that's the epistle of Paul to
the Ephesians in chapter 5 and reading verses 3 to 7. But fornication and all uncleanness
or covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh
saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which
are not convenient, but rather giving thanks. For this ye 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. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers
with them. Well, we know the Word of God
is very comprehensive and it takes account of everything that
arises in our lives. Therefore, some parts of the
Word of God are most pleasant and glorious to read, and some
are not so pleasant and glorious to read. And perhaps we should
say that these verses this evening fall into that category. But
nonetheless, it is the Word of God, and it is written for a
divine purpose, and it is written for our benefit, so that you
and I may be warned in our life as to how to walk in this evil
world. Of course the world is very evil
at the moment, there have been very evil times in the past,
and the Lord has graciously come and granted the blessing, and
we know that the Lord can do that today. But as we think just
briefly of these words, as the apostle writes to these Ephesians
and he tells them, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not be once named among
you as becometh saints." And we must remember here that the
apostle of course is writing to the church at Ephesus, he
is writing to the saints of God and therefore he writes in this
way very clearly to tell them those things which they should
not be not be named among them but that they should be following
those things which were right and good and he says first of
all fornication. Fornication of course is a word
which is used often a bit loosely and in scripture it has quite
a wide content really, but it can include prostitution and
adultery and incest and it's figuratively also can indeed
be idolatry. And as I expect most of you know,
perhaps our younger people don't know the incest in sexual relationships
with close blood relations. And so it includes all these
various things which we are to turn away from and not even name
them, not even talk about them, not even discuss them, but they
are to be put far from us. And so fornication and all uncleanness
or covetousness. Well, again, that's a very important
word and it's so easy to be covetous. We want something. We're very
keen to have it. We look at it, whatever it may
be, in this life, in the world. And yet here the apostle tells
us that we should turn away from it and not be covetous. Although the Word of God does
wonderfully tell us to covet earnestly the best gifts. And
of course, the best gifts are the grace of God. and the mercy
of God and the love of God. And we should covet those things,
but the things of this world, the things of the flesh, we should
not covet. And the apostle therefore says,
let it not be once named among you as become its saints. And that is addressed to the
saints of God. It is addressed really to us
today. He goes on and says, neither
filthiness nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks." So this is very clear, isn't
it? We must turn away from all that which is filthy, all that
which is lustful, all that which is of the flesh, and to turn
away from it, neither filthiness nor foolish talking. It's very
easy, isn't it, to fall into the trap of foolish talking.
We can easily do that. We need a lot of grace to keep
ourselves from foolish talking. But you see the apostle doesn't
leave us in a vacuum, because it's the end this verse says,
but rather giving a thanks. Well, we have many things to
thank God for. What a blessing if we concentrated
on those things rather than filthiness and foolish talking and jesting. That means, of course, making
jokes and things like that. They're not convenient. They
don't bring glory to God. They may bring natural glory
to ourselves. they don't bring glory to God.
And so the apostle rightly says, such things are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks. And if you and I think of the
many things we have to thank God for, sure that will occupy
all our time in so doing. Then he goes on and picks up
this previous theme again and says, for this you know, that
no whoremonger, which is really prostitute nor unclean person
that includes people like homosexuals etc nor covetous man who is an
idolater you see if we are covetous want something it really means
we're worshipping that thing and therefore we are an idolater
we can often pass over these things and not realize the significance
of them and yet you see here we are in God's sight nor covetous
man who is an idolater." And having spoken those things, he
says this about such, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and of God. Well, that's a very important
and damning statement really, And I'm sure if we are truly
seeking the things of God, we don't want to be cast out and
not have an inheritance. Because the Apostle Peter, as
we read together in that first chapter in his first epistle,
he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again
unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fate
is not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power
of God through faith under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. I'm sure none of us want to be
shut out for this great and glorious inheritance which the Lord has
prepared for his people. As we read such a telling statement
as this, to recognise the relevance and the importance of it. 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. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience. We know, I'm sure, the great
deceiver of mankind is the devil, and he continues to endeavour
to deceive the Church of God. Well, may he not deceive us and
lead us in a wrong path. because his great trademark really
is to pretend that the Word of God is not true and in fact we
can ignore it and we can do as we please. Well that's not so. We are to be a follower of the
Word of God, a follower of the Saviour and to desire to do his
will and all that is set before us in the Word of God. so let
no man deceive you with vain words because of these things
cometh the wrath of God upon the true not disobedient and
how terrible to be under the wrath of God and then he says
be not therefore partakers with them again as it were final statement
having gone through all that list he now comes and says but
be not ye therefore partakers with them and how all we all
need to pray for grace that we indeed may not be partakers of
these things and we know we can only be kept as i read in that
first chapter in john kept by the power of god when a blessing
is we have an all-powerful god who is able to keep us and to
be round about us to preserve us from evil and to set our hearts
and affections upon things above well May God graciously bless
us indeed as we ask him for Jesus' sake.