DON'T BE DECEIVED (Eph 5:5-8)

If you want to make your way in here to find some seats, I encourage you, if you're on like the end aisle and there are open seats in the middle, please squeeze in to make room for people to make their way into here as we try and make space for everyone.

But we're so glad that you have chosen to be with us this morning, and we always remind ourselves that the writer of Hebrews tells us not to neglect the gathering together of the saints, and the purpose for that is what?

What is the gathering of the saints, the writer of Hebrews say, for the purpose of building up, right?

Encouraging one another all the more as we see the day drawing near, as we wait for the return of our

Savior. And we are honoring our Savior by obeying and worshiping

Him together each Lord's Day, bringing all of our unique gifts to encourage, to build up, to challenge one another.

And so I just want to say thank you for your service. I want to say thank you to all of our covenant members for your commitment to this body, for bringing your gifts and abilities to the betterment, to the encouragement, to the challenge of this body, and I encourage you to continue to do so.

And remember, in the whole process, you are loved, right? You are loved by Christ, you are loved by this body, you are loved by the people of God.

But I also want to say a special thank you to all of our guests, any first -time guests or regular attending guests, thank you for being here.

We have a connection card, we would love it if you were able to fill that out so we know how to pray for you, maybe some areas you can write out some needs in your life, any information that you want to know about the church, we would love for you to do that, but we hope you enjoy your time with us this morning as we worship together, because our prayer is that all of us, those that are in Christ, would grow in the knowledge and fear and love of the

Lord, of the triune God, amen? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

So before we start our service, each week we like to pray for another local church, because remember, we are not alone in this.

There are saints all over this town, there are saints all over this world that are gathering on the

Lord's Day to worship Him, and we like to pick one each week and specifically pray for them.

And today is one that we've prayed for often here, and you may remember Kreston as he came and spoke to us a few months back about his church plant in Pine Bluff, Christ the

Redeemer of Pine Bluff. We love this congregation, they are a very like -minded group of believers, and they are in a very difficult area, but God is doing amazing things in the midst of such brokenness and poverty.

And so let's bow our heads this morning, let's pray for Christ the Redeemer, and pray for Kreston and their people.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning, we bow our heads before you, the source of all things, the source of all good and love and grace and mercy, and we ask for our brothers and sisters at Christ the

Redeemer that you would encourage them this morning through your

Word. God I pray that you would do the sanctifying work that we know that you set out to do through the work of the

Holy Spirit in our lives by renewing our minds in your truth and your

Word. And so we ask this for these saints. We pray for Kreston and his family, we pray that you guard him, that you gird him up,

Lord. I pray that he would remember his desperate need to continually be in your presence and be with you and seek after your wisdom and your discernment,

God. We pray that you would allow him to preach boldly this morning as he has prepared the

Word, that he would declare it with truth, and that the Holy Spirit would set out and do the work that he does in all of our hearts.

I pray that you would save people, I pray that you would bring about revival in Pine Bluff, that even the watching world would have to look in and say something drastic has changed, and only the

Gospel of Jesus Christ could have done so. And that you would receive all the glory. We thank you for them.

Lord, help them to know that they are loved by us. More importantly, they are loved by you. In Christ's name, amen.

Amen, well let's stand for our call to worship this morning. Our call to worship comes from verses 6 through 13 of Psalm 140.

And for those of you that are guests, you can see on the screen it is split. I will read a portion of this

Psalm, and you will read a portion as a response back as we participate in this. Here at 12 .5,

this is not us doing something and you just partaking of it.

This is us corporately together, and this is why we do a call to worship in this way. This is corporate.

The Psalmist says, I say to the Lord, give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy.

O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my salvation. Grant not,

O Lord, the desires of the wicked. As for the head of those who surround me, let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them.

Let them be cast into fire. Let not the slanderer be established in the land.

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name.

When you read Psalms like this, you are reminded that we are sojourners, right?

That we are foreigners in this land, and that the righteousness of Christ has been given to us. And we long for righteousness, we long for justice, and we are surrounded by wickedness.

And that wickedness seems to prevail, but I'm here to declare to you this morning, from God's word, it does not prevail.

God will bring about vengeance upon the wickedness of this world. He will judge all sin.

And he will either judge it, like our sin, at the cross, on his own son, the perfect sacrifice, or he will judge it upon the evildoer.

He will pour it out upon those that are wicked. And in all of it, we praise the mighty

Creator God, our Lord. Amen? Amen. Let's pray a prayer of adoration this morning.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again, and we bow our heads before you. Lord, you, you are the one that will maintain the cause of the afflicted.

You, you alone will execute justice for the needy. You, you alone are righteous, and we shall give thanks to your glorious name.

And your son has given us his own righteousness, so that we shall dwell in your presence.

And oh, Father, we ask this morning that as we enter into the gathering of the saints that you've called us to enter into, that you would show us your majesty and glory in deeper, more intimate ways,

Lord. Father, we ask that you would be honored because you are worthy of praise.

Lord, guard us from trying to sit on the throne that belongs only to you.

May you reign supreme in our lives and in our hearts this morning, not lip service, oh

God. Do not allow us to come in here and just sing these songs flippantly as if they mean nothing, as if they are aimed at nothing, but they are aimed at the almighty

God. And I pray that you would overwhelm our hearts and our minds with that truth, that you would form us and mold us more into the image of your son.

Oh God, we thank you for your great mercy in our lives. To God be the praise, in Christ's name, amen.

Amen. We sing with joy now, our

God is for us. The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress.

Raise your voice now, know love is great. Who can stand against us if our

God is for us? When I stumble, even when

I fall, even when I turn, still you love me.

You will not abandon, you will not forsake. You will cheer me on, never ending love.

We sing with joy now, our God is for us.

The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress. Raise your voice now, know love is great.

Who can stand against us if our God is for us? Neither hide nor tell can separate us.

Hell and death will not defeat us. He who gave his

Son to feed us, holds me in his love. One more time.

Neither hide nor tell can separate us. Hell and death will not defeat us.

He who gave his Son to feed us, holds me in his love.

We sing with joy now, our God is for us.

The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress. Raise your voice now, know love is great.

Who can stand against us if our God is for us? We sing with joy now, our

God is for us. The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress.

Raise your voice now, know love is great. Who can stand against us if our

God is for us? Sing this.

Who has held the oceans in his hands?

Who has numbered every grain of sand?

Kings and nations tremble at his voice.

All creation rises to rejoice.

Behold our God, seated on his throne.

Come, let us adore him. Behold the

King of the earth and Come, let us adore him.

Who has given counsel to the world?

Who can question any of his words?

Who can teach the one who knows all things?

Who can fathom all his wondrous deeds?

Behold our God, seated on his throne.

Come, let us adore him. Behold the

King of the earth and Come, let us adore him.

Who has felt the nails upon his hands?

Bearing all the guilt of sinful men?

God eternal, the hope to the raised.

Jesus, Savior, risen to reign.

Behold our God, seated on his throne.

Come, let us adore him. Behold the

King of the earth and Come, let us adore him.

You will reign forever. Behold our

God, seated on his throne. Come, let us adore him.

Behold the King, nothing can compare.

Come, let us adore him.

Our scripture reading comes from Colossians chapter 2 this morning.

Starting in verse 6, the Apostle Paul wrote, Therefore, as you received

Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.

According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh,

God made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities, and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.

In him. Amen. Amen. Oh, the wondrous mystery.

He, the perfect Son of Man. In his living, in his suffering.

No trace, no stain of sin. Is he the true and better Adam?

Come to save the lowly unbound man. Christ, the great and sure fulfillment of the all -encompassing standard.

Come behold the wondrous mystery. Christ, the

Lord upon a tree. In the stead of his

Son, Christ, the Lord upon a tree.

See the rise of our redemption. The Son of God is heaven -born.

In the any sense of glory, the

Son of God is one with the Father. Come behold the wondrous mystery.

Slain by death, the God is his name. No grave could ever strain him.

He is the Lord, he is the Father. The foretaste of deliverance.

The glory of the Lord. Christ, the power of resurrection.

As we welcome him. The foretaste of deliverance.

The power of bringing our hope. Christ, the power of resurrection.

As we welcome him. For the throne of God.

He'll have us strong and perfectly.

A great high priest whose name is love. Who never listens for me.

My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart.

I know that while I'm in heaven he stands.

No tongue can bend me, there's his three in all. No tongue can bend me, there's his three in all.

In the sight of his face. He took the spear. And set me up.

To death with him. But could I look and see him there?

He made heaven to all my sins. Because of sin the sinful died.

My sinful soul is coming free. For God the just is satisfied.

As we welcome him. For the throne of God. As we welcome him.

For the throne of God. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Praise the one who is the son.

Of God. There is a

Lord. There is a man. My perfect spot is his righteousness.

The great unchangeable I am. The King of glory in the highest.

One who ever suffered cannot die.

My soul is purchased by his blood.

My life is sealed with Christ on high. With Christ my

Savior and my God. With Christ my

Savior and my God. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Praise the one who is the son.

Of God. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the one who is the son.

Of God. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the one who is the son.

Of God. Most gracious.

Divine heavenly Father. Lord we just. How awesome it is to be able to come together here.

Lord together this morning. With brothers and sisters alike. And sing praises to you.

You are so worthy of all of our praise. Lord and I'm so grateful

Lord. Lord I just pray this morning Lord. That you would bless this offering

Lord. As we get ready to take it up Lord. I just pray that you would bless it. And bless the giver

Lord. I pray that you would be with the remainder of this service this morning Lord. I pray that you would just anoint

Pastor Nathan this morning Lord. As he comes and stands before us. And preaches your word Lord. I pray that you would just make it clear

Lord. And clear out all distractions Lord. And open our hearts and our minds and our ears this morning.

That we may take your word in. Lord we love you. We praise you. Let's call these things in your son

Jesus precious and holy name. Jesus name. Amen. A survey done.

Through Lifeway Research. In 2022. I think promoted by Ligonier.

Asked a series of theological questions. To American churchgoers. I've got a few here that I want to share with you.

That are pertinent to our text today I believe. They made a theological statement.

With a range of agree to disagree. One of the statements that they made is.

Sex outside of marriage is a sin. Now these are

American churchgoers mind you. 29 % disagree. They said abortion is a sin.

27 % disagree. Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion.

It is not about objective truth. 31 % agree.

You see a pattern here right. Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church.

36 % disagree. Worshipping alone with or once family.

Is a valid replacement for regularly attending church. 35 % agree. And the worst on this list so far that I've seen.

Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. 40 % agree.

40 % of churchgoers in America agree. That Jesus is a created being. You realize what this means don't you.

You realize the gravity of such a survey right. It's that at least 40 % of American churchgoers.

Are fundamentally thoroughly completely outside of the faith. At least.

That may be shocking for some of you to hear. Not for me. Not for me.

I'll be honest. I'll be very surprised if that number is not significantly higher. I think

I've shared it before. But Jonathan Edwards during the peak of the great awakening in the Northeast.

Believed that only 10 % of his congregation. Were truly regenerate.

Were true believers. Now take that with a grain of salt of course.

Because the standards of piety held by Jonathan Edwards. Means that probably not a one of us in this room.

Were within that 10%. Sorry to tell you that. I simply point to that.

A bit of information to let you know. That this is not a new thing for the church.

It wasn't new during the great awakening in the Northeast of America. It isn't new to the early church and scripture.

There will always be tares amongst the wheat. There will always be goats amongst the sheep.

That has always been and always will be. Until the return of our Savior. When he makes all things new.

However I would venture to say. That the American church culture. That we find ourselves in. Has created a breeding ground.

For a disproportionate number of unbelievers. Feeling comfortable within the fold.

Everything about today's services. Are geared towards making sure.

That the unbeliever feels comfortable. I know this because I've read many books.

And heard many lessons on church growth. And all of the stuff that goes along with that.

Many preachers are careful with what they preach. They're careful with the songs that they sing.

The prayers that they pray. I'll be honest. I've even been told here. That we pray too much during our service.

And it would make guests feel uncomfortable. I'm like well maybe they should feel uncomfortable.

Pray too much during the gathering of the saints. Because these things that we're doing.

For those of us that belong in Christ. Our souls will be refreshed.

Through that prayer right. Our souls are refreshed from the word of God. Being proclaimed in totality.

In its fullness. Our souls are refreshed from the doctrinally rich songs.

That we sing. Not to mention this gathering is not for them.

It's not for the unbeliever is it? We've gotten that backwards in American church.

We gear the whole service towards the unbeliever. And the visitor. But this isn't for them.

Don't get me wrong. We're thrilled to have unbelievers visit with us. I'm thrilled to have them.

But the gathering is not for them. This is not for them. This is for the saints.

For the purpose of encouragement of the saints. And for building up and equipping the saints for the good work.

To go out and live their lives. Trying to reach those that are not in Christ.

At the moment. So I believe this is where we have lost our way in many evangelical churches today.

You see we're not being clear. We're not being precise with what God's word teaches. Leaving unbelievers comfortable in our midst.

And leaving believers comfortable in their sin. I'm going to say that again.

We avoid things in the word of God. To make unbelievers comfortable in our midst.

And believers comfortable in our sin. That's why we preach expositionally here.

Walking line by line through scripture. Without the ability to skip the hard things.

We don't have the option to skip the hard things. We have to deal with them. If I don't, y 'all are all going to call me to task, aren't you?

Praise God. We must address it when we come to it. And today is one of those portions of scripture.

That I believe many pastors will either distort when teaching. Or just avoid altogether.

So please, open up your copy of God's word. If you have a copy with you, I encourage you to open that up.

We purposely do not put the scriptures on the screen during the sermon. And the reason is, is I want you to be familiar with your copy of scripture.

But open your copy to Ephesians chapter 5. As we've been making our way through Ephesians over the past few months.

We are primarily going to look at verses 5 through 8. If we can make it through those today.

But I want us to start reading in verse 1 of chapter 5. And I've titled today's sermon,

Don't Be Deceived. Don't be deceived. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5, starting in verse 1, he says,

Therefore, be imitators of God, his beloved children.

And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness.

Oh, but now you are light, and the Lord walketh as children of light. What a beautiful portion of Scripture.

All the Scriptures are beautiful. I particularly like the one that I'm in that week, right? Let's pray that the

Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds to this wonderful truth. Lord, we come to you once again and we acknowledge our frailty, we acknowledge our shortcoming, we acknowledge our inability to understand the perspiscuity of your

Scripture, the clarity, the perfection of it. We often distort it through our worldview, through our lens of sin.

We ask this morning that you would guard us from such. We ask,

Holy Spirit, that for those of us in here that are in Christ that you are an indwelling in, that you would illuminate our hearts and minds to this wonderful truth.

Guard my lips from error. In Christ's name, amen. Well, I want us to see four things in this text today that I believe will help guard us as a church from the onslaught of worldliness that permeates so many churches today.

And the first one I want us to see is that we must be disciples. It's pretty obvious, right?

We must be disciples. This is where it has to begin.

It has to start here. If we're not disciples of Jesus, the whole thing is a non -starter, isn't it?

A disciple, what is a disciple? This is simply one who follows another, a student with a teacher, one who is learning from, one that is watching, that is evaluating the life and the actions of their teacher and seeking to align their lives with that pattern.

This is a disciple. And our teacher, of course, is our Savior, the perfect Jesus Christ.

We are disciples of Jesus Christ. And we all fall very short of imitating him, don't we?

None of us imitating well, not even close. Yet we continually seek to do so, don't we?

At least we ought to. Seeking to follow our Lord and Savior as disciples of him.

If we do not seek to do so, we are more than likely not disciples at all.

If you are not seeking to follow the pattern of Jesus Christ and the lordship of Jesus Christ in your life, you are probably not even a disciple.

This is, like I said, a non -starter. From here on out, this sermon, what you need to do is repent of your sins and trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ. And then we can look at the next three steps, okay? But this is where it must start. Look at verse 5.

4. You may be sure of this. Paul is essentially saying, hey, take this to the bank, right?

This is an absolute. This is a guarantee. You may be sure of this. If you're sure of anything, you can be sure of this.

What does he say? That everyone, without exception, without rule, everyone who is, and here he goes, he's repeating these three sins that we looked at last week in the previous verse.

Anyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, and then he defines that, right?

That is an idolater. Meaning placing anything on the throne of God. Putting anything before the creator that is the only one that sets on that rightful throne,

Jesus Christ. Anyone who is in these categories of sin has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

If that didn't just take the breath out of your lungs, maybe you're not hearing it. Everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is an idolater through covetousness has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

We've seen this inheritance language repeated throughout this letter. Look back at chapter one in verse 11, right?

He's laying out the doctrine in chapters one through three that we went months going through, and we see this inheritance language that is integral into what

Paul is saying here in this book, and he's speaking about our position in Christ. And in verse 11 of chapter one, he says, in him, in who?

In who? Christ, right? In Christ, we have obtained, we have gained an inheritance.

Something has been given to us, right? An inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Look at verse 14 there in chapter one. He's speaking of the Holy Spirit now. Now in Christ, we've obtained an inheritance, and now in verse 14, he's speaking of the

Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

I love the beautiful Trinitarian work that we see patterned over and over again. Later in verse 18 of chapter one,

Paul's prayer for the saints, right? He gives them the doctrine, and then he kind of goes into this prayer for them.

And in verse 18, he says, he says, I pray that you have the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.

What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And now as we get to chapter five, he says everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance.

You see, to be a disciple means that Christ himself has called you. We see

Jesus say, hey, my sheep hear my voice and they come to me. If you're a disciple, you've followed the voice of the shepherd, haven't you?

You've heard it and you follow him. He has called you. What has he called us to? What is the point of being a disciple?

What is the point when we become a sheep, when we become one of Christ's children and we're awakened?

What's first to trust in him, right? We're brought to, we're brought from death to life and we see him for who he is and we believe that he lived the life that we could not live.

He died the death that we deserved and he rose victorious, defeating death once for all, for all of his children, setting at the right hand of the father and interceding for us.

We believe that, don't we? And in light of that, we follow him. We live in light of his lordship.

Do you understand the weight of that? There's a whole discussion that goes on of lordship salvation, right?

Do we come to Jesus as our savior and then later in life through sanctification accept him as lord?

There's no categories like that in scripture because when we come to Jesus as our savior, we're seeing

Jesus for who he is. We may not have a fully well -orbed theological paradigm for it, but we understand the principle that this is

God's son and he came to redeem me and he is king. We understand that much, don't we?

Otherwise, you probably don't have salvation. And so when you see him as your savior, you see him as your lord.

He is your lord. This is being a disciple. And since he is lord, he makes the rules, right?

If he's king, he makes the rules. This is not a democracy in the kingdom of God.

It doesn't function like America does, right? That functions as a king who reigns supreme and us in full submission to that king.

And what does this king say? He says sexual immorality, all impurity, covetousness, idolatry, they're sin.

This is disobedience to me. You are disobeying me when you fall prey to these sins.

Turn over in your scripture to 1 Corinthians 6. I know we're going a couple places here.

I want you to see this. As Paul tells the church at Corinth, very similar thing, but he goes into greater detail.

If you remember in Corinth, this church is a mess. I mean, they've got all kinds of rampant sin going on within their midst, right?

By the time he makes it into chapter 6, he gets here to verse 9, and he says something very similar to the text we're reading.

But he asks a question. He says, hey, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

They have no inheritance, the unrighteous. And then he says, do not be deceived, Christian.

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Man, that list just got really big and broad, didn't it? Look at verse 11.

And such were some of you. And such were some of you.

But, hallelujah, you were washed. You were sanctified, set apart, right?

You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our

God. You're washed clean. You were sanctified and set apart, and you were justified, declared righteous.

Before the Creator, you and I have been purchased. You and I have been given new life, a new nature, that new man that we have read about earlier in Ephesians.

One that desires righteousness. We desire righteousness.

And Paul said in Colossians chapter 1, he says, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved

Son. Now, the question at hand is, if that's the case, that none of these people inherit the kingdom of God, are any of us disciples?

Let's be honest. Every single one of us is guilty of sexual immorality.

Every single one of us is guilty of all types of impurity. Every single one of us is guilty of covetousness and idolatry.

So is Paul saying that we must not have that inheritance? Because if that's the case, we are all without hope, right?

You see, I would say this can't be what Paul's saying. He must be saying something else.

Paul can't be saying that every one of us who has fallen prey to these sins during periods of time and in our life, even consistently as we go about our life, falling back into the old man, this can't be.

Because in Colossians 3, 5, what does he say to the church? He says, hey, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

He doesn't say put to death what is earthly from when you were back there in darkness. He's saying now to the

Christian, put to death what is earthly inside of you. There's something earthly and fleshly inside of you.

Put it to death. And he lists those same things, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

He says, put it to death. Paul is making a statement here that you and I still have the propensity towards these sins.

And we are actively called to put them to death. And that's what a Christian does.

The old self is still in us. However, a disciple will actively put them to death. Whereas, in contrast, an unbeliever is enslaved to them.

Are you enslaved to those sins? Do you fall prey to those sins and just live in them comfortably?

Or are you mortifying the flesh? Are you putting to death what is earthly in you?

Because if you are, there's a good chance, Saint, you're a disciple. And if you're a disciple, then you have an inheritance.

And God is going to work it out in you. What's my favorite text I always quote? Philippians. What is it?

For he who began a good work in you will see it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus, right? We hold to that truth that it's

God who is sanctifying us. And he is working in each one of us. If we are in him who are indwelt by the

Holy Spirit, they're sealed for that day for that beautiful inheritance, then he is working in us.

He's convicting us of the old self. He's driving us to put on the new. So we must be disciples.

Secondly, we must be discerning. If we are disciples, Paul calls us to be discerning disciples.

Look at verse 6. He says, let no one deceive you with empty words.

Essentially what Paul's saying is, hey, don't let anyone lead you to believe that if you live in these wicked things, you are part of the kingdom.

Don't let anyone lead you to believe that they can just live in open debauchery and idolatry and covetousness and sexual immorality and impurity and claim

Christ. Don't fall for it. This is the problem we have in Christianity today, isn't it?

And obviously it was a problem even back then. But now we say, hey, pray this prayer, get baptized, and now never doubt it.

Anytime Satan throws that doubt up in your mind, you look at the date in your Bible, and you remember that day you prayed that prayer. You're good.

You got an inheritance. Go live like the devil. It's like sensuousness, and it's godless, isn't it?

It's godless. Now we have people inside the church claiming to be of Christ while living in just open habitual sin.

40 % of them claiming that Jesus is a created being. They don't even have the beginning foundations of who

Christ is, much less in the faith. And Paul says, Christians, don't be so naive.

Don't fall for this. You will know them by their fruit, right? A good tree produces good fruit.

A bad tree produces bad fruit. Always. That's the way it functions.

That's what Scripture says. I'm getting passionate about it. My voice is cracking here. Maybe I need a drink.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians again, but chapter 15 this time. In 1

Corinthians chapter 15, of course, we have the same kind of dynamic. These people are living in sin. And in verse 32,

Paul says, What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fight with beasts at Ephesus, if the dead are not raised?

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived.

Bad company ruins good morals. Oh, wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I say this to your shame. What's Paul saying? He's saying, hey, church at Corinth, wake up.

You have got goats amongst your midst, and they're just living as goats. They're not even pretending to be sheep.

Don't be fooled. Just because they come in and say they're sheep doesn't mean that you must believe them.

They have unbelievers in their midst. All right, let's look back at verse 6 again. Let's finish out verse 6, back in Ephesians 5.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For, right? What's the purpose?

Why? For, because of these things. Because of what things? Sexual morality, impurity, covetousness, idolatry.

For, because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Saying, why do we run from these things? Why do we long to mortify them? Why do we seek to destroy them within our midst?

Why should we put them to death? Because our Savior had to die because of them. Our Savior had to die because of them.

And we just tolerate it. We break

God's law, his holy law. And the righteous, just wrath of God must be poured out upon all those who commit that lawlessness.

And as we said before, that righteous wrath will either be poured out on a son at the cross, or it will be poured out upon the evildoer.

Either way, the justice of God will be served perfectly.

God will not just tolerate it. He won't overlook it. He won't judge you on a scale of if you're better than your neighbor, but God.

Right? But God sent his son to take that wrath for us. Back in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 2,

Paul says, in which you once walked. Right? You once walked in this darkness, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience.

There it is. Right? Look back. Look back at verse 6 that we just read. Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

And we were once the sons of disobedience. This should lead us to long to live holy lives, because we've been redeemed from such darkness.

Amen? We've been brought from darkness to light. But we are no longer sons of disobedience.

Remember, we have an inheritance. Meaning what? We are sons and heirs.

We have a new name, a new identity. We are not enslaved to sin any longer.

We do not belong to this world any longer. We belong to Christ. And we long for it.

Paul goes on there in chapter 2 of Ephesians. In verse 3 he says, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. And he's raised us up and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Heirs of that inheritance. And because of this grace, you and I who are in Christ will no longer want to go on living in disobedience.

So when someone is habitually comfortable in that sin, don't be deceived. They are not of us.

That's why we carry out church discipline here, right? We don't just take somebody and just quietly let them leave when they just live an open sin after a period of time of pleading with them, repent.

Because we all fall prey to sin, right? Anybody in here sinless? Raise your hand. Thank goodness no one's dumb enough to do that, right?

We are all guilty of falling prey to sin. The difference is, what do we do?

Repent. We turn from it because of what our Savior has done for us. We won't stay in it long.

And so we give people periods of time to please repent. We beg of you. We plead with you. Look to God's word.

Look to the cross. Look to the Savior. And until finally at some point, we have to hand them over to Satan to be sifted as wheat, right?

We have to remove them from the fellowship. Not that they can't come and we don't love them. We don't shun anybody. But what we do is, what?

We make a declaration that they are not of us. They don't come to the table. They are not members of this body.

And they are not in Christ. This is why we must be discerning. Thirdly, and this one, this one gets people.

We must be divided. We must be divided.

You say, wait a second, Pastor. I thought this whole book of Ephesians was all about unity.

And now you're saying that Paul's saying that we must be divided. Yes, it is about unity.

Unity in Christ. Unity that the Jew and the Gentile are no longer two separate entities, but are one in Christ.

And light has no fellowship with darkness. Look at verse 7. Therefore, do not become partners with them.

Therefore, if you are being discerning, Christian, and you are not deceived by their empty words, seeing the inconsistency of their sinful actions, do not become partners with them.

What does this mean? What does it mean not to become partners with them? Is Paul saying that we can't have business partners that are not

Christians? Is Paul saying that we shouldn't be in marriage relationships that are not Christian? Well, of course, those principles all are in Scripture that you are not to be unequally yoked.

But obviously, that principle stands. But however, here, Paul is getting right to the root of it.

And he's speaking of the church and the unity. The Greek word that Paul uses here, translated partner, semitikos,

I think is how you pronounce it. Semitikos. You're like, oh, well, that doesn't help me, Pastor. Well, you can actually hear the

English kind of word from it. Symmetrical. Symmetrical, I looked it up in the dictionary.

It says, made of exact similar parts facing each other, or round in axis.

Symmetrical. This root word is actually used by Paul back in chapter 3 in verse 6 when he says the mystery is that the

Gentiles are fellow heirs. Remember this whole book, Jew, Gentile, unity, right? Members of the same body.

And here's the word, semitikos. Partakers is what it's translated in the English of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus. Both Jew and Gentile have become one when they are in Christ, right?

We are partakers of that one promise. Meaning, we have the same goals.

We have the same love. We have the same Holy Spirit within us.

Those who are not in Christ, they have opposite goals. They don't have the same goals as us.

They have a different purpose. They have a different king on the throne of their heart. They have the opposite of righteousness.

They have loves that are not righteous loves. They are selfish loves. They're not love at all.

And they have the spirit of this world. The only thing that a

Christian has in common with an unbeliever is that we are both made in the image of God and we were once slaves to unrighteousness just like them.

That's it. There's nothing else. Which means that this divide, not being partners with them, does not mean that we are not to love them, does it?

To not be partners with unbelievers doesn't mean that we don't love them. You see, even though, as I said earlier, the church service isn't for them, we love having them here.

We long for unbelievers to be here in our midst and to hear the truth of the gospel. I want to show the love of Christ to them.

I want to pour that love out to them as Christ has told me to love everyone. But there must be a distinction.

Anyone proving themselves to be outside of Christ cannot be a covenant member in fellowship.

They can't come to the Lord's table. It's not for them. They don't have the common means of grace in the gathering of the saints of fellowship that we share.

They may be in our midst, but they do not partake in the intimacy of fellowship that we do.

It's not for them. They're not part of us. Baptism is not for them, right?

It's for the saint. This is, of course, speaking of the life of the church.

I think this is the principle of what Paul is saying here. You must be divided.

That's what the church today is trying to gray that area. It's tried to move the goalpost back to where, ah, we can accept.

We can accept more and more people. They're just like us. Well, they are just like us, but with different goals, different natures.

And we long for them to come into Christ, right? But there is a difference. So this is speaking of the church, of course, as a whole.

So what about our individual lives? What does this mean, not to be partners with them in our individual lives?

Well, 1 Corinthians 15, 33, that we read a moment ago, says, do not be deceived, bad company. What? Right.

That's not a, well, it can. It's not a, it's possible. It happens.

Have you ever heard the phrase, you are the average of the five people you spend most time with?

It's even in the world. They know it. We must have relationships with unbelievers.

We must. We're not called to isolationism, right? We're not going out there and trying to build our own commune and live alone and just say, only

Christians in this midst. It's not what we're called to. But here's the thing.

If a large portion of our life is marked by close -knit relationships with unbelievers, or let me take it even further, specifically professing believers who don't really live like this, like they're called to live.

They live in sexual immorality in some way or any impurity or covetousness and idolatry.

If those are the people you're primarily spending time with, something is wrong, right?

Something is desperately wrong. Your closest relationships should be the saints in your midst.

If they're not, you're not following Christ as you ought, and you are going to be pulled astray.

You are not going to have power over sin in your life. You're not going to be able to live the

Christian life, I promise you. That old self will continue to creep up because bad company corrupts good morals.

Finally, this leads us to our fourth and final point. We must be disciplined. We must be disciplined.

Look at verse 8. It already said, do not be partners with them, right?

For at one time you were not in darkness, not of darkness.

What does he say? He says, you were darkness. You yourself were darkness.

What does that mean? That means that the lost dying world is darkness. Those individuals that you love so dearly that are made in the image of God that you should love, that you want to be around, those family members, they are not just in darkness.

They are of darkness. They are darkness. That's what Paul says, right? Darkness has no fellowship with light.

And Paul goes on there in verse 8. He says, but now you are light in the Lord. He's drawing a distinction here.

Back in Colossians again in chapter 1, verses 12 through 13, Paul says, giving thanks to the

Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Right? There's that inheritance again, and you're sharing that inheritance in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved

Son. Look back at verse 8 then, though.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Walk as children of light. You see, not only does light not have fellowship with darkness, but we are called to actively run from that darkness because of the old self.

That old self longs for the darkness at times, doesn't it? Falls prey to it.

And when we're not disciplined in our Christian life, we leave that flesh susceptible to dishonor our

Savior and wickedness and sin, the same wickedness and sin that he died for.

We must be disciplined to walk in the new self. Now, if you're like me, this call to discipline, anytime

I hear of discipline in the Christian life, it often feels like a crushing weight of self -righteousness and legalism, doesn't it?

When someone comes to me and says, Nathan, you need to be more disciplined in your Christian life, I feel a weight on my chest, like I have to do better,

I have to be better. Do you feel it? If you don't feel it, maybe you don't understand the weight of it, right?

We must feel that weight sometimes in our own sin. And it feels this way.

I find out that I am overtaken by the flesh and sin even more. When I feel that and someone says, do better, or I say, do better,

Nathan, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, do better, be better, guess what happens to me? I fall prey to sin more and more and more, and it just spirals.

And I have no power over sin, it just crushes me. Do you feel it? Am I the only one here that feels that?

And I constantly try and do it on my own? And that is until I read texts like these, until I come to God's word and I read verse eight, and he says, but now you are light in the

Lord. Wait a second. I'm not light, you're not light in and of ourselves.

You and I are light in the Lord. You don't have self -discipline in and of yourself.

You have the Lord that has given you His righteousness and His goodness and His mercy and His grace.

This is not my righteousness. It's been given to me by Christ, the light of the world.

And when I look at His word, when I meditate on it, when I spend time in His truth, when

I surround myself with other saints by not neglecting the gathering of the saints, right, by then spending time in the week communicating with some of the men in the church that are calling me to look to Jesus Christ constantly, to look to the source,

I'm reminded of the sacrifice of my Savior time and time again, the one that purchased and redeemed me from that darkness.

This, this is what gives me power to walk in this light. That's it.

Not Nathan. Not self -discipline. Self -discipline comes saying that I, a

Christian must be walking in the common means of grace. I must walk in the common means of grace.

What has God called me to be? Do I have the power in and of myself to overcome that secret sin or that desire to covet and idolatry?

Do I have the power in and of myself? No. But God has given me so many means in order to fight that sin and overcome that sin.

And those are the things I often don't do. And I can be disciplined in them.

They're meant to continually point us to Christ. Scripture reading, prayer, gathering, accountability, fellowship, all of it.

If you say to me, Pastor, I just can't overcome this sin, maybe I'm not a Christian. I might actually have a conversation with you, know the gospel, right?

And then you're like, well, you show up to church twice a month. I'm like, well, of course you're not walking with the

Lord. You're neglecting the gathering of the saints. Do you know how formative Sundays are to a

Christian? Overwhelming. This is not icing on the cake to the Christian life. It's the cake.

I promise you, you may not feel it, but it is so formative to the Christian that it is overwhelming.

The fellowship with all of the saints, the gathering together forms us and grows us, and it reminds us of the

Savior. And when we fall away from these things, we lack discernment that often leads to unity with darkness, that leads to less discipline.

You see the circular nature of it? If that is the pattern of your life, and you have no desire for those things, you might not be a disciple.

But for those of us that truly are disciples in Christ, let us partake in one of the common means of grace, which is the

Lord's table, as we do each week. It's the first Sunday of the month, and as we do every first Sunday, we partake together.

For those of you that are not familiar with how we do this, we have a table on each side. There is wine on the front.

There is juice on the back. But we will come down the outsides on both sides in a line, get the bread, get the cup, and go back to your seats.

But usually we would pray and take individually, but this time we are going to stand together.

I'm going to read an account from Mark 14 of the Lord's Supper, and we're going to partake together. Let us pray that God would be honored in this time of worship.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you and thank you for this grace in our lives. We ask this morning that you would have been honored in the preaching of your word, the singing of the saints, the prayers coming up before you that has been a sweet -smelling aroma before you.

Form us through it. We're not changing you through prayer. We're not changing you through singing.

We're not changing you through preaching. We are being changed by you, and we are being changed by you at this table, this ordinance to the church that you have prescribed.

And King Jesus, we know that you have been with us this entire time, but there's something unique about coming to the table where you express and allow us to experience your presence even greater.

And so we pray that we'd be overwhelmed by your mercy and your kindness, that we would be reminded of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our

Savior, the sacrifice of his body and blood given over for us as a propitiation for our sins.