In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of following in the footsteps of Jesus. He uses the analogy of stepping in footprints to illustrate the idea of mimicking Jesus' actions and behavior. The preacher also discusses the significance of love in the Christian faith, highlighting that love should not keep a record of wrongs and should always behave with good manners. He references biblical verses that emphasize the importance of loving one another as a characteristic of being a follower of Jesus.

...recent days espousing the post-tribulation viewpoint. One would think that the writers had just discovered undisclosed secrets hidden from the foundation of the world. However, none of their arguments are new. Neither should one be impressed with their listing of scholars who propagate the theory. For every prophetical genius proposing the post-tribulation view, there are 50 scholars who proclaim the great escape, all the pre-tribulation rapture. However, names... There's a line that's been drawn, and the old rock... The Woodhouse gave it back. Isn't that something? He ended early. Little quiz on 2 Timothy chapter 2. He didn't get to. If you can find it, I'll treat somebody to a soda. First person to find it. Somebody tell me why 15 plus 16 equals 17. You can find it in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Not now. Do it on your own. 15 plus 16 equals 17 in 2 Timothy chapter 2. That was... That's his message. What? Well, I didn't say what 15 and 16 represented. But it is in chapter 2. I'll give everybody else a clue. 15 plus 16 equals 17. First one after the meeting. Don't raise your hand, Vernon. But anyway. Last night, Eddie Schwartz said he had to sleep quickly. You want to know why? Yes. Curly slept quickly, too. So did Vernon. Well, see, yesterday I was talking with... ...my brother from Brumington. And he said at a conference up in Canada, he went out for ice cream and chafed fire engines after he spoke at night. So we went out for ice cream last night. And we closed McDonald's down last night. So we all had to sleep quickly. And I trust the rest of you could sleep a little bit more slowly so that your blood was running when you cut yourself shaving this morning. And so we're glad you're all here. And I know it's just been some beautiful weather. It's a little bit perspiring, I know. But I just really have enjoyed it. And I was thinking last night, and when I was asking you to raise your hands for the last time, I got bitter at somebody being angry yesterday. I started thinking, I know why they're not raising their hands. I started coming to me while I was thinking, it's you people all on the mountaintop this week. And you're having just a fantastic, beautiful experience with fellowships, and all the rest that comes with coming to camp. Maybe I should ask that question next Wednesday, after you've been back and worked for three days. And things like that might be a little bit different when you come back from the mountaintop and you have to knock heads with that mean, cold, cruel world out there. So I apologize for giving you such a hard time last night. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. And we'll continue in the walk of the new man. The new man in Christ. The new woman in Christ. And by the way, it's very specific in the Greek text. It's this new man, the word anthropos, and not the word aner. If it's a new man aner, that would be talking about male believers. So it's the word anthropos. And that's the word that could literally be, you know, without damaging the Bible, okay, could be translated person. You know, that it's not a sex term in terms of male or female. It can refer to a person, man or woman. And, you know, the National Council of Churches, I was somewhat concerned about this new Bible that they're coming out. They were going to, you know, de-sex the Bible and get male and female out of it. Well, you know, there's some places I think that they can legitimately take the word man out of there and not damage the text. And with the word new man, it could be new person. And you're not damaging the text because that's what the word anthropos means. But I was very, it was kind of interesting. I listened to a man who was in charge of this, a man by the name of Bruce Metzger. And Bruce Metzger, though he is aligned with the liberal school, he has a very high regard for the biblical text. And he was on KMS Radio in St. Louis. He says, you can't do that to the Bible. I mean, the words on there, that's male. You can't change male to female. And so he just would not change the text of the word of God. And so he was in charge of the project. I think the project is dying as a result. And that doesn't disturb me at all. So I praise the Lord for that. But let's read Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 through 14. Be, therefore, followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us in offering and a sacrifice to God for his sweet-smelling Savior. But fornication, and all uncleanness, and for covetousness, let it not be one. And notice it's not the word done. It's the word named. Let it not be once named. Among you has become a saint. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting. And please, before you write Eddie Schwartz and company off, wait till we expound that verse, okay? It does not have to do with the fact that we can have honest fun, and God gave us the capacity to laugh, and that's good. And that's not what it's talking about. Which are not convenient, but rather giving a thanks. For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. But no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you life. Father, I thank you for this portion of the Word of God. We know that there is no way on earth that we can come to death with you alone. But Father, we are thankful that your Spirit is here, and your Spirit will take from the Word of God and will bring it to meet the need that each of us has. There's no way that any human speaker behind this podium could begin to understand his own need, much less the need of the people in an audience. So Father, we trust the working of the Holy Spirit in our midst to accomplish a work which would bring glory to your Son and edification to this body of believers. We pray this in your Son's name, Amen. Be ye therefore followers of God with your children. Now that little word followers is translated as often, it's also the word that's translated, you know, be followers of me even as I also am of Christ. It's a word for mimic, you know, and that's almost the English bringing out of a Greek word for, it's the word mimic. And it's the kind of thing, you know, that whenever you have your child and you go out in the snow, now you got to be up north to get a little bit of snow. But when you get up north and you get some of that snow, you'll find out that you got to get out there and you put your clothes on and you go walking out in the snow and all of a sudden you look behind you and you see this little boy back there with his lashes and he tries his best to hit that footprint of his daddy. He doesn't quite make it. He takes three or four more, but he makes sure when he gets there that he hits that footprint and he steps in it. And he may step in it once or twice or three times and then he goes up there and he steps in the next footprint. But what he's doing is he's mimicking. Or that you might be in there one day and you got that face all lathered up there and you're hoping that your blood is running slowly and you get out your Gillette Track 2 and you start shaving and all of a sudden you come back in the bathroom about a half hour later after your little boy's been watching you do this and he's got that face all lathered up, his eyes and you know everything is all and he's got that Track 2 and you know, oh no, don't do that. But what he's doing is what? He's mimicking. Or your little girl lady said, you know, one day you come in there and your brand new high heels, you know, those platform shoes, six inches high and all the rest. They've got them on. They've got your nice new dress and they got all in a handbag and they got the lipstick on, you know, all over the place and powder and rouge. I know you don't wear those things, but anyway, they got all those things on there. But what are they doing in there? They're mimicking. They have seen a pattern that has been set and they're following that pattern. Okay, now there is a vital dynamic in the Christian life of mimicking, following an example. Elders, for instance, are to provide an example that the sheik was in the flock to be able to follow. That you see an elder and you walk in his steps and you are mimicking. You're following his example. But ultimately behind all of this that the appeal is that we're to be imitators of God because the only reason we would ever follow an elder or any other man is because that man is following or mimicking God himself or he's following the example of a man who is following God. But if we're to back off and say, okay, well, how can we be imitators of God? God is spirit. You know, how can we creatures of flesh and blood mimic spirit? Well, we just so happen to have had God having taken on the likeness of sinful flesh and having lived a perfect, sinless, holy, righteous, unblameable life before us, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we can take a look at Matthew, Mark and Luke and John and other representations of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm sure this is in the mind of the apostle Paul here, being imitators of God, he's talking about Jesus. So when those people knock on the door and not the clean cut ones, the other ones, and they don't, well, both of them, okay, both of them got problems with the deity of Christ, don't they? And isn't it a sad thing, by the way, I was just thinking when Brother Woodhouse was talking about it, isn't it a sad thing that the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses that are known for knocking on the doors and not us? Isn't it a sad thing to know that people, when they hear that door and they look and see two people out there, they don't think of the assembly down the street or, you know, one other evangelical or fundamental church. It's not them. It's going to be the other people, the cult. Why aren't we out there? Well, anyway, that's not my message either. The followers of God, and then notice how he says it, and I just like the way, you know, God, you know, through the apostle Paul, you know, gives these, you know, instructions. Dear children, he says, I love you. I care for you. You're beloved. And that's the word, you know, that I get paid to out there. You're beloved. You mean a great deal to me. You know, and I know a lot of pictures they will use. Dearly beloved, you know, and they get that from the Bible. And sometimes I wonder, you know, when you hear what follows the dearly beloved, if we really are. But for the apostle Paul, it really means that the followers of God, it's your children. And what is it saying? If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be demonstrated in a person's life. What do you think it would be? Wow. Oh, you've been reading the Bible. That's what he talks about, isn't it? You know, it's amazing. I can remember talking to Dr. Jones. And he says, when he's going to conferences, that he says, when you go to conferences, you know, with the Assemblies of Christians, there are certain subjects that are inevitable to be brought up and talked about. And they talk about them, talk about them, talk about them. Sometimes those passages are only in the Word of God one time. But you know how many times the Bible and the New Testament, just the New Testament, without even going into the Old Testament, how many times it says in the New Testament to love one another? Anybody want to take a guess? We've gone from one extreme to the other. OK. If God says it once, is it important? Right. If God said it, I believe it, that settles it, right? God says it twice, he's kind of saying, I really want you to pay attention. He says it three times, hey, this is important stuff. Four times, five times, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 times. And it's not just John. Every 16 times, now you might have to, you know, there are some variations, like love your neighbor as yourself, but at least about 16 times, love one another. What does that mean? It means it's important. In fact, Jesus said, the one thing that would characterize being followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one thing that would characterize it is what? By this shall the whole world know, all men will know, that ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another. That's what characterizes Jesus. Why do you think those little children came running up into his arms? Because he, you know, some guys, you know, you're seeing some people, you take a look at them and the children, they take a look at them and what do they do? Man, they tuck their tail behind their leg and they're off, they go run in the other direction. That man scares me. You know, you just take a look at him and you're doing your best smile, the whole thing and you've got, come here, you know, and that child just turns around and runs. And Jesus, I just, you know, I would have loved to have seen Jesus walking through town. I just get the impression that it was a standard thing that the children would flock around the Lord Jesus. Why? Because he was a man who was marked by love. And if that's what Jesus was marked by and we're to be imitators of him, what should be the mark of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? It's love. Now, this word love is all misunderstood today. In fact, he talks about it in verses 3, 4 and 5. In fact, that's what all these words, fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting, all those words when you take up and you do a word study them have moral connotations. They have to do with the fact that people have taken that little word love and they are using the wrong Greek word. There are three different primary Greek words for the word love, two of which are used in the New Testament, one of which is not. One that is not is the word ero, where we get the word erotic. It has to do with sexual type love. And people today are into this thing just like they were back in the first century. The Temple of Diana, which was located in the city of Ephesus. They made merchandise of temple prostitution, including homosexuality. It was a morally depraved garbage pit. And so when they talked about love, they were talking about a Hugh Hefner type love. They were talking about a love that is being paraded all around our society today. And that's what love was for them. And we've got problems like that in our society today. When we talk about a lover, we're not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, are we? And yet, he is really the lover in the agape sense of the word. But people are using and misusing this word just totally the wrong way. And so when you use the word love today, it's almost been destroyed as bad as the word gay. It used to be back in the 1890s, some of us weren't alive then, that you could talk about the gay 90s. And it was a nice term. You'd talk about a time when people enjoyed themselves. At least that's the way I understand the term was. But now you can't use that word because it's totally destroyed. And the word love now is almost totally destroyed. In fact, that's the way it was back in the first century. Because when the writers of the New Testament wanted to talk about love, that man's concept of love was so warped, so distorted, so that what the apostle Paul, the apostle John, the apostle Peter, following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, picked up a word that was so little used that nobody really had a concept. They really didn't understand what the word was. And this is the word agape. And the noun and the verb is agapao. And that was hardly ever used. You don't find it much in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. You don't find it in Koine Greek much. It's a very little used word. It wasn't a word that was distorted. Picked up a new word and said, OK, I want to use this word to describe something to you that the world doesn't know anything about. It's agape love. And they don't know what it's about because that love comes from God himself. Because God is agape. God is love. God is the source of love. God is the one who sheds his love abroad in the hearts of his children. God is the one who, through his children, loves other people. That we are to be imitators of God. We are to be lovers with agape love. Now, if we have the time, we can go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and we can take a look at the characteristics of love there, but we don't have time for that. But let me tell you two things real quickly that love in 1 Corinthians 13. One thing is that love does not keep a record of wrongs done. There is a tendency that we have here, and this is part of the idea behind here, that he'd given himself for an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling favor that he was forgiving. And love does not keep a record of wrongs done. He remembereth our sins and iniquities no more. Lord, that sin I committed yesterday, what sin was that? It's not that God is not omniscient. He is omniscient, but the thing is, he says, I out of love have chosen to forgive and that I will remember no more. I won't bring it back up. And so when you hit the computer file, you push the button for Rick Bovey and up comes a card. Guess what? It's cleaned by the brother of the Lamb. But what do we do? We hit that little computer card called husband. Up comes a card. October 12th, 1914. You did. October 13th, 1914. You did. October 15th. You did. And so what does he do? He pushes his computer button. Up comes his card and it says wife and it says October 12th, 1914. And off we go. And man, they got a big long list. And if you ever wonder why, you always are like that. The reason they say that is they picked up the card. The card's getting heavy. And so they say, instead of rehearsing each individual instance the fact they probably can't even remember them all, they ask they to say, you always are or you never. And the reason is, is they got a big heavy card that they punched up. Okay. Love does not keep a record of wrongs done. Okay. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said, the good I do, nobody remembers. And the bad I do, nobody forgets. Okay. Okay. Second one. Love does not behave unseemly. Know what that says? Love has good manners. Oh, application. Lunchtime coming up here, 1230. Love has good manners. You women got to fight for yourselves, don't you? With your kids. With all those nice, mannerly men. When was the last time your husband opened the door for you, ladies? Uh-oh. That's love, though. Love has good manners. Well, we're to walk in love as Christ also has loved us. Let's go on to the second section here, beginning of verse 6. Not only are we to walk in love, but we're to walk in the light. Now, let's establish this right now. That light and darkness are mutually incompatible. Where it's dark, there's no light. Where there's light, there's no dark. They're incompatible. They don't get along. When light comes in, dark leaves. And when dark comes in, light's gone. They're incompatible. And that's what he's going to talk about here, that when we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ is in us, He is the light of the world. And being the light of the world, He comes into us and we become the children of the light, and we now are the light of the world. We are His light in us to the world. So the Lord Jesus could say, He is the light of the world. We are the children of the light. And when we are the children of the light, and we go out into a world that is covered over with the darkness of sin, what should happen? There is going to be a mutual incompatibility. That the light of the Lord Jesus Christ is incompatible with the children of disobedience. With the children of disobedience who are walking in the unfruitful works of darkness. In fact, if you go on here, and it says some things that are to happen here. He says, first of all, in verse 7, that we are not to be partakers, well, maybe we start first of all in verse 6, that we're not to be deceived with these vain words. When these children of disobedience come up, that first of all, we're not to allow their empty words to be a means of discussion. But the one I'd like to take a look at is verse 7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, and then go on down in verse 11, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. So, two different words here. One is the word share. That's the first one, partakers, that we're not to share with them. That we're not to get to the place where we actually become co-participants in the works of darkness. And sometimes, you know, that when we get involved in situations with the people in the world, and they get us into a compromising situation, that if we stand up and, you know, and be counted, we know that we're going to suffer some tribulation. We're going to suffer some persecution. We're going to get some flack. We're going to get some pressure. You know, it might be from a boss. It might be from a fellow employee. We're just praying for this one young fellow this morning that we're having some times when he has gone to work, and he says, When I work, I want to work the hardest I can. And some of his fellow employees come up and say, Hey, cool it. Slow it down. You're making us look bad by working so hard. So, what does he do? He has to make a choice. He made an agreement with his boss that I will give you the best days work for the wage that you're giving me. But his fellow employee is saying, Hey, listen, we're not willing to give that much, and therefore, we don't want you to make us look bad. So, he has a choice of being a participator in their evil deed, being a co-participant, being a partaker of it, or getting flack, pressure, stress, persecution, or whatever from his fellow employees. They said don't be partakers of it. And then secondly, they were to have no fellowship with the unfruitful words of darkness. Then this is the idea where we go in and we go beyond just, you know, where we're participating and partaking the work. We actually go beyond that and we enter into fellowship with it. Not only do we not partake of it, we don't fellowship with it. And we can go on and talk and talk and talk about the unfruitful words of darkness. But I'd like to spend just our last couple minutes with this word that we see in the end of verse 11, and it's developed in greater detail down through verse 14. But rather, reproval. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. You know, a few years ago, the girl in our assembly, a woman, married woman, children and all that, came up and she says, I bought this book. What do you think about it? I never read the book. I'd heard it advertised. You know, it's the book everything you always want to know about sex. And we're afraid to ask. Well, I was foolish. I said, okay, give it to me. I'll read it and I'll evaluate it. And I tell you, the garbage that got poured into my mind when I read that book, I'm still struggling with. And it's been eight and ten years ago. See, there are things that we as Christians have no business knowing. And if we know it, we have no business talking about it. There are some things that we are, in the end of Romans chapter 16, that there are certain things that were to be simple concerning evil. That when it comes to evil, it comes up and says, you know what such and such a group does? And you say, no, I don't. And I don't want to know. And you have to be careful when you get involved in counseling situations. When you get into some of the really corrupt counseling situations, that they start going into the details of evil. And you know, we as Christians don't want to hear. We don't want to know the details of evil. We can know what's evil in our spirit. We know that it is evil. And we can reject it because we don't want to have that in us. But more than that, it's not only that we reject it for ourselves, the light does something else. Not only does the light push back the darkness from itself, the light exposes the darkness. We reprove. And that's the meaning of the word reprove. It means to expose. It's like the policeman that gets the silence alarm that there's a bank robbery going on in the middle of the night at First National Bank of Nashville. And so the policemen come down there and they look in the window and they see this little flicker of a light back by the safe. And they see three guys hovering around working in that safe and all the rest. And so the policemen all come in there. They all got their great big flashlight and they sneak in there and they come up behind the guys. And all of a sudden, all these big flashlights go on and what do you say? Gotcha! Freeze! Put your hands up! And the unfruitful deeds of darkness have been exposed. And what's going on today is that Edmund Burke said a long time ago that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to say nothing. Christians are the salt of the earth. Christians are the light of the world. And when it comes... Not the political issues. I'm not talking about political issues. I'm talking about moral issues, scriptural issues. And what has happened in every denomination almost without exception today is that the denominations have been taken over little by little by little. And what has happened is that in the process of it, they didn't expose the evil. They didn't shine the light of the Word of God upon it. They did not show it up for what it really was. And so that the darkness began creeping, the light retreated. The darkness crept some more, the light retreated some more. The darkness crept and the light retreated even more. And what needs to happen is that the light needs to stay bright. It needs to stay firm. And where does it stay firm and bright? In the believers that we are the ones who are to bring the light to the Word of God to this world, not just to the church. Because we're talking about here to the children of disobedience. The unfaithful world that were to expose their unfruitful works of darkness. And I tell you, that's a very serious business. It does not necessarily make for popularity. It does not make you necessarily the most fruitful employee. That may make you the most fruitful employee, but not the most loved employee of a boss. We had a man who worked for a company and his company, that they wanted to bring in booze for the Christmas party and girls that were not the wives of the men, and not allow the wives of the men to be there. And here was this man as a Christian. He was upper level executive. And what do you think you do when you do something like that? Well, you're the boss. Whatever you want to do. He says, no, what you're doing is evil. It's wrong. It's contrary to the Word of God. I won't participate. I won't partake in it. And I stand firm and I stand strong in it. And he exposed it to his boss courageously. Six months later, he's without a job. It doesn't make you for a popular employee. Because the salt of the earth and the light of the world does not always get a good reception from the world. Let's close in prayer. Father, we are thankful that Your Word is alive and powerful. And it is relevant. And we live in a world that does not respond to Your Word. Father, may we be courageous and living according to Your Word. That our lives are a testimony of reproof, that so are our words. But Father, before that, it's so interesting that this happened. Before he talked about that, he talked about how we're to be imitators of You in love. Father, may this world and our fellow believers see the love of God in Christ Jesus in us, and may we see it in each other today. In Jesus' name, amen.