We've come here to this portion
in God's Word. We've been studying through this
epistle now for quite some time. And we've come here to the third
verse. But I want to go back and begin
reading in verse 1 of Ephesians 5. Be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication and all uncleanness,
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh
saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting,
which are not convenient, but rather giving of For this you
know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous
man, who is not 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. You and I have been looking at
some very wonderful things in this epistle. I call your attention
there to verse 32 of chapter 4 where he speaks of forgiveness. God hath for Christ's sake forgiven
us. And then he goes on that I read
to you speaking of the love of God in Christ. that He laid down
His life for us. And we've been looking at these
wonderful things, and they've been so sweet. I hope you enjoy
them, because I've enjoyed them. But now we come here to the passage
in verse 3 through verse 8, and how the whole atmosphere changes,
doesn't it? It's almost painful. It's painful
for me as I studied this, and it will be painful to you to
have to listen to it. It's almost like you've been
caught up to heaven, and you're breathing heaven's fresh air. And then you're drugged back
down to the smog-filled world to have to deal with these sins. And it's painful. It's painful,
but here we are. We can avoid these things and
go ahead down to the middle of chapter 5, but would the Holy
Spirit be pleased with such studies and such preaching? I don't think
so. So here's where we come to this
morning in these painful studies. I remember where the Lord Jesus
And his disciples was upon the Mount of Transfiguration. Do
you remember that occasion? And Peter said, it's good for
us to be here. And I imagine they would have
loved to have stayed there. There was the Father speaking
from heaven. There was the Lord Jesus Christ
in His glory with His skin shining and His clothes exceeding white. And there was James and John
and Peter there for that glorious occasion. And Peter never forgot
that. Years later he wrote about seeing
the glory of Christ in that mount. Eyewitnesses of His glory. But
you know they had to leave that wonderful mount and come back
down to reality. At least for the time being.
And when they came off of that mount, remember what happened?
They came back down among unbelief. The Lord was grieved and said,
How long shall I be with you? They brought this young child
that was full of devils, a world of evil. But that's the reality,
isn't it? That's the reality. It reminds
us that every child of God, every child of God, we're not
free. from this world. Boy, there's
occasions, usually when you're in prayer to the Lord, just you
and Him alone, sometimes it's in the worship as we're gathered
together as His children, but you're caught up into heavenly
places. You forget what's taking place
out there on your job, out in the world. But then you have
to come back down and face this reality. We may not be of this
world, but we're in this world. And the Lord Jesus was praying
to His Father, and He said, Father, I'm not asking you to take them
out of the world, but I'm asking you to keep them from the evil. You know what the Bible says
about a lost humanity in this world? Paul said the Lord Jesus
Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from this present evil
world. What does heaven think of this
world? What is heaven's estimation of
a false humanity? It is evil. It is evil. The Lord Jesus said, The world
cannot hate you, but me it hates, because I testify of it, that
the works thereof are evil. And Paul said, brethren, redeem
in the time because the days are evil. And he said in another
place that you shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and
perverse evil generation. And that's the world that the
child of God lives in. And we must face the reality
of what it is to live in this world. As you read these passages
of Scripture beginning here in verse 8, and all of these different
sins that the Apostle sets here before us, it teaches us this
lesson that you and I must be on guard as long as we are in
this world. This world, brothers and sisters,
is not a friend of God. This world is not made, it is
not calculated to help us on our way to heaven. This world
is spoken of in revelations as being a great whore. The mother of harlots and abominations
of this earth. When the Puritans spoke of the
harlots, They often spoke of Catholicism, but I think that's
one of the errors that they made, because the great horror is not
just Catholicism. The great horror is this fallen,
rebellious world itself. The world is evil, and this world
is full of devils. It's full of rebellious sinners
against God. God makes every man and woman
and boy and girl. And what happens when they come
into this world? They rebel against God. They
have gone whoring after sins and whoring after Satan and the
things of this world. A lost humanity. Here is the
way John says it. You are of God, little children,
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And the word there
is wicked one. Not only does the world lie in
sin, but the world lies in Satan. The world is a whore. Isn't that
so repulsive? And yet that's the way the Scriptures
identify this world. Some people don't want to deal
with these negative aspects that the Apostle brings out They say
these things are too discouraging. We want positive things. All
of us want positive things. The Bible is full of positive
things. But you know, if we just look
at the positive all the time, we become spiritually stale.
We've got to face these negative things. The Bible has a lot to
say about negative things, and it teaches us. The Lord Jesus
was often speaking in a negative way. Straight is the gate, and
narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that
finds it, because broad is the way, wide is the gate that leads
to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. All of
that is set forth in a negative way, isn't it? But how it teaches
us. I said not long ago that these
negative things have a tendency to awaken us, to rouse us. When you take some medicine,
there are two things you usually see on the instructions on the
front of your medicine. It tells you how much to take.
You take one pill one time a day. Two pills, one in the morning
and one in the evening. then almost always it will add
this, do not exceed recommended dosage. Don't it say that? Don't
exceed the recommended. That's negative. But how important
that is. When you and I teach our children,
if our children's going out to do something, what do we tell
them? Don't you do this. You do this,
but don't you do this. That's the way we teach them,
isn't it? We teach them that way. So first of all, let's simply
look at these words here in our lesson this morning to see if
we can glean just a little bit of what they mean. First of all,
notice what he says. He begins with this awful sin
that was so prevalent in the New Testament days and is prevalent
in our day. But fornication, fornication,
what is that? Well, the dictionary says this.
committed between two unmarried persons. It is an intimate relationship
between a man and a woman outside the marriage state. It is fornication. It is immoral. And it was prominent
in this day, and it is prominent in our day. But then he goes
on to this uncleanness. Fornication and uncleanness. Now, this is not dealing with
our clothes. This is not dealing with our
bodies. This is the mistake that the Pharisees made. They always
washed their clothes. They always washed their hands
before they ate. They wanted to be kept clean.
But this word uncleanness deals with the thoughts, the unclean
thoughts and the unclean deeds that men do. Paul says it like
this in Romans 1. He said, God gave them up to
uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts. Where does
uncleanness originate? In the heart. It's when the heart
thinks upon sin, the heart thinks upon lust. That's unclean thoughts. And usually, if a person has
these unclean thoughts, if he's not careful, what happens? They
turn into deeds, don't they? They turn into deeds. To honor,
to dishonor, he said, their bodies among them. And then he goes
to this sin that's always prominent in almost every generation. And it's a very deceitful sin.
Narcovitousness, he said. Narcovitousness. This word means
eager for gain, especially for money. But it can't be limited
to money. It's being eager for anything
that takes the heart away from the worship and love of God. It's being eager for something
other than God or above God. Worshiping something above Him. And notice here in verse 5 what
I read to you about covetousness. Here is what he calls it in verse
5. This you know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is not idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. Why is that? Because it is longing
after something above God. other than God. Therefore, it
is idolatry. You know, there is nothing wrong
with many things of this world. You and I can possess many things
of this world, and nothing is wrong with them until they come
to take the place of God, until the heart is set upon them. There
is nothing wrong with having five yokes of There is nothing wrong with owning
land. There is nothing wrong with being
married to a wife. The problem with all those folks
was this. They chose those things to set
their heart upon above God. And therefore the scripture says
it is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. And isn't covetousness, isn't
that a deceitful sin? We call it being conservative.
We call it being frugal. We call it saving for a rainy
day. When sometimes really all it
is, is covetousness. Covetousness. And then he comes
to this other word here in verse 4. Neither filthiness nor foolish
talking. This filthiness has to do with
filthy talking. Neither filthiness nor foolish
talking. Filthy talking. The Apostle has
been saying a lot, and I reminded you of this just the other day. He has been saying a lot. Look
back up here in verse 25 of chapter 4. He has been saying a lot about
the tongue. He says there in verse 25 of
chapter 4, put in a way lying. Speak every man truth with his
neighbor. Do not lie. Don't lie. And then he says here in verse
29, let no corrupt, let no rotten communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good. And then he comes here
and says here that don't let any filthy words come out of
your mouth. Filthy talking. This word filthy
means obscene or indecent. Isn't it amazing, brothers and
sisters, what's said about the tongue in the Scriptures? Our
tongue is such a little member, but such filthy fangs, how it
twists itself and frames itself with all kinds of filthy talk. The tongue has got to be the
most difficult member of the body to tame. James said this,
no man has ever tamed him. We've tamed the whales in the
sea, we've tamed lions and elephants, but this little tongue, nobody
can tame it. Filthy words that he comes up
with. Ain't it amazing? James says it's a world of evil. It's set on fire of hell. We take the little rudder on
a ship, is that what they call it? And you can just guide that
huge ship anywhere you want to. But no man can put a rudder on
this tongue, can he? There's something about it. Every
idle word that men speak I'm sure if you and I were conscious
of the evil that's in our tongue, we wouldn't be talking near as
much as we do. Filthiness of the words. And here he adds to that foolish
talking. Filthy talking and foolish talking. And the definition for this word
foolish talking is empty and senseless, thoughtless and idle
and silly chatter. You've heard somebody say, boy,
that guy's a talker, ain't he? But it's just empty. It's just
foolish. It's silly stuff all the time. Would you have ever thought that
was sin? We're told to refrain from that. Just silly, foolish
stuff. Just too much foolish talking.
Have you been around somebody like that and it just wears you
out? And finally you think to yourself, if he doesn't find
me, be quiet. I've got to leave. Too much foolishness. Foolish talking. And then he
adds this to it, nor jesting. Nor jesting. All of us, if we
watched any of the old cartoons, about in the Middle Ages or 1500s,
they had the court jesters. Remember the court jesters they
had that hung around in the king's court and they hung around in
the marketplaces? And they had a wit about them.
And their wit was hard out to people. Sometimes the king hired
these people because they were witty. They wanted them to make
people laugh. That's where we got this word
jesting. These fellows were witty. They
were funny. They cheered people up. But Paul
says here, don't be jesting. This is using your wit for vulgar
ways and languages. I remember, some of you may remember
Robin Williams. He's that comedian and actor.
And he's a strange fellow. I've watched him for years and
studied this fellow. And he's one of the probably,
you could count them on one hand in the world, that has the ability
to get in one of these zones. We've all heard of people getting
in their zones. A basketball player getting in
the zone and he can't miss a basket. Robin Williams has the ability
to get in one of these zones. And he's so witty. But when he
gets in one of those zones, nobody can be around him, unless you're
a vulgar person. He has got a wit about him, and
he can make the ungodly laugh. But when he gets that wit going,
he gets so vulgar, no decent person can stand around him.
That's what the Apostle Paul is saying. Jesting. Using your wit to entertain people
in a vulgar way. Nothing mattered with good wit.
We like witty people, don't we? Scourge wrote a book of John
Plowman's talks, a very humorous book. But it was clean, wasn't
it? It was wholesome wit. And Paul
says here, don't let this filthy communication and foolish talking
and jesting proceed out of your mouth. Well, there they are. Wouldn't
you hate to go on talking about this long? Don't it get you down? It discourages
you, doesn't it? Look here now in verse 3, in
verse 4. Look what our attitude should
be. What should be the believer's attitude in the light of all
that we've been saying? Look what he says here. What
should our attitude be as believers? Well, first of all, look in verse
3. But fornication and all uncleanness,
or covetousness, look at this, let it not be once named among
you. Don't even talk about these sins. Surely don't let them exist among
you as children of God. No child of God should ever be
fallen into fornication or be given over to covetousness, so
there would be no reason to talk about these sins, even to speak
of them. Don't even speak of them, he
says, in a jesting way. Don't even speak of them as though
you approve of these sins. Don't even speak of them. Well,
I tell you what, I tell you what, we sometimes say that things
haven't changed, but sometimes I wonder about our day. The day
that you and I live in is one of the most difficult days for
believers in this sense. We're told not even to speak
of these things, and yet look at the media on every hand. How
we're being bombarded with these things. There was a time when
you got a newspaper and it could be read by the family. But anymore,
they go into this detail. And it gets vulgar after a while. And you don't even want your
children or grandchildren to be reading it and looking at
it. Look in our magazines. You'll pick up a magazine that
seems to be a decent magazine and watch it fill with it. We
hear it in our music, don't we? In the rap and in the country
music that the implication in the news We are being bombarded on every
side by these very sins that the apostle here is telling us,
don't even let these sins be named among you. And yet we hear
it all the time, don't we? We hear it all the time. And notice what he adds. Not
only don't let these sins be even named among you. But he
adds this in verse 3, as become of saints. There in verse 3. Let it not be once named among
you as become of saints. And then in verse 4 he said,
these things are not convenient. And these two words taken together
simply means it's not becoming. a saint to talk about these things. And this word convenient means
it just don't fit. Glenn was talking, we often talk
about we can't dress ourselves. I would be almost repulsive to
look at if my wife didn't lay my clothes out for me to come
to this pulpit. There's no telling why. Colors I would wear. If I came into this pulpit dressed
in a tank top and swimming trunks to preach, you know what you
would say to me? Bruce, that's so undercut. And
you surely wouldn't invite anybody to come here, would you? It's
just not becoming. Why? Because you're saints. It's not becoming us to sit around
and talk about these things. How much less to be involved
in them because we are saints. What is a saint? I tell you one
thing that Catholicism has about saints, though they are wrong
in canonizing these people, but I tell you one thing they do
when they canonize a saint, they say that is no ordinary person.
This is a saint. This is a holy person. This is
a peculiar person. That's what a saint is. The Bible
says it's a dreadful thing. A saint, the definition for a
saint, is a dreadful thing. He's a holy person. One God is
called out and washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's made them holy. But
here's who a saint is. It's not one that's done great
miracles and been canonized. Every child of God is a saint. Every believer is a saint. And
they're holy. And it doesn't become holy people
to get down in the gutter talking about these sins. Paul was writing
here to these Ephesians, and here's what he said. Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints, to
the saints which are at Ephesus. And he says he's chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy,
holy, holy to the Lord. So he says here, don't even let
it be named as becometh saints. And then he goes ahead here in
the last portion of verse 4, and he adds this to it. Look
here what he says. These things are not convenient.
They're not fitting to be talked about. But do this rather. But
rather give him thanks. Sometimes you read a passage
and it seems almost out of place. Here he's dealing with these
sins and says, don't even talk about these things. It's just
not fitting for saints to do that. And then he says, but rather
this. Give him thanks. Give him thanks. Now here's the difference, and
here's why he adds this. When we start talking about these
things, even in a setting like this where we have to deal with
them, as painful as it is, it has a tendency to get us down. But I tell you what will happen
if you start discussing these things in your home, And you
have visitors over and brothers and sisters sit and talking about
these things. I tell you what, you'll get so
down. You'll get so discouraged. And
so Paul says, instead of dwelling upon these things and talking
about them and discussing them, he said, rather do this. Be given
thanks. Be given thanks. You know what thanksgiving denotes? It denotes a cheerful heart.
It doesn't. We talk about these sins and
rumors and gossips. It gets us down. But when we
get together to give thanks, we'll have a cheerful heart.
You know a believer is not a stoic person. He's not a sad person. He's not a hard person. And right
here we're told that. He's a cheerful person. Did you
ever been around somebody that was thankful? They're cheerful. They have a thankful heart and
it shows. They're cheerful. Look what he says here in verse
18 of this chapter. Look how he puts it here. Be
not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the
Spirit, 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." A Christian,
a true Christian, should be the most cheerful person in the world. He has the most to give thanks
for. He should be a merry person.
James said, Let them who are merry sing songs. The Lord Jesus rejoiced in spirit,
Glenn, and said, Father, I thank you. I thank you. I tell you, a thankful heart
is a merry heart. It's a cheerful heart. But we won't be talking
about these sins. and thinking about these things
and remain so. What does a believer have to
be thankful for? My, haven't we studied this epistle
and saw some wonderful things that we should be thankful for?
How about electing love? Aren't you thankful for electing
love? He chose you in Christ before the foundation of the
world. What about redeeming blood? In whom we have redemption through
His blood? Glenn's been teaching us on the
cross, and there's that certain aspect of it that makes our hearts
sad, but don't we rejoice in it? We're thankful for it. Mary read to us about it this
morning, being thankful, praising the Lord for it. When you were
dead and trespassed and sinned, He quickened you with Christ.
By grace are you saved. Oh, we have so much to give thanks
for, don't we? But rather, give Him a thanks. And then he goes on here in verse
5. Look what he says in verse 5. that no fornicator, that's what
the word formonger is, no unclean person or covetous man who isn't
an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God and of
Christ. What the Apostle Paul is doing
here, he's seeking to crush any temptation the Christian may
have to indulge in these sins. So he stresses these things.
He does it in his other epistles. In 1 Corinthians 6, this is what
he says, "'Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of heaven? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards,' and he lists all these things,
he said, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And then
in Galatians he does this. He says the works of the flesh
are manifested, which are these, and he mentions several of the
same sins, drunkenness, lying, fornication, idolatry, adultery,
and all of these things, and he said, I told you before, and
I tell you now, that they which do such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of heaven. He stresses this against these
sins. that those who live and die in
these sins shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And yet
in spite of all of this stressing of these sins, how many people
today live in these sins and serve these sins. And yet they
deceive themselves into thinking that they love the Lord, that
they are saved. And they get presumptuous about
it. They talk about how good God is to them and how much assurance
they have of heaven. And Paul said it is only deception.
Be not deceived. Isn't it painful to deal with
these things? Be not deceived. So he stresses
this, not only for the church's sake. But for the sake of those
who are living and dying in these sins, be not deceived." Thank God there is salvation
from these sins. Everybody here this morning thanks
God for that. Who among us this morning was
not guilty, brothers and sisters? Don't you thank God there is
salvation from these sins? But notice how I said it. There
is salvation from them, but not in them. He delivers us from
them, but He doesn't save us in them. Those persons who live and die
in these sins shall never see heaven in peace. They shall never
see God's smiling face. They will never hear the Lord
Jesus Christ say, Come, ye blessed of my Father." The Holy Ghost
stresses this. He says, no, no fornicator, no
idolatrous man, no adulterer, not one unclean person, not one,
not one single person living and dying in these sins will
make heaven their home. No. No, covetous man. Not a one? Is there not an exception
somewhere? No, the Holy Spirit said. Be
not deceived. Not one. Not one. And again,
he stresses it here when he says this, none of these have any,
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. Whatever God has laid
out for people, It will not be for these people. Any. Not so much as to set one foot
in the kingdom of God or Christ. Any inheritance. Does God have
a kingdom? It's not for those who live and
die in their sins. Is heaven a place of rest? Yes,
but it's not for those who live and die in their sins. any inheritance. Will they walk with Christ in
white and sit with Him in His throne? Yes. Will they be free
from all pain of body and soul? Yes. But not any will be given to
those who live and die in their sin. Notice how he stresses that. Any inheritance. Any. Not one iota. Not one jot or
one tittle. Nothing. Nothing. Heaven, the inheritance, the
kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ is for those who have
been saved from sin. And what does it mean to be saved
from sin? From sin's penalty, from sin's
dominion, and from sin's pleasure. And those who are not saved from
these sins shall not inherit anything in the kingdom of God
and the kingdom of his blessed Son. But he doesn't stop there. He
goes on to say this, Know you not that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. They shall not. The Apostle said,
Look at this. They shall not. And the Holy
Spirit is pressing this upon his conscience. Write this, he
said. Paul said it's painful. He says
right this, shall not. They shall not. There's no avoiding
it. There's no escaping it. They
shall not. Be not deceived. Why does he
keep stressing this? Because sin is a deceitful thing. Satan is a deceitful fallen angel. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. And a person can deceive themselves
by saying, Oh, I'll have peace, I've got hope, though I'm living
in these sins. So he stresses these things.
He stresses these things. And he goes to verse 6, and he's
not finished. He tells men not only to be deceived,
now in verse 6 he says, let no man deceive you with vain words. Men live in these sins and make
all kinds of excuses for doing so. And they want us to accept
their excuses. I'm lonely. I'm weak. Somebody would say, Oh, you should
lighten up, preacher. That's the old Puritan way. We
know better now. Now we know we can have fun and
enjoy the pleasures of sin and go to heaven too. Paul said,
Be not deceived, and don't let any man deceive you. Oh, they
say sometimes, you're being too strict. You're being too hard.
You're being too narrow. You need to broaden the way.
You're being too overly righteous. Paul said, don't be deceived
by that. But the Holy Spirit to Paul here
said, let no man deceive you with these excuses and these
arguments for his living in sin. He says, These people are so
far from the kingdom of heaven, so far from the favor of God
and the goodness of God, when the kingdom does come, the wrath
of God will come on them. See how he says it? Let no man
deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh
the wrath of God. upon the children of disobedience. Because of these things, the
wrath of God does not come on a man because he has barned a
sinner. If it did, it would come upon
infants. But the wrath of God comes upon
an individual because they live in sin, and they serve their
sin, and they die in that sin. And I tell you the best news
you ever heard in your life is how to be saved from the wrath
of God. And I tell you how to be saved
from the wrath of God is to be saved from your sin. There is no other way to be saved from
the wrath of God. We need to quit debating about
theories. Theoretically, one man said,
I am saved from sin. In theory, I am saved from sin.
I tell you, we must be saved by sin experimentally and in
reality. We must experience what it is
to be made holy, to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ
from our sins. We must experience what it means
for a deep-seated hatred of sin to be set up in our hearts This is not about morality. I'm
not trying to get anybody this morning to be moral people. I'm not saying you need to turn
over a new leaf. No, this is much deeper than
that. It's much deeper than that. I'm saying this, you must be
saved from this sin. And turning over a new leaf,
or merely quitting The sin that you're committing will only make
you probably a self-righteous person. You need to be saved
from sin. And that's the work of God in
Jesus Christ. Take your sin to Him. Turn your
back upon it. Take it to the blood of Jesus
Christ, the fountain that's open for sin and uncleanness. And
say, Lord Jesus, wash me. wash me from my sins, and save
me from the wrath to come. May the Lord make His Word effectual
for His sake. Let's pray.