Turn with me, if you would, to
Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Our text for this Bible study
will be verses 3 through 8, but let's begin reading in verse
1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. 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
of thanks. 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. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are
you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. This Bible study has three parts,
three sections. We are going to see the truth. We're going to acknowledge the
truth. We are going to see the Gospel. And then we are going to see
a very serious and very real exhortation. This is something
that affects our daily life. Something that we need to understand
concerning the Lord's daily dealings with us. Alright, now here's
the truth. Everything that has been written
in this Word is the truth. If it is written in this Word,
it stands as absolute truth. Verse 3 says, but fornication
and all uncleanness or covetousness Let it not be once named among
you as becometh saints." Fornication is a physical relationship between
a man and a woman outside of the covenant of marriage. In the period of time when Paul
wrote this, the Gentiles, who were anybody who was not a Jew,
the Gentiles did not see fornication as being a sin against God. It
was rampant and it never entered their mind. And that's exactly
how it is today. That's how it is right now. Maybe
a few decades ago it might have entered people's minds that this
is wrong, but not now. It is a very, very common practice. You are considered, I wrote,
you're almost considered, I'm gonna take almost out. You are
considered strange if you're not a fornicator. What? Paul had to tell them, this may
be a shock to you, but God says it's sin against Him. And I say
the same thing right now. I want our young people to very
clearly understand, and I want our adults to very clearly understand,
that God says it is sin against Him, and He will not have it. It shouldn't happen anywhere. It shouldn't happen anywhere.
Especially within a congregation of people who claim to be believers.
It should not be. Spiritually, this is what it's
saying to God. I can have union without your
covenant. That's what it's saying. I don't
need your covenant. It represents man's free will. I can do whatever I want to do.
It represents man's free will. It represents rebellion to the
only thing that God said would unite us back to Him. The covenant
of the blood of Christ. And to continue in a relationship
of fornication is to spit in God's face and it's to spit on
His covenant. So if anyone is involved in a
fornication relationship, stop doing it. Not that I know of
anybody who's involved in one. I'm just saying. Stop doing it. Stop doing it. Uncleanness is
the same thing in a more vile form. It refers to adultery,
which is not just denying God's covenant, it's denying my own
covenant to God that I made concerning my spouse. It refers to incest,
it refers to homosexuality, and I know that it's almost illegal
to preach against that now. But this is what God says. God
said, it is unclean in my eyes. It is sin against me. Covetousness,
that is lusting over the things that you don't have. In the context
of the verse, it's lusting over the two things that were just
mentioned, fornication and uncleanness, lusting in the mind, lusting
in the heart. He said in verse three, let it not be once named
among you as becometh saints. Verse four says, neither filthiness,
nor foolish talking, nor jesting. Those three things are sins that
come out of the mouth. Filthiness is obscenity, obscene
words. Just a foul mouth, a dirty mouth. That is not becoming of a child
of God. Not at all. We all know people
who cuss so much, they don't even know they're doing it. And that's just not becoming
of a child of God. Let it not be so named among
us. It's not honoring to Him. Verse
4, foolish talking is exaggerating, which that sounds like every
single one of us here. Every man and woman on this earth,
that's what we do. We exaggerate everything. It
also means worldly talking. Jesting means making a joke of. Is he saying that we can't talk
about worldly things and tell jokes? Absolutely not. I love
jokes. I love a good joke. What he's
saying is, let's not let worldly conversation become a hindrance
to our spiritual conversation. When we gather here, when we
gather into this place for the purpose of what we're doing,
we're here for a particular purpose. This right here is our calling,
this is our life, our worship. It's no joking matter. So he
said, filthy talking and worldly exaggeration, anything that removes
the seriousness of what we're doing, he went on to say it's
not convenient. which are not convenient, not
fitting, not proper, not profitable. He said at the end of verse four,
but rather giving of thanks. That's what ought to come out
of our mouth. That's what ought to come out
of our mouth. That's what we ought to be focused on and that's what
we're here to do. We're here to give thanks to
God for all things. Thanks for His grace, thanks
for His mercy, all His kindness. Verse five says, for this you
know that no whoremonger, and that's a fornicator, nor unclean
person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, a man who worships
and serves anything other than the true and living God, in this
case, himself. We are our greatest idol. We
love us. We worship us. We serve us. So he said, 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. None. No inheritance. Verse six, let no man deceive
you with vain words. Empty, lying words. Words that
are just not true. Don't let a preacher stand up
and tell you, don't worry, it's all okay. Don't let a man do
that. Verse 6, let no man deceive you
with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience. These sins against God are the
very things that will send us, sends God's wrath and judgment
on us and send us to an eternal destruction. These very things. God punishes sin. God punishes sin. Verse 7, be not ye therefore
partakers with them. No buts about it. No loopholes. There's a period at the end of
that verse. God said you better not do it, so you better not
do it. I'd better not do it too. Now I told you we were going
to begin with the truth. Here it is. God said, whoever commits
these sins has no part with me, and my wrath is going to come
down on him. All right, here's the truth.
Not one person in this room is exempt from any of those sins. Not one person in this room.
We have all sinned against God in every way, shape, and form. All of us. Some will commit fornication
in the body. All will commit fornication in
the mind and in the heart. Uncleanness, some will commit
adultery in the body. All will commit adultery in the
mind and in the heart. And God says there's no difference.
In Matthew 5, he said in his eyes, it's the same thing. It's
all the same thing. We have all coveted, all of us. Absolute filth has poured out
of every mouth here. There's not one sin, not one
sin that any of us can say, that's never touched me. Not one sin. That's the truth. All right,
now turn with me to 1 John 2. 1 John 2 verse 1 says, My little
children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That's
the gospel. That's the good news. I'm going
to explain this more deeply in just a moment in our message.
But right now, let me just say, that all of us have sinned these
sins. All of us have sinned these sins,
but Christ advocated for us by taking the blame of our sin.
He advocated for us by representing us in his body and washing us
in his blood. And in doing so, he removed the
stain of all of that sin that was on us. I love the song that
says, dark the stain that soiled man's nature, long the distance
that he fell, far removed from hope and heaven into deep despair
and hell. But there was a fountain opened,
and the blood of God's own Son purifies the soul and reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for full salvation. God still reigns upon the throne,
and I know the blood still reaches deeper than the stain has gone.
Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 says, Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God, and such were some of you. But you are washed,
but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." So the truth is,
all of us have committed these horrible sins against God. All
of us. But the Gospel is, if God the
Father chose to give us to His Son, if He chose to hand us over
to Christ, then the Lord Jesus Christ has washed us from those
sins in His own blood. Alright, now here's the last
thing that I want us to see. Go back to Ephesians 5. This is a very real and serious
exhortation that immediately affects us. Ephesians 5 verse 8, it says,
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the
Lord. Walk as children of light. If God chose us, and if Christ
redeemed us, we are washed. We are complete in Him. We are,
as the end of verse 1 says, dear children. Dear children, adopted
into His family. Therefore, He will deal with
us as children. Alright, if it's all the same
whether you do it in deed or hard, if that's all the same,
what stops us from doing it in deed? If we are His children, then
He will deal with us as children. Turn with me over to Hebrews
12. Hebrews 12 verse 5. and you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons." What he's saying is, if we are
God's children, if He is our Father and if He loves us, He
will straighten us up when we get out of line. He will. He'll straighten us up when we
get out of line. I don't ever plan on chastening, correcting,
instructing, rebuking. I don't ever plan on chastening
any of your children when they get out of line. I don't ever
plan on doing that. But there are two little girls who should
expect those things when they get out of line. They should
expect them. And the reason is because they
are my children. I'm their father and I love them. I love them. I want what is best
for them. Therefore, I will correct them. Because I want what's best for
them. Our Holy Heavenly Father is going to do what is best for
us. Therefore He will correct us.
He loves us. The lie of religion, the lie
of man's works, the lie that steals all the glory away from
what Christ secured for His people is. Now you'd better stop your
sinning or you're going to lose your salvation. That's the lie. That's the lie. You better stop
sinning You're going to undo what Christ did. You're going
to lose your salvation. That's a lie. That's a lie. If our salvation was dependent
on our ability to stop sinning, none of us would be saved. None
of us. Christ saved us. We are bought
with a price. We belong to Him. And no soul
that belongs to Him is going to become lost. Not one soul. But the things that we do as
His children can either bring a smiling countenance to us or
a frowning countenance to us. Just like it is with our own
children. The same way. We can do things that bring honor
to His name, or we can do things that bring a reproach on His
name. And in return, He can either
speak tenderly to us through His Word, or He can speak harshly
to us through His Word. He can bring Himself very near
to us, or He can cause Himself to be far from us. He said He'd
never leave us. He said, I'll never leave you,
never. But we can cause Him to not commune
with us, commune with our hearts. We can cause our road to be pretty
rocky if we want it to be. So for that reason, our Lord
has given to us His commandments to us. These are His commandments
to us. We read commandments and you
hear the word grace and think, well, that doesn't apply to me.
No, these are His commandments to us. as His children, as His
people. And our exhortation is, let's
strive to do them. Let's strive to be obedient children. He said, you are now children
of light. walk as children of light. Let's
strive to bring honor to Him and bring reverence to Him. Children who behave are well-pleasing
to their parents. Children who behave are well-pleasing
to their parents. Right here in Hebrews 12 verse
9 says, Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much
rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own
pleasure. but he for our profit, that we
might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." Correction always brings the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It always does. Children are
always happier after they've been corrected. They're always
happier. You'll find that to be so. They're
always happier after they've been corrected. Now, most of
you have heard this, but maybe one or two has not, and this
just has to be told along with this exhortation. A man named
Walter Groover, took his family to Mexico. He is a missionary
to Mexico. And he took his family down there
50 years ago or more. And when his children were young,
there was a little girl who came knocking on their door, begging
for food. And this happened a few times
in a row, a few days in a row. And Betty, Walter's wife, found
out who she was and who her mother was and went and visited her
mother. And the mother could not afford to
feed the children. She had many children and she
just couldn't afford to feed them all. So Betty asked her,
can she just come live with us and I'll take care of her and
feed her? And the mother said, yeah, that would be wonderful.
So for years, many years, This little girl lived with them and
is one of the children of the family. But she was not a biological
child of the family. And every time that the kids
got into something, Walter would discipline his children. They'd
all go to the back room, but she wouldn't go, because she
was not his biological child. And after this went on for a
while, One day she fell down in the floor just kicking and
screaming. And Walter came in and said,
what are you doing? And she was just kicking and screaming and,
you know, by herself throwing a tantrum. And he said, stop
that. And she got into it more and more. And he said, if you
don't stop, I'm going to spank you. And she gave it all she
had. And he said, let's go. So all
the kids. thought she's going to find out
what's in that room. And he took her back there and
he wore her out lovingly, lovingly. And after a little while, she
came out of that room with huge crocodile tears running down
her face and the biggest smile they'd ever seen on her face.
And Walter came out and told Betty after it was over, she
crawled up in his lap and hugged him around the neck and whispered
in his ear, now I know you love me. Now I know you love me. Parents,
remember that. Remember that. If you want your
kids to know you love them, remember that. Correct them, discipline
them. And if we want to know that our
Father loves us, let's recognize His correction when we get out
of line. And what do you think she did
after that was over? You think she went back to the
living room floor and threw another tantrum? No. No way. And neither should we. Let's
stop all of these things that go against our Lord, go against
our God's Word, We have been made to be children of light
in the Lord. Let's, by God's grace, strive
to walk in that light. All right. You're dismissed.