Open up your Bibles to Ephesians 5. God is still on His throne. I see that many of the families are still alive, even though there are so many wives gone. This helps us to appreciate help me that God has given us. I'm thankful for my wife and husbands. I would assume that you're probably as thankful as I am if your house is in any manner of disarray like mine is. I'm going to look at one verse today primarily because so many of the ladies are gone this week. I thought it'd be kind of foolish to preach on wives submitting to their husbands as to the Lord. So we'll save that for next week. What I want to look at is the foundation. This is a transition verse in verse 21. It's the fifth participle. It's the fifth ING verb that expresses or displays for us what it looks like when a Christian and or church is filled with the Holy Spirit. There is mutual submission. There is the intentional subjecting of one to another. And so, I want to call this morning's message, putting the mission into submission. That's the danger sometimes of reading rapidly or just glossing over. Sometimes we don't get to see the importance of one verse. And I would encourage you to practice what the Puritans did and meditate on the Word before you go to work. Just one verse. It's sometimes hard to meditate on an entire chapter. But if you can put one verse in your heart and chew over it as it were, the way cows regurgitate and chew the cud and continue to feast on the same meal, I would encourage you to think through a verse such as this. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is the transition. This is not only what makes for a healthy culture or a healthy church, but as we're going to see, what makes for a healthy home, a healthy family. A healthy workplace. If we don't have this principle, we're hooped. And we see that because we live in such a society that seems to push self, self-ambition, self-attainment, self-aggrandizement, selfish motives, selfish ambitions, self-everything. It's so contrary to what Paul is saying here. It should be what the church is embodied by and what we purvey to the world. Now before we look at it, Marvin was reading Isaiah 44, and the beauty of the Word of God is it all is interconnected. And God's promise to Israel in chapter 44, the first five verses, is that He's going to pour His Spirit out upon a parched land. That was the whole problem with Israel, is that they were not... Spirit-enabled and spirit-filled. Read Jeremiah 31, that the law of Moses wasn't enough. That God actually had to come and do a work in their hearts. You can read that in Ezekiel 36, 26, where He's going to give them a heart of flesh. You'll take out the heart of stone that is impenetrable. It is not able to receive stimuli. Some of you resemble that here this morning. You look like a bunch of dead stones. May God turn you into malleable vessels that respond to the Word of God. that are receptive to it and are able to change to it. We see that God is not pouring His Spirit out upon a land that is characterized by a lot of water and growth. Rather, it's a weary land. Verse 3, it's a thirsty land. The ground is dry. That's our hope this morning, is that the Holy Spirit would descend in power, and He would water your soul at the well of salvation. What's He going to do? Well, the Spirit's going to come and He's going to point Israel, not only to their inability to keep the law, but to God's promise of a Messiah, of a Savior, who will not only fulfill the law, but will die for the sins of His people. Isaiah 53. And I pray that as the Word goes forth this morning, Isaiah 55, the Spirit promised in Isaiah 44 and fulfilled in Christ, Joel 2, acts to would water your soul. I'm not oblivious to the fact that if you're anything like me, you can sometimes come to church hurting, hopeless, dry, weary, needing a word, needing a Savior. May God do that. It's interesting as Marvin was reading as well, that those who make idols for themselves, in verse 12, drink no water and are faint. So that's the issue. You will either continue to trust in your idol and leave here dry and faint, or God in His mercy will visit you with the Holy Spirit, point you to Jesus Christ, and you will leave here well watered. You will leave like Isaiah 35, a bountiful, what's the word I'm thinking of? Rain forest. Okay, so let's pray. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's just, that's essential. Lord, we come here with all kinds of burdens, all kinds of idols. We carry the idols and we don't realize they're like weights. We put our trust in broken cisterns that can hold no water. And Father, I pray that not only the heavens would be appalled, but we would be. That we would ever trade. the fountain, the stream of living water, and exchange it for the sludge of idols. Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes, even as Paul prayed in Ephesians 1, the eyes of our hearts, that you would give us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in our knowledge of you. That's what we need more than anything else this morning. God is a knowledge of you. We saw last week that you're holy. And we saw, Lord, that you hate idolatry. And we saw, Lord, how idols keep us from you. Father, I pray that this morning... He would destroy those idols and those altars and we would flee for refuge to Christ this morning. Would you take the word and we would receive it with meekness. Lord you tell us that when we put off all of these hindrances, all of these anxieties, all of these idols, all of these cares, all of these sins, all of these things that keep us from you. Once we put those away, you tell us in James, we're then able to receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our souls. Oh Lord, I know there are some here this morning Even Christians whose souls are languishing and need deliverance. Oh, would they cast away all of those idols, all of those weights, all of those dead burdens. Would you free them from their fetters? Would you loose them from their bonds? Would you clip the chain around their ankle that keeps them so tied to this world? May they run to Christ in the power of the Spirit we ask in His name. Amen. That was an impromptu introduction. But I do want to focus on this one verse. The text you can memorize, the text you can leave with. Ephesians 5, 21. Submitting yourselves, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This morning we deal with a topic of vital importance. As I said, it's very easy sometimes just to gloss over it. Submission. What's the big deal? As we're going to see in the coming months, as we look into the family, the principle of submission not only effects our relationships at church, at home and at work, but ultimately when we get spirit-enabled submission, it affects our culture, it affects this world. And I've used those words intentionally, there's an effect That the Spirit causes upon us. When the Spirit effects in us submission, we affect the world. And so please don't think that submission is some kind of secondary thing. That is unnecessary for the salvation of God's people. That is somehow unnecessary in the purposes of God to sum up all things to Christ through the Church. Let me give you a reminder of the thesis statement, I think, of Ephesians. Look in Ephesians 1.10. What is God's great purpose? In all of history, what is the great purpose of God? Well, He saves us and incorporates us into this plan for the fullness of time. To sum up, to unite all things in Christ. Things in heaven and things on earth. That's a very important principle. I know I keep repeating it, and I do so because we keep forgetting it. That God has an eternal purpose. And we see then in chapter 3 verse 10, 1-10, 3-10, that this purpose is realized in Christ and displayed through the church. But what kind of church is God using to display His manifold wisdom? He's using a Spirit-filled church. A church that is walking in the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 5, And Jesus says to His followers, He's not just speaking one-on-one to individuals in their devotion time, He is standing upon a mountain speaking to a great assembly, a great congregation, a great church, as it were. And He's giving His inaugural speech. And He says that when the church, when Christians in the church display characteristics of the Kingdom, they are like the salt of the earth. The salt that loses its flavor is worthless. How does it get its saltiness back? It is not good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under the feet of people. He likens these obedient Christ followers to a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. You don't light a lamp and then put it under a bushel. No, you light that lamp and rather than putting it under a basket, you put it on a stand so that all who are in the house might see. And that's God's purpose is that He saves His people Four good works, Ephesians 2.10. That they might be a light to the nations. Because in Matthew 5.16 it says, in the same way, let your light shine before others that they might see, what? Your good works. And give glory to your Father who is in heaven. So, I'm not just trying to be witty and crafty with my sermon title. There is a mission in the church's submission. That when others see that we are altogether something radically different, that we're no longer controlled by selfish ambitions, but rather we're controlled by another spirit. Not the spirit of the sage, but the spirit of Christ. We live differently. And when people see us living differently, they begin to ask us for the hope that is in us. That we might be able to preach to them. the gospel of Jesus Christ that radically refreshes and changes us. Biblical submission, not just submission, biblical submission is diametrically opposed to the spirit of this age, the zeitgeist for those of you who like German fancy words. If you go on to any browser, whether it's Safari, or whether it's Google Chrome, or whether it's Yahoo, anytime you open it up, the first thing you're confronted with is the spirit of this age. And understand that Martyn Lloyd-Jones was correct, that every person and every news agency, everything we're surrounded with incessantly is preaching to us. Which is why you need to renew the spirits of your mind. That when you turn on YouTube, you're being preached to. When you're listening to the godless music of this world, you're being preached to. That every time I turn on my Yahoo, I'm being preached to. That every time I watch the news, I'm being preached to. And you know what the message is that we're being bombarded with? You know why it's important to come to church? To have your spirit renewed? Do you know why you need to think of Romans 1 to 11? Because this world is trying to conform us into its mold, but rather we're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And you know what the world is preaching to us? Do you have discernment? Do you understand that we're being assaulted from every angle? That we're doing spiritual warfare, Ephesians 6.10? The world says stuff like this. Stand up for yourself. Express yourself. Fight for your rights. You deserve better. The world owes you. We live in a culture of entitlement. And we become radically dissatisfied when we listen to the lies of this world. And it's a dangerous thing when the world begins to, as it were, stick its sneaky little dirty head into the church. We have churches that are beginning to look to our rights. We want to defend ourselves. We want to justify our actions. Nothing could be more diametrically opposed to what Paul is telling the church to do this morning. Don't stand up for yourself. Submit yourself to one another in the fear of Christ. Don't defend yourself. Don't seek your selfish ambitions. Rather, look to the interests of others out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 2. Paul says, this is who you once were. And you being, literally, or the SV, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you formerly or once walked. Following what? Verse 2. Following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. He's saying that you once followed the spirit of the evil one. You followed the spirit of this age. that you used to live to gratify your own selfish ambitions. You walked in the flesh, and the flesh is always characterized by this penchant for self-gratification, self-aggrandizement, self-glorification. But Paul says that God broke into your life Christian, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved you when you were dead, when you used to be characterized by all of these governing principles. That's who you were. This is who you are. Remember Ephesians 4, verses 20? He says that the world is deluded. They're hardened by their deceitful desires, their selfish ambitions. They're living for themselves. But that is not the way you learned Christ. He says that you need to fight against the spirit of this age, not ingratiate yourself under it. He told us and taught us that in Christ we are to put off the old man, put off the former manner of life, which is being deceived, which is being depraved, if we don't keep it in check by deceitful desires. To be renewed by what? The spirit of our minds. and to put on the new man, which is made in the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. And I'm not acting eloquent to impress you, but I want to show you that this one verse is building upon what Paul is saying, that he wants us to look like Christ in this world. And the way we look like Christ in this world is verse 518. Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery, excessive, useless, riotous living, wasting your life. Rather, be being filled, be kept filled in with, by the Spirit. And then he gives us five participles of what Spirit-filled people, what Spirit-filled churches look like. And we're looking at the fifth one. We already saw that we speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We sing and we make melody in our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. That we are thankful always and for all things. And we give thanks to this God, our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fifthly, when we're filled with the Spirit, As we're renewed, as it were, into the image of Christ, we submit ourselves one to another. This is the mindset of the new man. The old man's mindset, you owe me. I come to church for you to serve me. You submit to me. You follow what worship style I like. You dress the way I like. You do what I like. You serve me. That's the old man. The new man. made in the image of God in Christ, subjects himself to others for the glory of God in Christ through the church. This is how God is changing the world. Please understand that when the world sees you submitting one to another, it perplexes them. It confuses them. that young people would submit to older people. Or even that older people would submit to younger people. I was thinking about this as I watched a Francis Chan sermon yesterday. And his whole sermon was a rebuke to older people who seem to limit the younger people who are youthful and full of zeal. And they don't want church to get uncomfortable. They want to keep the old hymns. They want to keep the old structures. They want to keep the dress code. They want to keep the pews. And they're afraid that God might radically work through these young people in a way different than He worked a generation ago. That the Spirit is not confined or constrained to these outward forms. And I want to encourage some of you older people. that you need to be submissive to younger people as well. I'm not saying that all of those things that Paul is going to talk about, like husbands and wives, children and parents, masters and slaves. I'm not saying that those forms are destroyed. I'm not going there. But what I am saying is that those who are filled with the Spirit should have an attitude or should be characterized servility. We should seek to serve others first. Regardless of age. An older person should come along, a new Christian, and say, how can I serve you? How could I submit to you for your good and the glory of God in Christ through the Church? The world takes notice of things like this. Such Spirit-empowered Christians, little Christs, are to act as a positive leavening agent in this selfish, self-seeking, sin-saturated world. We're to be radically different The spirit of this age is, I matter, it's all about me. Christians should be radically different from that radically depraved worldview. We should say, it's not about me. It's all about Christ and my serving you for His glory. Because that's exactly what He did. Spirit-filled marriages, for example, are evangelistic. Did you understand that? Your neighbors are watching you. As wives submit to husbands, as husbands submit to wives, your marriage becomes a beautiful picture of the gospel. Kids, when you submit to your parents, as to the Lord, that's evangelistic. Workers, When you actually work as unto the Lord and not as unto man, as a mere eye-pleaser. Rendering service as to the Lord and not to man. That's evangelistic. Please understand that. Hard-working, Christ-honoring Christians, that's evangelism. It's a leavening agent in this world. So, wife, are you submitting to your husband? Because if you're not, you're bringing reproach upon the gospel and its power to change a radically sinful heart that is a gravitational magnet that always is drawing things to itself. Rather, when we get saved, Jesus says, we don't draw things to ourselves, things flow out of us. John 7. There is much mission in submission. Make your submission missional. There's three things in this verse I want to quickly look at. What? Who? Why? I like to approach texts that way. I like to ask questions. What is Paul commanding? Or what is Paul saying is happening? Be filled. Submitting. Be filled. Subject yourselves. I prefer that translation. So the what. What is it that Paul wants us to leave with? He wants us to leave with the fact that we should be, under the Spirit's agency, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. I would translate this word hupotasso, under, rank, not sure that's what it means, to be subject to. Putting yourself under the subjection. Subordinating yourself under someone else. Taking a lesser role. Okay, so the word comes from a military term meaning to arrange under rank. Okay, you come underneath someone else. Thus, spirit-filled Christians rank themselves under one another. Do you do that? When you come to church, do you think, I'm the head cheese? Or do you come saying, I am lesser than. Let me give you some examples. I could have done a word study, or I could have done some examples, and I chose to do the examples, because next week we're going to do the word study of where hupotasso is used. But turn with me to Romans 15. I want to just give you a picture of what it means to subject yourself to others for the glory of God in Christ through the Church. Romans 15. Romans 15 comes after Romans 14, where Paul is dealing with the issue of strong, as it were, and weak Christians. And he's saying, strong Christians, don't abuse your knowledge. Don't abuse your strength or your maturity in Christ. Don't abuse that because you're hurting other immature, younger believers. You can eat meat offered to idols. That's cool. All days to you are alike. That's theologically legit. But be very careful of abusing your privileges. That's not the mind of Christ. Romans 15 says, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. So there's a new Christian, just got saved. Annoying as can be. All this nasty baggage that he or she brings, Do you put up with them? Do you subject them? Or do you avoid them? Do you bear with their failings? Okay, so we who are strong... Oh, I have a robust theology. Good! You have an obligation then to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please yourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. Verse 3, Gar, 4, Christ did not please himself. So I think Paul is saying here, when we're filled with the Spirit and we're given the mind of Christ, we will begin to live as He lived. That's what John says. We who are believers ought to walk as He Himself walked. How do we walk the way Christ walked? We need to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit that anointed and empowered Christ for His ministry is the same Spirit that anoints and empowers us for our ministry. As we're being conformed into the image of the new man, in true righteousness, true holiness. What is true righteousness? What is true holiness? Being filled with the Spirit and seeking to serve others for their good. That is very Christ-like. That's a beautiful picture of the gospel as we're going to see. That's Romans 15. Tony just preached it a couple of weeks, but I don't mind going there again. Philippians 2. It's a good passage to memorize. I'm going to read verses 1 to 8. So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from His love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy. By being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and having one purpose, I would translate that. Doing, it's a participle, doing nothing from selfish ambition or empty vainglory. Rather, in humility, counting others more significant than yourselves, letting each of you look not only to his own interests, but especially to the interests of others. Saying this is what it looks like when you submit. Become subject. To other Christians, this is what it looks like. This is what makes Paul happy. We have one purpose. What is the purpose? God summing up all things in Christ through the church. Paul says, this is the one thing I want you guys to be thinking about. And as you're thinking about the mission of Christ, submit. Put the mission into submission. Don't do anything out of selfish ambition. Don't do anything out of empty vainglory. Rather have the mind of Christ, verse 5. Have the mind, this mind among yourselves. Some translations have this attitude. Have this thinking, literally. This is what you need to be thinking about. Which is yours in Christ. Or you could equally translate it, which was also in Christ Jesus. Here it is. Just like Romans 3 had, this is how you should live, here's the example of Christ. Philippians 2 does the same thing. This is how you should live, here's the example of Christ. Who? Being God, you could translate it that way, or you could say, who though he was in the form of God, Morphé Théu, who is in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, literally poured himself out, taking the Morphédou. Morphé Théu, form of God, becomes the form of a slave. That's the mind of Christ. That's what it means to submit yourself. Christ didn't lust for Himself. This is God incarnate submitting Himself, becoming subject to the whims of sinful men for their good, to the glory of His Father. This changes the world. You believe it. You believe that when the church is actually filled with this mind, when this mind of Christ, this Word of Christ dwells in us richly, when we're filled with the Spirit, that actually this has a leavening, in a good sense, effect on the world. That Christ, who is God of Gods, becomes slave of slaves for our salvation. Wow! Not only did He come and submit Himself as a slave, He furthered that. There's an escalation in Philippians 2. He's born as a man. That's humbling. The Psalms say that God is humbled to look down on the heavens. How humbling it is for God to be born as a man in a pig trough. In a manger. But not only is he born that way, he becomes a slave. And not only does he become a slave, he dies as a filthy criminal as it were. Naked, hanging, nailed to a tree. That's the mind the church needs. And that's the mind the Spirit seeks to give. Let me give you two more. I don't mind tearing in the texts, because it's the Word of God. I could just quote them to you, but that's not how I like to roll. I actually believe when you hear the Word, it changes you. Not just when it's alluded to, I actually believe that reading the Word from the pulpit is powerful. Timothy, do not neglect the public reading of Scripture, 1 Timothy 4.12, I think. John 13. New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Jesus has just given His speech of how He wants to save the world, and how He's going to do it through the disciples who receive the Spirit after He returns to His Father. Between that Holy Spirit discourse of chapters 14 through 16, we have a glorious picture of the mind of Christ. We have a glorious illustration of what it looks like to submit or to subject oneself for the good of another and the glory of the Father. Now, before the feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, here it is, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's sons, to betray Him, Jesus, Because He knew that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of His disciples. And He wiped them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. That's a beautiful picture of God, even as it were, humbling himself and showing his disciples what love looks like in action. Christ did so, in Philippians 2, out of humility. I don't want to get into it too much, but we live in a society where our feet really don't get too dirty unless we don't shower for a week. But in India, I remember wearing sandals, and after a couple of days, like, it's not paved. It's dirty. There's excrement everywhere. People just urinate all over. It's like, your feet are pretty filthy at the end of the day. And here is God, the Son of God, wiping the filthy, putrid feet, not of other gods, because there is none, wiping the feet of sinners, because He loved them. And having loved them, He loved them to the end. But I don't want to end there in Matthew or John 13. Look in verse 12. When He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, Do you understand what I've done to you? Do you understand what I've done for you? You call Me teacher and Lord. And you are right, for so I am. So it's not like Christ is lowering who He is. He is teacher, He is Lord, He is God. They're saying, do you understand this? If I then, here's an argument from the greater to the lesser, if I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 4. Romans 15, 4. Philippians 2, 4. John 13, 4. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. That's what Paul's saying here. You don't come here with you just seeking to have people wash your feet. That is not the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is one of submission. For the glory of His Father, through the expanse of His Kingdom, through the Church. Final one. Though there's one on the top of my head I might go to after. It's in Mark chapter 10. I'm not going to read the whole thing. Jesus. In verse 35, I just finished telling the people for the third time, Mark 8, 31, Mark 9, 31, Mark 10, 33, 34. I'm dying for your sins. Verse 35, and James and John's, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we have we have a request. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Can you do something for us? Just didn't get it. They were still influenced by the zeitgeist, by the spirit of the stage. They have been reading too much of their Yahoo News. They've been reading too much of the New York Times. They've been listening to too much banter around the cooler at coffee break time. They were listening to too much secular music. Ooh, sounds legalistic. The reason I don't like that garbage is because it's constantly preaching to me about how good I am and how everybody needs to serve me. Listen to it. You shouldn't be listening to that garbage if you're a Christian. And I'm not getting legalistic. It corrupts you. It's so contradictory and contra everything to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're awesome. You deserve the best. You, you, you, you. That's what the world preaches through that stuff. So they had just been listening to, I don't know, Miley Cyrus or whoever's cool, you know, in the music world. They just, oh yeah, I got, I'm not listening to the good old hymns. James and John, we got a question for you, Jesus. We have a favor for you, actually. We want to sit on your right hand and on your left when you come back in your kingdom. And Jesus says, you don't understand what you're asking. You've completely misunderstood what I've been trying to communicate to you these last three years. You want to go up here? That's not greatness in the kingdom of God. That's greatness in this world. Greatness in the kingdom comes through humbling yourself and lowering yourself. Think of it. I am the son of magic. You know how I'm showing myself great? By going to a cross for sinners. And you? You're concerned about yourself. You just don't get it. So many of us as Christians just don't get it. We've got thick skulls, so we need to look at Christ afresh every time we gather. Because we're trying to be conformed into the image of this world. Look in verse 42. You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. And their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so. among you. Rather, whoever would be great among you must be your servant. This is one of the scriptures I have on my little old school recipe cards that I need to meditate on. I know it's a short verse. I'm not meditating on it to learn it. I'm meditating on it because I keep forgetting it. Not here, but in here. Ryan, you want to be great? Serve! What's the example? Christ! The greatest of great! Look what He did! And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. Could you imagine the church's influence if our church were filled with people like that? Could you imagine? Could you imagine? We would be a city on hell. Could you imagine if you came to church saying, I'm the slave of everyone else. I'm a pastor. I'm the man. I'm whole. I have theological... Who cares? Christ trumps you on everything. And He died on a cross for your sins. Verse 45. Have you noticed the pattern? Here's the reason, or here's the command, 4. So, verse 45, 4. Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for His many. So what Paul is saying then, As we're filled with the Spirit, as we're being made into the image of God, as the Word of Christ, as the message of Christ is dwelling richly in us, we will begin to submit to one another. We will begin to subject ourselves for another's good. You need to have the mind of Christ to do that. Which is why in every instance I gave you, in Romans 15, in Philippians 2, in John 13, and in Mark 10, I showed you to Christ. You cannot be submissive one to another unless you look to Christ, who is God, submitted Himself for your salvation. You having a hard time submitting to your wife by forgiving her? I really think that husbands loving your wife is under this general principle. Submit to her. Do things for her good. Submit to her by loving her. I'm not saying that wives rule the house. I'm not saying that. I'm not getting egalitarian on you. But I'm saying that even in marriages, there's a mutual give and take, an ebb and flow, there's a mutual submission. And when I'm a dictator and a dink to my wife, it's because I've forgotten the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think she exists to serve me. No, that's not the gospel, right? You exist to serve her for the glory of Christ. The Son of Man didn't come down so we can wash His feet. The Son of Man came down to serve others, ultimately, by dying an ignoble death on the cross. Do you have this mindset? I remember reading on Twitter, a couple of years ago, a guy named Jared Wilson. He got together with another pastor named Matt Chandler. He said, just got Romans 12.10. Romans 12.10 by Matt Chandler. He turned a scripture verse into a verb. And you know what Romans 12, 10 says? Outdo one another in showing honor. Could you imagine if our church was filled with the Spirit, and it was like a game, like a contest. I'm going to outdo you, Henry, in showing you honor. I'm going to wash your car. I'm going to cook a meal for someone. Could you imagine if we had the mind of Christ? Does this mindset characterize you? If not, you need to be filled with the Spirit. You need to renew the spirit of your minds. You need to go back to the message of Christ and let it dwell in you richly. As the message of Christ dwells within you richly, it begins to change you. Changes you from the inside out. So whatever is dwelling richly in your heart is going to influence how you live. If you're selfish, here's my diagnosis, you're not thinking about Christ enough. I'm not talking about the five-letter word. You're not thinking about what Christ did for you in Philippians 2. If you aren't seeking to outdo one another, if you aren't seeking to serve the other, if you aren't seeking to esteem others as more significant than yourselves, you need to look to the Savior hanging on the tree for your sins. And the sad thing is that I preach that all the time. You need to do that again by faith. Not just let it hit your head, you need to actually close your eyes. This is what I do sometimes in the Psalms. You need to close your eyes, imagine Him crying out, Eloi, Eloi, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You know why God forsook His Son on the cross? Because of your sins. Arguing from the greater to the lesser. If Christ did that for us, why can't we do that for others? That's the ethic of the Gospel. The Gospel doesn't just forgive us of our sins, it transforms us. It makes us different. It conforms us into the image of Christ. And this is who Christ is, and this is what He did. Are you being transformed into that image? You can't without the Spirit. The only way it is possible to surrender your rights to another is to be controlled by the Spirit, whose ministry points us to Christ. Let me say this. Only when you see Christ properly, will you see others properly. You know why churches are bickering and bantering and fighting? You want to know why they're selfish? You know why they don't see each other as more important than themselves? Because they don't have before them the filter or the lens of Christ. They're not looking at that person through Christ. You know why you're selfish husbands? Because when you look at your wife, you don't see her through Christ's eyes. You know why wives you can't submit to your husband? Even though you might be intellectually superior to him and you might have everything together, you're not looking at your husband through Christ. Kids, you know why you don't submit to your parents? Because you're not looking to your parents through Christ. So that's the what? You need to be subjected one to another. And you do that when you're filled with the Spirit. Okay? Second point, to whom? Which I've already alluded to, so we'll quickly rip through it. One another. He doesn't just say to your pastor, though the Bible says, submit to your leaders. He doesn't just say, submit to the authorities, though Romans 13 says, submit to your authorities, as does 1 Peter 2. He doesn't only say, wives, submit to your husbands, which he says in the next verse. He doesn't only say, children, submit to your parents, which he says in chapter 6. He doesn't only say, slaves, submit to your masters. He says, everyone submit to one another. This is the general principle. All Christians submit to all Christians. When we are filled with the spirit of self, We do what we please. But when we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, we do what He pleases. And what pleases Him? His body growing. You know what pleases Christ? When we do all things. When we keep the unity of the Spirit. When we do everything necessary to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Because as the church is maintaining that unity, chapter 4 says, it builds itself up in love. That pleases Christ. This church will grow numerically and in depth as we submit to one another. As we eagerly endeavor to maintain the Spirit's unity, which is peace. You know what breaks peace up? You know what breaks up a marriage? You know what breaks up the peace that God has given between husband and wife? Selfishness! You know what destroys churches? Not what color the carpet should be or what style of... Selfishness! Old people who don't want a new style of worship. Young people who don't want to listen to the hymns. Selfishness! It just, it baffles me when people leave a church because they don't like the worship style. Really? You are not given the mind of Christ then. Because you've come to be satisfied and entertained and satiated. With all the wrong things. What pleases Christ? When His body lives in harmony. I don't know how it works between my head and my body, but I think my head loves when my hands put food in the mouth, and I think my head loves when my feet like jump over... Like, my head loves when the body gets together, when there's a harmony. That's what Christ is saying needs to happen in the body. We submit to every part. Not just the important parts. Don't just suck up to the pastor when you want something. Don't be partial like the believers in James 2. Remember, they're all image-bearers of Christ, who name Him and are baptized by the Spirit. Let me just give you a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones. He says this, because Spirit-filled is a community project. This is a short point. He says this, when we are filled with the Spirit, we realize that we are members together of one body. And that Christ's body is the means by which He is summing up all things in Himself. Therefore, the body as a whole is more important than me as a part. He says that when we get saved, we're still individuals. But we must never be individualistic. I'm not saying you need to become like me. Unity in Christ doesn't mean uniformity. He goes on to say, the Spirit then leads us to consider the body and its good, rather than just our own particular and personal good. Seeking the good of others, Romans 15, Philippians 2. Surely, he says, half the troubles today I would say in the church, in the family, in society, are due to the fact that we are too individualistic in our whole notion of salvation. Just me and Jesus. Just me. I don't need other Christians. Just me. I listen to my podcasts. I don't need to go to church. It's just me. I read my Bible. That's not being spirit-filled. You need to go to a church where you can seek others to serve them. That's the problem. We're far too selfish. When the Spirit fills us and makes us aware of the necessity of Christ's body working together, I add Ephesians 4.16. Some of you can read it now. We will be enabled to forego all our individualistic rights. Let me say it again. When the Spirit fills us, makes us like Christ, we can say. He makes us aware of the necessity of Christ's body working together. so that we will be enabled to forego all of our individualistic rights. You need the mind of Christ. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will be able to make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace by submitting our rights to one another. And when the world sees this, it takes note. We put the mission into submission. As we're going to see in two weeks from now, let me just give you a couple of cautions though. Because I know a lot of you are going to, some of you are going to email me. You're saying that there's no role distinctions. I'm not there. I'm fully complementarian and I will explain what I mean by that in two weeks. When Paul says we submit to all other Christians, we need to have two ditches we need to avoid. So let me give you a caution. Yes, we submit. to all other Christians, not just to the males and not just to the bosses. All Christians are to submit to all Christians. But let me give you a caution. And there's two ditches. One I'm going to call egalitarianism. It's just the word they use. Don't get mad at me for using big words. The second is dictatorship. OK, so you've got the feminists who say, see, I don't have... We just submit everyone to another. You don't have to submit to a pastor. You don't need to submit wives to... No, Paul says you do need to. Okay, you submit to all Christians, but there are expressions of that submission that differ. The way a husband submits to a wife is different than the way a wife submits to a husband. Okay, so kids, don't be hearing me out. I'm saying that your parents need to submit to you. And okay, you know, I want to go to Five Guys. Dad wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese's or whatever. Dad, submit to me. Pastor said that you got to submit to me. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the way parents submit to their kids for their good is different than the way that kids submit to their parents for their good. I submit to my kids. When they have a dirty diaper, I really don't feel like changing it. When they're hungry and I'm doing something that I love, I don't feel like doing it. But you know what I do? I submit as it were. I become subject to their good. I place myself under their rank. What I think is important to me becomes secondary, what is necessary for them. That's how I submit to my kids. The kids don't say, okay dad, I'm not going to school today. And dad, you make my bed. That's not what I'm saying. But there should be this general understanding that we are to seek the well-being and the good of others by subjecting our rights for their good. Okay, so I don't want us to say that all of God's rules are abolished. No. The husband is still the head of the home, as we're going to see. That's the first error. The second is dictatorship. I don't read verse 21, I read verse 22. Wife, you submit to me in all things. Never mind me submitting to you. Paul says very clearly in verse 22, I took my black marker and I wrote out verse 21. That's why the feminist movement gained speed by the way, because a bunch of moron men began to abuse these royal distinctions. So the two errors is we either get rid of the rule distinctions or we abuse them. The middle ground is we maintain them in the spirit of Christ's humility. But more on that later. Imagine the impact our churches would have if we actually carried this out. That I would submit myself to your kids. I really am tired. I really want to just go home. I really don't want to spend time with Jared. I'm going to submit for the glory of God in Christ and for His good. Could you imagine that? I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm hungry. Who cares? Jesus was all those things and more when He died for your salvation. Remember that this is an impossibility. in the original context, apart from the Spirit. You remember all the way back, like 8 millennia ago when I was in chapter 2, that in Ephesus, the church was being formed. Paul went there in Acts 19, preached the gospel, got saved some people from Jews and from Gentiles. You remember that there was a natural animosity at that time. They hated each other. And so before they got saved, they were arch enemies. You know what the Jews called Gentiles? They called them dogs. And Gentiles called the Jews even less friendly names. And so you have people who could not stand being around each other, now being told to submit to one another. How do you do that? Someone you just could not respect, someone who did not deserve it. That dog? You want me to serve that dog? Is the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly? Are you filled with the Spirit? Do you have the mind of Christ? Are you thinking through the lens of the Gospel? Or, are you thinking through the lens of your self-ingratiating, selfish, sin-centered heart? Carried about by the whims and desires of this world. We definitely need the Holy Spirit to help us. Be filled with the Spirit. Submitting to one another. Final point, why? in fear of Christ, or as the ESV says, out of reverence for Christ. The what, the who, the why. A person who is filled with the Spirit is a person who is always remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. You forget Christ, what is the natural tendency? You remember self. If you filled with self, you don't think of Christ. If you're filled with Christ, you don't think of self. So here's how we do it. I want to submit. When the Spirit dominates our hearts with the Gospel, we remember Him in all of His glory, in all of His teaching. That is not the way you learned Christ. The Spirit points to Christ. The Spirit glorifies Christ. The Spirit always leads sinners to Christ. And so then, the believer who is filled with the Spirit will ever be looking to Christ. And, it is impossible to look aright on Christ and not have a great awe, reverence and fear of Him. Which changes the way we live. Having reverence for Christ is at the center of all of Paul's thinking, because Paul is a man filled with the Spirit. It's not just in this area of submission, but it's in every aspect of life, that we're to do all out of fear, out of reverence, out of adoration, out of respect for Christ. Submit to one another out of the fear of Christ. That's the first general overarching principle which Paul begins to enumerate in the family. Wives, submit to your husbands, to your own husbands as unto Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church. So here's the command, here's the Christ. Wives, submit. How? Look to Christ. Husbands, give sacrificially. How? Look to Christ. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Children, how do you obey? If you're not obeying your parents, pull this on them, Phil. They're not looking to Christ. Don't pull rank on them. Say, you've got to look to Christ. You'll never obey me from the heart unless you see Christ aright. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling. How? As to Christ and not to a mere man. How do you do anything? You do it out of the fear of Christ. You do it out of respect for Christ, which is how the Spirit fills us with Christ-centeredness. We see the true Christ. And when you see Christ, alright, you get on your face and you worship and you serve Him. I'm going to give you a quote from Tim Keller that is actually going to equate being filled with the Spirit as being a Christian who walks in the fear of Christ. Before the Horizontal is right, before we relate to our husbands, or our wives, or our kids, or our boss. Before, the horizontal is right, the vertical must be right. Okay? That was like a huge Catholic thing. I usually just do it with two fingers, or maybe three. But before you interact rightly with those in proximity, in your life, in your circles, in your environment, you'll never relate to them aright, unless you are seeing and relating to Christ aright. What is the fear of the Lord? Reverence is too weak a word. There is fear in it. Isaiah 6. Oh, I respect you. He fell on his face! He was terrified! I'm dead! I'm done! I'm ruined! Help! So reverence is good, but it's still too weak for what phobos means. That's where we get the word phobia. But fear is often misleading. Because when an unbeliever hears, you need to fear God, I'm going to say this, the best understanding of fear is to be overwhelmed, to be controlled by something. To be overwhelmed or controlled or filled with something. Ding! Verse 18. To fear the Lord then is to be overwhelmed and controlled and filled with the wonder of who He is and what He has done. Got that? To be filled with the fear of Christ is to be overwhelmed, astonished, filled with the wonder of who He is and what He has done. How is this fear cultivated? Well, you just gotta look on Him. You gotta be filled with Him. You gotta go back to the Gospel. I know we say this all the time, but you just have to go back to it. You want a right fear of Christ? You need a right view of Christ. And where do you get the right view of Christ? This book, interpreted Christocentrically. You can find Christ in every book of the Bible. Glorious. So I'm not a legalist when I say, get in the Word. Because if you're not in that Word, you're not walking in the fear of the Lord. Which is the beginning of wisdom. What is wisdom? Living rightly in God's ordered world, under His reign. You will never walk in God's ordered world, rightly under His reign, towards your husband, or your wife, or your kids, or your boss, if you're not filled with the Word of God, if you're not filled with the Spirit, if you're not filled with the fear of Christ. So before you can relate properly with other people, wisdom, you must fear God. Fear God and watch how your marriage will be transformed. Fear God and watch how your relationship with your kids will be transformed. How do you cultivate it? Let me just give you one verse. There's plenty. Trust me, I'm not just scratching here. But go to Psalm 130. It's one of my favorite verses. This is one way. I think the best way. So don't think that I'm just getting, you know, I'm just saying it. It's all summed up here. But this is a good one for you. Scour the Bible and find other ones. Trust me, this book is inexhaustible. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, Oh Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to the voice of my place for mercy. It's the Luther song we sing. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities. Oh Lord, who could stand. God is holy. But fear is not mentioned yet. Here's the just judge. And that doesn't cause him to tremble yet. Okay, so we can look on the holiness of God. But look at the parallel verse. But with you there is forgiveness. That you might be feared, reverenced, adored, served, submitted to. I think that's the secret. How do you walk in the fear of the Lord is the same way that you walk in the fullness of the Spirit. You understand who God is and what He's done for you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as you gaze on Him, as that bubbling fountain wells up within you, it changes the way you talk to your wife. When you're angry at her. Bubbles out the Gospel. How can I be angry at you? My sin was punished on Christ! Let me quote Tim Keller in one clause. This is in his book, by the way, The Meaning of Marriage. Best book on marriage. You need to get it. I don't have a ton of books on marriage. This is the best one. I'm trying to talk because you're all thinking, oh man, marriage must be in tatters. Well, it probably is, but I think it's doing all right despite the fact I'm a vile sinner. He says this, what Paul seems to be saying here is that if anything has a greater controlling influence on you than the reality of Christ's love for you. I'm going to close with the prayer of Ephesians 3. Which is that we would, enabled by the Spirit, understand Christ's love. That's how we're filled with the fullness of God. We're filled with the fullness of God when we get Christ's love right. That's the power that is working in us to do more than we can ask or think. Okay? If there's anything, an idol, perhaps. Is there an idol in your marriage that needs to be obliterated with the gospel of Christ? If anything has a greater controlling influence on you than the reality of Christ's love for you, you will not be in a position to serve others unselfishly. Only out of the fear of the Lord Jesus will you be in a position to serve others unselfishly. In the end, being filled with the Spirit and the fear of the Lord are basically the same thing. They both, listen, take people out of themselves. I like that. When we're filled with the Spirit, or when we're walking in the throne, it takes us out of ourselves. Spirit-empowered amazement and joy at the sacrifice and love of Christ is the motivation for all deferring to, loving, and serving others. So let the Holy Spirit bring the Gospel home to your heart. It's the same analogy of Colossians 3.16. Let it reside, dwell with you richly. Let the Holy Spirit bring the gospel home to your heart until... Don't just read the gospel for five minutes and think that's going to change you. You take a day off and fast if you have to. on your face with an open Bible, pleading with God to reveal Himself to you in the face of Christ. We're just so quick. Can you supersize it? Hey, I want a McFilling. That's not how it happens. It's not fast food. Some of you need to take time off from all of your idolatrous pursuits and seek Christ in the Gospel. It wasn't in my notes. I hope that was for somebody. It is only out of this fear, reverence, respect, adoration, awe, glory, reveling in of Christ that the fullness of the Spirit enables us to turn to others and serve them sacrificially for their good. This last mark of being filled with the Spirit. So 518, be filled with the Spirit. Here's the five ways it looks like. Here's number five. The last one is a loss of pride and self-will that leads a person to humbly serve others. We just need to be humbled. We need to look afresh on Christ and be humbled. Christians are no longer to live for ourselves, but for others. We do so as the Spirit fills us with Christ. To seek to do, showing honor to one another. Commander, the expression, submitting, being subject to one another out of fear of Christ. I hope you memorize that verse now. I hope you meditate on it. And I hope by God's grace we as a church put it into practice. Let me close by quoting Ephesians 3.15 to the following. I'm probably going to mess it up, because the Lord loves to humble me. This is the importance of memorizing scripture. Please don't take it as, whoa, look at him, he's showing off. I'm not. But you need to let this abide in you. You need to meditate it when you're on the bus, when you're walking to work. You can turn the TV off and there's nothing good on. You've got something in there. For this reason, for what reason? Anyways, look at the context. I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family on heaven and earth is named. He's talking about people, even within the church. We're all the same. We're all sons and daughters in Christ of the Father. For this reason, I bow my knees. He humbly gets down and he prays that according to the riches of His glory, He might, according to the riches of His glory, enable you, I have all these verses, but by the Spirit you might, here's my paraphrase, by the Spirit you might empower your inner man to love Christ the way you should. See, there's the humility. But just read it and forget my jumbling of it. But Paul is saying that the Spirit might work in us powerfully. That He might empower us with all the saints, he says. That we might be able to let Christ dwell in our hearts by faith, which is what? The height and the depth and the breadth and the length. And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. That we might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do abundantly more than we could think or ask according to the power at work within us. What's that power? The Spirit filling us with the love of Christ through which we serve others. It doesn't matter if you're circumcised or uncircumcised. What matters is faith expressing itself in love. That's a Spirit-filled church. That's why Paul prays. Spirit, fill these sinful, selfish sinners. Fill them with Christ. That they might serve. That the Jews might serve the Gentiles. The Gentiles might serve the Jews. That the old people might serve the young. The young people might submit and serve the old. We just need to get the love of Christ. That's why I think the prayer in chapter 3 is so important. Father, show us your love for us in Christ as we celebrate the table. Even as Paul prayed in Ephesians 1. Give us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in our growing knowledge and understanding of you, Triune God. Open the eyes of our hearts. Remind us of all the spiritual blessings we have in the heavenly places in Christ. Father, as we partake this In this table, Lord, humble us. Give us a fear of Christ. Give us a reverence, respect, adoration, love for Christ. Lord, I know so often, even myself, sometimes I just go through the motions, but if there's anything that is keeping us from being filled with all the fullness of God in Christ by the Spirit, Lord, grant us repentance. Show us. These idols cannot satisfy. They're not meant to deliver burdens, they become burdens. Those who worship vanity become vain. We become what we worship. So Father, for us who are always self-serving, help us to look on the selfless servant, who for the joy set before Him, endured the agonies of Calvary. Lord, those joys We're not just Him being pleasing to you, but the joys before Him was the salvation of His church, that Christ laid aside all of His divine prerogatives, or most of them, that we might be saved. Give us this mind. Let this mind be in us, Lord, I pray, which is ours in Christ, which was also in Christ. Help us, Lord, to not be hearers of the Word, You tell us the blessing comes in the doing. Father, help me as a pastor see others as more important than myself. I'm such a selfish sinner. So fill me more with the amazement of Calvary. I pray, Lord, if there are sinners here who have never trusted in Christ, would they understand that as a just God, You will condemn their sins. Lord, I pray that they would Understand that there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared So father I pray for sinners here outside of Christ they would repent Trust in Christ Be saved and understand for the first time in their life what it means to fear the Lord. We pray in Jesus name. Amen