Ephesians chapter 5. Parents instruct their children
and they do it in love because they are their children. We're
not to instruct other people's children because we want them
to be ours. I don't instruct my children
because I want them to be my children. They are my children
so I give them instruction. You and I need instruction. And
if we aren't taught some things, we don't know them. We don't
know. There's a time when someone had
to tell us to show up on time, dress appropriately, don't speak
while others are talking. Get ready for work. You've got
to prepare yourself before you go to a job site. You've got
to prepare yourself before you have fun. If you want to go to
the beach, you don't wear a parka. You've got to get ready before
you go there. Someone has to tell us we need to get ready
before we come to worship, before we come to service. Prepare our
hearts and minds. being the right place, right
time and right uniform with right attitudes, what I was always
told. I hope this morning we'll see just a worldly instruction
that will be helpful for all mankind. And it's a shame, but
in our generation, as many generations before us, it needs to publicly
be said that there is a difference between right and wrong. Some
things are wrong. Everybody needs to hear that. I hope we can see
the light that the child of God has been instructed to walk in.
to walk as believers in this world, as our walk. And I hope
we can see the spiritual meaning of these things, and that will
stir up our pure minds. We'll kind of crawl, walk, and
run on this one. But I hope the Lord will show
us these things. These things need to be addressed.
In our society, in days of old, and in this time, it says this
doesn't need to be addressed in mixed company. You don't need
to have the women separate and the men separate and address
these things individually, or the children and the adults.
The Lord addresses every one of us in His Word, and I think
that will be just fine for us. Paul writes here in Ephesians
5 verse 1, Be ye therefore followers of God, imitators 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." There's our motivation. He's laid that groundwork. The
Lord has saved his people. And to imitate God, in verse
three, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness,
let 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 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, that 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 ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." He
bookends this instruction with that Christ has given himself
for us. He has forgiven our sins. He
has saved a people and he's speaking to that people and he gives us
instruction. And at the end of that instruction,
just so we don't get to look into that, So we won't get wrapped
up in that. We learn of Christ and then go
off another way. He reminds us once again, the Lord's made you
children of light. Walk as children of light. Don't
forget that. The Lord spoke to Malachi and
he said, but unto you that fear my name shall the sun, the S-U-N,
capital S-U-N, the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And just as that moon, it reflects
light of the sun in darkness. We have a night time. The body
of Christ, His church, His saints, His people, they reflect the
light of Christ in this dark world as we walk through it.
First, I want us to look at the practical application of this.
We all need to hear it. Everybody in this county needs
to hear this. Everybody in this nation and this world needs to hear
this. And then we'll look at the spiritual. But if we get
the spiritual, if the Lord gives us eyes to see, ears to hear,
and to know Him, if we understand that, if He opens our heart,
we'll be convicted of the practical. He will do that. I don't need
to whip you into doing that. He'll correct His children. I'll tell
you about it, but He'll do the correctness. If we only observe
the practical, if we just look at that and we just dive deep
into the practical, it won't profit us eternally. You'll have
a little bit easier walk in this life, in this world it'll help
you, but it won't profit us eternally. The Lord has to apply this to
our hearts. Now verse 3 here, Paul addresses the sensual sin.
This is the deed, act in the body. It says, verse 3, but fornication
and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not once be named among
you as becometh saints. I want us to learn what these
words mean. It's so easy to read through them and say, oh, that's
bad stuff. Go on to the next thing. Fornication there means
to an intimate relationship outside of the covenant of marriage.
That's against God's law. It's shameful, but widely accepted
in this world, and it should not be. That's to be outside
of a marriage covenant. That was common to those Gentiles
that Paul's writing to, that Paul preached to all the time.
That's common in our day. It's widely accepted. It's fine. It's just so easy. Well, that's
just the way it is nowadays. The word is fornication. It's
to be outside that covenant of marriage, and it will bring problems,
worldly. It'll bring problems. He says
they're all uncleanness. That refers to adultery. You're
in a marriage covenant. You're imitating a God, someone
they think is God, and then you break that. You go outside of
that covenant. You acknowledge there's a framework
there, but you leave it. That also goes for homosexuality.
That's imitating a false God. It's not how the Lord laid us
down for us. This is the example he given
us in the garden and from then on. And a picture of Christ in
his church. This is an abomination to him.
He shouldn't preach against those things. That just happens. We've grown past that. You know
what the word also means? Incest. Is that still bad? Is that still something we can
say something negative about for how long? What's going to
be two or three generations from now? need to be said. It says fornication, that's inside
a covenant or outside of the covenant. Uncleanness, that's
with the ruse, acting like there's a covenant there. And then covetousness. And we know covetousness is like,
well, I like that car. I wish I had a house like that.
I wish I had shoes like that. That doesn't fit, does it? That doesn't fit. No, it does.
In the context of what the Apostle is telling us here, this is a
strong desire to please oneself. Not just for things, but in the
body. In the body. A desire to live as those that
fornicate. I wish I didn't have these rules
and all these covenants and these pictures and stuff. I wish I
could just do what I wanted to. That's to covet those that commit
unclean acts. Fornication and adultery. Not
that they do it. Not that they do it, but they
have a desire to do it. They have a desire to do it.
That's wrong. It's wrong and it'll bring problems in this
world. Same as the other ones. Unbelievers
and children of God alike, to all mankind, if you're doing
these things, stop it. It's not profitable to you and
it's an offense to God. But speaking to the saints, Speaking
of the saints, he said, do not let this be named among you.
Don't even let it be an accusation among you. Don't even let the
hint of it come out. Somebody might accuse you of
it, as becometh saints, as children of God. He says, as becometh
saints. Who's the saints? What's the
saints? So easily, I say all the time, believers. Believers. Rarely do I use the word Christian.
Because that's been so mutilated and abused and it's blasphemous
now in our society. People don't understand what
that means. But saints, I only use that when I'm writing a letter.
Tell the saints there we said hello. You know in the scriptures,
twice it uses the word believer. That's right. Three times it
uses the word Christian. We see there Antioch in Acts.
Over a hundred times the Lord uses the word saints. That's his preferred name. What's
that mean? Sanctified. Those that have been
sanctified. Those that have been set apart.
Those that have been made holy unto God as becometh saints. He set them apart. That's something
that's already happened. Down the road we'll probably
start looking at the temple. But the Lord set apart a lot
of things in that tabernacle. He set apart the candlestick.
He set apart the oil that he used to anoint everything that
he set apart. He set apart that table for showbread. And God
says, these are mine. They are to be used in my service
because they're mine. Because I said they're mine.
Because I sanctified them. I set them apart. They're to
be used in my service. You're not to take that candlestick
and go use it to light a midnight drunken party. Nebuchadnezzar's
boys. You're not to take that table
of showbread and go play Monopoly on it. That's the Lord's. Don't
touch it. For his saints, those that he
set apart, those that he's anointed, the Holy Ghost, he's come to. You're set apart. You're not
your own. You're bought with a price. You were bought with a price,
and you've been eternally separated as a vessel of honor to Almighty
God. You're to be used for His service,
and in the light of the grace and mercy shown to us, to understand
the cost that we were bought with. Understand that a little
bit, what a reasonable service it is to present our bodies a
living sacrifice, as Paul just told us. That's reasonable, isn't
it? Why would we do such a thing?
As we walk in this world honoring our God, the one who saved us,
the Lord of our salvation, this world may look at us and say,
why do you live like that? Everybody else is doing it. You
say, well, I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price.
The Lord told me not to. I want to honor Him. That offends
the Lord. He loved me before time. And
I'm a willing bondservant of His. Willing servant of love.
And I ought to, out of an act of love, an act of honor, and
praise towards Him, walk this way. Walk as children of light.
How does one become a saint? How does this happen? Turn over
to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Throughout the scriptures we
just see it over and over. The Lord convicts His people of sin. The
Holy Ghost convicts His chosen vessels of sin. What we are convicts
us of righteousness, who Christ is, that He is righteousness.
the Lord our Righteousness, and convicts us of judgment. We deserve
an earned judgment. That's the wages of our sin,
is death. And Christ satisfied that judgment. He died for His people. There in Hebrews 2 verse 10,
For it became Him, became Christ, for whom are all things and by
whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. For
him to call his people to glory, to be made like him, he must
suffer. Verse 11, for both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. The one who does
the sanctifying, the making holy, the setting apart. And us, the
vessels that have been sanctified, have been set apart and made
holy. We're one. We're joint heirs with Christ. We're made
one with Him. For which cause? He is not ashamed to call them
brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren." Holy Ghost will come to us and declare the
name of the Lord to us. Where is He going to do that?
In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. That's
what David had told us in Psalm 22. I was going to come to me and
the clouds were going to open up, the light shone down from
heaven. I was by myself out in the woods hunting. I was deer
hunting. No. In the midst of His church, saying praises to
Him, telling the truth about Christ and man. That's where
He's going to speak to His people. That's where He's going to set
us apart. Show us we have been set apart. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 10. Once He does this, then we're
on our own and we've got to make ourselves more holy. No. Where could a man get that? Hebrews
10 verse 14. Well, yeah, we'll start verse
14. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. You need to be perfect. God says
His people are right now. I don't feel perfect. This old
man isn't. But this new man in the eyes of God right now is
holy. I don't fully understand what
that means. We have an idea what holiness
is. Right now, in the eyes of God, you are holy. Perfect. He has perfected it. We didn't
do it ourselves. Verse 15, Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us. For after that He had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in
their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." That law of grace, that covenant
of grace, the Holy Spirit comes to His people, put in Christ
before time, and He reveals that law in us. He writes it in our
hearts, convinces us of that, convicts us of it. what he's
done for his people. And he says, I remember your
sins no more. Reveals our sin to us. Shows
us that's all I am. I'm nothing but sin. I'm a noun. I'm not a verb. I'm a noun. And
he said, you know what you are? I remember it no more. Here's
the law of grace. Law of Christ. Law of love, he
puts in our hearts. That's how we're made saints.
He reveals Christ in us. He put Him there and then He
shows us, tells us about it. Holy Ghost tells us about it.
Listen to me. Avoiding fornication, avoiding
uncleanness, and avoiding covetousness does not make you a saint and
does not make you more sainty. It doesn't make you more holy.
Because you are saints. Therefore, avoid these things
in this world. The love of Christ constrains
His people. Because He's loved us. Now back to our text. That's
in the body. Paul dresses the body first.
Now he's going to dress our tongues. What we say with our mouths.
Ephesians 5 verse 4. Neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving
of thanks. Filthiness. Profanity. Cuss words. And that's against
man and against God. Filth. Turn on the TV. Look, I'm shocked by that. The
profanity that's in commercials nowadays. You find a good show
that the children, young person could watch and say, well, this
show's okay. There ain't nothing too bad in it. And then a commercial
comes on. It's worse than whatever that thing was rated. So commonplace. That's the way the world is now.
It's accepted. Filthiness. I struggled so much
with this. There's a few sailors in the
congregation. And in the military, they don't
just allow profanity, they encourage it. And that's just a sure sign
in this world of a lesser vocabulary and someone that can't control
their emotions. That's what it shows. Worldly, just walking
in this world, you who have no cares for God, you young people,
control your words and it'll profit you. Children of God,
and I've talked to myself, watch your tongues and remember who
you are and whose you are. Who we represent in this world.
It says our foolish talking, that's tomfoolery and silliness. That's exaggerating and gossip.
We ever embellished anything? We ever saw something on the
news and then went to somebody else and said, well, I mean,
this is going to happen. Oh, really? Is that what the
news, well, I mean, you know, that's what they're getting at. Foolish
talking. Gossip. Did you hear what so-and-so
did? Either in this world with celebrities
and everything else or... Did you see what sister so-and-so...
Did you hear about that? I kind of heard something. Do you know
anything about that? Foolishness. Looking away from Christ is foolishness.
Foolish talking. Play that telephone game. Somebody
starts on this end and says something and you go around 20-30 people
and it's way off topic, isn't it? That's all we are. We should
speak plainly of what we know and what we understand. And for
the believer, don't gossip about other believers. Cover their
sin. You walk in backwards and cover
their sin up. Don't speak of it. The Lord has received them
as we saw the other night. He put their sin away. Why would
I dig it back up? It's blotted out and I'm trying
to erase it so we can see it better. Don't entertain a single
witness. And it says they're nor jesting.
Does that mean you can't ever tell a joke or be jolly, be jovial? No. But in a workplace, a good
Tom Charlie, that's good Tom all the time, ain't a good employee.
We know that. Don't be cutting up all the time.
But for the believer, never make light of the God of our salvation,
of his Christ, of his gospel, that we've been allowed to have
this light shone on us. Don't make fun of his people.
We are to honor God, fear our God, and respect His children.
What should we do? He says, but rather give Him
thanks. Put all that stuff aside and be thankful. Be thankful
for what the Lord has given you. I find it hard to be thankful
sometimes. Isn't that a shame? Just in this
world alone. I know back in the After World
War II, it was a prideful thing, a good thing to have a roof over
somebody's head and feed your children. Well, you was getting
something done. That's good. And now it's onto
all kinds of nonsense. But just to be thankful. Lord's
kept us today. Worldly, but spiritually. Oh,
to you who know the mercy of God. You know what you are, what
you deserve, the wage that you earned. Oh, be thankful. That
is convenient. Not that the word convenient
means. It's accessible and it's useful. You want to give thanks? Go to the Lord. He's accessible. We can come to His throne of
mercy. And boy, is it useful. That's good for us. Now in verse
5, it says, Ephesians 5, 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. Let no
man deceive you. Don't be fooled. God's going
to punish sin. To the unbeliever, they need
to know this. Those who have no interest in
the gospel, the Lord will punish sin. And the person who only
looks to please themselves in the body and in the tongue, their
inheritance, what they're looking for, it's not the kingdom of
Christ. It's not the kingdom of God. They have no interest
in it. It doesn't concern them. They're
only concerned about things of this world. The Lord will punish
that. But to the believer, let no man
fool you. Can you lose your inheritance?
Is there any one of us that aren't guilty of any of these things?
Or guilty of all of them? Does that mean I could lose my
inheritance? Let no man deceive you. True faith in Christ will
not be taken away when the Lord gives it. His gift of faith does
not perish. His gifts are without repentance.
That bothers me deeply. There's some people in this state
that's saying, well, if the Lord gives you faith, you better nurture
it or it'll go away. You better do something to keep
it. The Lord grows his children. He gives them faith. He sustains
their faith. And none shall be removed from
his hand. With man's deceiving words, sometimes
they go the opposite way. And they say it doesn't matter
how a child of God lives in this world. I've been accused of that
a lot. I was trying to say that the
other night. I was talking to the cast after. It was on the tip of my tongue.
I've been called an antinomian a lot. I couldn't think. Kevin
says you can just live however you want to. He says it doesn't
matter. If you are the Lord's child and
you are willfully disobedient, and you're His, your loving Father
will correct His child. Same as somebody in this world
would. You love Him, you're my child, I'm going to correct you.
And He'll correct you. It says, 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. What did Paul tell us in Romans?
Be not conformed to this world. You see that. The Lord has given
you light to see the difference. Don't be partakers with them.
Because you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the
Lord. Walk as children of light. Now if I were teaching in the
carnal realm, if I had some type of teach you HVAC or something. I'd have you bobbing your heads
north and south. I'd get you riled up good, primed to punt,
and say, oh yeah, homosexuality's bad, and we'd all be doing, doing
north-south. And then I'd hit you with the
lesson I wanted to teach you. But we don't use tactics, do we?
We just tell you what the Lord says. I want you to see the spiritual
application of this. We know what these things mean
in the flesh. Every adult ought to know what all these things
are, not to do them. We know it's better than that. The Lord
wrote that in our hearts. But spiritually, what are these?
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. Spiritual fornication is to ignore
the covenant of God. And this is much, much more dangerous
than physical fornication. much more dangerous. The fool
has said in his heart, no God. It's foolish. It's dangerous. It says in Hebrews
12 verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any
man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring
up, springing up trouble you and thereby Many be defiled,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau." What
did he do? What was Esau's fornication?
"...who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." What was
his birthright? The Lord sanctified him earthly
as the firstborn child. He said, all the firstborn are
mine. And Esau said, I'm hungry, I don't care what the Lord says.
I want a bowl of beans. Verse 17, for you know how that
afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected. For he found no place for repentance,
of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Do not
ignore the Lord, you that are in sin against him. You that
have ignored his covenants in the past and said there is no
God. Come begging for mercy. Come begging for mercy. Come
to Him while He may be found. Some look to cross the door,
and they can tell you about the hinges. They can tell you the
shape of the door. They can say, well, there's six panels on that
door. Tell you a lot about it. But
they have not entered into the door. Christ is ignored. The covenant of grace is just
an idea. It's not a person. It's just
a doctor, not a person. It's fornication. Attitudes take
it or leave it. Just give me a bowl of beans.
Just satisfy my flesh. And oh, the tears that will be
shed in judgment. He tells us about uncleanness. Matthew 23. Uncleanness is to
pretend, to know or imitate the covenant of God, but without
knowledge. That's a covenant of works. You've got to do something. God made a covenant, people,
and you've got to keep it. You've got to do it. You've got to shine
it up better than He did. It's a covenant of works. Some say,
I know God, I'm walking worthy, I'm living a holy life, but it's
without knowledge. They say, don't smoke, drink,
or chew, nor run with those that do. It's without knowledge, without being
born again, still looking to the outside of the cup, and not
what's needed for our souls. Crying, peace, peace, for there
is no peace. That's what that is. false cemeteries
of God. Matthew 23 verse 27. It says,
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
unto wadded sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
you've cleaned up the outside, but are within full of dead men's
bones and of all uncleanness. You're crying, peace, peace,
where there is no peace. You say, oh, God's a covenant God,
but you don't know Him and you don't know what His covenant
is. Verse 28, even so yet, ye also outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but within are full of hypocrisies and iniquity,
all uncleanness. The Lord gave us a covenant of
grace. and His love, wherewith He loved
us, gave us His Son to be a propitiation for us, to come and stand in
our place and shed His blood for us while we were enemies
against Him. That's His covenant. And to say
anything contrary to that is just painting the outside of
that tomb, that sepulcher, trying to clean up the outside. and
then covetousness to look on these things and say, boy, they
sure got it good. You ever drive through this county and to see,
I mean, that one church up here on the hill, when we first got
here, I was telling Brother Greg after the day, I thought it was a Costco.
And I thought, all right, boy, it's close to the house. It ain't
a Costco. You better off going to Costco.
And I thought, boy, that'd be something just to have have a
little bit bigger place to meet, and have a little more freedom
to do stuff, bigger parking lot, or whatever. Boy, they got it
easy, and they're just happy. You don't do that, do you? You've
never done that. No other believer, that's just
me, isn't it? David experienced this. Turn over to Psalm 73.
David experienced everything that Paul's telling us here in
Ephesians 5. He shows us. That's almost like the counsel
of God is in the New Testament and the Old Testament. That's
like He doesn't change. This is the same message, the
same person throughout from Genesis. I hope someday we can get there.
In the beginning, God. The Lord came and said, let there
be light. That's the story of salvation.
And there was light. When it comes to us children
of darkness, let there be light. Oh, and there's light in you.
Ain't no turning it off either. Psalm 73. David's going to experience
every bit of this. Psalm 73 verse 1. I'm sorry David. Asaph. Many think Asaph wrote
for David whenever he put his name on it, but David helped
him co-write it, but Asaph won the pen. Psalm 73 verse 1. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such are of a clean heart. The Lord is good. God is good,
and He is good to His people. He has given us a clean heart.
Verse 2, But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had
well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish,
at the one who cries no God, when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked. For there are no bands in their
death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble
as other men, neither are they plagued like other men." They
don't have all the troubles we have. They're not worn with two
natures inside of them. Verse 6, therefore, pride compassed
them about as a chain. Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak
wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. You know
what that is? Foolish talking. Foolish talking. Verse 9, They set their mouth
against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. They speak filthiness. Verse
10, Therefore his people returneth hither, and waters of a full
cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know?
And is there knowledge in the Most High? That's fornication.
That's speaking jest, joking about God, not knowing Him, not
understanding His covenant, being apart from Him. Verse 12, Behold,
these are the ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in
riches. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my
hands in innocency. Here Asaph says, he covets these
people that live for their flesh, and in himself he's asking, have
I followed God in vain? On this earth, just only look,
not looking to Christ. Look into what's in front of
us and what's around us. Boy, they've got it a lot better than
I do. What a moment of weakness. What a moment of honesty. For all the day long I have been
plagued and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus,
behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. What
would he think to know? The love for Christ constrained
him. The love for the children of
God constrained him. This people, this people he'd
bring reproach on. Not to offend them or bring reproach
on, that was his desire. When was this corrected in the
heart of this believer? What was it, personal reflection? Was it spiritual exercise that
brought him to this? No. He said, verse 17, until
I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their
end. Look into this world, walking in this world, only being concerned
about the things of this world or the struggle we have. heartache and questioning we
have in ourselves. But when we come to the house
of the Lord, we hear of the God who saved us, who is life to
the believer. We understand therein, surely
thou did set them in slippery places, thou cast them down into
destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in the moment? They are utterly consumed with
terrors. As a dream, when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou
awakest, thou shalt despise their image. The Lord will judge sin. Thus my heart was grieved, and
I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I. I was a fool
and arrogant. I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast held me
by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with the
counsel and afterwards, after this back and forth, being turned
to ourselves and then being turned back to the Lord. Turn to ourselves
and then seeing Christ. Look into something to do and
then look into the one that accomplished everything. He who has completed
it over and over again throughout this life. Thou shalt be my guide
and counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Then he sings, Whom
have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon the earth
that I desire beside thee. That's a person. My flesh and
my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go a-whoring from thee. All those fornications, all those
uncleanliness, But it is good for me to draw near to God. I
put my trust in God, the Lord God, that I may declare all thy
works." Someone that tries to put off fornication, uncleanness,
and jesting, and foolish speaking, and clean up outside of that
cup, and I said, look what I did. The believer, when I see the
love of God for them, when he's turned their heart through the
preaching of the gospel to them, he convicts them. Comforts them. Gives them peace. We no longer
have a desire to walk as this world walks. Somebody says, well,
you sure quit doing that? You do that different. Yes, I
know. It took me a long time. We declare thy works. Declare
the works of the One that saved us. I'm back in Ephesians 5,
and I'll write that up. I won't keep you no longer. Ephesians
5, verse 8. For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For
the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which
are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved
are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest
is light. Therefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light." Someone that wants that understanding of being a
child of God, of knowing a person that loved them, the God-man
that gave himself for his people. The Lord speaks to them. He says,
you sleeping, dry bones, dry, wadded, dead bones, awake and
rise. And when he speaks to you, you
have a desire to awake and to rise and to follow him and be
imitators of God. I pray he'll be with us.