SPEAKER_00: Well, church, this morning we are in Ephesians chapter 5, if you will turn with me there.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: And today we will be looking at verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: I know the bulletin says 1 through 14, but today we're going to just look at verses 1 through 7, which is all about walking in love.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Ephesians was written around AD 60, maybe AD 62, by the Apostle Paul from prison.
SPEAKER_00: The church in Ephesus, it lived in a very religious, commercial, it was a pluristic area.
SPEAKER_00: It was a commercial city.
SPEAKER_00: So they were influenced by all kinds of different religions and politics and ideas all around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul writes this letter to establish the doctrine of God, the supremacy of Christ, the nature of our salvation, the purpose of the church, and how we ought to walk as redeemed men and women.
SPEAKER_00: And that is where we find ourselves today, here in chapter 5, considering all that God is, in view of all of his blessings and what Christ has done to establish the church, Paul now transitions to our lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: How we ought to walk.
SPEAKER_00: The key word here is walk, it's referring to a person's way of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to know that we have a new resurrected life, but it's a whole nother thing to know how to walk it out.
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what Paul does through the rest of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: We saw last time in Ephesians 4, verses 25 through 32, that we should be walking in truth.
SPEAKER_00: If we've been given a new life in Christ, then we need to put away falsehoods and start telling the truth.
SPEAKER_00: We should quit stealing and work honestly for our wages.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't be overtaken by anger.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't be grieving the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we should be people who are defined by truth as we extend forgiveness and compassion.
SPEAKER_00: And we now arrive here in chapter five at one of the highest, most privileged commands in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Paul now declares to us in verse one, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.
SPEAKER_00: This command, it's pointing back to the end of chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: To walk in truth, to show compassion, to extend forgiveness, to do these things is to reflect your Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in such a way is imitating the very nature of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this verse doesn't mean that you can be like God in the sense of being all-knowing, in the sense of being all-powerful and omnipresent.
SPEAKER_00: Who can imitate that?
SPEAKER_00: None of us can imitate those things.
SPEAKER_00: That's a silly interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: What this verse is suggesting is that we now have the capacity, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to reflect God's love, his mercy, his grace, and righteousness to the world around us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what kind of identity are we operating out of?
SPEAKER_00: Do we imitate God as fearful servants, as people who feel obligated?
SPEAKER_00: Do we reflect God as peasants who might get struck down by his wrath?
SPEAKER_00: No, look, look at the verse.
SPEAKER_00: We are to imitate God as dearly loved children.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is what we are.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, if you are in Christ, God really, really loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you ever doubt that, just look at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Ponder Calvary for just a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: We reflect God's nature because we are his child and he deeply loves us.
SPEAKER_00: You have no chance of being like God if you think he hates you or if you think he's not worth imitating.
SPEAKER_00: Children who have had terrible, abusive fathers understand this.
SPEAKER_00: I know many people who hated the cruelty of their earthly father, and they make it their life goal to never be like him.
SPEAKER_00: They say to themselves, I will never be like my father.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, this command, it's only achievable when we are satisfied in our eternal sonship and we're awestruck by the fatherhood of God.
SPEAKER_00: That we see that He's good, He's loving.
SPEAKER_00: And so research in psychology, it actually proves that many sons they want to imitate their fathers, especially in early childhood.
SPEAKER_00: Fathers are often the primary male role model that sons admire.
SPEAKER_00: I remember in my youth, wanting to be like my dad, he would take me hunting, and I would mimic everything that he did.
SPEAKER_00: When he held his gun like this, I held my gun like this.
SPEAKER_00: As we walked in the snow to the tree stand, I would step in his prince.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted my father's mannerisms.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be like his personality, the way he conducted himself.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is commanding us to adore and admire God in such a way that we simply want to walk and talk in a way that he would.
SPEAKER_00: Just like a child whose eyes sparkle as they watch their dad.
SPEAKER_00: So we do the same.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not imitating a broken, sinful earthly father.
SPEAKER_00: Even the best earthly father doesn't compare.
SPEAKER_00: We are imitating a perfectly good heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: I know the um the WWJD bracelets, they're kind of corny, they're outdated and cliche.
SPEAKER_00: Many Christians, they criticize the slogan because it's an oversimplification or maybe the lack of theological nuance.
SPEAKER_00: But for the believer, we should walk in such a way where we are constantly asking, what would my heavenly father do?
SPEAKER_00: We can never be God for others, that's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: But we can show God to others through our lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: We can mirror his love, his grace.
SPEAKER_00: We can, in essence, show God to others by the way that we walk and the way that we talk.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we show someone kindness, we are reflecting the nature of God.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we extend forgiveness towards someone who has offended us, we are imitating God's nature.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God speaks truth and he cannot lie.
SPEAKER_00: So every time we speak truth, we're acting like God.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime you demonstrate patience while you're in the Starbucks line and you're behind on schedule and everybody's complaining, but you're not, you're maintaining a grateful attitude.
SPEAKER_00: You're reflecting God's nature.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the gospel is made known by proclaiming it with our mouth.
SPEAKER_00: We are called proclamation church.
SPEAKER_00: But let us not forget that the gospel in the character of God, it's made known to people also through our actions.
SPEAKER_00: Atheists, they can deny the Bible all day long.
SPEAKER_00: They can get over every Christian argument.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what they can't get over?
SPEAKER_00: Something that baffles many of them?
SPEAKER_00: The life of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: They are forced to look at the life of a Christian and recollect God as they see God's traits reflected in us.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is a command and it is a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: Be an imitator of God.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world of celebrities.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to follow some famous person.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture is always putting artists and performers on a pedestal saying, let's be like this guy.
SPEAKER_00: But for the Christian, we have our model.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a man made from dust.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be like our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: So we are to imitate our Father in heaven, but next, Paul tells us that we should imitate Christ's love.
SPEAKER_00: We should also be walking in love as Christ did.
SPEAKER_00: And so he commands us in verse 2, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is a command to walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: Love is considered one of the highest virtues in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Love is a central theme in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's associated with spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_00: According to Jesus, loving God and loving people, it fulfills the entire law.
SPEAKER_00: It's the heart of the entire law.
SPEAKER_00: According to 1 Corinthians 13, love is more important than any spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_00: According to 1 John 1:4, love towards others is evidence that you've been redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: So this is vital.
SPEAKER_00: It's necessary that we would walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're ever wondering, well, what does love look like?
SPEAKER_00: Paul points to Jesus as our model and our example.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to see how biblical love works, how it moves, how it's demonstrated, look at the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ seen in the gospel accounts.
SPEAKER_00: So we observe first that love is unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: It's unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved people who did not deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Romans tells us that Jesus loved us while we were his enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He loved broken, sinful, worthless people who were guilty of breaking God's law.
SPEAKER_00: The world defines love as attraction or transaction.
SPEAKER_00: And so attraction says, I'll love you if I feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: And transaction says, I'll love you if I think you deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: But in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us, what benefit is it if you love someone who loves you back?
SPEAKER_00: Or you give to someone who gives you something in return.
SPEAKER_00: Sinners do that.
SPEAKER_00: It's what pagans do.
SPEAKER_00: That is worldly love.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ's love, it's unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us not because we deserve it, he loves us because he is love.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, we can observe that his love is sacrificial.
SPEAKER_00: It's sacrificial.
SPEAKER_00: The verse says, and he gave himself up for us.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 3.16 tells us that this is how we know what love is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: His love costed him something.
SPEAKER_00: He sacrificed his life for us that we might not experience hell.
SPEAKER_00: His love towards us, it costed him to hang on a tree on Calvary and cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: He was willing to suffer so that we might experience our greatest good, to be reconciled to God forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is the kind of love that Paul is commanding us to walk in.
SPEAKER_00: Not warm, fuzzy, emotional love, not conditional love that says, I'll love you if you show me respect.
SPEAKER_00: Not cold, superficial love that says, you know, I'll love you just because it's the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's unconditional, sacrificial love that only comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of love is literally out of this world.
SPEAKER_00: It's supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: We can only know and show this kind of love because we ourselves have experienced it and were able then to give it away.
SPEAKER_00: To the natural man.
SPEAKER_00: Giving up a free Saturday to love and help a little old lady and she's rude, she's kind of a Karen, and you get nothing in return is ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiving the person who stole your wallet, that's foolish.
SPEAKER_00: Being kind to the cashier who's disrespectful to you is absurd.
SPEAKER_00: Laying down your life for a friend who's in trouble is a crazy idea.
SPEAKER_00: But to the spiritual man who's been spared from hell, redeemed by Christ, loved by God, to the Christian man who deserves nothing, but yet has been given every spiritual blessing to the man who was once dead in his sins, lost in darkness, and now drenched head to toe in the love of Christ, he must walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: How can he not?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus purchased his life, he gave him a future hope, bore the wrath that he deserved.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian should be so overwhelmed, so amazed by the love of Jesus that it overflows now as a response to the world around him.
SPEAKER_00: We are not just recipients of Christ's love, but givers of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we must walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: We need reminded of this, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Such a simple yet difficult command.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys remember, but in Revelation chapter 2, where Jesus is speaking to the church in Ephesus, he's speaking to this church.
SPEAKER_00: He rebukes them for this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I have this against you that you have left your first love.
SPEAKER_00: This is an easy thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: We start off well.
SPEAKER_00: But once kind of our honeymoon phase with Jesus is over, the things of this world creep in, our love grows cold, the thorns and the thistles of this world start to choke out the love that we have for Christ and others.
SPEAKER_00: We become so in love with ourselves, our comfort, my security, my hobbies, that we don't have time to love others, nor do we have the desire.
SPEAKER_00: We become stagnant.
SPEAKER_00: At church on Sunday, I notice that Johnny is going off the deep end.
SPEAKER_00: He's struggling bad.
SPEAKER_00: He's having a crisis.
SPEAKER_00: But man, I have this football game that I really wanted to watch at 1 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: Eh.
SPEAKER_00: Someone else will help Johnny.
SPEAKER_00: I'll direct him to Rick.
SPEAKER_00: Or there's a family I notice that really needs fellowship and love.
SPEAKER_00: They just started coming to our church, and you can tell they're hurting.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm busy.
SPEAKER_00: My evenings right now, they're precious to me.
SPEAKER_00: Plus, they have four kids that will make a mess if they come over to my house.
SPEAKER_00: I think I'll pass.
SPEAKER_00: Or Tim in the church.
SPEAKER_00: He's having a financial crisis.
SPEAKER_00: I have some extra cash.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for a need, a way I can help.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, Tim's kind of a jerk once you get to know him.
SPEAKER_00: So I think I'll withhold helping him out.
SPEAKER_00: My money could go towards someone who I think deserves it more.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we should be walking in sacrificial, costly, unconditional love.
SPEAKER_00: God did not save us so that we could sit back, eat, drink, and be merry as we await the return of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He saved us so that we could give our lives to him who gave his life for us.
SPEAKER_00: Looking for opportunities just to lavish Christ's love on others.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you change the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you impact this evil generation.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the primary ways of advancing God's kingdom on earth by walking in love that is out of this world.
SPEAKER_00: So many people today, they're trying to change the world by loud clamor, by means of the sword, through lawyers and lawsuits and civil revolutions and online debates, and you know, some of these things, they do change the world to an extent from kind of like a temporal perspective.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to change the world for Christ and his kingdom, it's by walking in love.
SPEAKER_00: It's by doing what Jesus did, unconditionally, sacrificially loving people.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to please God, walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the verse.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's love was what?
SPEAKER_00: It was a sweet, fragrant offering to God.
SPEAKER_00: What does that tell us?
SPEAKER_00: It tells us that we're pleasing God when we walk in this kind of love.
SPEAKER_00: It pleases God when we should show someone love instead of retaliation.
SPEAKER_00: It pleases God when you sacrifice your busy schedule to go and help a suffering member in the church.
SPEAKER_00: It pleases God when you sacrifice doom scrolling to spend time with your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: It pleases God when you walk in love, you give up your time, money, and resources for the benefit of another.
SPEAKER_00: This is an Old Testament picture.
SPEAKER_00: It's Old Testament language that the Jews would have understood.
SPEAKER_00: It's this sweet-smelling aroma that comes from a sacrifice, and it goes up into heaven before God, in which he says, This is pleasing in my sight.
SPEAKER_00: Next, Paul is going to give us a contrast to walking in love, behaviors that are not fitting for the Christian, unloving, selfish acts of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says in verses three and four but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetedness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
SPEAKER_00: Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: So here Paul uses a comprehensive list of sexual sins.
SPEAKER_00: Paul highlights sexual sin because it's the very opposite of walking in love.
SPEAKER_00: So ironically, many people equate sex equals love.
SPEAKER_00: Often how the world defines it.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is showing love, so let's have sex.
SPEAKER_00: The city of Ephesus, it was filled with sexual impurity.
SPEAKER_00: Sex parties, orgies, prostitution, open relationships were normal and acceptable in this culture, just like our culture.
SPEAKER_00: And they accepted these things in the name of what?
SPEAKER_00: Love.
SPEAKER_00: We do these things in love.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul makes a list of sexual sins that actually destroy love.
SPEAKER_00: The first is fornication, pornia.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually where we get our English word porn from.
SPEAKER_00: It's a broad word for describing sexual sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's sex outside of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It's pornography, it's orgies, and the like.
SPEAKER_00: The second is uncleanness or impurity.
SPEAKER_00: This is another broad word for dirty moral behavior in a sexual sense.
SPEAKER_00: It's gross, unnatural sexual behavior.
SPEAKER_00: And then there is covetedness.
SPEAKER_00: This term refers to a desire for more, whether it's material wealth, possessions, money, things that belong to others.
SPEAKER_00: It's a form of greed that is the opposite of selfless love.
SPEAKER_00: I think the context here, it's actually referring to coveting someone sexually for your own selfish desire, whether in thought or deed.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of these sexual behaviors are outside of God's boundaries, and they're very unloving things to do.
SPEAKER_00: God is the inventor of sex, he created it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing, church, but he designed it within the boundaries in marriage between one man and one woman.
SPEAKER_00: It is not primarily for the gratification of the individual, but for the bonding of husband and wife in a one-flesh relationship in procreation.
SPEAKER_00: God's not trying to deprive us from sexual enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually trying to enhance it.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is best experienced within God's boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: When we do things God's way, the way that He intended, we actually find the most pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Who would have guessed?
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says that these things, immorality, impurity, covetedness, it shouldn't be named among you.
SPEAKER_00: And so historically, we know that the city of Ephesus, it had a temple during this time of Artemis, a false god, and it employed, like legally employed thousands of prostitutes.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was promoted.
SPEAKER_00: It was a very sexually driven culture, much like ours.
SPEAKER_00: And when you live in a sexually driven culture, you can become over time desensitized.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see it as heinous anymore.
SPEAKER_00: It's normal.
SPEAKER_00: And how many times I've heard, well, you know, Jimmy, everyone looks at porn anyways, look at the statistics.
SPEAKER_00: God knows our struggle, he knows the culture and the temptation that we face.
SPEAKER_00: He gets it, he's all right with it, he understands.
SPEAKER_00: We use language like this to justify sexual sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's normal.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's doing it.
SPEAKER_00: God is gracious, therefore I can indulge.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, let this not even be named among you, because it's not fitting for the saints.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't even be accused of such things.
SPEAKER_00: Sexual sin, it's selfish, it's addictive, it's destructive, and it's a very unloving thing to participate in.
SPEAKER_00: And it will have massive consequences on your current marriage or your future spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, he's raising the bar here in a culture that has normalized sexual sin.
SPEAKER_00: You know, why did Adam and Eve church, why did Adam and Eve cover their private parts after they sinned?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Why does Paul tell us in Thessalonians that our sanctification is this?
SPEAKER_00: It's abstaining from sexual sin.
SPEAKER_00: Why in Corinthians does Paul tell us that sexual sin, it's unique, it's actually a sin against one's own body.
SPEAKER_00: Because our sexual life is unique and it's special.
SPEAKER_00: The act is literally uniting ourselves to another.
SPEAKER_00: And if we are now in union with Christ, if our body is now his, you can see how damaging this can be to our spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul says in Corinthians, he says, flee, run from sexual immorality, because it uniquely corrupts and ensnares.
SPEAKER_00: And next, Paul even addresses our mouth and our humor in this matter.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 4, let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk or crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Many commentators agree that Paul is talking about sexual humor.
SPEAKER_00: Paul takes it a step further and he says, don't talk sexually, don't joke sexually, don't be filthy and foolish with your speech.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be telling dirty jokes.
SPEAKER_00: And for the person in the room who says, Come on now.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not sexually immoral, I'm faithful to my wife, I don't engage in sexual sin, but man, I love me a good, funny, dirty joke.
SPEAKER_00: No, says Paul, don't even do that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because look at the verse.
SPEAKER_00: This is out of place.
SPEAKER_00: It's out of place.
SPEAKER_00: It's not fitting for the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: If God forbids us to do it, then we should refrain from even joking about it.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to use your mouth for something, use it for gratitude, says Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the verse.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, let there be thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Use your mouth to give God glory.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about his excellencies.
SPEAKER_00: Sing songs of praise.
SPEAKER_00: If life is short, if eternity is real, if the words we speak have influence, then let us stop telling worthless, dirty jokes and let's instead give God thanks.
SPEAKER_00: So tell me what's better, church.
SPEAKER_00: Cracking a dirty joke at work and making your coworkers laugh?
SPEAKER_00: Sure, now they think you're funny, but your Christian witness doesn't mean much more to them anymore, does it?
SPEAKER_00: Or you telling them how awesome God is, and they're now amazed at your heartfelt gratitude, considering God themselves, which may result in their conversion or sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: James tells us in his epistle in chapter 3 that something is seriously wrong if a fig tree starts to bear olives, or if a grapevine starts to bear figs, or if a salt spring produces fresh water.
SPEAKER_00: It's this absurd picture.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, how can we, Christians, use our tongues to praise God, to stand tall and say, I love Jesus, I'm a follower of his truth, I love you, God, and then a moment later crack a vulgar, dirty joke.
SPEAKER_00: Let this not be so.
SPEAKER_00: It's unfitting, and it shouldn't even be named among us.
SPEAKER_00: Next, Paul is going to strengthen his argument here.
SPEAKER_00: Since these believers are living in a culture that makes these things normal, there's a tendency to try to undercut, undermind such commands.
SPEAKER_00: There's a tendency to look at Paul and say, dude, come on.
SPEAKER_00: People have sex all the time, it's normal, everybody's doing it, cracking dirty jokes, it's just a part of the social life here.
SPEAKER_00: Is it that big of a deal?
SPEAKER_00: If we do what you say, Paul, we're gonna be viewed as some weirdos or some Jesus freaks.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul brings down the hammer.
SPEAKER_00: Next in verses five through seven, he says, For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covet covet, covet, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God.
SPEAKER_00: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, do not become partners with them.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul reminds these Christians that such people who are defined by these things, sexual immorality, impurity, covetedness, they are committing what?
SPEAKER_00: Idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: They are, by definition, idolaters.
SPEAKER_00: They might not be bowing down to a statue in worship, but they are worshiping themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They are worshiping their sinful desires.
SPEAKER_00: And this is idolatry, says Paul, clear and simple.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to be clear, he is not saying that if you are a Christian and you fall into one of these sins, even for a season, that you're going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're anything like me, you see a verse like this and you're like, uh-oh, like I'm toast.
SPEAKER_00: This verse is not about losing your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's not talking about Christians who may at times fall into these things.
SPEAKER_00: Paul describes people who love, they delight themselves with such things.
SPEAKER_00: They are by character defined by such things.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian may fall into any one of these sins, but they confess, they repent, they receive grace, and they walk forward in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: But for the unbeliever, they are defined by these things at a lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: To put it bluntly, a person who is characterized, dominated by, in practices as a lifestyle, such things that person is not saved.
SPEAKER_00: They can say all they want all day long that they love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But if they worship these things and they live for them, eternal life is not in them.
SPEAKER_00: They will not have inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us in Matthew 7 that a good tree does not bear bad fruit, and a bad tree does not bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We need to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are false teachers out there, church, a lot of them, who will try to deceive you otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: They will say things like, it doesn't matter how you live.
SPEAKER_00: Sin all you want, do whatever you want, you still get to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: They try to teach you that you can love sin and you can still get heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why Paul says in verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let people tickle your ears and convince you that God has changed his mind.
SPEAKER_00: Don't listen to compromised theologians who claim that God has progressed with us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he didn't like homosexuality in the Old Testament, but he now accepts it in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He's learning with us.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that is garbage theology.
SPEAKER_00: It's false teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Any form of teaching that uses God's grace or the cross of Christ to promote, condone, or excuse sin, that's a red flag.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the verse.
SPEAKER_00: For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: God's wrath, it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to establish where exactly his wrath will be placed.
SPEAKER_00: It will be placed on the sons of disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: It's people who do not walk in love, people who hate God's ways, people who worship themselves and act on every sinful impulse they have.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be deceived in this matter, lest we find ourselves calling good things evil and calling evil things good.
SPEAKER_00: We are told in Revelation 29, on Judgment Day, that the sexually immoral and all idolaters will be casted into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_00: We are so afraid to talk about God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: But we must, we must.
SPEAKER_00: It's necessary.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if we like it or not, it's God's word.
SPEAKER_00: There is a day coming when Christ will reveal Himself, and those who oppose Him will beg for mountains to fall on them because they cannot stand in His holy presence.
SPEAKER_00: There's a day coming when every single person will stand before God, and if they did not receive Jesus' life, then they will have to give an account for their own.
SPEAKER_00: And every thought, every word, every action will be played before God, and they will be judged, and they will be banished forever in a place of torment where they will burn but they will never be consumed.
SPEAKER_00: They will beg, but they will never be delivered.
SPEAKER_00: Because they refused God's love, they denied Christ's sacrifice, and instead they loved darkness.
SPEAKER_00: They held on to their sin, they refused to worship their Creator as they blamed him for all of their problems.
SPEAKER_00: They will be in darkness forever, weeping and gnashing their teeth.
SPEAKER_00: So if this is true, church, feel the weight of that.
SPEAKER_00: If this is true, that sexual sin is unloving, it's idolatry, and God's judgment is coming for those who practice it, then the conclusion is very clear.
SPEAKER_00: Last verse, therefore, do not become partners with them.
SPEAKER_00: If they are defined by sin and heading towards God's wrath, let's not participate in what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's head in the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians 6, the apostle tells us to not be unequally yoked to unbelievers and to come out and to be separate from them.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't mean that we can't talk with them.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that we can't spend time with them.
SPEAKER_00: What this verse means is that we do not partake with them in sin and worldliness.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus hung out with sinners, but he did not participate in, condone, or excuse their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, he led them to repentance by revealing to them the good news about the forgiveness of their sins.
SPEAKER_00: Being holy, it doesn't mean isolating ourselves out in the woods in a commune, as much as I would love that, but Jesus didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: The early church didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: What holiness means is that I'm in the world, I'm around culture, I'm around unbelievers, but I remain set apart from the deeds of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that I can't wear a cool hat or wear trendy shoes that the rest of culture is wearing.
SPEAKER_00: That's missing the point.
SPEAKER_00: That's being different in a way that doesn't make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: It means this: that when my coworker tells a dirty joke, I don't engage.
SPEAKER_00: When I walk into my neighbor's garage and he's got Playboy pictures all up in his garage, I don't look.
SPEAKER_00: When all my unbelieving friends are going to a bar to hook up and have recreational sex, I don't go.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even consider it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm around sinners, I'm a friend with sinners, I'm in their company, I witness, I conversate, I engage, but I do not participate with them in sinning.
SPEAKER_00: As Leonard Ravenhill once said, he said, the greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make that man holy and put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.
SPEAKER_00: Christian in the room, if you are participating with sinners and sinning, if you're engaging in evil systems, if you're going to the bars and getting drunk with them, if you're engaging in dirty jokes in the break room, if you're joining them in slandering and bullying others, if you're going out with them, if you're joining them in the deeds of darkness, and you're doing this in the name of maybe trying to be relevant, or you're doing this by twisting scripture, and well, Paul said, be all things to all people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have a better chance of reaching them for Christ if I can show them that I'm not much different than they are.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this command this morning and take it to heart.
SPEAKER_00: Do not become partakers with them.
SPEAKER_00: God's judgment is coming for those very things.
SPEAKER_00: And just a side note, you don't win people to the gospel by making it more acceptable to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: You win people to the gospel by showing them that they can be saved from it.
SPEAKER_00: You win people to the gospel by showing them that they are a great sinner in need and that there is a great Savior who can save them and redeem them and spare them from God's wrath that is coming soon.
SPEAKER_00: So, proclamation church.
SPEAKER_00: What do we learn from this passage?
SPEAKER_00: Again, I will never get tired of saying this.
SPEAKER_00: I will repeat myself again and again because we are so hellbent on willpower and legalism.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this isn't about just being moral.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just about behavior modification.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about trying to measure up and be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: This is about gospel transformation.
SPEAKER_00: It's about allowing God to do his work inside us.
SPEAKER_00: It's about being ruled by our Lord, being led by him, becoming more like him.
SPEAKER_00: This is about being a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is about delighting ourselves in his in this blessed relationship that he's given us.
SPEAKER_00: It's about allowing God to conform us more into what he already calls us, children of God.
SPEAKER_00: So don't read these verses and say to yourself, Welp, I guess I'm just a failure.
SPEAKER_00: If this is what Christianity is all about, I've missed the mark, I'm too broken, I'm too dysfunctional, too far gone.
SPEAKER_00: That is the wrong attitude.
SPEAKER_00: You are clearly not understanding these verses through the gospel lens.
SPEAKER_00: That is exactly what Satan would want you to feel, so that you would be discouraged to the point of forfeiting the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Our attitude as dearly loved children of God should be this.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for pointing this out in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Holy Spirit, for challenging me in these areas.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for showing me areas of growth, areas where I need you to transform me.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you, God, for all of your grace in this slow process of sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Respond with repentance that's rooted in the gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here this morning, you're struggling to imitate God, you're struggling to walk in love, you're struggling with sexual sin, struggling with vulgar language, confess, repent, receive God's grace that's found in Christ, both grace that forgives us and grace that empowers us to holy living.
SPEAKER_00: And realize, church, that this is a process.
SPEAKER_00: In my experience, being a pastor and working with so many people, most redeemed sinners aren't magically healed from strongholds and sin patterns overnight.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fight.
SPEAKER_00: Feel the conviction, embrace God's grace that is found in Christ, and start walking in the new life that you've been given.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in the truth, walk in love, and as we will see in the weeks of head weeks ahead, walk in light, walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: You've spent enough time doing Satan's bidding, serving yourself in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Stop trying to find in sin what you can only find in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The new life, it's adventurous, it's fulfilling, it's satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: It has an eternal impact.
SPEAKER_00: It's God glorifying.
SPEAKER_00: So let us slowly but surely renew our minds in the new life as we forsake the old churches.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.