Thank you. That fly reminds me
of something that Brother Henry used to say. He used to say,
you know, men talk about our liberty, our liberty in preaching
and our liberty in hearing. And he said a little tiny fly
can interrupt our liberty. And I pray God will give us liberty.
I pray Christ will come and preach this message and give us liberty,
all of us liberty to hear it. Then we'll have liberty. Alright,
Ephesians 5 in verse 3. This one verse will be our text. But fornication, and all uncleanness,
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh
saints. Every saint is exhorted to never
once, never once be guilty of fornication, of uncleanness or
covetousness because it is unbecoming saints. It's unbecoming. Now, this exhortation is to saints
only. This is written to the church.
This is written to Ephesus. Only believers are saints. True
believers are really saints. And only those that are sanctified
and made saints can really please God. And that is through faith
in Christ. Motivated by Christ, doing what
we do for the love of Christ. Not to get gain, not to get righteousness
or sanctification, but because we are righteous and we are sanctified. Because Christ is our all. But
even though this is to saints only, unsanctified sinners will
profit even if it's just temporally speaking, even if it's just earthly
speaking. You won't profit in righteousness
by obeying this. You won't profit in making yourself
sanctified by obeying this. And as long as you don't try
to make yourself righteous and sanctified by obeying this, you'll
profit by this. Even if you abstain from fornication
and uncleanness and covetousness, this will profit you bodily-wise,
physically. You know, we don't tell our children,
do we? We don't train our children to commit fornication, do we?
What do we tell them? Don't. Because it's what's better
for you. Better for you. But what I do
pray today is that God will give you a heart to hear this message
in the light of Christ. And hear Christ and be motivated
by Christ in your heart. And if you hear that, hear Him,
then this will profit you both physically and spiritually. Now
the key to seeing Christ in this verse is to see why the Holy
Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to say fornication is unbecoming
to a saint. This thing caught my attention.
I saw this fornication and uncleanness and covetousness, and then why
did he put at the end of that, this is not becoming to saints? Why did he say it that way? Now,
there's the obvious reason. The obvious reason is, is these
things are unholy, they're unlawful, and anything that's unholy and
unlawful is unbecoming to a saint who is holy in Christ. This is
unbecoming. But there's more to it than that.
Now, the first thing we need to see is we need to see what
the meaning of these words are. Now, let's get this. All three
of these sins are sexual sins. All three of them. This is, this
is, you know, you might think, well, this is, I don't know if
you ought to preach this in mixed company or whatever. No, it's
God's Word, so we're going to preach it. All three of these
are sexual sins. Sins which can lead... Now this
is key. Sins which can lead to the birth
of children born of fornication. This is what this can lead to.
Now, fornication is the unlawful sexual union between unmarried
men and women. And in this day and time, others
included in that. Men and men, women and women.
Figuratively, spiritually, it means idolatry. Idolatry. The Lord, in Old Testament, you'll
find places where He called the false prophets adulterers. And he called them profane because
they preached another gospel. It was spiritual fornication.
It was spiritual uncleanness. But the act itself is as well. I'm not trying to make light
of the act. The act is. Because here's what it is. Whether
it's false religion or whether it's the act, it's idolatry. It's worshiping self. That's
what it is. Because every person that commits
fornication sells his right to all things holy and lawful and
spiritual and he does it for one morsel of earthly gratification. Alright, the next word is uncleanness.
It includes every other sexual related sin. It includes adultery,
incest, homosexuality, all unnatural lusts, even, now get this, even
provocative attire and all things which would entice to these sins. It includes all those. And every
person guilty of uncleanness sells his right to all things
holy, all things lawful, all things spiritual, and he does
it for one morsel of earthly gratification for his flesh. That's why. And then this word
covetousness, in this context, it too is a sexual sin. It's
the constant thought and desire for any one of these things,
any one of the above, or all of the above. It's the constant
continual thought and desire for these things. Alright, now
every person that's guilty of covetousness, he sells his right
to all things holy and lawful and spiritual and he does it
for one morsel of gratification for his flesh. Alright, then
we have the word saint. We have the word saint. A saint
is whatever true believer he is. This is what every true believer
is. This is what we are collectively,
saints. And that's really how the words
are used more in the New Testament. When the word saints is used,
it means the whole church together. We're saints. That's what we
are. We're sanctified. We were set apart. We're made
holy. We're consecrated for God's use. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. set apart, made holy, consecrated
for God's holy use. Now saints are made so, number
one, by divine election. God the Father separated His
people and made us holy when He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Jude said this, he said, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Christ
Jesus and called. We're sanctified by God the Father.
Number two, we're made saints by the redemption, being redeemed
unto God by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're sanctified
by what Christ did. He sanctified us by His one offering
on the cross. The scripture says, by the witch
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all time. We're sanctified. And then number
three, saints are made holy, we're sanctified by the new birth
by God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit sanctified
us when He birthed us again, when He made us a new creature
in regeneration. And we were born of incorruptible
seed, holy seed, by the Word which is preached unto you. This is critical. It's critical.
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says, We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. They always go together.
Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Alright,
throughout the Old Testament, now stay with me, I'm so excited
about this message, I believe I got a message for you, and
I want you to get this. Throughout the Old Testament,
all three of these things, the election of God, the choice of
God, redemption unto God, and birth, all three of these is
what made a child a firstborn son. Every one of these. Every
one of these made him a firstborn son. Now spiritually speaking,
a saint and a firstborn son are almost synonymous. Those are
almost synonymous terms. Let me give you this too. Listen
to this. In Numbers 3.13, God said this, All the firstborn
are mine. They're not born yet. He just
says that all the firstborn are mine. There's divine election.
God's made His choice. All the firstborn are mine. Alright? Then he said, For on the day
that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I hallowed,
I sanctified unto me all the firstborn in Israel, man and
beast. There's redemption unto God. whenever he, in Christ our Passover,
he said, whenever Christ the Passover, he died in place, that
lamb died, the Passover lamb died in place of the firstborn
in Israel, while the firstborn in Egypt, they died themselves.
And God said, because of this, I redeemed all the firstborn
in Israel to myself. There's redemption. And then
he says this, Mine shall they be, I'm the Lord. That means,
when they're born, mine they shall be. There's birth. So,
you've got election, redemption and birth. That's what made a
person a firstborn son. That's what makes us saints.
That's what makes us saints. Alright, now look. Every saint
is a firstborn son. Christ is the firstborn. And
we're firstborn sons in Christ the firstborn. So then, the fact
that we're sanctified firstborn sons by election, redemption
and birth, That's why the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul
to connect fornication and these other sexual sins with it not
being becoming to a saint. That's why he connected these
two. Alright, turn to Hebrews 12 and mark Hebrews 12. Right here, God's going to use
Esau. He's given us a warning and he's
using Esau and he's connecting fornication with forfeiting the
right of the firstborn. With forfeiting the right of
the firstborn. Hebrews 12, 16. Now listen to
this. He says, Lest there be any fornicator. Lest there be
any fornicator. That's a form of the same word
that's in our text. or profane person. That's what
a fornicator is. He's further defining what a
fornicator is. He's profane. Like profanity,
he's profane. And he says, lest there be a
fornicator or a profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. And you read the Jewish historians
and things and they're going to say on the day Esau sinned,
he committed fornication with a virgin. They're going to say
all these different things that he did. but it's not in the Scripture. Because the fornication and the
profanity was for one morsel of meat he sold his birthright. That was his fornication. That
was his profanity. For one morsel of meat he sold
his birthright. He came in from the field one
day and he was hungry and Jacob was there and Jacob was making
up a bowl of something, beans. And Esau said, give me a bowl
of that. And Jacob said, I'll sell you this bowl of beans for
your birthright A bowl of beans for a birthright? I'm going to
show you what was included in a birthright. A bowl of beans
for a birthright? And Esau said, I'll take it.
I'll take it. You can have my birthright. I
don't want it. And so what he did right there is he idolized
and he worshiped himself rather than God. Because God's the one
who spoke of the firstborn. God's the one who ordained that. And He's just, by doing this,
He idolized Himself and He worshiped Himself. That's what sexual fornication
is and covetousness and uncleanness is. And that's what it is if
it's preaching a false gospel. Departing from Christ and preaching
a false gospel. Spiritually or physically, that's
what it is. It's idolatry. Worshipping of ourselves. He
chose to give up his birthright for a temporary gratification
of feeding his flesh. In doing so, he committed fornication,
uncleanness, and covetousness. In doing so, he ceased being
the firstborn. He stopped being the firstborn.
He became a profane, bastard, child of fornication. That's
what he became. That's what Esau became. Alright,
now. In Esau, we see Adam. In Esau, we see Adam. In order of time, Adam was born
first. He was the firstborn. And God
could say of Adam what Joseph said of Reuben, his firstborn.
God could say of Adam, Thou art my firstborn, my might and the
beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity. Pay attention
to that, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. But just like Ruben, just like
Joseph said of Ruben, God could also say of Adam, you're unstable
as water in your cell and you won't excel, you won't excel.
And for one morsel of meat, for one momentary gratification,
Adam disobeyed God. Adam committed fornication. Adam
was guilty of uncleanness. Adam was guilty of covetousness.
Adam became a profane man simply by disobeying God. That's all
that we need to know. He just disobeyed God. He didn't
do what God told him. And he forfeited his birthright. He forfeited the birthright.
And because Adam was our representative head when he forfeited his birthright,
we forfeited our birthright. We became profane, fornicators,
unclean, covetous, guilty sinners just like Adam was. God describes
all his elect. Those that he chose in Christ.
He describes every one of us in the Old Testament Scriptures
as being born of fornication, as being children of fornication
by our first birth. Where does he do that? Remember
that child cast out into the open field? Remember that child
in Ezekiel 16, the child cast out in the open field? Do you
know what that was? Abortion. That child was aborted. Nobody wanted that child. Why?
Why? Why did nobody want that child?
God came to that child and He said this. That child represents
all His elect people. His true spiritual Jerusalem. That's who He represents. And
God said this. Say thus saith the Lord God unto
Jerusalem. This is to all His elect. Thy
birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father
was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite. You know what that
was before God? Fornication. That was fornication. That was adultery before God.
That means this child born spiritually, this child was born of fornication.
This child was not a first born child. This child was an unwanted
sinful product of rebellion against God. That's what the child was.
And so they cast him out in the field. That's me and you by nature
who believe God. That's us by nature. That's the
true of all God's elect spiritually in Adam. You know, but every
bit of that, when Adam fell, when Esau did what he did, every
bit of it was according to the purpose of God and His grace
toward His people. Every bit of it. Because long
before that, long before Adam sinned in the garden, God said,
Christ is my firstborn. Christ is my firstborn. And when
he let Esau sin, and you know what he had said before Esau
did that? Remember Romans 9? Look at Romans
9. Remember what he said? Keep your place in Hebrews 12.
In Romans 9, this is what God said before Esau fell. Romans 9, 11. The children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. That's God's purpose in election.
It was said unto her, for that reason, to the mother, God said,
the elder shall serve the younger. He said, your firstborn son,
he's not going to be the firstborn. The second one's going to be
the firstborn. He said, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God knew... He knows the end
from the beginning. He knows our sin. He knew we'd
fall in Adam and there would be none righteous, no not one.
The Scripture never speaks of God looking down in time and
seeing us and seeing we'd believe. The Scripture speaks of God looking
down from heaven and seeing us and saying there's none righteous,
no not one. That's what the Scripture speaks of. And He knew this from
the beginning. When Adam sinned in the garden,
before Adam sinned in the garden, God from the womb of the morning
had said, Christ is my firstborn. The firstborn into this world.
Adam, he is going to serve the younger. The elder is going to
serve the younger. Adam is going to serve Christ.
Christ is the firstborn. He is the firstborn. And why
did he do that? I can show you. Look at Romans
8. This is the purpose of God according to the election. This
is Watson. Not of him that willeth or him that runneth, but of God
that shows mercy. You find in scripture a lot of times where
God took the birthright from the firstborn and gave it to
the second one. There's about four or five cases
of that, maybe six cases of that in the scripture. Why? Because
he took it showing that it's of God that calls, it's not of
us that wills or runs or blood. It's of God that shows mercy.
It's God's electing and he chose his son. Why? Look at this, Romans
8, 29. For whom he did foreknow, those
he chose in Christ, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that His Son might be the firstborn
among many brethren. His Son is going to be the firstborn
among many brethren. Christ is the firstborn. Christ
was chosen of God the Father. Christ was born. Just like we
were born, He was born, but not of Adam. See, He was born holy,
of the Holy Spirit, and He was called of God. He was called
of God, just like we're regenerated and called. The Spirit was poured
out upon Him. He was called. And so, He's the head of the
body, the Scripture says, the church, who's the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. That's who Christ is. He's the
firstborn from the dead that in all things He might have preeminence.
Now, look back at Hebrews 1. I want you to see this firstborn
language. Listen to this now. Now, don't
forget what I'm showing you here is how A firstborn child is a
saint. He's a saint. Saints and firstborn
are just almost synonymous terms in the Scripture. Now look, here's
Christ the firstborn. Remember how we read what I said
to you, what Joseph said of Reuben? He said, He's the excellency
of me and the excellency of my power and He's my firstborn,
He's my beginning, my strength and all that. Listen to what
God says about Christ here. Hebrews 1, 2. God hath in His
last days spoken to us by His Son, by His Son, whom He hath
appointed..." You know what the firstborn Son got? He's the heir
of all things. He's the heir of all things.
"...by whom also He made the worlds, who being, look, the
brightness of His glory..." That means the excellency of His glory.
He says, "...and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power." That's what Joseph said
to Reuben. You're the excellency of my power.
And when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. The firstborn is faithful
to the Father. The firstborn is the one that
does the Father's will. That's who the firstborn is.
He says here, being made so much better than the angels. The firstborn
was better than all His brethren. He's better than all His brethren.
Christ is better than everybody. He's better than the angels.
The angels are mentioned here because men were worshiping angels. And He said, Christ is better
than the angels. He's better than all His brethren.
And He says here, And as He hath by inheritance obtained a more
excellent name than they, just like every firstborn child, for
unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son,
This day have I begotten thee. When you read begotten, it means
Christ is the firstborn. He's the firstborn. And again,
I'll be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. That means
Christ is the firstborn. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he said, let all the angels of
God worship him. That's what he said of Jacob.
He said, Esau's going to worship him. It means he's going to serve
him. He's going to bow to him. And
that was the case of the firstborn. How does all that apply to me
and you, brethren? Well, because Christ was faithful to His Father,
because Christ fulfilled the law, because Christ came forth
and redeemed us from the curse of the law and is our righteousness. Christ is our head and all of
God's saints are firstborn children in Christ. Now look at Hebrews
12, 23. In the middle part of the verse
there, He says this, He says, you are the church of the firstborn
which are written in heaven. You are the church of the firstborn. We're of Christ the firstborn
and every single child in God's church, in Christ's church is
equally a firstborn child. This whole church is a church
of firstborn children. God's true church. That's right.
Firstborn children. We're sanctified firstborn sons. Firstborn children chosen of
God in Christ. The firstborn shall be mine,
God said. Firstborn children redeemed unto
God by Christ. Redeemed by His blood. The firstborn
shall be redeemed, God said. They had to be redeemed. Firstborn
children born of Christ, born of Him. The firstborn born had
to be born. We're born of Him. And now this
is important. You remember the Scripture says
Christ fulfilled the law. Romans 7 says Christ fulfilled
the law. So that now when He reveals this to you, He makes
you to see the law is dead to you. It's fulfilled. Christ gave it everything that
it demanded. The law is dead to you. Why? That you might be
lawfully married to another. You were married to the law.
Now you can lawfully be married to another. lawfully married
to another, that we might bring forth fruit, it said. And you
know what's included in that fruit? Children unto God. Real children unto God. Believers.
That we might bring forth children unto God. How on earth are we
going to bring forth children unto God? By the lawful union
between Christ and our husband. His faithful bride, the church,
which is what we are. His bride is faithful to Christ. You know how? By preaching His
Word. Preaching His Word. He told the
bride, you keep the house. You keep the house. And what
that pictured, the woman keeping the house, what it pictured is
His church. And how do we keep the house?
We preach His Word. We preach His Word. We preach
that which glorifies and honors Him. And you know how children
are born of a husband and wife? Through seed. And you know what
the Word is? The Word is the incorruptible
seed. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, it's
the Word whereby the Gospel is preached unto you. And so, Christ
our Husband, through His faithful Bride, births His children. to life through the incorruptible
Word of God that He blesses in the heart. That's how He says
to you and me, you're going to bring forth children. You're
lawfully married to Christ that you might bring forth children
unto God. You know what that's exactly
the opposite of? Fornication. That's the exact
opposite of fornication. We're lawfully married to Christ.
There's nothing adulterous about this. There's no fornication
about this. We're married to Christ. And we're producing children
by Christ our husband that are firstborn children. They're firstborn
children. They're not children of fornication.
You who are born of God, you're not children of fornication.
You're children of Christ the faithful, of the everlasting
Father, of Him who is the firstborn. And because we're sons of the
firstborn, listen to this right here, brethren. Listen to this.
He said in 2 Peter 1.4, listen to this. Whereby are given unto
you exceeding great and precious promises that you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped. You know what we escaped?
the corruption that is in the world through lust. We were children
of fornication. That's all we were. We were children
of uncleanness. We were children of corruption.
How did we escape it? We've been born of God and made
partakers of the divine nature so that we've escaped that being
children of fornication. Now we're firstborn sons of God
in Christ the firstborn. We're consecrated to God. We're
separated. We're consecrated. We're firstborn
consecrated children. Now being born of Christ the
firstborn, because He's our representative head, every saint is equally
the firstborn child of God in Christ the firstborn. What does
that mean? That means we receive all the privilege and the honor
of firstborn children equally with Christ the firstborn. Oh,
this is getting good. This is getting good. You thought
it was good that we've been saved from the corruption of being
children of fornication? It also means we get all the
advantages and the honor and the privileges of the firstborn
son. Every one of us do. In Christ the firstborn. What
are those privileges? We're each equally loved by God
our Father in Christ the firstborn even as Christ is loved. Art
ready. Even as Christ is loved. Each
believer, each firstborn saint of God is equally united to God
in Christ the firstborn. We're equally united to God and
separably connected to God. Each equally are honored by God
with Christ the firstborn. Now here's these honors. If the
father of the firstborn was a priest, you know what the firstborn son
was? He became a priest. Who is Christ? He's the firstborn
son. And who is He? He's the high
priest. And you know what all His people are in Him? We're
priests under God. He's made us priests under God
because He's the firstborn. This is a lawful union between
Him and His bride. It's not fornication. It's not
adultery. The firstborn inherited the kingly judicial authority
of His Father. If His Father was a king, guess
who became the king? The firstborn son. Christ is
the King. And you know what all the firstborn
sons are in Him? Scripture says we're kings and
priests unto God. We're a royal priesthood, a kingly
priesthood. There was no such thing. You
never saw that in the Old Testament. This is something only Christ
did. We're kings and priests unto God. And that authority,
He said, we're going to reign on the earth. And you know what
He said we're going to do in the end of the world? We're going
to judge the world together with Christ, the firstborn. That's
right. Judge the world. And then the
firstborn inherited a double portion of his father's inheritance.
He got the inheritance from the father. You know what? We're
going to get in Christ, the firstborn. Romans 8 says that we're heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
it, that we might also be glorified together with it. If we continue
to the end, preserved by God, it should be evident we're children
of God. And we're going to be heirs of God. We're going to
equally Every one of us inherit what Christ the firstborn inherits.
Every one of us. And this is not by fornication.
This is not by adultery. This is not by uncleanness. This
is by faithful, lawful union of Christ and His bride. Now
here's the point. We're sanctified firstborn sons
by the lawful union of Christ and His bride, born of incorruptible
seed, the Word preached unto you, but not born of fornication. That's what every saint is. Now,
let's go back to the text. Let's go back to the text. So,
lastly, let's look at this exhortation now. That's what you are, child
of God. Now, let's look at the exhortation.
What fornication? In all uncleanness or covetousness,
let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. That's
just plain as can be. I think everybody here understands
that. That's what it means. Don't let it be named among you
in the act or in the thought, spiritually or physically. Don't
let it be named among you. Now that's what he was saying
in Hebrews. If you still got your place, Mark, let me give
you this. Hebrews 12, 14. He said, follow peace with all men. Hebrews 12, 14. Follow peace
with all men and holiness. You know who that is? It's Christ.
Without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently,
he said, look to Christ. Lest any man fail of the grace
of God. We're going to get grace from
Christ. Look to Christ. Lest any root of bitterness spring
up and trouble you, Thereby many be defiled. You know what happened
to David with Bathsheba? He stopped looking to Christ
and he looked out across his porch and he saw this beautiful
woman out there bathing herself on the porch. He says, you look
diligently to Christ for grace unless you fail of that grace
and the root of bitterness spring up in you. and you'll be defiled,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." And he goes on and
he says, you know what your motivation is to do this? In verse 23 he
says, you're the church of the firstborn. That's exactly what
Paul is saying here in our text in Ephesians 5, 3. Fornication
and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among
you, your saints, your firstborn children, your firstborn sons. Now, seeing the great blessing
God's bestowed upon us, brethren, so freely because of Christ and
what He's done, remember, this didn't come to us by fornication.
This didn't come to us by uncleanness or covetousness. It came by divine
election. It came by blood redemption.
It came by the new birth of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, He
said, don't let these things, even once, be named among you,
as becometh saints, not in the act, and not even in the covetous
thought. Look at 1 Corinthians 6.16. Let's just talk about the physical
for a minute. 1 Corinthians 6.16. This is true
spiritually as well, but just look at this. What? Know ye not that he which is
joined to a harlot is one body? For two saith he shall be one
flesh? You become one. Now watch this.
But he that is joined unto the Lord, he's one spirit. That means
we're one with the Lord. We're one with the Lord. Flee
fornication, he said. Every sin that a man doeth is
without the body. But he that commiteth fornication
sinneth against his own body. Do you know what that means?
Do you know what that means? Do you know what He just said
there? We're one spirit with the Lord. We're one flesh with
the Lord, of His bones, of His flesh, of His blood. A believer,
this is so. And so when we, if we're guilty
of fornication, of joining ourselves with the harlot, we not only
sin against our own physical body, we're sinning against Christ's
body. Do you hear that? Against Christ's
body. Does that sound strange to you?
Look at the next verse. What? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought
with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit with your God. I've been trying to
talk to you about that price, Brethren. That price. Christ
had to come to where we are. He had to lay down His life.
He had to bleed. He had to suffer. He had to die.
God said you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God
in your body. And when he speaks in our text
of covetousness, this is the thoughts of the heart. Now listen
carefully there. He means don't let these things
be named among you even enticing others in their hearts or by
being enticed in your own heart. Don't entice others in their
heart and don't be enticed in your own heart. This is what
he's saying. Now, you listen to me. The woman who dresses
like a harlot and it causes a man to look upon her and covet her,
that woman is as guilty as that man is. They're both guilty. Honey, how does this make my
butt look? Why? Why? It ought to make it
look invisible. That's what he's saying. That's one reason I've been speaking
to you about the importance of how we dress, brethren. Especially
in the Lord's house. That's wherever we're congregated
together. When visitors come, you listen
to me, when visitors come, they won't give the gospel an ear
if they see our wives and our daughters dressed in an unbecoming
way. They won't. And I know they won't
because I've had folks come here and leave and tell me the reason
they didn't come was that. I don't want to be guilty of
that. Do you? The principle, listen to me, you've heard me
preach this and you've agreed with it, the principle for which
Paul told the women not to dress in an immodest attire was the
same principle for which he circumcised Timothy before he took him to
the synagogue of the Jews to preach the gospel. You know why
he did it? Because the Jews, knowing Timothy
was uncircumcised, they would have never paid any attention
to the gospel in the first place. It was the same principle for
which those Gentiles that Christ saved and called out of darkness,
when they had that meeting and those men were saying, except
they be circumcised, they can't keep the law. And they said,
no way, we're not bringing them under the law. You can forget
that we're not bringing them under the law. They've been redeemed
by the blood of Christ. No way will we bring them under the
law. And they turned around and said, but don't you do anything
that you've been doing in your idolatrous religion, because
here's why. You got wheel workers who are
hearing Moses preached every day, every Sabbath day in the
synagogue, and they're just looking for fault with you. They're just
looking for a reason not to hear your gospel. And he says they
won't hear Christ preached if otherwise. Now brethren, do you
understand what did Paul just tell us in Ephesians 4, the reason
for all this is? For Christ's sake. He is speaking
to the church and he thinks he is exhorting the Ephesian churches,
do these things so that you can be fruitful in sending forth
the gospel and people will be hearing Christ exalted and Christ
will be calling out His people. You see that? So he is saying,
for Christ's sake do this. Well, I'm not going to force
my child out, you know. I believe it's God's sovereign.
Yeah, I believe God's sovereign, too. All right, then. When they
commit fornication, you're going to just say, well, I don't want
to force them to stop. No. I'm going to say, don't do it.
Don't do it. That's what he's saying here.
Don't do it. Why? For Christ's sake. And here's
the truth. If that's not enough, our profession's
vain. If that don't make us go, Lord,
I want to obey you, our profession is just vain. It's vanity. Look down at Ephesians 5. I'll
show you that. Verse 5, For this you know
that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God. He's saying, the man who says, I'm going to go on
and do this anyway, He don't have an inheritance with God.
He don't even know Christ. Look. Let no man deceive you
with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience. He said, don't let a man tell
you different. Well, we're not under the law, children. You
don't have to worry about what he's saying. He's being legal about
that. You better listen to God. Let no man deceive you of these
things. This is why the wrath of God
comes on the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers
with them. Can it get any more clear? Isn't
that clear? Now, look at 1 Thessalonians
4 and I'm done. Now listen, if we were merely
told here just abstain from fornication, that would be law. That's what God gave on Mount
Sinai in the Ten Commandments. He just said, Thou shalt not
commit fornication. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not covet. But you see, with this, Paul's
saying, as becometh saints, and us seeing what Christ has done,
and us seeing how that we're sanctified firstborn sons, not
children of fornication. And then he says, so act becoming
a firstborn son, act in the coming way as a saint. This is a gospel
command. Some of you may say, I don't
like the word command. Get used to it. Look here, 1
Thessalonians 4, 1. Furthermore then, we beseech
you, this is Paul, brethren, and we exhort you by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, what I'm telling you,
Christ told me to tell you. that as you have received of
us, how you ought to walk and to please God. Do you see that? So you would abound more and
more. He said, I pray you'll grow more
and more. This is just like when we first came. Man, I had to
endure every kind of rejection and every kind of pushback on
everything. And I don't have as much of it
now. Because you hear and you're delighting and Christ is growing
you more and more and more. And in another 15-20 years, Lord
bless this work and keep us together, this what I'm preaching to you
will be as plain and as clear as it can be. Right now it might
be, you might think, I don't understand, this sounds much
like law to me. It'll get more clear. It'll get
more clear. Listen to this. And you might
have to go through some painful, painful sorrow to understand
it. You might have to produce a child
of fornication. Really. For God uses that together
with His Word to show you. This is what I've been trying
to teach you. Alright, now watch this. Look here. Verse 2, For you know what commandments
we gave you by the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that? We gave
you these commandments by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not
law. This is gospel. The word commandment
don't make it law. It's who it came from and why
it's given. and what the motive for it is. That's what makes it of grace
and of gospel. He said, this is a commandment
by the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God. Even your sanctification
that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of
you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification
and honor, that means as firstborn sanctified children, as becometh
saints, not in the lust of concupiscence, as covetousness, even as the
Gentiles which know not God." You see, God's people are going
to be different than the world. Not for the reasons false religion
are. are promoting, but by His grace. We're going to be different than
this world. That's what he says here. Now look, verse 6, that
no man go beyond to defraud his brother in any manner, because
that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned
you and testified. Verse 7, for God hath not called
us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. We're already holy. We've escaped the corruption
of being firstborn sanctified sons. He said now, in that state
of holiness, walk as a holy sanctified child. He therefore that despiseth. Now catch this. He that despiseth. Paul, I don't agree with you.
I'm going to do this. I'm going to do what I want to
do. I don't agree with you. Okay then, this is what Paul said.
He that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also
given unto us the Holy Spirit. You see that? I tell you what,
that makes me feel guilty. That makes me feel low. That
makes me feel humble. That makes me feel glad. That
makes me rejoice. That makes me happy. That makes
me want to obey Christ. I'm a first born sanctified son
in Christ. I want to walk like one. Don't
you? Don't you? I pray God will bless it and
make us obedient. Amen. All right, brethren. Let's, uh...
Brother Eric, if you'll come lead us in a closing hymn.