Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Ephesians

Offense and the Wedding

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Ephesians 5-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 20, 1996.

About this sermon

Ephesians 5:22’s instruction to wives offends modern ears, and the text makes no effort to soften it. Genesis 2 gives the older pattern, in which God made woman, in a real sense, for the wedding itself. Depravity on both sides ruins marriage, and both a husband’s love and a wife’s submission rest finally in Christ.

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Sermon transcript

Genesis 2, verse 18, this is the word of God. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found, and help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept.

And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. and the rib which the Lord God hath taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

Submit yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives. even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery that I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Father, if we are to speak about submission and love, we know that we must speak about the submission and love of Christ, which is the fountain for our obedience. Lord, help us to see these matters well and clearly. in light of his obedience and what that means for us. Father, even as we approach your word, may it be with the submission and the love of Christ. May we have submission to your word and a love for it. Bless us, O God, even as you are pleased to glorify yourself in us. Amen.

Now, we must do away with the notion that the only reason Paul wrote what he did in Ephesians 5 and 6 is because the society in which he lived was able and willing to accept it. We must do away with the notion that the only reason Paul wrote what he did in Ephesians 5 and 6 is because the society in which he lived was willing to accept what he had to say. Some in the Church are now contending that that society in which Paul lived, unlike our own, tolerated and even expected statements like, wives, be subject to your own husbands. We, of course, being the moderns that we are, not only cannot but must not live by such standards.

Such is the mantra of modern liberal fundamentalism. Yes, you heard me correctly. Modern liberal fundamentalism. I know fundamentalism is usually that term we reserve for those backwater people, those ignorant bumpkins who know nothing, who live only by their prejudices, who are not impressed by historical research or responsible reasoning. But I am bold to declare to you that there is a liberal fundamentalism that is fiercely prejudicial and impervious to all genuine historical research and responsible reasoning. Don’t let them call you the fundamentalists. The truth of the matter is that Paul’s words were no more popular in the first century than they are in the twentieth.

That’s why he wrote them. He wrote them because women in the Church of Ephesus, and women in other churches to which even this letter came, needed to hear them. just as surely as women continue to need to hear them until Christ comes again. But to suggest such a thing also suggests that Paul is laying bare here a nerve aggravated in the most basic way when it comes to the condition and composition of women as such.

We are dealing with a threat to women as ancient to her as the Garden of Eden. Consider Eve in her original estate. She is literally created for the purpose of being a bride. Think of it. Eve was created having never known a moment when she wasn’t a wife. Her first conscious moments are of her presentation to her husband. From the beginning, then, women and weddings belong wonderfully together.

Now, the habit of this sinfully cynical world, especially sinfully cynical males, is to mock and scoff at the genuine, legitimate emotion women demonstrate over the subject of weddings. But such emotion belongs to woman rightly. and it rises from the very center of her being. She need not apologize for it, she need not be ashamed of it, since it belongs to her very soul.

Still, This is a sinful world in which we live, one in which women, even in the propriety of their joy about weddings, can be subverted through their own depravity. That which was to the woman originally a superlative joy and a glory, can actually become an occasion for stumbling. And so severe is the seduction here, to which her soul can be subject that she may deny any connection to the joy in which she was originally created. She may generate from within herself even a hatred, a self-hatred, a hatred for what testimony yet remains in her with regard to her original state. She may even hold in contempt God’s ordinance, marriage itself, and if married, whatever suggests within that union, her husband’s rightful place of headship. Or, in this sinful world, her depravity may take another turn. Sin twists things so much that rather than rebelling against God’s creation ordinance—marriage, women may wrongly latch on to that creation ordinance, making of it something far removed from God’s intention.

You see, a woman may take this God-ordained bond between herself and weddings, and make marriage in all of its extended domain her own peculiar property, her own unique province, her private estate. She may, by her own methods, selfishly rule her domestic empire with a certain kind of ruthless possessiveness. Tragically, in some cases, she may actually view her husband utilitarianly, tolerated only because he is useful in the interests of the empire. Children, as products of her husband’s usefulness, belong to her. And in the extremities of this sinful reasoning, these children may even be judged while they yet remain in her womb to be subject to her whim, and to her decision as to whether they will live or die.

Sin is serious business. It takes lives. In the face of the many facets of human sinfulness, the very sinfulness facing Christian women at Ephesus and Christian women in Pittsburgh, Paul says these words, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands in the Lord.

But now I want you to remember the force of those last words, in the Lord. Paul means by those words, in the Lord, a submission to the husband which compares to the submission the church renders to her Lord, Jesus Christ himself. Here is the pattern, here is the paradigm for the wife’s submission, as verses 23 and 24 in Ephesians 5 make very clear. But these words, in the Lord, say more.

They also introduce a limit to that obedience and that submission the woman owes to her husband. Her obedience and her submission is in the law. This phrase even delimiting and circumscribing the words in everything that appear at the end of verse 24 that are set in parallel in this context. Her obedience in the Lord, her submission in the Lord delimits and circumscribes even those words in everything that appear later on in verse 24. In other words, Paul’s command that she obey and submit herself to her husband does not call her to disobey her Lord. and the expression of her Lord’s will for her life as revealed in his word.

Let me give you an example. Should a Christian woman obey her husband when he tells her she must have an abortion? Let’s go a step further. Should a Christian woman obey her husband when he says, I forbid you to go to church? Many women have used less than excuse. But I hope that none of you will ever use that one.

For obedience is in and to the Lord. But further, these words in the Lord specify the submission itself. These words, in the Lord, specifically refer to the submission itself. In other words, she submits in the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Lord Jesus, whose own submission in becoming the Savior of the body has meant her salvation. A salvation in which His perfect submission becomes the submission by grace in which and from which she lives. This magnifies grace. The submission commanded is not found within her, in her natural condition. It is found in Christ. and in the grace that resides in him.

But as you well know, we have only covered half the story, thus the very long sermon this morning. For Cal goes on to say, Husbands, love your wives. But here we can follow the very same line that we followed with the women. For men are just as much in need of this message from Paul, be they living in Pittsburgh now or in Ephesus in the first century, and they shall be in need of it until Christ returns. So much is this the case that Paul’s instruction here strikes deeply into the condition and composition of men as such. Paul’s admonition and his imperative counters a threat to men as ancient as the Garden of Eden.

Consider Adam in his original state. Think about him. There was a time, and this in contrast to his wife, There was a time when Adam wasn’t married, when he was in the garden by himself. But then, through the action of God, he was no longer alone. He moved through a transition from one estate to another. He moved, as it were, from what we might call one world to another. After the creation of his wife, nothing would ever again be the same.

But you might also have noticed in this transition that it is a transition effected through a death-like sleep for Adam, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, Genesis 2.21.

Even in the garden, the death to one world that another world might be beheld is proclaimed. Even in the garden, the death of self that Adam might awaken to a greater and higher blessing is proclaimed. All of this symbolically communicated and telegraphed to you in Genesis chapter 2. Even the death of self that another might be brought to life, is being proclaimed. All that is in view here is directly attacked in this fallen world. It is attacked by Satan, to whom Adam succumbs.

Adam was moved by God in his innocence. even here, prior to the fall, to his greater and higher destiny as symbolized in his wife. But now, in their fallen condition, Adam’s male descendants may despise their destiny and express that contempt by their hatred for something as common as the ordinance of marriage itself. and in marriage, the man may ignore or counterman the divine call to headship. He may prove himself to be more feminine in his relationship to his wife than his wife is in herself. Or he may prove to be an ogre, an overbearing ogre, a dictator and an autocrat. so perverting the true intention of God’s call to headship, so as to standardize that call by his own brutality, his crude insensitivities, and his callous arrogance. Or his depravity may take yet another turn.

For you see, just as the woman in her sin claims for herself her first estate as her own particular personal domain, that the estate of marriage and the home, so the man does the same with regard to his first estate. He claims his first estate when he was independent of the woman as his native domain. He has his own utilitarian views. he’s useful, that I’m independent. And even in marriage, he demands his independence, refusing to be controlled or managed by the constraints of a life in which he is bound to another. He must have his freedom, and he will find any number of ingenious ways to assert his right to that freedom.

He will stay out and he won’t come home. She won’t have any idea where he is. He doesn’t drink because he likes it. He drinks because it’s an expression of his freedom. He prefers the business world. He prefers traveling. He prefers being away from home. He likes it. It’s the world of his freedom. Even in marriage, he demands his independence, refusing to be controlled or managed by the constraints of a life in which he is bound to others. This is what it means to him to be a man.

Now, he may not have bought yet his oversized four-wheel drive vehicle. You know, the ones with the huge wheels. He may not have yet grown all the facial hair his face can carry and allowed the hair to connect between his eyebrows so that he can drive up behind people on the freeway with his headlights on, an inch off their bumper, and stare at them. Oh, that’s real manliness.

That’s what it means to be a man. But you might find him down at Three Rivers Stadium on a Sunday afternoon getting blind-eyed drunk at a tailgate party, acting like an idiot. That’s what it means to be a man. Such people are not men. At best they are boys, seemingly forever surrounding themselves with their fantasies and their toys.

And for the sake of their independence, their toys and their fantasies, they may even walk out of their homes and desert their families to their eternal Do you hear what Paul says in 1 Timothy 5 about the man who refuses to take care of his own household? The lights are coming on.

A man who does not take care of his own household, Paul says, is worse than an unbeliever. Can you imagine worse than an unbeliever? I mean, we’re at the lowest circle of hell now, aren’t we? In a world filled with all these forms of wickedness, Paul says sincerely and bravely to the men of the church, Husbands, love your wives.

He sets before them in a most extensive appeal, as you work your way to the end of the fifth chapter in Ephesians, the rationale for his command. The men to whom he speaks are Christians, and he appeals to them as such. And because they are in the Lord Jesus, it is the Lord Jesus who determines their behavior. The Lord Jesus Christ so loved his wife, the church, that he gave his life for her.”

Not a love, therefore, that denies headship, but accepts it. And in accepting it, acts upon it in giving loving sacrifice. Loving self-sacrifice. Not a love that rationalizes its own profound immaturity by demanding a prized independence that always ensures its freedom.

Rather, this love is perfect in its performance, providing the saving reservoir into the saving reservoir, into which sinful men must be submerged in salvation. That what lies at the root of their primal conscience may be cleansed and healed, that they may be who they were created to be by living in the one who surrendered himself to a sleep-like death, was wounded for the sake of the creation of his wife, was awakened to behold her who is the extension of his own body, who is now his very own flesh. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for her.

And in this, discover who you really are. And wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands in the And in this, discover who you really are. Again, O God, we thank you for the submission of Christ and his love. We thank you, our God, that this submission and love is made available to us, and that whether we are wives or husbands, we might know, O God, the glories of his obedience and his faithfulness. It may well be, O God, that we are single, that we are not married. Yet, Lord, here is a submission that is common to all, and here is a love that belongs to us all, to be shown within the family of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, his very own body. Father, bless us, then, as a submissive and loving family.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

October 20, 1996
Not Antiquated Teachers

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Ephesians 5-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 6, 1996.

About this sermon

Some say Paul and Peter are antiquated teachers whose household instructions the church can safely ignore, and a three-part Reformed response answers them. Distancing the church from what the Bible says is the same move as distancing it from Christ. Paul and Peter speak with apostolic authority, and the church must receive it.

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Sermon transcript

Our scripture reading this morning is, first of all, found in 1 Peter, the third chapter. We begin at verse 1. Listen to the word of God. 1 Peter 3, verse 1. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.

And let not your adornment be external only, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry and putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, in former times, the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. You husbands, likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman, and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.” And then, turning over to Ephesians chapter 5, we are at verse 21.

Ephesians 5.21. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

A supposition held by many in the broad and wide expression of Christ’s Church today is that we Christians in the twentieth century must distance ourselves in some regard from the Apostle Paul. And as you have heard this morning from the Apostle Peter as well.

This supposition declares that we can defend Paul, specifically now in Ephesians 5 verses 22 through 24, only at the expense of our own credibility and our own standing within our culture. Paul, we are told by many, is the champion of an ancient and antiquarian, out-of-date view of society, a view fraught not only with outmoded attitudes, but with unjust and prejudicial practices such practices as work their way into the statements of Scripture itself.

We, therefore, have no choice. We must distance ourselves from Paul. We must make a choice between him and the truth as we have come to see it. for we can no more defend the Apostle Paul in his statements about slaves and masters in Ephesians chapter 6 than we can his statements about wives and husbands in chapter 5.

Paul subscribes, so it is said, after all, to that understanding of society in which there are, in the words of the Westminster standards, quote, superiors, inferiors, or equals. We, of course, in our own time, have come to understand that there are no such things. At least, there ought not to be such things in any society to which we aspire. We therefore cannot support the Apostle Paul, so we are told in his view of culture and society generally. When it comes to marriage, we are to find most abhorrent Paul’s notion that wives are to be submissive to their husbands.

Since we judge that such an attitude, such a notion, betrays the belief, on Paul’s part, the belief of a female of a gender inequality. Such a position is not simply inadequate, so it is stated. Such a position is not simply improperly informed. Such a position is morally reprehensible.

Thus, all truly moral individuals, most particularly the Christian Church, which is to be a beacon of morality in the world in the expression of its collective moral conscience, must declare itself to stand beyond the narrow, provincial, prejudicial, and even iniquitous prescriptions of the Apostle Paul. Some have gone further. Some within the Church have gone further still, for they have become the most radical exponents of an anti-Paul perspective. They say that the Church has no other current, no more relevant task than to stand as the vanguard for social, political, and economic equality. That is her mission. Liberation, then, is more than the cause of God in our time. Liberation itself is God. There is no other God. He is to be identified thoroughly and completely with the liberating process that is at work in society presently.

That liberating process is at work on the Scriptures as well, for these radicals yet in the Church are laboring to the end that the Scriptures themselves would have stripped away from them all the husks of a social mythology resident from a prior era. That the Scriptures would have stripped away from themselves all the husks of an oppressive, patriarchal theology. even to the point of doing away with God the Father. The Nicene Creed which you recited this morning, according to some, is not only inappropriate, it is morally reprehensible. In this activity, then, by which the scriptures themselves are liberated, we are to discover no other message than this kernel of gospel truth within our Bibles.

Liberation is God, and God is liberation. Now, I want to say three things to you this morning in response to this anti-Paul, this anti-scripture perspective that is abroad even in the Church, moving from comments concerning the more radical forms of its expression to a more general problem that relates to its construction, ending with a more positive statement about the gospel itself in relationship to what we find here in Ephesians chapter 5. First of all, I don’t know where all of you are in your thinking, in your reflection upon what is happening philosophically, sociologically, politically in our world. But I plead with you. I plead with you that you at least in historic sense with a sense of historical veracity, recognize the roots of the radical liberation movement at work in our world. Please, don’t be naive. Don’t be ignorant.

Those roots in the first quarter are not from Christian soil. In fact, those roots are out of a decided, outspoken, articulate, anti-Christian ground. They are found most particularly in the enlightenment of the 18th century and its profound, violent, anti-Christian expression, the French Revolution. As Karl Becker has pointed out in his unsurpassed book, The Heavenly City and the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers, the key to the Enlightenment is not simply the idea of autonomy, as defined by the philosopher Immanuel Kant, or the slogan of the French revolutionaries, liberty, equality, and fraternity, but the key to the Enlightenment is the conviction that eternal life in a heavenly city of God, as preached by Jesus, as preached by Paul, as codified by Augustine in his great work, the city of God, must be rejected categorically. It doesn’t exist. There is no such place. Period. You know the next line, I think. Imagine there’s no heaven and there’s no hell. Let us be done then.

So say the anti-gospel, anti-Christian forces of the 18th century. Let us be done once and for all with the superstitious silliness that sets before us the hope of a supernatural heavenly order.” But Becker went on to say that there is an irony in the Enlightenment. and something of a hypocrisy, for you see, the Enlightenment philosophers went on to substitute their own secularized and wholly this-world utopian vision for the hated and dismissible heavenly city of Christian proclamation. The utopian dream began to be taken quite seriously from the 18th century on, and it has moved like a juggernaut through the last two centuries, joining its confidence in science and mathematics to its belief in nature and psychoanalysis, then adding to all of that yet the assurance of political and economic progress—all of this in the interests of a perfectible human society, achievable by us. in our own strength. But another irony intrudes upon the 18th century Enlightenment.

It has to do with Christian reaction to that Enlightenment. for not only have the modern Enlightenment neo-pagans offered to the world their own secularized version of the heavenly city, but many a Christian has felt compelled to seek out answers in response to neo-pagan Enlightenment charges. But the route that they have taken in order to answer those charges has placed them dangerously close to the precipice. if not cast them over the edge.

In an effort to stand up to neo-pagan critics, many a Christian has himself moved onto pagan ground, beginning to accept, receive, as credible, neo-pagan assumptions and convictions. For instance, within the Church began laboring to disprove the criticism rising out of the Enlightenment that the Christian Church has an exploitive view of the natural world, one in line with the biblical message that this world is passing away and is not all that important after all. But in laboring to answer that criticism, some of these Christians have actually embraced the anti-Christian and neo-Pagan conviction that nature is all that there is. Additionally, many Christians have labored to disprove the criticism rising from the that the Christian Church is only and merely an oppressive institution, oppressive to the poor, oppressive to minorities, part oppressive to females and homosexuals. And they have embraced the pagan position on liberation with regard to each and all of these groupings within society.

But such liberation as they now envision Speaking of it as they do from within the context of the Church, from within the walls of the Church itself, such liberation as they envision has as content for its gospel this message of liberation alone. That is its sole substance. Let none of us be so naive or so ignorant. that we fail to see the roots of the radical liberation movement, to understand that they are not found in the biblical gospel, but in a decidedly anti-gospel agenda rising from an unbelieving source. The anti-gospel agenda has become a profound temptation. seducing even many within the church per se. Sadly, in seeking to save their lives in the world, many are losing their lives. And in the process, lost to them is not only interest in the true and only heaven, but an inheritance within it. With all humility, we must continue to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The second thing I wish to say to you this morning has to do with the way we approach our Bibles, particularly as it devolves upon this passage in Ephesians chapter 5.

You see, the unfortunate assumption of far too many is this. We live in a qualitatively different age than the people spoken of in Scripture. Ours is a qualitatively different age than that of the Bible. And because this is true, we are told that we must now apply or accommodate the Bible’s message to our own times in order to fit it into our circumstances. But in doing this, in the process of doing this, We at the same time realize that certain things will have to drop out of the message. Certain things will have to be changed because the situations that we face are different for us in our different and unique age. With regard to Ephesians 5, verses 22 through 24, we face different challenges than did Paul. Truly, the times have changed.

Paul’s abrupt and even inflexible tone no longer sell in our culture, no longer communicate. They may well have been effective in his own day, given the sociological and religious character of the people to whom he wrote. But such tone and such inflexibility, let alone the message that he conveys by them, would hardly be adequately sensitive, adequately nuanced for our own time. In other words, if Paul were writing today, surely he, in communicating to us the word of God relevantly and winsomely, would not use words such as these.

Why? subject yourselves to your own husbands in the Lord.” He would know better. That certainly is not going to score him any points. He would undoubtedly understand, therefore, that such a statement would be highly offensive and a royal turn-off. to many that he was trying to reach.

But what if I were to tell you Paul’s words do in fact have in view our so-called present day and age? What if I were to tell you that there is all sorts of evidence that Ephesians 5 verses 22 through 24 was just as offensive in the first century as it is now declared to be in the 20th. What if I were to tell you that’s exactly why he wrote it? That’s exactly why he wrote it. And what if I were to tell you that from God’s point of view, the times have not changed. They haven’t changed one bit since Paul wrote what he did.

Our time in the Church of Jesus Christ is one time There is one age now in which we all live, we residents in Christ’s Church and in the Kingdom of God, one age according to the plan of God, that age and time between Christ’s first coming and his second. Therefore, whatever is said in the first is equally relevant to the twentieth century. For this time, this age in which we live, God has given his one sufficient word, which has in view all the situations and circumstances we, as the people of God, will face until Christ comes again. In this time, marriage will continue to be assaulted in the first as well as in the twentieth century.

And wives within marriage will continue to be confronted with the commands of God in their relationship to their husbands. And there remains an appropriateness to the message of the Apostle ongoing, namely, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands in the womb. The times have not changed. according to God.

And finally, we must recognize in these words from Paul the gospel message, which suggests to us, if we do away with the words and the specific form of them, do we not at the same time do away with the gospel out of which those words arise? That should be a concern to us, should it not. If I give up the command, am I giving up more? Am I giving up what lies beneath the surface of the command, or is laid within the command itself? In sacrificing the command, do I sacrifice the gospel?

Paul’s point is just that. We are speaking about the gospel here. The glory, the glory of the command that he gives here to wives is not its foundation in and for a well-ordered society or for the preservation of some primitive view of domesticality, or even specifically for the wife’s happiness. The glory of this command is specifically related to the gospel. Since in the husband, according to God’s operation, she is to see Christ Himself. Life itself becomes a parable. Life itself becomes an allegory.

In her husband, she is to see Christ. That’s why she submits. Does she submit to Christ? Does she submit to one in whom she sees Christ? The glory of this command, then, is its relationship to the gospel, since in the husband, Christ is seen, and in the wife, the Church herself is seen in its loving, sacrificial, and even willing submission to her Lord. However, please further recognize that as much as the gospel is evident in the command to the wife to submit to her husband, it is also evident in the compliance that she offers up to that command. For you see, verse 22 follows on the heels of verse 21, which is the general command to all that we are to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. What is operative in the woman as she offers up this compliance and this obedience is the obedience of Christ at work in her, the fear of Christ at work in her. Even before she is a wife, Christ has placed himself in her position. Before she is compared to the Church, Jesus Christ is joining himself to the Church, that what obedience might be expected of the Church and of wives would be found in him. She cannot do it without him. The command itself, preaching the gospel, but obedience also. preaching the gospel insofar as you see preceding the obedience of the woman, the obedience of Christ himself. And she draws upon that.

Our great fear must be that In losing the command, we lose the gospel that informs that command, but we lose also the sufficiency of scripture that supports it. It is appropriate that the warning be issued then. In light of the fact of what we see going on generally in the church and in our culture abroad, even as we see The Apostle Paul set to one side, and the truth as we understand it, set to another. We being called to choose between the two. If I separate the Apostle and his message from the truth, am I separating myself from the truth that is in him and declared by him? One of the sad facts is that in those now within the Church who have declared that the Scriptures are insufficient, who have expressed their discomfort, if not their outrage, at what the Apostle says, we find less and less interest in what the Bible is actually saying, and less and less commitment to the gospel.

And that should be warning sufficient for all of us. Our God, we are not those who obey quickly. We even find, Lord, that we do not obey willingly unless, O God, your spirit be at work in us. And Father, we are convinced by heavenly things and by your word. Be patient with us, Lord. It is not just a matter of wives submitting to husbands, it’s a matter of each of us submitting in the Lord to one another, a matter that has at its root the submission of Christ to you, a submission even to us, that his obedience might be counted as our own. Father, bless us, encourage us, continue to love us, be patient with us, we ask that we might come to the glorious day and we will see our Savior face to face and rejoice in his presence, even as we are brought into the heavens.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

October 6, 1996
Rejoicing With Trembling

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Ephesians 5-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 29, 1996.

About this sermon

Paul’s ‘always’ in Ephesians 5:20 carries the same meaning it has in Philemon, and it rules out both literalism and vagueness. As God’s sons and Christ’s brethren, believers have already received their inheritance. The call of 5:21 to rejoice with trembling describes in miniature the posture Christ himself takes toward the Father.

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We are beginning our scripture reading in Hebrews chapter 2. This is Hebrews chapter 2 and we start at verse 5. Give your attention to God’s holy word. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 5. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownest him with glory and honor, thou didst set him over the works of thy hands. that has put all things in subjection under his seat. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. found with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of the salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one.” for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.

In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee, and again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I am the children which God hath given me. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to suffer them that are tempted.”

Then, turning over to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 20 and 21, Chapter 5, 20 and 21. Give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. Let’s pray together. Our Lord, as our hope has been in your word, truly this is the case for your people throughout the world. Our prayer, O God, is for the ministry of this word to our souls, but also to the souls of our brothers and sisters in Christ, throughout the world. Father, and to this end, bless that word in its evangelistic power and importance for the conversion of sinners, for the gathering of your elect from all of the nations. This is our prayer, O God, even as we look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds of glory with all his holy host.

Amen. The Apostle Paul sees the Christian life as a life of continual thanksgiving. The Apostle, as the emissary of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the minister of the Holy Spirit, calls the Church to such a life. Paul says that we are always to be giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Ephesians 5 verse 20. But what can the apostle mean by these words?

Does he mean that we are always to be engaged in some sort of formal worship activity? Or does he mean that we are to give ourselves over to a sort of spiritual giddiness, as if we had slipped off into that religious frame of mind in which we refuse, in a determined fashion, to look at life realistically. Is Paul here, in Ephesians, prescribing a spiritual effervescence? Is he prescribing a persistent optimism that appeals to us, if for no other reason, because it makes us feel better?

Or does Paul have in mind a certain standard form of Christian experience, which in his own day, as in ours, expresses itself in worship through a sustained exuberance, but a sustained exuberance only in the most general way, related to the specifics of the gospel and those gospel doctrines that we are to hold dear.

Actually, Paul’s command here to always give thanks is like his command elsewhere to always pray. Paul’s command here to always give thanks is like his command elsewhere to always pray. In fact, by turning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 16 through 18, you can see these two Christian responses presented together. The Apostle writes, Rejoice always! But then he goes on, Pray without ceasing.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Now in taking that in, in taking in what the Apostle says, There, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, it might not occur to you, but the foundation of the perpetual praying and the perpetual rejoicing and giving thanks to God is what the Apostle says at the conclusion of that eighteenth verse, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

Now, Paul, in making this statement, is not only making it because he has in mind a near lining up of God’s commands for us on various matters, here specifically, praying and praising. Lining things up for us, as he does in all of his commands, we then naturally expected to obey them. Much more, Paul understands that constant prayer is itself being engaged in by Jesus Christ. This is the will of God for you in Jesus Christ. It’s not merely a matter, then, of lining up or stringing together commands that we are expected to obey. The Apostle Paul is giving you insight and entrance into the rationale, the depth, and the dynamic of the command.

Paul understands that constant prayer is being engaged in presently by Jesus Christ himself. and that at the right hand of his Father. Constant and regular prayer is, for us, God’s will, because constant, regular prayer is the habit of Jesus Christ himself, and we are to be like him. In fact, we are to enter into him. We pray because he prays.

Do you understand how far removed we are from the spirit and form of a religious moralism? I want you to pray because it’s a good idea. I want you to pray because God says you should. I want you to pray because it makes you feel better. No. I want you to pray, because Christ prays. In fact, the only effectual character of prayer rises out of Christ’s prayer, and your participation in it. You are compelled by Him. You are constrained because you are joined to Him and you want to be like Him. Do you not? Is it the same with giving thanks? Thanksgiving becomes the continual expression of our lives, specifically because we are united to the glorified Christ. We are in Him, the very One who now offers continual thanksgiving and praise to God.

Interestingly, it is the writer to the Hebrews who becomes quite specific about both of these matters, prayer and praise. Concerning prayer, he tells us in Hebrews chapter 7, verse 25, that Christ, our risen heavenly high priest, ever liveth to make intercession for us. The always of our prayers, set before us by Paul is grounded in the always-of-Christ prayer set before us in Hebrews. But now I want you to look at Hebrews chapter 2, verse 12, and this in relationship to praise and thanksgiving. Here, in this text, the author, in making reference to Christ, mind you, quotes Psalm 22, verse 22, which says, I will proclaim thy name to my brethren in the midst of the church, I will sing thy praise. Does it grip you as to what is happening in that text from the Psalms and the appropriation of it in the letter to the Hebrews? again induces the activity of the risen heavenly Christ, who more than offering perpetual prayer, also offers perpetual praise and worship to his Father.

The always of our thanksgiving is grounded in the always of Christ’s thanksgiving. Christ always gives thanks, therefore you always give thanks. But to say our prayers are grounded in Christ’s prayer and our thanksgiving is grounded in His thanksgiving means that the content and the orientation of both prayer and praise is discovered in Christ. The content and the orientation of both prayer and praise is discovered in Christ.

To understand the perpetual thanksgiving to which the Church is called now, In light of the text that we have in front of us in Ephesians chapter 5, and how it is paralleled in 1 Thessalonians 5, to understand that perpetual thanksgiving to which the Church is called, we must understand the perpetual thanksgiving expressed by the risen, reigning, heavenly Lord. Why does Christ give thanks in glory? Why is Christ presently praising his Father? For what does he have to give thanks?

The writer to the Hebrews places his statement about the praise of Christ that is, the praise coming forth from Christ, his statement about the thankful Christ in the midst of his discussion about Christ’s Sonship. But you will note that this discussion about Sonship has a purpose, an intention. So says the writer in Hebrews 2 verse 10, brings many sons to glory. This son brings many sons to glory. And verse 11 tells us that the son is not ashamed to call us his brethren, his most intimate relatives. The rejoicing, the thanksgiving of the Son and of the sons has to do with sonship itself. It has to do with what sonship has in view.

It has to do with inheritance, coming into possession of that which was promised. Hebrews 1 verse 2 tells us that the Son was appointed heir of all things. Elsewhere, Paul himself tells us that all things were made by, through, and for the Son. And Ephesians 1.22 tells us that God the Father has given the Son as head over all things to the Church. You see, Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, has in His Sonship received His inheritance as such.

And although this inheritance is variously described in the New Testament, it is always specifically related to glory and to the eternal state. But we who are united to Christ are now, by the grace of God, also called sons, and as His Church, we also have begun. to enjoy the inheritance, that inheritance mediated to us and found for us in Christ. Our thanksgiving issues from Christ and his continual praise of God for the blessing the blessing of his inheritance from the Father. Here is the fountain of our continual praise, and here is that thanksgiving’s continual orientation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 1.3. That’s it. The imperative, therefore, from Paul concerning our ongoing thanksgiving and praise has for its content our joy for just such blessing.

I want you to think of that in light of your prayers, in light of your praise and your thanksgiving. Do you have a soul that is focused, you being a son, do you have a soul that is focused upon the inheritance, that starts with the inheritance and ends with the inheritance? But we press on. I read two verses from Ephesians 5 this morning.

Paul also sees the Christian life, not just as a life of continual praise and thanksgiving, but in terms of a continual reciprocal submission one to another in the Church in the fear of Christ, in the fear of Christ. That’s the correct reading of the text. If you have a King James in front of you, it says the fear of God. That’s incorrect. It is the fear of Christ.

Now, at first glance, it may appear to you that Paul has moved into a blatant contradiction, going from verse 20 to verse 21. After commanding us to offer continual thanksgiving in this prior verse, he now circumscribes us with fear, verse 21. Praise, but fear. We ask ourselves, doesn’t fear stand opposite to, mutually exclusive of, thanksgiving? In fact, do we not have multiple texts in the New Testament that seem to suggest that our fear has ended with the gospel’s arrival?

A text like Hebrews 2.15, which we read this morning, joining fear to death, death now having been vanquished. It’s over.

Another text, Romans 8.15, we are sons. We don’t live under the bondage of that spirit of fear. We live in the Spirit of God, alive, at liberty, as sons. tells us that we need not be afraid.

In John’s Gospel, that line is stated and repeated often forth. One example, John 14, verse 27. But while our fear has indeed ended with the Gospel’s arrival, there is a fear that remains and continues to be appropriate. So then, in the New Testament, without any sense of contradiction, to the message of gospel peace and grace, much less to its commands to always give thanks, there is this prescription for a proper, appropriate, reverential fear of God.

You may want to consult 1 Peter 2, verse 17, in this respect, but also the New Testament In fact, in the very context of Ephesians 5.21, does not shy away from prescribing fear. The word is fear. The word is fear. For Christians in relationship to one another.

Ephesians 5.33 finds Paul telling wives to fear their husbands. That’s the word that’s used.

Ephesians 6.5 finds him telling slaves to fear their masters. It has been suggested that much of the Church’s difficulty is that she can no longer make the proper determinations about an appropriate and proper fear that must continue, must always adorn the Church’s profession of faith. Leaving the social relationships aside, So as mentioned later by Paul, at the end of Ephesians 5 and at the beginning of Ephesians 6, the Church in its worship and praise has tended to move in the direction of the removal of fear from its activities and consideration. But in doing so, the Church has degenerated into a form of spirituality that is closer to a gross familiarity and a profane trivializing of the most holy matters.

We would do well to recapture David’s glorious line from Psalm 2, verse 11, Rejoice with trembling. rejoice with trembling. We would do well to keep in mind what the writer to the Hebrews says later, chapter 12, 29, for our God is a consuming fire. And we would do well to keep in mind what Jesus himself said, do not fear him who can destroy rather fear him who can cast body and soul into hell. Well, then we should not see any contradiction, should we, between our thanksgiving and an appropriate and proper fear of God on our part.

That should be obvious to us. But now, the question. Does Paul, in Ephesians 5.21, when he speaks of the fear of Christ, have in mind the fear we are to have of Christ as God? Here’s the question now. Does Paul, in that statement, when he speaks about the fear of Christ, have in mind that fear we are to have of Christ as God? We fear God, we fear Christ. Why? Because Christ is God. Is that what Paul means? No. That is not what he means.

Oh boy, now we’ve dug a ditch. It’s almost ten after. Now I’m not going to ask you to come back tonight, because I know you won’t. It never works. It never works. But I want you to feel the force of this, because it’s utter genius, the genius of the Holy Spirit.

Actually, what Paul means follows the exact same line that he followed in verse 20. Hold on. If you were with me on verse 20, then stay with me through verse 21. The fear of which Paul speaks in verse 21 is not the fear we are to have of Christ because Christ is God. Not that such a thought is foreign to Paul’s gospel, he expresses it in many places.

Rather, the fear of Christ spoken of in Ephesians 5.21 is that fear which Christ himself had for God. and that for the performance of all of his mediating work, as he is subject to the Father and looks to him for the reward. Jesus Christ, then, not only perfectly praised Not only perfectly gives thanks, but he perfectly fears.

And that’s all for you. That’s all for you. Such is the nature of his saving office. Such is the sufficiency of that office. Before you pray, he’s praying. Before you give thanks, He’s given thanks. Before you fear, He has feared. And now you, by grace, have been brought into the perfections of that sufficient mediation for you. There is nothing like this. There is nothing in the whole world like this. All spiritual and religious duty and obligation is, first of all, performed by Him. before you lift a finger. He’s done it all. And now you’re privileged, as sons, to enter into that. Jesus Christ perfectly fears his Father in his obedient submission, in his obedient subjection. You see the theme? yourselves one another in fear. He subjects himself perfectly to his father.

We now fear after Christ and because of him and through him. And we obediently now subject ourselves to one another in the fear of Christ because We are savingly united to Him and to such appropriate and proper and perfect fear as He has exhibited, demonstrated, accomplished for us. We always give thanks because we are in Christ who does the same. And we subject ourselves, one another, in the fear of Christ, because we are in the Christ, who on our behalf, perfectly fears God.

And has subjected himself, even to us. Think of it. Subjected himself, even to us. That we might be saved. I don’t know how you feel, but for me, it just doesn’t get any better than this. Let’s pray. Where are we, O God, without Jesus? Where are we, O Lord, without the perfection of his prayer, praise, the perfection of his fear? Lord, we are lost, and we are without strength. But you have been pleased, O God, that we be found and that we be given strength in him, your Son, our Savior.

Father, we pray that even as we offer up this petition, we would be confident that it enters into the intercessions of Christ and that we would be praying it with full determination of constant praise and a perpetual fear, a fear of you, that we might live rightly, appropriately, unto the full gain of that reward and possession promised.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 29, 1996
Christ, All in All

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Ephesians 5-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 22, 1996.

About this sermon

Paul uses ‘mystery’ in Ephesians 1:9 in a specific sense, and it stands against the modern church’s fascination with personal testimonies as a rival authority. Ephesians 1:10 claims that Christ sums up all things and is all in all, and that claim reframes what mystery means. Paul consistently puts redemptive-historical theology ahead of the systematic kind.

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Sermon transcript

We are beginning our scripture reading this morning in Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, and we are reading the first fourteen verses. Let’s give our attention now to God’s infallible word. Beginning at verse one, Ephesians chapter one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth.” the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Submit yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. Why? Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Pray with me now.

Our God, we would not shy away from nor be embarrassed by the gospel and its full declaration. Surely in it, O Lord, we are brought up against the enormity of our sin and the hopelessness of our situation, apart from you and apart from Christ. For Lord, we are not simply buried beneath the deluge of our own offenses. We are joined to our Father Adam and in him condemned. But what glory and grace is obvious now in the gospel the good news which has come in Christ, that we, by him, through his death and resurrection, might be delivered from our sins and saved unto eternal life, and, Father, in this gospel we glory. Bless us, your children, as we give our attention to your word this morning, and may we be built up in our confidence that we know and love our Savior, But also, Lord, may we be built up in our resolve to live for him. We ask also that you would be gracious to those who do not believe that they would be brought to faith through the preaching of the gospel here and throughout the world. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

Let me tell you once more what stands at the center of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. You will find it in chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. God having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather into one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.”

Now, I recognize that what Paul says here is truly a mouthful. In fact, this mouthful is hardly the whole story, for some of you might well know that in the Greek, his sentence runs from verse 3 to the conclusion of verse 14. A mouthful, indeed. But possibly, as these phrases are strung together and as they run along, you may well feel that Paul is here being more the poet than the preacher, that he is more interested in the emotional impact and power of his words than in their content. meaning to carry you along by the music of the thing, rather than the message particularly. Therefore, it may well be that you have not concerned yourself too much with the meaning of Paul’s words here, but I ask you to look again at what he has to say in setting before you this chief concern. First of all, you will have to understand what Paul means by the word mystery. He doesn’t mean here mystery in the typical religious sense of the word.

You know, mystery as associated with the religious secret arts that pertain to the hidden workings of spiritual reality as they impact natural reality. such mysteries as have been discovered by, or have been revealed to the enlightened and passed on to their initiates in the interests of worshipping, anticipating, protecting oneself against, and even manipulating the spiritual realities that work in and behind the natural world.

In its primitive form, such an approach to mystery expressed itself in religious magic, witchcraft, wizardry, shamanism, necromancy, astrology, etc. Those things spoken against, condemned in the law of God. In Paul’s day, the mysteries had graduated into sophisticated popular religious movements, overlaid with a rather affected philosophical sophistication and justification. Even to the construct of systems, and one system in particular that was eventually known as Gnosticism, In our own day, we witness the great-great-grandchildren of the ancient pagan mystery religions, and even of Gnosticism itself, in a resurgent neo-paganism in the New Age movement, and in the various attempts to Christianize the basic religious impulse at work in these phenomena. the attempt to Christianize in the nineteenth century, particularly observed in the Christian science movement overseen by Mary Baker Eddy, and the offshoots of that movement in our own time, in Norman Vincent Peale’s religion of positive thinking and in Robert Schuller’s gospel of possibility thinking. Here is religion of the mind, religion of the mind, by which people attempt, through emotive, mental method and technique, to gain access to the secrets and mysteries that lie behind and within nature.

The secrets and the mysteries have always been there, determining world affairs and the details—yes, even the minute details—of the individual life. They have always been intuited by the Illuminati, always accessible to anyone who has been chosen by them for initiation, and would be subjected to their methods and their techniques.

Paul’s declaration of the mystery in Ephesians 1 verse 9 stands deliberately opposite such a religious posture. This means the attempt to read Paul’s position as if it were essentially an effort by a Christianized Jew to marry his religious heritage to Gentile religious practice in order to gain a hearing, in order to make an impact, is utterly, categorically wrong.

J. Gresham Machen, in his 1921 book, The Origin of Paul’s Religion, stated the case well and convincingly against such a synthesis. What we need to see in the Apostle is not an accommodation by the Church to her pagan but a refutation of that pagan environment. Mystery for Paul, therefore, is not the secrets of the universe always held from view until revealed in the minds of the favored few. Instead, mystery for Paul is bound to the hidden counsel of God, now and only now brought to light. That’s the point. not in an event in the inner mental illumination, but by the direct work of God himself in history, by which history itself has been dramatically, decisively, finally transformed. You want to talk about New Age? I’ll give you New Age. The New Age has a calendar date. It is marked from outside Jerusalem’s city walls on a cross. and it is dated from the empty tomb.

In other words, the mystery was not at all times available, accessible, in the air somewhere, to be grasped, grasped by those minds properly attuned, as Gentile religion taught. Rather, the mystery, in keeping with the sovereignty of God over history, was concealed until it was brought into clear view by the act of God in sending His own dear Son for the redemption of His people, accomplished by the shedding of His own blood. through his vindication in his resurrection from the dead and his exaltation to glory into what Paul describes here as the heavenly places. To put it so safely, Paul sees things in the first order in terms of B.C. and A.D. before Christ, and in the times of his established Lordship, in the year of our Lord.

He does not approach things then, first of all, in terms of religious ideas. I will hammer away at this as long as I have breath. And you may be a bit weary of the pounding, but I am not going to stop. Paul does not approach things, first of all, in terms of a religious idea, a thought in That is not what is going on with the man. The Apostle Paul neither is approaching things, first of all, in terms of an ethical ideal. That is the furthest thing from his mind. Nor does he approach revelation as the divulging of specific truth, or the disclosure of information about facts and events, be they even related to the universe’s secrets. Hang with me in this now.

His interest, first of all, primarily concerns the great revolution that has taken place in history. No, not a revolution in history, but the revolution of history itself, of time, of existence. The historical reality of that which, until now, did not exist as such, it having been kept back by God until in the giving of His Son, the fullness of the times, that is, the end of time, the goal itself had arrived, had come. According to the Apostle, here is the true and central content of his ministry.

To underscore it once more, he is not going to preach, first of all, a religious idea, or an ethical goal, much less is he going to preach his own experience. For the issue is not his history, but history itself and what has happened to it because of Christ. I am taking exception, and I make no apology for it, I am taking exception to the general theme of the evangelical world today. I will not preach testimony.

You can catch it on TV on Saturday nights, but you will not catch it here. Why? Because it will eventually obscure and eclipse the history of Christ. That’s why. You will eventually reduce the gospel to telling your story and your history, and you will not be able to understand appropriately and rightly what has taken place in history because of Jesus Christ himself.

I plead with you on this. I am claiming Paul for my corner, and you might judge that that is presumption. I hope it’s faithfulness. to the text. And trust that by so I am honoring the gospel and the Savior himself. Here is the true and central content of his ministry. Something has happened, an event has taken place.

And in describing his ministry, he speaks of himself later in this epistle, chapter 6, verse 20, as an ambassador in chains for the sake of this very message. His being a ministry of proclamation, of witness to that which took place in Christ, and instruction to the end that we all might grasp well our place in this dispensation, this administration of the end of the times, the fullness of the times.

It is in this connection with Paul’s proclamation of, witness to, and instruction in, the revelation of the mystery. that his commands to wives and husbands, to children and parents, to slaves and masters are to be understood. People do not get what Paul says to wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters, because they do not get Ephesians 1, 9 and 10. However, before we move into a fuller exposition of those latter verses in Ephesians, we want to finish out our remarks on this key text in the first chapter, particularly that tenth verse. Here Paul explains, or maybe even better at least, provides entrance into what he means by the administration of the fullness of times.

This administration is what he calls a summing up of all things in Christ, things of heaven, things on earth. King James has gathering together into one. The New American Standard has summing up all things in Christ. Now, we might gain better understanding of these words if we give them a bit fuller translation, one suggested by Herman Ritterbos. What is in mind is the summing up of all things, or a summing up anew of all things in Christ. Again, event front and center. What Paul has in mind is the gathering together in and by a concrete historical event. the gathering together of all things in Christ, and this made necessary because the integrality, the interrelationships, and the meanings of all these things lacked their proper definition and expression until Christ came, died, was raised, and ascended. For the Apostle Paul, this summing up has everything to do with the fact that Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man.

But as man, he became second Adam for us. This is the focus of his effort and ministry and work on our behalf. The prospect of the integrality, the interrelationships, and the means of all things of heaven and in earth, lost to humanity in Adam, our first covenantal head, are now summed up anew, finally and conclusively, in Christ, the second Adam, the new man, the head of the new humanity. Harmony and peace are to be found in him. such harmony and peace as are lost in our first Father.

Harmony and peace are to be found in him by whom God is reconciled to humanity, and humanity to God. even to the point of pulling down partitions between peoples, between Jews and Gentiles, even to the point of fitting man to his environment, and that perfectly, and that environment to man in the heavenly places for which man was originally destined. even to the point of making plain the meaning of creation itself and of life in all of its vast details and particularity, hence all that is true in science, culture, and philosophy, even to the point of making plain and intelligible all the strands of world history, but in particular the history of redemption, the biblical revelation, as they converge in him.

Christ, in the accomplishment of his work as the second Adam, the head of the new humanity, becomes the formation of kingdom, rule, throne, palace, kingship itself. All categories are to be understood in relationship to him—temple, tabernacle, sanctuary, altar, sacrifice, mediation, and the priesthood. Pulpit, proclamation, commandment, prophetic suffering, and prophetic office. head, headship, body, individual members, assembly, people, congregation, church. Christ, in the accomplishment of his work as the second Adam, the head of the new humanity, becomes the summary meaning of creation itself, of the front, of patriarchal history, of the exodus, pilgrimage, conquest, establishment, theocracy, exile, restoration, and gospel presentation.

And Christ, in the accomplishment of his work as second Adam, head of the new humanity and of the new creation, is the summation of being to all created things, all created beings, visible and invisible, whether they be principalities, powers, mighty ones or dominions, angelic or demonic. For they too have their meaning only in relationship to him and the design to which God has ordained them. Here truly is the one whom Paul describes in Colossians as all in all. Two things remain in conclusion for this message.

What Paul says here stands opposite, to be sure, a Gentile understanding of mystery, but it also stands opposite myth. Myth creates a history for the sake of meaning, so that the story constructed has no actual historical validity. In fact, myth needs no history.

Paul sees Christ as truly and genuinely historical, and as the summation of all actual creational historical development. And I might add, that Paul has no more doubt about the first Adam’s historicity than he does about the second. Modern theologians have claimed that biblical writers have clothed their essential message in myth, and that we must extract the meaning from the myth if we are to get a proper understanding of it. Actually, the biblical writers are exposing the mythologies of the world and answering them with the proclamation of what God has done in the history of redemption, even as He brings that history to summation in His Son, Jesus Christ. We believe in the God who acts.

But finally, what Paul has to say here stands opposite the notion of system. I realize I’m getting myself into trouble here. Because if the Reformed faith, the Reformed Church, has stood for anything through the ages, it has stood for a well-defined, well-crafted system. I don’t want you to misunderstand me. I am not the enemy of systematic theology, and I am not opposed to systems. I believe our confession is systematically laid out, and I have taken an ordination vow with regard to the system of doctrine taught in the Westminster standards.

Nevertheless, it is important for you to see that what the Apostle Paul is saying here does, in a certain sense, stand opposite the notion of systems. This is just an amplification of what I said earlier. You must realize that Paul’s intention is not to introduce you to a system of thought.

His intention is to introduce you with the reality of what God has done. System will flow forth from the act. It will be a construct. It will be, yes, a genuine mental activity in which we place organization to the facts of life and organize them as best we can.

But Paul’s intention is not, first of all, to introduce you to a system of thought. Rather, his interest is to introduce you to the reality of what God has done. Neither is his interest to introduce you to a so-called world and life view, if you mean by that an intellectual construct by which you set before yourself a central idea from which all other ideas can be deduced and inferred in proper equilibrium and balance. Paul’s interest is the gospel, the good news.

Hear what that word communicates. It’s news about an event. That’s what makes it news, and it’s good news. It’s the good news about what God has done in Jesus Christ, about what has actually come about in space and time because of God’s great grace to us. It is about what actually is. It is about the state of affairs that God has made because he has acted in Christ. Paul’s interest, then, is in what is actually so because of God’s activity in bringing to light the mystery of his will, now in the fullness, the end of the times, in which all things are summed up as if afresh, anew, reaching the exposition of their true meanings and destiny in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Here is Paul’s message to the Ephesians, it is what lies behind his comments to wives, husbands, children, parents, slaves, masters, and I trust that it informs you. in all that you say and do. God has come. He has acted. He has acted for you. And now everything is different. And all things are being made new.

Father, we pray that we might be attuned well to the message from your Word and the message of the Apostle. We thank you for the uncompromising way in which he sets forth his concern, that which drives him and motivates him. Truly, the revelation in the Gospel of what you have done of what you have accomplished, this even bringing time itself to its proper conclusion, and thus, Lord, setting before us the proper and even appropriately exegeted meaning of all things, truly as those things are summed up in Christ our Savior. Lord, may our Savior then be front and center to us even as he is the central figure of this drama that has been played out on the plane of this creation. And Lord, may it please you to grant us mercy even as we tailor all of our words and works

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 22, 1996
Holy Warfare in the Household

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Ephesians 5-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 15, 1996.

About this sermon

Paul’s journeys and imprisonment, and the debated question of his authorship of Ephesians, set the stage for the letter’s real subject, becoming what believers already are in Christ. That becoming is holy warfare, waged inside the ordinary household by husbands and wives, children, and slaves alike. Domestic life is a real battlefield.

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Sermon transcript

This morning we begin our scripture reading in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Reading a few verses in chapter 1. We are reading verses 16 and 17. Romans 1, 16 and 17. Give your attention to God’s word. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” And turning over to Galatians chapter 4, Galatians 4. verses 4 and 5. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of some. And then turning to Ephesians, the first chapter, beginning with verse one.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

And one final verse. Ephesians 5 verse 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Pray with me. Our God, we would confess that there is nothing as powerful as your word in this world, even as your word is made effectual to the salvation of sinners and that to the ends of the earth. Father, may our hearts agree with yours, even as your word goes forth for the reclamation of sinners. We, having been redeemed by you, we pray our God for the full complement of your elect, that they may be gathered into your church by the preaching of the word, and there, O God, trained in your spirit for life in praise of you now and forever. Hear us, O God, even as we pray for others, but hear us also as we pray for ourselves, that the word that is preached here today and is heard by us may be effectual in us and may achieve your ends. O God, may you be glorified even as we agree with you and your word. This we ask through Jesus Christ, the one who delighted in your will and in your word to do it. We pray in his name. Amen.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians belongs to a group of letters identified as his prison epistles. Paul was arrested, you may recall, in Jerusalem following his third missionary journey, and from Jerusalem he was taken to Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. where he remained imprisoned for two years. Because he appealed to the emperor, he was finally taken to Rome for trial. As Acts 28 verse 30 tells us, he was a prisoner in Rome for at least two more years, and it was there that he wrote four letters, the so-called prison epistles. Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and our present letter is letter to the Ephesians. These last three letters, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, are closely linked.

Colossians and Philemon are linked through the figure of Onesimus. Philemon’s runaway slave who had been converted by Paul while Paul was still in chains in Rome. Onesimus then served Paul faithfully while Paul was still in prison, but now Paul is sending Onesimus home back to his master Philemon. You can note the connection between Onesimus and Philemon in Colossians 4 verse 9 and also Philemon verse 10. But this fellow Philemon was also a leader in the Colossian church, the church that met at Colossae.

And the assumption is that the letters to the church at Colossae and to Philemon were sent at the very same time, Onesimus the slave accompanying their delivery. But while Colossians and Philemon are linked now through this fellow Onesimus, the letters of Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians are linked through another man, a man named Tychicus.

Tychicus, it seems, served at this time in Paul’s life as the Apostle’s official emissary to the churches in Asia Minor. Onesimus accompanies Tychicus as Tychicus, Paul’s official emissary, carries Paul’s letters to the churches in Asia Minor. the region where the church at Colossae is positioned, as well as the church of Ephesus.

Now, this is spelled out for us again as we look at Colossians chapter 4, verses 7 through 9. For there, Tychicus is mentioned in connection with this whole matter. But Tychicus is also mentioned in the letter to the Ephesians. He is spoken of in chapter 6, verses 21 and 22, and the inference of those verses is that he is the courier of the letter to the Ephesians. So, it would seem, summing things up to this point, Paul, as prisoner in Rome, in about the year 62 AD, sends a trusted disciple named Tychicus to Asia Minor with three letters.

Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. Tychicus takes with him Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave, now a born-again Christian who is being restored to his master Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. The picture I have just drawn for you, however, does have a major problem, and it concerns the letter to the Ephesians.

If you recall your apostolic history recorded for us in the Book of Acts, you will remember a few things about Paul’s strong attachment to the Ephesian congregation. His testimony is that he labored among the Ephesians for three years. That testimony appears in Acts chapter 20, verse 31. But not only this, it is very difficult to forget the very moving scene in which that Acts 20, 31 text appears. It is the account of Paul’s farewell to the elders in the church of Ephesus. You might recall the embraces and the tears, the fact that Paul falls down on the shore side and prays as he departs, thinking that he will never see these people again.

The bond between Paul and the Ephesians is very strong. The affections are high. But the odd thing about the letter to the Ephesians is the total absence of any kind of personal greeting to the people of Ephesus. And in this regard, this letter to the Ephesians stands out among all Paul’s letters. Also, you might note, as you read through the letter to the Ephesians, a couple of further For at certain junctures, Paul sounds as if he had never visited these people at all.

For example, chapter 1, verse 15, the verse just beyond the point which we read this morning. This verse has been read as if Paul were saying that he had come to a knowledge of these folk in Ephesus, not by first-hand experience, but through a report from someone else about them. You join this verse in the first chapter to the second verse of the third chapter, which has been read along similar lines. It has been judged that these are comments that we would hardly expect from someone who had founded the Church and then at one time spent three years among its members.

When you add to these verses that we just noted the fact that a full 90 words appear in Ephesians, which appear nowhere else in Paul’s letters, and also a full one-third of the words and phrases in Ephesians are duplicated in Colossians, and the fact that certain major manuscripts, early manuscripts, do not have the place name Ephesus in the first verse of the first chapter, With all of this in hand, you can well imagine the rush of liberal critics who are well-poised to convince us that Paul never wrote this letter at all. Instead, so these liberals suggest, We have here the work of a very capable student of Paul, but not Paul himself. This very capable student of Paul, so say the liberals, is making an effort through this letter to keep the memory of the Apostle alive sometime close to the end of the first Christian century. And in order to gain a certain authenticity for his writing, he grabs hold of the pre-existent letter to the Colossians and uses it as his guide.

J. Gresham Machen was quite aware of all of these liberal arguments, but he dismissed them in favor of those who had suggested that Ephesians, even minus the place name in Ephesians 1.1, is actually meant to be originally a general letter meant for general circulation among the churches of Asia Minor, including that largely Gentile congregation at Ephesus. Some have even suggested, although Machen does not make this suggestion himself, some have made the suggestion that Ephesians is actually the so-called last letter mentioned by Paul in Colossians 4.16, the one that was presently being read to the saints at Laodicea that would then be passed on to the saints at Colossae for their perusal as well. A letter, so the theory goes, destined to be circulated to Ephesus also. Our letter to the Ephesians bears the title to the Ephesians, then, because of the prominence of that church among the churches to which this letter was originally sent.

As to my own convictions, as to where I stand in this discussion, I do not hesitate to say to you that I stand with Machen. And with the conviction of historic Orthodox Christianity, Ephesians is a genuine letter from the hand of Paul, the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I also affirm with Machen that this letter was a general epistle meant for circulation among the churches of Asia Minor, a territory in which the church at Ephesus was a prominent congregation. But having assured ourselves of this fact, What do we now conclude about the theme or the purpose of this letter, the subject matter of it? Again, the liberals and even a surprising and increasing number of evangelicals have made some rather startling suggestions along these lines.

The key to their suggestions centers in the failure of the apostolic Church’s hope. The key to their suggestions centers in the failure of the apostolic Church’s hope. According to them, there was a point in the early Church in which a crisis overtook the people of God, and that because Jesus had not returned as he promised and as the Church expected. This failure, according to these critics, be they liberal or evangelical, created a crisis of confidence. It also created a void. with this hope failed, then other things would have to rush in to fill the void in the religious piety of the people of God.

The letter to the Ephesians is written for the purpose of filling that void, and here, filling up the void created by the failure of the apostolic hope is the message of the glory of the Church in and for the world. The glory of the Church in and for the world. Now, I know that this is somewhat abstract for you as yet, but hang with me as we work through this and unravel it. Are you with me so far? There are those who approach the Epistle to the Ephesians who say that this letter is the product of the failed hope in the Church in the first century, and now Christians must look to something else other than the return of Christ as the foundation for their religious piety and devotion. These critics have suggested to us that what now fills the void in the Epistle to the Ephesians is a message not about the coming Christ, but about the present Church, and the Church’s glory in and for the world.

The Church itself, then, is a society. The Church is a society which reveals God’s purpose to the world. Now, if we put that in modern terms, this is what we have. The Church as society intersects with the world as community, so that the ultimate usefulness and goal for the letter to the Ephesians is not a heavenly life which impinges upon life here in this world, but the improved, more harmonious life for the wide community of mankind. That is the message.

Do you see where we’re going? Now, those who make this proposal make no apologies whatsoever for setting the Paul we know from elsewhere in the New Testament over against the Paul that we discover in the letter to the Ephesians. But further, these folks tell us that this message of unity and community from Ephesians actually displaces the more provincial, the more Jewish, the more judicial, the more legal theology of sacrifice and justification that we find elsewhere in Paul in such letters as Romans and Galatians. and that since the hope of future heavenly glory, related to the return of Christ, has reigned, has dissipated, and is near eclipse, now a more realistic, a more natural confidence in ordinary life is set in its place and prevails. The ultimate effect of the message from the letter to the Ephesians, so say these folks, plays itself out then in the concrete commands from the letters of later chapters, chapters 4 through 6, and particularly those commands that begin at verse 22 in chapter 5.

The command, wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord. Here we have then the broad and formative expression of that practical religion of social balance, calculated to save the Church from the charge of being too radical on the one hand, but also on the other, guaranteeing the Church its ongoing role as social and political reformer. To this end, therefore, so suggest these critics. Ephesians may preach that wives must be subject to their own husbands, thus honoring the common current social mores of the day, thus saving herself—that is, the Church—from the charge of being too socially revolutionary, too radical.

But we know, enlightened folk that we are, twentieth century enlightened folk that we are, we know in our perusal of the Epistles to the Ephesians that it carries within its own command that the spirit of sexual equality in which mutual submission of both wives and husbands to one another finally means that neither have to submit to the other. Now are you with me? Now do you see where it was going? Let me state it for you once more.

The Church becomes, at one and the same time, conservative in that it is not socially radical. At the same time, it becomes the perpetual agent of social and political reform within society, and that is the Church’s purpose. In fact, she has no other purpose according to these enlightened minds.

Ephesians then may well preach, wives must subject themselves to their own husbands, but we all know, do we not, that this very message carries within itself the spirit of sexual equality in which mutual submission of both wives and husbands finally means neither must submit to the other. Ephesians may well preach, children obey your parents, thus tipping its hat to the social mores of the first century. But we know, do we not, that this very command carries the spirit whereby a just and propitious view of children’s autonomies and rights will finally win out and prevail in the end. Ephesians may well preach, slaves obey your masters. But we know, do we not, that it carries the spirit that actually obliterates such distinctions and promotes a truly egalitarian and classless society.

I just read all this in a commentary this last week. I’m not making this up. so much for the modern interpretation of Ephesians. But if the Paul who wrote Romans and Galatians is the author of Ephesians also, and if the Paul of Ephesians is not to be pivoted over against the Paul of Romans and Galatians, and if The Paul of Ephesians, Romans and Galatians is the Paul who, in the Holy Spirit, according to the design of God, continues to address the Church today. What does this ambassador of Christ, this apostle of the Lord Jesus, the steward of the mysteries of God, want us to hear and to continue to hear from his letter to the Ephesians? What is his message?

It is this, that the revelation of the righteousness of God declared by Paul in Romans 1.17 has now, in fact, taken place.

That the fullness of times declared by Paul in Galatians 4.4 has arrived. And this means, as Paul takes up the pen for the letter to the Ephesians, that the resolution of the mystery, the mystery hid from the foundation of the world, has now come into full view with the appearance of the administration of the fullness of times, namely the summing up of all things in Christ, Ephesians 1, 9, and 10. That’s what Paul wants you to hear. Something monumental and unprecedented has taken place, because God has acted in and through his Son. This mystery of which the Apostle speaks in the first chapter of Ephesians, he mentions later on.

He sees it as meaning the inclusion of Gentiles with Jews. of Gentiles with Jews as fellow-heirs, fellow-members of the body, as fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, Ephesians 3.6. According to Paul, the coming of the revelation of the righteousness of God, the arrival of the fullness of times, and the solving of the mystery hid from the foundational world means that history itself has reached its goal and touched its very end. It’s as if time stops. This is the perspective of the Apostle. Something final has occurred. An end point has been reached. God has done that which is unprecedented and monumental.

But that which he is saying also means that the elect, through Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, have been brought into their highest and final environment, that environment which the apostle in this letter calls the heavenly place. This means that we, the elect of God, the Church of God, are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, chapter 1, verse 3. And because Christ has Himself been seated in the heavenly places, chapter 1, verse 20, this means that we also have been raised up with Him and seated with Him in those heavenly places, chapter 2, verse 6. in this heavenly assembly is then the gathering of Jew and Gentile in a final fashion, and that in Christ. This gathering being the filling up and the building up of the ultimate temple, the structure of which is made manifest in the Church.

Ephesians 1, 22, 23, Ephesians 2, 20. We are now using temple imagery here. It is this new and holy reality that confounds even and particularly the rulers, the dark, the wicked rulers and authorities that pray in those heavenly places. Chapter 3, verse 10.

Thus in the scene as the Apostle is portraying it. We are made out to be in our identity, not just those who are dressed up in the privileges of the priesthood. We common believers, dressed up in the privileges of the priesthood, that we might enter into the very sanctuary. He goes even further than that. He says we are the sanctuary. You are the temple.

Ephesians 2.22. But going beyond this even, He makes of our identity an identity that is dressed up in the armor of a warrior, as if we were priests decked out for battle, as if we were priestly kings and kingly priests who fight against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, chapter 6, verse 12. Let me tell you what the message of Ephesians is.

Be what you are. Be what you are. Be what you have been made to be. because of God’s now making plain the solution of the mystery. Be what you have been made to be because of His grace in saving you by faith, thus positioning you in the heavenly places. Be what you are as a new man in Christ, even as Christ is that new man. Be what you are even as you are a heavenly sanctuary of God, even as you are an eschatological priesthood, even as you are the army of God, the warriors of the Lord, the kingly priests and the priestly kings, whose holy warfare is waged by wives.

By wives! Ephesians 5.22. And how is it waged by wives? Ironically, paradoxically, it is waged by wives in that they submit to their husbands. That’s how wives make spiritual war. That’s how they attack unseen heavenly wickedness. and displace spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. And I tell you also that holy warfare is waged by children.

Now, you kids sit here and you may think, this guy talks mysteries to me. I don’t understand a word that he says, but I want to tell you this word from the epistle to the Ephesians, that children wage holy warfare. How? How? This is the Apostle Paul’s youth program. Obey your parents. And he tells us, lastly in this list, that holy warfare is waged by slaves. Paul himself is a slave. He’s even more, presently, he’s a prisoner in chains. How can a slave, how can a prisoner wage war?

Paul says, by obeying your masters, even as you see the Lord himself beyond your earthly Now this is what Ephesians meant when Paul wrote it in the first century, and it’s what it means to us as we are about to enter the 21st century. And I dare say this is what the letter to the Ephesians will always mean. and I’m hoping that you agree.

Let’s pray. O Lord, may we all be dressed up in the armor of the gospel, even as it is fit for us, since we have been brought into the temple sanctuary, which is not just a sanctuary, but a palace, a place in which the king himself rules and reigns, this palace being itself an armory. And from this holy and exalted sanctuary and palace and armory, we go forth to wage holy war. But teach us, O Lord, the wonderful mysteries of the gospel, even their ironies and paradoxes. For our Savior has waged holy war in and through the cross. And we, Lord, pick up the instruments of weakness, at least in the eyes of the world. And yet, O God, we are made strong, victorious, in and through him. In our respective positions, O God, May we perceive the nature of the conflict, and may we be energetic for the fight.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 15, 1996
Imperative Flows From Indicative

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Ephesians 5-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 8, 1996.

About this sermon

Every command in Ephesians 5-6’s household instructions depends on a prior indicative, what God has already done in Christ, rather than the other way around. Christ’s own coming is itself a new act of obedience, God himself obeying on his people’s behalf. New obedience follows from that gift; it doesn’t earn it.

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Sermon transcript

This morning we are reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We are at chapter 5, verse 22. This is Ephesians, chapter 5, beginning at verse 22. This is the word of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.

Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church. for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. not with thy service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither is there respect of persons with him.

Over the next few months, I will be speaking to you from this particular portion of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 22 through chapter 6, verse 9. And as we make our way through these messages, you may also want to consult the parallel to these verses in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 3, verse 18, This morning I want to tell you why I am moving to a series on these verses. My objective of late has been to progress with my preaching into a consideration of the Christian’s daily life. keeping in mind the imperatives of the faith laid upon us because of our union with Jesus Christ our Savior.

Now, before I go any farther with this, it may well be imperative that I define imperatives. The imperatives of the faith are the commands. They are the expressed obligations that are set before us in the Word of God. In the Bible, an imperative is a stated directive. For example, the Ten Commandments could easily be called the Ten Imperatives.

Now, I deliberately preached on 1 Corinthians 13 in our previous series because I wanted us to consider or build up for a consideration of the imperatives of daily Christian living. I realize that what I’ve just said may leave you somewhat baffled. Because in your mind, as you review 1 Corinthians 13, and if you had it open before you, it was on the page before you, you would realize that you would not find, you would not discover one imperative in it. That’s why, through the entirety of 1 Corinthians 13, that grand and eloquent chapter on love, you do not find one single imperative to love. Not that the imperative doesn’t occur in the immediate context. It does.

You can check Chapter 14, verse 1 of 1 Corinthians, where Paul writes, Pursue, or as the King James Version has it, follow after love. But I believe the way in which Paul sets up his argument in that 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians is very instructive for us. in understanding better the whole matter of Biblical imperatives or Biblical commands. The Apostle has maintained throughout the entirety of that thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians what we might call a descriptive move, or what grammarians call the indicative move. Because by it, there is the indication of a particular state of affairs, a statement of fact, in distinction from a command. There is an indication of the way things are. Now to say this, in keeping with biblical temperament is not to say the same thing as a definition, although definitions may well be extracted from the indicative statements, the descriptive statements given by the Apostle.

Paul’s usage here in 1 Corinthians 13 is in keeping with the general biblical temperament. It has, in view, an indicative mood indicating the way things are because of an action that has taken place, and as that is related to salvation, particularly the action of God in Christ, revealed and manifest in the world. Paul’s intention, therefore, in 1 Corinthians 13, is not to provide you with a dictionary definition of love—love is this, love is that—in keeping with what you might find in a dictionary, but rather his intention is to provide you with the historical reality of that love because of what God has done. Because of what God has accomplished.

I know that this is a strange way of thinking for you. You have been schooled in dictionaries. In effect, you’ve been schooled in a Greek mode of thinking. It is all generally analytical. It is not historical or dynamic, but that is the language of Scripture. You move, first of all, to the indicative, or the accomplishment, or the action of God, and if there is definition to be given, if there is analysis to be provided, it rises out of that indicative, out of the action of God. You cannot separate definition from the action and activity of God. That’s the biblical way of thinking. You must start with event. You can’t start with idea. it turns most of your education on its head. Upside down.

Specifically then, if you are to understand love, You would do well to consult another biblical author who said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see, love is grounded in event, in action. Elsewhere, this same author, I’m quoting the Apostle John, writes, we love because he first loved us. In other words, our love rests in and upon the prayer act of God.

The love of which Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 13 rests in and upon God, who revealed His love in this way, even as Paul testified in Romans 5.8. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. and the love that is expected of us. Not just set forth before us, the love that is expected of us is to be found in Jesus Christ, the very act of God. Therefore, Paul means by way of the indicative of 1 Corinthians 13, to set before us Jesus Christ himself, the act of God, as the only foundation for the imperatives, the commands that would fall upon us.

Now, this pattern subtly, yet really presented by Paul is in keeping with the uniform structure of things throughout Scripture. The command or the imperative, the call to obedience, given to Adam originally in the Garden of Eden, has as its foundation the indicative of God’s action in Adam’s creation. the act precedes the command. Consider the Ten Commandments, or the entirety of the legal administration revealed under Moses. They have as their foundation the action of God when the Israelites are delivered from Egypt in the essence. event, act, precedes command. And isn’t this what is confirmed by what we are taught in the shorter catechism? Questions 43 and 44 pick up on this matter quite well. Question 43 marks out for us the indicative The historical act of God, what is the preface to the Ten Commandments, the catechism asks.

The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, I am the Lord by God which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. That’s action. That’s event. God has done something. marks the imperative, and at the same time joins the imperative to that indicative.

What does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us? asks the catechism. The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the Lord and our God and Redeemer, he having revealed himself to be such by his saving activity, the indicative, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments. The act precedes the command. The Heidelberg Catechism, in its own way, follows this exact same pattern. It places the exposition of the commandments within an exposition of our faithfulness to God, the faithfulness or thankfulness that we owe to God because He has delivered us from all our sin and misery.

But now in thinking about this, and I hope we are all thinking this morning, because this is a thinking sermon. In thinking about this, it is very easy for us to become confused. The ideas and the order of things may become all jumbled up in our brain. Well, you may be thinking, well, you say act precedes command, but as I recall, law precedes gospel. Commandment comes before action. But I want you to keep in mind that it is in a fallen world that we are made especially sensitive through the commandments that we break of the need for a new act of God on the basis of which there will be a renewed obedience on our part.

Adam’s sin demands God’s new action if Adam is to live with God and if he is to obey him. If Israel’s sins demand God’s new, restorative act, if she is to live with God, if she is to obey Him, our sin, in the face of the imperatives of God, drives us to God’s saving work in Jesus Christ.

That in each case, be it Adam’s or Israel’s or ours, this movement from imperative to indicative, it seems to contradict what I’ve been saying about the precedence of indicative over imperative, is meant to humble us all before God, who acts first in his awesome sovereignty, and then calls us to respond in thankful obedience. The proper way of thinking, rising out of the Old Testament, confirms this, confirms what I’ve been saying. Presence’s failure to obey the imperatives of God, furthers the hope that God would act definitively, and finally, in order that by way of his new act, there might be a new obedience in us, a new compliance, and even a new ability to obey. In all of this, there is an appropriate giving way to God. that God might be all in all, that sees in the balance an appropriate grasp of the fullness of God’s grace. God, in His grace, must act if I am to obey at all. The act of God must proceed.

But having set these things in order, having gotten hold of this biblical truth, or better, this truth having gotten hold of us, we still fall short of the full splendor and glory of the New Testament revelation. For it will not simply be that God acts in Christ before we are called to obey, the indicative will precede the imperative. But marvel of marvels, God himself will actually obey in Christ before we are called to obey. Now if you’re not undone by that, and virtually melted where you sit, there may be something desperately wrong with you, spiritually. I’ll repeat it. It is not simply that God acts in Christ before we are called to obey, God Himself will actually obey in Christ for us before we are called ourselves to obey.

It is all of Him. God’s action, therefore, so marvelous is it. His action, His indicative, includes within it our imperatives. All the commands that are laid upon us are already found in Him. Here is the fuller and more glorious meaning of Christ’s perfect obedience. He is God acting to fulfill God’s own law for us and in us. Before we can obey, God in Christ obeys for us. He accomplishes it. There is a fullness of the accomplishment. There’s nothing left out. You can only enter into it. You can only take advantage of it. It’s already done.

Indeed, now, even as we hear the imperatives, as those imperatives come to us, part and parcel of the imperatives is that we would enter into and be joined to Christ, who is our righteousness, who is our obedience. Your life is His life. For to live is Christ. Again, is it not true? Grace now is magnified before our eyes, as we are compelled to see and live in the full sufficiency of God in Christ, whose indicative action for us means his imperative obedience in us. and for us. Truly, our salvation and even our daily Christian living are all of Him.

You dare not depart from Him for a moment. You must abide in Him. But now this brings us in conclusion to the imperative-laden landscape of Ephesians and the command-dominated terrain of chapters four through six, specifically, in keeping with our interests presently, the imperatives of chapter five, twenty-two through six-nine. And it is here you are able to see the dazzling glory, at least here in an initial fashion, the dazzling glory of those things that I have been endeavoring to show to you this morning.

For example, consider the root of all obedience leading to and explicative of a blessed and godly marriage. I’m suggesting to you that not just with regard to the indicative imperative that your education is going to be turned head over heels, even as you consider things like marriage and child-rearing and employment your world is going to be turned head over heels. Consider the root of all obedience leading to a blessed and godly marriage.

Is not that obedience discovered in God in Christ, and in Christ’s own obedience as it applies specifically and respectively to both wives and husbands. And what shall we say about children and parents, next on the list? Will we not find, when we scrutinize these verses in Ephesians, that their obedience is an obedience that flows forth from God the Father’s obedience and that manifest in God the Son? And what shall we say about slaves and masters? God becomes the slave. God becomes the slave, he becomes the servant, even in Jesus Christ, that there might be obedience for us, respective of our positions in life as masters and servants.

We are busy now unearthing the foundations of genuine Christian living. These foundations will prove to be in themselves a discipline to you, compelling you once more, in keeping with the tone and directive of Scripture, to give up your life, that it might be found in Christ. that the very obedience of Christ might in the end be the sum and substance of all of your Christian living.

That gives you an idea of where we’re going. And I hope you’ll stay on board. to the end of the line. Our God, the full sufficiency that is revealed in Christ startles us. When we sit down to consider it, it is greater than we can take in. We know, O God, that it means the answer to our sin, and we are overwhelmed by that thought, by that reality and truth.

But, Father, it also means a full obedience found in Him and nowhere else. Even while we are confessing ourselves to be sinners, we are justified. Even while we are struggling with sin day by day, we are triumphant. We are not overcome because we are united to the One who in Himself is sufficient for all of our lives. For in Him there is not just satisfaction for our offenses, there is the fullness of life itself, a righteousness and a complete, faithful obedience.

May we therefore be delighted to abide in Him, even as we see the benefit of that at work in our marriages, in our homes, with our children, with our parents, in our work, in our relationships one to another. Always keeping in mind the greatness of your grace, our own unworthiness, and the marvels of all of that goodness, of all of that grace, of all of that peace, communicated to us.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 8, 1996
A Unity Built on Grace Alone

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 10, 1994.

About this sermon

Ephesians grounds the church’s unity entirely in grace and in the finality of Christ’s finished work, apart from shared preference or personality. Ephesians 2, dead in sin and alive in Christ, lays that ground. Several common but weaker accounts of church unity fall short of it.

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Sermon transcript

This morning we turn to Ephesians chapter 1, and we begin reading at verse 15. This is Ephesians chapter 1, and we are starting at verse 15. I’ll give you attention to the reading of God’s word. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And it put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. And you, happy quiffins, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law, commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself uptwain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were not.”

Let’s pray together. Father, you, by drawing us to yourself, have extended our vision where we may have been the center of our worlds prior to coming to you. You now, O God, have set yourself in the center of that world, and you have made us aware of others, yes, even those whom you have called and will call to yourself. And we ask, Lord, that your blessing might richly abide with those who proclaim your word today in places around this world, that there may be a rich harvest for your church, and that your people may see this harvest and rejoice.

We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. be predestined, even though they don’t believe in predestination? Well, of course. Of course they can. Just because someone doesn’t believe in God’s predestination doesn’t mean that they aren’t predestined. of this fact that I have always thought that the advantage goes to a Calvinist in a debate upon the subject of predestination. The truth, after all, is better than we are. The truth is better than we are. And often an individual is saved who fails to grasp the full range of biblical truth.

But by the same token, can I be part of the universal Church of Christ and fail to realize the profound nature of the Church’s unity? and even exhibit an attitude and be guilty of actions that attack or stand diametrically opposed to that unity. Paul preaches God’s predestination to some who personally question it. Paul also proclaims the Church’s unity to many who are oblivious to it. He declares the Church’s unity to many who have even been guilty of abusing that unity. Nor does the reality of what the Apostle declares depend upon the belief or the behavior of those to whom he declares it.

More specifically, there is a unity that belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ that lies beyond my ability to create it or maintain it. That is, such is the unity of the Church that in the most basic sense, it is a given. Such is the unity of the Church that in the most basic sense, it is a given. It is a true gift of grace. This means then that there is that sense in which we do not wait for it to arrive, to come, to be achieved. There is that sense in which Church unity is not an expectation or even a hope. It is not something for which we labor nor for which we struggle.

Rather, it is a present, gracious reality that even here, in our consideration of it, sets before us the magnificence of Jesus Christ and his gospel. But just how magnificent is Jesus Christ and his gospel in this regard? as they pertain to this matter of Church unity.

There is a completeness in Him. There is a completeness in Him. there is a finality that virtually leaves nothing further to be done, nothing further to be accomplished. Something of this absolute completiveness and finality is heard in Christ’s very own words from the cross. know the ones that I mean, those found in John chapter 19 verse 30, when Jesus cries out, it is finished. Jesus means, quite specifically by these words, that his work in the world is done. But at the same time, there is a note heard in these words. of absolute finality, not just with respect to his work in the world, but his work, period, regardless of which world may be in view. As if everything that he has to do, whether in this world or the next, has been accomplished, Now, it is this sense of things that Paul picks up on in those very powerful words in Galatians chapter 4, verse 4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law.” The words there, with this power, are the opening words of that statement.

But when the fullness of time had come, Now, Paul’s words here about the fullness of time have nothing to do with the oft-repeated but mistaken notion that the time was right, that the conditions in Israel and in the world were right for the Messiah’s appearance. No, that’s not Paul’s meaning at all when he speaks about the fullness of time having arrived. Rather, he is concerned to say that the time has actually reached an end point in the appearance of Jesus Christ in the world. Time itself has reached its goal, and in a true sense, the conclusion of time has been accomplished in Christ’s accomplishment of his mission. This means then, according to Paul’s understanding of things, that history itself has come to a conclusion, has come to an end, its purpose having been realized in the appearance of Jesus Christ. There is nothing further to do and to accomplish.

Now I ask you to carry that perspective, that you glean from Christ’s words from the cross, and also from Paul’s words in Galatians chapter 4, with you into your consideration of Ephesians, Ephesians 1 and 2. Paul here, at the outset of his epistle sees Christ not in process, but in terms of the completedness of his work. This comes out very clearly at the conclusion of Ephesians 1. You will note here that Paul’s references at the conclusion of this chapter have in mind that which is already accomplished, that which is already done. Jesus Christ, therefore, is not in the process of putting down all rule and authority, but has already been exalted far above them, verse 21 at the end of that first chapter. Now, I want you to appreciate what is being said here by the Apostle by contrasting it with what you find in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 23 through 28. In those verses set in front of us are statements with regard to the process by which Christ shall bring all rule and authority under him. and bring everything in subjection to him under his feet.

But here in Ephesians, the statement is with regard to that which is already accomplished as if there’s nothing left to do. Nothing remains. Nothing is unfinished. There are no loose ends to be tied up. God then, with respect to his work in Christ, is not putting all things in projection under Christ’s feet, at least as far as the perspective of Ephesians is concerned, and that, it seems, is over against the perspective of 1 Corinthians 15. Rather, this is something that has already been done. Verse 22 of that first chapter in Ephesians. This means, then, that Jesus Christ is not somehow becoming the head over all things to the Church. He is the head established. It is accomplished. There is a finality to it.

This accomplished quality, then, with respect to these things according to the Apostle, is as settled as Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, and as much constitutive of his gospel as those great central events. But the amazing thing now is The fact that the Apostle declares to us that we share in the settledness, the completedness, the finality, the accomplished quality of all of these things that he has been speaking of with respect to his Lord.

Look at the opening of the second chapter, and let the testimony there with respect to the settledness of the matter as concerns ourselves settle in upon you. There is even the settledness here about the sentence of death. that has come upon us because of our transgressions and our sins. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Join that with what you find in verse 3, that we all are the children of wrath, as if the irrevocable character of that wrath sets it before us as an already accomplished fact. It is so settled a matter that there is no possibility of escape from it.

Now, I would judge that death speaks to us about finality. That is what the Apostle is endeavoring now to communicate to his hearers. Yes, he speaks at the end of Ephesians 1 with regard to the finality of Christ, But he is also speaking now, as he moves into the second chapter, about a finality that pertains to us, and that finality is one of death. We are dead. There’s no way back. It’s impossible for us to come back. There is no remedy for our circumstance and situation.

And we are under God’s wrath, as if that wrath were an accomplished act with regard to us already. We are experiencing it presently. Now, what the apostle has done here is he sets you squarely before an impossible situation. The situation is one of death already accomplished. It’s true with regard to you. You are a child of wrath. That is your inheritance. and it is impossible for you to escape.

Do you now understand the flow and the power of what the Apostle is endeavoring to communicate to these Ephesians? God does the impossible, and he undoes what has already been done. and that through the interposition of his son. We were dead, and there was no possibility for our rescue. There was no possibility for us coming alive again. But now, because of God’s love and power, we are alive.

Understand the weight, the force of the Apostle’s statement. He is not here talking about other people besides you. He is speaking with respect to you, to all of you. You must understand that and grasp it. Your condition is as he has described it here. You must identify with what he is saying.

If you don’t identify with what he is saying here, when he is speaking about you being dead and being the children of wrath, you can have no part in his gospel. It’s not just a matter of the preacher being paid to get excited, or even to become agitated about these matters. It is a question concerning your eternal destiny. Do you actually think of yourself as having been dead, without Christ? As having been a child of wrath, worthy of his condemnation? Is that a thought that enters your head? Is that something you think about?

If you don’t, you can’t appreciate grace. There is no way for you to appreciate God’s love. Because in the end, you are saying, in one way or another, I am as worthy as anyone else to receive God’s attention. we were dead. There was no hope. There was no possibility of redemption. But now, because of the love and power of God, we are alive.

Verse 5 of Ephesians 2. And talk about finality. The apostle then goes on to tell you that your resurrection has been accomplished, for you have been raised up with Christ, and you have ascended with Christ, so as now to enjoy the blessings that are in the heavenly places.” Verse 6. Truly, then, you by grace have been saved. It is the specific quality of biblical faith that both realizes and grasps hold of this. It is the specific quality of biblical faith that both realizes this and grasps hold of it. But no further, as far as the Apostle is concerned, there is nothing exclusively personal about what he has to say on these subjects.

For you see, the Church as a whole shares in the finality found in Christ. The Church, then, is not becoming the fullness of Him who fills all and all. The Church is not becoming the fullness of Him that fills all and all, it already is such. The Church is not waiting for the arrival of its peace, its peace has arrived in Christ. That peace has been accomplished. The Church does not look for reconciliation even within its own membership. It is an already established reality, verse 16, even as Jews and Gentiles are brought together in Christ. The Church does not fall for the unity of the one new man, verse 15, or the body, the one body belonging to God, verse 16. That unity already is a reality for the Church because of the Church’s vital union to Christ and that vital union realized in Heaven. We, by grace through faith, live in the accomplishments, the finality, the completeness of Christ’s work.

But it is precisely here, at the point of the completeness, the finality, the accomplishment of this unity in Christ, that the ecumenical commitments and efforts of the Church fail, and fail repeatedly. The liberals emphasized the prospect of union for all churches. all denominations, regardless of whatever strife or commitment or description. But they do so, you see, not ultimately in the interest of the Church, but in the interest of a unified humanity in which the distinction between the Church and the world is obliterate. The ecumenical vision of liberalism is therefore merely an extension of its religious commitment that belongs to a completely different order of religion than that of Christianity. We are not speaking about the same thing, even when we speak about the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ. There is, it seems, the supreme commitment with, and contentment with, what they call the visible symbol of unity in the earth, focusing on the Vatican and in the Pope.

Thus, you see, faith is bypassed, for the focus, you see, is on what you can see, what is obvious to you. But the genuinely Reformed and Evangelical have also stumbled over the doctrine of the Church’s unity, and there may even be a short-sightedness in our own standards at this very point. For the tendency has been, when someone among us has been bitten by the ecumenical bug, to so concentrate upon the imperative for the Church for the Church’s union that any true sense of the already accomplished heavenly union of the Church in Christ is lost completely from view. As a result, the very things of which the Apostle is speaking here in Ephesians 1 and 2 are lost to us. The power, the grace, the completeness that is found in our Savior, the finality that is found in Him, these things are severely compromised and damaged so that we cannot proceed as we ought.

We have no other place to stand but that which God has given us in Christ, even when it comes to this matter of Church unity. We have nowhere else to stand in the first place than in that completed, final accomplishment of Jesus Christ, realizing that there is nothing lacking in Him whatsoever, even with regard to these matters.

We are part of the universal, yes, heavenly Church of Christ, but sadly we fail to realize the profound nature of the Church’s unity and even exhibit an attitude and are guilty of actions that attack that unity. But praise God that Christ is not diminished one wit, nor can he be diminished by our hard-headedness, our hard-heartedness, or our stupidity. Let us pray. Our God, the Church has spent much time in her discussions about unity, and even as we have seen as a consequence of the Reformation great division in the Church of Christ and the fragmentation in denominations, many of them here in our own country, we call out unto you that there may be, Lord, a commitment on our part to that which is set before us so unmistakably by Paul in the letter to the Ephesians. and that we would not lose our grip upon the completion of Christ’s work, its finality, and the fullness of it, even as we are made partakers of that fullness, there being nothing lacking in the fullness and the unity that belongs essentially to Him. With this Lord before us, with us understanding these things, We are in a position then, so as not to compromise your grace, your love, or your power, even when it comes to the matter of discussing the vital union between churches, how we might get together, how we might be brought together. For surely, Lord, there is that unity that is already accomplished in Jesus Christ, the Head and King of the Church.

Help us, our Father, we ask. to keep these things in mind. For Jesus’ sake.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 10, 1994
Already at Peace, Still at War

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 3, 1994.

About this sermon

Ephesians 2 describes a peace between Jew and Gentile that is real and accomplished, even while Christians keep going to war with one another. The text names that gap between the already and the not yet plainly. Avoiding the war Paul warns against means living out the peace God has already given.

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Sermon transcript

This morning we are reading from Ephesians 2. We are beginning at verse 1. Give your attention to the reading of God’s holy word. who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, a spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore, remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father, Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builted together for the inhabitation of God through the Spirit.

Look upon all those, O Lord, who hear your word today. Graciously grant strength in that life conferred already in Jesus Christ to those who have believed. But be pleased, O Father, this day. to gather many of your elect, that your church already gathered might rejoice, and rejoice with those who rejoice in heaven. So bless your word here, Lord, that we in hearing may obey. And Father, may it please you, through such light as shines from us, to bring light then to this dark world. We ask it for Jesus’ sake, for the sake of that one who is himself the very life of the world. Amen.

In the film Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee is made to comment on the irony that the Fourth of July, marking the celebration of American independence, should lie so close to the July 3 battle in which the freedom of the southern states would be determined. But Lloyd certainly has a sense of humor,” General Lee said, at least in the film.

But what we witnessed in the horror of that July 3rd charge by Pickett and others was anything but humorous. If the Lord was laughing, it must have been to have in derision those men who had been made to be such utter fools. We have been taught, have we not, or at least this is how we have seen things, that the Lord’s laughter is reserved for the raging heathen nations and their stubborn rulers, those who refused to submit to him and his sovereign lordship. But on July 3, 1863, undoubtedly his derisive laugh was directed against those who likely and from the Union alike, had the Lord’s name comfortably placed upon their tongues. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, slaughtering Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptist, Episcopalians, and Lutherans.

Now, if it hadn’t all been in the interest of such a worthy cause, it wouldn’t have been enough to make atheists of us all. But all the worthy causes, but right after them, those who belong to the household of faith, in order to make war upon one another.

The worthy cause presently drags after its Protestant and Catholic endowment in Ireland. The worthy cause drags after Orthodox Serb and Romanist Croats in Belgium. And what about the worthy cause in Rwanda? that small African nation that boasts a Christian population of 80 percent, and if we add the Seventh-day Adventists to that calculation, nearly 90 percent. But this nation now busying itself with a bloodbath that has claimed 500,000 lives, and displaced a million more.

Now, the Christian Church can look out upon the world torn by hostility, brutalized by conflict, It can look out upon a world that even attacks the Church. But when that happens, the Church feels vindicated, justified, and genuine in its confession and in its offer of peace. Peace, says the Church boldly, is impossible without the Prince of Peace. It is possible, says the Church, only through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what now, comes the question. What now, since the Church herself is torn apart by hostility, and internally scandalized by conflict that pits professing Christian against professing Christian. In fact, pitting those against one another who are of the very same denomination or from the same ecclesiastical background. How is the Church then able to hold her head up when those from her membership are at each other’s throats to such an extent that they are literally slitting one another’s throats.

More specifically, and with regard to our passage this morning, especially the latter part of it, Ephesians 2, 11-22, How are we, the Church, able to claim for the Apostle Paul and for his gospel any credibility given what we have witnessed in the Church throughout her history and what we see presently taking place in many regions of the world through the Church?

How do statements such as what we find in verse 14 there, play themselves out. Jesus Christ, he himself, is our peace. How does such a statement as this make any sense? How does talk about the one new man mentioned in verse 15 and all of the images of harmony that that brings to mind? have any meaning for us? And what about the reconciliation that is spoken of in verse 16, a reconciliation for those who are now brought together in one body to God? Nevertheless, we are absolutely committed, are we not, to the truthfulness of the Word of God and to the integrity of the Apostle Paul?

This man is utterly serious. He is not dealing here with fabrications. He is not dabbling in fictions. He is thoroughly genuine in what he has to say to the Church. And isn’t it interesting that the statement that we find here is in the context of an epistle that is his most general statement? The specifics that we find in other of his epistles are not found here in the epistle to the Ephesians. There’s no personal greeting. You might think that’s strange since Paul spent three years in Ephesus. That means then that the generality and the universality of this epistle is deliberate on Paul’s part.

Yes, he is absolutely serious and thoroughly, completely genuine in what he has to say about the peace that is a reality in Christ, about the one new man, about the reconciliation that has taken place. But how in the world are we to understand this man? in light of the particulars that we have mentioned already this morning. And the way in which it seems that Christian saints, so wonderfully exemplary in other regards, simply stumble. and that tragically 53,000 died against them if you were a mother think of your boy And we weren’t out there slaying Caesar. We were cutting down fellow Presbyterians. Now, in order to get at the Apostles meeting a bit better, I hope it is obvious to all of us this morning that we cannot shift Paul’s meaning for peace off into the realm of personal tranquility and psychological serenity.

The Apostle here is talking about something that is essentially external and eminently social in its character. He is speaking about the removal of a dividing wall, a barrier between peoples. Here’s the Apostle’s sociology. He is speaking about the removal of a dividing wall, a barrier between peoples. That barrier being between Gentiles and Jews, verse 14.

He is talking about something here that takes form and shape in the Church, which stands centrally to his concern in this epistle as a whole. Something that takes then concrete form in the world, something you can see, something that is visible, a visible assembly, something that Paul calls God’s household in verse 19. Brought together out of the flesh and blood tribes of Israel and out of the flesh and blood tribes of the nation.

There is nothing here, then, of a privatized mysticism. There is nothing here of a vision for religion that is content merely with contemplation and meditation. There is nothing here of a vision of religion for which the existence of anyone else except the self and God However he may be personally conceived, it’s utterly unnecessary.

So we are clear, are we not, at least on this point, that what the apostle has in mind is something that has concrete form in the world. You can see it. It is visible. But neither is the Apostle a social philosopher in the classic sense of that word, as if his real objective were to present a vision for humanity that was always within man’s reach, if he would but grasp it. Isn’t that the try and true principle of social theory?

The Apostle Paul is not a social philosopher. He is not here presenting a vision for humanity that was always within man’s reach if he would but grasp it. a vision for society that actually leaves no excuse to Gentiles and Jews for ever being separated in the first place. In other words, Paul is not saying that if Gentiles and Jews understood their true and common humanity, there would have never been any division between them at all. It is not, therefore, a failure of their native ability that separates Jews from Gentiles. The Apostle understands that what separated Jews from Gentiles was a concrete act by God in history.

That conceived and born of grace. Israel had been separated from the nations by God’s election, and that inexplicable in and of itself, except we find the reason for it in God himself. Israel was separated from the nations by God’s election, sealed by circumcision and Old Testament sacrament and religious right, in which the Gentiles had no part. They were excluded. By divine act, the Gentiles were originally separated even from the expectation of Christ. By divine decree, they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, they were made strangers to the covenants of promise, they had no hope, and were without God in the world.”

As it was by God’s own gracious action that the Jews was separated from the Gentiles originally, it is not by God’s own gracious action in Christ that the Gentiles and Jews are brought together. Particularly in view is Christ’s cross, Christ’s shed blood for sinners, Jewish sinners, Gentile sinners. This being God’s means not merely of reconciling peoples to himself, but also to one another. If there had been, by necessity, a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, even in the Old Testament sanctuary in Jerusalem, that wall has been removed in the crucified flesh of Christ.

And a new situation now pertains. Something new has taken place. Something new has come. that has never existed before. Gentiles gathered with Jews to be the people of God. They together granted a common inheritance in glory.” Note finally that Paul is not, by these words, shuffling off what he speaks of here to a nebulous future, as if in his optimism he cannot help but think about these things as an already present reality. who, in looking at the incongruity between the world and what they read here in Ephesians 2, have concluded that the only way in which we can make sense of what the Apostle says is to reserve everything that is spoken of here for the future. Yes, there will be this reconciliation, there will be this reunion, there will be this commonality, this harmony, this peace. The Paul’s message here is not with regard to prospect, it is with regard to reality and that which has transpired already. The reconciliation of which he speaks, the peace of which he speaks, the tearing down of the metal wall of partition has been accomplished.

Not to say that there is not process in view or at work. by which Jews and Gentiles are being incorporated into God’s dwelling in the Spirit, in which there isn’t growth. Of course there is growth. Of course there is this incorporation. Of course there is this progress. And it is alluded to also in Ephesians 4, where Paul speaks about the Church growing up into full maturity, into Christ himself. By all means, then, there is growth and maturing, a maturation that is taking place.

But still, according to what the Apostle Paul is setting down, we are not waiting for the peace to arrive, for it is presently asserting itself. Now, your vision may become clouded. And your faith at this point may begin to falter. But I plead with you that you fear the Apostle Paul for all your worth. He is not waiting for the peace to arrive.

It is presently asserting itself. And it is precisely because it has arrived and it is asserting itself that this piece and everything that belongs to it becomes a discipline for us. This is what is made clear also by the fourth chapter of Ephesians.

Yes, as Ephesians 2 tells us, we are the new man in Christ, but that does not mean that we don’t have to put on the new man, as Ephesians 4.24 tells us. And to be continually dressing ourselves up in that new humanity which is ours in Christ. to be sure, as Ephesians 2 tells us, Christ is our peace. That is accomplished. Do you not understand? If we take that away, then grace falls. Salvation is lost. There’s nothing left.

Yes, Christ is our peace. Reconciliation has come, but we dare not ignore then what the Apostle says to us at the end of the fourth chapter of Ephesians, which is the working out of that reconciliation and the demonstration of that peace for us in our assemblies and in our lives. Let all bitterness,” writes the Apostle, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and slander, be put away from you, along with all balance, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” For you to respond to that statement Christ must be our peace, our reconciliation. There must be that harmony that is found in him from which you live, out of which you converse. otherwise you are thrown back completely into a works religion.

The Apostle sees it all in his time, he knows the conflicts that will arise. He’s no fool. And yet he speaks here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And what a message. Peace has come. Reconciliation has been accomplished. Harmony is at work for the Church of Jesus Christ. For the Church is in the Savior. It cannot be otherwise. Otherwise, there is no gospel.

But this also means that we are not at liberty to ignore that which has been given by God in Christ to us. The truth and reality of this gift of grace are what indict us personally when we presume upon them and then go ahead, in the interests of some worthy cause, to flatter our brethren away. For can we, without detriment to our souls, ignore what is as set and as certain as the cross itself namely that this peace of which we speak exists for us. A peace, in fact, we must insist upon, even when all the pressures of state and church are hard enough to deny it. In fact, the church fought for the sake of her membership, and in order to honor her God’s will to resist trial and torture when she is told, and even that from her own pulpit, that she must take up arms in order to annihilate her own faith. Those godly men in 1861 should have said, no, we won’t go, we won’t do it.

And if you don’t, you are going to be subject to the discipline of this church. For you see, Christ has not left his church without measures and methods and resources for the resolution of and the dealing with conflicts. And that church is condemned when she fails to use those methods and measures at her disposal. For you see, it constitutes a denial of Christ’s headship.

Now this is not to say that there were not a great number of extraordinarily fine Christian men who gave themselves to that cause and even died for it. It’s merely to say, as wonderful as they were and as exemplary as they were, they were most definitely confused at this point.

May we learn from that Holocaust, and may we know what the Church must most certainly do. when such situations does not arise. And may God have mercy upon us all. Let us pray. Our God in heaven, We do ask you that we would live fully and blessedly in the wonderful realities that are laid out for us by the Apostle. May we see Lord the Kingdom and know its reality. And may the church of which we are a part be blessed with the peace of the realm. and that reconciliation and harmony that are found in Christ. And may we begin with those considerations to the end that we might be gracious and forbearing, persevering in peacemaking, and determined that we will not be a part of slaughtering our own friends and fellow citizens in the kingdom of heaven we pray this in Jesus name who is himself the head

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 3, 1994
God Inherits Us, We Inherit God

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 5, 1994.

About this sermon

Ephesians 1 reframes inheritance entirely: what God gives his people is himself, and what they receive in turn is not a set of blessings but God’s own presence. Joshua and Moses supply the Old Testament pattern this fulfills. The whole shape of Ephesians turns on that double, personal inheritance.

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Sermon transcript

This morning we are reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and we are beginning with a reading of chapter 1. This is chapter 1 of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I’ll give you attention to the reading of God’s word. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

Let’s pray together now. Our God, you graciously give us your word that we might profit, and Lord, we rejoice in that. But we also offer up the prayer that your word would in fact be powerful this day. We know, Lord, that your word shall accomplish your purpose, but we are asking that this day you may show the power of that word in us, but also in other places in the world. Our prayer is for those servants of yours who read and proclaim the word before the peoples of the earth today, that there might be those who are high and those who are low, those rich and poor, those who have prospered and those who are in want, who hear that word and are straightened by it. O Lord, Teach them, the peoples of the earth, by the gospel, the truth with respect to yourself and with respect to the purpose and meaning of life. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

You can see western Pennsylvania from Ephesus. You can see, quickly, from the summit of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. E. K. Simpson of Oxford once wrote, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is the Tizgah Survey of the Land of Promise. You will recall that Mount Tizgah is that summit in the territory of Moab, on the east side of the River Jordan, from which Moses, in his last hours, was permitted to see the Promised Land of Canaan, although he was not permitted to enter that land. Professor Simpson’s remark is meant to call attention to the high level at which this epistle to the Ephesians moves. With Ephesians in hand, we are like Moses on Pisgah, capable both of seeing the whole of the camp of God’s people—that is, the Church—and the whole of the anticipated inheritance—that is, the land of promise—to say nothing of the fact that we are enabled from this vantage point to see the entirety of God’s purpose and intention from the foundation of the world. Now, Professor Simpson’s comment is literally compelling and powerful. It is also true as far as it goes. But unfortunately, as good as it is, it falls short of the true heights to which Ephesians would take us.

Those heights are not found in Moses on a mountain in Moab. Interestingly, they are found in Moses’ successor, in Joshua, who, rather than Moses viewing the promised inheritance from a distance, actually entered into that inheritance to possess it. As we stare into the story, then, into the story of Joshua, Moses’ successor, we see clearly the form of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joshua leads Israel into the blessings of the land of Canaan. Jesus Christ leads us, his Church, into the blessings of heaven. The famous opening, then, to Ephesians, that third verse of the first chapter, makes this connection quite clear. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

And as Joshua passes through the River Jordan to assume his position as prince and judge over Israel in the land of Canaan, so Jesus Christ passes through death in order to assume his position as Prince and Judge over the Church in Heaven. It’s also in keeping with what Paul tells us in this first chapter. In the twentieth verse, Paul says, the Father of Glory raised Christ from the dead. and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Therefore, the crossing of the Jordan River by the Israelites in Joshua forecasts the greater crossing from death to life that those serving reunited to Jesus Christ experience. Israel’s crossing brings to them enjoyment in Canaan under Joshua. But as Ephesians 2 verse 6 tells us, the church’s crossing is by a resurrection. We are raised up with Christ, says Paul, and seated with him, not in Canaan, but in the heavenly places, in the regions eternal above. further with respect to this parallel between Joshua and Jesus.

The word about Joshua, by way of the Israelites, reverberates throughout the land of Canaan, so that the potentates and powers of that land, entrenched in it, tremble and are even brought to the brink of destruction. But note how this parallel works itself out with regard to Jesus Christ. The word about Jesus Christ, chapter 3, verse 10 in Ephesians, the word about Jesus Christ is made known through the church, it seems, to the rulers and the principalities in heavenly places themselves. so that these rulers and principalities, these spiritual powers, tremble and are brought to the brink of destruction. And one more parallel in this regard.

Joshua is a warrior. for he leads the people of Israel in a fight against the tribes that inhabit Canaan. The war is against flesh-and-blood enemies for the securing and maintaining of Canaan. It is waged not only by Joshua the leader, but by the people of Israel themselves, both those then with Joshua at the time of the conquest and those in the succeeding generations. They secure and are to maintain the inheritance that has been granted to them in Joshua.

But note now what is said in Ephesians 6 verse 12. That verse states with respect to the Church and our ongoing struggle. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. So we see that the Old Testament book of Joshua provides for us a powerful background against which we may view the New Testament letter of Paul to the Ephesians. A background much more appropriate to Paul’s thinking at this point than that found in the Old Testament story about Moses.

Unlike Jesus, Moses stops short of the promised inheritance and does not lead God’s people into that inheritance. But like Jesus, Joshua enters that inheritance and leads God’s people into its enjoyment. Unlike Jesus, Moses does not organize the people of God for the continuing fight against those who have usurped rank and place in the inheritance. On the other hand, like Jesus, Joshua does nothing less.”

Now, it is in this world of reference and correspondence created by the relationship between Joshua the book of Joshua and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, that the surpassing excellence of Paul’s message blazes brilliantly upon us. For, you see, it won’t be enough merely to make parallel judgments with respect to Ephesians and Joshua. Such parallel judgments will end short of the great and exceeding excellence that we are to see in the administration of Jesus Christ. That administration going far beyond anything that Joshua could have granted to the children of Israel.

Take, for example, the whole issue of the inheritance. It’s a subject of great concern to the book of Joshua, for you have in that book the parceling out of the land to the tribes, the inheritances granted to each of the tribes as they go into the land of promise. So take this whole issue of the inheritance. In Joshua, the inheritance is the land. In Joshua, the inheritance is the land of Canaan.

But in Ephesians, the inheritance is associated with what Paul calls the heavenly places, and we have listed all the passages this morning, if you are taking note, we have listed all the passages in Ephesians in which Paul mentions the heavenly places. Now, I say that the inheritance in Ephesians is associated with the heavenly places. I am not identifying the inheritance as the heavenly places, but I am saying to you that in Ephesians the inheritance is associated with the heavenly places.

And I say this because Paul does not merely intend to suggest that the Jews with Joshua got the land while the Church with Jesus did not. that is not his intention. In fact, so much does Paul wish to avoid what would become a trite and tired equation, namely that the land in the Old Testament equals heaven in the New, that he turns the references to the inheritance on their heads. He throws into his statements about the inheritance a complication, lest you make that equation, in your own mind, too simply, too easily, and thus dismiss it.

If you look, then, at Ephesians chapter one, verses ten beginning at the end of that tenth verse. You will notice as he moves on, Paul moves on into the eleventh verse, that he makes reference then specifically, explicitly to the inheritance. Now, he has implied it much Previously, he will note that in verse 5, when he speaks about the adoption of children, the adoption of sons, and that brings into view the whole issue of the inheritance. But now, we’re looking at verses 10 and 11, specifically as Paul speaks of the inheritance.

This is what Paul says, “…in him,” that is, in Christ, “…we have obtained an inheritance.” Or, as the margin of one version puts it, We are made to be heirs. Paul, however, does not tell us what the inheritance is. He just mentions it, but he doesn’t identify it. He doesn’t tell us what we are heirs of.

Now I want you to drop down to verses 13 and 14, where Paul once more is going to speak about this inheritance. He tells us in those two verses that Christians have been sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit, then, verse 14, given as a pledge, the old word earnest used there in the King James, means pledge or down payment. The Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of our inheritance. Now, we might think at this point, at least at this point, now Paul will come right out and tell us what the inheritance is. But even though he hints at it, and the hint is there for us if we have the ears to hear it, even though the hint is there, he does not come out explicitly and tell us what the inheritance is.

But you will note now how he progresses in that fourteenth verse. He goes on to use the most surprising language. in the words that follow as he speaks about this inheritance that is all so important. As I said earlier to you, it is this language then in the fourteenth verse of that first chapter that will turn the usual ways of talking about the inheritance on their heads. In explanation of the inheritance then mentioned there at the beginning of the fourteenth verse, Paul goes on to say, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession.

That’s the New American Standard rendering of it, or as the King James puts it, until the redemption of the purchased possession, a more literal translation. Now, however you translate it, King James or New American Standard, that is indeed an odd way of stating the case, or speaking about this inheritance which we would think of as our own.

You see, as we start out that 14th verse, we in fact do hear about our inheritance. Underscore that word, our. We hear about our inheritance, that is, what we are to possess. But as Paul progresses, instead of telling us specifically what it is we shall possess, he throws us a curve, a complication of language. Instead of telling us what we shall possess, he next talks about what God shall possess. Now, the New American Standard may paraphrase this verse by its translation, but that translation certainly catches the sense of Paul’s meaning with a view so likes Paul, to the redemption of God’s own possession. In other words, rather than telling us outright what we shall inherit, Paul tells us what God will inherit. And what does God inherit? Well, in keeping with the language there, of redemption, he inherits what he has redeemed. And what has he redeemed? He has redeemed us. God inherits us. We are God’s inheritors.

Now, if you are having trouble seeing this point or if it is a bit confusing for you, I want you to look at one more verse, verse 18. Here you have given to you the magnificent, compact statement of the content of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. Paul is asking that the eyes of the Ephesians’ hearts may be enlightened. And this to the end, so goes that verse, this to the end, that they might know the hope of God’s calling.

Now, here, what is said in conclusion, not only that they might know the hope of God’s calling, but that they also might know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.” Underscore those words at the end of verse 18, “…the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.” Paul does not say, at this point, the riches of the glory of Ireland. Rather, he says, the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance. God here is portrayed as the imperator. He is the heir. The inheritance is his.

We don’t ordinarily think like that. We don’t even talk like that. Ordinarily, when it comes to the matter of inheritance, As we give religious consideration to that subject, we are thinking about our inheritance, what comes to us. We are the inheritors, we are the heirs, are we not? The heirs of those things that God has intended to give us. But here, God is portrayed as the inheritor, as the heir. in view is the inheritance that he has in his saints.

Now, the question rises as to why, why in the world would Paul put the matter like this? Why would he turn this language about inheritance on its head? Well, there are a couple of answers to that. We don’t have time to go into all of them this morning, but just a couple for you, for your consideration. First of all, Paul is endeavoring to set before those who hear him the priority of God in everything. even before you are an heir. Precisely against the background of that inheritance that is yours is set the fact that God himself is air and in parable, and this to underscore the absolute sovereignty and supremacy of God.

Is there anything like Ephesians chapter 1 in setting that in front of you? Have you not often read Ephesians 1 and just been swept up with the statements here that come in crescendo fashion concerning God and His greatness, His glory, His magnificence? Are you not overwhelmed at times by what you see here with respect to God? I invite you merely to look at verses 5 and 6. of this chapter.

He predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now, that’s what he says at the beginning. You’re swept around by that at the conclusion of the chapter. and overwhelmed by the priority of God, and that, to the intent that you might have impressed upon you, the absolute sovereignty, the absolute sovereignty and supremacy of God in all things. Paul will not diminish God. Even when it comes to this matter of inheritance, God has the priority. We are even driven to think of Him first. But there’s another reason why the statement comes as it does, in this fashion, the focus upon God’s inheritance, the fact that He is there, rather than the reverse.

And this is because we are tempted to think about that inheritance that comes to us in terms of things. And Paul is going to preface on this point by taking up the matter of God and His inheritance first, that we might be disabused of that kind of thinking.

You see, under Joshua, God’s people inherited what seemed to be earthly possessions—things, things that they could handle and touch, things that they could carry around, things that they could amass, things that could prove to them how important they were. Under Joshua, then, God’s people inherited things, seemingly. Under Jesus Christ, God’s people are tempted to think that their inheritance consists simply of heavenly things. The temptation then is to think of our inheritance, moving along this analogy from Joshua to Jesus.

Our inheritance must be of things, heavenly things, but things nonetheless. But it is precisely here that the excellency of the revelation given us in Jesus Christ, and the excellence of the redemption we have in Him, shows itself. In Jesus Christ, the greatness of that inheritance, that which exceeds what Joshua could deliver, comes through. And to press home the point, Paul talks about God’s inheritance, not of things, but of us, persons. And starting there, you see, he is obviously implying the alternative consideration. starting with God’s inheritance of us. He is pushing us, then, to consider that our inheritance does not consist of things, even heavenly things, but it consists of God. You are an heir of God. as a child of God, as a son of God, you are an inheritor of God. God is giving himself to you that he might be your possession.

We are forced then to this conclusion when we consider the flip side of Ephesians 1.18. Yes, as Paul says, we are to know the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in his saints, but we are also to know the riches of the glory of our inheritance in God.

God is my fortune. God is my inheritance. forever. My goal is to enjoy God forever. And that through the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is mine, and I am His. The comfort and encouragement of this truth, specifically that we are God’s inheritance, is nothing short of overwhelming. You see, God will not be robbed of his inheritance. God will not be robbed of his inheritance. Now it is amazing to me that so many of you can sleep through this message.

I’m embarrassed for you. Because it seems as if even the thought of the inheritance that God is for you, it is not sufficient to stir your soul to pay attention for a short time on Sunday morning. Do you know that it is a sin to sleep in church? And you will be judged for that just as much as the adulterer the fornicator and the adulterer and the idolater. Now we turn on the fans so you can all stay awake and I put up with the noise and I have to speak above the din of the fans that it is incomprehensible to me. that I can stand here on a Sunday morning and watch half of the congregation go to sleep while the word of God has been proclaimed. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Especially when you are considering the facts. that your God will not be robbed of his inheritance. And you see, that means he never goes to sleep. Our Father in Heaven, we ask you that you may set before us the excellence of that inheritance which you have in your saints, in us, your children. We pray, our Father, that we would appreciate to the depths of our souls the magnificence of that inheritance which we have in you.

Please, O Lord, stir our souls that such things as we read out here in Ephesians chapter 1 would grab hold of us, lest we come to that day, that day in which Christ shall appear, and we would find ourselves as those devoid of a spirit capable of response to those very things that are spoken of here.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 5, 1994
Vows for Church Office

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christians & Their Vows” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 8, 1990.

About this sermon

Psalms 24 and 68 celebrate the kingship of Christ, which stands behind the gifts Christ gives his church in Ephesians 4. Calvin’s view of how the church chooses its officers ties back to the vows those officers take.

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Sermon transcript

I will be reading the first sixteen verses. Hear the word of God. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling with which you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But unto each one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Wherefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now, when he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same also who ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people and cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive.

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body is joined together and held together by every joint that supplies the needs of each part, according to the proper working of each individual part, making the body grow so as to build itself up in love.

Pray with me now. How powerful your word is, O God! By it you have brought us to life. Where there had been death, now there is no more death. For we, by your word, have been told that life has come. In Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. And we who believe in him know that death has been vanquished and life is victorious.

O God, may your word today be life indeed. May we thrill when we hear it, and may we thrill at receiving it, for our benefit in your glory. So, O Lord, may we be known as the people of your word, for we wait upon you and rest in what you have said. Hear us, our God, as we pray to you through Christ, the one who is called the Word of God incarnate. Amen.

Jesus does approach the city and enter it as a king. His approach and entrance is unique, to be sure. He comes riding upon an ass. He comes in humility. He comes in lowliness and in meekness. Yet, those who attend him as he comes and as he enters do so recognizing him to be a Lord, a Sovereign, a King.

They look at him as the one expected, the one long-anticipated, the messianic Lord who has come into the city of the great king for the purpose of establishing finally, fully, that kingdom peculiar to him. But as the week progresses, this one who is acknowledged king demonstrates himself to be anything but a king in the eyes of the people. He starts out well; he enters the temple and cleanses it. He manifests his power, his zeal, and purges the house of God, so that the righteous rule of the Lord might emanate gloriously from that center point, the temple itself. But having done that, he then makes daily visits to the temple and to the city. There he teaches and instructs, and as he does, the confrontation between him and the leaders of the city builds.

It builds to a crisis point. There seems to be no turning back. The confrontation is extreme. There is confusion among his disciples. He must wrestle with that as well. And at the end of the week, he is proclaiming to them, in no uncertain terms, his imminent demise. He is speaking of his death, of all things. Some king. Some king. So it is, then, that this one who entered the city in a kingly way, at least in the estimation of the crowds, departs this world in a manner hardly fitting for a sovereign. But what a king. What a king he is.

For it will be no temporal authority. It will be no time-bound throne that is His. Rather, it will be an eternal throne, a kingdom incapable of suffering loss, or diminishment, or any other such thing. To remain that king in the world would mean being subject to all the changes of this world. But this king is now the king of glory, and he exercises a heavenly and eternal rule from his throne above. Glory, matchless, unprecedented, unparalleled glory. Such that will not fade. And that for all of his dear and dearly loved subjects.

Well, Ephesians speaks to us about this throne, about this dominion and heavenly rule. It tells us how God has brought it about in and for his Christ when he raised him from the dead, chapter 1, verse 20. And seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Verse 21, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things, to the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all. So we are confronted, are we not, by this one who is a sovereign, a lord, a king, indeed.

Never a king like this. The one who truly has ascended the hill of the Lord and demanded entrance through the gates, so that they be lifted up at his entrance. And though there may be those within those city walls who would keep him at bay, refusing to acknowledge him, who is this King of Glory? Yet the proclamation comes: The Lord, strong in battle, the Lord, mighty to save. He is the King of Glory. Truly, this King has ascended on high, as stated in the language of Psalm 68, and has led captivity captive.

A heavenly rule without any earthly manifestation or impact? Not at all. For we are told that this one has been given as head and king over the church, his body, which is still present in the world. There exists then a relationship between the heavenly Lord and the earthly assembly. His church is dominion in the world, where he asserts and exercises his rule. His dominion is evident in and through his church. Indeed, he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts to people, so that those gifts might be exercised and used in the world by those who are his subjects, his servants.

This places us directly in the middle of Ephesians 4. The passage discusses spiritual gifts and draws our attention to the matter of responsibility, response, duty, obligation, oath, vow, and promise, as we begin again to consider this subject and bring our messages on Christians and their vows to a conclusion. We have been reviewing the whole matter of our vows and oaths, and we are bringing our series to a conclusion by taking up the subject of office and the specific responsibilities that pertain to office, those who bear office, and we who are served by officers in the Church of Christ. Our text, then, is Ephesians 4. And this wonderful exposition by the Apostle Paul of Psalm 68, well in tune with the heavenly rule of Christ, nowhere else expressing himself so wonderfully on this theme as here in the letter to the Ephesians.

The exalted Lord, whose rule indeed impacts the world and life in the world through the church—Jesus Christ’s church, His body—has, by His exaltation, led captivity captive. We are no longer enslaved. We are set at liberty. What a warrior, what a deliverer, what a redeemer this is. We are set at liberty from our sins, from death itself, and this one, as a conquering hero, gives gifts to His servants.

There are foundational gifts given by Him from heaven to His church in the world. These are the gifts peculiar to the foundation of the church. As that foundation is laid and established, it will not be laid again. There is a time appropriate for the laying of the foundation, and then that time passes. Afterward, one must attend to other concerns and considerations. These foundational gifts are spoken of in verse 11, and here they are called apostles and prophets. Some would also include evangelists.

We are not accustomed to including them as foundational gifts. What do we mean by these foundational gifts? These are gifts unique to the apostolic age—gifts that were accompanied by revelation directly from Christ to His Church for the Church’s benefit. These are revelatory gifts through which God communicates in Christ His will for His people in a time when the Word of God, the Scriptures, had not yet been completed. We hear about these foundational gifts earlier in the epistle to the Ephesians.

Chapter 2, verse 20. The church is called God’s household, verse 19, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. The apostles and prophets are specifically described as foundational to the structure of the Church. They are foundational because they communicate God’s will for his people at a foundational level during a time when the Scriptures were not yet completed. There are other foundational gifts.

We hear of them in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28. We also hear of them in the Corinthian epistle, chapter 14, verse 1 and following. Gifts of prophecy, gifts of healing, gifts of tongues. These are all revelatory gifts. In these passages, we also hear of gifts of prayer, gifts of song, all of them supernaturally endowed, not part of the ordinary course of life in the Church, but foundational to the Church, given by Christ as a demonstration of his power for the purpose of revealing his purpose and intention to his people during that time, in that particular period. We therefore have these foundational gifts given to men by Christ, the ascended and reigning Lord. But we also learn about permanent gifts that are given, gifts that continue from age to age.

Once more, in Ephesians 4, verse 11, we move from the temporary, extraordinary gifts—apostles and prophets—to the ordinary and perpetual gifts. Some would include evangelists here, but most specifically what is in view are pastors and teachers. We read of other permanent gifts given to the Church in Romans, chapter 12, verse 8. Again, in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28, we read of other permanent gifts given to the Church: gifts for teaching, gifts for instruction, gifts for leadership, gifts for service within the Church.

And as we take stock of these permanent gifts, we, in collecting them and distilling them, recognize that there are actually three orders of gifts given permanently for the Church. These gifts are the means by which Christ is exercising his heavenly rule among his people. There are gifts of teaching, which belong to the ministerial office. There are gifts of rule, which belong to the office of the elder. There are gifts of service, which belong specifically to the office of the deacon. There are three, then, permanent offices operative in the Church by which Christ is exercising his heavenly rule among his people. But there is something more here in this passage from Ephesians 4. It is true that Christ, our heavenly King, has given gifts to men. And we have spoken about those gifts—gifts conferred upon individuals, specific individuals within the Church, for the benefit of the Church, for the glory of Christ, the Church’s Lord.

But while that is true, it is also true that, according to the language of Ephesians 4:11, Christ has given the gifted as gifts to the Church. It is not simply that he gives gifts to men, and these men then express those gifts within the Church. Rather, the language of Ephesians 4:11 suggests to us that Jesus Christ has actually given those who are endowed, those who are gifted, as gifts of his heavenly rule, of his heavenly victory and triumph, to the Church. This means that an officer exercising his responsibility in the Church is Christ’s gift to you. It is not merely that the man has the gift; he is the gift. Do you see this in the language of that eleventh verse?

And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers. The Church, therefore, recognizes the gifts given. There are appropriate ways of doing that. Observing the way in which an individual behaves and how that individual conducts his life. The church in Jerusalem was called upon to do nothing less than that. Choose men from among you who have wisdom. Choose men from among you who are capable and who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

The church was then called upon to recognize the gifts given by Christ’s heavenly rule for her good. And the church, you see, expresses itself in recognizing those gifts. It is not a matter of a hierarchy pushing the gifted upon the church. It is a matter of the church recognizing the gifts, acknowledging those gifts, and receiving those gifts through some sort of public act.

In Acts chapter 6, there was an election. The people voted. We are often confused about Paul’s language, or rather Luke’s language, in speaking about Paul’s missionary journeys. When Paul is going through the church’s appointment of elders, Calvin makes clear to us that the language there indicates an election taking place within the congregations for establishing those officers. The list of qualifications given to us in the pastoral epistles, in 1 Timothy chapter three, shows that the people ought to recognize within those who present themselves for office these qualities and these qualifications.

And how can they express themselves unless it is in some form of election or confirmation? But as the church recognizes the gifts, the church also submits to them. Once a person with a gift has been placed in an office, you should not continue to remind them, “It is only because of me that you are in this position.” Instead, you acknowledge that it is Christ who is at work in all of this, and He is the one who places His offices or His officers in their positions. Therefore, you are obligated to submit to these gifts once they have been confirmed within the congregation. I believe there is probably nothing that a congregation resists more than submitting to the gifts given within the church.

It might be helpful for you, in this matter, to recall the vows you made when you acknowledged the officers of this congregation as having authority over you. For example, the vow used in the ordination of a ruling elder or a deacon: “Do you, the members of this church, acknowledge and receive this brother as a ruling elder or deacon, and do you promise to yield him all that honor, encouragement, and obedience in the Lord, to which his office, according to the word of God and the constitution of this church, entitles him?” If you have not thought about this for some time, it may cause you to reflect seriously. You have actually made a vow regarding those who hold office in the church, and you have promised to submit to them. Of course, it is not only the congregation that makes a vow; the individual who assumes the office also makes a vow.

Whether he is a minister, an elder, or a deacon, he is obliged to declare before the congregation his intention with respect to the Scriptures, acknowledging them to be the word of God, the infallible rule of faith and practice. Before the Church, he is obliged to acknowledge his reception of the confession of faith and catechisms of the Church as containing that system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures. He is obliged to declare his approval of the government, discipline, and worship of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

There is a promise with respect to subjection to your brethren in the Lord, specifically directed to pastors. There are questions appropriate to the pastoral office. He must acknowledge that he has sought the ministry from his love of God and his sincere desire to promote His glory in the gospel of His Son. That minister is obliged to promise before the congregation to be zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths of the gospel, the purity and peace of the Church, whatever persecution and opposition may arise on that account. He is obliged to engage, to be faithful and diligent in the exercises of all private and personal duties which become him as a Christian and a minister of the gospel, as well as in all relative duties and the public duties of his office, endeavoring to adorn the profession of the gospel by his conversation and walking with exemplary piety before the flock over which Christ has made him an overseer.

And he is obliged to declare before the congregation that he is willing to take the charge of this congregation in accordance with his declaration that he accepted when he was called, in terms of the call. And he promises to discharge the duties of a pastor to the people as God gives him strength to do so.

And the vows are very comprehensive. As I said, they are very sobering. They are sobering with respect to those who assume office. They are sobering with regard to the congregation that receives the officer. It is important for us who are in positions of leadership to assess ourselves, recognizing that we are, in fact, servants of Christ. His heavenly rule is presently at work in the world. We are called to minister in His name and to serve Him with diligence. It is imperative that we be found faithful. Nothing more pleases the Lord of those called than faithfulness. Faithfulness to the office to which they have been called.

Therefore, it is imperative that deacons not be concerned first with feeding themselves. Rather, they must first be concerned with feeding others, so that the needs of others may be met. It is imperative that elders have themselves under control, that they are able to manage their own households well, so that they may then function well in ruling the house of God. And it is imperative that ministers, in all humility, present the pure and unadulterated word to people, not for their own glory, not so that they might be thought well of, but so that the Lord whom they serve may be thought well of.

This is the matter of vows. I began this series by speaking generally about the vows, and I have spoken at length about your responsibilities to your vows, both within the Church and outside it. But I have ended with myself, so that I might not judge you in circumstances or situations where I am unwilling to be judged myself.

We know, our God, that Jesus Christ, our Savior, is the one who has spoken perfectly and has reflected perfectly the obligation and duty that is laid upon those who would be servants of God. And we know, our Father, that he has fulfilled every vow and oath that he has taken, and all your promises are yes and amen in him. We take comfort in this and find shelter in it, for we know that if there is to be the perfecting of our vows and promises within us, it can only be through him. So, Lord, we ask, we who are in various relationships and face various responsibilities, that the faithfulness of Jesus Christ would be expressed in us. And Lord, we ask that those who bear office in the Church would remember, in truth, that they are servants of the heavenly King. We pray that they may take their vows with utter seriousness and remain faithful, for the benefit of the people they serve and for the glory of the Christ who reigns over them. We pray this in Jesus’ name.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 8, 1990