May 14, 2023 - Sunday Service

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood iconAscension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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us into your presence and assure us of your love. We ask these things in Jesus' name.
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Please stand. This is the call to worship.
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O come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
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Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with songs.
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For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth, the strength of the hills is his also.
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The sea is his, and he made it in his hands formed the dry land.
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O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the
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Lord, our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
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Amen. Amen. Please pray with me now. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your people have gathered in your house in your name.
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And we ask that you would grant your presence and the effectual working of your spirit in our hearts that Christ would be exalted and your people nourished and built up in the faith.
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And we ask, O Lord, that our feeble attempts of worship would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight through the glorious merits of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. Please kneel if you're able for the corporate confession of sin.
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Let us join together with one voice confessing our sin. Lord Jesus, I have sinned times without number and been guilty of pride and unbelief and of neglect to seek you in my daily life.
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My sins and shortcomings present me with a list of accusations.
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But I thank you that they must stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ.
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Deliver me from every evil habit, every interest of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of your grace in me, everything that prevents me from taking delight in you.
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Amen. Please stand. You are wretched sinners. But you have a
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Savior who is greater than your wretchedness. People of God with joy receive the assurance of pardon.
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God, who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, he has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities.
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For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy for those who fear him.
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As far as the east is from the west, so far he removed our transgressions from us.
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O people of God, in Christ your sins are forgiven. Amen. Amen.
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It's appropriate now that we sing hymn number 297. All hail the power of Jesus' name.
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Corporate worship should be zealous and heartfelt. Sing at the top of your lungs, regardless of your perceived ability.
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297. Abideth a priest.
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Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
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And verily, they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes for the people of Choribor, that is, of their brethren.
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Although they come out of the loins of Abraham, but he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that hath promises.
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And without all contradiction, the less is blessed the better. And here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
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And as I may say so, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, pay tithes in Abraham.
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For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek messeth. If therefore perfection were by the political priesthood, for under it the people receive the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
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For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
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For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another trial, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
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For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
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And it is yet far more evident, for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest, who is made not after the law of a clerical amendment, but after the power of an endless life.
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For he testifieth, and thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
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For there is verily a disemboweling of the commandment, going before the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
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For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto
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God, and insomuch as not without an oath, priest.
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For those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath, by him that said unto him,
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The Lord swore and will not repent, thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
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By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue, by reason of death.
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But this man, because he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto
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God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
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For such a high priest became us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's.
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For this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which was since the law maketh the
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Son, who is consecrated forevermore. Let us continue our worship through the singing of the
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Apostles' Creed. May it live in peace and quietness, through the merits of Jesus Christ, our
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Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever.
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Amen. For the Church of Jesus Christ, that it may be filled with truth and love, and be found without fault at the day of your coming, we pray to you,
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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Pray for all ministers, missionaries, and the mission of the
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Church, that in faithful witness the Gospel may be preached, we pray to you,
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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Pray for those in positions of public trust, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person, in this we pray to you,
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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Pray for the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected, we pray to you,
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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers.
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Pray for this congregation, for those who are present, and for those who are absent, that we may be delivered from hardness of heart and show forth your glory in all that we do, we pray to you,
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O Lord. Lord, hear our prayers. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for Ascension this morning, that you would cleanse us in Christ today, that you deliver us from our hardness of heart, that you purify us from sin.
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I pray for our denomination this week, as nationwide our elders gather and labor over the governance of our denomination.
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I pray we can be with all of them, and that their labors bear fruit.
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I pray, God, today, that your Spirit will come upon us, and that we'll be led to glorify
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Christ's name in all that we do and say. In Christ's name I pray, amen. Amen. Please stand and take up our insert for the
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Psalm of the Month. Psalm 24. The husband is head of the wife, so Christ is head of the church, and he is the
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Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
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Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spots or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
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So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as the
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Lord does the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
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For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
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This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
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Nevertheless, let each one of you, in particular, so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you, O Lord, for your word.
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We thank you, Father, that we have not only your word in our own language, but one to which we can read and understand.
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We thank you, Father, that when we study your word, that when we truly consider it, that when we look at it to mind its depths, that you speak to us.
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And we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would speak to us now as we consider this passage from Scripture. And we ask these things in your name,
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Lord Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. Before we consider our text,
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I want to just touch on something that the apostle Paul said to whom he referred to as his true son in the faith,
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Timothy. And nearing the end of his life, he wrote this letter, which we now have as 2
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Timothy. In the fourth chapter of this letter, Paul wrote these words. I charge you, therefore, before God and the
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Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead in his appearing and in his kingdom.
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Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long -suffering and teaching.
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For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will keep up for themselves teaching, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.
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But you be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions.
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Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. Paul's encouragement, or, it's actually much stronger than that, his charge under the judgment of Christ was to preach the word.
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He implored them that he should preach the word in season and out of season.
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But when is the word of God ever out of season? I believe that the truth of God is always profitable and always in season.
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But I think in these verses, Paul is bringing out that some truths contained in God's word are more readily apparent at different times than others.
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And I think we have such a time here today. But we all also must keep in mind the warning that Paul gave to Timothy, that there will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will keep up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned to fables.
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I believe that we're living in such a time that this is playing out before our very eyes, that we have men who will not endure sound doctrine, but they're turning to their own desires, that they have itching ears, and they've gone after fables.
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They have heaped up teachers for themselves to say, it's okay, do what you want.
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They turn their ears from the truth. And because of this, we see the culture disintegrating before our very eyes.
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We have come to what the book of Judges tells us about. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
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We see men and women set adrift. We see chaos.
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No one knows up from down, left from right, right from wrong, and boy from girl.
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Today's sages, today's wise men, today's guides have turned out to be blind leaders of the blind.
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There is no truth in them. In fact, they say there is no truth at all. They are like those who
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Isaiah warned us about in Isaiah 8, 19 and 20. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their
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God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
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We are told to go to mediums and wizards of our age. We are told to go and seek wisdom from them.
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They whisper and they mutter, and they spew their filthy saliva, hoping to deceive the people.
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But they are incapable of telling the truth. Why? Because they speak not according to this word.
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To the law and to the testimony is our charge and our call.
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They do not speak according to this word, therefore there is no light in them. They have no sense.
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They have no understanding. In them is darkness, nothing but darkness. But this is not true for us, the covenant community.
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We have God's word. Christians for many centuries were called the people of the book.
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God has given us his word to guide us. We have the law and the testimony.
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We have the very word of God. Our confession of faith tells us that in chapter 1, section 6, that the whole counsel of God concerning what is necessary for His glory, for man's salvation, for faith and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the
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Spirit or traditions of men. We might add, and also at no time should anything be removed, added or removed.
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And we would readily agree that the Bible is sufficient for the big things in man's life, how to glorify
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God, how to be saved, what does faith look like. But this little word, life, it contains everything that is necessary for life.
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How we live our lives in this world that God created is expressly set down in Scripture, and I love this language, or by good and necessary consequence can be deduced from Scripture.
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Everything we need to know about how to live in this world is contained in Scripture.
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What we used to say that Scripture is the rule and guide for our lives. Well, what about for social order?
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What about for the civic order? What about for our culture? Does the
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Bible provide us a breakdown of how we should live and form a godly society?
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Well, I think the answer to that is not only a yes, but a resounding yes. The answer may not be what we think.
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There is no express breakdown of how to build a society. Step one, do this.
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Step two, do that. But I believe that the Word of God contains all of the information and that the foundation for this godly society is contained right here in the words that we looked at today.
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So why would we look at this today? What brought this to our attention? Well, simply put, a member of our congregation got married on Friday.
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And naturally, our minds may have drifted to the wedding. And when we think of wedding, it's the gateway to marriage.
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And the current of men's minds or the current of the congregation's minds or at least the current of my mind went to these particular verses.
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And this topic is very important to us today. The book of Ephesians is one of my favorite books in the
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New Testament. It contains many great and wonderful truths.
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And unfortunately, time does not allow for us to dig into this book in greater detail. However, Paul lays out many great and glorious things.
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He gives us the facts about our faith and then tells us if these things be true, therefore, do this.
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And the section to which we have read today is the section where Paul tells us these things go and do.
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This is the great teaching of the family. And as we've just witnessed, a wedding, that was the start of a new family.
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And these verses may have been on the mind of the husband and wife when they poured this, but it should be on our minds, especially those of us here today who are married, those of us who wish to be married, and those of us who will be married.
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I believe it is the call of every man's life that he be married. For it is not good for man to be alone.
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There are a handful, a precious handful, who have the gift of singleness. But I think it is good for man to be married.
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And when we consider what is the social order, or what is contained in the social order, you may ask yourselves, what do we mean by that?
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Back in Genesis 1, we have what many people call the dominion mandate, or the cultural mandate.
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In chapter 1, verses 26 -28, God said this, Then God said,
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Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
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Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply.
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Fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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Not only is this a command for us to have dominion, and maybe we could say in shorthand that there was a garden planted in Eden, and God told them to go and make the rest of the world like the garden.
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Bring order out of chaos. But not only is this a command for them to go forth and have dominion, to go forth and subdue the earth, he also gave them the means by which to do that.
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He said, This is how you will go and do it. Be fruitful and multiply.
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By families, husbands and wives, and children. Again, what do
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I mean by social order? Well, you may immediately start to think of government. And I think that's good.
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I think that's a good and biblical thing for us to think about. Why? For unto us a child is born.
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Unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulders. And the increase of that government, there will be no end.
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We worship the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
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And that immediately should make us think of government. But throughout church history, we've all been told that there are three spheres of government.
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Three ways to which God has worked out his ordering of his created order.
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It are the family, the church, and the state. These each overlap with one another.
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The family is the foundation. It contains individuals that make up both members of church and state.
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The church contains families. In some way, it's a family of families. Likewise, the state is made up of families, each having their own domain and authority.
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The family's domain includes education, healthcare, care for extended family, parents as they get old, housing, and providing for the needs of the family.
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The church's domain is over the preaching of the word of God, the proclamation of the gospel, the ordinances, the administration of the ordinances of baptism, and the
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Lord's Supper, for instruction in righteousness both to families and the state.
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It is the pillar and buttress of the truth. The state's dominion and domain is much smaller.
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It is the administration of justice and the punishing of evil and the promoting of what is good.
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All these build upon the foundation of the family. The marriage, the relationship between husband and wife as it reflects the image of Christ and the church.
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Psalm 11 3 says this, If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
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As I mentioned, we have seen in our society and in the culture today, we can see the unraveling of our culture where there's utter chaos.
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It is no wonder that the enemies of God are focused upon the family, and we'll talk a great deal about that family.
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But when the family is attacked, when husbands and wives are attacked, there are ramifications, there are ripple effects that can be seen.
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In the church, let us just call attention to one thing. We must remember that one of the qualifications given to us by Paul in 1
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Timothy and also in Titus, that the man would be blameless, the husband of one wife having his children in submission with all reverence.
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And then parenthetically in Timothy says, for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?
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Now we should not think of blameless as being sinless or perfect, or rather not open to any, or rather not open to an open charge or a public charge for rebuke.
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But look at what the number one qualification for blamelessness was, the husband of one wife.
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The importance of the family and marriage relationship and the life of the church cannot be overstated.
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For it says, Paul said, if a man does not know how to rule his house, how will he take care of the church?
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But we must remember and acknowledge that this may be one of the most ignored qualifications for the pastorate in the church in the
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United States today. Husbands loving their wives in imitation of Christ, loving their wife by loving their children and teaching and instructing them, is
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THE qualification for an elder. In the state, the ripple effects will be this, if the church does not have qualified men, if the family does not have husbands loving their wife as Christ loved the church, and does not have wives submitting to and respecting their husbands, the state cannot protect good and punish evil.
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In fact, the state has no idea what good and evil would be because they learned that from the church.
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They will assume the role of husband seeking to provide for the single women and unprotected women.
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Why? Because they won't know what boundaries there are. Similarly, they will assume the role of father, seeking to educate and provide for the children, but they will also seek to be the pillar and buttress of the truth, defining what is moral, what is right and what is wrong, and then defining what justice looks like.
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And that is where we find ourselves today. These verses that we have considered and which we will dive into now, are the foundations of what
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I believe are the social order. I believe what Paul is writing here is a recapitulation of what we read from Genesis, that he is giving details on how to build a godly culture.
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So let us take a look at our verses. We'll take first a look at verses 22 through 24.
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Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also
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Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
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Those set of verses may be so obnoxious to the modern Christian, especially those
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Christians in the United States, and this verse right here. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the
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Lord. Much mischief has been done with these verses. Much expositional gymnastics have been entered into to make these verses more palatable to the modern reader.
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But the fact remains, Paul opens this section with these very words.
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Wives, submit to your husbands, to your own husbands, as to the
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Lord. I mentioned that this is in the imperatives section of Paul's letter.
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What are imperatives? We use that term quite a lot. Well, I can tell you what they're not.
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They're not suggestions. They're not advice. They're commands. And here,
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Paul is giving a command. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the
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Lord. A word study will not help if you're interested in getting out that way. The word in Greek, translated, rather, submit, means to subjugate and to obey.
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There is little ambiguity in the word and in the intent of it.
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Some will say that it might be related to the verse just before it. So let us take a look at that verse just entering.
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Verse 21. Submitting to one another in the fear of God.
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This part of the gymnastics that men will go through, that expositional game of twister that they go into, will try to pull this out as mutual subjection.
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Well, that would be extremely hard to do. How can one submit to each other in any real and profitable way if there are no definitions or no standards to go by?
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The attempt to remove the idea of submission by undercutting it fails here, too, for that verse, properly understood, is more akin to what
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Paul says elsewhere, giving honor to whom honor is due. And this section then starts several parts where Paul goes and talks about a hierarchical submission, or an all -inclusive hierarchy of submission.
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He'll talk about citizens submitting to the civil magistrate, church members to the elders, children to parents, slaves to masters, and wives to their husbands.
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Let's take a look at what that actually means. When Paul says wives, submit to your own husbands as to the
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Lord, what does that mean? Well, submission lies in honor and reverence and respect.
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What does it look like? Well, wives should speak well of their husbands.
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They should speak respectfully of them and to them. That the wives should care for the family affairs according to the husband's direction.
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Think about the Proverbs 31 woman for a moment. As wonderfully and gloriously capable as she is, manufacturing, marketing, entering into real estate, having her children well in line.
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These were all according to the direction of her husband. She should, that is the wife, should accept the good and bear up with those things that are not agreeable to her.
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She should abide with him in good times and in bad and do nothing without his will or his consent.
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This submission is only owed to her own husband. This is not a call to universal submission of all women to all men.
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Thanks be to God for that. It is not due to any other man. It's not due to her children.
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It's not due to any of those who serve her or that she may be in the employ of.
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It is due to her husband and him alone. This lines up Paul tells us elsewhere with the created order.
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For woman was made after man. For woman was made from man and she was made for man.
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Perhaps most important, as Paul gives us in Titus 2 .5 that a woman should be submissive to her husband that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
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But know also that this submission is to be as to the
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Lord. This may mean several things. It may mean as commanded by the
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Lord or in the sight of the Lord or in things pertaining to the Lord or according to the law of the
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Lord. But our next verse clears that up. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body.
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Christ is the savior and redeemer of the church. He is not the savior of our body only but the body, you all, the body of Christ.
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In Ephesians 1 .7 Paul wrote, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
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He is one salvation for the church and every member of the church partakes in it.
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But Paul also noted that God the Father placed Christ at the head of the church in chapter 1 verses 22 and 23.
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And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all.
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Christ provides for, protects, preserves the church as the head.
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The submission is further clarified in verse 24. Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
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The church is completely dependent on Christ for provision, protection, comfort, happiness, peace and prosperity.
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And so must the wife be on her own husband. The church has respect for and submits to all of Christ's commands.
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Loving his precepts and his laws, cheerfully obeys them out of love for their living head and Savior.
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And so must the wife do with her husband. Well, some may raise an objection here as many have.
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We'll touch on it briefly and then rush it aside. Some may object. Oh, wait a minute.
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What if my husband is not Christ -like in character? What if he is asking the wife to break the law, like let's go knock over a liquor store?
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Or what if he is asking his wife to sin in some gross way?
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Should she still obey him? Well, Paul did leave an objection open here and he clarifies it in the very next set of verses, which will now turn to verses 25 -27.
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Paul now speaks to the husband. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
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Oftentimes when we look at that first section, wives, submit to your husbands, there's a thought of a unilateral relationship.
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But here, Paul says it's bi -directional. Husbands have something to do here, too.
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And that is to love their wives as Christ loved the church.
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I believe this is the hinge to the whole section. I believe this is the hinge to the whole idea of building a
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Christian culture. That this verse, verse 25 specifically, is where it all hangs or falls.
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That the husband is not to lead in any other manner than to be like Christ in his faith.
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Well, immediately we should probably ask the question, how does Christ love the church?
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Well, one, he takes real pleasure in the church. In Hebrews 12, two, we read, for who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.
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Have you ever read that and thought, well, the joy that is set before him is the glory that he has with the
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Father. But he already has that. That was not the joy that was set before him.
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The joy that was set before him is you, the people of God.
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That was the joy. He takes real pleasure even to the point of dying on the cross, despising the shame.
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The church is the apple of his eye. He shows respect and honor to the church through his provision for the church.
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Have you ever thought of providing for your wife as a way of showing love and honor and respect for her?
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Well, Jesus does and provides for us, his church, for their contentment, for our prosperity, for our peace, and for all our needs.
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Christ loves the church also by his protection of the church from the enemies without and false teachers within, correcting its faults, providing for the love and unity of the church.
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Christ's love for the church is signal and chase.
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Christ does not have brides. He has a bride.
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And his bride he purchased with his own blood. The church is
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Christ's bride by covenant. That is how
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Christ shows love for the church. And so should the husband love his own wife, to seek her good and contentment, to provide for all her needs, to seek for her prosperity, to be signal in his affections and chase towards her, but also to correct and teach, to love and cherish.
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For she is his bride by covenant. Paul continues that he may sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word.
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Due to our pollution from original sin and our actual transgression, we are in need of cleansing from pollution and corruption and sin.
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Christ gave himself the church. The church would have not only that Christ not only gave the church redemption, but also cleansed her from the guilt and corruption of sin.
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Christ delivered the church by making atonement for her, by bringing the words of the gospel, the good news, the glad tidings of peace and pardon and atonement and justification.
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When we think of the cleansing that we get from Christ, we may think of that old hymn,
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There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
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Paul continues that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
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This is our present reality and our future. It is the already and not yet.
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We have been gone from being red like scarlet to being white like wool. This is the great and glorious sight that John saw in Revelation 21.
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Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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And we have this tradition in every wedding today. There is a time when the doors at the back of the church fly open, and the bride, adorned in white, stands there spotless and comes forward.
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This is the picture that we should get here. And that's something that is simply breathtaking to us.
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That we can rejoice that the Lord has made this for us. That that is us that he's talking about.
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Or as we just sang in Psalm 24, for those are the generation of Jacob, and that we may ascend unto the mouth of the
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Lord. But how can husbands love their wives this way?
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Well, we can't. We cannot die for the various vicarious redemption of our wives, but we can emulate it.
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We can imitate it. We can love our wives sacrificially.
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The word translated in verse 25, love, is what we have in English, agape.
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That sacrificial love, that willingness love, that intentional love toward the object of its love.
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But how do we do it? How do we love sacrificially? I believe
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Paul gives us the answer right in that verse. As Christ also loved the church back in verse 25, and gave himself for her.
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You, husbands, future husbands, give yourself to your wife.
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Sacrifice your needs and wants for the benefit of your wife, providing for her and protecting her.
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Wash her in the water of the Word. Lead your wives in the worship of God in the home as well as in the public worship.
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You can disciple your wife, teaching her the things of God.
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You can catechize your wife so that she can grasp and know the things which are to be believed.
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And just as we are involved in our own sanctification, working out our salvation in fear and trembling, so it is with our wives.
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We are to be diligent in their sanctification as we are in our own.
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We are to see to it that they are growing in holiness. And I think there's something else that's not contained in our book.
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It's in the next chapter over. There's something else Paul gives here that ties back to Genesis and the dominion mandate.
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And Paul notes that we can show our love for our wife by loving the children that our wives bear.
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Husbands can display the love for their wife by the care and protection of her children.
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Remember, this is one of the main reasons for marriage. There are all sorts of reasons that people will bring up.
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Companionship, mutual affection, and so forth. But Genesis is quite clear that they were to be fruitful and multiply.
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Malachi 2 .15 asks the question, why did he make the two one? Why did he make male and female into one flesh?
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For God the offspring. The primary task of the husband and the father in showing love for his wife in this manner, raising the children, is captured in Ephesians 6 .4.
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And you fathers, do not provoke your children to the wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the
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Lord. That word translated for us as training is the word
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Hodea. And that word means something.
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It would have meant something to these Ephesians. Training doesn't mean a whole lot to us. We go to training all the time, don't we?
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When we work, we go to training on how to do something different. We might get training on how to run a chainsaw or something along those lines.
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But that's not what this means. This means something different.
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To the first century Greek, this word meant to train the child to be a productive citizen of the polis, of the political realm.
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It was nothing short of enculturation, teaching them to be
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Christians and to build a Christian society by raising them as God and the offspring, by washing them in the water of the world.
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And we have this even in our own prayers to the people. We pray these prayers. We ask your prayers for our children and future generations which will be born to them, praying that the knowledge of the
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Lord will fill the earth through them. This is how the Great Commission, one of the ways in which the
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Great Commission is built, but it is the way the Dominion of Man is built. I think they're closely related.
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The other side of the coin, so to speak. But also, we can love our lives by being imitators of Christ, being a living example.
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This goes to that sacrificial love. We can imitate God the Father by walking in the love of Christ.
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The command was given in this chapter 2, Ephesians 5, 1 and 2.
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Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us.
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An offering and a sacrifice to God. I believe that these are related simply because we have the same and given himself and gave himself.
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That our lives should be lived in such a way, loving our lives, that it would be a sweet aroma.
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Now, this may call our minds to Romans 12, where we are commanded to give our lives as a living sacrifice.
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And that word, living sacrifice, is referring to the whole burnt offering. Husbands, our lives should be lived in such a way that our wives will smell that sweet aroma of sacrificial love emulating the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But I'd like to add a practical note here. In my time, and maybe you've heard this too, that there will be many husbands that say, well,
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I give my family quality time. That they are able to say whatever time
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I can give them is of such high quality that it's beneficial to them.
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I have never been able to pull that off myself. So I've taken a different tact.
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And that's called quantity time. Give of your time, all of it, to your family and to your wife.
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The quality will show up. We're going to do something that we might see as a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6.
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When we get up and when we lie down. When we spend our time with our family and our wives. When we get up and when we lie down.
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When we go out and when we come in. When we walk in the way or sit in our home.
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Therefore, and if we do this, we will always be giving ourselves to our wives. Now moving on to verses 28 -32.
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So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
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For one, no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the
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Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, his flesh, and his bone.
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For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
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This is a great mystery that I see concerning Christ and the church. Paul is giving additional instruction here to fathers and husbands.
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He's saying, love your own wives as your own bodies. If you need an additional reason, if you need something else to work on, he says, love your wife as your own body.
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And this makes sense to us, right? Because we know that when a man and a wife are joined together, there aren't two separate bodies, although it appears that they are one flesh.
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There was a Jewish precept at the time of Paul that a man should honor his wife as his own body.
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For no one ever hated his own flesh, Paul writes, but nourishes and cherishes it.
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Think about how unnatural that is to hate your own flesh, to ignore it, and to not care for or feed it.
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It would be contrary to one of the very principles of nature, self -preservation.
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One always seeks to clothe and feed the body, care for it, not to present it to danger, but rather to protect it.
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In the same way, so husbands should look at their wives and protect their wives as they do themselves.
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But then Paul adds, just as the Lord does the Church, in the exact way as Christ has done, is doing, and will do for the
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Church. And remember this, Christ never hated his Church. No, rather, he died for her.
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He paid the bride price in his blood. He may hate the actions of the
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Church, he may mourn its unfaithfulness, he may even chastise it, but he does not hate it.
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For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. He is the head of this mystical body, the
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Church, and we are living members of that body. We have sweet spiritual communion with him, our head, but it is more than spiritual.
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Where it says here, we are his flesh, his bones. What does that mean?
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Oh, we'll deal with that in just a moment. For this reason, Paul says, a man shall be his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
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This is cited from Genesis 2 and harkens back to that dominion mandate. We might call this the law of marriage.
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This verse combined with those verses that have gone before provides the mysterious fact that a man and wife are one flesh, one body, and a manner of speaking.
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But Paul says that this is a great mystery. So the explanation is, I don't know.
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The secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children.
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And this is one of those things. This is a reality that goes unexplained and we'll just accept the
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Lord at this point. This is a great mystery. The great mystery of a husband and a wife being of one flesh, but then
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Paul says that I speak concerning Christ in the church.
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All this time, Paul has been talking about husbands and wives. He's been linking it back to Christ in the church.
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So when we think about the outworking of what we need to do in this life, and living our ordinary lives as husbands and wives, we're doing the work of Christ.
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Every Christian marriage, every covenant marriage, shows the picture of Christ in the church.
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Well, really, every marriage. It's either a true picture or it's a false picture.
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But it is never a non -picture. This brings us to our last verse. Nevertheless, let each one of you, in particular, so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Paul closes this section by restating what he has already said. This is my reason of emphasis to reinforce the point.
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We know that many times Paul will say something over again to reinforce the point.
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In our lives, we get people, don't repeat yourself, don't say it over again. But the apostle says that, our
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Lord says it, and so we will say it here, that we must repeat ourselves.
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We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught. Paul emphasizes the point.
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There are mutual duties owed by husbands and wives. They are underscored by the picture of what it means to be in relationship with Christ and his church.
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The husband is to love his own wife as himself. They are one flesh, united, just as Christ is united with the church.
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And the wife is to respect her own husband. Think about this for a moment. God always commands us to our weakness.
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Men's weakness will be to show that love to their wives. And the wives' weakness will be to show respect and submission to their husbands.
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We shouldn't be surprised. We have before us in Genesis chapter 3, the fall, where Adam spectacularly failed to love his wife, to protect her.
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And Eve spectacularly disrespected her husband. And, as much as we've been redeemed, some things remain the same.
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But the wife should respect her husband. He has left his father and his mother for her.
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He is her head. He is committed to sacrifice for her. He represents
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Christ. The word in Greek that is translated in this verse as respect means reverence, awe, fear.
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It underscores the gravity of it. As we close this section, the respect for her husband is like unto the fear of the
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Lord. Well, as I had said, I think this is the building block for the foundation for a social order.
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Sometimes, as Christians, we forget that we're supposed to actually go forth and create a
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Christian culture. That we're not just supposed to live our lives in our own personal family, in our own local congregation, in such a way as it benefits us.
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I think this might be because we've been told over and over and over again that our faith is a personal matter.
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That is simply untrue. Our faith is not a personal matter.
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It's not something that we add to ourselves. It is who we are.
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And so Paul here lays out for us how we may begin to build a
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Christian culture. The cardinal point, the point that is the hinge and the foundation, as I've said, is husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church.
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That foundation spreads to the children. Remember the paella, the enculturation, giving them the next step to go forth and to do.
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That enculturation, that training in fear and admonition of the Lord is the establishment of a well -ordered home.
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It extends to the church. We will have properly qualified elders. We will have men executing for the bride of Christ the duties of a loving, teaching, discipling church as his own wife, caring for the covenant children of the church.
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But more importantly, perhaps in our day, with the overreach of our government, we'll return the state back to promoting the good and punishing evil, promoting the peace and prosperity of the nation as a nursing father and a loving husband, allowing for the church to wash the culture, the nation, with the water of the word.
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Think back to the Great Commission. What were we commanded to do?
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
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What do you call a discipled nation? A Christian nation. How are we to build this?
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Do we wish to build a Christian culture? Do we want to recover our culture?
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Do we want to recover our families? Do we want to see reformation in the church? Do we wish to see our government put back in its job of punishing the evil and promoting the good?
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We can talk about many, many ways to do that, but we must remember that Paul has also told us elsewhere that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, empowered to the pulling down of strongholds.
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Where shall we start? Right here. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved his church and gave himself for her.
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And wives, submit to your own husbands. Our gracious God and Father, we have considered many things here this morning and we know,
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Lord, if we were to rely on our own strength that our striving would be losing. We ask you, dear
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Father, to give us the strength to do these very simple but not easy things.
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To give us your grace to love our wives, to teach our sons to love their future wives.
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For our wives to submit their husbands, to teach their daughters what submission looks like as to the
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Lord. But Father, we also pray for the men and women here who are not married that they would heed your call and get married.
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And Father, that you would make them fruitful and multiply. And that your kingdom would be spread throughout the world through their children.
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And Father, we ask all these things in the name of that great husband, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask it for his bride, the church. We pray in his name.
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Amen. Amen. Please let us now continue our worship through the presentation of our tithes and offerings.
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Please stand and let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you,
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O Lord, that you have been generous to us. That you have given us every good and perfect gift.
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That you have redeemed us from sin and death.
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And Father, that you have provided for all our needs. And we thank you,
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Lord, for this time in the worship service. That we can give back to you for the service of your church, or give back to your church for the service a bit of what you have given us.
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We pray, Father, that those who receive it would use it wisely for the furtherance of this local congregation, the gospel in this city, and in this land.
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We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Amen. Let us now glorify our great and glorious God through the singing of the glory of God.
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Let us give thanks to the
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Lord. It is good and right so to do. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should, at all times and in all places, give thanks to you,
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O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God, because you sent your beloved
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Son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his authority.
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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.
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And the effectual working of your spirit in us, and so to sanctify these elements both of bread and water, and to bless your own ordinance, that we may receive by faith the body and blood of Jesus Christ, crucified for us, and so to feed upon him, that he may be one with us, and we one with him, that he may live in us, and we in him, and for him who has loved us and given himself for us.
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And we pray this in his name. Amen. The night in which our
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Lord was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
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Hey, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Likewise, after supper, he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he said,
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Drink this, all of you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
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As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
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Lord's death until he comes. Therefore we proclaim the faith. Christ has died.
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Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Let us pray together as we approach the table.
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We do not presume to come to this Lord's table, but to worship the
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Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.
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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same
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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,
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Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.
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Amen. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the gifts of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to the Lord. We are living members of the body of your
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Son, and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.
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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our
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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit be the honor and glory now and forever.