now in chapter number five, Paul's gonna highlight three areas that we need to be walking with him in and you're gonna see it's walk in love. Number two is to walk in light or walk as the children of light and then number three is gonna be to walk circumspectly and we'll talk to those as we get through this chapter. So hopefully that kinda makes sense and is somewhat of a decent review there for you. And so the goal with this, these Bible studies, okay, is to go through the entire chapter and to just get a very good understanding of what's being taught and what is in this for us, okay? How do we read these things and then go home and apply them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and actually be productive, okay? That is the main goal and that is the point. So let's get started here in Ephesians chapter number five and look down at verse number one. So the Bible says this, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. Okay, so understand what's being said here. When you're saved, you're born again, and you are the child of God. This is so important. You say, why are you bringing this up? Well, because think about a relationship with a mother, father and their children, okay, a family. That's what it's like to be saved. That's what it's like to be born again. You're in a new family now and God is the father and you know, no matter how hard, let's say a child or a teenager or a young adult child tries to push away their parents, you know, if they get mad, they will never ever not be a part of that family. Once you have children, they are yours forever. You can say, well, I'm gonna take you to court, mom. I'm gonna take you to court, dad, and I'm gonna sue you and I'm gonna disown you. It doesn't matter. You can't change your DNA. You are part of that family forever. We don't get to choose our parents, okay? Now, what you're gonna find is it's the same thing once you're placed into Christ, okay? We have a head that is Christ. John chapter 10 is very clear that you could not pluck yourself out of his hand nor could anyone else pluck you out of his hand. So once you're saved, you are saved forever because you're God's children and let me just say this before we go on. Not every person is the child of God, okay? There's three categories of people in this world. You have the children of God, people that are saved. You have people that are in between that just haven't made up their mind yet and then you have a third category which would be the children of the devil which I don't have time to get into today but that's what you have, okay? Now look down at verse number two. So he says this, be therefore followers of God as dear children, verse two, 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 savor. Now if you have a pen or you have a highlighter or you're just really good at remembering things, remember this verse here, okay? Remember verse number two and the reason why is because we're about to read the rest of the chapter again and there are some verses in this chapter that people will use to try and confuse you, to try and say, well see if you do these certain things then you're not really saved, okay? And your answer, your response to that is gonna be right back here in verse number two. So let's talk about it, okay? Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath, now here it is, okay, what did he do? And hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. So who was it that became the offering for us? Who was it that sacrificed himself for us? It was Christ, okay? It's not us, but what's being taught today? What is being pushed today? Well, that you have to give your life to Christ, that you have to do something that you need to keep doing and doing and doing and hopefully at the end of your life you'll make it and you'll be all right. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that he hath given himself for us, okay? Now how would you apply that in your everyday life? Well, by simply having what Paul taught the Philippians in chapter number two, having the mind of Christ, meaning putting other people before yourself. Very simple. If you wanna get along with people and you wanna have friends and you wanna have good relationships, okay, you oughta put other people before yourself. Let them speak, let them talk, ask them questions, get to know them, try to help them, pray for them. Do those simple things and you will be amazed at how your relationships improve with other people. So let's move on here. Look at verse number three. Then he goes on to say this. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Okay, so he's talking to the churches at Ephesus and obviously these things are written for us too. So we don't wanna be a church that's known for just covetous, like we have to get more material, we have to get more of this and more of that. We wanna be known for the truth. We wanna be known for the love towards the brethren and the community, right? That's why we go out and knock on people's doors. We wanna be known for those things. We don't wanna be known for scandals and just sweeping things under the rug and that sort of stuff, okay? We don't wanna be named with that stuff whatsoever which is why we always focus on the Bible and what the Bible says. I get it, it offends some people. It's hard, I understand that. But look, this is what we're being taught. Look at verse four. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks. Okay, so again, what are we talking about this evening? Paul's giving us instructions on how to apply us being in Christ. How should we live our lives? Well, we don't wanna be known for foolish talking for dirty jokes and things of that nature, okay? That's basically what he's saying. Those things are not convenient. Now you say, well, if I do those things, am I gonna lose my salvation? No, it's impossible, okay? But it does hinder your fellowship with God. It hinders that relationship and it makes things complicated. And just like any parent would discipline their children, well, guess what? Your heavenly father will discipline you as well. So keep those things in mind. Look at verse number five. He says this, for this ye know, and this is where people will try to get you. This is where people are gonna try to confuse you. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, okay? Now say, well, see, if it turns out that you're covetous or that maybe you got mixed up and started going after the women or whatever it is in here, idolatry, they'll say, see, you need to repent. You're not really saved and you need to get saved again or you need to do X, Y, and Z, okay? That is not what Paul's talking about here. He's simply saying that we, these types of people here, okay, and I'm gonna explain this to you, okay? These types of people here are not saved, okay? So hold that thought. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter six. Keep your place right here but go backwards in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter number six because what happens oftentimes is people will use that and they'll say, well, see, you know, if you're covetous, you're an idolater, that just proves you're not really a Christian because real Christians do perfectly all the time and they walk the narrow, the straight narrow and so on and so forth, okay? So then you have to ask the question, well, why does Paul word it that way? Why does he say that idolaters, people that are whoremongers and covetous, they won't inherit the kingdom of God, okay? You might even be reading this thinking like, man, I'm on this list too, I've done some of these things. You know, how am I gonna get to heaven? I thought you said I was saved, okay? Well, let's just clear that up right now. 1 Corinthians chapter six, look at verse number nine. Look at what Paul says. He says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There's that word again, inherit, okay? So who's not gonna inherit the kingdom of God? The unrighteous, okay? Look what it says, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, verse 10, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And now let me explain a couple things, okay? Who are the unrighteous? The unrighteous are people that are not saved, okay? So how do you become righteous? Well, Romans chapter four is very clear. Once you hear the word of God, you decide to believe it, you ask Jesus to save you, he imputes righteousness unto you. He gives you that righteousness. It's not something that you can see with your physical eyes. It's something that happens when you ask him to save you, okay, that is what takes place. Then you are no longer unrighteous. But the problem is, and where the confusion lies, is that now you have two natures. So you have who you always were. You have the old man, you have the person that you are, that you grew up with, up until the point you got saved, and then after you get saved, something happens. Christ creates a new person inside of you, and that person is preserved, that person is righteous, that person cannot sin, it's impossible, because God keeps you and preserves you, okay? But without that righteousness, all you are is what you are, okay? Now look at the next verse. Look at verse 11. So he names all of these things, right? These are the fornicators, idolaters, you know, effeminate, all of these different types of people, and he's saying they're not gonna inherit the kingdom of God. Look at verse 11. And such were some of you, okay, stop right there. And such were some of you. So what happened? Did they just quit doing those things? Well, hopefully, okay, but that's not what he's talking about. And such were some of you. How did they not become those things anymore? How is it that God now looks at them and says, I don't see that anymore, I see the new man. I see the new person that I created. We'll read the rest of the verse. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, okay? Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified. What does sanctified mean? It means to be set apart, to be made holy. But ye are justified, and here it is, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God, okay? So again, this is what God does. God washes you through the water of his word. God separates you, God sanctifies you. God makes you not those things anymore. You say, yeah, but I did, I used to be a drinker, right? You know, I was talking with somebody very recently, and he's like, I just cannot put the bottle down. He's like, I just can't put the bottle down. I'm a drunk, I know it's wrong, and I'm afraid I'm gonna die and go to hell. And I just told him, like, you need to get saved. I gave him the gospel, he believed, and the rest is history, you know? He may still struggle with that for several years. I don't know, okay? But the point is, God no longer looks at him as the drunker. God looks at him as the new man, okay? Hopefully that makes sense. As such were some of you, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord. You're not justified because you turned from these things. You're not justified because you're special or because you're somehow really disciplined or you have this will to turn, okay? That's not what justifies you. That's not what sanctifies you. It's the sacrifice of what Jesus did on the cross. Now let me just clarify this for you even more. Go to the gospel of John. So go back towards the Old Testament in your Bibles to John chapter number one. Not a lot of places to turn tonight. John chapter one, maybe 1 Peter three, and then we're just gonna finish out this chapter here, okay? But I just wanna give you some things to think about and some ways to combat people when they come at you with Ephesians chapter five and they try to extract these verses and make you think that you're not saved. So John chapter number one, look down at verse number 12. So the gospel of John right after Luke, right before Acts. John chapter one says this, verse 12. But as many as received him, now that's Christ, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So how do you become a son or daughter, a child of God? Well, God gives you that power. It's not you in your own merit. It's not you in what you willed. It has nothing to do with that. It's the fact that God died on the cross, prepared the gift, and you accepted that. You received that gift, okay? So again, who does this point to? Does this point to man or does this point to God? Well, it points to God. God is the one that gives you the power to be in his family and no one can change that. No one can mess with that. Look at the next verse, verse 13. It says, which, okay, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Being born again is not based off of your actions. It's not based off of your will to get better and to change. It has nothing to do with that. In fact, that in and of itself is impossible. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I kind of lied. I got one more before we go back to Ephesians. Go to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15, rather. And you're gonna go deep into chapter number 15 and look at verse number 15. So look at what Paul says. He says, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot, and what's that next word? Inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit in corruption. So again, flesh and blood inherit in corruption. So again, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So how do you get placed into the kingdom of God? Again, it's by asking Christ to save you. It's by hearing the word of God and you deciding in your heart to believe that and to put your trust in that, and it's a done deal. That simple. So simple that Paul said even a child could understand that. So now let's get moving again. Go back to Ephesians chapter number five. Look at verse number five one more time with all of that in mind. Verse five says, for this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. So that is just no ordinary person. So no unsaved person is what he's saying, has inheritance in the kingdom of God. So that's just no ordinary person. Has inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now look at verse six. Let no man deceive you. Well, how many times is that phrase in the Bible? Tons. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God. And now look at this, upon the children of disobedience. And so of course we want to protect ourselves from being deceived. And the only way you can do that is really through this threefold wisdom that we're talking about this evening. Walk in love, love towards another, love towards the truth and the things that God has given for us. And to walk, which you're gonna see here in verse number eight, as children of light and of course walk circumspectly, which means prudently or wisely. Verse seven, be not ye therefore partakers with them. So the idea here is that a Christian ought not to take these people of the world and look up to them and take advice from them and respond to their influence. We're supposed to be separate from them. We want to remove those people from our circles as much as possible because they're gonna wind up corrupting you, okay. Verse eight, for you were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. And of course there's tons of references to the word of God being light. This is what lightens our path. This is what causes us to see through the darkness that's in the world. You see, man, I just feel like there's a lot of darkness coming from the government, coming from the media, coming from just all areas of life, okay. The only way you're gonna make sense of that is studying the Bible, studying the word of God. This is a giant light for Christians. This is how you walk, this is how you see. Nobody wants to walk in the dark because it's hard. You don't know what you're looking at. You're gonna be stumbling, you're gonna be falling down, you're gonna be tripping over yourself. But if we walk as children of light, okay, and we study the Bible, we're gonna be able to navigate life a lot easier and things are just gonna be much more clear for you. So, walk as children of light. Verse eight, let's see here. Look at verse nine, it says, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. So again, as the children of God, you should have a deep love and desire to wanna know the truth, no matter how harsh it is, okay. Don't be one of these people that's just like, I'm gonna stick my head in the sand, I don't wanna know, don't tell me, no. We oughta want to know the truth because no matter how bad it is, we win in the end. No matter how bad things get, always remember we win in the end because Christ wins. Okay, look at verse 10. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. So someone comes at you and they're like, hey, you know, is this sin, is this bad, should I do this, should I do that? You know, you wanna have the wisdom and the foresight and the scriptures available so that you can prove, yeah, you know what, this isn't right. You know, maybe I shouldn't inject myself with that, so maybe I shouldn't drink that, maybe I shouldn't do this, maybe I shouldn't say this to that person, you know, maybe I should think, you know, if I do this, how's that gonna make my family look, how's it gonna make my boss look, how's that gonna make the community, you know, we oughta be prudent and think about these things and prove what is acceptable unto God. Verse 11, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, okay? Reprove them, correct, expose them, make light of them. We have the right to take the word of God and do audits and to find out whether things are true or false, and if they're false, we need to call them out. We need to be vocal about this, okay? That's not what you're finding in modern-day Christianity. You're sweeping stuff under the rug, like, well, if I call this out, if I say this, if I do this, even though the Bible says to, I'm gonna lose money, I'm gonna lose influence, I'm gonna lose this, okay? We shouldn't live like that, and it's called living in fear and that's wrong, and that hinders the believer, okay? Let's see here, look at verse number 12. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. So again, a lot of times there could be this temptation to really wanna find out the nuts and bolts of what these wicked, evil people do. Take Epstein's Island, for example. I think we all know about that. We probably all know there's nothing good going on there, right, we don't want to get down to the details, though, like the explicit details. It's bad for your mind, it's not healthy for you, just take the fact that it's evil, it's wicked, we oughta have nothing to do with it just as enough, okay? It's a shame to speak of those types of things that are done in secret, which is another reason why you wanna watch your social media, right? You don't wanna be posting what a lot of these wicked perverts and stuff do. You don't wanna be posting pictures of them, you don't wanna be posting things like that. You wanna consider what you're putting out there so that other people don't get defiled by it, okay? So hopefully that also settles well. Look at verse 13. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. Now what is the light? It's the word of God, it is the Bible, okay? For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. And that's what the word of God does. So this morning we briefly mentioned one of the jobs of the Holy Ghost, okay? When you get saved, you're indwelled by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost comes in you, you're sealed until the day of redemption, nothing can change that. But one of the jobs of the Holy Ghost is to reprove the world of sin. And I brought this up this morning and I said, why is it that our church being so small made it on the news? Why is it that our church being so small has brought us so much hate and discontent from all of our enemies? And I'll tell you why. It's because the Holy Ghost uses people to carry out his mission, right? So you take the word of God, you say hey, this stuff that's being promoted in society is pretty wicked, it's evil, we should have nothing to do with it. Well guess what? The enemy hears about that because the Holy Ghost uses that to get out into the world and what happens is the enemy gets upset, they get angry and they wanna charge and come after us, okay? So look at the verse one more time. But all things that are reproved, okay, corrected, exposed, are made manifest by the light. Again, the word of God is your lamp, it's your light. So on and so forth. For whosoever doth make manifest is light. Verse 14, wherefore, okay, wherefore meaning he's coming to a conclusion here, wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. So again, the only way a person can truly have light is to be saved, to be born again. Once you're saved, you have the Holy Ghost in you and you and the Holy Ghost can learn from the Bible, okay? So you don't need me, though I'm here to help, okay? The best study that you're ever gonna do is on your own, where you're reading the Bible and the Holy Ghost is revealing things to you in your own studies and in your own readings, okay? So again, just a quick review, okay? This whole chapter is surrounded by three Ws. Walk in love, right, we oughta love one another, we oughta treat each other like Christ treats us and number two, we are to walk as children of light, okay? Now let's move on to the last one, number three. Look at verse 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Go back in the Old Testament to Psalm chapter number 14. Psalm chapter number 14, so he says see then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. What's a fool, okay? What is a fool, what is he really trying to say here? Well, here's a good definition of fool. I think this is very applicable. I think this'll help you out and kinda put this to bed. Verse number one, Psalm chapter 14, so right in the middle of your Bible there, Psalm chapter 14, look at verse number one. The fool hath said in his heart, what does he say? There is no God. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Now go back to Ephesians chapter number five. So Paul says that we oughta walk circumspectly. What does that mean? Well, circumspect, okay? Think of the word circumference. Think of the word inspect, okay? Circumference means to surround, like a complete circle, okay? So what he's saying is that we should, as we go through life, we should be inspecting our decisions, inspecting where we're going, who's around us, what could hurt us, what could be bad, and we're supposed to think about this, right? It's kinda like playing chess. Before you move a chess piece, you're supposed to think, okay, if I put this, you know, this knight here, what could possibly get me, okay? That's being circumspect. Now it's the same way with the Christian life. Before you make a big decision, before you do something, you should think, is this wise, okay? Again, and we kinda went crazy on this a few weeks ago when we were in the book of Colossians, and I don't wanna rehash that, but we don't wanna liberalize, okay, is this sin? Okay, if I do this, is this sin? It's like, yeah, on a newborn babe's kinda level, that's okay, but we wanna grow past that, okay? The question is not whether or not it's sin, because if that's all we're focused on, let's say that this tree represents sin, okay? And I just wanna know, if I go past this, is that sin, okay? Here's where we're gonna wind up living. We're gonna wind up living right on the line because it's not sin. You know, as long as I don't go over here, as long as I don't pass the tree, then I'm good to go. Okay, however, Paul's got something better for us, and he says, you oughta walk circumspectly. You oughta walk wise, okay? So wisdom says, hey, this may not be sin, but it's also not very wise. So what happens then? Well, then we start going this way, okay? We start going this way, and then we don't have to worry, is it sin, is it bad, is it wrong? Because we're of the mind frame of whether or not it's wise and that's how you should make your decisions. Should I be friends with this person? Should I have this person, you know, come over? Should I say this? Whatever it is. The question you should be asking yourself is, is this wise? Not is it sin, because they say, no, it's not sin. Cool, I'm gonna hang out right here all day. It doesn't matter if it's wise. I'm gonna stay right here. I'm not gonna go over here, so I'm good, and God's proud of me, okay? But that's not wise. That's not the way that we should live our lives. The thing you need to be asking, is it wise? Now, why is that? Well, because the fool doesn't. The Bible's very clear. What is the fool? The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. So people who say that, you know what? They might be smart book-wise. They might have made some good financial decisions, but this is my opinion. I don't want anything to do with them, okay? I'm not gonna follow their wisdom. I'm not gonna follow the way that they walk because we're told to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Now look at verse 16. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. So we're commanded, as God's people, okay, to make the most of every single day. Make the most of every single day because we don't wanna live our lives in getting to this place or to this point, thinking, uh-oh, I could have done so much more. I wish I would have listened. I wish I would have done this. You know, the biggest pain of procrastination is regret, okay? And we can save ourselves from that pain by simply following what this is saying here. Ask yourself, is this wise, okay? Is this a wise thing to do? Look at verse 17. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And what is His will? What is well for the world is that they would hear the word of God and be saved, very simple. But His will for you is that you would carry on with this mystery, being in Christ, that you would be in the word of God, that you would fellowship with your brothers and sisters, that you would help one another out, and all these things that He's listing here. That's what His will is for the believer. In verse 18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Now here's the thing, here's my cup, okay, my grenade cup. There's no live charge in it, it's just water. So, for example, okay, if I fill this cup up to the brim, there's no more room in it for anything else, right? That's how it should be for us. We want to fill ourselves up with the Spirit, with the word of God, with wisdom, so there's no room for other people to come along and insert bad ideas and false doctrines and things that aren't good into our hearts and minds, okay? So that is the solution that He's giving here. Look at verse 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And by the way, all of the psalms, all of the proverbs, all of those things are meant for our admonition. It's okay, every single one of them. Don't let somebody come up to you and say, hey, all the psalms are great except for 53, 119, 139. We definitely don't want that one. Psalm 11, yeah, not that one, Psalm 19, maybe the first part here. Don't let people do that to you. All of it is good to go, okay? That's what He's saying. Look at verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is hard to do sometimes because we live in a society that is literally plagued with the disease of now, right? And sometimes there are things that we want from God and things that we think that we need, or maybe we do need them and we ask and we pray and we're doing all these things and then we don't get it immediately and we get discouraged, okay? Well, the solution for anything in life when you're discouraged is to be thankful. I don't care how bad the news is that you get, there is always something good. I heard somebody say this the other day. You know, I might go to prison or I might go to jail for X amount of time, but that's okay, I'm gonna get more time. You know, and I thought, wow, that's one way to look at it. I believe that's how Paul looked at life, okay? Think about it, as Paul's writing this, as he's been given this wisdom from God to be put down on paper, to be preserved, to be passed around, he is actually on his way to trial. He's literally a prisoner and he's not discouraged. He's good to go. He's happy. He's ready to work for the Lord no matter where the Lord puts him, okay? So give thanks in all things. That's basically what he's saying. Look at verse 21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And again, that goes back to the mind of Christ. We should submit ourselves one to another, not form clicks, not like, oh, you know, better than you. Right, I grew up on this end of town, I'm better than you, no. We ought to submit ourselves one to another, meaning I'm gonna put your needs above mine and I'm gonna do whatever I can possibly do to help you any way that I can. That's how we all should be to each other. And once that's accomplished, once that happens, then you see churches grow, then you see the mission of God being successful, okay? But when you don't have that, then comes the foolery and the unwise things and all the stuff that we've had to deal with in the past. So what Paul's gonna do now is he's gonna take all three of these w's, walk in love, walk as children of light, walking circumspectly, and he's gonna give us some practical advice on how to apply them in the family. Look at verse 22. And this is one that'll get you in trouble. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, we all know that the feminists today, they don't like that. They say, well, Paul was a misogynist. There are people who call themselves Christians who say that was misogynistic. Or they'll say like, oh, you know, that's just because of Paul's culture. That's why he wrote that. No, this is wisdom here on how to live the Christian life. The Bible says wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, what we find funny is that there are a lot of women today, and this is not a knock on women, okay? This is not, this has nothing to do with one being superior over the other. The Bible says that there's neither male nor female, Jew or Gentile, in Christ. In Christ, we are all one. We are all equal. However, in the family dynamic, in the family unit, there needs to be order. Just like there's order in the church. You have a pastor, and obviously my job is to go to the word of God because Christ is the head of the church. And, you know, we do things a certain way because that's what's written in the Bible. Well, there's that same order for anywhere you go, okay? When you go to work, guess what? There's order. There are things, there's a boss. There are people in charge, and they have rules, and they want you to follow them. And if you don't, you could possibly, you know, get in trouble or things of that nature. But the point is, order is what makes things efficient. It's what makes the world go around. And order is what will make your family successful. And Paul's saying, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. But you have a lot of women today that will fight against this, and I don't think that's true. It ought to be 50-50. But they've got no problem submitting to another man, to submitting to their boss. They don't have any issue with that. They don't have any problem submitting to some influencer online that they're listening to. But when it comes to the husband, oh, I ain't gonna do that. He ain't gonna tell me what to do. This is 2023. God would beg to differ. And I know this is hard, but, and you might be thinking, okay, what if my husband's asking me to do something unethical and not right and unbiblical? Then you don't do it. Remember the chain of command. It is Christ in his word. It is God. And then it is, obviously, in the family, it's the husband and then the wife and then the children. That's the order. So if, you know, the husband's being a clown and doing, you know, of course not. Okay, he's asking me to do something unbiblical or unethical. No, you always go back to the chain of command. What does Christ say about it? And you follow that. Where you come see me, we'll work something out. Verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and is the savior of the body. Okay, so who's the savior of the body of Christ? It's Jesus Christ. It's not you and him. It's him alone. Look at verse 24. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Okay, and that everything there does not mean things that are unbiblical, things that are harmful, things that are not good. Okay, and again, the goal is to get through this chapter. Okay, it's to give you an overview. It's to give you enough to say, I need to look more into that. Or I need to research that again, or whatever, okay? I don't have time to spend to really give you a thought-out plan if you find yourself in that situation that we've had to help people in that area before. The point is, wives submit themselves to their own husbands, not to everybody else's husbands. And again, every time I read this, I have to bring up these stories, okay? There are some people that are Christians in churches like ours that have it in their minds this is a real thing, that every wife or every woman ought to submit to them. Okay, and that is not okay. Look, man, you gotta be careful doing stuff like that because some people don't wanna be pastors. They have no problem striking, okay? And I'm just gonna leave that there. The Bible says that a fool's mouth calleth for strokes. I'm just gonna, I'm not doing it. I'm just gonna leave that there, okay? You gotta be careful messing with other people's, you know, other people's families. So, it's just ridiculous. But those people do exist. They are out there. In fact, you can see them online. You can see them in some of these Facebook groups that even have a lot of our people in them. Guys getting on there, you know, saying something and then somebody comes along and says, you know, that's not right. Or, you know, wants to contest it and they all go make me a sandwich. Okay, that's not good. It's just not okay to be saying stuff like that, okay? Wives submit themselves to their own husbands, not everybody else's husband, and certainly not some single guy at church, okay? Which I have seen, unfortunately, on more than one occasion. Look at verse 25. So, you think, oh, you know, is he gonna mention the husbands? You know, wives are like, ah. You know, why is he coming after us? What about the husbands? Because they do some stuff that's definitely not okay. Well, don't worry, he's gonna get on you. Verse 25, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. This is a sacrificial love. So, look, husbands, unfortunately, we don't get the privilege to be selfish. Though we often are and we want to, and, you know, plenty of times in my life where I'm like, man, I need this. I don't care what she says. I don't care if we got the money, I'm getting it, okay? Especially that big truck I had. But that's a story for another day. Go to 1 Peter chapter number three. So, go towards the end of your New Testament there, 1 Peter, so you're gonna go past Hebrews, past James. Go to 1 Peter chapter number three real quickly. And I want to show you a very, very, very, very serious danger, a very serious thing that could happen to husbands if they neglect this wisdom in the Bible. It's kind of funny, you know, Paul comes right out. You know, wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. This is why this is the right thing to do, okay? And then he mentions the husbands. And here's something special that you don't see with the wives, but you see with the husbands. Look at verse 24. Who, so Peter just says this, says, who his own self bear our sins and his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live, wait, I'm reading the wrong thing. Nevermind, it's chapter two. What did I say? 1 Peter chapter three, look at verse seven. I'm sorry, look at verse seven. Look at verse seven, 1 Peter three, verse seven. It says this. Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life. And here it is that your prayers be not hindered. Okay, this is something I try to communicate to all husbands, okay? When you develop this long lasting bitterness towards your wife, your prayer life is gonna get hindered. And that is something that should be very terrifying and very scary to any husband, okay? And of course, let me just break this down real quickly. He says, likewise, ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, okay? Again, we as husbands, man, you need to understand that you need to constantly be learning about your wife, okay? Dwell with them according to knowledge, constantly getting to know her and understand her. And I know Jessica's shaking her head back there, probably like, you need to practice what you preach. But hey, I'm just a man. It's just, you know, I'm a work in progress, okay? I think all of us are. But he says, likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. Here's how a lot of people read this. All the wives are just weak, or the husband's strong. That's not what it says, weaker vessel. And in order to have that weaker, okay, well, that means that there has to be a weak, okay? That means you're weak too. It means the husband's weak, she's just the weaker vessel. And because of that, you know, everybody wants to talk today about what's heroic, you know? Heroic is trans rights, and heroic is this and that. No, that's disgusting, is what that is. What's heroic is this. What's heroic is understanding, you know, husbands, that your wife is the weaker vessel, and that you oughta learn about her and keep being kind and trying to learn and find out what makes her tick, and find out what pleases her, and put her needs above your own. And then Christ is happy, and then you're displaying the wisdom of God to the world. So enough on that, go back to chapter five, we're gonna wrap this up, okay? We're gonna wrap this up here, almost done. So again, verse 25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, and that communicates sacrificial love, okay? That is the love that we should have towards our wives. Now verse 26 says that he might sanctify and cleanse it, okay, what is he talking, what's the it there? The church, the believers, okay? That he might sanctify, separate, okay, and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word. Look, a church that gets up and downplays the Bible and says, well, this doesn't really appear, oh, 1 John 5, seven's not in the original manuscripts. Okay, do you have the original manuscripts? Now you don't, they're in heaven. The Bible's very clear about that, the settled word is in heaven. But the minute a person does that, that person in that church is not a church, you're sitting in a group of fraud. And I bring that up because it's so frustrating to constantly run into people that are in that situation. We had that today, it happens every single week, okay? No washing of the water by the word, you're not in a good church, okay? A good church is gonna use the word of God, they're gonna believe the word of God, and they're gonna push the word of God. Look at verse 27, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. What do you have going on today? You have churches today that are just bent on trying to look like the world. They have the rock concert, they have the Pac-Man background, you know, you just couldn't tell the difference between them and some rock concert. And that's not the way that we're supposed to run church. You know, I had a guy today that said, church is unnecessary, we don't need church. Then why is this stuff in the Bible? Come on, man, you know, let's be wise, okay? Let's be wise, let's follow what the word of God is saying. Let's be different, that's what God wants. That's the will of God. That goes back to proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And what is acceptable is actually looking at what these other churches are doing and say, hey, is that wise? Is it wise to look just like the world? No, it's not, you know why? Because then people say, your message is no different than what I get down at my college, your message is no different than the Mormons, your message is no different than theirs, and they will not listen to you, okay? We are called to be separate from the world, verse 28. So he says, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. Pretty self-explanatory right there. Verse 29, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. Look, the Lord cherishes the church. And the way that we get better is simply by what? Going to the Bible, what does the Bible say? And of course, that's mocked today in Hollywood, that's mocked today, look, that's even mocked today by a lot of Christians, people who call themselves Christians, oh, you know, you're one of those, oh, Bible thumpers, oh, the Bible says the Bible says. Well, that's how the apostle Paul was, that's how Peter was, that's how Jesus was. What do you think got him in trouble? Because he was always quoting scripture, always going back to what the Bible said. Verse 30, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Okay, that is deep terminology there to give you a great picture on how sealed, how preserved that you are in Christ. You are literally a part of Jesus Christ once you get saved, and no one can ever change that. You are saved forever. Once saved, always saved, that is what the Bible says, literally, on every page you can find this. Verse 31, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. I think I'm gonna make people write this down 100 times. The next person that wants to come to me to get married, I'm gonna make sure you write this down 100 times, I've done one wedding, and the only regret I have doing that wedding is that I didn't have the groom's father walk him down the aisle. Okay, but more on that another time. Just absolutely disgusting how some people get. Hey, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother. Hey, you know, I'm just gonna break this up, I'm already in enough trouble. It's totally fine. The one wedding that I did, it got back to me that the father really wanted the groom and the bride to move in with him. And I just said, look, I'm not kicking you out of church if you do that, but I'm not gonna do the wedding. I just don't believe that's wise. I think you need to, for at least a good season of your life, obviously if you fall on hard times, that's another story, but I just think you need to be on your own, especially for that, you know, those first few years, you know, especially if you can, and you definitely can, you have a good job, so on and so forth, you know, and this guy agreed. This guy agreed to it, but then it came back later that I was controlling and manipulative and all of this stuff, and it's just kinda, it's just kinda silly, and it just goes to show you that people hear what they wanna hear, and they apply what they wanna apply, whereas we oughta be the type of people that hear these things and take them home, hear these things and make them part of our lives, live them every single day, okay, and understand the family dynamic. So verse 32, yeah, verse 32, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. So this whole point for saying, you know, and kinda comparing the husband and wife relationship is really because just as, you know, two people get married, they leave mother and father, and they're their own family, okay, they're their own, they make their own decisions, they're their own family, that doesn't mean you gotta move out of state and move far away from them. It just means that you gotta be out of the house. You're, you know, you're separate. You're your own family, okay? What's the same thing when you get saved? We oughta have that same mentality. Hey, I'm no longer part of the world, so I don't wanna act like it. I wanna be different, and I wanna follow what this says because we are the bride of Christ, okay? And we should live like that. We should be separate from the world. Now, last verse right here, look at verse number 33. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. So again, you know, if you wanna have great relationships, you wanna have a great relationship with your spouse, with other people, obviously you wanna walk in love, you wanna walk as the children of light, and you want to walk circumspectly, meaning wise. Think about your actions. Think about what you're doing. Think about what could happen if you do X, Y, and Z. And so, last but not least, again, verse 33. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. You know, as Christians, God's always holding up his end of the bargain. He's always there, his truth is always right here. We need to be married to this. We need to constantly be coming to this, and reading this, and growing, and learning, and reverencing the word of God. That is what he wants. That's his desire for us, okay? Now, of course, great wisdom for husbands and wives, you know, because when both husband and wife decide they're gonna follow this, okay, I'm not gonna say that your marriage is gonna be perfect because we're human. We still all have the old man. You're gonna have problems. Even Paul said that. You know, he said, in the flesh, you're gonna have trouble. Okay, you're definitely gonna have problems. And I think Brother Evan, you reminded me, I said this a while back, you know, I said, wherever there's people, there's problems, right? And wherever there's snakes, people get bit. That's just the reality, you know? I guess I said that, and thanks for bringing that up and reminding me. But the point is, that doesn't mean we can't be victorious. That doesn't mean we can't have great relationships. You follow this wisdom here, and you will excel. It's not a maybe, it's not a oh, possibly no. You follow this, very simple. You will grow in Christ, you will get smarter, you will have the blessing of God in your life, and you're gonna have that cup filled, okay? That's what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit, putting other people and their needs above your own, not being selfish, and guess what? You're gonna just wind up being in a much better spot. You're gonna live with less regrets, less issue, you're gonna have less stress, which is gonna be better for your physical health. And really, the list goes on and on and on. I could talk for another hour, I'm not going to. So let's stop right there, and of course, next week, we'll finish off this book in chapter number six. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church and all that you do for us. We just pray, Lord, that you bless your week, bring us back safely again on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.