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.