Imitators of God

0:10Thank you for listening to the Sermon Audio Podcast from Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Reformed Baptist Church is a reformed confessional Baptist church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church or for directions, you can visit us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

0:40It's been a couple weeks now since our last section in Ephesians. And in that last section, we covered the great theme of transforming our relationships under the wonderful and powerful grace of God. And in that we saw the biblically described method for that transformation. That is the putting off of the old man and the replacing of the old man and the putting on of the new man. We are called to practice those holy habits, those actions, those attitudes that will in time cover those sinful ways of the old man with the new. We are to, by the power of the Spirit, among other things, we said, be kind to one another. They are to be tenderhearted. We are to forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. We are to practice those things, to strive for those things, to be that kind of person, because it is there where we begin to walk as Christ walked. It is there where we begin to act like God. Right. Again, if that makes you uncomfortable, be exhorted to act like God, you will be uncomfortable this morning. Be ready. I do trust, O, Lord willing, that as we move through the text, you will see this exhortation clearly, and that we will all delight in this great call and this great effort to imitate God. So that's all the introduction you're getting this morning. Please stand with me once more as we read our verses. Just two verses, one and two, starting in Ephesians chapter 5. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, we thank you again for your word. We pray now, Lord, would you please by your spirit open our hearts to receive the word that you would have for us this morning? Lord, would you help us by your spirit to delight in this call to be imitators of you?

3:29We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

3:38Most of us have kids here, so this opening illustration will be relevant for the room, perhaps especially for those of you with little ones. Quite quickly, then, as children grow up, it becomes shockingly clear how quickly and easily they begin to imitate us as parents. For good, but perhaps more noticeably for bad. Like parrots, they begin to mimic our words and our actions. Certainly how they learn to speak. By intently observing, by being in constant and close proximity to their parents, they imitate what they observe. Children are like sponges, absorbing into themselves everything that they see and experience. All of those things that are good and not good will be grafted into their behavior. I read a study a while back that showed in workplace and office settings, employees will over time begin to model the behavior and the attitudes and the habits of their direct supervisors. This is the company culture, as it's called, it's created from the top down. This applies to churches. This applies to societies as well. What this tells us is that though wise instruction is important, and it is for sure, wise words are formative, but the saying, do as I say, not as I do, doesn't have any merit in terms of actually being effective. Such a reality as this is ingrained then not only into our biology as a creator, it's shaping how we grow and learn. It's embedded in our emotions and our desires as well. We see this in parenting. The greatest accomplishment and joy of a parent, in my humble opinion, is to raise kids who themselves desire to be like you, right? But I'm sure that those who have raised kids have felt the joy of children desiring to live in accordance with how they have been raised, and contrarily, the pain from children that stray away from those principles and culture that we intended to pass along to them. That means there's perhaps no greater insult to a parent than from a child, provided that they are raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord, growing up and thinking, I can't wait to get out of this place and these people. By God's grace, may that not be us, church. There is a point to all of that. The point is that our text this morning, as we read, it grounds the command to imitate God in the reality that we are his children. The command to imitate God is grounded in the reality that we are his children, his beloved children. We could say then that not only is his word explicit on this matter, but as I have observed and hopefully demonstrated, creation and observation and support and justify this command to imitate our Father as children of God, his will for us, his goal in raising us as his children is that we will desire to be like him. And by the power of the Spirit, through that close proximity that we will have with him, and through repeated and constant study and observation through his word, we will indeed begin to imitate him, to desire to be like him. And such a reality is not only the obvious aim of the Christian walk, but for the child of God, this alone, church, is our destination. Romans 8, verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Our destiny, church, to use that often overused word, our destiny as children of God is to be transformed into the likeness of Christ, that he may be the firstborn, Christ may be the firstborn among many brothers who will follow after him in imitating the Father and the Father's will. And so we pursue the image of the Son, we strive for imitating God, not because in doing that we may become children of God, but we do this because we are children of God. What child imitates a parent in hopes that if they do it well enough, they may one day become a legitimate child?

10:18Never.

10:21As children of God, we imitate because by his grace we have been made his children. There is one other component then that makes this equation work. It's often missing in our human relationships between a parent and a child. That often causes a fracturing and things to go astray, and that element is love, more specifically, perfect love. Our conformity, then, that is our transformation into the image of the Son, it flows from His perfect love for us as beloved children. What a thing it is to be beloved by God. To be loved and cared for by a parent, by human standards, that's a treasure. To be loved for and cared for by a parent according to human standards is a treasure. But to be perfectly loved as a child of a perfect and holy God is the greatest treasure.

11:36Ephesians 1, if you remember, verse 3.

11:40Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Do you see this glorious blessing as beloved children? Do you see then why it is that the call to imitate God is not a burden, but a joy. It's a joy that comes through perfect love, grounded in our new identity as his children. The burden of all other religions, the burden of the fallen pagan world is imitation for your identity. If you want to achieve this, act like this. If you want to be successful, just do these things. If you want to be accepted, act like this.

13:08If you want to be loved, look like this.

13:24And our transformation into the likeness of Christ begins with identity.

13:33It begins as beloved children. And then imitation. The call, though, then as beloved children, is indeed to imitate God.

13:49The imitation is there. The obvious and practical question for us then this morning is how do I do that? Given that our present circumstances doesn't afford us the opportunity to shadow him and learn to imitate him. In the way that a child would observe or model their parents, we don't have that same opportunity. Exactly. We certainly have his command in scriptures, right? We can read them. We have his commands to do what he says. But to do as he does is often more formative. So the question is, does God show us or does he only tell us? And this brings us to the topic of communical versus incommunicable attributes. Those are big words. We know that there are certain attributes of his that he can only tell us about, because such things are far beyond our comprehension. Those are his incommunicable attributes. How can God show us his true glory and not kill us? How can he communicate through his actions his transcendence, his imminence, his self-existence, his omnipresence, his immutability, and his divine simplicity? These are things that God will not fully communicate because we are presently incapable of comprehending them. For that reason, there's no command, there's no expectation for us to even attempt to imitate those attributes. We could not and should not attempt to imitate his omniscience, for instance, his complete and perfect knowledge. In fact, even attempt to imitate that would be a form of idolatry.

16:05But what about his communicable attributes? Does he show us in scripture what these look like? That he may command us then to do them through showing us.

16:21The easy answer is yes. Of course he does, but let's consider then just with touching on the three positive commands that we uh started with last time. And this is verse, if you want to look down and read it, this is verse uh 32 of chapter 4. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you?

16:54Does God show us how to be kind?

17:00I'm gonna use all Old Testament references here for those who assume that the Old Testament God is just a mean and you know, judgy. How often did Israel, his people, the ones whom he loved and cared for, the ones he protected, the ones he supplied, how often did they turn from him the false gods? How many times did he show himself faithful and yet they turned from him? How many times, church, have you turned from him?

17:41How many times have you chased the world? How many times have you chose sin over him? That he would show himself kind to us this morning.

18:00Isaiah forty nine and verse fourteen, but Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.

18:10But listen to the word of the Lord.

18:14Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands, says the Lord. As kind as a nursing mother is to her infant child, even that kindness cannot compare to the kindness of our God, who through his people, perhaps who, though his people, his own dear loved ones, turned from him again and again. His kindness never fades. His kindness never forgets. He is ever merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. You want to learn about the kindness of God, that you may imitate his kindness to one another? Observe him in the Old Testament. What he does for his people, the language that he uses to communicate to his people, it's astounding if you read it. Isaiah 40, verse 11, he will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. Church, this is kindness worthy of imitating.

20:07What about his tender-heartedness?

20:11Psalm 103, verse 13 and 14. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion on those who fear him. And he remembers that we are dust. This is tender-heartedness. Our Lord doesn't forget how weak we are. As such, he does not always chide us, nor will he keep his anger forever, verse 9 of Psalm 103 says. That we would know his tender and loving heart towards his son and towards his own. And that we would hold one another just as tenderly as our great God carries us. What about his forgiveness? Again, we see over and over again his people's rebellion against him. Hosea chapter 11, verse 1. They kept saying, Sacrificing to Baals and burning offerings to idols. And how did our God respond? Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms. They did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and I fed them.

22:35Even still they turned. And surely God gave them up.

22:43Surely God turned away from them fully in his wrath and anger. Surely he abandoned his plan of salvation that surely he cast off this wicked and rebellious and adulterous people.

23:06How can I give you up, O Ephraim?

23:11How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zeboim? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath, says the Lord. Our God is a forgiving God, whose compassion grows warm and tender, the text said. He is a merciful and forgiving God, not just in word, but we see it in these historical and inspired pages of Scripture, the kind of God He is. He is kind, He is tenderhearted, He is forgiving, and we see it. Now then I also should say, for fear of portraying God as a divine being full of passions and emotions, simply to tug at your heartstrings. The reality is that God acts this way in Scripture not out of emotional compulsion, but because this is who he is. We read on the pages of Holy Scripture concerning how God behaves that we may imitate him. This is the revelation of his nature. This is who he is. He is kind. He is tenderhearted. He is forgiving. This is God. This is who he is. And we know what kindness is, and we know how to be kind because God is kind. We know what tenderheartedness is, and we know how to be tenderhearted because our God has revealed to us what tenderheartedness is, because he is tenderhearted. We know what forgiveness is because our God is a forgiving God. All of this nonsense in the world today, from the unbeliever or the ignorant Christian about the true God we proclaim to be mean and judgmental and harsh and full of anger and full of wrath. Is that the picture of God that we see in Scripture?

25:54Not. Observe every home.

26:01Observe every civilization that attempts, as best as we are able, to imitate the God who is the true God. And what you will find there is that these are the most stable, loving, unified, peaceful, and blessed people in the world, generally speaking. Contrast that against those who reject the one true God, who imitate false gods, who imitate something else, and what do you find? Fighting, oppression, decay, disunity, curses, calamity, destruction. Why? Because they do not know God. They are not his beloved children, and as such, they do not imitate the source of all good. That is to say, we as Christians don't imitate God because he is emotionally good by expression any more than we imitate Christ simply because he was a good teacher or a good prophet or a good example or a good man. We imitate God and we follow Christ because it is here where we find the only source of anything that is good.

27:24The triune God being the very source of all that is good. The God who is good. The God who is kind, who is tender, who is forgiving, and who is love. This is who we imitate.

27:52So this brings us to our last point this morning in verse 2. And walk in love. As Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. The idea of walking has been a big theme in the book of Ephesians, right? We were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked. Chapter 2, verse 2. We were exhorted to no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Chapter 4, verse 17. We were uh we were to not walk as the unwise. We haven't gotten there yet. That's chapter 5, verse 15. And now as a result of our adoption, we're told to walk in the good works that are prepared for us. That's chapter 2, verse 10. We're to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, chapter 4, verse 11. We are to walk in love, as we see today in chapter 5, verse 2, and to walk as children of light. Chapter 5, verse 8. This is nothing short than a total identity change, a complete shift in our relation and our relationship to God. As dramatic is dark is to light, death is to life. We are to walk. That is, we are to be and to live in light of this new life we have now in Christ as beloved children. That is to live in and through the love of God shown to us in Christ. Through Christ. For God in Christ and for one another, this is speaking to the whole of our lives, not just our emotion. The road we walk, the life we live, the works we do is now in and through God's love for us shown in Christ. Walk in love is not saying, just be more loving. Walk in love is not saying just be a more loving person. And along the way, you can redefine what love is and what loving is so that you can essentially walk however you want to walk. This is saying that to walk in love is to live the whole of our lives in response to the model Christ, the model of love that God showed us in Christ, and that Christ is modeled in the giving of Himself. How did Christ, this is a question, a big question, how did Christ show that love? How did Christ model his love for us? How did Christ walk in love? How did Christ show his love for the Father and then tell us how we are to show our love for him? Does Scripture have a word about that?

31:35John 14, verse 15. Know the rest?

31:48John 14, 2021. Whoever has my commandments and keep them, he it is who loves me. And who loves me will be loved by me by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. If you keep my commandments, this is John 15, 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abided in his love. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. Second John 1 6. And this is love, and this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. Luke 6, verse 46. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? It is impossible then to walk in love as God commands and to imitate God as He commands, apart from obeying His Word, Church. That is doing what He tells us to do. And so we see then to walk in love is to walk in obedience to the Word of God. This is love.

33:37This is what love looks like, doesn't it? You ask the world what love is, and you will get all manner of answers.

33:51But as we look to God's word and we look to Christ, what we see is that real and true love is imitating God by obeying his word. This is true love. This is the constant testimony of Scripture. And the reminder that our text gives us this morning, then as we close, it was Christ's love that compelled him to do what? To give himself up in submission to the Father, to lay himself down as an offering, as a spotless lamb, for the children of God, for us. This love of Christ compelled him to obey the Father, to obey his commands, to submit to his authority. So we must say, then, in summary, of this whole idea of imitating God, of walking in love, though it is certainly emotional at times, and it is, it's not an emotional call.

35:16It's a call to obey the word of God. And perhaps this is why human love in human marriages fails far more than it should.

35:35Because we don't understand the essence of true love. It cannot be about some feeling or some emotion, as this will always fail.

35:50What is love? It's keeping your word. Holding your oaths.

35:59It's giving yourself for another. It is submitting to the will of God. This is love. And this is the wonder and the glory of the gospel, isn't it? Because God the Father loved you in Christ. He himself through Christ kept his word.

36:23He kept his commandments.

36:26He kept his vow and his promise. He himself fulfilled the law of love. Christ the Son, verily God Himself, gave Himself once for all as a sacrifice in obedience to the Father, in love for you. That is love. And now you, being set free from your sins by His will and by His love, your call is to imitate that love. To walk in that love. That is to obey God, to act like Him, to imitate Him. That is our great commission. Isn't it? Matthew 28, verse 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And what? Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. We love and we obey because he first loved and first obeyed for us. And we walk in love because he first walked in perfect love for us. We imitate God because Christ first and perfectly imitated or imaged the Father for us. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.

38:56Behold our God, seated on his throne. Come, let us adore him. Behold our God. Nothing can compare.

39:13Come, let us adore him. Come then, let us imitate.

39:23Let's pray.

39:28Lord, we behold you this morning in all of your glory and all of your goodness and all of your kindness and all of your tender-heartedness and forgiveness, Lord. We behold you in all your glory. But by your grace and through your son, showing us who you are. Revealing to us, communicating to us your nature.

40:08Lord, help us to draw near to you, Lord.

40:12Help us to observe you through your word. Lord, by your spirit, would you open our eyes to see who you are? That we may love you, Lord. That we may embrace the reality that we are yours, Lord. By adoption, according to your will. May we delight in your word. And may it be the desire of a heart that we imitate you. Good and gracious Father.

40:43Transform us, Lord. That we may look more like Christ.

40:51That is our aim. We thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name.

40:59Amen.