Ephesians 5:2-7

Now, you can't use my time used earlier

against me.

It's like when the little boy went to the Pres

byterian church with his mom and he saw

the baptistry for the first time and he said,

"Mom, what's that?"

She said, "Well, that's where they baptized

the babies."

He saw the table in front of the pulpit and he

said, "Mom, what's that?"

And she explained to him, "This is where the

Lord's Supper is given."

And then, as the pastor got up to do his

sermon, he took off his watch and he placed it

on

the pulpit and the little boy said, "Mom, what

does that mean?"

She said, "Absolutely nothing."

Now, I don't use a watch because you got what

you got here.

This is the manuscript.

The problem is by adding to what I've written

here that makes us go longer.

So if you have your Bibles, let's get into Eph

esians 5-2.

And we return to a passage today that some

would look at as just a list of dos and don'ts

.

And you can characterize it like that, a right

way or a wrong way.

I posted on our church's Facebook page a while

back CS Lewis said this, "Obedience isn't

legalism, it's a symptom of salvation."

To which my friend Chris Fontenot replied on

our page, he said, "Or better yet, it's

the fruit of salvation."

Both quotes are true.

I like Chris is actually better than CS Lewis,

so I imagine he would be surprised to hear

me say that.

But both of them give us the right way to look

at this subject of dos and don'ts in the Bible

.

The subject of obedience to the word of God

for the Christian.

And it's so important for us to get this right

.

And what we have to do is we have to engage in

using both the left side of our brain and

the right side of our brain, if you will,

simultaneously to keep this subject matter

straight.

Our doing and don'ting.

That's a word I made up this week by the way

that I never heard before, but it just came

out when I wrote it.

Our doing and don'ting, as you know, does not

make us right with God.

Neither does it keep us right with God after

we have become right with him through

salvation.

Think about this.

If my obedience to the word of God in the

Christian life is the thing that keeps me

saved, if

that's true, then how many sins, and to what

degree of sin can I sin that would put me

out of being sinned?

Can you answer that?

Can you find any kind of list or explanation

of that subject right there anywhere in the

Bible?

How much I can sin or to what degree I can sin

that would put me out of salvation?

No, you won't find that anywhere in Scripture.

And this is why, as I'm going to explain in a

little bit, being saved and staying saved

absolutely has to be totally a work of God.

Now it goes from monergism, as you know, to

synergism.

Once we enter into salvation, that means God

alone resurrects our dead spirits of life and

regeneration.

Sanctification is us and God working together,

but the assurance that I have of my salvation

can't possibly be my performance in the

Christian life as it comes to obedience to the

word

of God.

Or I'd be cooked, right?

But we understand the holiness of God.

No, the assurance of my salvation must be, has

to be, based on the perfect obedience

of Christ in his person and work on my behalf,

or how else could I be assured of my salvation

?

Right?

You understand what I'm at?

But now, with your same one brain, as you're

keeping that locked in at the same time, we

come to a passage today that has dos and don't

s, okay?

And we're giving this list.

I'm keeping intact the one side of your brain

and its understanding of what saves you and

what keeps you saved, as I just demonstrated

to you.

You see this here as a clear example from the

Apostle Paul as to what kind of behavior

is expected from the Christian.

And the only right way to see it, as I said at

the beginning, is that this behavior is

the fruit of a person who, with the

understanding of one side of our brain, has

been saved by

grace through faith alone, and who with the

same one side of that brain, now,

understanding

it's all of God, understanding it's God that

keeps me saved, but still, with the other

side of the brain, desires with a new nature

to live this way that Paul is laying out for

us in these verses today, not out of a desire

to be saved, not out of a nervous fingernail

biting legalistic desire to keep yourself

saved, but rather out of a very willing desire

want to, to pattern your behavior this way.

Not that you're going to do it perfectly, of

course you're not, but a consistent desire

to do this, which gives you evidence that you

have been saved, that's one of the greatest

results of it.

Why?

Because you're so thankful that God saved you

from yourself when you were living your

life for yourself and not for Christ, how was

that working out for you, right?

And you're so thankful that God saved you from

his wrath that you deserve, that you now with

a new nature desire to live that way,

primarily because that's what he wants.

Paul is telling us today, this is what he

wants from you.

This is, these are examples of living a life

that brings glory to God, and when you become

a Christian, you begin to understand that's

the whole purpose of life, more than anything

else.

God wants you to bring him glory with your

living and folks, just like what we went

through

this weekend with Dr. White, that takes effort

in your thinking.

It takes effort in your reading and you're

studying the Word of God on a regular basis.

That's the only way you can keep your whole

brain on this track as you, as you're striving

to live God's way for God's glory.

And if you do, and you're doing that

consistently, you're giving evidence that you

're maturing

in your Christian faith because many

Christians fall either into the ditch of legal

ism and

they run themselves crazy because they, they

can't live up to the standard in their minds

or the ditch of antinomianism, and that's just

a big $5 theological word for anti-lawism.

Basically, that's the crowd that says, Hey,

Jesus paid it all, all my sins are forgiven.

What's the point in me worrying about

obedience?

There are lots of Christians who live that way

.

Some characterize that as hyper grace in some

movements.

Now, all that here right now, fresh in your

mind.

Let's start by reading this text and I want to

actually read verse one through seven because

we've already looked at the first two verses,

but let's go back there for context.

Verse one through seven, "Therefore be imit

ators of God as beloved children and walk in

love

just as Christ also loved you and gave himself

up for us and offering and a sacrifice to

God as a fragrant aroma, but immorality or any

impurity or greed must not even be named

among you as is proper among saints and there

must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse

gesting which are not fitting but rather

giving of thanks for this you know with

certainty

that no immoral or impure person or covetous

man who is an idolater has an inheritance in

the kingdom of Christ and God that no one

deceive you with empty words for because of

these things, wrath of God comes upon the sons

of disobedience, therefore do not be

partakers with them."

So you will remember quickly that Paul started

this second half of Ephesians.

This is the Christian living half, chapters

four, five and six.

And in verse one of chapter four, remember

what he said to kick this off.

He's imploring us, walk in a manner worthy of

the calling with which you have been called.

And since then, since that verse, he's been

giving us examples of how to do that.

How to walk worthy of that calling.

And he continues that in our text for today.

Now I want you to remember from our last study

that Paul started out exhorting us, looking

in verse one of chapter five, to be imitators

of God and beloved children.

And I cannot go back over all what that means

in depth as I did last time I was here in

the pulpit, but it starts as I said with you

realizing that you can't do that.

That's where you have to start, apart from the

power of God working through the Holy

Spirit.

If you want to go back and listen to that, if

you didn't catch that, go back and look

at it on our Facebook page.

And the key to being an imitator of God, Paul

explains it next, look in verse two, and walk

in love just as Christ also loved you and gave

himself up for us as an offering and

a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Remember that was point one of our text, the

plea, be an imitator of God by walking in

love.

That's one other point that I didn't add last

week.

Look in verse one, that phrase, we're going to

be imitators of God as beloved children.

Quite a phrase.

I want you to remember all people are not the

children of God, despite what many think,

despite what many say all the time, you hear

it, especially conservative political comment

ators.

We're all children of God.

No, we're not all children.

We're all creatures of God.

We all all made in the image of God, but the

only people who are children of God are those

who have been adopted by God into his family

by grace through faith alone, that great

doctrine

of adoption.

And it's interesting, though Paul lays the

foundational theological, doctrinal framework

in the first three chapters, even here, as he

gets to the Christian living portion, he

can't help but mix doctrine in as he's going

through this.

That's the great doctrine of adoption.

Do you realize there are many wonderful, great

things that can happen to a human being in

the life lived, but by far, infinitely by far,

the greatest thing that can ever happen

to any human being in the human experience is

to live life on this earth while you have

been adopted into God's family.

There's nothing greater that can happen to a

human being.

If you sit in here today and you have been

adopted by God into his family, I don't care

what earthly bad circumstances you have to go

through, nothing compares with that.

Remember, Paul said, for I reckon that the

sufferings of this present time are not worthy

to be revealed, but the glory to be revealed

to us in heaven, and that's a foretaste of

what's coming because of adoption.

And that reality, church, should make you

truly, really want to be what Paul says, an

imitator of God walking in love with Christ as

our example, as I taught you last time,

of how to do so.

He is the pattern to follow.

That's our second point, the pattern.

Look again in verse two, and walk in love, and

look at that next phrase, just as Christ

also loved you and gave himself up for us, and

offering, and a sacrifice to God as a

fragrant aroma.

And I said, last time, the major

characteristic of God's love is that of

forgiveness.

That's the linchpin.

Remember, at the end of Ephesians chapter four

and verse 32, it's a killer, forgiving

each other just as God in Christ also has

forgiven you.

So next time you have trouble with forgiving

someone, don't forget about what it took for

God to forgive you.

God's love is a forgiving love, and we went

into that in detail last time if you didn't

catch it.

There's a footnote that I want to give you

before we move forward.

Forgiving each other just as God in Christ

also has forgiven you.

I want you to think a minute about how is it

that God forgives us?

If God is holy, if God hates sin, and is of

pure eyes even to behold it, and if because

of that perfect holiness, he must punish sin,

law-breaking sinners, well, then how is it

that he can just say, I forgive you?

What about his perfection?

What about isn't his justice perfect?

His absolute justice, isn't it perfect?

So does just forgiving law-breaking sinners

violate that standard of holy justice by the

act of forgiving?

What about the punishment of their sins?

We'll look back at the end of chapter four,

verse 32 again, and look at this next phrase

just as God, look at that phrase, in Christ

also has forgiven you.

There's only one way God can forgive us, and

that is in Christ.

And there's no other way for us to be forgiven

because God's holy justice is absolutely

perfect.

And guess what?

His justice must be served, or it wouldn't be

perfect.

The penalty of sin must be paid in every

account for every human being ever born from

Adam

to the last person born in order for his holy

justice that is perfect to be satisfied.

And if you're forgiving in Christ, that means

the penalty was paid for you by Christ in

his substitutionary atonement on the cross.

It comes down to this.

It comes down to this for every human being in

existence, in world history, all the way

to the last day.

And it doesn't matter whether people believe

this or not, this is the truth.

Either you will pay the penalty for your sin

in hell forever, or Christ will pay your

penalty

when you believe.

It's that simple.

But either way, do you understand, justice is

served.

You get that?

God's holy justice for every human being is

always perfectly carried out.

That's why it says at the end of Romans 3, 26,

look at that.

It says, "So that he, God, would be just,"

justice upheld, "and the justifier of the

one who has faith in Jesus."

Incredible verse.

What Christ did in his person and work in

reconciling us to God was to clear the way

for God to forgive us for Christ's sake, in

Christ, out of love for where there was once

only wrath for us.

My nature, children of wrath, remember?

So the thought that God loves everybody uncond

itionally is clearly not true.

When we read the verse, "God so loved the

world," that's in a certain sense.

It's like, let me give you a quick example.

I love Roger Dale.

And I don't love Roger Dale like I love Mama

back there, sitting back there with Kyler,

right?

It's a different love.

It's a different love level and degree for his

elect that he has for those who have

not come to faith in Christ.

But I want you to zone in on this.

For believers, there is a sense in which it

really is true.

For believers, that God loves believers uncond

itionally, and let me tell you what I mean by

that.

God's love for believers is not defined by the

object of his love in any sense.

I give God no reason to love me.

He doesn't love me because of anything in me.

As a believer, his love is unconditional for

me.

You know why?

Number one reason?

God is love.

It is his nature to love, and for believers,

his love is both forgiving love and in the

sense that I just said unconditional for

believers.

And then thirdly, we said last time, still

reviewing here, that God's love is self-sacr

ificing.

Again, God so loved the world that he was,

gave his only begotten son.

So if we're going to be imitators of God as

Paul is challenging us to, we have to be

forgiving.

We have to love people in a way that places no

dependence on their response.

That's not easy, right?

But our love has to be selfless, not looking

for what we can get out of the transaction,

but only for what we can give.

So all of that right there in this text is the

positive side.

Imitators of God walk in love just as Christ

loved us.

How is that?

Forgiving, unconditional, self-sacrificing,

that's the positive presentation.

Now, watch how fast immediately Paul goes to

the opposite.

Here comes the negative.

You ready?

We've seen the plea, the pattern.

Now we get the perversion.

You know this, whatever God establishes, Satan

will counterfeit.

Where God establishes true love, the world

establishes what?

The counterfeit, the phony.

People in this world say, "Oh, I want love,"

right?

And maybe the only thing they want more than

love is money.

I think we would probably say money is

probably, for most people, first place.

But being in love, in love.

Money is the highest ultimate high in the

world.

It's the greatest of experience.

You will never be as happy as when you're in

love with your soulmate and all of that.

Think about how many of our songs in the

modern era, what are they all about?

Love, to one degree or another, pop songs,

country songs, R&B, go down the list.

It's either the fantasy of a love sought or

the shattering of a love lost, like we hear

in so many country songs or blues songs.

But the major way that the world's love is

different from God's love is that mostly and

generally the world's love is based on what it

does for me, it's self-seeking.

And whether it's songs or movies or books or

TV shows, just notice in your culture.

They just keep priming this chase for that

fantasy of the ultimate love.

That's your whole goal in life, to find

somebody to be in love with and have you

noticed how

often, especially in our day in the movies,

that the person of the object of that is not

married to the one they're chasing after and

that gives them the greatest thrill of love.

Many movies like that.

But God says love is what you give.

But the world's love is conditional.

It's the opposite of Christ's love for

believers.

It says if you give me what I want, I'll love

you.

It's unforgiving.

If you blow it too many times, you're out and

I'm going to move on.

How often does that happen now?

How many people now in our day do we see being

married 40, 50, 60 years, man, the number

is shrinking.

I mean, as long as you get the right responses

, you hang in there, but as soon as you don't

get the responses from the other person and

they're not what you want, I'm out of here.

I'm going for the greener grass, right?

And then it just keeps getting greener the

third time, the fourth time.

And thirdly, the world's love is self-centered

, it's not self-sacrificing, it feeds its own

need.

It's very opposite of what God says should

characterize us as believers.

One of the biggest problems you hear in

marriages, you ever heard this phrase?

You are not meeting my needs, you ever heard

that?

You boil it all down, folks, and I, through

all 24 years of ministry, no matter what the

deal is or what the complaints are, most of

the time, the root of the problem in marriages

is one word, selfishness.

Either one or the other or both are behaving

selfishly.

That's the issue.

Now let's look at verses three to four with

those thoughts in mind.

But immorality or impurity or greed must not

even be named among you as is proper among

saints and there must be no filthiness and

silly talk, of course, justing, which are

not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

So remember, God's love is self-sacrificing,

unconditional, and forgiving, unconditional

since I told you before.

But in general, in general, the love of the

world is selfish, self-centered, unforgiving.

It's conditioned on what I can get and I'm

speaking generally here, of course there are

times when people can exercise human love to a

higher level than of others.

But as I said before, just look at the divorce

rate in our country.

It's over 50% of marriages in divorce.

Think about the growing number, especially in

our young people, that are not getting

married at all.

They're just not getting married, period,

whether they're shacking up or not even with

somebody.

And this idea of Hollywood love for years now

has bled over into the church, which actually

results in Christian counselors giving advice,

and I've heard this advice given to young

ladies in the church.

You deserve to have your needs met.

Let me tell you, that's poison.

You don't deserve nothing.

You deserve nothing.

The sooner you find that out, the sooner you

understand that.

I deserve absolutely zero zilch but the wrath

of God.

That's all we deserve.

If you start from that ground zero, you stay

away from a counselor like that and you won't

get mixed up with the world's understanding of

how all this works.

But when we come to the Bible in God's way of

love, it's really about you meeting the

other person's needs.

That's what God's love is about.

And then when you have two people who are

doing that at the same time, it's not going

to be a perfect marriage but I can promise you

, according to scripture, that's the best

that it can be in this fallen world.

And then add to all that, the world's idea of

love really so often is really just lust.

I mean, that's mostly what the Hollywood

movies portray, right?

So Paul is saying here, I'm not talking about

the world's love, immorality, impurity, greed.

But very importantly, better translated, often

translated, covetousness.

Those things shouldn't once be named among you

, immorality, look at that word.

Also translated fornication, sexual sin.

This is mentioned in its noun form 35 times in

the New Testament because it's a problem

for us, right?

The word here covers any kind of sexual sin,

all kinds that you can think of.

And I'm not going to give you a list with that

particular subject.

Just whatever you can, things you haven't even

thought of, okay?

But further, this word is deeper.

It deals with a lack of sexual self-control.

It's behavior that's out of control.

And again, remember, this covers everything.

Nothing left out.

And Paul is saying, hey, there is no place for

this in the life of a Christian.

Remember in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul said, "Such

were some of you."

Remember that?

You used to be like this in the past, but

since you've come to Christ, that's done.

That's done away with.

That's my story.

Such was me.

Before coming to Christ, I was a very immoral

person, extremely.

Immorality, as defined here, was a very major

characteristic of mine before I came to Christ

.

But that characteristic left me.

When I surrendered to Christ, His terms of

repentance and faith, and guess what?

That's true of anybody who at one time led an

immoral lifestyle and at some point is

drawn and regenerated by the Holy Spirit and

given a new nature.

That's a symptom of salvation again, as Lewis

said.

Your desires change and you know, I can't help

but continue to say this, how fascinated

I am to this very day about this change.

I mean, I remember the old me as compared to

the new me in a way that nobody else does

because I lived every second of it.

And I am fascinated by this change.

I really am.

Now Paul says next in verse 3, "Any impurity,"

this word is also translated uncleanness,

interesting.

It's used one time by Jesus in the New

Testament to refer to the vile, rotten, stitch

that

occurs when a dead body decays.

You ever smell the dead body?

I have, wow, you can't mistake it once you

smell it once.

That's the strength of the word here.

That's the intensity of it.

And then the next 10 times that it's used in

the New Testament, it's connected with

sexual sin, uncleanness, impurity.

And the word here refers to immoral acts,

thoughts, passions, ideas.

It covers the whole gamut, just like the other

word.

Every kind of sexual sin, including the most

degrading sexual sins you can think of.

This is very strong language here.

And modern technology has saturated our

culture in both immorality and impurity in the

ways

that Paul uses them here in ways not possible

in any other age since the Garden of Eden

with the cell phone.

Not possible.

The saturation is unbelievable.

It, matter of fact, not possible 30 years ago

before the internet came into the mainstream.

Not possible.

But now, possible in ways we can't even fathom

.

But for the Christian, Paul says, these things

must not even be named among us.

He's saying, that's not us anymore.

And remember, he's writing to these Ephesians.

There were people in the church who had

engaged in temple prostitution, who had been

in all

of this stuff.

So he's thinking of them here and look at the

next word, verse three, greed, important,

also translated covetousness.

The idea in context here takes us back to

Exodus and the Ten Commandments about not

coveting.

Remember, in particular, this Ephesians, I'm

sorry, Exodus 20, verse 17, you shall not

covet within that verse, you shall not covet

your neighbor's wife.

That's what Paul is thinking of here.

Not only that, that works both ways for men

and women.

We know that.

But this also brings up the issue for all of

this that Jesus made clear with this sin.

It's not only outward, but it's also inward,

wherever God sees, where only God sees.

So greed here in Ephesians five, three, covet

ousness is mostly dealing in the mind and in

the mind,

desiring that which you can't have, desiring

that what you're not supposed to have.

Example being in Exodus coveting your neighbor

's wife, desiring that which is outside the

boundary

of your marriage.

This is focusing on where the battle with our

flesh occurs in the mind.

And this is where the battle rages most fier

cely for the Christian.

In fact, that is where the outward act always

starts.

If you don't get it under control there first,

it can lead to the outward act.

And that's what we've seen the examples over

and over and over and always ends in disaster.

Always.

It might take some time.

Covetousness that results in the outward act

destroys families, destroys relationships,

destroys jobs, destroys ministries.

We've seen that really unbelievably at an

alarming rate here lately.

We've seen that played out far too many times

in a public way and it never ends well.

Your sin will find you out, the Bible said.

How often do we see people in high places of

government business?

Sadly, again, even ministry because of sexual

sin that always starts right here.

Not just high places, all levels of society.

Always disaster always affects more than just

the offended parties.

Children are affected.

I can just go down and list on this.

Paul says in verse three, "Let none of this

immorality and purity, greed, covetousness

ever be named among you," look next, "as is

proper among saints," Haggias in the Greek.

Holy ones, set-apart ones.

We have been regenerated.

We have been adopted into the family of God.

We have had, again, the most tremendous thing

in all of the human experience happened to

us.

We've been redeemed.

We've been reconciled to God through the most

intense demonstration of love ever known,

the substitutionary atoning work of Christ on

the cross.

And as a result of that, God calls us saints,

set-apart ones.

And listen, not because we have reached some

kind of super level of morality and goodness

in and of ourselves so we get the title of

saint.

That's as false as false can be.

No, it's because God sovereignly marked every

believer out to be the recipients of his

unmerited favor.

Saints do not merit his favor.

Saints do not merit grace, or it would no

longer be grace, as Paul argues in Romans.

And the natural reaction of that monumental

reality is a drastic change in nature where

you read these verses in wonder of wonders in

a way that you never even could have compreh

ended

before salvation.

You agree with what Paul's saying.

That's right, Paul.

Christian, you read this.

That's right.

You should not be named among us.

You're right, Paul.

It's not proper in the behavior of saints,

what you're listing here.

And when we are tempted strongly by the world

and our own flesh and we fight against it,

we keep close accounts with God, and when we

fail, what do we do?

We repent.

We ask forgiveness.

And what does he promise in 1 John 1-19?

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and

righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse

us from all unrighteousness.

We daily remind ourselves, have to do it daily

, that forgiveness is rooted and grounded in

the full and complete forgiveness that Christ

purchased for us in his person and work on

the tree.

And you have to keep both sides of your brain

in this thing.

And Paul's not done here.

Not only is he dealing with both the inward

and outward sins and immorality, impurity and

greed.

Look what he moves next to.

Another killer for us.

Our speech.

Watch this, verse four.

And there must be no filthiness and silly talk

or, of course, jesting which are not fitting,

but rather giving of thanks.

And now, not only is he covering thoughts and

deeds, now he moves to words.

You remember what we learned a while back in

James 3-6?

"And the tongue is a fire, the very world of

iniquity.

The tongue is set among our members as that

which defiles the entire body and sets on fire

the course of our life, and is set on fire by

hell."

I mean, tell us how you really feel, James,

right?

About the tongue.

Look first in verse four, filthiness.

Look at that word.

It means general obscenity.

The literal root here is that which is

disgraceful.

It's described later down in verse 12.

Look at it.

For it is disgraceful for even to speak of the

things which are done by them in secret.

This is disgraceful, dirty conversation.

Again, our culture in all forms of

entertainment is absolutely saturated with

this.

It's hard to escape it.

And then we see next the phrase, silly talk,

moralogia in the Greek from morose where we

get the word moron.

This is interesting.

This is what we could call stupid talk.

We could translate it that way.

This is low IQ.

This is what we could call low obscenity.

For example, not clever jokes, but stupid low

IQ jokes.

Have you ever heard those?

As opposed to the next word, look at course

jesting.

Now we could call this high obscenity.

We're moving up the food chain here in

intelligence with what this is.

The word literally means able to turn easily.

An example would be someone who can take

something that is said and in a very clever

way, the

use of language turn it into something that is

dirty.

It takes more IQ to do course jesting than it

does silly talk.

It's like a clever comedian or a talk show

host who twists something into a dirty end

window.

Take all of this in verses 3 and 4 and Paul

says, "You don't do it.

You don't think about it.

You don't talk about it," is what he's saying.

Not if you're one of God's set apart ones.

Clean up your life.

Clean up your talk.

Clean up your speech.

And an unbeliever will hear all this.

I think back to when I was in unbelief and say

, "Well, this is what I would have thought.

There goes those self-righteous Christians

lecturing us about our morality, who in the

world would want to live that kind of button-

up, no-fun, puritanical kind of life?

That's what had been my position.

And I would still agree now with that because

the change of nature, folks, understand this.

The change of nature has nothing to do with us

.

You understand?

Understanding the Christian faith is some type

of straighten-up, grit your teeth and

be as moral as you can, puritanical, no-fun

society in order for God not to strike us

down.

That is not Christianity at all.

In the least, plenty of people in false

religions do that.

Many people are even wired to be more

naturally moral than others.

That doesn't mean they're right with God.

That's not what the Christian faith is at all.

The Christian is a person who has come to God

and said, "God, I am a tremendous sinner.

I cannot keep your law.

I can't keep it for one minute.

I don't have anything to offer you, God, but

sin.

That's all I got.

And I'm looking in your gospel to Christ alone

as my only hope to be right with you.

And in looking to Christ alone, I am believing

your gospel, your good news that Christ died

for sinners like me.

That what He did in His person and work on

behalf of sinners and my faith in His person

and work is the only hope I have of salvation

."

Do you understand what I just said?

You're not dealing with our morality at all

right there.

Our morality plays no part of what I just said

.

We're only dealing with our confessed immor

ality at that point in what I just said.

So where does our morality then come into play

, Brother Philip?

Well, Paul gives us what we're not to do with

our speech in verse four, which he says are

not fitting, and then the basis of our

morality is Christians.

The foundation of not speaking in these ways

comes next in this verse, but rather, what

kind of speech are you to have?

Giving of thanks.

And there it is.

First Thessalonians 5, 18, "In everything give

thanks for this is God's will for you

in Christ Jesus.

Brother Philip, what's the will of God for my

life?"

Give thanks.

You can start there.

The basis of our morality is that we know we

are not moral at all, and we have run to

the cross for salvation.

And once God has done that miracle in us of

regeneration, we are so thankful for this

amazing grace, this amazing change of our

nature, this amazing new understanding of who

God is and who we are, and what the true

meaning of life is, and on down the list we

can go

with all of the gospel benefits we are so

thankful that it is in no way close to some

kind of legalistic fingernail chewing

obedience that we have to give to the Word of

God in

order to be right.

Brother now, more than anything, it is a new

heart, changed will.

Nobody is more surprised than us that we want

to live our lives as best we can, struggling

with our flesh to live as God wants his people

, his saints, his set-apart ones to live.

And Paul is showing us here simply how to do

that.

And by the way, nothing in your life will

teach you unselfishness like giving thanks.

If you spend each day as often as you think

about and giving thanks to God, no matter

what your circumstances are, you will step

right outside of yourself regularly.

You know why?

Because thanks has to be offered only one way

to God.

Thanks, wrapped in contentment in whatever

situation you are in in life that God has

ordained for your life to be, let me tell you

something, that's the best way to live

life.

Thankfulness, wrapped in contentment.

Now quickly, we come to the last point and it

's not much longer here, the punchmen.

And boy is it clear.

Verse 5, "For this you know with certainty,

with certainty, that no immoral or impure

person are covetous man who is an idolater,

because if you covet something that becomes

an idol, right?

And he lists all three of the same things that

are in verse 3, right?

You see him?

Moral, impure, covetous?

No person like that has an inheritance in the

kingdom of Christ and God."

Now, remember this, I've reminded of you this

many times, but keep doing it.

Remember, we're using our whole brain, not

just the left side or not just the right side.

Whole brain, this does not mean that

Christians cannot be tempted.

This does not mean that Christians cannot fall

and fail into these areas of sin.

That's where the struggle with our flesh comes

into play.

But with certainty, listen carefully, this

verse says, if what Paul is describing is

the continuing, ongoing characteristic of your

life, then guess what?

You have no inheritance in the kingdom of God

guaranteed.

If that's your continual pattern, because that

is never the continual, continual, ongoing

characteristic in the lives of thankful saints

, never.

You may fall, but you get back up.

What is characteristic of us is from Romans 7.

Read Romans 7 tonight.

When we fail, we hate it, we hate it, we fight

against it, we keep short accounts with God

by asking forgiveness daily, which is free for

us in Christ.

And Paul continues to warn us, verse 6, "Let

no one deceive you with empty words."

Don't let anybody tell you you can live

however you want, that you made a decision one

day

15 years ago, you walked out, you prayed the

prayer, boom, you're forgiven.

That's it.

Do what you want.

Those are empty words, meaningless, useless,

empty.

Let no one deceive you with those empty words

because of these things.

What things?

Well, in the context of what we're looking at,

immorality, impurity, covenants, building

a silly talk or suggesting, because of these

things, what comes?

No, look next, the wrath of God comes upon the

sons of disobedience.

Remember God is holy, and his perfect justice

must be upheld, and either you will be a

recipient

of his holy justice, or Christ will be a

recipient of his holy justice on your behalf.

That's the only two choices there are.

And there's a clear contrast as we close.

Look at the contrast.

Verse 1, look inside that verse.

You see the phrase, "Beloved children," that's

the saints, that's the adopted.

But then look in verse 6 that we just saw, "

The sons of disobedience."

Children, beloved children, sons of disobed

ience, don't let anybody deceive you.

Paul says that these things are not the

characteristics of the children of God.

One more verse, verse 7, "Therefore, because

of all that that I just said, do not be part

akers

with them."

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this challenging

message.

Oh Lord, we thank you that it's not our

performance that keeps us right, but it's

Christ on our

behalf, or we would be as Isaiah undone.

But let that not serve to keep us from

obedience, because that is what you want, and

with our

new nature that is what we want.

And if it's not what we want, then we must

examine ourselves, as Paul said, to see

whether

or not we be in the faith.

Thank you for this clear word, this clear

message that you have given us through your

servant,

Paul.

Help us, Lord, as we continue to work our way

through Ephesians to take it in, to learn

it, to study it, and most of all, to apply it

to our lives in such a way as you are brought

glory.

I pray you have given your people ears to hear

this day, in Jesus' name, amen.