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April, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
theirs because they belong to Christ. They were chosen by God to be His children. They had had their sins forgiven through the blood of Christ. They had received the Holy Spirit as a sign of what should come. Paul told them how all believers, no matter where they lived, belong equally to God and are His children. Next, he told them some of the things they should do because they are God’s children. Our lives are to show the same love that Christ showed to ward us. That means to love our neigh bors as ourselves, doesn’t it? And then, at the end of the letter, Paul told the Ephesians how husbands and wives and children and servants and sill of the dif ferent sorts of people should act. Do you know what he tells children to do? The first thing is to obey their parents. They are to honor their parents. And he reminds them that that is one of the commandments which has a promise to it. Do you remem ber what it is? “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Paul wasn’t writing this letter just for the people in Ephesus. These are things God wants us all to remember. Do you know that when you are honoring and obeying your parents you are honoring God? W e sometimes sing: “Trust and obey, For there’s no other way Objects: Five corks, graduated in size, a small flash-shaped bottle filled with vine gar, an imitation cigarette, an imitation playing card, an imitation dance program, an imitation theater ticket, a wide piece of black cloth, a narrow piece of red cloth, a wide piece of white cloth, and a large mag net. (Put a large tack in each cork. Sew the red cloth between the black and white and spread over the table.) Lesson: I want to introduce you to the Cork Family. They are all on the black side of life, reminding us that “all have sin ned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). The articles you see on their heads are not strange-looking hats, but dif ferent things which keep them from being drawn by the magnet from the black to the white side of life. The magnet, which reminds us of the Holy Spirit, begins to work with Mr. Cork. He is held by whiskey, but the magnet takes him to the red, which suggests Christ’s cleansing blood, and on to the white side of life. At first, card playing keeps Mrs. Cork from going with the magnet; but finally she yields to the magnet and follows her hus band in accepting Christ and living the new life. Cora Cork does not want to give up dances, but the magnet keeps drawing her, and she, too, comes to Christ, is forgiven of sin, and begins to live a new life. Carl is bound by cigarettes, but he comes to Christ for cleansing and joins the others on the white side of life. To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey." By obeying our fathers and mothers we learn to obey our heavenly Father, too. Object Lesson T h e C o rk F am ily
as it is touched here) must be dealt with in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. W e must understand what His "will” is (v. 17). W e must be filled with His "Spirit" (v. 18). W e must find our emotional outlet in the spiritual realm, making melody in our hearts “to the Lord” (v. 19). W e must render our thanksgiving in His “name” (v. 20). Any attempt to deal with the problem of temperance apart from the Lord Jesus Christ is doomed to ultimate failure. The Lord said, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Of course, we must not un derstand this in any narrow sense. Men can work, pass laws, set up courts, and do a multitude of other things useful in a re stricted and temporal way. But without Christ we can do nothing of any permanent and eternal value. When the leaders of great reforms cut loose from Christ, they do so on the assumption that thus they can command a greater following among men for the moral issue they are trying to win. And thereby they guarantee their own fail ure. For there is no final morality that can stand on its own feet without the support of the true God, and there is no true God apart from Jesus Christ. “A young man entered my store one day,” a merchant told a friend. "He told me that he was starving and almost destitute. While I was talking with him, a man came in who employed a large number of men. He gave his address and promised work to the young man, who said he would go. I then gave him some clothing and money to get underclothing. Next day his employer came and told me that the poor creature had not come. After five months he came in again, in as bad a plight as before, and I asked him why he had not gone to the shop as he had promised. He said he could not pass a grog-shop without a glass, and he went in and drank till the money I gave him was gone. I tried to reason with him; I told him he had a good example in his fa ther’s house. ‘You are mistaken,’ he said. 'W e had whiskey at table in my father’s house every day, and I learned to love it there.’ ”—From The L ite o f Robert Carter, in A Modern Cyclopedia o f Illustrations, by H a llo ck . While You Are Growing Up E ph esia n s 5:1-20-, 6:1-4 Memory Verse: "Honor thy father and thy mother” (Ex. 20:12). Approach: A few years after Paul left Ephesus, the Lord led Paul to write a let ter to the Christian friends whom he had left there. W e call it in our Bibles “The Epistle [or letter] to the Ephesians.” Paul had traveled many miles since he had seen Golden Text Illustration L ev itic u s 10:9
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the C h ris tia n s at Ephesus, but they were always in his thoughts and in his prayers. He felt to ward them as a fa ther does toward his children. L e s s o n S t o r y : He opens his letter by telling them of all the jo y s th a t are
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