Good morning to you all. I want to join with Jack's expression as how quickly this week has passed. Wonderful to be here, to have experienced the fellowship and the wonderful opportunity to meet with you. You are really a fine group to share the word with. I keep thinking that I don't know where you would find a group of people that has a more consistent and mature interest in the scriptures it's a challenge and a delight to be with you and to share the word of god most of the time i spend my energies with high college age young people and in the courses that i teach for example characteristically i teach a three semester hour course which means for any given course we spend about forty two class hours together And those are fifty-five, fifty-minute class hours. And so you gear yourself to that kind of time exposure to a given subject. And a week of morning studies like this seems very, very short. It passes so quickly. And my frustration today is that There are so many other wonderful passages of Scripture on the subject we've been working on, the matter of personal holiness. And so the ambivalence that I feel today is to be delighted with the responsiveness of so many of you in the studies we've had and to feel regret that we are not able to deal with more of the passages that relate to this important subject. But this morning we want to look at one more passage. And I think today we will dip into a Pauline passage in Ephesians chapter five. We've been spending our time the previous four mornings, three mornings. We've spent our time in Peter's epistles. And Peter has a lot to say about the subject of personal holiness. But certainly you would not expect this to be only the Apostle Peter that gives us teaching on this subject. There is great deal of teaching in the Pauline epistles. Ephesians chapter five is one of a number of places where we might go to get some specific teaching on this subject. Ephesians chapter five, the context is a very well-known one. We're going to just read a brief portion, beginning with verse twenty-five. Ephesians five, twenty-five. Husbands, love your wives. just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless. obviously we have a text that has to do with holiness pausing him to pray father help us now we pray we quiet our hearts in your presence seeking your ministry to us by the Spirit of God we ask in the Savior's name amen I find myself often in this passage of scripture I teach in the area of marriage and family life, get opportunities to do seminars in the area of marriage and family life, working with college-age young people. I do a lot of pre-engagement counseling, a lot of premarital counseling. And of course, in all of these areas, Ephesians chapter five is very, very important material to work with. So often come to this passage. in the various opportunities God gives usually when we come to this passage usually when I come to this passage here to focus on the teaching about the marriage relationship because this is one of the central passages in all the Bible about the marriage relationship but today that's not our focus today our focus is on that parallel theme that runs through this passage And that is the relationship between Christ and his church. And the apostle, of course, has been presenting to us in this epistle the great, great evidence of the work of grace in our lives. You go back to the beginning of chapter five. He talks about walking in love. He commands us to walk in light. He commands us to walk circumspectly. And as we see the walk of the Christian presented to us doctrinally in the early part of this chapter, out of that then flows the apostolic instruction of a practical nature. And the outflow of the Christian's walk, he says, is seen in a number of ways. And it's interesting the order in which he deals with it here. first of all he talks about our relationship to God by the Spirit that comes first back in verses eighteen nineteen twenty and so on then he talks about the husband-wife relationship third he talks about the parent-child relationship over in chapter six and then he talks about the servant-master relationship do you see the order our relationship to God by the Spirit the husband-wife relationship, parent-child relationship, servant-master relationship. Interestingly enough, when you go over to the Colossian letter, you find the same order. Our relationship to God by the Spirit, husband-wife relationship, parent-child relationship, servant-master relationship. And I see the same order in two key passages and think, I think God is giving us something of priority here. and really believe that this is divine priority for any individual it's hard to keep this priority though very difficult it's so easy for example in our world to get this workaday world the servant master thing way up too high in the order of priority I know for example couples who have gotten so busy making a lousy buck and raising their children that they neglect their marriage relationship. That's not too smart. The marriage was there before the kids came. The marriage will be there when the kids leave the nest. We dare not neglect the marriage relationship. If I understand it in the Scripture, the husband-wife relationship has priority even over the parent-child relationship, and certainly over the servant-master relationship. And so there is a matter of importance in the priority that the Apostle is presenting here in this later part of the Scriptures. And it's a very, very valuable thing for us to see it in the light of the flow of teaching through the passage. But today we're just dipping into this section to get a glimpse of this matter of personal holiness in the parallel line of teaching that the Apostle gives here. as he tells us really in the passage that the husband-wife relationship has many parallel ingredients to the relationship between Christ and his church. In fact, as you look at this scripture, you realize that if a husband and wife are right in their relationship, if they're believers, if their relationship is biblically right, they become a living object lesson to the world. they present to the world a picture, if you please, of that glorious higher relationship between Christ and His church. One of the great privileges we have in our benighted world that has lost its way, that knows nothing but heartache and tragedy and unfaithfulness and confusion in the domestic scene, to live as husbands and wives in such a way that this tragic pitiful world around us will see something of the beauty of Christ in his church in our Christian marriage relationships a tremendous privilege we have and in that process the Apostle Paul gives us the teaching of these interesting verses I find as I deal with young people particularly in a passage like this that it's hard to emphasize this believe it or not you see We live in a culture, we've talked about this, but we live in a culture that really has, as its heroes, performance people. We don't have character heroes in our Western world. They're all performance heroes. In fact, one of the most perceptive books I've read in recent years, a secular work. The title of it is A World Without Heroes. Our heroes are only performance heroes, for example, in the political world. If you keep the economy stable, we like you. Whether you're immoral, whatever. If you keep the economy stable, we like you. In the world of athletics, if you entertain us, we like you. We'll pay you millions of dollars to play boys' games. And we like you if you win. character you may be an absolutely obnoxious human being even your teammates despise you but if you win we like you and we'll pay you millions of dollars to play games and we're sort of like the ancient romans you know that in the deterioration of the empire the cry of the masses was panamit circans panamit circans bread and games feed us and entertain us and we'll keep you in office don't care what your character is like just feed us and entertain us that's where we've come but you see our heroes are all performance kinds of heroes we have lost the moral sensitivity to have character kinds of heroes we don't have that anymore in our culture and therefore when I sit down to talk with young people about entering into a biblically godly right marriage relationship. And you look at passages like this. This passage, while it does emphasize our conduct in terms of husbands loving their wives and wives being submissive to their husbands, primarily, however, this is a character passage. We see that clearly in this section, where the Apostle Paul tells us, that the relationship between Christ in his church is a very significant one, and we're going to look at that now for just a few minutes. Notice, first of all, that as the apostle presents this to us, beginning in verse twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-seven, he reminds us that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. There's the sacrifice of Calvin. and then there's that little particle we talked about this before by the way I'm glad you tolerated a little bit of a Greek lesson here here's that little particle at the beginning of verse twenty six Hina in order that he might what sanctify her that he might having cleansed her wash her by the water of the word and eventually present her to himself now notice the important statements here he tells us of course in verse twenty seven that he wants to present the church to himself in all glory now we're talking about his purpose for us he wants to present his church to himself in glory how could that ever be Have you ever looked at your life, looked at yourself in the mirror and said, do I see glory? How could it ever be that a creature of the dust, like me, like you, could ever be presented to Christ in glory? Something radical is going to have to happen. radical and he has to do it because there's nothing that I could do friend or you could do to make this happen but that's his purpose notice not only that his purpose is verse twenty seven that there will be no spot or wrinkle well now that's the language of garments It's embarrassing when I get a spot on my tie. That's why I wear ties like this. So if I get a spot, it just looks like another one of the spots. It helps, you see. We're embarrassed by spots. We don't like that. Wrinkles. Huh. These new fabrics are wonderful. They don't wrinkle. We like things to be spotless and without wrinkle. But then I look at myself and my life. And I say, could it be that the likes of me, and all that I know about myself, would ever be presented to Christ without spot and without wrinkle? How could that be? He must do it. I can't. I can't. Because when I try, sort of like watching my grandchildren try to iron things, the more they iron, the more wrinkles there are. In fact, they iron in the wrinkles. So if it's up to me, I'm afraid I'd iron in the wrinkles. But that's his goal. Not only that he's going to present us to himself a glorious church. but without spot and without wrinkle. Not only that, he says in verse twenty-seven, his goal is that we should be holy. We're talking about that, to our own discomfort here. Set apart to him, set apart to God, set apart from sin, set apart to him. his special people, his possession. It's a wonderful thing to contemplate his work in setting us apart to himself. And someday, of course, there is that future aspect of sanctification in which we will be set apart in every sense from this world, taken out of this world, and into his presence in glory, finally and eternally set apart to himself, holy. And then there's another expression here in verse twenty-seven that tells us of his purpose, and that is that we should be blameless. And I must admit this one sort of blows me away. Blameless. Could it be that the likes of Dan Smith would ever be in the presence of the Holy Son of God? Blameless. Could it be? Again, this cannot be my doing, this cannot be your doing. If it is not his doing, it won't happen. Won't happen. Because I'm to blame for a lot of things, folks. I often feel like the man who had a sign on his desk. I'm a very responsible person. Everything that goes wrong around here, I'm responsible. And sometimes I empathize with that. How? How could it ever be? that we would be presented to him blameless well the context in essence tells us and you will see that a lot here is involved frankly in the tenth of a verb okay here's another one of those grammar lessons now in verse twenty six the purpose of Christ with regard to his church is that he might sanctify her there's holiness being set apart to God that he might sanctify her he says having cleansed her by what how did he do that the washing of water with the word and the tense here indicates that what comes first is the cleansing and then The result is sanctification and eventually presenting her to himself. So the tenses of verbs here, the perfect tense which points to the past, the present ongoing tense of sanctifying, and the future ultimate tense of presenting the church to himself gives us a very important sequence. and the sequence is it begins with cleansing it begins with washing and that goes on to the sanctification process setting apart for himself eventually presenting her to himself like he wants us I remember the days when our children were little you're going to meeting, going to some other important occasion. Where do you begin with these little rascals? Well, you grab them and you peel off all their dirty clothes and you clean them up first. In the tub. Wash them. And then, when you get them washed, then you dress them up. The finery. Foam their hair. No, get them fixed up. And then, or whatever the occasion may be, you wash them, you get them prepared, and you present them. There are many ways in life in which I think we could see these same kinds of steps, and that's the way the Apostle presents it here with regard to you and me. who are the body of Christ. And whether you look at it in the corporate sense, which the language of this passage is, or whether you look at it in the personal sense, this is the sequence. He begins with cleansing, washing of the water by the Word, which goes into this very important thing that we've been talking about, this progressive sanctification, whereby in His work in our lives, increasingly he sets us apart from sin and for himself and eventually presents us to himself as the glorious church the glorious bride that he desires now today let's talk a little bit about that important step of washing of water by the word it's a it's a metaphor and it's a very common metaphor Water is the common cleansing agent. There is no other agent on earth that is used to clean things more than water. It is the common cleansing agent. And washing with water is such an everyday thing that it's no wonder that the apostle would use this kind of metaphor to describe the action of the Word of God in our lives. Washing of water by the Word. Think with me of some of the dimensions of that. For example, the Apostle says in Romans chapter seven, Here's my experience. I thought I was a good Jew. I did everything right according to what I saw in the law. But then he said, The commandment came. And you know the rest of it. What happened? The commandment. Suddenly, the Word of God hit me square in my conscience. And sin revived, and I died. What a statement. And in another place, he says, By the law, by the written Word of God, comes the knowledge of sin. One of the ways in which the Word of God has a cleansing effect on us is to reveal sin to us. More than that, to reveal our sin to us. In fact, the Apostle James uses the image, the metaphor of the mirror, looking into a mirror, this holy law of liberty. You look into the mirror and I see that my face is dirty. The Word of God reveals our sin. In fact, there is no other really sure way to understand or to be identified in terms of sin than in the Word of God. When we talk about human standards, whether you think something is right or wrong or i think something is right or wrong is really pretty arbitrary isn't it i know people think it's wrong eat ketchup on hamburgers they hate mcdonald's they always put ketchup on hamburgers is that really wrong well depends who you ask It's interesting how arbitrary our standards of right and wrong may be. Where in the world do we get that final help that causes us to understand what really is sin, what really is wrong? Here it is, folks. Here is where the knowledge of sin is given to us. Here is where we see with certainty that which is sinful that which misses the mark that which falls short of the glory of God here's where I see that it's amazing people feel guilty about all sorts of things spending time with a family now in our area in which one of their children feels guilty because a parent has died you know it's very common for children to blame themselves for the death of a parent This poor little child crushed with this loss of a parent and on top of that feels guilty that somehow or another it was her fault. Dreadful things struggle with. Where do we get these strange ideas about what we are guilty about or not guilty about? Well, it's all a part of the maestrom of our humanness. If you want to really know what's wrong, you go to the book. Here is where we get a knowledge of sin. The Bible tells us what is sin and reveals our sin to us. It's a part of the cleansing process. Because if I never know that I'm sinful, why should I give a care about being cleaned up if I don't know I'm dirty? Another thing that the Bible does in terms of this cleansing process is that it reveals the gospel to us. we saw that in first peter the word of god the gospel of christ that comes to us in the written scriptures that absolutely essential message for the salvation of the human being the revelation of god in christ the one and only savior that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day and that by faith in Christ you may receive the free you will receive the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord what a message of the gospel where do we find that in the book you don't get that from historians oh there were historians that wrote about things in the first century there was Josephus the Jewish historian. There were the great Roman historians, Tacitus, Plinius. They told us a lot of things that happened back there in the first century. But they don't tell us the gospel. You get that here. Here's where you find the gospel of Christ. Not only that, this book reveals to us the issues of faith. How do you, how do I come to faith in Christ? Or any other step of faith in our lives? You know the answer. The apostle tells us in the book of Romans, so then faith comes by hearing. Hearing what? Ten o'clock news? The Word of God. You see, what we call faith, if it is faith, is not blind. I hear a lot of people talk about blind faith. Blind faith is not faith, it's presumption. It's folly. Faith is an enlightened, obedient response to the Word of God. Now, faith has its unknowns. That's true. But faith is not blind. Faith is an obedient response to the Word of God. It is this book. It is this message from God that awakens that enlightens, that brings faith in our lives. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. I trust Christ as my Savior. Where do I find assurance? Is there any rest for my soul? How do I know that once I have received Christ and belonged to Him, that I can rest in that? In this book, John tells us first John I've written these things that you might know that you have eternal life as someone put it an adage that I heard from my childhood days when it comes to salvation it is the blood that secures but it is the word that assures great true Satan the blood secures my salvation, but the word assures. And that's why the hymn writer wrote those very, very well-known things. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith. What's the rest of it? In his excellent word. And the people that I find that have no assurance of salvation are people that lack the foundation of the word of God. not only that the word of god warns me of pitfalls in life and shows me how to walk the psalmist said your word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path i have a flashlight at home but my grandkids love because it's not only a flashlight and kids love flashlights they'll run you to the poor house buying batteries you know that but this flashlight has a clicker device so that one way that you click it and it shines a bright beam that reaches way out ahead and the other way you click it and it spreads a very good light all around and the same light does both there are times when you're going to walk someplace in the dark night when you just click it open and it just lights a whole area around you so as you walk down the sidewalk in case you come to a place where the roots of a tree have made the sidewalk heave up you can see that so you don't trip over it it's right there in front of you because this light in a certain phase just shines all around right where you're walking a lamp onto your feet that there are times when you need to see way out there, see. And so you just click it, and there's that beam that shines way out ahead to find the number on a house or something. The same light does both. That's precisely what the Psalmist says, the Word of God does. It's a lamp to my feet, and it's a light that shines way down the path, like turning your headlights on high. See? in our area you better do that we've got a lot of deer running around our area awful lot of people run into those critters and part of the reason is because they don't drive with their lights far enough out they don't see things far enough ahead well the Word of God does both for us it is both a lamp to my feet it gives me light day by day step by step along the way And not only that, the Word of God helps me to look down the pike and to see the outcome of this kind of action or what lies ahead. See, the Word of God does both of those things for us. Not only that, the Word of God really is God's instrument of spiritual growth. When the Apostle Peter appeals for growth, for example, in the second Peter, in grace and but in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus where do we get that again do we get that from the historians Josephus tell us about Christ oh he mentions him establishes his historicity if you please and so do the Roman historians but they don't tell us about Christ you don't get revelation about the person of Christ and his work from historians you get it from this book that's how you grow if you're not in the book you're not going to grow where do we learn that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son continually cleanses me from all sin where does that come from where does that glorious knowledge come from the book where do we learn that if I want to keep from sin. Where do I find that preventative from sin? Thy word, the psalmist says, have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against God. The word. And if the Word isn't in my life and in my heart and mind, I am more and more vulnerable to sin. On the other hand, if I hide the Word in my heart, if my life and mind and heart are saturated with the Word of God, if I study it, if I memorize it, it has a cleansing effect on my life that I might not sin. against God, the sound of sins. Not only that, where do I find that if I really become conscious of sin in my life, what do I do about it? Where do I learn that if I, as a believer, confess my sin to God, He is faithful and just to forgive me? where do I learn that psychology textbooks mm-hmm in engineering school mm-hmm I learn it here that's where I learn the cleansing promise of God but if I confess my sins he'll forgive me and cleanse me here's where I learn that the assurance of forgiveness wonderful thing that he's laid his own character on the line that if I confess no sin to him, his own character is laid on the line. He is faithful, he is righteous to forgive and to cleanse. And if I get to heaven and find out that the sins that I have confessed to him as a believer are still stuck in his mind, then I will know he is neither faithful or righteous. I don't worry about that, folks. I don't worry about that. he's laid his own character on the line that if you and I as believers confess known sin to him he will cleanse and he will forgive that's his promise and so you see and we haven't exhausted I've got a whole list of other things here that the word of God does for us to clean us up to keep us clean to keep us from sin to cause spiritual growth, to enlighten our hearts and minds, to reveal Christ to us. Marvelous thing. And when Paul simply says then in Ephesians chapter five, having cleansed his church in the washing of water by the word, what a glorious statement. But it's all with a purpose. And the same purpose that he so briefly says here, is really spelled out in another place in your Bible, turn for just a couple minutes for one final thought in Revelation chapter nineteen. Paul tells us that the purpose of Christ is that he will eventually present us, the church, redeem people to himself as his bride, his glorious bride, his spotless bride. And we get another glimpse of that in Revelation chapter nineteen, where in this prophetic scripture we see a very brief glimpse of that occasion with this passage of scripture calls the marriage of the Lamb. Notice Revelation nineteen verse seven, let us rejoice and be glad, give glory to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Notice the language. She has made herself ready. Folks, there is a moral responsibility in this matter of personal holiness. Now, we know that the foundation for personal holiness is in the work of Christ, the finished work of Christ. We know that the provision for your life and my life to be clean and holy is from Him. We know that. but there is a moral responsibility and that's why the Bible commands us you be holy it doesn't happen automatically to all the people of God I'm afraid there are some of God's people that that do not respond to that command as they should there is a personal moral responsibility to give ourselves in obedience to the word of God and to the work of God in our lives. And so the language is here very interesting. The bride has made herself ready and it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean. The fine linen, the righteous acts of the saints and so on. And you can read through this sometime at your leisure and see this prophetic glimpse into that glorious day when what Paul writes about in Ephesians five, Jesus Christ presenting the church as a spotless bride to himself. Someday, folks, that's going to literally happen. Someday, there's going to be a great, great marriage feast in heaven. What a day. What a day. And he's going to present that bride to himself. Did you see here bright? and clean. Friends, there is no substitute for personal holiness. The heart of Christ desires that His bride shall be clean. And in a defiled world, and with an Adamic nature that's bent wrong, we need to be very grateful that he has made provision to clean us up the blood of jesus christ god cleanses from all sin praise god that an unholy person in an unholy world could ever be so dealt with in the power of God so cleaned up that I could fulfill His great desire. You could fulfill His great desire that we together can be presented to Him bright and clean. I pray that if we haven't accomplished anything else in our morning studies this week, that will have quetted your appetite even more to live a holy life, to be that clean, spotless bride that our Lord desires and deserves, to avail ourselves of all that He has done to clean us up. what a glorious glorious revolution our defiled world not only knows nothing of this they care nothing of this but the Savior does and I pray that it will be the great burning desire of your heart and my that we will be a holy people he has said you be holy because I am holy. Thank you, Father. We ponder the Scriptures with awe and with delight. We thank you for the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. We thank you that you lifted us defiled sinners out of the mirey clay and that there is cleansing cleansing we pray father that you will cause us to realize something more each day of your great desire to release the power of the Word of God and the operation of the Spirit of God in our lives and that we might be a set apart people a holy people a sanctified people and that the word of god may have its effect the washing of water by the word thank you father for the great provision that is ours in christ There is no other way that this could ever happen. There is no other cleansing agent that could remove the deepest dyes of our human sin and need. But praise God for the blood of Christ. Even as we come week by week in the remembrance and we take the cup, reminding us continually that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. And our hearts well up before you that the blood will never lose its power, and that a million years from now we will all be together in the glory, singing praise to the Lamb, who has washed us and cleansed us from our sins in his own blood thank you father that the blood will never lose its power and that it is your purpose to cleanse us make us clean keep us clean give us a desire to obey your word for you have said you be holy because i am holy We give you our thanks and ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus.