Now let's stay right there in
Ephesians chapter five. As you can see in these verses,
the ones that Brother Mark read and the verses following this,
there's a lot said here as the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle
Paul to put down some details, specifics of living the Christian
life, the godly life, concerning how we conduct ourselves, concerning
how we walk, concerning how we relate to others. And I'm going
to get into some of these as we go down through this passage. But today, what I want to do
is I want to establish a ground, you might say, a foundation upon
which all exhortations. An exhortation is an encouragement. You can say it's a command, but
it's a command by way of encouragement. Not in legal fear, and not motivated
by mercenary promises of earned reward, but motivated by grace. And that's the first two verses
of chapter five here establishes that, and I'm gonna focus really
on them, and then later on I'm gonna go down through here and
talk about some of these specifics. But one thing we need to know
at the outset is that God the Holy Spirit never commands or
encourages God's children to fight sin or to obey God in a
way of legal threats of punishment or mercenary promises of earned
reward. He doesn't do that. It's always
the Spirit encouraging within motivating us by the great the
sovereign grace and mercy and love of God towards us in Christ
and so whatever is said when he when he says in verse 3 fornication
and you know what that is that's that's sexual immorality it also
can be spiritual immorality All uncleanness, covetousness, let
it not be once named among you as becometh saints. What he says
is that type of thinking, and you need to understand thinking's
involved here now. It's not just what you do outwardly. But he says that type of thinking
and that type of acting should never be settled in the minds
of a believer that that's okay. Not one time. So those who look
at us because we preach salvation by grace, all conditioned on
Christ, who fulfilled those conditions, no conditions on us, and they
say, well, then you all just say you can go sin as much as
you want. No, read the Bible. But let's establish this foundation.
I've entitled this message Followers of God. Verse one, be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children. And the therefore looks back
upon everything that Paul had written up to this point concerning
our salvation by grace, based upon the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, freely imputed to us by God, and received in
the power of the Spirit in the new birth. So therefore, because
of what you are, because of your standing before God in Christ,
what am I before God? I'm forgiven of all my sins. And that reaches to the future
too, not only to the past and the present, but it reaches to
the future. I've heard people say things
like, well, when I got saved and I got baptized, all my sins
were washed away, but now I've got to make atonement for the
ones that, and how you make atonement? Well, you either rededicate or
you pray for forgiveness. No. Christ, when he died for
my sins charged to him, he put them away, my sins. I wasn't
even born yet. And he put my sins away by his
sacrifice, by one offering. Hebrews 10, 14, by one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Do you get
that? Past, present, and future. So people, and here's the thing,
people who have no grace settled within their minds and their
hearts You know, the Bible talks about a heart established with
grace. That's what I want to be. You too. People who don't have their minds
and their hearts settled on grace, they don't have any other motive
for obedience other than legal fear of punishment or mercenary
promise of earned reward. And when we preach the gospel,
essentially what we're going to tell them is that's an evil
motive. You know that? because it denies
the glory of God. It denies the person and work
of Christ. It exalts the sinner in self-righteousness, and that's
what we need to understand. So he says, because of what you
are in Christ, washed in his blood, you're righteous in God's
sight, and that didn't have anything to do with your obedience. That's right. It didn't have
anything to do with your works, it had everything to do with
Christ's obedience unto death and his work. And then, in the
fullness of the time, God sent the Spirit to give us life, bring
us to see the light. These passages that Brother Mark
read, look at verse eight. For you were sometime darkness.
That's our natural state in this world. That's how we were born.
Fallen in Adam. Spiritually dead and depraved
in darkness. Didn't know the truth, didn't
want to know the truth, and when we first heard the truth, didn't
want it then. But now are you light in the
Lord. God's turned the light on. through
the preaching of the gospel. He showed us things that we didn't
see before. He's convinced us of things we
didn't believe before. And so he says, all right, because
this is your state, your light and Lord, then walk that way. Walk as children of light. Don't
walk as a child of darkness. Walk as a child of light. Not
in order to be saved, but because you already are.
And you didn't deserve one inch of it. You didn't deserve any
of it. And you still don't. And I still
don't. We talked about that earlier.
Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand?
It is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. That's today,
folks. If I'm not consumed under the
wrath of God, it's of his mercies. his tender mercies in Christ.
And so when he says, be therefore, for this reason, followers of
God. I want to be a follower of God,
how about you? You really want to follow God?
Some translate it like with the Brother Mark, it says imitators.
And that's simply saying be like God. Follow him. To be like God. Be like Him in
what He commands? Be like Him in how He guides
us? It means to go behind Him, following
Him, follow His lead. Well, what does it mean to follow
God? Let me give you these five things. Number one, to follow
God is to follow His word. The scriptures, which are able
to make you wise unto salvation. They're God-breathed. This is
the word of God. This is the most fundamental
truth of Christianity, right here. You say, well, wait a minute. The most fundamental truth is
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. No, that is a fundamental truth. But the first and most basic
fundamental truth of our faith is the Bible is the inherent,
Pure Word of God. And the reason is is because
the only way we know to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is because
that's what this book says. This is our textbook right here.
This is our doctrine. When people say that doctrine
doesn't mean anything, you might as well say the Bible doesn't
mean anything. Because the Bible's full of God's doctrine. that
teaches us who God is, what he's like, what he's done in eternity
past and what he's doing now and what he will do. Paul wrote to Timothy, I quoted
part of it. All scriptures given by inspiration
of God, God breathed, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, correction,
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God, a sinner
saved by grace, may be perfect, complete, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. If you don't know the grace of
God according to His Word, if you don't know how God saves
sinners based upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
not thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You're lacking.
And any work you do is a work of death, fruit unto death. The
Lord Himself on the Mount of Temptation stood before Satan. And here's what he said when
Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread. He said, he answered
and said, it's written, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Well,
here it is. Right here, do you believe that?
This is it. You say, well, I heard a voice.
You better run. We'll call the men in the white
coats to get you. And whatever voice you hear or
whoever you listen to or whatever you believe, if they speak not
according to this word, there's no light in them. Turn to Matthew 15. Here Christ, dealing with people, And he tells them, here's your
problem, you're not following God, you're not following His
word, you're following man's word, man's doctrine, man's opinions. And in Matthew 15, look at verse
7 of Matthew 15, he told them, he says, you hypocrites, Well,
did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, this people draw nigh unto me
with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. Now, how did he know that their
heart was far from me, from him? Well, he's God. He knows the
hearts of men, but do you know, listen, now listen to this very
carefully now. Don't let this slip by. He didn't say their
hearts are far from me, And the reason I know it is because I'm
omniscient. Now he is omniscient. And he knows, he knows what I'm
thinking and what you're thinking right now. But what did he say
is that which exposed their hearts? Look at verse nine. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Not the commandments
of God. And then look over there at verse
14 across the page. He told his disciples, don't
argue with them, let them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. That's what happens. Don't follow
men. Paul had a lot to say about that
in 1 Corinthians because they were dividing over men. I want
to hear this preacher, I want to hear that preacher. I want
to hear any preacher who preaches the word of God. And the worst
thing that can happen to any preacher, even a gospel preacher,
is to have a following for himself. You know, because we're in the
minority in what is called today Christianity, I've had people
say, well, you're all a cult. Well, we're not a cult. Because
I know there's not one person in this audience, I know there's
not one person in this audience that follows me because I said
it. And if you do, you're wrong.
Stop it. You follow me as I preach the
word of God. That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
11, one, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. That's all I do is point you
to Christ. Listen to him, follow him, believe him. Has nothing
to do with my power and authority. My authority is the word of God. The word of God is quick, powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, even to the dividing asunder
of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The psalmist
wrote, thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin
against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach
me thy statutes, thy word. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path. Follow God's word. So you cannot
be a follower of God and deny or ignore his word. That's why
I tell people, you know, they hear us preach election, electing
grace. They say, well, I don't believe
in election. We are not following God because he's the God who
elected. He's the God who chose the people
before the foundation of the world and gave them to His Son,
made His Son the surety of the covenant. Sent His Son into the
world to save His people whose names were written in the Lamb's
book of life before the foundation of the world. I love God's electing
grace. Because without it, nobody would
be saved. I've told you all about the sign
on a church up in Huntington, West Virginia that I saw one
time. It said, the God who hates, we don't worship him. Well, they're
not following the God of the Bible. They're worshiping an
idol. Somebody says, well, God doesn't hate anybody. Well, you
better read his word. He hates all workers of iniquity. Psalm 5 tells us. Well, aren't
we all workers of iniquity? A worker of iniquity there is
one who is not saved by God's grace in Christ. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. We're sinners. We deserve hell and death, but
God does not impute our sins to us. That's the God of this
book. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Whoever he's talking about there, he doesn't charge them with sin.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. To follow
God means to believe, to follow his word. And that's what people,
that's what's wrong today with people who call themselves Christian.
They don't follow his word, they don't know his word. They read
their Bibles and they memorize scripture, but they ignore the
parts they don't like or they deny them. But you can't follow
God and not follow his word. And that's what Paul's talking
about here when he talks about fighting sin, standing against
sin. Whether it be, he says in verse
four, filthiness, foolish talking, that has to do with flippancy
in the things that we ought to be serious. It doesn't mean you
can't tell a joke. There's some jokes you shouldn't
tell, but what he's talking about here
is don't be flippant or jesting about the serious issues of life
and death and judgment and eternity. He says, which are not convenient,
but rather give thanks. All of these things that he's
going to mention in detail. That's God's word. Later on,
he's gonna talk about marriage. Well, what does God say about
marriage? People don't want to hear that today. I had a lady
call me, not a member of the church, but she wanted to know
if I could counsel her son and his wife. I didn't even know
the people. And I told her, I said, well,
I'm not a marriage counselor, and I'm not folks. I'm a preacher
of the gospel. That's what I am. Now, as far
as counseling, and here's what I told her, I said, the only
thing I can tell you is what God's word said, and that's usually
the last thing that couples want to hear. But what does God say? That's
the issue. All right, here's number two. To be a follower of God is to
follow Christ as God's only way of salvation and the only Lord
God. Follow Christ as he's identified
and distinguished in God's word. You see how the two fit together?
Who is Jesus Christ? Well, what does God's word say?
His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. His name shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The
hope of Israel, the advocate, the Lord our righteousness. Somebody
says, well, I believe in Jesus, but I don't believe he's God.
Well, you're not following God's word and you're not following
Christ. Somebody says, well, I believe God loves everybody
and sent Christ to die for everybody. Now the rest is up to you. Well,
you're not following God's word and you're not following Christ.
Bible doesn't say that. God's love is in Christ. Outside
of Christ, there's nothing but God's wrath and that's what his
hatred is. It's not a temper tantrum. It's not God being mean. It's his just wrath against all
sinners to whom sin is imputed. My only hope is to be found before
God in Christ. Following God means to believe
in, rest in, and follow Christ. The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believeth. Believeth what?
Believeth God's word. To the Jew first, the Greek also.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, for it is written, the just shall live by faith. What
is that righteousness of God? That's the glory of the person
and finished work of Christ as the surety, substitute, redeemer,
and mediator of his people to ensure our salvation by his work
on the cross in our stead. He who worked out the righteousness
And that's what he told the people in John 5. He said, you search
the scriptures, you search the word of God, they are they which
testify of me. He said in John 10 about his
sheep that the good shepherd goeth before them and the sheep
follow him for they know his voice. And a stranger they will
not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice
of strangers. In Matthew 16, What did the Lord
say? He said, take up your cross and
follow me. Well, what is that cross? That's
standing against the world, calling the world what it is. Idolatry,
dead works, evil deeds, being the light, walk as children of
the light. The world hates the light because its deeds are evil.
It's following Christ in true faith and repentance of dead
works. What men by nature exalt and
hope in, what do we say? That's an abomination unto God. You come before God pleading
your best that you're so proud of? My friend, that's damnation. That's what it is to take up
your cross, stand against the world. Stand with God's Word
in Christ. Go to Him outside, follow Him
outside the camp, Hebrews 13 says. The camp of the world,
the camp of false religion. Don't blend in. Be the salt of
the earth. What he's saying. Be the light. Don't extinguish the light. The
light which reveals the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
and how God can be just and justifier. based upon the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, freely imputed and received by faith,
but that light also exposes the darkness. And men hate the light. That's why it's called a cross.
That's what gave old Brother Stephen the courage to stand
up before a crowd and say, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears. Got him killed. But you know
what? He was received into glory, wasn't
he? According to the scriptures. God's word says this, John 5,
22. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. You
can't follow God and not believe in, rest in, follow Christ. He's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Here's
the third thing. Follow God as our heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father, now where
do you get that? Look at verse one again, Ephesians five. Be
ye therefore followers of God as dear children. Children? Verse two, and walk
in love as Christ also hath loved us. Now that's grace there. Did Christ, or did the Father
or the Son, love any of his people because of what they foresaw
any one of them would do or not do? No. Even when we were enemies,
the Bible says. And he says, and have given himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Now this is key. In Christ, God is not only our
sovereign ruler and judge, but he's also our heavenly father, who loves us. Walk in that love as Christ also
has loved us. That's unconditional love, that's
godly love. That's love not earned or deserved. Christ said in John 14, six,
he said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under
the father, but by me. Our heavenly father, he's a just
God and a savior. And that's by adoption. He adopted
us into his family before the foundation of the world. It's
by redemption. He put away our sins and paid
our dowry, settled all debts by his death on the cross. Brought
forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God
could be just and justifier. And then it's by new birth. Look
at John chapter one. Talking about Christ, the word
of God. In verse 11 of John one, it says, he came unto his own
and his own received him not. That's us by nature. But as many
as received him. To them gave he power, that word
power means the right, the privilege, to become the sons of God. Even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood,
had nothing to do with our physical heritage, nor the will of the
flesh, that's the works of the flesh, nor the will of man, but
born of God. Children of God, think about
it. And once we're born again, we have the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And we look upon God not as an
angry judge, but as a loving father who did not deny or suspend
his judgment, but set his judgment on our Savior, so that he drank
damnation dry. The damnation that we deserved,
he drank it dry. God is my Heavenly Father. Does
that mean we won't have any problems in this world? Oh no, we'll have
a lot of problems. Does that mean we don't even
get what we call punishment? Not in the way of payment for
sin, but we're chastised by our Heavenly Father. He teaches us,
He corrects us, He does us like we do our children. He has to
do things sometimes that wake us up, And all of it is meant
to do what? To bring forth what the Bible
calls a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now that's not peace based upon
the fruit of what we've done or will do or try to do. That's
peace that is based upon the fruit of Christ's work. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Looking only to
Him. And that's what trials and chastisements do. They draw us
nearer to God in Christ. They fix our eyes upon Him. Here's the fourth thing. To follow
God is to follow righteousness. Now, as believers, we know that
our only righteousness before God is the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us by God's grace alone. Christ is the Lord our
righteousness. And we live our lives on earth
knowing that our best efforts to obey fall short. They do. That if God were to
judge us based upon our best, we'd be condemned. We know that.
But we believe God's word that he does not and will not judge
us by our works, but he judges us in Christ. And there we go
back to that same passage in Romans 8, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect. looking to follow righteousness
is looking to and resting in Christ, in whom we have the assurance
of salvation. That's what it is to be a servant
of righteousness in Romans 6. And this is our motivation for
godliness, for holiness, and the certain assurance of salvation
and final glory conditioned on Christ alone. He did it all.
He finished the work. It's done. And we are sure for
heaven, not because of who we are or what we are or what we
do, but because of Him who's seated at the right hand of the
Father, ever living to make intercession for us. Our life is hid with
Christ in God. We press on toward the mark because
we want to be like Christ. But we still have the flesh who
fights against us. Us. And that's who that is. That's not some little imp inside
of me. That's me. That's you. The flesh
fights against that. The flesh will tell you, no,
now you're not doing enough. Oh, you haven't done enough.
God's displeased with you because you just haven't come up to snuff. Well, I can tell you right now
that all that's true. But that's not our hope. That's
not our righteousness. One of the things we need to
understand when we deal with people who are caught up in lifestyles
that Paul describes here in Ephesians 5, and we'll look at passages
like 1 Corinthians 6, we're to deal with them in truth, but
not like a self-righteous Pharisee. Oh, I haven't done those things.
Thank God I'm not like them. Thinking that that's my righteousness
before God? Oh, get away from me, I'm holier
than thou. No, that's not the way to do
it. We know if the Lord would ever mark our iniquities, we
wouldn't stand. But you know what? If I'm following
after God in his word, following after Christ as a dear child
of God, I know that he doesn't deal with me in my sins as far
as my assurance of salvation is concerned. He deals with me
in Christ, accepted in the beloved. And then here's the fifth one,
follow holiness. Follow holiness. Now I always make a distinction
between righteousness and holiness. A lot of people don't. Righteousness
is the perfection of law that can only be found in Christ,
the end of the law. Some people say holiness is moral
purity. Well, if you ever find anybody
who is morally pure, which you won't, That person would be holy. But the word holy means separate.
That's what it means. Separateness. God separated his
people out before the foundation of the world in sovereign electing
grace. He separated us out on the cross in redeeming grace.
And he separates us out in the new birth when he brings us to
believe the truth of Christ. Christ said in John 17, 17, he
prayed to the Father, sanctify them, his people, through the
truth, thy word is truth. We believe the truth. We don't
believe a lie. And then in Hebrews 12, 14, he
says, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no
man shall see the Lord. Do you reckon he's saying follow
peace with all men and moral purity? without which no man
will see the Lord. Well, if he's talking about us
being morally pure, we won't see the Lord. We're sinners saved
by grace. That holiness there is that which
separates us from the world. And what separates us? The grace
of God. The gospel, we believe. Try to
be at peace with everybody, but don't compromise that which separates
you from the world. Don't compromise the gospel.
Don't speak peace to the world. Because this separatist, this
sanctification that God has graced us with, that's how we know we'll
see the Lord. Because what is it? We're looking
to Christ. We're leaning on Him. We're praising
Him. And so when the Bible says, be
ye holy as your Father which is in heaven and hell, that's
the separateness of God. Be not conformed to the world.
but be ye separate. We'll talk more about these things.
That lays the foundation of all these exhortations that Paul
speaks of in the rest of that chapter. Okay.