In Ephesians chapter 5, you and I looked at this last Sunday. I want us to go
back here again, beginning in verse 3 of Ephesians chapter
5. The Apostle Paul had been speaking
in the preceding verses about the saints, those who love the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he says for them to be followers
of God as dear children. He tells them how to walk, to
walk in love, even as Christ loved us. And then he goes on
in verse 3 and says, But fornication and all uncleanness are covetousness. Let it not be once named among
you as it becometh saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting which are not convenient, it's not fitting,
but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator,
no whoremonger, or unclean person, nor covetous man who isn't an
idolater, as any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God. Let no man deceive you with vain,
empty words and arguments. For because of these things comes
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them, for you were sometimes darkness But now
are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Paul begins here in verse 3 and
mentions these several sins, these immoral sins, filthy thoughts
and filthy, sinful deeds. He mentions the loving or lusting
after things that are forbidden. Longing for things above God. Worshipping things instead of
God and above God. And foolish talking, he mentions
that. Idle, silly, sinful, chatter. And he mentions this word, jesting,
using one's wit to entertain in a sinful way. Jesting. Now,
we looked at all of this last week. But I want us to see some
principles behind the Apostle Paul even mentioning these things. Why does he even bring these
things up? Things have been going along
so good, and we've been studying about these wonderful things
of heaven, spiritual matters, and then he brings us back down
to this earth among the filth and the corruption, and he mentions
these things. Now, why does he do that? First
of all, he does it for this reason. He wants to draw, as Scripture
always does, a distinction between the church and the world. He draws a distinction between
the church and the world. He says there that you were sometimes
darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. It is nothing surprising,
and it is nothing different when we read about these sins. Ever
since the fall of man, the world has been full of these sins. I have relatives, I have friends,
I have neighbors who live in these sins, who serve these sins. The Apostle Paul said that they
fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. That's their
life. That's their lifestyle. But in
the midst of this dark world, there's a light. In the midst
of this darkness of ignorance, the darkness of sin, the darkness
of rebellion, there's a light that shines. And what is that? It's the Church. You were sometimes
darkness, but now are you light in the world. In the midst of
all of this sin and depravity, there shines the church. Look
here what he says just over to your right. A couple of pages
in Philippians chapter 2. And look in verses 14 and verse
15 and 16. Philippians chapter 2. Ye are
the light of the world, the Lord Jesus said to the church. And look here how the apostle
says it in verse 14. Do all things without murmurings
and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons
of God, without fault, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in this dark
world." Brothers and sisters, there is a distinction that must
ever be made between the world and the The church hates this distinction. They call us all kinds of names
when we point it out. Oh, they say you're just being
self-righteous. You're just a bigot. You just
think that you're different than everybody else. And they don't
like that, do they? But you know something? This
is a distinction that the Bible makes, and this is a distinction
that is the only hope of this world. If the world doesn't hear
the truth from the church, where will she hear it? Paul said you
are a light, and you shine. You shine in the midst of this
darkness, and the world looks to you. The world listens to
you as you hold forth this Word of Light. If the world cannot
look at the church, if the world cannot hear the truth from the
church, I'm telling you, the world never will hear it. Because
the church is the pillar and grounds on the truth. Among whom you shine. among whom
you shine." Ain't that a distinction? So Paul mentions these sins in
this lifestyle that he may show that you have a group of saints
in this world that they do not live this type of life. that
they are labored never to fall into these sins again by the
grace of God. And that distinction between
the world and the church is the only hope this world has, brothers
and sisters. If we ever reach a place where
there is no distinction and you cannot tell the difference in
the world and the church, both the world and the church is in
trouble. Do you remember when Moses came
down off the mountain with the tablets that had the Ten Commandments,
the moral law. And him and Joshua heard this
singing and they heard the shouting. And Joshua said, there must be
a war going on. And Moses said, this is not a
war. This is shouting. Somebody is
worshiping. And he topped the hill and he
looked down and saw all that idolatry going on in the camp
of the Lord's people. And you remember what he did.
He went and tucked down the tabernacle. They had a tabernacle. And that's
where they gathered to worship. And that's where God's presence
was revealed. And he tucked that tabernacle
down and tucked it far off from the camp and set it up. And he
said, this is the tabernacle of the Lord. And I'm sure that
somebody said, why, you've got no right to do that. Over here
is where the Lord is, and He's over here just as much as He
is over there. But Moses said, no, He's not. Over there is idolatry. Over
there is rebellion. Over there is sinfulness. Over
here is the presence of the Lord. And you know what happened? Some
people saw the distinction. And the scripture says, those
who sought the Lord with all their heart, they went outside
the camp and they went over there to where that tabernacle was.
Brothers and sisters, in the doctrine and in the practice
of the church, there must be this distinction between it and
the world. You were sometimes darkness,
but now you're light in the world. You did live in these sins. You
did serve these sins. But now the Lord has saved you.
You are saints. That's the first reason he mentions
this, to draw this distinction between the world and the church. But here's another reason that
I think he mentions all of these sins and reminds them of it.
is for this reason. He reminds them that there was
a time when they themselves were indeed the servants of sin. See how he says it there in verse
8? For ye were sometimes darkness. You were sometimes darkness. The Apostle Paul will never let
us as Gentiles forget where we were. He says it in chapter 2
in verse 3. You can read it there. He says,
We also fulfilled the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and we were children of wrath, even as others. And he tells
them in chapter 2, look at this, in the second chapter, in verse
in verse 11. Look at this. He reminds them,
"...wherefore remember that you, being in time past Gentiles in
the flesh, which are called the uncircumcision by that which
is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, at that
time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world. I tell you, just a reminder
of where we used to be. That in and of ourselves, we
are no different than anybody else. If there is a difference,
the Lord has made the difference. My sister was telling me about
a man that he had grown very wealthy. He had been raised in
poverty. And he had grown very, very wealthy
and built a huge mansion up on this hill. And he went back to
his old home place and got the old cabin that was still standing. And he had it moved and he set
it in behind his big mansion. And he said, sometimes when I
get lifted up and think, look what I've done, look what I've
accomplished, I go outside and I sit in that old cabin and remember,
this is where I came from. This is where I came from. Brothers
and sisters, you and I, we're no different by nature than anybody
else. For us to look down our nose
and tell somebody, you'll never see me doing that. To tell a
lost person, I'd never act like that. You'll never hear me talking
like that. We used to be just like that.
I heard some lady's Oprah Winfrey, and I don't watch the Oprah Winfrey
show, but I saw her someplace and she was interviewing and
she invited these Christian women. these professing Christians to
her show, and she was trying to have a discussion with them. And I don't defend her position,
but I don't defend their attitude either. She didn't understand
where they were coming from. And instead of them being kind
to that woman and gently teaching her, they were laughing at her
and poking fun at her. And I thought to myself, how
proud, how arrogant. Brothers and sisters, you and
I should never get mad at a lost person. We should never get angry
because they don't understand. Don't we remember? Don't we remember? You yourselves were sometimes
darkness. You yourselves were sometimes
darkness. Paul said we ourselves were disobedient. We were deceived, serving divers
lusts and pleasures. That's what we were. He not only wishes to draw this
distinction, but he wishes to remind us, you're no different. You're no different. Not in and
of yourself, you're no different. Never forget, brothers and sisters,
go outside sometime. Go outside and sit in the old
cabin. Remember where you came from. But he does this also to stir
up gratitude. Because here in verse 8, not
only does he say, You were sometimes darkness, but he goes on to say,
but now, but now you are light in the Lord. But now. Where are you now? Now you are
light. You were darkness, but now you
are light. I tell you, the saint of God
is a living epistle himself. He not only has the message of
salvation, of how the Lord can save a person from their sins,
I tell you, he's a living testimony to it. His life and his conversation
says this, the Lord is able to save the chiefest of sinners.
Look at me. But now, now. Paul was very fond
of this word, but. You'll find it there in chapter
2 when he was telling them of their past life and how they
lived. And he says, you were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. Then in verse 4 he says this,
but God, but God. Ain't that the difference? But
God. Don't that stir up gratitude?
You're on the broad road that leads to destruction. You're
dead in your trespasses and sins. In your own eyes, you are ready
to perish. But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love,
wherewith He loved you, you were darkness, but now. And who made
the difference? It wasn't because of you, was
it? It's not owing to you. Who makes you to differ? But
God. That's it, ain't it? We owe all
the honor and all the glory to Him. Salvation is of the Lord. Brad read to us this morning.
You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the
Lord. In the Lord. If you are here this morning
and you are lost, and you listen to me preach, and you get the idea that you
could never be saved. You get the idea from me somewhere
or the other that I'm saved because of something good that I've done.
Or because I preach or something like that. And you can never
be saved because you can never live up to my standard. If that's
what you think when you listen to me, you've misunderstood me. I used to be right where you
were. I was there in darkness. I lived in ignorance. I lived
in all kinds of shameful, horrible rebellion against God. I'm right
where you are. That's where I was. And I'm only
saved because the Lord Jesus Christ saved me. Now that's the
truth. That's the truth. Now are you
light in the Lord. in the Lord. I wish I could set
forth the gospel in such a way that when people listened to
me, they would think, oh, if the Lord Jesus saved Bruce, he
could save me. If he would save Bruce, maybe
he would save me. We don't have any cause to exalt
ourselves and go on around in a self-righteous attitude. and
turning people away and turning them off, we are just poor sinners
who are saved because we are in the Lord. That's it. That's
it. When you see the Lord Jesus come
to that Gadarean maniac that had a legion of devils, that
he was wild and messed on himself and was stinking and lived in
the graveyard, And the Lord delivered that man and clothed him and
put him in his right mind. When you read that story, don't
that make you feel like the Lord Jesus could save me? When you
see that thief on the cross with one foot in hell, confessing,
I'm worthy to go there. And then the Lord Jesus turns
to that wretched, miserable dying man and says, this day, I'm going
to take you to heaven. Don't you feel like if he could
do that, he could save you? We were sometimes darkness, but
now we're light, but only because of the Lord, and only in the
Lord. Paul doesn't write these passages
to discourage lost people. He writes these passages to warn But he doesn't write these passages
to drive them to despair and to say, I've continued too long
in my sin. I'm overwhelmed with my sin.
There's no hope for me, so I'll just go on in my sins. No, he
says, look at these saints. They were right where you are.
They lived just like you lived. They were rebellious and ignorant
and in darkness too, but look at them now. Look what the Lord
has done for them. He saved them. He gives them
life. Brothers and sisters, that is
what the church should be in this world. It should talk and
present itself in such a way that the world would look at
the church and say, if the Lord would save those people, then
I think He might save me. I am going to Him and find out. William Jay, he was a preacher
there in London. He was a close friend of John
Newton's. There was a terrible drunk that
lived in town, and everybody knew him. Bagged on the street all the
time. Aggravated people to death. Never worked. Stayed drunk all
the time. Wretched, wretched man. Somebody come to William J. and
said, Brother J., the Lord has saved that old drunk fellow.
The Lord has saved that old drunk man. And William J. went and talked to him and found
out the Lord had indeed revealed Himself to that old drunk, and
he was a new creature. And he got so happy he ran to
the office of Mr. Newton. And he said, Oh, Brother
John, the Lord has saved that old drunk man. He said, I'll
never doubt the Lord can save a sinner again. And Brother Newton
said, Brother Jay, I've never doubted the Lord could save a
sinner since He saved me. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm telling lost people. I was in darkness myself. I know where you are. I've been
in that shameful place. I've been dead in my sins. I
know the fear of it and the guilt of it. I've been there. But the
Lord saved me. He saved me. And if He did it
for me, why not you? Why not you? Thirdly, Paul mentioned these
sins for another reason. He wants to put them in mind
of something else. And this is sort of painful.
He says here in verse 5, he wants to bring this to their remembrance. For this you know. You know something. This you know. You know what
the world don't know. He's not speaking this now to
the lost. He's speaking this to the church.
You know something. This you know. You know this.
You know the difference. One of the great differences
between the lost man and the saved man. The same man knows
things the lost don't know. He has knowledge, he has understanding
that the world does not have. Paul's been saying this all through
this epistle. He's made known unto you the
mystery of his will. You know that, don't you? Before
you were saved, before the Lord saved you and opened your understanding,
did you know God had a will? Why you didn't, did you? Did
you know He exercised that will? Did you know He accomplished
His will? Did you know what it was? No. But now He's made known unto
you. You know this, don't you? And he goes on to say that he's
given to you the spirit of wisdom and the knowledge of Him. You
know the Son of God. You know who He is. You know
where He is. You know what He's doing there.
You know Him. And he says you know the hope
of your calling, that He's called you and He's given you a good
hope of a world to come. You know. You know. And he says in chapter 3, you
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Oh, you know. That's one of the difference
between the saved man and the lost man, is this knowledge,
this understanding. And where did he get it? Look
over in chapter 4 again with me. Look in verse 20. He was
speaking again. In verse 19, of those being past
filling and giving themselves over to workless cheatishness
with all uncleanness and greediness. But he says in verse 20, look
at this, but you have not so learned Christ. You've learned
Christ. You know who He is. You know
why He came. You know where He is now. You know what He's doing
there. You know Christ. You've learned
Him. How did you learn Christ? Look in verse 21. If so be that
you have heard Him, and you have been taught by Him as the truth
is in Jesus. You know this, Paul said. You
know this. You've been taught of the Lord.
And I tell you one thing, brothers and sisters, when the Lord teaches
a man something, He knows it. He's learned it. And do you remember
when He began to teach you of sin? When He is come, He will
reprove the world of sin. Remember when He began to teach
you of that? Boy, He made it effectual, didn't He? He made
it effectual. He ran you out of your sin, didn't
He? He did. He did. You know, I can
tell people, I can tell people, These sins will damn you. Oh,
these sins will ruin you, and they'll go on in them. But oh,
let the sovereign Teacher come to the conscience, the heart,
and begin to teach a man." Then Paul said, you know this, don't
you? You know something. You know this. And what is it
that they knew? We'll read on here. You know
this in verse 5, that no fornicator, whoremonger, unclean person,
A covetous man who isn't an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the
children of disobedience." You know this. What do they know? They know a man living and dying
in his sins has no part. in the kingdom of God are crying.
They know one living and dying in their sins is exposed and
will incur the awful wrath of God upon their souls. You know this. And he reminds them of this.
You know this. Don't let anybody make excuses
for these sins that they live in. You know this. The Lord Jesus Christ has brought
this home to your conscience. He has convinced you of this,
of sin and the judgment upon God for it, if it is not forgiven. You know this. Why does He bring
this up? Why does He call them to remember
this? For this reason, brothers and
sisters, They, like we today, are living in a world that denies
this. They don't want to hear this.
We have this modern society now. This educated generation. And for quite some time, they've
been telling us that this Bible, this Bible is outdated. It's
old. We don't need the same doctrine
that they had 2,000 years ago. We're developed. We're cultured
now. We know more than they knew back
then. And what we need to do is forget
about this sin business and forget about God and His judgments and
come into the modern thinking. I have a little article out of
our paper. I'm telling you, this is today, this modern thinking
denies sin and it denies God. See, we started back in Darwin,
didn't we? With Darwin, that man just evolved,
everything's evolved, and therefore there's no Creator. And man started
out as this worthless piece of mud or some kind of a sail and
he's developed into this wonderful creature. But that's all he is,
is just sails. He's just a lump of flesh. And
he evolves and evolves and then he dies and he's nothing again. He's just nothing. So the whole
concept of him being a sinner and the judgment of God upon
his sin, we shouldn't bother people with this. That's outdated.
And I'm telling you, they don't want to hear about sin and God's
judgment upon it. They hate you if you go there. This was a couple of educated
people, a man and his wife. And let me just read you two
or three things about it. The title is Views on Religion
Modified Over Time. Views on Religion, and you can
read in there Christianity, because that's what they're saying about
Christianity. It says, Many Americans no longer
take the same primitive approach to religion that was dominant
2,000 years ago. and have instead shifted to a
more moderate faith, thereby rejecting many archaic rules
and regulations that was once predominant and predominated
our culture." The old-fashioned, dogmatic word of God is what
they are getting. Although religious moderates
fail in accepting the Scriptures as the literal Word of God, they
have successfully adapted the words of the Bible to fit a society
that has modernized and progressed since those texts were first
penned. See us? We've developed now. We're free thinkers. We got beyond
this old dilapidated Bible and its rules and regulations and
dogmas. This is the one more point. Instead
of quoting obsolete Bible verses to each other, wouldn't our society
be a more functional and productive place to live if we eliminated
discrimination and bias in our judgments of each other, namely
of homosexuality, judging them and condemning them, which Christ
would never have done since he was more acceptance than rejection. Wouldn't this world be a better
place to live if we could focus on being good moral citizens? Who determines what good is?
Who sets the standard of morality? If homosexuality is not immoral,
then what is? Marrying a helper? I've seen
some pretty Jersey cows. Well, who are you to judge me?
Who says that's immortal? Where do we get truth? If you
don't have the tape, if you didn't hear of the Sun School class,
get the tape, Brother Larry. It's teaching on the inspiration
of the Scripture. God is the authority. And they
go on lastly to say this. Our feeling is, yes, it would
be a better society if we determined our own way of what's truth.
Truth is relevant. It's what we want it to be. But
unless more people stand up. to those who speak in the name
of Christianity, who guise their bigotry under the facade of morality
and religious belief, our ability to progress as a society will
be greatly hindered." And what are they saying? We've gone beyond
the Word of God. That's what they believed back
there in the primitive days. We know better now. Don't talk
to us about sin and redemption and the judgment of God upon
it. Paul said, you know this. The world denies it. The world
will argue it because they hate it. But you know this. Don't you ever forget this. You
know this. There are three things the world
is willingly ignorant of concerning the wrath of God upon sin that
is unforgiving. Three things the world is ignorant
of. But it is willingly. First of
all, the world is ignorant of this, that the wrath of God has
already come upon many. There is an old world that was
destroyed. God destroyed it. His wrath came
upon them. God rained fire and brimstone
out of heaven and burned a whole plain and many cities up because
of their sins. The wrath of God came upon them.
The wrath of God came upon the Jewish nation because they rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel. The wrath of God is come
upon them to the uttermost. and the world won't look back.
What happened to those people for crying out loud? What happened
to them? Did they die in peace? Are they
in peace this morning? What happened to them? The world
will not confront that. But the Bible tells us the wrath
of God came upon those people. And secondly, the wrath of God
is upon every unbeliever at this present time. He that believeth
in the Son of God hath eternal life, right now. But he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him." There is this awful weight over the head of
every unbeliever. And it's ready to fall upon him
and crush him down into hell. And the only thing that keeps
it from doing it is the goodness of God and the will of God. Do you see any lost people concerned
about that? Isn't that a most terrible thing?
If that's true, if it's true what the Son of God told us,
that the wrath of God remaineth upon someone's head, just hanging
over them? If that's the truth, how can
a person rest? How can a person lay down and
sleep? They don't believe it. They don't
know it. Paul said it's revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. There
are times when these convictions come to the conscience of an
unbeliever, and it makes him afraid. He's confronted with
his sin. What is that? That's the wrath
of God revealed against sin from heaven. There are times in the
darkness of night he can't sleep. He begins to think of death. Oh, how will death find me? I'm
not willing to die. And after death is the judgment
and he thinks upon these things. Oh, eternity, eternity, eternity. And he's troubled. What is that
trouble? It's the wrath of God. It's revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. Sometimes when a person gets
sick, or they get some kind of disease, or they become fearful,
what is that fear? The wrath of God. And they seek
all kinds of things to alleviate this pain of conscience, to put
away from their thoughts the wrath of God. But there it is. And it's abiding right over their
heads. I showed one of my grandchildren
this last week this little sketch. It was a sketch of the Joker.
And he was dancing. He's all dressed up and had this
little cap and his face painted up. And he was dancing on ice.
And he was having a big time laughing and kicking up his heels.
But the ice was real thin. And underneath the ice was a
sketch of another fellow that had fallen through the ice. And he was gasping and couldn't
breathe. And his countenance was fearful.
And you could tell that he was looking up at the joker trying
to scream out, Escape! Flee! You're ready to fall through
the ice. But the joker, what does he do?
He's skating on. He's rejoicing on. He's having
a good time. Why? He doesn't realize. He doesn't realize. But it's
ignorance. It's ignorance. For this they
willingly are ignorant of. And the third and final thing
concerning this wrath is this. It's yet to come. It cometh. Oh, like a mighty army. If you
had to face a mighty enemy, and you knew you didn't stand a chance
against it, and you just talked the arising, and there the army
was, and you say, oh, no, I can't escape now. The wrath of God
is coming. And I tell you, it's your enemy
if you're outside of Christ. It's your enemy if you're still
dead. It's your enemy if you're in love with your sin. It's your
enemy if you're unwashed and unforgiven. It cometh. It cometh. All the old apostles and all
the old prophets preached this. Moses hammered on that ark. And
what he was saying, the wrath of God is coming. John the Baptist
came on the scene and he said, who's warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? And Paul said, the Lord Jesus
is coming to execute judgment upon all. He's coming. Wrath is coming. And Paul said, you know this.
You know this. The world lives in willful ignorance
of it. But you know this. And he reminds us, brothers and
sisters, because he wants us to confront the world, to confront
the lost people, our dear friends and neighbors who have denied
this and live willingly ignorant of it. Paul said, you are not
ignorant of it. You know this. How do you feel? How do I feel? What is our attitude this morning
towards our lost lovers? Towards our lost children? towards
your lost neighbors. You know this, that when you
die and the angels carry you up to paradise, they're going
to take your unsaved friend and put him in the hole in the side
of the pit. When you're carried up to that
city of light, they're going to take your unsaved child and
they're going to cast him down into darkness. You know this. Paul said you know this. You
know that any unsaved person has no inheritance in the Kingdom
of God. And when they die, they have
to face the awful wrath of God. You know this. How does that
make you feel, brothers and sisters? What an awesome responsibility
that puts us under. Paul never said, they know it.
He said, you know it. You know it. Can they go to hell over our
tears? How do we feel knowing this?
Can they go to hell over our desires? Can they go to hell
over our prayers? Over our pleading with them?
Our showing them and directing them? Our warning them? They
die. And they die in ignorance. And they awake when the fires
of hell touches their being. But Paul said, you know it now. Oh, here was a man. Bless his
heart. He lived in the reality of this
every day. He knew that when the lost died,
they had to grapple with the awful wrath of God. And he said,
my heart's desire. Oh, it's the burden of my heart
and the prayer to God that they might be saved. He lived with
that continuous sorrow in his heart. Oh, you know, I hope each
child of God that leaves this building this morning will go
out of here with this thought and this word ringing in his
soul. I know this. I know this. With the determination by God's
grace that you're going to live in the knowledge of it. And by
God's grace, do what you can for their salvation. Oh, what a responsibility. Jeremiah
said, If you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret
places for your pride, and my eyes shall run down with tears. If you won't come to Christ this
morning, I am going to weep for you. I am going to fear for you. Because I know what's coming
for you. It doesn't matter what the modernists say. We know. We know. One last scripture in
closing. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. In verse 9, they themselves,
these people around you, Paul says to these Thessalonians,
they themselves, they show us what manner of entering in we
had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the
living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom
He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us. from the wrath to come. God bless this prayer. Let's
pray.