I invite you to turn back with
me to Ephesians chapter five. I think I look better with glasses
on, don't you? Ephesians chapter five is an
exhortation to walk. It's about our walking in this
world, this life that we presently live. It's talking about our
behavior. And he's also talking about the
tenor, the thing that continues as a ribbon through our life,
the things of God. And it's an exhortation to walk
as dear children, children of God. To be followers of God. not followers
of ourself or followers of our friends but followers of god
dear children and we're walking love as we
are loved of god how are we loved of god? it's a tolerant love isn't it? When I think of the things that
God has tolerated me to do, he just tolerated it. And others,
they were judged of God. But in your children, such things
are tolerated. I don't mean that God acknowledged
them as good or laughed at them or anything else, but he tolerated
them. Can you imagine the Lord looking
down on David as David done those things? And by divine inspiration
caused David to write that he was a man after God's own heart. Tolerated. We walk as dear children being
followers of God and we're to walk in love as we're loved of
God and to be kind and merciful as he has been with us. Verses
three through six, he lists a few of the things that natural men
practice without shame and without regard to God. For which cause,
he says, cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. And he says, be not ye therefore
partakers with them. Don't do what they do. Don't do what you used to do. It's a shame, he said, even to
talk about those things. We say that we're ashamed of
them, and we say that we repent of those things, and yet
the first thing around the campfire we want to talk about is the
good old days. Those things, he said, which
are ashamed to even speak, that's what we want to talk about. These were Gentile converts.
And these things that he mentions in these verses were common and
socially acceptable. It was fine. It was socially
acceptable to have a brothel. Sure was, one on every corner. It was... Just common, commonplace. It's commonplace today. That
for which God burnt up two cities is almost law now. Huh? He said don't be partakers with
them, don't go with the crowd. You know better. You know better. And to this I might add a warning
about spiritual fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness,
which is idolatry. I know it's a hard pill to swallow,
but false religion is the lowest form of sin that there is. How do I know that? Well, I know
that because that's what the Lord said. It'll be better on
those in Sodom and Gomorrah than it's gonna be on you. You heard the gospel. You saw the miracles that God
did by him in your midst. You're without excuse, and it's
gonna be harder on you than it's gonna be on them in the day of
judgment. Any ungodly form of worship is
called in the scriptures fornication, adultery, and whoredom. That's how it's pictured in the
scriptures. Antichrist religion is called in Revelation 17 five,
it goes by this name, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother
of all harlots and abominations of the earth. False religion.
False religion. And as she was made to fall under
the preaching of the gospel of Christ, John saw that vision
of that taking place. And he said, she has fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication. That's false religion. False
religion. God uses the worst of man's sins
to picture false religion and false worship. The scribes, do you know that
he told his prophet Hosea, he said, now Hosea, you go marry
a harlot. What? You go marry a harlot. And then he experienced all the
things that a harlot would do. She left him. She took care of
her friends. And all the while, Hosea was
providing her with a living. And she thought it was her friends
that she had open sex with. That's what she thought. And
one day, she was all used up, all burnt out. And they took
her down to the auction block and just going to sell her for
a slave. You know who bought her? Hosea. Hosea. And you know what the Lord says?
This, this Gomer, she is the whole house of Israel. That's
you and I. That's you and I. He uses the
worst of man's sins to picture spiritual idolatry. The scribes and the Pharisees
said, show us a sign. We'll be satisfied. And the Lord
said, an evil, now watch it, an adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign. He said to them again, it'll
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment
than for you. So whether spiritual or physical,
believers are not to be partakers with them. It's no more right
for you to go out here and do any of these things that he mentions.
It's just as wrong for you to go back into that religion that
God saved you out of. Same thing, same thing. And then he tells us in Ephesians
5 verse 8, for you were sometimes darkness, Now are you light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light. What can never be perceived by
unconverted men is the light of Christ. The light of Christ. If he don't
shine that light in your heart, you'll never see it. You can
read every book ever written. It's not gonna even be a candlelight
in your heart. At the very beginning of the
Bible, before anything was created, before nothing becomes something, darkness was upon the face of
the deep. God said, let there be light. So he made the sun. No, no, he
didn't make the sun till the fourth day. So what is this light
he's talking about? He's talking about the light
of Christ. That's what he's talking about.
This whole book is a book of redemption. Creation was put
here that redemption might be seen and manifested on its stage. The light that he shined before
he ever created anything is the light of Christ. And the spirit
of God moved upon the face of the deep. And God said, let there
be light, and there was light. There was light. And there's
been light ever since. Ever since. It's the light of the glory of
God in the face of our Redeemer. And we who believe are children
of light. Listen to this, 1 John chapter
one, verse five. He said, this then is the message
which we've heard of him and declare unto you that God is
light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship
with God, there's nothing in God but light.
He's all light, there's no darkness in him. And if we say we have
fellowship with him, I'm saved, I'm a saved man, I'm a believer.
If we say that, if we say we have fellowship with him and
walk in darkness, now listen, I didn't say it, God did. He
said we lie and do not the truth. But if
we walk in the light as he is the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth
us from all sin. Ephesians 5 verse 8, you were
sometimes darkness. You didn't, if I might borrow
a phrase from Star Wars, we didn't slip over occasionally to the
dark side. We were darkness. Darkness emanated
from us. Nobody taught us how to lie.
You come forth from the womb speaking lies. Isn't that what
scripture says? We go astray as soon as we'd
be born. You're not 12, 13 years old and
then, oh, well, I guess I better start thinking about these things
and make a decision. No, no, you went astray as soon
as you'd be born speaking lies. You were darkness. That's where
God found you. You were darkness. Darkness incarnate. You were
just walking around emanating darkness. And those of us he has brought
to faith in Christ were by nature, he said, children of wrath even
as others. But he says, now, now, God done
a work in you. God the Holy Spirit has, you've
been born again of God. God done a work in you. And you
have light in you. And just as you were darkness,
now ye are light. Isn't that what our Lord told
his disciples? You are the light of the world. There's no light out here in
this world. There's no light out here in
false religion. There's no light out here. That's
not light. It's darkness. But he has a people, and they
are the light of the world. They're the only ones in this
world who have light. I said, Lord, why are you speaking
parables? He said, it's given to you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. It's not given to them. You have
light. Do we? than walk as children
of light. Ain't that what he says? Walk
as children of light. Four, the fruit of the Spirit. This is not something you produced.
This is something God in you produced. Now watch this. The fruit of the Spirit is in
all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Now here's my text,
proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. There came a time in this sinner's
life that he realized he'd been lied to, or at the very least,
he'd been taught by those who were as ignorant as he was. About God, I used to think I
was so ignorant I couldn't understand anything that God said because
my father didn't have any trouble believing those things and all
my neighbors didn't have any trouble believing those things.
I was the only one who couldn't understand what they were saying.
Didn't make any sense to me. Tell me one time, you know, I'm
up here bawling and asking the Lord's forgiveness and kneeling
down at an old altar of prayer there, what they call praying
through, and they told me all my sins were forgiven and everything,
and then next week they was talking about I was a sinner. And I'd
do it all over again. What is it? Is a man born again
and again and again and again, or is he just born again? You
see what I'm saying? I was just a little kid. I didn't
understand what they were talking about. Saved and then lost. Then
saved and then lost. So what's the hope? You're just
hoping that when you die you're in that saved mode or what? You
see what I'm saying? A little kid asks questions.
What's going on? God, people are not blind. They
have light. And they're made to understand.
And that's exactly the way it was with me. I came to see they
had no reason for the hope that they've been talking about. I
found out it had no light and no way to produce any. When God
intervenes, God crosses a man's path with a preacher. And God
reveals his son in him. He reveals his son. His son is
light. He's called the day star over
in 1 Peter. If you have a little light, oh,
don't you go nowhere. You just keep coming. You keep
listening. You keep praying. You wait on the day star to arise. You know, you get a little light
early in the morning, and then it gets a little more light,
and then that sun comes up. Yeah, that's Christ, and that's
exactly the way he does in a believer. And he shows him something of
his goodness and righteousness and truth. And all of these things
are the fruit of the Spirit. It doesn't say fruits, it says
fruit. Fruit. And what he's talking about here
is the fruit of light. And Christ is that light. I see
in him the very goodness of God. Goodness of God. God's been good
to us, hasn't he? Huh? Been good. I see the goodness of God in
him. And the righteousness of God in him. I see his son hanging
there in agony on a cross, suffering for sinners. The just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. That's righteousness.
I see his righteous obedience in all things his whole life.
which culminated by his death on the cross. And I see the truth of God revealed
in him. And these things are the things
that the spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel are
proved to us from the word of God. Now I wanna show you something. I read this to you earlier. I
wanna show you something here if you'll turn back to Ephesians
five with me. I want you to notice that verse
nine, it's got some marks on it. That means it was inserted
there as a definition, but it can be lifted out. So I'm gonna
read this text now with that verse out. Verse eight, you were
sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord, walking
as children of light, proving, verse 10, what is acceptable. unto the Lord. I've got a few things I want
us to see that the Holy Ghost will prove to every believer
and by these things give us the light of life to walk in this
world as children of light. Children of light proving what
is acceptable unto the Lord. Well, it's okay. How many times
have you told your children that? It's okay, it's okay. Well, I
tell you, I want to know if it's okay with God. Don't you? I've had enough of false religion.
I've had enough of being lied to. I want to tell you what's
accepted of God. And every child of God wants
that proven. They want to see it as it's written
in this Bible that they can rest on it, act on it. proving what is acceptable. So
what is the first thing that God proves to the child of light
that is acceptable unto him? Well, he proves to him beyond
all doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is accepted of God. He's accepted of God. If he's not acceptable to God,
then you and I have no hope. All our hope's in him. I challenge you to find me anything
in here that risks any kind of hope on man. You find it and
bring it to me and we'll talk about it. Everything in here hangs on that
man, Jesus of Nazareth. Everything. And if he's not acceptable to
God, then you and I have no hope. And when God the Holy Spirit
begins to show us acceptance with God, He goes all the way
back to eternity. He goes back to the beginning.
And there's a beautiful picture of this in Revelations chapter
5. The Holy Spirit takes John and
He gives him all of these visions about the gospel age and He begins
by showing him who Jesus Christ is. There's Jesus Christ in whom
he believed. Who is this man? And then the Holy Spirit shows
him, here's God sitting on the throne, and he's holding a book. This is the book of everything
God intends to do. This is the book of all God's
eternal counsel and will. This is God's book of redemption. Everything that God's gonna do,
here it is. And it's sealed with seven seals.
Seven, the number seven stands for perfection. This book is
sealed with the perfections of God. You can't violate his perfections.
They all gotta be in harmony. And this book's sealed. And John's
looking. He's looking, he's trying to
learn from what the Spirit's showing him and he's looking
all around and nobody, nobody in heaven, earth, or under the
earth was worthy to come and look on the book, let alone take
it. He wasn't even worthy to look
on it. And John began to weep. He knew
what that book was. And he began to weep. And then
one of the elders said, behold, there's one worthy, one worthy. There's a lion of the tribe of
Judah, and he's going to appear as a lamb slain. And he came,
and he didn't just look on the book. He came and took the book.
Now, you ain't going to take nothing from God unless he gives
it to you. God gave him the book. Why? Because he's worthy. I'm trying to show you the acceptability
of Christ with God. God trusted everything, everything
God was going to do, he gave it to his son, handed it to him. In the book of Hebrews, talking
about Christ, it said, when he come into the world, he saith,
lo, I come. Now watch this, in the volume
of the book, he ain't talking about this book, although that's
true also, but he's talking about that book. In the volume of the
book, it's written to me, I come to do thy will, O God. There is but one acceptable to
God, and that's the Lamb slain. One mediator between God and
me and the man Christ Jesus. He alone is accepted of God to
mediate His will. And God's will is a redemptive
will. Until we come to see Him in whom
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, we had no hope
before God. where we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God, but not him. Not him. And when God appointed his son
as mediator, he committed to him all things pertaining to
his eternal purpose of grace. He'd give them to his son. Listen
to this, John 3.35. He said, the father loveth the
son and hath given all things, into his hands. Jesus Christ is, Colossians 115,
he who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. They're Christ and then creation,
then creation. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities, powers. All things
were created by him, now listen, and for him. And he's before all things. What
things? Anything, everything. And by
him all things consist. They have a continuance. And he's the head of the body
of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. Now listen to this. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. He's accepted
of God. He was accepted back then. He
was accepted at the cross. He's accepted right now. Every believer's filled with
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He's convinced by the word of God that he's not only accepted
of God, but he's exalted, crowned,
seated at the Father's right hand. And then secondly, the
Holy Ghost, through the preaching of the gospel, proves to the
believer that the vilest offender is accepted in him. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
6. I'm not showing you this to gross you out or shock you. I
just wanna show you that there's hope for the vilest offender,
the chief of sinners. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse
9. It's gonna tell you the same thing Paul
told you over here in Ephesians 5. Same guy talking. Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate. What's
that mean? Girly men, that's what that's
all about, sissies. Nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, that's sodomites. Nor thieves, nor covetous, covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. Now watch this. And such were
some of you. Such were some of you. But you're
washed. You're sanctified. You're justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. And
then he tells us in Ephesians 1, 6, to the praise of the glory
of his grace, he hath made us accepted in the blood. Accepted in Christ. Don't you ever get the idea that
you're worthy to walk into the presence of God. Your worthiness
to enter into his presence is his son. His son. It's his merit that bought your
redemption, not yours. It's all his, such for some of
you. Here's a man unaccepted even
of society. His family and friends have given
up on him Perhaps even his wife and children have left him. He's
all alone, but in Christ the beloved, he's accepted of God. Oh, my soul, take comfort in
this. By the accomplishing of the will of God through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ, we're sanctified once for all,
the scripture said. And by that one offering, it
says he hath perfected to ever all That is sanctified. Perfected. I ain't got that in
this body, but I got it in his. I got it in him. Perfect in him. The Holy Ghost through the preaching
of the gospel proves to his elect their acceptance in Christ. And then thirdly, he proves to
chosen sinners that faith alone is acceptable to God. In our
Bible study this morning, I showed you how the Holy Ghost fixed
those words, believe only. Believe only. Paul tells us in
Romans chapter eight, verse 16, it is of faith. All by itself
is faith. But it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might
be sure to all the seed. And he tells us, by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But
where is workmanship? Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath ordained that
we should walk in them. What is that good work? Faith.
Faith. Love. Trust. Abraham believed
God, the scripture said, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
And it wasn't written for his sake alone that it was counted
to him for righteousness, but for us also to whom it shall
be charged. If we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. And then he goes on and he said,
therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And then lastly, I want you to
see this. By way of the grace of faith,
our pitiful works are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. In Ecclesiastes chapter nine
and verse seven, I tell you, the first time I read this, I
thought, that's an error. That has to be an error. And I looked up above it, and
I looked down below it, and I looked at it again, and I thought, well,
that don't sound right. But I tell you, once I learned
the truth, I learned what it meant. Now listen to this. He
said, go thy way. Eat thy bread with joy. Drink
thy wine with a merry heart. For God now accepteth thy works. You mean that pitiful little
check I wrote putting off? God now accepteth your works. You think about that. I got up,
took showers, Dressed up, got my notes, come up here. I'll
tell you, if I examine myself thoroughly, I'm not confessing
my sins to you, I'm just trying to show you how we are. It would
be a pitiful effort at best. God now accepteth our word. Oh. Did you know that there was a
plate made out of pure gold? I don't know if you remember
our studies in Exodus or not, but there was a golden plate.
Best I can remember it had a blue satin cloth attached to it. But engraved on this gold plate
was the words holiness unto the Lord. And that miter, that hat
that the high priest wore, they'd take that plate, lay it right
here on the forefront, and they'd take that band and tie it up
in the back so that that plate was facing wherever that priest
faced. That plate was right there, holding
us unto the Lord. And here's what he says. And
it shall be upon Abram. Abram was the high priest. Christ
is our high priest. It shall be upon Aaron's forehead,
that Aaron might bear the iniquity, now watch this, of the holy things. What? The iniquity of the holy
things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in their
offerings and gifts. Exodus 28, 38, and it shall be
always upon the forehead that they may be accepted before the
Lord. God now accepts our gifts. Think about that. They ain't
even acceptable to me, but he accepts them. He accepts them. Romans 11, 36, for of him and
through him and to him are all things. To whom be glory forever. And he said, I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. Will God accept that? He will
in Christ. He will in Christ. And we're
to walk as children of light, proving what is acceptable unto
the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather let that light reprove them. Oh, may the Lord, by his blessed,
blessed company, teach us to walk this way.