Be Imitators of God as Beloved Children — Tim Conway

Be Imitators of God as Beloved Children — Tim Conway

I'm going to begin reading in Ephesians 4 v. 30. We're going to read five verses through Ephesians 5 -2. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.

A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Father, help us, change us, have mercy upon us. In Christ's name we ask, Amen. Brethren, this portion of Scripture, this portion of Ephesians 4, it is some of the most profound teaching on sanctification anywhere.

And I know there's other places you can go. But just the basic formula that Paul lays down in 4, 22, 23, and 24, it can revolutionize a life. Think about it. Because a lot of Christians don't approach life this way.

They approach it defeated. I'm helpless. I can't do this. I just need to pray to God about this. And Scripture says, no, that is not true. You can and must consciously, purposely put off the old man. And you are capable of replacing that that you put off with that which accords to the new man created after the likeness of God, true righteousness and holiness.

You can do that. And verse 23 interjects in here this reality that we are to let ourselves be transformed to change, renewed in the spirit of our minds. So there's got to be thinking. This can revolutionize it.

You just need to think about the biblical reasons as to why you ought to be putting off the old man and his nature and be putting on the new man qualities. And that can revolutionize things. And here's the thing.

Here's the thing. As Paul is moving along and he's saying, okay, you put away falsehood, you put away corrupt speaking, you put away bitterness, et cetera, et cetera. What I love about this is that Paul is under inspiration, which means God is moving Paul to say, Paul, tell them when it comes to not stealing anymore, tell them from my own infinite mind what the best truth of all, right at this point, to these people is to help motivate them in their thinking.

Now I know, I know, you can look other places in the Bible and you can find other motives for the same conduct. And we ought to be able to do that. You ought to be able to come up with ten reasons why you shouldn't steal.

But the thing is right here, we're given very choice, very select reasons. God wants me to get rid of that wickedness that corresponds to my former manner of life and put on in its place that which is truly righteous and holy.

God doesn't leave me to myself to figure out what sort of truth is most calculated to help me on in this victory. He gives us the reasons. Now, that brings us to today. We're in these five verses. Out of everything that God could say to try to convince us not to be bitter people and to put on kindness, to walk in love, these are the things.

And so what it makes me recognize is this, if some way I can... you see the words, but if somehow I can make you feel these truths more than you presently feel them, then I would guess that I'm being successful.

If you walk out this door and you've actually felt the weight of the truths that are meant to motivate us and renew the mind. Because I recognize this, if you don't feel it, you're not going to be impacted.

You're not going to be moved by it. You're not going to change if you're not moved by it. That's the reality. So let's break down these five verses. There's a reason I picked these five and I think you'll see it in a second.

But what I want to do is break these five verses down into their component parts. And by component parts, I mean referring back to 4 .22, 23, 24. Because you remember what Paul's been doing. Paul gave us the basic formula and then he specifically works it out in all these different categories.

That's what he's doing here. He's showing us the putting off, the putting on, the motive. All the way through here. And it's going to continue into the weeks ahead. And so what I want us to do is I want us to look at these five verses and ask us what is it that we need to put off?

What is it that we need to put on? And what sort of motives are being given to us in order to do it? Now here's the thing. If you boil it all down, I believe you can see from 5 .2 that what we are to put on here is love.

Now, if you just think about 4 .32, you could see several things here that you're supposed to put on. You're supposed to put on kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiving. In 5 .1, you're supposed to put on an imitation of God.

And then 5 .2, walk in love. But here's the thing. Love is kind. When you talk about kindness and tenderheartedness and forgiving, what does love do? Love covers a multitude of sins. You see, love is forgiving.

Love is kind. So I think we basically have expressions of love there. And then what he's saying is this. 4 .32, as God in Christ forgave you. So you're supposed to do this as He did, therefore, imitate Him.

In what? Primarily in love. I mean, when we're called to imitate God, you remember in the Sermon on the Mount, it's right there. It's loving our enemies. God does this. He lets His sun shine and His rain fall.

Therefore, you be like Him. Be imitators of your Father in loving. That seems to be the issue. What do we put off? Obviously, all the things that are contrary to love. The bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice.

That's what we put off. The unloving aspects. But here's what I really want to focus on today. What are the motives? Well, you see the first one, because the verses that I've done here, that I've included here, we don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit.

Okay, well, what does that have to do with? Does that really have to do with anything that's unloving? Does it really have to do with bitterness? Well, it has to do with this. It has to do with that which grieves the Spirit.

And you figure that out. What grieves Him? I mean, what's the context here? You know, the context is really what Craig was talking about. It's how we treat one another. So here's a motive. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit with the stuff that grieves Him, like bitterness.

Okay, two, right there at the end of 4 .32, here's another motive. Consider God forgiving your sins. Be melted by that and do the same. Okay, brethren, we've already covered those two. The last two sermons, we covered those two items.

So I'm not going to belabor that today. But let's go on from there. Remember who you are. This is 5 .1. You're to imitate God. Why? Because you're beloved children. Okay, you see that. And that should motivate you to be like your Father.

And then here's a fourth one. Consider the greatness. This is 5 .2. Consider the greatness of Christ's love for you. Therefore, walk like that. So that's a fourth motive. Fifth motive, consider how fragrant Christ's sacrifice is to God and seek yourself to be fragrant.

These are basically the five motives that you would find from these five verses. Now, I don't want you to miss something. Each of these truths that God Himself inspires Paul to set forth as a motivation to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, loving.

Each mind-renewing truth that I just read to you, all five of these, if you have eyes to see, every one of them connects with either the Spirit, the Father, or the Son. You say, so what? Just this. I want you to see how the Trinity fits in with sanctification because clearly we need to be renewed in the mind if we're really going to be effective in the putting off and putting on.

We have to think right. And these five verses show us this, that if we're going to think right about sanctification and how we live practically, we need to be thinking not on God generally, but on each of the specific three Persons.

Because there are reasons that, look, there are reasons to walk in love that go to the Son that just aren't true of the Father. And there are reasons as to why we should live this way that connect with the Spirit that just don't connect with the Father or Son.

That's what you want to see. We need to recognize this. We need to see this. Read these five verses again and take note of the Trinity. Take note of all three Persons as they come up here. Ephesians 4 .30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath, anger, clamor, slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.

A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Now, I'll just point something out. It is standard Pauline nomenclature to use God with respect to the Father. I mean, just look at chapter one. You know this already, but look at chapter one, verse two.

Grace to you and peace from God. God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. You see that.

The Father is regarded as God. That is very standard in Pauline. We become familiar with things. I think that's one of the things about preaching that as we're preparing, we recognize, especially, I think about guys like MacArthur who have pastored in the same church for what, like over 50 years.

He's actually preached through some books more than once. It's like some of these people you're preaching, I recognize there's always new people, but one of the things that you want to do is you want to shake people out of thinking, oh, I've heard that before, and so they shut down.

I would just say this, cursed familiarity where we get to the point where we become so accustomed to seeing the three Persons in what we read or in the songs that we sing that we miss it. We don't want to miss it.

Don't miss this. There are certain great motives behind our sanctification that are directly connected with each individual person in the Godhead, not just God generally. So the question is this, do you contemplate?

Here's the thing, we're supposed to be renewed in the spirit of our minds by truths like these. You know what that means? That doesn't mean that you just hear it right now. That doesn't mean that you just hear the preaching on any given Sunday, because the reality is that the kind of life that's being called for here isn't being called for just on Sunday mornings.

This is something that you're being called to live your life. And if you're going to live your life this way, you have to be thinking throughout your life this way. You know what this means? This means that the Christians that fight sin and put on holiness most effectively are those who are contemplating the three Persons of the Godhead.

I mean, we should be thinking about each person and how that impacts our life. Certainly that's what's happening here. I mean, I would just ask you this, do you contemplate the Father? Do you give times where you're thinking about the Father?

Times where you think about the Son? Times where you think about the Holy Spirit? If you're doing devotional reading from the New Testament, this is in the Old too, but especially in the New Testament, if you look for the Trinity in the Pauline letters, it is there.

It is stark. It is real. It is pronounced. You can't miss it. You don't want to just read about all these three Persons and you know, you get, well, through Him by one Spirit, we have access to the Father.

And you just had all three Persons and it's just like, oh, whatever. You know, it's theological sounding. No, you don't want to do that. You want to isolate each of those three Persons. You want to see what they're doing.

What is this? I mean, the Trinity in many ways is mysterious, but we do have a lot revealed. And I just ask you this, do you think about the three individual Persons? How do you answer that? Because look, if you don't think that way, you will never feel the weight of these motives.

And if you don't feel them, you don't respond. If you don't respond, there's no change. The most godly think such thoughts. Now let's just think about the Trinity for a second. Trinity. If you know about the theological arguments, the theological realities, the theological propositions, a proposition is basically a statement of fact.

It's a statement of truth. There are three statements of truth that we want to embrace with regards to the Trinity. The first is there is one God. Anybody give me a text that says that there's one God?

Yeah, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, "'Hear, O Israel, our God, the Lord, is one.'". And there are many others. But then the next thing is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God.

Fully God. And equally God. Now, John 1, verse 1, you have God. The Father. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Right there, you have God and the Word is God.

And the classic text for the Holy Spirit is Ananias, the devil's filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. And he specifically says you've not lied to man, but to God. The third truth is this. The first, there's one God.

The second truth is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully and equally God. And then the third truth is this, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons. And the best way I'm sure I came across this somewhere in probably one of the systematic theologies or somewhere, but I've always thought the best way to define three Persons is three centers of consciousness.

You actually have individual Persons that are interacting. That you have these centers of consciousness. Christ isn't two centers of consciousness. He's not God on one hand and man. Somehow, mysteriously, He is the God-man.

But He can talk to the Father and He can pray to the Father and He can be sent from the Father. He can love the Father. He talks to Him. And the Spirit, the Son and the Father send the Spirit. Jesus leaves so that the Spirit can come.

Clearly, if we see what's happening in Scripture, the authors of Scripture are not modalists. They're not saying, well, the Father is the Son and the Son and Father are the Spirit. They don't talk that way.

They talk about them as three independently distinct Persons. And in fact, we see it right here. Look at Ephesians 4. In the very same chapter, if you go back to chapter 4, verse 4, there's one body and one Spirit.

Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord. There's the one Holy Spirit of God. There's the one Lord Jesus Christ. And then there's one God and Father of all who is over all, through all, in all.

There's one, one, and one. There's one God, but there's one Spirit, one Lord, one God. The Father. You say, I'm confused. Look, this is what Scripture teaches. And it's not that the theologians through the ages have actually figured out all the mysteries.

But what we do recognize is this is how God is presented in the Scriptures. And so we bow to that. Do you want a motive to be holy? Okay, then consider the Father. But consider Him distinct and separate.

And consider the Son. And consider the Spirit. There are reasons attached to each of the persons as to why we ought to live holy lives. Consider this, when a Christian sins, when a Christian sins, that happens.

And we're all familiar with it. What ought to be most aware in our minds is not so much simply that we've done something wrong. Of course, we've done something wrong. Or even that we've broken God's law.

Or it's not, oh no, I've sinned. Now I'm going to go to hell. It's not that. What we ought to be most aware of when we sin is that we have offended against love. But here's the thing, each person of the Trinity expresses his love to the Christian in different capacities, in different ways.

We see this plainly in the verses before us. I mean, look at 4 .30. What do we see there? The Spirit seals us. A seal is upon a person. He comes upon us with His presence and His power. What does Scripture say about the Father?

4 .32, it's the Father who forgives us. It's the Father who designed the way to forgive us, pardon us, set us free, while at the same time, upholding His justice and His holiness. It's the Father who sent the Son.

It's the Father who makes us children, 5 .1. When you get to 5 .2, it's the Lord Jesus Himself who He expresses His love to us by giving Himself up for us. The Father didn't give Himself up for us as a sacrifice.

The Father gave His Son. The Son gave Himself up. The Spirit didn't do that. The Spirit seals us. Christ doesn't seal us. The Father doesn't seal us. The Spirit. We're sealed with the Spirit. These are the realities.

And when we ourselves do not love, we offend against that love. Look, the very term grieve from 4 .30. It confirms that. We hurt the One who has embraced us. We throw Him into sorrows. That's how Thayer's Greek lexicon defines that.

The Father’s Love and the Identity of Beloved Children

The Father says this, I forgave you and made you one of My own children. And we would say this, what then should be our response to that? You see, if you're really gripped by that, wow, I'm forgiven. Yeah, we dealt with that last week.

And I made one of His children. How then should I respond? In gratitude? No, I don't want it. I mean, after what He's done for me, I don't want anything of His image on my life. I don't want to imitate Him.

The Son says this, I gave Myself up for you. And when He comes back to us, what is our response to that going to be? How do we respond? If I walk around bitter and slandering and unforgiving, unfeeling, what it really says is this, I don't really have any appreciation for that.

I'm not impacted by that. You see, if you're really deeply loved by somebody and you know the love of that person, it impacts. Even on the human level, somebody can be going wayward. Somebody can be wandering.

But if they had that person in their life that really loved them, I mean, really loved them, not just said they did, but the person knows it's real, it's hard just to turn your back on that. It produces a response in people.

I remember MacArthur telling this story one time about something happened between he and his son. And he told the story that he was out washing the car and his son came out and apologized. And his son was telling him something like, you know, Dad, what makes it most difficult when we're at odds with each other is I know the love that you have for me.

And MacArthur was talking about how that held sway with his son. Well, how much more here? How do we respond to this? Do we show that there's an appreciation? Or there's a lack of appreciation, a lack of highly valuing, not very affected by these expressions of love to me.

How do I respond? That's the issue. Like I said, we dealt with verses 430, 3132. So I'm going to just jump right in here to this reality in 5 .1. Look how 432 ends. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God.

See, we're supposed to be like Him as God. He forgave and as He did, so should we. And that takes us right into 5 .1. Therefore. These chapter divisions aren't in the original. And there's that therefore right at 5 .1.

He's tying back to this. Just forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Beloved children. We hear about that. But again, it's like we need to be reminded of it.

We take it for granted. We take it for granted. We don't appreciate it. It doesn't impact us. If it doesn't impact us, it doesn't motivate the kind of love that not just Paul, but God Himself is wanting to produce.

It's impossible to be motivated by truth if we don't feel the truth. Then there's no result. Consider what forgiveness might have looked like. Just think with me. I know I'm just being creative here. Imagine if you were in hell for a billion years and after a billion years of suffering, unimaginable torment, somebody was sent to you and said, Christ is going to pay for you to be annihilated.

If the damned in hell should have such hope as that, hell would be set to rejoicing right now. What makes it so unbearable is its eternality. Oh, it would be unbearable if it was for a billion years, but you know what the people would always have?

Hope that it's going to come to an end. And if they were told right now, Christ died to give you a reprieve after a billion years, and it's annihilation. But it's like it was before we were born. We stopped suffering.

We just go to sleep forever with no dreams. They would rejoice over such a thing as that. You know what? If God came along to sinners and said I sent My Son to the cross so that there's no hell, you're just going to cease to exist when you die.

That would be a mercy indescribable. I don't know why, I have this picture in my mind of like a rock out in the middle of the ocean where you can't see any other land. There's just this one rock and you're set on that rock.

If a person were put in that place for eternity, you might call it hell, but that's not hell. If you were allowed to be there and be fed and breathe and watch the sunrise each day, somehow be sustained.

But you see, God didn't do that either. He doesn't send us to the moon to live outside of His presence. Or what if God simply said to us, My Son died on the cross and I'm going to allow you to live in this world forever.

I mean, basically, the way that we're hindered from seeing Him and having the kind of fellowship with Him, it's just going to be like this forever. We're never going to have more than we have right now.

Just forever and ever. Or what if God said to us, I'm sending My Son to the cross and you can go live in Frisco, Colorado, in the mountains. Or I've got a South Seas Island paradise waiting for you. And it's forever.

But it's going to be just like now. You'll see My fingerprints in creation. You're never going to look on My face. Most people, I mean, that's what Jehovah's Witnesses are all about. Except for the 144 ,000.

You see, a lot of people love it here. That to them would be just absolutely glorious. Or what if God came along and said, I sent My Son to the cross and I'm going to allow you into heaven once in a while.

But only once in a while. Or what if He said, oh, you can come into heaven, but you're going to be a beggar. Well, you know where I'm going with this. The thing is, we're going to be welcomed into the new heavens and the new earth not just as an honored guest.

We're going to be welcomed into paradise forever as a child of God. But now you look at the relationship between some parents and their children, especially stepchildren, adopted children, do you know what it says?

You are going to be allowed forever into the very presence of God as beloved children. I mean, if you begin to recognize the stock we come from and that God would do this, this is actually what it means to become a Christian.

I mean, Christian, do you know this? You are greatly beloved. Three translations say dearly loved. You are dear to God. Even if you're one of those Christians that I described last week who's bitter and needs to put it off, think what we have here.

The very people being spoken to in 431 are the same people being spoken to in 5 -1. You who need to be exhorted not to be bitter because there's too much of the old man quality about your life right now, you are the one.

You may have been here last week and you felt convicted. Like this poison, this cancer is still within you. But you know what God says to you? I dearly love you. That's why He sent that exhortation to you to put that off.

And I want you not to be like that. Beloved. It is to God's beloved children that He says this. Brethren, Christianity is not some moral code that's pressed upon us. Here's a reason for living the Christian life.

Why? We talk about sons and daughters of God. But let that word beloved sink in. That means you are greatly loved. You are dear to the heart of God. This is no mechanical relationship here. God gives us our own children.

Some of you haven't had children yet. But when you have a child, you just ask any of the parents who are watching their children just begin to walk for the first time or talk for the first time. And how they feel about it.

They delight in those children. Why do you think God did that? Why do you think He made that happen in our midst? Why do you think? That's a shadow. He says, look at how you feel towards your children, how you delight in them, how you have affection for them, how you love them, how they are dear to you.

That's the shadow. You are dearly loved by Me. He takes an intense personal interest in His children. And what we have to ask is this, what should my response be to that? What does God expect to happen?

I might have forgiven your sins and confined you to the desert. I might have forgiven your sins and left you to just be a beggar. But I didn't do that. I've made you sons and daughters. Sons and daughters, have you ever read?

When we get there, we're going to sit down at table. Scripture says we sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And have you ever read in Luke's Gospel? It says that Jesus, the Master, is going to come and He's going to gird Himself.

You talk about washing feet. Do you know He continues to do that kind of thing in glory? He girds Himself like a servant and He comes and serves us. I think sometimes, rightly so, we have this picture in our mind, we enter heaven, and there He is high and lifted up on a throne, and we all fall down and undoubtedly, there's going to be reality to that.

But can you imagine? Can you imagine if you're ushered into glory in the first sight you have of Jesus Christ and all of His glory as He's girding Himself to come and serve you? And yet, that's what Scripture says.

It's like being a Christian is the greatest reality on the face of the earth. And I'll tell you, to be served that way and have just come through judgment, and you know what that's going to be like? Like, wait, I went to college with that guy and I was worse than him.

Wait, that's the cousin that I grew up with. I led them into sin. Wait, I sinned against them. And here's Christ coming to gird Himself. Why? Because God made us His dear child. I mean, nothing is greater than this.

And so how should we respond? You see, Paul wants us thinking about what the Spirit and what the Father and what the Son have done for us. Don't grieve Him. Don't despise that love of the Father who has made you this Son.

How should you respond? We should respond by wanting to please the One who loves us. That's what happens. That's what happens on a human level. The Person that most loved us, we don't want to disappoint them.

We want to please them. And nothing gives God greater joy over you and me than when we respond to this love by saying, Oh, if God has done this for me, I want to please Him. I mean, God is not more pleased with us than when our greatest desire is to please Him.

The supreme desire of our life should be exactly this, to please Him and give Him joy. There's no greater privilege than being a Christian. And if we believe this, then we don't talk like so many do. You have so many people that want to come along and they want to identify with Christianity.

Why? Well, I don't want to go to hell. Of course, I want to be saved. Of course, I want to be a Christian. Of course, I said the little prayer. Of course, I'm in. I don't want to go to hell. But don't expect me to live the Christian life.

Don't expect me to live in purity. What is that? You're a child of God, greatly beloved. And you see, if you believe this, if you're impacted by this, if this holds sway with you, I mean, do you walk through the world with the right perspective?

Craig hit on it. You are of the royal family. Do you realize, Christian, sometimes it's hard to realize. Sometimes we still too much classify ourselves like the world classifies. Oh, by beauty, by wealth, by degrees, by where you live, what you drive.

When you walk through this world, you're the royal stock. There's no one higher in the world. You're the most favored, most chosen, most honored, special, most loved by God. And so what should your response be when He calls you?

Forgive. Be tenderhearted. Look at what I've done. Our response should be, I want nothing more than to please Him. And He says, would you please Me? Well, nothing gives Me greater delight and pleasure than that you imitate Me.

There it says it, 5 .1, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. You remember how Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount? He said this, calling us to imitate God. And we could go lots of like, be holy because He's holy.

But there's a text probably that Paul's drawing from right here. Same truth is here anyways, whether Paul knew it or not. I say to you, just listen to this. Love your enemies. Be a lover of men. Not just of each other, but of your enemies.

Why? Pray for those who persecute you. Why? So that you may be sons. That's the reason of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Now listen to this, if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. See, be like Him. Imitate Him. He's perfect. How? In love. The way He loves. But did you catch that? Don't the tax collectors do the same?

In other words, what are you doing more than others? Do you really know who you are? Is your life special? Is your life different? There's nothing wonderful in that. There's nothing wonderful in loving those who love you.

There's nothing special about that. His point is this, there ought to be something special about you if you're a son of God. You shouldn't be living like a Gentile, living like a tax collector. Don't think that just because you love your children or love your dad or your cousins, the lost people do that.

What's special about you? That's the issue here. There ought to be nothing ordinary about the Christian. Why? Because the Christian isn't ordinary. The Christian is a child of God. What is there special about you?

That's the issue. Think about this. What is special about you? You say, well, I love my child. Yeah, okay, the tax collectors do that. Because you're a child of God, how does that move you? How do you imitate?

See, you have to transpose this to your life. His sun shines. His rain falls. You can say, well, I don't control the clouds. I don't control the sun. No, but Jesus brought that up not expecting you to control those things, but take the things that are in your control like God takes the things that are in His control and He causes them to be good.

To all sorts of different kinds of people, He's saying take what's in your life. Take what's at your disposal and use it in the same way that God does. Imitate Him. You don't have the sun, but you have certain money, funds, home, vehicles, certain wealth, certain possessions, certain gifts, certain abilities that you can do the same with that He does.

Life isn't just called for you to live however you want. You're being motivated here. What is there special about you? Think about it. Our whole life is to be special because our God is special and we are beloved children.