Without exception, every single
Sunday and every single Wednesday that I am driving myself over
here, I sing to myself, sing choruses and things. And that
song, Carrie just played, I sing that every single sweep over
my soul. So that is my prayer for every
time we meet together. Sweep over my soul. Don't let
me just go through the motions. Sweep over my soul. That's my
prayer this morning. Let's bow together and ask the
Lord for that blessing. Our Father, we bow before you,
a thankful and a grateful people. Father, how can we ever begin
to thank you for your mercy and your grace to your people and
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're so thankful We
don't deserve the least of thy mercies. And how thankful we
are you have not given us what we deserve. Father, you loved
us when we're unlovable, you're merciful to our sin, you're forgiving
to our rebellion. And it's all because of your
son, because of his obedience and his precious blood, the blood
of his sacrifice. Father, we're so thankful. And
Father, we beg of you this morning that you would, one more time,
give us the spirit of worship. Father, send your spirit upon
us. Without your spirit, we can do nothing. We can't preach,
we can't hear, we can't pray, we can't sing. Father, enable
us this morning to have a true worship service. Let the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ be exalted and magnified in everything that
is said and done here today. What we pray for ourselves in
this class, we pray especially for our children's classes, that
Father, you bless this time, that you would use this time
to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. We're so thankful
for the children, the little ones that you've given to us,
and Father, we're thankful for the teachers that you've given
to us to teach them. Pray you'd bless them. Father,
we continue to Pray blessing for those that you brought in
the time of trouble and trial, heartbroken in deep, deep waters,
uncertainty and sickness, heartache. Father, we pray you'd be with
your people, how we pray you'd undertake on their behalf. And
we're so thankful to be able to come and lay these cares at
the sovereign of the earth. This we know you're able. And Father, we pray that you
would be pleased to deliver, comfort, help your people. And
Father, all these things we ask in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. All right, if you
would now turn with me to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter
five is I have studied this lesson this week. I've had three or
four titles, but I finally settled on this title. Walk as becometh
saints. I'm gonna read our whole text
beginning in Ephesians five, verse three, and then we'll come
back and make a few comments. Ephesians five, three. But fornication
and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among
you as becometh saints, either filthiness nor foolish talking
or 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. Now, in the first two verses
of this chapter, Paul told believers, to walk, to conduct ourselves
as children of God, to walk in love for Christ and love for
his people. And that word or phrase walk
in means to be occupied with. Make it your occupation to live
in love for Christ and love for God's people. Now, walking in
love for Christ and walking as a child of God, it means that
we should do some things, walk a certain way, conduct yourself
a certain way, And it also means we should avoid doing some things. I want to remind us at the very
start, this is the basis for this whole lesson. You can't
understand these verses correctly unless you have this down. We, the believers, to avoid some
certain things here that Paul talks about, and we're to avoid
them because God by his grace has already made us his children. The believer's not to walk this
way, to conduct ourselves this way in order to become a child
of God. No, we walk this way because
we are a child of God. Already we're his children. We're
a child who loves our father and wants to honor our father,
not dishonor him by what we do. We're not to conduct ourselves
this way in order to make ourselves holy. That's an exercise in futility. We're to conduct ourselves this
way because God's already made us holy. See, a believer, if
you're a believer, God made you that. He made you a believer.
Now walk like what God's already made you. See, that's what Paul's
telling us here. And this is also very important.
If we don't get this, we're going to go the wrong direction with
these instructions from the apostles. These instructions that I just
read, these things that we're to avoid and things that we're
to do in our walk as a believer. These instructions are given
to me. They're given to me to judge my own behavior, to judge
my walk, to direct my walk. They're given to you for you
to do the same thing for yourself, to direct your walk. See what
I'm saying? These things aren't given to
us so that we judge one another and hold one another accountable
that we acted a certain way. No, these instructions are given
to me to examine myself, to direct my walk before the Lord. I'm sure of this, if I have the
right attitude in the believer's walk and in God's grace to us,
I've got enough to deal with looking at my walk, so that I
don't have time to judge yours. I'm sure that's right. I just
shouldn't have time to judge you. Your walk and to judge whether
or not you're fit to be in the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of Christ. That business between you and
God, I got enough to deal with to deal with my own self, to
keep my own self looking to Christ and trusting Him. Now with that
in mind, with that basis of this is our attitude, you know, so
much of the believers walk, and I've tried to stress this as
we've looked at it earlier, it's our attitude. It's our attitude. And with that attitude in mind,
now let's look at these verses. Now when I read these verses
earlier, probably, you know, human beings being what we are,
probably what stuck out to everybody is the sexual sins that Paul
talks about here. He talked about fornication and
the word means adultery. It means any sexual relations
outside of marriage. But you know what else that word
is used for? It's used to refer to idolatry. Idolatry is seeking
a spiritual union, to seek spiritual pleasure, to seek spiritual life
outside of union with Christ. means both of those things, both
in a fleshly sense and a spiritual sense. Uncleanness has to do,
again, it's with attitude, it's what we think on. It's impure
desires and impure motives, motives. Now, you know this good and well,
I'm wasting my time to tell me and to tell you, don't ever have
sinful thoughts. A believer has sinful thoughts
because we still have that sin. We hate it. We think those thoughts
come into our head. Why in this world would that
come into my head? It's because we still have an
old man. We do think on sinful things and try as we might. The
believer from time to time has impure motives. Motives to promote
self instead of helping others instead of promoting the gospel
of Christ, we have impure motives wanting to promote ourselves.
We know we shouldn't, but we do. But I tell you what you can
actively try to think on. Look at Philippians, just over
a few pages, Philippians chapter four. Now you can't stop those
thoughts from coming into your head, I know that, but we don't
have to give in to them. Here's what we can actively try
to think on. Let's think on Christ. Let's
think on him, let's think on his glory, let's think on promoting
him. Philippians 4 verse 8. Now finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, they're venerable,
they're worthy, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think
on these things. See, we can think on those things
and that'll help our motive. You know, our motive always should
be Christ. Our motive should be what's best
for his people. And if we think on these things, it'll help us. Then in verse four, Paul mentions
filthiness. The word means obscenity. It's
just doing things that are obscene. Now, isn't that our world today?
Our culture today, people do obscene things and revel in it,
think they ought to be praised for it. There's nothing wrong
with it. Paul said, don't walk in that.
Don't be partakers with him in that. Then in verse five, he
mentions a whoremonger. And the word means a fornicator
or a male prostitute. That's what it means. And you
know, spiritually speaking, that's what a false prophet is. A false
prophet Tells you what you want to hear in exchange for money.
That's what he is. Then verse five, Paul talks about
an unclean person. And the word means a morally
unclean person. Just someone who simply does
not live a moral life. Now Paul says, don't walk in
those things. I don't know they're in you,
but don't walk in them. Now these things, they're sexual
sins, they're immoral. things and actions that good,
religious, moral people like us look down our noses at. And we
disdain people that live in those things, even though all those
sins are still in us. Those are things we just tended
to disdain because more than likely, people here don't really
have issues with those things. But now look at the other things.
See, those are probably, as I read that, that's probably the things
that stuck out in everybody's mind. But look what else Paul
includes in this list. And since Paul includes these
things in this list, that tells me they're just as wicked, they're
just as evil as sexual sins and immorality that all of us are
so upset about when we see in other people. In verse three,
Paul mentions covetousness. and he talks about a covetous
man. Again, in verse five, a covetous man hath no inheritance in the
kingdom of God and of Christ. Covetousness is wanting something
that doesn't belong to me. Wanting something that belongs
to somebody else. It's greediness is what the word
means. Covetousness is not being satisfied. This is what makes covetousness
so evil. It's not being satisfied. with
what God's been pleased to give me. Now let me ask you, has God
made a mistake? Has he ever made a mistake in
anything? Anything? Then he hasn't made a mistake
in what he's given me. But covetousness is finding fault
with what God's been pleased to give me. It's not being pleased
with the situation that God's put me in. Covetousness is to
question God's wisdom. It's to question his love for
me, his provision for me. And I tell you how serious this
matter of covetousness is. Paul says it's idolatry. It's
idolatry. Well, that puts things in perspective,
doesn't it? Then in verse four, he talks
about foolish talking. Now foolish talking, this is
the definition of the word. It's foolish talk that's bad
in character. It's just a bad topic of conversation
to start with and it turns corrupt or turns lewd. It starts out
bad and gets worse. That's what the filthy or foolish
talking means. It's random, just kind of unguarded
talking which naturally reveals the vanity and sin of the heart.
how easy it is to open our mouth and reveal the sin that's in
us, huh? That's foolish talking. But you know another definition
of foolish talking? It's disgraceful language, especially
in the abuse of others. Talking bad about other people. And this talk is not unrefined,
it's refined talk. It sounds so civilized. It sounds
so civilized. People, they say it in a tone. It sounds so wise and so religious. It's civilized sounding, but
it's spoken with an evil motive, because it's spoken with a motive
of abuse, trying to tear down somebody else, even though you
use a civil tone. I thought of the well-known illustration
of Southern ladies. They can say anything they want
about anybody as long as they say, well, bless their heart
first, you know. That's foolish talking. You know, you just make
it, you dress it up by saying, well, bless their heart, but
then you go on to abuse them, you know. Paul says, don't walk
in the hat. Don't talk like that about your,
especially your brethren. Don't do that. In verse four,
it's jesting. Now jesting is very similar to
foolish talking. The word means acting. It means
acting well, acting like you're on the moral high ground, but
making fun of others. It's acting well, being a hypocrite
is what it is. It's acting well on the outside,
but having evil in your heart towards somebody else, trying
to tear them down by innocently making fun of them. Now, Paul
says that kind of behavior is not convenient. The word means
fitting. It's just not fitting for a believer. Now, none of these things, sexual
sins, immorality, covetousness, and hurtful talk, none of them,
let them not once be named among you, Paul says. Let them not
once be named in the church of God. Let's not be coming to believers. Well, all right, now we're just
gonna be honest. All these sins are in every one
of us, aren't they? They're in our nature. It's something
that we think about. It's something that sometimes
we want to do. Hopefully we don't act on it, but now they're in
us. And a believer's been taught
well enough to know this. I'm guilty of all of these sins. I'm guilty of every sin you can
think of. I mean, I'm guilty of every one
of them. If not in action, certainly in thought or motive, the Lord
said to offend in one point is to be guilty of all. Then I'm
guilty. You are too, we're guilty. But
a believer can never think, well, you know, my sin, it really doesn't
matter. I mean, I'm guilty, but it really doesn't matter because
my sin is covered in the blood of Christ. So it doesn't matter
what I do. I mean, I'm already guilty. I
mean, it doesn't, it doesn't just make much difference if
I act on these sinful thoughts. Well, I thought it, I'm already
guilty. May as well just act on it. And it's okay. Cause you
know, the blood of Christ will put it away. Oh yes, it does
matter too. Yes, it does matter too. Now
again, remember we're talking about attitude. A person that
thinks, now my sins covered in the blood of Christ. Now they're
right up to there, aren't they? They're right there. What did it cost Christ to shed
His blood for your sin? What did He suffer? Do I want
to sin more then to add to that? No, no, no, no, no, no. Of course our actions matter.
You know, just because we have these sinful thoughts and these
desires that come from our nature and we can't stop that nature,
sin nature in it, That doesn't mean we have to act on them outwardly.
I mean, now there is such a thing as self-control. I mean, you
can govern yourself a little bit here. I mean, we're not an
infant that can't govern ourselves, you know? We've got a, you all
know this, we've got a four-month-old grandson, and I had to get right
down there next to him. and he just puts his hands all
over my face, and he just, I don't think it's my white eyebrows
or something, he's just fascinated with them, you know? But now
he's four months old, he doesn't really have a lot of control,
you know, over his limbs, and he'll just, he'll kind of hit
my face some, and Jan says, don't let him hit you. I said, well,
he can't help it right now. When he's got control, I won't
let him, but he just, you know, he just, there is such a thing
as self-control. We're not four months old. Now
there is such a thing as self-control. And I tell you what motivates
the believer in this matter of having some self-control here.
A believer, this is the most amazing statement, is a child
of God. God chose somebody like me to
make him his child. I wanna please him, don't you?
If you're a child of God, you wanna please your father. I don't
wanna offend him, I wanna please him. God's forgiven our sin. He has forgiven every sin of
every one of his people. But don't forget this, God's
not indifferent to our sin. See what Paul says in verse six?
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. Now God's not gonna
punish his children for their sin. He already punished Christ
for our sin, but he'll correct us. I'd just as soon not be a
partaker of being corrected of Lord, wouldn't you? I'd rather
please him from the get-go. I sure would. It's because of
love. It's because of gratitude, because
of thankfulness for what he's done for me. So these sins that
Paul mentions here, now they're unbecoming. But every sin, you
can't name one sin that, well, that one's okay. That's becoming
to a believer. No, it's not. No sin's becoming
to a believer. So we're to avoid those. Don't
walk in those things. But now Paul sheds some light
on some things that are becoming to a believer. This is, and it's
attitude. What is becoming to a believer
is a genuine attitude from the heart. Now, I know only God can
give that heart, when he gives that heart. Now we can seek to
cultivate it. We can seek to be fed and pray that we grow
in grace. This is an attitude from the
heart that will at least occasionally be shown in our actions, won't
it? Here's the first thing. This motivates God's people to
not walk in these things, but walk as becoming to a child of
God. God has made his people to be
saints. He says in verse three, let this
not be once named among you, as become as saints. Now what's
a saint? It's a holy person. A holy person. You who believe, God's made you
holy. He's made you holy. And here's
how he did it. In the new birth, God gave you
a new nature that's holy, that's perfect, that can never sin. A saint is a holy person. A saint
is also a sanctified person. The best illustration of sanctified
that I could think of is this. All those items that they use,
that they gather together to construct the tabernacle, the
gold and the linen and the threads and all those things, the incorruptible
wood, those are just all common things you find out there on
the earth, aren't they? They're just common elements. Not one
of them was a super rare thing. But God sanctified those things.
He set them apart. That's the other meaning of the
word sanctify. He set them apart for holy use in the tabernacle.
Well, that's what a believer is. A believer is a common, ordinary,
sinful, guilty son or daughter of Adam. But God has sanctified
them. He set them apart for holy use,
for His use. He set them apart for the worship
of Him. He set them apart to help and
serve God's people. That's what a sanctified person
is. They're holy and they've been
set apart for holy use. And God's the one who sanctified
His people. The whole Godhead, God the Father,
sanctified His people in divine election. Jude said he was writing
to them that are sanctified by God the Father. But when did
he do that? How did God the Father sanctify
his people? When he chose to save them. When
he chose them unto salvation. He set them apart for his holy
use. God the Son sanctified his people
by his sacrifice for their sin. By his sacrifice, he made his
people whole. That's what the writer of the
Hebrews says, chapter 10, verse 10. By the witch will, we're
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. His sacrifice sanctified his
people. Put away their sin and made them
holy. Then in Romans 15 verse 16, Paul talked about the Gentiles,
the sinful vile heathen, idolaters. Paul said they're sanctified.
by the Holy Ghost. Well, how is that wicked idolater,
how are they made holy? When are they made holy? Same
way you and I are in the new birth. In the new birth when
God the Holy Spirit causes a new nature to be born in us. And
here's why there's this struggle for the believer. Here's why
there's this struggle with sin and impure thoughts and impure
motives. It's because a believer has two
natures. You know, if when God saved us, he changed our sinful
nature into a holy nature, we'd still just have one nature, right?
We'd be holy. And then we wouldn't have a problem with sin. But
we do have a problem with sin. And the reason for it is, we've
got two natures. And both of those natures are
really me. I've got a nature that's prayed
and sinful and dead, and that nature is really me. God, by
his grace, gave me a second nature. that's holy and righteous. And
that nature is really me too. Both of them are really me. Now
by God's grace, he's given a believer a holy, righteous nature. It
has to live in this sinful body, doesn't it? One of the old writers,
I was talking to David this weekend about one of the old writers
talked about this body being a clay prison. God's given us
that new, holy, righteous man, and he's got to live in this
clay prison. He got to live with this sinful man. Now, why do
you want to take that new man, God calls to be born in you,
and take him and subject him to fornication and uncleanness
and covetousness and hurtful talk? Why would you want to do
that? You don't if God saved you. You
don't want to do that. You want to avoid those things
if God saved you. Not in order to be holy, not
in order for God to love you, not in order for God to save
you, but because he has. See, the new birth, this is an
important doctrine. It's an important truth, isn't
it? That motivates a believer. It's God's grace to us. And here's
the second thing that's becoming to a believer. The giving of
thanks. Paul in verse four says, neither
filthiness nor foolish talking or jesting, which are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks. Now rather than spend our time
in foolish talking, ingesting that tears people down, how about
rather we spend our time in the giving of thanks? I'm going to
have a whole lot less time to tear you down. Talk and use that
kind of talk, you know, to tear you down if I'm spending my time
giving thanks. Giving thanks. Can you think
of anything more becoming for a believer to do than give thanks. Oh my goodness, what God has
done for us. Now, it's becoming, it's just
right we thank God, because everything he's given us, we didn't deserve
one of them. He gave them to us freely anyway. And I tell
you what, instead of tearing down our brethren, you know what
will build them up? The giving of thanks. The giving of thanks. In verse 19, Paul says, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that's helpful talk, isn't
it? That kind of talk, that's helpful talk, brethren. And it's
becoming to a believer. Because like I said a minute
ago, we've got so much to be thankful for. I mean, how time goes, in very
short order, we're gonna be having Thanksgiving. Can you think of
any holiday better for the believer to celebrate
than Thanksgiving? Oh, what we've got to be thankful
for. God the Father chose to save us when he knew how sinful
we'd be. He knew how vile we'd be, he
knew how rebellious we'd be, and he chose us anyway. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. God chose to love us. He chose to love us. He didn't
have to. He chose to love us when we were unlovable by nature,
and he chose us anyway. And in time, he called us because
he said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. He loved
us and we're unlovable. Thank you, thank you, Lord. God
has forgiven all of the sin of all of his people. And you know
how he did it? You know what is the basis of the forgiveness
of God? It's the blood of Christ. The
father had to sacrifice, had to slaughter his son in order
to forgive our sin. Thank you, Lord. I mean, it's
not just he said, I forgive you. He paid the he paid for the offense. We offended God. And instead
of just saying, well, I forgive you, I won't mention anymore.
He paid for the events with the blood of his son. Thank you, Lord. Then he called
us by his gospel. He sent a preacher to us to preach
Christ. And he called us by his gospel.
We heard that message. And instead of saying that's
foolishness, I'm never going back. He gave us faith to believe.
He made us, he put us in the place where you hear the gospel.
And instead of hating it like we would by nature, he gave us
faith to believe it, to believe Christ. I wouldn't believe him
any other way. Thank you, Lord. Then even after, The Lord regenerated
us, called us. You think of our sin, you think
of our rebellion, you think of all the mistakes that we've made,
you think how we're that wandering sheep that would just wander
off and leave the shepherd, and God's kept us and preserved us
in every danger, toil, and snare, even though we don't deserve
it. We just deserve for God to let us go, and he won't do it
because of his grace. Thank you, Lord. And one day, right soon, God's
gonna glorify us. He's gonna take us out of this
clay prison and glorify us and bring us into his presence to
see him face to face and worship him forever without sin. Thank you, Lord. Lord, hasten
the day. God has given us everything that
He requires of us. He's given it to us in Christ.
He's made His people to be holy and righteous. Not that they're
acceptable, so they're accepted. Now you think of the miracle
of that. God has made a sinner who can
do nothing but sin, made them to be holy. I've got nothing. I've got nothing to bring to
God. Nothing in my hand I bring. Yet he's given me everything
that he requires of me. Everything. How can I be covetous? If I've
already got everything, there's nothing for me to covet. There's
nothing for me to desire because God's already given me everything. Now when I think on that, that's
just gonna improve my attitude, isn't it? The more time I spend
in giving thanks for what God's done for me, the less time I'll
have for covetousness and foolish talking, ingesting. That kind
of attitude, that's becoming to a believer, isn't it? And
that's the attitude I pray for every day. I pray God will give
it to you and me both. It'll make this life a whole
lot easier, won't it? Make it easier, all right. Well,
I hope the Lord will bless that.